Yang Congzheng gathered people, mobilized food and wages, made equipment, and prepared to recover Hetao. What is his opponent, Altan Khan doing?

To be honest, Altan Khan was really cheated this time. It was not until he was killed for no reason that he realized that his opponent had already replaced him.

It turned out that the money that Hou Qiuluan, Xianning, had been dismissed and investigated. The person who led his army to fight against him was Yang Cong, the governor of Zhejiang.

Yang Cong's name is well-known in the Ming Dynasty. Altan Khan has naturally heard of it, and he has fought with Yang Cong.

But that was happening more than ten years ago, and he was not a big sweat at that time.

Of course, no matter whether he was a Khan or not, he still had a deep impression on him when he attacked Xuanfu Town, because no matter whether he or his elder brother Ji Nang, he won more than he lost. They had almost never encountered such a big defeat like that of Xuanfu Town, and of course he was deeply impressed.

This guy Yang Cong is really amazing. Playing with others on his territory is simply asking for death!

So, when Altan Khan found out that the commander of the Ming army was Yang Cong, he ran away without looking back.

What a joke, don’t run away, will you really have two sides to join you?

Fortunately, he ran fast, otherwise it would be hard to say whether he could run away when Yang Cong led his army to surround him.

In fact, he was not too much of a loss this time. Although he lost 30,000 elite cavalry, he robbed countless food and property, and even he robbed no less than 100,000 people. Most of these were sent to the Urianha tribe in time and handed over to the infantry who remained there for the care of them.

At this moment, he was considering whether he wanted to build armor for his subordinates.

If it weren't before, he wouldn't have had this idea at all, because no one on the grassland could smelify iron, and no one could make iron tools. They even had to buy iron pots from the Ming Dynasty or simply snatch them, otherwise they wouldn't even have anything to cook.

However, it was different now because he deliberately stole a lot of copper and iron.

This time, he specifically explained that no matter whether it is the iron pot, hoe, iron door, bronze statue, etc., as long as it is copper and iron, it will not be spared and will be "moved" back.

Moreover, he also issued a death order. When he met a blacksmith, copper smith and other craftsmen, he must not hurt others. He must not let them fall into pieces and kill them all!

Originally, he did this for the long-term development of the tribe. With these craftsmen, their daily necessities would be basically self-sufficient, so that the tribe could reproduce and grow continuously.

However, after this big defeat, he hesitated a little again.

This reproduction is not only enough for daily necessities, but also for food. Otherwise, everyone has iron pots, kitchen knives, etc., but there is no rice in the pot, which is not fake.

The food sources on the grassland were either exchanged with the Ming Dynasty through the Mashi, or directly robbed from the Ming Dynasty.

At this moment, the Xianning Hou Qiuluan has been dismissed from his post and investigated. The one who was replaced by Yang Cong, who was good at using firearms. If he didn't build more armor, how could he robbed the Ming Dynasty? They were both guns and cannons, and thunder. Before you rushed to them, you were beaten into a sieve. What a big deal!

Before he could hesitate, news came from the secret spies stationed in border towns that Yang Cong was recruiting troops.

In the three towns in Shanxi alone, there are no less than 100,000 people!

What are this guy recruiting so many people?

To strengthen border defense?

This is obviously impossible. As a defensive side, the Ming Dynasty's border town has a strong defense. As long as there are 10,000 or 20,000 troops in each border town, the commander is not a bucket. Basically, even if he leads a 100,000 army to go there, he may not be able to get benefits, because there are too many fortresses in the border towns and Great Wall guards on the periphery. As long as someone has a little snack and wants to attack, it is basically impossible.

Yang Cong's ability has been proven through several wars. This guy is very powerful. He is responsible for the northwest border defense of the Ming Dynasty. It is enough to have ten thousand troops in each border town. At this moment, he recruited troops and gathered more than 100,000 troops. Are you full?

How could Altan Khan not know about the consumption of more than 100,000 troops? Every time he was about to go to the border of Daming to fight Qiufeng, he would gather his troops in various departments, in order to save food and money?

Even the Ming Dynasty would not be able to gather more than 100,000 troops to defend there for a long time, because the Ming Dynasty could not hold on to the consumption of more than 100,000 troops. In a few years, the Ming Dynasty would be consumed by these more than 100,000 troops!

Obviously, Yang Cong wanted to gather a large army and recover Hetao.

At this moment, Altan Khan no longer hesitated. He was going to come to the door, and it was nothing more than a big deal!

He immediately ordered that all the captured blacksmiths and coppersmiths be gathered together, and to make all the armor, pots and pans, as long as they are iron or copper, they will be collected, melted, and used for materials, leaving only a small amount of iron pots to cook.

At the same time, he also ordered all tribes to migrate to the northwest and try to empty all the grasslands in the southeast.

His move was specifically used to deal with the Ming army.

Because the border towns of the Ming Dynasty were basically concentrated in the southeast of Hetao, there was a Ganzhou town to the west, and Ganzhou town was too far away from the inland of the Ming Dynasty, and it was very difficult to transport food, grass and supplies, so the Ming army would definitely launch an attack from the southeast.

He thought that as long as the southeastern part of Hetao was empty, there would be room for detour. At that time, even if the Ming army rushed into Hetao, there would be no one, but he could lead the cavalry to harass him everywhere, cut off the Ming army's food route, and even defeat them one by one.

I have to say that his strategy is quite good. If the Ming army used conventional tactics to fight them, he would really be frustrated and even defeated the Ming army.

Unfortunately, Yang Cong didn't plan to use conventional tactics at all, and he didn't even plan to launch an attack within the year.

This time, Altan Khan suffered a great loss because the climate in the southeast of Hetao is not a little better than the northwest, and the aquatic plants there are also the most abundant. His withdrawal means that the grassland that is most suitable for survival is discarded.

They are nomadic peoples who mainly grazed. How can they grazed without grasslands? Give up the grassland that is most suitable for survival under their command. The huge losses are imaginable.

He was waiting for the Ming army on the left and waiting for the Ming army on the right and waiting for the Ming army on the right, and he was almost bleeding, but the Ming army still had no movement at all.

Yang Cong didn't know what he thought, even if he moved all his tribes to the northwest of Hetao, Yang Cong didn't know.

There is no way. It is too difficult to send scouts to investigate on the vast grassland, because they have no fixed place and most tribes rarely contact with outsiders. If you send scouts to investigate rashly, either you can’t find anyone, and even if you find them, the scouts will probably not be able to come back.

He was not in a hurry, because the tactic he was preparing to use was to fight steadily, take steps forward, and investigate in advance. There was basically no need. As long as the situation around the army can be clearly explored during the war and ensure that it can advance layer by layer.

So, both sides were exhausted.
Chapter completed!