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

Chapter 979 Dilemma
Before the world civilizations lit up the skill points of trucks and planes to transport troops, no one could match the grassland people in terms of mobility. The grassland people would fight if they could win, and run away if they couldn't. How to completely wipe out these enemy forces that came and went like the wind has always been a difficult problem.

Zhu Su, who was far away in Yingtian, knew that the implementation of the new military system could not be separated from a convincing victory. If the Daning Army, which adopted the new military system, completely annihilated the Tatars, it would certainly save many obstacles for the implementation of the new military system. Therefore, he left in the brocade box what he thought was the most suitable method to completely annihilate the Tatars: incite rebellion within the Tatars and cause internal strife.

When an army falls into civil strife and fights each other, it naturally loses the ability to move forward. Even if it is a nation on horseback, it can only be bullied by others.

Throughout history, the strategy of inciting rebellion is usually to persuade the generals who lead the troops to rebel. However, Zhu Su's strategy is to do the opposite. The first people to be persuaded to rebel are the lower-level soldiers, that is, the prisoners captured by the Ming army.

However, the method of inciting rebellion and winning over the hearts of the people puzzled Chang Mao, Zhu Xiongying and other people who had read the secret letter in the brocade box: Zhu Su did not ask them to promise high positions and generous salaries to these captured soldiers. Instead, as in previous practices, he made them undergo "labor reform" and work hard to squeeze out their use value, and did not ask them to do anything special.

At most, they would let the soldiers of the Political and Educational Department who knew Mongolian preach to them every day the "brainwashing" theories that the Ming Dynasty preached on the grassland. It was nothing more than that the Eternal Heaven chose the Ming Dynasty to rule the grassland, and only under the rule of the Ming Dynasty could the people of the grassland live in peace. The remnants of the former Yuan Dynasty just wanted to use their poor and miserable lives to take back their ill-gotten gains and wealth from the Ming Dynasty... and so on.

This theory was very effective for the herdsmen in the tribes who had already surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, but it had little effect on them. The Mongols were not stupid, and most of their tribes were still under the control of Bayanchur and Arutai. As conscripted warriors, everything they had was tied to their tribal leaders, and their families were not here. After all, only a few could abandon their families and surrender to the Ming Dynasty. They could not and would not join the Ming Dynasty and fight against the Tatars just because of these empty slogans.

Unless the Ming Dynasty can divide their property, or find their nomadic tribe hiding somewhere in the grassland. But if so, how much will the court have to pay to recruit these soldiers?

This is also what Chang Mao and others are puzzled about. Just talking a few times and then letting the person go, can it really cause unrest in the Tatar tribe?

However, the Fifth Prince's actions were always so untraceable. Out of trust in Zhu Su, Zhu Xiongying and others were still looking forward to releasing the more than 10,000 captives, and even arranged two steamed buns for each of them to fill their stomachs on the road.

More than 10,000 captives were extremely surprised. They originally thought that they would have to do hard labor here until they died. Unless the Khan really defeated the Ming Dynasty, they would have the chance to see the light of day again.

But I didn't expect that these Ming Dynasty masters would be willing to release them directly and even gave them two steamed buns...

More than 10,000 captives took their steamed buns, observed the order, and gratefully went out of the camp gate one by one, heading towards the Tatar camp twenty miles to the east as the Ming army had told them.

Although they had been stripped of their armor, weapons, horses and clothes, and each of them was only wearing a thin piece of rag, and had worked for the Ming army for free for more than half a month, and were exhausted, and could only rely on a pair of fleshy feet to walk twenty miles... but with two big steamed buns in their arms, these people's hearts were still warm.

Ming army...good people!

Many people couldn't help but think this way.

During this period, Guilichi and Chahan mixed into two different groups of released prisoners and ran eastward while biting steamed buns.

……

Unlike the Ming Dynasty, which was shining with the warm glow of humanitarianism, the atmosphere in the Tatar "Khan's tent" was like a dark cloud, and there was coldness everywhere.

Their grassland cavalry had always relied on their mobility to play with other enemies at the palm of their hands. There had never been a situation where the Ming army was elusive and could always avoid the strong and attack the weak perfectly. The high-ranking officials of the Tatars and the Taining tribe felt that the Ming army was difficult to deal with.

Ben Ya Shi Li had already gained wealth and power, and the strangeness of the Ming army made him quite timid. In fact, he had already begun to think about retreating. Seeing that everyone was silent, he hesitated for a moment and suggested: "Why don't we stop while we are ahead and escape to the grassland first... How about that?"

"No!" Azashili stood up first. He betrayed the Ming Dynasty and lost everything. The sunk cost was too great. How could he give up easily? "If I flee to the grassland, when will I have another chance? When will I be able to restore the glory of my Yuan Dynasty?"

"We had previously won a great victory, while the Ming army only took advantage of us. Now is the time to make a concerted effort to defeat the Ming army!"

"King of Liao, please be patient." said Alutai, the Tatar's think tank. In fact, he also wanted to withdraw. A last-ditch effort? The Ming army's small victories had already almost destroyed their confidence. Unless there was a way to boost morale, there would be no advantage if they continued to fight against the Ming army.

He didn't want to offend Azashili, so he beat around the bush and said, "The Ming army's camp is strong. Since the Liao king said so, I guess he must have some good plan."

"Uh." Azashili was stunned. He didn't have any good ideas. He just didn't want to leave like this. After holding it in for a long time, he said, "How about building siege equipment?"

Siege equipment refers to weapons such as Huihui cannons and siege vehicles. Although this is a possible solution, if we build equipment to attack the Ming army camp, the roads will be blocked by heavy snow and the roads will be inconvenient. At that time, how can we let the soldiers push and pull the heavy siege vehicles and Huihui cannons to attack the Ming army camp?
To put it another way, even if they had built the siege vehicle and transported it to the Ming army camp with great difficulty, the result was that just as they were about to attack the Ming army camp, the siege vehicle was too cold and some important parts were frozen. What should they do?
Wouldn’t the Ming army be laughing out loud then?
So, it's just a waste of effort.

"Or, I can go around to the rear and attack the grain route..." Azashili also felt that building siege equipment was inappropriate, so he proposed another plan. But this method was obviously more stupid than siege equipment. They had previously tried to go around to the rear, and it had proven that this method was useless against the Ming army. Using the same old trick would only bring shame upon themselves.

The tent fell silent again. Alutai pondered for a long time and was about to stand up to suggest withdrawing the troops and fighting again next year, when he suddenly heard a soldier outside the tent report: "Great Khan, Grand Master, there is urgent news!"

(End of this chapter)