Chapter 32 3. Divide the troops into three groups to clear up Galdan

After the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, the power of the entire Mongolian nationality gradually weakened, and there were frequent competitions and annexation wars within Mongolia.In the ninth year of Kangxi, Galdan rushed back from Tibet to the most powerful Gar tribe in Mongolia at that time. Under the banner of avenging his half-brother Sengge, he fought against other tribes and became the leader of the Gar tribe after victory.After becoming the leader of the Gar tribe, Galdan's political ambitions were gradually exposed, and he began to move towards the unification of Mongolia and then gradually advance to the Central Plains.The Qing government warned many times and sent troops to suppress it, but to no avail. On the contrary, it fueled Galdan's ambitions.He knew that the Qing Dynasty was the biggest obstacle to realizing his plan. In order to fight against the Qing Dynasty, he took refuge in Tsarist Russia.In the twenty-ninth year of Kangxi, Galdan led his troops to invade Horqin Grassland and other places to plunder, which directly threatened the Qing Dynasty's rule of Inner Mongolia.After hearing the news, Kangxi immediately dispatched troops and generals, and personally led the army to attack Galdan, defeating Galdan army, but Galdan escaped.

After the defeat, Galdan began to be very submissive to the Qing Dynasty. He begged the Qing Dynasty for financial assistance and was willing to belong to the Qing Dynasty.Kangxi believed Galdan's words, and immediately donated a thousand taels of silver to relieve the Gardan tribe.But Galdan turned his back on what he said, and immediately changed his position after receiving the money from the Qing Dynasty. He was neither prepared to surrender nor reconciled to failure.In the thirty-first year of Kangxi, he wrote to the Qing court, asking for Inner Mongolia and other regions.Kangxi was furious and decided to lead his troops to conquer Galdan again.For this combat deployment, Kangxi has new arrangements.He thought that Galdan was insidious and cunning by nature, and negotiating with him to surrender would definitely not work. Only by annihilating all of them in one fell swoop can the current situation be stabilized.Therefore, he decided to divide his troops into three groups to conquer Galdan.

At the beginning of May in the thirty-fifth year of Kangxi, the army of the Qing army on the middle road and the army on the west road met at the Kelulun River, and the army on the east road was also approaching.Kangxi was very happy, and immediately wrote a letter and sent it to the Galdan Department. The letter said: "Now I have sent three armies to conquer Tula on the Kelulun River. In order to avoid the loss of life and reduce unnecessary casualties , I advise you once again, if you are still obsessed with your obsession, you must persevere, and then don’t blame me for sending troops to destroy you.”

Galdan never expected that the Qing army would send troops over, let alone that Kangxi would conscript himself.After receiving the letter sent by Kangxi, he couldn't help but turn pale with shock.When he was in a hurry, he immediately sent a letter back to Kangxi, saying that the crimes he had committed before were really unforgivable, and now that he has received a letter from the emperor, he is willing to accept surrender and return to the Qing Dynasty... This is actually Galdan's plan to slow down the army. Taking advantage of the time when Kangxi was waiting for the news, he secretly ordered his subordinates to discard tents and other supplies and flee.

At this time, Galdan was thinking in his heart that the Qing army's formation this time should not be underestimated. No matter how fast he ran, he would be caught up in the end, so he had to find a way.At this time, a deputy general told Galdan: "We left too hastily, and half of the food and grass were discarded in the camp. However, our food and grass can last for a while, and it should be no problem to go to Tsarist Russia." These words gave Galdan an idea. He didn't tell the deputy general to go to Tsarist Russia. How could the deputy general think he was going?Facts may prove that there seems to be no other way for him to seek refuge in Tsarist Russia, and the Qing army should think so too.Instead of going to Tsarist Russia, I moved my troops westward, and then made a detour to the south, letting the Qing army rush into the air.

At this time, the three armies had joined forces, Kangxi looked at Galdan's reply, and doubts arose in his heart.How could Galdan surrender so easily? It's really outrageous, unlike his style.After sending people to check again, it was discovered that Galdan had led his troops to escape quietly.Ever since Galdan pretended to surrender once, Kangxi no longer trusted him in his heart. Galdan's insidiousness and cunning were beyond ordinary people's imagination.Kangxi felt that Galdan's escape this time was not an escape in a simple sense. If the three-way army was gathered together to pursue and suppress them, it was very likely that they would be caught in vain.Since Galdan ran, he naturally had his own way of running, and he would not always run north along the route.Kangxi thought of a book he had read. It was said in the book that a thief was chased by officers and soldiers. On the branch beside a road, he ran to another road.After the officers and soldiers chased to the fork in the road, they found the cloth strips hanging on the branches, and thought that the thieves must have run along this road, so they chased after them.Combining this story with today's war, I'm afraid it couldn't be more suitable. Galdan will not retreat northward along the route, so there are only two directions left, east and west. There are unattainable mountains in the east. If you don't know how to go that way, then it is possible to take the western front and then go around behind you.Thinking of this, Kangxi immediately had a plan in his mind. He decided to let one of the troops detour to the west line to intercept the Galdan tribe, and lead the two troops to chase north along the route.

A thousand light cavalry galloped on the path, and the mud kicked up by the horseshoes, like a mud rain, rolled towards the front of the path with the sound of horseshoes. "Galdan really can't come with him, this guy is tough, but his heart is very cunning." General Sabusu said harshly. Kangxi shook his head and said: "It seems that this war is unavoidable. Gal Dan's heart is too high, too high, I will destroy his heart this time, and let him taste the taste of failure." Sabusu said: "The emperor is right, Galdan really can't let it go this time."

Qingqi ran for five days, and was about to catch Galdan's "shadow", but was forced to stop due to insufficient food and grass.Kangxi immediately changed his combat policy. An elite team was formed by the vanguard army, Manchurian firearms battalion soldiers and personal guards. They were led by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Ma Sika. . On May 30th, when Fei Yanggu, who was in charge of bypassing and intercepting Galdan, led the army on the west road to Zhaomoduo, the scouts sent to the front rushed back and reported: "Galdan troops are found ahead." This sentence made Fei Yanggu excited for a while. Galdan originally thought that the Qing army would chase after him biting his tail, so he took the opportunity to turn around and run behind the Qing army.What a cunning scheme this is, but it was calculated by the emperor, it really helped me that the Qing Dynasty wanted to destroy Galdan.

Fei Yanggu thought that with his current strength, he had little chance of winning against Galdan. If he won, he would be fine, but if he was defeated or even fought, he would startle the enemy and completely disrupt the previous deployment.Thinking of this, Fei Yanggu suddenly had a plan in his mind. He sent a group of pioneers to lure Galdan's army to retreat to the east, so that it happened to be on top of the elite troops sent by the emperor.When they fight, if you lead a heavy army to go there, the emperor will arrive soon, and when the whole army gathers, you will definitely be able to wipe out Galdan's army.

A hundred or so elite cavalry rushed towards the Gardan tribe. Just as Galdan broke out in a cold sweat, he thought to himself that the Qing army must have been tricked this time.Unexpectedly, there was a sudden sound of horseshoes behind him, and then a hundred or so cavalry rushed over.Galdan was shocked and ordered the troops to prepare for the battle.He thought that there might be a large army behind Jingqi, but after waiting for a long time, there was no shadow of a soldier behind Jingqi.Galdan was relieved and ordered: "This is a straggler from the Manchu army, kill it!" In an instant, the cavalry of Galdan's tribe came to meet him, and the infantry followed closely behind with bows and arrows in hand.The purpose of the cavalry of the Qing army was not to fight. After a few face-to-face encounters, the cavalry of the Qing army pretended to be defeated and retreated eastward.If he retreated the same way, Galdan would definitely be suspicious, and Fei Yanggu could be considered to have figured out Galdan's heart.Sure enough, Galdan ordered: "Chasing, be sure to take down the fleeing Qing soldiers. If you kill or capture one, you will be rewarded."

One flees, the other chases, and the distance between the two sides remains balanced.Gradually, the horsepower of the Qing army cavalry was almost overdrawn, and the speed slowed down.Galdan was overjoyed, and urged the soldiers to seize this opportunity, and wiped out this small unit of the Qing army in one fell swoop. Suddenly, a group of troops appeared in front of the cavalry of the Qing army. It was the elite sent by Kangxi to pursue and suppress them.Almost all the cavalrymen of the Qing army gasped heavily, and then turned their horses around.Now it's Galdan's turn to stare, what are the Qing cavalry doing?Is it because I can't run anymore, and Is it the last struggle?This idea only flashed in his mind, and it was shattered along with the large group of troops behind the Qing army cavalry. "It's a trick, withdraw the troops!" he shouted. How did he know that just behind him, Fei Yanggu had quietly led his troops to catch up, and Galdan met Fei Guyang's troops after retreating less than half a mile.The two armies began to fight, and the elite troops of the Qing army also caught up at this time, and immediately blocked all the outlets for Galdan.In the end, Galdan didn't understand how he became a caged bird of the Qing army, and he led his troops to fight hard.Due to lack of adequate preparation, most of Galdan's soldiers were still in a state of confusion. They watched the Qing army from the left and the Qing army from the right appearing like a magic trick, and then they pulled out their crossbows, and they were already hit. Count the arrows. Finally, Galdan risked his life and rushed out of a gap, leading the remaining troops to flee towards the Terelji Pass.All the troops of the Qing army had gathered together at this time, and Kangxi galloped over and shouted, "How is the battle going?" Fei Guyan said: "The Galdan tribe was defeated, more than 3,000 people were wiped out, and the rest fled towards the Terelji Pass." Kangxi immediately frowned and said: "Why did you run away again? Chase, you can't let Galdan run away again." He ordered. The Qing army took advantage of the victory and pursued for more than 30 li, until they reached the Terelji Pass, captured hundreds of people alive, and seized thousands of cattle, sheep, tents, and equipment.However, Galdan still ran away with several subordinates.Kangxi was overjoyed when he heard the news, and decided to return to the capital with his troops. He ordered Fei Guyang to garrison in Ketu, and surrendered the remnants of Galdan. Although Galdan escaped by chance, his power cannot be compared with before.After Galdan fled west, he gathered more than 5,000 men along the way to conquer Inner Mongolia again.Fei Guyan chased Galdan to fight, and Galdan couldn't stop for military reorganization and combat deployment. Galdan was forced to a dead end, and many subordinates defected to the Qing army.In the thirty-sixth year of Kangxi, Galdan fell ill and died.Galdan's nephew Dan Jila and others took Galdan's body and Galdan's daughter Zhong Qihai, and led three hundred tribes to surrender to the Qing Dynasty.So far, Kangxi's goal of eradicating the Galdan Group has been fully achieved, and the garrisoned Qing troops returned triumphantly on May 16.