I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 45: Finding the Prey

Baduer, also known as Baduer Huang Taiji, was the leader of the right-wing Duoluo Tuman tribe. He had always followed Altan Khan like his right-hand man.

His ranch was located in the northeast of Pianguan, Shanxi, far away from the capital.

This time, he came all the way to help Huang Taiji, hoping to make a fortune in the prosperous Ming Dynasty capital.

After breaking through the border for more than a month, Ba Duer gained very little and was very disappointed.

He looked at Xianghe County in the distance.

These cities are treasures.

As long as they break open its hard shell, they will find enough people, food, money and cloth inside to bring themselves and their seven thousand subordinates a bountiful harvest.

But Ba Duer knew that it would be difficult to break it open in a short time with his own ability.

This is the capital, where the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty resides. It is heavily guarded and if you are not careful you will be surrounded here and will never be able to return to the grassland.

Ba Duer had just received a report from Xin Ai saying that the troops from Xuanda and Liaodong had arrived, and more Ming reinforcements were on the way, so it was time to withdraw.

Baduer was unwilling to give up, but he also knew that it was time to retreat. The soldiers in Jizhou Town were sheep, but the Ming troops in Xuanda and Liaodong were jackals. With so many of them, even the bravest of them could not resist.

Just as he was about to order the entire army to retreat north, several cavalrymen came running from the south.

The leader was none other than Badu'er's trusted henchman, Tuso, who had been sent out in the morning to find out the surrounding situation.

"Huang Taiji!"

"what happened?"

"We found a group of fat sheep! Big fat sheep!" Tuso said excitedly.

Badu'er's eyes lit up and he quickly asked, "Where?"

"Forty miles to the south, next to the Ming canal. There is a fleet of dozens of ships. There are hundreds of carriages on the shore, slowly coming north."

"The carriage? On the east or west bank of the canal?"

"On the east coast! East coast!" Tuso answered excitedly.

The east coast, that means we have to rely on our own side.

What a God-given opportunity!
Badu'er's eyes were as big as light bulbs, and he was extremely happy, but his years of combat experience made him alert.

"How many escorts are there?"

"There are several thousand of them, all infantry. Even if they have horses, they are pack horses, horses for pulling carts. They can't outrun us horses on the grassland."

Ba Duer quickly called all his leaders together and informed them of Tuso's discovery.

Several leaders shouted with excitement, wishing they could rush over immediately.

"Huang Taiji, our men have traveled thousands of miles from the pasture to come here to rob as many people and money as possible. But more than a month has passed, and everyone's bags are still empty, and the carriages carrying money and people are empty."

"Yes, Huang Taiji, if we go back empty-handed like this, we will be laughed to death by the people from other tribes."

There were two or three other leaders who remained calm.

"Huang Taiji, why did a team transporting money and food appear at this time? Is there a trick?"

"Yes! Huang Taiji, the southern barbarians are cunning, we must not fall for their tricks!"

Other leaders immediately refuted.

"What kind of trick? We have been keeping the horses here for a month, and the canal has been cut off for a month. Didn't you hear people say that the largest city in the west has a population of over a million?"

"Oh my god, with a population of over a million, how much food and sheep do they need every day? It seems that all of it needs to be transported from the south. They can't stand being without food for a month."

"Yes! The Tumed tribe that had rushed south ahead of us turned around and headed east. The southern barbarians must have thought we were retreating north, so they started to transport money and food."

"Huang Taiji, what are you afraid of! They only have a few thousand infantrymen, and we have 7,000 cavalrymen. Are you afraid that we can't defeat them? Even if they have an ambush, we can turn our horses around and let them eat dust behind their horses' buttocks." "Yes, let them eat dust behind their horses' buttocks!"

Everyone laughed, and the air was filled with confidence and lightness.

Seeing that everyone's opinions were gradually reaching a consensus, Baduer raised his whip and struck down hard!
"Alright! Let's get going right away. Let's rob this caravan carrying money and food and give it a good smuggling!"

The leaders returned to their respective units and told their men the good news, and excited howls of ghosts and wolves were heard everywhere.

After a while, the whole earth shook, and thousands of cavalrymen poured out from different directions, quickly gathering into three torrents and sweeping southward.

In the distance, on the city wall of the south gate of Xianghe County, the magistrate, county magistrate, chief clerk and other officials leaned out from behind the wall tremblingly, looked at the thousands of northern barbarian cavalry going away, with expressions of ecstasy at surviving a disaster on their faces, and fell to the ground and kowtowed to the God.

"God bless!"

"We escaped again!"

After the magistrate finished his greeting, he pulled the county magistrate and the chief clerk and whispered, "We will draft a document right away, saying that our organization was effective and our defense was effective, and that more than 10,000 northern barbarians returned empty-handed in Xianghe County. Report it, report it as soon as possible!"

"County Master, are you a little anxious?" said the chief clerk.

"What's the hurry? No hurry! The Northern Tartar cavalry surrounded Xianghe for five or six days and suddenly withdrew, either heading north or south. This means they found new prey. I don't know who will be unlucky.

If we don’t report it quickly, and the higher-ups want to find someone to take the blame, we will be in trouble if we know about it but don’t report it, or just sit there and do nothing.”

The county magistrate and the chief clerk understood immediately.

"Yes! We tried our best to organize the defense of the city, fought desperately, and reported it in time afterwards. As for where the Northern Tartar went, it has nothing to do with us."

"It doesn't matter. We have done what we should do. What does it have to do with us?"

Baduer led 7,000 cavalry and quickly arrived at a place thirty miles to the south.

"Huang Taiji, look," Tuso pointed to the distance on a small hill. Dozens of ships on the canal looked like strings of fish, and hundreds of horse-drawn carriages on the east bank of the river looked like a flock of sheep.

"What a juicy prey! We just need to rush down, they will scatter in all directions, and then we can rob them to our heart's content."

Baduer raised his whip and gently hit Tuso on the back, "You little dog slave, when it comes to stealing things, you act like a wandering poet.

Well, since you have found the big fat sheep, I will allow you to be the first to choose the spoils!"

"Thank you Huang Taiji!" Tuso thanked excitedly.

"Pass the order down, split the troops into two groups, one to stop the southern barbarians' convoy from the front, and the other to go around behind them and cut off their escape route.

Tell the boys, it's not easy to come across such a group of fat sheep, let go and grab them!"

"Yes!"

Thousands of Northern Tartar cavalry responded happily.

Following the orders from the leaders, the 7,000 cavalrymen split into two groups. One group of 4,000 formed a semicircle and blocked the convoy from the front, while the other group of 3,000 made a large circle and outflanked the convoy from the rear.

Baduer, accompanied by several hundred personal soldiers, stood on a hill not far away, watching all this with great satisfaction.

The cavalry in the rear made a detour and outflanked the enemy, firing whistling arrows that penetrated the entire wilderness.

The frontal cavalry, upon receiving the news, suddenly erupted in silence. Thousands of cavalrymen, waving their sabers and making strange noises, rushed towards the convoy head-on like an overwhelming force.

The flying of horse hooves shook the earth.

The dust was flying like countless flags fluttering.

Four thousand elite cavalrymen of the Duoluo Tuman tribe roared excitedly, with excitement and greed radiating from their eyes, and pounced fiercely on their prey.

Baduer nodded with satisfaction. He seemed to see the next moment, the southern barbarians panicked and fled everywhere. Then gold, silver, jewelry, food, cloth, slaves and women, like ripe fruits, fell into his skin.

(End of this chapter)