Chapter 224 223 Charge the Camp

"General Liu, the cavalry from other directions in the Tatar camp should be completed soon. We should take advantage of this opportunity to break up their camp instead of shooting at them step by step here."

Wei Guangde said loudly to Liu Dazhang.

"Master Wei, I understand what you are saying, but what if the army here does not rescue Anta Khan? They rushed out from the front door and cut off our army, or as you said, rushed into the Tatar camp, and they sealed it If you block our retreat, what should you do?”

Liu Dazhang was dissatisfied with Wei Guangde's attitude towards him at this time, and asked him rudely.

"No, it's not dawn yet."

Wei Guangde had already thought that with the current situation, the Tatar commander in the camp might not dare to lead his troops out of the front gate, so he immediately shook his head and replied: "Besides, Liu Huan's troops in the back camp are not far from their camp gate. It was impossible for their people not to discover Liu Huan's troops.

With the current brightness, they will be worried that there will be a large army surrounding the front door, so they are unlikely to attack us first. They will most likely rush out from the back door, directly face the visible threat of Liu Huanbu, and kill them to rescue me. Answer Khan, then join forces and fight back. "

Wei Guangde analyzed according to his own logic.

Yes, what is the purpose of the night raid?

When two armies are fighting, the stronger side generally disdains the use of night attack tactics, and most of them will only choose the weaker side.

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

As for the night attack, due to the restrictions of darkness, it will greatly weaken some of the capabilities of both warring parties, and there is great uncertainty. Even the party launching the night attack is the same. It can only be said that maybe it will be better prepared, but absolutely Not much stronger.

In fact, in the Antabu military camp, thousands of Mongolian households are also thinking about what to do.

This attack by the Ming Army on the camp is really strange. I just received a reconnaissance report two days ago and found traces of the 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 been attacked a few days ago? Many more troops were mobilized.

The infantry moves slowly and it is difficult to hide their tracks, but the cavalry is relatively easy, as long as there are enough scouts to seal off the surrounding areas.

When Wei Guangde thought that they had made it from Huailai County to Baoan Prefecture without anyone noticing, and was complacent about the smooth journey, in fact, the Anda Division's reconnaissance cavalry had already discovered them at this time, but they acted too quickly to send troops to intercept them.

It was only at this time that their unexpectedly exposed itinerary made Mongolian households who knew about it suspect that the Ming army had secretly mobilized cavalry from various places to garrison Baoan Prefecture. They might have really targeted the Great Khan.

Traces of thousands of Ming army cavalry have been found outside the rear camp gate, but what about the front gate?

It was not yet light enough to see far enough to determine whether there was an ambush at the front door as well.

"When you go back and send a message, just say that I understand. Once my men and horses are assembled here, I will go there to support him."

The Mongolian Ten Thousand Households had no choice but to let the messengers sent by the Zuoying Thousand Households go back first. Anyway, the other five Thousand Households have not rushed over to report yet, indicating that they are still busy organizing the team.

After the Ming army attacked the camp, several thousand households sent people to contact themselves, gathered troops at their respective stations, and at the same time observed the situation outside the camp. After finding no sign of the Ming army, they sent people to report the situation to themselves. .

In fact, if at this time, the Mongolian households choose to gather their troops and rush out directly from the camp to kill the Ming army infantry phalanx head-on, the outcome of the battle here is really hard to say.

The Xuanfu army gathered tens of thousands of infantry outside the camp, including more than a thousand archers, who took turns shooting at the Mongolian army in two squads, and more than a thousand gunshots were used to stabilize the army and defend against the Tatar cavalry. Raid.

The reason for this configuration is that only archers have sufficient firepower density at this time. The shooting and reloading of bird guns is relatively slow and cannot continue to suppress the Tatars in the camp.

However, Wei Guangde and the generals of the Ming Army forgot one thing, that is, it is also night. After their gunmen fired the loaded ammunition, they would encounter trouble in the night when reloading. They could not be like If they quickly complete the reloading and fire the second shot as they usually do in training, their shooting frequency will also be affected.

Just when the high-level Ming army was arguing and the Mongolian households were entangled, the Ming army under Ma Fang and Anda Khan's Royal Guards had already fought together in the Anda Khan camp.

Where the Ming army broke camp, there were only a few corpses of Mongolian soldiers lying on the ground. However, the closer you went to the center of the military camp, the more dead bodies there were on the ground, not only from the Tatars, but also from the Ming army.

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

Before more Tatar soldiers who came out to see the situation could figure out the situation, their heads were cut off in an instant as the Ming army cavalry roared past them.

The Ming army's surprise attack was very effective at first, and encountered almost no effective resistance.

Only a few soldiers on night watch could still rush on horseback to stop the Ming army's advance, but what they had to face was the most elite soldiers of the Ming army Ma Fang. Soon their resistance was suppressed and turned into corpses on the ground. dead body.

When the Anda Khan camp was alerted, although most people were still sleepy-eyed, they hurriedly rushed out of the camp with weapons in hand when they heard the shouts of killing outside.

But all they could see was the fire in the sky and the deafening shouts of killing.

The Tatars who were far away from the edge of the camp were undoubtedly lucky. They could put on their armor in a hurry, pick up their weapons and run to the stables nearby. Those Tatar soldiers who were unfortunate enough to run out of the tent and encounter the Ming army cavalry were unlucky. Many of them were chopped to the ground after only a weak resistance.

However, as the Ming army continued to advance, the cleverness of the layout of Altan Khan's camp gradually emerged.

The Mongolian Tatars' military camps covered a very large area. The camps were divided into hundred-household teams. Only a few large tents of a hundred households would gather together, and next to them were their stables. The distance between each hundred-household Tatar station was far, and the effect of the Ming army's fire seemed to be of little use at this time.

There would also be simple chevaux de frise between each hundred-household station to separate the two camps.

They rushed into the Tartar camp, and had to ride their horses to the Tartar tents and throw torches to ignite the tents. Then they threw the Tartars who rushed out to their comrades behind them, and continued to rush forward, either carefully passing through the not-so-wide barricades, or rushing through the winding passages of the camp.

The Tartar camp was not neat, and the winding passages in the camp could allow horses to run, but they could not make the war horses run wildly.

From time to time, large piles of burning or extinguished bonfires could be seen on both sides of the passage. All signs showed that there was a carnival here last night.

At this time, the surrounding Tartar garrisons had been awakened by the chaos outside, and they rushed out with their weapons, and ran to the stables after seeing the situation clearly.

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

The leading troops of the Ming army were a thousand soldiers trained by Ma Fang himself, the elite of this ragtag army.

The so-called elite troops were actually just more trained than other cavalry troops, and they received more salary. In fact, it was still not full salary, and Ma Fang had no way to get more money and food for his men.

But even so, the combat effectiveness of these soldiers after the outbreak of the battle was far superior to the so-called fierce soldiers transferred from other troops.

Ma Fang was a Han Chinese who escaped from Mongolia. After joining the Datong Army, he started as a soldier. Because of his bravery in combat, he rose from a soldier to 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 that war that made Emperor Jiajing lose face, Ma Fang was one of the few generals who achieved military achievements. As a result, he was promoted from a thousand households to a guerrilla general and gained the right to lead troops to fight independently.

In the past few years, during the battles with Altan's tribe, he also won more and lost less, becoming a famous general in Xuanfu.

Such achievements were naturally not achieved by him alone. The most important thing was that he accepted those soldiers who dared to fight.

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

Who would be willing to fight the Tartars if they couldn't even support their own families?

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

In the defense zone where Ma Fang was located, the first thing he did was to forcibly take back the military farms.

Yes, those military farms occupied by officials and gentry, and use the military farms and the few salaries allocated by the upper level to distribute to his soldiers.

He took more than before, and his commander had to bear the responsibility for it. Naturally, every time he led a battle, the soldiers fought desperately, fearing that Ma Fang would be implicated because of poor performance.

This may be one of the reasons why Ma Fang was able to stand out in the border town of the Ming Dynasty at this time.

As for those 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 poison.

Most of these officials and gentry were just local bullies, and perhaps someone in their family had been or is currently an official in the court.

Don't be afraid. According to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, officials must serve in other places. Their family officials cannot reach Xuanfu, and can only work through their colleagues in Xuanfu. However, Ma Fang has already paid part of the output of the military farm to the general, the governor, and even the governor.

The result of the appeal by the officials and gentry is often "delayed".

This is also the reason why no one can touch Ma Fang in this era, even if he offends many local tyrants.

There are people protecting him on the official level, and the soldiers below are also powerful. The rest is up to him. As long as there is no command error, it is difficult to lose the battle.

But at this moment, this group of elites who had been invincible in the border war gradually fell into trouble.

It didn't take long from the initial easy killing to the predicament. In fact, they just broke out of several Tartar hundred-household camps in succession and were surrounded by reinforcements from the surroundings.

The characteristics of the camping of the Altan tribe destined them to quickly make their cavalry form combat effectiveness.

Most of the Tatars who fought with them from the beginning were still naked, just riding on horses, holding weapons in their hands and rushing up with a roar.

Such Tatar soldiers are still easy to deal with, after all, they have no protection on their bodies, and most of them are not in a good mental state, just waking up from a dream.

However, as time passed, the Tatars who appeared behind began to appear in full armor, and several hundred teams rushed into the battlefield in succession, naturally dragging down the impact of Ma Fang's elite troops. This may be the true strength of the Royal Court Guard.

After being attacked by the Ming army, they did not panic like the Wanhu camp of Altan Khan, but immediately joined the battle.

The centurions near the battlefield rushed into the battlefield to slow down the Ming army's assault and waited for the centurions behind to come to support.

What Ma Fang saw was that the old subordinates who had followed him for many years gradually fell into a bitter battle in the face of the continuous influx of Altan Khan's cavalry, and the speed of attack was seriously slowed down.

"Keep charging."

At this time, the morale of the side was high, who could hold on to the end, and the courage was the competition.

While Ma Fang ordered his personal soldiers to drive the soldiers who followed his soldiers, who were drawn from other lieutenants of Xuanfu and the guerrilla department, to continue to attack Altan Khan's camp, he observed the layout of the camp and looked for the location of Altan Khan's tent.

If it was daytime, he should be able to see the tall black flag outside Altan Khan's tent at this time.

Unfortunately, it was night, and he could not tell how far this place was from Altan Khan's tent, and where the other side was.

He could only roughly determine the direction of the center of the military camp according to several passages in the camp, and led his men to rush in.

Before the main force of the camp found Altan Khan's tent, Ma Fang was reluctant to use his last few hundred men and horses, which were his last reliance for killing Altan in this night attack.

In front of Ma Fang, about 1,500 Ming troops had already been involved in the fight. They withstood the pressure of Altan's royal guards and continued to rush in the direction indicated by Ma Fang. Although the speed was slow, they were still moving forward.

Behind them, Ma Fang's own 300 family servants and 500 guards of the Xuanfu General's Mansion were still neatly lined up there, preparing for the final decisive battle.

The family servant team was the most powerful force in the Ming army of this era. Not only did they exist in large numbers in the border towns, but the generals in the interior also learned to do so. They were usually their own guards, and could be used as messengers in wartime, and even the main force of the charge. Ma Fang was no exception.

While constantly dispatching the Ming army and adjusting their charge direction, he kept observing the battle situation around him.

Ma Fang estimated that he had killed at least four or five hundred Tartar soldiers. Now there were seven or eight hundred Tartars in front of him. He should have almost reached the tent of Altan Khan, but why couldn't he see the most elite golden armored guards?

Did he attack in the wrong direction?

At this time, Ma Fang, who observed the surroundings, couldn't help but have a little doubt in his heart, worried that he might have chosen the wrong direction.

However, this worry didn't last long, and the road ahead suddenly widened.

"Woo woo."

At this time, a horn sounded.