Tumu Fort, October 17.

Early in the morning, heavy snow.

After the beginning of winter, the first snow inside and outside the Great Wall came very timely.

The snow was heavy, and the Ming army officers and soldiers in Tumu Fort did not feel any distress. On the contrary, they were happy and laughter everywhere. Because this was auspicious snow. In the absence of drinking water in the city, a heavy snow may not allow soldiers to escape from difficulties, but there should be no need to worry about water supply in a short period of time.

Early in the morning, the officers and soldiers of the Ming army used various methods to gather ice and snow. The temperature in the northern country was below zero during the October days of the Little Ice Age. The ice and snow would not melt when they landed, and soon snow formed. The soldiers carefully shoveled the snow down, put it into baskets, and sent it to the water cellar for collection.

Later, the water cellar was filled, and the trenches in the city that were temporarily left unused were laid with straw, and then they began to store snow.

The Ming army officers and soldiers talked and laughed, carrying baskets and walking in the trenches and fortifications inside and outside the Tumu Fortress, constantly increasing the water resources reserves in the city. The women began to prepare breakfast, and the stove fires in the Tumu Fortress were everywhere. As the snow water melted, the broth that boiled horse meat began to exude a strong fragrance.

The soldiers were resting overnight and in good spirits. Originally, the thing that everyone was most worried about was that after the Tatar soldiers and horses took Zhangjiakou Fort and Xuanfu Zhencheng, the main force was at the Tumu Fort. They were afraid that the Tatar soldiers and horses would be of great power, so they could easily break the city on the first day, which would be useless even if reinforcements arrived.

What made the Ming army happy was that although the main Tatars came, there seemed to be no good idea for Tumu Fort. Last night, an attack ended with the Tatars losing a thousand real Tatars' heads and returning in a defeat. By the time of getting up this morning, the Tatars had no intention of siegeing the city immediately.

According to the horse exploration report, the troops and horses in the Tatar camp were frequently mobilized, and many veterans said that the Tatars would not fight to the death with the Ming army at Tumu Fort, but would bypass Tumu Fort and attack Juyong Pass or Zijing Pass.

The veterans wanted to express that the Tatars just surrounded Tumu Fort and would not make any trouble to launch an attack. In this way, the defenders in the city could persevere and find a way to find a way when the water was short of in the city. The soldiers had just let go of their worries, but a heavy snow fell, which was simply a timely help.

Now the Ming officers and soldiers in Tumu Fort feel that they have occupied all the elements such as the right time, place, and people. They are waiting in the city to make achievements with Shen Xi and return home in glory.

As for the cruelty of the war, there is no need to worry about it, and no one can think of being a deserter. Now Tumu Fort is trapped on all sides. Even if it is not trapped, there are trenches built by the Ming army themselves or the Tatars everywhere outside the city. They can't leave even if they want to.

“…Sir, it’s time to have breakfast!”

Shen Xi was standing at the head of the north city, observing the movements of the Tatars. Yun Liu took Xier to the bottom of the city to greet him.

Yesterday, when the war ended, Shen Xi looked at the map for a long time and ordered the command post to be moved to the Tibetan military cave in the city wall in the north of the city. No one understood what was going on. Shen Xi got up early this morning and climbed up to the top of the city to observe. Hu Songyue, Zhu Lie and Liu Xu had both been here, but Shen Xi did not explain it. The three generals were busy with their own errands and did not ask.

As for the military supervisor Zhang Yong, he stayed in the house west of the city and refused to move.

"knew!"

Shen Xi responded, put down the telescope in her hand, and found that her eyes were a little dry. When she came down from the city, Shen Xi saw Yun Liu and Xier who looked handsome, looking at him curiously, and nodded slightly.

Although Chen Xi used to feel pity for the two daughters, he never had feelings for him. Perhaps because he has been in the army for a long time and there is no one around him. When Yun Liu and Xier brought troops to help regardless of their life and death, Chen Xi was somewhat grateful and re-examined his feelings for Yun Liu and Xier.

In fact, in terms of Chen Xi's aesthetic view, these two women meet Chen Xi's standards in terms of appearance and personal charm. Unfortunately, because their background is too complicated, Chen Xisheng is afraid that his life will be disturbed, so he always keeps away from them.

Chen Xi yawned, not scruples about being in front of the beauty... Even with a strong body, he felt a little unable to hold on now. He looked up and said, "Go to the command post to speak!"

Xier was peeking at Chen Xi, but she didn't understand the sudden appearance of Chen Xi. Yun Liu was calm and composed. No matter from any angle, Yun Liu was smarter and wiser than Xier and could help Chen Xi share a lot of work. Chen Xi always liked to think about problems alone, and often complicate some simple problems, so Chen Xi simply asked Yun Liu and Xier to the command post to talk about the next step of military use.

In the command post, Chen Xi was holding a military map of Tumu Fort in hand. This map was almost crushed by Chen Xi. Yun Liu and Xier tried to understand the above content, but they were still unaware of the key points.

Chen Xi stood in the case of Shuai, and did not bother to take the snowflakes on his body, looked at the military map, and said, "The next step is that the Tatars will inevitably launch an attack from the north of the city!"

Yun Liu and Xier looked at each other, Xier spoke out loudly and asked, "Why?"

Yun Liu glared at Xier, blaming her for being too verbally sarcastic, but Chen Xi did not avoid this question: "Because the Tatars had to test the defense of Tumu Fort from all directions, the Tatars chose to attack from the Black Evil position last night. Today, it should be the White Wolf position..."

Speaking of this, Chen Xi laughed silently because he saw the confusion on Yun Liu and Xier's faces.

"What the White Wolf Position, I'm talking about it." Chen Xi explained with a smile, "In fact, it's just based on feelings... I think the next step of the Tatars should attack from the north of the city. If the Tatar general who led the troops had enough brains, he should be able to discover the disadvantages of besieging the city on all sides. The next step is to surround three cemeteries and one and give up the south of the city, because that is the source of water, which can shake the morale of our army..."

"As for why it is the north of the city rather than the east of the city, most of the Tatars' siege equipment plundered themselves from the Ming Dynasty, it is relatively heavy for them. If they surrounded three sieges and left the south of the city, they would be too far away to launch an attack. On the contrary, although the terrain in the north of the city is relatively high, the road uphill is not difficult! It is relatively less laborious to launch an attack from the north of the city!"

Yun Liu asked, "Mr. Shen, I don't understand. Since the Tatars have an absolute advantage in military strength, why not siege them from all directions?"

Chen Xi smiled and said, "On the one hand, the Tatars' siege equipment is not enough. On the other hand, what the Tatars fear most is the artillery in the city. The advantage of artillery is that it has a wide coverage, but there is a problem that it is inconvenient to move. Just determine the general layout of our artillery, and the other party can target it... This can minimize casualties!"

Yun Liu asked: "Since Lord Shen judged the main attack direction of the Tatars, he should strengthen the defense in the north of the city, right?"

"That's right!"

Chen Xi nodded, "But I can't be too arrogant. If the Tatars do not play according to the routine, they must deal with it. I will increase my defense in this battle, but I do not intend to invest too much troops, and I have to pretend that the defense on this line is relatively empty. After the Tatars come, our officers and soldiers will pretend to be panicked, making the Tatars think that the sneak attack has been successful..."

After hearing this, Yunliu basically understood why Chen Xi would gain something on the battlefield every time.

When Chen Xi thinks about things, he will not only consider one aspect, but will take into account all aspects of the situation.

Many generals, since they analyzed that the next attack of the Tatars was initiated from the north of the city, they would usually be complacent and arrange a large number of troops in a tit-for-tat way. As a result, the Tatars temporarily changed their strategies and chose to attack from other directions, the defenders would naturally fall into a huge passive position.

Chen Xi predicted that the enemy plane would be the first, and he did not make a conclusion. Instead, he seemed to be tempting the enemy to go deeper. When the Tatars really came, he realized that the focus of the Ming army's defense was on the north of the city, causing the Tatars to suffer heavy losses.

Yun Liu continued to ask, "Neither Shen thinks, how many soldiers will be the next time the Tatars attack?"

Chen Xi nodded slightly, expressing his approval of Yun Liu's question, and said: "Even if it is just a tentative attack, the Tatars dispatched not many troops, but they expected that there would be about 5,000. One of them was not properly prepared and killed by the Tatars along the trench area, and they would fall into a huge passive defense!"

"I am only going to let Zhu Lie, the commander of the Second Battalion, lead 1,500 people to fight. The remaining 1,000 people in the Second Battalion, and the two thousand-person teams drawn from the First Battalion and the Third Battalion as the general reserve team..."

When the war ended last night, Chen Xi re-adjusted the troops under his command.

Originally, the three generals had two thousand troops under their command. The total number of these troops and subsequent reinforcements had exceeded 8,000.

Chen Xi drew 600 people from the reinforcements to form the Fourth Battalion, and distributed the remaining more than 1,500 troops, plus the 849 Ming border officers and soldiers captured yesterday to Zhu Lie, Liu Xu and Hu Songyue, so that the three men's troops could reach about 2,800 troops, all of which were mixed troops of various types of troops such as musket soldiers, archers and crossbow soldiers.

Among the four battalions, the first battalion is led by Hu Songyue, responsible for the defense in the west of the city.

The Second Battalion was led by Zhu Lie and defended the north of the city.

The commander of the Third Battalion was Liu Xu, who was in charge of the east of the city.

As for the Fourth Battalion, the reinforcements of Thousand Houses Song Jie were led by the commander of the reinforcements, and were responsible for the defense of the south of the city.

The south of the city was a flaw that Chen Xi deliberately left for the Tatars to see. He did not think that the Tatars would take advantage of this flaw. Even if they were cunning, such as Yi Simayin, they could not understand Chen Xi's troops. Even if they saw this flaw, Chen Xi believed that this person would not dare to attack from the south of the city easily.
Chapter completed!