Jiayuguan leads to Hami for a thousand miles. This is a dry road. Most of the way are Gobi and deserts, and there are only a few oasis.

Fortunately, the Jinyiwei had been reconnaissance of the Western Regions for a long time and had a very detailed understanding of the route here. They were very clear about where there was an oasis, where there was water, and even where to dig a well to get water. With these maps, and those experienced guides, and the army carried good water and food in advance, it was not difficult to cross this thousand miles.

As long as the Junggars are unable to come to harass and intercept them, a thousand miles will be a matter of four or five days for the cavalry. Even infantry can reach them for seven days. Artillery and logistics are slower, but there are many camel and horse vehicles, which will be almost the same for ten days.

Although the 15,000 cavalry were Han troops, they were elite field cavalry, and in terms of equipment and training, they surpassed the Mongolian cavalry. They only took four days and rushed outside Hami City day and night.

At this time, Batuer had already left Hami. He received the news that Luntai defeated his beloved son was killed in battle later than Liu Jun. Then, he received the news that Tiemen Pass had lost. After receiving the news, Batuer gave up Hami without hesitation.

He left 10,000 defenders in Hami, and he led most of his troops to retreat to Turpan. Although he still left 10,000 troops, he actually gave up Hami, but he was still a little unwilling to accept it, so he finally left 10,000 troops here.

Ten thousand people stayed in Hami, but these ten thousand guards were not the Junggars, but guarded by Kyrgyzs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Slavs and other troops of various vassals of the Junggar Khanate.

When the Han cavalry arrived, they found that Batu had run away and only 10,000 defenders were left, they also launched an attack directly. They used their cavalry and cannons to bombard Hami Tucheng together.

The Junggar vassals were very fierce, but no matter how fierce they were, they could not withstand the continuous bombardment.

After holding on for a long time, they could not defend themselves. The city wall was bombarded several places and the Han army rushed into the city.

But as soon as he could capture Hami, the troops led by Turubaihu, composed of 50,000 troops from the army led by Turubaihu, including the troops of Altan, including the troops of the army, suddenly rushed outside Hami.

Gushikhan had previously accepted Batu's request and led 50,000 troops to fight for Altan. But after he went north, he immediately found that it was difficult to ascend to the sky to capture Altan. Turubaihu did not attack Altan easily, but retreated dozens of miles.

He sent Hami to ask Batu to send more troops and concentrate his efforts to quickly defeat Altan's Mongolian army in the desert, seize Altan's city and stabilize the security in the north.

But he didn't expect that he had not waited for Batu's reinforcements, but what he had waited for was the news that Luntai had fallen and the Han army had already come from the south. Batu asked Turubaihu to lead his troops back to Hami immediately.

After receiving the order, Turubaihu did not hesitate, but he was so sly that he did not simply evacuate. He first made a big move to attack, and then waited until midnight, but ordered the entire army to retreat south quietly.

When it was dawn, the Han army saw that there was no movement in the Junggar camp and sent people to inspect it. Only then did they find that Gushihan had a move to escape and escape.

The princes in Mobei were fooled, and they were all angry and started to catch up with them.

Gushikhan led a large army to drive Hami, but he was still one step late. Batur had already retreated to Turpan.

The Han cavalry who had just entered Hami City were still a little confused when they saw a large Mongolian army coming.

The Junggar army in the city was very excited.

"Damn it, withdraw from the city and immediately, we will arrange troops outside the city and prepare for the battle!"

Pioneer General Zhang Guodong looked at a black line in the sky and ordered with a gloomy face.

"General, we will be able to capture Hami City soon." A general said hurriedly.

"Don't worry about Hami for now." After Zhang Guodong discovered the Junggar army that appeared outside the city, he had already guessed that they must be the army in the north. Now he has no time to go to Hami City again.

It's just a little bit, and it's a failure.

Zhang Guodong was extremely angry. These damn Junggars would not come early or late, but they would come at this time.

The order is passed on.

Although Hami is within reach, her military orders are as good as a mountain.

He rushed into the city and quickly left the battle and evacuated outside the city.

The defenders in the city wanted to counterattack, but after they rushed out from all directions, they were immediately shot by the Han army behind the palace and fled everywhere.

Soon, the Han army retreated from the city and formed a formation outside the city.

Zhang Guodong looked at his subordinates.

There were 15,000 elite cavalrymen, who traveled day and night, and rushed for a thousand miles in four days. They had just fought under Hami City for a long time. At this time, people were trapped, but no matter what, he would not be afraid to fight, nor would he run away.

Zhang Guodong clamped his legs and rode his horse lightly in front of the formation.

The sword was unsheathed, and Zhang Guodong ran across the formation with his sword in his arms, and he shouted loudly.

"Warriors of the Empire, I know you are very tired now. We only took four days to travel a thousand miles. We arrived here and did not rest and immediately attacked the city. I know that everyone is very tired. I also know that everyone is very angry now. We marched for four days and saw that we had already attacked Hami and could win immediately. But the damn Junggar people are here again, and I can tell you that there are still many people coming. They are the Junggar army heading north, with a total of 50,000 troops."

"Soldiers, I ask you, are you afraid?"

What happened to him was the sound of landslides and cracks.

"Not afraid, no fear, no fear!"

"I follow Your Majesty to fight in the south, north, east, west, and west, and hundreds of battles. I have faced a worse situation many times, but I have never retreated once. Your Majesty once said that when a brave man meets on a narrow road, he will win. When he knows he is unable to retreat, he will still draw his sword. Now, light up your sword and join me to kill these Junggar rebels raised by the bitch!"

"Kill, kill, kill!"

Outside Hami City, the word "kill" rose up in the sky. The Han cavalry, who were already tired and even a little panicked, were once again excited to fight.

Zhang Guodong raised his sword, and he had only more than 10,000 people, but the Junggars had 50,000 people. But he did not intend to retreat, so he would never let the Junggars enter Hami again.

"Nine-headed bird, draw its sword!"

One of the imperial cavalrymen put away their guns and drew their own cavalry swords.

"Nine-headed bird, wearing armor!"

Zhang Guodong shouted again.

During the marching and siege, these imperial cavalry only wore steel helmets and did not have armor. When they siege, they actually dismounted their horses and fought in the field, using muskets and grenades, and entered the city to fight under the cover of the cannon.

But now, since he will launch a field cavalry battle with the Junggar cavalry, Zhang Guodong has chosen another way of combat.

The cavalry untied their armor bag from their horses, which contained a pair of steel armor.

This is a simplified half-body armor, which is actually just a breastplate. The breastplate only has the first half, not the north-back. The other armor bag also contains several small pieces, namely wrist guards, arm guards, leg guards, and iron mesh gloves.

These armors are made of fine steel. They are made of alloys made of liquid steel and some other metals, and then rolled into a unique shape of steel sheet, and finally sent to a calcining workshop. They are made of large hydraulic calcining hammers. After thousands of hammers according to the shape, they are processed into a solid and thin armor sheet.

Finally, after many crafts, they became exquisite cavalry armor. However, the Han army had eliminated the armor stream, and most of the soldiers in the empire were only equipped with a steel helmet. The cavalry was the only one that still retained several armors. However, their armor was greatly simplified, leaving only a few small pieces.

Only a few armor accessories were reserved entirely because of the firm demands of many cavalry generals. The military headquarters took into account some of the current tactics of the cavalry.

The purpose of retaining these armor is to cooperate with the cavalry's charge tactics.

Although it is the age of firearms, the cavalry of the empire still retains the cavalry charge tactics, and this tactic was personally agreed by the emperor.

The cavalry quickly put on the breastplate, arm guards, wrist guards, leg guards and iron mesh gloves, and then pulled out their cavalry knife.

The military band played the intense music.

Amid the drums and music, a cavalry quickly adjusted his position.

The cavalry were united by companies, moving closer and closer together.

The flag bearers in the company raised the battle flag high.

"Nine-headed bird, charge!"

Zhang Guozhu waved his knife and ordered.

The cavalry began to instigate the horses and ran slowly.

On both wings of these cavalrymen were two artillery positions that were quickly adjusted. They had already adjusted the direction of the artillery and aimed the muzzle at the north.

The Junggars also sounded the horn.

They rode their horses and galloped, but unlike the Han cavalry cavalry lined up in an orderly and dense cavalry array, they charged freely, scattered around, like wild horses galloping.

"Keep the formation and control the speed!"

The company commanders of the Han cavalry shouted and ordered from time to time, which was different from the Junggars who would run with all their might once charge. However, the company commanders of the Han cavalry kept ordering the company to maintain its formation and control its speed.

They kept the speed of trotting from beginning to end, and at this speed, the company always kept it tight and neat.

The Junggar cavalry rushes like a flood breaking through the dam, but the Han cavalry is moving like a wall.

Zhang Guodong did not participate in the charge. As a vanguard general, he commanded the 5,000 cavalry and was not allowed to participate directly in the charge. He stood on the artillery position, and behind him was the only reserve team of the entire army.

As the two armies got closer, Zhang Guodong gradually smiled on his face.

"We can shoot, we win."

The cavalry and cannons roared, and the shells roared over the heads of the Han cavalry, and then fell into the group of the charge of the Junggar cavalry. One round after another made the charge of the Junggar cavalry disturb the charge of the Junggar cavalry, with great casualties.

However, the Han cavalry maintained a formation and charged in an orderly and rushing manner.

However, the number of artillery is limited. Although artillery fire can support and cover the charge of the Han cavalry and interfere with and disrupt the charges of some Junggars, the number is limited after all.

What gave Zhang Guodong great confidence was that the Han cavalry still maintained their formation and still lined up in dense formations.

This is Zhang Guodong's source of confidence, and it is also the reason why the Han cavalry still retains some of their armor. The Han cavalry's core tactics are clustered and arrayed to charge.

This tactic does not pursue speed, but focuses on formation. It always moves like a wall of iron. They do not use guns when charging, but use cavalry swords.

Maintain the speed of jogging and the dense and neat array, bump into it, chop one of it a few times. After rushing over, reorganize the formation, turn around and crush it again.

This tactic requires some armor such as breastplate, which allows them to defend more when facing the cavalry of enemy cavalry.

At the same time, this tactic requires excellent training. If there is no sufficient training and tacit cooperation, it is actually more difficult to make the cavalry line up in a neat and dense formation charge and keep it on the battlefield.

The core idea of ​​this tactic is also very simple, which is to give full play to the advantages of the array. Just like ordinary scattered soldiers, they will definitely not be able to defeat infantry phalanxes, because the array is not a simple one plus one, it is not addition but multiplication, and it brings greater effectiveness.

Under such tactics, the Han cavalry generals even required that muskets be prohibited during charges, because using muskets during charges will break up and hinder the neat array of cavalry.

As long as you keep a neat array, you can fight in and out over and over again.

This tactic is also the cavalry tactical innovation adopted by many military powers in the world after entering the musket era. Later experience told Liu Jun that this cavalry cluster charge is far more powerful than the traditional cavalry free charge tactics, so he fully supports this cavalry tactic in the army and provides supporting equipment support.

Zhang Guodong saw that the imperial cavalry had maintained a standard formation under the pressure of the battlefield and knew that he had won the battle. In addition, the Han army had artillery and cavalry attacks, and continued to use artillery fire to scatter the already scattered Junggar cavalry, which was already very scattered, and the imperial cavalry battle formation became even more powerful.
To be continued...