stubborn thief

Night falls.

The pursuit by the Third Battalion of the First Brigade did not seem like a pursuit, but more like a hunting operation.

Dai Qing's army retreated in a very orderly manner, and it was clear who were the Eight Banners and who were the Han and Mongolian troops.

Because no one was in charge of the Han and Mongolian troops, they just ran around on the battlefield in collapse. Some teams were overwhelmed and even ran towards the northwest in a confused state.

A man like this is so stupid that Gao Yingdeng didn't even chase him. It would be a waste of arrows to shoot him to death.

But he was different from Li Hongsi who was behind the main barracks. He would chop whoever he caught and kill whoever he saw.

They even had a special unit of dismounted cavalry to cut off heads and collect spoils from the rear.

The whole person exudes an eagerness to achieve success.

In a battle like this, it is easy to see which group was repelled and which group was broken through.

However, when pursuing the defeated army far away from the main camp, either do not pursue them, or if you catch up and kill them, you must be rewarded with their heads and armor.

There is no other way to prove merit.

But Li Hongsi had a great need to prove his achievements.

When he was serving as a guerrilla in Yansui Town, he encountered the Battle of Ningyuan. After returning, he was promoted to Lieutenant General of Ningsai. The commander of the First Brigade, Gao Yingdeng, was a soldier in his Ningsai Camp at that time.

Every order from his superiors was a ready-made motivation to urge him to achieve success.

This was actually a helpless choice. Gao Yingdeng also wanted to make great contributions, so he led his elite troops to pursue Emperor Chongde's main camp. Li Hongsi could only pick up some scraps from behind.

The Eight Banners' fleeing formation was too conspicuous.

Although they were fleeing, they were still able to maintain basic formation while escaping.

It's not that they are so elite that they can maintain their formation even after being defeated and losing all their fighting spirit, but the two yellow flags in Huang Taiji's hand only broke a little of the yellow cavalry, and the guard and vanguard battalions did not suffer too much loss, so they can take turns to use the cavalry to cover the rear.

With such protection, even if the Han army or the Mongolian army came, they would still be able to regroup during the rout.

However, the defeated soldiers of the Han and Mongolian armies were originally in the position of being used as a cushion. They were the first to attack and the first to be attacked. There was no reason for the Eight Banners to cover their rear.

But who would have thought that Gao Yingdeng, this ruthless man, didn't even bother to look at the troops left behind, and just kept chasing the two yellow flags.

The first thing to be thrown away was Emperor Chongde's Nine-Ox Imperial Tent. The wheels of that thing got stuck when the war broke out, and even after it was reinstalled, it didn't dare to run fast, and it was of no use during the escape.

The reason for running with it was to give Huang Taiji's attendants time to get the things from the car and put them on the carriage.

The important documents, decorations, and necessary luggage were taken down and left on the road.

As a result, the Nine Oxen Imperial Tent was added to Gao Yingdeng's pursuit army.

In fact, even if there were rear guard troops, the Eight Banners Army would not dare to counterattack.

Gao Yingdeng knew that he had less than 10,000 men, and the follow-up troops were restrained by the complex composition of the Marshal's Army.

But Huang Taiji didn't know. Seeing Gao Yingdeng's relentless pursuit, he thought that Liu Chengzong's entire army was chasing him.

If we hesitate for a moment and let the entire army attack us, wouldn't our country be destroyed?

What's more, even if there are reinforcements, they can't stop us.

As a result, they could only abandon their weapons and weapons in the pursuit, and later they simply fled in different directions, leaving Gao Yingdeng with explosives along the way.

Gao Yingdeng's soldiers would throw anything valuable they picked up onto the imperial tent carriage.

Then the flags were dragging on the ground, the big banner was broken, and the red flag with a white border that symbolized the red flag was picked up and inserted outside the imperial tent, and then the flag of the pure red flag was also inserted.

Later, even the flags of the two yellow flags were left behind in the pursuit, and the Eight Banners Army even showed Gao Yingdeng the full set of ceremonial guards of Emperor Chongde.

Without the ceremonial flags, the defeated army ran in disorder, and soldiers from each flag fell behind and knelt on the ground begging for mercy.

Gao Yingdeng was laughing wildly.

Isn’t this exactly what our Grand Marshal’s Office lacks?
He Huchen, Yang Qi and other generals in charge of the three borders and five towns had been using the ceremonial guards in rotation and were already tired of them.

Seeing that it was getting dark, Gao Yingdeng calculated that he had been chasing for nearly forty miles, his horse was exhausted, and the highly excited soldiers were also a little tired, so he slowed down and slowly withdrew his troops, taking the prisoners and a large number of ox carts and horse carts, and packing up the armor and weapons to return.

By the time they joined up with Li Hongsi, their army had become extremely terrifying. Not only were they loaded with spoils of war such as bows, swords, armor, food, and meat, but many of them were also holding prisoners on tethers, with bloody heads hanging in front of their horses or around their waists.

Even the ropes used to tie up the prisoners were made by the Eight Banners.

The First Brigade was distributed like equipment, with five brigade commanders, four deputy generals, three marshals, two thousand-man lieutenant commanders, and one centurion commander. Each soldier had one head and two prisoners, and the captured heads were distributed throughout the army as decorations.

When they were halfway there, they met Ma Xiang's cavalry.

As the battle was won, Liu Chengzong had no intention of leaving the battlefield immediately, so he sent the Tang cavalry out on alert to prevent the enemy from returning again.

But to be honest, before this battle, Liu Chengzong was definitely unwilling to confront Huang Taiji head-on.

But after this battle, the Eight Banners were weakened and suffered heavy casualties, while the Marshal's Army was not injured. Even if Emperor Chongde was brave enough to reorganize his army and fight a head-on battle, he would still lose!

If you lose when you play 60,000 against 30,000, how can you win when you play 30,000 against 30,000?

Liu Chengzong's total military strength was more than 39,600, but the two battalions of Huben and Yulin did not move. In order to successfully transfer, He Huchen and Ma Xiang deployed decoy troops in the west.

The number of troops that actually engaged in the battle was less than 30,000. It was not until the later stages of the battle when He Huchen's Shuofang Camp and Ma Xiangtang's Cavalry Camp swept the flanks that the number of troops participating in the battle exceeded 30,000.

Therefore, Liu Chengzong calmly led his troops to another suitable place to camp, set up a camp for wounded soldiers and a camp for prisoners, and prioritized them. Those who could be treated on the spot were treated on the spot, and those who were not suitable were sent to Songmo Prefecture on carriages.

At the same time, he ordered Wang Chengen, who was responding in Songmo Prefecture, to quickly transfer doctors, medicines and medical supplies from Shangdu City.

Afterwards, there was no energy left to clean up the battlefield, so the Second Battalion of the Huben Yulin was responsible for guarding the battlefield, while the participating battalions dug trenches and set up camps to guard against night attacks by the enemy.

This was an unnecessary tactical move, as the remaining defeated troops of Huang Taiji had no ability to launch a night attack.

But many times, for things like this, if you take precautions, it's just in case; if you don't, it's a ten thousand chance.

In fact, on that night, Dorgon actually sent Wu Bai from the vanguard camp to lead troops to investigate Liu Chengzong's movements.

However, this was not because Dorgon had the courage to attack the camp and fight in the field. At this time, the remnants of the Eight Banners were like frightened birds, and everyone wanted to escape back to Shengjing as soon as possible, and had no intention of fighting at all.

The emperor Chongde was in such a headache while escaping that when it got dark and the pursuers withdrew, he fell asleep in the carriage.

Dorgon didn't know whether he fell asleep due to exhaustion or fainted due to anger.

Anyway, he tried and didn't wake her up.

The two imperial horses were also gone. Dabai was crushed by Huang Taiji on the way to the pursuit, and no one cared about the life and death of the horse. Xiaobai had been frightened by the rocket bombing earlier, and when the army fled and abandoned the ceremonial objects, it was stressed again and ran away. Ordinary war horses could hardly carry Huang Taiji's heavy weight, so they had to find a two-horse carriage to pull him.

Dorgon sent Wu Bai to lead the vanguard for reconnaissance, fearing that Liu Chengzong would attack the camp again at night.

As a result, Wu Bai came back and said that Liu Chengzong had not left, and the Tang cavalry had dispersed and could not break in. Dorgon and the Yuetuo nobles immediately decided not to take the risk of sleeping.

Withdraw troops overnight, first leave the Kulun grassland, find a safe place and then rest.

Until the next day.

The marshal's army, which had had a good rest, looked at the battlefield with worry.

After a night of wind and sand, most of the corpses on the battlefield were buried in the yellow sand before they could be cleaned up. The dry food, armor, bows and swords carried by the Eight Banners Army were all valuable items, but now they are hard to find.

Just then, the vulture came back.

There are more of them than when they flew away. It seems that not only the Qinghai Vultures have returned, but they have also abducted a number of Changbai Mountain Eagles, which are circling over the battlefield littered with corpses.

But Liu Chengzong's people were very happy.

Vultures can dig, and they can find where the body is.

The soldiers would look at where the vultures landed and then drive the cavalry there, and they would always find the right target!
In the central army of the First Brigade, Gao Yingdeng, Li Hongsi, He Huchen, Zuo Guangxian and others had already presented their treasures.

There were piles of imperial seals, the Eight Banners' flags, drums, flutes, and conch shells. Not far away were three small mountain piles of skulls and a prisoner camp that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Liu Chengzong picked up a head, held it in his hand and examined it for a moment, then turned to Zhang Xianzhong and said, "Let the commanders and lieutenant generals of each brigade report the number of soldiers killed in the battle again, clearly stating each person's origin, background, official position, and achievements. This battle is worthy of being recorded in a monument."

After saying that, Liu Chengzong casually handed the head in his hand behind him, intending to give it to the guard to keep it safe, but he did not expect that the person standing behind him was Qian Shisheng.

The old man, who had never been on a battlefield, was not at all nervous and took it over easily.

Of course, it is also possible that there was no reaction at all.

Qian Shisheng hadn't slept for two days and two nights. His cloudy old eyes were full of bloodshot, and his eye bags were almost drooping to his cheekbones, but he looked exceptionally energetic.

He took the head, stared at it with gritted teeth, and looked like he wanted to take a bite of it.

Liu Chengzong quickly took the head back and signaled to the bodyguard Zhang Yong to take it away and put it back on the mountain.

To be honest, if you are not a professional, you can't tell which of these heads are Han, which are Mongolian, and which are Jurchen.

This is also the reason why Liu Shizi has always refused to reward soldiers with headshots. After all, he knows Du Wu who is beside Cao Yao, and knows that rewarding soldiers with headshots will allow them to master a strange skill.

The severed heads of He Huchen and Li Hongsi were piled up into three mountains. The heads were distinguished by their appearance, with those who looked like Han people being put in one pile, those who looked like Mongolians being put in one pile, and those who looked like Jurchens being put in another pile. As a result, the three mountains were all of similar size.

After more than 8,000 heads were chopped off, Liu Chengzong called a halt.

There were still many who had not been killed. In this battle, more than ten thousand people were directly killed by them. There were also several thousand who were seriously injured and killed on the battlefield. In addition, there were nearly eight thousand prisoners and those who escaped after being injured on the battlefield, and then there were those who died.

Liu Chengzong estimated that they had killed at least 30,000 Daiqing troops yesterday afternoon.

The Marshal's army also suffered more than 10,000 casualties, with 3,880 people reported dead in battle alone.

The casualties of the right wing Mobei Army ranked first. Gunbu and Babu didn't react much, but Erdeni was so excited that he wanted Liu Chengzong to appoint him a military officer, such as a general or a lieutenant.

Liu Shizi was extremely puzzled. He took a special look at his helmet, but did not see any traces of horse hooves. He wondered how this man could look like he had been kicked in the head after the battle.

He had heard of Erdeni's name from Batur Hun Taiji of Dzungaria, who was their old enemy. The Russians called him the Golden Khan.

Subati was different. When he reported the casualties, his eyes were red and he had obviously been crying. He was very forbearing.

In fact, there was constant crying at the Mobei Army’s garrison last night.

Because the Mobei army participating in this battle included Gunbu Khan and the two taijis, who sent a total of more than a thousand soldiers, and the rest were Subadi's men.

They suffered from the lack of armor, and although they had been avoiding the battlefield, they still suffered heavy casualties, with more deaths than injuries.

The beryllium arrows of Lausa's vanguard cavalry alone were enough to kill them one by one.

As a result, many people died without even having the chance to be rescued by the military doctors of the First Brigade.

Of the 7,000 troops in Mobei alone, over 2,000 were killed, accounting for almost half of the total casualties.

As for the remaining nine battalions of Liu Chengzong, some men were killed in action. However, most of them were well protected by armor, and those without armor also had chariots, so there were more casualties than deaths.

Qian Shisheng hadn't slept for two days, so his reaction became slower. It was not until his head was taken away that he came to his senses. He spoke while gesturing in front of him, his hand trembling: "Marshal, this battle is worthy of a monument. Can I write it for you..."

Then he shook his head unconfidently and said, "Forget it, the inscription should be written by the Marshal."

There was an indescribable look of sadness on his face.

These two days seemed longer than two years to Qian Shisheng.

At first, I was worried about the war breaking out, and then I couldn't sleep because of the worry as I followed the army marching.

Then the war really broke out. They watched helplessly as Dai Qing's 60,000-strong army chased them aggressively, but in just one afternoon, they were easily crushed and swept away by Liu Chengzong.

Last night, those warriors who were used to fighting life and death slept soundly, but Qian Shisheng tossed and turned in the military tent, unable to sleep, looking like a fool.

He didn't even know how much impact the battle he personally experienced would have on the world situation.

He also didn't know whether this war would bring good or bad results to the Ming Dynasty where he was.

"Since Lord Qian wants to write it, I would love to have it done."

Liu Chengzong said with a smile, and then said seriously: "It would be more appropriate for the elder to write it. We need to erect many stone tablets, and the inscriptions should record the life stories of many soldiers who died in the battle. They include border troops, guards, and civilians, as well as civilians, students, and royal family members... Ha!"

He wanted to speak, but didn't know where to start.

No one except him knew the true impact of this war on the world.

Or in other words, its significance to Liu Chengzong himself.

No one knew that after winning the battle, Liu Chengzong was feeling restless underneath his calm face.

He has been fighting wars in the east and the west for many years to build an army. Now, he is using this army composed of people from all over the world to change the fate of people in the world on this battlefield!
Broke the national destiny of Qing Gulun.

"As for this battle, you only need to write one sentence."

Liu Chengzong looked serious and raised his head slightly.

"In the Bingzi year of Chongzhen, Liu Chengzong defeated the Jin army here!" (End of this chapter)