Chapter 722: Raiding for Grass and Grain

Bai Lang took hundreds of infantry, cavalry, and auxiliary troops outside the pass to raid for grass and grain. In this day and age, the Mongols still had some money. Regardless, Altan Khan's main elite cavalry had iron armor and fast horses, and these things were valuable even in the Great Ming. Not to mention the Mongols' cattle, sheep, and horses; for Bai Lang, these were all pure profit without capital. Finally, although the heads of the Tatars were discounted a lot now, and there were many deductions from above when receiving rewards, they were still worth a few coins...

Bai Lang killed directly toward the Fengzhou Beach, which was now called Bansheng City. It was hard to say for other places, but there were definitely many Mongol nomads there—the guide he brought also said that there were indeed many there, and he could contact Altan Khan's main force. "I'm looking for Altan Khan's main force to raid for grass and grain!" Bai Lang's arrogance was extremely high. The warhorses galloped, and in just a few days, they had arrived near Bansheng City. In these few days, Bai Lang had killed and scattered several waves of Mongol scouts and looted several small scattered tribal settlements.

He didn't loot much spoils; those few thin sheep were killed and eaten by everyone. The benefit was that it stimulated the ferocity of Bai Lang's soldiers, especially after watching Bai Lang take the lead and easily kill all the Mongols who dared to intercept them, these people naturally started to become arrogant. Later, when they met Mongol scouts, they dared to roar and kill them. Bai Lang specifically stopped his horse to watch and confirmed that these guys really had blood and courage.

"And because they have been soldiers for generations, the habit of this military formation is easy to cultivate once it's formed." Bai Lang watched them form a military formation and actively strangle the Mongol scouts, feeling that as long as the Ming soldiers had enough food and pay, they could actually fight. It was just that land annexation, combined with the fact that those above didn't treat these soldiers as human beings, and all kinds of corruption and embezzlement of military blood, made the Ming army weak and unbearable. Bai Lang just gave them enough military pay, sufficient food and protein intake, and last-minute training, which made these guys relatively fierce.

Looking at the distant Bansheng City and the fields spread around—not only were there people planting beans and wheat, but there were even people planting alfalfa, which was excellent horse feed and also very good for feeding cattle and sheep. Naturally, there were also many cattle, sheep, and horses here, as well as a large number of tents outside the city and stationed troops. Altan Khan might be in the palace inside the city. Bai Lang ordered people to raise his big flag, "Datong Prefect Bai," and below it was the winged flying tiger, completely ignoring the rules.

Bai Lang had already put on his armor. After raising the big flag, he also took the lead on horseback and pressed toward the distant city. Naturally, there were Mongol scouts outside the city, and as they whistled back and forth, an army of thousands appeared before his eyes. This was Altan Khan's personal guard. These thousand cavalry were all heavy cavalry, and the horse hooves shook the earth as they came. Bai Lang saw that many of his own soldiers had pale faces and lost their courage, so he let out a long roar. This roar was like a tiger roaring in the long sky, shaking the horses in front so that they sprayed their noses repeatedly and didn't dare to continue galloping.

This caused the Mongol cavalry to fall off their horses. If it weren't for the fact that these people were familiar with the nature of horses, many would have fallen and died. And Bai Lang led two hundred or so infantry and cavalry to unfold into a fish-scale formation, starting to accelerate and prepare to charge—most people already had the faces of dead men, moving entirely by the inertia of obeying military orders. Bai Lang roared, took the lead in urging his warhorse, and moved forward to hundreds of paces to engage the enemy.

At this time, Altan Khan's cavalry had also reined in their horses—it was really difficult for the horses to not want to run and have a sense of fear, so when they were soothing the horses, they also took the opportunity to draw their bows and arrows, determined to shoot this Ming general to death on the spot. "Datong Prefect Bai," what kind of thing was this? Was there really a civil official like the Datong Prefect who would take the initiative to kill his way to Bansheng City? It would be good enough to defend the city. Things like battlefield slaughter didn't look like something a Prefect should do. If it were a civil official like the Xuan-Da Viceroy, that would be another matter...

Seeing this person's demeanor was fierce, his beard and hair were bristling, and he even drew his three-pointed double-edged spear and casually deflected all the arrows shot at him. He only deflected the arrows shot at the horse's body. As for the arrows shot at his own body, one could see the arrows gathering on him like hedgehog hair. With a single shout, they all fell to the ground, and he was completely unharmed. Suddenly, these Mongols shouted "Invulnerable to blades and spears!" and "White Tiger! White Tiger!" Bai Lang's impression on Altan Khan's entire army when he killed a thousand people last time was extremely deep. Everyone called him the White Tiger, regarding him as the White Tiger Star Lord descending into the world.

The White Tiger Star Lord was in charge of killing and breaking armies, destroying armies and killing generals, and Bai Lang's bravery could be said to be worthy of the name. Seeing Bai Lang's bravery in charging into the formation, the Ming army behind, who were like dead men, regained some morale—the key was that it was too late to turn around and run. Amidst the shouting, Bai Lang crashed into the Mongol cavalry formation, his three-pointed double-edged spear flashing left and right. In the blink of an eye, he had already cut down six or seven people. Innate true Qi was attached to the blade, and with one strike, he could split several people and horses together.

Mail armor and lamellar armor were all useless. Bai Lang's slaughter was like splitting waves, making the front line of the heavy cavalry chaotic—they wanted to surround and kill Bai Lang, but no matter what, they couldn't break into the three-zhang radius around this person. Those who entered died.

Bai Lang's warhorse's neck was covered in sweat at this time. If he continued, the horse would be ruined. "Damn it! How did this horse become like this!" Bai Lang felt that fighting was really hard on horses. He hadn't even seriously charged the formation repeatedly, and the horse's power was already failing. Now, whether it was the Mongols or the Datong warhorses, they weren't very good—the horse administration and breeding could be said to be a complete failure. The good horses that had once been introduced to the Central Plains had now mostly mixed bloodlines.

Bai Lang was well-informed. He wanted Indian Ear horses or Arabian horses as warhorses. With his weight, Friesian horses would also work—after all, when Bai Lang was fully armed and majestic, the weight of the person, armor, and weapons was at least nearly three hundred catties.

Fortunately, there was nothing else here but many heads and horses. Bai Lang could kill people and seize horses, and even foot combat didn't matter—it seemed that a weapon like the three-pointed double-edged spear was a sharp weapon for foot soldiers to kill cavalry. So Bai Lang decisively abandoned the horse, directly picked a Mongol heavy cavalryman in front and knocked him off the horse, the corpse still skewered on the spear tip. Bai Lang threw it away casually while his left hand pulled the reins, and his heels kicked to urge the warhorse.

He wanted to counter-charge because these cavalry had surrounded him. Bai Lang counter-charged to disrupt the Mongol army formation again for his subordinates who were rushing over—although it was already chaotic, there were still people facing the Ming army. Bai Lang rode forward, killing ten people in one step. After only a few steps, the horse couldn't support it again. Bai Lang picked up a Tatar with one hand and threw him out. The horse couldn't take this force.

So Bai Lang abandoned the horse again. This time he didn't get on the horse and directly fought on foot to break the formation. The three-pointed double-edged spear swept back and forth, and those who stood in his way were swept away. Bai Lang directly killed a blood-flesh mill. After breaking the formation, he turned back to charge the formation again. The Mongol cavalry in front were just about to engage the Ming army, but they were roared away by Bai Lang who broke the formation again and started to collapse... ===== CHAPTER 733 =====