Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 859 You fight the war, I reap the rewards

The Ming army had only about five hundred soldiers, who moved silently into the Tatar camp like stealthy night owls.

Without using firearms, or even bows and arrows, they rode forward silently on warhorses with their hooves wrapped, trying their best not to let the enemy discover their presence.

Some people even suggested to Zhu Hui that they give up riding horses and crawl forward instead, but after being kicked twice by Zhu Hui, no one made such a suggestion again.

Of course, some people believe that they should charge forward on horseback at top speed, so as to strike the enemy's heartland with lightning speed and catch them off guard...

However, Zhu Hui had long followed his father, Duke Zhu Yong, on campaigns and had extensive combat experience. He felt that, to be on the safe side, it was not advisable to cause too much of a commotion.

While riding horses, one can pretend to be from another tribe passing by by chance. After all, it's dark, and even if someone on the other side sees horses passing by, they won't be able to tell what kind of people they are under the cover of night.

Meanwhile, there was no movement inside the Tatar camp.

This made Zhu Hui, who was halfway through the march, feel quite apprehensive.

"Could it be bait? Luring us in, only to find soldiers lying in ambush?"

Someone next to Zhu Hui whispered something.

Zhu Hui said, "How many people do we have in total? If the other side knows our whereabouts and is prepared, wouldn't it be more direct to just send the troops from the camp out to assemble and form ranks? Why bother with all this ambush stuff?"

"Yes, yes, the young master is indeed more knowledgeable."

Others echoed in agreement.

"Why are you flattering us now? Keep an eye on things, haven't the Tartars made a move yet? They're less than two miles away, it's about time... we should charge!"

Zhu Hui has been enduring it all.

However, he knew that if the Ming cavalry were to truly compete with the Tatars in terms of horsemanship, they would almost certainly lose. Furthermore, leading troops in a direct charge would result in a loose formation and uncertainty in the battle situation, making his five hundred men seem insignificant.

He vaguely speculated that if the Tatars were attacked in the middle of the night, there would most likely be a riot. The young and strong Tatars, who would not know the situation of the attackers, would definitely choose to run away. At that time, he would kill some defenseless old, weak, women and children to make up for his merits. That would be the most ideal situation.

……

……

The Ming army finally launched an attack when they were less than a mile from the Tatar camp. Soon, five hundred cavalrymen broke into the Tatar settlement.

As tents in the camp were set ablaze one after another, the Tatars quickly descended into chaos.

Although some of them were more alert and, upon hearing the rapid sound of hooves followed by shouts of battle, immediately jumped out of bed and fled in disarray with their families, managing to escape on their livestock and thus saving their lives, most of them were attacked by the Ming cavalry in their sleep, without even the slightest chance to resist...

This is a repeat of the previous battles north of Yinshan.

It was another sneak attack, another all-out assault...

The Tatars scattered in terror, only to find that Ming cavalry seemed to be attacking from all directions in the darkness.

Zhu Hui's five hundred men managed to display an aura that even five thousand men couldn't match.

When Zhu Hui led his troops to rampage through the camp, even he himself did not expect the battle to go so smoothly.

The soldiers rushed forward, and whenever they saw resistance, they fired a shot, and the Tatar fell to the ground.

The Tartars' morale plummeted, and they were routed, unable to even muster a resistance formation.

Zhu Hui's men didn't bother chasing after the fleeing Tatars; instead, they began a massacre of the elderly, women, and children in the camp. At this point, no one would have any designs on the women there...

They valued military achievements more than women.

After achieving military merit, returning to the territory of the Ming Dynasty meant possessing everything.

Even taking some women and children back as prisoners wouldn't bring any benefit; it would be better to just kill them and cut off their ears. After all, this time they don't have to hand over heads, and even those who are just filling in the numbers will still receive military merit.

……

……

By midnight, the killings had largely stopped.

Zhu Huizhi was full of pride and waited outside the camp for Wang Shouren's troops to arrive.

As the torches illuminated the valley, Wang Shouren finally arrived with his 800-strong "army".

"Brother Wang, you're late."

Zhu Hui walked over and said with a smile.

Wang Shouren said, "It seems Brother Zhu has made quite a haul. Congratulations."

Zhu Hui said, "You didn't set off that late, so why are you so late? Look, we can't even catch up now..."

A man beside Wang Shouren shouted, "Still pursuing them? If it weren't for Military Advisor Wang leading men to cut off the Tartars' retreat, would you even have the right to plunder this bandit camp?"

"what?"

Zhu Hui then realized that Wang Shouren hadn't been running too slowly; instead, he had circled around to the rear of the Tatar camp to clean up the mess for him.

Wang Shouren said, "We each had different roles. I didn't expect the Tatars to be so easy to defeat. After we went around, we killed no less than a hundred Tatars."

"One hundred..."

Zhu Hui was too embarrassed to say that we had taken at least ten times more than you.

A thousand people is an understatement.

The man next to Wang Shouren said indignantly, "We repelled at least a thousand elite Tatars who came to our aid after hearing the news. Only in this way could we ensure the smooth progress of the battle here."

Wang Shouren waved his hand and said, "Don't get excited. I will report the overall merit... In this kind of battle, the merit cannot be determined simply by the number of heads taken."

"what?"

Zhu Hui felt a little agitated.

You said you blocked the elite Tatar troops coming to reinforce from behind the Tatar camp, but we didn't see it with our own eyes.

Now that the credit is on us, you're saying that the head isn't important and that you want to calculate the overall gains and losses instead?

Although Zhu Hui was displeased, he also felt that given Wang Shouren's influence, his report of achievements would carry little weight; it was merely rhetoric to appease his subordinates.

……

……

When Wang Shouren's men arrived at the camp, they immediately helped to collect and organize the Tatars' valuables and grain. They also slaughtered all the captured cattle and sheep and roasted them into jerky for easy carrying.

During this period, Tatar troops attacked several times, but were repelled by the Ming army, which had spread its reconnaissance network extensively.

By the time everything was dealt with, it was already the afternoon of the next day. The entire army was preparing to set off when, unexpectedly, nearly a thousand Tatar cavalrymen attacked again. Wang Shouren and Zhu Hui led their troops into battle formation. After several volleys of gunfire, the Tatars abandoned more than two hundred corpses and scattered.

“Standing in the open, we are still easily targeted by the Tartars,” Zhu Hui sighed sincerely as he watched the retreating Tartar troops.

Wang Shouren said, "The Tatars' attention is not currently focused on the area south of Yinshan, so the number of Tatar cavalry that attack each time is small, and they almost always collapse at the first contact... It's hard to say where their main force is currently gathered."

Zhu Hui said, "Perhaps they followed General Wang all the way to Yansui?"

"It doesn't look like it!"

Wang Shouren shook his head: "Our night scouts are spread out very far. If a Tatar army really marched south to threaten Yansui, we couldn't possibly not know... I suspect that the Tatar troops have probably all gone to the east by now..." As the two were talking, a rider galloped over from a distance, dismounted in front of them, and respectfully reported: "Military Advisor Wang, Young Master, the night scouts have captured a prisoner alive."

Zhu Hui retorted irritably, "We just conquered an entire tribe. Aren't there survivors everywhere? What's so strange about that?"

"He was a Tartar spy, sent to gather intelligence. Our men happened to run into him, wounded him, and captured him!" the messenger said excitedly.

Wang Shouren's eyes lit up, and he quickly asked, "Can you find a way to get him to confess? I wonder how much this Tatar scout knows?"

"It's unclear at the moment."

The messenger shook his head.

"Alright, bring the person here first, I'll interrogate him myself later."

Wang Shouren gave the instructions.

Zhu Hui cautioned, "Brother Wang, why are you getting so worked up over a Tatar scout? How much could he possibly know? It can't be some general coming here to spy on us, can it?"

Wang Shouren said, "The Tatars should be very clear about their recent movements. There aren't many places to get intelligence about the Tatars these days. How can we know if we don't try?"

……

……

Soon, the Tatar scout was bound hand and foot and brought before Wang Shouren and Zhu Hui.

They chattered on and on in Mandarin, but no matter what questions were asked, the other person just looked blank, whether they genuinely didn't know Mandarin or were just pretending to be stupid.

Wang Shouren was quite shrewd. He directly sent an elderly Tatar man who was fluent in both Chinese and Mongolian, whom he had captured in the camp, to "lure him into surrendering." He promised him a considerable amount of wealth and a woman captured by the Tatar scout as a reward.

The scout wavered, his eyes darting around, but he still didn't budge.

“Tell him that if he doesn’t speak, he will not only die, but also suffer the legendary torture of being sliced ​​to death,” Wang Shouren said. “I need to know what has happened on the grasslands! Where has the main force of the Tatars gone? And where is the Tatar prince?”

The old Tatar man mumbled something in his tongue. The scout was initially very stubborn, but the fear of death is human nature, especially the possibility of suffering great pain and humiliation before death, not only being torn to pieces but also being castrated...

The Tatar scout was already wounded and needed someone to take care of him to survive.

Moreover, he was not a member of the Tatar Chahar tribe, but belonged to a collateral tribe. Under Wang Shouren's coercion and enticement, he resisted for a while, but finally revealed what he knew.

“General Wang… he said that almost all of the Tatar troops are moving eastward, but it’s unclear what they are going there for… it’s very likely that the Uriyangkhai have rebelled.”

When the old Tatar man translated what he said, Wang Shouren's expression changed drastically.

Zhu Hui asked, puzzled, "What does the Tatar main force's eastward march have to do with the Three Guards of Doyan?"

Wang Shouren pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, "The possibility of the Uriyangkhai rebelling is very small. If it's heading east, it's probably related to the friendly forces that have marched out from the direction of Datong... Ask him where his tribe's troops are now?"

The old Tatar man immediately inquired, and after the man finished speaking, he replied immediately: "He said he went in the direction of Weining Lake."

"Weining Sea..."

Upon hearing this place name, Wang Shouren felt a strange longing rise in his heart.

That was undoubtedly the most famous battlefield during the Chenghua era of the Ming Dynasty, and also the pinnacle of Wang Yue's military career. It was precisely because of this that Wang Shouren admired Wang Yue from a young age, and that place became a sacred place in Wang Shouren's mind.

"All troops, get some rest. We'll set off first thing tomorrow morning!"

Wang Shouren immediately issued the order.

Zhu Hui asked, "Are we going to Weininghai?"

Wang Shouren's eyes burned with fervor, and he said resolutely, "Exactly! We now have enough provisions, so it's time to do something big! Let's fight the Tartars to the bitter end!"

……

……

The next day at dawn.

With Wang Shouren ordering the execution of the vast majority of prisoners, the previous battles came to an end.

Looking at the crowds scattered across the ground, bathed in the rising sun, Zhu Hui approached Wang Shouren and said, "Brother Wang, are you really going east? With so few men, we can move freely, but it will be difficult to fight a tough battle."

"Yesterday we fought the Tatars continuously, and many Tatars escaped. They now know our whereabouts and even our strengths and weaknesses, and they will definitely send troops to intercept us."

Wang Shouren asked, "Are you afraid of being surrounded and intercepted by the Tartars?"

"Who isn't afraid?"

Zhu Hui countered, "Do you perhaps have a better idea?"

Wang Shouren looked up at the eastern sky and found the rising red sun rather dazzling, so he had to squint to see it.

"Based on information from all sides, the main force of the Tartars did indeed go to the east."

Wang Shouren's expression was cold and stern as he said, "If I am not mistaken, there is a great battle waiting for the Ming soldiers who have just left the border on the other side of the grasslands... I imagine that our allies do not have many more troops than us. Why can they succeed, but we cannot?"

Zhu Hui said, "Aren't these all just baseless speculations? No one can be sure that such a group of people really exists on the grasslands, can they?"

"Of course there is."

Wang Shouren said confidently, "Otherwise, the Tatars would not have lost their composure and given up halfway through the pursuit... Hey, even Wang Zhongcheng praised this young talent, I also want to see just how capable Zhang Xiaoguojiu really is."

Zhu Hui said helplessly, "The soldiers have been traveling and working hard for days, and they all want to go back... It won't be easy for you to appease them."

In Zhu Hui's view, this is the second time the two have achieved such a great victory through cooperation.

Upon returning this time, Zhu Hui created a separate page for his family genealogy and bestowed a title upon his relatives, seemingly deserving of all the credit he had received.

If we continue fighting, we may very well face a situation where we cannot return.

The Tatars have clearly fled, and they are not far from the Ming Dynasty's territory. Why go through all that trouble and continue to brave the wind and snow on the grasslands? Wouldn't it be better to take the credit you've earned, lie back on your laurels, and enjoy wealth and honor?

Wang Shouren turned to look at the soldiers who were packing their bags and sighed, "Military merits are certainly good, but there are even greater achievements waiting ahead... Don't you want to be remembered in history?"

Zhu Hui laughed and said, "Those who lead troops may indeed be remembered in history, but for ordinary soldiers, they are merely participants in this great battle. Who in history will record them?"

"So even General Zhu thinks we should stop while we're ahead?"

Wang Shouren stared intently into the distance.

This question stumped Zhu Hui.

Zhu Hui suddenly realized that the credit he had earned in the last two major battles was all thanks to Wang Shouren. If he were to oppose Wang Shouren now, there was no guarantee that Wang Shouren wouldn't make things difficult for him.

After all, in the previous battle, Wang Shouren led his troops to circle around to the rear of the Tatar camp to intercept the Tatar reinforcements, which helped his 500 soldiers achieve great military exploits.

This created two factions within the military: one focused on preserving military merit, while the other sought to gain it...

Faced with tremendous achievements, even brothers, let alone comrades-in-arms, can easily become envious and harbor resentment.

"I'll listen to you," Zhu Hui said. "Let's give it a try. We'll travel light and maybe catch up with the Tartars in a few days. We'll definitely be able to gain some more military merits."

Having said that, Zhu Hui no longer wanted to face Wang Shouren and turned to head towards the five hundred soldiers under his command.

Because he saw a strong killing intent in Wang Shouren's eyes.

(End of this chapter)