In the middle of winter, people who have never experienced the severe cold and pain will never be able to understand.

When they set out, only more than 4,000 people were left who actually crossed the more than 100 miles of mountains to this valley.

Nearly a thousand people fell into this undulating world of ice and snow.

The musketeers were not wearing armor. Those who crossed mountains and ridges in the winter had to wear iron armor because they were afraid that they would not die quickly enough.

The linen clothes on Ming Jun were torn to pieces by rocks and branches, and even Wang Xiao was no exception.

Wang Xiao had slid from the hillside twice along the way. If he hadn't had his physical fitness strong enough, he might not have come here.

The most casualties caused by the Ming army were the typhoid fever disease that was extremely cold at night.

Every morning, many people who slept together last night could never get up again and were left on the mountain forever.

After eight days of torture, the Ming army's patience reached its limit. If they could no longer find the enemy, they would vent their anger and fear on their own people.

Fortunately, they finally found it.

The Ming army with red eyes supported each other and walked out of the mountains. They silently looked at the cattle and sheep in the valleys and the endless tents in the distance.

"Drink water and eat dry food."

The unshaven Wang Xiao pulled off the rag strip on his body and greeted the Ming army around him, "Eat the dry food, and don't have to leave it anymore."

In winter, there was no food available in the mountains, and the dry food carried on them became the life of the Ming army.

When I was in the mountains before, I was reluctant to eat them all, even if these dry foods were hard, they could be used as bricks.

But now, there is no need to save any more.

"The Grandson."

Yu Qian, who followed, looked at Wang Xiao slowly calling everyone to eat, and anxiously persuaded him, "What else can I eat at this time? What should I do if they run away!"

Wang Xiao tried hard to tear the dry food as hard as a rock. "There is still snow in this winter, and there are mountains all around. Where do you ask them to run?"

"But they will gather troops to prepare to resist."

Wang Xiao broke up a piece of dry food and handed it to him, "You haven't gone to the battlefield before? I haven't seen those Mongolians even half-old children go up the mountain to fight, so there are no defenders here."

"It's all the elderly, children and women. They can prepare whatever they want."

Wang Xiao’s words were not wrong.

There are many people in this camp, but only hundreds of people can fight, and they are all guards of the chiefs and grandsons.

When they received the news and gathered in a hurry, Wang Xiao was already ready and arranged a long line of scattered soldiers to move forward slowly.

Hundreds of cavalry rushed out of the camp and launched a desperate charge.

After several rounds of platoon shooting, the Mongolian cavalry's counterattack was defeated.

Next, the camp full of old men, children, women, cattle, sheep and horses opened its arms to the strong Ming soldiers who had not eaten meat for several days.

The Ming army rushed into the camp to drive away the crowd and gathered everyone to imprison them. Those who dared to resist were shot and killed directly.

The cattle, sheep and horses were also gathered and ready to be disposed of at any time.

Those captured prince's family and other families are important prisoners of war and will be taken back to Shuntian Prefecture in the future to send them to Taimiao for victory.

"Taisun, the emperor said that all these letters would be burned."

Many documents were found in the tent of the camp, including letters about Zhu Gaoxu's contact with Mahamu. Some of them were even from many years ago.

Mahamu was also uneasy and thoughtful, so you can imagine what he wanted to do after leaving these letters.

"Why burn it?"

Wang Xiao shook the letter in his hand, "These are all evidences of the treason of the Han King. He was punished by his treason when he colluded with the enemy and treason.

"But the emperor said he wanted to burn it."

Wang Xiao stuffed all the letters into Yu Qian's arms, "I didn't say I'll take them out now, it's not too late to take them out when the old man is gone."

No one ran away except for those who ran to Sanxiakou to report the news.

They knew very well that this kind of weather and environment would be dead if they ran out. They would die if they could not see the sun tomorrow, and they would be frozen to death at night. Everyone chose to be captured.

At night, Wang Xiao, who had arranged for the night, returned to his tent, but saw Yu Qian coming over with two jars of wine.

"Why don't you go for a pastime?"

Wang Xiao pointed to the group of tents not far away, with bright fire and laughter.

"Those girls don't take baths all year round, and their bodies are so smelly." Yu Qian threw a jar of wine to Wang Xiao. "I am the same as the grandson, and I am not interested."

After nearly ten days of crossing mountains and ridges, the Ming army, who had experienced hardships, needed to relax. So those undescribable things naturally happened.

Wang Xiao couldn't control such things, nor did he want to. He just didn't participate in it himself.

"Didn't you harass the rescued Han people?"

The Mongolians plundered the border and built grass valleys almost every year, and captured many Han men and women to go back to become slaves.

Life as a slave can only be described in one word, that is, life is worse than death.

The Ming army rescued many Han women in this camp. Seeing their tragic experience, Wang Xiao had no guilt about what Ming army did at this time.

Yu Qian beautifully drank a big mouthful, "With a military judge here, no one disliked his head as redundant."

Wang Xiao opened the mud seal on the wine jar, "You can enjoy yourself tonight, but you will have a good war tomorrow. I will leave you a thousand people to guard the camp. If I am defeated, you will set a torch here immediately to burn everything."

"All burnt?"

"Yes." Wang Xiao nodded slowly, "No grass is allowed to stay!"

At noon the next day, Mongolian reinforcements retreated from the Three Gorges entrance arrived at the entrance of the valley.

The Ming army occupied the favorable terrain on the hillsides on both sides, and the situation turned into their uphill attacking the Ming army's defense. When the offense and defense were compared, they changed sides when they changed their sides.

Faced with the dense bomb rains of the Ming army, the Mongols, who learned that the camp was lost and their morale were almost unintentional to fight.

The repeated charges were exchanged for corpses all over the ground. If it weren't for the lack of supplies, they would have fled in all directions.

Mahamu used all the tricks he could use.

Night attacks, sneak attacks on makeup, strong attacks, lure enemies, and even imitate Wang Xiao to walk around from a distance.

But no matter what tricks he used, Wang Xiao was unmoved and just stood firm at the entrance and exit of the valley.

Even though the Mongols who were walking around rushed towards the base camp, the fire was lit there, Wang Xiao did not waver at all, and was nailed here like a nail.

Three days later, the Ming army, who had already exhausted the lead bullets, installed gun stabs on the barrel and fought with the Mongolians in close combat. Sometimes they even carried the Mongolians who rushed up and rolled down from the mountain.

The intensity of the battle was no less than that of the previous Ming army's attack on Sanxiakou.

By the fifth day of the fight, less than a thousand people could move around Wang Xiao.

They still kept stones, throwing wood, and even throwing heavy snowballs all the way down to block the valley.

Even so, Wang Xiao did not mobilize the people behind him to guard the camp.

With Wang Xiao's training and funding, the quality of the sergeant in Shenji Camp is close to that of the modern army. The degree of casualties and the courage to fight to the death are the best in the world.

Finally, on the afternoon of the sixth day, Wang Xiao, who was standing on the hillside holding a sabre full of gaps, saw the big red Ming army flag fluttering in the distance.

The Ming army who rushed over from the Three Gorges mouth finally arrived.

The blocked Mongolians completely collapsed at this moment.

A small number of people entered the mountains on both sides and fled for the death, while most of them sat directly on the ground waiting to surrender.

In the end, only Mahamu and more than a thousand personal soldiers around him were still resisting.

Wang Xiao leaned on his sword with his hands, silently watched the cavalry of the 3,000 battalions whizzing past his feet, and rushed straight to Mahamu.

Surrounded by many personal soldiers was King Zhu Gaoxu, who was covered in armor.

As if he felt Wang Xiao's gaze, Zhu Gaoxu narrowed his eyes and turned to look at the half-mountain slope on one side.

After confronting Wang Xiao's sight, Zhu Gaoxu slowly raised his hand and made a throat-cutting action.

He could no longer bear it.

Wang Xiao's sudden showdown forced Zhu Gaoxu into a dead end. In order to think about the throne that he had been thinking about for decades, he made up his last determination.

People in the world say that Zhu Gaoxu looks very much like Zhu Di, but this is not about face, but about personality.

Like Zhu Di, when facing difficulties, Zhu Gaoxu was not thinking about how to protect himself, but to give it a try.

Zhu Gaoxu was determined to kill Mahamu, the waste, first, and then launch a mutiny and ascend the throne directly in front of the formation.

When I was imprisoned, I killed my nephew and led the hundreds of thousands of the most elite troops of the Ming Dynasty back to the pass to seize his own world.

This is Zhu Gaoxu's character. Like Zhu Di, he either doesn't do it or does it outright!

Wang Xiao looked at him silently without saying a word.

When his eyes flew over a personal guard beside Zhu Gaoxu, Wang Xiao nodded slowly without hesitation.

There was one thing that even Yu Qian, who was Wang Xiao’s confidant, didn’t know. Only Xu Bin, who was in charge of Wang Xiao’s money, knew about it. Long before sending troops, Wang Xiao had a secret expenditure of up to 80,000 taels of silver.

This money was used by Wang Xiao to buy a confidant guard beside Zhu Gaoxu.
To be continued...