Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 142 Blood Blooms in Fireworks
"What? The Ming army is actually attacking?"

The next morning.

Jinshan, in the tent of Nahachu, the Taiwei of the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

Nahachu was very surprised to learn that the Ming army suddenly came out of the border and attacked him in the snow and wind.

You have to know that Liaodong is a bitterly cold place, and it is winter. The places where the Ming army is located, such as Shenyang and Guangning, are already very cold.

Jinshan, which is further north, is colder than Shenyang, Guangning and other places in the south. The snow is over the ankles and people will immediately fall into a big pit if they step on it.

Aren’t the Ming army afraid of the cold?

"Yes."

The scout replied, "We patrolled to the south and saw the Ming army setting up camp from afar. We expect them to reach Jinshan tomorrow."

"how many people?"

"We counted the tents and there were at least 70,000 to 80,000 people."

"Seventy or eighty thousand?"

Nahachu was deep in thought, while his left and right generals Nailawu, Guantong, Tanmachi and others were looking at him.

Guan Tong said: "General, the Ming army is coming aggressively. We should avoid their front line. If we move our tribe to the Songhua River now, we should be safe."

Before Nahachu could say anything, Nalawu said hurriedly, "No, General. The further north we go, the colder it gets. It will be harder for the cattle and sheep to find grass to eat. Besides, the Ming army is approaching. We won't have time to take away the stored hay. Many cattle and sheep will starve to death."

"Well"

Naha looked hesitant.

Although the Mongols already had a feudal monarchy, they were still mainly tribes on the grasslands.

Each tribe respected the Golden Family, regarded Emperor Yuan as their leader, and obeyed his orders.

However, the tribe's cattle, sheep and people all belong to the tribal leader.

As the leader of the largest Mongolian tribe in Liaodong, Nahachu owned the surrounding grasslands and other small tribes.

At this time, Jinshan Ranch was already the best ranch. To the north was the Horqin Summer Ranch, which had abundant grass. To the south, near Guangning and Shenyang, was the Horqin Winter Ranch, where cattle and sheep also had hay to eat in winter.

In comparison, the conditions became worse the further north you go, although he still has his own tribe on the banks of the Songhua River, where he is governed by his subordinates, wife and children.

But the total population of Jinshan Ranch is over 100,000, and there are millions of cattle, sheep and horses.

With so many people and livestock needing to eat, the cold conditions there simply cannot sustain the survival and development of the tribe.

So migrating northward is definitely not a good idea.

What's more, the Ming army was approaching, and it was too late even to migrate.

Thinking of this, Nahachu nodded and said, "Yes, we really can't leave. We have no choice but to fight to the death."

"Then we hold on to Jinshan?"

Tan Ma Chi asked tentatively.

"Do not."

Nahachu shook his head: "The Ming army is coming to attack Jinshan, taking advantage of the heavy snow, thinking that we are off our guard. They will never think that we have discovered them. We will strike them head-on and defeat the Ming army in one fell swoop!"

Everyone looked at each other.

If it were a few years ago, they would still have such courage.

But over the years, the Ming army won victory after victory, and in several northern expeditions, they defeated the Northern Yuan Dynasty and made them lose their weapons and weapons and become extremely embarrassed.

Especially last year, Zhu Yuanzhang personally led troops to conquer Yunnan and the northwestern desert.

Ever since they learned that Prince Liang had been wiped out and even Emperor Dayuan was almost captured, their spirit and morale seemed to have been greatly reduced, and they no longer dared to take the initiative to go south to invade the Ming Dynasty.

Because the strength of the Ming army has been imprinted in their bones, a feeling of being invincible emerges in them, which makes them feel fearful.

It is a bit like the bald army after the battlefield in eastern Henan. There was obviously no problem with their deployment, support, equipment, and combat effectiveness, and there was no bald man's micro-control, but they were still beaten by Su Yu.

After the first battle, the spirit and morale of the bald army were completely destroyed. From then on, the bald men began to micro-manage the battlefield in Huaihai, and their soldiers were defeated one after another and dared not to take the initiative to attack again.

So when these Mongolian generals heard that they were going to take the initiative to attack the Ming army, they were still a little hesitant.

But what Nahachu said was not wrong.

It is definitely not easy to leave, and compared to defending, taking the initiative to attack is the way out.

After all, the Mongols are best at attacking rather than defending, so there is no need to give up their strengths and choose their weaknesses.

Secondly, it is indeed as Nahachu said, the Ming army does not know that they have been discovered, and they are definitely not on guard at the moment. If they take the initiative to attack, they will definitely catch the Ming army off guard.

"Well"

Nailawu thought about it and nodded, "Perhaps this is the only way. Commander, I will go."

"Okay, you lead 50,000 people and set off immediately."

Nahachu immediately said, "According to their speed, they will arrive tomorrow. If you go now, you should meet them tonight. Even if you cannot defeat the Ming army, you will at least dampen their spirit."

"Yes."

Nailawu agreed.

Then Nahachu made another arrangement.

He ordered Guan Tong to return to Nuzhiku Tun and Tan Ma Chi to go to Yushu, and they respectively gathered troops to support Naishi Wu.

He himself stayed in Jinshan.

The main reason for this arrangement is that Jinshan’s current defense capabilities are insufficient.

Although historical records show that Nahachu had hundreds of thousands of followers in Jinshan, he posed a serious threat to the security of the northeast of the Ming Dynasty.

But in fact, these troops are not all in Jinshan, but are scattered around Jinshan.

The specific location is centered on the future Shuangliao City of Jilin Province, extending to Tongliao and Horqin Left Rear Banner in the west, Kangping and Changtu in the south, Siping and Changchun in the east, and Changling and Horqin Left Middle Banner in the north.

The Mongols lived near water and grass. If hundreds of thousands of soldiers were gathered together, the grassland around Jinshan would not be enough for them to eat. Therefore, Nahachu's troops were actually very scattered.

For example, in the 20th year of Hongwu, when Feng Sheng, Fu Youde and others went to war against Nahachu, they successfully defeated, persuaded and captured hundreds of thousands of Mongols in Jinshan, Songhua River, Yimi River, Nuzhin Kutun and other places, and seized cattle, sheep, horses and supplies stretching for more than 100 miles.

Therefore, at present, Nahachu’s military strength is still seriously insufficient.

But even so, Jinshan, as Nahachu's base camp, with a population of more than 100,000, excluding the elderly, the weak, women and children, can still gather an army of 70,000 to 80,000.

Although they thought they could not defeat the Ming army, if the Ming army only had 70,000 or 80,000 people, once the reinforcements arrived, they might be able to inflict a heavy defeat on the Ming army, which had been the most powerful in recent years.

As soon as Nahachu made the arrangements, several generals set out.

After Nai Ciwu left the camp, he immediately began to assemble his troops. As the trumpets sounded, the men from every household took out their leather armor and weapons from their tents, mounted their own war horses, and quickly moved towards the assembly point.

Nahachu walked out of the tent and came to the slope not far away. The outer perimeter of Jinshan was just layers of rammed earth walls, similar to the walls of a rural courtyard, and the defense was very weak.

He looked with sorrow as the large group of cavalry moved southward and disappeared into the snow.

I will stab you if you lose.

Jinshan cannot defend against the attack of the Ming army.

at dusk.

sunset.

It's a rare warm sunny day today.

The golden sunlight shines on the snow, sparkling like gold.

The Ming army had reached the Liao River, less than forty miles away from Jinshan.

If it were in the past, Xu Da would definitely order a quick march tonight and attack Jinshan directly.

But it wasn't summer.

In the winter, it is windy and snowy at night in the northeast, and the temperature is low, but there is no problem with lighting - there is a flashlight.

But the north wind was blowing hard at night, and the soldiers had to advance against the strong wind. It was really unnecessary. It would be better to wait for the Mongols to fall into the trap.

The Ming army soldiers camped by the river as usual. They didn't even cut down trees to build fences. Instead, they simply set up tents in the wild, as if they just wanted to sleep for a night and continue their journey tomorrow. The sky gradually darkened. The sunset disappeared at the end of the afternoon. At the beginning of the evening, which was around 5 pm, the sky began to darken, and the Ming army camp slowly fell into silence.

About five or six miles away from the Ming army, Nai Ciwu's army had arrived. He personally led a team of scout cavalry and reached a forest about one mile away from the Ming army camp.

He saw that there were very few bonfires in the Ming army camp, and they were obviously worried that too many bonfires at night would attract the attention of the Mongols.

Seeing this, Nai Ciwu quietly retreated and returned to his own troops.

Tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry dismounted and rested for a while. Both men and horses stamped their feet and exhaled white air from their mouths. The wilderness was silent. Their conversations and the neighing of their horses were drowned out by the even more howling wind.

The wind grew stronger at night, causing pain on people's faces.

The moonlight was very thin tonight, and visibility was too low, so Nai Ciwu ordered torches to be lit, firstly for illumination in preparation for the night attack, and secondly for heating.

Anyway, this place is still far away from the position of the Ming army, and he doesn't believe that the Ming army will send people to scout.

What's more, he also arranged sentries around. If they found someone riding a horse, they would rush up to intercept and catch the person immediately.

What Naiciwu didn't know was that three miles away from them, an ultra-long-range thermal imaging device was quietly observing this large number of Mongolian cavalry.

The wind was too strong for the drone to take off.

But there are enough thermal imagers, binoculars, and night vision goggles, and they can all be purchased online on Taobao. Not to mention these, even things like four-fold and eight-fold scopes can be bought online and even customized.

Moreover, given my country's manufacturing capabilities, the level of precision can only be higher, not lower.

On the contrary, the Ming army used antique rifles from the First World War and cannons from the Ming and Qing dynasties, equipped with this high-precision rifle scope and cannon scope, which is indeed Xing Daorong riding Red Hare.

Xu Da stood there, and Li Wenzhong and Fu Youde beside him were also looking far to the northeast.

They were so far away from the Mongols that the images displayed on the thermal imaging device were all countless densely packed small red dots, forming a huge red ocean.

Behind them, groups of Ming soldiers, holding rifles, were moving around and looking indifferently in the direction of the Mongols in the distance.

At the beginning of the evening, seeing that the time was almost up, Nai Ciwu tightened his sheepskin coat, turned his head and said to the messenger soldier: "Tell them to follow me and set out without making any noise."

"Yes."

The messenger quickly passed the news to the captains of thousands and centuries.

After the order was given, the Mongols, who had been frozen in the wind and snow for nearly two hours, finally began to move.

On the endless wilderness, a large group of Mongolian cavalry marched slowly forward, heading towards the Ming army in the dark.

When they were about a mile away, Nai Ciwu suddenly shouted, "Blow the horn, my men, follow me to kill the Ming dogs!"

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"

"kill!"

The desolate horn sound resounded across the sky.

Suddenly the earth shook and the mountains shook.

Tens of thousands of cavalry, even if they were light cavalry, charging together would be as terrifying as the collapse of heaven and earth.

But at this moment.

In the surrounding snowfields and on the slopes of hills a few meters or more than ten meters high, heads popped up one after another, with guns aimed in the direction of the Mongols.

A personal guard next to Xu Da had several boxes of fireworks at his feet and a windproof lighter in his hand.

Zhu Yunfeng tried to buy a signal gun online.

But I can't buy it.

In other words, even if there are, they are almost the same as fireworks. It is better to buy a few boxes of fireworks as flares.

"point."

Xu Da looked at the thermal imaging device and saw that the Mongols had entered the ambush circle, and said calmly.

The guard immediately lit the fuse of the fireworks with a lighter.

As the fuse burned rapidly, countless "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" sounds were heard.

"Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!"

In an instant.

Brilliant fireworks exploded in the sky, blooming like flowers.

Tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalrymen covered the wilderness, charging with the same momentum as before, but staring blankly at the sky.

No one expected that Han people's fireworks would suddenly appear at this time, especially on this serious battlefield.

Isn’t there still more than a month left until the Chinese New Year?
how
"boom!"

Then there was a burst of gunfire, and the row of cavalry in the front fell down in an instant, and the Mongols were immediately thrown to the ground.

The fireworks overhead were still blooming brilliantly, and the exploding sparks occasionally illuminated the earth, dyeing the snow-white ground golden or orange.

But the ground was stained with blood, and groups of Mongolian cavalry began to fall to the ground.

Before they got close to the Ming army camp, they died in large numbers. For a time, the sounds of wailing, screaming and horses neighing were endless.

It was a one-sided massacre.

Hot weapons have crushed the cold weapons era.

In particular, bolt-action rifles have extremely strong penetrating power, and one bullet fired can often take the lives of one or two people.

In just less than a minute, 20,000 Shenjiying soldiers fired tens of thousands of bullets, tens of thousands of Mongols and a large number of horses were shot dead, and shrill cries echoed in the wilderness.

Seeing that the situation was not good, many Mongols began to retreat in a hurry, and fear quickly spread among the army.

Xu Da watched all this indifferently. He had used firearms before, but compared with today's firearms, the firearms of the past were no different from fire sticks.

So he was surprised.

But this surprise is not shown.

This is the calmness that a great general possesses.

"Let's wrap it up."

Xu Da simply said, "Give the order, chase! Chase all the way to Jinshan!"

"Yes!"

The messenger responded.

Unlike the previous signal by setting off fireworks, this time the messenger picked up the walkie-talkie.
At present, walkie-talkies have not been equipped to every Ming army soldier.

Except for the troops led by Zhu, most of the walkie-talkies were left in Nanjing and used by the Capital Guard.

Most importantly, walkie-talkies are not as fast and unified as fireworks.

As the messenger delivered Xu Da's highest instructions to officers at all levels, the Ming army camp suddenly became lively.

Groups of Ming soldiers quickly came out of the tents. Except for a few people who stayed behind to pack up the baggage, most of them mounted their horses and began to pursue.

Only a few minutes passed from the time the Mongols launched their attack to their defeat.

at the same time.

After a day and night of forced march, Zhu Yuanzhang and his 10,000 Shenjiying soldiers arrived at Jinshan.

Although they were all riding horses, they were also very tired. During the entire march, they only had a short rest for two hours this afternoon.

But even so, when they saw Jinshan County standing in the distance in the darkness, all the Ming army soldiers became excited.

Jinshan doesn't have any city walls, only rammed earth walls, which are not much stronger than the earth walls in the countryside.

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand calmly and said, "Attack!"

"kill!"

The soldiers rode their horses and rushed towards the distant Jinshan City.

(End of this chapter)