Chapter 1309 Unlucky Ping An

Finally, Zhu Zhen and Fu Youde agreed that the army would set off in three days without further delay!

The reason why they could set off so quickly was, of course, because they had made preparations in advance.

Before, Zhu Zhen and Fu Youde had already gathered the various Ming troops scattered in Tongliao, Daning and other places to the Qingzhou area in order to attack Qingyun Mountain with all their strength.

A total of 150,000 troops were mobilized for this expedition. Among them were the troops of Deng Zhen, Duke of Shen, Wang Bi, Marquis of Dingyuan, Zhao Yong, Marquis of Nanxiong, Hu Hai, Marquis of Dongchuan, Zhang Yi, Marquis of Heqing, Zhou Wu, Marquis of Xiongwu, and Cao Xing, Marquis of Huaiyuan.

Even the three Taiyuan guards of Jin Wang Zhu Gang were among them. In addition to the 50,000 troops left behind in the fortresses of Qingzhou, Tongliao, Daning, etc., the Ming army for the Northern Expedition was almost dispatched in full force.

The number of horses mobilized was as high as 450,000!

Because they had to cross the desert, the Gobi Desert, and fight deep into the grassland, not only was the journey long, but there was no road for driving, so the whole army did not have any baggage troops, but imitated the configuration of one person and three horses during the Mongolian expedition.

One war horse was ridden, and the other two pack horses were responsible for carrying rations for the people and horses, as well as the soldiers' armor.

It was midsummer now, and riding a horse with helmets and armor all day would cause dehydration to death, so except for the alert cavalry scouts, the officers and soldiers only wore single clothes, put their armor in armor bags, and let the pack horses carry it, which could also reduce the burden on the war horses.

But fortunately, it was summer when the grass was the most abundant, so there was no need to bring fodder like in winter. All they needed to do was to carry horse feed beans such as black beans and soybeans for the war horses.

This greatly reduced the burden of the march and made long-distance marches possible.

~~

Zhu Zhen and Fu Youde prepared a month's worth of food and fodder for the expeditionary army. It was not that they were stingy, but they could only bring so much.

According to the regulations of the Ming army, war horses were given 10 liters, about 7 kilograms, of horse feed beans every day. Soldiers were given 2 kilograms and 4 ounces of rations, so the monthly rations for men and horses were less than 300 kilograms.

Adding the soldiers' armor and equipment, it was almost 400 kilograms.

The load-bearing capacity of horses was about one-fifth of their own body weight. If this limit was exceeded, the horse would have difficulty breathing, tachycardia, and rapid muscle fatigue. If the load was overloaded for a long time, the horse would be injured or even die.

Although Mongolian horses were small in size, they were hardworking and had no bad load-bearing capacity. They could carry less than 200 kilograms of supplies for long distances, so two pack horses were just enough to transport food and grass for a month.

If the Yuan army was not found after a month, what would happen on the return journey? Then these two poor pack horses would only be used as soldiers' rations...

But the good news is that the distance of this expedition was much closer than expected. For Lan Yu's troops, who were good at long-distance raids, one month was very sufficient, even enough for a round trip.

~~

This time, we were lucky to have recruited the tribes of Nahachu and obtained more than one million livestock, which allowed us to gather the 300,000 pack horses.

However, this also made the tribes bleed. The adult horses were basically plundered, and the men of the tribes all became horseless infantry.

Zhu Zhen wanted this goal. The people of the tribes who surrendered were unstable. If they were not careful, they would leave in anger or even suddenly mutiny. If their horses were taken away, they would not be able to go anywhere and could only stay in their own pastures.

The army could also go on the expedition with confidence.

In addition to horses, the Ming army also requisitioned a large number of cattle and sheep from various Mongolian tribes to make smoked meat, dried meat, and meat jerky that could be preserved for a long time, and distributed them as side dishes to the expedition soldiers. The Sixth Prince, who always attached great importance to logistics support, could not let his soldiers only eat fried noodles and drink cold water.

Of course, Zhu Zhen would not take these horses, cattle and sheep for free, but exchanged them with iron pots, tea, cloth, medicinal herbs and other necessities of life with various tribes.

However, he could not take out so many supplies at the moment, so he could only write IOUs first. Fortunately, he was only bankrupt with Nahachu, and the other Mongolians still believed that he, the famous King of Chuhaidian, would keep his word.

~~

The army was already in a state of war, so the day before the expedition, it was basically ready to set off, just waiting for the next day to send troops!

That afternoon, south of Qingzhou, on the newly built flat official road, thousands of cavalrymen escorted the last batch of supplies slowly.

Also traveling with him was His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin, who would participate in this expedition as a military supervisor.

This made the third brother very happy, especially since the fourth brother could not go, he was even happier. When he thought that the fourth brother would replace him to guard Daning and could only worry in the rear, he was overjoyed.

But people do not share the same joys and sorrows. Ping An, who was standing by, was always depressed and looked like he was about to cry.

After he arrived in Daning with the captured Beiyuan Ding Wang and Feng Wang, he had been staying there. He wanted to stay on the front line and make new achievements on the battlefield by relying on his connections.

As a result, when the list of expeditionary generals was announced a few days ago, he read it eight times and did not find his name on the military post.

To make matters worse, before leaving this time, he saw from the King of Jin that the list of people who had applied to the court for merit for the pacification of the Nahachu war did not include his name!

How could he bear this? It would be fine if he was not on the expedition list, because he knew that those guys were xenophobic. But no matter how xenophobic they were, they could not erase all their real achievements. That would be too bullying.

But when he asked the King of Jin, Zhu Gang did not know the reason. So he made up his mind to go to Qingzhou this time and ask the Sixth Prince for an explanation.

"I see you don't just want to ask why you are not on the list of requests for merit, right?" King Jin asked with a smile.

"Yeah." Ping An did not deny it and nodded: "I still want to go on an expedition, even if I can be a soldier."

"If you are really a soldier, it's easy, just follow me." King Jin laughed: "But who made you the commander-in-chief?"

"I can't do it if I don't!" Ping An said angrily: "Anyway, I'm not an official!"

"Well, you are suitable for stabbing people." King Jin nodded and agreed deeply. During this time in Daning, the two masters of spearmanship had a competition, and it turned out that there was a stronger one among the strong, and the third brother was willing to admit defeat. "If I can lead the army one day, I will definitely use you as the vanguard."

"Then the prince will tell the sixth prince." Ping An opened his eyes wide and said: "Using me as the vanguard, I will definitely be invincible and invincible!"

"That's why I won't use force..." King Jin chuckled and said: "Besides, I am not a military supervisor like the sixth brother. I am just a military supervisor and can't give orders."

"Alas, it's all in vain..." Ping An lowered his head in frustration.

"I say, don't talk about this as soon as you meet. Find a time to talk to Lao Liu in private later." King Jin reminded him again, "It's definitely not okay to say it in public."

"Got it." Ping An nodded again, not knowing whether he heard it or not.