In the afternoon of April 20, the 26th year of Wanli, with Li Rumei's 3,000 cavalry returning to Guihua City, the four-day annihilation battle of Guihua City finally came to a successful end.

This battle, which began with a surprise attack, began with the Ming army having an absolute advantage from the beginning, and the northern captives entrenched in Guihua City did not think that the Ming army would gather tens of thousands of powerful combat forces to launch such a large-scale counterattack.

After all, for a long time, the Ming army's attack on the north was limited to small-scale raids, harassment, and burning operations, and the purpose of the active attack was mainly to destroy a series of factors that were helpful to the north captives to the south, and to make it more difficult for the north to go south.

For example, destroying some small tribes that were particularly close to the Ming army's defense area, seizing strategic materials such as cattle, sheep and horses, and burning the grassland so that the horses of the northern captives had no forage to eat, and so on, there were very few large-scale sorties with the strategic purpose of annihilating the living forces of the northern captives.

The battle of the Northern Expedition of 40,000 cavalry has not been a large-scale sortie for many years, not to mention that this Ming army's attack is not simply to burn the wasteland and seize cattle, sheep and horses, but to annihilate their living forces.

The Northern Expedition to fight a war of annihilation will not be something that the Ming army can do in the minds of many Beiyu leaders, at least since the death of the Ma Wangye who made them afraid, there are not so many generals among the Han who dare to launch a counterattack against the Beiyu.

And what is happening now makes it impossible for them not to believe that the nightmare that they once thought was gone has returned.

The large amount of grain that was constantly transported to Naturalization City during the process of Pullik's southward journey was the basis for a large number of northern captives to gather here for the winter, so many of the northern captives who were summoned by Talik had no intention of continuing to go south at all, but spent the winter here.

It's spring, and they don't plan to go back, so they graze here, waiting for the news of Pullik to go south again, but the news of Pullik didn't wait, but waited for the counterattack of the Ming army.

Now they fell into the blood mold.

This group of Ming troops is completely different from other Ming armies that I have seen in the past, they are particularly strong and good at fighting, they are particularly savage and bloodthirsty, they are rampant, they kill people when they see them, and they do not distinguish between men, women, old and young.

When encountering the cavalry of the Northern Captives, who were finally in groups ready to counterattack, they would attack them with a firearm, blow up their group, and then rush in to fight, making the resistance of the Northern Captives look very fragile.

It was a very sudden battle, the northern captives were not prepared at all, and it was a settlement migration of old and weak women and children gathered together, thinking that this was a large rear, but I didn't expect that this place suddenly became a battlefield, under the chaos, only a few leaders could organize a considerable number of cavalry to protect themselves and counterattack, but these people often became the focus of the Ming army.

They didn't know why the Ming army had suddenly become so strong and warlike and so savage and bloodthirsty, one person dared to chase after a dozen of them with his teeth and mouth, and a small group of Ming cavalry dared to rush and beat their team of more than 100 people, as if the strength and weakness had changed hands overnight, and time and space were reversed.

Xu Guangqi rode his horse to a northern barracks destroyed by the Ming army, looking at the mess and corpses everywhere, although there was pity in his eyes, there was no longer the color of resistance that he once had.

He didn't know why he insisted on following Xiao Ruxun to the Northern Expedition, he only felt that after waking up from that coma, he seemed to have changed somewhere.

"Don't you vomit anymore?"

Xiao Ruxun came to his side and asked calmly.

"The governor laughed, they are already people who have seen blood killings, how can they still vomit?"

Xu Guangqi shook his head.

"Still blaming Bento?"

"Don't dare."

"It's naturally good not to blame Bendu, and it doesn't matter if you blame Bendu, at least, you are already a real military man, these are things that are absolutely impossible to bring to you in books, but can be brought to you by a military career.

It can let you see with your own eyes what is called a river of blood and corpses piling up like a mountain, what is called a general who died in a hundred battles and a strong man returns in ten years, after all, the words and sentences in the book can not make you really understand the horror of the battlefield, but what you see with your own eyes can, and you can kill it with your own hands. ”

Xiao Ruxun slowly patrolled the camp, and when Xu Guangqi saw this, he also followed with his horse.

"Such a scene, my subordinates really never thought that these soldiers were not so strong and good at fighting when they were in Datong, and they would not be so fierce in the face of the northern captives, why do they seem to be like jackals, tigers and leopards meeting pheasants and hares now? Just a military order? ”

Xiao Ruxun nodded.

"It's a military order, a military order that is enough for soldiers to burst out several times their usual combat effectiveness, this is like the first-level military merit system of the Qin army during the Warring States Period, with such a system, only then can the Qin army win a big victory of 350,000 heads."

Xu Guangqi was puzzled again: "But I heard that Zhang Jiangling had also restored the first-level merit system, but why didn't he succeed, but a wanton looting military order doubled the combat power of the sergeants?" ”

"Time has passed, the system that is easy to use in the ancestors is not easy to use in today's people, the reason why the northerners ride horses and the southerners operate the boats, it is because there is less water in the north and more water in the south of the river, and it is just developed according to local conditions.

Just as Zhang Jiangling simply restored a system, he didn't notice that the world had changed from the Great Qin to the Ming Dynasty, and he had already changed the world, but he didn't pay attention to changing other things, just like asking people to operate boats in the north and letting people ride horses in the south of the Yangtze River.

These sergeants joined the army and fought not for the righteousness of the family and country, but for promotion and wealth, there are so many official positions, it is impossible for everyone to take care of them, and the sergeants who deeply understand the difficulty of promotion put the main purpose on making money.

I told them that they were not fighting this time for the court and the country, but for themselves, for themselves to live a better life, and everything was captured by themselves, so they would use their lives so hard, in their opinion, the northern captives are theirs, and the northern captives are robbing them, so there is no other way, kill them, and snatch them back. ”

"The ancients said that the book was read a hundred times, and its meaning was self-evident, but the more I read, the more I felt confused, until I went to the battlefield, I finally understood that reading could not understand everything, and I had to see it with my own eyes to understand that I had to experience it with my own eyes to understand that everything before was really wrong."

Xu Guangqi looked up to the sky and sighed.

Tilting less, Xu Guangqi asked again: "What does the governor plan to do next?" ”

"What's next?"

Xiao Ruxun stopped the horse, looked towards the north and looked to the north, and after a while, he slowly turned his head and looked at the south.

"That's it, it's time to go back, if you don't go back, some people shouldn't worry about me."