The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 497 Blind Obedience and Blind Belief
Ningxia, south bank of the Yellow River, north of Xiajiabao.

A big battle had begun at dawn.

Yang Yiqing's [-] cavalry, plus two thousand soldiers and horses each from Li Hao and Zheng Ying, started a fight with the Tatars... The reason for the fight was that the number of projectiles for the soldiers under the Ming Dynasty was seriously insufficient, plus the number of soldiers and horses. With the disadvantage of fighting at medium and close range, we can only adopt a maneuvering posture.

"Sir, the Tatars killed more than 4000 cavalry from our left flank and scattered the artillery array in front. More than a dozen cannons fell into the hands of the Tatars."

Yang Yiqing was in the Chinese army and was responsible for commanding the war. The news he learned did not look too optimistic.

Before Yang Yiqing could ask, Zhang He next to him hurriedly asked: "Have the shells been taken away too?"

The deputy commander-in-chief Gao Pi who came to deliver the message said: "The artillery shells have been used up. We originally buried a lot of explosives behind, but the Mongolian Tatars did not enter the ambush circle. The artillery has been carried away by them. We lost this battle." At least thirty or forty brothers were killed, and at least sixty or seventy were killed on the Tatar side, but their heads were not recovered."

"Alas! What a pity." Zhang Xun sighed while listening to the battle report, slapping his thigh.

Yang Yiqing said: "Being able to kill or injure the enemy and force the thieves back is the best outcome. It doesn't matter even if a few artillery pieces are lost without shells."

Zhang Xeng said: "If you can't take out the head, it won't be considered credit. It's empty talk."

Yang Yiqing shook his head and said: "In the future, rewards based on merit on the battlefield can no longer be the same as in the past. We have to bring back the head. Moreover, in this battle, we have no qualifications to study the first merit. If we can defeat the Tatars, we will make them give up crossing the river." The plan to rob will be considered worthy of the imperial court’s trust.”

"Haha, Yang Junmen, you are really thoughtful."

Although Zhang Xu now stands with Yang Yiqing, he still cannot completely sympathize with Yang Yiqing. Listening to Yang Yiqing will also mean handing over his authority to guard the eunuchs, and he is naturally unwilling to do so.

"Report! We found out from the Jumping Horse Platform that the Tatars crossed the river early in the morning and are forming a formation on the other side of the river. There are also boats on the river to help the Tatars cross the river."

When this battle report came, Yang Yiqing was quite annoyed.

Yang Yiqing glared at Gao Pi and said, "Didn't you say that all the boats along the river have been burned? Where did the Tatars get the boats to cross the river?"

Gao Pi wondered: "I don't know what will happen in the end."

Zhang He also said angrily: "Is it not completely burned, or is there someone who wants to help the Tatars secretly? If the Tatars cross the river, how will most of us cross the river? By then, they only need to send people to guard the river, and the rest will With a large number of troops, you can harass people all over Ningxia, which is a big deal!"

Gao Pi lowered his head and muttered in his heart.

Are you still here to remind me that this is a big deal?The key is what the situation is. I don’t know. Maybe the Tatars temporarily cut down trees to build ships?
Yang Yiqing also said with a bit of urgency in his eyes: "We can no longer passively wait for the Tatars to invade. Their purpose is probably to contain us with soldiers and horses and help most of them cross the river. If we passively fight with our soldiers and horses at a disadvantage, , will only be hijacked by the Tatars. You must take the initiative to cook!"

Zhang Xun asked: "Didn't you say that Uncle Xiangcheng's men and horses have already crossed the river? They are on the other side... and there is no way to stop them?"

Gao Pi looked at the commotion not far away, clasped his fists and said: "Eunuch Zhang, we can't get in touch with Uncle Xiangcheng's troops at the moment. Two groups of Tatars have been cut off between us and Uncle Xiangcheng's troops. The Tatars The cavalry are numerous and come and go like the wind. When they see us using firearms, they don't fight head-on, they just circle around."

Zhang Xun said angrily: "Then send someone with a blunderbuss to kill him, won't we be able to get in touch with Uncle Xiangcheng's department?"

Gao Pi was surprised: "How is this possible?"

"Why not?" Zhang Xun was also very angry. "You didn't say that the Tatars were afraid of firearms. Why, the soldiers in front didn't dare to rush forward or what?"

Yang Yiqing stretched out his hand to stop Zhang Xun from accusing Gao Pi, and said: "Eunuch Zhang, I am not allowed to attack rashly. Regardless of the fact that many soldiers have already run out of firecrackers, and the Tatars are in our Thousands of cavalry were sent to block the gap. If we want to force the Tatars to open a gap, we must send at least two thousand cavalry, which will inevitably leave our central army on the southern front empty."

Only then did Zhang Xun understand.

There are fewer people going, so the Tatars ignore it and can eat it raw.

There were so many people going, and the Tatars were afraid of the firecrackers to make way for a gap, but there were only 7000 people on Yang Yiqing's side. It was unwise in Yang Yiqing's opinion to transfer two to three thousand people just to open a gap to communicate with Li Hao.

"Whether Xiangcheng Bo and Wu'an Hou can intercept the Tatars on the other side depends on their abilities. However, Cui Prince Consort also said last night that he will not bring too many horses across the river this time. He only hopes that they will have the remaining horses. There will be more fire bombs, which will at least scare the Tatars crossing the river!"

Yang Yiqing didn't seem to expect any extraordinary performance from Li Na and Zheng Ying, because he knew that the losses of guns and shells from these two groups were also huge.

Zhang He sighed: "If there are enough fire bombs, a half-crossing attack on the Tatars will probably turn the water of the Yellow River red and leave tens of thousands of corpses behind."

Yang Yiqing said: "It's good to be able to repel them. Don't make hopeless assumptions. The Tatars know that we are short of firearms, so they deploy tactics like this. The little Tatar prince will not be captured without mercy."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was another messenger reporting: "... Report, the Tatars are attacking from the north, with more than ten thousand men and horses."

"I'm coming!"

Zhang Xun was very nervous.

The Tatars number ten thousand at a time, and if they don't have enough firearms, they will have to fight hard.

Yang Yiqing immediately ordered: "Put our central army on top, form a formation, stand side by side with and without fire bombs, do not fire within less than [-] steps, and set up stumbling ropes..."

When the Tatars tried to attack, Yang Yiqing knew that he had to stabilize his position. He used an illusion that his muskets and artillery were empty, but could actually be fired many times, forcing the Tatars not to Dare to fight head-on with the Ming Dynasty soldiers.

After Gao Pi and the messengers all went down, the armies began to press forward as Yang Yiqing ordered.

Zhang Nucai reminded Yang Yiqing in a low voice: "Yang Junmen, it's not our family, I'm afraid our three axes can't withstand it. The Tatars may be wary now, but after they test it a few more times, they will definitely be able to detect the clues." . It can be said that the Guizhou donkey has no skills, and the situation is very bad."

Yang Yiqing said coldly: "According to what Eunuch Zhang said, when there were no firearms and fire bombs in the past, there was no need to fight the Tatar invaders?"

"Haha." Zhang Xun continued with a wry smile, "Even if firearms were not good in the past, they still had them. We would never expect seven thousand cavalry to fight against tens of thousands of Tatar cavalry like we do now. Even if this is within the territory of the Ming Dynasty, I'm afraid we won't be able to take advantage of the right time and place, the situation is not good, Yang Junmen, we'd better think about what we should do if we can't hold back the Tatars and they have to cross the river."

……

... Just when Yang Yiqing was struggling to deal with the Tatars head-on, the situation of the two groups of troops surrounding the battlefield, Li Ao and Zheng Ying, was different.

As Yang Yiqing expected, the loss of guns and shells in these two groups was not as heavy as that of local soldiers and horses in Ningxia. In fact, the losses were only the 400 people Cui Yuan brought out, and many of the remaining people had not had a chance. Confronted the Tatars head-on.

However, because they did not carry heavy firearms, they basically relied on firecrackers, and their range was not as far as artillery. In fact, these two groups were only suitable for mid-range combat with the Tatars, and did not have the strength to fight at long range.

Li Na's journey was now basically led by Cui Yuan, who personally led more than 700 troops to cross the river from the upper reaches. Before dawn, all 700 people had successfully crossed the river and brought their horses across the river.

It could have been possible to cross the river without transporting horses and only use soldiers to cross the river, and perhaps more than 2000 people could be transported across. However, not everyone among the Ming soldiers was determined to die, and they all believed that the danger of forcibly crossing the river was too great.

And without horses, the Tatars would basically have no choice but to die, and they would not even be able to escape.

If the soldiers could ride horses, they would at least have the capital to escape. Therefore, both Li Er and many of the soldiers under his command advocated transporting horses across. Even if there were fewer people transporting them... there would be no escape route if they were to maneuver around.

Li Wei did not cross the river with his army. He led the remaining 200 troops and horses to stay on the south bank, saying that they would be reinforced at any time. However, in fact, after dawn, they had lost the conditions to cross the river.

As for Zheng Ying, they had no intention of crossing the river. They were still more than ten miles away from Li Er, and after the war started, their advance was relatively slow. They even bypassed the Ningxia Central Army and headed for the lower reaches of the Yellow River. , that is, advancing in the direction of the right wing of the Ningxia Division, it seems that they want to wait for Li Na and the Ningxia Division to force the Tatars to retreat north along the south bank of the Yellow River, and they will take the opportunity to jump out and intercept them.

The focus of the war is whether Cui Yuan can use less than [-] soldiers on hand to block the Tatars on the south bank of the Yellow River.

Before dawn, Cui Yuan and Xu Shen headed downstream with more than 700 soldiers. Because they had to cross several mountain valleys in the middle, the team was not walking along the river, and they had to beware of Tatar sentries along the way.

"Consort Cui, the Tatars have appeared. The sentinel cavalry failed to capture the Tatars and went to the northeast. I guess the Tatars will soon know that we are coming."

Xu Shen appeared beside Cui Yuan's horse.

Cui Yuan just waved his hand reluctantly and said: "It doesn't matter, I have expected it."

For soldiers like Xu Shen, riding fast on horseback is quite adaptable. Although Cui Yuan's riding skills are not bad, he has not gone through long-term training and is a bit overwhelmed.

The team even had to accommodate Cui Yuan to keep the marching speed from being too fast, otherwise it would be boring to leave the coach behind.

Cui Yuan relied on Shigou City to fight and became a powerful figure in the hearts of this group of people. Many of these people were willing to follow him across the river because of Cui Yuan's face. They also knew that Cui Yuan would definitely be punished afterwards. The imperial court generously rewarded him, but he followed Cui Yuanlai into danger. Even if he was defeated and escaped, he would not be held accountable when he returned to the pass of Ming Dynasty.

On the contrary, the group of people who stayed on the south bank of the Yellow River would be regarded as cowards even if they could escape unscathed.

Seeing Cui Yuan's weak but persistent look, Xu Shen sighed with emotion: "Cui Yuan is the only hero I have seen in my life. You could have stayed at the rear and received many military rewards, but you were willing to take the lead. This is His generosity is truly unparalleled.”

After Cui Yuan heard this, he still felt somewhat useful, which meant that he was recognized.

Although he himself knew that Xu Shen was just flattering, because Xu Shen said more than once that he wanted to go to the capital with him, and even wanted to enter the Yanwu Hall with Cui Yuan.

Cui Yuan is a real person. He said: "I don't know what others are like. I have no choice."

"You...have no choice?" Xu Shen was puzzled.

You are already a relative of the Ming Dynasty, but you still can't help yourself?If you want to be a coward, who can stop you?Did the emperor ask you to rush forward risking your life?When looking for responsibility, Zhu Hui, Li Nuo and others will also be held accountable.

"Alas!" Cui Yuan sighed and suddenly raised his head to face the eastern sky in front of him.

To him, it seemed like a beautiful past, the innocence he once had, the carefree life he once had, but now...

When Xu Shen saw Cui Yuan's expression, he understood and kept silent.

After all, Cui Yuan felt that Xu Shen was one of his own, so he explained: "It was the princess who asked me to go to Yanwu Hall, and it was Wang Shilang of the Ministry of Household who appreciated me and gave me military strategies to help me improve. Your Majesty appreciated me and allowed me to accompany the army... Duke Baoguo asked me to go with the vanguard army, and Uncle Xiangcheng asked me to fight with the vanguard army... Only today's battle is probably my own choice. But whether I choose it or not, the result will be like that."

Only then did Xu Shen realize that everything Cui Yuan had experienced on the battlefield was just being pushed aside.

This is even worse to comment on.

Cui Yuandao: "If the Tatars go north to cross the river, hundreds of miles of fertile land and hundreds of thousands of people around Ningxia will suffer. That is the dereliction of duty on the part of the military. But someone also told me that the Tatars did not cross the Yellow River south last year, but only in Ningxia." , and also caused a lot of trouble here. At that time, Anbianhou led his troops to fight hard with the Tatars, and finally forced the Tatars back."

Xu Shen was stunned. How could this temporary coach still compliment others at a critical moment? The key is that this person is not in Ningxia, or even in the northwest.

Xu Shen said with a slight embarrassment: "Marquis Anbian is indeed a hero, and everyone admires him endlessly."

Cui Yuan nodded and said: "He also told me that the Tatars are not invincible. As long as they listen to Cai Guogong, the Tatars will be blown away like paper shells by the wind. That's what I think. Since the Tatars this time Every move is planned by Cai Guogong, so if we ambush on the north bank of the Yellow River, we will definitely be able to surprise them, defeat them, and ensure the peace of the people there."

"Consort Cui, are you saying... you are not very confident, just because... Cai Guogong said so?" Xu Shen was a little panicked.

The coach Cui Yuan in front of him was a bit off his game at the critical moment, which scared him.

"Ah."

Cui Yuan nodded calmly, "Although I don't know how he arranged the battle on the Yellow River, but since even Yang Zhongcheng, the governor of Ningxia, thinks that I should lead the troops across the river, then I think this is the right choice. I believe that Cai Guogong , and also believe in Yang Zhongcheng. So we will win."

Xu Shen was almost speechless.

I shouted in my heart.

Mother, if you have a choice, let me go back to Nan'an. My previous achievements are enough. I was deceived by lard and was tricked to die.

　I checked again today and reported the results. The bilirubin level is over 34. Although it is decreasing more and more slowly, I am getting closer to recovery.6000 today, and [-] tomorrow as usual.Please take care, everyone.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)