The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

The night battle entered the decisive battle.

The Ming army also began to move. In addition to the chariot formation leading the way, the following 2,500 soldiers were divided into five groups and slowly began to advance forward.

The soldiers packed up their belongings and treated this as a night march. The only difference was that the previous marches were in the wilderness, but this time there were 30,000 Tatar cavalry spectators around.

"Rumble..."

The Bronze Bull Formation was specially developed by the Tatars in the past two years in order to break the Ming Dynasty's firearms. The purpose was to help their subsequent troops open a gap.

This kind of bronze bull formation is basically ineffective when attacking a city fortress. No matter how hard the bulls' horns are, they cannot break through the city walls of the Ming Dynasty.

But if it is used in a battle in the wild, the power of the Bronze Bull Formation is still there, at least it can form a seemingly solid moving wall of steel.

The Tatars trained this formation out of necessity after seeing the Ming army repeatedly attack the grasslands and always beat them into fleeing in panic. Although the Bronze Bull Formation looks powerful, it still has a drawback, which is that the Bronze Bull Formation is still afraid of artillery bombardment.

Ordinary muskets may not be able to directly stop the charge of bison, but if a cannonball hits you, not to mention the bison, even an elephant can be blown to pieces.

Therefore, the Tatars chose to fight their first battle using the Bronze Bull Formation at night, and the Ming army in front of them created a good environment for them. That is, the Ming army was under the light of bright torches, while their Bronze Bull Formation was in the dark, which was a secret raid.

……

……

The bronze bull formation appeared majestically, and although there were only 200 bulls, they created a posture that was as powerful as an army of thousands.

It is impossible for the Tatars to just let these 200 cows charge. These 200 cows are only their vanguard, responsible for crashing into the chariot formation of the Ming army. In this way, they can rush to the core area of ​​the Ming camp and engage in hand-to-hand combat. In their view, this means victory.

No matter how powerful your musket is, it takes a long time to reload. It will become completely silent after firing two shots. Wouldn't I take the opportunity to chop you all down?
Ten thousand elite Tatars, including the Chahar tribe and elite troops from other tribes, followed the Bronze Bull Formation and rushed towards the camp of the Ming army.

In their view, there is no need to say that it is a sure win, at least the possibility of losing this battle is very low... Even if there is a certain deviation in the Bronze Bull Formation, it can reduce the damage to the Tatar cavalry. If another one or two thousand Tatar cavalry go forward, the remaining eight thousand cavalry will definitely be able to rush into the Ming army's camp. What chance does the Ming army have of winning then?
Seeing that the Bronze Bull Formation was less than 200 steps away from the Ming Dynasty's front-line chariot formation, the Ming Dynasty's chariot formation also opened fire.

It was more troublesome than dealing with the Tatar cavalry before. After firing the muskets, it was clearly felt that the dark formation of bronze bulls was still approaching the chariot formation. Then the Ming chariot formation began to fire more intensive fire bombs.

"Suddenly..."

The sound is continuous and dense.

Because they could not see clearly what was going on with the Ming Dynasty's chariot formation, the Tatars were unable to judge whether there were cannons or muskets hidden in the Ming Dynasty's chariots. Anyway, the Bronze Bull Formation had already rushed over, and they followed the Bronze Bull Formation to the front line of the battlefield. There was no room for them to turn back.

"boom!"

Finally, the sound of artillery fire was heard.

But it was not dense, just sporadic artillery firing.

There were still dense sounds like those of muskets piercing the night sky. The Bronze Bull Formation could rush into the chariot formation from 200 steps in the blink of an eye and overturn the Ming chariots.

But in the blink of an eye, those bison covered in armor fell to the ground one after another.

"Puff puff puff puff..."

When I got closer, the sound was no longer a loud noise, but a continuous muffled sound.

The Tatar cavalry watched the bronze bulls in front of them fall one by one, and then their vanguard troops faced dozens of chariots of the Ming Dynasty.

"kill!"

The Tatar cavalry had no way to retreat.

Until now they still haven't figured out how those bison fell down, but the problem is no longer whether they can rush into the Ming chariot formation, but that the bison that fell in front of them have become an obstacle to their cavalry charge. Even if some cavalry can jump over the bison corpses and rush forward, it is dark after all, and there is almost no light from the bison on the ground. Subsequently, a large number of Tatar cavalry were tripped by themselves.

But the thumping sound still continued.

The 10,000 charging Tatar cavalry could only continue to charge forward.

Then a very strange scene appeared on the battlefield.

The Tatar cavalry rushed to about a hundred steps ahead of the Ming position, and even their bows and arrows could barely shoot through, and even penetrate the open space in front. The sound of arrows hitting the iron plates of the chariot formation was endless, bang bang bang and very pleasant to the ears, but even if they went down ten steps, or even one step, it would be as difficult as climbing to the sky.

The Tatar cavalry fell one after another, just like those fallen bison. Almost all the soldiers rushing in the front fell forward. After the horses fell to the ground, most of the soldiers could not get up, because not only were there many bullet holes on the horses, but even the cavalry's bodies were full of holes.

In the past, one musket was used to kill one enemy. If one musket failed, they would fire twice. If that failed again, they would have to change the bullets...

But now it’s different, there is no process of changing bullets.

Dozens of chariots directly faced my ten thousand elite Tatar cavalry, and the sound of firearms firing continued in the middle, as if the Ming side had no worries about changing ammunition.

……

……

The Tatar army was in chaos.

In a cavalry charge, those charging in the front are usually those wearing thick armor, equivalent to the iron cavalry, while the light cavalry behind are responsible for charging forward to clean up and finish off.

But with the fall of the heavy-armored cavalry, the subsequent light-armored cavalry had no ability to hinder any long-range attacks. Not to mention muskets, even ordinary muskets and crossbows would make them unable to defend themselves.

The ground was littered with corpses of horses and soldiers, as well as the remains of the bronze bull...

This resulted in many of the subsequent cavalrymen who charged forward not falling from being hit by bullets, but being tripped by their own battlefield obstructions in front of them. Even though the cavalrymen in the middle and rear rows took some detours, they still had to face off against these dozens of chariots. Even though they looked right in front of them and seemed to be within reach, they just couldn't get close to them, let alone attack them.

What made the Tatars feel even more terrified was that the chariot formation did not stop to fight them. While the two sides were fighting, the chariot formation was still slowly advancing.

However, after advancing about thirty or forty steps, it stopped.

Because some of the horses pulling the chariots on the Ming side were shot by arrows and fell down, the firearms in the chariots did not stop firing.

Although the horses were covered with thick armor, it could not cover the entire area. However, the chariots were like mobile fortresses, and their armor was enough to withstand the Tatars' bows and arrows.

The Tatars wanted to shoot them with rockets, but found that it was of no use.

Because only the initial arrows could reach the Ming chariot formation, the subsequent arrows could not reach within fifty steps of the Ming army. After all, the range of their bows and arrows was much shorter than the range of the Ming army's firearms.

Initially, it was entirely due to the surprise attack of the Bronze Bull Formation and the fact that the Ming army's soldiers had little actual combat experience that allowed them to advance within the range of bows and arrows of about a hundred steps.

Later on, let alone a hundred steps, even within a range of two hundred steps, the Tatar cavalry had almost no chance of survival.

……

……

As the son of Batu Mongke, Bals wanted to make a name for himself in this battle.

If he can kill Zhang Zhou with his own hands, he will become a hero respected by everyone on the grassland, and then the position of Khan of the grassland will be within his grasp.

But after the war broke out, he found that none of his plans had been implemented, and his own casualties had reached a terrifying level.

With the arrival of Ming's follow-up troops, the chariot formations on the front line no longer had to face their cavalry charge alone. The Ming army had already come to kill them. The Ming light cavalry had begun to attack the Tatar encirclement from different directions, still using firearms, but not muskets, nor the big killer weapons. They directly attacked with muskets on horses. At this time, most of the Tatars around the encirclement were the foils of the Chahar tribe.

They were all ordered to fight together with Batu Mongke's third son, and none of them wanted to die along the way.

Originally, I just wanted to show off my power and get a piece of the pie when the battlefield is cleaned up.

When they found that even the elite Chahar Tatars could not break through a single chariot formation, and that the Ming army had already begun counterattacks from all directions, the cavalry of the Tatar tribes had only one choice, which was to drive their horses and retreat.

……

……

The offensive and defensive battle lasted throughout the second half of the night.

Under such circumstances, the Ming army advanced nearly twenty miles in the second half of the night.

Tatar cavalry were killed or wounded along the way, but no one cut off their heads or ears, as if it was no longer important. The Ming army only wanted to complete the rendezvous with Tang Yin's troops at this moment.

At dawn.

The grassland was filled with bloody scenes.

The smoke was still there. Before, it was just gunpowder and burning tents, but now there was indeed the smell of gunpowder in the air. The Tatars' bronze bull formation tactics could be said to have completely failed that night. Two hundred bulls were completely wiped out before they could do anything.

After suffering heavy losses, the Tatar cavalry's subsequent troops almost fled the battlefield.

In the second half of the battle, before dawn, the Ming cavalry went out to pursue the Tatars, chasing them for more than 20 miles. There was no fighting along the way, it was just a one-sided crushing.

The Ming Dynasty used only 3,000 soldiers and horses to chase after nearly 30,000 Tatar soldiers and horses.

……

……

"Sir, basically all the troops have returned."

By the Haloxylon River.

Zhang Zhou jumped off his horse and stood there, watching the sun rise in the east.

In the distance, you can see a higher hill and the bottom of the valley, and you can see traces of where the Ming army once was stationed.

But Tang Yin's troops had already moved north for more than ten miles...

At this time, Zhang Zhou's troops were only about 40 miles away from Tang Yin's central army. Not to mention a few days, even within a day, both sides might be able to gather their troops together.

As the number one hero of this war, Liu Gui has brought back some of his trophies. They are not ears or heads, but some Tatar flags. He also brought back a special person, that is, a Tatar general, Shama, the brother-in-law of Bars.

"Who leads your troops?" Zhang Zhou asked.

Shama was pinned to the ground and couldn't understand what Zhang Zhou said at all.

Someone immediately relayed Zhang Zhou's words.

Shama was shouting there, showing that he was very unconvinced, and it was obvious that he would not answer Zhang Zhou's question directly.

Zhang Zhou smiled and said, "Congratulations, you have witnessed the beginning of your defeat. What follows is your complete defeat. I will use this battle to let you know who is the master of this world."

"Wow wow wow..."

Shama continued to swear.

But then he became quiet, suddenly fell silent, and stopped talking.

Zhang Zhou asked, "What's going on?"

The translator next to him said, "He knew you were the Duke of Cai, so he stopped talking."

"Oh, then I will take this as your respect for me. How many prisoners have you captured?" Zhang Zhou asked.

"There were only a few dozen. The rest were killed."

Zhang Zhou's troops had only 3,000 people and were completely incapable of escorting prisoners. Moreover, the Ming army basically did not use swords or knives, so it was better to use killing at critical moments.

"Oh." Zhang Zhou said, "Let's tie them all to pillars and place them in front of our camp, so that the Tatars who follow us can see the consequences of going against us. Order the three armies to stay where they are... General Sun, I may have to trouble you to lead the troops to advance 20 miles north. When you reach a suitable place, send out a command arrow to let our brothers in the north know that their reinforcements are coming and ask them to hold on!"

"Yes!"

Sun Shangqi was also full of confidence at this time and immediately accepted the order.

……

……

After a great battle, the Ming army began to adjust.

After all, after more than 20 days of marching, the Ming army was exhausted, and last night's battle also required the soldiers to take a break.

At this time, in the Tatar central army tent, Batu Mongke saw Bals, who had retreated from the front line and was kneeling on the ground in a mess.

The generals of many surrounding tribes looked over with puzzled eyes.

"There are 30,000 elite cavalrymen, and the Ming court only has 4,000 to 5,000 soldiers. Why is this happening?"

Batu Mongke understands the trap of words.

Initially they believed that the Ming Dynasty had only two to three thousand soldiers and horses. Now that they had suffered a defeat, they had to exaggerate the number of Ming Dynasty reinforcements to make the defeat of this battle seem less tragic.

Bars said: "Khan, please forgive me. It is my incompetence. After the battle started, the troops fled on their own, allowing the Ming army to attack at night, resulting in... failure at the last moment. Not a single one of the 200 bronze bulls is left, and of the 15,000 warriors of our army... only 4,000 to 5,000 have returned..."

Yibula asked, "Was the loss last night so great? How many soldiers were killed?"

"About 20,000..." someone replied.

Thirty thousand soldiers fought against three thousand, and as a result, their side lost two-thirds, more than 60%.

This does not include those who were injured.

Even if we can recover some of the deserters who were running around like headless flies later, the losses in this battle are definitely more than half...

This is based on the fact that the soldiers on the front line did not tell the truth.

If someone told them that the Ming army only had a few dozen chariots, and that it was actually five hundred soldiers against thirty thousand, they would be even more... ashamed. (End of this chapter)