Chapter Sixteen: The Tartars Invade

  Outside the quiet and lifeless Mushroom Gully Town, nearly three hundred Manchu cavalrymen sat on their war horses, staring intently at Mushroom Gully in front of them, waiting for Niu Lu's command.

  Suddenly, a loud and murderous roar burst out of Niu Lu Zhang Jing's mouth.

  "The first team, second team of warriors, ride into town immediately and search for any remaining enemies that may appear."

  Dozens of Manchu cavalrymen shouted in the Manchu language, as if they had suddenly been injected with a stimulant, and charged into Moshigou on horseback.

  The imagined battle did not erupt, however, and instead fifteen stripped Manchu warrior corpses were brought out by his subordinates, lined up in a row before Niu Chengzhi.

  At the same time, a Manchu warrior with an angry face also followed and reported to Niu Cheng's general with an angry face: "Report to the general, after searching, not a single Ming person was found in the town. However, our 15 Manchu warriors who defended here were brutally slaughtered by the Ming people, all of whom died."

  "Please, General, avenge our Manchu heroes who died in battle and kill all the Ming people who dare to provoke our Manchu heroes."

  With a crowd of subordinates staring at him, Niu Lu Zhang Jing's face quickly turned iron-blue with anger. He loudly roared at the dozens of people who had quickly gathered around him.

  "You are absolutely right, facing the cunning people of the Ming Dynasty, I must make you pay for your blood debt. You several, immediately lead the brave warriors under your command to search around and find the murderer who killed these brave warriors and avenge them."

  "Other warriors are camping here on the spot, as long as we find the murderer, we will immediately send troops to eliminate them."

  In less than a day, several Han people released by Wei Zheng were found by the Tartars and taken back to the camp.

  When they learned that more than a dozen powerful Manchu warriors had been killed by a group of Han bandits, the furious Tartars beheaded several Han people to vent their anger. And in front of all the Tartars, they vowed to send troops the next day to avenge the death of the Manchu warriors and bloodbath the mountain stronghold where Wei Zheng was currently located.

  In fact, in the eyes of this cow, everything he had just done was for his own subordinates to see.

  To avenge the death of brave warriors was indeed one of the reasons he wanted to send troops to the mountain stronghold, but it was not the ultimate goal.

  After losing contact with the Mushroom Valley, he directly led this Niu Lu brave warrior here. A very important reason is that there are 100,000 kilograms of grain stored here, which was accumulated by the hard work of the entire Niu Lu people.

  To know, the Manchu's repeated southward invasion of the Ming Dynasty was not only to realize their so-called territorial expansion dream. The most important reason is to plunder enough food and living materials from the territory of the Ming Dynasty for them to survive.

  Although the main forces have plundered countless grain and population from all over the world, those are all for the emperor and the princes and nobles, what can be distributed to their own clansmen is limited.

  So, in order to help his own people get through this winter and live a better life, he had to not only complete the task assigned by Wang Ye but also plunder more grain and living supplies for his own people.

  The 100,000 catties of grain here are all accumulated by Niu Lu's hard work.

  One hundred thousand kilograms of grain may not be a lot for the entire Manchuria, but it is a huge number for our own people. If we use it sparingly, it can last all of our people for three months, and even help them get through this unbearable winter without any problem.

  So, when Niu Lu Zhang Jing learned from several Han people that Wei Zheng had taken down Mo Gu Yu, not only killing more than a dozen Manchu warriors, but also taking away the 100,000 catties of grain and over 100 strong slaves he had hoarded here, Niu Lu Zhang Jing's first thought was to take back these grains and slaves.

  Because these grains and slaves are related to whether their own people can get through this winter, whether their own people can continue to develop and grow.

  So, compared to revenge, the temptation of taking back food is much greater.

  To avoid the grain he had secretly hoarded being seized by Beller, and also because what he was going to deal with were not some elite Ming troops, but a group of bandits who were not even as good at fighting as the Ming army. Niu Lu Zhang Jing did not report this action to Beller, but planned to solve it privately and retrieve the 100,000 catties of grain.

  However, what this Cow Recording Zhang Jing did not expect was that his own confidence and arrogance would cause the more than 200 Manchu cavalry under his command to be slowly consumed by the dense forest behind Mushroom Valley.

  Until the entire Niu Lu was annihilated, Dorjibelei, the lord of the Khalkha tribe stationed around Zhuozhou, still did not know that one of his elite Niu Lu had almost disappeared without a trace.

  The next day, early in the morning, except for leaving twenty and warriors to guard the camp and surplus war horses. More than 260 Manchu cavalrymen, all fully armed and riding on war horses, under the command of Niu Lu Zhang Jing, galloped towards the mountain stronghold.

  Mountain roads are not plains, and the speed of horseback riding is actually slower than walking. Apart from looking more majestic, there is no other use.

  So, when the vast and mighty Tatar cavalry had just appeared at the mountain pass, two hidden tiger leopard army scouts easily overtook the Tatar cavalry and arrived at the mountain stronghold two hours in advance.

  Seeing Wei Zheng directing training on the training ground, a panting scout rushed into the training ground and shouted loudly.

  "Report to the general, something's happened. The Tartars, Manchu Tartars are coming to attack us."

  As soon as the words fell, more than 200 soldiers who were still training enthusiastically just stopped on the spot, simultaneously stopping their hands and gathering their eyes on the hastily arriving scout.

  Although Wei Zheng hurriedly gave a stern look to stop Zuo from continuing his words in front of the Emperor.

  However, the scout who had been shrouded in fear from the beginning never saw Wei Zheng's signal to himself.

  In front of all the generals and soldiers of the Tiger and Leopard Army, Wei Zheng continued to report: "General, we found a group of Tartar cavalry at the mountain pass, about 250 people, many of whom were wearing iron armor, and they are rapidly approaching our military camp."

  Although he knew that the revenge of the Manchu slaves would come sooner or later, Wei Zheng did not expect this revenge to come so quickly.

  What's more, for his own gang of bandits, the Tartar actually mobilized a force of one hundred thousand soldiers.

  A hint of solemnity and haste flashed across Wei Zheng's face as he thought about the advantages of mobilizing the Manchu cavalry.

  Although his own troops had reached the level of a single "mochu" of the Xianbei, each of the 300 men in a Xianbei "mochu" were elite warriors who could immediately take to the battlefield. In contrast, he himself only had more than sixty veteran soldiers who could barely put up a fight.

  It can be certain that in any aspect, one will not have any advantage when facing a strong opponent.

  One misstep and all your hard-earned savings will be gone in this battle.

  After glancing at his subordinates who were equally guilty, Wei Zheng took a deep breath and tried to calm his facial expression before asking the two urns in front of him.

  "With so many, you're sure you didn't make a mistake..."

  "General, we absolutely won't be mistaken... More than 200 cavalrymen, except for one man and one war horse, brought at least 200 more war horses, stretching far and wide, as far as the eye can see..."

  "This is mountain warfare, and the enemy has one man controlling two horses. Is the enemy commander an idiot?... Wait a minute, I think I understand now." Wei Zheng said to himself with a frown.

  General, what have you figured out...

  "Wei Zheng's thoughtful response was: 'The Manchu Tartars sent so many troops to deal with us, not for revenge, but for the grain in our hands...'"

  "At that time, when we were at Mògū Yù, I was still thinking, how could a small Tartar stronghold accumulate so much grain. As expected, Mògū Yù must be one of the Tartars' secret granaries. And we, coincidentally, happened to attack the Tartars' granary, which led to trouble and forced the Tartars to mobilize such a large number of troops to deal with us."

  Why did the Tartars send so many troops to deal with the mountain stronghold, it was no longer the answer Wang Feng wanted most.

  At this moment, in Wang Feng's eyes, the most urgent thing to solve was how to let the mountain stronghold get through the current crisis. Otherwise, the good situation that Hu Bao Army had just established would be completely destroyed.

  As soon as Wei Zheng's voice fell, Wang Feng asked impatiently: "Then how should we fight... General, I don't know if you have a way?"

  "After some thought, Wei Zheng replied firmly: 'The Tartars are coming with great momentum, we must think of a way to dampen their spirits and force them to temporarily halt their attack, only then will we have enough time to prepare and engage in a decisive battle with the Tartars.'"