Chapter 142 Eliminating the Jiannu Warhorses

"What is there left to discuss?" As soon as Wang Pu's voice fell, Scarface spoke up boisterously, "As long as the Firearm Division has sufficient ammunition, defeating those tens of thousands of Jianzhou Tartars outside the city will be a piece of cake! I'm not boasting, Scarface; a single thousand-man regiment of mine alone could handle them."

"Precisely," Tang Sheng chimed in loudly. "We defeated twenty thousand Jianzhou Tartars fiercely attacking Datong and casually wiped out over forty thousand in the process. What are a mere two or three thousand Tartars outside the city worth? They aren't even enough to between our teeth."

Zhang the Monk was not to be outdone either, shouting, "A thousand-man regiment isn't even necessary! General, if you take my word for it, this subordinate only needs five hundred-man regiments to dismantle the four Tartar encampments outside the city one by one."

Only Zhao Xin remained silent, but judging by the relaxed expression on his face, he clearly did not hold the two or three thousand Tartars outside the city in any regard either.

Wang Pu's brow furrowed tightly in an instant.

It seemed that after three consecutive victories and a thoroughly gratifying triumph, his principal subordinate commanders had become somewhat full of themselves. And it was hardly surprising; a fierce battle had wiped out over forty thousand Tartars in a completely one-sided victory. Anyone in their shoes would inevitably feel proud, arrogant, and dismissive of the two or three thousand Tartars lingering outside the city.

Yet Wang Pu did not think this way.

Because Wang Pu knew that, including the surprise raid on Liaodong, their several victories over the Tartars could all be attributed to winning by clever stratagems rather than brute force!

The attack on Shengjing was entirely a sneak attack; the Tartars were caught completely off guard, and the city was defended merely by the old, weak, sick, and wounded, leaving nothing to brag about.

The battle twenty li east of Shengjing could be considered a hard-fought engagement. Wang Pu had indeed relied on six hundred primitive matchlocks to defeat Man Zhuxili's two thousand Mongol cavalry head-on, but those were Mongol cavalry, after all, not the genuine, elite iron cavalry of the Jianzhou Tartars.

Moreover, that victory was extremely fortuitous. Firstly, Ebilun and Tazhan had split their forces, committing no more than a thousand cavalry to each wave of attack; secondly, the Mongols were far too arrogant. They paid no attention whatsoever to Wang Pu's few hundred personal guards. As a result, several rolling volleys of gunfire rained down a devastating blanket of scattered lead, killing dozens of horsemen and wounding over three hundred. Terrified and shaken, the remaining Mongol cavalry simply turned tail and fled.

Had Ebilun and Tazhan not split their forces and launched a frontal charge with two thousand Mongol cavalry, Wang Pu's six hundred matchlocks—let alone a six-rank firing drill, even a sixty-rank firing drill—would have met an end of total annihilation.

Then came the three battles of Datong.

The first battle was a field engagement outside the city. However, Ajige's eight thousand cavalry were already deeply bogged down in the semi-encirclement of more than fifty thousand roving bandits, which allowed Wang Pu's Firearm Division to cut off the Tartars' retreat and slaughter eight *niru* of elite Tartar troops! Had Ajige's eight thousand cavalry not been entangled by the rebels, Wang Pu's Firearm Division would never have gained the slightest advantage, and might well have faced total annihilation.

The second and third battles were defensive sieges. Wang Pu's Firearm Division occupied favorable terrain, relying on the dense firepower of muskets and the terrifying lethality of Dragon King cannons to repulse the Tartars' assaults twice. The second defense of the city, in particular, killed over ten thousand Tartars and wounded more than thirty thousand.

These wounded Tartars ultimately fell into the hands of the defenders and were slaughtered to the last man.

Wang Pu carefully reviewed his several clashes with the Tartars, only to find that every victory was won either by capitalizing on Tartar carelessness or by seizing advantageous conditions and terrain. Not a single engagement had truly defeated the Tartars in a fair, head-on collision of strength.

Although the art of war did not require defeating the enemy solely through frontal confrontation, these facts nonetheless illustrated a profound truth: if the Tartars ceased to underestimate their enemy, and Wang Pu's Firearm Division lost its favorable conditions and topographical advantages, they might not necessarily prevail against Tartars possessing superior numbers.

While Wang Pu thought this way, the chiliarchs under his command certainly did not.

Feeling that trying to explain this logic to his illiterate chiliarchs would be like playing the lute to a cow, Wang Pu simply dismissed them back to their quarters.

After Scarface and the others departed, Zhen Youcai spoke in a low voice, "General, if this subordinate may speak somewhat discouragingly, Scarface and the others are being overly contemptuous of the enemy. Although our army has defeated the Tartars three times, I believe those were miracles, and miracles do not happen forever—otherwise, they wouldn't be called miracles."

Wang Pu said, "Let's put them aside for now. Tell me your view on how the next battle should be fought."

Instead of answering directly, Zhen Youcai asked, "Does the General merely wish to defeat the Tartars, or do you intend to exterminate them utterly?"

A hint of ferocity surfaced on Wang Pu's face as he murmured, "If it's possible, of course I want to exterminate them to the last man."

Zhen Youcai said, "Then we must first find a way to strip the Tartars of their warhorses. Once the Tartars lose their horses, they are like tigers stripped of their claws and teeth; not only will their offensive power plummet sharply, but when the time comes, they won't even be able to run away if they want to."

Wang Pu chuckled and said, "Youcai, we think alike once again."

***

Leigong Mountain Camp, Li Yan's Headquarters.

Hong Niangzi swept in on a fragrant breeze and said to Li Yan, "Husband, the Tartars are indeed grazing their horses along the banks of the Yu River."

Li Yan said cheerfully, "Judging by the timing, the Tartars' hay must be nearly exhausted."

"What's so good about that?" Hong Niangzi pouted playfully. "The young crops along the Yu River are about to be devoured by the Tartars' horses. What will the common people eat when the time comes?"

Li Yan smiled gently. "My wife, would you like to save the young crops of the Datong commoners from the hands of the Tartars?"

"Of course I would," Hong Niangzi replied.

Li Yan said, "Then we will simply snatch all the Tartars' horses away."

"Ah?" Hong Niangzi widened her beautiful eyes in astonishment and stammered, "Husband, you intend to seize the Tartars' horses?"

"Why not?" Li Yan smiled faintly. "Your husband has been eyeing the Tartars' horses for a very long time."

Hong Niangzi said, "But the Tartars' defenses are extremely tight. Within a radius of a hundred li around the grazing grounds, their scouts and roving cavalry are everywhere. It took me a great deal of effort just to sneak to the banks of the Yu River unnoticed, and on several occasions, I was almost discovered by their scouts. If you mobilize a large army to seize them, you certainly won't be able to keep it from the Tartars' eyes and ears. By the time our army arrives, the grazing Tartars will have long since driven the herds back to their main camp."

"This mountain dweller has his own ingenious plans," Li Yan smiled. "Wife, roughly how many horses are grazing along the banks of the Yu River?"

Hong Niangzi said, "Probably over ten thousand."

"Over ten thousand?" Li Yan nodded thoughtfully. "Wang Pu said there are around thirty thousand Tartars remaining outside Datong city, stationed in four encampments outside the four gates—five thousand each outside the East and West gates, and ten thousand each outside the South and North gates. A few days ago, they dispatched another eight thousand cavalry to plunder provisions... Hmmm, it seems the ones grazing by the Yu River must be the Tartars from the North and East gate camps."

Hong Niangzi blinked her lovely eyes, clearly failing to keep pace with Li Yan's train of thought.

Li Yan pondered for a moment, then suddenly raised his voice and called out, "Huzi!"

"Dage, Huzi has gone to the drill grounds."

A tall, broad-shouldered, and sturdy young man stepped in and answered. This young man was Li Jun, Li Yan's cousin and seventh in the clan hierarchy. Ever since Li Hu was appointed by Li Yan as the commander of the Yan'an Camp, Li Jun had taken over Li Hu's role as the captain of Li Yan's personal guard unit.

"Oh, I almost forgot Huzi is a general now." Li Yan gave a self-deprecating chuckle and instructed Li Jun, "Old Seven, go fetch Jing Maocheng immediately."

Datong, Gunpowder Bureau.

Zhen Youcai said to Wang Pu, "However, General, getting rid of the Tartars' warhorses won't be an easy task."

Wang Pu said, "The sentries on the watchtowers report that the Tartars drive large numbers of warhorses out of their camps every day—leaving at dawn and not returning until dark. Judging by this situation, the hay inside the Tartar camp is likely nearly depleted, leaving them with no choice but to graze their horses nearby."

Zhen Youcai remarked, "That presents an opportunity. If only there were a kind of fodder that, once eaten by warhorses, would instantly give them severe diarrhea and loose bowels."

"Hehe," Wang Pu chuckled softly. "Youcai, you might not know this, but Old Man Li is a descendant of the great Ming medical sage, Li Shizhen."

"What?" Zhen Youcai asked in astonishment. "Old Man Li is a descendant of the famous physician Li Shizhen?"

Wang Pu said, "The Li family's heirloom, the *Compendium of Materia Medica*, is in Old Man Li's hands."

Hearing this, Zhen Youcai's heart stirred, and he said, "You mean... such fodder actually exists?"

Wang Pu nodded. "Old Man Li knows of such fodder, and it grows everywhere here in Datong. A warhorse eating a little of it occasionally does no great harm, but if they consume too much, it triggers severe diarrhea and leaves their limbs completely powerless. The moment a man mounts them, the horse will immediately collapse to the ground!"

Zhen Youcai clapped his hands in delight. "This is simply wonderful."

Wang Pu said, "I have already arranged in secret within Datong Left Guard to have this fodder described by Old Man Li ground into powder and sprinkled over the hay meant for the horses. It should be ready in the next couple of days. Afterward, we will dispatch a strong guard escort to transport it to Datong. The Tartars' purpose in besieging Datong is to cut off our grain and provisions supply, so they will certainly send troops to intercept and plunder it. I reckon the frontier garrison of Datong Left Guard is no match for the Tartars, and this batch of hay will naturally fall into their hands."

"Splendid, utterly splendid," Zhen Youcai clapped and cheered. "This strategy of pulling the firewood from beneath the cauldron is truly seamless. The Tartars won't be able to avoid falling into this trap."

Wang Pu added, "To make the act convincing, I will also have Scarface lead the Firearm Division out of the city to provide reinforcements. Those fellows have become far too conceited; this will be a good opportunity to make them suffer a bit, so they understand the Tartars aren't made of tofu, and that our previous victories came with specific preconditions."

Zhen Youcai could not help exclaiming, "The General is far-sighted. This subordinate is in awe."

Wang Pu smiled. "Very well, now that official business is concluded, let us speak of personal matters while we still have some time."

"Personal matters?" Zhen Youcai asked in surprise. "What personal matters?"

"What else could it be?" Wang Pu laughed. "Your marriage, of course."

"Ahem, about that..." Zhen Youcai's face showed embarrassment as he scratched his head. "With the Tartars yet to be repelled, it doesn't seem quite appropriate for this subordinate to marry..."

"I'm merely giving you a heads-up," Wang Pu said. "The match I've picked out for you is my eldest sister-in-law's personal maidservant, whose good name is Xianglian. I have already seen her myself; her figure and appearance are one in a hundred, hardly inferior to Niangniang. Most importantly, the young lass is gentle, agreeable, and knows how to look after people. Let me tell you, both Lü Liu and Little Seven have had their eyes on this little lass and have brought it up to me several times."

"Heh, hehe..." Zhen Youcai's small eyes had already narrowed into two slits as he rubbed his hands repeatedly. "Heh, hehehe, I truly trouble the General to put your heart into this."

Leigong Mountain, Li Yan's Headquarters.

Jing Maocheng followed Li Jun into the headquarters, cupped his fists, and bowed to Li Yan, greeting, "I pay my respects to the Commander."

"Senior Brother Jing, please sit," Li Yan waved his hand and said warmly, "There are no outsiders here, no need for such formal courtesy."

"Yes."

Jing Maocheng offered his thanks and took a seat to the side.

Li Yan said, "Senior Brother Jing, just moments ago, this commander received word that the Tartars are grazing their horses along the banks of the Yu River every day!"

Jing Maocheng did not yet understand the implication behind Li Yan's words, so he could only offer a soft murmur of acknowledgment in response.

Li Yan smiled faintly and continued, "Senior Brother Jing, do you remember what I said to you and General Li Xuan on the drill grounds?"

"Of course I remember," Jing Maocheng replied without hesitation. "The Commander said that before long, we would possess tens of thousands of warhorses... Oh, Commander, could it be that you mean..."

"Precisely," Li Yan nodded. "This commander is referring to the Tartars' warhorses. Sooner or latter, those horses will belong to our rebel army."

"However..." Jing Maocheng frowned, "How should we go about seizing the Tartars' horses?"

Li Yan said, "It is very simple, summed up in eight words: deploy in advance, and seize them when the opportunity arises!"

"Deploy in advance, and seize them when the opportunity arises?" Jing Maocheng pondered for a moment without finding an answer, and shook his head. "This subordinate does not quite understand."