Ming Army Movements!

Just one slash.

The Tartar soldier who charged out was beheaded in an instant.

"Killed a Tartar infantryman. Picked up 20 points of Endurance."

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

His saber danced.

Every slash carried the force of a man smashing his cauldrons and sinking his boats, a blade no ordinary person could withstand.

In an instant, several more Tartar soldiers died at Zhu Ying's hands.

"Killed a Tartar infantryman. Picked up 20 points of Strength."

"Killed a Tartar infantryman. Picked up 20 points of Speed..."

Several more notifications sounded.

His attributes rose.

As Zhu Ying made his move, the cavalry of the First Thousand-Household Battalion also sprang into action.

Without mercy, they charged at the Tartar soldiers who had taken up their blades to fight back.

Several hundred cavalrymen moved as one, encircling and annihilating them.

Almost in the blink of an eye, the hundred-odd Tartar soldiers had all been slaughtered.

But the Tartar civilians remained surrounded by the cavalry, staring at the Ming Dynasty riders around them with fear and hatred.

"Thousand-Household Commander."

"How should these people be dealt with?"

Zhang Wu pointed at the thousand or so Tartars.

"If Ming Dynasty commoners fell into these Tartars' hands, what would they do?" Zhu Ying turned his head and asked Zhang Wu instead.

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

Zhang Wu answered without hesitation.

As a border soldier of the northern frontier, Zhang Wu naturally knew this all too well.

Because they bordered the Northern Yuan, whenever the Northern Yuan invaded, massacres that wiped out villages and clans were a common occurrence in many places.

War had always been exceptionally cruel.

Once they broke through, there would be no order of any kind, for the Tartars of the northern frontier revered slaughter—the most primitive kind of slaughter—and possessed none of the Han people's civilizing teachings.

As one reborn, Zhu Ying knew clearly how the Tartars of later generations would treat Han commoners: Three Days of Yangzhou, the Three Massacres of Jiading, "Keep hair, not head," "Keep head, not hair"—all these would happen in later generations, and countless Han commoners would be slaughtered.

"Since that is so,"

"then we'll follow the rules of their north."

Zhu Ying turned around and said coldly, "Those taller than a cart wheel, behead them."

There were too many of them. The Ming Dynasty did not have enough military provisions to feed them, nor enough reserve troops to guard them.

And taking them along would only be a burden.

Since that was the case, their able-bodied strength had to be wiped out. That was war.

Nothing else mattered.

"We obey the Thousand-Household Commander's order."

Zhang Wu and Fan Qing accepted the order at once.

With a wave of his hand, the cavalrymen drew their blades and swung down from their horses.

Using the cart wheels as the measure.

At once, wails and screams filled the place.

And yet, Zhu Ying felt no great stir within himself.

If the situation were reversed, they would treat Ming Dynasty commoners with even greater cruelty, leaving no survivors.

"War..."

Zhu Ying watched the scene coldly, a sense of melancholy rising in his heart.

"This era begins with the age of the Grand Ming Empire, yet in the future, the Tatars will seize the Central Plains and enslave the Han Chinese."

"But since I, Zhu Ying, am here..."

"I will absolutely not let any of this happen."

"If that day truly comes in the future, I will live on forever. I will also possess the ability to build a force powerful enough to slaughter the Tatars, establish a nation, and carve out a king's dominion and hegemonic glory."

"The so-called massacres of later generations, those Han traitors—I will never allow them to appear again."

"Since I'm here, I have to do something." Zhu Ying thought to himself.

These past days, after the battle between the border troops and the Tatars, the Tatars had put up little resistance along the frontier. They were retreating rapidly, falling back toward larger tribes.

Bu Wan had directly issued an order: the Grand Ming Empire was to pursue with all its strength. Kill any Tatars they encountered.

After taking command of the First Cavalry Thousand-Household Battalion, Zhu Ying followed the orders sent down from above and led the Cavalry Battalion north. Along the way, they had slain quite a few routed Tatar soldiers, as well as many Tatar young and able-bodied men.

"Thousand-Household Commander."

"All Tatars taller than a cart wheel have been beheaded."

Zhang Wu rode over to report.

"Seize all their food, then continue north to join the main army."

"This is how we will treat these Tatars from now on."

"Kill their young and able-bodied, cut off their provisions."

"If they can escape alive back to their tribes, then that is their good fortune. What they consume will still be Tatar food." Zhu Ying instructed.

"This subordinate accepts the order."

Zhang Wu answered respectfully.

"The Tatar frontier has collapsed. They have surely already requested aid from the Yuan Court."

"And given the strength of these Jianzhou Tatars, they have far more than ten thousand troops. They must be gathering their forces as well, along with troops from the Northern Yuan."

"The real hard battle is about to arrive."

"I wonder where the court's main army has reached." Zhu Ying thought to himself.

Though the Daning Border Army had now charged into the northern frontier and dealt the Tatars a heavy blow, sending them scattering in flight, these were ultimately only the Tatar frontier tribes. To truly force the Tatars into submission, one would have to exterminate their people—but that was exceedingly difficult to accomplish.

The hardest thing to achieve in the northern frontier was the extermination of a people. The land was vast, their movements impossible to predict. They could flee—flee madly—then build up their strength and return.

This was one reason why every dynasty of the Central Plains had to face the threat from the northern frontier.

Jianzhou Tatar tribal court!

Across this vast northern frontier, "Tatars" was in fact the collective name the Han Chinese of the Grand Ming Empire used for the foreign peoples of the northern frontier.

The Jianzhou Tatars were not a single tribe alone, but divided into three branches.

It was simply that the Jianzhou Tatars were the strongest branch, while the other two remained farther north.

"Tribal Chief."

"The Ming Army has now launched a massive invasion into our tribal lands. Many tribesmen have been slaughtered by the Ming Army."

"The Ming Army is now nearing the Blue Banner Tribe. Though troops are stationed there, the Ming Army seems to have considerable numbers. I fear they will not be able to hold them back."

"Agunu of the Blue Banner Tribe requests that the chief swiftly dispatch reinforcements."

A Tatar general respectfully reported to Aha Chu, the chief seated upon the throne.

"No need to panic."

"The Ming Army will not be able to jump about for much longer."

"This chief has already requested aid from the Great Yuan."

"Grand Commandant Naha Chu has already sent troops to reinforce us." Aha Chu said gravely, utterly unconcerned.

"Tribal Chief."

"The Han Chinese are no longer the Han Chinese who once lived beneath the Yuan Court."

"In this battle against the Ming Army, our tribe has already lost more than ten thousand brave sons skilled in war, as well as several thousand warhorses."

"Moreover, more than ten thousand tribesmen have been hunted down by the Ming Army."

"If we truly continue to meet the Ming Kingdom head-on, our tribe may indeed suffer devastating losses." A Tatar general spoke up.

Within this tribe, there was no distinction between civil and military officials. What they believed in was that the strong were revered, and plunder was everything.

Yet there were also those who understood the Grand Ming Empire's current strength.

"If it were only our tribe, then indeed, we would be unable to contend with the Ming Kingdom."

"But Great Yuan still stands, and it still has a million valiant troops. Sooner or later, they will once again charge into the Central Plains and destroy the Ming Kingdom."

"This time, our tribe is following Great Yuan's decree. When the counterattack comes in the future, Grand Commandant Naha Chu has already promised our tribe an extremely fertile stretch of land, allowing us to enter Liaodong as well."

"Migration south..."

"Other than the many direct-line tribes of Great Yuan from back then, who could receive such an opportunity?" A burning glint surfaced in Aha Chu's eyes.

Clearly.

He had already been completely swayed by Naha Chu's terms.

This was also the fundamental reason he had followed the Yuan Court's decree and become enemies with the Ming Dynasty.

PS: Please vote with recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, and keep reading. My thanks.