The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

On the river bank.

Tang Yin personally led the troops to charge, and after advancing about five miles, they were only about ten miles away from Zhang Zhou's front line.

"Sir, the Tatars are gathering, but their target is our downstream, and there are tens of thousands of soldiers guarding around us." Zhang Rui pointed to the south and said, "Let's send troops to reinforce them."

"It's no use."

Tang Yin said, "We are almost out of ammunition and food. We have no ammunition or gunpowder left. The soldiers don't have the strength to fight. It is already the limit for us to hold our front line."

Xu Jing looked at the fire in the distance and said, "What a huge commotion! How many reinforcements have we got? The Tatars are determined to win the battle."

Tang Yin frowned and said, "Don't ask me, I can't figure it out either. If the Ming Dynasty sent tens of thousands of troops here, they wouldn't have enough time. If they sent light troops, it would be difficult for them to get here directly. It's impossible for the Tatars not to stop the troops halfway."

Ma Yi was also riding on his horse, looking towards the south, and said, "From my feeling, they don't look like local soldiers from Datong."

"How do you mean?" Xu Jing asked.

Ma Yi said: "The local troops of Datong are good at group fighting. The troops of different groups cooperate well with each other, but the problem is that they tend to be arrogant. Unlike this group of troops, they seem to be stabbing like a sharp knife. But besides the local troops of Datong, does the Ming Dynasty have such elite troops?"

Xu Jing forced a smile and said, "You, the Marquis of Pinglu, are leading the most elite division in Datong, aren't they?"

Tang Yin said: "I think this is what puzzles him the most. If it is Datong's local troops, the one leading them will be Xinjian Bo, but Xinjian Bo's personality is not like that. But what if someone else leads Datong's local troops?"

"Lord Sun, do you think these are local soldiers from Datong?" Ma Yi asked.

Tang Yin shook his head and said, "I know nothing about this. But I can't imagine how the Ming Dynasty could have such an elite army to make the Tatars so cautious and even willing to send out all their troops."

Xu Jing said: "If you can't figure it out, then maybe the emperor will lead the army in person? At least, it will be the Duke of Cai who will lead the troops in person. Only in this way can the Tatars take it so seriously."

"Alas!" Tang Yin sighed, "Maybe so."

……

……

The troops led by Zhang Zhou were breaking through one line of defense after another.

These defense lines were painstakingly set up by the Tatars over the past month or so. They were like cages, trapping Tang Yin's troops in an area with no way of retreat or advance, attempting to devour all of Tang Yin's troops by cannibalization.

But now, these defensive positions were breached from the rear and became a hindrance to the Tatar cavalry's advance.

If the cavalry attacked, they would be hindered by these barriers.

But there is an advantage.

That is, there are fences one after another, dividing the river bank area into rectangular and nearly arc-shaped separation areas. If you attack each area from the east side, there will be fences blocking both sides. The two sides can only fight a decisive battle within the fence. Unless the soldiers in the front fall down, the soldiers behind cannot rush up, but they have no way to retreat.

For Zhang Zhou's troops who had suddenly broken in, the way to retreat was to blow up the gaps between the fences and move to the next fence space.

Such an area would hinder the activities of cavalry, but at the same time, because it could not form a large open area, Batu Mongke believed that the Ming Dynasty would not be able to use the long snake formation of fire guns that it had previously used to attack them.

“See those three empty spaces in the middle?”

Batu Mongke said to his three generals who were about to lead their troops to the river bank, "Each of you will lead 10,000 soldiers to charge in! Remember to rush to the river bank area as quickly as possible. Once the Ming army is forced to the river, use our gunpowder to blast the ice."

Batu Mongke also used a very insidious trap.

It was originally prepared for Tang Yin, just waiting for Tang Yin to break out, because fences were buried and camps were set up on the shore. Tang Yin's troops could not break out by going south by land, and could only cross the frozen river. After entering February, the ice on the river was already getting thinner. If gunpowder was used to blast it, the ice would surely be broken, and a large number of Ming Dynasty horses, baggage, personnel, etc. would fall into the icy river.

By then, the Tatars will pursue their victory...

The plan was good, but Tang Yin's troops were trapped and had no intention of breaking out, so they have been in a stalemate until now.

However, Zhang Zhou's arrival with his troops in person gave Batu Mongke the opportunity to use this trick again.

"There are also 200 bronze bulls in the formation. The one in the middle will have the bronze bulls charging in the front." Batu Mongke said.

Bars came over and said, "Great Khan, I'm afraid this plan won't work. The bronze bull formation can't resist their firearms. The bulls will block our way forward."

"All I want is to block the way forward."

Batu Mongke pointed down and said, "Look here, although every obstacle can be blown up, their advancement or retreat is also greatly restricted because they cannot open a large gap. There are only two options: to the east or to the west, but to the west is the frozen surface of the Suosuo River, and to the east is our troops."

Bals looked over and felt that the battlefield was very strange.

It's like a maze.

It seems that no matter who goes in, it is difficult to get out.

"As long as we block the east side and compress their range from other gaps, they will either go to the ice or retreat to the south. When they retreat, we will surely win. They only have two or three thousand soldiers. How can they fight against my army of more than one hundred thousand?"

Batu Mongke has now realized that the number of Ming Dynasty troops is not enough to fill his teeth.

The only strong thing is the Ming Dynasty's firearms. He is now using all means to block the Ming army's way forward or retreat, and using various methods to force the Ming army to fight in a small area.

In his opinion, only in this way could the Ming Dynasty's firearms be prevented from being lined up in a row. In this way, as long as their troops were large enough, they would be able to rush into the Ming Dynasty's troops even if they rushed forward on their own two legs, without the need for cavalry. Once they reached the range of close combat, with the Tatars' bravery and fighting skills, the casualties ratio with the Ming Dynasty could be at least one to one.

It would be effortless to defeat these two or three thousand Ming soldiers.

……

……

Preparations for the night battle are still ongoing.

Zhang Zhou's troops had advanced four or five miles and broke through six or seven lines of defense. Even the main force of the Ming Dynasty's central army had passed the second line of defense and had completely entered the cage set up by the Tatars to guard against Tang Yin.

This is also a maze.

It was approaching midnight when the Tatars finally blew the horn to charge.

"Woooooooo..."

The air was somewhat solemn and fires could be seen everywhere at night. It seemed that every situation on the river bank could be seen clearly.

The Tatars started the war first and maintained the initiative.

Their method of advancing was very special. They used the ambushes set up in the camp to charge out. They first tried to cut off the connection between the Ming army and the front and back troops. The method they used was more direct, which was to set fire...

There were already a large number of tents and wooden fences in the camp, and with the addition of tung oil and firewood, the camp was set on fire directly at night.

For a moment, the riverbank was brightly lit, and the Tatars were holding torches. In such a situation, everyone could see the situation of the Ming army clearly, while the Tatar armies on the east and west sides were in the dark.

We are once again trapped in this situation where "the enemy is in the dark and we are in the light".

The Tatars' arson tactics seemed to have achieved unprecedented success.

Liu Gui's first group of 500 soldiers and the subsequent second group of 500 soldiers were cut off by fire in an open space in the northernmost part. It was wider here, but there was a Tatar camp blocking the east. The Tatars first set the camp on fire, and then the Tatars in the north also started to set fire.

The wind direction at this time seemed to be somewhat unfavorable to the Ming Dynasty.

The fire will blow towards the river bank, which means that unless the Ming army finds a way to put out the fire or cross the river to the west bank, even if the fire cannot burn through, the smoke and dust will choke people.

Fortunately, Liu Gui's troops still had yellow gunpowder to clear the way. They quickly blew up the next fence, allowing some soldiers to pass through the gap and enter the open space behind the next fence.

At this moment, 30,000 Tatar cavalry rushed towards the river bank from the east.

……

……

"Rumble..."

There was no bronze bull formation, only the roar of horse hooves. The Tatar cavalry had undergone further improvements. They no longer attacked by charging, but advanced step by step. They held heavy shields in front of them, and each iron shield weighed probably several hundred pounds.

Moreover, they were rows of iron shields with two layers. The subsequent first-line cavalry were also armored cavalry, and they were not holding swords, but shields.

Although the Tatars were the main attacking party, they were like an iron wall and seemed to be trying to block the Ming Dynasty's firearms attack in this way.

When the two sides were about 200 steps apart, the Ming Dynasty had already launched a full-scale attack.

"Bang bang bang..."

Use light artillery to clear the way.

The shells of these light artillery are no longer lead bullet fragments, but complete shrapnel shells.

After the shells fall, they will explode directly at the place where they land...

boom!
After the huge explosion, any armored shields around would be blown open.

But this did not seem to scare the Tatars.

The darkness gave them a certain amount of courage. In addition, the river bank was originally very flat. Even if there was an explosion in the surrounding camps, they were still holding shields, and there were even shields all around them. They could not see what was happening at all. At this time, they could only be forced to move forward.

until……

It was not until they themselves were blown away that they realized how powerful the shell was.

Even so, the shield formation was still gradually advancing, all the way to about a hundred steps in front of the Ming Dynasty camp.

This was enough for the Tatars' archers to fire.

But for them, it seems that is not enough.

Because they had suffered a great loss in the first battle, they knew that one hundred steps was a hurdle. Even if they were within the range of the archers, they would not be able to maintain the offensive advance because the Ming firearms would prevent them from moving forward at around one hundred steps, or even push them back.

Their shield formation is still advancing.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty's artillery no longer needed to use a parabolic pattern to bombard the center and rear of the Tatar shield formation, but was aimed directly at the front row of shield formations, as if it was blowing up an earth wall.

"Rumble..."

A hole was blown open in a huge shield formation.

At this time, Liu Gui's 500 soldiers were still scattered in two wooden fences. Half of the soldiers had no chariots or shields to defend themselves. At most, they could temporarily build a first-line camp made of sandbags.

At this time, they were already within the range of the Tatars' bows and crossbows, which meant that if the two sides fought, there would be casualties on both sides.

At this point, the Tatars seemed to have finally revealed their vicious side.

A large number of Tatar armored cavalry rushed out from the gap in the shield formation.

At the same time, the Gatling guns on the Ming side also began to roar.

There is no need to cover up too much, just point the gun at the opposite side and fire.

The Tatar armored cavalry seemed to have lost their support, and after the sound of thumping, they fell down one after another.

There were cavalry and infantry who rushed over later, most of them holding shields or shooting arrows indiscriminately, but without exception, they were shot into sieves as soon as they showed their heads. And because of the fence-like structure of the passage, these Tatar soldiers had no way to retreat. Even if they did not charge forward, the people behind them would push them forward.

Some people fell down but were crushed by the people behind them before they died.

"Thud, tug, tug, tug, tug..."

The sound is very dense.

Initially, fierce fighting broke out in the first two passages. As the Tatar cavalry charged further down, the Tatars used nearly 50,000 soldiers to complete the charge on the river bank.

The Ming army had now been completely compressed on the river bank, with the frozen Sosuo River behind them, the Tatar enemies rushing in like a swarm of bees in front of them, and heavy wooden fences and their own soldiers on both sides.

The Ming Dynasty was also in a situation of fighting with its back to the river... Although the water could be crossed over the ice, there were Tatar ambushes waiting on the other side of the river, so for them, there was no way of retreat.

……

……

A brutal and bloody war began.

Originally, the Tatars believed that as long as they could push the shield formation to one hundred steps in front of the Ming army, they would win the battle. After all, they were outnumbered by 3,000 soldiers and were within the long-range shooting range of their bows and crossbows. The Ming army lacked protection such as bunkers and shields.

How can this not be a win?
But after the war broke out, accompanied by the bright flames, the leaders of various forces who were watching the situation from a relatively high place discovered that the firearms of the Ming Dynasty were so terrifying that they could no longer be described as terrifying.

The Tatar soldiers were seen charging forward, but as many as they charged forward died, as if there was no logic at all. No matter whether they were cavalry, infantry, heavy armor, light armor, or shields, as long as they could get up there, they would be beaten to pieces.

Within a few dozen steps in front of the Ming army, the Tatar corpses had piled up into the shape of a small hill.

At the beginning of the war, the Tatars lost at least 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers, and the front line could not stop at this time, because the following soldiers were unaware of the situation in front and pushed the soldiers in front forward, and the retreat was blocked by their own soldiers rushing up.

Avici Hell is nothing more than this. (End of this chapter)