weaving

Chapter 1536 Charge! Bomb his mother with pistols!

Sunaze, the Gushan Ejen of the Bordered White Banner of Mongolia, turned his head on horseback to look at Ye Chen and said in a gentle tone, "Ye Chen, when we came out, the Emperor gave us instructions that if we encountered Zhang Cheng's troops from Xuanfu, we should not fight them easily. We must report to the Grand General Abatai Beile in time so that he can decide on the strategy of battle and defense."

Suna was originally a nobleman of the Yehe tribe of the Jurchen people. He led his tribe to submit to Nurhaci in the early stages of his rebellion. In order to win him over, Nurhaci even married his daughter to Suna, so he was also a "prince consort" of the Jurchen people.

During the Tianqi era, he had already been promoted to Meile Ejen due to his military achievements, and had also served as Baiyala Dao Zhangjing. Later, when the slave chieftain Huang Taiji established the Eight Banners of Mongolia, he was appointed as Gushan Ejen of the Bordered White Banner of Mongolia.

Facing such a veteran of the Gushan sect, Ye Chen dared not be too arrogant. Moreover, although Su Na was brave in battle, he was not domineering and did not go too far in his actions.

“Sunagushan is right. I always keep His Majesty’s instructions in mind and never forget them for a moment.”

Ye Chen explained first before continuing, "However, even with over ten thousand brave warriors from our Great Qing Empire, we cannot retreat at the first sign of trouble. We don't even know how many soldiers the enemy has, their fighting strength, or who their leader is."

"If General Abatai Beile asks you about it, what do you think we should say?!"

His voice wasn't loud, and his tone wasn't harsh, but the other three people who heard it all trembled.

Indeed, as Ye Chen said, although Huang Taiji asked them not to easily engage Zhang Cheng's Xuanfu army, he did not ask them to retreat at the first sign of trouble. If such a thing really happened, wouldn't they be guilty of "fearing the enemy and being afraid to fight"?
Seeing that he had suppressed the dissenting voices, Ye Chen spoke again: "From the current perspective, the Ming dogs in the north are not to be feared. Only the Ming dogs from the west and south are somewhat threatening. We should at least probe them. If we can hit them, we should give them a good beating. It's not too late to run away after we've gained an advantage."

Suna and Ibai were speechless. Wu Lai spoke up and asked, "How should we fight?"

Ye Chen smiled wickedly and said, "I received news yesterday that Wu Shoujin and Shi Tingzhu, those two idiots, also encountered the Ming dogs from Xuanfu in Anzhou. If they weren't lying, even if we did encounter the Ming dogs from Xuanfu, I guess there wouldn't be too many of them."

Wu Lai said, "You mean... let's first investigate Ming Gou's strength and weakness, if he's weak, we'll take him down, if he's strong, we'll withdraw our troops."

"Yes," Ye Chen said without any hesitation, "that's exactly what I meant."

"So what exactly is the strategy?" Suna asked.

Ye Chen looked at him and Yibai and said bluntly, "Suna, except for leaving five hundred warriors, send all of your Bordered White Banners to the north."

"What are you going north for?"

"I bet those two idiots, Wu Shoujin and Shi Tingzhu, won't be able to get through Anzhou, so they'll definitely go through the Renqiu route. You personally lead the Bordered White Banner troops there, send out lots of spies, and if you manage to contact them, join forces to take Renqiu again. It would be best if you could capture Jiang Xiang for me."

But if we can't get in touch with those two idiots, you'll have to bite off one of Jiang Xiang's legs!

“Okay,” Suna replied without hesitation.

Ye Chen then looked at Yibai and said, "Yibai, I'll give you command of the five hundred warriors left behind by the Bordered White Banner, plus your Plain White Banner warriors, to charge at those Ming dogs under Hejian City."

"Yes."

Although Ibai had some reservations about Ye Chen, he readily accepted the order.

"Wu Lai, lead another thousand Plain Blue Banner warriors to go around from the west and set up defenses along the Yanghe River to prevent the Ming dogs from the south from getting close."

Wu Lai seemed somewhat displeased: "Mele'ezhen, if the Ming dogs coming from the south are cowardly, I'll go out and charge at them, so I can also find out their strength."

Ye Chen thought for a moment and said, "Alright, but don't linger in the battle. Kill the Ming dogs and then withdraw immediately."

"Yes." Ye Chen then said to Yibai, "Yibai Gushan, you must charge hard. If you disrupt the Ming dogs' formation, I will lead men to kill them."

If the charge fails, you lead your warriors back to camp, and I will lead the remaining warriors to cover your retreat.

"Please rest assured, Yechenmeil, I, Yibai, am not a person who is afraid of death."

…………

Ye Chen and his men were right; the troops that came to rescue Hejian were the Xuanzhen Border Army.

However, at present, only the vanguard of Hei Han Qiu Yingquan's cavalry is here, while the rearguard of Ji Donglai's cavalry is on its way, and the two infantry headquarters are even further away.

It turned out that after receiving the order from the Earl of Yongning, Wei Zhice immediately organized the army to break camp and set off. He arranged for Qiu Yingquan to lead the vanguard first, while he himself led the infantry, artillery, and supply wagons to guard the central army, leaving Ji Donglai to bring up the rear and to guard and scout along the way.

The army only entered Suning County before nightfall yesterday. Fearing an ambush by the Tartars, they did not dare to advance under cover of darkness and instead rested in Suning.

After breakfast this morning, Wei Zhice ordered Qiu Yingquan to lead the vanguard cavalry to Hejian first, while he personally led the infantry and artillery to follow. Ji Donglai's task remained to bring up the rear and to keep watch as sentries.

The three supply wagon troops were left stationed in Suning to prevent the Tartars from taking advantage of the situation, since the supply wagons were the core of the entire camp, and Wei Zhice did not want them to take any risks.

…………

Black-haired Qiu Yingquan led his cavalry at full speed, and just as Hejian City was about to fall, he arrived at the west gate. Without having time to inform the guards on the city wall, he led his knights to charge at the three hundred Tartar soldiers.

At first, the Tartar soldiers did not take them seriously. The three hundred men were still scattered in various places. Only the hundred or so riders in the middle gathered together and charged towards Qiu Yingquan's troops.

Although Qiu Yingquan's forces were more than three times that of the Tartars, he did not dare to be complacent. He immediately divided his troops into three groups, with himself leading 600 cavalry in the middle and leaving 200 cavalry at each of the north and south ends to monitor the Tartar cavalry that had not yet charged forward.

This is the standard tactic of the Yongyi Army: concentrate superior forces to attack the enemy, while using a small number of elite troops to cover the left and right flanks. Once they break through the enemy's central force, they then join forces to besiege its flanks.

Although they played conservatively, they were solid. While risky tactics did exist in the Yongyi Army, they were never used lightly.

The Tartar soldiers, numbering one hundred, faced Qiu Yingquan's six hundred cavalry without flinching. They had about twenty riders in the middle, while the rest spread out to the flanks. Although their numbers were small, their formation was very wide open.

As they slowly made their way here, they had already taken out their bows and arrows, ready to shoot.

Meanwhile, Qiu Yingquan's knights controlled their horses with one hand, while holding hand cannons in their right hands, ready to fire at any moment.

Just as they were about sixty or seventy paces away, the twenty or thirty Tartars in the middle suddenly stopped and steadily fired arrows at Qiu Yingquan from their horses.

The team leader, General Bai, shouted, "Avoid the arrows!"

The knights lowered their bodies as much as possible on their horses, while extending their left hands to use the round shields on their forearms to protect their heads, faces, and the eyes of their warhorses.

Even so, three warhorses and two knights were hit by arrows, and the speed of the charge was affected as men and horses fell to the ground.

Meanwhile, the dozens of cavalrymen on both flanks of the Tartars did not stop. When they were still forty or fifty paces away from Qiu Yingquan, they all raised their bows and fired fierce arrows. Then they immediately turned their horses and charged to the side, returning to the flanks and rear of the Tartars in the middle, and accelerated again to charge forward.

Qiu Yingquan didn't care about any of that. He roared, "Charge! Bombard them with pistols!"