Chapter 482: This Xinghe can't be lost

Yuan Taishi Arutai. Da Ming and Ning King Arutai. These two titles represent two distinct eras.

Although Arutai had never seen the glory of Da Yuan's rule over the world, every elder had reminisced about the good times and the fat and wealth of the Central Plains in the cold cowhide tent, next to the herd of livestock that exuded all kinds of peculiar smells, and on the belly of those grassland women with slightly brown skin. So, although he was driven by the Ming army when he was young and had nowhere to stay, and after finally taking power, he met a strong Ming emperor, but Arutai never gave up his desire to restore the country.

It was snowing heavily, and the makeshift tents could not stop the howling wind, so everyone was wrapped in thick sheepskin jackets. Arutai's sons, Lost Shan and Abu, sat on the left side, wearing a golden belt that distinguished them from ordinary generals, and Korqin Adeitaiji, who was highly courteous to Arutai, sat on the right side with several generals of the Korqin tribe, and was equipped with a conspicuous golden sword. Although he did not sit in the center, he sat at the level of Arutai.

"Originally, in order to restore our strength, we had to pay tribute to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty as a sign of respect, but now that our strength has been restored, we can no longer bend our knees to the enemy! The three tribes of Warat have set up Weiya Latai with impure blood, and even have to deal with us together with the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, if we don't fight again, then the Khan Court will become the Khan Court of Warat! Two years ago, our strength had not fully recovered, and as a result, we defeated the Taiping Ministry, and now we can pull out Xinghe! ”

Since Arutai had already said that he would support himself as the Great Khan of All Mongolia, Adaitaiji, who was sitting there, immediately echoed it, and the generals under his command naturally expressed their support, but most of the chieftains on the left looked hesitant. Seeing that the chieftains still refused to make up their minds, they lost their hands and glanced at the lowest Serben. However, Seleben, who had suffered a lot of ridicule because of yesterday's defeat, was silent, and had no choice but to stand up without pinching.

"Father, Xinghe is not the focus of the Ming army's defense, it will definitely be won in one day and one night!"

Arutai almost didn't think about it and said in a deep voice: "Then I'll give you a day and a night!" ”

When this heavy sentence came out, although many people in the account disagreed, in the end, no one objected. Soon, the people of Horqin and several chieftains of the headquarters got up and left, and the confident Lost Gang also went out to arrange the siege himself, and Abu only said that he would go to arrange it, and robbed and killed the scouts from the south, and quietly slipped away. Seleben, who was also planning to leave, did not expect Arutai to leave him, and he was not without apprehension.

"Did you tell anyone about the spy you got before?"

Seleben was stunned by the falcon-like gaze of Arutai, and it took a long time for him to reply, "I haven't mentioned it to anyone." ”

After receiving such a reply, Arutai's face suddenly pale: "We have a total of fifteen or six thousand people this time, and even if you add the batch of military households who sent baggage in Xinghe Fort, it is less than two thousand, plus Xinghe Fort is in disrepair and there are few people to rotate, they will definitely not be able to resist." If you can obtain tens of thousands of stone of grain and stored gunpowder in Xinghe Fort, you will be able to spend this winter safely, and you don't have to worry about the three warats. However, it seems that there is also discord within the Ming army, and someone will take the initiative to leak such important information to us, but there are more baggage soldiers and civilians, and it is impossible to stop us. ”

Seeing that Seleben's face was blue and white, he remembered that after the defeat and retreat yesterday, those chiefs continued to speak coldly and ridicule him, so he comforted: "Don't pay attention to those old guys. They are already old, and all they want is to keep themselves safe and secure, and they have already lost the courage of the people of the Great Yuan in the past! I have to keep them now, as long as you make more merits to suppress them in the future, are you afraid that they will despise you again? If you lose your pinch and are young and vigorous, you will hand over the siege to him, you take five thousand rangers, see what the situation is on the Wanquan side, and if you can, kill it, and destroy their idea of reinforcements! ”

"Yes!"

Zheng Pingyuan has been preparing for many years in Xinghe, and he has almost never encountered a Tartar entering the army on a snowy day, let alone such an offensive. The Tartars' tactics were simple and rude, and they had the advantage of having many soldiers, and they actually piled up a high mountain of earth more than a hundred paces away from the west wall with soil each, and then used that height to shoot out an overwhelming array of arrow feathers, and an ancient brain poured down towards the city. Soon, a group of people pushed up a siege vehicle, a dozen ladders, and even two artillery pieces. The sergeants at the head of the city had to hold their shields at all times to guard against the elusive cold arrows; Even if the firecrackers in the arrow tower rotated in groups of three, the bronze handcuffs gradually became hot; The archers took turns, and at last everyone's arms sank.

Zheng Pingyuan, who personally supervised the battle on the Western Wall, saw the Tartars who were attacking one after another as if they were not going to die, and he had only one thought in his heart. Lose your marbles...... These crazy Tartars really want to take this place! If Xinghe is replaced by Kaiping and Wanquan, then there is no need to worry at all, but this is just an earthen city built during the Hongwu period, and it has only been a small repair and a small fight for many years! Even if his predecessors had fought off the Tartars countless times, but this time...... I'm afraid I really can't hold it this time!

"Zheng Pingyuan!"

Suddenly hearing this shout, Zheng Pingyuan came back to his senses, and saw that it was several personal soldiers who were guarding Wang Zhao with shields, and he hurriedly rushed forward in three or two steps. At this time, he didn't care about the difference between up and down, and actually shouted loudly: "Wang Dushuai, aren't you guarding the east wall, why did you leave that side and run here, if Xinghe is really broken, none of us can escape!" ”

At this moment, the explosion of firearms, the wailing of horses, the sound of bows and arrows breaking through the air, the muffled sound of knives and guns entering flesh, and countless shouts and screams of killing all gathered together, filling the whole city with a piercing noise. Wang Zhao couldn't hear Zheng Pingyuan's voice at all, so he simply pulled him over and shouted loudly into his ear.

"There's Xiao Zhang over there with someone guarding it! I have calculated that there are about 1,500 people in each batch of Tartars, and we can go up to the city wall at a time about 500 people, but now that we have come down a few times, the reserves are almost empty, and we can't just fight like this! The Tartars are going crazy this time, they have lost at least three times as many people as us, why are they still attacking so desperately? ”

This old general is really crazy, what do you care about at this time!

Zheng Pingyuan couldn't wait to pull Wang Zhao's ear and said that he didn't have time to think about it so much at this time, however, at this moment, he suddenly heard the Tartars besieging the city below shouting in unison. He had been on the border for a long time, and he could understand some Mongolian dialect, and after distinguishing clearly, his already heavy heart sank even more steeply.

"Lose the pinch, lose the pinch, lose the pinch!"

Zhang Yue on the east wall also clearly heard the deafening shout, although he couldn't understand it, he still saw the person in the distance who was surrounded by more than a dozen personal guards. It was expected that it must be an important person in the Tartars, he couldn't help but glance at the strong bow in Peng Shisan's hand, and then dispelled this thought, but the next moment, he suddenly thought that this time he had brought two boxes of the latest magic spears made by the Divine War Bureau in addition to the Divine Arrows.

Before he could speak, Peng 13 reminded: "There is a distance of about 400 steps at the moment, after all, our Tartars have been in the Central Plains at the beginning, and we also know that the Central Plains people shoot people first and horses first, and capture thieves and capture kings first, so we won't come up easily." At the moment, there are at least five hundred paces away, not to mention me, even those sharpshooters since ancient times may not be able to do anything. However, while he will supervise the battle later, why don't you try the magic arrows and magic spears brought this time? ”

Although Zhang Yue nodded, he said: "The range of the divine machine arrow is not enough, and it was handed over to Zhou Bailing and them to use before, and now there are only two boxes of divine spears left." This time, the range of the newly made spear can be 350 to 400 steps, but after all, it is not as accurate as a bow and arrow, and even if several shots are fired at once, the probability of hitting is too low. That's fine, take the things out first, and then we'll see the opportunity to act. ”

As early as the fierce confrontation between the attacking and defending sides, the snow had stopped, and the Mongol soldiers besieging the city temporarily retreated, but a new group of men was ready to attack. The snow above and below the city was now dyed in all colors, the black of the sludge, the white of the blood, and the rust of the weapons...... Coupled with the discarded weapons and the corpses of both sides, it was even more shocking under that round of red sun. Seeing those black-pressed tartars, many of the soldiers on the city wall felt a huge sense of powerlessness.

How long can this continue?

And at this time, the dispute between Wang Zhao and Zheng Pingyuan finally came to an end. Although he felt that it was too risky, in the face of waves of non-stop offensives, Zheng Pingyuan had to accept Wang Zhao's proposal, and sent a team of people to open the door and take the opportunity to kill while the enemy was attacking, the purpose of which was not to kill the enemy, but to destroy the siege vehicle. As for the artillery...... The artillery of this year is still a little short of being used to siege the city.

There is no doubt that this is almost a mortal act, so Wang Zhao ordered Zheng Pingyuan to defend carefully, and no longer care about the defense of the city, and took a few personal soldiers down the city wall. Although it was a cold day, because the battle situation was too tense, even the replaced people did not dare to rest, and they all stomped their feet in the open space to keep warm, and took the opportunity to eat a few bites of food to fill their stomachs, among which there were even many sergeants wearing big red jackets in the Beijing camp, all of them were stained with blood, and they didn't know whether it was their own blood or other people's blood.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to gather people, he saw Zhang Yue's two henchmen walking briskly from the other side, and the two sergeants behind him were still carefully carrying a box. When he got closer, he asked, but Lian Sheng wiped the sweat on his forehead and explained in a low voice: "Wang Dushuai, when we set off from Beijing, the War Bureau sent some new goods, and the magic arrows and spears had to be used to defend the city. The adults said that dead horses should be used as live horse doctors, so it is better to give it a try and see if they can send someone out of the city and destroy the siege engine. ”

Wang Zhao was stunned for a moment, and then laughed: "Okay, I'm worried that I don't have a sharp weapon, so I'll send it to the door!" Go back and tell your lords to guard the Western Wall well, this prosperity and harmony can't be lost! ”