Chapter 22: Movements of the Ming Army!

Just one strike.

A charging Tartar soldier was decapitated in an instant.

"Killed a Tartar infantryman, gained 20 points of Stamina," the panel prompted.

But Zhu Ying did not stop his blade, his warhorse charging forward.

His saber swung.

Each strike fell with the force of a desperate, all-or-nothing struggle; it was a blade that no ordinary person could withstand.

In an instant.

Several more Tartar soldiers died at Zhu Ying's hands.

"Killed a Tartar infantryman, gained 20 points of Strength."

"Killed a Tartar infantryman, gained 20 points of Speed..."

More prompts followed.

His attributes rose.

As Zhu Ying struck, the cavalry of the First Thousand-Household Battalion also made their move.

They charged ruthlessly toward the Tartar soldiers who were attempting to fight back with blades.

With hundreds of cavalrymen attacking in an encirclement.

Almost in a heartbeat.

The hundred or so Tartar soldiers were all cut down.

However, the Tartar civilians remained surrounded by the cavalry, looking at the surrounding Ming cavalry with terror and hatred.

"Thousand-Household."

"How should we deal with these people?"

Zhang Wu pointed toward the thousands of Tartars.

"If our Great Ming people fell into the hands of these Tartars, what would they do to them?" Zhu Ying turned his head and asked Zhang Wu in return.

"The men would be killed, and the women would be violated."

Zhang Wu answered without hesitation.

As a border soldier of the Northern Frontier, Zhang Wu knew this all too well.

Because they bordered the Northern Yuan, whenever many places were invaded by the Northern Yuan, incidents of village massacres and clan exterminations were common.

War was, by its very nature, extremely cruel.

Once they invaded, there would be no order, for these Tartars of the Northern Frontier worshipped slaughter—the most primitive form of killing, devoid of the civilizing influence found in the Han people.

As a reincarnator, Zhu Ying knew clearly how the Tartars of later generations would treat the Han people. The three days of Yangzhou, the three massacres of Jia Ding, "keep your hair or keep your head"—these were all things that happened in the future, where countless Han people were slaughtered.

"In that case."

"Then we shall follow their Northern rules."

Zhu Ying turned his head and said coldly, "Anyone taller than a wagon wheel, behead them."

With so many people, the Great Ming did not have enough military rations to feed them, nor enough reserve troops to guard them.

Furthermore, bringing them along would only be a burden.

Since that was the case, then their fighting-age strength must be completely eliminated. This was war.

Nothing else mattered.

"I obey the Thousand-Household's command."

Zhang Wu and Fan Qing immediately accepted the order.

With a wave of a hand.

The many cavalrymen dismounted, blades in hand.

Using the wagon wheels as a guide.

In an instant.

Wails and screams erupted across the area.

As for this.

Zhu Ying felt no great emotion.

If the situation were reversed, they would be even more cruel to the Ming people, leaving no survivors.

"War!"

Zhu Ying watched this scene coldly, a sense of profound emotion rising in his heart.

"This era is the beginning of the Great Ming era. In the future, the Central Plains will be seized by the Tartars, and the Han people will be enslaved."

"But, since I, Zhu Ying, have come."

"I will absolutely never let that happen."

"If that day truly comes in the future, I will live on eternally, and I will have the power to build a force capable of exterminating the Tartars, to found a nation, and to achieve imperial hegemony."

"The so-called massacres of the future, and those traitors—I will never let them appear again."

"Since I am here, I must do something," Zhu Ying thought secretly to himself.

In recent days, since the battle between the border forces and the Tartar vanguard, the Tartars had offered little resistance on the frontier and were retreating rapidly toward larger tribes.

Bu Wan had directly ordered a full-scale pursuit by the Great Ming: kill any Tartar encountered.

After taking command of the First Cavalry Thousand-Household Battalion, Zhu Ying followed the orders issued from above, leading his cavalry battalion northward. Along the way, they cut down many retreating Tartar units and many able-bodied Tartar men.

"Thousand-Household."

"All Tartars taller than the wagon wheels have been executed."

Zhang Wu rode up to report.

"Seize all their grain, then continue north to rendezvous with the main army."

"From now on, this is how we treat these Tartars."

"Kill their able-bodied men and cut off their food supply."

"If they can escape back to their tribes alive, they are lucky, and they will be consuming their own Tartar grain," Zhu Ying instructed.

"I obey," Zhang Wu replied respectfully.

"The Tartar vanguard has collapsed; they must have already sought aid from the Yuan court."

"Moreover, with the strength of these Jianzhou Tartars, they possess more than just ten thousand troops. They must be gathering a large army, combined with the Northern Yuan."

"A true battle of attrition is coming."

"I wonder where the main army of the Imperial Court has reached," Zhu Ying thought privately.

Though it seemed the Great Ning border troops had charged into the Northern Frontier to strike the Tartars, and the Tartars were fleeing in all directions, these were ultimately just the frontier tribes of the Tartars. To truly force the Tartars into submission, one would have to exterminate their entire race, which was extremely difficult to achieve.

The hardest thing to accomplish in the Northern Frontier was clan extermination, because the territory was vast and their movements unpredictable. They could flee—flee wildly—and then accumulate strength to return.

This was one of the reasons why the Central Plains dynasties, regardless of the era, always had to face the threat of the Northern Frontier.

...

The Jianzhou Tartar Tribal Court!

In this vast Northern Frontier.

"Tartar" was actually a collective term used by the Great Ming Han people to refer to the foreign tribes of the North.

The Jianzhou Tartar clan was not the only one; they were divided into three branches.

However, the Jianzhou Tartars were the most powerful branch, while the other two were further north.

"Chieftain."

"The Ming army is now launching a large-scale invasion of our territory, and many clansmen have been slaughtered by them."

"The Ming army is about to approach the Blue Flag Tribe. Although there are troops stationed there, the Ming forces seem numerous; I fear they cannot hold them off."

"Aguna of the Blue Flag Tribe requests the Chief to send troops for immediate support."

A Tartar general reported respectfully to the Chief, Aha-chu, who sat upon the throne.

"There is no need for panic."

"The Ming army won't be able to dance around for much longer."

"I, the Chieftain, have already requested aid from the Great Yuan."

"Grand Marshal Nahachu has already sent troops to assist us," Aha-chu said in a deep voice, showing no concern whatsoever.

"Chieftain."

"The Han are no longer the same Han who were once under the Yuan court."

"In this battle against the Ming army, our clan has already lost over ten thousand brave warriors and several thousand warhorses."

"Furthermore, tens of thousands of our clansmen are being hunted by the Ming army."

"If we truly go head-to-head with the Ming Kingdom, our clan may indeed suffer heavy losses," a Tartar general spoke up.

In these tribes, there was no distinction between civil and military officials; they believed in the rule of the strong and in plunder.

However, some were aware of the current strength of the Great Ming Empire.

"If it were just our clan, we indeed could not contend with the Ming Kingdom."

"But the Great Yuan still exists, with millions of mighty soldiers. Sooner or later, they will charge into the Central Plains again and destroy this Ming Kingdom."

"In this matter, our clan follows the will of the Great Yuan. For the future counter-offensive, Grand Marshal Nahachu has promised our clan a very fertile piece of land, allowing our clan to move into Liaodong."

"A southern migration!"

"Aside from the former direct descendant tribes of the Great Yuan, who else could obtain such an opportunity?" A flash of fervor appeared in Aha-chu's eyes.

Clearly.

He had been completely swayed by Nahachu's conditions.

This was the fundamental reason why he followed the Yuan court's will to become an enemy of the Great Ming.