The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in at the start in Beijing

When the three Khalkha tribes reached a distance of 800 paces, the entire army, consisting of elite troops and the old and weak, immediately separated and halted their advance.

Clearly, this is in accordance with the centuries-old tradition of the grasslands: before a decisive battle, both sides must engage in some verbal sparring. I wonder who started this trend.

Perhaps it started as early as the Spring and Autumn Period.

In short, we need to talk about why you hit me and what you want from me.

If you want me to submit to you, then let's have a fight. If I, as the leader, can't win, then I'll take my people to your tribe and become nobles.

The three Khans of the Khalkha tribes probably wanted to do just that.

But it was clear they were overthinking it. From the moment they arrived with their army, they knew they had no chance of survival, because the Han Dynasty wanted the Mongols, not the Mongol nobles.

Subutai, confident in his own formidable martial prowess, remained completely calm and led Wanyan Wu directly to the front lines of both sides.

The Chechen Khan, one of the three Khalkha tribes, was also as strong as an ox and fearless. Seeing that Subutai only had two men, he also led Tushetu Khan and Zasagtu forward.

The most humiliated person was Tushetu Khan, whose envoy had been killed, so he spurred his horse forward three steps.

"Subutai, you shamelessly used the name of my Great Mongol Empire's founding hero, yet you brazenly murdered the envoy sent by this Khan. You have no magnanimity whatsoever! Bah!"

Besides Liu Mu, Wanyan Wu now admires Subutai the most. Upon hearing Tushetu Khan insult Subutai, he immediately drew his saber and rode forward.

"Old man, I killed that damned envoy of yours who insulted my emperor on the spot. Today, I, Wanyan Wu, will give you a handicap. Dare to come over and have a go?"

Upon hearing this, Tushetu Khan rolled his eyes. "They all call me an old man, knowing I'm old, yet they still challenge me to a duel. They're shameless!" He then pointed at the Chechen Khan standing to the side.

"I am getting old. You may challenge the Chechen Khan. Whoever you can defeat, I, Tushetu, will follow!"

This wasn't just Tushetu Khan making things up. He's old and frail now, and his descendants aren't up to par. He's almost at his limit, so it wouldn't be bad if he went with the flow and submitted to the Han Dynasty.

Wanyan Wu looked at Chechen Khan and couldn't help but swallow hard. He was at least 1.8 meters tall and incredibly strong. His Mongolian armor looked like it was about to burst.

And then there's the spiked club he's wielding, weighing at least twenty pounds. He's no match for him, absolutely no match for him. If it were a one-on-one fight, his head would probably be smashed to pieces.

"To lower or not to lower!"

"Surrender and you shall live; resist and you shall die!"

Subutai remained sparing with his words. After speaking, he quietly looked at Tushetu Khan. Although this man was old, he controlled the central part of the Gobi Desert, making him the strongest and having the most followers.

Tushetu Khan felt as if he were being stared at by a tiger while he was all alone, and cold sweat dripped down his forehead.

"Fight if you want! We Khalkha Mongols are not like those cowards in the southern desert. We cannot tolerate you Oirat slaves riding on our heads."

The young Chechen Khan, full of vigor, immediately turned his horse around and galloped towards his army.

When Tushetu Khan saw that Chechen Khan was about to attack, he immediately turned his horse around. Clearly, he also looked down on the Dzungars, this Oirat slave tribe.

The seemingly insignificant Zasagtu Khan glanced at Subutai, then spurred his horse and followed him back to the army formation.

If Liu Mu were here, he would definitely show a mocking expression, after all, the Dzungar Khanate at this time was not the Dzungar Khanate that would dominate the Western Regions twenty years later.

At that time, he commanded a million herdsmen, an elite army of fifty to sixty thousand, and a firearms force of nearly ten thousand.

If all able-bodied men were mobilized, the Dzungar Khanate could field 200,000 able-bodied cavalrymen, almost overwhelming the surrounding countries, and even Tsarist Russia would have to be wary of them.

When that time came, Galdan, who was advancing eastward, only needed to give a signal, and the three Khalkha tribes in the northern desert would eagerly come to serve as his vanguard.

Ultimately, it all comes down to strength.

They insist on bringing up bloodline.

……

After both sides returned to their battle formations, Subutai immediately gave the order!

"Wanyan Wu, those 50,000 old, weak, sick, and disabled men are all yours. After conquering the northern deserts, give you 2,000 troops to make up a total of 5,000 for your Jin Kingdom!"

Upon hearing this, Wanyan Wu excitedly drew his saber.

"We must absolutely not allow these old and weak to disturb the Great General. If we cannot do this, we might as well abandon the Jin Kingdom!"

Wanyan Wu was confident in saying this, as these eight thousand Blue Banner soldiers were not simply soldiers from various Eight Banners; they included Eight Banner soldiers, Jurchens, and Koreans, all of whom were elite troops.

Indeed, when he was stationed in Uiju, he served as a servant of the Blue Banner Army, wearing the Manchu Eight Banners armor, and often went into Korea to plunder. As a result, some Korean troops could not bear the oppression of the nobles in Korea and simply killed their officials and surrendered.

Since they were all cannon fodder anyway, Wanyan Wu didn't care. So he picked and chose and recruited nearly a thousand Korean soldiers, who were the kind who could fight.

As for the Wild Jurchens, most of them were acquired by trading iron pots, while a small number joined the army on their own because they didn't want to hunt. Wanyan Wu accepted them all.

"By imperial decree, we will quell the rebellion and slaughter all those who defy Heaven!"

Subutai shouted loudly, spurred his horse and charged forward, with five hundred personal guards following desperately behind him.

The 30,000-strong army was directly divided into 30 thousand-man squads, which charged forward like a wall, without any fancy formations, just a full-scale attack.

It's all in.

This was naturally Subutai's way of showing confidence in his 30,000 Han cavalry, even if the opposing force consisted of over 40,000 elite Mongol cavalry, he would regard them as nothing more than weeds.

The goal was to recruit 30,000 Han soldiers, who not only received a monthly salary of three taels of silver but also had pastures in their grassland garrisons.

However, these pastures are temporarily managed by the imperial court, which is actually distributed among other herders. They are only responsible for receiving money, which already belongs to the nobility.

If they didn't die fighting until retirement, they would at least be hereditary centurions, or even more than centurions. Every time a position became available, people would fight tooth and nail for it.

"Brothers, whether you can join the Han army and receive military pay depends on your fighting ability!"

"Now, charge with me!"

After shouting a rousing phrase, Wanyan Wu led five hundred personal guards and charged towards the more than fifty thousand old and weak Khalkha soldiers.

"Kill the enemy! Advance into the Han army camp!"

Eight thousand Blue Banner soldiers followed, roaring and shouting as they charged forward. They loved this chicken soup the most; hearing it once would get their blood pumping!

As they were talking, Subutai, with his personal guards, clashed directly with the main force led by the Chechen Khan. Neither side even fired a single arrow.

In such a large-scale clash of elite cavalry, where both sides know the other is armored, arrows are of little effect; it's more practical to simply charge in.

At this point, the only other factor is whose horse is stronger.

In this respect, it is obvious that the warhorses of the Han cavalry are superior. The Mongolian horses from the northern desert have good stamina, but their only drawback is that they are not strong enough.

While Ili horses and Kazakh horses may not be the strongest, they are still considered above average for charging.

Once the two sides made contact, it was a one-sided situation, with a large number of Chechen soldiers being knocked off their horses and then trampled to death by the horses' hooves.