Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

"Report!"

"The Jianlu are ten miles away, led by Ajige."

A group of cavalry arrived and brought back a message.

Ever since the Jianlu left and naturalized, their movements have been monitored by the Xuanda army.

Especially after they discovered that the Jianlu were unable to defeat the Xuanda army, the Mongols who were forced to move eastward by the Jianlu often took the initiative to contact the Ming army in order to be rescued.

The elite servants sent out by Xuanda Town did rescue some people. This made the Mongols who were unwilling to move eastward resist even more fiercely, and the Jianlu could not stop them even with their wanton killings.

After Man Gui established contact with the Xuanda army, he also enjoyed this advantage. He was fully aware of the movements of the Jianlu along the way.

Upon learning that Ajige had led the Jianlu vanguard to arrive, Man Gui observed the terrain and gave the order:

"All troops dismount and line up to meet the enemy."

"Musketeers, check your muskets and wait for the order to fire."

Only some elite cavalrymen were left on their horses, and the others were treated as infantry and were driven off their horses by him.

This practice of using cavalry as infantry seemed a bit outrageous at first, but it was the conclusion Man Gui came to after experiencing many battles on the grassland:
For soldiers using muskets, shooting while dismounted was much more accurate than shooting while on horseback.

And they can use artillery without worrying about scaring the horses.

He had used this method to defeat the enemy in previous battles. Only when pursuing did he have the opportunity to use cavalry.

However, this method of warfare also has its dangers. If you cannot defeat the enemy with firearms, they may rush into your formation.

But Man Gui was not afraid of this. He believed that with the help of the bayonet formation, the soldiers under his command were still capable of fighting against the Jianlu.

Not to mention that he also had a secret weapon that could stop the Jianlu when they rushed to the front.

Thinking of this, Man Gui gave another order:
"Those carrying pistols, stand in front and load the bullets."

"The engineers went forward to lay mines and distribute grenades to the front row."

This is the weapon developed by the Equipment Department to prevent the enemy from breaking through the formation.

Not to mention the role of the revolver, grenades and mines have been improved into very practical weapons after the discovery of fulminate of mercury.

With the coordination of these three, as well as the shotgun shells equipped with various large and small artillery pieces, Man Gui could not think of any enemy that could break through the military formation. He was confident that he could defeat all enemies in field battles.

Sharing the same confidence as him are the Hu Dawei tribe.

They were also troops arranged by the imperial court on the grassland, and were equipped with new firearms.

After learning of the Jianlu's movements, even though Man Gui did not call them to arms, these soldiers, eager to make achievements, still followed.

At this time, Hu Dawei was watching the arrangement from a distance, and said angrily:

"General Man is too domineering, wanting to make a name for himself."

"Now that they have formed their formation, what should we do?"

Ai Wannian was also dissatisfied with Man Gui's intention to eat alone, but as a guard, he had some overall view and comforted him:
"General Man's formation is complete, so let's not go over and cause trouble."

"And he ordered the cavalry to dismount. This was a risky move."

"If Jianlu breaks through the army formation later, we will go up and rescue him."

"If the Jianlu flee, we will chase them."

"No matter what the outcome of the battle is, there will be a contribution!"

Hu Dawei felt better after hearing this.

However, although playing as an auxiliary in this way can be effective, it cannot be considered as the main force.

If this battle is won, Man Gui will definitely take the greatest credit.

Therefore, he was still dissatisfied with Man Gui in his heart and decided to lead an army on his own and no longer be controlled by others.

No matter what, the two of them still have to cooperate. Ai Wannian also supervised him and told him not to mess around.

Two people whose command level was lower than Man Gui took the initiative to lead their troops to cooperate with the commander Man Gui in this battle.
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On the other side, Ajige, Abatai and others led the Jianlu vanguard and had been guarding against Mangui. When Mangui discovered them, they discovered the traces of the Ming army just like Mangui.

When they first learned that Man Gui was personally leading the cavalry to block the front, they were still a little cautious. But after hearing from the spies that Man Gui had ordered the soldiers to dismount and that less than a thousand men remained on the horses, Ajige suddenly laughed in anger:
"Man Gui managed to stop us once in Jinzhou by chance, so do you think you can compare with the warriors of the Eight Banners?"

"Follow my orders and attack. Capture Man Gui alive this time!"

He led his soldiers and rushed forward first.

Abatai and others were not willing to be outdone and also rushed forward.

Obviously, they didn't think there was any enemy that could stop them, let alone in the wild.

At this moment, they all thought that Man Gui must be making a foolish move by not following Xuan Da's example and setting up camp with his army.

They were determined to annihilate this army and destroy the Ming army's courage to fight in the field.

These people rode war horses and were very fast.

Before long, they were only one mile away from Mangui.

Both sides held telescopes and were able to see each other's faces clearly.

Knowing that the Ming snipers were powerful, Ajige and others did not show up nor did they say words of persuasion to surrender. After arranging their formation, they immediately ordered a team of cavalry to charge forward.

Man Gui watched the cavalry getting closer and closer, but he did not order the cannon to fire. Because his target was not these few people, but to take advantage of the Jianlu's unfamiliarity with the new muskets and wipe out the entire army:
"Seven thousand people, close to a flag."

"If I wipe out this group of Jianlu, I can be promoted to the rank of Marquis."

"The military judge will be on duty to monitor and no one is allowed to shoot without permission."

He sent his personal guards to serve as military judges and reiterated this to the officers and soldiers.

These Dongping Guards all belonged to the Dongping Marquisate and were personally selected by Man Gui. They obeyed Man Gui's orders and were completely loyal to their master.

The victory in every battle on the grassland this year also made them very confident at this time. They hoped to obtain hereditary land by killing the captives.

Seeing the Jianlu getting closer and closer, none of these people opened fire. Apart from the cannons, they didn't even raise their muskets. They just loaded bullets into the chambers in advance.

This quiet situation made Ajige and others feel a little uneasy, but at this time the vanguard they sent out had already broken into within thirty feet of the Ming army. As long as they moved forward a little more, they could rush into the enemy formation and massacre the enemy at will.

If they cannot keep up, the vanguard rushing into the enemy camp will be surrounded by the enemy and will be defeated due to being outnumbered.

Therefore, Ajige did not bother to investigate the source of the unrest at this time, and gave the order:

"All troops, charge forward with me!"

He led thousands of soldiers and rushed forward together.

The rumbling sound made the ground shake. Some Ming soldiers who had never seen a major battle were even a little frightened, and their hands holding the muskets could not help but tremble.

Especially at this time, the Jianlu who rushed into the range of 100 meters in the front began to draw bows and shoot arrows.

Seeing this, Man Gui no longer hesitated and shouted angrily, "Ready!"

"aim!"

"shooting!"

With a burst of volleys of "bang", the Jianlu vanguard, who were under the concentrated fire of the Ming army, fell down one after another.

Some of their horses were shot dead, while others were frightened and ran around.

Then Man Gui's troops continued to fire their guns, and the soldiers scattered freely, shooting and killing the scattered enemy troops.

After a while, those Jianlu who rushed to the front first fell down one after another.

As for Man Gui's side, only one soldier accidentally sprained his ankle while dodging the arrows and had to retreat from the army formation.

Ajige and his men had never expected that the Ming army's muskets were so powerful. In just a few moments, all the vanguards he sent were killed.

If he had known earlier, he would never have ordered the entire army to charge. But it was too late to stop now, and the cavalry that had already charged could not stop at all.

He could only watch his subordinates rush to the front and then be shot and killed by another round of volleys organized by Man Gui.

The people behind did not stop and rushed forward in groups.

They were in high spirits, but the Ming army on the opposite side did not panic at all. Instead, they were all filled with joy and welcomed more such military exploits.

At this moment, the Ming army had already switched from volley fire to scattered fire. The accurate shooters using rifled muskets specialized in shooting and killing the Jianlu generals and enemies three or four hundred meters away.

Ordinary Ming troops used smoothbore muskets, using conical bullets and scatter bullets to shoot at enemies within a hundred or two hundred meters.

With their tacit cooperation, the Jianlu rarely rushed within a hundred meters, and with their only bows and arrows, they could not threaten the Ming army at all.

The Ming army's artillery, in particular, also began to bombard at this time. The shotgun shells they used had a wider killing area and could kill several enemies at a time.

This section of the assault was hopeless for the Jianlu. The Ming army shot them like Zhu Youjian shot the defenseless pheasants in Nanyuan.

For the first time, the soldiers of the Ming army enjoyed the pleasure of killing enemies like killing chickens. They wished there were more enemies like this and they could kill more of them.

But the Jian Lu on the opposite side had only 7,000 men, and under their shooting, their formation quickly became sparse. Those Jian Lu who were frightened turned their horses around and fled to the back.

Only Ajige, with red eyes, wanted to rush forward again regardless of everything.

Most of those who died just now were his subordinates. If he goes back like this, how can he maintain his position?
Upon seeing this, Abatai and others hurriedly ordered his personal soldiers to pull him down, and protected him as he retreated while avoiding the shooting of Ming army snipers.

As Ajige fled, he looked at the remaining soldiers under his command who were fleeing, and he couldn't help but feel sad.

He knew that the fifteen Niulu under his command were crippled in this battle, and his status would be no different from that of the marginalized Beile such as Dudu.

Abatai and his men were in a slightly better situation, but they also lost a lot of people. At this time, they couldn't understand why the Ming army had such a strong combat power in the field battle:

"How come Man Gui's army is completely different from Xuan Da's army?"

"Are they really all Ming troops?"

With this doubt in mind, they had no time to figure out the reason and could only run away to avoid the pursuit of the Ming army.

The shadow of this battle remained in the hearts of many Jianlu who participated in the war. All they could think of at this time was to escape, and they had no courage to fight the Ming army.

The thousand cavalrymen left by Man Gui and the cavalrymen led by Hu Dawei chased them and killed them wantonly, shooting and killing hundreds of enemies before the Jianlu completely left.

This could be considered a rare great victory in the past, but in this battle, it was undoubtedly a small achievement.

Man Gui had already ordered his soldiers to cut off heads, and the number of Jianlu heads counted alone exceeded 1.2. If the generals were included, and the military merits of the two white flags were calculated at times, the merits of the heads would definitely exceed .

At this moment, he looked at the pile of heads and laughed loudly. He knew that if he reported the results of this battle, his rank would most likely be promoted by one level.

At that time, he would be able to be promoted from earl to marquis, and truly be called the monarch of a vassal state.

The generals and soldiers of the Dongping Marquisate obviously also knew how important this battle was and how brilliant the results would be.

In this battle, they used 4,000 infantrymen and shot and killed more than 4,000 Jianlu. Almost everyone of them had the merit of taking heads and could be given land.

What made them particularly happy was that there were almost no casualties in this battle. Except for a few unlucky people who were shot by the Jianlu's bows and arrows, no one died.

They had only heard of Qi's army fighting in this kind of battle, where only a few casualties were inflicted but the enemy was almost completely wiped out. They had never thought that they would be able to experience this themselves one day.

Ai Wannian couldn't help but be shocked when he saw the results of the battle.

Because before the battle, he was not optimistic about Man Gui's choice of infantry combat, and was even prepared to go to the rescue.

Who would have thought that Man Gui had achieved this result with almost zero casualties? While he couldn't believe it, he couldn't help but wonder:
"Did we use our firearms incorrectly before?"

"Is this the correct approach, General Man?"

He and Hu Dawei's subordinates were also equipped with the new fire gun developed by the court. However, because most of their subordinates were Mongolians who had surrendered, they liked the fire gun but only regarded it as a substitute for bows and arrows.

The most practiced skill was archery on horseback, and they rarely dismounted to fight on foot, let alone form military formations.

After seeing the results of Man Gui's ordering the cavalry to dismount and fight on foot, he had to doubt that the idea of ​​using muskets to shoot on horseback was wrong, and he should imitate the arrow formation and use them as infantry.

However, looking at the cavalry sent by Man Gui to pursue, he felt that the idea of ​​​​riding and shooting might not be wrong. Otherwise, why didn't Man Gui let them all dismount and fight on foot, but also kept some people on horseback.

For a moment, his thoughts were a little confused and he didn't know how to train the army again.

But the Privy Council's observation group had no such doubts. They had organized several exercises in the capital long ago and knew which tactics would be most effective with the new muskets.

The battle of Mangui's army was just to confirm the results of the exercise. It made them understand that the emperor's idea of ​​cavalry infantry was correct. The cavalry that attacked the army was at their wits' end after being equipped with the new muskets.

No matter how powerful the cavalry is, they cannot charge into the army formation under dense firepower.

They excitedly wrote observation reports and sent back the results of the battle.

Even more excited than them were the merchants who followed the army. After seeing the result of this battle, they were even more excited than the soldiers who participated in the battle.

Because they were sure that after winning this battle, Man Gui would definitely be able to tear a piece of meat from the Jianlu.

Part of the wealth accumulated by the Mongols that the Jianlu plundered over hundreds of years will fall into their hands.

These Shanxi merchants, who had previously traded a lot with the Mongols, could not help but feel happy when they thought of the furnishings in the tents of the Mongolian dignitaries and the herdsmen and cattle and sheep that were robbed by the Jianlu.

They had never dared to think about this before, but Man Gui's brilliant victory in this battle gave them the ambition to stop the Jianlu and take the spoils.

So after the battle, they hurriedly sent a message to the rear, asking the merchants accompanying the army to quickly prepare logistical supplies to support Man Gui in continuing the fight.

Some people even proposed manufacturing weapons and producing bullets to ensure that the fighting power of Man Gui's army could be sustained.

Some people also thought of establishing territories on the grasslands in the future and supporting their own army.

With the new muskets, they were confident that they could roam the grasslands with a guard of a thousand men, and no longer had to worry about being robbed by horse thieves and small tribes.

The ambitions of these Shanxi merchants have expanded unprecedentedly. They saw an opportunity to use their own strength to allow their own caravans to travel across the grasslands.

They also support the Liaodong War next year. They hope to defeat the only threat to this point, the Jianlu, so that the entire grassland trade network will no longer be threatened. (End of this chapter)