I

(If you are unclear about the intention and arrangement of sending troops to Mobei, please go back and read Chapter 957 and Chapter 958. The first is to solve inflation, and the second is to clear out Mobei and Lake Baikal.)

Zhuote Babatur's understanding of the Datong Army came from the Khalkha Mongols who were annexed by him.

He knew that the infantry of the Datong Army could form a vehicle formation, supplemented by muskets and artillery. Facing such a formation, no matter how brave the Mongolian cavalry is, they will not be able to rush in even if they risk their lives.

That's why Zhuote Babatur had to go in circles to stretch the supply line of the Chang Tong Army, and the main force went around to cut off the food road. The main force had to be used to intercept the grain road. Small units could not be effective. The few teams he sent were all eaten by the Datong Army.

Once the food route is cut off and it is known that the main force is heading south, the cavalry of the Datong Army will abandon the infantry and attack quickly.

Without the cover of the infantry and vehicle formation, Zhuote Babatour didn't think the cavalry of the Datong Army was very powerful. In his opinion, the Han people were only as fierce as their formations and firearms, and in terms of cavalry combat, the Mongolian warriors were the most powerful.

As for forming a wall of cavalry to charge, such damn remarks were treated as a joke by Drote Babatour.

It must be the Khalkha Mongols who were frightened by the Datong Army, so they felt that the Han cavalry was pouring in overwhelmingly, like a moving city wall composed of countless cavalry.

Most of the most lush grasslands in Mobei are mountain pastures, and some are simply located in mountainous areas.

The current battlefield is a hilly area.

Further south are all mountains, and a tributary of the Selenge River passes between the two mountains. It was specially selected by Zhuote Babatour to ambush the Datong cavalry. Once they entered along the river valley, it would be difficult to escape.

Among the hills extending from the mountains, there are not many trees on the large and small hills, but green weeds can be seen everywhere.

These mountain pastures can also be used for horse racing and grazing. But as a battlefield, the battle will be more complicated, unlike the plain grassland.

Seeing that Cao Bianjiao stopped escaping, Zhuote Babatur immediately sent out more than 10,000 light cavalry and went around several hills to outflank the retreat. He never thought that he would be defeated, so the first thing he did was to block Cao Bianjiao's retreat and eat all the Datong cavalry in front of him.

After all, the Datong Army sent too many troops this time, and the Mongols really couldn't afford it, so they had to do everything possible to annihilate them one by one.

The total number of Mongols in Mobei, including men, women, old and young, is just over 100,000.

The Khalkha Mongols had been at war with the Manchus before. Then they suffered a disastrous defeat against the Datong Army, and many of them froze to death and starved to death during the withdrawal. Sengge led the Zhungeer tribe to fight, and many more were killed. Then Sengge was murdered and Zhungeer was split into two.

No matter how hard you put together the Zhungeer tribe brought by Zhuot Babatur, plus the annexed Khalkha tribe, you can only make up 50,000 cavalry.

A few days ago, Fei Ruhe and Zhang Tieniu killed thousands of people!

It would be difficult for Drout Babatur to make a comeback, so he could only engage in an ambush and annihilation campaign. Once he sees that the situation is not good, he will immediately run away. Anyway, he will delay it until winter, and the Datong Army will naturally withdraw.

"The first regiment of knights is responsible for dealing with the enemies behind them." Cao Bianjiao ordered.

After the flag was raised, Zhang Nai led more than a thousand cavalry and turned to face the side and rear.

The cavalry division commanded by Cao Bianjiao was adapted from Li Zicheng's Hetao cavalry. Half of the officers were from the Datong Army; the other half were promoted from Li Zicheng's old department.

Li Zicheng's adopted son Zhang Nai is in the army at the moment.

He went to Nanjing to attend a crash course in the military academy for two years, and returned to Hetao to directly serve as regimental commander. This was to appease Li Zicheng's old troops, because after the reorganization, almost all senior officers were from the Datong Army. Chuang Wang's old troops must be dissatisfied, and promoting Zhang Nai could stabilize the morale of the army.

"The Second Regiment of the Knights, form up on the left side of the Yi Cavalry!" Cao Bianjiao issued the military order again.

On the front are three regiments of Yi cavalry, which can organize wall charges.

On the right is the river.

On the left is a regiment of knights.

Cao Bianjiao led hundreds of cavalry as a reserve force for the Chinese army.

On the frontal battlefield, the two sides slowly approached.

The Mongols still used traditional warfare. Zhuote Babatur sent thousands of horsemen to shoot arrows from the front and left.

"Blow the trumpet, the Yi Cavalry charges! The second regiment of the Valiant Cavalry, speed up and help the Yi Cavalry drive away the enemy cavalry who are shooting arrows."

Cao Bianjiao did not try to test each other with the Mongols. He had fewer troops and had to win them in one go.

The Mongolian cavalry sent out to test them had not even entered the shooting range when they saw more than 4,000 cavalrymen marching forward in neat rows. Moreover, the speed is getting faster and faster. At first, I was only jogging, but within a moment I was sprinting.

Zhuote Babatur didn't have a telescope, so although he couldn't see the details clearly, the overwhelming momentum still frightened him.

At the same time, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment rushed faster.

The commanding general is Zhang Yuankuan, a graduate of the second batch of Nanjing Military Academy.

Among the graduates of the military academy, more than ten have served as regimental commanders, and three have served as brigade commanders. This was also the reason why Zhao Han started to reform the military system. He was not afraid of the founding fathers interfering with the army, because in addition to senior officers, there were also a large number of mid-level and low-level officers who graduated from military academies.

These people have all received the education of loyalty to the emperor and love for the people, and are not the personal soldiers of any general.

Zhang Yuankuan led more than a thousand brave cavalry, accelerated around the Yi cavalry, and rushed towards the enemy cavalry shooting arrows in front. While charging and shooting at each other, both sides suffered casualties. However, the heroic cavalry were all covered in armor, which was not comparable to the Mongolian cavalry wearing leather armor.

After a round of shooting, seeing Zhang Yuankuan still rushing forward, the Mongolian cavalry on the opposite side subconsciously retreated, stepped back a certain distance, and then turned back to shoot arrows.

By the time the enemy's second round of arrows was fired, Zhang Yuankuan had already raised his spear and pointed to the left. The trumpeter beside him immediately blew his trumpet, and more than a thousand cavalry all circled to the left and rushed towards the Mongolian cavalry over there.

The heroic cavalry gave way to the frontal battlefield, and the Yi cavalry behind them speeded up again and rushed towards the Mongolian cavalry who was drawing their bows.

The overwhelming momentum was so startling that the Mongolian cavalry forgot to shoot arrows and hurriedly got out of the way to pursue Zhang Yuankuan's troops.

"Block it, block it quickly!" Drote Babatur shouted.

The main formation of the Mongolian cavalry was pressed up by thousands of cavalry. There are about three thousand cavalry equipped with iron armor, and the rest of the cavalry are all leather armor. At this time, the Zhungeer tribe was obviously still very poor.

Half of these more than 3,000 armored Mongolian cavalry were commanded by Abalai.

When this man was a boy, he followed Gushi Khan on an expedition to Qinghai and Tibet. Historically, he was responsible for escorting the Tsarist Russian envoy Bayikov to Beijing, and was rewarded by Emperor Shunzhi.

Abalai led his armored knights to charge forward, but before they had gone very far, they felt something was wrong.

The cavalry wall of the Datong Army was neatly arranged. If he rushed forward, he would definitely get into a car accident. There was absolutely no chance of survival. The cavalry wall was so dense that there was no room to dodge.

Abalai is not a fool, and he cannot accept a battle to the death.

Not caring about anything else, Abalai led his troops and ran to the left. He planned to avoid the wall charge, wait for the Datong cavalry to rush over, and then attack from behind, and attack from the front and back with Zhuote Babatour's central army.

Not only Abalai thought so, but the other Mongolian nobles were all dodging to the left, no one wanted to collide with a group of life-threatening lunatics.

As soon as they gave way, Drout Babatur's central army faced the charge.

Zhuot Babatur's eyes widened, and he didn't know what to do for a moment. Before he could issue the order, his two sons led their troops to escape, and the rest of his generals also led their troops to disperse.

The Yi Cavalry's wall charge was more refined than before.

The cavalry battalion on the outermost side of the row dispersed little by little during the charge, and then those closer to this battalion followed suit. Not long after, half of the Yi cavalry changed from a wall charge to a traditional charge. These scattered cavalrymen rushed towards the enemy cavalry who were hurriedly dodging, and killed more than 2,000 enemy cavalrymen at the waist.

Drout Babatur was also on the run and was separated from his two sons. He only had more than a thousand direct troops left with him.

The Mongolian cavalry on the side gradually felt that something was wrong, and in a blink of an eye they saw their commander running away. They are either from the Khalkha Mongols or are the old tribes of the Sengge, and have no loyalty to Drote Babatur. Zhuote Babatur has already escaped, why are they giving a shit?

Group after group of Mongolian cavalry turned their horses and fled the battlefield. Zhang Yuancuan led a regiment in a frantic pursuit.

As the commander-in-chief, Cao Bianjiao saw that the enemy troops were defeated, so he immediately led the reserve team and turned around to fight towards the rear. He wanted to help Zhang Nai to attack the enemy cavalry that was encircling them.

Zhang Nai led more than a thousand cavalry on the grassy hills, shooting arrows at the surrounding thousands of cavalry. After shooting an arrow, he immediately swooped down from the hill, left the battlefield and went to the second hill.

The enemy Zhang Nai faced obviously did not intend to fight desperately, but wanted to wait for the winner to be decided on the frontal battlefield.

To put it bluntly, the enemy soldiers are not united.

There is also the Khalkha tribe and the Jungar tribe. There is also the old tribe of Sengge in the Jungar tribe. They all had a deep hatred for each other, and it was only because of Zhuote Babatur's wanton enfeoffment of the pastures that these chaotic forces were united.

If someone loses a lot of troops, even if they win the battle, their pasture may be swallowed up.

Then conserve your strength. More than 10,000 people surrounded and killed more than a thousand Datong troops, but they slowly had to completely surround them before attacking.

The two sides were gradually approaching the main battlefield, and Drout Babatur's central army had collapsed. Seeing this, the more than 10,000 Mongolian cavalry turned around and ran away without saying a word. Zhang Nai and Cao Bianjiao, who had arrived, pursued them at full speed.

As they were running away, a Mongolian noble suddenly remembered something, drew his sword and shouted: "I have established contact with Mr. Zuo. If you join the Celestial Empire, you can become the Protector. Follow me and kill!"

This was a Khalkha force, led by Mongolian nobles, that violently attacked the "friendly troops" who were fleeing nearby. They had a blood feud with the Zhungeer tribe and turned against each other to fight. They could not only avenge their clansmen, but also gain recognition from the Celestial Empire.

Another group of Sengge's old troops also turned to attack friendly forces.

Soon, the more than 10,000 Mongolian cavalry formed a group, and it was impossible to figure out who wanted to defect to the Celestial Empire.

Anyway, only those who win the battle are eligible to surrender.

Before that, they had long been dissatisfied with each other if they let go of revenge.

"Who...who should we help?" Zhang Nai looked confused at the messy battlefield.

Cao Bianjiao smiled bitterly and said, "Let them fight. I don't know who to help. Why don't we go after the defeated troops head-on?"

Cao Bianjiao took Zhang Nai and turned around to pursue him on the battlefield.

After only a few miles, a group of Mongolian cavalry dismounted and knelt in front. A Mongolian young man in his twenties held up the head of Zhuot Babatur and said, "I have killed Zhuote Babatur, the traitor general of the Celestial Dynasty!"

Cao Bianjiao was very happy. He personally helped the man up and asked about his identity. He was speechless for a moment.

The person who killed Drote Babatur was none other than Drote Babatur's own son!