The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 627: Decisive Battle (Part ): Fame
The Musketeer Cavalry is the second trump card in Jia Huan's hand, and is even more mysterious than the Guanning Iron Cavalry. Their training is usually closed, and not only ordinary people have never seen them, even their comrades from different branches of the military have never seen them. Usually, one can only hear the sound of gunfire in the Musketeer Cavalry camp, as well as the loud explosions, which sound neither like artillery nor gunfire.

The two thousand light cavalrymen that rushed out of the city were actually musketeers, led by Jia Huan's direct subordinate, the guerrilla general Xing Wei. These musketeers were seen galloping on their horses, holding flintlock rifles in one hand, all of them had bulging belts wrapped around their waists, and no one knew what was in them.

Manggurtai led a thousand elite cavalrymen of the Plain Yellow Banner to meet the enemy. The Plain Yellow Banner was Nurhaci's personal army, and the Jurchen cavalrymen under it were naturally the most elite, riding the best horses, using the best swords and bows, and their combat power was unparalleled in the world. In just a few seconds, their speed reached the extreme, like an indestructible sharp knife, moving forward without hesitation, slashing at the Jin army's lancers.

Although the Jin army's lancers on the opposite side had twice as many people, this group of Plain Yellow Banner cavalry were fearless. They had cold eyes and even a cruel grin on their lips, with a hint of sarcasm!
That’s right, it’s sarcasm!
Because in the eyes of this elite cavalry of the Zhenghuang Banner, the cavalry of the Jin army only used some nonsense. Cavalry using muskets? It was simply courting death!
Not to mention that on the battlefield, the power of a musket may not be greater than that of a bow and arrow. The war horses are galloping at high speed and have no time to reload ammunition. At most, they can only fire one shot and then become a fire stick. When it comes to hand-to-hand combat, it will be a one-sided massacre.

However, this unrivaled Plain Yellow Banner cavalry soon suffered a taste of dimensionality reduction attack. When the two sides were still about 200 meters apart, the Jin Army's lance cavalry on the opposite side opened fire first!

That's right, after more than a year of continuous improvements by Mandarin, the effective killing range of the Jin army's flintlock rifles has now increased to two hundred meters. The previous old-fashioned matchlock rifles had an effective killing range of only about fifty meters, which has increased several times. This is undoubtedly quite terrifying.

bang bang bang...

The sound of gunfire came one after another like popping beans.

So what if they are elite? I am fighting against the elite!
Unfortunately, this elite cavalry of the Zhenghuang Banner was still about 200 meters away. They were caught off guard and were mowed down by the dense oncoming bullets. Before they could react, the second wave of bullets arrived, followed by the third wave, the fourth wave...

It was not that the Jin army's lancers reloaded their ammunition so quickly, but that they used the famous three-stage attack tactic, or more precisely, the three-stage attack on horseback. After the lancers in the front row fired their guns, they immediately slowed down their horses, and the cavalry in the back row immediately followed suit and fired, followed by the third row, the fourth row...

This kind of tactics not only requires the soldiers to cooperate with each other tacitly, but also requires superb riding skills, otherwise it is easy to cause trouble. Jia Huan's 2,000 lancers have been strictly trained for more than a year to reach the current level, which is pleasing to the eye at first glance.

However, the elite cavalry of the Plain Yellow Banner on the opposite side suffered a miserable fate. They were stunned on the spot, and more than half of them were killed or injured before they could even use their unparalleled archery skills. It was truly shocking, and even Nurhaci, who was watching the battle in the rear, was stunned.

Fortunately, when the Jin cavalry finished firing, the rear army became the front army, and the distance between the two sides was close. Manggurtai calmed down and thought it was his turn to show his power, because in close combat, muskets were useless, and the Jin cavalry could only be slaughtered.

However, at this time, the Jin cavalry calmly hung the flintlock rifle on Desheng, and took out some wooden hammer-like things from the belts around their waists. No one knew how to move them, but these wooden hammers actually emitted a puff of white smoke.

"Jiannu Tartars, try this!" Shitou Xingwei, who was in charge of the team, grinned grimly and used the speed of his horse to throw the wooden hammer out. The other Jin cavalrymen also threw the things in their hands. Hundreds of smoking wooden hammers flew through the air and flew towards the remaining elite cavalry of the Zhenghuang Banner.

Manggurtai's heart was horrified, and he subconsciously pulled the reins of his horse. The next second, those wooden hammers exploded violently, and broken stones and iron balls flew everywhere, blowing people and horses to the ground, with blood and flesh flying everywhere. Those well-trained war horses neighed and fled in all directions, and the army was completely defeated!

"What...is this?" Nurhaci, Dorgon and others were all shocked.

"Brothers, the time has come to perform meritorious deeds. Cut off Nurhaci's head, confer titles on his wife and children, today. Kill!" Xing Wei shouted loudly, drew his sword and led the charge.

"Kill!" The lancers all put on their swords, full of murderous intent, and pointed directly at Nurhaci's Khan flag.

"Protect the Khan!" Dorgon shouted, not caring about besieging the Guanning Iron Cavalry, and hurriedly mobilized people to intercept the Lancers, but the Lancers took out two scary wooden hammers from time to time and threw them into the crowd, blowing them up everywhere, and the dead and wounded had their intestines pierced and their stomachs rotted, which was a horrible sight. The Jurchen soldiers were a little scared, and when they saw the smoking things thrown at them, they subconsciously dodged.

Jia Huan, who was on the top of the city wall, had been keeping an eye on the battlefield. Seeing that the grenade he "invented" was so effective, he was surprised and delighted, and immediately ordered the entire army to attack.

In an instant, all the Jin troops jumped out of their cover, formed a square formation and advanced forward. The 20,000 Ningyuan defenders in the city also rushed out in full force and rushed forward bravely.

Boom boom boom...

The red cannons on the top of the city also used their full power, using their long range to bombard the rear of the Jin army, and the three thousand Guanning cavalry who escaped the encirclement also took the opportunity to rush forward and madly harvest lives. "Nurhaci was blown to death, long victory! Long victory!"

"Nurhaci was killed in the explosion. Victory! Victory!"

In the chaos, someone suddenly shouted. It happened that Nurhaci's flag bearer was hit by a stray bullet and the Khan's flag fell down. When the Jurchen soldiers saw the Khan's flag fall, they thought that the Khan was really dead. They had no intention of fighting anymore and turned around and fled towards Jinzhou.

"Come back, this Khan is not dead yet. Anyone who dares to retreat will be killed without mercy!" Nurhaci shouted loudly, but the battlefield was filled with the sound of artillery and gunfire, and the shouts of killing were deafening. Except for the personal soldiers nearby, no one could hear what Nurhaci was shouting. In addition, the offensive of the Jin army was so fierce that no one dared to stay.

Nurhaci already had internal injuries, and he couldn't help but get furious when he saw this. He vomited large mouthfuls of blood, staggered, and almost fell off his horse. Fortunately, a personal soldier next to him supported him in time.

"Father Khan, we can't hold them back anymore, let's retreat!" The fifth prince Ajige rushed over with dozens of cavalrymen to provide protection, shouting loudly.

As the saying goes, a defeat is like a landslide, and there is no way to recover. Nurhaci had fought and won every battle, but today he was defeated miserably. It was a bad feeling. He coughed up blood twice, and the whole person was like a deflated ball. He said weakly: "Retreat!"

Nurhaci fled under the protection of Ajige and Dorgon brothers. He fled for fifty miles before he dared to stop to rest. He counted the surroundings and found that there were less than a thousand people left. He was filled with grief and anger. He looked up to the sky and sighed: "I, Nurhaci, have fought countless battles in my life, but I didn't expect that I would be defeated by a young boy like Jia Huan today. How can I live in this world with dignity?"

Ajige and Dorgon were shocked when they heard this, and hurriedly advised: "Father Khan, don't be discouraged. Victory and defeat are common in the military. If we lose this time, we can win next time. In the past, we won the great victories of Sarhu and Jinzhou. Didn't we kill more than 100,000 people from the Jin State? Although we have suffered a lot this time, we can go back and recuperate. We may be able to make a comeback. Why does Father Khan want to destroy us here?"

Nurhaci regained some spirit after hearing this. Just at this time Amin came with thousands of remaining soldiers to join them. Then other generals came one after another, and gradually nearly 10,000 people gathered.

Nurhaci couldn't help but regain some confidence, and immediately ordered his troops to return to Jinzhou, intending to rest in Jinzhou, gather the fleeing soldiers, and then make further plans.

However, how could Jia Huan give him such an opportunity? Soon, a light cavalry caught up with him and kept chasing him. The more than 10,000 troops that had just assembled were dispersed again. Nurhaci had no choice but to run away all the way under the protection of his personal soldiers. Saving his life was the most important thing.

Nurhaci fled for a night and finally arrived outside Xingshan City near Jinzhou the next day. He found that the flag of the Jin Army had been replaced on the city wall of Xingshan City. He was so frightened that he did not dare to stay and continued to flee eastward.

It turned out that as early as the beginning of the decisive battle under Ningyuan City, Jia Huan secretly assigned the navy on Juehua Island to set out from the sea and launch a surprise attack on Xingshan City, thirty miles southeast of Jinzhou.

Xingshan City was just a small city. There were only a few hundred Jin soldiers guarding it, and they were careless and complacent. They were taken by surprise by the landing of 3,000 naval forces led by Admiral Zhang Guizhang from the sea.

Besides, Nurhaci discovered that Xingshan City had fallen, so he fled back to Jinzhou. However, there were not many defenders in Jinzhou City. If Jia Huan took advantage of the victory to pursue him, he might not be able to hold the city. So he abandoned the city after staying there for a long time, hurriedly crossed the Liaohe River, and fled back to Shenyang.

When Jia Huan arrived with his army, he found that Jinzhou City and Guangning City were already empty cities. He immediately sent troops to occupy them and dispatched fast horses to Shanhaiguan to report the victory and request Sun Chengzong to send more troops to guard the cities.

In this way, Jia Huan defeated the arrogant Nurhaci in a battle outside Ningyuan City, annihilated more than 80,000 enemies, and recovered the Liaoxi area in one fell swoop. By the way, he also captured the third beile of the Jin Dynasty, Yu Gultai, alive.

As soon as the good news was reported back to the interior, the whole country was jubilant. The people rushed to tell each other and celebrated in a way that was even more lively than the Chinese New Year. The Liaodong Governor Jia Huan also became famous throughout the world, and the "Eight Vajras" under his command also became famous.

The eight great kings were: Zu Tianshou, Wu Sangui, Tiehu, Xing Wei, Man Gui, Zhang Guizhang, Ma Shilong, and Jiang Yingzhao. As for the military supervisor Yan Mingtai, he was not included because he was a civil servant.

In addition, the Guanning Iron Cavalry and Lancers under Jia Huan's command also became famous and became the subject of extensive descriptions and talks by storytellers from all over the country.

(End of this chapter)