The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 622: Battle of Ningyuan (Part )

The iron-clad cavalry is undoubtedly the ancient version of the tank. Both the men and the horses are wearing heavy armor and are invulnerable to swords and spears. Once they launch a group charge, it is like a torrent of steel. They will kill gods and Buddhas if they meet them. Ordinary infantry will be crushed into meat paste in an instant if they encounter them, and ordinary cavalry can only run for their lives if they encounter them.

Although the two thousand Jurchen cavalry led by Amin and Ajige were the elite among the Jurchen cavalry, they only wore leather armor, and their horses were unprotected. Naturally, they would suffer a great loss when facing the Guanning Iron Cavalry armed to the teeth. At just one encounter, the Jurchen cavalry were overwhelmed and had no power to fight back.

Originally, Amin and Ajige could have led their cavalry to retreat and use speed to consume the physical strength of the Guanning Iron Cavalry. However, there was a camp behind them. Once they retreated, allowing the 3,000 Guanning Iron Cavalry to charge around, it would inevitably cause greater casualties, or even a crushing defeat. So they had no choice but to bite the bullet and bear it with their physical bodies!

Although these 3,000 Guanning Iron Cavalry often conduct confrontation exercises, tonight is their first actual combat, and their opponent is the Jurchen cavalry, which is unrivaled in the world. So at the beginning, they were a little nervous. However, when they came into close combat, they found that the opponent was "vulnerable", and their confidence increased greatly, and they became braver and braver as the battle went on.

Tiehu, Wu Sangui and Mangui were all brave and courageous generals. At this moment, they took the lead, each leading a thousand cavalrymen to charge forward, killing the Jurchen cavalry and forcing them to retreat step by step. It was really like chopping melons and vegetables, advancing all the way with great force and invincible!
Nurhaci also had armored cavalry under his command, but their number was not large, only about 3,000, because this thing was too expensive, it was simply a gold-eating beast. Even if the money for making equipment was not counted, the cost of maintaining a cavalryman would be dozens of taels a year.

First, the war horses needed to eat the best beans, otherwise they could not bear the heavy equipment; second, at least one horse should be prepared for rotation; third, a cavalryman had to be equipped with at least two or three auxiliary soldiers to help wear armor, take care of the horses and take care of the armor, etc. In other words, to support one cavalryman, you need to support three soldiers and two horses. Three thousand cavalrymen actually need nine thousand people and six thousand horses, or even more.

Just imagine how much money this thing would cost? Even those with weaker financial resources cannot afford it. Just like modern aircraft carriers, small countries simply cannot afford them. Only powerful countries with deep pockets can afford the heavy cost.

The construction of Jia Huan's 3,000 Guanning Iron Cavalry took two years and has now cost more than 500,000 taels. The officials in the court have complained about this, and some have even impeached him for wasting the national treasury to build this flashy iron cavalry. Especially at the end of last year, after the old head of the mountain, Ye Gao, resigned as the chief minister of the cabinet, the Ministry of War's funding has obviously not been as generous as before.

Therefore, it was quite impressive that Nurhaci could afford 3,000 armored cavalry. This time when attacking Ningyuan, Nurhaci brought 1,000 armored cavalry, which were originally used for charging and breaking through. Moreover, this thing was too heavy and could not be mounted on a horse easily. Tonight, the Jin army used the red cannon to attack the camp unexpectedly, and Nurhaci's armored cavalry did not have time to put on their horses.

In addition, Nurhaci did not expect that Jia Huan had such an ace under his command. In a hurry, he could only respond with ordinary cavalry, and was naturally killed by surprise.

Amin and Ajige struggled to hold on, but were still forced to retreat step by step. Seeing their elite cavalry being slaughtered one-sidedly by the enemy, the two felt aggrieved and helpless, and their hearts were bleeding.

You must know that over the years, the Jin army has always been defeated when facing the Jurchen army, especially in field battles. As soon as they heard about the Jurchen cavalry, they changed color and fled. It was also normal for a few hundred female cavalry to chase and kill thousands of Jin troops. Now the situation is reversed. How aggrieved Kemin and Ajige must be.

Just as the Guanning Iron Cavalry was about to completely break through the Jurchen Cavalry's formation and charge into the enemy camp, suddenly a large number of shield carts were pushed forward, forming layers of barriers, blocking the Guanning Iron Cavalry's way.

It turned out that Nurhaci was worried that Amin and Ajige could not hold out, so he sent Dorgon to support them. Dorgon was calm and wise. Seeing that the Guanning Iron Cavalry was unstoppable, he quickly ordered his men to push the shield carts forward to form a solid line of defense, and gathered infantry to counterattack. Suddenly, arrows flew like locusts, shooting at the Guanning Iron Cavalry.

Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding...

The sharp arrows hit the iron armor like raindrops, sparks flew everywhere, but naturally they could not hurt the armored cavalry at all. However, the Guanning cavalry was blocked by the shield carts and could no longer advance at all.

Wu Sangui looked at the layers of shield-chariot formations in front of him and couldn't help but exclaimed what a pity it was. He decisively ordered his troops to withdraw back to the city.

Although the armored cavalry was powerful, it had a fatal weakness: it was too heavy and could not fight for a long time. If the horses were exhausted, they would have no choice but to wait for death. Although Tiehu and Mangui were unwilling to give up, they could not charge into the shield chariot array in front of them, so they could only withdraw their troops and return to the city. The Jurchen cavalry were afraid of being killed, so they dared not stop them, and they could not stop them. They could only watch the enemy retreat like a tide.

Amin and Ajige both breathed a sigh of relief and counted the number of people. They were sadly discovered that more than half of their cavalry were killed or wounded. It was truly a horrific sight and heartbreaking.

What a shame! In the past seven or eight years, there has never been such a terrible defeat!!!

"Fortunately, my thirteenth brother reacted quickly, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous!" Ajige said with lingering fear.

At this time, even the hot-tempered Second Prince Amin fell silent. After a long while, he said angrily, "This villain Jia Huan is really insidious. The artillery can clearly hit our camp, but he didn't use it during the day and attacked secretly at night!"

Ajige sighed and said, "I was careless. The artillery on the top of Ningyuan City should be heavy artillery obtained from foreigners, otherwise it would not be able to fire so far. In addition, Jia Huan secretly trained a team of armored cavalry. My thirteenth brother and I realized that Jia Huan would become a strong enemy of our Great Jin in the future. Now it has come true. What a pity that my thirteenth brother and I wanted to assassinate him, but we failed in the end!"

Amin snorted coldly and said, "When this guy first arrived in Ningyuan two years ago, I advised the Khan to take Ningyuan, but the Khan didn't listen. Now he has raised a tiger to cause trouble. What can we do?"

Ajige and Kemin were talking when Dorgon came over and asked in a deep voice, "My two brothers, how many casualties have you suffered?"

Amin's face suddenly darkened, and he turned his horse around and rode away without answering. Dorgon frowned and said unhappily, "I saved his life, and not only did he not say a word of thanks, he even turned his face away from me, relying on his age and merits, and never put us brothers in his eyes!"

Ajige and Dorgon were brothers from the same mother and had a close relationship. Ajige smiled bitterly and said, "He is one of the four great beiles, his status is higher than ours, and he has a bad temper. We just suffered a defeat, and you asked about the casualties the moment you opened your mouth. It would be strange if he would be nice to you."

Dorgon snorted coldly and said, "He has always been conceited. It may not be a bad thing for him to suffer a little loss now. Alas, we still underestimated Jia Huan. This kid is so cunning that even my father Khan fell into his trap!"

Ajige asked hurriedly: "How is Father Khan now?"

"My father was injured and spit out blood, but he is just holding on!"

Ajige's face changed drastically. At this time, the cannons on the top of Ningyuan City roared again, and the shells whistled over with long flame tails, falling into the camp of the Jin soldiers with a loud bang.

At this time, Ajige did not ask any more questions and quickly summoned his subordinates to retreat and get out of the range of the Jin army's artillery attack.

(End of this chapter)