prosperous age

Chapter 224 Chapter 223
"Liu Zongbing, the cavalry in other directions in the Tazi camp should complete their formation soon. We should take this opportunity to break their camp instead of shooting at them step by step here."

Wei Guangde said loudly to Liu Dazhang.

"Lord Wei, I understand what you said, but what if the army here doesn't go to rescue Altan Khan? They rush out from the front gate and cut off our army, or as you said, rush into the Tartar barracks, and they seal Stay in our retreat, what should you do?"

Liu Dazhang was dissatisfied with Wei Guangde's attitude towards him at this time, so he questioned him very bluntly.

"No, it's not dawn yet."

Wei Guangde had already thought about it before. Given the current situation, the Tartar commander in the battalion might not dare to lead his troops out from the front gate, so he immediately shook his head and replied, "What's more, Liu Huan's troops in the back camp are not far from their camp gate. It is impossible for their people not to discover Liu Huan's troops.

As far as the current brightness is concerned, they are worried that the front door will be surrounded by a large army, so it is unlikely that they will attack us first. The most likely thing is to rush out from the back door and directly face the visible threat of Liu Huanbu, and kill them to rescue me. Answer Khan, and then join forces and fight back. "

Wei Guangde analyzed according to his own logic.

Yes, what is the night raid for?
When the two armies are at war, the stronger side generally disdains to use night attack tactics, and most of them will only be the choice of the weaker side.

Numerous wars in history have also proved that as long as you are strong enough and you don't make mistakes, crushing your opponent to win is the kingly way.

As for the night attack, because of the restriction of the night, it will greatly weaken some of the capabilities of the warring parties, and there is great uncertainty, even for the party that initiates the night attack. Not much stronger.

In fact, in the barracks of the Alta Department, Mongolian Wanhu is also thinking about what to do.

It is really strange that the Ming army attacked the camp this time. I just received a scouting report two days ago and found traces of Ming army cavalry by the Yang River. They dared to go out of the city to rob the camp today. Does this mean that the Ming army in Baoan Prefecture has already Many troops were mobilized over.

Infantry moves slowly and it is not easy to hide their tracks, but cavalry is relatively easy, as long as there are enough scouts to seal off the surrounding area.

When Wei Guangde thought that they went from Huailai County to Baoan Prefecture without anyone noticing, and he was complacent about the smooth journey, in fact, the detective cavalry of the Ida Department had already discovered them at this time, only because they moved too fast to send troops to intercept them.

Only at this time, their accidentally exposed itinerary made Mongolian Wanhu, who knew about it, suspect that the Ming army might secretly mobilize cavalry from various places to station in Baoan Prefecture, and they might really be targeting the Great Khan.

Thousands of cavalry from the Ming army have been found outside the gate of the back camp. What about the front gate?
At this time, the sky was not bright enough to see how far away, and it was impossible to determine whether there was an ambush at the front door.

"You go back and send a message, just say that I know, I will go to support him first when the people here are assembled."

Mongolian Wanhu had no choice but to let the messenger sent by Zuoying Qianhu go back first. Anyway, the other five thousand households have not rushed to report, which shows that they are still busy forming a team.

After the Ming army attacked the camp just now, several thousand households sent people to contact them, and at the same time gathered people in their respective camps, and at the same time observed the situation outside the camp. After finding no signs of the Ming army's existence, they sent people to report the situation to themselves. .

In fact, if at this time, Mongolian Wanhu chose to gather troops and rush out of the camp directly, and charged the Ming infantry phalanx head-on, the outcome of the battle here would be really hard to say.

The Xuanfu army assembled tens of thousands of infantry outside the camp, among which more than a thousand archers were divided into two shifts to shoot at the Mongolian army, and more than a thousand bird musketeers were used to stabilize the army and guard against the Tartar cavalry raid.

The reason for this configuration is also because only the archers have sufficient firepower density at this time, and the firing and loading of bird guns is relatively slow, which cannot continue to suppress the Tartars in the camp.

However, Wei Guangde and the generals of the Ming army have forgotten one thing, that is, it is also at night, and after their birdcrackers shoot out the loaded ammunition, they will encounter trouble in the night when they reload. Their firing frequency will also be affected if they complete reloading as quickly as they usually train for a second shot.

Just when the high-level disputes of the Ming army were entangled with the tens of thousands of Mongolian households, the Ming army under Ma Fang in Altan Khan's camp and Altan Khan's royal court guards had already fought together.

Where the Ming army broke down the camp, there were only a few corpses of Mongolian soldiers lying on the ground, but the more one went to the center of the camp, the more dead bodies were on the ground, not only from the Tartars, but also from the Ming army.

Ma Fang's tribe easily broke through Alta Khan's camp and began to attack inside. The Mongolian Tartars in the first few tents were beheaded by the Ming army almost in their sleep, which became a witness of their military exploits.

And more Tartar soldiers who came out to see the situation had their heads cut off by the Ming cavalry roaring past them before they could figure out the situation.

The Ming army's surprise attack was very effective at the beginning, and there was almost no effective resistance.

Only a few soldiers on night duty were able to charge their horses to stop the advance of the Ming army, but what they had to face was the most elite soldiers under Ma Fang of the Ming army. dead body.

When the Altan Khan camp was alarmed, although most people were still sleepy, they rushed out of the camp with weapons in their hands when they heard the shouts of killing outside.

But all they could see was the flames in the half of the sky, and the deafening shouts of killing.

The Tartars who were far away from the edge of the camp were undoubtedly lucky. They were able to put on their armor in a hurry, took up their weapons and ran to the stables aside, while those Tartar soldiers who ran into the iron cavalry of the Ming army when they rushed out of the tent were unlucky. Unfortunately, many people were cut down to the ground with only a weak resistance.

But with the continuous advance of the Ming army, the ingenious arrangement of the Altan Khan camp gradually became apparent.

The Mongolian Tartar army camps occupy a very large area, and the camps are divided according to hundreds of households. Only a few large camps of hundreds of households will gather together, and their stables are next to them. The effect of setting fire by the army seems to be of little use at this time.

There will also be a simple refusal of horses between each centurion station, which is used to divide the two camps.

When they rushed into the Tartar camp, they had to gallop their horses to the vicinity of the Tartar army tents and cast torches to ignite the tents here, and then throw the rushed Tartars to Paoze behind, and they had to continue to charge forward, or Either carefully steer the horse through the not-so-spacious barracks, or rush through the winding passage of the barracks.

The Tartars' barracks were not neat, and the winding passages in the camp could run horses, but they couldn't let the horses gallop wildly.

From time to time, piles of bonfires that are still burning or have been extinguished can be seen on both sides of the passage. All signs show that there was a carnival here last night.

At this time, the surrounding Tartar camps had been awakened by the chaos outside, and they took up their weapons and rushed out. After seeing the situation clearly, they all ran to the stables.

They didn't care whose horse they caught, they just turned on the horse, and then turned the horse to kill the Ming army, creating time for other comrades to get on the horse.

The leading unit of the Ming army was a thousand soldiers trained by Ma Fang himself, and they were the elite of this motley army.

The so-called elites actually only trained more than other cavalry units, and received more money, but in fact it was still not full salary, and Ma Fang couldn't get more money and food for his men.

But even so, the combat power displayed by this group of soldiers after the battle broke out was far superior to the so-called fierce soldiers brought in by other troops.

Ma Fang is a Han who escaped from Mongolia. After joining the Datong Army, he started as a soldier. Because of his bravery in combat, he became a thousand households in a few years.

When Altan Khan raided the capital in the 29th year of Jiajing, Ma Fang was already a thousand households.

In the war that made Emperor Jiajing lose face, Ma Fang was one of the few military generals who achieved a record. Because of this, he was promoted from a thousand households to a guerrilla general, and gained the right to lead troops independently.

In the past few years, he has won more victories than lost in the process of fighting with the Alta tribe, and has become a famous general in Xuanfu.

Naturally, such an achievement could not be achieved by him alone. The most important thing is that he accepted the group of soldiers who dared to fight.

The life of military households in the Ming Dynasty was miserable. In fact, there were reasons for the misery.

Let me ask you, who can't even support their own family, who is willing to work hard and fight with the Tartars.

Ma Fang tried his best to help his soldiers improve their salaries within his ability.

In the defense area where Ma Fang is located, the first thing he does is often to forcibly take back the farmland.

Yes, those garrison fields occupied by officials and gentry were distributed to the soldiers under them with the garrison fields and the small amount of salary allocated by the superiors.

He took more than in the past, and his own general had to take responsibility for it. Naturally, every time he led a battle, the soldiers fought desperately, for fear that Ma Fang would be implicated due to poor record.

This may also be one of the reasons why Ma Fang was able to outshine others in Daming Border Town at this time.

As for the officials and gentry who suffered losses, Ma Fang knew that he could not coexist with them, so the method he adopted was to fight poison with fire.

Most of these officials and gentry are just local tyrants. Perhaps someone in the family was or is now an official in the court.

Don't be afraid, according to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, officials have to be officials in different places. The hands of officials in their families can't reach Xuanfu, they can only do things through colleagues on the side of Xuanfu, but Ma Fang has already taken part of the property in the farmland first. Give tribute to the chief soldier, governor, and even the governor.

The results of the officials' appeals are often only "delayed".

This is also the reason why Ma Fang has offended many local tyrants in this era, but no one can move him.

There are people protecting the officials, and the soldiers below are also strong, and the rest is himself. As long as there are no command errors, it will be difficult to win the battle.

It's just that at this moment, this group of elites who were once invincible in the border war are gradually falling into trouble.

It didn't take long from the initial easy killing to getting into trouble. In fact, they just broke through a few hundred Tartar camps in a row, and were surrounded by reinforcements who came after hearing the news.

The characteristics of the camp of the Alda Department are destined to quickly let their cavalry form combat effectiveness.

Most of the Tartars who fought with them from the beginning were still naked, just riding on horses, with weapons in their hands, they rushed up screaming.

Such Tazi soldiers are easy to deal with, after all, they have no protection on them, and most of them are not in a good state of mind, they just woke up from a dream.

But as time passed, the Tartars who appeared behind began to appear neatly dressed, and several hundred teams rushed into the battlefield, which naturally delayed the impact of Ma Fang's elite men. This may be Wang Ting The true strength of the guard.

After encountering a sneak attack by the Ming army, they did not appear in panic and chaos like the Wanhu Camp of the Alta Department before, but immediately threw themselves into the battle.

The hundreds of households close to the battlefield rushed into the battlefield one after another to hold back the Ming army's assault pace, waiting for the hundred households behind to come to support them.

What Ma Fang saw was that those old subordinates who had followed him for many years were gradually falling into a bitter battle against the constant influx of Alda cavalry, and their attack speed was severely slowed down.

"Keep going."

At this time, the comparison is which side has high morale, who can carry it to the end, and the competition is courage.

Ma Fang ordered his soldiers to drive away those soldiers who followed him, and the soldiers dispatched by other generals and guerrilla units in the Xuan Mansion went up and continued to attack the Alda barracks. At the same time, he observed the layout of the camp and looked for the Alda Khan army tent. s position.

If it was daytime, you should be able to see the tall black banner outside the big tent of Al Da Khan at this time.

It's a pity that it's dark now, and he can't tell how far it is from Al Da Khan's tent for the time being, and where the other party is.

He could only roughly judge the direction of the center of the barracks according to the several passages in the camp, and rushed in with his men.

Before the main force rushing to the camp found Altan Khan's tent, Ma Fang was still reluctant to use his last few hundred troops, which were his last reliance on killing Altan in this night attack.

In front of Ma Fang, about [-] Ming soldiers have already engaged in the fight. They withstood the pressure of the Wang Ting guards and kept rushing towards the direction indicated by Ma Fang. Although the speed was slow, they were still moving forward. advance.

And behind them, Ma Fang's own [-] servants and the [-] guards of the Xuanfu Commander's Mansion were still lined up neatly, preparing for the final decisive battle.

The Jia Ding team is the most powerful force in the Ming army in this era. It not only exists in large numbers in the border towns, but also the inland generals have learned from it. They are their own guards in peacetime, and they can be used as messengers in wartime, and even the main force in the charge. , Ma Fang is not immune.

While constantly dispatching the Ming army and adjusting their direction of charge, they kept observing the surrounding battle situation.

Going all the way again, Ma Fang estimates that at least 800 to [-] Tartar soldiers will be killed. Now there are [-] to [-] Tartars in front of him. I should have almost hit Alda Khan's tent, but why? Can't see the most elite golden armor guard yet?
Could it be that the direction of his attack is wrong?
At this time, Ma Fang, who observed the surrounding scene, couldn't help feeling a little doubt in her heart, worried that she might have chosen the wrong direction.

However, such worries didn't last long, and the avenue ahead suddenly widened.

"Woooo."

At this moment, a horn sounded.

(End of this chapter)