On the afternoon of the 20th of April in the 26th year of Wanli, Li Rumei's three thousand cavalrymen returned to Guihua City. The four-day battle to annihilate Guihua City finally came to an end.
The battle that started with the surprise attack was one in which the Ming Army had the absolute advantage. The Northern Barbarians entrenched in Guihua City had never imagined that the Ming Army would gather tens of thousands of people to launch such a large scale counterattack.
After all, for a long time, the Ming Army's attacks to the north were limited to small scale attacks and burning. The main purpose of the attack was to destroy a series of factors that were helpful to the Northern Barbarians moving south and make it more difficult for the Northern Barbarians to move south.
For example, they would destroy some small tribes that were especially close to the Ming Army's defense area, seize cattle, sheep, horses and other strategic resources, and burn the grasslands so that the horses of the Northern Barbarians would not have fodder to eat. There were very few large scale attacks with the strategic purpose of annihilating the Northern Barbarians' strength.
This northern expedition of forty thousand cavalrymen was a large scale attack that had not occurred in many years. Furthermore, the Ming Army's attack this time was not simply to burn the grasslands and seize cattle, sheep and horses, but to annihilate their strength.
In the minds of many Northern Barbarians, a northern expedition for the sake of annihilation was not something that the Ming Army would do. At least ever since the death of Lord Ma, who they were afraid of, there were not many generals among the Han who dared to launch a counterattack against the Northern Barbarians.
They couldn't help but believe what was happening before their eyes. The nightmare that they thought had disappeared had returned once again.
The large amounts of food that Lalik had transported to Guihua City during his journey to the south were the foundation for a large number of Northern Barbarians to gather here for the winter. Therefore, many of the Northern Barbarians who were summoned by Lalik did not plan to continue south and stayed here for the winter.
It was the beginning of spring and they did not plan to return. They grazed here and waited for news from Lalik before heading south. In the end, they did not wait for news from Lalik. Instead, they waited for the counterattack from the Ming Army.
This time, they were out of luck.
This group of Ming Army was completely different from the other Ming Army he had seen before. They were especially valiant and good at fighting, especially savage and bloodthirsty. They ran amok and killed anyone they saw, regardless of gender or age.
When they encountered the Northern Barbarians who had finally formed a group and were ready to counterattack, they would use a type of firearm to attack them, blowing up the group and charging in to kill. This made the resistance of the Northern Barbarians seem very weak.
The Northern Barbarians were not prepared for it at all. Moreover, the old, the weak, the women and the children gathered together in a settlement migration. They thought that this was the rear and did not expect it to suddenly become a battlefield. In the chaos, only a few headmen were able to organize a considerable number of cavalry to defend themselves and counterattack. However, these people often became the main targets of the Ming Army.
They had no idea why the Ming Army had suddenly become so valiant and good at fighting, so savage and bloodthirsty. One person dared to chase after more than ten of them while a small group of Ming Army cavalry dared to charge and attack a group of more than a hundred people. It was as if the strong and the weak had changed overnight and time and space had reversed.
Xu Guangqi rode his horse to a camp of the Northern Barbarians that had been destroyed by the Ming Army. He looked at the mess and corpses on the ground. Although there was pity in his eyes, there was no longer the resistance he once had.
He did not know why he insisted on following Xiao Ruxun on the northern expedition. He only felt that after he woke up from his coma, something seemed to have changed in him.
"You don't vomit anymore?"
Xiao Ruxun rode his horse to his side and asked calmly.
"Governor, you must be joking. I have seen blood and killed before. How can I still vomit?"
Xu Guangqi shook his head.
"Still blaming me?"
"I wouldn't dare."
"It's naturally good that you don't blame me, but it doesn't matter if you do. At the very least, you're a real soldier now. These are things that can't be taught in books, but military life can.
It can let you see with your own eyes what it means to have blood flow like a river and corpses pile up like a mountain. What it means to have a general die in battle and a hero return after ten years. The words and phrases in books can't let you truly understand the horrors of the battlefield. You can see it with your own eyes and kill it with your own hands. "
Xiao Ruxun rode his horse slowly to patrol the camp. Seeing this, Xu Guangqi also rode his horse to follow.
"I really did not expect such a scene. These soldiers were not so valiant and good at fighting when they were in Datong. They were also not so fierce when facing the Northern Barbarians. Why are they like wolves and leopards encountering pheasants and hares? Just a military order? "
Xiao Ruxun nodded.
"It is a military order. A military order that allows the soldiers to explode with several times their usual fighting strength. This is like the Qin Army's meritorious military system during the Warring States Period. With such a system, the Qin Army could easily achieve victory with thirty to fifty thousand heads."
Xu Guangqi asked doubtfully, "But I've heard that Zhang Jiangling had once tried to restore the system of calculating military merits based on heads, but why didn't he succeed? Instead, a military order to plunder without restraint doubled the combat power of the soldiers?"
"Things have changed with the passage of time. The system that was good for the ancestors is not good for the present. The reason why the Northerners ride horses and the Southerners sail boats is because there is less water in the North and more in Jiangnan.
It is just like how Zhang Jiangling had only restored a system, but did not notice that the world had changed from Daqin to Daming. It had long changed the world, but he did not pay attention to changing other things. It was like asking people to sail boats in the North and let people ride horses in Jiangnan. It was a mess.
These soldiers did not join the army for the sake of the country, but to get promoted and make a fortune. There were only so many official positions, and it was impossible to take care of everyone. The soldiers, who deeply understood that it was difficult to get promoted, set their main goal on getting rich.
I told them that they were not fighting for the court or the country, but for themselves. They wanted to live a better life for themselves. Everything they seized belonged to them. That was why they risked their lives. In their eyes, what the Northern Barbarians had was theirs. If the Northern Barbarians took it, they were robbing them. So there was no other way but to kill and take it back. "
"The ancients said, 'Read a book a hundred times, and you will see its meaning.' But the more I read, the more confused I became. It was only when I went on the battlefield that I finally understood that reading books could not understand everything. You must see it with your own eyes and experience it for yourself. Everything before was really wrong."
Xu Guangqi looked up to the sky and sighed.
After a while, Xu Guangqi asked again, "What does Governor plan to do next?"
"Next?"
Xiao Ruxun halted her horse and looked towards the vast expanse of the north. After a while, she slowly turned her head and looked towards the south.
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