Chapter 803: Advance step by step

On the twelfth day of the first lunar month, more than 4,000 cavalry led by Zhu Feng rushed to Datong from Piantou Pass.

The first thing Zhu Feng did when entering the city was to pay a visit to Wang Shouren, because the starting point of the emperor’s tour was in Datong, and in order to ensure the smoothness of the emperor’s tour, some generals from the three sides would also He was transferred to mobilize troops and horses in the direction of Datong.

However, in order to ensure that there are no mistakes in the military affairs of the three sides, the main personnel transferred are Cheng Guogong Zhu Fu and his son. Because Zhu Fu set off from Yansui, he is expected to be four to five days later than Zhu Feng. Only a genius can come to Datong.

This was much earlier than the emperor's arrival in Datong, and he was not afraid of any major changes happening during this period.

Inside the Datong General Administration Office.

When Zhu Feng saw Wang Shouren, he bowed respectfully.

Wang Shouren also showed respect for Zhu Feng. After all, among the main generals in the northwest frontier, a general like Zhu Feng who has background, strength, and strong backing is the only one. One, even his father Zhu Fu had to step aside.

"I heard that Cai Guogong is about to lead troops and horses to attack the grassland. I wonder if this is the case? Where is he sending troops from? Does he need the general to assist him?"

Zhu Feng is here This time, he deeply hoped that Zhang Zhou could take him into the grassland with him.

In the past, he was the one who avoided war, but as the influence of the Chengguo Palace began to weaken, Zhu Feng also hoped to gain something for the old Zhu family through his relationship with Zhang Zhou.

And he had great expectations for Zhang Zhou's expedition, because Zhang Zhou had told him more than once before that he would take him to make achievements in the future.

Wang Shouren said: "I have just learned that Zhang Shangshu is going to personally lead troops and horses to attack the grassland. I heard that he will not lead many troops and horses, only a few thousand people. As for whether he will leave from Datong, or From the outside, I don’t know. Zhijie, you are new here, so you should get familiar with the local defense first.”

The implication is that you should not care about your brother Zhang yet. You should mind your own business.

"Did His Majesty personally conduct the expedition?" Zhu Feng asked again.

"Yes." Wang Shouren said, "It is expected to arrive in Datong in about twenty days. During this period, we must ensure that the Tatars will not interfere with the imperial driver's arrival in Datong. After you rest for a few days, I will send you tens of thousands of troops out of the pass and advance to Weininghai."

Zhu Feng asked: "Why not go back to Juyongguan?"

Wang Shouren shook his head and said: "We. The rear route will be coordinated by local soldiers and horses from Xuanfu. Detailed arrangements have been made for the section from Datong to Maoerzhuang and then to Weininghai. Since there are no connected passes to block it, if the Tatars invade. If it does, it may pose a certain threat. This is where you need to be stationed."

Zhu Feng nodded and said: "I understand, your Majesty is in the pass and will not encounter war. If we cross the pass and go to Weininghai, there will definitely be trouble... I don't know when Cai Guogong will come to Datong. If he sends troops from Weininghai... I want to go with him."

Wang Shouren said. :"The imperial court has not made such arrangements. You should obey my orders first and do what I tell you well."

You, a general, really have no awareness at all.

Wang Shouren almost wanted to say, whose orders are you following?

You can’t say that because you have a strong backer, you won’t obey my orders, right?

Zhu Feng was resentful, but he seemed to understand that Wang Shouren was his immediate boss now, and he could only accept orders respectfully.

And drive straight in.

Because Tang Yin only sent back a rough coordinate before, and nearly a month had passed. In fact, Zhang Zhou himself didn’t know where Tang Yin’s soldiers and horses were now, and what he was going to do. It’s about exploring on your own after leaving the customs.

It’s better to get lost again and make the Tatars think that the soldiers and horses on this road are headless flies. As long as the Tatars dare to send troops to fight with him, he will make the Tatars feel what technology is. strength.

As for Zhu Youtang, the dispatch of troops was very slow. It took four days to reach Juyong Pass.

The army still has to rest for a day at the front line of Juyongguan before leaving.

Because the 20,000 troops and horses cannot be temporarily placed inside the pass, some troops and horses are stationed directly outside the pass. It does not mean that there is no place in the city, but if the emperor wants to enter the city, he must After some proper arrangements were made, half of the emperor's 20,000 troops were not cavalry... This actually brought great inconvenience to the soldiers defending the Juyong Pass.

Everywhere the emperor went, he seemed to be a huge burden, making it very difficult for local officials to greet him.

After Zhu Youtang entered the city, he immediately summoned the actual leader of the troops in Juyong Pass, the commander of the guards, Zhang Dahong, who was temporarily transferred to the deputy commander-in-chief of Xuanfu.

This person is considered to have a professional background. He successfully graduated from the Yanwu Hall and was transferred from the command of Datong Guards to Juyongguan as a guard general. Although he has sufficient theoretical knowledge, he has no practical experience and belongs to the The kind of people who are squeezed out by the actual combat faction in Datong, but who themselves are eager to gain military exploits.

But because according to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, those without actual combat experience can only be placed on the second line, so he can only be temporarily placed in Juyongguan.

The last time this place encountered a Tatar invasion was after the Tumu Fort Incident.

"Your Majesty..."

Zhang Dahong felt that he could see the emperor and felt the smoke coming from his ancestral grave. After seeing Zhu Youtang, he knelt there with his head on the ground. , life and death will not get up.

Zhu Youtang asked: "When did the people from Zhang Qing's family pass by?"

Zhang Dahong spoke with a strong Shanxi flavor and asked: "I don't know which Zhang is it?" "Qing's family."

Yang Peng, who was accompanying the army, was extremely anxious, and he said: "It's Duke Cai."

"It's been four days since Duke Cai."

Zhu Youtang asked: "How many days will we be here?"

"It seems like... four days to get back to Your Majesty," Yang Peng said.

Zhu Youtang frowned and said: "What does it mean? It was obviously four days, more than a hundred miles, four days of walking, but for Bingkuan, one day passed before it even arrived! "It's so fast."

Yang Peng said: "Your Majesty, Cai Guogong sent troops to the grassland as a pioneer officer, so he went very fast."

"Now he..." Zhu You. Zang wanted to ask, has he left Beiguan and entered the grassland?

But when I thought about it again, the Zhang Dahong in front of me seemed to have some ability, but he was a bit naive, and I immediately felt that I couldn't figure out the reason from him.

Zhang Dahong said: "I have prepared a banquet for your majesty."

Zhu Youtang shook his head and said: "I don't want to eat and drink. Besides, how can I drink casually when I am away from home? ?"

Yang Peng said: "Your Majesty, it's cold. Generally speaking, it's not bad for the soldiers to prepare some drinks to keep out the cold."

Zhu Youtang waved his hand and said: "I. There is no need here. I want to rest first and don’t bother anyone else.” Yang Peng responded and suddenly asked, “Your Majesty, if the princess comes to say hello. ..."

"Oh, princess, you can.",

Zhu Youtang had a loving smile on his face when he thought of his daughter.

On this expedition, he did not forget to take his daughter out to see him. Zhu Youtang fully wanted to be a loving father.

……

……

On the grassland.

A war is still going on.

The actual area originally controlled by Tang Yin's troops would be about fifty or sixty miles deep in the future. On this basis, the cavalry would go back and forth to deal with the main Tatar force.

Because most places are wilderness and along rivers, the Tatars control the terrain very well.

As long as there are signs of an attack by the Ming Dynasty's army, the Tatars can make some responses according to the terrain, whether during the day or night, and form a three-sided attack, forcing the Ming Dynasty's army to pursue them. After a while, you have to retreat.

This is what Tang Yin meant.

This was to prevent the attacking troops from being surrounded by the Tatars. At that time, even if there were muskets, the Ming army was trapped because there were no more lethal heavy artillery and long-range artillery. We are surrounded and unable to break out.

Although the fire blunderbuss has obvious advantages on the frontal battlefield, due to the range problem, the Tatars will have a way to deal with it.

This has been the case for several days.

Although there are results every day, the Ming army also suffers losses every day, and the battle loss ratio has always remained at about one to five.

In a few days, hundreds of people in the Ming army died, and dozens of people were injured.

The losses on the Tatar side were only a thousand men, and both sides fought with great restraint.

Finally at dusk one day, the Ming army retreated.Prepare to launch an attack on the Tatar camp on the other side of the lower river with the cooperation of several groups of soldiers and horses.

In the past few days, the Tatars camped overnight and advanced the camp for nearly ten miles. At this time, the Tatar camp was only about ten miles away from the valley where the Ming army was located, and it had already threatened the stability of the Ming camp. In order to prevent the Tatars from carrying out night attacks by Tibetan troops, Tang Yin planned to pull out these Tatar camps overnight.

This battle was also led by Tang Yin personally on the front line.

Ma Yi and Xu Jing were left to garrison in their own camp, while he took Zhang Rui's troops to seize the other side's camp.

"Boom!"

Just when the Ming pioneers were only a mile or two away from the Tatar camp, black smoke rose from the camp.

Tang Yin pointed in the direction of the camp and said to the surrounding messengers: "Delay the offensive. If there are traces of the Tatars, do not pursue them. The purpose of this battle is only to uproot the camp."

Because Tang Yin had already expected that the Tatars might plant gunpowder in the camp, his goal this time was not to annihilate many Tatar soldiers and horses, but just to allow these to be stationed. The campground is completely gone.

The other party used gunpowder to blow it up, which meant that soldiers were ambushed inside. He didn’t know how many there were, and he wasn’t afraid of the other party using gunpowder to blow it up.

Anyway, it’s all about pulling out nails. If the Tatar does it himself, it will save his energy.

……

……

Before sunset, Ming’s pioneer troops had entered the camp.

The fierce resistance Tang Yin expected did not appear.

Dozens of Tatars escaped from the southeast of the camp. Zhang Rui first sent troops to pursue them. After chasing for five or six miles, they turned back. On the way back, they encountered an ambush from the Tatars. Both sides A small-scale battle took place, and the Ming cavalry took advantage of the fire cannons to repel the Tatars.

But more Tatar cavalry, probably tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, were approaching, so Zhang Rui had no choice but to withdraw his troops and retreat towards the first Tatar camp.

As a result, the Tatars officially began to garrison the second camp, and used fences to form barriers. They even added wood and iron defenses outside the fence to prevent the Ming army from attacking. Use cavalry and muskets for assault.

When Zhang Rui led his troops back to the first camp, Tang Yin had already led his men to destroy all the tents and other camps set up by the Tatars.

"Not much gunpowder was found." Soldiers' military uniforms. "

"Where did they get so many military uniforms? "Tang Yin asked.

Obviously these military uniforms were not lost by this group of people. Among the previous battles, the biggest loss of troops and generals was the one lost by Liu Jin in the battle of Huamachi. , although Ma Yi and Zhang Rui led the troops to attack and achieved a great victory,

But the Ming Dynasty also lost nearly 2,000 soldiers and horses in that battle.

Tang Yin said: "This is an insult to me."

Zhang Rui happened to come back at this time and said: "My lord, I have seen clearly that there is a man fifteen miles away from here. On the left and right is the opponent's second line of defense. Their wooden fence has been put up almost this afternoon. "Didn't you pay attention when sending troops before?" Tang Yin frowned.

On this day, Zhang Rui was in charge of sending troops to attack.

It seems that the Tatars have also discovered that the Ming Dynasty has insufficient troops, and they will also use some tricks to attract the Ming Dynasty army to pursue on the west bank of the river, so that they can camp on the east bank, and even spend an afternoon , and erected the second wooden fence outside the camp.

Zhang Rui said: "They seem to want to advance step by step. On the way back, they also found a lot of wooden piles and other objects. They have secretly set down the piles. If they use this to set up camp, or in the We can advance a few miles overnight."

Tang Yin frowned and said: "If we can't pull them out at once, then in less than half a month, they will push the front to the river bank, not far away from us. To a place four or five miles away."

Zhang Rui sighed: "It's a pity that we don't have heavy artillery, but we do have gunpowder. Although it's not much, we can use it now to blast a hole in front of the defense line they built. It's not difficult to break in with this."

"A gap..."

Tang Yin didn't seem to agree with Zhang Rui's plan.

Zhang Rui asked: "Your Excellency, are you concerned?"

"Just open a gap and the soldiers and horses rush in. The gap will also be blocked by them, and the soldiers who enter will be deep." We are trapped in a tight siege. Although our soldiers have firearms at their side, in such a close battle, bows and crossbows are also very lethal. Our soldiers and horses are not even 10% of theirs. How can we fight this battle? ” p>

Zhang Rui said anxiously: "But we can't let the Tatars advance layer by layer like this."

Tang Yin said: "What we can do now is to send troops day and night to harass their camps and advance as much as possible. Slow down their advance. Only in this way can we collect more resources for our rear... We don't have enough food and grass now. The dry food can last for a long time, but the horses need fodder... This takes time to prepare. "Recent transcoding has been serious, which makes us more motivated and updates faster. Please use your little hands to exit the reading mode. Thank you