The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 658 Escape to the Western Regions
The Oirat Tuoluo tribe truly did not want to relinquish the northern desert.

Especially the Great Lake Grassland where they started.

This grassland is protected from the cold winds by the Tangnu Uliang Mountains to the north, and is surrounded by the Altai Mountains and Khangai Mountains to the east and west. Not only is the water source abundant, but the winter temperature is also not very low.

This area can be described as the Hetao region of northern Mongolia, which is very suitable for cattle, sheep and horses to breed and thrive.

The nomadic tribes beyond the Great Wall relied on the grasslands to develop.

Only by breeding cattle, sheep, and horses can they have enough food, and only with enough food can they reproduce a larger population.

The rise of the Tatar Tumed tribe from the Hetao grasslands and the rise of the Oirat Tuoluo tribe from the Great Lakes grasslands are based on the same principle.

Conversely, if they lose this vast grassland, they will not even be able to support their existing cattle, sheep, and horses, and their population will decrease sharply, leading to their decline and even extinction.

In this situation, they would naturally make use of the familiar terrain to desperately resist and see if they could save this grassland.

Although the Tsoros tribe is not as powerful as Esen was in Japan at this time, its strength is not bad.

They also had about 30,000 cavalry, plus the more than 30,000 cavalry brought by Third Sister and the cavalry from other fleeing Oirat tribes, bringing their total to over 80,000.

With their combined strength and familiarity with the terrain, they felt they had a fighting chance.

They originally thought that the allied forces of more than 80,000 men could take advantage of the terrain to defeat the hundreds of thousands of Ming cavalrymen one by one and still have a good chance of driving them back.

The Ming cavalry seemed quite unscrupulous. After breaking in, they dispersed into more than ten or twenty groups and began to capture the nomadic herders.

This is the opportunity—the opportunity to defeat them one by one.

Even if the Ming army had hundreds of thousands of troops, after being divided into ten or twenty groups, each group would only have a maximum of twenty or thirty thousand troops. It should not have been a problem for them to encircle and annihilate one of the groups with more than 80,000 troops.

That morning, they used the cover of mountains, forests and lakes to surround a force of about 20,000 cavalrymen in a basin spanning dozens of miles.

Under normal circumstances, it should be no problem for more than 80,000 cavalry to encircle and annihilate about 20,000 cavalry.

Who knew that just as they stealthily surrounded them, still more than ten miles away, the cavalrymen seemed to have spotted them and frantically rushed back along the same route.

They even tried to block them.

As a result, before the 20,000 to 30,000 troops that had surrounded them on both sides could even get within a hundred paces of the enemy, the dense gunfire erupted like firecrackers.

Their men and horses were falling to the ground like dumplings being dropped into a pot. Those behind them had no choice but to tighten the reins and slow down to avoid trampling on the fallen tribesmen or colliding with the out-of-control warhorses.

This Ming cavalry force actually broke through the encirclement and escaped!

Upon receiving the news, Dong Yiyuan immediately ordered his cavalry to return and report to Ma Gui in the rear, while he quickly mobilized more than ten Shenwu Camp cavalry units from the vicinity to encircle the basin.

The Oirat coalition never expected that their strategy of defeating the enemy piecemeal would backfire so spectacularly.

They were sending out scouts to investigate the movements of the Ming army in the vicinity when the Ming army surrounded them from all sides!
How can this be?

The Ming armies in all directions were at least five or six hundred li apart. Even with an urgent message delivered over eight hundred li, it would take almost a day to get the order to them.

In less than two hours, the Ming troops all around received orders to head straight for the basin where they were located!

Little did they know that they were facing the elite of the Ming army, the best-equipped Shenwu Battalion cavalry.

Ma Gui and Dong Yiyuan did not show favoritism by letting their border cavalry rush ahead to claim credit.

Their border cavalry were responsible for transporting grain and supplies and escorting prisoners; they did not participate in the battle at all. The cavalry that broke into the Great Lake Grassland were all from the Shenwu Camp.

The Shenwu Camp was already equipped with large telescopes. Moreover, although the Shenwu Camp's formation appeared loose, there were cavalry squads with large telescopes constantly relaying messages in the middle.

In other words, the Shenwu Camp cavalry did not break into the Great Lake Grassland in a scattered manner; rather, they came in like a net, with the scouts carrying large telescopes acting as the net's threads, connecting all the cavalry forces that had broken in.

Therefore, the news that the Shenwu Camp cavalry had been surrounded quickly reached Dong Yiyuan, who was leading the army. At Dong Yiyuan's command, the Shenwu Camp cavalry quickly surrounded them.

The Oirat coalition was terrified and fled westward in a panic.

The scouts responsible for relaying messages quickly discovered their movements. Upon receiving the news, Dong Yiyuan immediately ordered his men to send the nearest Shenwu Camp cavalry unit to the west to intercept them.

Before long, a group of Shenwu cavalrymen blocked the path of the Oirat allied forces in front of a valley in the mountains.

The Oirat allied forces were fleeing for their lives. At this moment, they no longer cared that the Ming cavalry had muskets; they had to break through this mountain valley to escape.

If they were to detour from the north or south, they would probably be surrounded by the Ming army before they even got around.

In this situation, they had no choice but to charge forward if they wanted to escape. The 80,000 troops charged directly at the 20,000 Ming cavalrymen in the road, disregarding everything else.

As luck would have it, this cavalry force was led by the future imperial son-in-law, Qin Yiming.

Seeing the massive Oirat coalition charging towards him from the front, he showed no fear whatsoever; in fact, he even revealed a hint of excitement.

This is the military merit that's been delivered to us!
If the enemy is charging from all directions, there's no way to stop them; but if the enemy is charging from one direction, it's much easier to handle.

He glanced at the mountain forest and valley behind him, and soon had an idea.

The enemy was still two or three miles away when he loudly ordered, "Send the order: everyone throw all the oil cans in front."

With a wave of command flags, 20,000 oil canisters were launched like a black line. Seeing this, Qin Yiming loudly ordered, "Order all archers to prepare fire arrows and aim them at the oil canister area."

Currently, only half of the 400,000 Shenwu Battalion cavalry are equipped with revolver flintlock muskets, while the other half are still equipped with bows and arrows.

He had 20,000 men under his command, 10,000 of whom were equipped with muskets and 10,000 with bows and arrows.

Soon, tens of thousands of archers lit fire arrows, aiming them diagonally at the area where the oil tanks had fallen.

At this moment, the enemy's massive cavalry force was only a little over a mile away from them.

Qin Yiming immediately waved his hand and shouted, "Release!"

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh," tens of thousands of rockets took off.

The rocket couldn't possibly have traveled more than a mile; they seemed to be shooting at air.

However, after the rocket landed, a wall of fire suddenly appeared on the grassland.

Seeing this, Qin Yiming loudly ordered, "Send word that everyone retreat a hundred paces immediately to the edge of the forest. Musketeers, prepare to fire."

Soon, they retreated to a distance of a hundred paces, and all the musketeers raised their muskets and aimed them at the wall of fire.

They could throw the oil canisters about forty or fifty paces away, and if they retreated a hundred paces, it would be a hundred and forty or fifty paces.

This distance was exactly the killing range of a musket, while the enemy's arrows couldn't even reach 140 or 150 paces.

The Oirat coalition was startled by the sudden appearance of the wall of fire, and many of their warhorses even neighed in fear.

However, they still gritted their teeth and charged towards the wall of fire.

They had just rushed to the wall of fire and were about to pull their warhorses over it when a continuous barrage of gunfire suddenly erupted from ahead.

Qin Yiming disregarded everything and ordered the musketeers to fire nine rounds in succession, emptying one reel before quickly replacing it with another.

By this time, the Oirat allied forces were lying dead on the other side of the fire wall, many of them shot and even falling directly into the fire wall.

Many warhorses lost control and trampled the fire wall, their hooves catching fire. The warhorses panicked and ran around in a frenzy, and the scene instantly turned into chaos.

The advance of the Oirat coalition was thus halted.

The cavalry behind them didn't dare to charge towards the chaotic wall of fire at all.

Some people even went around to the sides, frantically fleeing to the north and south.

Qin Yiming waited calmly. His task was to block the west side, while the north and south sides were not his concern.

The fire in the oil canisters couldn't burn forever. Before long, the wall of fire gradually died down, and the chaotic warhorses scattered and fled. All that remained on the ground was a row of corpses that had been shot down by muskets or burned to death.

At this moment, nearly 20,000 of the 80,000-strong Oirat coalition army had been killed by a barrage of musket fire. In addition, more than 30,000 fled to the north and south, leaving them with less than 50,000 troops in total.

As they hesitated whether to continue charging forward, the sound of thunderous hooves faintly echoed from the east, south, and north.

It was obvious that the other Ming troops had already surrounded them, and if they didn't run away now, they would have no chance.

The Oirat allied forces quickly formed their battle formation and charged towards Qin Yiming's route once again.

By this time, the musket barrels had cooled down considerably, and they were met with a continuous barrage of musket bullets.

The Oirat coalition was also determined; no matter how many fell, they charged straight west.

This volley of fire wiped out nearly 20,000 more men, leaving at most 30,000 enemy soldiers.

He had originally planned that if he couldn't hold out any longer, he would have the archers block the valley in the middle and let the musketeers go into the jungle to wait for their gun barrels to cool down before launching another attack.

Now it seems there's no need for another round.

Upon seeing this, Qin Yiming immediately drew his twin swords and roared, "Kill!"

After shouting, he charged forward first.

"Kill!"

Twenty thousand cavalrymen roared and charged forward.

A fierce battle broke out on the Great Lake Grassland.

Qin Yiming led his 20,000 troops in a fierce battle with the Oirat allied forces, and troops from various factions of the Shenwu Camp also joined the fray one after another.

The battle lasted until nightfall. Of the more than 80,000 Oirat allied troops, less than 10,000 escaped under cover of darkness, while the majority of the rest were defeated by Qin Yiming's forces, with only about 10,000 ultimately captured.

The Oirat coalition was almost completely annihilated, and now they dared not resist, nor were they able to resist.

They could only flee frantically to the northwest with men, women, children, cattle, sheep, and horses from various tribes, crossing the river valley between the Tangnu Wuliang Mountains and the Altai Mountains to escape to the Western Regions.

(End of this chapter)