I founded a heavy industry group in the late Ming Dynasty.

Chapter 95: Everyone is trying to survive.

Chapter 96: Everyone is trying to survive.

Chapter 095 Everyone's Trying to Live Bomubogor rode his warhorse to the front of the six thousand elite troops of the Solon tribe, shouting and cheering to boost morale. At this moment, Baldachi, the leader of the Jingqili clan, came to Bomubogor's side and lowered his voice, saying, "Are you really going to fight Lord Chen?"

"What else can we do if we don't fight?"

Bomubogor smiled faintly, "If we don't show the Ming people the power of the Solons, they won't lend us grain. I'm not confident we can attack the city, but I'm 70-80% confident we can break through the camp of a mere two thousand men!"

Unlike Bomubogor, Baldachi witnessed the Jurchens, under Nurhaci's leadership, grow from a small tribe of a few hundred people into the Jin Dynasty, which now controls more than two thousand miles north to south and thousands of miles east to west.

Bomubogor also dreamed of establishing a state belonging to the Solon tribe and wanted to become the first Khan of the Solon Khanate, but Baldazi was a subservient follower of the current regime.

In simple terms, the principle of "serving the great" is a diplomatic philosophy of Confucianism, first appearing in the Mencius, Book of Liang Hui Wang, where King Xuan of Qi asked, "Is there a proper way to make relations with neighboring states?"

Mencius replied, “Yes. Only the benevolent are capable of serving the small with the great; therefore, Tang served Ge, and King Wen served Kunyi. Only the wise are capable of serving the great with the small; therefore, King Da served Xunyu, and Goujian served Wu. Those who serve the small with the great are those who delight in Heaven; those who serve the great with the small are those who fear Heaven. Those who delight in Heaven preserve the world; those who fear Heaven preserve their country. The Book of Poetry says: ‘Fearing the majesty of Heaven, one preserves oneself in due time.’”

The concept of "serving the powerful" originated in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Small states like Zheng and Lu, which bordered powerful states, had no choice but to serve the stronger ones to preserve their own nation. Disobeying these policies often led to national demise. The term "serving the powerful" appears multiple times in Confucian classics. For example, the *Zhou Li* (Rites of Zhou), in the section on the *Xia Guan* (Summer Official) and the *Sima* (Minister of War), states: "Those of small state serve those of large state to maintain harmony among the states." Zheng Xuan's commentary explains: "To serve means to be close. It means that large states should be close to small states, and small states should serve large states, thus achieving harmony."

Baldazi not only understood Chinese, but also strongly agreed with this diplomatic philosophy. He was well aware that the Jingqili clan was one of the larger clans in the Solon Alliance, but the problem was that this "larger" only meant that they had five or six thousand cavalrymen, or twenty or thirty thousand men.

He was well aware that with his strength, in the Ming Dynasty, he could barely be considered the size of a town. Bomubogor's ideas were empty and unrealistic. If it were two thousand years ago, when Nurhaci had not yet unified the Jurchen tribes, Bomubogor could have taken his place.

He no longer has a chance. The Jurchens now have tens of thousands of troops and can gather at least 100,000 cavalry at once. They are not people they can mess with. Of course, the Ming Dynasty is even stronger. Nurhaci has won more battles than he has lost, and he has not shaken the Ming Dynasty's position.

In fact, until Li Zicheng entered Beijing, the Jurchens were still suffering outside the Great Wall. Although they bypassed Shanhaiguan and attacked into the interior seven times during the reign of Huang Taiji, the problem was that although the Ming Dynasty suffered heavy losses in these seven attacks, it was not severely weakened. The Ming Dynasty was simply too large.

Although Baldachi disagreed with Bomubogor's ideology, there were quite a few people in the Solon tribe who supported Bomubogor. Tribal leaders such as Aola, Merdile, Bulamu, Tukdong, and Nahata all supported Bomubogor, so he was just a nobody with little influence.

Seeing that Bomubogor's attitude was so firm, he did not try to persuade him any further, because he knew that it would be useless to try.

Bomubogor looked at his younger brother Gelinga and said, "Gelinga, take your men and go. Finish this battle within half an hour."

Ge Linghe was also a fierce general of the Solon tribe. He shot Amin twice with arrows and almost beheaded him. Keep in mind that he only led less than 6,000 men and chased Amin, the banner chief of the Bordered Blue Banner, and the elite of the Bordered Blue Banner for more than 130 li, almost exhausting Amin to death.

"Don't worry, it won't take half an hour!"

Ge Ling'a rode out into battle, pointing his heavy sword. His more than 6,000 cavalrymen, divided into more than 1,000 heavy cavalry and 5,000 light cavalry, charged out in response, howling loudly as they rushed toward the Shahe New Army.

The cavalry of the Solon tribe were not well equipped originally, but ever since Bomubogor took advantage of Daishan's fierce attack on Chen Ying's troops to launch a surprise attack on Daishan's Plain Red Banner, chasing Daishan's four right-wing banners into a rout, they picked up a lot of equipment, and now the main force of the Solon tribe has also been upgraded from muskets to cannons.

At first, it was a slow jog, and when it got close to three hundred steps, it gradually accelerated, getting faster and faster, and the kinetic energy became stronger and stronger. In the end, it was like lightning, with countless hooves rising high and then falling heavily, making a thunderous sound that made people turn pale.

On the plains, cavalry is so terrifying that even a mere six thousand riders can create the momentum of a massive army charging forward, which is chilling.

If any other Ming army were faced with the imposing force of a 6,000-strong cavalry charge, they would either collapse instantly or be terrified. The problem is, these were soldiers of the Shahe New Army.

When the soldiers of the Shahe New Army were on the Sanjiang Plain, they had personally witnessed the charge of the four elite cavalrymen of the Jurchen Right Banner. In comparison, the charge of six thousand cavalrymen was far less impressive than the charge of the four Jurchen Right Banners.

More importantly, these soldiers had obtained the land they wanted. Although Chen Ying had only allocated some wasteland near their Shuangchengwei, it was close to the lower reaches of the Suifen River, making irrigation convenient, and moreover, the land was fertile black soil.

By the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, the garrison system had collapsed, and most soldiers did not own their own land. Although the Liaodong Army solved the problem of manpower by recruiting soldiers, these soldiers were essentially just mercenaries.

Chen Ying introduced a system of rewarding soldiers with land based on their military merits, which essentially provided soldiers with the motivation to fight for themselves. Receiving their pay was seen as a way to get by, with soldiers simply trying to get by, and even desertion occurred.

However, the incentive of receiving real land for military merit transcended social class. Soldiers of the Shahe New Army, who came from military households and peasant backgrounds, had a natural desire for land, which could be transformed into a fighting spirit on the battlefield.

The commander of this battle was Qin Siming, the commander of the Shuangchengwei Garrison. Chen Ying entrusted this battle to Qin Siming to establish his authority, so that the various tribes of Haixi and the Solon tribe would get to know this commander of Shuangchengwei.

"fire!"

Just as the Solon cavalry entered within three hundred paces, Qin Siming ordered the cannons to fire. He also wanted to seize the initiative in the first battle. Chen probably wanted to persuade the Solon tribe to surrender and inflict heavy casualties on them, which would likely lead to more friction in the future.

Of course, Qin Siming actually had a Han Chinese mindset and understood that the Solon tribe and the Jurchens had the same way of thinking. They only submitted to those who were stronger than them. You should know that in history, when Huang Taiji conquered the Solon tribe, he killed a lot of Solon people. In this battle, the Solon tribe lost more than a third of its population.

However, they successfully defeated the Solon tribe, which was subsequently reorganized into ninety-seven Niru, becoming the strongest fighting force of the Jurchens, also known as the Solon Death Soldiers. When encountering battles that were too difficult to overcome, the Solon Death Soldiers would be sent into battle.

"Boom boom boom—"

A barrage of cannonballs rained down on the attacking Solon cavalry, carving bloody trails in their wake. The closest shell landed less than ten meters from Ge Ling'a, splattering blood all over his face. But he remained unmoved, raising his arm and shouting, "Crush the Ming army!"

Ge Ling'a wanted to yell "Ming dogs!" but the words caught in his throat. He noticed that the Ming army's artillery showed no signs of stopping, and a second volley of shells came hurtling in, its force more than ten times more ferocious than the first salvo.

"Boom boom boom boom boom—"

As the shells landed, Solon soldiers were tossed high into the air like leaves, their limbs and broken arms raining down on the survivors with a thud.

The artillery was still firing. The Solon soldiers who had managed to dodge two rounds of shelling had rushed to within eighty paces of the Shahe New Army's lines. More than 1,500 artillerymen opened fire in succession.

One-inch lead bullets easily pierced the armor of the Solon soldiers, tearing their bodies apart and causing their internal organs and filthy blood to gush out like a mudslide from those horrific wounds.

Under the combined attack of cannons and muskets, the Solon heavy cavalry were killed or wounded in large numbers before they could even get close to the Shahe New Army or display their swordsmanship. It was like a slaughterhouse.

Bomubogor saw it all clearly. When he saw that the Ming army's artillery had killed or wounded a large number of them with just one volley, the Solon leaders were horrified.

"How could the Ming army be so powerful?"

"Didn't the Jurchens say that killing Ming soldiers was like child's play?"

Bardazzi cried out, "Retreat immediately! Stop fighting!"

Bomubogor did not heed Baldazi's advice. He knew very well that the best way to deal with the Ming army's well-prepared defenses was to charge forward despite the casualties and engage in close combat with the Ming army. They still had a sliver of a chance to win. If they retreated now, they would be accepting defeat and pledging allegiance to the Ming army and Chen Boying from then on.

This is the last thing he wanted to see.

Chen Ying watched from the rear. Zhou Bin and Wang Gui beside him breathed a sigh of relief as they saw the more than two thousand soldiers of the Shahe New Army fighting so well. Of course, this was not the war Chen Ying had imagined. The war scene he most wanted to see was hundreds or thousands of rocket launchers flying towards the enemy in just a dozen breaths, which could blow the enemy to pieces.

Of course, rocket launchers alone are not enough; they also need armored vehicles, tanks, and railway artillery. With railways as their artery, the area within dozens of miles of the railway is their restricted zone.

Chen Ying didn't want to play any strategic or tactical games; he simply launched a crushing barrage of fire. Just then, over 1,500 soldiers of the Shahe New Army opened fire from their four artillery corps in succession. Almost all of the over 1,000 Solon heavy cavalrymen were killed or wounded. However, their casualties were not without effect; at least they successfully advanced to the front of the Shahe New Army's camp.

Bomubogor was extremely nervous. He clenched his fists and screamed inwardly, "Charge in! Charge in!"

Qin Siming was also very nervous. These Solon cavalrymen were indeed more well-trained and experienced in battle than the Jurchens. In particular, they had discovered the pattern of artillery bombardment during their charge. Their formation was very dispersed, which reduced the coverage of the artillery.

At the same time, they also discovered that the Ming soldiers' muskets did not directly shoot the warhorses beneath them, so they decisively gave up riding on the back of the horses, instead holding onto the reins with one hand, running forward almost touching the horses, and using the warhorses as cover.

The artillery of the Shahe New Army was good enough that its shells could penetrate the bodies of warhorses, but the firearms did not have that power. This method greatly reduced casualties, and they successfully stormed the Shahe New Army's camp with less than 25% casualties.

Bomubogor finally breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he successfully stormed into the Shahe New Army camp, he would win this battle. However, the problem was that, with the enemy so close, the Shahe New Army soldiers did not panic. They were afraid of death, but they were even more afraid of poverty.

For every enemy beheaded, that's ten acres of land. Even if they die in battle, Chen Ying will provide their families with land as compensation. Especially now that many of them have ten or even dozens of acres of land, they can move their families to Shuangchengwei in the future and start cultivating the land next year, so they will never have to worry about going hungry again.

More importantly, this time they are not fighting for Chen Ying, nor for the Ming Dynasty, but for themselves. They are also very clear that only by defeating these Solon cavalry can they prevent the Haixi Jurchen, the Wild Jurchen, and the Solon people from eyeing their land.

At this moment, the soldiers of the Shahe New Army did not use their left-handed pistols to defend themselves at close range as Chen Ying had predicted. Instead, they threw down their firearms and hurled grenades into the Solon troops' ranks.

The Solon cavalry were terrified by the Ming soldiers' use of such small hammers. To kill or injure them, they would need much larger hammers.

Just as they were wondering what was going on, grenades exploded at their feet. And it wasn't just one or two grenades, but thousands or even tens of thousands of them.

The soldiers of the Shahe New Army were well aware of the power of grenades. In just a few breaths, they quickly threw out a box of grenades, and more than 12,000 grenades caused a series of explosions in the Soren troops' ranks.

The shockwave from the explosion was not as simple as one plus one equals two; it was multiplied. The initial velocity of granular black powder far exceeded that of powdered black powder. One grenade after another exploded in the Soren army, sending both the living and the dead who could not escape into the air.

Rao Soren's soldiers were all veterans who had survived countless battles. They were not only cruel to the enemy, but also extremely cruel to themselves. Their ability to withstand casualties was even more ruthless than that of the Jurchens. They could even continue fighting when more than two-thirds of their troops had been killed.

It can be said that the elite troops of the Solon tribe were fully capable of being used as death-defying soldiers, which is why the Qing army called the Solon tribe the Solon Death Soldiers.

However, even these battle-hardened veterans were horrified when they saw the hellish explosion scene.

The Solon soldiers under Ge Ling'a roared, "This is sorcery! The Ming army knows sorcery—"

"Sorcery my foot!"

Ge Ling'a scoffed, "Isn't it just a slightly more powerful 'Ten Thousand Enemy' weapon? Keep attacking! As long as we break through, we'll win, and we'll have enough food for the winter. Your wives and children won't starve!"

These Solon soldiers understood that what Ge Ling'a said made sense. Their Solon tribe was already at its wits' end. Only by defeating the Ming army and receiving food from them could they survive. If they failed, they would have no future. In fact, the Solon tribe also had other tribes that had already submitted to the Jurchens.

They became slaves of the Jurchens, but the problem was that these people did not fare well. Most of the tribes that surrendered to the Jurchens had already died. They did not want to submit to Chen Boying because, in their view, Chen Boying was no different from the Jurchens and would use them as cannon fodder. The only difference between them was whether they died a few days earlier or later.

Of the 6,000 men of the Solon tribe, less than 3,000 remain, including many wounded. In terms of casualty ratio, their losses have now exceeded half. This situation is extremely rare in feudal armies, but not impossible. During the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, Zai Min's Qi Huo Army was able to fight to the very end, as were Xiang Yu's 8,000 troops and Lu Xiangshan's Tianxiong Army in the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, these armies were exceptions. Chen Ying was also somewhat puzzled. He had previously promised the Solon tribe that as long as they submitted to him, he would provide them with food and salt. However, these Solon soldiers were simply stubborn.

As the saying goes, "Don't advise others to be kind if you haven't experienced their suffering."

Chen Ying was unaware that some members of the Solon tribe had surrendered to the Jurchens in order to survive and become their soldiers. Unfortunately, the Jurchens did not treat them as human beings, but as cheap cannon fodder. In fact, their treatment was even worse than that of the Mongols. Of the six or seven thousand tribes that surrendered to the Jurchens, less than five hundred remain, having already been consumed by the Jurchens.

They dared not, even if there was only a sliver of a chance of victory, they would still try.

They are all trying their best to live.

P.S.: More to come later. Keep writing! I'm aiming for 10,000 words today, please vote for me!

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