From late August to early September, the Ming army had 250,000 infantry and cavalry, and tens of thousands of strong men divided into eight armies, maintaining a formation that can reinforce each other and keeping marching. The army had entered the areas where the Tatars often moved.

There are no more cities and villages along the way, and there are no government offices, and it is desolate. The total population within a radius of hundreds of miles should not be as large as the Ming army.

It rarely rains on the grasslands this season. If so many people march, they must take a road with enough water. In addition to rivers, Zhu Gaoxu would see lakes from time to time, all of which were named Nur because it was the first name given by the Mongolians and was transliterated.

Around the "Nuer" in front, there was thick smoke and the fire was flashing. Zhu Gaoxu led his horse to rush to the lakeside. He took a cloth towel and covered his mouth and nose, watching the fires by the lakeside.

The smoke filled the air, and the black ash flew around in the air.

A general came over and clasped his fists and said, "Your Majesty! There should be a Tatar tribe on the pasture here. They knew that the king's army was coming and ran away in advance. However, the Tatars were not taken away all the things. The most were piles of forage, which were stockpiled for winter. General Ping's vanguard passed by here and did not catch people, so he burned the forage!"

Zhu Gaoxu responded. The general bowed and gave way aside.

At this time, someone behind him cursed angrily: "After the winter begins, they will starve their cattle and sheep to death first, and then let those people starve to death."

When Zhu Gaoxu heard this, he ignored it and thought to himself: Will this tribe borrow grass from other tribes or exchange cattle and sheep?

The army left the Peking Provincial Administration and the governors of the People's Republic of China in July, and traveled every day for the past two months without taking anything. The soldiers seemed to have gradually become a little irritable and angry... They kept walking for two months, facing desolate places every day. It was just a natural thing for everyone to have such emotions. So Zhu Gaoxu did not blame the general because even he himself was a little anxious.

He thought for a moment, turned his horse's head and faced the generals behind him, and they bowed on the horse's back.

Zhu Gaoxu said, "I was fighting with the Marquis of Jiangyin in Guangxi, and the two armies circled the territory of the Guangxi Administrators and chased them for several months before finally finding the winner. You can ask Wu Gao."

Wu Gao happened to be in the crowd, his face was a little awkward, so he hurriedly clasped his fists and bowed.

Zhu Gaoxu shouted: "A real man can achieve something, patience is essential! The prey will not be sent to the arrows on its own initiative, let alone the Tatars?"

Many eyes gathered on Zhu Gaoxu's face.

He looked confident and pointed to the nearby fire and shouted: "Although the Tatars can migrate everywhere, their livelihoods on the grassland are very fragile. It soon became winter. If they abandoned everything and ran away, the cold weather would kill the Tatars! The Ming King | Sweep the entire Tatar Mongolia, and the enemy had nowhere to escape!"

The generals clasped their fists and said, "The Lord is wise!"

Another general shouted "Long live" and the soldiers nearby also shouted. For a moment, the atmosphere seemed to be no longer so dull.

The central army camped near the fire because there was a lake here. The weather was getting colder, and piles of fires could make people feel a little warm. Wuhan Iron and Steel Trains were chained around, like a temporary city; tents were built in the middle, forming a large camp.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in a camp, and the voices of people and horses were very noisy, giving people the illusion of being lively and noisy.

However, as long as people look outside the camp, there is still a barren land, like a dead land. The vast pile of grass is covered in the air. The ashes, from a distance, look like fallen leaves blowing from the north wind, is very bleak.

The terrain is not very flat, but there are no mountains and hills, and the horizon is undulating and gentle curves; there are also some lava terraces that block the view and the view is not too wide.

Zhu Gaoxu stood near the central army's tent and waited for a long time.

When he returned to the tent, he felt a little relieved when he saw the beautiful virtuous master and Duan Xueheng.

After the virtuous man came forward to salute, he asked expectantly: "I heard the generals shouting long live, is it because the vanguard army won the battle?"

Zhu Gaoxu shook his head. He saw Duan Xueheng also paying attention to him.

There are no civil and military officials in the tent. Zhu Gaoxu's mood relaxed and shook his head, then sighed and said, "No matter whether the situation is bad or not, I cannot show depression and worry. Otherwise, how could the soldiers believe that I will take them to win the battle?"

The smile on the face of the virtuous man-in-law gradually disappeared, and he looked at Zhu Gaoxu with a strange expression for a while, and hurriedly said, "I poured a bowl of hot tea for the Lord."

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and sat on a futon beside a desk. He immediately felt tired and covered his whole body. It was not that he was tired after riding a horse for a day, but sometimes he was in a bad mood and didn't want to move.

The Ming Dynasty was a farming country and was not familiar with everything on the grasslands and deserts; let alone fighting on the territory of the Tatars. The information seemed to be asymmetry. Before the Ming army arrived, the opponent seemed to have already known where the Ming army had been.

Zhu Gaoxu led his army to travel more than a thousand miles, and so far Mao had not found a single one. He gradually felt that the Tatars should be avoiding and retreating in a planned manner.

Since ancient times, the Central Plains have been deeply plagued by nomadic troops, but few emperors are willing to come to the grassland to clear the enemy. That is not without reason.

Some things may not be predicted at all, and most of the time, they may gain nothing, but only occasionally can they get some satisfaction; subjective confidence cannot change anything. After all, aren’t you gambling?!

However, he himself believed that the words he had boosted morale before were not completely unreasonable!

The Tatars could indeed migrate around, but at this time, the transportation capacity was extremely limited. If the Tatars wanted to run away in time, they had to throw away many things that depend on for survival, and even starve to death.

If the Ming army swept around in various areas with abundant water and grass, it would probably be enough for the Tatars; so they might not only escape passively.

At this time, the virtuous man-in-law brought the hot tea, and she comforted softly: "People from Korea and the Korean Kingdom also know that the emperor can fight well, and you will definitely win the battle."

Zhu Gaoxu nodded with a smile.

At this moment, Duan Xueheng actually spoke, "If the emperor had known this, he would still be in the north. No matter what, it would be worth it."

Zhu Gaoxu turned his head to look at her unexpectedly. Duan Xue's eyes, which were as encouraging as a pool of water, looked at Zhu Gaoxu and nodded slowly.

"It makes sense." Zhu Gaoxu replied thoughtfully.

The virtuous master immediately looked at Duan Xueheng, who had always been silent with surprise.

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at the table. He took a breath, reached out to hold the hilt of the sword on the table, his eyes narrowed, and thought to himself: If you want to fight, no one should think about it! Some things should not be weighed entirely by profit; even if you get nothing and consume a lot of money, this is the determination to fight back!

At night, the generals came to the Central Army's tent to discuss matters.

Zhu Gaoxu issued a new military order and adjusted the formation of each army. After the Ping An vanguard army, the front army, the central army, the rear army, the left ye, the left ye, the left ye, and the right ye, and the right ye, were redeployed; each army would be arranged horizontally along the east and west directions, with the adjacent two armies being about ten miles apart.

The army will form a width of about 80 miles in the past two days, sweep from south to north, kill all animals and living things, and burn everything that can burn.

Moreover, the number of soldiers and soldiers in each army is about 40,000, and they carry a large number of Wuhan Iron and Steel Vehicles; if they encounter enemy attacks, tens of thousands of people will be difficult to break through quickly, and the approaching army will be able to arrive for reinforcements in more than half an hour...

The new deployment seemed to have played some role; perhaps it was just because the army was getting closer and closer to the hinterland of the Tatars' activities. The Ming army continued to capture something along the way, but most of them were tribal herders who did not run away, and there were not many people. The army tortured and beat the prisoners, but those people were not the nobles of the Tatar Khan at all, and they didn't know anything about anything.

Judging from the military operations of 300,000 people, the Ming army's record until now is undoubtedly equivalent to finding nothing.

The sound of grand footsteps and horse hooves resounded throughout the world; however, on both sides of the noisy road, there were still weeds, mountains and rocks everywhere, and nothing else was left. The soldiers' morale was quietly spreading from top to bottom.

The Ming army soldiers who were used to seeing villages, cities, rivers, and crops, would feel insecure when they went further and further in such places. The battle had never happened during the march for nearly two thousand miles, and the generals would inevitably be impatient.

Recently, Zhu Gaoxu would appear in the camps of various armies from time to time. The officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp who followed him to fight south and north often saw the emperor, so they had a little calmer morale.

Zhu Gaoxu also ordered the civil servants and eunuchs to tell in the military camp that the Ming army in Hongwu Dynasty defeated the Northern Yuan Dynasty in the fishing sea (Bel Lake), which made the brothers firmly believe that although the road is far away, they will definitely find the Tatars' tent and make achievements!

However, all this can only maintain the morale of one's own people and cannot affect the enemy's actions, and the situation will not change at all.

In late September, the weather was even colder. There were almost no green leaves on the grassland desert, and the trees were bare, as if they had died. The first snow had fallen, and soon the snow stopped, and the cold wind whistled and the air was extremely dry and cold.

The safe vanguard army came to report that the farthest vanguard scout had moved to the south of the fishing sea (Bel Lake), but no one was found.

Many traces of camps, pasture piles, burned cattle and dung were found on the pasture. It was obvious that the Tatar tribe had grazed in the southern part of the Fishing Sea. After all, there were many abundant water and grass on the good pastures there; but at this time, the tribes had withdrawn.

The areas around the Sea of ​​Fishing could once support more than 100,000 members of the Northern Yuan clan, and the Ming army defeated the Northern Yuan army here.
Chapter completed!