stubborn thief

The Nine Ox Khan's tent rushed northward in the army formation.

But Huang Taiji was still a step too late.

As soon as the Khan's tent passed the army formation of the Plain White Banner, he saw the guards in white armor reining in their horses in front.

"Report to the Holy Khan! The Zhenglan Banner has collapsed, and the enemy cavalry has already attacked the Bordered White Formation!"

The Khan's tent stopped suddenly. The huge traction force of the Nine Oxen's sudden turn jammed the iron tenon of the axle, threw off the huge wooden wheel, and overturned the cart in the army formation.

Emperor Chongde rushed out of the overturned tent, not caring about tidying up his appearance. He covered his injured arm and barked out military orders one after another.

"Say, all flags south of Zhengbai and Zhenghong stop coming to support, set up three lines of defense with gaps in the four directions of each flag, and set up a second line of defense to support the front army."

"The Mongolian flags under the command of Han army commanders Tianyou, Tianzhu, Wuzhen Chaoha and Yuetuo also retreated behind the defense line to reorganize their camps."

"Soldiers are not allowed to leave their flags and march recklessly. Those who violate this rule will be beheaded and their flag masters will be punished!"

Huang Taiji panicked.

At this moment, he felt the fear of the long-dead Lindan Khan when he was dominated by the Later Jin Dynasty.

It’s just that Liu Chengzong brought less anger and a bigger shadow.

The Later Jin did not fight a battle with Chahar, but relied on political means to destroy the unity of Chahar's vassal tribes. By the time the Later Jin sent troops, Chahar had been dismantled and only the Khanate's headquarters remained.

Liu Chengzong's deterrence against Huang Taiji had nothing to do with politics. It came entirely from the use of force. He was just a pure barbarian.

Really, Huang Taiji captured many savages, but he had never seen one as savage as Liu Chengzong.

Unable to communicate and has extremely low moral character.

He sent his eldest son as an envoy to Qinghai, but he didn't see him; he used counter-espionage tactics, but he didn't listen at all, or didn't understand at all; he sent letters before the battle, but the second letter started to expose people's shortcomings and insults.

When the war starts, you can't find him hiding, and he'll stare at you from the side until the back of your neck feels cold.

If you ignore him, he will run faster than a rabbit, rush into your territory, destroy your army, capture your city, plunder your manors, kidnap your nobles, sink your ships, blow up your bridges, destroy your villages and burn your ancestral tombs.

Even if we have to send our troops out to march another 500 miles, we will still take a detour to tear down your hometown. Even the big birds we raise will fly around and cause damage. If we catch a crow, we will pull it down and peck it. Besides, what does that fucking stone beast have to do to you?

You send out your troops and set up a grand battle array, chasing him closely to fight him to the death. On the way, he suddenly pops up from behind you, wrapped in black wind and beats you up.

From head to toe, he is the very opposite of civilization.

Even though Huang Taiji was well versed in the cultures of Han, Mongolian and Jurchen, he still could not find any words to accurately describe Liu Chengzong in his mind.

It's a pity that the minister Dahai who created the official letter for him, that is, the Manchu characters, has passed away. Otherwise, he would have created another word, with the pronunciation of "Chengzong", to describe people with extremely corrupt moral qualities.

But now, on the other side of the battlefield.

Liu Chengzong, who was standing on a high sand dune, was observing the battlefield through a telescope while praising Huang Taiji to Zhang Xianzhong, Qian Shisheng and others.

"It has only been a short while since the attack. The front army collapsed, but the rear camp has already established its front line and set up another line of defense. He is indeed a decisive leader who can plan and plan. He is indeed in command of an elite army."

Liu Chengzong said this without any hurry.

Zhang Xianzhong, however, saw that the Daiqing Army had already set up a second line of defense, and hurriedly said, "General, how can we ask him to deploy the troops calmly? Why don't you ask Gao Yingdeng and Li Hongsi to attack?"

As for Qian Shisheng, Old Man Qian, who was wearing a scarlet official robe, also received a telescope from the Tiger Guard Camp. His lips trembled as he looked at the battlefield and he was unable to speak at all.

He had never been so excited even when he had an argument with Wen Tiren in the cabinet.

Liu Shizi was just afraid that the old man would pass away on the battlefield.

As for Zhang Xianzhong's suggestion that the Second Battalion of the First Brigade should attack, Liu Chengzong did not accept it and shook his head, saying, "The time is not right yet."

He roughly understood that the current comfort zone of the Minister of Rites was a battle of ten thousand against ten thousand.

Sometimes the enemy is weak and can be killed by concentrating your forces in one attack. In that case, be decisive. The first battle is the decisive battle and the outcome will be decided in one battle.

But Huang Taiji's army was endless, and he only had half of their strength, so it would be enough for him to gain some advantage on the battlefield.

This kind of large-scale battle can utilize one-fourth of the enemy's strength to attack a part of the enemy's strength that is one-fifth of its strength in a surprise attack, thus forming a situation of using the fast to defeat the slow and the many to defeat the few, which is an overall advantage.

When you have an overall advantage, you should not invest more troops to expand your advantage.

Because Huang Taiji had decisively opened up a new line of defense, and Liu Shizi had no extra troops.

If they don't have a second line of defense, or the defeated army breaks through that line of defense, there is no need to send more troops. The existing 20,000 troops are enough to defeat the 60,000 defeated soldiers.

But they set up a new line of defense. The line that 20,000 troops couldn't break through couldn't be broken through by 30,000 troops either.

On the contrary, by filling in these two battalions, Liu Chengzong had used up all the cards in his hand.

By then, the front-line troops would not be able to retreat even if they wanted to, because there would be no troops to cover their rear.

Unless the Yulin and Huben battalions are sent to cover the rear.

The problem is that these two camps are the rear guard, so Liu Chengzong must have been there as well.

He couldn't lead the retreat on the battlefield with only a hundred or so soldiers in the central army. If the enemy came with five or six hundred cavalrymen, he would be captured. It would be better for him to stay with the Yulin Camp and be safe on the front line.

The battle at this time is like a turn-based system.

As his raid was underway, Huang Taiji also had to prepare for a counterattack.

Liu Shizi had to see how Huang Taiji would fight back before deciding on his next deployment.

But even if it was a turn-based system, he could guess a few things Huang Taiji could do.

Military ability requires talent. Liu Shizi may not be the best in the world, but when it comes to experience in commanding battles, no one in the world has more experience than him.

In the seven years since he started his rebellion, there have been years of high-intensity wars. On average, he personally commanded more than two battles a year, with both sides deploying more than 10,000 troops, or even campaigns consisting of several battles.

With Lanzhou as the center, within a radius of three thousand miles, there was no one he had not beaten.

The most urgent task for Dai Qing's army at the moment is to use several battalions to form a horizontal formation to open up a defense line, gather the defeated soldiers, and reorganize the team.

Liu Chengzong judged that the next tactical move would be to redo the one-two-character formation and spread out on both wings to surround him. Of course, it was also possible to use a narrower line and make a three-character overlapping contact, but it was unlikely.

Although Liu Chengzong had few soldiers, he had many armored soldiers. Taking turns to fight and recover their strength would provide his armored soldiers with the best combat environment, allowing them to completely encircle the Eight Banners Army with inferior forces.

With the two wings spread out, Liu Chengzong had to see how wide Huang Taiji's battle line was.

This is also the reason why Liu Chengzong deployed Zuo Guangxian and Tang Tong's second battalion on the left wing and Subadi's Mobei Army on the right wing.

On the surface, this force of over 10,000 people was attacking the enemy's flank while blocking the enemy's reinforcements on both wings.

In fact, Liu Chengzong wanted to use them to force Huang Taiji to increase the cost of siege and widen and thin the battle line.

As long as it is wide enough, Huang Taiji's command and the support of various units will be difficult; if it is thin enough, the Second Battalion of the First Brigade will be able to pierce them in the middle!

If it is not thin enough, Liu Chengzong will take advantage and use the Second Battalion of Zhengqi to form a defense line behind the chariot fort. Once the front line retreats, they will counterattack the pursuers and then turn around and retreat.

At this moment, screams were heard again from the west side of the battlefield.

Surrounding the west side of the battlefield, Subati, who was pretending to stop the enemy, had been observing the battlefield from the outside.

He didn't dare to fight at first.

Because he had been chased and beaten by the Eight Banners when he was out of Shengjing earlier, even though the Yanmen Camp of Qintu Taiji and the Beiyuan Camp of Wu Sihu had already broken into the enemy camp, and the Mongolian camps in the center of the Eight Banners had collapsed, he had no intention of forcing a charge at the Wuzhen Chaoha position led by Jin Yuhe.

Firstly, the direction he was in was the front of Dai Qing’s army’s original pursuit, so it was difficult to fight in this direction.

Secondly, the equipment level of the Mobei cavalry was poor, and they were chased and beaten by the Eight Banners inside the border. They were able to escape only because of He Huchen's Shuofang Battalion that charged in and covered the rear. With the example of Liu Chengzong in front of him, Subati's ideological imprint was that the Han army was very powerful.

It is probably difficult for a small force of one or two thousand people to achieve the same effect as the two battalions of Beiyuan and Yanmen.

Thirdly, it is impossible for an independent lord like Subadi in Mobei to risk his life for Liu Chengzong like the two Mongolian camps of Beiyuan and Yanmen.

Therefore, Subadi just firmly carried out Liu Chengzong's order, letting more than 6,000 Mobei cavalry rest on the edge of the battlefield, pretending to look scary.

But he wanted to fight, after all, if the Marshal's army stayed here, Dai Qing would not let him go.

So when he headed west to investigate the movements of Dai Qing's troops, he found the Tangqi of the Marshal's Army and learned that He Huchen had been watching the battle situation here. When the news was passed on, the Shuofang Camp was on the way.

Subadi's idea was to wait for He Huchen to come and let his Mobei cavalry follow the Shuofang camp to form a battle formation.

However, Huang Taiji stopped the support from the camps in the rear and showed signs of setting up a defense line in the rear, while Wuzhen Chaoha, led by Jin Yuhe at the front, transported the artillery to the north with great effort.

Subadi saw that this was a safe situation. There were no enemy reinforcements coming from the flanks, and the enemy in front was still moving artillery. There was no need to use cavalry to attack at this time. If he turned back, he would be punished by God.

He immediately seized the opportunity and ordered his men to blow the horn of attack.

Nearly 7,000 Mobei cavalry were scattered in groups of three or five in the desert, leaving only Gunbu Khan leading more than a thousand cavalry to continue to block the enemy. The remaining cavalry clamored for a while, followed the small nobles in the army to gather at the edge of the enemy formation, and then launched an attack.

Another flanking attack!
Subati's attack timing was particularly tricky.

A moment earlier, Jin Yuhe's artillery had not yet been moved to the north, and Ma Guangyuan's troops in the south were also moving north to provide support.

A moment later, after receiving the retreat order from Emperor Chongde, Jin Yuhe led his troops to retreat south.

Unfortunately, he launched an attack when Jin Yuhe had just received the order to retreat but had not yet made preparations for the retreat, and in an instant he defeated Jin Yuhe's Wuzhen Chaoha.

The Mobei cavalry didn't even collide with them. From a few hundred steps away, Wu Zhenchaoha fired a row of guns and cannons. Seeing that he could not stop the cavalry's charge, some people drew their swords and fought back, while more people dropped their guns and fled.

As soon as the two sides came into contact, Jin Yuhe's line was shattered and a large number of defeated soldiers retreated southward.

Because the two formations on the edge had collapsed, they were facing a situation of being attacked from three sides. Not to mention the five or six thousand cavalrymen who could cover the desert and rush over, even if there were only five hundred cavalrymen who ran over and shot a few arrows, they would still be able to drop their firearms and escape.

Some people did not even run south, but abandoned their weapons and armor and ran to the deserted west. When they were caught up by the scattered cavalry, they knelt down and surrendered.

The Eight Banners nobles had strict discipline over their soldiers and there was a system of collective responsibility under their banners. Even if many soldiers were passive and tired of fighting, they did not dare to surrender in battle for fear of being reported and killed by friendly forces.

Even to surrender, one had to run out of the camp and kneel down to beg for mercy.

In fact, let alone Wu Zhenchaoha, all the leaders of the Eight Banners were devastated at this moment.

Earlier, when Huang Taiji said that the banner soldiers had left the banners without permission and were going to act recklessly, and that he would behead the leaders of the soldiers and punish their banner leaders, Duoduo's face froze.

He was not in the camp and did not expect to be attacked suddenly. He had been staying in Huang Taiji's tent. At this moment, the white flag was trampled by the enemy cavalry and collapsed. The soldiers did not even act recklessly, they had no rules at all and collapsed directly behind the defense line.

Yue Tuo was the commander of the central line of the Yierzi Formation, leading the armies of various Mongolian tribes with the Bordered Red Banner. At this moment, he did not care about the guilt of sending troops from Shengjing without authorization earlier, and took the opportunity of setting up a defense line and reorganizing the formation to run over and persuade Huang Taiji to withdraw his troops.

"Reporting to the Holy Khan, both the Blue and White Banners have been defeated. We are now under a surprise attack and cannot resist it. Therefore, I dare to ask the Holy Khan to withdraw the army for the sake of the country."

This battle is impossible to fight.

There were many people in Haoge's Zhenglan Banner who were originally from the Zhenghuang Banner led by Huang Taiji, and many of them were Huang Taiji's own confidants.

As a result, they were suddenly attacked, bombarded by guns and artillery, and trampled by cavalry. It is not known how many people could escape.

Duoduo’s White Bordered Banner was even more terrible; it was the yellow banner of the old Jianzhou.

The vast majority of military officers and nobles among them were either old men who surrendered to the country at the beginning, or descendants of those old men. They were the undisputed foundation of the country and the basis for the establishment of the Later Jin Dynasty.

As a result, they didn't even have a chance for a frontal battle. Before they could even put on their armor, their front line was directly broken by the fleeing army.

Huang Taiji was more anxious than Yue Tuo, and he knew better that this was a matter that would shake the country: "If you want to withdraw your troops, Liu Manzi has to let you withdraw. If you don't fight him now, how can you withdraw your troops?"

At this moment, the guard came to report that Hauge had retreated from the front.

Huang Taiji was so angry that he didn't know what to do. He walked forward with a frown on his brow, but when he saw Haoge, he was speechless.

No one knew where Bozhou had been hit. The blood from his head had flowed onto his face, mixed with dirt and turned black. His pigtail was loose, and the mercury armor with a blue cloth base and armor plates on his body was pierced like a hedgehog. When he saw him, he was exhausted and fell to the ground, crying loudly.

"Father Khan, Lieutenant General Ileshen, the cannon in the formation, the blue flag, collapsed!"

Huang Taiji was about to say something reprimanding, but he swallowed it back as Haoge burst into tears. He gritted his teeth and said, "Yue Tuo, lead the Red Mongols to set up a frontal formation, and work with Ma Guangyuan and Geng Zhongming to block the enemy. The two yellow flags will be deployed on both wings. If the enemy breaks through the formation, beat them back."

"Laosa, lead the vanguard battalion on the left wing and wait for an opportunity to fight. Bring back the morale for me!"

Upon hearing the order, the vanguard commander Lausa saluted, mounted his horse, took his bow and spear, assembled the vanguard cavalry, and moved to the left wing. (End of this chapter)