Volume 1: The Wind Rises in Tumubao Chapter 5 This Must Be a Trap
At the foot of Huaiyuan City, the central army camp of Yesen’s troops was located.
"Report to the Grand Master, we have captured a southerner spy!"
Wang Xi was like a sheep to be slaughtered. He was dragged to the ground and curled up and shivered.
In the central army tent, Yesen was holding a combat meeting. Without even glancing at him, he waved his hand and said, "Cut it off!"
Although they gained many advantages along the way, it was not so easy to completely defeat the main force of the Ming army.
After all, there are still 80,000 people on the other side. Even if they line up for you to chop, without blinking from morning to night, you still can't chop them all even if your knife's blade is blunt.
What's more, the young emperor of the Ming court is still in the battle line. If he gets angry, he will fight you to the death. His fighting power is still considerable.
For the Wala tribe, what they need to consider now is no longer victory or defeat, but to minimize casualties.
So he racked his brains and came up with a clever plan.
First, they sent envoys to pretend to negotiate peace with the Ming army. To show their sincerity, the army withdrew thirty miles and gave up the Yongding River in the south.
Sure enough, the other party agreed!
If nothing unexpected happens, the little emperor will soon order a move south to fetch water from the Yongding River.
All he needed to do was to lie in ambush in advance and launch a surprise attack when the Ming army was fetching water. The enemy would inevitably be in chaos, and at that time, he would only need to charge and fight for a while to win a great victory.
Now the trap has been set, waiting for the little emperor to fall into it.
At this critical moment, there must be no risk of intelligence leakage, therefore, any spies of the Ming army must be killed immediately.
"Your Majesty... No, Great Khan, please spare my life, please spare my life..."
Yesen was stunned for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter, and the others in the tent followed suit.
Bayan Temur pointed at Wang Xi on the ground and said, "Brother, he called you Khan!"
"This southern dog is still very sweet!" Yesen then raised his head and glanced at Wang Xi on the ground. Suddenly he exclaimed, "What do you do?"
Because the man in front of him had fair skin and delicate flesh, and was wearing a brocade gown. He didn't look like a spy who was here to gather information.
Wang Xi hurriedly said, "I am a close attendant to the Emperor, and I have important information to present to the Khan!"
After listening to it, Yesen became even more puzzled and asked, "What information?"
Wang Xi swallowed his saliva and said, "The Ming army has already set out, heading east to seek a decisive battle with the Alazhiyuan tribe. If the Khan sends troops at this time and raids the rear of the Ming army, the Ming army will surely be defeated!"
Yesen seemed a little confused, and turned to Boyan and asked, "Is this a trick of the southerners?"
Boyan also had a puzzled look on his face and asked suspiciously, "Maybe...right?"
Yesen looked gloomy and scolded, "Tell me, what are you doing? What is your purpose in coming here?"
Wang Xi was almost crying, and tremblingly said: "I really came to surrender, I hope the Khan will take me in!"
Finally, Yesen stood up , walked slowly to Wang Xi, grabbed his shoulder with his left hand, and reached down with his right hand...
"What a ballless eunuch!"
Wang Xi’s face turned pale, and he felt a warm current running down the inside of his thighs.
Yesen sniffed, looked disdainful, threw him back to the ground, and asked, "Did the little emperor send you here?"
"Yes...ah, no, no!"
Wang Xi was so frightened that he spoke incoherently.
"Humph!" Yesen snorted coldly and said, "The little emperor sent you to spread false news to confuse us, right?"
"No... no!" Wang Xi shook his head vigorously and said, "It's really not!"
With a loud slap, Yesen slapped the table in front of him, causing the wine jug to fly.
"If you don't tell the truth, I'll dig out your heart and liver and eat it with wine!"
Wang Xi said in a tearful voice: "I am really here to surrender. The Ming army has already set out. If the Khan doesn't believe me, he can send someone to investigate."
Yesen turned around and looked at the sentry who brought Wang Xi in, and asked, "Is what he said true?"
The sentry scratched his head and answered truthfully: "I was originally going to investigate the movements of the Ming army. I found this spy on the way and brought him back first. The others will continue to investigate and will probably be back soon."
Yesen had rich combat experience and would never believe in such a thing as a pie falling from the sky even if he was beaten to death.
In his heart, he had already determined that this was a trick of the Ming army, but he didn't know what the little emperor was up to. Was he trying to launch a desperate counterattack?
"Take this eunuch away and interrogate him strictly!"
"yes!"
Wang Xi was dragged out of the tent. He looked at Boyan first, then at the other generals, and asked, "What do you think of this man's strange arrival?"
Boyan was a tough guy who hated using his brain the most. He said, "In my opinion, no matter whether the southerners make any moves or not, our army should just rush over and chop them to pieces!"
The other generals had almost the same idea. Along the way, the Ming army had been defeated one after another and more than half of its troops had been lost. On the other hand, their side had strong soldiers and horses and the advantage was already very obvious.
However, Yesen frowned and kept shaking his head.
"Use your brains, why would the Ming army send a spy into our camp to lie about military intelligence? What kind of conspiracy is behind this?"
Because he himself didn't understand what the Ming army's purpose was.
The Han people were good at strategy. Books like The Art of War and Thirty-Six Stratagems recorded many conspiracies and tricks that were hard to guard against.
The most reasonable explanation is that the little emperor set up an ambush near Tumu Fort, waiting for him to take the initiative to deliver a wave of heads?
The more he thought about it, the more something seemed wrong. In the current situation, he was already sure to win, so every decision he made next had to be made with extreme caution, not leaving any opportunity for the Ming army to take advantage.
"Master, our scout post is back!"
Yesen waved his hand and said, "Let him in!"
Then, a sentry came in and saluted, saying, "Grandmaster, the Ming army has moved camp eastward!"
"What did you say?"
Yesen couldn't help but stand up. Did the Ming army really go to attack Alazhiyuan?
"Report to Grand Master, the Ming army has moved camp and marched eastward!"
Yesen asked nervously, "Did you see it with your own eyes?"
"It's absolutely true!" the sentry said confidently, "The Tumubao camp is now empty. I can see the rear of the Ming army from a high point. They are marching very fast."
Boyan couldn't help but say: "Brother, it seems that the Ming army is really ready to fight to the death. There are only more than 30,000 people in the Alazhiyuan. We must support them immediately!"
"Don't worry!" Yesen waved his hand and said solemnly, "This matter is a little strange!"
Boyan was puzzled and asked, "Why is it so strange?"
Yesen thought for a moment and asked the sentry, "Has the Ming army's camp been dismantled?"
The sentry shook his head and said, "No!"
Hearing this, Yesen suddenly showed a smug smile on his face, and asked again: "Have you checked the Ming army's camp? Are the supplies still there?"
"Grandmaster, you are so good at predicting things!" The sentry's eyes lit up and he said, "I am also very surprised. There are a lot of baggage and supplies in the Ming army camp. It seems that they left in a hurry and forgot to bring them!"
Yesen nodded and said, "Okay, you can go down!"
Boyan couldn't help but ask, "Brother, what's going on?"
Yesen smiled confidently and said, "The army is marching eastward without dismantling the camp or taking supplies with them. Don't you think this is unusual?"
Boyan thought about it and nodded, " Something is wrong."
"The Ming army's command was chaotic throughout the journey. Whether it was the marching route or the combat orders, everything was a mess. Why was it that this time, from the order to the execution, it was so clean and neat?"
"Brother thinks..."
"I always feel that there is something fishy going on here. You know, the southerners are known for their cunningness. If this is a trap, they will definitely find a way to make us believe it and fall into it."
"You mean that the ballless eunuch is lying?"
"Yes, they first sent out spies to falsely claim to have intelligence, and then immediately broke camp and pretended to move eastward. Once we confirmed that the intelligence was accurate, we would definitely attack their rear, which would be exactly what they wanted. This is called luring the enemy deep into our territory, and it is a trick of the southerners!"
Boyan scratched his head and asked, "What should we do now?"
Yesen looked solemn and thought for a long time, then finally shook his head slowly.
"Don't act rashly. I want to see what tricks the little emperor is playing!"
