Chapter 135 Sweeping (please subscribe)

Author: Use your soul to aim

Chapter 135 Sweeping (please subscribe)

The first day of October.

By the Yellow River, Lotus Fort.

Two cavalry regiments are ready to go.

The dark red cloth armor made the two cavalry regiments look like two balls of fire, constantly burning the grassland.

In the Legislative Army, not only Zhang Zongxian's disciples were fanatical believers in Huayi Debate, but also the entire army was influenced by the officers. They were all eager to seize the land under the sun.

Now they are ready to go, their morale is high, and they are fighting for their own land.

As the marching horn sounded, under the leadership of Boren, the cavalry of the two regiments quickly rushed towards the first target tribe.

The grassland after autumn is when the water and grass are most abundant. The children of the tribe are learning to ride horses, while the men are grazing in the distance. The cattle and sheep keep eating the tender water and grass, vowing to keep themselves fat.

strong.

Suddenly a black line appeared on the grassland in the distance. Soon the black line turned into a red wall. It was the cavalry brigade led by Boren.

The men of the tribe had noticed something was wrong and quickly drove the sheep back to the tribe. The tribe leader quickly called on the women to take the children back to their bags.

This is a small tribe of less than 500 people. They are nomadic near the border wall. They are a mixed tribe of Han and Mongolians.

The tight military formation made the leader understand that these were not horse bandits. Facing so many cavalry, the tribal leader knew that he could not run away and did not dare to run. He could only gather the tribesmen and hope that the cavalry would leave after collecting the tribute.

After the cavalry completely surrounded the entire tribe, the leader gritted his teeth and took out the liquor he had exchanged, and took the broken silver accumulated by the tribe and ran a hundred meters in front of the red flag, hoping to meet the leader of the cavalry.

Soon a horse came out from under the banner and came to the side of the tribe leader.

The leader did not dare to look at the approaching cavalry. He lowered his head and raised the liquor and silver to show his submission.

The cavalryman who came over did not pick up the strong drink but pointed his saber at the leader and said:

"We belong to the Taiping. From today on, this grassland will be ours. Now let the men of your tribe gather and follow us. The rest will immediately pack up their things and go to Lotus Castle to spend the winter.

If the men of the tribe are not gathered within one stick of incense, your tribe will be destroyed."

After saying that, he left the dumb-headed man behind and returned to the military formation under the red flag.

The leader looked up at the murderous cavalry and was unwilling to be swallowed up. However, there were only about a hundred men in the tribe and they couldn't even get the weapons together.

Thinking that I only had one stick of incense left, I quickly returned to the tribe, gathered the men, and brought them to the front of the battle formation to listen and comment.

After all the men were gathered, Boren sent officers to screen all the men, and then selected the best horses in the tribe for the selected men to ride.

Then a company was left to escort the rest of the tribe to Lotus Fort. When they arrived at Lotus Fort, they would be unified into households, and all the tribe's property, whether cattle, sheep, horses or carts, were spoils of war.

Then, everyone except the leader was dispersed and resettled in various newly built immigration villages, and they were treated the same as the immigrants within the border wall. By this time, it was too late for the leader to resist, and he could only let others slaughter him.

After finishing the first tribe, Boren began to move towards the second tribe. This tribe was the tribe that had already taken refuge in Qingshui Camp. In fact, it was not called surrender. It was just that it was in awe of Qingshui Camp's cavalry and offered supplies to Qingshui Camp.

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When the cavalry arrived at the tribe, the tribal leader came out of the tribe to warmly welcome the cavalry.

Boren ignored the leader's enthusiasm and directly announced that the Taiping had officially taken over the grassland, and would recruit all men to join them in sweeping away other tribes. The remaining people would also move to Lotus Castle to spend the winter.

The man at the head said that he was willing to lead people to help Taiping fight, but he was unwilling to move to Lotus Fort on the excuse that the water wheel near Lotus Fort was not beautiful enough to feed so many animals.

Boren did not talk nonsense with them, and directly told the leader that he only had one stick of incense. If he did not see the men of the tribe kneeling in front of his horses after one stick of incense, he would destroy their tribe according to the rules of the grassland.

Zhang Zongxian has always taught his disciples that the Tatars have always been afraid of power but not moral, and to make them obedient, they must be killed first.

The leader of this tribe was not willing to be annexed, and pretended to summon the tribe's strong men. In fact, he organized manpower to resist, and also sent help to other tribes.

However, Boren saw all this, and he happened to have too little blood in his cavalry brigade, so it would be good for these small tribes to train their troops.

After a stick of incense was burned, the people from the tribe had surrounded the cart, thinking they were waiting for help. However, the people they sent had been intercepted and killed by Ye Bushou.

Boren first ordered the rocket launcher company to directly attack the opponent's large vehicle. After the large vehicle was blasted away, the cavalry then charged in.

After receiving the command, the rocket launcher quickly set up five rockets with a range of 300 meters and a charge of 30 kilograms. The company commander personally adjusted the angle of the launcher, followed by the sound of rockets flying through the air.

The people in the tribe watched as the rockets flew in front of them. After five violent explosions, half of the tribe's able-bodied men had fallen down.

At this time, Boren drew his saber and ordered to fall:

"Go in and kill every man taller than the wheel."

Following the gap opened by the rocket bomb, the cavalry charged into the tribe brandishing their sabers.

In less than half an hour, the battle was over, and the entire tribe was killed until only women and children were left. The cavalry brigade then escorted the trophies back to Lotus Fort.

At first, Boren did not understand such an order. What he wanted was to recover these tribes and let them help them fight.

Zhang Zongxian told him that they were here to seize land. From now on, the Hetao will only have cultivated fields, not grasslands. There is no need for so many herdsmen. The most important thing is to let the immigrants take root, which is the real way to regain the Hetao.

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Every time the Tatars on the grassland went south, they would overwhelm the resistance of the Han people by slaughtering cities. Now they are returning the favor in their own way. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty once said, "The invaders can go and I can go as well."

He also told Boren how many cities the Mongols had massacred when they went south. This untied Boren's knot and strengthened his belief.

On the day when the cavalry brigade began to sweep away the grassland tribes, the infantry regiment also set off from Huangpu Chuanbao to Shijiaobao.

Not only the infantry regiments, but also organized immigration teams followed. The immigrants will build settlements one by one along the road to Shijiaobao, and such settlements can also be used as military stations.

After arriving at the designated settlement, they first used canvas and iron wire to make explosion-proof walls and built the outer walls of the settlement shop, and then started building houses.

There are twenty planned settlements, exactly one every five miles, and the guardians are out of the supply line of the infantry regiment.

Waiting until next spring, settlements will continue to be built to the left and right along this road until the entire area is filled with settlements.

The second day of October.

After mopping up two tribes yesterday, Boren will continue to mop up the remaining tribes today. The cavalry brigade will complete the cleaning of this area before the fifth day of the lunar month, and then go to support the infantry regiment in building a forward base.

The next tribe has a larger population and is more vigilant, so it is unrealistic to outflank them directly.

Boren then thought of luring the snake out of its hole and asking the tribal rider who surrendered yesterday to disguise himself as a horse bandit to steal their cattle and sheep.

Lure all their tribal warriors into the ambush circle of the cavalry brigade, first eliminate those who can fight in the tribe, and then destroy their tribe.

In this way, the cavalry brigade fought continuously, using this method to eliminate the two largest tribes in the area, and then forced the last remaining small tribe to surrender.

In this operation, 50,000 sheep, 10,000 cattle, and 5,000 horses were seized. 500 herdsmen were surrendered.

October 4th

The infantry regiment arrived, Shi Jiaobao, and immediately began to build an advance base.

First open the canvas bag of the explosion-proof wall, fill it with soil, and then tie the filled canvas bag with wire. Thread the filled canvas bag to form an explosion-proof wall.

This is what Yingjiang did in the Middle East in his previous life. He could build a two-meter-high fortress in one day. If the Tatar cavalry attacked, this would be an insurmountable line of defense for them.

The entire forward base will be built in a diamond shape, with a fort in the middle and trenches dug outside the blast walls.

The entire base will be built into a fortress that can accommodate ten thousand people, and will also store three months of food and grass.

October 5th

The cavalry brigade rushed to the forward base and began to drive and eliminate nearby small tribes.

On the way from Huangpu Chuanbao to the advance base, the ten early settlements have also built walls and are stepping up construction of houses to cope with the coming winter.

In each settlement, inner disciples were arranged to direct the immigrants to carry out construction. After the houses were built, they began to reclaim the land and replant a crop of oats before it snowed.

The eighth day of October

Zhang Zongxian, who was based in Qingshui Camp, finally felt relieved after receiving the news that the forward base had been constructed. The first step of conquering the Loop had been completed.

Next, let’s see how Ordos Wanhu reacts?

If thousands of households in Ordos came to attack now, they would not have time to call in other tribesmen for support. They would have to send people from their own tribe. The first thing they would face would be the heavily guarded forward base.

If it doesn't come, then spring will come, and the grassland will be dry, and troops cannot be sent out at will at that time. This is because both cattle, sheep and horses have just experienced winter fat loss and are waiting for the grass to grow.

After the Lotus Fort experienced a winter, the cavalry could reach the strength of two brigades, and they were no longer afraid of a decisive battle with the Tatars.

If the Tatars don't attack yet, they will continue to build forward bases and settlements until they occupy the entire Hetao.

October 15th

As the disciples of the school continued to encourage immigrants to come in order to complete their tasks, all the 2,000 households in the previously planned 20 settlements were settled. Zhang Zongxian also ordered the surrendered tribes to be placed in various settlements.

The women captured by the exterminated tribes were directly assigned to the immigrant bachelors. The herdsmen who joined the settlements were required to tie their hair and wear clothes, and those who did not comply were beheaded.

On October 21, the 47th year of Wanli, the whole of northern Shaanxi ushered in the first snow of winter.

The Tatars did not send troops until it started snowing, which made everyone who had made so many preparations feel like they were beaten on cotton.

However, the Tatars did not come, but the refugees did. I originally thought that with the income from the briquette monopoly, the imperial court would waive the extra Liao salary.

In fact, Zhang Zongxian wrote letters to the governor of Yanshou and the prefect of Yan'an respectively, hoping to jointly propose to the court that the additional Liao salary be exempted.

He was reprimanded by Governor Yanshou for making irresponsible remarks about the imperial government. Later, he sent a message through Master Ma, telling him not to mention such things that offended colleagues all over the world.

The common people, whose production had already been reduced due to drought, faced an increase in Liao's wages dozens of times, and a large number of them went bankrupt under the pressure of the government and wealthy gentry.
To be continued...