Chapter 118

Hearing Fan Zhong stepped forward personally and, just as he had more than twenty years ago, helped Zhu Di don his armor.

Once Zhu Di was armored, he yanked the Ma Dao hanging on the wall and swung himself onto his warhorse.

……

……

Outside the central camp tent.

Duke of Ying, Zhang Fu, was leading over a hundred Personal Guards, guarding the outside of the central camp tent with their lives.

While hacking and slashing, he shouted hoarsely,

"What exactly is Hearing Fan Zhong doing? Is Your Majesty ready? The Tatars ahead are growing in number!"

Before the words had even faded.

Zhang Fu immediately heard a rapid clatter of hooves from behind him.

Then came familiar, scolding voices.

"How many times have I said it? Form ranks! Form ranks!"

"Form ranks! Is this how your officers taught you to form ranks?!"

"Who taught you to pitch a camp like this? Once this battle is over, I will surely execute the supervising officer!"

"If you're not dead, get up, mount your horses, and follow me! I will lead you to fight our way out!"

"Where are the cannons of the Divine Machine Camp?!"

"Don't panic! Don't panic!"

"Hang Wang Zhen's head up for me!"

"……"

Just as Hearing Fan Zhong raised Wang Zhen's head high.

The Ming army, which had been on the verge of collapse.

The entire battle strategy gradually began to become orderly.

While Zhang Fu was still standing there in a daze.

Zhu Di's scathing rebuke came straight at him, head to toe.

"You little brat, why are you standing there in a daze? You've been fighting wars for so many years, and now you've gotten older and forgotten how to fight?!"

"Your Majesty."

"Don't waste my time with such nonsense now. Get on your horse and stabilize the formation immediately!"

"After this battle is over, I will settle accounts with you lot and see what kind of soldiers you've trained!"

Zhang Fu, who had been stunned in place, dared not delay even a moment and immediately mounted his horse to fight.

At that very moment.

Zhu Di, who was stabilizing the situation within the camp, suddenly noticed that among a squad of Oirat cavalry charging rapidly toward the Ming central army in the distance, there seemed to be a few familiar faces.

A cold sneer inevitably appeared on the corner of Zhu Di's mouth.

He immediately turned his horse and charged straight toward that squad of cavalry.

Hearing Fan Zhong led a squad of Personal Guards from the Vanguard Camp, guarding Zhu Di's back tightly.

And the leader of that squad of Oirat cavalry.

Was the Oirat Regional Commander, Grand Tutor, Prince Huai, and Right Chancellor of the Secretariat, Esen!

At this moment, Esen's eyes were fixed intently on the central camp tent in the distance.

His face was flushed with excitement.

Twenty years!

The warriors of the steppe have finally returned to kill!

How could that old Emperor have ever imagined that the Jiangshan he worked so hard to conquer would end up in the hands of such useless descendants?!

Just as the smile on Esen's face gradually became grotesque, he suddenly noticed.

That a squad of cavalry had actually charged out from the midst of the Ming army, which had already turned into chaos, and was charging straight toward him!

The expression on Esen's face gradually became Solemn.

He stared fixedly at the Ming army before him and gritted his teeth, speaking in a low voice,

"My sons..."

Esen had not yet finished speaking.

He saw the face of the approaching rider clearly in the bright moonlight.

The face that had made all the tribes of the steppe tremble with fear for twenty years, like a nightmare!

Esen froze in place.

But Zhu Di, with practiced ease, drew an arrow, and before Esen could come to his senses.

A "Whoosh!" sound rang out.

Esen's helmet was knocked flying by Zhu Di's arrow.

Acting on instinct, Esen immediately rolled off his warhorse without hesitation.

Seeing this, Zhu Di, disregarding further combat, immediately shouted from atop his horse.

"Esen is dead! Surrender and you shall not be killed!"

Hearing Fan Zhong, following behind Zhu Di, immediately joined Zhu Di in shouting the news of Esen's death in both Mongolian and Chinese.

The Oirat cavalry inside the camp, unaware of the situation, looked toward the direction of their own Grand Tutor.

They indeed saw the Kheshig in a state of utter panic.

In an instant, the Oirat army fell into chaos.

And Duke Zhang Fu also seized the opportunity.

Leading the various camps under his command, he launched a counterattack.

The Oirat army, which had originally been fiercely aggressive, finally began to show signs of collapse.

Esen, having been helped to his feet, instinctively shouted in a harsh voice,

"Why are you all standing there stunned? Shout it too!"

"Zhu Di is dead!"

The Keshig guards behind him didn't even use their brains.

Immediately, they too began screaming hoarsely within the Ming army camp.

"Zhu Di is dead!"

At that moment.

The originally chaotic battlefield fell into dead silence almost instantly.

Whether Ming soldiers or Oirat cavalry, they all managed to spare a glance at Esen's Keshig guards amidst the frantic battle.

Damn it, Zhu Di is dead; did you need to tell us?

Forget Zhu Di.

Zhu Di's grandson is dead!

Did your village just get connected to the internet?

The fierce battle between both sides continued, but after these little interludes, the Ming army reversed its declining momentum.

After losing all their advantages.

The Oirat cavalry almost without hesitation broke contact with the Ming army.

Witnessing all of this firsthand, Zhu Di's expression inevitably became solemn.

In just a few short decades.

How did the Oirat tribe become so powerful?

The steppe strategy consists of only two words.

One is "flexibility."

They simply play the game of coming and going like the wind.

Whether it was Wang Baobao back then, or Nair Bu Hua later.

Although the generals all thought of the old tactics of the Laozu Sect: retreat when the enemy advances.

Yet the steppe cavalry under their command, whose legs had been softened by the dazzling Jiangshan, were long no longer the steppe cavalry that once roamed the world.

Therefore, whether attacking or defending.

The steppe cavalry, when facing Great Ming, almost always revealed a certain stiffness.