Chapter 223 222 Qi and Zheng
The manufacturer of this batch of sidecars was Zeng Xian, who was then the Minister of War and the Governor-General of Shaanxi's trilateral military affairs.
Zeng Mian, courtesy name Zizhong, was born in Huangyan County, Taizhou Prefecture, Zhejiang Province. He was a Jinshi in the eighth year of Jiajing's reign. He was first the county magistrate, then the censor, and finally became a frontier official on the governor's side.
When Zeng Mian was the governor of the three sides, he continuously defeated the Anda tribe, which was now arrogant, in the area under his jurisdiction. In the autumn of the 25th year of Jiajing, when Anda Khan raided Yan'an and Qingyang with 100,000 cavalry, Zeng Mian only defended the city with a few thousand soldiers, and at the same time sent his general Li Zhen to lead his troops directly to the Maliangshan camp, Anda Khan's home base. Anda Khan had no choice but to retreat decisively after hearing this.
This battle was also the only military operation of the Ming army that took place outside the Great Wall since the Zhengde Dynasty.
However, the success of the raid on Maliang Mountain not only did not bring Zeng Xian an opportunity to gain promotion, but also brought disaster.
The success of this military operation gave Zeng Xian a new understanding of the combat capabilities of the Ming army and the Anda tribe. From then on, he began to no longer be conservative, but instead submitted a "Request to Recover the Hetao Shu" to the court, requesting that troops be sent to recover the Hetao area.
It goes without saying that the importance of the Hetao area can not only effectively reduce the threat of the Mongolian Tatars to the border towns, but also find an excellent horse farm for the Ming army, thus completely solving the Ming army's biggest chronic problem - the lack of war horses.
Because this memorial was supported by Xia Yan, who was then the chief minister of the cabinet, Zeng Mian thought that it was very likely to be implemented, so he began to vigorously renovate equipment and prepare for the army. Naturally, a large number of sidecars for the infantry were also manufactured.
However, the Hetao was not taken back in the end. The chief assistant Xia Yan and himself were beheaded soon after, and his favorite general Li Zhen was also poisoned.
At that time, a large amount of equipment prepared for the recovery of the Hetao area was also dispersed and allocated to other border towns for use. The sidecars used by the Xuanfu army here also came from this.
At this time, the Ming army had formed a tight military formation outside the Andabu military camp, using the Fran machine guns mounted on the tanks to continuously bombard the military camp, causing damage and preventing the Mongolian soldiers on this side from gathering quickly.
As the bombardment continued, the Mongolian soldiers finally gathered in large numbers behind the fence. They continued to draw their bows and throw arrows at the Ming army. However, the effect was limited under the protection of the chariot baffles and large shields.
At this time, Anda's Wanhu had already ordered the other five Qianhu in the camp to form their own teams. Naturally, his choice at this time was not to rush out and fight the Ming army in a bloody battle, but to lead five thousand cavalry out of the rear camp gate to support them. Ada Khan Camp behind the military camp.
Ten thousand households in Mongolia are the absolute confidants of Anda Khan in the Anda tribe, and he knows very well the purpose of their stationing here.
One of the reasons why Anda Khan chose to station troops here was to sneak attack the Xuanfu army and cripple them if there was a chance.
However, after the Ming army arrived in Baoan Prefecture, they chose to retreat tactics, which prevented the Mongolian cavalry from taking advantage of it. Anda Khan did not think that his men would be good at attacking the Ming army's cities.
Then another purpose of staying is naturally to wait for the Datong Army that may arrive.
Although the reconnaissance cavalry sent by the Anta Division to the south is limited, they can definitely be regarded as elite.
Yes, in Ada Khan's view, the Mongols could not take much advantage in siege warfare, but they could have an absolute advantage in field battles.
Since the Xuanfu Army retreated into Baoan Prefecture first, he would target the Datong Army. When the Datong Army went north to rescue Xuanfu, he would raid the Datong Army halfway. If the results were brilliant, Anda Khan would not mind taking his men with him. Then he took advantage of the situation and attacked Datong from behind, turning the entire Xuanda defense line upside down.
However, neither he nor the Great Khan above him expected that the Xuanfu Army would dare to take the initiative to go out of the city to fight.
Mongolian households have lost count of how many times they sent people out to invite battle, but the Ming army on the opposite side showed no response.
From time to time, people came on horseback from the west military camp and the rear military camp to bring the latest news.
At this time, Wanhu in Mongolia had determined that the attack they received here was probably just a feint attack, and the purpose was to contain their own forces and prevent them from rescuing the Great Khan.
Will you do what the people of the Ming Dynasty want?
What a joke.
As long as the Mongols ride on their horses, they are invincible in the past, present and future.
But at this time, he could only keep urging his several thousand households to complete the work of the entire team as soon as possible, so that they could follow him to fight out from the back camp gate, first kill the Ming army outside the camp gate, and then outflank and attack the Khan's camp. The Ming army.
As for the Ming troops outside, they are lucky and can live a little longer.
However, when the Mongolian official Wanhu saw the soldiers running around in panic in the distance, he wanted to kill these people with a knife.
He also had to constantly find generals who could be found nearby. On the one hand, he ordered them to gather their troops to restore their fighting strength, and on the other hand, he had to control the rebel troops who ran around and screamed without obeying orders.
The sudden offensive of the Ming army still had some impact on the soldiers of the Mongolian Ada tribe, but this could only slow down their gathering speed.
Many recruits with no battlefield experience were facing the dark night. Although the military camp had lit a large number of bonfires and torches for lighting, they were still in fear because they were unaware of the Ming army's offensive outside.
At this moment, the only people who have a reasonable understanding of the situation in the military camp are the Mongolian households.
The tents in the Anda military camp are widely spread out, and usually the tents of a group of soldiers are gathered together, with stables next to them to facilitate their going out into battle.
The roads in the camp are also wider, making it easier for horses to leave.
This kind of layout actually makes it more difficult for a sneak attack, because the military camp is larger and it is not convenient to create crowds and stampedes, and the effect of fire attacks is not good.
The road is wide, which not only facilitates the attack, but also facilitates the defensive side to switch from defense to attack.
In fact, the Ming army was still very troubled by the way Anda's camp was set up, especially when they had no intention of taking the initiative to attack.
As for why the Ming army did not choose to attack both camps at the same time, in fact, during the debate yesterday morning, a conclusion was reached, that is, the Ming army's current strength is insufficient to carry out an effective assault on the two military camps of Anda.
If you want to create chaos and successfully break the camp, you need several times the number of troops to deploy. You can besiege the enemy's camp and create even greater chaos.
However, the existing strength of the Ming army cannot meet such requirements. It seems that the Ming army is twice as strong as the Mongolian army, but in real encounters, the Ming army has no advantage at all.
As for forcefully breaking into the Anda military camp, this is very easy, but once it is blocked by the enemy in front of you and the Mongolian troops from the rear and left and right gather together, it will not be too easy for the cavalry to launch a counterattack against them.
In this battle, the Xuanfu army gave Ma Fang the choice of the most elite cavalry. In addition to his original troops, he added nearly a thousand people, so that he could lead Xuanfu's most powerful cavalry regiment of more than 2,000 people against him. Anda Khan's army camp launched a sneak attack, and even allocated 500 new firearms previously allocated by the court to his men.
A glimmer of light has appeared in the east, but the chaos in the Andabu military camp is still there, but it is gradually getting better. The shouts, shouts of death, and gunfire in the distance are still constant, stimulating the nerves of everyone in the camp.
At this time, Wanhu in Mongolia already knew from the news sent by Qianhu who was in charge of the Western Camp that the Ming army had set up a defensive formation outside the military camp. It did not look like they were trying to rob the camp. Qianhu under his leadership was enough to cope with it. The Ming army had no intention of fighting in.
Just for insurance, he still hoped to deploy a thousand-household cavalry unit behind him to support the Ming army in case of a surprise attack.
At this time, tens of thousands of households in Mongolia were still struggling with whether to leave people behind to guard against the sudden intrusion of the Ming army.
"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 from behind the Ming army's formation, and found that they did not attract too many Tatar soldiers, at most a force of one thousand households.
After saying this, Wei Guangde felt a bad feeling in his heart when he saw such a scene.
Perhaps the Ming army's military formation was too conservative. They only relied on shelling the Tatar camp and shooting at the archers on both sides. It seemed that it did not attract the attention of the Tatars. Perhaps the Tatars in the military camp had begun to gather to prepare to reinforce Anda Khan behind them. Camp.
"Master Liu, should we order the people below? The military formation continues to press forward. The threat to us from the Tatar archers is limited."
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 a counselor, he cannot actually command the 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 commander Tian Shiwei next to him had already frowned.
Well, everyone should have thought of something, and everyone knows that the current situation has not met the Ming army's expectations.
"Master Liu, General Liu, the Tatars should realize that our attack here is a feint. If we don't let the army press forward and put appropriate pressure on the Tatars, I am afraid that the Tatar cavalry will rush out of the rear camp and kill Liu Huan." Ministry, when the time comes, it will really be beyond redemption.”
Naturally, this is what Wei Guangde can think of. The feint attack by the infantry cannot attract the attention of Anda's troops. They will definitely turn to rescue Anda Khan. Once Ma Fang's troops collapse, thousands of infantrymen outside will have no way to survive.
Those with two legs can't run as well as those with four legs.
After Wei Guangde finished speaking, he finally saw Liu Dazhang's reaction. He waved to the guard next to him to signal his advance, and the two torches continued to wave forward.
If it is daytime, they only need to wave the five-color flag to let the officer leading the team know their intentions.
It's still dark now, so it's naturally impossible to use five-color flags to direct people. They can only send signals by waving torches and other objects.
It didn't take long for the generals in front to understand the meaning behind this, and soon the Ming army began to advance again.
While the archers continued to throw out several waves of arrows, the gunners also quickly emptied the loaded sub-cannon barrels. Taking advantage of the slight confusion of the Anta soldiers, the chariot turned around and began to move forward. The entire army followed. The movement of the chariot began to move forward.
After taking ten steps, he adjusted his direction again and completed the arrangement of the military formation again.
The distance between the two armies was only more than ten meters, but the psychological pressure on the Mongolian army should not be underestimated.
If they continue to get closer and closer to the camp, who can guarantee that the Japanese army will not suddenly rush up.
The short wooden fence they built could not stop the Ming army's attack and would be easily knocked down.
Qianhu of the Tatars immediately sent someone to report the situation here to Master Wanhu. They needed to reserve more troops, or simply fight out from the front camp gate, defeat the Ming army in front of them from the flank, and then go to support Ada Khan.
Yes, now when the Qianhu in the Anda military camp contacted Wanhu, they already knew that the Ming army's main attack direction should be towards the Great Khan.
The news spread to Wanhu not only reassured Qianhu that this was not the main attack direction of the Ming army, so they did not have to worry about the Ming army suddenly rushing in. It 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. 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?
That's going to kill people, and it's not impossible for one person to be able to annihilate 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 real 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, Qi Zheng exchanged.
If you send out the troops, the strength in the military camp will naturally be greatly reduced, and 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 their own 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.