In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 118 Whoever retreats first loses

"My lord, those bandits are coming again!"

"Isn't it reasonable to think that this king is afraid of them?"

Hauge was furious when he saw that the gang of horse bandits were being stubborn and began to advance towards them again.

But after careful consideration, he did not send any more cavalry to attack. Instead, he sent messengers to call Sony back.

On this side, Lin Rui was still commanding the four formations of the Lin Family Army, advancing steadily, stopping every hundred steps to sort out their formation before moving forward.

As for the archers who were not killed by the arrows, and the few young soldiers, they simply treated their injuries, and those who were able to move followed, while those who were unable to move lay where they were, pretending to be dead for the time being.

Half an hour later, when the infantry phalanx was only about two miles away from the cavalry led by Haug, Sony finally gathered all the cavalry and rushed over, choosing to occupy Haug's corners to the north and east.

At this time, the southernmost infantry phalanx was less than five miles away from the Mongolian cavalry on the southern hillside. It can be said that the two sides were on the verge of breaking out.

Although Hauge did not want the cavalry to attack the infantry phalanx of the horse bandits, he also did not want to be forced to retreat and chop off the military power of the Qing Dynasty.

He didn't believe that the horse bandits dared to continue to advance when their flanks were facing cavalry attacks at any time.

Lin Rui did give the order to stop advancing, because it was already very dangerous within two miles. If they advanced further, the Jiannu cavalry in front would either attack directly and launch a charge, or turn around and run away.

What's more, the archers' feathered arrows are almost at their lowest, each of them only has two or three left, including one training arrow, which is a recyclable feathered arrow made of pure wrought iron.

.........

Although the distance was too far and it was difficult to see clearly, Wang Pu and the military attachés were very excited as the messengers continued to report the situation back.

"Okay, great, it's best that this group of rebels and Jiannu die together!"

"It's impossible to die together. At best, both sides will suffer."

"That's enough, mother. As long as they fight to the death, both of them will lose, I dare to kill them and see who is the oriole!"

"good…"

However, half an hour passed. Although Lin Jiajun and Jian Nu were at odds with each other, neither of them dared to attack rashly, nor did they want to take another step back.

Obviously, both Lin Rui and Hauge knew that this fight would definitely be a bloody battle, a battle in which neither of them could control the situation.

If there weren't [-] Ming army cavalry watching from the sidelines, the two of them might still put all their efforts into a fight.

After all, for Lin Rui, Namuzhong occupies the high ground in the south and is only about ten miles away from the Jiannu cavalry in front, so he can launch a direct assault.

As long as the cavalry on both sides are entangled and lose their speed advantage, the infantry will dominate.

It was not until the sky was getting late and the sun was setting in the mountains that Hauge had no choice but to send someone to tell the Lin family army that it was getting late and they would fight again tomorrow, and then led the cavalry to retreat first.

There is no way, once it gets dark, the cavalry will not have much advantage at all, but the infantry can still stay in place.

Therefore, in order to prevent the horse bandits from sneak attacks at night, Hauge led the cavalry and retreated for more than 40 miles in one breath.

Lin Rui did not pursue. It was a joke for the infantry to pursue the cavalry.

The reason for pressing forward step by step is simply to defeat Jiannu in terms of momentum.

As long as Jian Nu takes the initiative to give in in front of them today, the infantry of the Lin family army will no longer be psychologically afraid of the Jurchen cavalry.

No, looking at the Jurchen cavalry going away, the teenagers who had been tense all day cheered loudly, and even the archers also shouted to vent their anger.

"Oh...we won!"

"The Jurchens were defeated by us..."

"The Jurchen Tatars escaped."

The cheers were like a roaring mountain and a tsunami, filling the entire battlefield, and even the Mongolian cavalry on the hilltop cheered.

Namuzhong was also very excited. This was the first time that their Chahar tribe had defeated the Jurchens in a frontal battle, causing the Jurchens to give in on their own initiative.

Although most of the credit was due to the Han soldiers, the cavalry led by her also played a big role.

"Brothers, have you seen it?"

"As long as we are united and fearless, even the arrogant Jurchen cavalry will only end up running away in embarrassment in front of us. I wonder, which other army in the world is the opponent of my Lin family army?"

"Long live the Lin family army!"

"Long live son!"

As Lin Rui pointed to the east and finished speaking in an awesome voice, the teenagers roared at the top of their lungs again, and at this moment, morale reached its peak.

What's even more valuable is that the temperament of all the young soldiers has undergone earth-shaking changes. Their eyes and faces are filled with unprecedented confidence.

The bloody nature in the man's bones was also completely aroused.

Lin Rui naturally clearly felt the changes in the teenagers, and took a deep breath. He knew that the purpose of taking the initiative this time was achieved.

An army that relies on training, hiding in places, and conspiracy can never become a strong army.

Only by defeating powerful enemies face to face in field battles can we build up strong confidence and fighting will, and eventually become an invincible and peerless force.

As for how many enemies he killed, it didn't matter to Lin Rui.

"Report, sir, the Ming army cavalry has also returned to the camp."

"Okay, here's the order to the entire army. The battle alarm has been lifted. Everyone should rest where they are, but they are not allowed to move around at will!" As soon as the Jiannu cavalry retreated, Wang Pu immediately took the military attaches back to the camp, and Lin Rui finally issued the order. An order to rest in place.

Suddenly, the nerves of the teenagers and archers, which had been tense for a long time, suddenly relaxed, and they all collapsed on the ground, and more of them were lying on the ground with their arms stretched out.

After they had rested enough, they all took out the big cakes, took off the bamboo tubes, and wolfed down the cakes with a mouthful of water.

The Mongolian cavalry also dismounted and began to take care of their beloved horses.

Namuzhong finally rushed down on horseback to celebrate with Lin Rui.

Huang Ben followed with more than a thousand defeated soldiers.

Of more than 2 mercenaries, there are only so many left.

All of them are frontier troops, including a large number of Qian Zongzong.

Obviously, these veterans of the border army were much more experienced than the ordinary young men among the mercenaries. When escaping for their lives, they always ran directly to the south hillside instead of running around like headless flies.

As for the majesty of the countless cavalry photographed on the hillside, the servants of the Ming army did not dare to chase them at that time. Even if some of them got confused and chased them, they were all robbed and killed by the cavalry sent by Namuzhong.

It can be said that if all the mercenaries had fled this way, the end would never have been so miserable.

However, the fate of the servants of the Ming army who chased them was not much better, or even worse than them.

"Your subordinate is incompetent, please punish me!"

"The general is incompetent, please punish me, Master!"

As soon as Huang Ben came to Lin Rui, he fell to his knees on the ground and said with a look of shame on his face. The dozens of generals behind him also knelt down on one knee and clasped their fists to apologize.

"Okay, get up. I don't blame you for this. As long as everything is fine."

Lin Rui hurriedly helped him up, and then said to the bosses: "You all should get up too."

"Thank you, Master!" Everyone then all got up.

Obviously, these bosses are not fools. They know that they were treated as cannon fodder from the beginning.

Huang Ben was informed in advance by Lin Rui, who told him to put his life first, and even assigned him a fast horse.

"How many of you are left?"

"Sir, there are about a thousand, almost all of them are border troops." Huang Ben replied quickly, with a bitter look on his face.

Only then did he become a general who could command tens of thousands of people in a month, but he was knocked back to his original shape in one day.

Although he had been mentally prepared, Lin Rui was still secretly surprised. There were more than 22 mercenaries, but only a thousand people were left. They said that one out of ten could not survive, but this is almost twenty. ?

However, he also knew that it was impossible for more than 2 people to die in battle. After all, people chasing people is no better than horses chasing people. He estimated that at least more than 1 people had escaped.

"Rui Lang, there must be many people alive, but they have just escaped. Why don't I take the cavalry to collect them while it's still dark?"

Na Muzhong also understood that it was impossible for more than 2 people to be directly reimbursed, so she said,

At that time, she could clearly see a large number of people wearing blue military uniforms fleeing to the south and north.

And because these people fled earlier, they avoided the pursuit of the Jiannu cavalry.

"Forget it, it's not sweet to force someone to come back. If you are willing to come back, you will naturally find it. If you don't want to come back, it's pointless to force it back!"

Lin Rui waved his hands and said, now that the war is over, they have also shown that they are not afraid of the slave cavalry in the field, and those mercenaries are no longer necessary.

Anyway, they all had dry food with them, enough to take them home, and they also had ten taels of silver with them.

However, these frontier soldiers did not escape, which surprised him. After all, these guys had dozens of taels of silver in their pockets. But after thinking about it carefully, he understood that they were probably addicted to officialdom and could not bear their current status.

"Huang Ben, you guys, please work harder. Before dark, collect all the weapons and armor abandoned on the battlefield and the arrows we shot. Don't worry about the corpses for the time being."

"Sir, do you want to cut off the heads of all the slaves?"

"Then cut them all off so that we can tally up the results!"

Lin Rui nodded after thinking about it, and then added two thousand archers to help.

Only then did Lin Rui relax completely and began to count the casualties of the infantry battalion and longbowmen.

Since the eight thousand young soldiers were all wearing armor and protected by shields, their casualties were almost negligible.

The longbowmen suffered more than 500 casualties, including [-] killed in battle, all of whom were directly shot to death by arrows. This shows the difference between those with armor and those without armor.

Half an hour later, Huang Ben led his men to cut off the heads of all the slaves and piled them into a Jingguan. The result was very gratifying.

The real Jurchen Tatars alone had nearly 2000 heads cut off, and the Mongolian Tatars also had more than [-] heads. In total, they killed more than [-] enemies.

It can be said that this kind of record has exceeded the total number of kills in the previous battles between the Ming army and Jiannu.

As for the Ming army servants who were stabbed and shot to death, Lin Rui didn't bother to count them at all.

The captured weapons also piled up into a hill.

Obviously, the Ming army did not dare to come out to clean the battlefield, and Jiannu did not even dare to collect the corpses, let alone clean the battlefield.

Based on this alone, it is clear who loses and wins in this three-party battle, who is strong and who is weak.

(End of this chapter)