Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 671 Just give up when you’re ready
"Kill!"

The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty could be said to have been shouting all the way, and it was not known whether they really had the courage to engage in close combat with the enemy. However, under the herd mentality, they shouted a few times until their voices became hoarse, and then they seemed to be less afraid.

More people were excited by the slogans and rushed forward regardless of anything. They had only one thought in their minds, which was to catch up with the Tatars and earn military merit.

Although the Tatar cavalry moved faster, they were carrying a lot of treasure when they harvested this small tribe this time. To put it bluntly, they robbed and harvested wealth along the way. To make fire and cook along the way, they had to prepare pots, pans, firewood and other things. This was a "life-style war mode". To put it bluntly, they came to the Ming border just to plunder some winter supplies and had no intention of driving straight in and attacking Datong and Xuanfu town.

They just disturbed the Ming Dynasty's border, took advantage of any opportunity, fled when they encountered a tough opponent, and tried not to increase their own consumption.

This led to many of them not coming on war horses, but on heavier pack horses, so that they could carry all their belongings on the horses' backs, and they would feel very uncomfortable if they lost them at this moment.

Mo Bei's family was already so poor that they could barely make ends meet, and his wife and children were waiting for the fruits of their looting to live on. But he threw away the pots, bowls and food he had looted?
A big iron pot is enough to exchange for several livestock on the grassland. But the grassland is poor in resources and very backward in iron smelting and handicrafts, and the Ming Dynasty does not open border markets for them to trade, so now they can only live on the belongings passed down from their ancestors.

Good iron has to be used to make weapons and protect the tribe. Now the iron pot is their life and they will not abandon it even if they are beaten to death.

As there were too many things on the horses' backs and they were in a panic, they ran slowly and were actually pressed by the Ming Dynasty's vanguard cavalry behind them, which broke up their formation step by step.

As for the team of carts, donkeys, mules and other livestock behind, they were also chasing closely. Even if they had to run on their own two legs, they did not want to fall behind. After all, even the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty's Beijing Camp knew that there might only be one chance in their lifetime to go into battle and kill the enemy. If they did not seize the opportunity to earn military merit, they would regret it for the rest of their lives.

More importantly, after returning, I can brag to those comrades who did not come to the Northwest with me.

Back then, I was chasing the Tatars outside the Great Wall, chasing the four-legged ones with my two legs, riding on my cavalry, and marching across the battlefield...

The Tatar soldiers thought that I couldn't steal it, but I couldn't lose money either.

The Ming officers and soldiers, thinking that they would chase after others so that they could brag about it when they returned, started this strange chase.

……

……

Chasing is chasing, after all, the Ming side is mainly composed of infantry, and many of the animals were temporarily unloaded from the convoys transporting cloth and cannot be used for military purposes at all.

Before long, many people, because they were too tired or simply didn't want to risk their lives, turned to the herdsmen's camp.

Although the heads of the fallen Tatars were chopped off and hung around their waists, there were still injured and captured Tatars who needed to be "guarded" to prevent the Tatar prisoners from counterattacking. Then there was a strange situation where there were only eighteen prisoners in the camp, but they were guarded by four or five hundred people.

Li Zisheng and Qin Chang also rushed to the camp as soon as possible.

For a soldier, military merit is the most important thing. Those who have a head can now sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor, while those who don’t have one want to pursue the Tatars and get their head to bring honor to their family.

But for the main commanders Li Zisheng and Qin Chang, as long as there are heads and prisoners in the camp, they will have completely completed their mission.

"grown ups!"

Zhu Yu, a captain in Pianguan Town, saw from afar that there were guards escorting a group into the camp, and he knew that Li Zisheng had arrived. He ran to Li Zisheng in a hurry, personally held the reins of the horse, and helped Li Zisheng dismount.

After Li Zisheng got off the horse, perhaps because the horse was shaken too violently before, he couldn't stand steadily for a while. His legs couldn't help but turn outward, and he felt a pain in his legs.

While stretching his body, hoping to recover as soon as possible, he asked, "How many Tartars were killed?"

Qin Chang followed suit and got off the horse. There was no one to support him, so he had to get off the horse little by little by himself. His mood instantly became bad.

But he had one good thing. His body was impaired, so he could walk normally. He approached and said in a weird tone, "Minister Li, should we first care about the safety of the soldiers? And the development of the battle in front? How can you ask directly how many enemies you have killed?"

Li Zisheng smiled indifferently and said, "Eunuch Tan, the number of enemies killed is directly related to the size of military merit. Don't you want to earn military merit?"

"I'm different from you..."

Qin Chang's stinky face was deliberately shown to Zhu Yu.

You snobs, when you first met us, you were quite resentful of Li Zisheng's bossing around, and were even unwilling to obey the transfer orders. But now looking at your fawning faces, I really want to slap you in the face.

Why don't you call him "father-in-law" first, but "sir"?
Don’t you know that theoretically my status is much higher than Li Zisheng’s?
Zhu Yu said: "My Lord, eunuch, congratulations, this time we beheaded 22 people and captured 18 more."

Qin Chang's eyes widened upon hearing this, and he asked in surprise, "Forty enemies were killed? They only had a few people in total, so many? Did they also include the frontier herdsmen who were shot to death by the Tartars' rain of arrows in the camp?"

This number obviously exceeded Qin Chang's imagination.

After all, the Ming Dynasty fought so many wars with the Tatars. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, seven or eight people could be beheaded in one battle, which would go down in history.

If more than ten enemies were killed, it would be considered a great victory. Killing more than a hundred enemies at a time was something that only Wang Yue achieved in the several large-scale battles he launched during the Chenghua period.

"No."

Zhu Yu quickly explained, “Before, some soldiers did want to include the heads of the dead herdsmen, but they were stopped in time after they were discovered!

"After the Tartars entered the camp this time, many of them were knocked off their horses by the muskets. The eighteen captives were also seriously injured and may not survive tonight."

Li Zisheng couldn't help but glare at Qin Chang, as if blaming him.

Look at you, now that I have finally achieved military merit, you are still questioning it here?
What's there to be confused about?

Many of what they said are not groundless. When the time comes, if we bring the heads and prisoners back and let the Censor-in-Chief examine them, won't everything be clear?
As for whether it is the head of a Tartar or a herdsman...

Hey, as long as it's a foreign man's head, they have a special hairstyle, it's easy to pass. You have to remember that our purpose here is not to care about the details, but to earn military merit honestly.

Li Zisheng asked with concern: "Did all the Tartars flee? Did they leave behind any guard? Can we catch up with them?"

Zhu Yu said: "Brothers are chasing them relentlessly, but judging from the situation, the Tartars are running too fast and it is difficult to catch up... Their central army had already rushed to support us halfway, but when they saw our ambush troops rushing out, they knew they were no match for them and turned around to flee. If everything goes well, we should be able to gain some military merits."

"do not!"

Qin Chang hurriedly advised, "Let's call it a day and call it a day."

Li Zisheng was a little unhappy and asked, "How can this be done? This battle is the first direct confrontation with the Tatars since the new emperor ascended the throne. We must show the invincibility of the Ming army so that the Tatars will not dare to invade again! Chase them if you can, and turn back if you can't."

Qin Chang tried to persuade him earnestly: "Lord Li, we can't dance on the edge of a knife... If we encounter the main force of the Tartars later, they will reorganize their formation and suddenly attack us. Perhaps few of us will be able to return to the pass alive."

Li Zisheng nodded repeatedly as if he suddenly thought of something. "Yes, yes, yes, what Eunuch Tan said reminded me... Zhang Guozhang's handwritten letter mentioned that we should not be too hasty in dealing with things. The Tatars are coming with great force. There may not be only a few hundred people in front of us. There may be thousands or even tens of thousands of Tatar soldiers in the future."

The Tatars sent troops to invade the border of the Ming Dynasty and destroyed Piantou Pass, an important border town among the Nine Frontiers, in one fell swoop. Even if the Ming border troops suffered minimal losses in this war, it was enough to show that the number of Tatar troops was definitely more than the few hundred people in front of them, and there must be a main force of the Tatars behind them.

Of course, the number will not be too exaggerated.

If there really was an army of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, since they had successfully destroyed the Piantou Pass in history, why not just attack into the interior, wreak havoc on Datong, Xuanfu and other places, and even threaten the capital? Perhaps this war would have become a tragedy in the early years of Hongzhi, and the "Hongzhi Restoration" in history books would have started in shame.

Zhu Yu asked curiously, "Are you really... not going to chase her anymore?"

Li Zisheng did not answer but asked: "Should we follow past practice and pursue them to the end?"

"That's true, but actually..."

Zhu Yu almost said it out loud, it was you big guys from the capital who would send troops to chase after the Tatar army even though you knew that the Tatar army was not seriously injured.

If it were us...

By now the Tartar's head had been captured, and no one was willing to continue fighting.

After all, this was not a major military operation of the Ming Dynasty. To have such an achievement could be said to be something that the soldiers on the border would wake up smiling in their dreams.

Li Zisheng said: "Clean up the battlefield and withdraw the troops to the Pianguan line. We will camp inside Pianguan tomorrow night."

"It's a bit far..."

Zhu Yu reminded.

"It's a long way to go."

Li Zisheng said, "After this battle, the Tatars will not dare to attack again after hearing that we have won! My job in the northwest is not only to deter the Tatars, but also to spread your majesty's grace to all the frontiers in the northwest. It's not that I am afraid of fighting, but because I... care about your majesty's grace."

When Zhu Yu heard this, he was a little stunned.

The fires in some places on the battlefield haven't been put out yet, and you're telling me such big truths?
The point is, I don’t understand it either.

Is this the spirit that I, a hundred households, should understand and learn?

Qin Chang urged, "What are you waiting for? Call your people back! And let the troops retreat! Our words don't work, are you going to ignore what Lord Li said?"

(End of this chapter)