Volume 1: The Wind Rises in Tumubao Chapter 28: Flooding the Seven Armies
The Ming army's attacks were so intensive, as if lime powder was free.
Having said that, this thing is free, but the stock is limited, and every pack thrown away is one less pack.
Moreover, the quality of the catapults was very poor. Several of them were damaged during transportation at night. Now during the battle, they were constantly malfunctioning, and some of them broke down after almost every round.
There were no trees in this place, let alone a place to burn lime. Chen Ying was extremely anxious as he watched the catapults that kept striking and the few lime bombs that were left.
"Your Majesty, we still have 26 trebuchets, and only 50 bags of lime powder left!"
Zhu Qizhen waved his hand calmly and said, "Don't keep any of them . Throw them all out!"
"ah?"
Chen Ying was a little at a loss, thinking, what should I do after throwing away all of them?
Zhu Qizhen suddenly asked: "Have you noticed that the water level of the Guishui River is much lower today than in the past?"
"ah?"
"I sent Chen Huai out last night, didn't you know?"
"ah?"
Chen Ying asked three "yes" in a row, his face full of question marks.
"Don't worry about it!" Zhu Qizhen was in no mood to explain to him in detail, and just said, "Do as I say!"
“Uh… yes!”
Chen Ying simply stopped asking and turned back to his position to continue commanding the battle.
"Load, fire!"
On the front line, both armies were making their last stand. The Ming army threw out all the lime bombs, while the Oirat people continued to advance while carrying the lime powder.
However, people can persevere through perseverance, but horses cannot.
The dust burned the war horses' eyes and they began to go crazy. The situation in the front became increasingly chaotic, causing the troops in the back to be stuck in the river.
Fortunately, the river was very shallow today. Not to mention the cavalry, even if the infantry stood in it, the water would barely reach their knees.
Most of the 100,000-strong army were now stranded in the river, waiting for the smoke and dust ahead to clear so that they could launch a general attack.
If you look upstream along the Guishui River, you will find a Ming army guarding a narrow river channel.
The two-meter-high dam built with stones here is Chen Huai's masterpiece.
Sometimes, Chen Huai even suspected that he was not here to fight, but to follow the emperor to carry out construction.
In addition to digging pits and firing kilns, they also had to build dams.
How can this be called Pingxiang Bo? Isn’t this a contractor?
Although he was a little dissatisfied, when Zhu Qizhen assigned him a task, he ran over overnight without saying a word.
Up to now, the dam has been storing water for nearly four hours, and the water level is more than three feet higher than usual, so that the water level downstream has dropped rapidly.
However, the Oirat people's attention was focused on the catapults and they didn't pay any attention to the changes in the water level.
"Uncle, you see the river is like dumplings being cooked in it, is that ok?"
From this position, looking down from above, you can see clearly every move of the Oirat people.
"Why are you in such a hurry? The Emperor hasn't given any signal yet. Wait a little longer!"
Although Chen Huai said this, he was more anxious than anyone else.
Watching the prey walk into the trap is a very frustrating feeling.
Immediately afterwards, a low horn sounded suddenly from the Ming army position.
Chen Huai was overjoyed and quickly ordered: "Dig the embankment!"
The dam was built temporarily and was extremely fragile. If a few stones were removed, the accumulated water would be enough to destroy the entire dam.
At the Wala position, Yesen suddenly heard the bugle call of the Ming army, and a bad thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
He rode on his horse, standing on the river bank and watching, but saw that the Ming army began to abandon their catapults and instead took the initiative to attack.
Twenty thousand against one hundred thousand, and they actually chose to take the initiative!
Are you out of your mind?
Or maybe the empty city plan has been discovered, and now all we can do is fight to the death.
Wang Lin had been standing beside Yesen. Seeing this, he said, “Congratulations, Grand Master. The Ming army has no way to retreat. They will definitely lose this battle!”
"Yeah?"
Yesen watched the battlefield silently. The vanguard troops had already rushed out of the killing range of the lime powder and were fighting with the Ming army.
The army in the river was still blocked tightly, making it almost impossible to move forward.
In the current situation, as long as the front line rushes out, the large force behind will be able to catch up.
Based on the experience of the previous few days, the lime powder of the Ming army was all crudely made and of extremely low purity. As long as the eyes, mouth and nose were protected, it would not be a problem to forcibly pass through the blockade of lime powder.
But the problem was that the warhorse was difficult to control. When the lime powder burned its eyes, it became frightened and mad, and started charging around randomly.
At this moment, a strange sound suddenly came from a distance.
Yesen listened attentively and it seemed to be the sound of water.
Suddenly, an ominous premonition flashed through his mind. He turned around and saw waves more than a person's height rushing down rapidly in the upper reaches of the Guishui River.
"Quick, call off the troops!"
Immediately afterwards, a burst of rapid gong sounds were heard from the Wala position, which was the signal to retreat.
But it's too late.
The soldiers in the river watched helplessly as huge waves came towards them.
Wow!
The first wave had the greatest impact. The turbulent water swept past, and people were thrown to the ground. In an instant, half of the people disappeared.
Although there were no such exaggerated waves afterwards, the water level of the river did rise. It quickly rose from the knee level of an ordinary person to the chest level, and then continued to rise until it submerged the head.
It all happened so quickly. Most of the Oirat people were gathered in the river and had no time to evacuate. Moreover, almost none of them could swim. When they were washed away by the water, they were scared to death even if they didn't drown.
For a while, the river was filled with people crying for their parents, and the scene was extremely tragic.
Because the follow-up troops could not keep up, the vanguard troops were no match for the Ming army and were beaten back step by step. After hearing the signal to retreat, they had no desire to fight and fled in panic.
The Ming army charged for a while, and then stopped when they reached the area covered by lime powder.
In this situation, not only the Oirat people, but also the Ming army were dumbfounded.
Although everyone knew that the emperor ordered Chen Huai and others to carry out some secret operation last night, no one expected it to be so powerful.
An army of one hundred thousand was drowned and scattered.
Chen Ying couldn't help but think of a passage in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms about the flooding of seven armies. It said that when Guan Yu and Pang De were fighting, they were unable to win at first, but later he thought of a way to take advantage of the rising water level of the Xiangjiang River, open the sluice gates to flood the seven armies, and finally capture Pang De alive.
"Your Majesty's brilliant plan, I admire you!"
Zhu Qizhen was very satisfied with the result. After this battle, Yesen must have suffered heavy losses and would not attack again in the short term.
"Pass on my order to withdraw to Juyong Pass!"
"yes!"
The Ming army received the order and quickly assembled and evacuated. At this time, the Oirat people were busy with their own affairs and had no time to care where the Ming army went.
Yesen looked at Wang Lin coldly, with a murderous gleam in his eyes.
Wang Lin's face turned pale, and he trembled as he said, "Grandmaster, please listen to me..."
Yesen was furious and slowly drew the sword from his waist.
"Grand Master, Great Khan, Great King, please, please don't..."
brush!
A cold light flashed, and Wang Lin's head fell to the ground.
