Chapter 1317 Mobei Grassland

After filling up with water, the Ming army set out again. This time, they brought much more water than before.

After learning from their mistakes, the Ming army killed the pack horses before and made a batch of Hun Tuo water bags.

The so-called Hun Tuo means to peel off the whole skin. The skin of pigs, horses, cows and sheep can be used to make water bags. Naturally, the Hun Tuo water bags made of cow and horse skin can hold more water, and can store three or four stones of water, but the pack horses cannot carry such a heavy weight, so they can only be filled half full.

But even if only one stone of water is filled, it is enough for two hundred kilograms. Each soldier is rationed with two kilograms of water every day, which is enough for ten soldiers to drink for ten days. It’s a pity that there is still the bottomless pit of horses, which can only be enough for four days at most.

So for the sake of safety, Lan Yu asked to reach the Fishing Sea in four days.

The soldiers traveled day and night, eating and drinking on horseback... Of course, they couldn’t doze off on horseback while marching, which was too dangerous. They took advantage of the time when the horses were eating grass to get off the horses and take a nap.

After three days of high-intensity continuous march, they walked out of the gravel-covered Gobi Desert and re-entered the yellow-green grassland.

This is Mobei.

In any case, the conditions on the grassland are much better than those on the Gobi Desert. The morale of the soldiers was greatly boosted, and they continued to advance. When the water they brought was about to run out, at noon on the fourth day, the scout reported that a lake was found ahead!

Although it was not known whether it was the legendary Buyuer Lake, the scout confirmed that it was a freshwater lake.

The hearts of the whole army were finally put down, and at least they did not have to worry about water shortages.

Lan Yu ordered the soldiers of each guard to take turns to the lake to fetch water for the horses, and the troops who did not take turns were on guard outside to prevent any accidents.

Even if this was not Buyuer Lake, it should have entered the territory of the Northern Yuan Wu King Duoerzhi, and they must be vigilant at all times. Not only to prevent the Northern Yuan army from attacking, but also to prevent being spied on by the Yuan army scouts and herdsmen.

For this reason, the scouts sent by Hu Hai were mixed with Han and Mongolian, so that they could deal with the enemy if they met them. Even if he wanted to kill someone to silence him, this would allow the other party to relax their vigilance.

~~

Accompanied by Wang Bi and others, Lan Yu came to the lake.

The lake was blue and rippling. Although it was the end of August, the surrounding area was still lush with water and grass, allowing the war horses that had also worked hard for a long time to finally have a good meal.

"This should not be Buyuer Lake, but a place called Baiyanquan." Guan Tong discussed with the Mongolian guides and gave their judgment: "But it is not far from Buyuer Lake. Forty miles north will reach Hunan."

"Yeah." Lan Yu also saw that the area of ​​this lake was a bit small and was far from being called a "sea."

"Send the order down and set up camp here." After washing his face with lake water, he ordered: "Send scouts to the north to find traces of the Northern Yuan Dynasty first."

"Yes!" Hu Hai took the order and went down.

Lan Yu also instructed the generals: "Dig a hole underground to make a fire, and don't expose the smoke and fire."

"Yes." The generals responded in unison. Although the Ming army's rations were fried rice, fried noodles and dried meat, they didn't need to start a fire. But under the promotion of Zhu Zhen and Zhu Su, the Ming army had realized that drinking raw water would damage combat effectiveness, and they should boil the water before drinking.

After the generals dispersed, Zhao Yong said to Lan Yu: "There is not much ration left."

"Yeah." Lan Yu nodded: "I know."

It has been 20 days since the army set out, and there should be at least 10 days of rations left. But half of the time they strayed into the Gobi Desert, and the horses could not eat enough grass, so they could only feed more food, so the consumption was much greater.

Otherwise, Lan Yu would not have killed so many pack horses at once.

"How many days can we eat?" Wang Bi asked.

"Five days." Zhao Yong said: "We have to continue killing horses after five days."

"Hiss..." Wang Bi frowned and said: "Just solved the water shortage, and now there is a shortage of food again!"

But he was just complaining casually. They are all masters who have led troops to fight for many years, so they naturally know that this is the norm in the Northern Expedition. If the army had never lacked food or water, it would have wiped out the remnants of the Northern Yuan Dynasty long ago. Why would it have to wait until today?

"Then find them quickly!" Lan Yu said decisively: "Send a message to the scouts, search the entire Buyuer Lake in three days!"

~~

With Lan Yu's order, thousands of Ming scouts immediately headed north to look for traces of the Northern Yuan Dynasty's royal court.

News was also continuously transmitted back to the base camp at Baiyanquan-

"Report, forty miles northeast, a lake a hundred times larger than this was found, it should be Buyuer Lake!"

"Report, we searched along the west coast of Hunan, and have not found any traces of the Northern Yuan Dynasty's royal court at the current forty miles."

"Report, we searched along the east coast of Hunan, and have not found any traces of the Northern Yuan Dynasty's royal court at the current sixty miles."

"Report, the two scouts have met on the north bank of the lake, and still have not found any traces of the Northern Yuan Dynasty's royal court..."

With superhuman perseverance, the Ming scouts searched the two hundred miles of Buyuer Lake in just three days.

But the target was still not found...

Not only did they not find the Northern Yuan Dynasty, they also did not find the tribe of Wu Wang Duoerzhi.

"How could this happen?" Lan Yu, who had been calm all along, finally began to lose his composure.

He did not let anyone get close to him. He walked alone by the lake from morning to night, and walked back and forth for hundreds of times.

He stopped only when the sun set and the lake was filled with golden light, and stared at the lake in a daze.

The sky gradually darkened, and the lake dimmed. Lan Yu heard footsteps behind him.

"Didn't I say that no one is allowed to come over?" He shouted irritably.

"It's me." A deep male voice with a built-in subwoofer sounded, it was Wang Bi.

"..." Lan Yu didn't get angry. He still respected his brother-in-law who was a pioneer general in the past, not to mention that the other party is now one of the father-in-law of the Sixth Prince..., so he was even more polite.

Wang Bi walked to Lan Yu and stuffed a bag of things into his hand. "Even if you are worried, you have to fill your stomach first."

Lan Yu opened the cloth bag and saw that there were more than ten hot boiled bird eggs inside. I don't know what bird laid them.

"Where did they come from?" Lan Yu asked.

"They picked them up by the lake." Wang Bi said: "The bird was scared away, but the eggs couldn't be taken away."

"There are still bird eggs in this season?" Lan Yu pinched one and put it into his mouth, and suddenly felt that the irritability in his heart subsided a lot.

"Some birds lay eggs in autumn, but there are fewer of them." Wang Bi smiled and said, "You can always find them if you look carefully."

Lan Yu couldn't eat anymore after hearing this, and said, "But with so many scouts, they traveled hundreds of miles, but they didn't find a single Mongolian. What does this mean?"

"It means they didn't find them." Wang Bi said.

"..." Lan Yu rolled his eyes helplessly and said to himself, "The Northern Yuan Dynasty court plus the Dorji tribe, at least 200,000 or 300,000 people, how big a camp would it be, how many traces of troops and horses would be left? As long as they are still in Bui'erhai, can my scouts not find them?"

"It should be found." Wang Bi nodded.

"So I suspect that they smelled some clues and fled in advance!" Lan Yu's voice was full of unwillingness and frustration, and he said, "I'm afraid we'll come up empty-handed again this time."