Chapter 15: Teacher and General

On the 22nd day of the first lunar month in the sixth year of the Tianqi reign, thousands of Eight Banners cavalrymen came roaring in from the northwest of Ningyuan City. Each Niulu Ezhen and Jiala Ezhen led their own Jia banners to gallop back and forth, mainly circling back and forth at the north gate and the west gate.

The Ming army also had soldiers who knew Manchu and Mongolian. The two sides began to curse at each other. Occasionally, the higher-ranking Ming army captains and thousand commanders would use their three-barreled guns to shoot the Tatars who ran under the city wall.

This distance certainly cannot kill fast-moving cavalry, but it can scare the horses and drive away the Tatars approaching the city walls.

The Tatars would naturally fight back, but most of the Ming army soldiers hid behind the battlements, so the Jiannu's bows and arrows had little effect.

Although there were only a thousand cavalrymen under the city wall, the oppression they caused to the Ningyuan defenders was not small. What made the Ningyuan defenders even more uneasy was the group of Tatars a few miles away to the northwest.

There is a large plain in the northwest of Ningyuan City and north of Ningyuan River. Therefore, the soldiers of the Ming camp on the city wall can see seven or eight miles away. There used to be a military fort there. At this time, the residents and the soldiers had been evacuated into the city. The doors, windows and dugouts had been demolished, but it was still a good choice for camping.

Judging from the movements of the Tatars, this group of vanguards was preparing to set up camp near that area.

"Without shield carts, cattle and camels, they would not be able to launch an attack before the second wave of Tatars arrived."

After gazing into the distance for a few breaths, Cao Wenzhao, who stood on the enemy platform like a small mountain, came to his own conclusion and then told it to his nephew Cao Bianjiao.

Cao Wenzhao was a Ming army captain who was unnaturally burly. He had a long beard on his chin, deep brows, a wide mouth and thick lips. His whole face exuded a temperament that was both honest and cunning.

A few days ago, after learning that Lao Nu was leading his army to attack, Zhao Lujiao, the deputy governor stationed in Qiantun, prepared to send his own battalion soldiers to rescue Ningyuan Weicheng, but he had not decided how many people to send. It was the day before yesterday when Zhao Lujiao made up his mind. A chariot commander, four garrisons, and 1,500 soldiers gathered from various places went north to rescue Ningyuan Weicheng.

Cao Wenzhao was one of the captains under the garrison commander Chen Yingyuan.

Because the reinforcements came late, Manzhen almost didn't let the soldiers enter the city this morning. Thanks to the mediation of Bingxian, Cao Wenzhao and others were able to enter the city. Just now, when Manzhen was recruiting people to discuss matters, he didn't even let the commander sent by Zhao Rujiao in. Thanks to the pleadings of the Ningyuan generals and the generals such as Zuo Fu and Deng Maolin who withdrew from Youtun, the commander was able to enter to discuss matters.

It is a tradition of the Ming Dynasty that a major war will begin with internal strife.

Since he was not welcome, Cao Wenzhao did not want to wait under the city wall for orders, so he took his nephew and several close servants to the top of the city wall to observe the enemy situation.

"Then from what uncle's perspective, when will this old slave lead the army? And who is the leading slave of this group of vanguard Tartars?"

Cao Bianjiao, 24 years old this year, was wearing a straight red cloth armor and carrying two machetes on his back. He was slightly taller than his uncle by a head, but a little thinner.

But this thinness is relative to Cao Wenzhao. The difference in body size between the soldiers in other camps and Cao Bianjiao can be compared to the difference between a war horse and a camel.

"It could be tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow at the latest. The vanguard Tartars are from the Red Banner and the Bordered Blue Banner. There are forty or fifty Niulu in the Bordered Blue Banner alone. There are not many Bordered Blue Banner Tartars in the Tartars under the city and in the distance. I estimate there are about ten Niulu, so Amin, one of the four slave chiefs, must not have come. When the Jiannu had only three banners, the Great Tartar Daishan and Shuerhaci jointly controlled one banner. I also like to send the Bordered Blue Banner and Daishan's troops into action together. The vanguard general should be the Great Tartar Daishan."

In the Ming army outside the Great Wall, Cao Wenzhao had a very rich resume. He was successively assigned to various war camps by Xiong Tingbi and Sun Chengzong. He was well aware of some of the practices of his old rival, the Jiannu.

Cao Bianjiao listened to the class carefully and kept every word of his uncle in mind. He looked forward to the day when he would lead an army to fight against the Jiannu. The experience he had learned now would come in handy at that time.

"It's a pity that the city gate is blocked, otherwise I would like to lead the army to charge out and kill a few Tartars to vent my anger."

Trapped on the city wall, helpless in the face of thousands of enemies, Cao Bianjiao felt depressed. He took the big knife from his back, swung it fiercely a few times, and vented all the anger in his chest into the air.

"What a good knife player!"

Ningyuan's generals surrounded the fat man Man Gui and suddenly appeared near the enemy tower. The reinforcements from Qiantun and other places followed behind the group like followers. When the reinforcements saw General Man praised the soldiers he brought, he hurriedly introduced them to the Ningyuan generals: "This is Cao Bianjiao, a general from Datong. Now he is a flag commander beside his uncle. He is brave and brave, and can be ten cavalrymen of the Jiannu."

Man Gui laughed, "Coincidentally, we in Ningyuan have also had a brave general recently. I don't know whether you, Cao Dadao, are more capable, or our Li Dadao is more capable."

Li Hao, who was dressed in full armor, followed behind the group of generals. When he heard Cao Bianjiao's name, he immediately shouted, "But Cao, why don't you follow me out of the city to meet the enemy?"

His request to go to the battle was approved by the general Man Gui. General Li Qian's own five servants were not enough, and he was reluctant to waste them on such an occasion, so he told Man Gui that his servants were not good at horse fighting. So Man Gui sent out ten servants, and the rest of the generals squeezed together to form about forty strong servants to form the team to leave the city this time.

The main gate was blocked, but the city gate was still movable. The horses going into battle had been lowered into the city circle by hanging baskets, and some auxiliary soldiers had also gone down to prepare to open the gate.

The servants who were going to fight had not yet gone down. Man Zhen's plan was to first have a quarrel with the Tartars under the city, and reach a brief agreement of fighting the generals before letting the servants go out of the city to fight, so as to prevent these elite soldiers from being beaten to death by the thousands of Tartars under the city.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the feudal lords loved to use the method of "Zhi Shi", that is, the two warring parties sent some elite soldiers to fight in front of the two armies. Fighting generals is a common plot in popular novels such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

If it were a normal battle between two armies, the side that proposed to fight the generals would be laughed to death by the other side because it was too childish.

But the Jiannu were different. From Lao Nu onwards, all Jiannu generals were loyal fans of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Romance of the Three Kingdoms was the designated textbook for the Eight Banners Military Class. In the Battle of Sarhu seven years ago, Lao Nu even imitated the plot in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and sent surrendered Ming troops to confuse Liu Dadao Liu Jing.

Therefore, the generals went to the artillery position in the northwest corner, where they could talk to the Tartars. On the way, they met Cao Bianjiao, who was wielding a big sword.

The commander of the reinforcements ran over and explained the current situation to Cao Wenzhao and his nephew. Before Cao Wenzhao agreed, Cao Bianjiao laughed and expressed his willingness to fight.

Man Gui was also very satisfied with this, "You, General Zhao, are not as brave as these two generals."

At this time, Zhao Rujiao and Man Gui were both deputy governors, and both were given the title of deputy generals, and their defense areas were similar in size. Originally, the two had a good relationship, but because Zhao Rujiao did not come to rescue in person and sent few soldiers, Man Gui felt resentful of Zhao Rujiao.

Without further delay, the generals went to the northwest artillery fort, found a few Mongolian Ming soldiers and began to shout at the Tartars under the city.

"Remember to tell them that Li Chengliang and I are close brothers. Let the Tartar flag leaders call me grandpa."

Li Hao gave these instructions to the Mongolian Ming army who were shouting.

According to this seniority system, the old servants have to call him uncle, and Huang Taiji, Dorgon and others have to call him grandpa. He has definitely taken this advantage.

On the Jiannu side, it happened that Daishan, who was leading the army, also wanted to curb the arrogance of the Ming army, so the Ming and the Later Jin sides agreed to a fight at the north gate, and each side would send out fifty or sixty servants to fight with Bayala first.

So the Ningyuan generals moved to the enemy tower near the north gate to watch. The Eight Banners cavalrymen under their command no longer galloped back and forth to demonstrate, but were obediently received by Niulu Ezhen and Jiala Ezhen beside the banner leader Beile.

"General Li, if anything happens, we can just charge into the city wall. Once we get into the city wall, even if there are more than ten thousand Tartars, we can still force them back."

Before the auxiliary troops opened the city gate, He Kegang, the garrison commander of Daobiao Camp, gave specific instructions to Li Hao and others who were going into battle.

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(End of this chapter)