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

Chapter 981 Infighting
At the same time, Guilichi, who was mixed in with the ordinary captives, was being led by several Tatar generals to cut down trees and set up a camp together with several other Ming army traitors who were entrusted by Chang Mao to infiltrate the camp with him.

There were also many Mongolians in the Ming army. The Northern Yuan was brutal and cruel, and there were many lower-class Mongolian herdsmen who could not survive. After the Ming Dynasty took control of the grasslands, many of these people became loyal supporters of the Ming Dynasty, fighting for the Ming Dynasty with all their might, often working harder than the Han soldiers in the Central Plains. It was these Mongolians who naturalized to the Ming Dynasty who assisted Guilichi.

As for why Guilichi was given an assistant, but Chahan was not, it was because Guilichi was loyal and had made contributions, while Chahan was far from being comparable.

"We have found out that there is no unusual movement among the Tatar army." In a corner, a Mongolian-born Ming army spy pretended to be calm and approached Guilichi and his group who were carrying wood in a corner and whispered to them. "There is no sign of secret investigation... It seems that our whereabouts have not been exposed."

"Okay." Guilichi let out a long sigh, feeling relieved. When he was under Bayan Shili's command, he had shown his face to many people, so he wrapped half of his face with sackcloth and pretended to be a wounded soldier. "It seems that Chahan has not betrayed us... We should be safe for the time being."

"Chahan, that bastard, betrayed the Ming Dynasty as soon as he arrived at the enemy camp." Another insider gritted his teeth and said. This person was the Mongolian herdsman Hu Legen who ran to inform Zhu Xiongying during the battle of Tainingwei. Because of his merit in reporting the news, Chang Mao and Zhu Xiongying rewarded him with a hundred cattle and sheep, a thousand taels of silver, and made him a centurion.

He was originally loyal to the Ming Dynasty, and now that he had received great favors from the Ming Dynasty, he was even more devoted to the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, he hated Chahan the most for rebelling against the Ming Dynasty as soon as he arrived at the enemy camp. This time, he and Guilichi were the main force in sneaking into the enemy camp. "Your Highness the Crown Prince was so kind to him, but he forgot it the moment he turned around. This bastard should be cut into pieces." He said angrily while waving a woodcutting axe.

"Chahan didn't betray me, maybe he hasn't betrayed the Ming Dynasty." Gui Lichi said. He tied a bundle of wood with great effort, and whispered to Hu Legen and others. "Brother Hu Legen, please don't be impulsive, don't ruin the important things of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and Duke Zheng."

"I know." Hu Legen said rather depressed. Although he felt that he had completed the class leap after being appreciated by Zhu Xiongying and was no longer a poor shepherd, Gui Lichi was from the Golden Family after all, and his family background was much higher than his, so he usually would not refute Gui Lichi's words. "I was thinking that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has high hopes for us, and we must find a way to make meritorious contributions for him."

"Perhaps, we can do something in this camp, incite these tens of thousands of people to join us in starting a riot, and then rush into the big tent to kill Ben Ya Shi Li..."

"His Royal Highness has no such arrangement." Gui Lichi advised. "I think we should follow His Royal Highness's instructions and wait until there is unrest in the camp before taking action. Don't act rashly."

"But how could there be unrest in the camp if we didn't take the initiative to provoke it?" Hulegen said. He was eager to make achievements and always wanted to do more. "Besides, Chahan has surrendered to the enemy. He might tell the enemy chief about your arrangements..."

"Even if we tell them, there is no way to prevent it. After all, His Highness did not ask us to take the initiative to instigate unrest." Gui Lichi still advised. "Brother Hu Legen, if you take the initiative, it will be easy to expose yourself."

"We should keep those who are useful. If we are all captured and Chahan surrenders, we will not be able to complete His Highness's request."

"Moreover... when Chahan was performing in the camp, he often complained about the Ming Dynasty. Your Highness must have known this."

"Perhaps, Your Highness had already anticipated that Chahan would surrender, and did this on purpose?"

"How could they do it on purpose..." Hulegen still didn't believe it and wanted to say something else, but a few Tatar soldiers came over and shouted at them, "Hey, those guys over there!"

"Don't move, put the work aside, the food is over there!"

After hearing this, the few people didn't say anything more, so they put down their work and walked towards the place where the food was served.

When the grassland army went to war, they usually ate meat and dry food. They would carry a large number of cattle and sheep with them and slaughter them at any time for military supplies. If they were thirsty, they would mostly drink cow and sheep milk. However, the Tatars defeated Quanning Guard and seized the granary in Quanning Guard’s market. The grain would be wasted, so the Tatars’ military rations now were porridge. Several people walked all the way to the place where the porridge was stored in the camp. Before they got close, they heard a noise in front of them.

When they got closer, they found that there were two groups of soldiers arguing fiercely in front of the porridge shed.

"It seems to be a quarrel between the released captives and the former Tatar soldiers."

After watching for a while, they understood the situation of the quarrel. After all, the prisoners in thin clothes were very easy to identify.

The few people also figured out the cause and process of the incident from the fragments of words interspersed among the insults.

The cause was just a small dispute. Originally, in front of the porridge shed, the soldiers were queuing up in an orderly manner to receive food. But for some reason, a Tatar soldier cut in front of a released prisoner, causing dissatisfaction among the released prisoner.

The two men began to argue, and during the argument, the Tatar soldier insulted the other as "a bunch of cowards who only managed to escape with their lives by wagging their tails and begging for mercy from the Ming dogs."

This statement undoubtedly aroused public anger.

The Mongols admired warriors, and to them, the fact that they were captured by the Ming and then ran back in rags was undoubtedly an act of cowardice.

Looking at these released captives, most of the Tatar soldiers already had contempt in their hearts, and now they only expressed it in words;

But in the eyes of those released captives, they only ran faster when facing the Ming army and abandoned their comrades, which saved their lives.

Having betrayed their comrades, they naturally had no power or position to despise themselves, so this group of released captives united and started a war of words with the Tatar soldiers.

At first, the verbal battle between the two sides was relatively restrained, only staying at the level of criticizing each other's family and despising each other's ancestors. Until one of the released captives could no longer bear it and said, "Even those Ming people have never treated us like you."

Like a spark falling into a powder keg, the war of words quickly turned into a physical fight.

(End of this chapter)