Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 365: Capturing Arutai alive

"Clap clap-"

"Those who surrender will not be killed!!"

In the hot summer, in the valley of Beishan Gorge, the 30,000 Tatar cavalry that Arutai finally reunited were attacked by two troops, one from the south and one from the north, by Zhu Di and Chen Chang.

Faced with a pincer attack from the south and the north, Arutai continuously directed the cavalry to break through to the north. However, the spear formation combined with line tactics and the insufficient depth of space for charge made the Tatar cavalry unable to break through Chen Chang and others in the north no matter what. line of defense.

Compared with the difficulty of advancing in the north, the more than 10,000 Ming troops led by Zhu Di in the south are advancing step by step, squeezing their space into an increasingly narrow space.

The rock wall on the left side of the river valley is towering, and you can see it as far as the eye can see. On the right side is the Onan River. Although it is summer, the Onan River is still more than a hundred steps wide and cannot be crossed at all.

Cries of killing filled the entire valley, and the faces of the Ming army were full of excitement and mania.

Under Zhu Di's command, the front row of cavalry slowly loaded muskets and gunpowder on horseback, and pulled the trigger on the Tatar cavalry seventy steps away.

Once the Tatar cavalry made a move to break out to the south, the Ming army's melee cavalry immediately rushed forward and drove the Tatar cavalry back.

Alitai was prepared to buy time. Even if Alitai could not rescue them, they could use this time to reorganize their team and launch another charge against Chen Chang's troops in the north.

Faced with such a dilemma, the faces and expressions of the Tatar cavalry were full of tension and anxiety.

Time continues to pass, the wind has gradually stopped, and the Ming army's calls for surrender are getting louder and louder, like a sharp sword, piercing the heart of every Tatar soldier.

Under the heat of the scorching sun, they were sweating profusely and thirsty.

The Ming army's cooperation became more and more proficient. The Han and Mongolian cavalry under Wang Zhong and Wang Cong drove the horses north while listening to Chen Chang's whistle and firing at the Tatar troops and horses during the gap.

Thinking of this, Arutai looked at his second son Ye Xian Bo Luo with firm eyes. Ye Xian Bo Luo nodded solemnly when he saw this, then he rode his horse through the crowd and rushed to the rear.

"Ye Xian Polo, you go to the rear army to send a message to Zhu Di, saying that we are discussing surrender and asking them to postpone the attack."

At this moment, under the fierce offensive of the Ming army, fierce internal conflicts broke out among the nobles of the 10th Battalion of Yongxiebu, as in history.

They fled north for four days. Once Zhu Di could not pursue them, he had no choice but to let them go.

At this moment, the morale of the Ming army was high, and the Tatar cavalry had lost many brothers while fighting in the valley plains. Now they were stuck in the winding valley and were even more worried. They didn't know what to do next.

It was such a simple tactic, but it made the Tatar troops complain incessantly.

They had never cooperated with Chen Chang, so they didn't know that this seemingly rigid tactic could be so powerful in such terrain.

"kill!!"

A quarter of an hour ago they were fearless Mongolian cavalry, but now they felt exhausted due to the harassment of the Ming army.

Among the front troops, because they did not have enough distance to sprint, the Tatar cavalry had dismounted and began to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Ming army.

With the little time they had to cheat, they could reorganize their troops, push Chen Chang's 4,000 men into the valley in one go, and then flee north.

"Damn it! Damn it! I'm making a lot of money!"

Anyone can see that if the 30,000 people in our headquarters continue to fight, they will be completely wiped out. While there is still some capital, surrendering in advance may be able to get better treatment.

They could only watch the people around them continue to fall, and watch the Ming army continue to advance.

"What are you doing first? Why can't the former army break through the defense of only 4,000 people!"

As Yesianpolo blew his wooden whistle, he led dozens of people on white horses, raised the white flag, and walked out of the Tatar formation.

"Then what should we do... Surrender, otherwise when the Ming army's artillery arrives, we will all have to explain here!"

"More and more people are dying, what should we do?!"

They were resisting vigorously, but no matter what, the northern front could not advance, and the southern front was losing ground.

"Beep--"

Their morale was getting lower and lower, and gradually they were unable to shake the Ming army's position.

Arutai knew this river valley very well. Two miles further to the north there would be a small valley plain with a width of at least two miles from east to west. Chen Chang's four thousand men alone would be absolutely unstoppable.

Arutai was given a headache by the noise. Now he could only give his hope to Arutai in the south, and all he had to do was delay.

Just during the battle, no less than a thousand people from the Tatar headquarters fell. Although hundreds of people from the Ming army fell, most of them were only injured when facing the cavalry attack, and their lives were not injured.

The battle line was so torturous. The Ming army's spear array fought and retreated. From time to time, they flattened their spears and squatted down to make room for the rear row of musketeers to shoot.

Under the command of Chen Chang, the four thousand Ming army fought and retreated. The Tatar headquarters often had to sacrifice hundreds of lives to force the Ming army back a few steps.

"Only the hard top, lift the north side!"

Among the large army, Arutai could not see the situation of the front army through tens of thousands of heads, but he knew that Zhu Di in the rear army was constantly squeezing their space.

Under the Ming army's offensive, it is certain that the Tatar tribe was unable to obtain any supporting point.

He overestimated himself and underestimated the Ming army and Zhu Di.

"What can I do now?"

Wang Zhong looked excitedly at the declining morale of the Tatar soldiers and horses, and couldn't stop shouting.

He had just learned about the supply situation of the Ming army from the corpses of some Ming soldiers. Zhu Di was traveling lightly this time. The soldiers carried enough food for up to half a month, minus the time to return, which was enough for four days at most.

"I can't stand it. The morale in the north has dropped!"

A quarter of an hour later, when Xian Polo came to the rear army, what he saw was his own side dismounting in formation, fighting and retreating, and the Ming army pressing forward step by step using matchlocks and spears.

He didn't expect that the Ming army actually carried artillery, and he didn't expect that Zhu Di had already thought of cutting off his retreat before the battle started.

"Beep--"

Almost the moment they saw them, a wooden whistle sounded in the Ming army formation.

White horses and plain chariots and white flags are a signal of surrender that have appeared since the late Qin Dynasty. When Xian Polo and others walked out holding white flags and riding white horses, Wang Yi of the front army immediately ordered a ceasefire and reported the news Passed to Zhu Di.

When Zhu Di heard this, he was surprised and rode forward, and soon saw Ye Xian Polo and others who passed through the Ming army and came to him.

They were shirtless, wearing white cloths on their heads, riding white horses and holding white flags.

It has to be said that although Arutai is a member of the Asu tribe, he has studied the Central Plains system quite thoroughly and has not made any mistakes.

"Alutai is going to surrender?"

Zhu Di grinned and asked, while the Tatar official next to him was responsible for translating.

"I am Yexian Polo, the second son of the Grand Master. My father is trying to persuade the ministers to surrender. Please give us some time."

Yexian Polo didn't know that the dark, muscular man in front of him was Zhu Di, so he just followed what his father said to confuse them.

Facing his sincerity, Wang Yi, Li Yuan, Qiu Fu, Xu Zengshou and others all looked happy. If they could capture the 30,000 people in Alutai and capture the nearly 10,000 people in Alutai behind them, then the Tatars would The headquarters was removed from the grassland.

Thinking of this, everyone was a little excited, but Zhu Di said cautiously: "Besides your father, who else wants to surrender, and who doesn't want to surrender?"

"Uncle Duo'er, they don't want to surrender, and my father is trying to persuade them." Ye Xian Polo explained, but Zhu Di grinned after hearing this: "Tie him up for me!"

Following Zhu Di's order, the two Jurchen soldiers on the left and right of Zhaozhou under Li Chu took control of more than 20 people from Ye Xian Bo Luo.

"Your Majesty?" Qiu Fu looked at Zhu Di in confusion, but Zhu Di grinned and said:

"Then Arutai is cheating and delaying time. Don't give him a chance. The army will advance and kill him while he is sick!"

"General, take your orders!" Wang Yi didn't say much. Since it was Zhu Di's order, he just carried it out.

Soon, Zhaozhou's left and right guards continued to advance north, but they saw that the Tatar soldiers and horses on their side holding the white flag heading south were caught off guard and continued to retreat.

"If you don't kill the envoys when the two countries are at war, you have violated the oath made by your ancestors!"

Ye Xian Polo continued to struggle, and his heart sank to the bottom.

"Hey, your father asked you to delay, right?"

Zhu Di grinned and revealed Arutai's true intention: "I am Zhu Di. Does your father think that I don't know anything about you?"

"If you say that Uncle Duo'er wants to surrender but your father doesn't agree, then I will still believe him."

"Now you are saying that Uncle Duo'er doesn't want to surrender and your father wants to surrender. Do you think I'm a fool?"

Zhu Di knew the Mongolian generals very well. It was true that Duo'er was a general under Arutai, but he had followed Arutai to seek refuge with many people in his early years, and he had also left Arutai several times in private to join many people.

Compared with him, Arutai is a stubborn guy. He can't even cooperate with Wala. How could he surrender to the Han people?

Therefore, Xian Polo's words are as ridiculous as a Han saying, "Qin Hui resolutely resisted the Jin Dynasty, and Yue Fei chose to negotiate for peace."

For those who don't know the generals of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, Bo Luo's words may be able to delay some time, but for Zhu Di, this is simply asking for death.

"Zhu Di, you..."

Xian Polo was dragged down. No one could translate what he said, but it was probably not a good thing.

But for Zhu Di, let him scold him. Anyway, the Tatar headquarters will probably suffer heavy losses after today.

"Beep--"

"Clap clap clap!"

The sound of wooden whistles and muskets continued to sound. The Ming army relied on their long spears and muskets to press forward step by step in the not-so-wide valley, shrinking the space of the Tatar headquarters.

A quarter of an hour later, Arutai's face turned pale. It was obvious that he already knew the situation of the headquarters.

At this moment, whether to surrender became the only decision he could make. In his ears were the wails and screams of his own cavalry, as well as the exhortations of many nobles.

Everyone seemed to have lost their morale, including himself.

"I..." Arutai didn't have the courage to say that, so he parted ways with Guilichi, but turned around and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty in the south.

If he really surrenders, then he...

"Surrender……"

Arutai's face turned pale. His reputation was important, but preserving the lives of the Tatars was more important.

If he surrenders now, these 30,000 soldiers and horses and the 200,000 tribesmen in the north can still be sold at a good price. If they can survive, so can he.

If he doesn't surrender and waits for the Ming army's artillery to move to the south, he will have no chance to surrender.

Following his order, the Tatar soldiers and horses began to stop resisting, and Arutai also took over his son's position, riding a white horse, shirtless, holding a white flag, and appeared in front of the Ming army with an ugly face. .

"Who is that person?"

Zhu Di asked the newly captured Hu Bing next to him this time, and the Hu Bing also replied tremblingly: "It's the Grand Master..."

"Did you really surrender?"

Zhu Di grinned. He also thought that if Arutai pretended to surrender again, he would give him a round of fire, but he never thought that he would actually come to surrender in person.

"Okay, okay..." He murmured, already thinking about the surprised look on his dick over there.

Even Zhu Di himself did not expect that he could capture so many soldiers and horses in Arutai and the Tatar headquarters in one battle.

"Aruktai, Grand Master of the Mongolian Kingdom, asks His Majesty the Ming Emperor to surrender..."

When Arutai came to the Ming army formation on a white horse and saw Zhu Di under the Emperor's banner, he dismounted and knelt on the ground with a mournful face, and held up the Mongolian Taishi's precious seal in his hands.

Qiu Fu had been waiting for a long time, and quickly stepped forward to take the seal and handed it to Zhu Di.

Zhu Di took the seal, played with it in his hand and said, "Can you convince all the people to surrender to the court?"

Arutai can speak Mandarin, so he can talk directly to Zhu Di, but when faced with his words, Arutai shook his head:

"After the news of my defeat spreads, many tribes will probably go west to join Yuerutemur, Mahamu, and Taiping."

"Then can you convince the troops in the south?" Zhu Di was a little unhappy when he heard this, but Arutai nodded this time:

"I can convince Alitai's soldiers and horses..."

"Okay, then I accept your surrender and will choose a pasture for you in Daning Dusi. As for you, your brother and the ministers of Yongxiebu, I will not treat you badly."

Seeing that Arutai was still of some use, Zhu Di calmly accepted his surrender and sent some thousand households from the Tatar headquarters to the north under the supervision of the Ming army to recruit the Tatar tribesmen who fled north.

At the same time, Zhu Di also sent Tangqi to let Meng Zhang march to Kuoluanhaizi, appease the Tatar tribes along the way, and divided his troops to go south to appease the Tatar tribes entrenched in the northern Xilin Gol grassland.

Zhu Di didn't want to make a wedding dress for Oara. He had to recruit the Tatar tribes first and couldn't let Oara grow stronger.

Therefore, when the army camped in the valley grassland of Beishan Valley and handed over the armor and weapons of all the Tatar cavalry, Zhu Di sat in his tent and lay on the couch to study how to expand the results of this battle.

Arutai has been captured, and the power on the grassland is unbalanced.

Now he needs to figure out how many soldiers and horses Wala can pull out, and how many soldiers and horses Guilichi can pull out, and then make arrangements for the grassland.

"Wang Yan, call Arutai here. I have something to ask him."

"Yes……"

Zhu Di gave orders to Wang Yan in the tent, and Wang Yan quickly sent someone to spread the word about Arutai.

But what he didn't expect was that not only Arutai but also Zhu Neng from the rear army would come back a quarter of an hour later.

Their faces were not very good when they entered the account, which made Zhu Di think of the reason.

"Alitai ran away?"

Zhu Di asked Arutai and Zhu Neng. Arutai nodded, while Zhu Neng said ashamedly:

"When Alitai saw our army appearing with the Tatar headquarters banner, he immediately abandoned more than 2,000 horsemen and retreated with less than 7,000 horsemen."

"The general wanted to chase him, but they arranged things at the South Col, which delayed our army for a quarter of an hour."

"I have ordered Huozhen and Zheng Heng to pursue them, but..."

Zhu Neng wanted to say something else, but Zhu Di raised his hand and said, "That's all."

As he raised his hand, Zhu Di's thoughts swirled in his mind, and then he asked Arutai: "Do you think your brother will surrender to Wala?"

"Probably not..." Arutai didn't have the confidence, or didn't want to answer.

He didn't want to surrender, he just wanted to survive and had no choice.

Now that Alitai has successfully broken through, he may be able to reunite with the participating Tatar tribes. Naturally, he will not help Zhu Di deal with his brother.

But he never thought that in the face of his prevarication, Zhu Di said regretfully:

"That's a pity. I originally wanted to let you take charge of the Tatars and make the Tatars a barrier to the imperial court, but I'm afraid that won't work now."

When he learned that Alitai had succeeded in breaking out of the encirclement, Zhu Di was angry but also a little lucky.

Based on the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, there is no doubt that it will no longer be able to gain a foothold in Mobei, whether it is population or logistics.

If the Tatar Ministry really fails to recover, Nawala will undoubtedly get a better development environment and be able to dominate the country.

Under this situation, the rise of Wala is obviously not in line with his idea of ​​attacking Mobei.

Therefore, after learning that Alitai had broken out, Zhu Di thought not of encircling Alitai, but to support Alitai.

In Zhu Di's view, even the closest relatives will have gaps, and the same goes for Alitai, Alutai's brother.

As an older brother, he has always been overshadowed by his younger brother. No matter how much he admires his younger brother, Alitai will inevitably feel a little resentful in his heart.

In this case, it is better to take this opportunity to support Alitai and let him help Ming Dynasty fight against Oara and check and balance the situation on the grassland.

If Alitai disobeys discipline, then he can release Alitai back to the grassland.

Compared with Alitai, Alutai is more prestigious, and the two brothers will probably fight fiercely for power.

Zhu Di's mind was active, and the meaning of his words was also noticed by Alutai, which made his face look ugly and at the same time, he could not help but feel a sense of expectation.

If Zhu Di really dares to let him go, then he will definitely "repay" Zhu Di well in the future.

"Let's do this. You write a letter to your brother and say that the imperial court will forgive him for his past crimes. As long as he is willing to become a vassal, I am willing to make him King Changning and allow him to pay tribute and trade with each other."

Zhu Di looked at Alutai with a simple and honest smile, but Alutai felt that Zhu Di's smile was treacherous.

But he had to bow his head under the eaves, so he could only write a letter to Alitai in front of Zhu Di, and the prisoners selected by Zhu Di and others were sent to the Tatar tribes.

"By the way, I asked you to come here and I wanted to ask you, how many troops and tribes do Guilichi, Mahamu, Taiping, and Batu Polo have each?"

Zhu Di remembered the matter of probing the intelligence of various ministries. After hearing this, Arutai also whispered:

"Each one has between 10,000 and 20,000 troops. Among them, Mahamu has the largest number of troops, about 20,000. Counting Taiping and Batu Polo, Wala can pull out about 50,000 troops, but the number of troops that fight with me all year round is only 30,000. , after all, they still need to defend the south and west, with about four to five million troops."

"Yuelu Timur (Ghost Lichi) has less than 10,000 troops and tens of thousands of followers."

Arutai briefly introduced the situation of the three tribes of Oara and the Mongol Khan Guilichi at this time. After hearing this, Zhu Di nodded and said: "I will grant you and Prince Ning the title, and have people build a mansion for you in Nanjing. You go there After Nanjing, I allow you to keep two hundred guards, and your troops will be placed in Modong, Beiping, Liaodong, and the Bohai area."

"By the way, your salary will be based on one thousand shi and five hundred guan per year."

Zhu Di proudly talked about the treatment given to Alutai, but it sounded extremely harsh to Alutai.

Yesterday, he would never have imagined that he would become a prisoner in just one day.

But it was too late to say anything now. He could only pray that Alitai could make things bigger and give him a chance to return to Mobei.

Taking a deep breath, Arutai put on a smile and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for the gift..."

"Okay, please step back." Zhu Di waved his hand and asked Zhu Neng to take Arutai out of the tent.

After they left, Zhu Di stroked his beard and thought about what Alutai had just said about the strength of Wala and Guilichi.

According to what he knew about the Tatar situation before the war, if Alitai could gather all the Tatar tribes, he could also pull out a force of more than 200,000 tribesmen and 20,000 cavalry.

With such strength, even if Wala led 30,000 cavalry to fight him, he would still be able to flee south and seek refuge with him if he was defeated.

But even so, he had to make preparations early and clean up Wala next time he went on an expedition.

Not only that, the penetration into Hami in the west must also be stepped up.

Judging from this battle, the Tatar headquarters is indeed stronger than Wu Liangha, but it is not too strong.

The Ming army was able to win so easily, mainly because the terrain restricted Arutai, and the matchlocks, spears, and field artillery cooperated well.

When he thought of the long guns, matchlocks, artillery, and cavalry during the day, Zhu Di couldn't help stroking his beard and sighed: "What a good thing..."

"Your Majesty, do you want to write a victory report to His Highness?"

Wang Yan came up to ask. After hearing this, Zhu Di immediately looked proud:

"Of course I have to write it, and write it beautifully so that my second brother can see how his father and I fought!"

(End of this chapter)