Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 108 Drone Overlooking the Battlefield

In early July of the 13th year of Hongwu, Zhu Biao's new policies spread throughout the world.

Officials received salary increases, taxes in various places were significantly reduced, the people's constraints were loosened, and even the soldiers in the garrisons were no longer required to inherit the title.

For a time, it seemed as if there was a bumper harvest, amnesty was granted, and the people were full of vitality.

In mid-July, Zhu Yuanzhang's army also arrived in Shaanxi.

At this moment in the Qin Palace in Shaanxi, Zhu Yuanzhang was looking at the border war reports and the current movements of the Northern Yuan army.

In the mansion, the newly appointed King of Qin Zhu Su stood beside him, with several nobles including Li Wenzhong, Tang Shengzong, Zhou Dexing, Yu Tongyuan, and Lan Yu standing on his sides.

In addition, Mu Ying was stationed at the border of Yijinai Road, Huang Bin led his troops to Gansu, and Zhao Yong and Mei Sizu also led part of the troops to the Juyan Lake, which was the front line of the expedition against Mongolia.

Due to the frequent movements of the Northern Yuan Dynasty and a large number of cavalry roaming around the border, the Ming army's intention was to find the enemy's main force and annihilate it in one fell swoop, but finding the enemy's main force was not so easy.

The Mongolians originally lived by following the water and grass, so it can be said that they had no fixed place to live.

Even when fighting, they came and went like the wind, often breaking into the heart of the border through some remote paths, then burning, killing, looting, and escaping. The Mongols called this behavior "dacaogu".

Therefore, although the Ming army was powerful, even when they encountered the Mongols in the wild, the infantry were not afraid of the enemy cavalry at all, but they could not find the enemy's position.

However, there was good news from the Ningxia Guard on the border. The guard commander sent people to secretly go to the grassland for reconnaissance and discovered that to the north of Wulahai, which is the north of Bayannur in Inner Mongolia in later generations, there was a large number of Mongolian cavalry stationed nearby, and they seemed to have the intention of moving south at any time.

At this moment, in the Qin Palace in Shaanxi, Zhu Yuanzhang was looking at the official documents. Zhu Su pointed to the map on the table and said, "Your Majesty, the enemy is gathering in Wulahai and must be heading to Hetao. If they go south from Hetao, Yan'an will be the first to bear the brunt."

He was referring to His Majesty as that is the title used when working.

In history, only Zhu Biao addressed Zhu Yuanzhang as "Father Emperor" in official documents written to him.

As for the rest, it can only be His Majesty.

"Ah."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "The Yuan people are still determined to take revenge, but I don't think they will go south on a large scale. I think they will plunder again to support Yunnan."

"Brother Wenying believes that we can take advantage of this opportunity to completely wipe out the Yuan army in the west."

Zhu Su said: "We can divide the Ming army into two groups. One group will go north to Wulahai and defeat its main force first. The other group will go north from Juyanhai to Khorin and defeat its capital!"

"What do you think?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the people below.

Li Wenzhong said, "Your Majesty, I think it is possible."

"I second the proposal!"

"I also second my opinion."

Everyone thought there was no problem.

Although it seems a bit rash to attack the enemy's capital deep in the enemy's hinterland.

However, this is the case when their main force is destroyed first.

In other words, once the enemy's main force was tied up, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty would actually be empty.

Sending out a surprise attack at this time can naturally achieve the effect of a surprise attack.

"it is good!"

Seeing that no one objected, Zhu Yuanzhang said, "There is no time to lose. Gather all the cavalry and follow me north to Wulahai."

Zhu Su said quickly, "Your Majesty, this is not possible. You cannot put yourself in danger. It would be better if I could do it for you."

"My old bones are still not falling apart."

Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile: "At least we have to protect the men of the Ming Dynasty for a few more years. The Tatars have bullied the Han people for a long time. We must avenge them. I will go to the border and sweep across the desert!"

After saying this, he did not give Zhu Su a chance to continue to persuade him. He waved his hand and said, "Pass the order. Move forward immediately. Everyone should bring marching rations and backpacks. Riding as fast as possible."

He had been in Shaanxi for seven or eight days, and during this time he had been looking for the main force of the Yuan army. Later, Zhu Biao also brought various flashlights, medicines, marching rations and other supplies, all in backpacks.

It can be said that except for the inability to manufacture guns, Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming army basically already had the ability to carry out long-term expeditions, so he naturally wanted to give it a try.

present.

Following Zhu Yuanzhang's order, 50,000 Ming cavalrymen gathered in Shaanxi Province. Each man rode two horses and carried a backpack filled with supplies. Led personally by Zhu Yuanzhang, they headed north.

They crossed the Loess Plateau, headed north from Yan'an Prefecture, passed Yulin, and entered the vast Hetao Plain.

The Hetao Plain at this time was endless. Except for a Ming border guard post every few dozen miles, there were basically no human settlements to be seen.

The Ming army galloped day and night, and it took them only five days to reach the destination, a distance of more than 800 kilometers. After crossing the Yellow River from the Hetao area, they arrived at Wulahai, the Aortusi of the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

There used to be a city called Wulahai here, where Genghis Khan launched the Battle of Wulahai. But more than a hundred years later, the former glory was eventually buried in history, leaving only vast grasslands and occasional ruins.

After crossing Wolf Mountain and passing the ruins of Wulahai City, we arrived at the pass and looked out to the north, which was a vast expanse of land. A scout came to report: "Report! Your Majesty, a large group of Tatar tribesmen have gathered thirty miles ahead, and they have discovered us."

"There is no time to lose, let's set off immediately!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was riding on his horse and looked up at the gray sky. It was already noon, but it seemed like it was going to rain soon, so he could not delay any longer.

"Yes!"

The order was quickly issued, and a large group of Ming troops quickly left Wolf Mountain, reached the grassland, and then galloped northward.

Li Wenzhong led the vanguard army to charge forward.

Less than half an hour later, we could see a large group of people gathering in the north from afar.

Groups of Mongols shouted and howled like wild wolves, carrying bows on their backs and scimitars in hand, they mounted their horses.

This was an encounter.

The leader of the Mongols was the Yuan general Nailawu.

Although the Northern Yuan Dynasty fled back to the desert, it still retained its feudal administration.

However, due to the situation on the grassland, each powerful minister had his own tribe, scattered across the place.

The Northern Yuan Emperor Toghon Temur, together with his Prime Minister Yaozhu, Duke Toghrul, the head of the Privy Council Aizu, and the Minister of Military and State Affairs Wanzhebuhua, lived in the capital, Karakorum.

The left prime minister Nahachu was active in the Jinshan and Baicheng areas in the northeast, and together with Toghon Temur, one in the east and the other in the west, they threatened the northwest and northeast of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, with Bazhala Walmi in Yunnan, the three directions echoed each other, as if they were going to encircle the Ming Dynasty on three sides.

Zhu Yuanzhang decided to defeat them one by one and defeat the main force of the Northern Yuan Dynasty first.

Nailawu was the advance army of the Northern Yuan Dynasty. Toghon Temur left behind Huotochi, Aizu and Wanzhebuhua, and he personally led the army and the prime minister to follow behind.

Since they were an advance army, the Naiciwu troops were slightly insufficient in number, with only more than 10,000 men.

But he couldn't run.

If he runs away, Emperor Yuan will be in trouble.

So he could only send someone to notify Toghon Temur immediately, hoping to get reinforcements immediately, while at the same time calling on the soldiers to prepare for battle.

There was no foreplay or fighting between the two sides. They started fighting almost immediately after discovering each other.

Zhu Yuanzhang reined his horse to a small hillside to the west, then took out a box from his backpack, quickly opened it, placed the drone on the ground, and started operating it.

The drone flew silently into the sky, and the display screen in Zhu Yuanzhang's hand overlooked the ground conditions of several square kilometers around.

"Your Majesty, what is this?"

Li Wenzhong was shocked. He had never seen such a thing before, and he could see it very clearly. It was much more convenient than standing on a mountain and overlooking the battlefield. Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said, "This is a drone."

"Drone?"

"Okay, I'll tell you later. Immediately give the order to have the cavalry on the left wing move ten feet to the right and attack the enemy's flank. The cavalry in the rear will surround the enemy from both sides. Don't let any of them escape."

Zhu Yuanzhang noticed from the drone's bird's-eye view that the Mongols' tactic was a cone formation.

That is the triangle array.

This was a surprise attack. The enemy obviously hoped to concentrate all its forces together and break through the middle first to avoid being dispersed and surrounded by the Ming army.

There are two very famous battles in history where this formation was used. One is the Battle of Bailang Mountain and the other is the Battle of Hefei, and the protagonist of both battles was Zhang Liao.

Using this formation, Zhang Liao charged into the enemy camp as the tip of a spear, with the soldiers behind him rushing in, rushing to the enemy like a hot knife through butter and beheading them.

Tadun is dead.

Sun Quan almost suffered the same disaster.

Therefore, when there are fewer people, this formation can often work miracles.

However, the purpose of a surprise attack is to catch the enemy by surprise.

Zhu Yuanzhang saw the enemy's formation clearly through the drone on the battlefield and quickly made adjustments.

It was seen that not long after the order was given, both sides had already rushed to the front.

From the perspective of a drone flying overhead, you can see that the dense crowds of people and horses on both sides are rushing in like a surging tide and soon collide with each other.

In an instant, people and horses were thrown to the ground.

Just as Nailawu took the lead, he chopped down several Ming soldiers and was about to lead the army behind him to break through the Ming army.

Suddenly, the Ming army that had been encircling their right rear wing from the left suddenly pounced on their right front wing, and the cone head that had already penetrated the Ming army's formation was cut off in an instant.

The most feared thing about the cone formation is that the cone heads cannot be nailed in. Once they are blocked, the soldiers in the rear cannot follow, and the cone heads in the front will be quickly surrounded and killed.

Nalawu charged ahead and didn't feel anything unusual at first because there were heads everywhere around him, but he soon discovered something was wrong.

As time went by, there were fewer and fewer of his own people around, and more and more Ming army soldiers. Looking behind him, he found that the Ming army had actually completed the encirclement of the cone head. It was obvious that the soldiers behind him did not rush in at all.

"Stop it!"

Seeing this, Nailawu was horrified and quickly turned his horse's head to fight back.

But in the chaos, his guards were soon killed. Not long after, Nailawu himself was stabbed to death by the Ming army and eventually died tragically in the chaos.

As the cone formation collapsed, the Ming troops on the left and right rear also flanked from both wings and surrounded the Mongols in the rear.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the Mongols' original formation quickly broke up and they fled in all directions in terror, uttering all kinds of howling noises.

"what!"

Li Wenzhong was staring at the display screen all the time. Suddenly he noticed the dust rising in the distance and said in surprise, "Your Majesty, their reinforcements have arrived."

"We are waiting for their reinforcements!"

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered, then said: "Go, immediately send an order to drive their people to rush towards their reinforcements."

"Yes!"

Li Wenzhong's eyes lit up. Your Majesty is really ruthless.

He immediately ordered the messenger to wave the military flag.

He issued an order for the entire army to attack.

Because the battlefield was extremely chaotic, it was unrealistic to issue such detailed orders to drive away the enemy.

Therefore, a good general will often issue different orders according to different situations.

A full-scale attack means that all soldiers pursue the enemy.

Both sides have horses.

It was impossible for the Ming army to hunt down and kill every Mongol, so as long as the order to pursue was given, the Mongols would naturally instinctively flee to the rear.

Unlike Li Wenzhong who kept staring at the screen, Zhu Yuanzhang kept his eyes on the planes in the sky.

Drones can fly into the clouds and disappear. With the modern GPS positioning function, there is no need to worry about them getting lost.

But in ancient times, there was only video function but no positioning function, so it would be very troublesome if you couldn’t find the plane after flying.

So he had to keep watching.

Not long after, the screen showed that a large number of Mongols were approaching rapidly from the north. The number was so large that it might be as many as 50,000 or 60,000.

However, the Mongols were shocked to find that the advance army in the south had collapsed and was heading back towards them!

"Kill!"

"Kill the Tatars and achieve great success!"

"Your Majesty is watching us!"

Countless Ming troops shouted like a tsunami and rushed towards the Mongols in the north like a tide.

The two sides couldn't even engage in combat. In order to avoid being overwhelmed by their own people, a large number of Mongols had no choice but to flee to the wings, causing the formation structure to loosen.

And this was exactly the battlefield opportunity Zhu Yuanzhang was looking for.

While the Mongols' two wings were scattered and trying to re-encircle and strangle the Ming army that had been let in, Zhu Yuanzhang had already given the order to immediately raid the enemy's two wings!
A gentle breeze blew across the vast grassland, and the sound of galloping horses' hooves was deafening, occasionally accompanied by the sound of heavy falls.

There are always some soldiers who stumble, whether they are Ming troops or Mongols, while they are fleeing or being pursued.

However, this can only be regarded as a grain of sand in the general trend.

From Zhu Yuanzhang's perspective, after the two wings of the Mongols escaped, it was too late for them to close together, and the Ming army directly broke through their two wings.

Immediately afterwards, a large number of Ming troops continued to attack from the middle, thus forming a three-way encirclement offensive.

From the center, left and right, they attacked the Mongolian team that could no longer form a formation, and the two sides quickly engaged in battle.

"The battle is decided."

Zhu Yuanzhang saw that although the Mongols had not been defeated, they had already gained the upper hand in the offensive, and said calmly: "Now it depends on how long they can hold out."

Seeing this, Li Wenzhong exclaimed: "Your Majesty is so powerful. With the drone in hand, we can see the enemy's formation at a glance and make adjustments at any time to attack their weak points. Our army will surely win a great victory."

"Ha ha ha ha."

Zhu Yuanzhang burst into laughter.

In ancient times, wars were very difficult to command and could only be conducted through flag signals, bronze, gongs and the like.

And they attach great importance to the on-the-spot command ability of generals.

Once a large-scale corps battle occurs in the field, if a general is careless and fails to notice the weak point where the enemy breaks through their defense line, it may result in a crushing defeat.

But with a drone, overlooking the entire battlefield, it means that the situation can be seen at every point.

Not only can it defend its own position, but it can also seize the opportunity to break through the enemy's weak points. Even if a mediocre general has a drone, he may become a famous general.

This is the dimensionality reduction attack of drones on ancient battlefields!
(End of this chapter)