weaving

Chapter 1619 Wasn't that reinforcements?
Zhang Dengke's departure without notice led to the collapse of the Su Village defense line, and put Zhou Yuji in an extremely passive position.

Although Zhou Yuji quickly abandoned his determination to continue defending Sucun and made the timely decision to withdraw and break out without the slightest hesitation, the incident occurred in a hurry, without any prior comprehensive plan, and the entire army was not psychologically prepared.

Therefore, even with Zhou Yuji's brave and skilled army, the losses were still heavy. Of the more than 3,000 men in the army, less than 1,500 actually broke through the Jurchen encirclement. Most of his soldiers were lost on the battlefield of the breakout from Su Village.

Moreover, of the more than 1,000 people who broke through the encirclement, there were more than 1,000 cavalrymen and only more than 200 infantrymen, which shows how fierce the breakout battle at Su Village was.

Zhou Yuji led his 3,500 soldiers to defend the emperor, chasing after the Tartars and launching several raids on the Jurchen camp. He only lost less than 500 soldiers. However, the breakout at Su Village resulted in the loss of more than 1,500 soldiers, including more than 400 cavalry.

Of the original two thousand infantrymen, less than three hundred remained by Zhou Yuji's side after the breakout battle at Su Village.

Even so, compared to Zhang Dengke's side, Zhou Yuji's troops were in a better situation—in fact, they were much better than Zhang Dengke's troops!

…………

Despite being well-prepared and being the first to break out of the camp and escape, seemingly gaining the upper hand, Zhang Dengke suffered even greater losses because he was too eager to survive, and almost ended up trapped in the Tartar camp himself.

In order to break through the encirclement, Zhang Dengke ordered his guerrillas to lead the infantry out of the west gate and break out of the Jurchen encirclement from the southwest. He then led his more than 600 cavalrymen to charge out from the west, but instead of following the infantry to break through to the southwest, they rushed in the opposite northwest direction.

Clearly, in order to break through the encirclement, Zhang Dengke sacrificed his infantry as pawns, sending them out to draw the main force of the Jurchens, while he himself led his six hundred or so main cavalry to escape in the opposite direction.

But Zhang Dengke overestimated himself. In the end, he had less than a hundred servants with him during the breakout battle. He himself was hit by two arrows, one in his left shoulder and one in his right leg, and almost lost his life at the hands of the Tartars.

After all, how can a general who can abandon his subordinates at any time expect them to protect him with their lives?

Even after three days, Zhang Dengke had only managed to gather a force of less than three hundred men. Some of these were stragglers who were not his former subordinates, but rather soldiers who had deserted from other Ming generals.

…………

On the afternoon of the same day that Su Village fell completely, the Ming army camp at Wang'erzhuang also fell.

Actually, they could have held on a little longer. Even though Tang Tong had shown signs of fear, he didn't dare to consider running away without permission under Cao Bianjiao's imposing presence.

Despite the presence of five banners of Tartar soldiers gathered here, they were unable to fully deploy to attack Wang'erzhuang. Although they had already captured the outer defenses of Wang'erzhuang on the fifth day of the third month, this further increased the difficulty of conquering Wang'erzhuang.

After all, with the Jurchens capturing the outer barracks of Wang'erzhuang, the defensive pressure on the area was gradually decreasing, which made it easier to allocate internal troops. This was actually advantageous for Cao Bianjiao and Tang Tong.

Another point is that the camp is now only Wang'erzhuang, and the Jurchen army is stationed outside. This also prompted Tang Tong to make up his mind to defend it to the death. He no longer dared to break out alone and face the Tatar soldiers of the five banners outside by himself!

On the sixth day of the third month, the Tartar soldiers from the five banners took turns attacking Wang'erzhuang, but they were all driven back by the troops commanded by Cao Bianjiao and Tang Tong. Although the fighting was very tough, everyone's confidence remained and the morale of the army did not waver.

On the other hand, the Jurchens seemed a bit impatient!
After all, their side had gathered troops from five banners, including Manchu, Mongol, and Han soldiers, covering infantry, cavalry, mounted archery, and artillery. If they still couldn't break through the Ming army camp at Wang'erzhuang, where would they put their face? However, Cao Bianjiao and Tang Tong were holding their ground very stubbornly, and so far they still couldn't see any hope of breaking through the Ming army camp at Wang'erzhuang. This was the reason for their distress and impatience.

However, a change of events occurred precisely at this moment...

At the beginning of the Si hour, the Jurchens west of Wang'erzhuang suddenly withdrew their troops and returned to their camp without any warning, ceasing their attack on Wang'erzhuang, which surprised Cao Bianjiao.

Although the Jurchens returned less than half an hour later and launched another fierce attack on the west side of Wang'erzhuang, their offensive was clearly not as strong as before, and they even deployed far fewer troops, obviously because some of their elite forces had been transferred elsewhere.

Cao Bianjiao initially thought the Jurchens had some trick up their sleeves and worried that they might deploy their elite troops to launch a surprise attack on any of the other three defensive lines in order to breach Wang'erzhuang.

He hurriedly informed the other three defending officers of the situation, as well as Tang Zhixiao. However, as the news returned, Cao Bianjiao was surprised to find that some of the Jurchen elites were also missing from the other three sides.

In desperation, he personally led his retainers out of the camp for a surprise attack. After a fierce battle, they finally captured a Mongol Niru Zhangjing. Under severe interrogation, they learned that it was "a Ming army that rushed in from the southwest".

Although the full picture is unknown, it is known that this Ming army consisted entirely of cavalry, numbering around a thousand.

Cao Bianjiao initially thought that reinforcements had arrived, and immediately informed Tang Tong of the news, hoping to make him happy as well, and also to strengthen Tang Tong's determination to hold the line with him.

Unexpectedly, Tang Tong rushed over immediately after learning the news. After interrogating the dying Mongol Niru for a while, he made a judgment that was completely opposite to Cao Bianjiao's—that it was not reinforcements, but a defeated army!

Faced with Cao Bianjiao's questioning, Tang Tong explained his reasons for making this judgment...

First, reinforcements will not come from the southwest, because Zhou Yuji and Zhang Dengke are stationed in Su Village in that direction.

Secondly, the fact that five banners of Tartar soldiers could appear on their side meant that Zhong Minggao and Xue Minzhong from Zhaoxianzhuang in the north had been defeated, and the three banners of Tartar soldiers that were coming to reinforce them were coming from the north.

In this light, Zhou Yuji and Zhang Dengke of Su Village would surely also face a heavy siege by the Tartars. If it were the vanguard of reinforcements, it would not have come so suddenly. After all, they would have to defeat the Tartars and relieve the siege of Su Village before they could come to the aid of Wang Erzhu.

Finally, Tang Tong gave his judgment—this suddenly appearing Ming cavalry must be the official troops of Zhou Yuji or Zhang Dengke who broke out of Su Village.

In fact, the reason why Tang Tong was able to see this was not because he was smarter than Cao Bianjiao, but because Tang Tong was timid and always considered the level of danger he was in, and was always thinking about escaping and surviving.

It was precisely because of this that it was possible to see at a glance that what had arrived was not reinforcements, but the routed troops from Su Village.

"Master Cao, with Su Village fallen, the Tartar army will arrive in no time. With our small force, we are destined not to be able to hold Wang'erzhuang. We should make a quick decision before the Tartar army arrives!" Tang Tong urged Cao Bianjiao urgently.

Cao Bianjiao's clenched teeth revealed his resentment...