Ming Dynasty: I, Yan Maoqing, am truly radiating auspicious energy!

Chapter 258 Fate Plays a Trick [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

Thus, Ma Fang and Zeng Xian became two great generals during the mid-to-late Jiajing period.

Each of them harbored extreme resentment and complex emotions, but for the sake of their own future careers, they gritted their teeth and led their troops to support the Altan Khan's court.

The first to arrive at the Tatar royal court was naturally Ma Fang, who was closer and commanded only elite cavalry.

Before this, they had already encountered a small group of Tatar cavalry.

"kill!"

Even when Ma Fang held high positions in history, he always took the lead.

At this moment, he took the lead, leading his superior cavalry to charge head-on against the small group of Tatar cavalry.

Without knowing the specifics, rushing in to provide support might fall into Anda's ambush, so he needs to capture a prisoner to find out what's going on.

However, it was discovered that this small group of Tatar cavalry had no fighting spirit at this moment. They did not even use the Mangudai tactic, which was similar to their usual counterattack, and immediately turned around and fled for their lives.

Furthermore, this small group of Tatar cavalry fled not in the direction of the Anda royal court, which was currently lighting beacon fires, but in the completely opposite direction.

"These Tatars don't seem to be deliberately luring us into a trap; they look more like they're fleeing for their lives."

Ma Fang served as a slave to the Tatars for over ten years and was very familiar with their tactics and strategies.

Just by observing the direction and posture of this small group of Tatar cavalry fleeing, some doubts arose in my mind.

When he finally captured two stragglers among the Tatar cavalry, what he learned from them nearly made him lose his composure and fall off his horse. His voice instantly rose several dozen decibels, even cracking:

What did you say?!

The two Tatar cavalrymen spoke Tatar, as did Ma Fang.

His tone and demeanor startled the Ming cavalrymen who accompanied him, who couldn't understand Tatar, and they all looked at each other in bewilderment.

Fortunately, among these soldiers who have been stationed in border towns for many years, there are always a few who can understand some Tatar language.

Even the few soldiers who could barely understand Tatar were dumbfounded, remaining incredulous for a long while before finally explaining to their comrades beside them with a blank expression:

"Those two Tatars seemed to be saying that their Anda Khan had died, killed by Yan Maoqing with cannons..."

"What did you say?!"

The first reaction of the cavalrymen was also one of astonishment, their eyes wide open and their voices rising involuntarily.

"Is this a lie? The Tatars are deliberately spreading false information to mislead us, aren't they?"

"How is this possible? Anda couldn't possibly die so easily, could he?"

"Yan Maoqing's Heroic Battalion only has two thousand soldiers, and they are all infantry. With just two thousand soldiers, even if Anda doesn't fight back, he can just send cavalry to charge up and kill them. They would be exhausted to death. How could it be Anda who dies?"

"It must be a lie, a fake news story. If it were true, I'd rip my head off and use it as a chamber pot for you all. Whoever peees yellow has to pee there..."

"..."

The soldiers, who could barely understand Tatar, listened to Ma Fang's conversation with the two Tatar cavalrymen. Their expressions grew increasingly strange, and they even felt their throats go dry. After swallowing several times, they spoke again in hoarse voices:
"The two Tatars also said that the thick smoke we saw was not the signal smoke that Yan Maoqing was sending for help."

"It was smoke rising from the gate tower of Anda's royal camp, along with the corpses of Anda and some tribal leaders, as they burned together..."

"???"

Surprisingly, no one raised any questions this time, unlike before.

This statement has been exaggerated to the point that it exceeds their imagination. It's not that there's no room for questioning, but rather that the space is so vast that they don't know where to begin their questioning.

Two thousand infantrymen?

Did they fight their way all the way to the court of Anda?

They also burned the gate tower of the royal camp, along with the corpses of Anda and some tribal leaders.
Moreover, the situation seems to be under control, so there is no need to light a signal or send reinforcements. We can simply follow the established procedures.
If this is true, then it must be false!

If this is false, then the Tatars have seriously underestimated their intelligence, attempting to deceive them with such clumsy false information.
The soldiers, who could barely understand Tatar, continued translating with strange expressions:

"The two Tatars also said that Yan Maoqing had led his troops into the royal camp and was now occupying the camp walls to defend against the Tatar cavalry."

"They couldn't break through, and their commander had already been shot and killed in one of the charges. They were unwilling to die in vain, and there was no one to command the battle."

"Moreover, Anda's army is now leaderless and in chaos, fighting their own battles. Therefore, they have no choice but to seek another way out and plan to go to Aordusi to join Ji Nang."

The so-called Aordusi is actually the later Ordos, just a transliteration used by the Ming Dynasty at that time.

And the Aoerdusi was the location of the Jiyang Royal Court.

Like Anda, Jiyang also set up his royal court in a place relatively close to the border of the Ming Dynasty.

The purpose was to establish tributary relations and trade with the Ming Dynasty to enrich themselves, or to facilitate their easy southward raids on the Ming Dynasty's resources.

The only difference is that Ji Nang occupied the Hetao region and established a royal court in Aordusi, directly threatening the Gansu, Shaanxi, and Shanxi regions.

Anda's establishment of a royal court at Fengzhou Beach directly threatened the entire defense line of Xuanda, posing a greater threat to the capital.

But that's not important!

The important thing is that this is no longer an exaggeration, it's outrageous!
With only two thousand infantrymen, they were able to storm into the Altan Khan's camp and kill Altan Khan and a host of Altan tribal leaders... Is there anything more outrageous than this?! If the Ming army was really that powerful and the Tatar cavalry really that weak.

In the decades before that—no, no, that's just the decades they experienced, to be precise, it should be the last hundred years or so—what were the generals, soldiers, and civilians of the Ming Dynasty's border garrisons doing? Were they all deliberately raising bandits to enhance their own importance, wasting their lives like dogs?
But they were soldiers under General Zhou Shangwen.

Even if the other generals didn't know him well enough, they knew that General Zhou had been wholeheartedly fighting against the Tartars all these years and had absolutely not been harboring bandits to enhance his own power.

They had witnessed firsthand the power and mobility of the Tatar cavalry, and many of their closest comrades had even died at the hands of the Tatars, falling in their arms or before their eyes...

"..."

Ma Fang finally finished asking his questions and turned to look at the group of soldiers behind him.

He had countless things he wanted to say, but he didn't know where to begin, and he couldn't even open his mouth.

His mind was buzzing, and he felt as if he were in an unreal world, where everything in front of him was distorted and deformed, an indescribable fantasy.

But he suspected that these things were very likely true.

Even the most abstract person probably couldn't come up with such an outrageous lie.

After all, the more deceptive a lie is, the more attention will be paid to the logical consistency when it is fabricated, and such an absurd situation would never occur.

"Let's mount up..."

Ma Fang took several deep breaths and finally let out a slightly hoarse, distraught voice.
"The Night Scouts will go ahead and head straight for the Anda King's camp to verify the authenticity of these messages. Our main army will follow later."

then.

Now Ma Fang arrived at a high ground outside the Altan Khan's court and saw a pile of Tatar cavalry corpses leading directly to the royal camp, the camp's city tower still burning with embers, and the Tatar cavalry army outside the camp whose formation was chaotic and who was caught in a dilemma.

Even after accounting for the casualties and those who deserted, there are still several thousand of them, several times the number of the Heroic Battalion.

At this moment, these Tatar cavalrymen were all facing the royal camp, yet they maintained their distance. None of them launched a charge easily, nor were they willing to leave.

next moment.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

With several loud bangs, flames flashed in the royal camp as cannonballs flew upwards and landed among the Tatar cavalry.

Fortunately, in order to deal with the artillery fire, these Tatar cavalrymen maintained a relatively dispersed formation, so only two unlucky men who had no time or opportunity to dodge were killed along with their horses.

"It's a Franco machine gun from the Heroes' Battalion!"

At this moment, Ma Fang and his cavalrymen finally believed it.

All the outrageous claims they had heard from those two Tatars were actually true, undeniable facts!
In fact, they should have believed it long ago, because before their arrival, the Night Scouts who had come out to scout ahead had already confirmed the situation of the royal camp with them.

However, since they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, they still clung to a sliver of hope and never dared to believe it was true...

Yan Maoqing did it!

He actually did something so outrageous.

With only two thousand infantrymen, he charged straight into the Altan Khan's court from the front, and the corpses of the Tatar cavalry along the way were proof of that!

As for Anda…

They are probably right now in the still-burning embers of the collapsed city tower, just as the two Tatars had said!
This is Yan Maoqing!

Yan Butang, can you give me a chance to get to know you again?

……

Royal Court Camp.

The Heroes' Camp still used horse-drawn carriages in formation, but only divided its troops to control the two easily defensible gates at the front and back, and did not send troops to search for the Tatar royal family members who had not yet escaped from the various tents.

He didn't have enough manpower and simply didn't have the capacity to divide his forces to do these things.

Moreover, he knew his own strengths. As the saying goes, "It's easy to dodge a spear in the open, but hard to guard against an arrow in the dark." Even in later generations, elite armies with the most advanced equipment would have their equipment and concentrated fire advantages severely limited once they were dragged into urban warfare. If they encountered resistance, they would suffer heavy casualties.

So he only temporarily controlled the entrance and exit, and then calmed down and waited.

Waiting for Ma Fang and Zeng Xian's reinforcements to arrive, then someone will naturally do these things. Moreover, with a large number of people, the remaining Tatars in the camp will not dare to resist.

But at this moment.

"It's all over, it's all fucking over!"

"Fate is playing tricks on us! This is truly fate playing tricks on us!"

Yan Maoqing learned from Yan Shifan, who had survived the ordeal, that Anda had indeed caught the cannonball so well that he had caught it with his bare hands.

In particular, all the Tatar leaders had perished, and some had even been cremated.

He was instantly overcome with grief, his legs went weak and he collapsed to the ground, tears streaming down his face, uttering desperate sobs.

(End of this chapter)