latelenovela Chapter 604 Turnaround
Chapter 604 Turnaround
Liu Ye returned to Tianjin, feeling extremely depressed. He had felt completely at ease intercepting Abatai in Shandong, but in Tianjin, he felt constrained and everything went wrong. Lin San was still nowhere to be found in Beijing, and the Ministry of War's transfer order was nowhere in sight. Without the order, persuading nearby allied forces to join the battle became an impossible task. Even the nearby grain depot was inaccessible due to the evasion of the military commissioner, Panda.
Bad news always comes in waves. Xu Yifan reported: "Our scouts have reported that the Tartars have reached the Cangzhou area and are collecting grain everywhere. They are expected to enter the Tianjin area tomorrow."
"So, we only have one day left?" Liu Ye sighed and looked north. "If things don't go as planned, let's intercept Abatai on our own. Even if we can't annihilate this force, we should at least tear off a few pieces so that the Tartars will run away from our Qionghai Army in the future."
In such a short time, he had already given up hope for Lin San's trip to the capital. Without orders from the Ministry of War, Tianjin General Wang Hong was unwilling to fight, and Baoding General Liu Guozhu, far away in Bazhou, might not fight either. It seemed that the Qionghai Army would have to fight the Tartars alone without any outside support. In infantry against cavalry, the initiative always remained in Abatai's hands.
The precious day has come to an end, and the sky is slowly darkening.
As Liu Ye was pondering how to deal with the current situation in the camp, a commotion arose outside the door. Su Hongtu rushed in, covered in sweat, and excitedly shouted, "General, General Liu of Baoding is willing to fight. He will send all five thousand of his cavalry."
Liu Ye jumped to his feet, asking incredulously, "Really?"
“Absolutely true!” Su Hongtu exclaimed excitedly. “General Liu said that as long as it’s about killing Tartars, he’s willing to come without paying any money. However, the cavalry will depart early tomorrow morning and arrive in Tianjin in the afternoon. They won’t be able to bring much food, so we’ll have to provide them with provisions.”
"The supplies are no problem! Send our supplies first, and if we need more, we'll ask the military affairs office for more." Liu Ye clenched his fist and paced back and forth happily. "Great! With these 5,000 more cavalry, the chances of catching Abatai will be much greater."
Su Hongtu wiped the sweat from his face and said, "General Liu is a straightforward man. When he heard that we had come all the way from Guangdong to Tianjin to fight the Tartars, he was full of praise and said that he was willing to do his part in fighting the Tartars. He didn't mention any conditions and didn't even ask for the Ministry of War's transfer order. If it weren't for the fact that the cavalry were traveling light and had to bring their own food and fodder, we would have been able to achieve our goal."
Liu Ye exclaimed, "The Ming Dynasty was rotten to the core everywhere, but it still had no shortage of soldiers with guts! This General Liu is a real man, I'll remember him."
Now that reinforcements have arrived, the original battle plan must be revised.
In the brightly lit barracks, everyone sat in a circle. Yan Guang suggested, "Wang Hong of Jinghai is unwilling to fight, while Liu Guozhu of Bazhou is willing to send troops. Our original triangular formation is incomplete, so we can't achieve a complete encirclement. How about this: we will use our three regiments of the Qionghai Army as the main force to fight on the front, while Liu Guozhu's five thousand cavalry will wait on the flanks for an opportunity to strike. When the Tartars try to escape, we will move in and entangle them."
Xu Yifan agreed with the plan: "As long as the five thousand cavalry can hold off the Tartars, we can keep up the pace, advance step by step, and gradually wear down their forces. Even if we can't kill Abatai in the end, we can basically take down this force, which will be a heavy blow to the Tartars."
“Alright, let’s do it this way!” Liu Ye decided. “Tomorrow we will take the initiative to fight and try to wear down the Tartars. It will take Liu Guozhu’s cavalry a whole day to reach Tianjin. If we hold out a little longer, they can rest a little longer and recover some strength so that they will have the energy to fight the Tartars.”
The next morning, the entire Qionghai Army set out, leaving Tianjin City and gathering near the official road, blocking the only route from Cangzhou to the capital.
Several hours later, the scouts sent out returned in waves:
"Report! The Tartars have already left Cangzhou territory."
"Report! Tartar scouts have entered Tianjin."
"Report! The Tartar vanguard is only a hundred li from Tianjin. Their scouts have begun to drive our men away, and we can no longer get close to the Tartar army."
……
Liu Ye sighed, "Without enough cavalry, we don't even have enough qualified scouts. We can't implement battlefield cover, and we can only let the Tartars cut off our eyes and ears."
Liang Xiaoming casually remarked, "If our territory bordered the Mongols, it would be much easier to acquire warhorses, and cavalry wouldn't be a problem."
"Border?" Liu Ye's heart stirred. Qiongzhou Prefecture was isolated at sea, and it was impossible for it to border Mongolia. Its influence in Shandong had slowly penetrated there, but it was still thousands of miles away from the northern grasslands. However, if it could take control of Beijing and mobilize resources from all over the country, including the border towns bordering Mongolia, then everything would be fine.
However, this possibility is too far off, and at least not mature at the moment. Liu Ye shook his head and focused his energy back on the upcoming battle.
After the Later Jin army drove away the scouts from the Qionghai Navy, news from the front lines almost ceased, and the only way to estimate the enemy's arrival time in Tianjin was based on experience.
Banners fluttered, guns and cannons stood ready, and the army stood in formation. Liu Ye and his men stood in the center of the army, waiting for their old rival to arrive.
"They're here! They're here!" The crowd stirred.
Some dark dots appeared on the horizon, rapidly approaching. Liu Ye raised his binoculars for a closer look and saw that they were cavalrymen dressed in silver-white armor, likely the Bayara White Armor Soldiers responsible for battlefield reconnaissance and cover.
Upon spotting the large army ahead, the white-armored soldiers halted their advance and dispersed to both sides, seemingly to check for any other ambushes.
After a while, many blue flags with golden dragons appeared on the horizon, followed by a dense mass of cavalry. The two armies that had fought a fierce battle in Shandong had met again.
Liu Ye involuntarily looked westward, wondering when Liu Guozhu's 5,000 cavalry, the general of Baoding, would arrive and join the battle. They were the key to successfully intercepting Abatai.
In the midst of the Later Jin army, Abatai rode his horse to the front of the battle line, gazing at the distant army, where the large "Qiong" banner was faintly visible. He was filled with doubt and surprise, "Aren't these all infantry? How could they get ahead of us? Are they all heavenly soldiers who can fly?"
Gartu, whose arms were wrapped in white cloth, said from the side, "Your Highness, they are soldiers from Guangdong, which is far from Shandong and even further from Tianjin. It's impossible for them to have traveled such a long distance by land to fight in the north. I've heard that Guangdong is a coastal place; could they have traveled by boat?"