Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 208 The End of the Northern Yuan Cavalry

When the wind blows across the grassland, the grass is bent down.

The Northern Yuan cavalry also came roaring like the wind.

Unlike the wind, the Northern Yuan cavalry did not want to make the grass bow its head, but to make the Ming soldiers bow their heads and then reap their lives.

Since the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, the grassland tribes have suffered many defeats.

Especially in the past few years, Lan Yu led the Ming army to defeat the Yuan court at Buyuer Lake, causing the Northern Yuan Dynasty to suffer greatly.

However, the Northern Yuan Dynasty's assets still existed.

There are still quite a few people on the grassland.

There were constant disputes among them.

But it is precisely this kind of dispute that allows the various grassland tribes to always maintain strong combat effectiveness.

Their children all grew up on horseback and were skilled in archery and horse riding from a young age. They were far more capable than the little kids in the Central Plains who only knew how to herd cattle and plow the fields.

This is also the pride in the hearts of many grassland cavalrymen.

I always feel that the Han people in the Central Plains are weak and helpless.

Even when they were defeated by the Han people and the Yuan court had to flee back to the grasslands, they still believed this.

Because in their view, the most critical reason for their failure was their internal strife, which allowed the despicable and shameless Han people to take advantage of the situation.

Otherwise, if the Yuan court had not been in internal strife at the beginning, and had suppressed Zhu Yuanzhang, Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng and others when they rose up in rebellion, could they have been able to resist the iron cavalry of the Northern Yuan Dynasty?
Now, the grassland tribes are united again.

The gathering of 60,000 troops is the best proof.

When Genghis Khan mobilized all the able-bodied men on the grasslands to march east, he only assembled an army of hundreds of thousands.

Now, in order to deal with a mere 3,000 Ming troops, the Grand Tutor has assembled 60,000 troops, which shows how much he values the Ming army and how eager he is to win.

In this battle, we must not let any Ming Dynasty soldier escape.

At this moment, all the Northern Yuan cavalry were thinking this way.

It can be said that they had never fought such a confident battle in their lives.

Most of the time, the Ming army outnumbered them.

After all, there are too many Han people in the Central Plains.

But this time, the Northern Yuan army's strength was twenty times that of the Ming army.

If each person shoots one arrow, it will be enough to turn all the Ming troops into hedgehogs.

While galloping on horseback, the Northern Yuan cavalry seemed to have imagined the Ming army falling down before their eyes.

Blood flowed like a river, and the soldiers of the Ming army fell in a pool of blood, groaning in pain... The few who survived knelt on the ground and begged for mercy, but were then ruthlessly killed by them...

boom!
boom!
boom!
The fierce sound of artillery instantly awakened the Northern Yuan cavalry from their sweet dreams.

This was not the first time that the Northern Yuan cavalry faced cannons head-on, so when the cannons were pointed at them, they were not panicked.

According to past experience, the greatest function of a cannon is to make a loud noise, causing horses to scare and lose control.

The actual lethality is not that great.

They've seen it all.

The horses are also trained and are not afraid.

However, when the shells landed, the Northern Yuan cavalry realized they were wrong.

The shells fired by the Ming Dynasty were not solid projectiles like before, but would explode after hitting the ground.

The shock wave swept in all directions, mixed with a large amount of lethal fragments.

The area within dozens of feet was covered by the power of the explosion.

The injured horses ran around, throwing the cavalry off their backs and causing chaos in the army's formation.

Almost at the same time, intensive gunfire rang out.

This was different from the Northern Yuan cavalry, whose artillery shells mainly attacked the rear.

The target of the gun was undoubtedly the Northern Yuan cavalry rushing in the front.

When the gunshots rang out, a large number of Northern Yuan cavalry fell down.

In an instant, all the Northern Yuan cavalry were stunned.

It's not that they haven't experienced war, and it's also that they have faced enemy arrows while charging.

But no matter how powerful the enemy was, it had never happened that more than half of their own men fell down at the very beginning of the charge.

A rain of arrows is usually inaccurate and looks scary, but there are not many actual targets.

Even if the shot hits, it will be blocked by the leather armor on the body.

But under the Ming Dynasty's musket fire, the leather armor they were wearing seemed to be non-existent and could not provide any defense at all.

More importantly, how come the opponent can shoot so accurately?
When did the Ming army’s firearms become so powerful?

No one told them the answer.

The only answer they got was the second, third, and fourth waves of gunfire.

The cavalry at the front were quickly wiped out.

The unridden horses and the corpses lying on the ground soon blocked the route for the cavalry in the rear to continue their charge.

This is also a difficult problem for cold weapon cavalry when facing attacks from hot weapons.

Due to too many casualties, the injured or dead people and horses in the front will become obstacles for the soldiers in the rear to charge.

If they continued to charge forward, their horses would be tripped and would create more roadblocks for the soldiers charging from behind.

As a result, the speed of the charge had to be slowed down.

But this also gave the Ming army more time to shoot, resulting in greater casualties among the Northern Yuan cavalry and more roadblocks.

The charge of the Northern Yuan cavalry soon became powerless.

Seeing their companions dying or struggling with injuries one after another, their psychological defenses collapsed.

From childhood to adulthood, they have experienced countless wars, but there has never been a war in which so many people died at the very beginning of the charge.

A war with rivers of blood is often caused by one side being defeated and the other side taking advantage of the situation to pursue the victory.

As long as the front line has not collapsed and both sides are still fighting, the casualties on both sides will not be too great.

Not to mention that they had just started to make contact. The Ming army in front of them was like evil spirits from hell, ruthlessly harvesting lives.

Amid the roar of artillery fire, the command system of the Northern Yuan cavalry collapsed.

Amid the continuous gunfire, the Northern Yuan soldiers went from being excited to feeling terrified and fearful.

At this moment, many soldiers thought of the legendary Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty, the God of War Zhu Yunhuan.

The daily printing volume of the Ming Daily reached several million copies. Although it was only distributed within the Ming Dynasty, as a household name, the relevant content in it would of course also spread to the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

Unlike the Han people in the Central Plains who admired the relevant deeds very much, most of the people in the Northern Yuan Dynasty laughed at and showed disdain when they heard the above stories.

They felt that the contents recorded above were all propaganda from the Ming Dynasty court, that it was all nonsense and untrue, and that only the stupid Han people would believe the bizarre stories written above.

When people in the Northern Yuan Dynasty chatted, they would use these stories as jokes to mock the "despicable" Ming court and the "shallowness and ignorance" of the people.

However, facing the fierce attack of the new army's firepower today, they remembered the once ridiculed Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty.

Thinking of the army before him, it was the new army he had built.

Are all the contents recorded in the "Da Ming Daily" true?
Is the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty really a god descended from heaven, and the troops under his command are all invincible heavenly armies?

The feeling of terror spread quickly, and associations followed.

Zhu Yunhuan probably did not expect that the publicity about himself and the Ming New Army in the "Da Ming Daily" would play such a huge role during the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

The Northern Yuan Dynasty lasted less than half a quarter of an hour before it turned into a great rout.

The cavalry swept in like the wind and retreated like the tide.

But the shooting of the Ming army in the rear will not stop because of this.

People kept falling off their horses and being shot dead, making the fleeing Northern Yuan cavalry even more frightened and uneasy.

Escaping is just the beginning of the nightmare.

Unlike gunfire, cannon fire has a much greater range and attack distance.

From the very beginning, the target of the Ming army's artillery was not the Northern Yuan cavalry charging in the front, but the troops in the rear.

Especially it looks like a command center, where generals may be.

They will be the focus of artillery fire.

Amid the roar of cannons and the air filled with smoke, the generals of the Northern Yuan Dynasty were unable to issue effective orders, let alone control the rout of their troops.

Ugezihashaha stared at the scene in front of him in amazement, unable to believe it.

Sixty thousand elite cavalry were actually defeated by three thousand Ming troops?
Impossible, absolutely impossible!

But the fact was before him, and he had to believe it.

"Don't be afraid, charge forward. Anyone who dares to escape will be killed without mercy!" Ugezihasha shouted at the top of his lungs.

boom!
A cannon exploded not far from him, and the earth-shaking sound drowned out his voice.

Waves of air swept in all directions.

The horse that Ugezihasha was riding was frightened and raised its hooves, almost throwing him off the horse on the spot.

Relying on his superb riding skills and with great effort, he finally got the horse to stand steadily again.

Not far away, a guard soldier was injured by shell fragments and fell to the ground in pain, groaning.

"Grand Master, the Ming army is invincible, let's go!" A personal guard stepped forward and called out to the commander-in-chief.

"The Ming army is full of terrifying demons. They have summoned terrible thunder from the sky. We cannot defeat them."

"It's over, it's over, it's all over!" Two lines of tears rolled out of Ugezihasha's eyes.

The 60,000 elite cavalry were defeated in one blow by the Ming army. Who else on the grassland could stop the Ming army's attack?

boom!
boom!
boom!
Shell after shell hit the distance, blocking their escape route.

Seeing the artillery fire in front of them, the fleeing Beiyuan cavalry immediately changed direction, but soon, artillery shells appeared in front of them again, and they had to change direction again...

The Northern Yuan cavalry had no experience facing this type of artillery fire, and the new army's shrapnel shells were completely different from the solid cannons they had seen before.

When there were artillery explosions ahead, the Northern Yuan cavalry did not think about rushing forward under the artillery fire... they thought about escaping in another direction.

But the more you do this, the more time you waste.

The grassland is connected in all directions, and you can escape by running anywhere.

However, under the fierce artillery attack of the Ming army, they ran around like headless flies, circling around, giving the Ming army more opportunities and time to fire and kill more people.

Not long after, the shooting stopped in the Ming army's position.

Because all the Northern Yuan soldiers escaped beyond the maximum distance that the guns could shoot.

All that was left on the ground were countless corpses of cavalrymen, seriously wounded cavalrymen groaning in pain, and ownerless horses that were either injured, fallen down, or running for their lives.

Zhang Fu waved his hand, and the only 600 cavalrymen who were going on this expedition mounted their horses, carrying ammunition and holding guns in their hands.

At the same time, all of them took out a black mask that looked as scary as a devil's from their pockets.

This is a mask that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince specially ordered the Ming Dynasty to make. Every soldier in the new army has one.

When Zhang Fu saw this thing for the first time, he thought it was useless.

The devil mask can scare ordinary people at night, or scare women and children.

But on the battlefield, both sides were bloodthirsty.

The soldiers' mentality is to kill gods if they stand in the way, and kill demons if they stand in the way.

Who cares about you?

There is no point in playing tricks.

But His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said that it was useful and must be taken with the new army on the expedition, so Zhang Fu had no choice but to do as he was told.

At this moment, he finally understood the meaning of this mask.

The Northern Yuan cavalry, who faced rapid-fire cannons and flintlock rifles for the first time, were already frightened.

When you see the devil's mask at this time, you will be even more afraid from the bottom of your heart and lose the courage to resist.

"Kill!" Zhang Fu took the lead, and 600 new army soldiers followed closely behind, chasing the 60,000 defeated Northern Yuan troops in front.

……

(End of this chapter)