Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 138 You are the Ming Army! (Bonus Chapter by Silver Alliance Leader Nuanyang1314)

Yanzhou is named after the Yan River.

It was known as Xiaqiu in ancient times, and as Ziyang during the Song and Yuan dynasties.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Yanzhou was upgraded to a prefectural city.

Zhu Yuanzhang's tenth son, Zhu Tan, was enfeoffed here and became known as the Prince of Lu.

More than two hundred years later, the eleventh Prince of Lu is Zhu Yipai, who inherited the title of Prince of Lu two years ago.

"His Royal Highness."

On the city wall of Yanzhou, Prefect Deng Fanxi bowed to Zhu Yipai and said, "The Jurchens are powerful. I request Your Majesty to distribute the royal treasury's money and grain to boost morale."

"In this way, the city can still be preserved."

"Otherwise, once the great cause is lost, it will be too late to regret it."

"This~~~" There were many Jurchen camps outside the city, and Zhu Yipai was also filled with fear.

However, he was extremely unwilling to contribute money or food.

"Even the Prince's mansion has no surplus grain."

Zhu Yipai shook his head repeatedly, "With these years of natural disasters and man-made calamities, even the Prince's Mansion is struggling to make ends meet."

"It is best for all generals to defend their positions and await reinforcements."

Having said that, without waiting for Deng Fanxi to say anything more, he turned around and went down the city wall.

"Your Majesty~ Your Majesty~~"

Deng Fanxi wanted to give chase, but was stopped by the guards of the Prince's Palace.

Seeing Zhu Yi's faction going further and further astray, Deng Fanxi looked up to the sky and sighed.

“The soldiers and civilians can’t even get enough to eat, where would they get the strength to defend the city?”

"Your Majesty, are you keeping the money and grain without distributing them to the Jurchens?"

"Yanzhou City, sigh..."

On the city wall, the emaciated soldiers and civilians watched the departing royal carriage with lifeless eyes.

Their stomachs were rumbling incessantly.

But at this moment, even a bowl of thin porridge is something I can't get.

Meanwhile, in Jining Prefecture, a hundred miles away, Lin Dao's army was disembarking and assembling.

"We've finally arrived."

Once ashore, we stretched our arms and legs along the forest path.

The boat ride was really uncomfortable.

We were supposed to arrive ahead of time, but we encountered calm weather several times along the way, and the boat had to be pulled forward entirely by people.

What's worse, crossing the Yellow River was quite a hassle.

The lower reaches of the Yellow River in this era were a suspended river that rose above the ground.

The length of the suspended rivers can even reach thousands of kilometers, and they are generally two or three meters above the ground.

The entire army had to be transferred, and the boats had to be carried across the suspended river; it was quite a hassle.

In the end, Lin Dao couldn't stand it anymore and used his teleportation skills to transport the ships across the suspended river in batches.

The soldiers who witnessed this scene were all amazed, and their morale soared.

After a long and hurried journey, we finally arrived in Jining Prefecture.

Upon arriving here, even more detailed information followed.

"After conquering Linqing Prefecture, Abatai's army headed straight for Yanzhou Prefecture."

"The army has now besieged Yanzhou Prefecture, and the city has likely already fallen."

Lin Dao did not rush to send out troops, but instead ordered each camp to set up camp and rest.

Having traveled thousands of miles, they need a good rest before they can join the battle.

Inside a riverside inn, Lin Dao was reviewing documents.

According to records, the general in charge of the Jurchen invasion was the Grand General, Doro Raoyu Beile Abatai.

They entered the pass through Gubeikou and Huangyakou, and within two months, they swept across all parts of Beizhili.

Afterwards, they broke through three prefectures, captured eighteen states, occupied sixty-seven counties, and killed and slaughtered more than a million people.

They killed many members of the Ming imperial family, including Prince Lu, and enslaved hundreds of thousands of people.

They eventually retreated safely, taking with them the men, women, livestock, gold, and silver they had captured and leaving beyond the Great Wall.

The Ming army, however, remained on the sidelines and escorted them out of the pass.

They really can come and go as they please.

Lin Dao glanced at these things once and then stopped paying attention to them.

His focus was on the number and configuration of the Jurchen troops.

Information on this topic is quite mixed; some say it was an army of 100,000, while others say it was 30,000 to 50,000.

Lin Dao did not believe that there could be an army of 100,000.

How many men did the Jurchens have in total? They had just finished the Battle of Songshan and then sent an army of 100,000 to raid thousands of miles away.
How can it be!

If they had such national strength, the Ming Dynasty would have perished long ago.

Lin Dao believed the other document more.

Each ox was to produce a number of white-clad warriors and ten red-clad warriors, and twenty infantrymen.

This is the standard practice of drawing one out of three men, with each Niru consisting of one hundred soldiers.

The total number of infantry and cavalry was approximately 20,000, including more than 400 Niru (units) of Manchu, Mongol, and Han Eight Banners, plus surplus men and idlers who voluntarily joined the army to seek military merit.

This is the core force behind Abatai's entry into the country.

In addition, there were unarmored bondservants, half of the auxiliary soldiers who wore armor, and the Mongol vassal army that always accompanied them.

There are indeed 30,000 to 50,000 troops.

Having determined the number of enemy troops, Lin Dao began to assess his own side.

When they left Jinling City, they brought 15,000 people with them.

In Zhenjiang Prefecture, they seized land from local tyrants and distributed it to the peasants, recruiting three thousand regular soldiers.

Upon arriving in Yangzhou, they trained 6,000 canal workers, with an additional 3,000 salt workers to follow.

Excluding those left to guard Zhenjiang and Yangzhou, the regular army numbered just over 20,000.

Fortunately, there were many auxiliary soldiers, and those who came voluntarily, plus a thousand salt laborers who were conscripted, totaling more than 20,000.

Lin Dao wanted to laugh, "The number of people is about the same?"

"If the rebel leader and his men found out about this, wouldn't they laugh their heads off?"

"When other countries fight wars, they always have hundreds of thousands of troops."

Although they were outnumbered, Lin Dao was full of confidence.

In the Yonghe era, the incomparably powerful Jie cavalry and the world-renowned Murong clan armored cavalry both fell under his wheels.

Wild boar hide is nothing special among the barbarian tribes throughout history.

After two days of rest, with plenty of food and water and sound sleep, the army, having regained its strength and energy, tied on its leg wraps and assembled to march out.

"The Eight Banners cavalry?"

"What a great reputation!"

"Let me assess your worth!"

Below the horizon, as far as the eye could see, there was only desolation.

The earth was bare and gray.

The mountain was barren, with hardly any grass to be seen.

Years of natural disasters and man-made calamities have long since exhausted the last bit of strength of this land.

After the autumn harvest, everything in sight is a hazy yellow and gray, without a trace of green.

The official road was damaged, the irrigation canals collapsed, the riverbed dried up, and the land was left desolate.

On a desolate hillside, a troop of cavalrymen with red flags gazed at a distant column of soldiers.

"Where did these Ming soldiers come from?"

"I don't know, I've never seen this banner before."

"Why worry about all that? Let's just go for it."

"They brought so many large carts, they must have plenty of supplies. We couldn't make our fortune in Yanzhou City, so we'll make some money here."

By the fifteenth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, the Later Jin army, having won many battles, had become extremely arrogant.

They treated the Ming army as nothing, and a few dozen men dared to charge into a formation of a thousand men.

This wave of Later Jin cavalry numbered only a few dozen, yet they arrogantly charged forward despite facing an army far larger than themselves.

Lin Dao's troops lacked nothing except horses.

There are also some mules and donkeys, which are used for pulling carts.

Cavalry was very scarce; Lin Dao had only about a hundred riders with him.

There's nothing we can do about it; the forest can bring all sorts of massive amounts of supplies.

The only thing it can't bring is living things.

If we forcibly bring it over, it can only be used as food.

As soon as the horn sounded, the convoy, consisting of several hundred people, quickly surrounded the trucks in a circle.

They donned their armor and took up their weapons, including crossbows.

"what?"

The leader of the charge (Niru Ejen) looked surprised.

It's truly a rare occurrence that this Ming army didn't flee.

What he didn't see was that the people in the convoy, looking at their figures, all had their eyes gleaming red.

The commander-in-chief has already offered a reward.

A genuine Tartar head will be rewarded with one hundred taels of silver! Plus five promotions in military merit!
Five military merits can be exchanged for one mu of top-quality paddy field, worth fifty taels!
All in all, a genuine Tartar head is worth a whopping 150 taels of silver!

As the saying goes, if the money is right, you can rip off even the King of Heaven.

This is 150 taels of silver, a real fortune.

"Bang!"

Hundreds of crossbow bolts flew out, shooting down two cavalrymen and three horses.

The captain was furious. He drew his bow, nocked an arrow, and roared, "Charge in!"

The Jurchen cavalry fired two volleys of arrows, then approached the caravan, leaped over the wagons, and jumped into the caravan.

This seemingly reckless fighting style was actually a very popular tactic among the Jurchens at that time.

That means ignoring everything and just charging in headfirst.

If we charge in recklessly, the enemy will collapse.

Over the years, in countless battles, almost without exception, this has been the case.

However, the imagined scene of the Ming army's collapse did not occur.

Instead of scattering and fleeing, the Ming soldiers in the wagon formation took the initiative to thrust their spears forward.

The Jurchen cavalry wore thick armor such as cotton armor and chainmail, believing themselves to have incredible defensive capabilities.

Unexpectedly, the spearheads on the Ming soldiers' spears were extremely sharp, piercing deeply through their thick armor and into their bodies.

Some brave soldiers stood on the wagons and pounced, knocking the Jurchen cavalry to the ground.

Several people rushed over and pinned him down, then took a hammer and started smashing his head, face, joints, and other areas.

Once the Jurchens stopped struggling, everyone drew their swords and began to cut off their heads.

They even had a fierce argument over the head.

If it weren't for the strict military regulations prohibiting private fights, with violators facing beheading, there would probably have been people drawing their swords against each other.

The captain, his body riddled with stab wounds, struggled and screamed, "Which Ming army are you from? Let me die knowing why!"

"Pooh!"

A soldier stepped forward, raising his hammer. "You are the Ming army! We are the righteous army under the commander-in-chief!"

'Bang!' The hammer smashed into his skull, and the colonel died on the spot.

He died without ever understanding who the commander-in-chief was or what the rebel army was.
This preliminary battle was small in scale, even negligible.

However, the news reached Lin Dao's ears.

"Several people claimed it as their own, causing a scramble?"

“Then it will be considered a collective achievement. One military merit is worth ten taels of silver, and everyone will share the silver.”

What Lin Dao cares about least is money.

Buying a genuine Tartar head for 150 taels of silver is a huge profit.

The true Tartars only have a few people in total, so they don't care about spending tens of millions of taels of silver.

Not to mention the terrifying production volume of tens of thousands of tons per year in the modern world.

On the Ming Dynasty alone, the trade surplus over the years has resulted in an inflow of hundreds of millions of taels of silver.

If the Ming Dynasty could mobilize its national strength in all aspects, the mere Tartars would be swiftly annihilated.

Jining Prefecture is very close to Yanzhou Prefecture.

After a day's march, by the afternoon, the vanguard was only about twenty li away from Yanzhou City.

Each unit began building camps and gradually moved in to cook meals.

Scattered Jurchen troops appeared in the distance, peering around and keeping a watchful eye on the situation.

Inside Yanzhou City, Abatai, who was directing the massacre of the city from within the Prince of Lu's residence, immediately gave the order upon receiving the news.

"Do the Ming army dare to engage in open battle?"

"Send troops tomorrow and wipe them out!"

(End of this chapter)