Chapter 71 Tongliao
During the reign of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, the Kuimengktashahara tribe roamed in the Nen River basin and was called the Nen Khorchin tribe. Later, the tribe invaded the territories of the Three Doyan Guards in the East and West Liaohe River basins and became the most powerful of the Khorchin tribes.

More than a year ago, the leaders of the Khorchin tribes formed an alliance with Nurhaci at Iktangalipo after he killed the White Horse and Black Bull, and became dependent forces of the Later Jin.

Among them, several subordinate tribes of the Nenkorchin tribe were closest to the border wall of Shengjing.

February 29th, at a camp somewhere in the Left Rear Banner of the Khorchin tribe.

"That's Borjigit Buhe's camp. His family is the closest to the Tatars among all the Khorchin tribes."

Gou Quanzhong introduced to the commander Li Hao that all these military intelligence were obtained from the Jurchen soldiers.

"Now that I'm here, I won't be satisfied unless I give it a beating."

Looking at the group of yurts and tents stretching about half a mile ahead, General Li suddenly remembered that this place seemed to be called Tongliao in the future?

It is Tongliao, which is stuck in the map of Inner Mongolia, and is the capital of Little John the Khan.

Borjigit Buhe mentioned by Gou Quanzhong was a taiji (a honorific title for Mongolian nobles) of the Nenkhorchin tribe. He was the first Mongolian taiji to defect to the Later Jin Dynasty. He had a daughter, Bumbutai, who married Huang Taiji.

Of course, Bumbutai’s most famous name is Dayuer, the mother of Fulin of the Qing Zen Buddhism.

"Godfather, there are cavalrymen coming over there. It seems that they want to find out our identities first."

Wu Sangui pointed at a group of Mongolian soldiers on horseback coming out of the yurt.

Li Hao sneered, "The leader of this family is Huang Taiji's father-in-law, how can he be a good man? Cao Wenzhao's team will stay to protect the pack horses and craftsmen. The other leaders will lead their troops to deploy their formations and charge directly."

Although there were only 162 soldiers in this Ming army when they set out from Fuzhou, due to looting, burning and killing along the way, the number of soldiers accompanying them actually reached 335.

Among the 173 extra people, 58 were various craftsmen and their families, and the remaining 115 were Han and Jurchen soldiers who had rebelled.

The families of these surrendered soldiers were basically not near their garrisons, so they were not a burden.

The original eighteen fierce generals and soldiers of Ningyuan, three new adopted sons and their servants formed the middle-level structure of this Ming army. The commander only needed to give orders to several team leaders, and the team leaders would pass the orders down to make the army run.

Da Cao received the order and took his fifty men to protect the logistics. The remaining two hundred cavalrymen were divided into four groups and marched at full speed towards the yurts in front.

The main general Li Hao took the lead and charged towards the group of Mongolian soldiers.

By the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Mongolian tribes had greatly declined. Only the personal guards of the tribal leaders could wear iron armor, and it was considered a honor for ordinary Mongolian soldiers to wear leather armor.

So General Li boldly let his subordinates who had been idle for a long time charge together. If it weren't for this battle, these subordinates would have really become members of the Liaodong tour group.

"Bibala Borjigit..."

When the Mongolian soldiers who were welcoming the guests saw that the newcomers had ill intentions, the leader immediately raised the white Hada in his hand to indicate that they did not want to fight.

But they had no say in the matter. Li Hao, brandishing a heavy sword, chased them all the way back to the yurt. When he saw the one in armor, he immediately stabbed him with the sword.

The other four teams also surrounded the camp quickly, allowing only 20 to 30 Mongolian cavalrymen to escape, while the remaining 700 to 800 Mongolians were all trapped in the camp.

"Cao Bianjiao, you take your men to guard the stables and sheepfolds, and search the rest of the people, and pick out all those wearing armor. Find their leader and his family, and bring them to me."

The Mongols were too weak, and most of their arrows were not made of iron. Stone and bone arrows could not penetrate armor at all.

Now is the special time when winter has just passed, their horses are all weak and the Mongolian cavalry cannot take advantage of their high mobility at all.

The Mongolian tribesmen were unable to defeat or escape from the elite cavalry of the Ming Dynasty. They were humiliated to death. The Ming army searched for two quarters of an hour before they gathered all the Mongolians of the tribe to the open space in front of the camp.

Of course, their leader Buhe, along with his wives, concubines, and children, knelt at the front.

"Respected Ming envoy, I was deceived by the Jurchens before and swore an alliance with them, but that didn't count. Now that I see the face of the Ming envoy again, I suddenly realize that my previous actions were all wrong. I beg the Ming envoy to give me a chance to correct my mistakes. My family is willing to offer fifty horses, thirty cows, and one hundred sheep to the emperor as atonement."

A Haixi Jurchen soldier acted as an interpreter and conveyed the leader Buhe's words to the commander-in-chief.

"Tell him that we are not here to rob, and the Ming Emperor does not care about their alliance with the Tartars, and does not need their atonement."

Li Hao smiled slightly.

After hearing this translation, Bu He was obviously stunned, and then he was ecstatic. He first kowtowed three times to the commander, and then stood up and kowtowed three times towards the south.

"The Borjigit family will always be grateful for the kindness of the Ming envoy and the generosity of the Ming emperor. Since there is no need to atone for the sin, my family is willing to offer the livestock as a gift to the Ming envoy and his subordinates."

The Haixi soldiers translated the words of the leader who knelt in front of the commander again.

"There's no need to give these empty gifts. Tell him that I plan to take his family to the Ming territory to enjoy a good life. I will have plenty of favors to show him in the future. Don't let them be worried about this."

Li Hao's idea was to start from Horqin Left Rear Banner, go south all the way to involve the Mongolian tribes along the way, pass through Fuxin, Yizhou and other places, and finally settle these Mongolian tribes north of Jinzhou.

A few days ago, when this Ming army was rampant in the two red flag garrisons, the Eight Banners did not send out thousands of troops to encircle and suppress it, but only used a small group of cavalry to continuously harass the reconnaissance cavalry under Li Hao's command.

It seems that the beiles of the Eight Banners are unwilling to lead the army to fight him head-on.

This is a good phenomenon. At least it allows General Li to do some serious work such as recruiting soldiers and horses.

That's why this happened.

After hearing the translator's words, Chief Buhe was stunned on the spot, and then he sat down on the ground helplessly, regretting why he did not go to the camp of Oba, the leader of the Nenkorchin tribe, to spend the winter before the New Year.

Li Hao didn't care what Bu He was thinking. In the future, all the Mongolian tribes that were encircled had to be disbanded according to households and reorganized.

"Zu Kuan, Wu Sangui, Li Yongxi, you pick fifty able-bodied men and put them into each team, with ten men in each team. The rest of the Mongols will march according to the households, and whip them to pack up their things and drive the cattle and sheep south."

After two full hours of struggle, with the crying of Mongolian women and children as background sound, this motley crew finally set out on their journey back south.

In the next fifteen days, Li Hao's troops crossed the southern edge of the Inner Khalkha pastoral area, gathered about seven tribes of varying sizes, and brought their families, cattle and horses along the way, arriving near Shuangtai Mountain Fort on the Ming city wall around noon on March 14.

"General, there are a small number of Tatars stationed ahead."

The reconnaissance cavalry reported the latest military situation.

"Great. You guys go find the gap in the wall first, and I'll lead a team to do the real work."

The Inner Khalkha tribe was divided into five parts. The old leader of one of them, Chaohua, had an unclear attitude, but his nephew Sun Zhaisai was close to the Later Jin. General Li had to drive the Mongols who were taken with him to the north of Jinzhou first, so that he would have time to come back and drive out the scattered Eight Banners soldiers stationed near Guangning and Yizhou, as well as the Inner Khalkha Mongolian army that was about to gather.

Of course, upon learning that the Inner Khalkha tribe in the north was carrying out large-scale military operations, Lin Danhan would also move north. Li Hao prepared to eliminate the two major tribes in one fell swoop.

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(End of this chapter)