Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 230: The "Eleven-Shot Slaughter Order" was implemented against prisoners.

Hand-to-hand combat is not popular in the military; guns are preferred over swords, and group fights are preferred over one-on-one duels. However, the military often trains in a wrestling technique specifically designed to counter enemy armored soldiers, especially heavily armored infantry. In combat, if swords and blades cannot penetrate armor, then the soldier will grapple and throw the enemy to the ground.

Wearing dozens of kilograms of heavy armor, once someone falls, it's very difficult for them to get up. At that point, you could either capture them like a piglet or stab them through the gaps in their armor. On the battlefield, wearing armor doesn't guarantee safety!
Of the three hundred Qin cavalrymen who charged forward, less than two hundred returned. They lost not only horses but also their wives and men. Fortunately, these spoiled brats were well-equipped, and the King of Qin paid a heavy price to recover many of their men. However, their initial high spirits had turned into expressions of utter disbelief.

However, Tang Tong didn't have much time to argue with these people. He just told them to go away and not to cause any more trouble.

The war continued, and Wang Jiayin's troops were stuck halfway up the slope, unable to advance or retreat. However, being able to engage the government troops was already a huge step forward for them.

At least the Ming army's guns and cannons could no longer be used indiscriminately, and they could still inflict some damage on the Ming army, so that they wouldn't just be beaten and unable to fight back.

However, a gun formation is not to be trifled with. Although it consists of simple thrusting and stabbing without any superfluous movements, its killing efficiency is in no way inferior to that of guns and cannons. Guns and cannons may have a great presence, but their accuracy is rather poor. Even against dense formations, they cannot guarantee that every shot will hit its mark.

However, the way spear formations kill enemies is precise and efficient. In the era of cold weapons, the only thing that could counter a spear formation was another spear formation. But where did these bandits get their spear formation? Their fighting style was always to come and go in swarms, relying entirely on numbers to intimidate, and their organization was appalling.

Even their guns, those things that could barely be called guns, were vastly inferior to those of the government troops. A wooden stick with its branches trimmed could not be called a gun shaft. The government troops' large guns were twelve feet long, while their small wooden sticks were lucky to be seven or eight feet long. As a result, their weapons were too short to reach the government troops at all.

The supervisory team was ruthless, forcing the brothers at the front to keep going to their deaths. Some people were unwilling to face the government troops, and under the pressure, they chose to turn against them. The supervisory team could no longer stop them, so more and more of the rebels turned and ran. The situation became one-sided, and the government troops climbed up and pursued the fleeing rebels.

After chasing the bandits for two miles, Tang Tong instinctively sensed something was wrong. He sounded the retreat and led his army back.

However, at this moment, shouts of battle rang out from both sides of the army. They had indeed fallen into an ambush. The fleeing rebel army in front of them rallied and launched a counterattack. Unfortunately, rebel army figures also appeared behind them. It seemed that they wanted to surround the government army and fight a battle of annihilation.

Tang Tong was slightly annoyed. His successive victories had made him somewhat complacent. After all, the number of bandits outnumbered him several times over, and he shouldn't have underestimated that. However, even though he had fallen into an ambush, he remained calm and continued fighting and retreating. He didn't believe that these bandits were capable of wiping them out.

Faced with enemies from all sides, Tang Tong commanded his army to change formation, with long spears facing outwards and powerful bows, crossbows, cannons, and muskets hidden inside. Then, maintaining the same formation, they slowly retreated along the route they had come from.

Tang Tong had hundreds of formations in his mind. He was well-versed in military strategy and could use them at will. However, the difficulty in setting up formations never lay in the commander, but in whether the soldiers under his command could learn them. This ability to obey orders was enough for these bandits to learn for their next life.

The army remained unstoppable, and the bandits were no match for them. An hour later, Tang Tong and his men retreated back to the foot of the plateau. However, Tang Tong was not happy; his face was dark. It turned out that during the brief stalemate, a large group of bandits had broken through the blockade and headed south towards Baishui and Chengcheng counties.

Tang Tong didn't just blindly pursue the enemy, neglecting the bigger picture. He ordered his battalions to remain behind, fourteen battalions covering fourteen counties in Xi'an Prefecture, totaling over five thousand men. However, they simply watched the bandit army pass through without daring to stop them. Tang Tong was furious with these two incompetent allies, but he had no choice but to give chase, hoping to intercept the bandits before they reached Xi'an. Tang Tong made this basic mistake because, in his experience, he knew the bandits were simply courting death by coming to Guanzhong.

If the rebel leader were still alive, their attack from the south and north might have indeed brought a great shock to Xi'an. But even so, Tang Tong did not think they had any hope of conquering Xi'an. He had seen the city of Xi'an before. It was dozens of miles wide and the city walls were several meters high, making it impregnable!

Of course, Tang Tong wasn't sure if the rebel army's target was Xi'an; they might head towards Shangluo, Henan, or Huguang. But for Tang Tong, heading to Xi'an would be the worst possible outcome; if his superiors investigated, he would likely lose his job!

Of course, things are already in a bad state now. He failed to complete the task assigned to him by Hong Chengchou to intercept the enemy army and was fooled by a "cut-off tail to survive" tactic.

More than 10,000 bandits still managed to escape. Wang Jiayin has really gone all out this time. Before Tang Tong can pursue them, he must first wipe out the remaining bandits. If left unattended, these 10,000 bandits, though weak, are still not something the county garrison can handle alone.

Moreover, these bandits have the ability to "snowball" their influence, as they can coerce ordinary people into joining them. Even if they are crippled, as long as they are not killed, they will soon return with renewed force.

The predicament of the imperial army lies in this: the bandits are a motley crew that collapses at the first touch. Although the imperial army's elite forces are strong enough, their numbers are too few. The bandits cannot be eradicated and can suddenly appear from anywhere. The government troops can only go from place to place to suppress them, which is exhausting.

However, just as Tang Tong was filled with rage and about to kill the remaining bandits, they surrendered, which caught Tang Tong off guard! He was not Hong Chengchou, and he could not kill prisoners without any psychological burden. Even if he did kill them, it would be to carry out Hong Chengchou's orders, not out of his own thoughts.

Moreover, he discovered that the composition of the remaining bandit troops was very problematic. Most of them had been recently coerced into joining the bandits, and the bandit leaders had ridden away on horseback after the deed was done.

Tang Tong was in a dilemma. He could only confiscate the prisoners' weapons, tie them up with hemp rope, and leave several hundred men to guard them while he led the main force to pursue the bandits.

Wang Jiayin had finally overcome one obstacle, but dared not linger. He avoided entering any city along the way, fearing he would be slowed down and overtaken by the government troops. He dared not go to Xi'an, and he didn't know where he was going either; he could only take it one step at a time.

Tang Tong pursued Wang Jiayin for half a month, and many times he caught up with him. Each time, Wang Jiayin would throw out hundreds or thousands of expendable pieces, forcing Tang Tong to stop and deal with them. Because he was pursuing them closely, the bandits did not actually attack any cities. Along the way, no county towns fell, and the people of Guanzhong did not suffer too much.

At this moment, Governor Hong Chengchou finally had a chance to deal with Tang Tong's mistake. He was also a little overwhelmed by Tang Tong's mistake, because he had already been severely criticized by the court for his poor defense. As a result, one problem after another arose!
Under Hong Chengchou's command, multiple forces joined together to encircle and annihilate Wang Jiayin's rebel army. Finally, they blocked them again in Shangluo, surrounding them layer by layer, and Wang Jiayin reached the end of his road.

The miracle did not occur again. Wang Jiayin fought bravely to the death, while Wang Ziyong surrendered with his troops and then committed suicide. Zhu Youjian issued an edict to impose an "eleven-out-of-ten" penalty on prisoners of war.

(End of this chapter)