Chapter 1699: Your Majesty, Firing from Ambush

Guiyingqia was the foremost warrior of the Mongols, a brawny man built as broad as a door plank. But anyone who took him for a reckless brute with more muscle than brains would be sorely mistaken. This man was a commander of both courage and cunning, the bravest in all Mongolia and as crafty as he was fierce. Among the Mongol tribes, he had virtually no equal.

This foremost warrior of the Mongols was also an old adversary of the Ming army. Before the Battle of Guangning, he had led the troops of the Chahar tribe into repeated clashes with the Ming forces in Liaodong, and he knew the Ming army's tricks all too well. It was nothing more than sending household retainers to drive the rank-and-file troops into a war of attrition, and once the moment looked right, hurling the ironclad household cavalry into the fray to break the enemy line. Those household retainers were indeed formidable — the armed herders of the steppe were certainly no match for them — but against the Great Khan's iron-lance cavalry, they could gain no advantage either.

These Mongol armed herders were on the same level as the Ming army's ordinary battalion troops, while the Great Khan's iron-lance cavalry were roughly the equal of the Ming army's household retainers.

And what was clashing at this moment was a force of over a thousand armed herders against three or four hundred cavalry from the Datong garrison's headquarters battalion. The headquarters battalion were also regular troops, not the Regional Commander's household retainers. A Regional Commander could not take the headquarters troops with him when he left his post, so it was impossible for them to receive the treatment of household retainers. Still, compared with ordinary battalion troops, the headquarters troops were far better off. At the very least they received their full pay and ate well. And the soldiers chosen for the headquarters battalion were usually the sharpest fighters of the garrison. Ordinary herders were no match for them!

But the armed herders Guiyingqia had brought out today were no ordinary lot either. They all came from the six "small myriarchies" belonging to the Great Khan's ordo within the Chahar Myriarchy — at this time the Chahar Myriarchy was divided into the Great Khan's ordo and the Eight Great Camps (tribes), and the Great Khan's ordo was further divided into six small myriarchies, called respectively the Gor Tumen Myriarchy, the Ahe Tumen Myriarchy, the Hana Tumen Myriarchy, the Dou Tumen Myriarchy, the Central Army Myriarchy, and the Alagchud Myriarchy. Compared with the herders of the Chahar Eight Great Camps, the armed herders of the six small myriarchies under the Great Khan's ordo could be considered quite capable fighters. And the most capable of them all was the Central Army Myriarchy commanded by Guiyingqia and his wife Uriyangqai — the so-called Iron-Lance Konot Ten Sumu belonged to this Central Army Myriarchy.

For today's probing action, Guiyingqia had not only deployed one sumu of ironclad cavalry, but had also drawn 200 cavalry from each of the other five small myriarchies, bringing the total force to 1,300 men.

Before crossing the river, he had also worked out a plan with the sumu from the other five small myriarchies to lure the enemy into an ambush.

The plan was to use ordinary Mongol cavalry to raid the villages west of the Yu River that still lay under Ming protection, drawing the Ming patrol cavalry and scouts out to the edge of the small wood by the Yu River.

Then Guiyingqia would lead his own ironclad cavalry in a charge, giving the Ming troops who came after them a proper taste of their mettle!

If they could give the southern barbarians a sound thrashing and let them know the prowess of the Chahar warriors, then perhaps they could negotiate a satisfactory sum for the market bounty.

In truth, the real purpose of the Hutudun Khan leading so many men through the Datong border wall was not to plunder goods, but to use military force to pressure the Ming court into granting more market bounty. If not five hundred thousand taels, then at least three or four hundred thousand, surely?

Only with that market bounty could the Great Khan win over and buy off the tribes of the Right Wing and become the "Khan of the West"!

So the Hutudun Khan, Guiyingqia, and the others had no desire to fight a decisive battle within the borders of Datong Garrison. They intended only to use a few small-scale clashes to teach the Ming army a lesson.

Guiyingqia was just calculating how many Ming soldiers and commoners of the Great Ming ought to be killed when someone beside him suddenly shouted: "Jaisang! (The steward who manages a myriarchy is called jaisang.) The men of the Alagchud Myriarchy seem to have been defeated!"

"What?" Guiyingqia was stunned. "How is that possible?"

This Alagchud Myriarchy was made up of warriors from Mongol tribes that had submitted to the Chahar tribe during its westward migration. Though not as formidable as the Central Army Myriarchy, they were still counted among the better fighters of the Chahar tribe — far stronger than the Chahar Eight Great Camps and the four "consort myriarchies" of the Gor Tumen, Ahe Tumen, Hana Tumen, and Dou Tumen (these four myriarchies were all commanded by the Great Khan's wives and concubines). How could they have been defeated? And things had been going well just moments ago!

But Guiyingqia was not particularly alarmed. Before crossing the river, he had long since agreed with the other sumu that if they encountered the enemy's elite troops, they were not to fight head-on, but to draw them over so that Guiyingqia's ironclad sumu could engage them.

"Bring my horse!" Guiyingqia did not hesitate, but immediately ordered his attendants to bring his horse. Then he commanded: "Warriors of the Iron-Lance Konot, the time to strike has come!"

His ironclad cavalry had long been growing impatient. At his shout, they all howled as they swung into their saddles, raised their long lances, and charged out of the small wood, beginning to form ranks outside the tree line.

The so-called "wall charge" was something the Mongols knew how to execute as well — this tactic was nothing more than arraying cavalry in several ranks and charging, no great difficulty in that. But to execute it well, to execute it with mastery, was no easy matter.

And to execute it well and with mastery, the trick lay in two things. First, "always charge" — that is, avoid falling into melee and close combat, and always fight by charging in formation. Second, breed high-quality warhorses with powerful impact. There was also one more fundamental skill: organizing a tightly ordered shock formation. And the larger the formation, the better the shock effect tended to be.

But for traditional "feudal cavalry," they often could not carry through the concept of "always charge." After all, every man in traditional feudal cavalry possessed fine martial skills — would it not be a waste not to use them? Moreover, they lived dispersed and rarely had the chance to train together, so it was very difficult for them to organize a large-front shock formation.

The ironclad cavalry under Guiyingqia's command were also typical feudal cavalry. They could execute a "wall charge" in units of a hundred riders, but they would not charge repeatedly — after one charge, they would fall to close combat or archery.

By the time Guiyingqia spurred his horse out of the wood, the sumu from the Alagchud Myriarchy had already escaped danger, because the company of Ming light cavalry pursuing them had reined in their horses four or five hundred paces from Guiyingqia's ironclad cavalry and advanced no further.

The sumu leader from the Alagchud Myriarchy looked utterly bedraggled, with a feathered arrow still stuck in his back, the arrowhead buried in his flesh — it looked painful indeed. This Mongol warrior gritted his teeth and came before Guiyingqia, saying loudly: "Jaisang, these southern barbarians are formidable. Though they are light cavalry, they charge just like ironclad cavalry."

"Useless wretch!" Guiyingqia cursed, then waved him off. However formidable light cavalry might be, they were no match for the Iron-Lance Konot warriors!

The foremost warrior of the Mongols raised his hand to his brow to shade his eyes from the sun, squinted for a look, and could not help cursing again: "Useless wretch!"

For he discovered that the Ming cavalry troop that had been pursuing the Alagchud Myriarchy numbered only a little over a hundred riders, none of them armored. About half carried long lances, and the other half carried bows and arrows. At their head was a man with a broad forehead and a heavy beard, who looked rather fierce.

But however fierce he looked, he was still nothing more than unarmored light cavalry.

"Warriors of the Great Khan!" Guiyingqia took a long lance from one of his personal guards, raised it high toward the sky, then suddenly thrust it forward. "Charge with me!"

With that cry, he spurred his horse forward and galloped out in the lead. The 300 Mongol ironclad cavalry behind him were no sluggards either — every man leveled his lance and drove his horse forward, surging straight ahead like 300 savage wolves.

The Ming light cavalry, as if knowing they were no match, all wheeled their horses about and fled westward at full speed. Guiyingqia naturally would not let them go, and led his men in hot pursuit. After chasing for a while, they arrived outside a burned-out, deserted village.

"Your Majesty, it's dangerous here — the Tartar cavalry are coming."

Inside the deserted village, Man Gui, Regional Commander of Datong in the Great Ming, was on his knees pleading desperately with Zhu Youjian, who was hugging a very long Turkish musket, leaning against a mud wall, and craning half his head out to look.

And like Zhu Youjian, the young guards were all clutching Turkish muskets, waiting to do battle with the Mongol warriors. Zhu Youjian, being the great Emperor that he was, naturally could not have just one Turkish musket. His personal guard army possessed several hundred Turkish muskets in total, but most were still stored in the armory — only his company of young personal guards was equipped with 100 of them. These firearms were all finely crafted treasures, the kind found only in the palace!

Zhu Youjian, the foremost warrior of the Great Ming, intended to use the method of black-gun cavalry to give the Chahar warriors a vicious ambush!

"Your Majesty, the Tartars are here!" Wu Sangui, who had been observing through a telescope, suddenly roared, and then began calling out the range: "500 paces... 450 paces... 400 paces..."

The Great Ming warriors leaning behind the mud wall all kept their nerve. Even as the thunder of hooves grew louder, no one raised his firearm. Only when Wu Sangui shouted "100 paces" did they lean out from behind the wall one after another, prop their Turkish muskets, and begin taking aim.

Zhu Youjian also propped up his imperial divine weapon, the Turkish musket, and quickly found his target — the target was the Mongol rider galloping in the lead right behind the Ming light cavalry. He looked strong, and he was also clad in iron armor! Who knew whether a single lead ball could kill him?

Zhu Youjian thought to himself: If one shot doesn't kill him, then We shall fire another.

With that thought, the His Majesty of the Great Ming pulled the trigger without hesitation. There was a thunderous bang, and the Mongol warrior on horseback seemed struck by lightning — he shuddered and toppled from his horse.

The shot rang out and the man fell! Before Zhu Youjian could even cheer,

a crackling volley of gunfire erupted all around his ears!

(End of Chapter)