The Ming Dynasty: Starting with the border troops, it was overthrown and the Qing Dynasty was destro

Chapter 236 Ambush
In early winter, the temperature in the mountains of northern Sichuan plummeted and the wind howled.

At this moment, militia captains Li Dingguo, Yu Chengye, and Ciren were each leading a small team composed of militiamen and Tibetan soldiers, laying stone mines on the main road leading to the heart of the mountains.

Yu Chengye's movements were extremely skillful.

He carefully picked up a simple stone mine made from a pottery jar and buried it in the pit in front of him.

After securing the pottery jar, he swept up some dry grass and loose soil from the side to completely cover the stone thunder, leaving only a thin reed tube exposed.

He then took out a tripwire from the reed tube, stretched it out, and fixed it to the root of a shrub by the roadside.

Following the same method, Yu Chengye brought over several more stone mines of varying sizes and buried them on both sides of the official road.

He laid a nested trap-type earth mine, which was extremely insidious.

The most powerful main mine was buried in the middle of the official road, while the other sub-mines were hidden by him in the grass or bushes on both sides of the road.

Once the main mine is triggered, it can not only injure the soldiers who step on it, but also startle other soldiers nearby, causing them to instinctively dodge to the side of the road and thus step on the secondary mines, resulting in multiple casualties.

He obtained this method from veteran soldiers when he was an auxiliary soldier.

Li Dingguo, meanwhile, stood to the side with a notebook, carefully noting the location of each tripwire.

"Hey, Chengye, be careful!"

As he took notes, he couldn't help but offer reminders.
"It's already winter, and there's no telling when it will rain or snow in these mountains."

"Don't get the tripwire wet, or it'll become a dud."

Li Dingguo's records are also very meticulous.

He not only drew the general direction of the official road, but also used special symbols to mark the type and quantity of stone mines, as well as the approximate direction and length of the tripwires.

He even thoughtfully noted down several safe spots for his own people to use in the future.

Yu Chengye, without even looking up, said irritably:
"The world is about to rain, and my mother is about to remarry. I can't possibly set up a shed on the main road just to avoid the flood, can I?"

"The government troops aren't stupid; do you think they wouldn't see it?"

"Stop talking nonsense and just keep a good record. Make sure you remember the location and number of the mines."

"We'll come back after we drive these government troops away."

"When the time comes, let's not let the mines we planted hurt our own brothers!"

The two bickered casually, then subconsciously glanced at the official road not far away.

On the official road, Ciren was leading his tribal soldiers, intently setting up stone mines.

Seeing this, Yu Chengye shook his head:

"I wonder if these barbarian soldiers will remember it."

"You said that General Li went to the snowy region, how come he brought back so many people from the Western tribes?"

"I thought we'd bring back at least a few hundred surrendered Mongol soldiers."

"After all, the Mongols are considered to be skilled warriors, but these Western barbarian soldiers are not necessarily so."

It was common for ancient armies to recruit soldiers from other ethnic groups, especially in border areas.

However, during the Ming Dynasty, most of the people stationed at the Nine Garrisons were Mongols who came to seek refuge.

For example, Meng Ruhu and Hu Dawei were both surrendered soldiers from beyond the Great Wall.

But Tsering and his companions were different.

This group of people were all Langsheng, who had been slaves for generations and had never even held a knife before.

Li Zicheng initially used the excuse that he had acquired too many horses and needed manpower to help take care of them, so he persuaded Ciren and his gang of Langsheng to come down from the snowy region and serve as barbarian soldiers.

Although Li Zicheng was willing to train them, he was transferred to Shiquan to take over the defense shortly after returning from the snowy region.

Left with no other choice, he could only hand over the barbarian soldiers to Yu Chengye and Li Dingguo, who were in charge of the militia, and ask them to help train them.

Yu Chengye straightened up and shouted loudly towards Ciren, who was not far away:

"Chief Tsering, have you memorized the locations of the tripwires?"

"You can't afford to make a mistake! You'll have to be more careful next time!"

Tsering was concentrating on laying the stone mines when he heard someone call his name. He first looked up blankly and looked around.

Seeing that it was Yu Chengye and Li Dingguo looking at him, Ciren quickly dropped what he was doing and ran over to the two of them.

He subconsciously hunched over, his hands constantly rubbing against the front of his clothes, and cautiously replied in broken Mandarin:
"Gentlemen, are you calling me?"

Tsering appeared unusually restrained and uneasy.

He raised his head and quickly glanced at the two of them before immediately looking down again.

"Just call me... call me the manager. I'm just here to look after Master Li's house."

Master Li? Which Master Li?

Could it be Li Zicheng?

Yu Chengye looked surprised. When did Li Zicheng go from being a military officer to a master?
Li Dingguo had heard of it before and knew that it was the traditional name for the snowy region.

He patted Tsering on the shoulder and patiently corrected him:

“Tsering, didn’t I tell you? We don’t call people ‘Master’ here.”

“General Li is not some kind of master; he is a general who leads troops into battle.”

"Above Lieutenant General Li is the Commander-in-Chief."

"The commander-in-chief led impoverished people who couldn't survive to resist the oppression of the government and landlords; we are not slaves guarding anyone's homes, we are fighting for ourselves, for enough to eat, and for our own land."

Li Dingguo gave a long lecture, but Ciren didn't remember a single word.

He has not yet fully transitioned from his generations of enslaved status.

In Tsering's world, there are only two kinds of people;

One type is the aloof and powerful master, while the other is the helpless and exploitative young man.

For these young people, Li Zicheng bringing them down from the snowy plateau, providing them with enough to eat and clothes, was already an immense act of kindness.

Li Zicheng was naturally their new master.

As for what lay beyond the master, they had never seen it and dared not even imagine it.

Li Dingguo tried his best to explain, but Ciren still looked confused, as if he didn't quite understand.

Yu Chengye watched from the side, almost frantic with worry.

He stopped Li Dingguo, who wanted to continue "lecturing":
"Alright, alright, why are you arguing with him about all these high principles?"

“He already speaks Mandarin poorly, and the customs between the two places are too different. The more you talk to him, the more confused he becomes.”

Yu Chengye then looked at Ciren and explained in a more accessible way:

“Tsering, let me put it this way to you, the commander is the master’s master, also called the great master.”

"What we need to do now is help the master fight against the greatest emperor in the world."

"Do you understand now?" Upon hearing this, Tsering's confusion vanished instantly, and he suddenly realized, "So that's how it is. You should have said so earlier."

Li Dingguo, who was standing to the side, was dumbfounded. What kind of explanation was this?
But now is not the time to dwell on it. There's plenty of time. Let's explain it slowly later.

Now that the government troops have occupied Shiquan County, they will surely march north soon. They need to hurry up and lay down the stone mines.

The government troops were delayed for several days.

Because the people near Shiquan County had all been relocated, Liu Hanru could not find any local laborers to transport supplies and grain.

However, he couldn't very well conscript people from Shangling Village, since He Mingsheng had just led the entire village in welcoming the imperial army. In any case, Liu Hanru had to put on a friendly facade to avoid alienating the people.

Left with no other choice, he could only send troops to An County in the rear and mobilize nearly two thousand laborers to Shiquan.

After several days of effort, the army finally managed to gather enough people to transport the supplies.

A few days later, under the leadership of He Mingsheng, Liu Hanru led three thousand Ming soldiers and several thousand laborers to continue northward.

Liu Hanru originally did not intend to pay attention to Li Zicheng and his men who were hiding in the mountains.

He knew very well that these bandits wanted to take advantage of the complex terrain of northern Sichuan to constantly harass his troops in the mountains and valleys, hindering the army's advance.

Therefore, this time, Liu Hanru planned to press on and strike at the heart of the enemy's lair, Pingwu County.

As long as his troops remain vigilant, a mere two thousand bandits cannot possibly disrupt his marching route.

Unexpectedly, the villagers of Shangling Village told him that if he wanted to go north to Pingwu County, he had to pass through a treacherous river valley called "Sanhe Road".

This valley was formed by the constant erosion of the Baicao River, and its terrain is extremely complex.

Moreover, the terrain of Sanhe Road is narrow, and the official road has to split into three different paths here in order to bypass the river valley, hence the name "Sanhe Road".

To make matters worse, not far from Sanhe Road lies the Pingtong River Valley, where the bandits were hiding.

Liu Hanru found the situation somewhat difficult.

It seems that if we want to pass through Shiquan County safely, we really have to completely wipe out the bandits in the mountains.

Left with no other option, he ordered Ding Yunxiang to reduce the size of the marching troops and be on high alert to avoid falling into an ambush by the enemy soldiers.

No matter how careful the Ming army was, the Sanhe Road was right in front of them, and they couldn't fly over it.

As Ding Yunxiang led his vanguard into the valley of Sanhe Road, before they had taken two steps, one of the soldiers at the front tripped and fell, triggering a stone mine that had been buried beforehand.

boom--! ! !
A loud bang rose from the ground, accompanied by billowing black smoke and flying rocks, echoing through the valley.

Before the soldier could react, half of his lower leg was blown into the air.

As the gunpowder exploded, lead pellets and broken pottery from the mine followed closely behind, scattering the surrounding soldiers and officers, leaving them covered in blood and groaning in agony.

Seeing this, the soldiers behind them panicked and rushed into the bushes and grass beside the road to avoid the explosion.

But their stillness was fine; their movement triggered the stone mines hidden on both sides of the road, causing another round of explosions.

As the smoke slowly dissipated, Ding Yunxiang pushed through the crowd and saw that the dozen or so soldiers at the front of the column had all fallen to the ground.

Some were clutching their wounds and wailing in pain, while others simply fell silent and died on the spot.

Ding Yunxiang was shocked to see this and immediately ordered Song Hong, the commander of the thousand men, to lead his men forward to try to rescue his injured comrade from the minefield.

Song Hong was an experienced man. Instead of rushing forward with his men, he cut down dozens of long bamboo poles from nearby.

Then he ordered his soldiers to line up and fill the entire road, using long bamboo poles to carefully explore the ground beneath their feet.

Although this method of mine clearance is slow, it is the safest.

Once the mine-clearing soldiers detect a hard rock or a hidden tripwire, they will immediately stop and then use bamboo poles to probe and detonate the mine from a distance.

Soon, the soldiers triggered several hidden trip mines one by one, and some soldiers who were still groaning were carried back to their positions.

Song Hong did not delay, but turned around and led his men to continue moving forward slowly, trying to find out the location of all the mines on the official road.

On a hilltop not far away, Li Dingguo and Yu Chengye were lying on the ground, admiring their masterpiece.

Seeing this, Tsering looked somewhat anxious.

He crouched down, slowly approaching the two of them, gesturing as he asked urgently:
"They...they've already started defusing the mines, shouldn't we fire?"

Yu Chengye waved his hand:
"No rush, let's wait it out."

“The mines I laid weren’t just tripwire mines; there are also pressure mines waiting for them ahead.”

"These bastards won't be able to finish arranging themselves anytime soon."

Li Dingguo then explained.
"Wait a minute, Lieutenant General Li has already led his troops around to the rear of the government troops via another side path."

"Our combat strength is not strong, so we just need to attract the attention of the government troops and buy time."

"Once the soldiers arrive, we'll attack from both sides. These government troops definitely won't be able to hold us off!"

While the group was talking, Li Zicheng had already led his troops and successfully circled around to the rear of the government troops.

He took out his telescope and saw that in the distance, a large army of government troops was gathered together, intently staring at the official road in front of them, which was riddled with stone mines, and had no time to look at anything else.

Without the slightest hesitation, Li Zicheng summoned Liu Zongmin, who was standing beside him, and signaled him to take three hundred of his own troops to prepare for a surprise attack.

He then ordered Li Guo to lead 500 militiamen to be ready to provide support at any time.

Liu Zongmin understood and crouched down to retreat. He led his troops silently to a hillside behind the government troops.

Liu Zongmin was cautious and did not choose to charge directly.

Although the government troops were focused on the front, they were still far superior in number, and their small force simply couldn't break through.

He ordered his archers and musketeers to line up along the hilltop, and set up several breech-loading cannons in the center, preparing for a long-range sneak attack.

"put!"

At Liu Zongmin's command, hundreds of archers drew their bows and fired a volley of arrows at the rear of the government troops.

Immediately afterwards, more than a hundred musketeers opened fire.

A dense hail of lead bullets, like a torrential rain, instantly covered the rear of the government troops.

Several small breech-loading cannons unleashed their full power, relentlessly pouring firepower at the densest concentration of government troops.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

The sudden long-range firepower caught the government troops off guard, and chaos immediately broke out in the ranks.

Even Song Hong and the others at the very front of the line, who were focused on clearing mines, were significantly affected.

The valley was littered with arrows and bullets fired by bandits, so the government troops had no time to clear the mines.

The ranks quickly dispersed, and while several soldiers were dodging the rain of arrows overhead, they accidentally stepped on a stone mine, causing a loud bang.

Seeing this, Li Dingguo and Yu Chengye on the hilltop knew their opportunity had arrived.

"Quick! Release the arrow!"

The militiamen lying in ambush on the hilltop understood and immediately began to rain arrows down on the government troops below.

Meanwhile, Tsering, along with his soldiers, was working together to move stones and logs and push them down the steep hillside.

(End of this chapter)