Outside Maoerzhuang City.
Zhu Youtang looked at the endless grassland in front of him and fell into deep thought.
My ancestors went to the grassland several times, but the results were basically unsuccessful, and even caused catastrophe. However, as a moderate and conservative emperor, he actually entered the territory of the grassland with personal expedition. Yet he could enter so calmly that he didn't even have to worry about Tatar attacks.
With elite soldiers under his command and trustworthy military leaders, Zhu Youtang felt that his life was very satisfying.
"Father, can I go there and have a look? It's so spectacular."
Zhu Xiurong is riding a horse.
She had just learned to ride a horse not long ago. Originally, Zhu Youtang was not allowed to ride a horse. However, after leaving the customs, Zhu Xiurong seemed to like the feeling of riding a horse very much. After many pleas, she Zhu Youtang was soft-hearted and agreed.
The horse Zhu Xiurong rode was relatively short and very docile. Zhu Youtang did not allow her to ride fast. Someone was holding her horse along the way.
Zhu Youtang said: "You want to ride there?"
"Yes, Father, I want to ride around on horseback." Zhu Xiurong said, "Riding is really fun, but not I know where I will be after crossing that mountain."
As he spoke, Zhu Xiurong pointed to the mountain peak in the distance.
Zhu Youtang said: "It's still the grassland. I don't know exactly where it is."
Zhu Xiurong smiled and asked: "Where is the Weining Sea? It's very far away from here. "?"
"It's not that far away," Yang Peng next to him said with a smile, "Your Highness, if you walk more than a hundred miles, you'll find Weininghai. Go faster." It can be reached in three days."
Zhu Youtang shook his head and said: "It takes two or three days to travel a hundred miles. That's too slow. The pioneers can march one hundred and twenty or thirty miles in one day. We need to speed up here and get to Weininghai as soon as possible. It's the place where spring flowers are blooming. I want to see the situation in Weininghai. If I have time, I also want to go to Hetao. I hope Bingkuan can calm down the grassland. , There are so many places I want to go to.”
……
……
Deep in the grassland.
A battle continued for one day and one night.
Tang Yin's troops endured the most severe battle since entering the grassland.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty still had basically no casualties, but in this battle, it lost more than a thousand soldiers... Similarly, the Tatars lost four to five thousand soldiers and horses. Damage, the two sides were almost in a head-to-head contest.
It was not until after dark that the Tatar talents finally withdrew their troops.
"From last night to now...the Tatars have gone crazy." Xu Jing returned from the front line.
The so-called frontline position is only two or three miles away from the Chinese army's camp. This is the camping pattern that Tang Yin had to arrange in order to ensure the depth of the army's garrison.
After Xu Jing came back, he immediately found Tang Yin.
Tang Yin was not on the front line in this battle, but oneKeep an eye on the movements of the Tatars behind.
Because on the other side of the mountains, in the northwest, the Tatars also had 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers and horses active. In this battle, although these Tatar soldiers and horses caused a certain nuisance. , but no large-scale raid was launched.
Tang Yin raised his head and glanced at Xu Jing, and said: "According to the current situation, the reinforcements are not far away from us."
Xu Jing said: "Bohu, you are saying, The imperial court sent reinforcements? Do the Tatars think that our two armies are about to join forces, so they are fighting with us like mad dogs?" Before Tang Yin could answer, he saw Zhang Rui with two or three soldiers. The guard came back, and there was still blood on Zhang Rui's body, and the armor on his arms was broken, but Zhang Rui was not injured.
"Young Master, who are you?" Xu Jing looked over.
Zhang Rui said: "The Tatars ambushed a group of troops from the east, suddenly attacked and were repelled. The number of defenders in the east was too small, and all the fire and bombs were used. In the end, they relied on hand-to-hand combat with weapons. Repelled them... lost more than 200 brothers... Now the soldiers are changing defenses." Xu Jing suddenly thought of something and said to Tang Yin: "Bohu, trouble is coming now. The number of fire bombs for the front-line soldiers is also decreasing sharply. The number of fire bombs now may not even be 30% of what it was when we entered the grassland. If the loss continues, we will not even have the fire bombs to break through."
Tang Yin said coldly: "After all this, you still want to break out?"
"Otherwise?" Xu Jing said, "Except for fire bombs, we can't even count on bows and arrows. Our soldiers I have very few bows and arrows. If I have to rely on the Tatar arrows to fight, it is even more unreliable. Should I rely on the last sword to fight? Fighting alone, I'm afraid the casualties of the soldiers will be much greater than them. There are more than 100,000 soldiers and horses on the opposite side." Tang Yin did not face the difficulties mentioned by Xu Jing. He said: " Change defense when it's time to change defense, which also allows the soldiers to save fire bombs. The Tatars must not use fire blunderbuss if they are not within range. There are not many shells available now. We have to hold on for about ten more days until we wait. Ming's reinforcements arrived."
"Ten days?"
Xu Jing almost protested.
Zhang Rui said: "The food and grass are basically empty, and we can't grab it. The Tatars will continue to attack. We have killed a lot of horses, and basically no other livestock is left." There is basically nothing left of the dried meat that the soldiers brought earlier... It's okay to hold on for four or five days, but if it's ten days..." Tang Yin said helplessly: "If you have a bite to eat, you can do it. Hold on for a few more days. The more fierce the Tatar offensive has become in the past few days, it shows that they are at the end of their war effort."
Xu Jingdao: "They come to attack us with 100,000 troops. Or are they all at the end of their war effort? Not to mention, if it were more, there might be more than 200,000 soldiers and horses..."
...
...
The Tatars attacked one after another camp.
The Tatars launched a new round of offensive that night.
Tang Yin has a very headache.
Ma Yi also withdrew from the front line that night. He came back after changing defense, and hurriedly came to visit Tang Yin to find a way to break through the predicament.
"Sir, there is something I don't know whether to say or not." Ma Yi said.
"Say." Tang Yin continued to study the terrain map.
Ma Yi sighed: "If it doesn't work, we will retreat to the northwest first. Although there are 20,000 to 30,000 Tatars stationed there, fortunately we have a chance to annihilate them in one fell swoop, but we must If we can catch the Tatars by surprise, we may be able to get some military supplies and survive longer." Tang Yin said: "Pinglu Hou, what do you think of the imperial court's reinforcements? "How long will it take to arrive?"
"I don't know," Ma Yi said, "but for the generals, they will think that the so-called reinforcements are just looking for plum blossoms to quench their thirst, and they will not help us now. Going deep into the grassland, the Ming Dynasty's army would not be able to find it. Even if they could find it, they might not be able to reach this place in a short time. How many coincidences can this have?"
Tang Yin shook his head and said: "With Cai Guogong here, everything is still possible."
Ma Yi said: "Master Zhang is indeed... a Zhuge in the world, but everything depends on the situation. Sir, I am asking for the soldiers. The Tatar offensive in front is too fierce. I don’t know how many soldiers will die tonight. If we don’t climb over the mountain behind, I’m afraid we will be with the Tatars early tomorrow morning. People are fighting hand to hand on both sides of the river."
Tang Yin said: "In that case, I will listen to you. After midnight tonight, find an opportunity for a truce and let them rush north with the existing cavalry. , forcing the Tatars in the north to retreat more than ten miles."
Ma Yi cupped his hands and said, "Yes."
"But..." Tang Yin also raised a difficult question. "We will no longer be able to stand by the water source. The Tatars may use other methods to make up for these ten miles. If they use a swarm method to fight us, we will not be able to hold on for long."
Ma Yi said: "I heard from the young master that your goal is to hold on for ten days. But if you don't change, I'm afraid you won't be able to hold on for even three days. The Tatars will fight us regardless of the cost, or they will If you really plan to use this to gain an advantage on the battlefield, it may be that Ming's reinforcements are coming soon. It would be good if you can hold on for one more day."
Tang Yin sighed: "Yes. It’s also great to stick to it for a day.”
……
……
After midnight.
The Ming army began a transfer.
This transfer is not a breakout, it is just a change of position, giving up the camp in front of me that has been pressed to the point where there is no room for advancement or retreat, and immediately retreating about ten miles to find the camping location again.
The plan is good...
But at the execution level, a lot will happenquestion.
Although most of the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were aware of the situation at hand, they also knew that they had almost no chance of survival in this battle, unless there were external forces that interfered with the battle.
When the troops began to move around midnight, some troops were retreating in the wrong direction, and a brief firefight soon broke out. Four to five hundred soldiers of the Ming Dynasty fell directly into a tight siege. Finally, after being surrounded by nearly 10,000 Tatar troops, no one came to support them.
The final result was that except for a few dozen of the four to five hundred soldiers who broke out, the rest of the army was wiped out.
Although these four to five hundred soldiers also caused nearly two thousand casualties to the Tatars, the problem is still that the Tatars have so many soldiers and horses that they are almost endless, regardless of whether they It doesn't matter how much the loss is, but every death on Ming's side means that there is less vitality.
Finally.
At dawn, the Ming army retreated to the preset area.
This place is already seven or eight miles away from the river bank, but fortunately the Tatars' camp advancement strategy has been hindered.
It is also related to the low combat effectiveness of the troops and horses deployed by the Tatars in the northwest... The fire blunderbuss of the Ming Dynasty, especially the instant flint blunderbuss, is a huge deterrent, unless it is the most elite cavalry of the Tatars. Otherwise, ordinary Tatar soldiers would not be able to withstand the fear on the battlefield.
After the battle, any Tatar soldiers who were close to the Ming army also wanted to withdraw, leaving the front line to other troops to die.
......
......
After dawn, Tang Yin immediately deployed his men to station themselves in place.
Because the snow has melted at this time, the biggest problem the Ming army encountered now was drinking water. People need to drink water, and horses also need to drink water. Although the Ming army prepared a batch of water before retreating, , but because most of the horses in the army had been slaughtered during the previous food shortage, it was inconvenient to transport water, and each soldier could only afford two or three days of water.
This is almost the limit.
"Have the Tatars caught up with them?" After Tang Yin garrisoned the troops, he immediately inquired about the situation on the battlefield from Ye Bushou's scouts.
"Not yet, but logically speaking, our previous camp may have fallen into the hands of the Tatars." Zhang Rui came over and said, "Pinglu Hou has led his troops. This end of the mountain is being held down to prevent the Tatar camp from advancing too fast, but there is no news of a war breaking out on the front line."
Xu Jing came over and said: "Last night was too tragic. In the first battle, the soldiers suffered a lot of casualties. In addition to the battle to the east, there was also a battle in the river valley... We may only have more than 5,000 troops left..."
"Let's go. Each battalion reported its losses. "Tang Yin said, "Now we need to rectify our morale and launch a counterattack while the Tatars have just occupied our camp in the river valley and are not yet stable."
Zhang Rui said: "Sir, we don't have many fire bombs left now. It seems that they are no longer enough to support me."They fight back. We may have to keep some of them in case they come. "
Tang Yin said coldly: "Do they know how many fire bombs we have left? ”
“They will not know the specific quantity. Zhang Rui said, "But they will make calculations. In fact, in the past few days, when we responded to their counterattacks, we were no longer able to use sky gunpowder to blow up their camps. Many soldiers even used blades to fight them. They will make calculations." "
Xu Jingdao: "Bohu, let's focus on defense. If that doesn't work, it would be better to arrange a team of thousands of people to complete a breakout. ”
Obviously Xu Jing doesn’t want to die.
He hopes to be among the thousands of people breaking through the encirclement, so he made such a proposal.
"Impossible. Tang Yin said, "Now we have no way forward and no way out. We must either achieve success or be defeated and die." "
Xu Jingdao: "Where is the chance of success? Even if reinforcements come, we can't cooperate with them and attack from both front and back. The Tatars have more than 100,000 soldiers and horses. If we add all our existing fire bombs together, we probably don't have 20,000 left, right? In the past, each soldier had dozens of rounds of fire bombs, but now... it would be good if each person could only have two or three rounds left. "
Zhang Rui said: "It's not so pessimistic. It is best not to leak the specific quantity issue to the outside world, so that the front-line soldiers can have more fire bombs... The practice of saving fire bombs may also make the Tatars think that we are at the end of the war. ”
“Let’s fight. "Tang Yin said, "The last ten days. "
Xu Jing asked: "Shouldn't we only hold on for nine days? If we really persist until nine days later and reinforcements don't come, then we..."
"Shut up! Tang Yin seemed to be completely irritated at this time, and said angrily, "We were trapped in the isolated city and persisted for several months. Now we have firearms on hand, so that the Tatars dare not touch our edge, even if the battle situation It's so unfavorable, but we can still maintain a stalemate with it, what else do we want? Shall we surrender? "
Zhang Rui said: "Master Tang, please calm down. We are also thinking of ways to send scouts out to inquire about news from the south... If reinforcements arrive, they will be spread throughout the army as quickly as possible, and the soldiers will be a hundred times more confident by then. ”
“If there’s no news, then it’s all gone.” "Xu Jing was sitting there, as if he was about to lie down.
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