The Chief of Staff of the Protectorate of the Western Frontier was recommended by the cabinet to be Fu Bi, the governor of Hanzhong in the Shu Province.
Fu Bi was a famous minister in the Northern Song Dynasty. He was appointed as the Supervisor of the Imperial Censorate, the Imperial Censorate, and the Imperial Censorate. When he was the Deputy Privy Commissioner, he worked with Fan Zhongyan to implement the new policies of the Qing Dynasty.
After the new policies failed, Fu Bi went to Yunzhou and Qingzhou to help hundreds of thousands of victims.
In the second year of Zhihe, he became the minister.
In history, Fu Bi had been to Liao many times and was very concerned about the situation in Western Xia.
The cabinet recommended Fu Bi, a civil official who was talented in internal affairs and military affairs, to be the Chief of Staff of the Protectorate of the Western Frontier. It was obvious that they had put in a lot of effort and it suited Ouyang Shuo.
Fu Bi had been the governor of Hanzhong for a long time and was very familiar with the situation in Shu. His promotion to the Chief of Staff of the Protectorate of the Western Frontier would also help to promote the construction of the Sichuan-Tibet and Qingzang routes.
…
The Mongolian War in November was seen as the last war in the Huaxia region.
The Mongolian Empire had a huge army of 1.3 million. Although it was not on par with Great Xia, the outside world thought that it would be a long war.
Even if Great Xia won, it would be greatly weakened.
The progress of the war was beyond everyone's expectations. In this war, the Great Xia army was like dry weeds and did not give the Mongolian army a chance.
Especially the war in the Mongolian Empire, the disparity was even greater.
…
On the 17th of November, at the southeastern border of the Mongolian Empire.
Borhu, one of the Four Heroes of Mongolia, was stationed here. They worked together with the Chagatai tribe stationed at the northeastern border to guard the eastern border of the Mongolian Empire.
Their opponents were the Great Xia Dynasty's Northern Frontier Army and Fengxiang Army.
Under the command of the Deputy Commander Chen Yucheng, the Northern Frontier Army advanced from the Northern Frontier Province, preparing to have a contest with Borhu's troops. The Fengxiang Army, under the command of the famous general Guo Ziyi, advanced from the Liajin Province to the west, pouncing on the Chagatai Tribe.
At around nine in the morning, Zhang He, the commander of the first legion of the Northern Frontier Army, led 20,000 elite cavalrymen as the vanguard of the Northern Frontier Army. They encountered the main force of the Mongolian Borhu on the vast grassland.
As one of the Four Heroes of Mongolia, Borhu was an expert in cavalry warfare. When he found out that the vanguard of Great Xia was a cavalry unit, he immediately led his troops forward without any hesitation.
"Kill them all!"
Borghu took the lead and led his troops to charge forward.
As a valiant general of the Three Kingdoms, how could Zhang San be a coward? Without another word, he immediately led his troops to face the enemy.
In fact, regardless of whether it was warhorses, cavalry equipment, or even cavalry tactics, Great Xia's cavalry had long since surpassed the Mongolian cavalry. It was a pity that the Mongolians did not know this and still considered themselves to be the best cavalry in the world.
This battle had completely proven this point.
In the face of forty thousand Mongolian cavalry, Zhang Ji's troops did not seem to be at a disadvantage at all. They fought hard against the enemy and were actually on par with each other. This caused Bolhu's face to turn red.
It was a naked slap in the face.
The so-called Mongolian cavalry had no pride in front of the Great Xia cavalry.
Borchu, who had been beaten until his temper was revealed, had a gloomy expression. In order to save some face, he was now determined to kill Zhang San and his troops. As he commanded the main force to kill the enemy, he sent orders to the left and right flanks to gather with the main force and surround Zhang San and his troops.
Strictly speaking, this was the first battle between the Mongolian cavalry and the Great Xia cavalry.
The strength of the enemy had completely exceeded Bolhu's expectations. Precisely because of this, in order to restore morale, Bolhu did not hesitate to use numbers to annihilate the enemy in front of him to save some face.
Otherwise, the consequences would be unthinkable.
Bolhu wanted to play big, but Zhang He did not want to play along. He had a heavy responsibility.
When he saw the report from the spy that the enemy's left and right flanks were moving towards the battlefield, a smile appeared on Zhang He's face. He did not expect that this mission would be completed so easily.
"Retreat!"
Zhang He did not hesitate and immediately ordered a retreat.
"Chase after them!"
Seeing that the enemy was about to retreat, Bolhu quickly guessed that the enemy might have discovered the movements of the left and right flanks. The more this was the case, the more Bolhu could not let the enemy escape.
Otherwise, he, Bolhu, would have no face left.
"Order the left and right flanks to speed up and gather with the main force!"
Bolhu originally planned to make the left and right flanks take a detour to outflank the enemy's retreat. Seeing that the enemy was retreating, the detour strategy was no longer effective. It was better to chase after them directly.
The two armies, one chasing and the other fleeing, galloped across the Mongolian steppe. It was a spectacular sight.
In the blink of an eye, it was noon. The two armies had already galloped for more than a hundred kilometers. It could be said that they were moving as fast as lightning. Such a speed left the infantry in the dust.
At this point, the cavalry indeed had their own pride.
After a while, a hilly area appeared in front of Zhang San's troops. One after another, small hills rose and fell like green bubbles on the steppe. It was a spectacular sight.
Without hesitation, Zhang San charged into the hilly area and disappeared from the sight of Bolhu's troops.
Bolhu did not hesitate and immediately ordered the army to chase after them. On the vast steppe, even the hills were no more than 30 to 50 meters high. Furthermore, there were no trees, and it was impossible to set up an ambush.
As such, Bolhu was not afraid at all.
After leading his troops into the hilly area, Bolhu noticed that something was amiss. On every hill, there were shadows of Great Xia soldiers stationed there. Furthermore, they had built simple fortifications on the hilltops.
Obviously, this was the place that the enemy had meticulously arranged for the decisive battle.
When Bolhu saw this, not only was he not afraid, he even laughed out loud. "I didn't expect the Great Xia army to be so stupid. Do they think that they can block our attack with these small hills? How childish. "
According to conventional thinking, a small hill that was 30 to 50 meters high was indeed not an ideal ambush spot. Not only could they not ambush them, but once they were trapped on the hilltops without a water source, they would be courting death.
Without hesitation, Bolhu ordered the army to spread out and attack the hills one by one.
The slopes of the hills on the steppe were very gentle. With the Mongolian cavalry's exquisite horsemanship, they could completely charge up and kill their way up without getting off their horses to fight.
The fear he had of the enemy in the morning had been thrown to the winds by Bo Erhu.
"Kill!"
Bolhu personally led his troops and continued to chase after Zhang San's troops. At the same time, he ordered the left and right flanks to start removing the nails on the hilltops.
There were no less than 100 small hills in the entire hilly area, and they were densely packed together.
At the foot of one of the hills, one thousand Mongolian cavaliers charged forward. The cavaliers' scimitars shone with a piercing cold light under the reflection of the afternoon sun.
When the commander on the hilltop saw this, he calmly ordered, "Fire!"
* Boom! Boom! Boom! *
The cannons that were set up on the hilltop beforehand were fired.
The cavaliers who were charging at the front were immediately thrown off their horses, and the entire team's charge came to a halt. The Mongolian cavaliers were also fierce. They withstood the cannons and continued their charge.
With such a short hill, they might have already reached the hilltop before the enemy could fire a second round of cannons.
When the commander on the hilltop saw this, he calmly ordered, "Musketeers, get ready."
"Fire!"
* Bang! Bang! Bang! *
Intense and rapid gunshots rang out, and bullets poured down unscrupulously.
The fierce Mongolian cavaliers were too weak in front of the Great Xia army's hail of bullets. Row after row of cavaliers fell like wheat, and they did not even cause a splash.
In the face of firearms, the Mongolian cavaliers who were still in the era of cold weapons were destined to be slaughtered.
Yes, they were slaughtered.
Great Xia's firearms evolved from the most primitive gun to the relatively advanced matchlock. Now, the third generation of firearms, which was the new generation of flintlock, were equipped in the entire army.
Compared to the matchlock, which was difficult to reload, the flintlock had a rotating arm that was driven by a spring. The head of the flintlock held a flint, and when the rotating arm rotated downwards, the flint would rub against the steel plate on the ignition pan and create sparks. The sparks would fall into the powder pan and ignite the ignition powder.
Because it relied on flint to ignite fire, it was named flintlock.
Compared to matchlock, flintlock was safer and more reliable. Its structure was simple, and it was easy to reload. Also, a piece of flint could be used for 30 rounds, which made it possible to fire continuously.
These advantages made flintlock popular for 300 years.
It was only when the more advanced percussion gun was created that the flintlock was removed from the stage of history. In fact, Great Xia's research on percussion guns had already entered the critical stage, and there were even experimental products.
The main reason why they were not equipped in the army was because the production cost was too high, and they could not mass-produce them.
At the end of the day, it was still limited by Great Xia's own industrialization level. At the very most, Great Xia had only been fully industrializing for less than two years, so they naturally could not reach the standard of mass-producing percussion guns.
Even so, the might of the flintlock was enough to make the enemy tremble in fear.
With the cooperation of the cannons and the flintlock squads, and with the advantage of being at a higher ground, the Mongolian cavaliers who were dressed in leather armor or even cloth armor were like fragile babies. They could not even withstand a single blow.
Even if there were elite cavaliers who rushed to the top of the mountain, there was still a row of the most elite saber and shield soldiers protecting them in front of the musketeers, so the Mongolian cavaliers could not take a single step forward.
The small hilltop became a nightmare for the Mongolian cavaliers that they could not get rid of.
At that moment, Borchu had already led his troops into the depths of the hill. When the messenger came to report that the armies on his left and right had suffered heavy losses when they surrounded the hilltop, his expression became incredibly complicated.
"How could this be?" Borchu could not understand.
The messenger replied with lingering fear in his heart, "General, the enemy has set up cannons at the top of the hill, and they also have a large number of musketeers. Their damage is astonishing, and we can't rush up at all."
Borchu suddenly felt a chill in his heart. It was only at that moment that he realized that the enemy's trap was extraordinary.
"General, let's retreat!" The vice general suggested.
Borchu's expression changed, and after a long time, he said, "No, we can't retreat." To the Mongolian Empire, this was a war that they could not retreat from. If they did not win, they would perish.
The vice general said anxiously, "Then let's rush out of this hill first. We can't let our men die in vain."
"Alright!" This time, Borchu was not stubborn.
Unfortunately, this was a trap that Chen Yucheng had meticulously set up. How could he allow the enemy troops to retreat so easily? Just as Borchu led his troops out of the hilly area, the Great Xia army was already waiting in formation outside the hills.
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