Chapter 20 Night Attack
Seeing Fang Zikun, Cheng Jiming put his sword back into the scabbard and said with a look of compassion: "This battle was not easy!"

Fang Zikun echoed a few words in a somewhat disgusted tone, and then began to arrange various post-war matters on his own, and ordered the soldiers who were not injured or had minor injuries to assemble.

Cheng Jiming had a bewildered look on his face. He saw Fang Zikun reorganizing the ranks and then registering military merits and distributing rewards with extremely high efficiency. Cheng Jiming couldn't help showing a painful look on his face.

In his opinion, serving in the army and killing bandits was the natural right and proper thing to do. The court's payment of three months' salary was already a great favor. Why should he ask for a reward?

However, the blood on the battlefield was still hot, and Cheng Jiming did not dare to oppose the distribution of the reward money in front of thousands of soldiers. He just silently estimated in his heart how much of the 300,000 taels sent by the Ministry of Revenue was left. He could not let Fang Zikun spend the remaining money recklessly.

However, before Cheng Jiming could figure out how to put the silver into his pocket, he heard Fang Zikun on the stage shouting, "How can we tolerate the Mongolian Tartars killing my compatriots and invading my borders?"

The soldiers below the stage, who had just received their daily wages, were in high spirits and shouted in unison upon hearing this.

"cannot!"

Fang Zikun said without hesitation, "All troops, listen up! Disperse and rest. Set out at midnight tonight to pursue the Tartars!"

Cheng Jiming was horrified when he heard this. He didn't care about the thousands of soldiers' gazes below the stage and hurried to the stage to ask, "Are you crazy? We finally beat back Lin Danhan. What if we anger him and he comes back to attack the city?"

Fang Zikun just glanced at Cheng Jiming and ignored him, and continued to say to the soldiers: "Let's stick to the old rules. Killing a Tartar will earn you one tael of silver. If you want to make money, don't be afraid of death!"

Although the soldiers were surprised, they were not afraid at all because of the reward.

This once again fully proves the truth of the saying that the Ming army was invincible with full pay.

As long as you have silver, I will kill you not only the Tartars but also the heavenly soldiers and generals!
After the soldiers dispersed, they went home to give the silver to their families, rest, or say goodbye.

Although Lin Danhan was a coward, the fighting power of the Mongolian Tatars was second only to the Later Jin, so the soldiers who left the battlefield had already prepared themselves for not being able to come back.

Only then did Fang Zikun have time to turn around and tease Cheng Jiming: "Do you have the courage to follow us to attack Lin Danhan tonight, sir?"

"You...you are crazy!" Cheng Jiming pointed at Fang Zikun and said tremblingly.

Originally, defending Datong was a great achievement. Cheng Jiming didn't understand why Fang Zikun had to go out of the city to attack Ligdan Khan at night.

"I order you not to leave the city, otherwise I will report you to His Majesty!"

At this point, Fang Zikun did not hide anything. He looked at Cheng Jiming with some pity and said, "I will not hide it from you. The night attack... or rather, the pursuit of Ligdan Khan after defending the city, was instructed by His Majesty in his handwritten order. If you have any dissatisfaction, tell His Majesty."

"What? Your Majesty, don't you know how powerful Lin Danhan is? This..."

Before Cheng Jiming finished speaking, Fang Zikun's face turned cold and he said, "You are making false comments about His Majesty. Master Cheng, do you not want to live?"

"And why did I hear that Lord Cheng advocated war at first, and angrily denounced Minister Cui for avoiding war and talking about peace in the court, saying it was a cowardly act? Why is he afraid today?"

After saying that, he looked at Cheng Jiming's blushing cheeks and walked away laughing happily.

…………

It was midnight that night, thirty miles outside the city of Datong.

After attacking Datong, Lin Danhan led his army back to the grassland. However, when he had walked only thirty miles and it was getting dark, he ordered his troops to set up camp by a river.

After the camp was set up, the warriors of the Chahar tribe, who were exhausted from the day, all fell asleep. They had first attacked Datong, then had an inexplicable withdrawal, and then marched another 30 miles to set up camp. It can be said that they were exhausted.

Moreover, because Lin Danhan's idea was to fight to support the war, the army did not carry much food and fodder. Also, due to the Ming Dynasty's scorched earth policy and the failure to capture Datong Prefecture, the Chahar tribe did not receive any supplies at all, and the army had long controlled the supply of rations.

The Tartars were so tired and hungry that they fell on the bed and didn't want to move at all.

However, the Tartars were sleeping soundly when suddenly a noisy sound was heard in the camp, including shouting, running, and even the sound of metal clashing. The Tartars, who were still half asleep, were almost frightened to the point of peeing their pants. They hurriedly put on their clothes and rushed out of the tents.

Soon they were scattered and trampled down by the chaotic crowd, and there was wailing in the camp.

Lin Danhan rushed out of the tent with his armor on, shouting at the soldiers to maintain order and engage in battle, but no one paid any attention to him at that time.

No one knew who was shouting, "The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty has come to lead the army in person!"

"The Ming army has 300,000 troops!"

"We were ambushed!" or something like that.

Lin Danhan was a little frightened at first, thinking that the Ming emperor really dared to lead the army in person. But when he heard about the 300,000-strong army, he knew it was fake. However, the low-level soldiers in the tribe had no way of distinguishing the difference, and became even more confused after hearing this.

It was just chaos for a while, and there was no sign of the Ming army attacking. However, there were many casualties due to trampling and chaos.

The next morning, Lin Danhan stood in the camp, which looked like a ruin, his face livid.

"Khan, the chaos last night probably caused hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries, and hundreds of horses ran away in fear. I am organizing people to go and search for them."

Lin Danhan slapped his chair in anger and said angrily: "These cunning Ming people, this Khan let them go, but they dared to seek death!"

"Pass on my military order, the entire army will attack Datong!"

Bagen said cautiously: "Khan, please think twice. Our army has suffered heavy casualties and has no food supplies. I am afraid that..."

"What are you afraid of!" Lin Danhan was about to get angry when a guard suddenly walked into the tent.

The guard said with a strange look on his face, "Your Highness, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Fang Zikun, wishes to see you."

The Chahar leaders in the tent were all stunned. It was very likely that the night attack last night was the work of this Lieutenant General Datong. Moreover, it was heard that Lin Danhan's son-in-law Guiying was ambushed and killed by this Fang Zikun. He dared to come at this time. Was he looking for death?

Ezhe was furious, and he raised his sword and cursed: "He dares to come, let me kill him with one blow!"

Lin Danhan raised his hand to stop him, saying: "Let him in, and see what he wants to do first, then it won't be too late to kill him!"

"Father Khan!" Ezhe said angrily, but he could only helplessly put the knife back into the sheath.

Soon, a Ming army general strode into the tent led by his guards.

As soon as Fang Zikun entered the central army tent of Khan Lin, he saw a burly man on the front suddenly shouting, "What a courageous Ming dog! After this Khan cuts your body into pieces, I will allow you not to feed it to the dogs!"

(End of this chapter)