Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 192 Soldiers' tricks

"Your Highness! They are burning the corn fields!"

A few miles in front of Uliang Hatu City, the Ming army, which was waiting for work, watched Ha Uliang's soldiers burning millet fields. Many soldiers felt very sad.

But in this regard, Zhu Gaoxu remained calm. He turned to Zhu Quan and said, "Uncle Seventeen, it seems that this old slave is ready to flee north."

"Do we still want to drive north?" Zhu Quan asked Zhu Gaoxu. After all, in his opinion, the results of this expedition were already great.

At the Wuliangha camp, there were thousands of corpses lying strewn about, which meant that the Bohai Navy led by Zhu Gaoxu had beheaded at least a thousand people last night.

These thousands of people, plus the results of their two armies along the way, killed at least 9000 Wu Lianghaba.

For the Ulyanha tribes, which currently have a population of only about [-], this is already an unbearable pain.

However, Zhu Gaoxu chuckled: "Just treat it as a safari."

In his words, he regarded Harawu and others as prey, and seemed to despise Harawu and others.

But he also knew that if Haragu really wanted to fight him, he might not be able to win.

After all, the number of armor soldiers on the opposite side is slightly more than theirs, not to mention the number of light soldiers.

If Haragu hadn't been unable to withstand too many casualties, he might have given it a go.

"If it were in the past, I would definitely eat them!"

Just as Zhu Gaoxu thought, before retreating, Haragu did say harsh words to the seven thousand Ming Army horse, infantry and cavalry troops in front of him.

But he also knew that these more than 2 people were tied together by him with various interests. If he really wanted to fight, many leaders would leave with their tribesmen.

This situation was caused by him, because last year's disastrous defeat in Jilin caused him to lose the trust of many leaders.

Of course, the culprit should be Zhu Gaoxu, who was sitting in the Ming army's formation.

He was unable to fight with Zhu Gaoxu. What the Uuliangha tribes needed now was to recuperate.

With his thoughts at this point, Haragu stopped staying. He turned around and said to Tolu Huchaer and others: "Withdraw!"

At his order, all the Ulyanha people began to get on their horses.

Many of them had bundles of harvested millet tied to their horses.

They cut off the corns and put them into leather bags, while the stalks were left behind to be used as hay to feed the horses.

Soon, they began to move away and retreat north, and Zhu Gaoxu and the others also ordered to follow.

Harawu was very vigilant. From the time when the light cavalry moved out of camp to when the whole army moved out, he used armored soldiers as the main force to break up the rear troops, in order to prevent Zhu Gaoxu and others from taking the opportunity to make a surprise attack.

However, his alert lasted for more than ten miles, and the Ming army never launched a surprise attack, but followed them closely one or two miles away.

This situation lasted for several hours. Since the Bohai Navy and the Ningfu cavalry captured a lot of draft horses, their mobility was not only not low, but even higher than the more than 2 people in Harawu.

"If this continues, morale may be lost."

In the team, Tolu Huchaer glanced around with a solemn expression, reminding Harawu beside him.

Haragu had no choice. The herds and extra horses were all carried northward by his tribe. They could only maintain the situation of one man and two horses, and they did not dare to take off their armor and rest.

He looked back at the Ming army's team, but saw a large crowd of horses behind them, which gave Harawu a bad premonition.

The Ming army was short of horses. It can be said that Zhu Quan's troops had so many horses that they could be captured, but what about Zhu Gaoxu's troops?
"Did this dog plunder the herds of various tribes heading north?"

He was so angry that his teeth itched. If he had known that Zhu Gaoxu could bring him so much trouble, he should have taken all his troops and captured Jilin City at all costs last year.

He was not angry at the defeat at the hands of Zhu Di, but he was still unconvinced at the defeat at the hands of the kid Zhu Gaoxu.

"The water is gone. Do you want to go to the river to the north to get water?"

Tulu Huchaer's voice came again, and Harawu also nodded and agreed to his suggestion.

After traveling northwards for seven or eight miles, a small river about ten feet in diameter appeared on the side of the road heading north.

Upon seeing this, Harawu ordered his armored soldiers to station outside and ride lightly to fetch water.

He was wary of a sneak attack by the Ming army. When Zhu Quan saw this, he also said to Zhu Gaoxu: "This Harawu is not fooled. We are marching step by step. I'm afraid we have no chance to make a move."

"Really not?" Zhu Gaoxu chuckled: "Uncle Seventeen, don't worry, these nomadic Hu soldiers are not strictly disciplined. They will not be able to sustain such a high-intensity march for too long."

Zhu Gaoxu was right. Faced with the pressure of the Ming army raiding the formation and the possibility of war breaking out at any time, Wu Liangha's elite Tanma Red Army could still withstand it, but ordinary herders could not bear it at all.

The morale and team of the Hu soldiers became visibly low and loose. Even though Haragu kept sending Tanma Red Army to restrain them, they were powerless.

Riding horses for long periods of time makes it impossible for the thin horses under their crotches to support them.

The Han people commented that the Mongolians did not know how to raise horses. This was not because of arrogance, but because of economic constraints.

If the Han people want to raise horses, they can basically be satisfied with either grass or beans. The horses they train will be strong and strong, fat and strong.

On the other hand, when the Mongolians raise horses, it’s not that they don’t know how to feed them soybean feed, but they simply can’t come up with soybean feed to feed too many horses.

It is difficult for horses to grow fat and strong if they just eat grass. Therefore, most Mongolian horses are thin and not as strong as Han horses.

Because of this, on the march, once Zhu Gaoxu and the others found that the horses began to lower their heads and eat grass without moving, they would immediately grab a handful of beans and corn and feed them to the horses to help them recover their strength.

But on the other hand, there was not enough corn in Harawu and they were not willing to feed corn to the horses. At most, they only fed corn straw.

However, just a little straw could not satisfy the consumption of horses during long-distance migration. Many Qingqi mounts were left alone due to insufficient horsepower.

Whenever a Qingqi was left alone, Zhu Gaoxu and the others would step forward and shoot him dead. Scenes like this made the morale of Harawu's troops drop even more.

Soon, night fell, and Harawu faced his most difficult time.

The Ming army extinguished the torches as they did last night so that the Mongols could not detect their traces.

Since they were retreating lightly, all the tribesmen could only sleep in the open air, and there were only a few simple trenches dug by Haragu people on the outside.

It’s just that anyone with a discerning eye can see that these trenches cannot stop the Ming army because they don’t have the right tools, and these trenches are not deep, let alone wide or long.

Everyone was wary of the Ming army's night attack, and there were indeed horse charges and shouts of killing all over the camp that night.

But when the Hu soldiers were awakened and stood up to gather for battle, the shouts of killing suddenly disappeared, as if they had never existed.

When they went back to rest and gradually fell asleep, the shouting of killing appeared again, disturbing people endlessly.

Throughout the night, the Hu soldiers were unable to get a good night's sleep. As a result, on the march the next day, everyone's eyes were covered with bloodshot eyes.

"This is not the way to go. If the Nan soldiers interfere again last night, we may collapse before we reach Wuliang Hashan!"

Tulu Huchaer, whose eyes were bloodshot, reminded Harawu, but Harawu didn't know.

With red eyes, he asked Tolu Huchaer: "What can you do?"

"Fight a decisive battle with them!" Tolu Hucha'er showed the courage to risk everything. After hearing this, Halawu also glanced at the other leaders.

Seeing that they all had this intention, Tolu Huchaer also reined in his horse and said: "Okay! In this case, then we will fight with them!"

After that, Tuolu Huchaer commanded the army to stop, and the front army turned into the rear army, facing Zhu Gaoxu and his 7000 people who were closely following him.

But when they made all preparations, the Ming army actually stopped and made no move to fight them decisively.

"rush!"

After waiting for a long time, Zhu Gaoxu and others were told not to come forward, so Halawu ordered the entire army to attack.

Suddenly, the sound of horns resounded across the grassland, and thousands of troops and horses rushed in, making people's blood boil.

But faced with such a scene, the Ming army actually turned around and retreated in front of all the Hu soldiers who were fully prepared.

"it is good!!"

Many Hu soldiers who didn't know why they thought they had forced the Ming army back, cheered happily.

But Harawu and Toluhuchaer's faces were so dark that they could drip water. They had already thought about how Zhu Gaoxu would deal with them.

As the secret of guerrilla warfare, the Sixteen-Character Jue has actually been used by some people for a long time, especially some nomadic peoples.

Seeing Zhu Gaoxu do this now, how could they not know Zhu Gaoxu's intentions.

"This guy is planning to drag us until we are exhausted before attacking!"

Tuolu Hucha'er gritted his teeth, and Halawu was even more angry.

They knew that the Ming army was well supplied, otherwise they would not have followed them northward.

But in the current situation, the more than 2 of them don't have that much food, grass and horse feed.

Yesterday alone, no less than a hundred of them were killed due to lack of horse power. Today's charge was another waste of horse power. If they did not station herders to restore their horse power, I am afraid that more soldiers and horses would be lost today.

"Resident Shepherd..."

Harawu squeezed out these words through his teeth, and Tolu Huchaer could only obey.

Soon, the Hu soldiers began to spread out to restore the power of the hungry horses.

But to Harawu's expectation, soon a dull horn sounded from the east.

The Ming army attacked from the east, and Harawu immediately led his Tanma Red Army to support them.

On the way, they could see the tribesmen who were constantly escaping on horseback, and they also saw the tribesmen who were shot and killed by the Ming army on the way to escape.

Harawu accumulated a breath of anger and tried to unleash it on the thousands of Ming troops.

Just seeing them rushing towards them, Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Quan immediately led their troops to retreat, leaving only hundreds of corpses of Hu soldiers to Harawu.

"Keep marching!"

Looking at the rat-like Ming army, Hara Wu reluctantly asked the entire army to continue marching.

Although doing this prevented the Ming army from sneak attacks when they were stationed as pastoralists, it also made the military stationed as pastoralists useless.

Many horses were forced onto the road before they had even replenished their horsepower, resulting in more and more stragglers.

Facing the lagging Mongols, the Ming army still shot and killed them mercilessly, took away the arrows stuck in their bodies, and fed the surviving horses with horse feed to serve as their own riding horses.

Soon, the sky became dark again, and the Ming army, with the cooperation of Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Quan, took turns to play the tactic of attacking the camp to disturb the enemy.

Harawu ordered a night patrol to be carried out so that the soldiers who were not on duty at night could have a good rest.

"Gao Xu, it seems that Harawu is a dead horse being treated as a living horse doctor."

Under nightfall, Zhu Quan knew that the Hu soldiers had reached their limit after learning that the Hu soldiers had stepped up their night patrols.

He looked at Zhu Gaoxu, who was eating a piece of dried meat energetically with a smile on his face:

"There's no rush. Let them rest for a while. After half an hour, I'll ask Uncle Seventeen to lead a night attack with three thousand cavalry."

"Now the Hu soldiers are frightened. As long as you lead your troops to raid the formation, they will pay attention to you."

"Halawu doesn't dare to let the light soldiers go forward, so he will definitely take the lead with his armored soldiers."

"At the same time, I will lead my horse, infantry and cavalry troops to circle around and attack the light soldiers from behind. The light soldiers will inevitably be in disarray." Listening to Zhu Gaoxu's words, Zhu Quan's eyes also lit up: "In this way, we are attacking from both front and back. It’s about time, right?”

"Yes!" Zhu Gaoxu chuckled and nodded, but he still reminded:
"Don't get entangled with the Halawujia soldiers in this battle, and attack the light soldiers as much as possible."

"Why?" Zhu Quan was puzzled. After all, the Jia soldiers were the foundation of Wu Liangha. If they really defeated Hala Wu's Jia soldiers here, then Daning and Bohai would really have peace of mind.

However, facing Zhu Quan's suggestion, Zhu Gaoxu shook his head.

He naturally knew that destroying Harawu would allow Daning and Bohai to sit back and relax.

However, let's not mention whether they can eat more than 9000 armored soldiers of Harawu here. Just eating these [-] armored soldiers, the number of casualties they need to pay is enough to stop Zhu Gaoxu.

It is already September of the 30th year of Hongwu's reign, and Lao Zhu's time is running out.

If you suffer a heavy blow here, it will be difficult for you to build a team in less than half a year.

Not to mention, if Haragu is wiped out, Daning can still deal with the Mongols in Mobei, but what about the Bohai Palace?
Use eight thousand armored soldiers to deal with the Jurchens in the Northeast?Lao Zhu would not do such extravagant things.

What Jiu Shi left to him would either be moved to another fiefdom, or a group of guards and horses would be transferred away.

Zhu Gaoxu could not accept either of these two futures, so even if he hated Harawu, he could not kill him here.

"Although the Hu soldiers have collapsed, there are still more armor soldiers than us, and the number of light soldiers is about three times as many as ours."

"Once the more than 9000 armored soldiers find out that we are targeting them, they will probably fight like crazy and fight with us like crazy."

"At this time, if the light soldiers come to their senses and help the armored soldiers to surround us, we may not be able to win completely. Even if we win completely, I am afraid that more than half of them will be killed or injured..."

Zhu Gaoxu came up with his own words. After hearing this, Zhu Quan glanced at Liu Zhen next to him.

Although it was dark, Zhu Quan could see Liu Zhen's thoughts through the small movements of his hands.

"Okay!" Zhu Quan agreed and asked Liu Zhen to command the troops and horses to prepare.

Time passed little by little, and it started to get completely dark. Many Hu soldiers stayed awake because they were worried that the Ming army would attack the camp.

However, such suffering made many people unable to bear it. Gradually, those Hu Bing who stayed awake began to fight with their eyelids, and finally fell asleep unknowingly.

The Hu soldiers who were on sentry duty on the outside tried their best to keep sentry outside, but they had already sent out sentry two or three miles away from the formation, but still could not find any trace of the Ming army.

Since the scenes of lone soldiers being shot during the day were still vivid in their minds, they did not dare to patrol outside any more, so they limited themselves to the patrol area of ​​about three miles.

In this formation, Harawu and many Taiji and Tou people were sleeping around the campfire, but even they would wake up from time to time.

Under Zhu Gaoxu's tactics of "the enemy retreats while we advance, the enemy stops while we harass", many of them were close to the edge of collapse.

They had not been able to have a good rest for two days and two nights, and everyone regarded a good rest as the biggest luxury at the moment.

At the moment, they are still two and a half days away from Ulyanhatu City, and no one knows how to spend these two and a half days.

Even though they were sleeping soundly, they still did not dare to take off their armor or saddles. They held their sabers tightly in their hands and were extremely vigilant.

With their vigilance like this, Zhu Quan and Liu Zhen took action!
In the night, the dull sound of horse hooves sounded again, and the thousands of Wuliangha sentries on patrol outside were accustomed to it.

They were alert, but did not actively search for the sound of horse hooves.

Because according to the experience of the previous two nights, the Ming army would only shoot cold arrows under the cover of night and would not attack easily in hand-to-hand combat.

However, this time, Hu Bing on the periphery miscalculated.

"kill!!"

The cry of killing suddenly rang out in the night, and the sound of horse hooves got louder and louder, getting closer and closer. Gradually, someone noticed something was wrong:
"Blow the horn!"

"Woooooooo..."

The dull horn sound sounded, but this time many Taiji, leader and Hu soldiers in the camp just opened their eyes and then closed them again.

They were too tired, and according to the experience of the previous two nights, the Ming army was just pretending to attack and would not really attack.

With this thought, many people did not open their eyes, let alone get up.

But Harawu was different. He knew Zhu Gaoxu's intentions very well, and he had also heard stories similar to the cry of wolf.

The scary thing about the "crying wolf" tactic is not when the wolf comes, but the process of waiting for it to come.

The night before, they thought Zhu Gaoxu would take action, but Zhu Gaoxu didn't.

Last night they thought Zhu Gaoxu would take action, but Zhu Gaoxu didn't either.

The two nights of waiting had consumed most of the people's energy and physical strength. Harawu could understand it, but as a general, he couldn't be like everyone else.

He forced his tired body to get up. Even though his mind was dizzy and he had a splitting headache, he still heard the sound of the horn with his ears.

Gradually, he realized something was wrong...

"Get up quickly! Get up quickly!!"

"Let the whole army wake up at night! Quick!"

Haragu frantically woke up everyone around him, and directed the Tanma Red Army to wake everyone up.

Just when he was reacting, the sentry cavalry in front was attacked by the Ning Mansion cavalry.

They rushed out of the night, bent their bows and arrows, and used short bows and hard arrows to suddenly attack Liangha's sentry cavalry at a short distance. Countless people were hit in the face by arrows.

When they rushed into the fire, they immediately greeted them with long spears and short hammers, and the sentry cavalry was defeated and retreated.

"Chase! Leave no one behind!"

Zhu Quan held a short bow in his hand and commanded the army in an orderly manner while firing the bow left and right. Tang Qi notified the army of his military orders, and everyone chased the group of sentinels who were trying to escape.

The shouts of killing from both sides woke up Hu Bing from his sleep. In addition, the Tanma Red Army kept running around the camp, and soon the entire camp became lively.

Holding on to their strength, many Hu soldiers began to gather, and Harawu also came to the front of the formation with hundreds of Tanma Red Army soldiers to suppress the formation.

Arriving in front of the formation, he easily saw the men and horses coming to fight towards them.

"Finally done!"

Ha Lawu waited patiently for two days and two nights, and finally when the Ming army took action, Fuhua was not so nervous anymore.

"All the Red Army soldiers gathered in front of the formation. I want to see how this kid Zhu Gaoxu dares to confront us head-on!"

Harawu cheered up and directed the elite soldiers in the army to assemble.

Within two seconds, Zhu Quan and the sentry cavalry were entangled to a position less than [-] steps away from the front of the formation.

When Zhu Quan saw Halawu mobilizing his troops, he stopped pestering the sentries.

After he let go, the sentry cavalry finally escaped back to their own formation, but their number was less than one-third of what they were before the war began, and the casualties were heavy.

"How? Have you seen how many of them there are? Have Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Quan shown up?"

Seeing the sentry cavalry escaping back to their own formation, Harawu immediately found Qianhu, who was leading the team. The Qianhu was still frightened and answered after Harawu's repeated questioning:

"There are too many people. After just one attack, we were defeated. The number is many times ours. They should all be captured."

When he reported, his body could not stop shaking, which showed that he was frightened by the charge of the Ming cavalry.

"Should?" Harawu looked hesitant.

If it is not certain that Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Quan came up with this army, then he may not be able to go out into battle at all costs. After all, their horse power is not as good as that of the Ming army. Every time they go out randomly, it is a waste of horse power. .

He was still hesitating, but Tolu Huchaer made up his mind for him:
"The whole army should be on the move, they are here!"

Following Tolu Hucha'er's words, Haragu indeed saw the Ming cavalry who lit torches and pressed towards them step by step.

Harawu glanced at the battlefield. Although it was dark, there were thousands of fires.

Inferring from this, this should indeed be the number of cavalry of the Ming Army.

At present, the distance between the two sides is only a hundred steps away. As long as the Ming army takes a few dozen steps forward, even if they want to escape, they will not be able to escape the pursuit of their headquarters.

Thinking of this, Harawu drew his sword and waited quietly. It was not until the Ming cavalry walked fifty steps away that he raised his saber:

"Boys! Kill with me!!"

"Woooooo-"

"kill!!"

The Tanma Red Army, filled with anger, began to charge at the sound of horns. They wanted to wash away the anger of the past few days with the blood of the southerners.

Thousands of troops leaped out and charged towards the fire in the darkness.

"withdraw!"

Seeing that he had attracted the Tanma Red Army, Zhu Quan immediately began to lead his cavalry to retreat, fighting while retreating.

In just a dozen breaths, the two sides rushed out a distance of more than a hundred steps.

Behind the Tanma Red Army, the [-] dilly-dallying Hu soldiers also began to charge.

But as they chased after them, they suddenly felt that the sound of horse hooves was not only around them, but also behind them.

A Hu soldier turned back out of curiosity and saw a fire dragon galloping towards them a few hundred steps away.

"Behind! Enemies appear behind!"

"Beep beep beep-"

Whistles sounded continuously in the rear, stopping many Hu soldiers who were charging behind.

When they turned their horses and prepared themselves for battle, a familiar flag suddenly appeared in the light of the fire.

Although I don’t know Chinese characters, that character has brought painful memories to too many Uliangha people.

For a time, many Hu soldiers were stinging and sweating profusely.

"It's Yan! Zhu Di is here!!"

"Escape!!"

When a "Yan" Mansion flag deliberately placed in front of the formation appeared in the dark night, Hu Bing's psychological defense was completely broken.

They began to turn their horses and fled north.

The news that Zhu Di was "coming" spread like a plague among the Hu soldiers, causing more people to flee north.

They were not afraid of Zhu Di personally, but Zhu Di brought tens of thousands of soldiers and horses every time he patrolled the north.

Originally, they were suppressed by the thousands of cavalry from Zhu Gaoxu and other two kings. But now they suddenly saw the banner of Yan Mansion. They had no idea of ​​resistance and began to flee.

"Escape!!"

　Let's see if we can get the second update by phonetic coding tonight.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)