Chapter 36: Fleeing in Panic

  The Tartar troops, stationed on high ground, suddenly launched a shower of arrows, and the Ming army was instantly killed or wounded. Fortunately, He You's troops were also seasoned veterans, and after a brief panic, they immediately followed orders to form a cart array, stopping the war carts on both sides, flipping up the boards to form artificial fortifications.

  The shield bearers holding giant shields as tall as a man also formed a wall of shields, surrounding the two wings. By the time the defensive formation was hastily formed, one-tenth of the Ming army had already been lost. Ye Yushi hurriedly jumped off his horse and crawled into Liu Gong's carriage, trembling with fear, saying: "The four sides are clearly visible, where did the Tartars come from?"

  The roof and sides of the carriage were made of thick wood, not afraid of arrows, but the sound of arrows hitting the carriage was still chilling. Liu Gonggong was a eunuch, but his courage was much greater than Ye Yushi's, although the muscles on his cheeks twitched uncontrollably, mainly because he had never experienced such a massive war scene before and was tense with emotion.

  On both sides of the gentle slope, there were no trees, and the snow stretched slowly to the top of the mountain. There was nowhere to hide, but at this time, people in various costumes came running back and forth on the slope, shooting arrows, and some hidden places had been destroyed, only then did people notice the ambush.

  Originally, a wall over half a person's height was built windingly on both sides of the mountain slope. The wall body inclined upwards and was covered with a layer of white snow. Looking up from below, due to the angle, it looked like a flat slope extending to the top of the mountain.

  The Mongols lived in the vast grasslands and deserts, following water sources and migrating seasonally, with no fixed abode. A long time ago, they invented some simple methods for building fortifications. In the harsh winter winds, they would mix dry grass and branches with cold water around their yurts to freeze into a windbreak wall to keep warm. Under the cover of night, they would dig holes, boil water, gather materials locally, and build these two walls in just half a night's work.

  Bo Yan learned of the death of his son and immediately withdrew his troops, leading an army day and night to hurry to Yu Mu Tun. After merging with Boda's troops, their military strength surpassed that of the Ming army, so he dared to abandon his war horses and engage in infantry combat with the Ming army.

  Now Zhuolu and Chixian's Ming army has formed a pincer movement, he set up this plan, only thinking of completing the task in one battle, annihilating Huaicoming's Ming army, avenging his beloved son, then leading the army to flee far away.

  He San slightly stabilized his footing, and immediately shouted: "Send a flag signal, order He Shijie to hold the front line firmly, Wang Chengxian to lead troops to attack the enemy on both sides, and must open up a gap. Order Sun Dazhong and Bi Chun to switch from the rear team to the front team, and quickly retreat. Zheng Yiezhong suppresses the central army!"

  Wang Chengxian ordered the archers to shoot arrows at the enemy on both wings, while he led the sword and shield soldiers and long spear soldiers in a fierce attack on the mountain slopes to buy time for the main force to retreat. On the mountain slope was the Tartar general Bodar who commanded, seeing the Ming army quickly stabilize their formation and start counterattacking, Bodar immediately ordered: "Shoot and kill the Ming army commander waving the command flag, shoot and kill the war horses, prevent the Ming army from forming a battle array!"

  The arrows shot down like rain, and the flag bearers were shot to death on the spot. At the same time, many horses were hit by arrows, and the war horses ran wildly in the valley, neighing in pain. The Ming army was trampled by the war horses, and their formation was immediately disrupted, and their offensive was also hindered.

  Wang Du's command post led the charge against the right flank of the mountain, braving a hail of arrows. This ridge wasn't particularly high, but controlling this vantage point and organizing archers to counter-press the enemy would stabilize their foothold. Otherwise, the army would be trapped in the valley with no choice but to wait for death.

  He personally held a knife to supervise the battle, and the Ming army was like a trapped beast, attacking the mountain slope again and again with their flesh and blood. The corpses fell one after another, no one sighed for the dead, not even noticing who was lying at their feet. On this bloody battlefield, death became so ordinary that even the most emotional person would become numb.

  Under the leadership of Shi Chang and Shao Chang, the Ming army swarmed up, trampling on the bodies of their companions to seek a glimmer of life. On the hillside, the Tartars relied on the geographical advantage and their excellent archery skills, with every arrow shot hitting its mark.

  "General He, General He! The Tartars have set an ambush ahead. We must retreat quickly!"

  He Jianding held up his goose feather knife, his face iron-green as he said: "I've already sent someone to inform Bi Chun. This mountain valley is narrow and not conducive to our army gathering. The rear troops won't retreat, and we can't charge out either!"

  Ye Yushi angrily said: "Seeing the main force ambushed, Bi Chun has not seen any movement until now, we are about to be completely defeated! I want to accuse him of dereliction of duty in wartime! He Da-ren, I want to go to the rear array to supervise the battle!"

  He Zan was busy commanding the army and couldn't bear to listen to him rambling on. When he heard that he wanted to go to Bi Chunying, he thought it would be better for him to leave here and not interfere with his work. He immediately arranged for 20 shield-bearing soldiers to escort him and Liu Gonggong away. A scholar and a eunuch, the two highest commanders, rushed towards the rear camp in disarray.

  The valley below the Sleeping Tiger Mountain is gourd-shaped, with the spout facing the direction of Chicken Ridge Post. As soon as General Bi Chun's army entered the valley, Yang Ling and Ma Lian'er rushed into the army camp, and after listening to Yang Ling's tense statement, Bi Chun also knew that the situation was serious. Just as he was about to take him to meet General He, the Tartars on both sides had already launched an attack.

  Under the cover of a barrage of arrows, a large number of Tatars burst out from their half-hill stronghold and cut off the Ming army's retreat at the valley entrance. The valley entrance was narrow, and with just a few dozen strong bows in hand, the arrow rain continued unabated; even an army of thousands or tens of thousands could not hope to break through.

  Kokuryūkō's goal was simply to block the retreat, so he only defended the key points and did not attack. Each of these Kokuryūkō had at least four quivers on their backs, and Bichun's Southern Army mainly used short-range weapons such as knife shields and firearms, which were fundamentally unable to counter these brave and skilled warriors who excelled in one-on-one combat and held the strategic high ground.

  In an instant, Gu Kou had left behind over a hundred Ming soldiers' corpses who were caught off guard. The bloodshed so close at hand made Ma Lian'er's face turn as white as snow, having never seen such a scene before. It was Yang Ling, who had undergone the psychological impact of defending the city, that pulled her to safety between two carriages, narrowly avoiding being hit by stray arrows.

  The Ming army's counterattack was soon blocked by the Hu's sharp arrows, and one after another fell at the narrow valley entrance. The Ming army had to fight with the Hu at the valley entrance for the only exit, while also dealing with the continuous shooting of sharp arrows from above, and casualties continued to increase.

  Yang Ling noticed that the Ming army's counterattack was chaotic and unable to launch any threatening offense. Their officers were not cowardly, leading by example and fearing no death, but they only knew how to show off their personal bravery and did not know how to effectively organize the soldiers for battle.

  To put it bluntly, if they were allowed to form up on the plain under the command of a general and deploy in formation, they might be able to manage something similar. But once a melee like this broke out, higher-ranking officers couldn't effectively carry out orders, and those low-ranking officers who could barely recognize characters would either lead by example or direct with their swords, without making good use of the coordination between swordsmen, shieldmen, gunners, spearmen, and archers.

  Yang Ling looked at the quality of such an army, tense with sweat dripping down his face. Ma Lian'er was worried about her brother's safety and saw him standing not far away beside Bi Du's side, only then did she feel at ease.

  Just then, Ye Yushi and Liu Gonggong rushed over in a flurry, Ye Yushi was about to rebuke Bi Doushu for the unfavorable breakout, when suddenly he caught sight of a woman wearing a green shirt, thinking that Bi Doushu had brought his family along on the campaign, which made him even angrier.

  Bi Du's eyes saw that the Tartars were relying on the dangerous terrain in the valley, and it was difficult to break through quickly. He wanted to order his troops to attack the enemy on the mountain slope from a higher position, using firearms to suppress the Tartars at the entrance of the valley. However, Ye Yu Shi and Liu Gong thought that opening up the valley entrance would be the only way to survive. If they waited for him to attack the mountain slope first and then take the valley entrance in a roundabout way, it was feared that by then the whole army would have been annihilated.

  They were unanimous in their decision, and as the supervisor, he ordered him to open the valley mouth at all costs. Bi Du was disappointed and ordered the troops to stop attacking the mountain and instead gather to attack the valley mouth. With a stern face, he commanded: "Qi General, Lu General, concentrate your fire and arrows on the valley mouth, only advance, do not retreat, we must kill our way out!"

  He then loudly ordered the commander of the vanguard: "Guan Xiu is in command on the front line, if one person retreats, behead that person; if the whole team retreats, behead the team leader. If the team leader dies and the whole team retreats, kill them all without exception!"

  The order was like a mountain, and the two battalion commanders also knew that this was a life-and-death moment. At this time, they ordered their troops to charge towards the valley entrance under the cover of arrow fire. The arrows in front were like rain, and although the slopes on both sides were suppressed by the Ming army's firepower, cold arrows continued to fly. Many soldiers had just rushed out not far when they were shot through their leather armor by sharp arrows, staining the ground with blood.

  The musketeers who rushed into the effective range fired a volley, killing many Tatars, but the swordsmen and shieldmen behind them couldn't keep up with the charge. The Tatars launched a barrage of arrows, re-blocking the valley entrance.

  Yang Ling saw the heavy blow to the carriage, he glanced at a horse corpse fallen on the ground, and suddenly thought of a plan. He immediately shouted: "General Bi, use war horses as shields, the army follows behind the horses, we must be able to open up a gap!"

  Liu Gonggong and Ye Yushi were overjoyed when they heard the words, and immediately ordered Bi Can to carry out the plan. At that time, a war horse was worth nearly 400 yuan, and the Ming army had always been short of war horses, so the soldiers in the army had never thought of using war horses as weapons. Now that the life and death of the army were at stake, who would still care about the horses? The remaining war horses were concentrated in front of the array, with more than 40 horses. The firearms team applied fire medicine to the horse's tail, and when the fire was ignited, the war horse was in pain and immediately let out a loud neigh and rushed forward wildly.

  The army guarding the valley mouth, Dalin Dada, suddenly saw dozens of war horses with flaming tails rushing wildly towards them. The ground rumbled and shook. Alarmed, he ordered his troops to fire arrows. Although several horses fell down whinnying in pain, most of the war horses continued to gallop wildly with arrows stuck in their bodies, scattering the enemy's formation and rushing out of the valley. Some soldiers who failed to retreat in time didn't even have a chance to scream before being trampled into pulp by the frenzied horses.

  Taking advantage of the good opportunity, Bi Du led the army to charge out bravely under the hail of arrows. Lin Da and more than 400 remaining soldiers immediately came to meet them. The valley entrance was narrow, only two hundred people were enough to seal it tightly, and the two armies suddenly crowded together, engaging in a fierce hand-to-hand combat at the valley entrance.