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Chapter 879 Asking for trouble
The military order was as powerful as a mountain, and following the dust raised by the Mongolian cavalry, the army also rode on horseback and marched westward in groups. Seeing this scene, Jiang Bi couldn't help but sigh again.

One man with two horses is too luxurious. The Ming army finally had the time to not be stingy with horses. This is a scene that many generations of border generals have dreamed of but never achieved.

At the same time, on the plateau a few hundred miles to the south, there was also a very luxurious army, slowly advancing in the Gobi Desert where the snow had not yet melted.

In addition to war horses, they also rode camels, all of which were Bactrian camels. The vanguard had already arrived at Hainan Fort on the southern coast of the West Sea, but the last team of four-wheeled carriages had just left Xiningwei.

According to conservative estimates, it would take 40 days to get from Xiningwei to Mangyabao. The army only had enough food and fodder for 20 days, and they couldn't carry more. The reserves in several military forts along the way could last another ten days, and that was the result of advance preparation.

What to do with the remaining ten days? Emperor Jingyang of the Ming Dynasty said, kill the horses and rob! After eating up all the provisions on a carriage, kill the horses pulling the carriage and eat their meat, and then abandon the carriage.

At the same time, he ordered Huang Taiji to disperse several hundred soldiers of the Eight Banner Army and have them take turns searching the surrounding area within a hundred miles, specifically looking for the herdsmen of Taogan to rob them, taking away all their stored food, livestock and horses, without leaving a single person behind.

It doesn't matter whether they starve to death or not, or hate or not. If they can't grab food and livestock, they will start killing the mounts of the Eight Banners Army, turning the cavalry into infantry, and if they have the ability, they will walk out of the Gobi Desert on their own two legs.

"If I really want to kill your people's horses and camels, what would you think?"

Hong Tao, wearing a thick mink coat and a bucket-sized mink hat, sat on a camel's back and looked down at Huang Taiji who was riding a horse beside him, intending to hear what the Jurchen leader had to say.

"It's fair. If a domestic slave can't find food, he will be waste. It is your majesty's mercy not to kill him and eat his meat." Huang Taiji spent nearly a year in Nanjing and Jianghuai Province and was deeply touched.

Now he has roughly figured out why the Eight Banners warriors were unable to defeat the Ming Army. At a glance, it was because their weapons were inferior to theirs, their muskets and artillery were too powerful. But if you think about it carefully, you will find that what made the Ming Army so powerful was not their muskets and artillery, but the farmlands that could be seen everywhere, the factories of all sizes, and the shops that filled the streets.

A farming family of 7 or 8 people cultivated ten acres of land. In the south of the Yangtze River, in addition to rice, they could also grow a crop of corn or vegetables. The work of three to four people could feed the whole family and at the same time pay taxes to the court.

From another perspective, this family is fully capable of sending a young and strong man to join the army. He would do nothing else but train all day long on how to dig trenches, maintain weapons, enforce discipline and kill people.

There were more than a few million such families in the Ming Dynasty. If every family had a young and strong man, that would be a million-strong army, and they would all be well-trained.

On the other hand, the Jurchen tribes still lived on gathering and hunting, and often the whole family had to go to several nearby hills to barely fill their stomachs. If a young and strong man was drafted out to serve in the war, the whole family would starve, and there would be no way to have more children to expand the tribe.

Even though they had already realized the benefits of farming and were hiring Korean farmers to go to Liaodong to cultivate the land that had been reclaimed by Ming border residents, it would still take many years to switch from a hunting lifestyle to farming, and they had to slowly learn the farming techniques alone.

Let’s take a look at the products from small workshops and large factories. The molten iron is like mountain spring water. After it flows out, it is divided into several types, including pig iron, wrought iron, cast iron, fine steel, spring steel, and tool steel. Whatever you want, they have it.

Fine steel knives no longer need to be forged day and night by blacksmiths and their apprentices. Instead, they are placed under a huge hydraulic forging hammer, and the red-hot steel ingot is kneaded like dough, making it square or round as desired.

There is no hydraulic forging hammer in the small workshop, but don't worry, there are much smaller animal-powered forging hammers, pulled by two mules or cows, which can also pound. It's just that the steel billet is a few circles smaller each time, but it's much faster than a person. There is also the shipyard in Songjiang Prefecture. When the Eight Banners soldiers first saw the hull of the Han-class warship as high as a hill, they were all dumbfounded. They looked up and opened their mouths for a long time without blinking their eyes. No one believed that this was done by human power.

But it stayed in the dry dock, and grew day by day with the concerted efforts of hundreds of ant-like craftsmen, and then hung a huge sail and swayed into the river and drifted downstream.

No wonder the Ming army always appeared in unexpected places and calmly cut off the retreat of the Jurchen army. They didn't have to walk at all, let alone suffer from the turbulence of the waves. They were all on such a big ship, and they could travel hundreds of miles in twelve hours. There was no way to prevent it.

Even more terrifying were the artillery pieces. The Eight Banners Army also had artillery pieces, but they were nothing compared to the artillery pieces on the warships. They were about ten feet long and weighed several thousand pounds. One shot could reach four or five miles away, and they could be loaded and fired in a breath.

Each ship was equipped with at least ten guns, which could fire from both sides. When encountering such a huge ship, no matter how hard you try, you can't think of a way to deal with it. Before you can see anyone, the shells are flying over first. No matter how brave the soldiers are, they can't stand it.

Before the Ming Dynasty, the army did not fight the Mongols and Jurchens with all their strength, and only used several smaller cannons. The large and long cannons were said to be installed on ships to fight pirates. In the eyes of the Ming emperor, the proud Eight Banners Army was basically equivalent to bandits, which was too heartbreaking and too discouraging.

When people are shocked by the huge gap, the first thing they think of is not to catch up, but to surrender and envy. Huang Taiji is also a human being. Faced with so many incredible things, his brain capacity is basically not enough. In addition to being shocked, he is more afraid.

Fortunately, they surrendered that year, otherwise, who knows how many Eight Banner warriors would have died under the guns and cannons of the Ming army. And all the other side paid was a few furnaces of molten iron in the steel mill and a few months of labor by thousands of people in large and small workshops.

Although the Eight Banners Army now has to help the Ming Emperor fight against their will and may very likely be on the front lines and die in the first wave, their families have gained a stable life that they could never have dreamed of before.

Even if he and his leaders were unwilling and wanted to continue the struggle, how many tribesmen would follow him? Why would they want to fight? What would be the result of the struggle?

If the purpose is just to overthrow the Ming emperor and replace him with oneself while still living the current life, then is there any meaning in the bloody and cruel war?
Moreover, after replacing the Ming emperor, it was still unknown who would be able to continue to let the people live this kind of life. Anyway, Huang Taiji racked his brains and could not find a feasible solution. Even if he imitated it, he had no confidence that he could replicate it.

Now some of the Eight Banner families have arrived in Yunnan, and they have indeed been allocated land and even materials for building houses. They only need to learn farming techniques for one or two years from the Han people who went with them, and then they can cultivate their own land.

If this trend continues, within four or five years they will be able to be self-sufficient, and live and reproduce in peace and stability. They will most likely no longer have to live in the mountains and suffer from hunger.

At this time, we can only pray that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty will continue to keep his word, fulfill his promise, and properly resettle the remaining tens of thousands of Jurchen people.

As for the future of the Eight Banners Army, Huang Taiji had already prepared himself mentally. Of the more than 5,000 soldiers, no more than one tenth would be able to return to their families, and most of them were injured and disabled.

But he would not complain, it was fair. Going up the mountain to hunt also carries the risk of being attacked by wild animals, and hunting cannot guarantee that his wife and children will always have food to eat. The Ming emperor is obviously more merciful than wild animals in this regard, so be content.

(End of this chapter)