I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 328 Dayan Khan's Strategy
On the other side, Wang Xun and Zhang Li led their troops south and encountered two thousand Mongolian cavalry in a village.

"This must be the main force of Mongolia!" Zhang Li said firmly.

Wang Xun immediately made a decision: "Yes, this must be the main force of Mongolia!"

Even if it isn’t, it has to be!
Neither Jiang Bin, nor other border town generals, nor other eunuchs who accompanied the emperor to supervise the army, had ever thought of truly defeating the Mongolian army.

Because the Mongols were all cavalry, although they were divided into countless groups to plunder, they sent out scouts at any time and anywhere. The Ming army was mainly infantry, and once a large force was dispatched, it would inevitably attract the attention of the Mongols.

There's no way to fight this!
The Mongols took advantage when they could and ran away when they were in danger. How could the Ming army possibly catch their main force and defeat them!

Except for Zhu Houzhao, everyone's strategic goal was to eat up a considerable Mongolian force, such as the two or three thousand Mongolian cavalry in front of them. Once the Mongols lost two or three thousand and the main force of the Ming Dynasty arrived, according to past practice, the Mongolian prince would definitely run away with the spoils.

By then, when the emperor has satisfied his desire to win a battle, he can publicize it as a great victory, and all the eunuchs and border generals can be promoted for their merits.

Zhu Houzhao wanted to fight a big war, but his generals only wanted to fight small wars. The ideas of the emperor and his subjects were completely different.

"Array up!"

At Wang Xun's command, the officers and soldiers of Datong Prefecture immediately deployed their battle formation.

Deputy General Zhang Li was an old general. His grandson Zhang Yudu had already served as a lieutenant general and commanded only a thousand or so cavalrymen. He was responsible for scouting during marches and covering the flanks during battles.

"The bandits are trying to escape!"

The two thousand Mongolian cavalry did not engage in battle at all. When Wang Xun formed his battle array, they immediately turned around and fled.

Zhang Li shouted to his grandson, "General Zhang, hold the enemy back and do not engage in battle without permission."

Zhang Yu immediately assembled more than a thousand cavalrymen and chased after the two thousand Mongolian light cavalrymen. Not long after, the Mongolian light cavalrymen suddenly came back and Zhang Yu hurriedly led his troops to retreat.

The two sides chased each other back and forth for a long time, but there was no fighting at all, they just fired a few arrows randomly.

Then, the Mongolian cavalry left, and the Datong Prefecture army could not catch up with them.

Wang Xun and Zhang Li continued to march forward, but not very fast. Such a complicated situation made them dare not march at full speed. They sent out scouts along the way to avoid being surrounded by large groups of Mongolian cavalry.

For three consecutive days, the two sides fought countless times. The fighting seemed very intense, but the intensity was not high.

Only one Mongolian cavalryman died, but that was because his horse stumbled and he fell off and was seriously injured. Zhang Yu rushed over and chopped off his head. The Ming cavalry also had several casualties, some of whom fell off their horses accidentally, and some were accidentally shot by arrows.

"I feel something is wrong," Zhang Li was also a veteran and was very familiar with the habits of the Mongols. "The Tatar thieves we encountered these days seemed to slow down their pace and lead us to run south."

Wang Xun was also a veteran general, and he immediately realized: "I'm afraid there really is a main force of the enemy ahead, and they want to set an ambush to lure us over."

Zhang Li said, "Let's retreat."

Wang Xun hesitated and asked, "What should we do with your majesty's military order?" Zhang Li also hesitated, gritted his teeth and said, "This place is between Datong and Yingzhou. Your majesty should have 5 troops. It's almost time to reach Datong City. If your majesty can send troops to support us immediately after receiving our news, we only need to hold out for three days at most to get your support. Otherwise, we can find a favorable place to set up camp and wait for help!"

Wang Xun thought quickly for a while and said, "Let's gamble whether His Majesty can rescue us quickly! It's not that easy for the Mongols to eat us."

There were too many Mongols this year, and the two of them really didn't dare to go south. They set up camp in this place to make it easier to get support from Zhu Houzhao.

Moreover, when fighting with the Mongols in the wild, having a stronghold makes a big difference with or without one.

So the two of them reached an agreement and began to set up camp.

At this time, Dayan Khan was gathering troops in the south of the main force of the Datong Army. In three days, he had gathered more than 40,000 Mongolian cavalry. In fact, this speed was still relatively slow. Dayan Khan also knew the reason. It was because the Mongolian cavalry were too scattered, and the Mongolian cavalry from various units had robbed a lot of spoils. These spoils greatly slowed down the Mongolian cavalry's assembly speed.

"Let them abandon all the spoils and gather here quickly. As long as we defeat this group of Ming troops, the whole Datong will be ours! If you are slow, don't blame me for being rude!" Dayan Khan ordered.

The actions of the main force of the Datong Army were soon reported to Dayan Khan, who was immediately surprised: "These Ming troops are weird. Why are they acting so strangely? First, it was strange that they dared to leave the city, and then they set up camp after contacting our army. If they realized my intention, shouldn't they turn around and run away?"

It has to be said that Dayan Khan was a veteran on the battlefield and he immediately smelled something unusual.

"No matter what's weird about them, these Han people are so cowardly. Our army is so powerful. If they dare to leave the city, we will kill them all!" A Mongolian teenager suddenly spoke up.

This man was named Buchi, he was only in his teens and was the eldest grandson of Dayan Khan.

Since Dayan Khan's eldest son had died, Buchi was the first in line to the Mongolian throne.

However, among Dayan Khan's eleven sons, the third son is the most powerful. He now rules half of the territory and holds the title of Jinong (Deputy Khan). Once Dayan Khan dies suddenly, his third son and eldest grandson will certainly fight for the Khanship.

Dayan Khan always kept his eldest grandson by his side in order to teach him how to fight and how to coordinate and rule the various tribes.

He immediately reprimanded him, "You are the future Great Khan of Mongolia, not an ordinary soldier. Don't just think about killing people. You must pay attention to every abnormal movement of the enemy on the battlefield."

Bu Chi was only a teenager after all. He said, "No matter how many tricks the Han people use, it's useless. In this wilderness, we can fight if we want to, and leave if we don't want to. Besides, the actions of the Han people can't escape the sharp eyes of Eboge (grandfather) like an eagle."

Dayan Khan was amused. He thought for a moment and said, "You are right. No matter what tricks they take, as long as they leave the city, the initiative will be in our hands."

Bu Chi said happily: "That's perfect. The Ming army didn't dare to leave the city before, so this time we will fight with them. After killing the Guangming army, we can occupy the whole Datong!"

Dayan Khan nodded and taught his grandson, "You are the future Great Khan of Mongolia. You should think more about strategic issues and consider how to make our Tatar tribe stronger!"

"Just rob these cowardly Han people and use their wealth to support our people." Bu Chi said immediately.

Dayan Khan shook his head and said, "We went south to plunder not only to rob wealth and people. The trade route to the west has long been blocked by the Oirat tribe, and the Ming Kingdom does not trade with us. We can't even buy tea."

(End of this chapter)