Fu Shanhe

Chapter 280: Brilliant Achievements
"Ma Yanyang, the witch of the Cuncao tribe, meets Erdun Wanhu."

Wu Ma Yan Yang stepped forward and saluted.

Deep down in his heart, he looked down on Erdun, who had suffered a defeat.

The cavalry was beaten into infantry by the enemy and could only flee in panic, which was a complete disgrace to the grassland coalition forces.

But there is no way. Now most of the tribes on the grassland have to look at the Tatars' wishes.

The Cuncao tribe chose to rely on the Tatars early on, so that they could get the good job of entering Shandong to plunder.

Unfortunately, they were not lucky and they bumped their heads and got bloody right at the start.

The army under Erdun Wanhu suffered heavy losses, which cast a shadow of failure for this robbery which had not yet begun.

"Why are there only a few of you? Where are the rest of the army?"

Erdun asked slightly annoyed.

According to the order given by the Great Chanyu, the Guifang cavalry that came to cooperate with him this time should be around 30,000, and the cavalry in front of him is less than one-tenth of it.

In fact, the reason why he dared to march alone to the outskirts of Jinan was because of the 30,000 reinforcements behind him.

With 40,000 cavalrymen gathered together, they could be said to be invincible in Shandong.

Even if Dayu mobilized troops from all over the country to come to support the king, they would be unable to do anything to them.

Unfortunately, the plan did not change quickly enough, and before he could pay attention, the 10,000 troops under his command were lost.

Among the Tatars, his strength as a Wanhu is indeed a little weak.

But compared with the Guifang cavalry, it is still able to defeat the enemy.

We suffered such a terrible defeat because we were completely caught off guard by the enemy.

The army's armor and firearms did not even have time to be used and they had to flee in disgrace.

Without weapons in hand, he can only passively take the beating.

“In reply to Wanhu, the Cuncao tribe was the vanguard of the army and arrived at the battlefield first.

The remaining reinforcements are expected to arrive at the front line within the next three days."

Wu Ma Yan Yang said slowly.

Cavalry marches faster than infantry.

The normal marching speed of ordinary Guifang cavalry is only sixty to eighty miles.

When marching quickly, we can cover a hundred miles a day, but that is not the norm.

No one knew in advance that there would be a defeat at the front, so everyone marched normally.

"Ok!"

"Immediately send someone to notify all the departments to hurry and join us."

Erdun gave the order immediately.

For the sake of saving his life, he was not going to pick on the Cuncao tribe.

We still need these people to help gather the defeated soldiers who scattered last night. There is no need to make the relationship too awkward.

If he really offended someone and they attacked the lone Tatar soldiers, he would have no way to deal with it.

The battlefield was in chaos, and it was a complete mess to tell who ran away and who didn't.

Suddenly, the sound of thousands of horses galloping came from afar.

"Oh no, the Yu Dynasty cavalry is coming.

Erdun Wanhu, we don't have enough troops, let's evacuate first!"

Wu Ma Yan Yang said with a serious expression.

Before fighting the enemy, he could ignore the Yu army, but not now.

Having seen the strength of Yu's infantry, he no longer looked down on them.

What's more, the 10,000 elite Tatars were beaten into a desperate situation by the enemy and were almost wiped out.

He didn't think that the few cavalry under his command could defeat the enemy.

As they were talking, some Guifang cavalrymen had already brought over the spare war horses.

"Okay, let's retreat first!"

Erdun said through gritted teeth.

At this moment, his hatred for the army that came to support the king had penetrated deep into his bones.

If it weren't for his lack of strength, Erdun would have wanted to lead his troops back immediately, chop off Marquis Wuyang's head, and avenge his dead tribesmen.

As soon as he finished speaking, Erdun jumped onto the horse's back.

The soldiers who accompanied him also followed suit.

In the blink of an eye, the team disappeared into the horizon.

Watching the enemy leave, Qin Tianrui smiled bitterly helplessly.

After working so hard for so long, he failed at the last moment and let the big fish escape. After a brief moment of distraction, he quickly regained his senses.

Last night's battle was already a great victory.

Even though the enemy general ran away, it did not affect his fame in one battle.

"Clean up the battlefield as soon as possible. This is not a place to stay for long."

After taking a look at the corpse on the ground, Qin Tianrui decisively gave the order.

No matter what, killing so many enemy troops means that this pursuit was not in vain.

According to the official classification, Tatars and Guifang can both be classified as northern barbarians and enjoy first-class military merits.

In order to encourage officers and soldiers to kill the enemy, the imperial court stipulated that if one Northern Tartar cavalryman was killed, the officer would be promoted one level or be rewarded with fifty taels of silver.

There is a high probability that the reward money will be discounted, but the official rank will be promoted.

Of course, it is impossible to achieve success overnight.

It is indeed possible for the army to behead more than a dozen people in one battle.

However, the requirements for promotion of ordinary soldiers and mid- and senior-level generals are different.

The promotion and appointment of generals above the rank of centurion requires consideration from many aspects.

Military merit is the main factor, but the calculation method is no longer simply based on the merit of each person, but rather on group combat.

Usually the battle losses are deducted from the battle record, and the remaining surplus is converted proportionally to become the general's military merit.

Due to the decline of Dayu, cases of defeating a larger force with a smaller one and killing a large number of Northern Tartars were rare.

Forced by practical needs, the court also lowered its requirements.

Sometimes, if one hundred northern barbarians were killed and one hundred and twenty of our own men were killed in battle, the Ministry of War would still regard it as a great victory.

……

With the dispatch of the army to support the king, the defeated northern barbarians who had fled to various places suffered a great misfortune.

Surrender does not exist. In the eyes of officers and soldiers, they are just moving military merits.

In the Dayu Dynasty, the military merit of capturing prisoners was no higher than that of beheading people.

Prisoners of war need to eat, so this will not increase their military merit, but will increase consumption.

Unless you have a special identity, catching them alive will only bring trouble to yourself.

No matter how many enemies you kill on the battlefield, everyone will cheer.

Once they are captured and then killed, we must be careful of impeachment by the censor.

In the previous rebellion suppression wars, many prisoners were captured because the commander-in-chief gave the order and everyone responded actively.

The situation is different now. Knowing that the Northern Tartars are difficult to deal with, Li Mu naturally cannot give such an order.

The most crucial thing is that the two sides do not speak the same language, and most of the Northern Tatar soldiers do not know the language of Dayu.

It is difficult for both parties to communicate normally.

"My Lord, the preliminary battle statistics are out.

In this battle, 10,000 elite Northern Tartars were defeated and 8,000 enemy soldiers were killed.

Because of the fire, many enemy heads were reduced to nothing but skulls.

Currently, there are only more than 4,000 directly identifiable genuine enemy heads.

The army is now pursuing the remnants of the enemy, and they can probably provide more than a thousand heads. "

Li Mu reported with a smile.

The results were even more impressive than expected.

The northern barbarian soldiers who fled in panic had no way to hide in an unfamiliar area.

As for the shortage of heads, there is nothing that can be done about it.

A raging fire will definitely burn people to death.

The corpses have all become fuel, so it’s considered good enough to be able to find skulls.

Even the bones were burned to ashes by the fire.

Whether the identities of these skulls can be verified depends on the autopsy technology of the Ministry of War.

The fact that we defeated 10,000 elite northern barbarians is a fact and there is no need to worry about verification from above.

Not having enough heads will not affect the reporting of military achievements.

“Well done!
There was no need to wait for the subsequent battle results, but to directly estimate a number and report it to the court as the result of the battle.

The northern barbarians invaded, and people from all walks of life were in panic. They needed a big victory to stabilize the people's hearts in the capital.

......"

(End of this chapter)