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

Chapter 988 Chahan's Thoughts

The continuous high pressure caused the Tatars' morale to collapse suddenly.

Their morale was low from the beginning, and the contradictions between the released captives and other Tatar soldiers had not yet been resolved. Moreover, the Ming army's camp was built by the released captives, and these people knew very well how strong the Ming army camp was.

These people knew very well what it would cost to capture such a camp, so their morale was not high at the beginning.

Coupled with the double obstruction of "forest of guns" and "mountain of knives", in fact, their morale had already collapsed at that time. They were just afraid of the butcher knives of the supervision team, and they thought that since they would die if they advanced or retreated, they might as well live towards death. At least they could die under the camp wall and not implicate their families.

However, this "rational" decision had its limits. After countless arrows were fired in vain, and the Ming army seemed to have descended from the sky and "grew" several arrow platforms out of thin air to suppress them, their "rationality" finally collapsed.

First, the archers could not withstand the suppression of the camp wall and the Ming army on the arrow platform and chose to retreat. Then, some of the infantrymen who were charging towards the camp wall also began to choose to flee.

"Push forward! Push forward! Push forward!" Azhashili roared, swinging his sword continuously to kill the deserters who were fleeing backwards.

But at this time, the soldiers' fear of the Ming army far exceeded their fear of Azhashiri's brutality, and the trend of rout was still inevitable. Azhashiri could only sit on his horse and rage helplessly.

"King of Liao." Alutai came to Azhashili's side quickly, stretched out his hand to grab the reins, and stopped Azhashili's frenzy. "King of Liao, the morale has collapsed, we can't defeat the Ming army."

"In the current situation, we can only withdraw our troops first..."

"Retreat?" Azashili glared at Alutai, "No! The Ming crown prince is right in front of us. Retreat now?"

"We should take advantage of the fact that the panic has not yet spread to the central army... If the morale of the central army is also affected, then it will not be a retreat, but a great defeat!" said Aluta.

Azashili also knew that what Arutai said made sense. He angrily glanced at the red banner on the camp wall, and finally agreed to withdraw the troops. Arutai looked around and then pointed with his whip: "Chahan, you go. Take two thousand people to cover the retreat."

"The rest of you, follow me and retreat!"

Chahan, who had been following Arutai as a guard, was shocked when he heard this. Arutai had already turned his horse around and rode back with Azashili. Tatar generals followed Arutai and galloped past Chahan, casting gloating glances at him.

Cut off the rear? In this situation... if the Ming army came out of the camp to attack, they would all die.

Fortunately, the Ming army had no intention of opening the camp to attack. Seeing the Tatar army slowly retreating, cheers began to be heard from the walls of the Ming army camp. As an unknown soldier shouted "Sun, Moon, Rivers and Mountains", cheers in Chinese continued to resound across the land.

Aluta and the others found it particularly harsh, and deep in their hearts, they felt an unconcealable fear.

For some reason, Aluta suddenly remembered the sad and ominous ballad that originally belonged to the Huns and was recorded in history books.

"Destroying the Qilian Mountains has left my livestock without reproduction."

"Destroy my Yanzhi Mountain and make my women lose face!"

"Could it be possible for the Han people to conquer this grassland?"

Shaking his head and suppressing this ominous thought deep in his heart, Aluta quickly joined up with Khan Bayanchur, who had already begun to consider retreating, and retreated towards the camp twenty miles away.

……

In the Ming army's central camp, Zhu Xiongying, who was busy renovating several other arrow platforms, heard the cheers coming from the front line and hurriedly sent people to the front line to inquire. However, before he could send anyone, he learned from the cheers that the Tatars had retreated.

"Victory...Victory! We've won!" Upon hearing the good news, everyone was stunned for a moment. First, a soldier cheered, and then everyone cheered loudly as if they were infected. Soldiers, generals, craftsmen, and civilians cheered together. The construction site, which was bustling with activity just a moment ago, had now turned into a sea of ​​joy.

"Your Highness, the arrow tower worked! We have defeated the enemy army!" Fang Xiaoru, who was known as a talented man in Jinling, was incoherent at this moment. He shouted and jumped like a group of rough civilians and soldiers, and the messy water stains on his face were not sure whether they were rain, sweat or tears.

Xie Jin, who claimed that he had seen big scenes in Guizhou, was not much better. He excitedly grabbed Zhu Xiongying's arm and shook it continuously.

Zhu Xiongying was also extremely happy. The tension in his heart relaxed and he suddenly felt weak all over. He almost fell to the ground.

"Your Highness?" Xie Jin was startled and quickly pulled Zhu Xiongying's arm to prevent him from sitting on the mud. Fang Xiaoru was also shocked and quickly supported Zhu Xiongying's other side, asking with concern: "Your Highness? What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"It's okay, gentlemen. I'm fine." Zhu Xiongying waved his hands and said shyly, "I didn't feel it at first, but now that I feel relieved, I feel tired."

"I can't even stand steadily."

Xie Jin couldn't help but laugh when he heard this: "Your Highness, don't be ashamed. This is human nature."

"Your Highness was so focused on winning for the Ming Dynasty that he forgot about his tiredness. Such a heart is truly admirable."

Fang Xiaoru also said: "Now that the Tatar army has retreated, the opportunity for our army to completely annihilate the enemy army is almost here."

"I don't know when Guilichi and his men will be able to stir up trouble in the Tatar camp and give us a chance to accomplish our mission."

"It won't be long." Zhu Xiongying said. "Now that the enemy army has been defeated, they dare not spy on our Ming Dynasty anymore."

"Then the internal troubles will be unable to be hidden."

"With just a little spark, they will burn themselves completely."

"And the spark we have thrown into the Tatar camp."

Zhu Xiongying's tired eyes were filled with hope. He seemed to have seen the Tatars, the last obstacle to the Ming Dynasty on the grassland, completely disappear in the flames.

In the Tatar camp, Arutai, Azhashili and others returned to the camp in a panic. Only then did they have time to look back to see if the Ming army was pursuing them. After seeing that the Chahan tribe, which had been cut off, had also returned to the camp safely, they breathed a sigh of relief.

They fought to the death, regardless of the casualties, but in the end they still suffered a crushing defeat. The men were depressed and forced themselves to gather the defeated soldiers. After checking the troops, they found that nearly 10,000 men had been killed.

Although there were piles of corpses in front of the Ming army camp, not so many people died. After a little thought, Aluta understood that someone was taking advantage of the fact that they were preoccupied with themselves and would rather abandon them and their leaders and leave the army, rather than join them in fighting against the Ming army.

"Grandmaster." Ben Ya Shi Li called out weakly. He had been staying in the rear army to "hold the line" and had not personally witnessed the hellish scene in front of the Ming army camp. Logically, he should be the least afraid among these people.

But at this moment, the Tatar Khan was as pale as gold paper, at a loss, and gently pulled Alutai's sleeve and asked: "Grandmaster, what should we do next?"

When Aluta saw the appearance of the Khan, he couldn't help feeling a little bitter: this young Khan had just fled from Samarkand, and when he was helped to the throne of Khan, he still had some ambition, at least he was still talking about restoring the supreme glory of the ancestors of the Golden Family.

But now, after only conquering Quanning Guard and seizing some valuables, this young man's mind was completely corrupted by wealth. This made him feel a little contempt in his heart: Are the so-called descendants of the Golden Family just such trash?
Not to mention the wise and powerful Hongwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, even the young grandson of the Ming Dynasty in the opposite camp is more powerful than the descendant of the Golden Family. Can he really compete with a behemoth like the Ming Dynasty by supporting such a Khan?
"How should we do it? Of course, we should regroup and capture the Ming Emperor's grandson!"

Aluta was about to say something when Azashiri, who had an angry look on his face, spoke.

Azashiri felt that he was about to be swallowed by regret. The reason why he made up his mind and was willing to help Aluta and Bayanchur was simply because he wanted to go one step further and seize more wealth and power.

However, the failure of his plan against Zhu Xiongying had forced him to abandon most of his wealth and herdsmen and flee in a panic; after surrendering to the Tatars, he was defeated again and again and gained nothing. At this time, Azashili had completely lost confidence in the makeshift team of Bayashiri and Arutai. He now wanted to go back to the past and give himself a few punches for believing in Arutai's sweet words.

Isn't it nice to follow the Ming Dynasty, drink wine and make money? Why bother to wade into such muddy water with these idiots?
Originally he had money but no power, but now, he has not gained any power and has lost all his money... I really don't know why he went through all this trouble.

Although he hated Bayanchur and Alutai, Azhashili knew that he had no choice but to stick with them. He betrayed the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty would never have a place for him. The only way to recover the loss was to capture the Ming Dynasty's grandson Zhu Xiongying, who was of high status, and use him as a bargaining chip to get enough benefits to make up for the loss.

Now, he is like a gambler who has almost lost everything... The only thing in his eyes is the huge prize that is enough to make him turn the tables, and he is determined to bet all his remaining capital on it.

"King of Liao, calm down..." Before he could cheer up the frightened Bayanchur, Arutai had to appease the agitated and irrational Azhashiri. "The Ming army camp is well guarded. We lost the first opportunity after the failure. Now our morale has been lost. How can we do it again?"

"Besides, the other Ming armies must be on their way to help Daning. We can't delay... If we are surrounded by the Ming armies, it will be a disaster!"

"So what do you think we should do?" Azashiri asked angrily. "Are we just going to leave like this?"

Alutai was silent. To be honest, he was unwilling to leave Daning like this. They had finally defeated a Ming army guard. Although they were defeated for a while, they still had the strength to fight... Since Alutai started his army, when had he ever faced the Ming army head-on like this?
At this time, there were already many deserters in the army. If they fled back to the grassland at this time, they would be chased and killed by the Ming army on the way, and it was unknown how many people would be killed. Moreover, the grassland was also divided into rich and poor. Going north, although it was sparsely populated and difficult for the Ming army to search, the further north they went, the poorer the land. In such a barren land, how many years would he have to lie dormant before he could regain his current momentum?
But...if you ask him how he can break through the iron wall of the Ming army camp, he really has no idea.

"King of Liao, King of Liao." Seeing that Azhashiri's face was getting more and more angry, it seemed that he would leave the tent in the next moment and fight the Ming army. Alutai, who knew that he could not lose Azhashiri's Taining tribe at this time, quickly spoke up and persuaded Azhashiri to stop:
"The so-called great defeat of our army today is because the Ming army hid several well-locked carts in the barracks and pushed them out at the critical moment to suppress our archers... This is due to our lack of understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the Ming army camp."

"Or, how about this? We can call Chahan again and ask him about the situation in the Ming army camp in detail. Perhaps, we can find a way to defeat the enemy this time?"

Azashili was not a reckless man who was determined to fight to the death. What he did was just for his power and wealth. If there was a safe way, he would not want to fight to the death blindly. After a little thought, he agreed to Alutai's suggestion.

Alutai asked someone to invite Chahan into the tent. After a while, Chahan was brought into the tent. He looked up at the people at the top and saluted with his chest with an expressionless face: "Great Khan, Grand Master, King of Liao."

"Chahan." Alutai had put away the worry on his face and said to Chahan with a smile: "You led the troops to cover the rear earlier, and did a good job."

"Don't worry, the Khan and I both know that you are a loyal warrior. The fact that you were once captured by the Ming Dynasty is now written off. We will not treat you unfairly for your contribution in cutting off the enemy's rear. When we defeat the Ming Dynasty in the future, we will give you many cattle and sheep, as well as a large grassland."

Chahan heard this and curled his lips in his heart. Arutai's previous subconscious action of asking him to cover the rear had already made him more desperate for the Tatars. However, he pretended to be grateful and lowered his head and said, "Chahan will never forget the kindness of the Khan and the Grand Master."

"Very good." Alutai nodded. "Chahan, we want you to think again about whether you found any flaws when you were in the Ming army camp."

"Or, do you have any strategy on how to defeat the Ming army?"

"If you can help us defeat the Ming army, this battle will be your first achievement! I will recommend you to the Khan and make you the Darughachi of Daning City!"

Alutai's words made Chahan even more disdainful. If it were in the past, he might have been grateful, but when he was in the Ming army, he was also baptized by a lot of dramas, storytelling, and the court's propaganda methods to expose the grassland chieftains. How could he be so moved by a few big cakes?
Return the Darughachi of Daning City... Even if you take Daning City, how can you survive the counterattack of the Ming court?
However, he suddenly had an idea and remembered what Zhu Xiongying and Chang Mao had told him when he left the Ming army camp.

"Perhaps, I can take advantage of this opportunity to make a great pledge of allegiance to the Ming Dynasty!"

(End of this chapter)