Let’s talk about the geographical location first.
The place where Zhu Houzhao was attacked at night was several miles southwest of Jinshatan. The place where the Ming Dynasty and the Tatars fought for several days was also not far from Jinshatan. It was located at the junction of Huairen, Shanyin, and Yingzhou - Pianzhou.
Yingzhou territory.
It is the golden beach where Yang Dalang, Yang Erlang, and Yang Sanlang died in battle, and Yang Silang and Yang Balang were captured in the legend of "Yang Family Generals"!
If we insist on making a connection, after Zhu Houzhao's class teacher returned to Beijing, he could say that he had fought with the Tatars on the Golden Beach. Anyway, they were very close, so it was not a complete bragging. If it spread to the people, it would be easier for the people to talk about it.
The Hongtao Mountains are the general name for the mountains to the west of the Datong Basin.
The valley where Wang Yuan and the emperor were currently located was a little far away from Shuozhou City and closer to Shanyin County.
Although Dayan Khan was eager to capture the Han emperor, he was extremely cautious when pursuing the valley. He even sent sentries to investigate for fear of being ambushed by the Ming army. After all, this was an excellent terrain for ambush.
"Woo! Woo!"
The two Ming soldiers who climbed to the top of the mountain followed Wang Yuan's instructions and took turns blowing the horns to attract friendly troops to come for reinforcements.
Dayan Khan was very irritated and said: "Choose ten people to dismount, climb up and kill the two trumpeters!"
The surface of this valley is semi-covered by loess, with occasional siliceous limestone and limestone exposed. The terrain in the front mountain area is extremely complex. It is relatively gentle when you first enter the valley. After walking for several miles into the mountain, the mountain immediately becomes steeper. This is a poor place to climb mountains.
It was not easy, let alone climbing up to kill people. Two soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were running and blowing trumpets, leading ten Mongolian enemy troops around the mountain.
After moving forward for a while, the sentry horse came back and reported: "Great Khan, there is no ambush in the valley. The mountain walls on both sides in front are no longer climbable. The Ming army blocked the passage with loess, stones and vegetation."
Dayan Khan observed the landscape along the way and found that there was sparse vegetation in the valley. It was late autumn at this time, and the scattered vegetation had long since withered and declined. If the Ming army chose to attack with fire, although it could spread quickly, the fire would not burn too much.
"Clear the weeds ahead first!" Dayan Khan ordered again.
Thirty more people were sent out to eradicate the withered grass in the valley near the battlefield, leaving no chance for the Ming army to launch a fire attack.
Although the valley passage is blocked, the temporary obstacles can be easily cleared, and the Tatars can overcome them with only a small sacrifice of their lives.
Seeing a group of Mongolian soldiers approaching, Wang Yuan immediately ordered the cavalry to fire crossbows because there was an obstacle in the middle.
The crossbow arrows only caused four casualties, and the group of Mongolian soldiers had already rushed to the obstacle.
Wang Yuan didn't wait for them to move the things away, and ordered the withered grass on the obstacle to be ignited. While lighting the fire, he also added fuel. Anyway, the valley was full of withered grass and there were a lot of combustibles, and a raging fire suddenly broke out between the two armies.
How to attack?
Not to mention the ignited withered grass, the loess and stones blocking the road were quickly burned to a boil. The Mongolian soldiers tried to move them away, but they were so hot that they screamed when touched, so they had to take off their clothes to use as fireproof gloves.
.
After half an hour, the Tatars had suffered more than thirty casualties and were still unable to open the road to the valley.
Those stones and loess have even been burned red!
"Everyone go back!" Dayan Khan suddenly came up with a plan.
Dayan Khan selected an injured war horse, ordered his men to blindfold the horse, and then stabbed it with a knife. The horse was frightened by the pain and immediately ran madly forward, rushing straight towards the red-hot obstacles along the valley.
"boom!"
The loess and stones were all temporarily found and were not large in size. In addition, they had been brittle by the fire, and they immediately collapsed and created gaps. Ashes, sparks, and broken earth and rocks flew everywhere.
"Come again!"
Another horse was blindfolded and hit hard against the obstacle, making the gap even wider.
One after another, with the lives of five horses, the Mongols finally knocked down the obstacles - the hot stones and loess were piled up to half a man's height, but the two sides were finally able to engage in battle.
But Dayan Khan did not attack immediately. Instead, he asked people to take off their clothes and carry earth, and filled up his side with crossbow arrows.
In this way, the Mongolian soldiers could move up the filled-in slope, and when they rushed to the obstacle, they would be half a body taller than the Ming army, giving them a commanding terrain advantage.
Wang Yuan instantly understood Dayan Khan's intention, and while ordering the enemies carrying the soil to be shot, he also sent people to fill in the slope on his own side.
It was almost evening, and neither party wanted to rest.
Dayan Khan originally wanted to continue using the "galloping horse formation" and charge directly into the crowd of Ming troops. But just as he blindfolded the horses, Wang Yuan also blindfolded several horses, firmly blocking the narrow mountain road.
live.
Seeing this situation, Dayan Khan could only withdraw his war horses, suddenly ordered an attack, and ordered the soldiers in the rear row to lob fire.
Wang Yuan occupies a favorable terrain, and the valley on his side is wider. He allows his soldiers to stand as close to the mountain wall as possible to reduce the chance of being shot by bows and arrows. In this way, although the face-to-face defense seems empty, it is actually more conducive to combat - the Mongolian soldiers charge
How about coming in? There are Ming troops on both sides of the mountain road, so a small number of soldiers are attacked from both sides.
Zhu Houzhao was placed at the back. Although he wanted to kill the enemy with his own hands, he also knew that he could not be willful at this time.
The sky was getting darker and darker, and Zhu Houzhao couldn't see clearly what was going on in front of him. He could only hear the loud shouts of killing. His blood was rising all over his body, his palms were full of sweat, and he was not much afraid. He was in a state of excitement.
I saw a group of torches approaching from far away, and the personal guards came over to report: "Your Majesty, there are young and strong mountain people who want to join the army and serve the country."
Zhu Houzhao was very happy: "Bring them here!"
More than a dozen men came holding torches and all knelt in front of Zhu Houzhao: "Meet the general!"
Zhu Houzhao asked: "Are you willing to join the army and serve the country?"
"Exactly!" said a middle-aged man.
"Okay, okay, his ambition is commendable." Zhu Houzhao said with a smile.
After the Tumubao Incident, Mongolia ravaged Shanxi and suffered from successive years of drought, resulting in millions of refugees. These refugees went south in large numbers, and millions of them gathered in the Jingxiang area alone. They were appeased by Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty and annihilated at the same time.
, finally completely solved the serious problem in his heart.
The residents in the mountains here also fled here after the Tumubao Incident to avoid war and famine.
They all belong to unregistered black households. They usually do not have to pay taxes or serve in the military, and they make a living by growing food and hunting.
Wang Yuan only "invited" a few families to come over. Except for the person who led the way out of the mountain, all the others were temporarily guarded. But there were more mountain people nearby, and the fighting was in full swing. How could the mountain people not know?
Anyway, they have already been discovered by the officers and soldiers, and they will probably be traced afterwards, so they can simply come and join the army to serve the country.
They fought in the dark for a long time. The valley was originally dark and not even the moonlight could shine in. By the end of the fight, it was impossible to tell the difference between friend and foe, and the place where the battle occurred was filled with corpses.
Seeing that the morale of the Ming army was so high that they could not defeat the enemy in a single battle, Dayan Khan finally decided to stop his troops and rest.
"Great Khan, we can't fight anymore," a Mongolian leader knelt down and said, "I, the Mongolian son, should die on horseback in battle, instead of abandoning his horse and dying in this valley!"
Dayan Khan sneered: "My sons and grandsons, are you blaming me for letting your tribe take the main attack?"
"Don't dare!" The children and grandchildren kowtowed quickly.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Duoyan Three Guards were attached. Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ningdu Division and asked King Ning to command these Mongolian tribes - in order to rebel against the ancestors of King Ning.
Zhu Di raised troops to quell Jingnan. He was afraid of being stabbed by King Ning, so he went to Daning alone to negotiate. When he returned, Zhu Di evacuated the Han troops who wanted to return to Han. Even the ambush set by King Ning was taken away by Zhu Di.
As a result, the Daning Guard no longer had Han troops to suppress Mongolia, the Duoyan Three Guards became the lords of Daning, and the Daning Dusi was moved inland to Baoding.
After Zhu Di proclaimed himself emperor, the three Duoyan guards had the merit of following the dragon and officially obtained the territory of Daning Guard. Fearing that Prince Ning would imitate him, Zhu Di threw Prince Ning to Jiangxi, and the court completely lost control of Daning.
Even before Zhu Di was dead, the three guards of Duoyan began to rebel.
Zhu Di was furious, so he went on a personal expedition and won several great victories. The three guards of Duoyan surrendered one after another. However, Zhu Di ordered that all those who surrendered would be released and no killing was allowed.
During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, the three guards of Duoyan rebelled again.
Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty personally led 3,000 cavalry in pursuit, and they fought fiercely with the enemy out of Xifengkou. The emperor ran directly in front of the battle and shot to death the three men in Duoyan's vanguard. Then both wings fired together, defeating the three Duoyan guards, and they all knelt down under the Huanglong banner of Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty.
.
Until the Tumubao Incident, the three guards of Duoyan harassed the border, were beaten by the Ming army and then surrendered, and so on.
During the Hongzhi period, the Tatars rose up and beat the three guards of Duoyan until they could no longer take care of themselves, so they were forced to surrender to Dayan Khan. They had been invading the borders of the Ming Dynasty for many years. In the tenth year of Zhengde, they were beaten severely by the Ming army again, and they had no choice but to enter the court and ask for surrender.
Then surrender and rebel again.
The Ming Dynasty hated the vacillation of Duoyan Sanwei, and the same was true for Dayan Khan.
Therefore, Dayan Khan ordered Huadang, Duoyan's governor, to send his eldest son and his children and grandchildren to him. Firstly, he would hold them as hostages, and secondly, he would use them to control some of the Duoyan tribe's troops. Today's attack also allowed the Duoyan tribe to fight bloody battles.
die.
His children and grandchildren were almost crying without tears. There was a bloody battle in the valley for half a day, and thousands of his tribesmen had died in the battle!
But there is nothing I can do. Trying to resist is just a dream.
How have Duoyan Sanwei been living these years?
Forced by Dayan Khan to invade the border of the Ming Dynasty, he surrendered after being defeated by the Ming Dynasty. Once he surrendered, Dayan Khan used the excuse of Duoyan tribe to surrender to the enemy, and led his troops to rush to Duoyan tribe to rob and kill.
The poor Duoyan Sanwei were actually beaten in turn by the Ming Dynasty and the Tatars.
The Tatar generals laughed at their children and grandchildren and gathered together to discuss the situation of the war. Most of the leaders were unwilling to fight again. First, they were fighting in the mountains, and their expertise was not suitable; second, the terrain was restricted, and the Mongolian soldiers were at a disadvantage.
Even if the Han emperor could be captured, the Tatar soldiers would suffer thousands of casualties.
Dayan Khan thought hard for a long time and said: "We have many troops and the terrain is narrow, so we can divide our troops to fight. Send three thousand people to each side to find a suitable place, climb the mountain and go around to the rear of the Ming army. If we attack from the front and back, we will definitely win in one battle."
We will continue the attack tomorrow to buy time for the troops that are encircling the rear."