The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

The night battle begins.

The Tatars first used their cavalry to carry out peripheral harassment attacks and did not send out large numbers of cavalry to charge.

They thought that since the troops were led by Zhang Zhou, the Minister of War of the Ming Dynasty, they would definitely be brave and good at fighting, so they wanted to make a good start and wait to lure out the Ming Dynasty's army.

Who would have thought that the Ming army would stand still like a mountain, and in the first half of the night they really treated the Tatars as if they did not exist, and just stayed in the camp. As long as the Tatars were not within my attack range, I would resolutely ignore you... So much so that in the first two hours of the war, only a few sporadic shots were fired, and none of them hit the target.

Then the Tatars were also very confused.

It was at this time that the elite Chahar troops led by Bars arrived at the front line of the battlefield.

"Looking at the firelight, it seems that the Tartars have more reinforcements arriving." Sun Shangqi stood beside Zhang Zhou.

After the war broke out, battle reports from the front line were basically all received by shouting, and there was no need to investigate any intelligence. Sun Shangqi could even put aside his job temporarily and become the deputy captain of Zhang Zhou's guard... It was not his turn to be the captain, after all, Wang Mingshan was there.

Zhang Zhou said: "The Tatars are frightened by the artillery and muskets. At this critical moment, they have not yet launched an all-out attack. I am so tired that I want to take a nap. Soldiers in the army should rest and recuperate tonight, as this battle may last until tomorrow."

Sun Shangqi smiled and said, "Master, the brothers are indeed tired after a long journey to get here, but no one can sleep tonight. Many people are also afraid."

"It's okay. I'm afraid too." Zhang Zhou said, "On the battlefield, if you say you have no fear, you are heartless. You may be afraid, but just don't be a deserter. Wait another hour or when the Tatars attack us, then call me."

After saying that, Zhang Zhou took Wang Mingshan back to the tent.

This made Sun Shangqi feel a little embarrassed.

Zhang Zhou has six squads under his command, each with 500 people, and only his squad is responsible for intelligence. In other words, in this battle, apart from Zhang Zhou, there is actually no deputy general in the strict sense, which means that Zhang Zhou is responsible for all six squad leaders alone.

Even Sun Shangqi didn't understand why Zhang Zhou divided the team so separately, and each team was basically equipped with the same weapons.

It can be said that Zhang Zhou does not have a truly elite force under his command. Of course, there will be no very bad troops. But no matter how you look at it, these new recruits who have never been to the battlefield do not seem to be able to fight a tough battle.

……

……

When Bals arrived at the front line of the battlefield, he did not rashly send troops to attack.

He was still listening to the report from his general Shama, who was the elder brother of his new wife. Bars had been married for a year at the age of fourteen, which was not very early for him to get married on the grassland, but he still had no children.

"Major General, we can't go up any further now. If we go any further, we will reach the camp of the Ming Dynasty. Unless we charge all at once, otherwise... we don't have much chance."

Even Shama knew that when fighting against the Ming army equipped with firearms, they could not fight alone, and there was no concept of surprise attack.

What we want is a head-on confrontation, and the soldiers who rush to the front line will inevitably die.

Bars said: "If we engage in cautious hand-to-hand combat with the Ming army, what are our chances of winning?"

"100%!" Shama answered without hesitation.

"That's fine." Bars said, "In order to fight the Ming army, we prepared a bronze bull formation, with a team of bronze bulls rushing in front. Even if these bulls are hit by their firearms, they will not retreat. There is gunpowder tied to the bulls, which will blast open a gap, and our warriors will rush in directly."

After hearing this, Shama was very excited and said, "I have never heard of it before."

Bars said: "This is arranged by my father Khan. If we don't use it in this battle, we may not have the opportunity to show the power of the bronze bull formation in the future. This is the best opportunity for me to make achievements."

"So when does it start?" Shama was already getting ready.

Bars looked at the sky and said, "We have to wait. The Ming army is only two or three thousand people, so we don't need to worry. The longer we delay, the more afraid they will be of death. When the war starts, they will be like headless flies and won't even know where we are. If the bronze bull formation rushes forward, they will fire cannons and muskets at random. Then our army will hide behind them and charge forward."

"How long will it take?" Shama still wanted a specific time.

Bars said: "After midnight, we will see what the sky will show. This time the gods will definitely be on our side. It is time for my father Khan and I to revive the grassland."

……

……

Without any trouble, another hour passed.

When Zhang Zhou came out of the tent, Sun Shangqi was still talking to the captain of a squad. When Zhang Zhou walked over, the man just came over with his hat in hand. It was Liu Gui, the foreman of the Zhang mansion's guards.

"Master." Liu Gui still had the same playful look as before.

On the battlefield, he seemed to be the person least afraid of death.

It seemed that Liu Gui also knew that as long as Zhang Zhou was there, he would have a bright future. In the past, others had been able to lead troops and horses to achieve great things on the grassland, but this time he had the opportunity to follow Zhang Zhou out, so wouldn't he go crazy and kill people?

"Is the first wave of attackers ready?" Zhang Zhou asked.

Liu Gui patted his chest and said, "No problem. Five hundred elite soldiers, just let the horses pull the cart forward. If there are Tartars, we will open fire directly. The weapons in the brothers' hands are eager to try."

Zhang Zhou frowned and asked, "What are you talking about?"

"No, no, it's just that the brothers have been ready to drink blood for a long time!"

Liu Gui restrained his arrogant look a little.

Zhang Zhou said, "Okay, on the left and right wings, you lead the troops first. Remember, a hundred people form a square formation, and the rest of the troops will follow slowly. Put away the camp and other things quickly. This shouldn't be difficult, right?"

Sun Shangqi said, "My Lord, I have been practicing this set for a long time."

This is also what Sun Shangqi doesn’t understand.

Before, when Zhang Zhou was training these three thousand soldiers, apart from their daily training on how to assemble weapons and replace accessories and ammunition, the rest was training them to pack up their belongings quickly. If you didn't know, you would think they were training them to escape.

It seems to be used now.

This group of soldiers may not be good at anything else, but they can sleep as soon as they put down their tents, and go into battle as soon as they fold up the tents.

Apart from that, they had never even touched a sword, let alone archery. However, they had often trained in live-fire shooting, which lasted less than half a year. However, they were basically familiar with the process, after all, they were all soldiers in the Beijing Camp.

Zhang Zhou said: "Go ahead. Arouse the curiosity of the Tatars. The next step is to teach them a lesson."

……

……

By midnight the Tatar harassment had almost come to a halt.

They were waiting to mobilize all their forces in the second half of the night to deal a fatal blow to the Ming army... or to trap the Ming army so that Zhang Zhou's 3,000 troops could not join up with Tang Yin's more than 5,000 remaining troops, and in this way slowly wear down these two armies.

But who would have thought that after midnight, the first to launch an attack would be the Ming army.

Liu Gui personally led five hundred soldiers and used horse-drawn carriages to pull the soldiers, forming the most primitive chariot formation.

There are ten soldiers on each chariot. Except for two people responsible for driving the horses, the remaining eight people stand around a Gatling gun in the middle. The chariot has a shield and firing holes and is covered with iron armor. It looks bulky, but it appears very smooth when moving mechanically. After all, it is an improved chariot with rubber wheels.

After these ten people stopped, each of them could fire the musket in their hands. Because the ammunition could be continuously replaced, each chariot had the ability to kill a single enemy. Of course, if the Tatars rushed over directly, the single rifle shooting could not achieve miraculous results, so the more powerful Gatling gun would be used. Instead of ten people, three people could complete the series of processes from equipping ammunition, firing, to replacing ammunition.

Torches were lit on the chariots, as if they were afraid that the Tatars were unaware that such a group of troops had emerged from the Ming camp.

As one carriage after another slowly came out, the Tatar scouts immediately brought the news to Bars.

After Bals found out, he was also very confused.

"What does the Ming army want to do?" Shama next to him expressed the commander's thoughts. This was the question on the mind of almost every Tatar soldier.

Bars asked, "How many chariots are there?"

The scout messenger said, "There are probably dozens of them."

"They must be luring us to kill them and then explode to cause damage to us. We just need to send a group of people to give it a try." Shama expressed his opinion.

There was no reason for the Ming army to use dozens of chariots to fight against tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. It seemed like a trap.

In addition to the terrifying artillery and muskets of the Ming army, the yellow gunpowder, which was known as the heavenly gunpowder, was so powerful that it could even blow a large hole in the city wall.

"it is good!"

Bars gave the order, "Send 500 elite cavalrymen to charge forward and get close to the armored vehicles. If you find any Ming Dynasty chariots exploding, retreat immediately!"

"Order!"

……

……

The first round of real fighting began.

The Tatars sent out five hundred armored cavalrymen to charge towards the chariot formation led by Liu Gui.

"It's pitch black, and it seems to be full of people." Liu Gui was holding a telescope and checking the enemy situation, but he couldn't see anything clearly at night.

The enemy was in the dark and we were in the light. The Tatar cavalry charged towards the place where there was fire. It seemed that they did not need to hold torches to clearly identify the path.

Moreover, they were very familiar with the terrain, which seemed to be tailor-made for the Tatar cavalry. They seemed to be several miles away before, but almost between their breaths and conversations, the rumbling sound of the cavalry's horses' hooves was already close to their ears.

"Chirp..."

The fire bomb that carried the message rose into the air.

Then muskets began to be fired from the chariot formation.

Although muskets were unfamiliar to both the Ming and Tatar soldiers, for these 3,000 soldiers, they had been their regular weapons for the past six months. Even in the dark, they knew where the bolt was, how to fire, and how to remove ammunition from their bodies and replace it with the rifle with their eyes closed.

"Bang bang bang bang..."

At first there were sporadic gunshots, and then they became continuous.

It was still only this group of troops that were firing, and the Ming army did not send any reinforcements to help.

The sound of gunfire was incessant, but after a while, it changed from dense sound to sporadic sound.

The Tatars' first round of attack was inexplicably repelled.

It was not that the Tatars were not brave enough, but that they found that the iron armor they had prepared had almost no defensive power under the attack of musket bullets. Even if some of the armor was very thick and could block the direct penetration of bullets, people would be knocked off their horses.

……

……

"what happened?"

Bals stood on the top of the mountain, looking at the dark flat area below. He felt a little confused.

It was agreed that 500 people would charge forward to capture the Ming Dynasty's chariot formation, or to detonate their chariots. However, the charge was like a stone falling into water, making only a sound and then disappearing into the sea.

Shama didn't understand either.

Shama said: "Major General, we are still five or six miles away from the Ming army. We can't see what is happening on the front line. Do we need to send more troops to attack?"

"Let's wait and see."

Bals could only collect his thoughts for the time being.

After waiting for a long time, a soldier who had withdrawn from the front line finally appeared in front of Bars and said almost crying, "Sir, we have suffered a defeat."

"Why did we lose? What did they use to attack you?" Bals asked.

"It was a musket, a musket that could fire from a very long distance. We didn't even get close to the Ming Dynasty's chariots, but the soldiers on their chariots were already using muskets to attack us."

The soldier was wounded, and he was the kind who fell off his horse but did not die.

Bars shouted, "Five hundred people, how many were killed or wounded?"

"Almost all of them are dead," the soldier said. "Even our general has not been found. He is likely dead."

Fighting at night made it impossible to see the situation clearly, which made the Mongolian cavalry, who prided themselves on being brave, feel the fear of being in the dark.

"Major General, what should we do now?"

Shama said, "Why don't we just use the Bronze Bull Formation? Or, we can change it to the Fire Bull Formation. The Ming army has at least one or two thousand people hidden in these chariots, so sending five hundred soldiers to charge them didn't work. As long as our Bronze Bull Formation is effective and can disperse their chariots, we can directly charge into their camp."

Someone nearby also chimed in, "Major General, this is a good idea. We agree to use the Fire Bull Formation to clear the way."

No one wants to die.

Letting a group of cows die seems to be the best solution.

Bars said: "We only have 200 cows. Maybe it's a good idea to do it in the dark. They hold torches to let the cows know where to rush. Then they light the cows' tails and pour tung oil on the cows so they can be set on fire with rockets at any time."

"it is good!"

The generals under Bars seemed to have seen the hope of victory at this time.

Finally, we don’t have to use our bodies to clear the way. We also have the bronze bull formation, which is such a good road-setting tool. We just need to follow the bronze bulls and take advantage of the situation to kill them.

"Set up the bronze bull formation and prepare to attack!" Bals ordered.

Then, two hundred cows were neatly lined up on the high ground, looking down at the direction of the Ming Dynasty chariot formation, while the Tatar Chahar cavalry was ready to go, just waiting for the bronze bull formation to help them carve a bloody path. (End of this chapter)