The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Liu Jin's troops were caught in a bitter battle.

At first, Liu Jin led his troops forward with the determination to fight to the death. However, when his troops were halfway through the charge, he found that the Tatars' pre-war preparations were very thorough, which was why the two sides were evenly matched in the previous ten days of fighting.

Although Liu Jin's side had artillery to support the situation, the Tatars were not willing to be outdone. The two sides used the terrain to engage in a tug of war. The Tatars also used traditional artillery to suppress the Ming army's firepower in a narrow range.

The artillery fired in unison.

In the darkness of the night, flames could be seen everywhere.

Liu Jin sent his troops forward twice but failed to achieve any results. Later, Zheng Sui, Xu Shen and others brought people to stop him to prevent him from doing anything stupid.

"Eunuch, we have no chance in this battle. Instead of waiting to die here, we might as well retreat to Tucheng and seek help from him. At least it will leave a way out for our brothers." Xu Shen advised earnestly.

Liu Jin cursed: "What other escape route do we need?"

Xu Shen also understood that Liu Jin could not protect himself, so he did not intend to consider others.

"Bang!" At this moment an iron ball was falling not far from them, and someone was immediately hit down. Because it happened right next to them and was still illuminated by torches, it also made the surrounding soldiers feel frightened.

Liu Jin asked, "Have the Tartars reached this point?"

Obviously Liu Jin did not expect that the Tatar artillery would have such a long range.

Xu Shen sighed, "If this was our fireworks, I'm afraid all of us would have died here."

"Doesn't this just prove that the Tartars' artillery is just a decoration? It can fire so far, but can only hit one person? Humph! Charge!" Liu Jin continued to give orders.

But it was obvious that his military orders could not be conveyed beyond five steps.

No one will listen to him anymore.

Xu Shen said sternly: "Escort the eunuch back!"

Liu Jin shouted, "Are you going to rebel?"

Xu Shen said: "Eunuch, everything is for the sake of keeping the green mountains. We can only make long-term plans as long as we are alive. I am sorry for you!"

As he said that, Xu Shen waved his hand, and several people came over immediately, surrounded Liu Jin's horse, and then took Liu Jin off the horse, and even held him up. Some of them had already used ropes as if they were preparing to tie Liu Jin up.

Liu Jin shouted, "You have no respect for your elders. When you return to the court, I will show you how I will deal with you! I will kill you!"

These words really frightened the soldiers.

Normally, the eunuchs guarding the garrison were figures out of their reach. Now, this eunuch was ordering an attack in the name of the commander-in-chief, and they were following Xu Shen's orders to tie up Liu Jin and make him a deserter. If this were to get to the ears of the censors, they would be skinned alive.

Xu Shen said, "Eunuch Liu is tired and has been talking nonsense! We will discuss it after we take him back."

……

……

After Liu Jin and his 3,000-plus soldiers fought a skirmish with the Tatars, they began to retreat.

But the Tatars did not seem to intend to let Liu Jin's men "escape" smoothly. After hearing that Liu Jin's entire army had set out, they sent a large number of troops to cut off Liu Jin's troops' retreat.

In their view, this was the best time to swallow up the Ming Dynasty's regular army and enhance the prestige of the grassland.

"General Xu, this is bad. The Tartars have deployed at least 7,000 to 8,000 soldiers on our rear road. Every hilltop is filled with people. If we get close, they will attack us from above, and our artillery will probably be ineffective."

"Go around."

"The Tartars are numerous, I'm afraid we've been surrounded!"

When Xu Shen heard this, he immediately felt that his future was bleak.

Zheng Sui came on horseback. Previously, Zheng Sui was responsible for the retreat of the rear army. He brought even worse news to Xu Shen.

Zheng Sui said: "The Tartars are coming from all directions, and we don't know where to aim our cannons. Unless we drop all the cannons now, otherwise... we won't be able to get out."

"What did you say?" Xu Shen looked at Zheng Sui in surprise.

Although their group consisted of only 4,000 soldiers, they brought with them almost all the firearms in the earthen city beside Huamachi. If so many firearms fell into the hands of the Tatars, it would be fatal to the border defense of the Ming Dynasty. The Tatars might use these firearms to attack the border of the Ming Dynasty.

Zheng Sui said dejectedly: "Even if we lose everything, we may not be able to escape. Now we are also accused of treason, I am afraid it is..."

What it means is that we originally had Liu Jin give the order to retreat, but when the sky fell, Liu Jin would hold it up.

But now we are openly violating Liu Jin's order to send troops, and we have even committed treason by kidnapping Liu Jin. Even if we run back, the court will not let us go.

Xu Shen looked back and asked, "Where is Eunuch Liu's carriage?"

"What carriage? He was tied to a horse. I saw it when I came over. He had been beaten up before. I'm afraid he was breathing more than he was breathing..." Zheng Sui said.

Xu Shen asked: "Would it be better to die?"

After hearing this, Zheng Sui looked at Xu Shen with horror.

You are so bold to commit crimes against your superiors that you actually want to kill Liu Jin? This way others won't know about your good deeds?
"General Xu, shall we go and ask for his forgiveness now and let him continue to lead the troops?" Zheng Suixian backed down and asked.

Xu Shen said coldly: "Even if we let him go now, he won't let us go. And he wants to take us to our deaths. Now the Tartars are everywhere. What's the point of listening to him?"

Zheng Sui said, "If this continues, it will be a mutiny. Although Eunuch Liu did not lead us to victory, he at least gave the order to attack. The court will not suppress his heroic deeds."

Although Liu Jin was incompetent, when his death was imminent, all he wanted was to send troops to attack the Tatars, and even to fight them to his death.

This courage...

Regardless of whether Liu Jin died on the battlefield in the end, at least his courage would be demonstrated by the court.

Especially when the imperial court knew that Liu Jin's death was caused by a military mutiny, and that those who rebelled just wanted to save their lives and run back... then the fate of this group of people can be imagined, and the imperial court will kill them one by one.

Xu Shen was like being roasted on the fire.

He looked up to the sky and howled, "If I had known this would happen, why would I have followed the army out of the city? Staying in the earthen city, at least I can save my life! Reputation is not important, being able to keep my life is more important than anything else."

……

……

A night of fierce fighting.

The Tatars besieged the city several times, but were repelled by the Ming army with artillery and muskets.

In this battle, the Tatars did not suffer much loss, because they used the method of probing attack, or feint attack, to make the Ming Dynasty fire blindly. In the darkness, the Ming Dynasty had no idea how many Tatars were rushing towards them.

Originally, the Ming side had few artillery shells left, and after that night, they were basically all lost.

Until daybreak.

Of the more than 3,400 soldiers, only 2,400 to 2,500 were left. The rest were either killed in battle or lost in the chaos, and many of them deserted.

When the soldiers lost confidence in winning on the battlefield, in this situation, many of them wanted to save their lives first.

But what they faced was still the heavy siege of the Tatars. There was no such thing as a siege of three times and one section. In fact, there were very few people who wanted to desert and were able to break out of the encirclement.

"Are the Tartars coming again?" Xu Shen stood on a relatively high place and looked towards the east through a telescope.

Liu Jin was defeated. Xu Shen was the commander of this army. At this time, Xu Shen had the mentality of "who cares?" and gave up the task. The general meaning was... whether he rushed out or stayed, he would die.

Just when Xu Shen wanted to call Zheng Sui over to ask about the situation, he saw Zheng Sui and a few others following Liu Jin towards Xu Shen.

When Xu Shen saw this scene, his heart sank.

He first launched a mutiny and suppressed the commander-in-chief Liu Jin, but he did not dare to kill Liu Jin. As a result, other people found that the team was surrounded and were afraid of being held accountable after returning. So, under the leadership of Zheng Sui and others, they completed a reverse mutiny.

Liu Jin was welcomed back again.

Liu Jin was obviously injured at this time and walked unsteadily.

When Xu Shen saw Liu Jin approaching, he shouted, "Someone come!"

"Stop shouting!" Zheng Sui said, "Your people, including Cao Wei and others, are now on our side. You have no chance! Eunuch Liu, how do you think we should deal with this traitor? Just execute him on the spot! When we go back, we will testify for you that it was this man who suddenly rebelled and caused the soldiers to suffer."

Liu Jin waved his hands and said weakly, "Listen to me and continue walking east."

Zheng Sui said: "Eunuch, the east is full of Tartars, and the Tucheng is in the west."

Xu Shen sneered, "He just wanted to take you to die, and you actually listened to him?"

"Shut up!" Zheng Sui shouted at Xu Shen.

Xu Shen didn't know how to refute for a moment, but when he saw that the generals who had followed him before now stood on Liu Jin's side, he knew that the situation was hopeless. Not only would he not survive, but he would also be branded a traitor. He was afraid that his parents, wife and children would not have a good ending either.

Liu Jin said: "Let me say it again, reorganize the troops and march eastward!"

"Yes!" Zheng Sui was determined to do it now.

Originally, the consensus among the military was that they could escape alive.

But now the Tatars obviously would not give them a chance to live, and the only option now was to fight the Tatars, which was equivalent to surrounding them on all sides and forcing them to fight with their backs against the wall. Otherwise, nine out of ten soldiers in the army would want to escape.

"Prepare the light cavalry." Liu Jin added, "The Tartars have been chasing us all night, and they must be exhausted now. Use the light cavalry and fire guns to kill them in a surprise attack. This is the best opportunity before dawn."

Zheng Sui asked, "Where is General Cao?"

Cao Wei walked out from behind the crowd and looked at Xu Shen with an apologetic look.

Just as Zheng Sui was about to give an order on behalf of Liu Jin, asking Cao Wei to lead the cavalry to attack the Tatars, Liu Jin pointed at Xu Shen and said, "Let him go."

Xu Shen was surprised and said: "Eunuch, you..."

Liu Jin said, "We will pretend that what happened last night never happened. But you must obey my orders now. Only if you can win this battle, we will protect you and even reward you for your achievements."

Zheng Sui hurriedly said: "Eunuch, if I let him lead the troops, I'm afraid it will be..."

"Are you afraid that he will surrender to the enemy?" Liu Jin sneered, "If he has the guts, just surrender to the enemy and see if the Tartars will accept him! When Duke Cai and his men come with their troops, they will dig up his ancestral graves! Even if we die here today, we can't destroy the prestige of the Ming Dynasty."

"Yes." Zheng Sui gritted his teeth and nodded.

Xu Shen seemed very moved and said, "I will definitely live up to your high expectations, sir. In this battle, even if I die, I will not look back."

……

……

The Ming Dynasty launched a counterattack.

This was indeed something the Tatars had not expected. After chasing for a whole night, they were just waiting for the Ming side to run out of artillery shells before launching the final offensive.

As a result, more than a thousand cavalrymen charged towards them at dawn.

The Tatars were also in disarray. After all, they were surrounded on all sides this time, and the number of soldiers on each side was limited. Even though they had at least six or seven thousand soldiers on the east side of the Ming army, it was difficult for them to withstand the attack of one thousand Ming lancers.

Just as the Ming army ignored their retreat and charged forward under the Tatars' artillery and crossbows, on the other side, another group of Ming cavalry, consisting of only 3,000 elite cavalry, also launched a charge before dawn.

It was precisely because they saw that the morale of the Tatars had dropped to the lowest level after a night of hard fighting.

then……

Even Xu Shen did not expect that after his side attacked the Tatar formation, the Tatar formation would be disrupted so easily by them.

"kill!"

Xu Shen was determined to avenge himself.

So at this moment he also burst out with the demeanor of a fierce general.

On the other hand, the Tatars discovered that the Ming Dynasty had sent a group of people to the east to attack and also launched an attack on Liu Jin's central army which was under siege.

"Eunuch, it seems to be done!" Zheng Sui was on a high place, looking into the distance with a telescope.

Liu Jin also picked up the telescope, looked through it and asked, "Have the Tartars retreated?"

"No, they are in disarray! It seems... there is dust rising in the east."

"Eunuch, the Tartars are surrounding us from all sides."

"Prepare the artillery, bring our swords over. Remember, even if we die here, we will never retreat!" Liu Jin was like a god of war at this moment.

All the soldiers in the army were afraid of death, but now they were surrounded by the Tatars on all sides and had no chance to choose. They were all waiting for the final bloody battle.

……

……

The Tatars launched several offensives but were driven back by artillery fire.

After all, Xu Shen only took out the muskets and left all the artillery in the central army. The Tatars thought that the Ming army was fighting desperately, but they did not expect that Liu Jin's central army still had a batch of artillery shells.

After several charges, the Tatars realized that there was nothing to gain.

The Tatars began to retreat.

Liu Jin personally stood in front of the artillery, helping the soldiers light the cannons. His ears were almost deafened by the noise, until the last cannonball in front of him was fired.

He sat on the ground panting.

At this moment, Zheng Sui came over and said excitedly, "Eunuch, reinforcements are coming! They are fighting a bloody battle with General Xu and the Tatars! It seems to be...Xinjianbo's troops."

"Who?"

Liu Jin had already prepared himself to die, but when he heard this, he suddenly had the strength to stand up.

"It's right over there..." Zheng Sui didn't know how to describe it, meaning, you see for yourself.

Liu Jin was confused about the situation now, and he shouted: "Come here! Gather all the troops and cooperate with our reinforcements to kill the Tatars without leaving a single piece of armor!" (End of this chapter)