Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 15 The Troops Are Here
The time came to March [-]th.

Eight days have passed since Meishan was hanged.

It has been seven days since the surprise attack on Changping City.

It has also been three days since Chongzhen led the Ming army into the grassland.

Here Chongzhen played another trick of surprise.

According to normal people's thinking, after the Gongtu cavalry was severely injured in an unknown valley, the Ming army would definitely flee back to the depths of Yanshan to avoid the revenge of the Gongtu's chasing troops.

But Chongzhen came and did the opposite.

Instead of leading his army to flee back to Yanshan, he went deeper into the grassland.

Of course, before going deep into the grassland, he also made some false appearances in an attempt to mislead the pursuers.

However, just as Wu Sangui seriously underestimated the ambition of building slaves, Chongzhen also seriously underestimated the speed and tracking ability of the Gongtu tribe.

Jin Xuan led a dozen riders to catch up from behind.

Chongzhen Le turned his horse's head to meet Jin Xuan, and said in a deep voice, "How?"

"Wow!" Jin Xuan reined in his horse and stopped, cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, there are only thirty miles left!"

"Why did the pursuers from the Gongtu Division come so quickly?" Wang Jiayan asked incredulously, "Did the suspicious formations we set up in the Wuming Valley and along the way not work?"

Jin Xuan shook his head and said, "It probably didn't work."

"This is troublesome." Wang Jiayan frowned and said, "I will definitely be caught up by tomorrow morning at the latest."

Chongzhen looked around at the endless grassland, and suddenly felt a little parched and flustered, but he knew better than to show panic at this time.

Not only can't panic, but you must pretend to be confident.

Otherwise, the morale that has been accumulated with great difficulty will be exhausted.

A group of rabble, and wandered to the grassland, if even the last remaining morale is lost, then there is only one result waiting for them, and that is to be hunted down one by one by Gongtu's cavalry like hunting rabbits.

Chongzhen didn't want to be shot to death on the Chahar Grassland by the cavalry of the Gongtu Department like shooting rabbits.

"No trouble." Chongzhen said indifferently at the moment, "This is as far as I expected."

"Huh? Ah? What?" Wu Linzheng, Meng Zhaoxiang and other officials all looked over in astonishment.

Jin Xuan and Wang Jiayan turned their gazes elsewhere. These two are soldiers, so it can be seen that Chongzhen is just pretending to be calm.

But at this time, stabilizing the morale of the army is more important than anything else, so it cannot be dismantled.

"It's just two thousand Mongolian cavalry, it's no big deal." Chongzhen stretched out his hand and pointed ahead, and said, "Did you see the river bend in front? The whole army entered the river bend and camped!"

Since you can't run away, then simply don't run away.

While there is still some time, hurry up and repair the fortifications.

Flying a kite on the grassland will definitely fail the Mongolian cavalry.

That is to say, if you set up camp and defend to the death, you can still compete with the Mongolian cavalry.

As for what to do next, it can only be played by ear.

……

At the northern foot of Yanshan Mountain, a settlement of the Gongtu tribe was attacked. More than a dozen yurts were burning, and dozens of herdsmen were also driven together. These herdsmen were all women and children.

Hu Xinshui stepped forward immediately, looking down at the women and children of the Gongtu tribe in front of him.

"Where are your men?" Hu Xinshui snapped, "They're all dead?"

The women kept their children behind them, and looked at Hu Xinshui with terrified eyes.

Hu Xinshui didn't talk nonsense, but just made a gesture, and even if two Yi Ding rushed into the group of women and children, dragged a young child out of his age, and dragged him to the side of the carriage.

A Yi Ding drew out his machete and compared it to the wheel.

It was found that the child's head could not reach the top of the wheel.

According to the rules of the Mongols, every time a tribe is conquered, adult men taller than a wheel can be killed, but young children and women who are not as tall as a wheel cannot be killed, and they must be kept as slaves.

But Hu Xinshui didn't want to abide by these rules at all.

Hu Xinshui nodded slightly, and Na Yi Ding wiped it lightly.

The toddler, who was no taller than a wheel, had his throat cut immediately.

"My child, my child!" the mother who lost her child wailed heart-piercingly.

Hu Xinshui's eyes flashed a cruel pleasure, and he asked with a smirk, "I'll ask you again, where are the men in your tribe? Have they been taken away by wild beasts?"

Still no one responded to Hu Xinshui.

Hu Xinshui nodded again, and two more Yi Ding rushed into the crowd and dragged out a young child.

"My child! No, don't!" The young child's mother also wailed heart-piercingly, desperately trying to rush forward to get her child back, but was kicked to the ground by the other two barbarians.

Seeing her child being dragged and pinned to the wagon wheel, the child's mother finally had a nervous breakdown.

"I say! I say!" the child's mother wailed loudly, "The men have all been summoned to Baimachuan by the leader!"

"Shouldn't there be such a thing earlier?" Hu Xinshui groaned, then reined in her horse and shouted, "Let's go to Baimachuan."

In the blink of an eye, more than a thousand riders rushed out of the settlement. Hu Guozhu couldn't hold back the doubts in his heart, and he rode his horse to catch up with Hu Xinshui.

"Son, do you have many questions?" Hu Xinshui said kindly.

"Abba, how do you know that you can find out the whereabouts of Chongzhen from this small tribe?" Hu Guozhu asked blankly, "What if their man went to Baimachuan for something else?"

"Nothing happens." Hu Xinshui said firmly.

"At this time, the large-scale gathering of Gongtu troops can only be done to deal with the Ming army."

"It's still wrong." Hu Guozhu scratched his head and said again, "Chongzhen won't be that stupid. He fled to Yanshan just to take refuge, so he should find an inconspicuous corner to hide. How could he provoke the Gongtu Department?"

"Boy, you don't understand this." Hu Xinshui laughed loudly, "There are nine out of ten people who go wrong in the world, and Chongzhen children can't hide even if they want to, because the soldiers of the three major battalions in Beijing won't stop!"

Hu Guozhu gave a light sound, half understanding.

……

On the other side, Li Yan has also led two thousand Qingqi to chase to the northern foot of Yanshan Mountain.

Although the cavalry of Li Yan entered Yanshan later than the two cavalry of Li You and Gu Kecheng, they made the fastest progress, and traces of the Ming army had already been found.

"That's right, it's them." Li Yan said, "They used to settle here."

"Brother, come and see!" Not far away, Li Mou suddenly shouted, "There are traces of battle here!"

Li Yan and Li Nian rode their horses to Li Mou's side, and when they looked down at the ground, they saw many traces of battle. In addition to messy hoof prints, broken arrows and lead, there were even traces of blood.

"Brother, a fierce battle broke out here." Li Mou said, "Many people died."

Li Niandao: "Judging from the traces, it should be the Mongolian cavalry attacking the Ming army's defense line in the valley."

Li Mou said: "The Ming army should have set up a protective wall, and the Mongolian cavalry should have been defeated in the end."

Although the three brothers of the Li family are young, they have been in the army for [-] years in Chongzhen and have been in the army for five years. They can be regarded as veterans in the true sense, so they can see many details.

Li Yan said: "It's not important, the important thing is where did Chongzhen go?"

Li Mou got off his horse, picked up two lumps of horse dung from the ground, twisted it twice, and said, "There are two kinds of horse dung left in the valley. One is fine and soft, and it is obviously refined grain. This must be the war horse of the Ming army."

"And judging from the direction of the horse manure splashing, the Ming army is heading west."

Speaking of this, Li Mou pointed to the vast Yanshan Mountains on the west side with his horsewhip.

Li Nian smiled and said: "Old Chongzhen should have wanted to hide here for a while, but something went wrong, and he was discovered by the Mongolian cavalry. The two sides are fighting here."

"Although the Ming army won in the end, there is no way to hide here anymore."

"So the old man Chongzhen had no choice but to take the Ming army back into Yanshan and live through the bitter cold."

After a pause, Li Nian said firmly, "Brother, Chongzhen has fled back to Yanshan, let's chase after him."

"Wait." Li Yan always felt that something was wrong, and said with a frown, "Don't you two think it's strange? It's just that Chongzhen didn't know about such an obvious flaw in horse manure, and neither did the civil servants and generals under him. A discovery? You didn’t know to remind Chongzhen to clean up the horse manure left along the way?”

"Brother, is it useless to just clean up the horse manure?" Li Nian said, "There are also various other traces, which cannot be fooled."

"Second brother, do you want to talk about horseshoe marks?" After Li Yan finished speaking, he controlled the horse under his crotch to go backwards through the reins.

Because it had just rained a few days ago, the ground in the valley was still wet and soft. Wherever Li Yan's men and horses passed by, a line of clear horseshoe prints were soon left, but it was a forward horseshoe print.

Li Yan said: "Tell me, am I going forward or backward?"

"Ah this?" Li Nian and Li Mou were stunned when they saw this.

Li Yan pointed to the horse manure and horseshoe marks left on the ground, and said, "What you see may not be true. It may be that the enemy deliberately left it for us to see. If we chase forward, we will be fooled by the Ming army!"

"This Chongzhen old man." Li Mou scolded, "It's too cunning."

"Yes." Li Nian also said, "If it wasn't for brother, we would have been fooled."

"It may not be Chongzhen's idea." Li Yan said, "But it's not important."

After a pause, Li Yan said again: "The important thing is to take Chongzhen back as soon as possible."

Li Nian said: "Brother, if the Ming army did not enter Yanshan, then we have to search for traces again."

"There's no need to look any further." Li Yan said confidently, "I think I already know where the Ming army has gone."

After finishing speaking, he pointed to the grassland in the north and said: "If my judgment is not wrong, Chongzhen should have led the Ming army into the Chahar grassland!"

(End of this chapter)