King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 491 Zero: I will personally lead the troops in this battle

After all, the front line is the front line. Although Zhu Jinghong intends to entertain, it is not even a bit inferior to the extravagant banquet in the pass.

Of course, during Zhu Jinghong's reception banquet, no one dared to cause trouble behind his back, even if it was porridge.

The guests and hosts had a great time, and after the banquet ended, Zhu Jinghong returned to his sleeping tent.

He didn't live alone in his sleeping tent. For example, Nuo Min came out from inside at this time.

"Master Thirteen, you are finally back. I have something to tell you!"

After welcoming Zhu Jinghong into the tent, Nuo Min handed him tea.

"Master Thirteen, I..."

Nuo Min hesitated to speak. Seeing her look like this, Zhu Jinghong smiled and said, "It's about your father!"

"Yes!"

After answering, Nuo Min changed Zhu Jinghong's clothes and said: "The Thirteenth Master is strict in managing the army. It is my father's fault that he did not satisfy you..."

"But I know that in recent days, my father has been strictly reorganizing the army and has not slacked off at all..."

Nuo Min was talking nonchalantly, but Zhu Jinghong actually didn't listen carefully, he was just enjoying his sobriety.

"Master Thirteen?"

"Ok!"

"Are you listening?"

"exist!"

"I hope Thirteenth Master will be more forgiving to my father. Our Mubu League is loyal and diligent to the imperial court and the Holy One..."

Seeing that Nuo Min was getting more and more enthusiastic, Zhu Jinghong finally couldn't help but said: "Okay... I understand what you mean, and I don't mean to blame your father!"

"It's for his own good to say a few words to him. If he doesn't strictly control his subordinates, they will be robbed and killed... I don't know how many people will die!"

After confirming that Zhu Jinghong was not really angry, Nuo Min quickly replied: "The Thirteenth Master taught me a lesson, it's because I don't know the depth!"

"But I know how good you are!" Zhu Jinghong smiled slightly and picked up Nuo Min.

"Master Thirteen, do you want it again tonight?"

While his hands were busy, Zhu Jinghong asked: "Why not?"

Just when he put Nuomin on the bed and planned to have a fight, the eunuch's complaint came from outside.

"Your Majesty, there is a letter from the Princess of Beijing!"

Of course Zhu Jinghong had to read Baochai's letter, so he let go of Nuo Min again, causing the latter to look resentful.

Arriving outside the camp, Zhu Jinghong took the letter from the eunuch, then tore open the seal and took out the letter.

Although it was clear from the secret message that it was a secret letter, the beginning of the letter shocked him and made him choose to read the letter on the surface first.

"You, surnamed Zhu, are powerful. You lead the charge on the battlefield. No one in the world knows your reputation. However, soldiers on the battlefield have no eyesight. If there is anything wrong with you, what should we do..."

The meaning of the letter was very straightforward. Simply put, it was to give Zhu Jinghong a lesson. However, Baochai's words were so reasonable and well-founded that he could not argue at all.

After laughing, Zhu Jinghong started to decipher the contents of the letter according to the set rules, and then he stopped laughing.

"Princess Rui joins forces with Jingting to seize the title of princess!"

Seeing this, Zhu Jinghong's eyes were filled with coldness. He felt that he had kept a low profile, but unexpectedly, Lao Liu, a shady old man, still refused to let him go.

But he never thought that now he has strong soldiers and horses, a very prosperous holy family, and he is also the emperor's legitimate son. These three points add up to how awesome he is.

In a sense, Lao Liu is the weaker party, and now he is forced to launch a self-defense counterattack.

So Zhu Jinghong immediately wrote a reply, but he only wrote one page, which was clearly his defense of his behavior.

But reading it according to the secret language, there are only four words: "You can decide for yourself."

He believed that Baochai's command could handle this matter, so he fully authorized her to act on her own.

"Lao Liu, Lao Liu, when I return to Beijing... If you don't deal with you, you bastard, I will take your last name!"

…………

The twelfth year of Orthodoxy, the third day of September.

In the northwest wilderness, the cold wind became more and more biting. The soldiers marched staring at the strong wind, and their skin was cracked every one of them.

Even as the young master of Junggar and a general commanding tens of thousands of troops on the front line, No. 0 is no better than an ordinary soldier.

Zero is turning thirty this year. He has been in the army since he was twelve years old, so he can definitely be regarded as an old soldier.

He has participated in commanding many battles over the years, and has won and failed in big and small battles. This has also developed his cunning personality, and he has been nicknamed the "Wolf of the Northwest" by his subjects.

Therefore, No. 0 has always been very confident in marching operations.

During this war with Mingting, his father made him the frontline commander. This was also the first time he commanded so many troops.

At first, Ling Ling was nervous. After all, he was facing the behemoth Ming Ting, but after repeated battles with Ning Huanxiang, his self-confidence was "cultivated" again.

In the end, he directly killed Ning Huanxiang himself through intelligence analysis, which made him overjoyed and evolved from confidence to arrogance.

Everything was developing for the better, but what happened one after another after Ning Huanxiang's death made Di Ling feel that he might be a fool.

There was nothing he could do, who allowed him to be led by the nose and beaten all the way by the fledgling Zhu Jinghong, turning the pursuit of annihilation into a battle of annihilation.

When the news came back to Ili, his father, the Great Khan of Junggar, sent an envoy to scold him.

Although he was injured, No. 0 was still strong. After regaining his military morale, he formulated a new round of combat plans.

"Young Master, although the Ming army was aware of it, they did not get too close. It seems that the frequent mobilization of our army in the past has confused him!" said a member of Wanhu.

Like Darza, this person is also the leader of a powerful cavalry.

"Not necessarily. Who knows what the kid from the Zhu family has planned!" Di Ling shook his head.

"The two plans rely on each other. If they are on strict guard against food and grass, they can turn around and attack the Jurchen tribes, and take advantage of the advantage to annihilate all the Jurchen tribes in one go!" Di Ling said in a deep voice.

"Young Master, when shall we take action?" Wan Hu asked.

When to take action, in fact, every moment at the moment can be taken action from the perspective of Zero.

The reason why they are still confronting the Ming army is because Zero has not made up his mind yet. He was really thrown into the shadow before.

Being asked now, Di Zero knew that it was time to make a decision. Otherwise, when Zhu Jinghong pacified the Tuxietu Khanate and the logistics supplies were unimpeded, Junggar would be in big trouble.

Starting from a higher level, they have been defeated again and again recently, which has greatly affected the morale of Zhasak and other countries. Junggar urgently needs a big victory to boost the confidence of its allies.

Otherwise, when the Zhasak Three Kingdoms are defeated, Junggar will be in danger.

Perhaps the Rakshasa Kingdom can be asked to intervene...Zero had this idea.

But this is what his father should worry about. His only task now is to win the next battle.

"Just today...at sunset!"

This time was chosen very carefully, in order to have a surprise effect, at least the ten thousand households who asked questions were surprised.

"In this battle, I will personally lead the troops and boost morale!" Zero said with a serious expression.

…………

The sun was setting in the west, and the various units of the Ming army were still on their way. Everything was no different from before.

Of course, this is only on the surface. From the bodyguards to the various armies, the situation is already tight on the outside and tight on the inside.

On the evening of the first day of September, Zhu Jinghong decided that the Junggar people would take action, and now two full days have passed. Junggar's army is still mobilized frequently, and normal harassment continues, but there is no sign of a major war.

This increasingly abnormal situation made Zhu Jinghong firm in his judgment and believed that the Junggar people were playing a trick.

On the hillside, looking at the soldiers preparing to camp below, Zhu Jinghong murmured in a low voice: "The Junggar people will definitely take action, they will definitely..."

"It will definitely happen!"

Zhu Jinghong said this not only for his staff, but also for himself.

At this moment, news is still coming to him, but it is all processed and analyzed by his staff.

Eight of his staff members set up a table nearby, some conducted analysis and discussions, and some changed the annotations on the drawings.

Although their map is large, it only shows a radius of a hundred miles, so its markings are very detailed.

Such a map needs to be changed every two days to match the current topography.

"Agula Wanhu has moved ten miles south!" Feng Ziying frowned.

At this time, someone corrected him: "Wrong...he moved thirty miles north today!"

Feng Ziying replied: "That's right...but in the past few days, he moved about forty miles north, which is roughly the same distance as our army, but today they moved ten miles less north!"

At this time, someone realized the problem and immediately said: "So... he is ten miles closer to the west flank of our army!"

Someone else said: "They have been mobilized frequently in the past few days and have been looking for our loopholes. This kind of thing happened in the past two days!"

Feng Ziying stood up straight and said solemnly: "But... Agula Ten Thousand Houses is the zeroth direct jurisdiction!"

Several people present knew what this meant, so they quickly reached an agreement and reported the situation to Zhu Jinghong.

"You mean they will take action tomorrow?" Zhu Jinghong asked.

"Exactly!" Feng Ziying replied.

After looking at the sky, Zhu Jinghong said: "In my opinion, they will go back to their own way, so today is the day to do it!"

Zhu Jinghong's guess was bolder than that of several staff officers, but after a little thought, the young people present felt that this was extremely possible.

"Immediately issue an order to tighten internal tightness and loosen external forces to prevent the enemy from hijacking the camp!"

"Yes!"

Before coming to the map, Zhu Jinghong asked: "Where do you think they will attack?"

The Junggar side is all cavalry, so they have the strategic initiative and can choose how and when to fight.

Zhu Jinghong's question normally has two options, either the Qinghai Xingdusi tribes that are close by, or the Jurchen tribes that are slightly further away.

But Zhu Jinghong still believed that this group of people might attack the grain and grass, and if they succeeded, they would collapse the morale of the imperial army.

"The two guards in the Beijing camp issued an order, telling them to be on strict alert!"

"Yes!"

"I'll give the Zhenwei Central Guard an order to have Shi Chong's troops detour back to the south of the Tibetan tribes in order to be ready to support the two guards of the Beijing camp at any time!"

"Yes!"

At this time, Feng Ziying asked: "Thirteenth Master, since we need support, why not let all the Zhenwei central defenders pass?"

"We have scouts, don't the Dzungars have them? The movement of a large number of troops may be discovered, and then they won't come!"

At this time, everyone realized that this man was not fighting a defensive war, but a war of annihilation against Dzunggar.

Military orders are conveyed by messengers, and after Zhu Jinghong paced back and forth, he pointed to the southwest of Yulin, the left guard of Xiaowu, and the right guard of Yulin, where there was a blank space for defense.

"Instruct Xiao Wu's left guard and Yu Lin's right guard to each deploy twenty artillery pieces, each with ten rounds of ammunition, and march five miles to the southwest to set up an ambush. If the enemy attacks, they will lead them through and fire from the rear. After attacking, Shi Da can abandon the artillery and retreat!"

If the enemy wanted to attack grain and grass, they had to go through the gap between Qinghai Xingdusi and the Jurchen tribes. Zhu Jinghong ordered his people to set up an ambush here.

Forty artillery pieces, with a total of 400 shells, would not only kill the Junggar cavalry, but also greatly shake their morale. In this way, the pressure on the two guards of the Beijing camp would be much less.

"Yes!"

"Continue to pay close attention to the enemy's movements!"

After giving these instructions, Zhu Jinghong walked aside and looked to the northwest. More than thirty miles away was the Junggar army.

The sun will set in more than half an hour at most. Will they take action? Zhu Jinghong was still thinking.

Everything just now was just speculation, no one knows what will happen next.

He could only rely on the latest intelligence to decide on the next move of the army.

In fact, just as Zhu Jinghong's first message was conveyed, three elites from Junggar launched a surprise attack, targeting the gap between Qinghai Xingdusi and Jurchen tribes.

The gap between the two front armies can be said to be undefended, so it is easy for the Junggar side to break in.

In order to prevent the pursuit of these two fronts, other Junggar cavalry also entered the battle, containing the Qinghai Xingdu Division and the Jurchen tribes from the front.

The 0th young master of Junggar is among the ten thousand households in Agula, and he is rushing to the front with him.

So far, everything has gone smoothly. They easily broke into the "hinterland" of the Ming army, and the Ming army's food and grass were just a dozen miles ahead.

At a distance of more than ten miles, the cavalry charge only took ten minutes.

They will not fight with the two guards of the Beijing camp, but mainly aim to burn the food and grass. The most difficult level to complete the plan has been passed.

The cavalry galloped all the way. At this time, they had already tried to save their horsepower. What they wanted was fast speed.

More than 10,000 cavalry galloped and quickly passed a small hill. The two guards of the Beijing camp were five miles ahead.

As Zero continued to gallop forward with his men, he did not notice that on the hill behind him, the artillerymen ambush here took off their camouflage and began to prepare for firing in full swing.

"The commander knows things like a god, brothers... it's time to make contributions!"

"fire!"

The maximum range of the cannon is more than two miles, but its accuracy is basically lost.

But with the density of cavalry at the front, it doesn't matter whether they are accurate or not.

Rumble...the cannon began to roar.

After firing one shot, these pro-army soldiers immediately started loading and fired the second shot as quickly as possible.

Because they used explosive ammunition and the cavalry was everywhere in front, each salvo could kill and wound dozens of people.

For tens of thousands of troops, the death of dozens or hundreds of people was actually nothing, but the roar of artillery from behind cast a shadow over the entire battle.

There is no doubt that the vigor of the Junggar cavalry was affected by the sound of artillery.

But the galloping army could not stop at this time, so No. 0 did not order a counterattack.

But a Qianhu at the back of his team risked disobeying military orders and ordered his men to turn around and fight back.

Although the order was issued, it was very troublesome for the army to turn around, which gave the artillery time to continue their output.

After firing a volley, seeing someone chasing them from the front, the two artillerymen mounted their horses and ran away, while the artillery was abandoned.

Seven rounds of volleys caused nearly 300 casualties, which was very effective.

When the Dzungar cavalry felt it, only a few dozen artillery pieces were left in place. It was unrealistic to take away these iron lumps, and it was also very troublesome to destroy them.

He was so angry that the Qianhu troops led by Junggar cursed loudly, and finally had no choice but to turn their horses around and catch up with the large group of people.

(End of this chapter)