The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 402 Death
The fourteenth year of Chongzhen.

July 18th.

into the night.

Liaodong, Songjin.

The mountain wind howled as cold as water, and the pine trees and waves made low humming sounds like the sea tide in the strong wind.

The moon is bright and the stars are sparse, shining on the black soil.

Under the cover of night, more than 60,000 Ming troops were divided into twelve formations from north to south along the line from Rufeng Mountain to Song Mountain.

The Qing army did suffer heavy casualties in the successive battles.

As the attacking party, the Ming army naturally suffered even greater casualties.

After three days of fierce fighting, the Ming army suffered more than 7,000 casualties.

The heavy casualties caused the morale of the Ming army to become even lower.

Qiu Minyang, the governor of Liaodong, volunteered to lead the governor's battalion to garrison Songshan City, and the wounded soldiers injured in the war were also placed in Songshan City.

Now, there are only about 60,000 soldiers capable of fighting under Hong Chengchou's command.

The moon is bright in the sky, as cool as water.

Hong Chengchou, wearing armor, stood on a viewing platform on the mountainside, gazing at the Qing army camp in the distance.

His brows were furrowed, his eyes were deep, and his expression was solemn.

If you look more closely, you can see fear deep in Hong Chengchou's eyes.

Hong Chengchou tightly grasped the sword at his waist, but the cold feeling of the hilt between his palms did not dispel the fear in his heart.

The Jiannu were different from the bandits.

Although the bandits are powerful, they are still bandits after all. As long as there is a glimmer of hope, they will not have a firm fighting spirit.

Even if there are hundreds of thousands of people, they are still a mob and are still vulnerable.

But the Jiannu were different.

The Qing army had strict military discipline and was cruel and ruthless.

The order has been passed down from the superiors that anyone who dares to escape will be punished along with his relatives and family members.

As the military flag waved, thousands of troops moved forward.

The bloody flag waves, and we fight to the death.

The Qing army is powerful and resilient. It is difficult to defeat them even with the same number of people, let alone the fact that the Qing army now has twice as many people.

Hong Chengchou's eyes kept changing, and his thoughts were even more confused.

The road ahead is dark and hopeless.

Between the distant mountains, the Qing army camp was brightly lit.

The Qing army had no reservations about going to the Ming camp since they were exposed.

The lights dotted along the three narrow trenches all the way south, like the Milky Way in the sky.

It became a natural barrier separating Songjin and Ningyuan.

Hong Chengchou's heart was beating violently.

It was so violent that even Hong Chengchou himself could clearly feel his heart beating.

Hong Chengchou had never felt death so close.

Hong Chengchou had also anticipated death.

Some retire and return to their hometown to live out their lives there.

Some also died in office or sacrificed their lives for their country.

When swearing to go to war in Ningyuan, Hong Chengchou had already thought about the worst outcome of the Battle of Songjin.

To die for one's country is the worst way to die.

Even if he was defeated in Songjin and killed the elite troops of the nine borders, as long as Hong Chengchou died for his country.

After all, the evaluations in later history books will not be too harsh.

only……

Hong Chengchou clenched his fists.

Fear filled his heart.

Hong Chengchou tried his best to control his body.

Fear lingered in Hong Chengchou's heart, but reason kept telling him that as the commander-in-chief of the three armies, he must not show any fear.

"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!"

A huge roar suddenly sounded, breaking the quiet night and startling birds in all directions.

Hong Chengchou looked back at Rufeng Mountain.

There was a lot of flames on Rufeng Mountain.

The roar of artillery fire came one after another, and the deafening roar echoed between the mountains and valleys.

Waves of dull sound came one after another, washing everyone's eardrums and impacting everyone's chest.

……

The mountain breeze blows, carrying thousands of flags.

The sound of pine waves sweeps across the mountains.

North of Rufeng Mountain.

Yang Guozhu and Liu Zhaoji, both wearing armor and riding war horses, stood side by side.

The guards and servants around were all fully armed, carrying guns and bows.

On the hilltops everywhere, the troops from Xuanfu and Liaodong towns have completed their assembly.

The infantrymen of Xuanfu, wearing robes and belts, holding guns and muskets, formed a tight military formation and stood against the mountain.

The cavalrymen of Liaodong clenched their weapons and patted their companions who had fought with them for a long time.

The soldiers from the two towns whispered to each other.

This time no officers tried to stop them, and no officers shouted at them to stop.

Because they were saying their final farewell to each other.

The soldiers from the two towns came from different places and spoke different accents, but they were doing the same thing.

In addition to farewells, some people prayed and some shed tears.

All the sounds were eventually suppressed by the deafening roar of artillery fire.

After continuing for a long time, the rumbling sound of artillery finally stopped.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"

The deep sound of war drums rang out from the top of Rufeng Mountain.

The Ming army strongmen with bare upper bodies vigorously beat the big drums displayed in the camp.

The next moment, on Rufeng Mountain, tens of thousands of Ming troops from the two towns moved together.

Yang Guozhu and Liu Zhaoji looked at each other briefly, then gently pulled the reins and rode off their horses.

The sound of horse hooves as dense as a torrential rain rang in everyone's ears, and shouts like a tsunami also sounded, rising straight into the sky and spreading in all directions.

"Restore the soil!"

……

"Pass on my orders."

Hong Chengchou rode on his warhorse, looking into the distance at a place where the lights were dimmer than those of the other two sides, and slowly issued military orders.

"Attack the lime kiln!"

The horn sounded loudly, ordering the cavalry to gallop.

Hong Chengchou issued the order.

Former army.

More than 20,000 soldiers from Datong, Shanhai and Miyun towns all rushed forward and attacked the lime kiln.

And at the same time.

The sound of artillery fire was also heard in Xiangyintun, further south.

Under the cover of artillery, the troops of Ningyuan Town also launched an offensive towards the Qing army camp in Xiangyintun.

The sound of artillery fire was also heard from the north side of the lime kiln.

At the same time, accompanied by the sound of gunpowder ignition, a large number of rockets cut through the night sky and flew towards the Qing army camp.

The troops from the Zhongxie and Dongxie towns, under the command of Cao Wenzhao and Bai Guangen, pressed towards the Qing army camp south of Changling Mountain.

In an instant, from Changling Mountain to Xiangyintun, on a front line stretching for more than 20 miles, a total of hundreds of thousands of troops from the Ming and Qing dynasties were entangled together.

The rumbling sound of war drums echoed in the mountain valleys.

The deep sound of the horn overwhelmed the wails of the wounded soldiers.

The rapid sound of horse hooves was like a death knell.

The gleaming blades under the firelight looked like the Yin-Yang Banner that claimed one's life. The battlefield was filled with noises, fierce Manchu, rough Mongolian, and resolute Chinese, all mixed together.

The deafening shouts of killing were getting louder and louder, and the dense and rapid footsteps were heard one after another.

The roar of the guns and cannons continued like frying beans.

Every time it sounded, it was bound to bring about waves of wailing.

The boiling blood poured onto the cold grass, winding into one bloody stream after another between the pine and brocade mountain valleys.

The war horses neighed as they charged forward, their chopped-off limbs were trampled and kicked by people and horses, and the fallen horses struggled feebly until they were trampled into a pool of meat.

All over the battlefield, the armies of Ming and Qing dynasties were fighting each other.

The entangled military formations were like a huge meat grinder, constantly reaping the lives of soldiers on both sides.

The sounds of guns piercing flesh, swords colliding, and armor ripping were heard constantly.

People kept falling down on both sides' fronts, and were soon replaced by others.

The Ming army was trapped between Songjiang and Jinzhou, with no way to retreat. It was a fight to the death.

The Qing army had strict military discipline. Orders were passed down from above that anyone who dared to desert would be punished with the punishment of his relatives and his wife and children, so there was no room for retreat.

They were addicted to the rich Han land and did not want to return to the cold and ruthless land of white mountains and black waters.

These Jurchen hunters who roam the mountains and forests have already risked their lives.

The Ming troops that swarmed in brought with them the desire to recover the territory and the determination to avenge the humiliation.

Time passes by minute by minute, and at every moment there is someone sleeping forever on this land.

At the gambling table, both sides have already thrown in all their chips.

The fighting outside Jinzhou City was even more intense than on the southern front.

When the Ming army from the two towns on Rufeng Mountain launched a fierce attack on the Qing army camp outside Jinzhou.

Zu Dashou, who was trapped in Jinzhou City, also led his troops out of the city to cooperate with the Ming army's external attack to attack the Qing army camp outside Jinzhou City.

The first quarter of the day.

The Qing army camp in Shihuiyao fell, and the remaining thousand or so Qing troops fled in a panic.

The Ming army entered Lime Kiln and continued to break out to the south.

The heavy casualties put the Ming army in an extremely bad situation.

The morale and spirit of the troops were greatly affected.

However, since they had occupied the lime kiln, the hope of breaking out was just around the corner, so everyone forced themselves to cheer up.

After a brief reorganization, the Ming troops from the three towns marched forward again.

The vanguard cavalry galloped all the way and did not encounter any ambushes along the way.

However, just when the central army was halfway forward, the sound of a large number of artillery fire suddenly came from between the two mountains.

And where the vanguard cavalry had originally swept, a large number of soldiers and horses suddenly appeared.

Amid the roar of gunfire, a group of fully armed soldiers rushed out to attack.

However, this time, the Ming army did not collapse instantly because of the sudden attack.

Accompanied by the rapid sound of drums, officers from the two wings and three towns of the Ming army, along with their elite servants, joined the battlefield and charged towards the guards who were rushing towards them!

……

The Qing army camp at Changling Mountain.

The central army of the imperial camp.

Huang Taiji stood on the observation tower in the east of the central army, staring at the flashing lights everywhere with a frown on his face.

As battle reports came in from all over, Huang Taiji's belief in victory began to waver.

The Ming army has fought in the field these days and has been so strong that it seems like they are not the Ming army.

Huang Taiji had seen Ming soldiers willing to die bravely.

However, those who are willing to die bravely and fearlessly are often a minority in the Ming army.

Many times you just need to kill them, and the others are the lambs to be slaughtered.

"However, victory ultimately belongs to our Qing Dynasty..."

Huang Taiji tightly grasped the sword at his waist, his eyes determined.

Dorgon had stabilized the defense line outside Jinzhou and began to organize a counterattack.

Ajige repeatedly repelled the Ming army's offensive in Xiangyintun.

At the lime kiln, although the Ming army occupied the lime kiln, they were ultimately unable to cross the two lines of defense behind it.

Oboi had already led the guards to engage in a battle with the Ming army, and Shang Kexi and Geng Zhongming had already arranged their battle formations.

The loading and accuracy of firearms are much weaker than those of heavy bows.

But in defensive battles, especially when there are trenches and fences, it is a real weapon to kill the enemy.

Huang Taiji constantly deployed troops and issued orders.

The Ming army's tenacious fighting spirit could not last long.

Soon the heavy casualties will affect their morale...

only……

Huang Taiji looked solemn as he scanned the battlefield in all directions.

His many years of experience on the battlefield had made him keenly aware of something amiss and a hint of danger, but after thinking carefully, he could not figure out what was wrong.

The sound of gunfire continued to be heard faintly in the distance, and the sounds of fighting and shouting echoed everywhere and reached his ears.

Huang Taiji's heart sank suddenly. It was not until this moment that he finally realized what was wrong.

Since a quarter of an hour ago, he had not heard any sound of horse hooves, nor seen any cavalrymen coming to report the military intelligence.

After all, Huang Taiji was an experienced warrior for many years, so he frowned and issued military orders decisively.

The camp gate of Changling Mountain opened a little, and dozens of armored cavalry from the Guard Camp galloped out in an instant.

The flickering torches lit up one dark corner after another.

It also made Huang Taiji's violently beating heart slowly calm down.

Huang Taiji thought, maybe the front line is just...

Just when Huang Taiji was feeling hopeless.

The flickering flames in the field of vision suddenly went out.

Huang Taiji's face finally sank completely.

The next moment, the alarm bell of the Changlingshan camp rang suddenly.

The shrill ringing sound spread throughout the Changling Mountain area in an instant.

And almost at the same time.

Outside Changling Mountain, a loud swan sound rose into the sky.

Then, a little fire suddenly appeared in the dark place.

The dense flames gathered together and eventually formed a sea of ​​fire.

A tall general's flag was also raised at this moment.

The eighteen-foot-tall fiery red general's flag fluttered in the headwind and spread out.

Cao Wenzhao wore a three-flag sun and moon helmet, a waist-length armor with fish scales, a battle skirt woven with hundreds of flowers, and held a tiger spear in his hand, standing under the general's flag.

The dazzling firelight shone on Cao Wenzhao's body, and was even more majestic when reflected by the armor leaves.

stern.

Like a god!

The north wind blew towards him, blowing up the red cotton robe covering his armor.

The three fiery red flags on the high-topped helmet were also constantly fluttering in the strong wind.

The strong wind blew up the helmet flags and red tassels on the heads of more than 500 armored soldiers behind Cao Wenzhao, like a raging wave.

The sudden change caused chaos in the Qing army's imperial camp.

The shrill sound of the alarm was particularly harsh in the dark night.

Cao Wenzhao's expression was calm, his heart as still as water.

Looking at the brightly lit observation deck not far away.

Looking at the figure standing at the highest point on the observation deck.

The flames flickered, illuminating everyone's clothes and armor.

The moonlight was like water, gently brushing across everyone's faces.

Cao Wenzhao slowly raised the tiger spear in his hand, and the cold tip of the spear pointed at the Qing army's imperial camp.

The five hundred armored soldiers behind him are rushing forward!
……

"History of Ming Dynasty·Biography 156":
Cao Wenzhao and his ilk were brave and ferocious, and they defeated all who came their way, and were known as being able to defeat ten thousand enemies.

When the destiny is over, even the good general will fall.

These three people were the most loyal and brave, and their deaths were also the most tragic, so they are recorded in a separate chapter.