stubborn thief

Eleven thousand Mongolian soldiers attacked southward.

Thirteen thousand Eight Banners troops are fleeing.

The two huge armies were entangled together, shooting left and right, and charging back and forth.

The dust stirred up by the horses' hooves continued to rise, like huge waves in the sky, rolling endlessly.

The old Northern Yuan survivors in the Marshal's Office were bloodthirsty.

Since the end of the Wanli period, in the past twenty years, the Northern Yuan Army and the Eight Banners Army have encountered each other on the battlefield several times, and each time they were defeated at the first contact.

Later on, as long as Chahar's army could see the orderly marching formation of the Eight Banners Army from afar, they would collapse without a fight.

It’s not that the Mongols can’t fight. The Yi Ding of the Ming Dynasty were very good at fighting, and the Mongols of the Eight Banners were also very good at fighting.

But the independently developed Mongolians such as Chahar and Tumed cannot be attacked.

Because of poverty.

Too poor to even have a horse, too poor to even have armor.

The poorer they became, the more they fought, and the poorer they became. The armor passed down by their ancestors was lost, and the herdsmen were conscripted into the battlefield in large numbers. From afar, they could see the Eight Banners Army's bright armor, which was so bright that swords and spears could not penetrate them, and arrows could not cause serious injuries if they got close.

On the contrary, if there is even the slightest contact, we will suffer heavy casualties.

There were only a lot of horses left, so everyone could ride them.

The only option for anyone is to flee in defeat.

When one tael of silver could buy dozens of kilograms of steel, and armoring the entire army became the norm on the battlefields of the Nine Frontiers, it was not surprising that the old simple nomadic production method would lead to defeat in every battle.

However, when Chahar, the leader of 400,000 Mongols, changed his name, the Beiyuan and Yanmen battalions, composed of 6,000 old Chahars, overturned the defeat of the past 20 years on the battlefield.

Finally, it was the Eight Banners Army's turn to fight hard and then flee.

But when the three routes of the right wing of Dai Qing's army were all collapsed, tens of thousands of troops fled to the second line of defense. Among the fleeing troops, white-armored soldiers kept taking off their helmets and swords, cutting their braids and giving them to others, turning back to the formation, using their strong armor and long swords to fight to the death with the marshal's army that was riding horses into the formation.

The general who broke through the army formations of the Plain Blue and Bordered White flags was Wu Sihu, the lieutenant general of the Northern Yuan camp.

This man was once one of the four great Zaisans of the Khanate of Chahar. He followed Ligdan Khan from east to west and had extensive experience in losing battles.

As soon as he charged, the Zhenglan Banner collapsed. He could tell from his experience that it was a truly unprepared defeat, so he did not kill the defeated soldiers, but led the cavalry directly to the next group of Zhenglan Banner and killed them.

After the Bordered White Banner was also defeated, they wanted to continue to move southward and fight for a while, but then they saw the army in the rear forming a battle array on the spot and starting to build a second line of defense. There were more and more Eight Banner soldiers wearing armor, so they turned around and ordered the three thousand commanders of the Northern Yuan Camp to disperse, move from the back to the front, surround the large number of defeated troops, and kill them at will.

Naturally, he saw the white-armored soldiers who were surrounded in various places in the formation and fighting desperately.

However, when Wu Sihu saw this scene, he was not surprised but happy, and just focused on destroying and killing.

Since the westward migration of Chahar, countless Taiji tribes on the southern steppes of the desert have been destroyed in recent years. This is certainly due to extreme natural disasters, but more of the destruction was caused by war.

In wars of varying scales, there will always be scenes like this: elite soldiers will turn around and risk their lives to cover the retreat of their troops.

In Wu Sihu's eyes, this was a sign of the tribe's impending demise.

When a Khan has an army, the first thing he has to do is to use battles to gradually divide the soldiers in the army into three parts.

The first-rate soldiers who are the bravest, strongest, and most skilled in fighting are kept by his side as guards; the second-rate ones serve as elite troops; and the last-rate ones are ordinary soldiers.

When a war breaks out, ordinary soldiers go into battle while second-rate elite troops wait for an opportunity to defeat the enemy; if the elite troops cannot win, they will lead the first-rate troops to retreat.

First-class troops should be kept to rebuild the army unless absolutely necessary.

This is especially true for the feudal lords.

Therefore, in his opinion, killing these two or three hundred white-armored soldiers who turned their horses and fought to the death in various places in the formation was a much greater achievement than defeating two more formations.

After all, long before the war, the officers and soldiers of the Marshal's Army had already known Liu Chengzong's intentions.

The Grand Marshal did not want to fight to the death with Dai Qing, but to make the enemy afraid so that he could retreat calmly with the spoils.

Killing the most elite soldiers and grassroots officers is undoubtedly the most effective way to achieve this goal.

In fact, while Huang Taiji was re-establishing the second line of defense, another flag was caught in a tough battle.

It is the Blue Banner of Jirgalang.

Although Jirgalang was also the son of Shurhaci, unlike Amin, he was deeply trusted by Huang Taiji.

Huang Taiji was a man who blamed heaven and earth. He scolded his own son Haoge to the point of becoming autistic, but he never punished Jirgalang.

Therefore, Jierhalang was stationed in Shengjing at this time and summoned the remaining soldiers under his command to assist in defense.

The one leading the Bordered Blue Banner in Huang Taiji's camp was Jirgalang's younger brother, Fei Yanggu.

He was Fei Yanggu, the one who set fire to the mountains on the Yison River, preventing Ajige from returning east.

Unlike other banners that only had a bunch of left-behind troops, the troops led by Fei Yanggu were extremely elite.

Since they were originally an army that attacked the Ming Dynasty via a roundabout way, and after retreating to Shengjing they summoned the banner army. They had nearly 6,000 soldiers from the Bordered Blue and Bordered Blue Mongolian banners, more than 3,000 war horses and more than 4,000 sets of armor, making them the most powerful banners in this battle.

The only ones who could compete with him in armor and on horses were the Bayala Battalion known as the Guards and the Bayala Outpost Second Battalion known as the Vanguard, led by Huang Taiji himself.

However, Fei Yanggu's subordinates had neither firearms nor artillery, nor did they bring shield carts.

According to the military tradition of the Later Jin Dynasty, shield chariots were very important military equipment, no less important than strong bows and armor.

Nurhaci once issued an order that generals could not go to battle without shields and chariots.

If one attacks without waiting for the shield carts, he will most likely be defeated, and if defeated he will certainly be punished.

Fei Yanggu was of course aware of this, but he and Hu Xibu of the Bordered Blue Mongolians were both without shield carts.

They originally carried ten shield carts and fought against the Mongolian army of the Marshal's Office at the western foot of the Greater Khingan Range. During the movement, they lost eight of the ten shield carts.

He was afraid of being punished and did not dare to report it. Fei Yanggu gave the other two to his slave craftsmen to copy, thinking that he would spend his own money and secretly make them to replace them.

Because the shield car is expensive.

In order to block bullets, Qi Jiguang once made a long shield called Gangroupai, which was made of a multi-layer composite material of wood, lacquer, paper, oil and iron. It weighed 15 kilograms, but was extremely expensive, costing five taels of silver on one side, so it could not be manufactured by the government.

Nurhaci's shield cart was similar to the Gangrou Pai, but larger. It was made of a six-inch thick wooden plate covered with cowhide and iron sheets to form a composite shield cart, which was more expensive.

Therefore, generally speaking, the punishment for losing the shield cart would be more expensive than the cost of the shield cart.

Fei Yanggu and Hu Xibu would rather pay for it themselves than be punished.

Anyway, they can also withhold rewards from the Mongolian Banner Army and exploit slaves.

In this era of war and famine, few people could make a name for themselves, especially after the defeat of Ligdan Khan. After the nobles surrendered to the Jin Dynasty, their status in Mongolia was greatly reduced. Ordinary people would become slaves and be oppressed by the bannermen. They would be starved and beaten in peacetime and forced to climb the city walls in wartime. Even if they were lucky enough to climb the walls first, they would die tragically on the top of the city walls because of the jealousy of the bannermen and no support.

If the family could find Huang Taiji to complain, they would naturally be rewarded generously and their names would be cleared... But this would be like finding Chongzhen to complain, finding Liu Chengzong to complain, or finding any ruler to complain, creating the illusion that the emperor is a wise ruler and the people below are bad.

Many Mongols surrendered to the Jin Dynasty but were hungry and beaten, then they fled and defected to the Ming Dynasty, but they were still hungry.

The Mongols who fled to Xuanda were not much better off. They were regarded as future heads, and when they were defeated they would be treated as Jurchens and receive the reward.

The Ming Dynasty has no shortage of soldiers.

In peacetime, people south of the Great Wall regarded the Yi people as treasures because they were likely to be able to ride horses and shoot arrows, and could become soldiers once they put on armor. This was better than directly recruiting farmers, as the costly and food-intensive training phase could be omitted and the people could be put into use directly.

However, since Chongzhen ascended the throne, the Ming Dynasty has created refugees through systematic taxation, exterminated refugee armies, recruited refugee armies, continued to increase taxes to create new refugees, and completed the militarization of the Northwest farmers.

The peasant army that was recruited had learned horse riding and archery through several years of mobile warfare. They were able to farm and fight, and were a more cost-effective choice.

Only the Mongolian soldiers under Zu Dashou were living relatively well.

Fei Yanggu had a good plan, but he didn't expect that Huang Taiji didn't give him time.

The shield-carriages had not even had time to be built before they were dispatched to go on another expedition under an imperial edict from Emperor Chongde, and it was an emergency dispatch without any preparation.

Liu Chengzong on the other side of the battlefield had already seen Huang Taiji re-establish his line, and based on his experience he guessed that he was going to spread out both wings to encircle the enemy, so he gave orders to his own two wings before the Dai Qing army spread out their wings.

He sent a messenger to rush to the camp of Zuo Guangxian, Tang Tong and Subadi, ordering the left and right wings to attack fiercely when they saw the enemy's two wings spread out.

Liu Chengzong's goal was to break through the center.

But Dai Qing had more troops, and even though he still had 8,000 of the most elite troops of the First Brigade, the Second Battalion of Zhengqi, under his command, he still did not dare to act rashly.

Therefore, in order to mobilize the enemy again, we must try our luck on both wings.

The right wing of the Marshal's Army had a hard time fighting against the left wing of Dai Qing.

On the right wing was Subati's Mobei Army. Although they had 6,000 cavalry, their cavalry armor rate was not as good as that of the Eight Banners garrison. It was a very original combination of Mongolian nobles and herdsmen.

Thanks to the collapse of the central army and the right wing, and the transfer of artillery by Jin Yuhe's Han army flag battalion, they were able to break through Jin Yuhe's army formation in one fell swoop.

Afterwards, the two camps of Taiji Xiantu and Wu Sihu rushed southward. Subadi also wanted to fight to the south, but he ran into Ma Guangyuan's Han army formation. He charged at it once, but it did not move; he charged again, but the Han army formation still did not move.

Subati understood.

He could only roam far away and was powerless to respond to Liu Chengzong's attack orders.

Upon seeing this, Liu Chengzong also gave him a second order from the rear, which was to set up the Haizi formation far away and not let the enemy army charge forward.

At the same time as Subadi received Liu Chengzong's second order, the person he sent to express his advice to Liu Chengzong also arrived at the central army.

The Khan of one of the three tribes in northern Mobei arranged his troops very well. He asked Liu Chengzong to temporarily suspend the attack on the right wing and wait for He Huchen to arrive before advancing together with the Han army.

Liu Chengzong expressed his approval of this and immediately sent an order to the First Brigade's Special Forces Battalion, asking them to move to the right wing of the regular battalion and connect with the Zongren and Liaoyang Second Battalions in the front.

The reason why Li Hongsi was moved to the right wing was not because he wanted to protect Subati.

But Liu Shizi felt that the Mobei Army’s front line might be breached soon.

In case the plan was exposed, he had to let Li Hongsi's battalion protect himself and Gao Yingdeng's regular battalion to avoid being attacked from the flank.

For Liu Chengzong, this battle was about exchanging time for manpower.

In a sufficiently short period of time, the Dai Qing army was forced to change its front line many times and at many points, hitting the weak areas and breaking through them, causing the army's formation to collapse at multiple points.

If not, we must retreat as soon as possible with our gains.

But as soon as the left wing was touched, Fei Yanggu was thrown out without a shield car.

The first to take action was Tang Tong.

His reinforcement battalion was originally behind Dai Qing's right wing, and the clan camp on the same side used guns and artillery to cut off a corner of Haoge's formation, allowing Wu Sihu's Beiyuan camp to rush into the formation.

Afterwards, the Zhenglan Banner collapsed, and the Beiyuan camp continued to advance. In order to avoid accidental injuries, the guns and artillery were useless, so they continued to move south and moved to the side of the Bordered White Banner army.

However, it is not known whether to say that the Northern Yuan cavalry charged faster or that the Blue and White cavalry collapsed faster. In any case, Tang Tong's two thousand infantry and cavalry had been chasing the front line and had never been able to avoid the opportunity of accidentally firing their guns and cannons.

His two thousand men were a cavalry firearms battalion under the main camp. They only had four lion cannons, but were armed with two hundred gun chariots and eight hundred and eighty heavy guns, and had very strong projection capabilities.

Although bows, swords and spears were carried on the vehicle, not using firearms would undoubtedly be tantamount to cutting off one's own limbs.

Just when Tang Tong was filled with despair about the enemy's rapid defeat, he was pleasantly surprised to see an army advancing from the enemy's rear and moving in his direction. He was so overjoyed that even the entire camp sped up its pace.

The morale of the Marshal's Army was at its highest at this moment. Even the newly surrendered troops in the Liaoyang Camp were stimulated by seeing Liu Chengzong lavishly rewarding the soldiers and officers such as Sun Long, and they drew their swords and attacked people under the cover of the chariot formation.

The clan camp not only had chariots for protection, but the royal relatives wearing dragon robes also had some armor such as chain mail. The Liaoyang camp was composed of serious light artillery, or surrendered troops, and they all started fighting hand-to-hand for silver.

Not to mention the regular soldiers below the First Brigade.

In fact, all the officers' speeches to boost the morale of the soldiers were very simple. They just told the soldiers that if they didn't defeat these people, they would rob them of their money on the way.

Such words may sound like lies to other armies.

But to the Marshal's Army, every word is true.

That was truly their silver. Liu Chengzong distributed more than 20,000 kilograms of silver in one go before leaving the border. Silver bars were stuffed in everyone's horse's hip pouches. Some people who had made contributions earlier even received more silver.

At this time, the arrival of the Daiqing Army was not considered as cutting off their source of income. In the eyes of the Marshal's Army, the Eight Banners Army itself was a source of income.

At this time, Liu Chengzong's order from the rear arrived, ordering Tang Tong on the left wing to attack the enemy in the front.

Tang Tong glanced back suspiciously, wondering what kind of ingenuity the Marshal had in mind, as he had already sent someone from behind to deliver the message before the enemy even came forward.

But this is not important, it is exactly what Tang Tong wants.

The chariots carrying guns were immediately dragged by war horses and galloped across the Gobi Desert, facing the marching line of the Blue Banner at a distance of 300 steps. One by one, the guns were raised and turned their muzzles. Then the infantry gunners in the rear put down their mounts, used the chariots for cover, put down long shields, and placed heavy guns on the long shields connected to the chariots.

Tang Tong rode his horse to the front of the battle line, drew his bow, and shot three large eagle-feather arrows at different elevation angles to mark the approximate distance to the front line, then retreated into the chariot formation.

One by one, the red-armored officers drew their goose-feather swords and crossed the battle lines from the sides of their respective lines.

Their brows cast shadows, blocking the sunlight in the direction of the setting sun, and they raised their clear swords high towards the enemy formation advancing in the distance, until their vanguard troops had probably passed the farthest feather arrow.

Swish!
One after another, goose-feather knives slashed down from the air.

Boom!

Guns and cannons roared, and clouds of smoke rose from the front of the battlefield.

In the midst of the smoke, flames burst forth, and thousands of bullets rained down like hail, sweeping across the enemy lines like a hurricane. (End of this chapter)