The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Outside Maoerzhuang City.

Zhu Youtang looked at the endless grassland in front of him and fell into deep thought.

His ancestors had led several expeditions to the grasslands, but they had basically returned empty-handed or even caused disasters. However, as a moderate and conservative emperor, he actually led the army into the grasslands in person and was able to advance so calmly without even having to worry about attacks from the Tatars.

With elite soldiers and generals under his command, as well as trustworthy leaders, Zhu Youtang felt that his life was very satisfying.

"Father, can I go over there and take a look? It's so spectacular."

Zhu Xiurong is riding on a horse.

She had just learned to ride a horse not long ago, and Zhu Youtang originally did not allow her to ride a horse. But after she came out of seclusion, Zhu Xiurong seemed to like the feeling of riding a horse very much. After repeated requests, Zhu Youtang softened his heart and agreed.

The horse that Zhu Xiurong rode was relatively shorter and appeared very docile. Zhu Youtang did not allow her to ride the horse fast, and someone always led her horse along the way.

Zhu Youtang asked, "You want to ride over there on horseback?"

"Yes, Father, I want to ride a horse and go around." Zhu Xiurong said, "Riding a horse is really fun, but I don't know where it will be after that mountain."

As he spoke, Zhu Xiurong pointed to the mountains in the distance.

Zhu Youtang said: "It's still the grassland, but I don't know where exactly it is."

Zhu Xiurong asked with a smile: "Where is Weininghai? Is it far from here?"

"It's not far." Yang Peng beside him replied with a smile, "Your Highness, if you walk a little further, it's Weining Sea, and if you walk faster, you can get there in two or three days."

Zhu Youtang shook his head and said, "It takes two or three days to travel a hundred miles, that's too slow. The vanguard can march a hundred and twenty to thirty miles a day, so we have to speed up and get to Weininghai as soon as possible. It's spring time now, and I want to go to Weininghai to see the situation of the grazing. If I have time, I also want to go to Hetao. I hope Bingkuan can pacify the grassland. There are too many places I want to go."

……

……

Deep in the grassland.

A battle lasted for a day and a night.

Tang Yin's troops suffered the most severe battle since entering the grassland.

The Ming Dynasty still had basically no losses in troops at this time, but in this battle, it lost more than a thousand soldiers... Similarly, the Tatars lost four to five thousand soldiers, and the two sides were almost in a head-on battle.

It was not until after dark that the Tatars finally withdrew.

"From last night until now... the Tartars have gone crazy." Xu Jing returned from the front line.

The so-called front-line position was only two or three miles away from the central army camp. Tang Yin had to arrange such a camping pattern in order to ensure the depth of the army's garrison.

After Xu Jing came back, the first thing he did was to find Tang Yin.

In this battle, Tang Yin was not on the front line, but was keeping an eye on the movements of the Tatars in the rear.

Because on the other side of the mountains, that is, in the northwest direction, the Tatars also had 20,000 to 30,000 troops active. In this battle, although these Tatar troops caused some nuisance, they did not launch a large-scale raid.

Tang Yin looked up at Xu Jing and said, "According to the current situation, the reinforcements are not far from us."

Xu Jing said, "Bo Hu, are you saying that the imperial court sent reinforcements? The Tatars thought that we wanted to join forces, so they fought us like mad dogs?"

Before Tang Yin could answer, he saw Zhang Rui coming back with two or three guards. Zhang Rui was covered in blood and the armor on his arms was broken, but he did not seem to be injured.

"Young Master, what are you doing?" Xu Jing looked over.

Zhang Rui said: "The Tartars ambushed a group of troops from the east and attacked us suddenly, but we were defeated. The number of defenders in the east was too small, and they had used up all their ammunition. In the end, we had to rely on hand-to-hand combat with weapons to defeat them... We lost more than 200 brothers... Now the soldiers are changing guard."

Xu Jing suddenly thought of something and said to Tang Yin, "Bo Hu, now the trouble has come. The number of fire bombs for the soldiers on the front line in the south is also decreasing rapidly. Now the number of fire bombs may be less than 30% of what it was when we entered the grassland. If the loss continues like this, we won't even have enough fire bombs to break through."

Tang Yin said coldly: "It has come to this, and you still want to break out?"

"What else?" Xu Jing said, "Apart from fire bombs, we can't even count on bows and arrows. Our soldiers carry very few bows and arrows. If we have to rely on stealing arrows from the Tatars to fight, it will be even more unreliable. Do we have to rely on the last knife to fight? It's okay to lack military rations. If we can only fight close to each other like before, I'm afraid our soldiers will suffer much more than them. There are more than 100,000 soldiers on the other side."

Tang Yin did not directly address the difficulties Xu Jing mentioned. He said, "We should change our defenses when necessary, and let the soldiers save ammunition. We must not use firearms unless the Tatars are within range. We don't have many ammunition left now. We have to hold out for another ten days or so until the Ming reinforcements arrive."

"Ten days?"

Xu Jing almost protested.

Zhang Rui said: "The food and grass are basically gone. We can't rob them. The Tatars will continue to attack. We have slaughtered a lot of horses, and the rest of the livestock are basically gone. The dried meat that the soldiers brought earlier is basically gone... It's okay to hold out for four or five days, but if it's ten days..."

Tang Yin said helplessly: "As long as we have something to eat, we can hold out for a few more days. The more fierce the Tatars' attacks have been these days, it means they are also at the end of their strength."

Xu Jing said: "They have 100,000 troops to attack us. How can that be considered a spent force? Or maybe 100,000 is an understatement. If it is more, there may be more than 200,000 troops..."

……

……

The Tatars attacked the camps one after another.

That night the Tatars launched a new round of offensive.

Tang Yin had a terrible headache.

That night, Ma Yi also withdrew from the front line. He came back for a rotation and hurried to visit Tang Yin to seek a way out of the predicament.

"Sir, I have something to say but I don't know whether I should say it or not." Ma Yi said.

"Speak." Tang Yin continued to study the topographic map.

Ma Yi sighed, "If it really doesn't work, we will retreat to the northwest first. Although there are 20,000 to 30,000 Tatars stationed there, we have a chance to annihilate them in one fell swoop, but we must catch the Tatars off guard. If we can take it down, we may be able to obtain some military supplies and hold out longer."

Tang Yin asked, "Marquis Pinglu, how long do you think it will take for the imperial court's reinforcements to arrive?" "I don't know," Ma Yi said, "but for the soldiers, they will think that the so-called reinforcements are just a pipe dream and will not help. Now that we are deep in the grassland, the Ming army may not be able to find us, and even if they can find us, they may not be able to reach this place in a short time. Taking different roads, we can still find a place... How much of a coincidence is this?"

Tang Yin shook his head and said, "With Duke Cai here, everything is still possible."

Ma Yi said, "Sir Zhang is indeed... a living Zhuge Liang in the world, but everything depends on the situation. Sir, I am asking for this for the soldiers. The Tatars' attack in front is too fierce. I don't know how many soldiers will die tonight. If we don't cross the mountain behind us, I am afraid that tomorrow morning, we will be fighting hand-to-hand with the Tatars on both sides of the river."

Tang Yin said, "In that case, I will listen to you. After midnight tonight, we will find a chance to cease fire. We will use the existing cavalry to advance northward and push the Tatars back more than ten miles."

Ma Yi bowed and said, "Yes."

"But in this case..." Tang Yin also raised a difficult question, "We will no longer be able to stay by the water source. The Tatars may use other means to make up for the ten miles. If they rush in all at once to fight us, we won't be able to hold out for long."

Ma Yi said, "My young master said that your goal is to hold out for ten days. But if you don't change, I'm afraid you won't be able to hold out for even three days. The Tatars are fighting us at all costs, or they really want to gain an advantage on the battlefield, or maybe... the Ming reinforcements are coming soon. It's good to hold out for one more day."

Tang Yin said with emotion: "Yes. It is great to be able to hold on for a day."

……

……

After midnight.

The Ming army began a transfer.

This transfer was not a breakout, but just a change of position. The campsite that had been squeezed to the point where there was no room for advance or retreat was abandoned. The campsite was retreated about ten miles to find a new place to camp.

The plan is good...

But many problems will occur at the implementation level.

Although most of the Ming soldiers were aware of the current situation, they also knew that they had almost no chance of survival in this battle unless there was external force interfering with the war.

When the troops began to move at midnight, some of them retreated in the wrong direction, so a brief firefight soon broke out. Four or five hundred Ming soldiers were directly surrounded, and finally surrounded by nearly 10,000 Tatar troops, with no one to support them.

The final result was that except for a few dozen of the four or five hundred soldiers who broke through, the rest were wiped out.

Although these four or five hundred soldiers also caused nearly two thousand casualties to the Tatars, the problem still existed: the Tatars had too many troops and horses, and they were almost endless. No matter how much they lost, it was not a problem, and every death on the Ming side meant one less manpower.

at last.

At dawn, the Ming army retreated to the preset area.

This place is already seven or eight miles away from the river bank, but fortunately the Tatars' camping and advancement strategy was hindered.

It was also related to the low combat effectiveness of the troops deployed by the Tatars in the northwest... The Ming Dynasty's muskets, especially the instant-fire flintlock muskets, had great deterrent power. Unless they were the Tatars' most elite cavalry, ordinary Tatar soldiers would not be able to withstand the fear on the battlefield.

After the battle, any Tatar soldiers who approached the Ming army wanted to withdraw, leaving the front line to other troops to die.

……

……

After daybreak, Tang Yin immediately deployed his men to stay on the spot.

Because the snow had melted at this time, the biggest problem the Ming army was facing was drinking water. People needed water, and horses also needed water. Although the Ming army prepared a batch of water before retreating, most of the horses in the army had been slaughtered during the previous food shortage, and it was inconvenient to transport water. Each soldier could only get enough water for two or three days.

This is almost the limit.

"Have the Tartars caught up with us?" After Tang Yin stationed his troops, he immediately asked the Yebushou scout about the situation on the battlefield.

"Not yet, but logically speaking, our camp may have fallen into the hands of the Tatars." Zhang Rui came over and said, "Marquis Pinglu has led his troops to hold down this side of the mountain to prevent the Tatars from advancing too quickly, but there is no news of a war breaking out on the front line yet."

Xu Jing came over and said, "It was too tragic. A lot of soldiers were killed in the battle last night. In addition to the battle in the east, there was also a battle in the valley... We may only have more than 5,000 soldiers left now..."

"Let each camp report its losses." Tang Yin said, "We need to rally morale and launch a counterattack. We need to counterattack while the Tatars have just occupied our camp in the valley and have not yet established a firm foothold."

Zhang Rui said: "Sir, we don't have many fire bombs left now. It seems that they are not enough to support our counterattack. We may have to keep some to prevent their attack."

Tang Yin said coldly: "Do they know how many fire bombs we have left?"

"They won't know the exact number," Zhang Rui said, "but they will estimate it. In fact, in the past few days, when we were dealing with their counterattacks, we were unable to use gunpowder to blow up their camps. Many soldiers even used blades to fight them. They will make an estimate."

Xu Jing said: "Bo Hu, let's focus on defense. If it doesn't work, we can deploy a team of a thousand people to complete a breakout."

It was obvious that Xu Jing didn't want to die.

He hoped that he would be among the thousand or so people that broke through, so he made such a proposal.

"Impossible." Tang Yin said, "Now we have no way forward, let alone retreat. We will either succeed or fail."

Xu Jing said: "How can we have a chance to succeed? Even if reinforcements come, we can't cooperate with them to attack from both sides. The Tatars have hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, and if we add up our current fire bombs, I'm afraid there are less than 20,000 left. Before, each soldier had dozens of fire bombs, but now... it's good enough if each person has two or three."

Zhang Rui said: "We are not that pessimistic. It is best not to leak the specific quantity to the outside world, so that the soldiers on the front line can have more ammunition... Saving ammunition may also make the Tatars think that we are at the end of our strength."

"Let's fight." Tang Yin said, "The last ten days."

Xu Jing asked: "Aren't we only supposed to hold out for nine days? If we really hold out for nine days and no reinforcements arrive, then we..."

"Shut up!" Tang Yin seemed to be completely annoyed at this time, and said angrily, "We were trapped in the isolated city and held out for several months. Now we have firearms, so the Tatars dare not touch us. Even if the battle situation is so unfavorable, we can still hold out. What else do you want? Do you want us to surrender?"

Zhang Rui said, "Lord Tang, calm down. We are also trying to send out scouts to get news from the south... If reinforcements arrive, they will be passed on to the army as quickly as possible, and the soldiers will be more confident."

"No news, that means it's all over." Xu Jing sat there, and seemed to be about to lie down.

Accept your fate. (End of this chapter)