Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 799 Barbarian
In Tana's opinion, although Chaoktu Taiji's strength is not weak, he cannot be said to be very strong.

Although Chao Ketu Taiji mobilized an army of 50,000 in this war and swallowed up Naren's tribe in one fell swoop, the number of Mongols in the war cannot be calculated in this way. Since the Mongols basically serve as soldiers on horseback and civilians on foot, anyone who can ride a horse and draw a bow is a warrior. Chao Ketu Taiji has basically unified the northern desert and has annexed quite a few tribes over the years. With the area and population under his control, it is no problem for him to mobilize this large army.

However, it is estimated that only a small number of these 50,000 troops are truly capable of fighting, and the rest are ordinary herdsmen who were recruited.

But the Tenger tribe was different. Not only did it have a larger population than Chao Ketu Taiji, it also had a complete military structure, which was established when Zhu Shenzui was in power. Although some troops went south to the command of Wang Jinwu when Zhu Shenzui was purging the court and pacifying the national crisis, and have now become a member of the Ming army, compared with the Ming side, the actual number of Tenger troops is still around 40,000. These 40,000 are not the traditional Mongolian troops, but real troops. No matter their equipment or training, they are simply not comparable to ordinary Mongolian cavalry.

Once the war broke out, it would be easy for the Tenger tribe to recruit ordinary Mongolians as soldiers and expand the number of cavalry in their hands several times or even more. This was also the confidence of the Tenger tribe to dominate the Tumed.

By letting Burigude lead 10,000 troops to rescue, Tana already valued Chao Ketu Taiji. With the strength of the Tenger tribe, these 10,000 elite cavalrymen could easily defeat the Mongolian cavalry that was twice as large as her own. Moreover, women like Sutai and Namu Zhong were no pushovers either, and the military forces under their command were not weak either. Coupled with the rescue from the various tribes of western Mongolia, it was impossible for Chao Ketu Taiji to take over Qinghai.

But no one expected that as the war broke out, the combat effectiveness of Chaoktu Taiji's troops exceeded the original estimate. Although the equipment of Chaoktu Taiji's cavalry was not as good as that of the Tumed, it was better than that of ordinary Mongolian cavalry, so their combat effectiveness was naturally stronger.

This is a very strange thing. Logically speaking, there is nothing to produce in a barren place like northern Mongolia. The richest area in the whole Mongolia is in the south of the desert, and the best places in the south of the desert are Tumed and Chahar. These two grasslands are close to the Ming Dynasty. The abundant water and grass are conducive to grazing, and there is trade (smuggling) with the Ming Dynasty, so the lives of the people are naturally better than those of their poor relatives in the north.

But it is different in Mobei. Although the territory is large, most of it is desert or barren land. Even grazing is difficult, let alone other production.

For a long time, these poor relatives of the Mongolian desert have fought in poverty. Except for war horses, they are in short supply of armor and weapons. Many cavalrymen went into battle without even half armor. They wore a nomadic sheepskin robe and carried a tattered saber, and they went straight into the battle with bows and arrows that didn't even have iron arrowheads. How could such an army fight against the well-equipped cavalry of the Tengger tribe?

But he didn't expect that when he arrived in Qinghai, Burigude was surprised to find that although the opponent's equipment was not as good as his, it was not bad either when he fought with the opponent for the first time.

Although armor and other items are still missing, the weapons in their hands are no longer the tattered ones before, and even the bows and arrows are much stronger than before.

In the first battle, Burigude's troops easily defeated a cavalry unit of Chaoktu Taiji, beheaded more than a hundred people and captured hundreds. After the battle, Burigude couldn't help but frown after carefully looking at the opponent's equipment. He was surprised by the equipment and weapons of the opponent. He also learned from the captives that Chaoktu Taiji had found a foreign aid in the past two years, and these things were obtained from the foreign aid. As for the specific situation, the captives did not know because of their low status.

This situation aroused Burigude's vigilance, especially the "foreign aid" mentioned by the captives made him a little puzzled. Could it be that the Jiannu in Liaodong were secretly supporting Chao Ketu Taiji? Was Huang Taiji behind this military expedition?

But it shouldn't be like that. Not to mention that there was a Khorchin between the Mongolian and Jiannu tribes, and the Jiannu tribes themselves did not produce much. They suffered heavy losses in the war with the Ming Dynasty in the past two years, so how could they have the spare capacity to transport supplies to Chao Ketu Taiji? And even if they had the ability, Huang Taiji should have taken care of the Khorchin tribes that were close to the Jiannu tribes first. How could he skip the Khorchin tribes to help Chao Ketu Taiji, who was thousands of miles away?

This was strange, and Burigude could not figure out what was going on for a while, but in fact, he saw with his own eyes that Chaoketu Taiji's troops had become more powerful because of their equipment and weapons. Although he was puzzled, Burigude did not think much about it. Anyway, they had already fought, and the most important thing now was to beat Chaoketu Taiji back and cut off his claws reaching to the southwest.

With the arrival of reinforcements from the Tenger tribe, and the rescue efforts of the Khoshut lord Gushri Khan, the Dzungar lord Batur Hongtaiji and other tribes, Chao Ketu Taiji was careless and suffered a loss. Not only did he fail to advance after several battles, but he also suffered some losses.

According to the current situation, Chaoketu Taiji's failure is inevitable. With the joint forces of several tribes dispatched, Chaoketu Taiji's plan to get involved in Qinghai and open up Tibet will inevitably fail. It stands to reason that it won't take long for Chaoketu Taiji, who is bleeding from a head-on collision, to learn their strength, and the only choice for the other side is to withdraw his troops and turn back to Mongolia in the northern desert.

However, the subsequent development of the war was unexpected. Chao Ketu Taiji adjusted his tactics and used a cavalry of more than 10,000 to deal with the Burigude tribe. His right wing suddenly launched an attack and defeated the troops of Gushri Khan, the lord of the Khoshut tribe, who had just arrived at the battlefield as reinforcements, killing the enemy's vanguard and making it completely defeated.

It would be fine if it was just a cavalry vs. cavalry battle, but the problem was that Burigude got the news that when Ketu Taiji and Gushri Khan were fighting, not only did he send out his elite cavalry, but a strange army also appeared on the battlefield. This army was not large, only less than a thousand people, and they dressed differently from the Mongols, and even looked different.

They were tall, blond and blue-eyed, wearing the same gray clothes and carrying a large number of firearms, which included not only muskets but also some cannons. In addition, there was a cavalry of several hundred people who were extremely fierce. They wore leather hats, short muskets on their waists, and wielded sharp swords in their hands. Their riding skills were no worse than those of the Mongolian cavalry, and were even slightly better.

After this army appeared on the battlefield, it joined forces with Chaoktu Taiji's main cavalry and defeated Gushri Khan's left wing without much effort. Once the left wing collapsed, Gushri Khan's central army could not hold on instantly. Chaoktu Taiji saw the opportunity and immediately commanded the main force to charge forward and directly defeated Gushri Khan's cavalry. Gushri Khan suffered heavy losses in this battle. Not only did he lose nearly two thousand main cavalry, but even three of his generals died.

This battle stunned Gushri Khan, who had just arrived and was planning to teach Chao Ketu Taiji a lesson. Gushri Khan had never thought that he would be defeated, and defeated so easily. He fled with the rest of his troops in a panic, and fled southward for a hundred miles before joining the troops of Batur Hong Taiji, the leader of the Dzungar Khanate, who had just arrived, and then stopped.

After defeating Gushri Khan, Chao Ketu Taiji did not stop. He led his troops to turn around and head directly towards Burigude.

At this time, Burigude had already learned the news of Gushri Khan's defeat. Seeing the enemy's circuitous movement, he instantly determined Chao Ketu Taiji's intention.

For safety reasons, Burigude hurriedly adjusted his tactics and led his troops to retreat, with each unit taking turns to cover and leave the battlefield.

At a small cost, Burigude brought his troops back safely. Although his losses in this battle were not great, he was actually defeated overall. This was because Gushri Khan's defeat allowed Chaoketu to advance hundreds of miles directly to the south and broke through his original defense line. In addition, Gushri Khan's strength was greatly damaged in this war and he was already seriously injured. In the following war, Gushri Khan's army was of no use.

In the following wars, Chao Ketu Taiji's strange army appeared on the battlefield from time to time. Their presence caused great trouble to the Mongolian cavalry in Moxi, including Burigude.

This unit was well-trained and was a pure firearms army. Burigude had seen such an army before. You should know that the proportion of firearms in Zhu Shenzui's new army was extremely large, and there were similar troops in the Ming army. However, compared with the opponent's army, the opponent's firearms accounted for a larger proportion, and the tactics were completely different. In addition, there was a small but extremely powerful cavalry to cooperate with them. Facing several times more cavalry, they still fought back and forth. Not only did their own losses remain small, but they also inflicted heavy casualties on their own side.

"Damn it! Where did this army come from? Where did this old guy Chaoketu find reinforcements?" Compared with other tribes, Burigude's side suffered the least losses, but this tactic also made him very uncomfortable. As his side was repeatedly repelled by this army and Chaoketu's cavalry, Burigude couldn't help cursing, and he couldn't figure out the source of this army.

"Sir, I think these people look somewhat similar to the barbarians in the west." Morge said on the side.

"The west? What barbarians are there in the west?" Burigude was stunned and didn't react for a moment.

Morge pointed to the west and said, "Where else could it be? The far west. Have you forgotten the Golden Horde?"

Burigude suddenly woke up, slapped his thigh and suddenly realized: "Yes! How could I forget this? If these people are really the remnants of the Golden Horde, it is indeed possible, but this cannot be confirmed, and the Golden Horde is more than a thousand miles away from here, how could they run so far? And they are colluding with Chaoketu, what is going on?"

Moerge suggested: "I don't know about this either, but they do look a bit similar. Why don't you send someone to ask Batur Hongtaiji of Junggar? It is said that Junggar has dealt with people over there. Maybe he knows more about it?"

(End of this chapter)