Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 324: King Qi's great achievements, Lao Zhu asks for advice on pacifying the grasslands [Please subscribe]

The movements of the Yuan army's elite cavalry were soon discovered by Emperor Shengzong of Tang, who was carrying a telescope and immediately issued a series of orders to respond.

As several messengers ran, the Ming cavalry, which had been scattered in waves on a large grassland in the north, suddenly moved towards the location of Tang Shengzong's flag, forming an arc-shaped semi-encirclement against the Yuan army from the east, west and north.

As the commander of the left wing cavalry, Emperor Shengzong of Tang had nearly 10,000 Ming cavalry under his command, as well as 2,000 elite cavalry guards from the King of Chu and the King of Qi. His number of troops was superior to that of the elite cavalry of the Yuan court who fled north.

Moreover, the Ming army was well-equipped and had high morale, and they also had a trump card specifically for dealing with the Mongolian cavalry.

Therefore, he was only afraid that the people of the Yuan court who fled north would scatter after encountering him. In this way, even if he had an advantage in troops and combat power, he would have to rely on luck to capture or kill the Yuan court emperor and his ministers in the crowd.

Now the Yuan army fleeing north is trying to make a head-on breakthrough, which is exactly what he wants!
There was no such thing as a cavalry commander commanding from the rear. So when the order was passed down and the cavalry units changed their formations, Emperor Shengzong of Tang immediately raised his iron spear and shouted loudly: "The Ming Dynasty will win!"

Tens of thousands of Ming troops followed suit and shouted: "The Ming Dynasty will win!"

"The Ming Dynasty will win!"

"The Ming Dynasty will win!"

The sound was a little uneven at the beginning, but in the last two times it was neat and high-pitched, resounding through the sky!

"rush!"

Tang Shengzong shouted, pointed his spear, and led hundreds of personal soldiers to charge!

At this time, seven or eight thousand elite cavalrymen of the Yuan court guards had rushed to three or four miles away. When they heard the shouts of the Ming cavalry resounding through the sky, they were all startled.

But at this point, they all knew that it was too late to escape by taking a detour, and the only way to survive was to break through the Ming army's blockade head-on.

"Ula!!"

The brave generals of the Yuan court guards shouted loudly, trying to boost their morale.

This method was somewhat effective. Before coming into contact with the Ming cavalry, the Yuan army's elite cavalry had already shouted "Ula" in unison, and their momentum was quite astonishing.

They seemed to have regained the feeling of invincibility that the Mongolian cavalry had when they roamed the Eurasian continent a hundred years ago, and were determined to crush the Ming cavalry in front of them into pieces!
However, they soon suffered an unexpected major blow.

The Ming army's cavalry was not as good as them in riding and shooting, and in the past field battles mostly relied on the coordination of infantry and cavalry to carry out encirclement and killing.

This time the Ming army only had cavalry, so if they wanted to engage in battle with them, they would have to endure at least one round of arrow rain.

However, when their rain of arrows fell, almost all of them were deflected or blocked by the Ming army's armor - the excellence of the Ming cavalry's armor and the high rate of armor wearing exceeded their expectations.

Speaking of which, it seems that the Yuan cavalry should use the Mangudai tactics of their ancient Mongolian cavalry ancestors at this time.

That is, they would use light cavalry to stalk the Ming cavalry, shooting any Ming cavalry that dared to pursue them. If the Ming cavalry did not pursue them, they would get close and shoot arrows.

In fact, it is a kite-flying tactic.

However, this tactic is easy to say but difficult to implement - it requires not only extremely high archery skills from the cavalry but also extremely high command ability from the cavalry commander.

Nowadays, even the elite cavalry of the Yuan court guards cannot perform such high-end tactics.

Furthermore, among these elite Yuan cavalry were Emperor Tianyuan, his two sons, and a dozen or so important Yuan officials whose riding skills were mediocre. The guards' primary mission was to protect the Yuan emperor and his officials, so they couldn't abandon them to play Mangudai.

In the end, the Ming army came towards them in a semi-encirclement, obviously taking precautions against them.

In short, due to various factors, seven or eight thousand elite cavalrymen of the Yuan court guards were forced to engage in a head-on confrontation with the Ming cavalry.

After one round of arrow rain failed, the Yuan army had no time to launch a second round of arrows and could only rush forward at the speed of their horses and engage in close combat with the Ming army.

However, when they were about ten steps away, the first group of Ming soldiers suddenly raised a number of half-long muskets from their horses!
This is the lance produced by the Beijing Gun Factory for the cavalry in the past two years. It is actually a flintlock shotgun!

Bang bang bang...

When the Ming army fired their shotguns, they were less than ten steps away from the front of the Yuan army, or about ten meters.

One scattershot after another came towards them, directly stunning the bravest cavalry of the Yuan army who were rushing in the front.

Many people didn't even know what was happening. They only heard a burst of musketry, and then felt pain all over their bodies, and fell off their horses amid the shrill neighing of their horses!

The vanguard suffered a sudden heavy blow, which greatly reduced the morale of the Yuan court's elite cavalry.

The morale of the Ming cavalry increased again and was extremely high!

"kill!"

Amidst the shouts and cries of killing, the Yuan soldiers were beheaded one by one by the Ming army.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Emperor Tianyuan and his sons, who had been hanging at the end of the charging team, secretly turned around and ran to the west with dozens of attendants!
The Yuan court guards, whose morale was already low, immediately lost all their morale when they saw this scene.

"Your Majesty has run away!"

"Failed!"

"Run away!"

People in the Yuan army behind kept shouting.

As a result, the Yuan army, which had been in contact with the Ming army for less than ten breaths, suddenly collapsed. The team was like a snow sculpture that had been hit hard, breaking apart and fleeing in all directions.

When Emperor Shengzong of Tang saw this scene, he almost couldn't help cursing - he never expected that these elite cavalry guards of the Yuan court were so weak and were defeated as soon as they came into contact with them.

The situation suddenly turned into something he didn't want to see.

Right now, if we want to capture the Tartar emperor, we can only rely on luck...

Zhu Yu led a thousand guard cavalry on the left wing, which was the west.

Originally, they were going to come into contact with the Yuan army later, and Zhu Gui was a little unhappy about this.

But when he saw that the Yuan army quickly collapsed and a small group of people in luxurious armor fled to the west, he was immediately happy.

He pointed and said, "That group of people escaped first, and their armor is extraordinary. They must be of extraordinary status. Perhaps the Yuan Emperor is among them! Follow Gu Chong, if we capture the Yuan Emperor, everyone will receive a generous reward!"

The thousand elite guards of the King of Qi were already excited, and they became even more excited after hearing this. They immediately surrounded Zhu Gui and went to intercept the "Yuan army" of dozens of people in the west.

Emperor Tianyuan didn't expect that he was so unlucky. He was being attacked in front, and he was still noticed when he escaped here.

He instinctively steered his horse to run away from the Ming army, and his two sons did the same. Unfortunately, his riding skills were mediocre, and even though he was riding a BMW, he was quickly approached by the Ming army.

This made Emperor Tianyuan so anxious that he whipped the BMW under his crotch.

Unexpectedly, the BMW had a bad temper. After being hit hard a few times, it slowed down and "brakes". Suddenly, it stood up and shook Emperor Tianyuan off!
"His Majesty!"

Some of the servants stopped subconsciously.

Tianbaonu and Dibaonu looked at each other, but they tacitly agreed to each take some of their servants and flee to other places separately.

Emperor Tianyuan was so dizzy from the fall that when he stood up he saw a BMW on the side and was so angry that he drew his sword and was about to kill it.

But his sword was shot off by an arrow.

"This horse has returned to the right path and joined the Ming Dynasty in battle. He is a meritorious official of the Ming Dynasty. Don't even think of harming him!"

Emperor Tianyuan turned his head and saw a large group of Ming cavalry rushing over and surrounding them.

The young man in the lead was dignified and smiling, yet also looked arrogant. He was none other than Zhu Gui, the Prince of Qi of the Ming Dynasty.

"Are you Emperor Toghon Temur?" Zhu Gui suppressed his excitement and asked just in case.

Emperor Tianyuan was worried about being hacked to death by someone, so he nodded and said, "I am."

Zhu Yu frowned immediately, "Who told you to call me 'I'? Now, my father is the only one in the world who can be called 'I'!"

Emperor Tianyuan felt humiliated and wanted to refute something, but considering his own safety, he could only smile and nod, saying, "Your Excellency is right, it is... I made a slip of the tongue, I will correct it."

"That's more like it." Zhu Yu nodded. "I am Zhu Yu, the King of Qi. You are my captive."

Emperor Tianyuan immediately bowed and said, "So it's His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi of the Ming Dynasty. No wonder you are so brave and powerful. I'm so sorry."

Zhu Yu smiled and said, "You are quite good at talking. Since your attitude is so good, I will not tie you up. Come, help Gus Temur to mount his horse."

In this way, Emperor Tianyuan was helped onto the horse by Zhu Gui's guards and was "surrounded".

Not long after, two cavalry generals of the guard came over and captured Tianbaonu and Dibaonu who had failed to escape.

Upon learning that the two young men were the sons of Emperor Tianyuan, Zhu Gui became even happier and couldn't help laughing while sitting on his horse.

"I actually captured Toghon Temur and his two sons in one battle. This is a great achievement. I will definitely be promoted to the rank of Commander-in-Chief."

"I will be enfeoffed as a vassal state overseas in no time, hahahaha!"

···
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On February 29, the 20th year of Hongwu, the capital.

Several cavalrymen from the emperor's personal army entered the city from Yifeng Gate, holding blazons, and began shouting along the streets.

"Great victory!"

"A great victory in Helin!"

"On February 18th, the Duke of Ying conquered the remnant Yuan capital, Horqin, capturing tens of thousands of prisoners and countless cattle, sheep, and horses. The remnant Yuan Prime Minister Yaozhu and Grand Commandant Nairbuhua led their troops in surrender!"

The pedestrians, shopkeepers, and employees on the street were not surprised by the good news. Many shopkeepers even calmly told their employees, "Our Ming Dynasty has won another great victory. It seems that pacifying the grassland is just around the corner. Let's set off firecrackers to celebrate."

The guys don't need to buy firecrackers because they are already in stock in the store.

Since the beginning of February when the Ming army launched a northern expedition against the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty, the four armies have successively reported back victory reports, which can be said to be frequent.

Even the Tianyuan Emperor of the remnant Yuan Dynasty, his concubines, princes, and many civil and military ministers of the Yuan court were captured by the Ming army. People like Xia Yingchang, Kehelin, and Powala naturally could not cause much emotional fluctuation among the people in the capital.

But everyone is still happy.

When the cavalry that brought the victory passed by, firecrackers and other fireworks were set off in the streets and alleys. Everyone, from officials and wealthy businessmen to ordinary people, was filled with joy.

at the same time.

An important meeting is taking place in the Fengxian Hall of the Imperial Palace.

In addition to Li Shanchang and other military ministers in the capital, the participants also included several cabinet ministers, as well as the five ministers of the Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of War, and Ministry of Rites.

Then there are Crown Prince Zhu Biao and Earl of Science and Technology Liu Kuan.

Although the ministers were surprised by Liu Kuan's participation, they also felt it was normal.

Zhu Yuanzhang had already known the news that Fu Youde's troops had conquered Horqin, because it was he who ordered the announcement of the victory.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang sat high on the dragon throne, glanced at his ministers, and said in a loud voice: "Now that Horqin has been conquered, there will be no more cities or permanent camps of the remnant Yuan Dynasty on this vast grassland."

"However, although the various tribes directly under the Yuan court and the various Oirat tribes to the west were defeated by the Ming Dynasty, they were not completely eliminated. Many of them have fled. If left unchecked, I am afraid they will become a scourge in the northern border again in a few years."

"I wish to completely pacify the grasslands. Therefore, this time I must not only force the nomadic tribes of the grasslands to surrender or be destroyed, but also establish a stable rule on the grasslands so that the grasslands will no longer be a source of trouble for the northern borders of the Ming Dynasty."

"You are all the wise men of our Ming Dynasty. Tell us how we can accomplish this great plan."

After saying that, Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Li Shanchang first.

Although Li Shanchang was standing there, his old eyes were half closed, and he looked drowsy and seemed to be running out of energy.

He frowned, but said nothing, and then looked at Zhu Biao, Liu Kuan and others.

Zhu Biao spoke first, "Father, the grasslands are a nomadic land. As long as the grasslands exist, nomadic tribes will never be completely eliminated. Even if Han Chinese migrate there, they will still live a nomadic life. Over time, the Han people who migrated there will become new nomadic tribes."

"Therefore, I believe that if we want to establish a stable rule on the grasslands, we must no longer reduce the population of the nomadic tribes, nor relocate Han people. Instead, we must win over the hearts and minds of the people and assimilate the Hu people!"

Zhu Biao's words were very consistent with the Confucian idea of ​​the kingly way and the teaching of benevolence and righteousness, so most of the cabinet ministers and secretaries nodded in approval after hearing them.

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "What you said does make some sense—but the barbarians fear power and do not cherish virtue. If we only use virtue to educate them, I'm afraid it won't be enough."

Having said that, Zhu Yuanzhang obviously wanted someone to continue his words, but the ministers and chancellors seemed not to understand what he meant.

This annoyed Old Zhu a little, so he looked directly at Liu Kuan and asked, "Liu Kuan, what do you think?"

　Second update.

　　Good night~
　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)