Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 669 It All Depends on This Shiver
"Woo..."

Under the moonlight, I couldn't tell whether it was the sound of a horn or the roar of a wild beast.

The Tatar cavalry finally couldn't bear it anymore and rushed into the trap that Li Zi Province had carefully prepared for them.

Although the trap was in chaos at this time, there was one good thing, that is, the Ming soldiers in the camp did not all escape before the chaos broke out.

At least the Ming troops who set up an ambush here knew that their reinforcements were hidden in the valleys one or two miles away on both sides, including Li Zisheng, the Minister of Rites of the Ming Dynasty, and the eunuch from the Imperial Household Department.

When the Tatars finally couldn't help but rush into the camp and saw the chaotic scene before them, they all felt that their luck seemed to have changed.

With the neighing of horses' hooves, the Tatars rushed into the camp like hungry wolves, and immediately chased after the property and the women who were fleeing in all directions. As for chopping off heads and taking credit for it, they were not too anxious.

Just run away. If you run away, they won't organize themselves to fight against them, thus avoiding casualties. The subsequent pursuers will deal with them themselves.

As someone kidnapped the fleeing woman and tied her directly to the back of a horse, the remaining Tartar troops filed in through the camp gate, and no one was left guarding outside.

At this moment, the Ming soldiers hiding in the tents could not help but raise their muskets and shoot at nearby targets.

"boom!"

The sound didn't seem that abrupt!

The main reason was that there were flames all over the camp at this moment. Tall wooden frames collapsed in the fire, making a loud noise when they fell to the ground. In addition, there were the crackling sounds of burning tents and other flammable materials, as well as the crying of women and children. In this extremely noisy environment, there was a muffled sound, and no one thought it was the sound of a musket firing.

A Tatar cavalryman was shot in the chest and fell headfirst from his horse. In the light of the fire, he fell very completely. The horse seemed unable to accept the sudden loss of weight on its back. It rushed forward for a while and then suddenly stopped, kicking in place, as if asking its owner what was going on.

But its owner was already foaming at the mouth and lying on the ground, unable to get up.

"Bang bang bang..."

As more musket shots were heard, their companions fell off their horses one after another. Those who were not hit in vital parts howled in pain. The remaining Tatars finally realized that the situation was not good.

Until this point, they still hadn't figured out where the enemy was.

"kill!"

Many Ming soldiers who had finished shooting ran out from the tents where they were hiding, shouting and killing, but their feet were honest and they ran to the back.

If for no other reason, it is almost impossible for the Ming soldiers who have fired their muskets to complete reloading and then launch a second round of shooting in the current chaotic situation.

Therefore, the best option is to put the musket on your back after firing a shot, then run away to avoid the pursuit of the Tatar cavalry as much as possible, and then reload the ammunition when it is safe.

The Tatars never dreamed that they would encounter strong men from a small tribe in the northern border who knew how to fire firearms.

At first they did not realize that the Ming soldiers had ambushed them outside the Great Wall and launched a surprise attack by hiding in disguise, causing casualties... From any perspective, this was far beyond their understanding.

So after the battle started, when they found that the men who had let go of the muskets were fleeing to the rear of the camp, their first reaction was to turn their horses around and give chase. Even though they knew they would suffer losses on their side, they still wanted to carry forward the brave style of the Mongolian cavalry that had conquered Eurasia in the past, at least not to return in defeat.

But when they discovered that there were more and more musketeers hiding in the camp, their companions were shot one after another, and the enemy's firearms seemed to be endless, they finally realized that they had fallen into an ambush by the Ming army.

The remaining Tatar soldiers could only retreat in panic, not even caring about their injured companions, let alone the corpses left behind.

The Tatar soldiers who arrived later were not aware of the situation in the camp. They just saw the flames from afar. They wanted to join in the robbery quickly, hoping to make a fortune in tonight's looting. Not only could they survive this cold winter, but they could also accumulate wealth for their future lives.

So even when the second group of people discovered that the vanguard troops in front were retreating, they did not realize the huge danger before them.

However, as they got closer, they heard sporadic sounds of musketry, and they realized that the situation was not good. At this time, the Tartar reinforcements were still charging, and the first batch of remaining troops had all withdrawn. Once the two groups of troops joined together, they immediately had the confidence to break through the camp's defense line.

Scholars can be killed but not humiliated!
I have been playing with eagles all my life, is it possible that an eagle could peck out my eyes?
Especially when they found that the Ming army soldiers in the camp were generally fleeing to the rear, they felt that this was just a small probability ambush caused by their own negligence, and they could completely reverse the situation through continuous attacks later.

The Tatars have extensive experience in dealing with such situations.

The best way to deal with the firearms equipped by the Ming army is to keep your distance...

Because the Ming Dynasty's firearms generally had a short range and poor accuracy, they had almost no lethality at around a hundred steps, but the range of their bows and arrows far exceeded this distance.

So they simply stood at the edge of the camp, used the light from the fire to illuminate, and started firing missiles into the camp.

The Ming soldiers soon suffered casualties and could only find places to hide from the rain of arrows falling from the sky. The two sides fell into a stalemate of medium and long-range confrontation.

……

……

On the cols on both sides.

When Li Zisheng discovered that a war had broken out in the camp and that the Ming side had a certain advantage in the early stages of the war, what they had to do now did not even require anyone to go to the front line to command the battle. Every soldier here knew that it was time to demonstrate the military power of the Ming Dynasty.

The total number of the invading Tatars was no more than three or four hundred, and the two groups of Tatar soldiers approaching the camp together numbered only about a hundred cavalry.

There were more than four or five hundred Ming soldiers lying in ambush in the camp, and they had the first-mover advantage, but even so, they were still unable to suppress the Tatars, let alone beat them when they were down.

After suffering losses in the early stages, the Tatars were able to quickly stabilize their position and launch a counterattack, using bows and crossbows to suppress the Ming soldiers in the camp from a distance. This shows the elite level of this group of Tatar cavalry, and was also related to the fact that the Ming soldiers in the camp were not organized to charge in formation.

However, the situation on the battlefield soon reversed.

The Ming Dynasty has plenty of reinforcements.

Although the Tatars also had troops following up, their number was fixed. The Lizi Province had gathered more than 3,000 people after all. Although many of them were just supporting roles, in this dark night, a large number of troops rushed out holding torches. Who knew whether they were elite troops or just a ragtag group of soldiers?
"Kill!"

The shouts and cries of killing echoed throughout the valley.

The troops deployed by Li Zisheng on both sides of the valley rushed down from their high position at this time, with an indomitable momentum, and rushed towards the Tatar troops below.

Most of them were not cavalry, but that did not stop them from riding their animals forward. Many of them rode donkeys, or mules pulling carts loaded with soldiers.

The road for the charge was carefully selected and compacted in advance, and was relatively flat. But even so, the carts pulled by mules were still too bumpy, and many soldiers slipped to the ground. Some were shaken off the carts, while others were so dizzy that they simply jumped off on their own and charged forward on their own two legs.

The Tatars below had never seen such tactics.

Hide in the camp first to launch the first wave of attack on them, and then rush out from somewhere else?

Since you were planning to ambush us early in the morning, why didn't you ambush us inside the camp and engage us right at the start of the battle? Wouldn't that mean our advantage in archery and horsemanship would no longer exist?
What they didn't know was that Li Zisheng, Qin Chang and others didn't have a clear assessment of the situation of the invading Tatars. They were afraid that the number of the Tatars would be too large. If they attacked without knowing the consequences, there was a high possibility that they would lose all their lives.

It was because the Tatars were few in number tonight that the Ming soldiers saw an opportunity and rushed out excitedly, ready to pick up the spoils. Otherwise...

No one knows whether you should run forward or escape backward, after all, your own life is the most important thing!

(End of this chapter)