Chapter 216 215 New Ideas

Hearing Wei Guangde's question, Ma Fang said without hesitation: "There are only four thousand households around Altan, about 40,000 people, including tens of thousands of elite cavalry.

His son Huang Taiji still has more than 10,000 cavalry, but the elite troops should be only a few thousand, and his younger brother Qing Taiji has about 10,000 soldiers. Although they are all sealed with ten thousand households, Qing Taiji has even fewer elite troops, and it is estimated that three or four thousand people are 3,000.

In addition, Altan also conquered some tribes of all sizes. If they were forced to recruit troops, they would probably be able to gather two or three thousand households."

"Then how many people Altan Khan brought into the Pass this time, how many elites are there, is it the headquarters, his son or brother's men?"

Wei Guangde immediately asked, and at the same time he calculated in his heart that 40,000 and 20,000 or 10,000. As for what Ma Fang said, adding two or three thousand households, Wei Guangde did not take it seriously. He himself said that he would force recruitment, that is, these tribes might follow Altan's tribe, but they have not been assigned to others.

In terms of calculation, Altan Khan can use about 60,000 cavalry, and the elite force is less than 20,000. This is all the troops, and at most half of them enter the Great Wall.

No wonder Weng Pu didn't dare to transfer the Jizhen army to come, and he really needed to be on guard against the other 40,000 troops.

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

Ma Fang answered Wei Guangde's question with a strange answer.

Because the Tartars brought to the pass by Altan Khan had already made a judgment, he was not sure why Wei Guangde still asked this.

"As for the troops I brought, I think the more than 10,000 cavalrymen in Baoanzhou should be the Royal Court Guards and a Ten Thousand Houses of Altan. Among them, the elite may be the 3,000 people of the Royal Court Guards and the elites of Ten Thousand Houses of Wanhu. It is estimated that there are about 5,000 people.

As for Yanqing, I have never seen it. It is hard to tell whether it is Huang Taiji or Qing Taiji's people, or Altan's own ten thousand households."

Ma Fang continued to say that he would not know about those who didn’t know, so as not to be punished if he was wrong.

Wei Guangde did not agree with Ma Fang's answer, because he had no answer, and just analyzed it based on what Ma Fang said, and he felt that the possibility was still very high.

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

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

Wei Guangde analyzed at this time that it was very simple to be willing. Even if the Ming army's combat power was weak, what if it happened?

At that time, their father and son will be made into dumplings in the Great Wall. This result is definitely not something Altan Khan wants to see.

"This is hard to say."

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

"Okay, last question."

Wei Guangde couldn't sit still at this moment, so he got up and walked and said, "You have been stationed in Xuanfu for many years. I am from the south. But like you, I am from a military family. Now I want to hear the truth. How much difference is the combat power between Xuanfu soldiers and Mongolian soldiers."

When he talked about 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.

If a person who dares to fight and kill can survive until now, he will definitely not be lucky. At least he is a person who is good at calculating under his appearance of daring to fight.

Only by having a relatively objective assessment of the combat effectiveness of the Ming army soldiers and Mongolian soldiers in our hearts can we dare to fight with confidence.

If you defeat the strong with the weak, fight with the back, or win with any sad soldiers, it is nonsense. If you don’t have enough strength, you will die, and a miracle will not happen.

However, Wei Guangde's words put Ma Fang in a dilemma. He understood what Lord Wei meant. He wanted to know the combat power of the Ming army, and perhaps he wanted to calculate how many troops he needed to defeat the Altan army entering the pass, but the battle could not be won by counting.

"I know that the Ming army is mainly infantry and has fewer cavalry. Tell me and just follow your own ideas."

Wei Guangde added one more sentence.

"The Mongols were mainly cavalrymen, and there were many horses there. Children could ride horses and pick up weapons to become warriors."

Ma Fang did not answer Wei Guangde's words at the first time, but instead mentioned the Mongolian soldiers. "For the elite Mongolian cavalry, even if the Ming army infantry formed a formation, the chance of fighting for ten times is slim. Even if they can't beat them, they can still ride a horse and run away.

If we were like the Ming cavalry we recruited, we would win with two fights and one firmly, and our equipment was better than the elite Mongolian cavalry, and it was a bit difficult to one on one. If we count, our strength would be close, but if our subordinates were able to beat them one by one."

Seeing that Ma Fang was whining a little again, Wei Guangde had to speak out and control the topic himself, and then interrupted and asked, "What about the combat power of ordinary soldiers you mentioned in your previous words?"

"Ordinary Mongolian soldiers have average combat power, so they can ride horses and shoot arrows. They have no combat experience. In fact, these people are usually herders, but they are temporarily recruited when there is war.

If you don’t run away from the death battle, you will fight head-on with the Ming army, and the infantry can kill them as long as they form formations. In fact, the cavalry’s combat power is not much different, that is, the Mongolian elites are much stronger than the Ming army’s cavalry.”

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

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

Wei Guangde raised his eyebrows and asked again.

"On average, not many elite."

Hearing Ma Fang's answer, Wei Guangde nodded, turned around and returned to his seat to sit down.

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

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

"No hurry. The food and grass in Baoanzhou are still enough to support it for a few days. We have time to wait first. At least let your subordinates rest tonight. If you want to fight, it will be 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 of them down to rest first and have a reception banquet. Forget it, you should not drink on the battlefield.

After the four of them retreated, Wei Guangde walked to the desk and stared at the map with his eyes, and calculated quickly in his mind.

At this time, Altan Khan should have known that there were news of the Ming army's food and supplies in Huailai County. He thought that he would recruit people from Baoanzhou or Yanqing.

Wei Guangde had thought about the attack on the Tartar cavalry tonight when Ma Fang proposed it, but he was worried that if Altan Khan sent troops directly from Baoanzhou to reinforce the Tartars under the city, he might have arrived tonight. The time for the scouts to go back and the time for them to set off will not exceed one day.

If the enemy reinforcements arrive when raiding the enemy outside the city, it will be dangerous and unpredictable.

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

In fact, what Ma Fang said was based on the situation where the Mongols got on the horse. They fought if they could win, and ran away if they couldn't win, so they took the initiative from the beginning.

As for the Ming army in the border town often suffered defeats, Wei Guangde could understand that people only pick soft persimmons and pinch them. What can you do?

But obviously, Liu Dazhang, the current general of Xuanfu, is incompetent.

According to Ma Fang's words, more than 10,000 Ming troops stationed in Bao'an Prefecture, but after forming a formation, they could fight Altan's troops. However, Liu Dazhang was worried that it would be difficult to deal with the defeat and was punished by the court, so he simply started to turn a turtle and wait for the arrival of the Datong Army.

From the 29th year of Jiajing, after a few years, the Ming army degenerated to this kind of fear of war.

Before, Wei Guangde knew that the border town and the Tartars were not going well, so he always thought that the army was not working. After all, it was very simple to draw this conclusion based on the mainland garrison.

The civil servants of the current dynasty probably had the same idea as him at that time, thinking that the Ming army was not capable of combat effectiveness.

However, no one thought that before Zhou Shangwen, the Tartars could only make small fuss at the border, make some noise, and take advantage of it and run away immediately, because the Ming army brigade had already arrived and it was dangerous not to run away again.

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

No matter how you say that the border troops are all regular soldiers, just like what Ma Fang said before, the main force of the Tartars was still herders, and the real professional soldiers, that is, he mentioned, not many elite Tartars.

Looking at Huailai, the security guard and Yanqing on the map, Wei Guangde speculated that Altan might not have time to send someone to contact Yanqing, so he would choose to draw two or three thousand people from him to Huailai County to trap the Ming army's grain transport convoy.

Regardless of the real situation of the Ming army in Baoanzhou, as long as the Huailai County town is surrounded and the convoy is unable to move forward, the goal will be achieved. Over time, the Ming army in Baoanzhou will naturally retreat due to poor food and grass.

Even if the Ming army does not retreat, they have only one way, that is, to take the initiative to approach Huailai County and seek food and supplies. At that time, no matter whether the Ming army advances or retreats, as long as the Ming army escapes from the protection of the city wall and comes to the wild, he can find an opportunity to attack the Ming army halfway.

In field battles, raids, and robberies before the Ming army formed a formation, it would be difficult to win such a battle.

Wei Guangde analyzed Altan Khan’s possible plan, which is probably the case.

And as his opponent, how should he play cards?

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

At first, he ran to Huailai County with great fanfare to attract Altan Khan's attention and to divide his troops. He was here waiting for the arrival of the Datong Army.

Another one is to help Li Zhen complete the grain transport task. As long as Altan Khan's attention is attracted to Huailai County, Li Zhen's grain transport convoy will have an exponential chance of successfully reaching Bao'anzhou.

He was in Huailai, so he could do nothing, wait for the Datong army to arrive, and force Altan Khan to withdraw with his absolute advantage.

The original plan was like this, but when Ma Fang said that, Wei Guangde suddenly felt that he could do something and severely hit Altan's arrogance.

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

In fact, the same is true. If the Ming army had really weak combat power, the fear in Beijing would not be Jiajing but Altan Khan.

Before, Wei Guangde was only influenced by later generations, and was more or less a little behind the capital, so he never expected that under the appearance of the decline in combat power of the Ming army, he still maintained considerable combat power.

However, such combat power became even less likely to be noticed after the Altan raids were constantly raided by border town castles. Perhaps even the Ming soldiers themselves had forgotten that their ancestors had swept the entire desert.

And what about the current situation?

One soldier will be a crotch, and one will be a crotch.

This seems to be the case in Xuanfu now. Liu Dazhang couldn't do it, which made the entire Xuanfu army bearish.

Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Ming troops confronted tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry but did not dare to fight. It was probably because they were afraid of losing the battle, and their subordinates were strictly restricted by the generals and officers.

Thinking of what Ma Fang said, there is only one thousand households beside Altan Khan in Baoanzhou except for the Wangting Guards. Now, two thousand people have arrived at Huailai City, and only eight thousand people are left in Baoanzhou.

If Altan Khan continues to draw troops to surround the grain transport convoy, even if only 3,000 people are used, then there will be only half a thousand households around Altan Khan in Baoanzhou, and there will be only about 8,000 people in the Royal Court Guard.

The five thousand people in Huailai County were slightly insufficient.

At this time, Wei Guangde made his own judgment on the power inside and outside the city.

There are less than two thousand cavalrymen in the city now and nearly five thousand infantrymen.

Let Ma Fang take his men out to eat them first? The infantry went around the city and formed a formation behind them to deal with reinforcements?

What would Altan Khan do if he ate the five thousand horses here?

Call more troops to take revenge?
To be continued...