Chapter 216 215 New Ideas

Hearing Wei Guangde's question, Ma Fang said without hesitation: "Altan can only command four Wanhu, about 40,000 people, including 10,000 elite cavalry.

His son Huang Taiji has more than 10,000 cavalry, but the elite should be only a few thousand people. His brother Qing Taiji's troops are also about 10,000. Although they are all Wanhu, Qing Taiji's elite are even fewer, estimated to be 3,000 or 4,000.

In addition, Altan also conquered some large and small tribes. If forced to recruit soldiers, it is estimated that two or three Wanhu can be gathered."

"Then how many people did Altan Khan bring into the pass this time? How many elite soldiers are there? Is it his own army or his sons or brothers' troops?"

Wei Guangde asked immediately, and at the same time he silently calculated in his mind, 40,000 and two 10,000. As for Ma Fang's suggestion of another two or three Wanhu, Wei Guangde did not take it seriously. He himself said that he would force to recruit soldiers, which means that these tribes may follow Altan's tribe, but they have not been assigned to others.

In total, Altan Khan could mobilize about 60,000 cavalry, and the elite troops were less than 20,000, which was the total force, and at most half of them entered the Great Wall.

No wonder Weng Pu did not dare to transfer the Jizhen army, and he really needed to guard against the other 40,000 troops.

"According to the previous scout's report, it is estimated that Altan brought about 20,000 troops into the Great Wall this time, and the main force is still outside the Great Wall."

Ma Fang gave a somewhat strange answer to Wei Guangde's question.

Because Altan Khan had already made a judgment on the Tatars brought into the Great Wall, he was not sure why Wei Guangde asked this.

"As for which group of troops he brought, I think the more than 10,000 cavalrymen in Bao'an Prefecture should be Altan's royal guard and a Wanhu. The elite may be 3,000 people of the royal guard and the elite of Wanhu, estimated to be more than 5,000 people.

As for Yanqing, I haven't seen it, so it's hard to judge whether it's Huang Taiji's or Qing Taiji's troops, or Altan's own Wanhu."

Ma Fang continued to say that if he didn't know, he would naturally say he didn't know, so as not to be punished for making a mistake.

Wei Guangde didn't comment on Ma Fang's answer, because he didn't have an answer either. He just analyzed the meaning of Ma Fang's words, and he felt that the possibility was still very high.

In the past, the Ming court regarded the Altan tribe as a whole, but as of now, the Altan tribe is actually composed of three parts.

"According to your guess, there are still 40,000 people in the Altan tribe outside the Great Wall, so it is very likely that his son Huang Taiji is in command."

Wei Guangde analyzed at this time, as for the willingness, it was very simple. Even if the Ming army was weak, what if something happened?

At that time, both father and son will be trapped inside the Great Wall. This result is definitely not what Altan Khan wants to see.

"It's hard to say."

Ma Fang shook his head at Wei Guangde's words and did not give any attitude.

"Okay, the last question."

Wei Guangde could no longer sit still at this moment. He stood up and paced while saying, "You are stationed in Xuanfu all year round. I am from the south, but like you, I am from a military household. Now I want to hear the truth. How big is the difference in combat power between Xuanfu soldiers and Mongolian soldiers?"

When he said this, Wei Guangde was already standing in front of Ma Fang. He believed that this man would give him a more accurate answer because he dared to fight.

People who dare to fight and kill can still live to this day. It is definitely not just luck. At least under his appearance of daring to fight and fight, he is definitely a person who is good at calculation.

Only when you have a more objective assessment of the combat power of the Ming army and Mongolian soldiers in your heart will you dare to fight in a confident situation.

It's all nonsense to say that the weak will win the strong, fight to the death, or that the army of the underdog will win. If you don't have enough strength, you will die. There is no miracle.

However, Wei Guangde's words put Ma Fang in a difficult situation. He understood what Master Xiao Wei meant. He wanted to know the combat power of the Ming army, or maybe he wanted to calculate how many troops were needed to defeat the Altan tribe that entered the pass, but the battle could not be won by calculation.

"I know that the Ming army is mainly composed of infantry, and there are fewer cavalry. Tell me, just follow your own ideas."

Wei Guangde added.

"The Mongols are mainly cavalrymen. There are so many horses raised there that even children can ride horses and pick up weapons to become warriors."

Ma Fang did not answer Wei Guangde's words immediately, but talked about the Mongolian warriors. "For the elite Mongolian cavalry, even if the Ming army infantry formed a formation, the chance of ten against one is slim. Even if they can't win, they can run away on horseback.

If it is the Ming army cavalry we recruited, two against one will definitely win. Our equipment is better than the elite Mongolian cavalry. One-on-one is a bit difficult. If you want to calculate, the strength is close, but if it is my men, one can beat two of them."

Seeing that Ma Fang had another The topic was a bit exaggerated, so Wei Guangde had to speak up to control the topic himself, and then interrupted and asked: "What about the combat power of ordinary soldiers you mentioned earlier?"

"The combat power of ordinary Mongolian soldiers is average. They can only ride horses and shoot arrows, and they have little combat experience. In fact, these people are usually herdsmen, and they are only temporarily recruited when there is a war.

If they fight to the death and fight against the Ming army head-on, the infantry can kill them as long as they form a formation. The combat power of cavalry is actually not much different on both sides, that is, the Mongolian elite is much stronger than the Ming cavalry."

Ma Fang continued Wei Guangde's words and made a simple comparison between the combat power of the Mongolians and the Ming army's infantry and cavalry.

"Are the Mongolians who followed you from Bao'an Prefecture elite or ordinary? You should have seen it, tell me."

Wei Guangde raised his eyebrows and asked again.

"Ordinary, not many elite."

Hearing Ma Fang's answer, Wei Guangde nodded and turned back to his seat.

"If you want to eat them, I will take my men to kill them tonight."

Ma Fang was not stupid. He immediately guessed Wei Guangde's idea. Perhaps he really wanted to attack the Tartars outside the city and destroy them.

"No hurry. Baoan Prefecture still has enough food and grass to support a few days. We have time to wait. At least let your men rest tonight. If you want to fight, we will talk about it tomorrow."

Wei Guangde said with a smile.

The few people chatted in the room for a while, and Wei Guangde asked Dong Yiyuan to take the three people to rest first. Forget the welcoming banquet. You can't drink on the battlefield.

After the four people retreated, Wei Guangde walked to the desk and stared at the map with his eyes, calculating rapidly in his mind.

At this time, Altan Khan should have known that there was food and grass for the Ming army in Huailai County. I think he would recruit troops from Baoan Prefecture or Yanqing.

Wei Guangde had thought about defeating the Tartar cavalry tonight when Ma Fang proposed it, but he was worried that if Altan Khan sent troops directly from Baoan Prefecture to reinforce the Tartars under the city, they might arrive tonight, and the time between the return of the scouts and their departure would not exceed one day.

If the enemy reinforcements arrived during the raid on the enemy outside the city, it would be dangerous and unpredictable.

However, with Ma Fang's analysis of the combat power of the Ming army and the Mongolian soldiers, Wei Guangde felt that the gap in combat power between the two armies did not seem to be as big as he thought.

In fact, what Ma Fang said was based on the situation that the Mongolians were on horseback, and they would fight if they could win, and run if they couldn't, so they took the initiative from the beginning.

As for the frequent defeats of the Ming army in the border towns, Wei Guangde could understand that they only picked on the weak, and what could you do.

But obviously, the current Xuanfu General Liu Dazhang was incompetent.

According to Ma Fang's words, there were more than 10,000 Ming troops stationed in Bao'an Prefecture. In fact, they could fight against Altan's army after forming a battle array. However, Liu Dazhang was worried that he would be punished by the court if he was defeated, so he simply became a coward and waited for the arrival of the Datong army.

Starting from the 29th year of Jiajing, in a few years, the Ming army had degenerated into such a fear of fighting.

Before, Wei Guangde knew that the battle between the border town and the Tartars was not going well, and he always thought that it was because of the soldiers. After all, it was very simple to draw such a conclusion by referring to the inland garrisons.

And the civil officials of the court probably had the same idea as him at that time, thinking that the Ming army was not strong enough.

However, no one thought that before Zhou Shangwen, the Tartars could only fight a little on the border, make some noise, take a little advantage and run away immediately, because the Ming army had already killed them, and it would be dangerous if they didn't run away.

This shows that the Ming army has an advantage in a large-scale battle with the Mongols.

After all, the border troops are regular troops. Just as Ma Fang said before, the main force of the Tartars is still herdsmen, and there are not many real professional soldiers, or the Tartar elites in his mouth.

Looking at Huailai, Baoan and Yanqing on the map, Wei Guangde guessed that Altan might not have time to send people to contact Yanqing. He would choose to draw two or three thousand people from his side to Huailai County to trap the Ming army's grain transport convoy.

Regardless of the true situation of the Ming army in Baoan Prefecture, as long as they surrounded Huailai County and made it difficult for the convoy to move, they would achieve their goal. After a long time, the Ming army in Baoan Prefecture would naturally retreat due to lack of food and grass.

Even if the Ming army did not retreat, they would have only one way, that is, to actively approach Huailai County and seek food and grass supplies. At that time, no matter whether the Ming army was advancing or retreating, as long as the Ming army left the protection of the city wall and came to the wild, he could find an opportunity to attack the Ming army halfway.

Field battle, surprise attack, before the Ming army formed a formation, it would be difficult not to win such a battle.

Wei Guangde analyzed Altan Khan's possible plan, and that was about it.

And as an opponent, how should he play his cards?

Wei Guangde was actually a little confused at this moment, and he didn't know what to do.

At the beginning, he went to Huailai County with great fanfare to attract Altan Khan's attention and attract him to send troops here, while he was waiting for the arrival of the Datong Army.

Another thing was to help Li Zhen complete the grain transportation task. As long as Altan Khan's attention was attracted to Huailai County, the chances of Li Zhen's grain transport convoy arriving in Bao'an Prefecture smoothly would increase exponentially.

In Huailai, he could naturally do nothing and wait for the Datong Army to arrive, forcing Altan Khan to withdraw with those cavalry with absolute advantage.

The original plan was like this, but after Ma Fang said it, Wei Guangde suddenly felt that he could do something to severely hit the arrogance of the Altan tribe.

The Ming army's combat effectiveness was not as weak as imagined, which was Wei Guangde's confidence.

In fact, it is true. If the Ming army was really weak, the one who was afraid in Beijing would not be Jiajing but Altan Khan.

Before, Wei Guangde was just influenced by later generations, and more or less after he came to the capital, so he never thought that under the appearance of the Ming army's declining combat power, it still maintained considerable combat power.

However, such combat power became less noticeable after the border town castles were constantly attacked by Altan Khan's tribe. Perhaps even the Ming army soldiers themselves have forgotten that their ancestors once swept across the desert.

And what is the situation now?

A soldier is a tyrant, and a general is a tyrant.

The situation in Xuanfu now seems to be like this. Liu Dazhang is not good, and the entire Xuanfu army is a tyrant.

Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Ming troops were facing tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry but did not dare to fight. It was probably because they were afraid of defeat. Their subordinates were strictly restrained by the generals and were not allowed to fight.

Thinking of what Ma Fang said, besides the royal guards, there was only one Wanhu around Altan Khan in Baoan Prefecture. Now this Wanhu has 2,000 people to the city of Huailai, and there are only 8,000 people left in Baoan Prefecture.

If Altan Khan continued to draw troops to surround the grain transport convoy, even if only 3,000 people were used, there would only be half a Wanhu around Altan Khan in Baoan Prefecture, and there would only be about 8,000 people including the royal guards.

It was slightly insufficient to eat up the 5,000 people in Huailai County.

Wei Guangde made his own judgment on the forces inside and outside the city at this time.

There are less than 2,000 cavalry in the city now, and nearly 5,000 infantry.

Let Ma Fang take people out to eat them first? The infantry bypassed the Tartars under the city and formed a formation behind them to deal with reinforcements?

What would Altan Khan do to eat up the 5,000 troops here?

Gather more troops to take revenge?

Or run away immediately?

Don't think about Yanqing, because the strength there can barely protect itself. Altan Khan is worried that the Jizhen army will go out of the pass, but he doesn't know that Weng Pu has never planned to mobilize Jizhen troops to participate in this war from the beginning, because he is worried that the Mongolian Tartars outside the pass will raid the capital.

Huailai, as far as it can see, has the strength to fight the Tartars, but it can only fight the two thousand troops outside the city. If there are reinforcements, it will be a bit difficult, unless the Datong army can fly to join the battle at this time.

And the one who has the advantage is Baoanzhou, which has always been afraid of fighting.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde's eyes fell on the position of Baoanzhou. After the mobilization of Altan's troops this time, the troops of Baoanzhou, including Altan Khan's guards, only have 8,000 people left.

Suddenly remembered the suggestion that Ma Fang had made in Baoanzhou before, to concentrate the whole army to attack Altan Khan's camp.

After a silent calculation, he confirmed that if Altan Khan really sent troops to reinforce the Tartars in Huailai, then the troops in Baoan Prefecture would be even more insufficient.

This is actually an opportunity for the Ming army.

After defeating the Tartars in Huailai County, Altan Khan can choose to shrink or retreat.

What if Huailai attracts Altan Khan's attention and he runs to Baoan Prefecture to force Liu Dazhang to fight?

If Baoan Prefecture provokes a war, even if it cannot win, at least it will maintain the current situation.

And once it wins, the benefits he gets will be huge.

Thinking of the fact that Weng Pu wanted to come in person at the beginning, this old guy has a really sharp eye. He saw at a glance that the safest area on the battlefield is actually in Baoan Prefecture, where there are Xuanfu troops.

Go, how to go?

What if Liu Dazhang doesn't obey when he gets there?

If it's Weng Pu's words, Liu Dazhang dare not disobey.