Xu Heng's three 10,000-person troops have different combat strengths: the leading 10,000-person army is composed of 5,000 elite border troops, 3,000 of the most elite Shenji Battalion, and 2,000 emperor's personal guards.
Xu Heng's most elite combat forces were all sent out, and they could not even defend the city. The emperor sent two thousand personal guards to take over the defense of Yuantucheng for the time being.
Xu Heng, Fan Guang, and Xu Tong were all in command of a team of ten thousand people. They were also one of the two main forces in the night attack on Polo.
The ten thousand troops located at the rear left are the ten thousand soldiers of the Shenji Battalion led by Commander Tao Jin.
The 10,000-person team located at the rear right is composed of 5,000 Tiance Guards commanded by Chengshan Hou Wangtong, and is assisted by 5,000 Shenji Battalion soldiers.
Except for Tao Jin, who has a relatively peaceful mentality, the remaining generals who command the army are in great need of military merit.
The most urgent one is Chengshan Marquis Wangtong. His Marquisship was only restored verbally by the emperor, and new achievements were needed to formally confirm it.
Although the Tiance Guards under Wang Tong were included in the personal bodyguards of the emperor, the Tiance Guards were forced to serve as guards by the King of Han. After the King of Han destroyed the family, the Tiance Guards have been suppressed for twenty years.
Most importantly, the name Tiance Wei is also very problematic. Why did the King of Han insist on naming Tiance Guards? It was because Emperor Taizong Li Shimin was the general of Tiance and opened the Tiance Mansion. Therefore, the King of Han felt that the name Tiancewei was a good fortune, and he also wanted to replace the eldest son with the second son as the crown prince like Li Shimin.
After doing this, can Tiancewei still survive? They can only be suppressed by the emperor at every turn and cannot turn over for more than 20 years.
After waiting hard for Emperor Jingtai to ascend the throne, and seeing that Zhu Qiyu was extremely short of manpower and had to drill holes in the mountains in order to dig out his cronies, Tiance Wei finally saw a turning point.
Moreover, Tiancewei is now the emperor's personal guard. If you chop off a Tatar's head, you will be rewarded with twenty taels.
So now Wang Tong led the Tiance Guards and was very eager to rush forward and chop off people's heads.
This is the morale of the 30,000 Ming army currently commanded by Xu Heng.
One characteristic of the Ming army is that it never disappoints people when it has sufficient food and pay and no loss in intelligence.
This also led to the joke of later generations: if the Jurchens are not satisfied with ten thousand, they are invincible if they are full of ten thousand; the Ming army is not satisfied with their pay, but if they are full of pay, they will win.
But he said that after dark, he decided that the Ming army would not attack, so he withdrew to his camp with 30,000 cavalry. The main force of 60,000 people gathered together and prepared to rest peacefully for the night before taking action tomorrow.
After Ye Xian retreated back to the camp, the 30,000 Ming army between Ye Xian and Polo no longer had any worries. Under the leadership of the governors Tang Jie and Liu Dexin, they began to cooperate with Xu Heng's 30,000 main force and march towards Polo step by step. Press.
Polo stayed in the camp, feeling very sad. It was dark outside and he couldn't understand what the Ming army was doing. And now I don’t know what to do:
Go to sleep? Then this heart is too big, and it is impossible to sleep.
Charge out with the cavalry? Where to rush, towards whom? What should I do if I rush into a house, bump into a wall, or step into a ditch?
Build fortifications? I have never heard of any fool doing this to build fortifications at night.
Polo had no choice but to look at the two brothers, but the two brothers also looked at each other with big eyes and small eyes, unable to explain the reason.
It was the first time that Polo encountered a strange opponent who insisted on fighting at night, and it was also the first time that he fought so cowardly.
While Polo was struggling, the 60,000 Ming army slowly advanced to a mile away from the edge of Polo camp, and then continued to advance without stopping. It took a full two hours, and finally it was 200 steps away from Polo camp.
At this time, Xu Heng was no longer silent, and ordered three troops of ten thousand people to start using catapults to attack the opposite side.
So a hundred catapults launched an attack at the same time, and with each salvo, a hundred stones were thrown into Polo's camp.
In fact, under normal circumstances, the catapult is useless and does not cause much damage.
It was Zhu Qi Yufei who forced the military craftsmen of Jinyiwei to build a hundred catapults specifically to cause trouble for the opponent at night.
The purpose is not to kill people, but to prevent the other side's soldiers from sleeping peacefully.
This stupid method really worked. Polo's army could not rest at all. After all, rocks will fall from the sky at any time, who can bear it? Although the chance of being hit is very small, who would risk their life?
In fact, the range of the catapult is only three to four hundred steps at most, but everywhere is dark. How can the soldiers of Oala bother to study the range of the catapult? All they know is that there is a lot of movement, and waves of stones rain down. Smashed into the camp.
Therefore, the stone-throwing tactics, with loud thunder and small raindrops, still successfully affected the mentality and sleep of the Polo army.
After receiving the report from the soldiers, the three Polo brothers couldn't sit still at all. King Saihan advised: "Brother, let's retreat. We can't fight, and we can't sleep. Sitting is not an option. Isn't that just sitting there and waiting for death?"
How about we also learn from the Ming army, gather 20,000 cavalry together, and retreat slowly. Anyway, the Ming army is advancing slowly, so we will slowly spend it step by step. When dawn, we will attack with the whole army and eat this Ming army. "
Polo asked helplessly: "I also want to withdraw, but what about the food and grass? What about the baggage? Besides, we have 20,000 people. The Ming army opposite has 60,000 people during the day. I don't know how many there are outside now. We How to eat them?
They used those chariots to surround themselves like a hedgehog. How to fight? Fighting the Ming army under the walls of Beijing was much more difficult than fighting in Datong and Xuanfu. "
"Why don't we give up the food, grass and baggage first, and then we can grab it back tomorrow?"
Hearing this, Polo scolded angrily: "You are stupid. They burned it for you. What are you going to grab tomorrow? Are you going to grab the ashes?"
King Saihan helplessly replied: "What should I do? Don't let me charge at the Ming army now. If you want to charge, your men will charge. My men will not make such unnecessary sacrifices."
Just when the three Polo brothers were in a dilemma, the Ming army stopped again and stopped advancing. They only fired a volley of trebuchets every two quarters of an hour. The Ming army just didn't want Polo's army to sleep well, but they also didn't want to fight face to face.
The two sides reached a stalemate, but this also relieved Polo from the siege. At least there was no need to debate whether to fight or retreat.
It kept going like this, and finally it got to the point where it would be daybreak if there was only one more hour left. The Ming army stopped throwing stones and began to retreat slightly.
Polo sighed, this difficult night was finally over. Bo Luo secretly swore in his heart that tomorrow, he would retreat five miles no matter what, and when he arrived, he would first camp on the north side of the camp, next to the main force of Wala.
It's all my fault that my eldest brother insisted on setting up camp so close to the city wall of Beijing. If he had set up camp ten miles away from the city like his eldest brother, the Ming army would not have dared to get so close.
Thinking of this, Polo ordered his soldiers to pass on the order, and the army began to take turns to rest, and packed up their baggage and retreated at dawn.
It's a pity that Polo's order killed thousands of his soldiers. In fact, if the army persists for another hour, the matter will be over.
The Wala army had marched urgently from Zijin Pass, and it took three days to reach the gates of Beijing. It was already exhausted. After being tortured by the Ming army all afternoon and all night, the soldiers were already exhausted physically and mentally.
Polo gave the order to take turns to rest, and the soldiers were completely relaxed. They all sat on the ground, tilted their heads and fell asleep.
Zhu Qiyu planned the series of ridiculous actions before, waiting for this moment, and waiting for Polo's misjudgment at the last moment.
Less than half an hour after Bro's order was conveyed, a cavalry composed of three thousand emperor's personal guards suddenly came out from the north.
Xu Heng's team of ten thousand people was in a wide open car formation. The cavalry, composed of 5,000 elite Shaanxi frontier troops and 2,000 emperor's personal guards, charged into the Polo camp from the east.
Wang Tong's team of ten thousand people also opened their vehicle formations. Five thousand Tiance Guard cavalry made a detour and attacked the Polo camp from the south.
The remaining more than 50,000 Ming troops followed the cavalry and began to speed up. Relying on the protection of the car formation, they attacked the Polo Camp from the east and south sides.
(End of chapter)
