Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 566: Battle of the Gorge
"Hurry up!"

"Hurry up!"

The Ming army appeared in the early morning of the next day after Lou Zengmu's death. The cavalry arrived in Turpan City with an urgent report. His urgent report made all the soldiers stationed in the palace look sideways.

The man was extremely panicked. He was holding an urgent report in his hand and running towards the palace.

Before the guards at the palace gate could stop him, they saw him rushing in and disturbing Yesenbuhua, Yunusi and Bukabek who were discussing the war.

"What's the matter?"

Yunusi roared angrily, while Yesenbuhua and Bukabek also looked over here with frowns.

The Tangqi who ran into the hall and knelt down presented an urgent report with both hands, breathing heavily: "Lou Zengmu... Lou Zengmu has a large number of Ming troops, no less than 3,000 people."

"What did you say?!"

The three were horrified when they heard this, and they no longer had the composure they had a moment ago.

Yu Nusi walked forward angrily, snatched the urgent report, tore it open and asked angrily: "Why did you report it now!"

"The herdsmen in the north of the Eastern Tianshan Mountains all retreated to Lou Zengmu to wait for retreat, so no one sent back any news. By the time we found them, they had already appeared thirty miles northeast of Lou Zengmu."

Tangqi hurriedly explained, and Bukabek stepped forward and asked, "Is their target Lou Zengmu or somewhere else?"

Compared with the 17 or 18-year-old Yunusi and Yesenbuhua, the mature Bukabek knows very well where their weak points are now.

"They are heading towards the gorge of Daban. I'm afraid they have already reached the gorge of Daban..."

"You deserve to die!"

Tangqi explained guiltily, and Yunusi drew his sword in rage and was about to kill him, but Bukabek immediately grabbed his hand.

"Killing him is useless. What we need to do now is to take back the gorge!"

Bukabek explained, and at the same time said: "There must be a traitor among us, otherwise how did the Ming army cross the Eastern Tianshan Mountains and know that the gorge of Daban can block our retreat?"

"Find him out, I want to kill him myself!" Yu Nusi's eyes were red, and Yesen Buhua saw this and analyzed calmly:

"There are only two options now. Either take back the gorge, or take the mountain road north of Chalishi back to Yilibali."

"It's already the ninth day of April. The snow on the mountain path of Chalishi should have melted and we can walk on it."

The Chalishi mentioned by Yesenbuhua was the mountain road that Zhu Gaoxu pointed out to Zhu Di and others that led directly to the Ili River Valley.

Although the mountain is closed for five months every year, it is already April 9th. If they go there, they can probably arrive around April 20th and break out directly from there.

But the situation there is also very dangerous, because it is too narrow and rugged, and they mainly rely on riding and shooting. If more than 40,000 people squeeze in and encounter an ambush, there will be no way out.

"No, it's too narrow there. The Ming army's horses are no slower than ours. Even if we set out now, we may not be able to pass through."

Yunusi opposed taking the mountain path to the Yilibali Valley, not only because the terrain there was dangerous, but mainly because many of his troops had already been transferred to Lou Zengmu.

If he did not open up the gorge and lead his troops back to Lou Zengmu, many of his soldiers would turn against him.

"You know what the gorge is like. If we dare to move, the Ming army behind us will definitely chase us!"

Yesenbuhua and Yunusi got into an argument again, which gave Bukabek a headache.

Seeing that the argument between the two was getting more and more intense, he could only stand up and interrupt:
"Okay, let's go to the gorge now and see if we can get there before the Ming army builds the chevaux de frise."

"it is good!"

Upon hearing this, Yunusi nodded and immediately walked out of the palace, as if he was ready to lead the troops there himself.

The two thought that he would take a few thousand people at most, but they didn't expect that Yunusi would directly mobilize more than 15,000 people under his command to leave the city.

"We must increase the number of scouts at the front line. We cannot let the Ming army know that our rear is empty."

Bukabek gave advice to Yesenbuhua, and Yesenbuhua understood that what he said made sense, so he sent an additional 3,000 cavalry to the front line to supervise the Ming army.

However, their every move had been predicted long ago by Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu, who also brought the cavalry of Yanshan Guard, Jinyi Guard and Western Factory troops to the front line.

"Your Majesty, the Western Tartars have increased their forces!"

At dusk, when Zhu Neng came to the military tent to report happily, Zhu Gaoxu nodded immediately after hearing his words:

"It seems that Chen Mao and his men have been discovered by the Western Tartars. We have sent out orders to the three armies, leaving behind 3,000 cavalry and infantry to protect the civilians and continue to build the railway. The main troops will carry a month's worth of supplies and advance to Turpan, while the auxiliary troops will follow behind to transport the supplies."

"Yes!" Zhu Neng bowed in response, turned around and walked out of the military tent.

After he left, Zhu Di immediately said, "Second brother, we have to go with you."

"We don't need to do that, right?" Zhu Gaoxu frowned. Riding a horse or traveling by boat is not an easy task.

Zhu Di is now old, and Zhu Gaoxu himself has not ridden a horse for a long time. Although they are now less than seventy miles away from Turpan City, seventy miles is still enough to make people worry.

"It's only seventy miles away. It won't be a problem. Just get to Turpan City. I'll be in Turpan by then. You can go wherever you want."

Zhu Di bargained with Zhu Gaoxu, who was somewhat unwilling to do so. Upon seeing this, Zhu Di immediately sighed, "Ah, I knew it, ah..."

"Okay, the army will go ahead for three days, and we will follow."

Zhu Gaoxu couldn't stand Zhu Di's attitude, as if he was abusing him.

"Okay!" Zhu Di immediately smiled when he heard that he could go to Turpan.

Soon, the civilians began to prepare the army for the expedition tomorrow.

Many soldiers were not nervous about going to the battlefield, but were uncomfortable because they had to go to the front line and could not eat soft rice.

The military rations were prepared by the civilians early on, and 30,000 buckets of military rations were enough for them to eat for a month.

The military camp was busy until dark, and finally it became a little quieter.

At the same time, a raging fire was also burning at the mouth of the Mohe City Gorge, which attracted much attention from all parties.

The horse station built by the Eastern Chagatai Khanate here was demolished by the Ming army, and dozens of Western Tartar soldiers stationed here were killed by Zhu Qiyue as soon as his army arrived.

The Ma Yi was demolished to build chevaux de frise and some defensive fortifications.

The Mohecheng Gorge is passable because there is a valley formed by rivers here. Three rivers flowing down from the Tianshan Mountains converge here into one river and flow southward.

The flood season has already begun in mid-April, but the river at the mouth of Mohecheng Gorge has not become wider because of the flood season.

The gorge is 200 steps wide, of which the Baiyang River occupies less than 20 steps. The remaining 180 steps are walkable except for the collapsed steep slopes on both sides of the river valley.

"This river is too shallow and there is too little water. It is not realistic to build a dam now. The land is all sand and gravel, and it is not easy to dig. It seems that we can only rely on muskets and hand-to-hand combat to defend this place."

Before dark, Chen Mao had clearly observed the situation at the mouth of the Mohe City Gorge. After confirming that this was the only road nearby that could lead into Lou Zengmu, he ordered the army to speed up the construction of fortifications.

They not only needed to build fortifications facing south, but also faced north, in order to deal with the pincer attack from the north and south by the Western Tartar army.

The pressure was so great that even a veteran like Chen Mao couldn't help but suffer a sleepless night.

The next day, when he woke up and walked out of the tent, the entrance to Mohe City had been repaired by the Ming army except for two not very strong rammed earth walls in the north and south.

The wall was only four feet high and five feet thick, so it was unrealistic to defend against artillery fire. However, according to their intelligence, Yunusi and his men had no intention of engaging in a fierce battle with the Ming army, so they did not carry any artillery.

It was for this reason that Zhu Gaoxu proposed a plan to launch a surprise attack on the gorge of Mohe City.

Now they have made all the preparations, just waiting for the Western Tartar Army to arrive...

"nervous?"

Chen Mao glanced at Zhu Qiyue beside him, but Zhu Qiyue put down the flintlock rifle on his shoulder and said in a relaxed tone: "Of course I'm nervous, but there's no use being nervous."

"Since I'm here, I have to take credit. My great grandfather and grandfather both told me not to bring shame to the Zhu family, so I certainly can't bring shame to the family."

"Kill a few barbarians to teach them the blood of Zhu family men."

"Good!" Chen Mao looked at him admiringly. Compared to the humble Crown Prince in the capital, he seemed to prefer the eccentric Crown Prince in front of him.

Time passed little by little, and the 5,000 Ming troops were divided into two parts by the river in the valley in the camp which was two miles from north to south and one hundred and eighty steps from east to west.

They dismantled the horse post and built a temporary trestle bridge. It was not very strong, but it was strong enough for people and horses to pass.

A whole day passed, and they did not wait for the Western Tartar army from the direction of Turpan City. Instead, they waited for more than 2,000 Western Tartar cavalrymen who came to support them, led by Lou Zengmu.

Chen Mao ordered Zhu Qiyue and Guo Deng to attack. The two led 2,000 cavalrymen and quickly repelled Lou Zengmu's 2,000 cavalrymen, leaving behind more than 200 corpses.

At 22: p.m., the sun had completely set. Apart from the sound of flowing water, the only sounds in the gorge were the laughter and chatter of the Ming army.

Sitting on a river rock, Zhu Qiyue looked at the celestial phenomena in the sky, then stretched out his hands to wash his hands in the Baiyang River, which was about twenty steps away.

Guo Deng came over here holding something that looked like a roasted lamb leg. Zhu Qiyue asked in surprise, "There are lambs here?"

"Yes, the patrolling brothers just killed thirty-seven goats in total."

Guo Deng motioned Zhu Qiyue to taste it. Zhu Qiyue did not hesitate and directly pulled out a one-foot-long dagger from his waist, cut off a piece of meat and tasted it.

He frowned, and Guo Deng also smiled and said, "This mountain goat has a spicy taste, so I added some salt water, pepper, and chili powder. Just eat it."

"Yes." Zhu Qiyue nodded and cut a few more pieces of meat, then said to Guo Deng: "You can eat a few pieces too. The rest can be given to the brothers below."

Guo Deng shook his head and said, "Thirty sheep are stewed over there. I guess they won't taste good, but at least they're edible."

"Okay." Zhu Qiyue didn't act pretentiously. He sat on the river rocks and took the lamb legs with Guo Deng, and started to eat them one by one.

The two men ate the meat in silence, saying that they could not finish it, but the bland soup with dried meat and dried vegetables that they had received as military rations over the past ten days had long since left them without any oil or water in their stomachs.

In just ten days, Zhu Qiyue's cheeks had become thinner, which showed how tired he was during those ten days.

A lamb leg weighing five or six pounds was shared by the two of them, and the biting wind at the gorge made people's noses red.

"It's 200 miles from Turpan to here. If the Western Tartars come here, it will probably take only two or three days."

"That's about the same. I guess it will be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."

The two chatted intermittently, but soon they felt sleepy and returned to their tents to rest.

During the rest time, perhaps because he was relaxed, Zhu Qiyue dreamed of the herdsmen he had killed along the way.

But he did not regret it, because he knew that these herdsmen dismounted their horses to graze and mounted their horses to serve as pawns.

He had long understood the cruelty of war. The death of one person is a number, and the death of ten, a hundred, or a thousand people is also a number.

These thousands of people were sacrificed in exchange for millions of people from the Ming Dynasty migrating to the Western Regions to live in peace.

Zhu Qiyue already had the answer in his mind as to which of the two was more important. He looked down on those who hated war but enjoyed the benefits at the same time, and he could even say that they were disgusting, which was why he always called those people in the temple "old barbarians".

They enjoyed salaries paid with gold and silver from overseas, and the cheap transportation of their daily necessities made possible by railways built with iron from Mobei and Nanyang, yet they kept urging their grandfathers to make a fresh start with the people, to recuperate and stop the war.

If the Ming Dynasty really did as they said and "recuperate and stop fighting", it would probably not even be able to pay salaries in a few years.

"Beep--"

Suddenly, a whistle sounded in the middle of the night, and the Ming army in the camp was suddenly awakened.

Thanks to the daily camp training, all the soldiers rushed out of the tent with their weapons after waking up.

Zhu Qiyue and Guo Deng were among them. Zhu Qiyue held a knife in one hand and a gun in the other, and looked around vigilantly.

Soon, the night patrol soldiers in the camp shouted loudly: "Go back to bed, the brothers who were on guard in the south are back!"

"It was just a false alarm..."

"Go to sleep, I'm so sleepy..."

"This whistle is giving me a headache."

"Hey, without it, you wouldn't even know your head fell off."

"roll……"

Amidst the laughter and scolding, the soldiers from each tent returned to their tents to sleep.

As they had been too tired these days, Chen Mao did not ask the soldiers to get up early. Instead, he let them rest from midnight to noon, a full four hours, allowing everyone to rest and regain their energy.

They were not nervous about the impending war, and some even went to swim in the Baiyang River.

The freezing cold river water made the man shiver. After reaching the shore, he tucked his buttocks together like a quail, causing the soldiers around him who had woken up early to laugh at him.

Zhu Qiyue was also a member of the mocking team, but soon he could no longer laugh.

"Beep--"

The shrill whistle sounded again, and Zhu Qiyue subconsciously put his hand on the pistol at his waist.

He looked in the direction of the whistle, and through the tents, he saw a group of Ming cavalry galloping along the mountain path on the east side of the valley.

They rushed into the rammed earth camp through the gap deliberately left by the Ming army and rushed towards Chen Mao's tent.

When they arrived at the tent, Chen Mao had just finished washing up and walked out.

The Tang riders dismounted and walked to Chen Mao on foot to bow:

"My Lord, the Western invaders are coming. The gorge is too long to see clearly, but there are at least no less than 10,000 of them. They should be about 15 miles away from here. They have just entered the gorge."

"Well, you've worked hard. Go down and take a rest. There will be a battle to start later."

Chen Mao comforted him and analyzed to the several thousand-household officials beside him:
"It's about 200 miles from Turpan to here. The Western Tartar army must be galloping here day and night. They don't dare to fight with our army for now, but that may change once they have recovered."

"The army is under martial law. There may be fighting in the afternoon. Be careful of the Western Tartar army in the direction of Lou Zengmu."

"Send the military order to Zhu Qiyue, instructing him to lead his cavalry out of the camp and patrol the area ten miles north of the gorge."

"If there are any Western invaders heading south, they must be repelled and not pursued."

"Yes!" A thousand-household official bowed in response.

Soon, Chen Mao's military order reached Zhu Qiyue's ears, and after receiving the order, he immediately blew the assembly whistle and conveyed the order to his troops.

Half an hour later, they left the draft horses and riding horses in the camp, and rode out of the camp in an orderly manner along the gap.

Zhu Qiyue led a thousand cavalrymen north for five miles before starting to stand guard.

Five hundred of the one thousand cavalrymen were left behind, and the remaining five hundred were divided into five hundred households, which went to explore in several directions.

The entrance to Mohe City Gorge is 150 miles away from Lou Zengmu. In addition, they also have to prevent the Ming army from making a detour to attack the herdsmen outside the city, so they naturally cannot organize too many troops to move south.

In just one morning, Zhu Qiyue found out the number of Western Tartar troops in the north of the gorge.

"About 4,000 men, more than before, but half of them have no armor. It seems that the herdsmen were conscripted to fight on horseback."

Zhu Qiyue sat in a makeshift tent, sorting out his thoughts based on the intelligence sent from the front, while writing a letter to Chen Mao to tell him about the situation here.

Guo Deng was kept in the camp by Chen Mao. It was obvious that Chen Mao believed that Zhu Qiyue could manage the thousand cavalrymen without Guo Deng.

In this case, it would be better to transfer Guo Deng back and have him guard the gorge well.

Time passed little by little, and not long after Zhu Qiyue sent the information back to the gorge, a horn sounded from the gorge behind.

"Uuuuuu——"

The sound of the horn was melodious but very frequent. The moment he heard it, Zhu Qiyue picked up his pocket watch and opened it to check.

"15:45 PM. It looks like they only rested for three hours before continuing on their journey."

Zhu Qiyue made a judgment based on the time. The centurion beside him bowed and said, "Captain, should we send someone to ask Ningyang Bo if he needs our help?"

"No need!" Although Zhu Qiyue was young, he was influenced by Zhu Di and not only understood military affairs, but also understood how to employ people.

"Ningyang Bo is a famous veteran on the battlefield. If he needs my help, he will definitely send someone to come."

"Before any transfer order is issued, I only need to guard against the four thousand Western bandits in the north..."

"Beep--"

Before Zhu Qiyue finished his words, a shrill wooden whistle sounded outside the tent.

"coming!"

Zhu Qiyue quickly stood up and walked out. Although he was only fourteen years old, thanks to the excellent genes of the Zhu and Guo families, he was more than five feet and five inches tall.

The armor he was wearing was the cloth armor that the Ming army was currently replacing. Due to advances in iron smelting technology, the weight of the cloth armor had dropped to about twenty kilograms.

Compared with the lattice armor that used to weigh more than 50 kilograms, cloth armor is lighter and more suitable for the guerrilla tactics of the Ming army.

"Captain, the northern barbarians are heading south, and many of the hundred-households have been driven south. Please come and report!"

Not long after Zhu Qiyue walked out of the tent, he saw three Tang riders riding towards him. They stopped their horses and bowed five or six steps in front of him, reporting the military situation.

"Okay, tell the brothers to mount their horses and prepare for battle. There are only four thousand Western barbarians. Follow me to fight the enemy, earn military merit, and return home to bring honor to your family!"

"it is good!!"

Zhu Qiyue shouted loudly to the people around him, and the Ming soldiers who were walking out from all directions cheered when they heard his words.

Soon, under the encouragement of Zhu Qiyue, five hundred cavalrymen mounted their horses and prepared for battle, while billowing dust appeared in the north.

"Crack, crackle -"

The five hundred released scouts had been driven together by the Western Tartars. At this moment they were taking turns firing, but they had no time to reload their ammunition.

"Send a signal with the flag, and tell them to go south to load the explosives. We will take over!"

Zhu Qiyue saw the situation of both sides without a telescope and gave decisive orders.

The centurions followed his instructions and all of them raised their muskets, which were loaded with ammunition, on the saddles as Zhu Qiyue shook the reins.

"Brothers, follow my banner. Don't fight too long. The Western Tartars have big heads. We may not be able to kill them all!"

"Yes!!"

Zhu Qiyue led his troops upstream while boosting the morale of the soldiers around him.

As the command flag was waved, the 500 cavalrymen heading south quickly bypassed Zhu Qiyue and his men and went to the rear to station their horses and load ammunition.

Zhu Qiyue did not choose to attack head-on, but instead led his troops to detour to the right wing of the Western Tartar cavalry.

Although there were more than 4,000 people, the Western Tartar cavalry were still a little panicked when they saw the sudden appearance of 500 Ming cavalry. They subconsciously prepared to stop Zhu Qiyue, which was exactly what Zhu Qiyue wanted.

He led 500 cavalrymen and advanced under a hail of arrows. Since the Ming army's horses had vests on the front, they were not afraid of the rain of arrows.

After charging forward for more than twenty steps under the rain of arrows, they pulled the trigger when they were less than thirty steps away from the Western Tartars and turned around to return the same way.

After a round of volleys, dozens of Western captives fell off their horses, and many more were shot and fell on their horses.

They had no armor and could not defend themselves against the Ming army's lances.

This is true for carbines, not to mention spears.

"Retreat, keep your distance, station your horses and spears 200 steps away, and wait for my order to fire!"

Zhu Qiyue was lying on the horse's back, feeling as if he had been hit by several arrows. He was panicking and could not help but turn his head and ask the captain beside him guiltily: "Did I get shot in the back?"

He had just finished speaking when he saw a rain of arrows falling. Not only did he feel the pain on his back again, but he also saw that the captain next to him was hit by seven or eight arrows on his back.

"bingo!"

Upon hearing this, the centurion stretched out his hand and with just a little effort he pulled out the arrows from the cloth armor one by one.

"Don't worry, Captain. With our armor on our backs, these arrows won't do us any harm. All we need to do is wear our visors properly."

The centurion comforted Zhu Qiyue, and Zhu Qiyue's dark face hidden under the visor turned red. He focused all his attention on commanding the army to attack the Western Tartar cavalry back and forth.

Under his command, the Ming army used the long spears on their backs to attack from a distance and used carbines to attack from close range.

It was with these three attacks that more than 4,000 Western Tartar cavalry were forcibly held back by these 1,000 men.

In less than two quarters of an hour, the Western Tartar cavalry led by Lou Zengmu could not bear the casualties and fled in panic, leaving behind seven or eight hundred corpses.

Looking at their fleeing backs, Zhu Qiyue breathed a sigh of relief and at the same time couldn't help but tighten his grip on the carbine in his hand.

He did not think that it was his own ability that enabled him to defeat the 4,000 Western Tartar cavalry. If real credit was to be given, it should be the flintlock muskets they carried on their backs and the carbines on their waists.

"This musket is so useful..." Feeling the power of the flintlock, Zhu Qiyue clicked his tongue a few times and couldn't help but think of the tanks and machine guns in the Imperial College.

In just a moment, he imagined himself sitting in a tank, sweeping across the enemy with a machine gun.

"We have to find a way to get these two things out..."

(End of this chapter)