The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 419 Catch the "weak spot"

Wang Shouren led the troops to deal with the left behind troops of the Chahar Department.

The number of soldiers and horses on both sides is basically equal. The Ming side has [-] cavalry, equipped with artillery, firecrackers, bows and other long-range firearms.

The Chahar side has a relatively large number of soldiers and horses. There are over ten thousand soldiers and horses, but they are scattered in different directions and do not belong to the same tribe or branch. They are also mainly cavalry, but long-range firearms are also limited to bows and crossbows. Basically no, it is impossible to fight against Da Ming in the middle distance.

The result is……

Wang Shouren's side mainly attacked with a conservative formation, while Chahar's side relied on a scattered formation for "defense".

To put it nicely is called defense, but to put it badly, it is to avoid war.

Wherever Daming went, they fled in the opposite direction.

"Young General, the Tartars are retreating after several encounters. Why don't you send a surprise soldier to detour behind the Tartars all the way to attack."

"The final general is willing to lead the troops there!"

The morale of the soldiers on Wang Shouren's side can be said to be high.

After a few days of dealing with each other, the two sides fought without thunder and rain. After the first day and night of bloody fighting, they entered a buffer period. The soldiers felt tired and not happy enough.

It seems that the two sides have mobilized a lot of troops, and they are circling within a range of thirty or forty miles, but a decent battle has not been fought.

Wang Shouren said: "Don't underestimate the enemy. The key now is to find the Tartars' rear camp and force them to take the initiative to fight us!"

In Wang Shouren's temporary Chinese army camp, there are ready-made maps.

"Major General, it is very likely that Ming soldiers have never been to the place under our feet, and this topographic map may not be accurate. It is better to fight with them directly!"

The generals still have some opinions on Wang Shouren's way of gathering six thousand soldiers and horses in one place, and they need to advance and retreat together.

But they will not argue with Wang Shouren, but will take the initiative to express their willingness to lead troops to attack.

It is also because of the cowardice shown by the troops left behind by the Chahar tribe, and the self-confidence gained in the previous two battles, which made them feel that the hinterland of the Tatars is nothing more than this, and we can still conquer the land under our feet.

Still staring at the map, Wang Shouren said, "Along the way, all the markings, including mountains, rivers, and rivers, all match up. This is a topographic map drawn by Duke Lai himself. Do you have any questions?"

Knowing that Zhang Zhou drew the map, the generals below had no objections.

To say that the generals in the army admired Wang Shouren very much, mainly because of Wang Shouren's ability to lead troops in battle.

But if you want to say who is the most powerful God of War in Ming Dynasty, it is generally accepted that it is Zhang Zhou.

Wang Shouren's awesomeness is mainly based on Zhang Zhou's "magic calculation". No matter how powerful Wang Shouren is, he still needs Zhang Zhou's strategic support, and Zhang Zhou's miraculous calculation skills. A firearm developed and built by Zhou.

Without Zhang Zhou, Wang Shouren is just a dragon without wings, at most he can run on the ground.

"Did the scouts from the north report back?"

Wang Shouren looked at Han Zheng who was in charge of intelligence.

Han Zheng said: "Returning to the general, the scouts from all walks of life have already checked, and there is no sign of Tatar old, weak, women and children within a few tens of miles away. Before that, I only saw a flock of sheep in the northwest, the number of which was around several thousand. "

Wang Shouren looked worried and said: "We suddenly appeared here, and the Tatars suddenly gathered tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. This shows that the Khan Court of the Chahar Tribe is around. The old and the weak, cattle, sheep, and goods in the family must be retreating in one direction. If you still can’t find the direction accurately and pursue it with all your strength before tonight, I’m afraid it will be impossible to track it in the next three or four days.”

The soldiers present probably understood what Wang Shouren meant.

Now they want to fight the Tatars head-on. In fact, the Tatars will not fight. They can only find and catch up with the old and weak women and children in the Tatar tribe, as well as their large number of cattle, sheep, herds and goods. In this direction In order to keep the power of the tribe, the Tatars had to fight Daming head-on.

But after all, there are too many directions in all directions, and the old and weak women, children, cattle and sheep of the Tatar Khan Court must also be in the process of migration.

Once chasing in the wrong direction, after a few days of chasing and finding that the direction is wrong, and then correcting the direction to chase, it is basically too late... you can only "pass Baoshan and get nothing".

If the Khan Court of the Chahar Tribe can be looted... and the people of Dayan Khan left behind are slaughtered, then Daming will be famous on the grassland. Wang Shouren doesn't care about fame and wealth, he cares The most important thing is to establish the national prestige of Ming Dynasty in this way.

For ordinary soldiers, this means a huge contribution.

Qianhu Gelin asked: "Major General, do you think the Hulu will do the opposite, knowing that we are going to chase west, so their tribesmen retreat east? In this way, no matter how we chase, we will never stop. Can't catch up?"

"No." Wang Shouren shook his head first, and then said, "Even if there is such a possibility, the chance is not great."

Then Wang Shouren pointed to the topographic map and said: "The direction our army came from is to the east. There are tribesmen and horses of Duoyan Sanwei over there. The thickness of the grassland along the way shows that no large tribes have migrated there. And if our army falls into The siege requires a retreat, and retreating east is the most likely direction to choose, and if they go east, they will fall into the trap."

Guan Jing said: "That's the northwest side, didn't we find their flock?"

After thinking about it, Wang Shouren shook his head again.

Obviously, in Wang Shouren's view, the answer to this question will not be that simple.

Guan Jing added: "In any case, they are heading west or north, so they can't go south, right? Northwest and southwest are both possible. After all, they are going to gather with the troops returned by the little Tatar prince. If they go south , They are heading towards the Guancheng of Daming, are you afraid that my whole army of Daming will come out and kill them all?"

"Yes, what General Guan said makes sense."

A group of people supported Guan Jing's point of view.

Guan Jing also represents the most primitive marching strategy... In order to avoid the pursuit of the Ming soldiers and horses, the old and weak women and children of the Tatar Khan Court naturally retreated in the direction where the pursuit of the Ming soldiers and horses would cost the most.

And the result that Ming didn't want to see the last thing is to continue to go deep alone, that is, continue to go northwest, which will be farther away from the territory of Ming, and it will be easier to be encircled by various Tatar troops.

Wang Shouren said: "What if the people of Tatar don't expect the little Tatar prince to come back to help, but only hope to rely on the troops they send out to the Daming Pass?"

Guan Jing said: "Then they should go south, or southwest."

"wrong."

Wang Shouren stared at the map again, as if he had discovered something, "We have passed Yidu, Ningxia is to our southwest, and our south should be Datong Town. If the Tatar tribe does not rely on the little Tatar prince The main forces of the Tatars were basically gathered in Pianguan and Datong before, so they are..."

Immediately, Wang Shouren used a stick to draw a straight line from their possible location to Xuanfu on the map.

And the line is not skewed to the left...that is, the line points southeast.

Han Zheng asked: "The Tartars are going to retreat towards Xuanfu? Then why not Pianguan or Datong?"

Wang Shouren said: "Why do you still need me to say it? Datong and Pianguan are both places where Duke Lai Guo deeply cultivated, and the number of soldiers and horses stationed in Ming Dynasty and the number of firearms in reserve are also very large, and there are Wang Zhongcheng and others who can go there at any time. Send troops. On the contrary, the Xuan Mansion, although it is the core of Xuan Da, has not sent any more troops in the past two years... and the main force of the Tatars staying in Datong is also here. This used to be the pasture of Huosi..."

Guan Jing said with a little excitement: "If you go this way, you should still pass Weining Haizi."

"Yup!"

The soldiers were also excited.

For the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, Weining Sea is simply the glory of gathering the Ming army. In Chenghua, Wang Weining made great achievements here. In the past two years, the Ming Dynasty sent troops to Weining Sea twice. Wang Shouren won the Weining Sea victory for the second time. And at Maoerzhuang and other places, Daming began to build fortresses...

Guan Jing asked eagerly, "Major General, are we going in the direction of Xuanfu?"

"No!" Wang Shouren said, "When the Tartars find out that we are going south, they must think that we are going to retreat to Daming, and they must be afraid that we will meet us on the way, so they will rush to the west after hearing the news. Running, we need to stop them on their way to the west."

"Where is that?" All the generals looked at the map curiously.

At this time, they also realized that they all had brains, but in terms of analytical ability, all of them combined could not be compared with Wang Shouren alone.

Wang Shouren pointed to the two points marked on the map and said: "It is between Weininghai and Guanshan to block the troops of the Tartar tribe!"

"it is good!"

The soldiers were full of confidence.

It seems that Wang Shouren said that the old, weak, sick and disabled of the Tartars were waiting for them to slaughter, and the man was waiting there, as if he was defenseless.

Wang Shouren said: "Let's set off immediately, go in the direction of the south by the east, and let the Tatar scouts detect it with great fanfare. After two days, turn to the southwest... Don't pay attention to the direction of the Tatar soldiers and horses along the way, but If you encounter an enemy in the future, you must overcome it and move on!"

"Order!"

"send troops!"

……

……

After Wang Shouren's troops walked west for three days, they suddenly turned back to the south. What happened was so sudden that even the remaining troops of Chahar's troops did not expect it.

As Wang Shouren's men went south, they traveled more than 170 miles in just one day.

The impression given to the Tatars is that Wang Shouren wants to jump out of the encirclement as soon as possible before the main force of the Tatars returns to help, approach the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and successfully break through the encirclement and enter the Daming Pass City.

The truth is that.

But in fact, all Tatar tribes, including the leading generals of the Chahar tribe, such as the sons of Batu Monk, think this is unlikely.

With Wang Shouren's courage, if he dared to lead his troops straight into the grassland, he would not passively avoid the battle. After all, Wang Shouren's marching route in the past three days also showed that he was not looking for a breakthrough, because there was no need to look for it. , No one dared to confront Wang Shouren head-on.

This shows that Wang Shouren was looking for the people of the Chahar tribe.

When Wang Shouren went south suddenly and rapidly, this could only explain one problem... Wang Shouren might have found the direction in which his tribesmen escaped.

within the next two days.

Even without Wang Shouren pointing out the lieutenant generals, the generals of the Ming Dynasty would find that the soldiers and horses from all walks of life who were standing still suddenly seemed not to be afraid of the Ming army. Reluctant to follow, the closest distance to the Ming army was less than ten miles.

Even so, the Ming soldiers followed Wang Shouren's request...

As long as it is not an enemy in their way, there is no need to fight it, because the Tatars are probably trying to attract them to go in another direction.

Even if there is a battle, it will not be a real decisive battle. The Tatar cavalry is likely to retreat in the early stage of the battle, and the Ming Dynasty soldiers and horses will pursue it.

So all you need to do is to proceed according to Wang Shouren's request, that is, continue to go south, find the retreat direction of the Tatar tribesmen, and complete the massacre of the Tatar tribesmen who are almost powerless to resist.

……

……

The march soon entered the third day of the deployment plan.

At this time, they were only about 300 miles away from Weining Sea, and more than [-] miles away from Guanshan. Then, before Wang Shouren could find any traces of the Tatar tribesmen, the soldiers and horses rushed directly to the southwest of Guanshan, and It is day and night.

On the night when the Ming army turned around and headed southwest, the chahar troops who were chasing behind gathered soldiers and horses scattered all over the surrounding area, gathered about seven or eight thousand soldiers and horses, and began to lightly march towards the direction of the Ming army. Getting closer, the distance between the two sides was no more than four or five miles at one time. During the rapid march, the two sides could even see the torches held up by the opposing army.

Even so, the Ming army remained indifferent.

"Major General, the Tartars have been chasing us for more than an hour." After Guan Jing sent someone to investigate the enemy's situation, he rode his horse to report the situation in front of Wang Shouren's horse.

Wang Shouren said: "This shows that our judgment is correct. I believe that before noon tomorrow, we will encounter another main force of the Tartars who are blocking us!"

Guan Jing asked for instructions: "Then do you want to eat the rest of the road first?"

Wang Shouren personally raised the torch, waved the torch in his hand a few times, and then a signal flare was launched into the air, which was a signal to remind the army to continue to advance rapidly.

"The number of Tatar troops in the rear must not be inferior to our army. Fighting with them will definitely waste more than half a day. Now is the time to compete. Even if we are short of a cup of tea, we may not be able to stop the Tatars. The troops of the Khan Court! Don’t be afraid of the Tartars attacking from behind, and don’t worry about being attacked by two sides tomorrow, as long as they dare to enter within two miles, let them know the power of the [-] cannon salvo!”

"Yes!"

Guan Jing immediately understood what it meant.

The battle takes time, and the Tatars may not really want a decisive battle, they just want to hold back the Ming army.

As for being afraid of being encircled by the opponent... Daming is really not afraid.

The Ming side itself is also a very mobile cavalry. Even if it is surrounded, and the Ming breaks out in one direction, the Tatars can only camp hastily, and anyone who enters the range of the Ming artillery is courting death.

It's like saying...

You surround you, even if we want to go in one direction, you can't surround us.

Whichever direction we go is where your weak link lies.

As for the way you want to use the war to pile up soldiers and horses... As long as it is not on our route, we are too lazy to chase and fight.

……

……

Day and night of rapid marching, Da Ming walked nearly [-] miles on one side.

After dawn, when the sun was rising in the east, the number of troops chasing up from the Chahar tribe in the rear had increased from seven to eight thousand to more than ten thousand, and there was a tendency to gather troops from all over the place to continue to strengthen their strength.

But to Daming, that was just a number.

Their goal is only one, and that is to find the weakest link of the Tartars, that is, their migratory ethnic groups. Who said that killing a chicken with a bull's knife?

We just like to kill chickens with ox knives, and the closer you get to your people, the more you have to fight us, otherwise you can only watch your people being slaughtered by us.

"Cows and sheep, a large number of cattle and sheep!"

When Daming's side crossed a hill, many soldiers were still riding horses, eating dry food and drinking water.

At this time, in an open space in the distance, there are a large number of abandoned cattle and sheep, the number is at least [-] to [-].

Wang Shouren waved his horsewhip, and said in a morale-boosting tone: "The people of the Tartar Khan Court must have been there for a long time. In order to escape, they even abandoned their cattle and sheep in the wild. They also know that their end is at an end! Continue to pursue !"

"Chase!"

It's like looking at plums to quench thirst.

Originally, during the march for several days, the Ming soldiers didn't know what they were doing.

He said he was going to find the men and horses of the Tatar royal court, but after several days of chasing him, there was no sign of anyone.

But now they seemed to feel that victory was just around the corner, and the purpose of running around for the past few days was to catch up with the Tartar tribesmen and open their arms to kill the enemy.

So...

The Ming army didn't even have time to rest for a while, and went straight to the journey again.

……

……

When the Ming army continued to march rapidly after dawn.

The Tatar pursuit party obviously couldn't sit still.

What can't be within two or three miles of the Ming army, what should lead the Ming army to pursue in other directions... It doesn't seem to matter anymore.

If they didn't fight any more, they would really hand over the old, weak, women and children among the ethnic groups to the Ming Dynasty to bombard them. Even without using artillery, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty could directly use their sabers to kill among the ethnic groups they wanted to protect.

Marching with Ming Dynasty.

As Wang Shouren predicted, the troops intercepted by the Tatars also came.

When a large number of Tatar soldiers and horses were gathering in front, the generals of the army also admired Wang Shouren's judgment. He could even predict this...it was simply miraculous.

But in fact, for Wang Shouren, this is just a basic judgment on the situation of the battle.

Because when they were about to catch up with the Tatars, the part of the Tatars who were in charge of escorting the people would definitely stay where they were and fight the Ming Dynasty to delay the time and cover the continued transfer of the people.

When encountering the Tatar army blocking the way, it means that the distance between Daming and the Tatars is no more than [-] miles, and they can catch up in two or three hours at most.

"Array!"

Daming's side is also not polite.

There is no need to chase after. If there is an enemy in front of you, you will fight, and if you get in range, you will shoot... first artillery, then firecrackers and bows, and finally close hand-to-hand combat... After all, the routine is very fixed.

If the Tatars still want to play the trick of feigning defeat and transferring, Daming will not pursue them, because now that they know where your weak points are, what is the point of chasing you regular troops?
As long as you grasp your "weakness", you must gather all the people who can mount a horse and fight us decisively.

This is the best tactic.

(End of this chapter)