weaving

"Brothers, we'll ask you only one question today: Is there anyone whose family hasn't suffered at the hands of the Tartars?"

"no!"

This scene is a true one that happened in Hu Zichen and Sha Shiguang's team. All the bureaus gathered, and each centurion asked his soldiers this thought-provoking question.

Roars echoed continuously. Few soldiers in each unit had not suffered at the hands of the Tartar soldiers, as most of them were from Baoding and Zhengding prefectures.

Even if some of the veterans were from Xuanfu, Xuanfu had been attacked and plundered by the Jurchens in the fifth year of Chongzhen's reign. Even when the Jurchens invaded Shanxi and Datong in the ninth year of Chongzhen's reign, they came out of Xuanfu and plundered along the way.

It's not impossible to say that some areas suffered almost no harm from the Tartars...

Some of Sha Shiguang's men were refugees who had fled from Henan. Although they had not been harmed by the Tartar soldiers, they had been terribly ravaged by another demon—the rebel leader Li Zicheng.

Their shared experience fueled their hatred for the Tartar soldiers, and they unleashed all the suffering and resentment they had endured from the rebel leader onto them.

Finally, let me talk about the soldiers who were selected from Xiao Yuan's camp. Most of them were people from eastern Henan and even western Shandong. When the Tartars invaded in the eleventh year of Chongzhen's reign, their hometowns were also mostly ravaged by the Tartars, so they hated the Tartar soldiers to the bone.

Another point is that, no matter how you look at it, the "Tartar soldiers" are still foreign barbarians who ran into the Ming Dynasty's interior to burn, kill, and plunder without any reason. They are morally untenable from the start, which will naturally make all the people of the Ming Dynasty united in hatred against them.

…………

The moment Sha Shiguang's infantry appeared, the Tatar leader, Jiala Zhangjing, led his cavalry in retreat, which led to the pre-battle mobilization scene.

"What's so scary about the Tartars? They also have two legs, two hands, and one head. Aren't we also two legs, two hands, and one head? So what if the Tartars' heads are cut off and we don't die?"

We're not afraid of them! They've come to our doorstep, burned down our house, stolen our grain, took our hard-earned money, killed our parents, and kidnapped our wife and children.

We can ignore the dead, but can you bear to watch your wives and children be harmed by the Tartars? Children become slaves to the Tartars, wives are abused by the Tartars, and then they have more Tartar babies.

Can you possibly tolerate this?

"I can't bear it... I can't bear it... I can't bear it..."

"I can't bear it... what can I do?"

"Let's fight the Tartars!"

"Let's fight... let's fight... let's fight!"

Encouraged and inspired by the various commanders, the soldiers' emotions were completely ignited, and they were filled with high spirits, their roars expressing their determination.

"Kill...kill the Tartars...kill the Tartars..."

…………

During the brief respite of the Tartar retreat, Hu Zichen led his rearguard infantry to catch up. They ordered the newly recruited 1,500 soldiers to garrison the abandoned village camp, while he himself led 500 veteran soldiers in a separate formation, echoing Sha Shiguang's infantry square. The 1,000 cavalry were positioned at the rear, forming a separate formation next to the abandoned village, ready to support the two infantry formations in front at any time.

The pre-battle mobilization here was also ordered by Hu Zichen. The reason why their rhetoric was basically consistent was mainly because the entire Yongyi Army had been specially mobilized and trained beforehand...

The methods of unifying and mobilizing thought, and boosting morale before battle, have existed since ancient times and have remained largely unchanged over thousands of years, with little variation.

Having lived two lives, Zhang Cheng's understanding and knowledge in this regard were deeply ingrained in his very being. When it came to mobilizing the masses, no one in the world understood the principles better than Zhang Cheng.

Moreover, Zhang Cheng was well aware that people of this era had their own limitations in thinking. Before the people's understanding had been completely changed, some methods could not be used. Otherwise, it would not be a matter of cutting oneself off from one's original class, but rather cutting oneself off from all the people under heaven.

But even with this small amount of maneuvering, he has already become a leader of this era, the number one military leader, landlord, and tycoon in the Ming Dynasty.

…………

The Jurchens made their move.

Tan Tai attached great importance to the troops of Hu Zichen and Sha Shiguang that had just arrived. He did not punish the Jiala Zhangjing who had retreated on his own initiative, and even stopped all preparations for attacking the city, intending to deal with the Ming army that was coming to the rescue.

Although there were nearly 7,000 Tartar soldiers, only about 2,000 of them were truly elite Manchu Eight Banners troops. The rest were about 2,000 Mongol Eight Banners soldiers and more than 2,000 Mongol auxiliary troops from other regions.

Even so, Tan Tai dared not send all the Tartar soldiers into battle at once. After all, there were still tens of thousands of captured civilians on the other side, and he had to leave a contingent of Tartars to guard them, lest they escape in the chaos or even attack his camp and army formation.

The people from the capital region who were captured were originally supposed to have their heads shaved to prevent them from escaping. However, as more and more refugees were captured, it became impossible to shave so many heads with the "money-tail" hairstyle.

In addition, whenever they tried to shave their heads, they would face fierce resistance from the refugees, so most of the kidnapped refugees did not shave their heads.

However, to prevent them from escaping in the chaos, the Jurchens tied every hundred captured refugees together, with each person's hands tied to a rope. They tied one person every two steps from head to toe, making a string of one hundred people.

When the Jurchens attacked the city, they would untie the ropes binding their hands in batches, releasing one or two thousand men at a time to force them to fill the moat and dig at the base of the city wall.

Today was no different. About three or four thousand captive civilians were lined up in front of the Jurchen army. More than a thousand of them gathered together, forming three irregular square formations, with Jurchen infantry and cavalry behind them.

"Fire the signal cannon! Prepare for battle!"

As the messenger relayed the order, a signal cannon fired, and immediately command flags responded from Sha Shiguang's side, followed by the cavalry formations behind him. All three infantry and cavalry formations were ready to engage in battle.

"Issue an order to the entire army: in this battle, there is no retreat! Those who kill slaves will be rewarded, and those who are cowardly will be executed. Encourage the entire army: we have no slaves, kill the slaves!"

One after another, warhorses galloped past Hu Zichen, shouting his military orders loudly around the small square formations of each unit. Several riders even spurred their horses toward Sha Shiguang and the cavalry formation behind him.

"No retreat... No slaves, no servants... Kill the slaves... Kill the slaves... Kill the slaves..." (End of Chapter)