Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 944 No One Available
Chang Mao had been guarding Daning for some time, and had suffered enough from Ben Ya Shi Li and Aluta.

Ben Ya Shi Li and Alu Tai were not originally active in the jurisdiction of the Daning Metropolitan Command. Originally, Alu Tai's area of ​​activity was Liaodong. At that time, the Liaodong Metropolitan Command was cooperating with the Duke of Korea, Li Shanchang, to carry out a long-term deterrence and encirclement of Lee Seong-gye's troops in Goryeo. Alu Tai was quite aware of the overall situation and was thinking of joining forces with Goryeo to fight against the Ming Dynasty, harassing Liaodong, and taking some of the pressure off Lee Seong-gye.

But the power of the Ming Dynasty was like Mount Tai, and Li Shanchang was well versed in political struggles. Lee Seong-gye, a powerful minister who had seized power, would never be a match for the Ming Dynasty in either military or political aspects.

Under the overwhelming pressure, Lee Seong-gye had no chance to struggle and soon died due to betrayal by his own son. The Arutai tribe had only 10,000 people at that time, so how could they resist the Liaodong Dusi who had spared his hands? They could only rely on the depth of the grassland and began to use guerrilla tactics.

With the banner of Bayanchur, Arutai and a group of Tatar tribes came and went, and although they only plundered a few markets at most and did not cause any substantial damage to the Ming Dynasty, they were like a fly that annoyed the Liaodong Military Commissioner. Finally, Ye Wang, the commander of the Dingliao Guard, rushed thousands of miles to the grassland and finally found the stationed Tatar headquarters on a snowy night. He killed a thousand Tatar cavalrymen, captured nearly 10,000 herdsmen, and seized countless tents, banners, cattle, sheep, and horses. Bayanchur and Arutai led the remnants to flee north in a hurry.

Ding Liao Wei returned victoriously, and people thought that this group of thieves would stop doing things. However, they appeared in the jurisdiction of Daningdusi a few months later, and their number was even greater than when they attacked Liaodong.

As per his duty, Duke Zheng Chang Mao, who was in charge of guarding Daningdusi, immediately assembled his soldiers and prepared to meet the newly emerged Golden Family on the grassland and have a hearty battle with them.

However, although Ben Ya Shi Li was famous, his actions were not as upright as Chang Mao expected. The army of Daningdusi went around the grassland and did not even see the shadow of the Tatars. On the contrary, because the troops were exhausted and the rear was empty, several caravans were robbed by the Tatars.

Chang Mao returned to rescue, but the Tatars' soles were as greased with oil and soon disappeared. The subsequent battles were similar. Daning sent troops and the Tatars ran away. Daning defended and the Tatars wandered around the trade routes and robbed the caravans.

Even if they engaged in battle, the Tatars' horsemanship was far superior to that of the Ming army, and they could not catch up with them at all. One time, they managed to kill hundreds of them, but the next time they met, the Tatars had brought with them many herdsmen, and their army was stronger than before.

Chang Mao was extremely annoyed. Among all the military heroes, he was not known for his wisdom. He could only be considered an average general, quite brave but poor in strategy. Forced by Aluta and Benyashiri, he actually flipped through military books for the first time, looking for some clever plan that could help him find Benyashiri's headquarters and defeat it in one blow.

Of course, military books were too difficult to read, so Chang Mao finally chose Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin. He thought of this method of luring the enemy in from the story of "stealing the birthday gift". After trying it, he really lured the main force of the Tatars. However, he never thought that the combat effectiveness and mobility of these grassland peoples were still too strong. After some planning, he only caught some small fish and shrimps. The largest fathead fish, Ben Ya Shi Li and Alu Tai, still broke through the fishing net and escaped.

"Your Highness asked, why have we, the Daning army, been so strong and powerful, and yet we have not been able to defeat these Tartars for more than a year?"

"The difficulty in fighting these Tatars is that they are like flies, always buzzing around us... We can kill them with one slap, but when we raise our hands, they disappear again," said Chang Mao.

"Yes. My nephew is ignorant." Zhu Xiongying nodded solemnly. After personally witnessing the battle, he understood some truths. He originally thought that when two forces confronted each other, both sides would set up their positions and fight with each other based on their abilities. The side that won would have the upper hand. Now he knew that the reason why Daning could not deal with the Tatars was not because Daning was weak, but because the Tatars were too fast to run.

Only then did he understand more deeply that throughout history, every dynasty had times when its military power was far superior to that of the nomadic peoples, but it was never able to eradicate this great threat of nomadic peoples... It turned out that it was not that the powerful Central Plains dynasties could not defeat the nomadic peoples, but that the nomadic peoples simply did not want to fight with the powerful Central Plains dynasties.

Who makes the grassland so vast? The northern Xinjiang grassland is the most reliable barrier for nomadic people. Even if there are hundreds of thousands of people scattered on the grassland, they can hide without a trace.

When they see that you are strong, these grassland bandits will hide, and try to bite you when you are not paying attention; when you become weak, they will seem to grow out of the grassland, bringing countless sufferings to the Central Plains dynasty.

Therefore, Uncle Wu, Father, and Grandfather Huang had to implement the policy of managing the grassland. Only by turning the grassland into the territory of the Ming Dynasty could we eradicate these grassland bandits who were inexorable.

Afterwards, soldiers at the front line sent news that Aruta and Bayanchur had indeed broken through and escaped. Their rear guard troops tried their best to stop them, and the Ming army could hardly catch up.

However, as a result, many Tatar generals were captured, all of whom were captured while covering the retreat of Bayanchur and Arutai.

At this point, sighing is useless. Chang Mao had no choice but to order his soldiers to clean up the battlefield, and then called off the troops. He consoled himself that this trip was not entirely fruitless. At least, the main force of the Tatars suffered a heavy blow, and in the short term, they would not have the energy to harass the border again.

However, after this incident, Aluta and Bayanchur will certainly be more cautious, and it will be extremely difficult to trick them into annihilating them completely.

After seeing the fighting, Zhu Xiongying followed Chang Mao back to Daning City. When he arrived in the city, it was already dawn. Zhu Xiongying washed off the dust, had breakfast and rested for a while, then summoned Li Jin and Fang Xiaoru.

"Gentlemen, my father and uncle asked us to start by telling stories and singing operas, and to get along with the soldiers first."

"Should we look around here and set up a troupe in the army first? What do you two gentlemen think?"

Fang Xiaoru and Xie Jin looked at each other, both showing bitter smiles. Fang Xiaoru clasped his fists and said, "Your Highness, to be honest, when you followed Duke Zheng out of the city last night, Brother Jinshen and I had already begun planning how to set up a troupe in Daning City."

"But... a good cook cannot cook without rice. There is really no one available in Daning City..."

(End of this chapter)