The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 358: Life and Death
Wang Zengbin raised his telescope and carefully observed the crowd of refugees crawling like ants on the valley post road, with an expression of irrepressible excitement on his face.

The cavalry commander gently patted the rock beside him and muttered, "I'm afraid there are tens of thousands of troops. This battle will be difficult to fight."

The team entering the valley was endless. The cavalry from the old camp in front had already run three or four miles away, and the refugees with their families were still blocking the mountain pass behind.

The scouts who had just been sent out at noon came back to report that the bandits in front of them were not Li Xianzhong's main force, but at best were just the vanguard. There were more than 40,000 refugees following behind them, and the team stretched for dozens of miles, like a swarm of locusts. That was the main force of King Chuang.

Wang Zengbin was amazed. He hadn't seen such a grand scene for many years. Only when he and General Liu (Liu Jing) went to fight at Sarhu could he compare with the present one.

In the 47th year of the Wanli reign, Yang Jinglue led an "army of 470,000" to Liaodong. He mentioned this number in the hope of scaring Nurhaci.

Liu Zhaosun: "Was he (Nurhaci) frightened?"

Yang Hao: "No. He also said that he wanted to avenge the 'Seven Great Grudges' and kill people to destroy their hearts."

~~~~~~
Compared to the vast, overwhelming army of bandits before them, the meager number of troops Wang Zengbin had brought seemed utterly insignificant. Six hundred cavalry, a little over nine hundred infantry, and even including the artillery and night patrols, the total force was less than two thousand—the maximum Deng Changxiong could commit to the front lines. Expecting this small number of men to hold their own against an army of fifty or sixty thousand was sheer nonsense.

And behind the rebels is Zhang Zicheng, who is said to be more difficult to deal with than Li Xianzhong...
Of course, having a small number of troops is not completely without advantages. At least they hid in the mountains and were not discovered by the two shrewd old camp scouts.

"It's going to rain, my mother's going to get married, life and death are determined by fate, success and failure are determined by heaven, damn it, at worst I'll die here today!"

Wang Zengbin gritted his teeth, dropped the telescope, looked up at the sky, and saw that the blood-red sun was already setting in the west.

The time was just right - he planned to launch a surprise attack around sunset - the Kaiyuan army was good at night battles, and the mission of this battle was to kill as many enemy troops as possible, so it was best to ambush the enemy at dusk. He took off the red flag and waved it twice towards the dense forest behind him. Soon, a shrill bamboo whistle sounded behind him. A moment later, the cavalry who were resting mounted their horses one after another, and the war horses neighed as they emerged from the woods. Many war horses had already sensed the atmosphere of the battlefield and began to snort back and forth at the edge of the woods.

Wang Zengbin looked at the little fortune he brought with him, and suddenly had an inexplicable feeling. The more than 2,000 cavalrymen under his command were divided into three groups. One group rushed to Henan to intercept the refugees, and the other group stayed in Hequ County as a garrison force. The only ones who actually participated in this raid were the five or six hundred cavalrymen in front of him.

"Damn Man Gui, he's trying to kill me!"

These days, the Western Expedition Army has scolded the Jizhen General hundreds of times. Man Gui has been slow to come to reinforce, and their more than 9,000 men (Deng Changxiong temporarily recruited 1,000 auxiliary soldiers in Shaanxi) will soon die without a burial place.

"Is the artillery not ready yet? It will be difficult to fight the bandits if they leave the valley."

A messenger nearby hurried to the cliff in front to urge them. There was a temporary artillery position there. Han Zhenyi and Wang Congzhi, the two brothers in distress, had been busy with the artillery for two days.

Two days ago, the two main officers followed the cavalry regiment from Hequ County to Shijiashan, and then hid themselves. At night, they went down the mountain to bury mines, mark the shelling points, and set up more than a thousand Shenhuo Flying Crows. Many people did not sleep for two days.

The messenger quickly ran back and said to Wang Zengbin, "Commander Wang, Commander Han said they are ready and waiting for your order to attack!"

Wang Zengbin slapped his thigh and cursed, "Damn it! Why didn't you tell me earlier? I've been waiting for so long. Go tell him to do as we said before. When I give the order, the artillery will open fire immediately."

"Yes!"

The messenger, still catching his breath, hurried over again.

The cavalry and artillery were ready, and the soldiers brought by Cheng Liang also began to sharpen their swords. Under the urging of the camp commanders, the musketeers repeatedly checked their flintlock rifles to see if the gunpowder was properly installed. Some musketeers took out silk cloth from their arms and repeatedly wiped the gun barrels.

Wang Zengbin saw Cheng Liang's worried look and approached him and asked:

"What's wrong? Are you scared? Don't worry, today is different from the past. The cavalry will lead the charge, and the combat soldiers are just supporting. We will go first."

Cheng Liang looked solemn, not listening to what Wang Zengbin was saying at all. He pointed at the densely packed ants crawling on the post road and said thoughtfully:

"They've dragged so many people into this? I wonder how much harm Shanxi has suffered from them."

Wang Zengbin raised the coconut ladle, gulped down a mouthful, and said disdainfully:

"What's the point of being forced or not? They all joined on their own accord." Cheng Liang opened his eyes wide, a look of surprise on his face.

"If we don't rob, we'll all starve to death. But Lord Liu said that if you take a penny from someone, you're a thief. We are soldiers, they are thieves, and soldiers must kill thieves. There's no other reason! These bandits are full of evil, murder, arson, rape, looting, and even cannibalism..."

Wang Zengbin had spent the past two years traveling back and forth between Khorchin and the capital, having seen a great deal of the world. Last year, drought in northern Zhili wiped out the crops, and while traveling along the Shanxi-Mongolian border, he had seen places where human flesh was sold by the pound. Initially, he had felt sympathy for these refugees, but later, after seeing them so often, he grew numb to them.

"Life and death are determined by fate. We are here to kill people. If you don't kill them, they will turn around and harm others, and those harmed will become bandits, just like the plague. Commander Cheng, are your soldiers ready?"

Cheng Liang sighed silently, made a cross on his chest, and murmured:
"Thanks to the Duke of Protectorate, otherwise there would be countless more refugees in this world."

(Liu Zhaosun: Because of my time travel, there are countless more refugees in this world.)
The cavalry commander was quite disdainful of the baptized officer and said impatiently:
"Alright, alright, it's time for us to go out. We'll pray to the Archbishop when we return victorious."

Liu Zhaosun did not prohibit the spread of Protestantism in the army because all doctrines and rules were formulated by him and Francisco himself.

According to the doctrine, the Archbishop, Liu Zhaosun, has indisputable ruling power over all countries in the world. Those who oppose this truth are pagans and will be burned to death in the fire of Doomsday.

"Commander Wang, how are you going to fight?"

Cheng Liang turned his gaze from the refugees in the valley and stared at Wang Zengbin and asked.

The cavalry commander immediately changed his expression to a serious one and said to Cheng Liang:
"Catch the leader first. It's better to cut off one finger than to injure ten. Strike the leader in the front first to draw the cavalry and soldiers to follow. I will personally deal with them. When the cavalry begins to charge, the artillery will bombard the rear of the bandits. The infantry will be responsible for cutting off the bandits' retreat and blocking the mountain pass to prevent the bandits from entering the valley to provide assistance. Not a single soldier can be allowed in, and no one inside can escape."

Cheng Liang nodded after hearing this. He had brought 300 soldiers from the Second Guards Army from Hequ County, along with 600 soldiers from his 12th Army. A total of 900 soldiers should be enough to guard the narrow mountain pass. However, with enemies on both sides, he didn't know how long he could hold out.

After Wang Zengbin finished speaking, he saluted Cheng Liang. Although both were veterans of the 47th year of the Wanli reign, they had never met before. One served as the captain of the cavalry battalion, the other as the captain of the combat battalion. Both were later promoted. This was their first time working together.

After saluting, Wang Zengbin turned around and ran back to the cavalry formation, and began to instruct his captains on the things to pay attention to during the charge.

"Pay attention to the spacing between the front and back rows of horses. The spacing should be half that of normal training, so three steps is enough."

"According to our scouts, this bandit group's cavalry is very formidable. Many of them are former Night Watchmen from Yansui Town. Each of them has three horses, and their riding skills are excellent, and their horsepower is better than ours."

"We can't afford to waste time with this group of bandits. There are tens of thousands more bandits waiting to besiege Hequ County. So we must defeat them once and for all. We can't let a single one escape, otherwise the bandits will come back to bite us, brothers."

There was laughter from the crowd below. Wang Zengbin raised his whip, pointed at the yellow flag galloping on the post road, and continued:

"Under the banner is their leader, a Xiong Li Lai. He is Li Xianzhong's nephew. It's unfortunate for him to have run into us today. Let's take his head first as a tribute to the dead civilians and Ming army!"

After Wang Zengbin finished making the arrangements, he ordered the messenger to wave the attack flag, and the sound of cavalry charge drums was heard in the center of the army.

Wang Zengbin pointed his lance slightly forward, and the six rows of cavalry behind him did the same.

"rush!"

As the black flying eagle flag moved forward rapidly, six hundred cavalrymen followed closely behind. The Kaiyuan cavalry rushed towards the foothill post road like waves along the undulating mountains.

At the same time, a series of explosions sounded in the middle of the post road. The sound of the explosions was like rolling spring thunder, shaking the entire valley slightly.

After the mines exploded, the road was covered in smoke and dust. Countless black spots ran across the road, and the faint screams and neighs of horses and men could be heard. Then, countless fireballs rose from the dense forests on both sides of the valley. Hundreds of rockets screamed shrilly. Divine Fire Crows, trailing long tails of flame, fell from the sky like meteors, smashing into both ends of the long line of bandits.

Destruction is coming like doomsday, judging those beasts who have lost their humanity.

(End of this chapter)