"General, you must kill and burn these cars!" Hao Shaoqi couldn't hold back any longer, he waved his fist impatiently, and the rough breath he spit out almost touched Liu Cheng's face. Liu Cheng frowned, looked at the situation on the battlefield, and said in a low voice: "Okay, you take three hundred cavalry out from the assault mouth on the left, sweep along the trench from the side, and defeat the Mongol infantry, and leave the matter of arson to the defenders." “

"Yes, sir!" Hao Shaoqi saw that Liu Cheng had agreed to him, so he turned his head excitedly and walked under the hill, but he grabbed Liu Cheng.

"Remember, come back after burning the cart, we have few cavalry, but we can't afford to waste it!"

"Your Excellency, don't worry!"

The left side of the Ming army's position was close to the Yellow River, the terrain was low-lying, in order to avoid being driven into the Yellow River by the counterattacking Ming army, the Mongols almost did not invest troops on this side, but a few rangers released cold arrows to this side, which played a role in diverting the situation. And one of the three assault ports of the Ming army was here. On the inside of the earthen ramparts, the auxiliaries pushed the carts away, and behind them, the cavalrymen in iron armor were rushing out. The first was Hao Shaoqi, who shouted: "Wedge queue, everyone follow me, burn the Tartar tuck!" ”

Everyone remained silent, they all knew the danger of this counterattack, but it was even more dangerous to flinch. Hao shook his head and kicked the horse's ribs with his spur, and his mount rushed out.

The cavalry were not very fast, but they were so dense that the knees of two adjacent cavalrymen would even touch each other. Behind the side of Hao Shaoqi, the flag bearer held high the battle flag of Hao Shaoqi, the red and white battle flag fluttered in the wind, and the word "Hao" on it seemed to dance in the flames. The cavalry rounded the salient of the trench and increased rapidly, and the feathered arrows and buckshot fired from the earthen ramparts swept over their heads. The Mongols, seeing the sudden attack on the flank, let out a cry of panic and turned in a panic to try to stop them.

"Drive, drive!" Hao Shaoqi urged the war horse as he clamped the spear with his right arm and aimed the tip of the spear at the nearest enemy. The terrified enemy raised his shield. But the impulse brought by the high-speed galloping war horse was by no means able to resist by manpower, and the spear pierced the shield and strung on the barrel of the gun with his master, Hao Shaoqi lifted the man off the ground with all his might, but the barrel of the gun was immediately broken. He threw away the useless half of the barrel of the gun, untied the battle axe from the saddle, picked up the axe and slashed at the neck of the second enemy, splitting it in two, the violent collision of steel and bone made his arm numb for a while, but Hao Shaoqi's heart felt a special pleasure.

The Mongols next to the cart were quickly crushed. Almost none of them rode horses, nor did they have the spears, axes, clubs, hammers, and other weapons necessary for infantry to deal with cavalry. The dense formation of cavalry that rushed over quickly scattered them, and then they were cut down one after another. The Ming defenders on the rampart, who saw all this, cheered, threw oil bottles and torches onto the cart, grease flowed out of the broken bottles, and then jumped into flames. Hao Shaoqi reined in the war horse, took out the horn from his belt, and blew it twice. Shouting loudly, "Next, next!" ”

Time flies. Hao Shaoqi couldn't remember how many Mongols he had defeated and burned the first carts, and through his helmet, he could hear the wails of pain, the hungry crackling of fire, the trembling horns, and the dull drums of war, and there was smoke and fire everywhere, and he looked back. The wedge-shaped formation has long been scattered, and most people are fighting on their own. I should go back and bring as many people back as possible, Hao Shaoqi thought as he continued to rush forward.

Many of the Mongols fled backwards in disarray. They were wounded and covered in blood, and the flank attack of the Ming army panicked the infantry who followed the carts, and unlike the Han Chinese, the Mongols were a people on horseback, and walking on foot was as clumsy for them as a fish ashore. Hao Shaoqi led the few remaining cavalry around him through it, easily cutting down one enemy after another, his arms turning red until his elbows, glowing with blood in the firelight. Hao Shaoqi felt that the armor on his body and the weapon in his hand were as light as nothing, time became vague and slow for him, he could not feel thirst, he could not feel hunger, he could not feel the pain of the wound, he could not feel the sweat flowing into his eyes. In fact, he didn't even feel his own presence, only fighting, the enemy in front of him. One, next, and another, Hao Shaoqi cut them down one by one without care, and he was already intoxicated by them.

Suddenly, Hao Shaoqi saw more than a dozen knights standing more than a hundred steps away in front of him, led by a very gorgeous armor, and behind him stood a guard holding a white da. "These must be the noble chieftains of the Tartars!" Hao Shaoqi turned around and shouted to the subordinates behind him: "We went over and slaughtered them!" ”

He drove his horses through the smoke and dust, over the ravines, up the hills, and charged at the small group of knights. When Hao Shaoqi was discovered, there were only twenty or thirty steps left between the two sides, and these careless guards let out a frightened cry, and Hao Shaoqi could even see the distorted face of the noble chief who was the leader, and he waved an axe above his head, and laughed: "Suffer death!" Tartar chieftains! He generally rushed in that direction, and the retinue behind him followed. The horses collided with each other, and the people brandished their weapons, slashed at each other, hugged each other, fell off their horses, and were trampled into pulp by the horses. Hao Shaoqi cut down the two enemies, rushed straight to the target, the noble chief shouted twice, turned around and hit the horse and left, the guard holding the white Daqi shouted, flattened the Daxu as a spear and stabbed Hao Shaoqi in the chest, Hao Shaoqi instinctively lifted the reins, and the war horse man stood up. The tip of Da Xu's blade pierced the horse's chest, lifting Hao Shaoqi from the saddle. Hao Shaoqi rolled on the spot, avoiding the trampling of the enemy's mount, jumped up from the ground, and with the skill of the guard turning back, he ripped it off the horse, pressed it to the ground, and stabbed him twice with a dagger in the throat, resulting in his death. Hao Shaoqi got up from the ground and wanted to chase after the noble chief, only to find that the other party had already run away.

"Damn, let him get away!" Hao Shaoqi spat on the ground, walked over to his horse, and was dismayed to find that the poor brute had not only been wounded in the chest, but also had broken a leg, and he drew his dagger and cut the throat of his mount so that he would not suffer any longer. He looked to the left and right, and saw that the only decent trophy was the white spur that had stabbed his mount, and he took it. I picked an enemy's horse and went back to my own barracks.

In the Mongolian camp, Lin Dan Khan sat on the soft collapse and trembled, and his face was as white as paper. Just now, he only brought a few guards to personally supervise the battle in front of the battle, but he didn't want to kill a group of outlaws out of nowhere, if it weren't for his guards to intercept him. He was poisoned, and even Genghis Khan's Sulu ingot was taken away, which is a great shame!

"Great Khan, that Ming army is gone!" One of the guards rushed into the tent and bowed down.

"Where's Sulu Ingot?"

"Also, it's gone!" The guard's voice was much quieter: "Perhaps, maybe it was taken away by the Han dog!" ”

"Rubbish!" Lin Dan Khan rushed straight to the top door in one breath, grabbed the copper kettle on his right hand and smashed it on the guard's head, and the guard's head was broken and bleeding. But he didn't even dare to say a word, only dared to lie on the ground.

"Come on, drumming! The whole army attacked, drove this group of Han dogs down the Yellow River, and washed away the shame of Sulu ingots with their blood! “

The camp of the Ming army, on the mound.

"What? You say that this thing is the handsome banner of the Khan, the Sulu ingot handed down by Genghis Khan? Liu Cheng was a little incredulous, pointing to the pole on the ground and asking Wang Anshi on the side.

"I'm not sure about the end, but I'm seven or eight percent sure!" Wang Anshi picked up the big silk on the ground and looked at it carefully. said with a smile: "Don't hide it from Lord Zhentai, the ancestor of the last general is a high-ranking official." When I was a child, I once heard the elders of the clan say that this Sulu ingot is made of cypress wood with a handle of one zhang and three feet and five inches, and the tassel must be made of the mane of nine hundred and eighty-one white stallions, and the spearhead is trident-shaped. The shape is no different from the legend. “

"Could it be a forgery from other Tartar chieftains?" Liu Cheng asked with some confusion.

"No way!" Wang Anshi hurriedly shook his head and said: "This Sulu ingot is the symbol of Genghis Khan, except for the descendants of the Golden Family, no one else dares to use it, although the Tartar is fierce, but he will never dare to be ambiguous in this matter." ”

"Then Hao Shaoqi is the one who let go of the sweat himself?"

"Nine times out of ten!" Speaking of this, Wang Anshi turned to Hao Shaoqi, who was kneeling on the ground, and smiled: "Congratulations to Mr. Hao Qian." You've done a great job! ”

"I've done a great job!" Hao Shaoqi was overjoyed and wanted to get up from the ground, but Liu Cheng on the side snorted coldly, and he hurriedly knelt down again.

"Shake the flag, shake the flag, I asked you to burn the tuck and come back, what about you? I ask you, give you three hundred cavalry, how many will you bring back? ”

"This, the last general, the last general is too excited to kill, so it-" Speaking of this, Hao Shaoqi couldn't go on, Liu Cheng gritted his teeth and looked at his subordinates kneeling on the ground, scolding or boasting, first slashed his neck twice with the back of the knife, and shouted: "You can remember the flag, I will spare you this time, if it is next time, it will not be the back of the knife!" “

Hao Shaoqi felt the cold back of the knife on his neck, couldn't help sweating, and hurriedly replied: "Yes, my lord, I will never do it next time!" ”

Liu Cheng snorted coldly, walked to the tent and took out two pockets the size of a human head, pulled a leather cord to tie the two pockets together, and hung the two pockets around Hao Shaoqi's neck, as if putting a pocket on the back of a donkey, and said sharply: "You have won the Tartar chieftain and made a great achievement, and these two pockets of gold will be rewarded for you!" ”

Hao Shaoqi's neck just sank, and he felt that there were two more pockets on the side of his head, and he was thinking about whether it was a blessing or a curse, and when he heard that it was all gold for himself, he couldn't help but be overjoyed, and hurriedly kowtowed: "The last will smear the liver and brain on the ground, and you must not repay the kindness of the adult!" ”

Liu Cheng snorted coldly, looking at Hao Shaoqi on the ground, he was angry and funny, this person is not afraid of death when he fights, and he is very loyal to himself, but it is a pity that he often dies as soon as he goes into battle.

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency!"

Why was Wang Anshi's voice so excited, Liu Cheng turned around in surprise, only to see Wang Anshi pointing into the distance: "My lord, Tartar is going to make a desperate bet this time!" ”

Liu Cheng looked in the direction of Wang Anshi's finger, only to see that the Mongolian army in the distance began to move slowly towards his side, it seems that Hao Shaoqi really got a great character, otherwise according to past experience, the Mongols would not have invested in the main force so quickly, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and said in a low voice: "Yes, the time has come to fight to the death!" Liu Cheng sorted out his thoughts a little, and said loudly: "Come on, quickly invite the governor and all the generals here!" ”

"Yes, sir!" Several pro-soldiers knew that the time for the decisive battle had come, and they owed Liu Cheng a debt, so they went down to give orders, and Liu Cheng immediately called Hao Shaoqi: "Shake the flag, you let people move all the rockets here!" ”

"Yes, sir!"

With Liu Cheng's order, the atmosphere at the top of the hill suddenly became tense, Liu Cheng took a deep breath, calmed his emotions a little, and asked Wang Anshi: "General Wang, where do you think the Tartar King should be?" ”

Wang Anshi looked at the Mongol military array, the large array composed of tens of thousands of cavalry stretched out to be seven or eight miles wide, and countless banners were stretched together, and it was impossible to distinguish which was the enemy's royal banner, he hesitated for a while, pointed his right hand to the center to the right, and replied in a very positive tone: "It should be there." ”

"Why do you say that?"

"The Tartar army is so wide that it is beyond the weight of the banner and the drum and trumpet, and it should be divided into several wings, each headed by your chieftain, and dispatched in its royal bureau. And the left is the most expensive in the captivity, and the main formation of the Tartar king should be here. ”

"Well, good!" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "If you can break the capture today, this town should be the first credit for the king and the general!" ”

Wang Anshi was about to thank him, and Lu Boqi and the generals came to the top of the hill. Liu Cheng coughed lowly, pointed at the surging Mongolian cavalry under the hill, and said loudly: "The Tartar prince is here, the thief is today, and when the Tartar soldiers are slightly defeated, the general will attack his head with rockets." Gesang, you will lead the cavalry to rush out, take your own army, and after breaking the formation, turn to the left. Speaking of this, Liu Cheng stretched out his arms and made a gesture of closing in: "Drive the right wing of the Tartars into the Yellow River!" ”

After Liu Cheng finished speaking, except for a few of his subordinates who had seen the power of rockets, those side generals who had not seen it were all shocked, in their opinion, the Tartar army was so strong, even if it was a strong wall, it might not be able to live in a low grade, and with only a few thousand cavalry to break out of the barrier and fight in the field, wouldn't it be self-defeating. That Hu Shoubei was about to open his mouth to admonish, but Liu Cheng waved his arm and blocked the words in his throat: "All armies will fight to the death later, if there is any cowering, they should be engaged in military law!" (To be continued.) )

PS: Weber reminds that if there are conditions, it is best to get a map of the Shaanxi Political Division of the Ming Dynasty in Mr. Tan Qixiang's "Atlas of Chinese History", so as to have a general understanding of the situation in Ningxia, so that the reasons for the military actions of the two sides in the book can be understood. Military operations must be based on an understanding of the corresponding geographical environment. Mr. Tan is the founder of the discipline of history and geography in China, and those who are interested in this aspect can take a look at Mr. Tan's "Changshui Collection", which has many good articles.