Chen Biao had no idea that Tongmo Town would be the site of the most shameful event in Ming Dynasty history.
He led his army slowly and steadily, approaching Kuyuk Timur's army. After leaving the Beiping military camp, he saw almost no ordinary people along the way, and all the villages had been abandoned.
Peking, once the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, was now a border town of the Ming Dynasty. If the people were not protected by the army, they would face the plunder of the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty army and the numerous bandits, making it impossible for them to survive.
Under Chen Biao's rule, Peking had already become prosperous within a year. Students who came to Peking thought it was just like Yingtian, a prosperous city with a different style.
That is why they questioned many of Chen Biao's cruel policies.
But as they gradually left the protection of the army and headed for more remote areas—how remote were these more remote areas? The desolate wilderness of this now dilapidated village later became Changping District in Beijing.
More than half a year had passed since Dadu was captured by the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming army could only protect this small area; Chen Biao had worked hard for a long time, but this was the only area left for the people to survive.
Again, some battles are over before they begin.
Kuyuk Timur wanted to launch a surprise attack, and relying on the advantage of his cavalry, he quickly blocked several gates of Peking.
The Yuan Dynasty's heavy cavalry was a bug in the era of cold weapons. Even if Chen Biao had many new firearms, he had no way to deal with the heavy cavalry.
The new firearms might be able to defeat the heavy cavalry, but Chen Biao did not have the ammunition to defeat 40,000 to 50,000 heavy cavalry.
War is an economic matter, and Chen Biao cannot conjure up so much ammunition out of thin air.
But Chen Biao's proactive attack was different. When the two armies faced each other, they basically abandoned all strategies. The only thing left was who had stronger morale and more powerful artillery firepower to win.
If Kuyuk Timur attacked a city, his cavalry could attack, retreat, and flee. The defending army would have to open the city gates and march out in formation. Their bravery would have prevented the defenders from getting out. The city gates could block both the attackers and the defenders.
In the wilderness, the Yuan army had no intention of continuing the battle, and there were wide gaps for them to escape. After the first few rounds of bombardment, the morale of the heavy cavalry dropped rapidly. After that, Chen Biao's cavalry rushed forward and could break the enemy formation.
Besides, Kuyuk Timur's strategic goal was to disrupt the Ming army's offensive by attacking Peking, wait for troops from Shangdu and the grassland to arrive, and force the Mongolian nobles on the grassland to join him in a full-scale attack on Peking, rather than hiding in the grassland and discussing the division of interests before fighting.
Kuyuk Timur was confident that if the Mongolian cavalry on the grassland could unite as one, it would be easy to recapture Dadu before the Ming army could come to rescue.
It was because they had been fighting among themselves that the Ming Dynasty had an opportunity to take advantage of them.
The Peking army learned of their arrival early and started fighting directly in the wilderness, so Kuyuk Timur's strategic goal could not be achieved.
Because he would be worried that the entire Beiping army would be dispatched, leaving Beiping as an empty city. Combined with the letter Xu Da wrote to him before leaving the barracks, he did not dare to send anyone to contact Shangdu.
"Warfare is a psychological, informational, and economic war. If you've reached peak intelligence, logistics, and psychological capabilities, and still manage to lose, it's like you've encountered a meteorite summoned by Emperor Guangwu of Han. No one can resist, so just accept your fate." Chen Biao and his students were taught by the Air Force. "I told you that if you follow me on this expedition, you'll understand why I ordered you to expel the people from Peking. Do you understand?"
The students looked at each other, and none of them dared to speak first in front of the generals, for fear of embarrassment.
Chen Biao looked at Liu Lian: "How about you tell me? I remember you were very opposed to it."
Liu Lian was helpless: "You boy...Chen Zhifu, your face is not suitable for playing old."
Chen Biao raised his whip and pretended to hit Liu Lian.
Liu Lian smiled, then dodged, then with a sigh, said, "If the Yuan army were to attack Beiping, their logistics would be entirely dependent on looting. If we don't expel the civilians, their winter supplies will become granaries for the Yuan army, and the civilians will become their laborers. The Yuan army stationed in Bao'an Prefecture to rest and regroup, rather than somewhere closer to Beiping, because we cleared out the civilian population."
Why is there no crowing of cocks for thousands of miles in troubled times? The major separatist factions would artificially create “no man’s land” between themselves to increase the logistical pressure on the other factions when they attacked.
This was cruel. But Chen Biao had given the people enough power to choose. The south was in urgent need of laborers to cultivate the land, and they could move south along the canal.
They didn't need to go far south, as the land of Lu and Yu had already been taken over by the Ming Dynasty and became the rear base of Peking. They would not be able to get food in Peking in a short time, so they could hold on to Lu and Yu and have a meal there.
"If they're simply trying to survive, they'll definitely head to the Central Plains. If, after three expulsions, they still insist on heading to Peking, there's probably another reason." Liu Lian continued with a sigh. "Perhaps they don't intend to harm us, but we don't have the time or energy to sift through them all."
When the officers and soldiers heard Liu Lian's sigh, they all showed a perfunctory attitude on their faces, as if they didn't care about Liu Lian's sigh; only the young students also sighed and continued to feel guilty.
Deng Yu said, "You will have many choices to make between others and our soldiers, refugees and our people. But the only thing that remains unchanged is that the commander's orders cannot be questioned. They are military orders."
Not to mention the students, Liu Lian also looked a little embarrassed.
Zhao Desheng's face was also filled with annoyance. "We soldiers all know that we must obey the military advisor in everything. The military advisor's orders are military orders. You are the military advisor's students, yet you actually question him. Isn't it said that scholars respect their teachers the most? Or are your affairs as scholars different from our military affairs?"
Although Zhao Desheng is a rough guy, his words are very touching.
Liu Lian's face turned red and he kept apologizing.
Chen Biao said, "Alright, you've already confessed once. You've just arrived on the battlefield, so it's normal that you don't know or are not used to following military orders. This is what I, as your teacher, want to teach you."
He taught these people to read, but the downside of reading too much is that they take the romantic descriptions of battlefields in books seriously.
War is never a romantic thing.
In other words, war is not romantic to the people involved, but it is romantic to the readers who read this story.
To use modern fashionable words, the people in the story are all paper people. Paper people will not feel pain or cry even if they bleed and die. They have no human rights and are only worthy of providing fun for readers.
Now, these students who only learned from books were the "readers," and the generals including Deng Yu and Zhao Desheng were the "paper men." Chen Biao's teaching process was the process of drawing the "readers" into the "story."
Although the students had been to battlefields during their internship, these battlefields were all within the sight of the Ming army. Specifically, they didn't even reach Changping District in Beijing. Therefore, they saw very little of the tragic scenes of the world and thought they were creating them.
Now they have finally set foot in Changping District, Beijing. Chen Biao pointed to the dilapidated houses and the broken corpses. Some of the corpses had been buried and then dug out, with ashes next to them.
What is a chaotic world? This is a chaotic world.
Why were harsh punishments used in troubled times? Because Chen Biao was a selfish man. Generals should be selfish. They should protect their own soldiers and the people behind them first. If they don't have the ability, they shouldn't try to protect those outside of this boundary.
Many students had fought in battles and killed people, but they all looked grim as they walked along, and many students couldn't stop vomiting.
Even Geng Tianbi, who had once been in the military camp with his father, looked very unhappy.
Chen Biao paused to explain what the clues on the roadside meant. He gripped the reins tightly and looked into the distance.
Coincidentally, at this moment, Kuyuk Timur was also on horseback, holding the reins tightly and looking into the distance.
He already sensed something was wrong.
Even though the main generals such as Xu Da had left, Zhu Yuanzhang had many famous generals under his command, and the deputy generals were also capable and good fighters if taken out alone.
Kuyuk Timur was able to lead his men out of Ningxia City without attracting the attention of the Ming army. In addition to the fact that he was more familiar with the terrain and the Ming army did not expect him to abandon the city, one of the reasons was that he had planned early and chosen the route to the east.
In addition, as Chen Biao and his students explained, information warfare, psychological warfare... the right time, place and people were all clearly calculated by Kuyuk Timur.
As a commander, his ability was far superior to that of the deputy general who was besieging him.
So when he discovered Baoan Prefecture and then moved eastward, and found that there was almost no population, he realized something was wrong.
When he captured the Ming army's spies, even though these spies did not reveal any information, he was able to get a glimpse of the movements of the Peking defenders from the fact that "spies" had come.
Now there are only two paths before Kuyuk Timur.
The road back to Gansu was blocked when he left Ningxia, which is why the Ming army did not think he would abandon the city. He could only return north to the grasslands, or continue eastward to explore the strength of the Ming army.
Kuyuk Timur captured many civilians along the way. In addition to serving them as laborers, he also gathered a lot of intelligence .
For ordinary people who are fleeing for their lives, the fear of death or the temptation of a bran cake can make them tell everything they know.
Kuokuo Timur was convinced that his judgment of the strength of the troops and generals in Peking was correct. Currently, the elite troops defending Peking were fewer than his elite troops, and at least half of them were infantry.
These elite soldiers were under several generals of similar rank, and none of them would obey the others. The only ones who could become the chief general and unify this group of people were Zhu Yuanzhang's adopted sons Zhu Wenzheng or Li Wenzhong. Even Zhu Yuanzhang's newly emerged adopted son Chen Ying was not qualified.
Zhu Wenzheng and Li Wenzhong had both returned to Yingtian. There was no commander in Peking now.
To go or not to go?
"King of Henan, where should we go?" the deputy general asked worriedly.
Kuokuo Timur did not answer, but asked: "What do you think the true ability of that demon child named Chen Biao is?"
The deputy general shook his head. "I don't know. That Chen Biao's deeds are too amazing. I racked my brains to understand how he could conquer Haijin Town, Tongzhou, and Dadu in two days. I can't figure out how he cursed Chen Hanlin to death."
Kuyuk Timur said, "I thought he was lying. But if he wasn't lying, would the commander of Peking have never left?"
The deputy general was surprised: "Prince of Henan, are you saying that the real commander of Beiping is not Zhu Wenzheng or Li Wenzhong, but Chen Biao?!"
Kuyuk Timur said, "If the rumors are true, why can't he be the commander?"
The deputy general hesitated, "But he's very young, only twelve or thirteen, right? I heard that the generals under Zhu Yuanzhang are all arrogant. Can they obey him?"
Kuyuk Timur said, "In ancient times, there were twelve-year-old prime ministers. Why can't we have twelve-year-old commanders now? If the rumors about him are true, and he has achieved so much at such a young age, why wouldn't those generals obey him?"
The deputy general was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat.
If Chen Biao's deeds are true, and I have witnessed with my own eyes what a miraculous general Chen Biao is, of course I would be willing to be commanded by Chen Biao!
The deputy general said, "King of Henan, are you saying that Beiping is a trap and Chen Biao is waiting for us? Then we should return to the grasslands?"
If you can't win, just run away. There's nothing to be ashamed of. With so many of them, they can still dominate the grasslands.
Kuyuk Timur was hesitating when a soldier told him that a man claiming to be a messenger from the Ming Dynasty had come to deliver a letter for Chen Biao, the prefect of Beiping and the secretary of the Chancellery.
Kuyuk Timur's eyelids jumped, and he sneered, "Let him in!"
The Ming Dynasty messenger was dragged over with his hands tied behind his back.
Kuyuk Timur had him untied, and then very boldly took the letter from the messenger in his own hands.
"The King of Henan has guessed that I am the commander-in-chief of the Beiping garrison, right? Am I, Chen Biao, qualified to be a serious threat to the Yuan Dynasty?"
Kuyuk Timur's eyelids twitched.
"I have already led the entire garrison to attack. I invite the King of Henan to come to Tongmo Town for a discussion. There are no ambushes or reinforcements. Does the King of Henan believe it?"
Kuyuk Timur took a few deep breaths and shouted angrily, "How dare you, a little boy, look down on me!"
The Ming messenger calmly said, "The military advisor does not underestimate the King of Henan. On the contrary, the military advisor believes that the threat posed by the King of Henan to the Ming Dynasty far exceeds that posed by the incompetent Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty and the incompetent Crown Prince. Therefore, the military advisor uses himself as bait and Beiping as bait to invite the King of Henan to a discussion!"
The Ming Dynasty messenger raised his head and looked fearlessly at Kuyuk Timur, who was riding on a horse with his sword drawn.
"Tongmo Town is open, and the Great Wall has long been abandoned, leaving no pass to defend. When two armies confront each other, any strategy is useless. The only thing that determines victory is the strength of the army itself."
"Military advisor's words."
"Do the Yuan Dynasty's so-called invincible heavy cavalry dare to fight against the Ming Dynasty's Beiping defenders?!"
"Great Yuan Kuokuo Timur, do you dare to fight against my Great Ming Chen Biao?!"
Kuyuk Timur looked at the unfinished second half of the letter, and the words of the Ming Dynasty messenger were also written in black and white on the letter.
In addition, Chen Biao also wrote that he was the head of the Chen family, the biggest threat to the Yuan Dynasty, who raised money and food for the Ming Dynasty; he was the one who gathered the craftsmen who improved the firearms of the Ming Dynasty; and he was the one who advised and taught the Ming Dynasty soldiers to read.
"I, Chen Biao, can protect two generations of emperors of the Ming Dynasty and ensure a century of peace and stability! Are you trying to kill me?!"
Kuyuk Timur's hand trembled as he held the letter. "Excellent, very good! You are indeed the demon child Chen Biao! Pass on my orders! All troops, prepare and continue your march eastward! Our Yuan cavalry is invincible!"
The generals behind Kuyuk Timur raised their weapons and shouted, "The Yuan cavalry is invincible!"
The soldiers also shouted: "The Yuan cavalry is invincible!"
The sound was deafening and the situation changed dramatically!
After shouting, Kuyuk Timur drew his dagger and beheaded the Ming envoy with one blow.
The Ming Dynasty messenger looked at the cold knife light, there was no fear in his eyes, but a hint of smile.
When his head hit the ground, his eyes were closed and the corners of his mouth were turned up.
Kuyuk Timur looked at the smiling head on the ground and wanted to hang the head of the Ming envoy on the flag to provoke the Ming army.
But when the words came to his lips, they turned into: "Bury him on the spot."
Kuyuk Timur would not let the Ming messenger go back because he could not let the Ming army know what decision he had made and when to set off.
But seeing the messenger's fearlessness, he lost interest in desecrating the other's corpse.
On the other side, Chen Biao had already set up camp in Tongmo Town and built fortifications with cement.
Low temperatures will not affect the solidification of cement, and dry weather will allow the cement to solidify in a few hours.
However, although the weather in Beijing is not high enough to freeze water, cement still needs to be heated before mixing, which affects efficiency a little.
Therefore, Chen Biao did not build large-scale fortifications, but only built some trenches and stones of varying heights in the position to slow down the advance of the heavy cavalry.
Chen Biao asked, "Has the messenger not returned yet?"
Yan Qian, who was guarding Chen Biao, said, "No."
Chen Biao said: "In terms of time, you should have returned long ago."
Yan Qian didn't say anything.
Chen Biao wiped the cement off his boots and said, "He won't be coming back."
Yan Qian was just thinking about what to say when Chen Biao continued, "It's okay, no need to comfort me. I knew it when I sent the messenger. He was also mentally prepared to sacrifice himself."
The two armies not killing the envoys will only appear in the most ideal situation.
The Yuan army would not talk about any moral etiquette to the Ming army that destroyed the Yuan Dynasty; he used provocation to lure Kuyuk Timur to come, and Kuyuk Timur would definitely come, and he would definitely be angry.
So the probability of the messenger being alive is very low. He knows it, he knows it all.
Chen Biao also knew that even if he made sufficient preparations, the number of casualties if he took the initiative to attack would definitely be more than if he held on and waited for help.
However, only by taking the initiative could he wipe out Kuyuk Timur's forces in one fell swoop, eliminate the biggest threat to the Ming Dynasty, and eliminate the subsequent major and minor defeats of the Ming army that might be caused by Kuyuk Timur.
As Deng Yu and Zhao Desheng told their students, to be a general, one must learn to make choices.
Chen Biao changed into a lighter and more convenient cloak, put on his flintlock rifle, small crossbow, dagger, etc. one by one, then checked the spear, gun and bow and arrow on the horse before getting on the horse.
He saw smoke and dust in the distance. The Yuan army was coming.
The Ming army quickly cleaned up the unfinished on-site fortifications, prepared their battle array, and prepared to meet the enemy.
The students were at the end. Their only duty was to watch and, if Chen Biao failed, to return to the city as soon as possible to inform Beiping to close the city gates.
Except for Chen Chong, Chen Jin and Chang Mao who are younger than Chen Biao, Chang Wei is the same age as Chen Biao, and all the students are older than Chen Biao.
They were protected at the back of the army and could only watch from afar as Chen Biao led a group of generals and stood at the forefront of the army.
"Second brother, I feel very uncomfortable." Chen Jing whispered, "Big brother is not as strong as the two of us."
Chen Xun rolled his eyes at Chen Jin and said, "Are you jealous of Big Brother?"
Chen Jing shook his head vigorously: "How is that possible! Don't joke with me like that! I just... just wanted to..."
He just wanted to be by his elder brother's side, he just wanted to fight alongside his elder brother, he just felt that he was useless.
Before Chen Tan finished speaking, Chen Chong could tell what Chen Tan had left unsaid.
"Look closely at Big Brother and see this first real war we're participating in."
Chen Chong's words were not only spoken to Chen Chong, but also to his classmates behind him.
He has won the first place in the comprehensive examinations for several consecutive times, so he is naturally the captain of this team of student soldiers.
"Watching Big Brother and his soldiers fighting, we can only hide behind them."
"Remember the shame and unwillingness in your heart at this moment!"
The students straightened up and said, "Yes!"
…
As the smoke approached, Kuyuk Timur came immediately to prevent the Ming army from building fortifications in advance.
He got the news from the people he had captured nearby, and it was certain that the Ming army had just arrived.
Kuyuk Timur's prediction was correct. Although Chen Biao wanted to maximize his advantage, due to the negligence of the Ming troops in Gansu, he received the news late and needed to make many preparations before the attack, so he had only been there for a day.
On this undefensible battlefield, the two armies had equal advantages and disadvantages in their environment.
Kuyuk Timur laughed heartily: "At the invitation of Military Advisor Chen, the King of Henan has arrived! Military Advisor Chen, do you dare to come forward and have a chat?"
"Biao'er!" Yan Qian rode his horse across the road to block Chen Biao's way. "I'll go!"
Chen Biao shook his head. "I know my limits. I can't kill him, and he can't hurt me either. Didn't Uncle Yan privately test my martial arts at full strength?"
Chen Biao's strength is only at the level of an ordinary teenager of his age. Compared with his younger brother and other natural warriors, he is too weak. It is probably difficult for him to break Kuyuk Timur's armor.
But he is very fast, and when he concentrates, he has a plug-in similar to "bullet time", so it is not easy for others to hit him.
Chen Biao frowned and said, "Come with me to talk to him. The artillery team continues to debug the data. Yan Qian, get out of the way! This is an order!"
Yan Qian hesitated for a moment, made way, and went out with Chen Biao.
At the same time, Zhao Desheng and Xue Xian, two of the most capable generals, also followed Chen Biao as guards. Kuyuk Timur also brought two personal soldiers with him.
Kuyuk Timur and Chen Biao arrived at the center of the two armies, just as it was written in history books.
Fighting generals in front of the battlefield was not a fabrication as later marketing accounts claimed. Fighting generals was very popular during the late Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms period, the chaotic Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty.
In the era of cold weapons, morale was crucial in warfare, and fighting was a tacitly agreed-upon method of gambling that was most likely to undermine the other side's morale.
Unlike in novels, the battles between generals are mostly fought between lieutenants and lower-ranking generals. This is because it is easy to die in a battle, and you can't kill the main general.
But there are exceptions. Some commanders are confident in their abilities and will take the initiative to take on the responsibility of fighting against generals. For example, Yue Fei was very good at fighting against generals.
There was also a general in the Ming Dynasty who loved to personally fight with his generals. Zhu Yuanzhang wrote to him many times to scold him, saying that fighting with generals was a matter for low-ranking generals and that the general should get out of the way. But he just wouldn't listen.
This unruly, combative, and provocative general was named Chang Yuchun.
Although Kuyuk Timur's purpose was not to fight the general, he was just curious about the appearance of the magical Chen Biao and wanted to see if Chen Biao would be timid.
If Chen Biao was timid, he could also slightly undermine the morale of the Ming army.
When he saw a dwarf walking out of the army surrounded by three tall generals, Kuyuk Timur was stunned at first, and then he sighed deeply.
His worst fears came true.
The legend about Chen Biao is true.
Chen Biao was indeed the main general of the Peking defenders.