Chapter 498: What is courage?

The first batch of Tatar troops successfully completed the task of forcibly crossing the Yellow River.

Initially, there was a certain amount of harassment on the other side of the river. Yang Yiqing sent people to the other side of the river in advance, and the Ningxia avant-garde sent people to block it. However, the blocking force only had one cannon, and even one shot of firecrackers was enough to block it. No, there are only two or three hundred cavalry.

When the Tatars forcibly crossed the Yellow River, the people on the road just fired two symbolic cannons, but they were all empty. The Ming cavalry was not even within the range of the bow and arrow. Back away.

Then the Tatar vanguard successfully landed ashore. They were very afraid that the Ming army was pretending to retreat and that there was yellow gunpowder buried on the ground, so they carefully checked everywhere, just like searching for landmines, so that the follow-up The troops who landed were not that enthusiastic.

After the Tatars established a foothold on the beach, subsequent boats, sheepskin rafts, rafts, etc. began to transport Tatar soldiers and horses across the river in large quantities. After crossing the river, they also immediately To set up defenses, especially to guard against Ming Dynasty's fire cannon attack, the shield array was brought in first.

But then they discovered that Daming seemed to have no arrangements on the other side of the river.

"Taiji, the Ming Dynasty people have not followed up. There is a vast plain on the other side. You can lead your troops to kill them and take away their sons and wives."

In a young man who looks like a noble In front of the young general, a general was reporting to him.

This man is the commander of the landing force, Urus Borot, the second son of Batu Monk. This man seems to be elegant, but in fact he is cruel and easy to kill, and his character is unstable. His elder brother Tulu Borot was in poor health, which made him always have the idea of ​​​​coveting to be the crown prince of the Khan.

This time he took the initiative to lead troops across the river to accumulate political capital for himself.

On the battlefield, his character is wild and impulsive, but he is not easy to back down at critical moments. In the previous battles where he was defeated, he had no chance to lead troops, so he looked down on the previous ones. Led by his brother, the "cowards" of the Tatar tribe, especially the Chahar tribe.

Urus said, "Tulu overestimated his capabilities and said he would block the attack of the Ming Ningxia cavalry. Then I will let him see how I can gain a foothold here. If he is at the end I don’t have to take him across the river.”

Urus has never concealed his dislike for his brother, and his competition has no limits.

Born to the same mother, the relationship between the brothers was not good because of the competition for the throne of Khan. Batu Munch did not seem to interfere too much with the brothers' feud, but did not allow them to use some unconventional methods. As for mutual criticism and competition, Batu Munch seems to be happy to see it.

It is the people at the top who like to see the people below fighting openly and secretly in order to consolidate their dominance.

So not only did Tulu have direct descendants, but Urus also had his own direct descendants, and because among the many sons of Batu Monk, Tulu and Urus were the oldest and oldest. Three Balsborough all the wayBeing raised among foreigners meant that the competition for the throne of Khan was basically between these two older sons.

Urus was setting up a defense line and at the same time beginning to rectify the cavalry team, preparing to launch a raid on the other side of the river at any time to eliminate potential threats along the Yellow River. A scout brought him two Eyes red news: "Ataiji, there are troops coming down the river from the upper reaches. They are all cavalry, holding muskets in their hands. There are probably less than a thousand. They are holding the flag of the Ming Dynasty, but it is dim and cannot be seen clearly." "

"Coming"

Urus was not panicked at all when he heard that the Ming Dynasty army was coming. He immediately took out the sword that symbolized his identity and said, "Meet them."

The general immediately reminded, "The Khan does not allow us to act rashly. There are not many people crossing the river now, so we have to wait for the people from behind to come. The Khan said that we will wait until 10,000 people have crossed the river." You can fight with the people of the Ming Dynasty."

"What Father Khan said is to adapt to the situation. Even if the people of the Ming Dynasty come to kill you, do you have to turn a blind eye? My mission is to lead the troops to eliminate the hidden dangers on the other side of the river. Eliminate, now the biggest hidden danger has emerged. If I don’t eliminate them, how can I let Father Khan know that only I can lead the grassland people to reoccupy the Central Plains? The troops who greeted me are ready to fight."

Urus is eager to prove Own.

Originally, he could have waited until there were more people crossing the river, and when there were 18,000 people, he could choose to fight the people crossing the river in the Ming Dynasty.

It was also because intelligence showed that the Ming army that came to harass only numbered more than a thousand people, and he currently had 1400 to 500 direct line troops that could be mobilized, so he felt that he was sure to win.

We must take the initiative to attack when the Ming army is not yet stable, suppress the Ming army with thunderous momentum, and destroy them. Urus' temperament is like what he usually shows, saying that he has It's not that he's foolhardy, but at least he's not the kind of person who's good at using tricks.

It is better to have a bigger fist.

While Cui Yuan was still advancing with his troops, he heard that the Tatars had already taken the initiative to lead their troops to charge over. The distance between the two sides was no more than three or four miles, and they were approaching quickly, because both sides were approaching. So the cavalry advanced.

"Not many people are coming."

On a relatively high mountain, Cui Yuan, Xu Shen and others were looking at the opposite side with binoculars.

Nowadays, in the Ming Dynasty, telescopes have become standard equipment for ordinary generals. Although this thing has a simple structure, it is quite effective in detecting the enemy's situation at critical moments.

Cui Yuandao "Did you see that the Tatars are six or seven miles away, and there are clearly troops gathering, why did they send so many people over so early?"

Even Cui Yuandao I kind of look down on the more than a thousand people sent by the Tatars.

We have muskets and light cannons. Although we don’t have many shells, do you Tatars look down on us? You think you want to eat us with twice as many men and horses as us

p>

"It doesn't seem to be a heavy cavalry." Xu Shi also felt that the Tatars on the opposite side were unreasonable.

Cui Yuandao "Let the horse stop first, formed a formation, two rows in front and back, and the Tatars switched to using firecrackers when they came over, and used bows and arrows when they were within a hundred steps. Let the soldiers prepare their fire bombs and reload them at any time. "

Since the Tatars took the initiative to rush forward, Cui Yuan felt that there was no need to rush forward by himself and could wait for work.

Xu Shen said, "If they just come close, no What should we do if we go up?"

"Then we can go up by ourselves, there is no need to be so anxious as before. Cui Yuan continued to look at the opposite side with the telescope, "Looking at this posture, the Tatars crossing the river only have three or two thousand troops, and they are still in chaos. As long as we can repel this group, there will be chaos on the river bank." Unfortunately, I have too few people. "

There are only more than 700 troops, so Cui Yuan lacks a little confidence in himself.

Xu Shen was a little worried when he saw Cui Yuan's urine. He was a general who relied on Zhang Zhou to bring him confidence and was ready for a big fight. However, he still became frightened before the battle. As expected, his inexperience was killing people.

A medium-sized battle in the north was about to begin. < /p>

On the south bank of the Yellow River, the frontal tug-of-war between the Ming Dynasty and the Tatar cavalry has begun. It is still a roundabout style. The Tatar side does not dare to fight the Ming Dynasty army head-on. The two wings continue to advance and retreat rapidly. , pulling the Ming army back and forth, and the Ningxia border army was trying its best to hide it due to insufficient numbers of artillery shells and bullets.

The king's flag of the little Tatar prince Batu Meng appeared in the Ming army. Less than three miles ahead.

When Wang Banner appeared, two groups of Tatar troops rushed in from both wings. This time, they seemed to be moving forward. After firing hundreds of muskets, the vanguard of the Ming army suddenly fired what they expected. The military order was that they could not retreat even if they died, but they were intimidated by the Tatars' momentum, and the vanguard of the Ming army had to retreat.

This was the first time the Ming army retreated after the war began. They gave up the territory they had previously occupied and had the intention of switching from offense to defense.

For the Tatars, this meant switching from defense to offense.

"Father Khan, As you expected, the Ming Dynasty sent troops to cross the river. "The speaker was Tulu Borot, the eldest son of Batu Meng.

This time Dayan Khan went on an expedition. Among his sons, he only brought two older sons with him. I thought it was nothing. , but just like before, they left after the robbery. Unexpectedly, even the route of their actions was completely guessed by the Ming Dynasty. Even though the losses in several battles were not huge, they still lost more than 2,000 horses.

What’s even worse is that morale was not high to begin with, and they relied on this battle to boost morale. As a result, after several battles, the soldiers were exhausted and seemed to be exhausted when they arrived at the Yellow River, and their way was blocked by the surging river. < /p>

The morale in the army has dropped again and again, and now Batu Munch is a little doubtful whether he can escape unscathed this time.

Batu Munch also has a telescope in his hand. He had snatched it from the Ming Dynasty during the previous battle in Ningxia. It was the first telescope in the entire grassland, so that only Batu Munch was qualified to use it.

"The Ming Dynasty people.Ming Dynasty is already at the end of its war effort, why are we still so desperate?" Batumengk also couldn't understand.

You Ming Dynasty people have already obtained military glory, so it's time to give up some benefits to us, so that we can be mutually beneficial. , next time we can "reciprocate with courtesy"

Now that you have swallowed up our troops, we will cross the Yellow River north to steal some of your people, what's wrong

As for being so desperate. There are obviously less than 10,000 people, but you have to fight head-on with nearly 30,000 of our elite cavalry. Do you really think that you can survive a hundred battles on the battlefield?

Tulu said, "Father, I'm afraid that my second brother is on the other side of the river. There is an impulsive move. "

"Let him go." Batu Munch seemed unconcerned. "As far as I know, the Ming Dynasty can send out at most two thousand troops, and they are all exhausted soldiers. They attract The proud Shenji Battalion has reached an unsustainable stage. Your second brother has the courage to fight, which is better than many generals in the army. ”

Although these words did not accuse Tulu, they were obviously targeted.

In the previous battles, Batu Meng deliberately suppressed his second son Urus and let his elder brother The son and his direct lineage performed well, but after several games, the performance was not satisfactory.

At this time, Batu Munch suddenly asked his second son to fight against the Ming army on the other side of the river. In fact, he wanted to do so. Let your eldest son know that if you don't work hard, your second brother will take away what is rightfully yours.

"Father, are you going to continue sending troops across the river?"

Batu Monk said, "The plan remains unchanged, we will cross the river in divisions. After passing through 1,900 people and horses, and five more groups of people, they stopped temporarily until noon. I also want to know whether the people of the Ming Dynasty on the opposite side still have the strength to fight with us. If not, even if they cannot be wiped out all, they cannot be allowed to stay at our tail. They must be cut off before the whole army can cross the river."

On the south bank, the Ming army was pressed forward.

Yang Yiqing’s central army was pressed forward, and was finally suppressed by the Tatar troops and horses. As the Ming troops and horses retreated, Yang Yiqing The Chinese army also had to retreat to ensure that the Tatars would not surround them from all directions.

“There are too many Tatars. "

Guo Jun led his troops to hold the line for a period of time. When he retreated, he returned to Yang Yiqing.

Zhang Xu said, "General Guo is still thinking of coming here and is not afraid of the Tatars. When you take advantage of a weak point and retreat, it can easily lead to trouble. "

Guo Jun said hurriedly, "The humble post just came to inform us about the situation on the front line. The Tatars did not pursue us. They still have concerns. It seems that their purpose is not to us, but to cross the river. ”

Zhang Xun cursed and said, “We have eyes, so we need you to tell us how many steps we have from the front line.”

Then both of them turned their attention to Yang Yiqing. Yang Yiqing said, "The Tatars' goal is to cross the river and plunder. Their goal of conquering the border has never been strategically to obtain many first-level military achievements, but to obtain how much human, livestock and property they have.". For them, it is acceptable to leave some corpses if they can gain profits, because after returning, the women and property of these dead people will also belong to them. ”

“It’s really different. "Zhang He smiled bitterly.

But he knew what Yang Yiqing said was right.

Basically, the Tatars would not care about the gains and losses of a place with the Ming Dynasty, because they would occupy it even if they defeated it. No, I don’t care about how many Ming soldiers I can kill on the battlefield. The most important thing is to see how many useful things I can get back.

“I overestimated. It was my own abilities and I overestimated the determination of the soldiers to fight to the death. "Yang Yiqing seemed to be admitting his mistake.

Zhang Xu hurriedly said, "Yang Junmen, we haven't been defeated yet, so don't say depressing words. "

As he spoke, he glanced at Guo Jun. Guo Jun quickly turned his head to the side, meaning that I didn't hear.

Yang Yiqing said, "To break the situation now, someone must step forward. If we can't get out, we have to wait for Uncle Ping Jiang or Duke Baoguo's troops to kill them. Otherwise, with our strength, we will at most have to deal with the Tatars, and we may even be easily defeated here.

Zhang Xeng said, "Oh, Yang Junmen finally sees the danger of this battle. The Tatars have experienced hundreds of battles and are not easy to deal with." In the past, our headache was the fire sieve, but the strength of the little Tatar prince is not weaker than the fire sieve. There are wolves everywhere on the grassland."

Yang Yiqing ignored it and said to Guo Jun, "Retreat five miles away and start again. Set up camp and not retreat even an inch until five miles away. If the Tatars come again, send swordsmen and axemen to the rear to prepare. Those who retreat will be killed." Retreat and retreat.

Consider it a feint to retreat, leaving the Tatars confused. They are afraid of our firearms and will not dare to pursue them with all their strength. They will make plans after they have established a firm foothold.

On the north bank of the Yellow River, a fighting was going on.

More than 700 people under Cui Yuan were waiting for work. Two rows of cavalry armed with muskets fought against the charging Tatar cavalry.

"Bang Bang Bang"

The war was going very smoothly.

Even Cui Yuan and Xu Shen did not expect to arrive in the 14th year of Hongzhi. Well, the Tatars have known that the Ming Dynasty has powerful firearms for nearly three years, but they still rush forward so blindly to kill people. It is not very pleasant.

Urus was originally going to be reckless, so he thought. He directly opened a gap with twice the number of soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, and then swallowed up the Ming Dynasty troops, paving the way for the subsequent Tatar troops to cross the river.

In the end, he still failed to follow the Ming Dynasty Shenji. He had direct experience in battalion combat, and suffered a big loss from underestimating the enemy.

In his opinion, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty must be the kind who will collapse at the first touch. As long as I rush forward, they will run away with their tail between their legs. Situation.

Times have changed, and the current combat situation has long been different. Otherwise, his father, Huo Si and other heroes of the generation would not have to avoid the main force of the Ming Dynasty and choose to use the weak defense of the Ming Dynasty. The place comes to knock on the gate and enter.

"Taiji, it's no longer possible. There are too many casualties among our brothers."

Urus led a charge, but 20 to 30% of the people around him were killed. The key It was the Ming Dynasty that fought steadily, with two rows of cavalry taking turns firing guns and loading ammunition, and it seemed that the ammunition was inexhaustible, completely unlike what Batu Munch said, the Ming Dynasty Shenji Battalion. There is no need to worry about running out of supplies.

Urus looked at a horse next to him, dragging his close guard who had been killed by a fire blunderbuss but was still hanging on it. He immediately felt like he had been tricked.

"Father, are you pushing me out to die?" Urus felt that something was wrong.

"Kill"

On the Ming side, after seeing the Tatars charging a wave, they no longer rushed forward, but actively pressed forward. The men and horses were still the same men and horses, and they were not armored. , the team was almost lined up, looking very loose, and the clothes on their bodies looked tattered due to the dusty journey.

But even so, the deterrent power of the Ming Dynasty soldiers was stronger than ever before.

A reckless man like Urus has to "judge the situation" at critical moments.

"Retreat"

After leaving more than 300 corpses and 200 to 300 injured, Urus had no choice but to retreat.

The Ming Dynasty, on the other hand, worked hard and in a short period of time occupied the position where the Urus vanguard had rushed. The horses and dead people lying around made the Ming soldiers very excited. , because this is the first achievement of many, it is really easy to go down and chop off the head.

Cui Yuan and others also followed.

Seeing that the soldiers were already a little red-eyed and went down to snatch heads, armors, property, etc., Cui Yuan couldn't help but scolded, "The war is not over yet, how can you blindly mount your horse and accept the battle for a small profit?"

The effect of his words did not seem to be that obvious. Some people still fought over a Tatar's head.

Cui Yuan picked up a firecracker and aimed it at the two soldiers who were fighting. He was cruel but did not pull the trigger.

However, the firecracker in Xu Shen's hand rang out with a "bang", and the surrounding area became quiet for an instant. They all thought someone had set off a fire. When they saw Cui Yuan and Xu Shen riding horses nearby, And when the two of them looked at them with murderous intent, the group of people who were snatching the credit were instantly dumbfounded.

“If you miss with this shot, you may not be so lucky with the next shot,” Xu Shen said, “Didn’t you hear what Mr. Cui said?”

Cui Yuan stopped talking in a formal manner and said sternly, "Get on your horse and continue to pursue military achievements. If you don't pursue them, you will be the ones who die."

This is more effective.

Although Cui Yuan hindered this group of people from grabbing the credit, it did not affect Cui Yuan's actual actions to win their respect. Cui Da lied that he would die here if he did not pursue him. This is still very possible. happens, and if not onThe horse might have been killed by a bludgeon, so what else could it do?

Cui Yuandao "While the Tatars were not yet firmly established, they took back the river bank. Then they sent people back to inform Xiangcheng Bo and Wu'an Hou, They have to cross the river, and they may not be able to survive just by relying on us."

"De Ling"

Cui Yuan was not convinced that he took 700 people to risk his life against the Tatars. , and a little less confident.

Because he already knew that the Tatars had crossed the river with two to three thousand troops. With the end of this battle, the number of guns and ammunition in his army also dropped sharply. Half of the battle was spent, and the remaining Even if they were shot one by one, the number of Tatars would be enough to consume them all.

So he urgently needs reinforcements.

But what he didn't know was that Li Na and Zheng Ying were also in trouble.

There are only more than 1,200 soldiers left in Li Na's army, and under the command of Batu Meng, the Tatars have blossomed. With Yang Yiqing sitting in the midfield, they all chose to withdraw. , Li Wei did not know the battle reports from the front line, and thought that the Ming side was defeated, forcing him to withdraw his troops hastily.

Reinforce Cui Yuan

Just kidding, I, Li Na, am just here to share my military exploits with Cui Yuan, not to risk my life with you.

As for Zheng Ying's side, the situation is not much better. They all chose to retreat due to the sudden strong advance of the Tatars. Zheng Ying's side was even more cowardly than Li Wei because they were detouring to After Yang Yiqing's troops saw Yang Yiqing's troops retreating, they thought they had lost the battle. Then Zheng Ying was very "motivated" and led his troops to run away, and the team was scattered.

Under this situation, Cui Yuan was completely isolated and helpless, and the river could no longer allow him to return to the south bank. If he was defeated, he had only one option, and that was to run north.

But at this time, Cui Yuan still didn’t know how dangerous his situation was.

In other words, even if he knew, he couldn't change anything.

When Cui Yuan and his more than 700 horses were only more than three miles away from the mouth of the Yellow River crossing by the Tatars, the Tatars had already formed a formation and were ready to fight with them.

Urus, who had returned from a previous defeat, was also eager to restore the situation.

"Master Cui, why can't we rush and kill?" Xu Shen felt a little headache when he saw the situation in front of him.

The Tatars' shield array has been listed, and the Tatars are fighting with their last resort, which is equivalent to "poor bandits", and their troops are at an absolute disadvantage, at least one against four. This kind of How to fight the war

"Where are the cannons?"

Cui Yuangao shouted.

Xu Shen then remembered something and said, "There are only two."

"Cannonball" Cui Yuandao.

"Six shots" Xu Shen said.

"Well, lead the men to rush up. Once within range, use the two cannons to shoot out six shells, and then rush forward. If I advance, the enemy will retreat. Take out Shigou City The courage to fight is the model in front of you. The Tatars will be defeated." PleaseKeep in mind to collect, the latest and fastest website is free to read without anti-theft