I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 965 Extra
April, summer of the 20th year of Wanli.

Ban Chao City.

The city was originally called Tsaritsyn. It was built by the Principality of Moscow in the 16th year of Wanli to resist attacks and harassment from the armies of the Ming Dynasty's vassal states, the Crimean Khanate and the Astrakhan Khanate on Moscow and the hinterland west of the Volga River.

Countless manpower and material resources were spent to build Tsaritsyn into a solid fortress, which also blocked the Crimean Khanate and Astrakhan Khanate from advancing northward.

In the summer of the 19th year of Wanli, the Ming army, which had been lingering in the Wuhe (Ural River) basin for more than ten years, suddenly attacked, crossed the Fuhe River, and captured the castle in just two days.

It was renamed Ban Chao City, and at the same time, hundreds of thousands of Slavic prisoners of war were mobilized to build a railway from the lower reaches of the Wu River to the estuary of Zhang Tang City, an important castle in the northern part of the Caspian Sea.

The trial run was completed only last month.

Today, the Banchaocheng Railway Station is under tight security. Thousands of soldiers in field-gray uniforms, carrying Type 05 rifles and wearing steel helmets, stand solemnly in various places, forming human walls.

Dozens of officers stood on the platform, led by Qi Jiguang, who was wearing the uniform of a general of cavalry and carrying four large golden five-pointed stars on his shoulders.

He is now the commander-in-chief of Fuwudusi.

Standing behind him was a general in his thirties wearing the uniform of a lieutenant general. He was Xiao Ruxun, deputy commander-in-chief of the Fuwudusi and commander of the front-line command.

Others include General Xue Yi, Chief of Staff of the Dusi, Song Yaoshi, Chief of Staff of the Front Command, Wu Dui, Director of Political Work of the Dusi, and Li Hualong, Deputy Director.

People stood in twos and threes, talking to each other from time to time.

Ten minutes later, a train came from a distance and slowly puffed its way into the train station.

Everyone's expressions became very solemn, and they stood in order according to their military rank and position.

The train slowly stopped at the platform. After more than ten seconds, the carriage door opened and several officers got off. They saluted Qi Jiguang and others, and then stood aside.

Then, Zhu Yijun, wearing an army summer uniform without epaulettes and armbands, also got off the train.

Two months ago, he took a train to tour Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai and Kunming provinces, and also went to the Central Plains region and Mengchi Province, which was renamed from the Chuhe region.

Then we headed west along the Aral Sea North Railway, passed Zhang Tang City, and arrived at Ban Chao City.

After getting off the car, he shook hands with Qi Jiguang and others one by one.

"Yuan Jing, you've worked hard."

"Your Majesty, this is my duty. I dare not say it is hard."

Looking at Qi Jiguang with gray hair on his temples, Zhu Yijun felt emotional.

At the end of the eleventh year of Wanli, Tan Lun died of illness, in the first half of the fifteenth year of Wanli, Li Chunfang died of illness, in the second half of the year, Zhang Juzheng died of illness, and in the nineteenth year of Wanli, Yu Dayou died.

The group of people who fought against the Japanese invaders and defended their country in the southeast have gradually died off, leaving only a handful of people.

"You and Lord Daichuan are both old and vigorous. You insisted on coming to the western front. Lord Daichuan is seventy years old and insisted on taking turns to go to Genxunzhou, saying that it was the territory conquered by the navy for the Ming Dynasty and he must see it with his own eyes."

Zhu Yijun held Qi Jiguang's hand and said, "After this battle, return home to live out your days in glory and give the opportunity to the young people."

Qi Jiguang nodded: "As ordered!"

Next, Zhu Yijun introduced his entourage.

"This is Fang Fengshi, the Minister of State Affairs and Director of the Civilization Committee. This is Liu Yupu, the Left Prime Minister. This is Song Yingchang, the Right Prime Minister. This is Ye Mengxiong, the Right Prime Minister and Director of the General Political Work Department.
You all know him.

And this troublemaker is my eldest daughter and her husband Yan Yikuan."

Ban Chao City has now become a huge military camp and material transfer center. Zhu Yijun and his party entered the Dusi Yamen, took a short rest, and immediately held a meeting in the War Hall.

"I received a telegram in Mengchi saying that the situation here is tense.

Ji Xin, tell me, how nervous you are! "

"Yes, sir." Xiao Ruxun stood in front of a large map, took a long, thin wooden pole, and began to explain.

“Ever since the two railways connecting the north and south of our Ming Dynasty to the Wuhe River Basin were completed, we have been operating in the Xuanhe, Kipchak Steppe and Wuhe areas to accumulate strength.

At the same time, in coordination with the armies of the Crimean Khanate and the Astrakhan Khanate, they launched a small-scale offensive to the west in divisions.

The small-scale attack by the Ming Dynasty was too much for the Principality of Moscow to withstand.

One division with three infantry regiments, an artillery regiment, a rocket artillery regiment, plus the cavalry of the Crimean Khanate and the Astrakhan Khanate was like a mountain of pressure for the Principality of Moscow.

Over the past decade, not only did they lose the former territories of the Kazan Khanate and the Siberian Khanate east of Oshan that they had previously occupied, but they also lost a large area of ​​territory in the Oshan River basin west of Oshan.

Ivan IV, a great ruler and the first Tsar, died of depression in the 13th year of the Wanli reign, and his death was very miserable.

His son Feodor I ascended the throne and has also been in a state of great trouble in recent years.

Xiao Ruxun continued.

"The Principality of Moscow has been compressed by us into a narrow strip of land west of the Volga River, centered on the city of Moscow. It can be said that it is at the critical moment of life and death.

In recent years, Grand Duke Feodor I of Moscow has been mediating with the western countries, denouncing us as "the second westward expedition of the Mongols" and "another scourge of God, destroying the Christian world", and calling on the western countries to send troops and join hands with them to fight against us.

Previously, the reactions of the western countries were mixed, with most of them only providing partial assistance in terms of military equipment and food supplies.

Since we captured Ban Chao City last year, we built Ma Yuan City at the mouth of the Don River, reaching the Black Sea region and shocking the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the west of the Black Sea.

Especially the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In recent years, they have taken advantage of the fact that Moscow was being suppressed by us and have frequently attacked from the west, encroaching on large tracts of Moscow’s land.”

Xiao Ruxun pointed at them one by one on the map.

“Now they finally had a sense of urgency and mobilized quickly.

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania is a loose state composed of dozens of nobles, and the elected Grand Duke is only their nominal leader. Currently, many nobles in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania regard the King of Poland as their leader.

This time they mobilized 100,000 troops, including 6,000 knights."

The crowd was shocked.

After dealing with the Western Barbarians for such a long time, I have a clear understanding of the situation there.

The knights in Western countries were completely different from the cavalry of the Ming Dynasty. They were similar to centurions or centurions, and were small nobles with territories and subjects. They provided their own horses and armor, as well as knight servants. In the wars against the Western Barbarians, they were able to defeat a hundred enemies alone.

Zhu Yijun nodded: "It seems that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania has invested a lot of money."

"Your Majesty is wise. Six thousand knights have basically mobilized all the nobles and manpower of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania."

Xiao Ruxun paused and continued.

"The Kingdom of Poland mobilized 50,000 troops and 3,000 knights. Among them were 1,500 Polish Hussars, also known as the Polish Winged Hussars."

"Polish Hussars?"

“Yes, Your Majesty, this is a heavy cavalry, the men and horses are wearing armor, and there are two winged flags behind the cavalry, which is highly defensive and very imposing.

During the Hundred Years' War against the Grand Duchy of Moscow, they defeated the cavalry of the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the light cavalry of the Crimean Khanate many times.

"Yes, I think we won't be too lonely in this battle."

Zhu Yijun nodded.

“In addition, since the elected Polish King Sigismund III was the son of Swedish King John III, the Kingdom of Sweden also sent 23,000 soldiers, including 3,000 musketeers.

The Kingdom of Denmark and Norway, which had been at war with the Kingdom of Sweden for decades and had only signed an armistice a few years ago, also sent 21,000 soldiers to support the Kingdom of Sweden for unknown reasons. In addition, the Christian kingdoms such as the Prussian Knights and the German Confederation also sent troops to support the Kingdom of Sweden under the slogan of defending the Christian world.

Together with the 100,000 soldiers of the Principality of Moscow who have gathered all the young and strong men in the country, the total strength of the Western Barbarians coalition army is now as high as 350,000."

When they heard this number, instead of panicking, everyone in the operations hall became excited.

The more troops you have, the more fun the battle will be!
Finally, we can have it all in one go.

“Currently, the Christian coalition forces are distributed in the middle reaches of the Don River, which is about 160 kilometers long from south to north.

On the other hand, our army concentrated twelve field divisions and ten cavalry divisions of the Wuqi Army, with a total of 75,000 infantry and 55,000 cavalry.

There were also vassal troops, and the cavalry of the Crimean Khanate and the Astrakhan Khanate numbered about 50,000.

Among them, we concentrated 300 Type 07 heavy machine guns, 120 Type 10 80mm rapid-fire guns, and 40 Type 12 eight-barrel rocket launchers.
This will also be the first actual combat of the Type 10 rapid-fire gun and the Type 12 eight-barrel rocket launcher."

The Type 10 80mm rapid-fire gun is a self-resetting cannon. Its shells are made of smokeless gunpowder, and its combat part is loaded with yellow explosive.

The Type 12 eight-barrel rocket launcher is the first generation Katyusha, and the caliber of the rocket is 130 mm.

The Ming Dynasty was an ancient country that was known for its rockets, so naturally they put a lot of effort into rocket launchers and developed this rocket launcher with extremely terrifying firepower.

"After our army's repeated attempts to attack, we fought five times, won three small victories, and lost two small defeats. We finally attracted the Western Yi coalition forces. Currently, their main force of about 270,000 people is located here."

Xiao Ruxun pointed on the map, "The area with a radius of 11 kilometers is centered on a small town called Mikhailov. Their goal should be to attack our outpost fortress on the Iretz River, a tributary of the Don River, and Ire City.
The front-line command has decided to launch a decisive battle in the area north of Yilei City."

After Xiao Ruxun finished speaking, Zhu Yijun glanced at everyone.

"Everyone, I came here just to observe.

How to fight this battle is entirely up to you to plan and command. I will never interfere. You should not have any burden. Just fight the way you should.

But I want to remind you, never be proud and complacent. We should despise the enemy strategically, but take the enemy seriously tactically.

We can’t let our guard down just because weapons are advanced. No matter how advanced the weapons are, they still need people to operate them…”

Everyone responded in unison: "We obey your order!"

The 1590th year of the Wanli reign, the th year of the Tongli calendar*, was the early morning of April th, summer of in the Western calendar.

The fog was so thick that the endless fields to the north of Ire City, an outpost fortress on the Ire River, were shrouded in a veil, with visibility less than ten meters.

Seventeen kilometers to the north, there is a manor. Hundreds of nobles stand on the hill outside the manor, holding up some new and some old Ming-style monocular telescopes, trying hard to search for enemies in the morning mist.

But it was all in vain, they could see nothing.

But this group of nobles remained full of confidence.

One noble, still reeking of alcohol, waved his fists and shouted.

"The Ming people have muskets, and so do we!

The Ming people have cannons, and so do we!
The Ming Dynasty has cavalry, and so do we!

The Ming Dynasty has courage, and so do we!

The Ming Dynasty has no God, but we do!"

A series of "Ura" sounds rang out, echoing throughout the wilderness.

Polish King Sigismund III was even more eager to try, but his Prime Minister Jan Zamoyski stopped him.

Sigismund III was very unhappy: "We have great Polish Winged Hussars who can break through any enemy position. We also have the musketeers brought by my father, a total of 3,000 people!
Together with the Danes, Brandenburg, Bohemia, Bavaria, and Hungary's musketeers, there are a total of 20,000 people. We are no worse than the Ming people, so what are we afraid of!"

Over the past decade, the Ottoman Empire, as an ally of the Ming Dynasty, has purchased more than 100,000 Longqing Type 2 smoothbore rifles.

With the support of the Ming Dynasty's navy and marines, King Jose I of Portugal annexed Spain and established the Kingdom of Iberia, and also purchased nearly 100,000 rifles.

Then they started to imitate it themselves. Due to the material problem, it was definitely not as good as the original, but it was good enough.

Relying on these 200,000 Longqing Type 2 smoothbore rifles, the Ottoman Empire and Iberia swept across Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, respectively.

During this time, they also resold original and homemade smoothbore rifles, totaling nearly 100,000. Now, if the armies of European countries did not have a musket army consisting of thousands of smoothbore rifles, you would be embarrassed to say hello when you go out.

Since the Ming Dynasty did not have a direct conflict with most European countries, the beaten Principality of Moscow had to swallow its anger and accept the defeat. The real situation was nine out of ten false and one out of ten true. Therefore, most European countries believed that their weapons and equipment were inferior to those of the Ming Dynasty, but not big, and they could make up for it by relying on their numerical advantage.

From this we can see that European countries are rapidly becoming Indianized according to Zhu Yijun's plan, and now even their thinking patterns are becoming increasingly similar to those of India's third brother.

So Sigismund III's words were the mainstream thinking of the European nobles present.

Jan Zamoyski continued to persuade earnestly: "Your Majesty, things are not that simple. The Ming Dynasty has many secrets that we don't know."

"What secrets could there be? Everything will be clear after a battle! This is Europe, God's place! We, the loyal people, will make sure those damn pagans never return!"

The sun rose and quickly drove away the morning mist, and everything became very clear and transparent.

Many nobles of the European coalition forces held up binoculars and looked at the Ming army's positions. After taking a closer look, they burst into laughter.

"coward!"

"A coward who can only hide underground!"

"You honorless bastards! We will send you back to hell!"

The morale of the coalition nobles was boosted, and they began to issue orders impatiently.

Teams of soldiers carrying muskets lined up in rows and marched forward with their heads held high, following the flags, in neat steps to the sound of drums and flutes.

Europeans were indeed good at learning, especially advanced warfare techniques, and they learned from the Ottomans and Portuguese how to use muskets to their full potential.

They lined up in three dense rows, then walked within fifty meters, raised their guns and opened fire on each other until one side collapsed, and the other side raised their bayonets and rushed forward to win the final victory.

Hundreds of artillery pieces were also firing.

Some of these cannons were purchased from the Ottomans through Venice, while others were cast by themselves.

However, the distance was too far, and the roar of the artillery fire seemed more like a cheer for the infantry and cavalry to attack.

After two rounds, it stopped.

An hour later, tens of thousands of musketeers were densely deployed in front of the Ming army's positions, with the closest one no more than one kilometer away.

There were also nearly 100,000 ordinary soldiers, carrying spears, equipped with swords and axes, and carrying bows and crossbows, arranged in square formations, following the musketeers.

Suddenly, the entire battlefield erupted in thunderous cheers.

Ulla!

A team of heavy cavalry with winged flags on their backs and fully armored appeared on the battlefield.

Polish Winged Hussars!
*******
The new book "Tianqi Ming Dynasty" is about another good grandson of the Ming Dynasty, the grandson of Emperor Wanli, Emperor Tianqi.

Everyone is welcome to taste it.

(End of this chapter)