"kill!!"
"Your Highness...Your Highness..."
On the hilly grassland of northwest Jilin, thousands of cavalrymen holding banners with the character '朙' were chasing nearly 10,000 barbarians in front of them.
Facing the pursuit of the Ming army, Hu Qi fled northward frantically, fleeing from Jixi Fort to the Six Cities in the north.
On the way to pursue, Zhu Di was riding a tall horse, with his bow and arrows drawn under the guard of Yanfu's elite cavalry. From time to time, he shot a few unlucky Hu cavalry.
At this moment, they only had more than 2,000 light cavalry left. The armored cavalry had no idea how many miles behind them due to lack of horsepower.
During this period, it was not that Haragu did not organize cavalry to counterattack them. However, even though there were only more than 2,000 light cavalry beside Zhu Di, facing the counterattack of Hu cavalry that was twice as many as them, they still fought hard from left to right, with bows and arrows on horseback, and they would The Hu cavalry who tried to fight back were repelled one after another.
"If our armored soldiers hadn't suffered too many casualties, how could we have tolerated his small number of soldiers and horses to provoke him!!"
Looking back at his own embarrassing situation, Harawu was extremely angry, and his eyes were about to burst.
They had killed and injured too many troops in Jixi Fort, and too many armored soldiers had been killed by Zhu Gaoxu, so that now they could not muster effective armored soldiers to counterattack the Ming army.
Now they can only run away blindly. If they stop, the Ming army's light cavalry from behind will entangle them, waiting for the Ming army's armored cavalry to come to encircle and suppress them.
The two armies were fighting and running north. The short Mongolian horses were not as fast as the Qin horses under the Ming army. Although they had good endurance, the Ming army kept capturing Mongolian horses on the chase.
Gradually, Zhu Di's side became more and more powerful, while Harawu's side was exhausted.
When they were chasing and escaping through the city of Futijin, Haisanan Daxi, Azashili and others who were grazing in the valley here also learned the news early.
Knowing that Zhu Di was coming with a small force, they waited for work and led more than 10,000 troops to rush towards Zhu Di and more than 2,000 people.
"kill!!"
Azashili sat in the rear and gave the order. More than a thousand armored soldiers, led by Hai Sa Nan Da Xi, rushed towards the Ming army.
Haragu and Tolu Huchaer got a chance to breathe. They took the time to regroup their scattered troops and restore their power as much as possible.
"Don't fight them head-on, face them in a roundabout way!"
Looking at the over a thousand armored soldiers and tens of thousands of barbarian cavalry charging towards them, Zhu Di raised his hand without hesitation and ordered the army to stop advancing.
Under his command, the Ming cavalry began to rely on their abundant horse power to involve Haisa Nan and ridicule.
The tactic of 'when the enemy advances, we retreat, when the enemy retreats, we harass' was performed by Zhu Di in this hilly land hundreds of years in advance, perfectly taking advantage of the horse mobility that is rarely available to the Ming army today.
After pulling and pulling like this for a quarter of an hour, Haisanan Daxi's troops did not kill a few people from the Ming army. Instead, hundreds of people were killed by the Ming army's strong bows. His hands were shaking with anger.
"Don't fight with this madman Zhu Di, retreat to the north step by step!"
It took a quarter of an hour for Haragu to finally integrate his tribesmen who had been rushed to pieces by Zhu Di.
There were once tens of thousands of Hu cavalry, 5,000 armored soldiers, and 400 armored cavalry, but now less than half were left. Such a miserable appearance made Haragu furious, and his face revealed an abnormal red color.
But despite this, he still tried to calm down and reminded Haisa Nan Daxi and Azashili.
Although he was currently suffering heavy losses, which weakened the Uliangha tribe, he did not want their tribes to suffer heavy losses as well.
Once all three armies suffer heavy losses, they will most likely be greeted by the Ming Army's Northern Expedition next year.
"Zhu Di?!"
"It's Zhu Di!"
"It's King Yan of Nanbing!"
Haragu's reminder was drowned in the rumble of horse hooves, but even so, when Haisanan answered and led his men to fight with the Ming army, he was still frightened into a cold sweat by the familiar Yanfu banner.
Zhu Di was so famous that he organized troops from Peiping and Daning to patrol the north many times, which made the herdsmen of the Uuliangha tribes dare not go south to graze their cattle.
Because of this, when many Hu soldiers saw Yan Mansion's flag, they began to rein in their horses and stop the pursuit without waiting for Hai Sa Nan to respond to Xi's order.
"waste!"
Seeing that his subordinates were so timid, Hai SaNan laughed and cursed.
He tried to direct his troops to entangle Zhu Di, but the troops did not dare to step forward, and the two sides were in a stalemate for a while.
At this moment, a group of soldiers and horses came from the north to the south, looking as if they had just retreated.
As they approached, Haragu's face suddenly changed, because he recognized that these soldiers and horses were the soldiers and horses he had ordered to escort the cattle and sheep to retreat north.
"what happened!"
Haragu rode his horse and came to them. The person who came forward was also a Qianhu who had lost his helmet.
"Great Khan, there are hundreds of armored Ming troops more than ten miles northeast. They rushed and robbed a lot of our cattle and sheep!"
The thousand families of the Uliangha tribe who were responsible for moving cattle and sheep in the previous episode were ashamed. Hearing this, Halawu was so angry that his face turned red and his ears were red: "How come there are southern soldiers coming to the northeast? Whose tribe is it?!"
"They were flying the flag of Bohai. We don't know why they appeared." Qianhu ran for his life, feeling extremely nervous, fearing that Harawu would chop him with a knife.
"It should be the Ming army in Anton City. I just don't know how they knew we were defeated."
Before Haragu had time to analyze, Tulu Huchaer, who had accompanied him and escaped all the way, started analyzing with him.
"Zhu Gaoxu..." Harawu was very angry when he heard that they were actually soldiers and horses under Zhu Gaoxu's command.
"The armored cavalry of the Ming Army! They are catching up!"
Behind them, Haisa Nan's taunting tribesmen suddenly heard a sound of panic, and Haragu also quickly looked back.
While Zhu Di and Wu Liangha were fighting with each other, thousands of bright Ming cavalry were rushing toward them from the south.
"How did their horse power recover so quickly?!" Haragu sweated on his forehead. You must know that the power of the armored cavalry consumes a lot. Even the armored cavalry under his and Zhu Gaoxu's respective command ran out of power after just one charge.
He was able to escape here with his armored cavalry because when he was fleeing south, he ordered all the armored cavalry to take off their general horse vests and put them on the backs of other horses for transportation. This allowed them to insist on going south. He fled north for more than twenty miles.
In Haragu's judgment, Zhu Di came all the way, and the thousands of armored cavalry who came with him should have exhausted their power long ago.
"They're riding our horses!"
In this formation, Azashili yelled: "They took our horses and replaced them with new ones, look!"
Azashili's words gave Haragu a splitting headache. He looked carefully to the rear, and sure enough he found that most of the Ming troops rushing from the south were accompanied by two or three horses.
Such a scene, before today, Haragu would never believe it. After all, the Ming army has always been short of horses. If one man has two horses, he is considered an elite among the elite. How can one man have three horses?
"My horse!!"
Ha Lawu was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood. He could not imagine how Zhu Di knew that he came to attack Jilin City. He must know that he went back and forth in many circles on the Wuliangha grassland to confuse the Ming army.
But it's useless to say anything now. Not only did Zhu Di come, but he also ruined his plan to break through Jilin City. Originally, he was about to capture Zhu Gaoxu alive, but now everything was ruined by Zhu Di, a madman.
"Leave two thousand people behind and then we retreat!"
Haragu finally chose to cut off his arm to survive. Seeing his order, Tolu Huchaer and Azashili had no objection. The three of them each pieced together hundreds of cavalry, leaving more than a thousand cavalry to tangle with the Ming army, and then blew the whistle Sound the wooden whistle to notify Haisa Nan and Daxi to retreat.
"Beep--"
"They want to escape!"
Hu Qi's wooden whistle sounded. Zhu Di, who was leading Qing Qi to fight with Hu Qi, took the lead. Under the protection of Zhu Neng and Qiu Fu, he led his troops into the formation of Hai Sa Nan Da Xi. He stretched his bows all the way and shot down continuously. Many Hu soldiers wearing simple animal skin armor.
Beside him, Qiu Fu, who had been holding a knife to clear obstacles on both sides of Zhu Di, had a burning gaze and looked behind him from time to time.
Due to the closer distance, he could clearly see that the three thousand armored cavalry behind were riding on another horse at the moment, and the military horse's vest was placed on another horse, so the military horse got enough rest.
One person and three horses, such a luxurious treatment was something that all the Ming cavalry in the world could not imagine during the Hongwu period, but now it has been achieved.
"withdraw!"
Hai SaNan replied to Xi that when he saw thousands of armored cavalry appearing, no matter how arrogant he was, he realized that something was wrong. He immediately left some of his troops behind and led most of his troops to retreat.
On the way to retreat, more than a thousand Duanhou soldiers and horses sent by Haragu also joined the battle and held back Zhu Di and his two thousand cavalry.
Haragu, Tuolu Huchaer and others retreated with more than ten thousand soldiers and horses, while the Ming army continued to fight with the Hu cavalry who were cut off from the rear.
"Your Highness! We came to the right place this time! We finally caught them for so many years!"
During the fight, Qiu Fu, who was very skillful, turned around and said excitedly. Zhu Di put down the bow and arrow in his panting breath and said to Qiu Fu beside him: "I just don't know how the second child is doing. That kid should be fine."
Although people were killing the enemy, Zhu Di was still thinking of Zhu Gaoxu.
Fortunately, Zhu Neng, who was vigilant at the side, comforted him and said, "Don't worry, Your Highness, Ping Baoer sent someone to deliver the news just now. Your Highness is fine!"
"That's good!" Hearing that Zhu Gaoxu was okay, Zhu Di took a deep breath and looked at the Halawu and other troops in front of him who were gradually escaping, and felt itchy in his heart:
"Tell Bu Wan to continue chasing the enemy's main force. We will eat the remaining soldiers first."
"Yes!" Zhu Neng agreed, and immediately ordered someone to pass the news to Bu Wan, who had just arrived at the battlefield with his armored cavalry.
As a naturalized Mongolian general, Bu Wan was familiar with the terrain of Modong. Therefore, after receiving Zhu Di's military order, he immediately led his armored cavalry around the frontal battlefield and pursued the traces of Haragu and others to the north.
"kill!!"
Seeing that Bu Wan had successfully taken a detour to pursue him, Zhu Di once again held his bow and shot arrows, shouting for a fight.
Facing the armored soldiers and light cavalry of the Ming army, the more than two thousand leather-armored Hu cavalry who were left behind could not stop them for long.
The two sides faced each other for less than a quarter of an hour. As Hu Qi's casualties gradually increased, when the number of casualties exceeded one-fifth of the formation, they could no longer bear it and began to collapse in an instant.
Zhu Di did not miss this opportunity. While leading his troops to capture the defeated Hu cavalry, he also asked the naturalized Mongolians in the army to persuade them to surrender.
The chase lasted only a moment before most of the Hu cavalry dismounted and surrendered, and were captured by the Ming army.
"Dismount and restore power, send two teams of sentries back to Jilin City, ask the second brother to prepare food and horse feed, and give it to Pingbao'er to bring back. This time I will take the head of this Harawu to claim credit!"
Turning over and dismounting, Zhu Di gave orders to Zhu Neng and Qiu Fu beside him. After giving the order, Zhu Di sat on a piece of slightly clean grass.
His stomach growled with hunger, and he hurriedly took out a piece of corn cake and a kettle from the bag on the horse.
Facing the battlefield of corpses, he turned a blind eye and ate everything in his hands.
While he was eating, Zhu Neng and Qiu Fu were also leading troops and horses to clean up the battlefield.
When Zhu Di was observing the battlefield, he suddenly saw the sentinel cavalry returning from the northeast to explore all directions, and saw that they found Qiu Fu as soon as they returned.
They didn't know what they said to Qiu Fu, but after the explanation, Qiu Fu also trotted all the way to Zhu Di on horseback.
"Your Highness, there is news from the sentries in the northeast that they have encountered the soldiers and horses of Anton City. You will definitely not guess who the general of Anton City is."
"Who?" Zhu Di really couldn't guess. He just wanted to eat something hot now.
"It's Fu Rang!" Qiu Fu grinned. After hearing this, Zhu Di also thought of the young man who had trained with Fu Youde in Peking.
The vague memory gradually became clearer, and he said happily: "I know that the boy is now working under the second son, but I thought he was in Jilin City, and I didn't expect that he was in Anton City."
"Why, what news did he send?" Zhu Di reacted, and Qiu Fu was also reminded by his words, and he bowed excitedly:
"Fu Rang was going south to aid Jilin City, but he never expected to encounter the cattle and sheep that the Hu soldiers had moved in advance. The Hu soldiers escorting the cattle and sheep were ambushed and attacked by him. The cattle and sheep fled to the northwest, at least tens of thousands of them!"
"How much?" Zhu Di couldn't sit still, and his original idea of eating something warm was gone. Now his mind was filled with those tens of thousands of cattle and sheep.
"Tens of thousands!" Qiu Fu was also very excited. They went out to patrol the border many times, but Harawu always avoided fighting. This time, with the help of Jilin City as a bait, they were able to find such a big achievement.
"Boys!!"
Before Qiu Fu could continue speaking, Zhu Di became more energetic and called around: "Get on your horse, don't worry about the capture. Follow me to catch Hu Bing's cattle and sheep, and eat mutton with me tonight!"
"Roar!!" Many tired Ming soldiers became energetic when they heard that there was mutton to eat.
That's mutton, something they haven't been able to eat for years!
Without Zhu Di's encouragement, everyone cheered up. After leaving more than a hundred people to clean the battlefield and monitor the prisoners, Zhu Di rode on the captured horses and led his troops to continue the pursuit...
"kill!!"
"Your Highness...help!"
In the dim environment, the scene of fire and thousands of armies fighting was blurred before our eyes.
In this space, Zhu Gaoxu saw many faces that had disappeared.
Looking at their faces, he felt frightened for no reason and suddenly broke away from this environment.
When he opened his eyes again, what appeared in front of him was the dim rooftop.
"Having a nightmare..."
Zhu Gaoxu turned over and sat up. Although he didn't know how long he had slept, the pain in his body had eased a lot.
He pulled off his clothes and took a look. The wound had basically turned from purple to greenish yellow.
There was a quilt covering him. Guo Yan probably found him and asked his maid to cover him.
He opened the quilt, put on his shoes and walked out of the room.
There was almost no one in the not-so-large backyard of the palace, except for some music coming from the Cunxin Hall.
He walked towards Cunxin Hall. After entering the room, he saw Guo Yan playing the piano skillfully in the study.
Hearing the footsteps, Guo Yan also stopped what he was doing.
After looking up and seeing that the visitor was Zhu Gaoxu, who had been sleeping for several hours, she stood up and saluted slowly: "I wonder if it was the sound of my concubine's piano that disturbed His Highness's rest?"
"That's not the case..." Zhu Gaoxu was not impressed by Guo Yan because she could play the piano. After all, women in this era did not dare to say piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and almost everyone could do embroidery, embroidery and other crafts.
A noble family like Guo Yan is more open and affluent than those from a wealthy family, and horseback riding and archery are also considered one of the compulsory subjects.
"You play the guqin quite well." Zhu Gaoxu said and looked around.
"I saw that your highness had musical instruments here, so I decided on a whim." Guo Yan was also a little embarrassed, but Zhu Gaoxu didn't care.
Since he came to Jilin City, he has rarely touched musical instruments such as guqin, guzheng and pipa, mainly because of lack of time.
Except for when the mountains are closed by heavy snow in winter, when he can have a few drinks and play and sing by himself, he is busy the rest of the time.
"Is my father back?"
Zhu Gaoxu did not continue to talk in depth about musical instruments, but asked about business matters.
Hearing this, Guo Yan shook his head slightly: "I asked Yi Zhangyin, and Yi Zhangyin said that my father-in-law was chasing Naha Lagu to the 30,000 Guards. I don't know where he went after him. Even Commander Ping didn't know. .”
"It's in line with his character." Zhu Gaoxu didn't feel surprised when he heard that Zhu Di chased Haragu for a day and a night.
After all, if Zhu Di didn't do this, it wouldn't be like him.
Zhu Gaoxu said this, and at the same time Guo Yan also remembered something and said quickly: "By the way, Your Highness, Commander Fu from Anton City came to help with his troops. I heard that some cattle and sheep were seized on the road. They just entered the palace. Now, Zheng and Yi Zhangyin are discussing matters in Chengyun Hall."
"Fu Rang is here?" Zhu Gaoxu was very happy when he heard that Fu Rang came to help. Although Fu Rang did not provide timely support, this was the reason why Zhu Gaoxu was informed before the war that he did not need to participate in the war.
Unexpectedly, Fu Rang ignored his words and came with troops instead. He just didn't know how many soldiers and horses he brought, how many cattle and sheep were captured on the way, and how many defenders there were in Andong City. Will they be attacked by Atai Wailan.
All kinds of things flashed through Zhu Gaoxu's mind, so he did not continue chatting with Guo Yan, but left a message: "Let someone cook and send it to Chengyun Hall. I will talk to Fu Rang and them about some things, and you can eat by yourself." "
After the words fell, Zhu Gaoxu turned around and walked out of Cunxin Hall. Although Guo Yan was a little disappointed, she could understand.
If a man spends all his time in love and does not put his career first, then she will look down on him.
While she was thinking like this, Zhu Gaoxu also walked from the backyard to the front yard, and heard Fu Rang's familiar voice.
He walked into the hall without hesitation. Fu Rang and Yi Shiha, who were discussing something, suddenly saw him and stood up subconsciously.
"Your Highness" The two bowed and bowed.
"Why did you come to help Jilin City? I heard that you made some seizures on the way."
Zhu Gaoxu got straight to the point and asked him the two most worrying questions, to which Fu Rang also bowed:
"When the news from Lin Su arrived, I set off with the 300 horse infantry. During the process, I met some Jurchens who fled to Anton City. It took some time to receive them, otherwise we should have arrived last night."
"As for the capture, when I led my troops south, I encountered the Ulyanha people driving their cattle and sheep north. Seeing that there were not many of them, I took the opportunity to ambush them."
"They may have thought that my troops were just the vanguard to set up an ambush, so they panicked and headed northwest."
"Although we have limited manpower, we have also intercepted thousands of cattle, sheep and horses."
After Fu Rang finished talking about his experience of going south, Yishiha on the side smiled and said: "To be more precise, it should be 846 cows, 757 middle and low-grade horses, and more than 3,000 A sheep.”
The amount reported by Yishiha made Zhu Gaoxu relieved, and at the same time he said happily: "It can be considered as a recovery of more losses."
"It's a pity that we don't have enough troops, otherwise I might be able to intercept more." Fu Rang was also very sorry, and then continued to smile:
"But fortunately, I met the sentries of His Highness King Yan on the way, so after I told them the news of the Hu soldiers' cattle and sheep fleeing north, I rushed back to Jilin City with the captured cattle and sheep."
"Did you meet my father?" Zhu Gaoxu looked to his left and right in confusion and asked, "Didn't Haragu escape to the south?"
When he asked this question, Yishiha failed to answer him, but Fu Rang explained clearly:
"It is said that after escaping for more than ten miles to the south, he then took a detour to the north. His Highness King Yan ordered the knight to take off his vest and chase him north."
After saying that, Fu Rang also said with relief: "The more than 100,000 cattle and sheep are walking slowly. If His Highness King Yan's subordinates have enough horsepower, they may be able to stop them."
"There should be no problem. It's just that I haven't caught Haragu yet, so it's hard for me to express my hatred." Zhu Gaoxu frowned slightly:
"If we let them escape this time, we may have to suffer from them in the coming year!"
Zhu Gaoxu was also very envious of the tens of thousands of cattle and sheep, but at the moment he was unable to eat them, so for him, killing Haragu was the outcome that would maximize the interests of him and Jilin City.
At least Halawu is dead, and the alliance of the three guards of Wuliangha will be temporarily disintegrated, and they will not be able to pose a threat to Jilin City in the short term.
"Don't worry about this!" Zhu Gaoxu was still worried, but Fu Rang interrupted and said:
"When I led my troops south, there were corpses of Hu soldiers who had been chopped down all the way. I thought that even if Haragu was not dead, he would at least suffer heavy casualties."
"This is best." Zhu Gaoxu nodded, and then talked to Fu Rang about the surrender of the Eighteen Division leaders.
Fu Rang heard about it and also told the story about Anton City accepting more than 300 Jurchen refugee households and more than 2,000 people.
With this group of people, it would be easier to open up wasteland in Anton City, but along with it, there was not enough food in Anton City, so he was about to ask Zhu Gaoxu's opinion on whether to keep this group of people.
"Do you think you want to keep these two thousand or so Jurchens?"
"Of course!" Zhu Gaoxu did not hesitate. What he lacked most at the moment was people.
In this battle, Jilin City lost too many people, whether they were Han or Jurchens, he needed them all.
Therefore, he not only wanted to appease the Jurchens, but also secretly asked for people from Lao Zhu in the south.
Although I don’t know if Lao Zhu will give it to him, it’s not too much to immigrate once a year.
"Records of Emperor Taizong of the Ming Dynasty": In April of Guimao in the 29th year of Hongwu, he led his army to relieve the siege of Jilin. He encountered Hu soldiers and fought with them. He killed Chalin Timur, the general of the Yuan Dynasty, and pursued Halagu to the six cities. He met A Zashili fought again and killed thousands of enemies. Halagu was defeated and fled, capturing tens of thousands of cattle and sheep, and chased them away.
"Bohai Chronicles": In the fourth month of Guimao, Duke Ying set up an ambush at the Hehel Mountain in the Sixth City. The Yuan soldiers suffered heavy casualties and the cattle and sheep fled. Duke Ying captured thousands of cattle and sheep and went south. When he met Taizong, he reported the whereabouts of the Yuan soldiers. Taizong pursued A Zhemi.
(End of chapter)
