Chapter 223 222 Odd and Positive
The manufacturer of this batch of side carriages was Zeng Xin, who was then the vice minister of the Ministry of War and the governor of the three borders of Shaanxi.
Zeng Xin, whose courtesy name was Zizhong, was a native of Huangyan County, Taizhou Prefecture, Zhejiang Province. He was a Jinshi in the eighth year of Jiajing. He was first a county magistrate, then a censor, and finally a frontier official.
When Zeng Xin was the governor of the three borders, he continuously defeated the Altan tribe, which was already invincible at that time, in his jurisdiction. In the autumn of the 25th year of Jiajing, when Altan Khan led 100,000 cavalry to plunder Yan'an and Qingyang, Zeng Xin only had thousands of soldiers to defend the city. At the same time, he sent Li Zhen, a lieutenant general, to lead troops to attack Altan Khan's old nest, Ma Liangshan Camp. Altan Khan had to retreat decisively after hearing about it.
This battle was also the only military action of the Ming army to leave the Great Wall since the Zhengde Dynasty.
However, the success of the surprise attack on Ma Liangshan not only did not bring Zeng Xin the opportunity to be promoted, but also brought disaster.
The success of this military operation made Zeng Xin re-understand the combat power of the Ming army and the Altan tribe. From then on, he began to stop being conservative and submitted a memorial to the court, requesting to send troops to recover the Hetao area.
Needless to say, the importance of the Hetao area can not only effectively reduce the threat of the Mongolian Tartars to the border towns, but also find an excellent horse farm for the Ming army, thus completely solving the biggest problem of the Ming army - the lack of war horses.
Because this memorial was supported by Xia Yan, the then chief minister of the cabinet, Zeng Xin thought that it was very likely to be implemented, so he began to vigorously repair equipment and prepare for the advance, and the side-carriage vehicles of the infantry were naturally manufactured in large quantities.
However, in the end, Hetao was not recovered, and the chief minister Xia Yan and himself were beheaded soon after, and his confidant Li Zhen was also poisoned.
At that time, a large number of equipment prepared for the recovery of the Hetao area were also dispersed and allocated to other border towns for use, and the side-carriage vehicles used by the Xuanfu army here also came from this.
At this time, the Ming army had formed a tight military formation outside the Altan Khan camp, using the Portuguese cannons on the chariots to bombard the camp continuously, causing casualties and preventing the Mongolian soldiers on this side from gathering quickly.
As the bombardment continued, the Mongolian soldiers finally gathered behind the fence in large numbers. They kept shooting arrows at the Ming army, but the effect was limited under the cover of the chariot baffles and large shields.
At this time, the Wanhu of the Altan Khan tribe had ordered the other five thousand households in the camp to start forming their teams. His choice at this time was naturally not to rush out and fight a bloody battle with the Ming army, but to lead 5,000 cavalry out of the back camp gate to support the Altan Khan camp behind the camp.
The Mongolian Wanhu was Altan Khan's absolute confidant in the Altan Khan tribe, and he knew very well the purpose of their stationing here.
The reason why Altan Khan chose to station troops here was naturally to sneak attack the Xuanfu army if there was an opportunity and cripple it.
However, after the Ming army arrived in An'an Prefecture, they chose to retreat, which prevented the Mongolian cavalry from taking advantage. Altan Khan did not think that his men would be good at attacking the Ming army's city.
Then another purpose of staying was naturally to wait for the Datong army that might arrive.
Although the number of scouts sent to the south by Altan Khan was limited, they were definitely elite.
Yes, in Altan Khan's view, the Mongols could not gain much advantage in siege warfare, but they could have an absolute advantage in field battles.
Since the Xuanfu army retreated into An'an Prefecture first, he set his sights on the Datong army. When the Datong army went north to rescue Xuanfu, they would attack the Datong army halfway. If the results were brilliant, Altan Khan would not mind taking his men to attack Datong from behind and turn the entire Xuanda defense line upside down.
However, neither he nor the Khan above him had expected that the Xuanfu army would dare to take the initiative to fight out of the city.
The Mongolian Wanhu had lost count of how many times he had sent people out to invite battles, but the Ming army on the opposite side did not respond like a turtle.
From time to time, people came on horseback from the western and rear camps to deliver the latest news.
At this time, the Mongolian Wanhu had determined that the attack on him was probably just a feint, the purpose of which was to tie down his troops and prevent him from rescuing the Khan.
Will he do what the Ming people think?
What a joke.
As long as the Mongols rode on horses, they were invincible, in the past, now, and in the future.
But at this time, he could only urge his several thousand households to complete the work of assembling the team as soon as possible, so that they could follow him out of the rear camp gate, first kill the Ming army outside the broken camp gate, and then outflank the Ming army attacking the Khan's camp.
As for the Ming army outside, they were lucky and could live a little longer.
However, the Mongolian Wanhu official saw that there were still soldiers running around in panic in the distance, and he wanted to kill these people with a knife.
He also had to keep looking for generals nearby, on the one hand, ordering them to gather people and horses to restore combat effectiveness, and on the other hand, he also asked them to control the chaotic army that did not listen to orders and ran around and shouted.
The sudden attack of the Ming army still had some impact on the soldiers of the Mongolian Altan tribe, but it could only slow down their gathering speed.
Many new recruits who had no battlefield experience were facing the dark night. Although a large number of bonfires and torches had been lit in the barracks, they were still in fear of the attack of the Ming army outside.
At this moment, the only one who knew the situation of the barracks was the Mongolian Wanhu.
The tents in the Altan tribe barracks were scattered widely. Generally, the tents of a team of soldiers would gather together, and there was a stable next to them, which was convenient for them to go to battle.
The roads in the camp were also wide, which was convenient for riding horses out.
Such a layout actually increases the difficulty for the sneak attack, because the military camp is large, it is not convenient to create crowding and trampling, and the effect of fire attack is not good.
The wide road is convenient for attacking and also convenient for the defending party to switch from defense to attack.
In fact, the Ming army is still very troubled by the camping method of Altan's tribe, especially when there is no intention to actively attack.
As for why the Ming army did not choose to attack both camps at the same time, in fact, a conclusion has been drawn in the debate yesterday morning, that is, the current strength of the Ming army is insufficient to effectively attack the two military camps of Altan's tribe.
In order to create chaos and successfully break the camp, it takes several times the number of troops to launch, and the enemy's military camp can be besieged to create greater chaos.
However, the current strength of the Ming army cannot meet such requirements. It seems that the Ming army is twice as large as the Mongolian army, but in real encounters, the Ming army has no advantage at all.
As for the strong breakthrough into the Altan military camp, this is very easy, but once it is blocked by the enemy in front, the Mongolian army behind and on the left and right will gather together, and it will not be too easy for the cavalry to counterattack them.
In this battle, the Xuanfu Army gave the most elite cavalry to Ma Fang for selection, and added nearly a thousand soldiers to his original troops, so that he could lead more than 2,000 of Xuanfu's most powerful cavalry corps to launch a surprise attack on Altan Khan's camp, and even allocated 500 new firearms previously allocated by the court to his subordinates.
A glimmer of light has appeared in the east, but the chaos in Altan Khan's camp is still there, but it is gradually getting better. The shouts, shouts and cannons in the distance are still constant, stimulating the nerves of everyone in the camp.
At this time, the Mongolian Wanhu had learned from the news sent by the Qianhu in charge of the West Camp that the Ming army was setting up a defensive formation outside the camp, and it didn't look like they were going to rob the camp. The Qianhu he led was enough to deal with it, and the Ming army had no intention of rushing in.
Just for insurance, he still hoped to arrange a cavalry unit of a thousand households behind him to support the Ming army in case of a surprise attack.
At this time, the Mongolian Wanhu was still struggling whether to keep people to guard against the Ming army suddenly rushing in again.
"Why are there so few people?"
At this time, Wei Guangde, Liu Dazhang and others had already approached on horseback. They looked at the Tatar camp in front of them from behind the Ming army and found that they did not attract too many Tatar soldiers. At most, they had a thousand households of soldiers.
After saying this, Wei Guangde felt a little bad when he saw such a scene.
Perhaps the Ming army was too conservative. They only relied on bombarding the Tatar camp and shooting at the archers on both sides. It seemed that they did not attract the attention of the Tatars. Perhaps the Tatars in the camp had begun to gather and prepare to reinforce the Altan Khan camp behind.
"Sir Liu, should we order the people below to continue to press forward? The Tatar archers pose a limited threat to us."
Wei Guangde thought of the possible situation and immediately turned to Liu Dazhang and said.
Here, the military power is still in the hands of Liu Dazhang. Although he is an advisor, he can't actually command the lieutenant generals, guerrillas and other generals below.
When Wei Guangde turned his head, he also noticed Liu Dazhang's expression at this time, which was obviously very bad, and the deputy general Tian Shiwei next to him had already frowned.
Well, everyone should have thought of something, and they all knew that the current situation did not meet the expectations of the Ming army.
"Master Liu, General Liu, the Tartars should have seen that we are feinting here. If we don't let the army push forward and put appropriate pressure on the Tartars, I'm afraid that the Tartar cavalry will rush out of the rear camp and kill Liu Huan's troops immediately. At that time, it will really be doomed."
Wei Guangde could naturally think of these. The feint attack of the infantry could not attract the attention of the Altan Khan. They would definitely turn to rescue Altan Khan. Once Ma Fang's troops collapsed, the tens of thousands of infantry outside would have no way to survive.
Two-legged people can never outrun four-legged people.
After Wei Guangde finished speaking, he finally saw Liu Dazhang's reaction. He waved his hand to let the guards next to him give a signal to advance, and two torches kept waving forward.
If it were daytime, they only needed to wave the five-color flag to let the captain in front know their intentions.
Now it was dark, and the five-color flag was naturally useless for command, so they could only wave torches and other objects to send signals.
Soon, the generals in front knew what the latter meant, and soon the Ming army began to advance again.
When the archers fired several waves of arrows in succession, the gunners quickly emptied the sub-barrels loaded with ammunition. Taking advantage of the slight confusion of the soldiers of the Altan tribe, the chariot turned around and began to move forward, and the entire army began to move forward with the movement of the chariot.
After just ten steps, they adjusted the direction again and re-arranged the army.
The distance between the two armies was only more than ten meters, but the psychological pressure brought to the Mongolian army should not be underestimated.
If they kept getting closer and closer to the camp, who could guarantee that the Ming army would not suddenly rush up?
The short wooden fence they built could not stop the impact of the Ming army and could be easily knocked down.
The Tatar Qian Hu immediately sent someone to report the situation here to the Wan Hu Lord, and they needed to reserve more troops, or simply rush out from the front camp gate, defeat the Ming army in front of them from the flank, and then support Altan Khan.
Yes, now when the Qian Hu in Altan’s camp contacted the Wan Hu, they already knew that the main attack direction of the Ming army should be the Khan’s side.
The news spread to Wanhu not only reassured Qianhu that this was not the main attack direction of the Ming army and they did not have to worry about the Ming army suddenly rushing in, but also urged Qianhu to speed up the formation of the team. Their task was not just to defend the camp, they We have to rescue the Great Khan.
However, before Lord Wanhu could give the order, the Ming army in front of them quickly fired several waves of arrows and bombardments, and then began to approach the military camp again.
The second advance was naturally the result of a debate between Wei Guangde and Liu Dazhang behind the Ming army's formation.
Having seen that the current situation is not conducive to the Ming army, Liu Dazhang has actually retreated somewhat. In his opinion, by organizing tonight's sneak attack, he can already make a deal with Lord Weng Pu.
It's just a pity that the review of the Hanlin Academy around me is too uninteresting.
Is fighting a joke?
It's going to kill people, and it's not impossible for one person to wipe out the entire army.
Often such defeats are caused by civilian officials who think they know how to march and fight after reading a few military books.
Although I haven't received a message from Kuai Ma yet, I understand the current development of the war situation of Ma Fang Department.
To put it bluntly, Ma Fang would never order the entire army to assault before Ma Fang's troops could penetrate the Anda Khan camp.
The reason that supports him to stay here is actually the battle report from Ma Fang's department.
Yes, as the most capable general in Xuanfu now, and having the advantage of sneak attacks, Liu Dazhang felt that there was still much to look forward to when the military strength was not much different.
Otherwise, he would have chosen to retreat long ago.
However, Liu Dazhang still hesitated after Wei Guangde repeatedly requested to continue to advance troops and put greater pressure on the Mongolian military camp.
However, after Tian Shiwei's negotiation, he finally agreed to move forward and made preparations to attack the Anta military camp.
Yes, in Tian Shiwei's words, there is really not much difference between maintaining the current position and continuing to move forward.
Wei Guangde had already figured it out at this moment. I answered the general's thoughts in the military camp, that is, the opponent had seen through their feint attack posture.
As for the method to crack it, it is actually simple. It is Sun Tzu's defense of the "magic and correct way" in The Art of War. Don't you think that I am here to feign an attack or a surprise attack?
Then I will give you a big transformation, I will give you a strange army and turn it into a regular one. If you really dare to send people out of the camp to rescue Anda Khan, then I will send troops to really attack your camp.
As for Ma Fang's side, they naturally became Qi soldiers, and Qi Zheng swapped.
You have sent out the troops, and the strength in the military camp will naturally be greatly reduced, so they will no longer be afraid of your counterattack.
Therefore, the dispute between Wei Guangde and Liu Dazhang was still continuing at this time. Wei Guangde insisted on continuing to push forward, so that our troops did not dare to easily send troops to return reinforcements.
What Liu Dazhang is worried about is that the pressure is too much. If the Tatars choose to defeat his side first and then go to rescue Anta, it will be troublesome.
At this time, thousands of households in Mongolia already knew that the Ming army seemed to be attacking the camp, and they were thinking about how to respond.