Zheng Chongjian began to regret it, regretting that he shouldn't have come to Jiaoziya.

But Jiaozi Cliff guards the west side of Taiyuan and is an important dangerous pass in the entire Shanxi. As the governor of Shanxi, he had to come.

He believed that the Jiaoziya camp would be able to stop Qin Chuan's footsteps, and the camps built in dangerous places would also be able to resist the footsteps of other Guandi troops. If Qin Chuan had been besieging for a long time, he could seek help from friendly forces in various towns and stalemate with Qin Chuan to the end.

In fact, the Jiaoziya camp was indeed solid. The war had been around for seven days, and the Guandi army could not cross the dug-out gully on the road at the foot of the mountain.

But because of this, he became more and more uneasy.

Qin Chuan did not launch a strong attack on Jiaoziya, but instead shot the shelling day and night. The artillery fire was not dense, but it continued. At least one hundred cannons were still shooting from morning to night or even midnight.

The artillery of the Guandi Army was as sharp as he imagined, accurate and powerful as he imagined. The tents, wooden sheds, thatched huts, fences, camp gates, etc. in the Jiaoziya camp were all destroyed. Fortunately, no military camp was built in the camp. In order to resist the severe cold, the soldiers dug a large number of ground nests in advance, and more than 10,000 soldiers lived in the ground nests.

But in the seven days, thousands of shells fell into the camp, and the dense nests were occasionally beaten and smashed through. Most of the soldiers hiding inside were smashed to complete corpses and physically incomplete limbs. More than 400 soldiers died of artillery attacks until the battle, and more than 1,000 disabled people.

Now the morale in the camp is extremely low, and the soldiers are anxious all day long, afraid that the shells will fall from the sky and hit them on their heads.

Moreover, their artillery counterattack did not cause any damage to the Guandi Army at all. The Guandi Army had two artillery arrays, one was the thirty most powerful artillery three miles away, and the other was dozens of inferior artillery two miles away. These artillery were built with sacks filled with sand and soil to form earth walls to protect them. They could not cause damage to the Guandi Army hiding behind the sandbag wall.

The two artillery arrays were also dug up sergeant transport tunnels, and sandbags were piled up at a distance, which could not only serve as a temporary shelter, but also prevent the cannonballs from jumping forward. The artillery soldiers, commanders, etc. who were changing guards ran back and forth through the tunnels. The Guandi army, who occasionally ran on the ground, quickly hid behind the sandbag wall when they heard the sound of cannons.

For seven days, Jiaoziya caused only a dozen casualties to the Guandi Army.

If he was beaten passively, the Jiaoziya camp would not last long. If this continues, the soldiers will inevitably mutiny.

What made Zheng Chongjian even more uneasy was that the Ming army liaison between important roads in various places was cut off.

At the beginning of the battle, he received urgent reports from Xinzhou, Jiaocheng, Fenyang, Shilou and other places. All the important roads bordering the Qinchuan territory in Shanxi were attacked by the Guandi army. In just two days, the sentry forts on the roads in various places were almost wiped out.

After three days of the battle, he never received any news from important roads in various places.

Even the news about Taiyuan was cut off for two days. Later, Li Bin, a general who stayed in Taiyuan City, led his army of 3,000 to attack the edge of the Luliang Mountains west of Taiyuan, expelled the Guandi army's whistle cavalry in that area, and rushed to Jiaoziya before contacting him.

In those two days, Taiyuan City did not know how the battle situation was at Jiaoziya, nor did he know whether Taiyuan City was attacked by the Guandi Army, and he knew nothing about the battle situation of key roads in various places.

It is obvious that the Guandi army has been broken into pieces and attacked everywhere, blocking the Ming army's mail cavalry and cutting off contacts from all regions.

Zheng Chongjian could not do anything to those small Guandi Army with strong mobility and well-equipped equipment, nor could he do anything to the Qin Chuan who bombarded him day and night.

In the 44th year of Wanli, he promoted the official position and later served as a magistrate, a magistrate, a magistrate, and a military commander. He served as an official for decades, and has suppressed bandits, bandits, riots, and bandits. He has experienced countless ups and downs and downs and downs and downs and downs and downs and downs, and is still able to plan and strategize with ease. He has never felt as powerless as he is today.

He had no choice but to ask for help. The eight hundred-mile fast horse urgently reported to the capital and the governor of Xuanda Yang Sichang, only to ask for reinforcements to arrive as soon as possible to prevent the soldiers from mutiny and collapsed thousands of miles away.

...

Due to the war needs, Qin Chuan set up a temporary office in Gujiao Fort, and non-emergency official duties were temporarily retained in Gujiao Fort. He usually lives in the military camp and returns to Gujiao for official duties every two days, and emergency affairs were sent directly to the military camp for handling as soon as possible.

On the seventh day of the battle, Lao Huang and Luo Wentian suddenly rushed to the military camp and reported something to him in person: something happened to a delegation from Mobei.

The mission's destination was Lake Baikal, north of Khalkha, where the forest tribe, the Buryat tribe, lived for generations.

The Buryat tribe is different from the nomadic Mongols. They live at the intersection of the grasslands and mountains. Part of the food comes from grazing and part of it comes from hunting. The local mink is the soft gold in the eyes of the Central Plains and even Westerners, which is extremely precious.

Because the Buryat tribe was conquered by Genghis Khan and had long been Mongolianized, all the Khalkha tribes had a good relationship and could have communicated through the Khalkha tribes, but Qin Chuan wanted to personally send someone to explore the terrain and water sources from the northern desert to the Baikal Lake, and then investigate the situation of the Khalkha tribes, so he specially asked Lao Huang and Luo Wentian to form a mission.

The mission was not large, with only eighteen people, including two officials from the Commercial Division, six whistles from the Intelligence Division, two Yebusuo and eight Guandi Army soldiers.

The mission was fully armed, everyone was equipped with short guns and eight flintlocks. It set out in September last year. After arriving in Khalkha, Chechen Khan sent someone to accompany them to Lake Baikal as a guide, and planned to return to Loufan before December.

But half a year has passed and the mission has not come back. Lao Huang and Luo Wentian thought they had delayed their trip in Mobei, so they didn't take it too seriously.

Until yesterday, Chechen Khan suddenly sent someone back a body, which was one of the eighteen people who did not accept it at night.

It is said that his tribe members discovered this person on the prairie at the end of last year. At that time, he was seriously injured and unconscious, and there were no horses around him. The tribe members died on their way back to the tribe.

The other members of the mission and the four guides sent by Chechen Khan were like evaporated from the world, and they could not see anyone but die or die.

Chechen Khan speculated that the mission had encountered an unexpected situation.

According to his tribe members, Ye Bushang had a waist knife and two short guns, and there were fixed ammunition in the ammunition bag. He had shallow arrow wounds on his body, without arrows, as if the arrows could not penetrate the armor, but there were more than a dozen wounds, and the cotton armor and cloth iron armor were cut into pieces, as if it was caused by a scimitar.

Chechen Khan felt that the matter was serious, so he sent an army to the Buryat army to inquire, but the other party said that they had received the mission friendly and reached a trade agreement. The patriarch of the Buryat army also asked the mission to bring back two snow-white martened furs as gifts to Qinchuan, and sent people to send them to him for dozens of miles until the mission left.

Chechen Khan was skeptical about this and is still sending troops to the south of the Buryat tribe, and the two sides are about to break out.

Because the road was blocked by heavy snow at the end of the year, the body was kept in the Chechen tribe. It was not until the weather was a little warmer that Chechen Khan sent someone to send the body to Loufan under the snow.

If the weather is cold today, and Chechen Khan ordered people to use ice to preserve the body, so the body has not yet rotted. Lao Huang, Zhao Wu and others carefully inspected the body. As Chechen Khan said, there were many shallow arrow wounds and more than ten sword wounds. The fatal wound was in the lower abdomen, which was pierced by the wounds, pierced by the broken armor pieces. The wounds were deeper and raised upwards, which were obviously caused by a scimitar.

This matter is serious, and Lao Huang and Luo Wentian dare not make decisions without any reason, so they rushed to report to Qin Chuan.

Qin Chuan's face darkened after hearing this.

There will never be a large number of horse bandits in the bitter and cold land of the northern desert. A small group of bandits with dozens of people will definitely not be able to do anything to fully armed and have a flintlock rifle.

The opponent's troops must not be less than one hundred or even more, otherwise it would be impossible to leave no living habits.

Only tribes of a certain size can be dispatched.

Is it the Khalkha tribe or the Buryat tribe?

Or is it that a noble leader in these tribes who were greedy for property and muskets and sent troops to surround and kill the envoys without authorization?

Guessing cannot solve the problem.

Qin Chuan decided to investigate strictly and must find out the truth.

Immediately, he immediately ordered the formation of an expeditionary army, selecting 600 elite Guandi Army, and then draw 100 Spikes and Yebukuai, totaling 800 elite troops. After full preparation, he immediately went to the northern part of the Mobei region to investigate the whereabouts of the delegation.

First, start with the Chechen tribe.

The guy from Chechen Khan kept talking to Huang Taiji. When Huang Taiji became emperor and established the country, the guy sent envoys to send congratulations.

Logically speaking, that guy would not do such a foolish thing that was not good, but it is hard to guarantee that some of the noble leaders under his command who were close to the Qing Dynasty would not do it.

If the relationship between the Guandi Army and the three Khalkha tribes could be provoked and the two sides started a war, the three Khalkha tribes would inevitably turn to the Qing Dynasty.

Next is the Buryat tribe, the Tushetu tribe and the Zasaktu tribe.
Chapter completed!