Desert Eagle Suletan Khan

On the morning of February 1667, the th year of the Qianyuan reign (), guards marched out of the camp and lined up. Asu Husaihan and Chahar Admiral Alinbao each led cavalrymen to line up on both wings. The well-equipped guards still retained some heavy cavalrymen, with cavalrymen at the front of each wing. The carefully selected tall horses were dressed in exquisite horse armor, revealing only a pair of piercing horse eyes. The knights on the horses held heavy weapons such as axes, hammers, and maces, with fearlessness and decisiveness in their eyes. The light cavalrymen at the back lined up behind the heavy cavalry; in the center were the infantrymen led by Qi Wang Mailas himself. The square formation was as neat as a huge and regular chessboard, and the distance between each row of soldiers seemed to have been measured with a ruler, identical and orderly. The soldiers at the front were wearing heavy armor, holding long spears and shields, in the center were sword and shield soldiers and gunners, and at the back were archers and artillerymen.

"Your Highness, the guards are marching out of the camp and forming a battle line," the scout quickly reported the guards' movements to King Gangneung Lee Lai-hyung.

"How dare the fake king to fight a large force with a small one? He is so brave!" Upon hearing the news, King Li Laiheng of Jiangling was surprised but also admired the enemy's courage. Since the enemy took the initiative to leave the camp, it was a good opportunity to use the advantage of military strength to defeat them. Thinking of this, he calmly ordered his subordinates to line up and fight.

"King Jiangling has given the order to line up and fight~King Jiangling has given the order to line up and fight~"

The central army flags and drums passed Li Laiheng's military orders to each unit, and the 60,000 Ming troops came out of the camp and lined up one after another. Generals Wu Zhiqi and Bai Minghe each led 10,000 people as the two wings, and General Wang Zhili led 5,000 cavalry to the front of the central army, followed by 30,000 infantry led by Li Laiheng himself, and at the end were the 5,000 rear troops of General Li Zhicui. In addition to the cavalry and infantry, there were more than 5,000 naval forces led by General Hu Jungui, who slowly sailed from Xiabaizhou to Shangbailizhou. King Jiangling either did not take action, or once he did, he would do his best to attack on both land and water.

"Puff~Puff~Puff~" Wang Zhili heard the warhorse under him paddling its hooves restlessly, and white air gushing out of its nostrils, as if he could feel the breath of war. The 5,000 cavalrymen under his command were all elite Ming troops. In the south, war horses were rare. Kuidong, which had been blockaded by the Qing court and the Wei court, was already the limit for equipping 5,000 cavalrymen. Only the bravest warriors in each camp were qualified to be selected into the cavalry camp.

"Xiao Hei, don't move until the horn sounds," Wang Zhili gently pinched his beloved horse's ears to comfort him.

The two armies slowly approached each other, like two surging waves about to collide. In the center of the waves, the commanders of both sides rode on their horses, staring at each other carefully, looking for the right moment to strike. Behind them fluttered their respective banners, which fluttered in the wind, as if announcing their presence and determination to the enemy.

"All troops attack!" Li Laiheng gave the order decisively.

"Attack from both wings! The center army holds!" Almost at the same time, Melas also issued a military order.

"Woo~Woo~Woo~" The mournful sound of the horn pierced the sky, like a heavy hammer hitting everyone's heart, and a fierce battle began.

"Brothers, kill for the Ming Dynasty~" Wang Zhili roared and took the lead in riding his horse to gallop out. The general was the courage of the soldiers. The 5,000 Ming cavalrymen behind him rushed towards the enemy formation without hesitation.

"My men, follow me to kill the enemy!" As soon as the cavalry moved, Li Laiheng led the central infantry to charge behind the cavalry. The fierce general of the Ming army, Yidu Hou Ta Tianbao, rushed to the front of the infantry square with a broadsword in hand.

Wu Zhiqi and Bai Minghe also led their troops to attack the left and right wings of the Wei army respectively.

"Warriors, use your horses' hooves to tear the enemy to pieces!" Asu Hussein shouted and led the left wing of the guards to charge towards Wu Zhiqi's troops.

"Attack~Attack~" Chahar Admiral Alinbao led the right wing of the guard to fight against the Baiminghe troops.

Melas's central army stood firm like a rock. Generals Zhong Jida, Luo Maotong and Ma Jinyu led their troops to line up in front, with the tips of their spears pointing to the sky, like a forest of steel. Unlike Li Laiheng's plan to use his superior force to make a breakthrough, Melas hoped to break through the two wings first, and the central army would temporarily take a defensive position. David was known for his fierce cavalry. Although the number of his troops on the two wings was less than that of the Ming army, he was still confident in his cavalry.

"Boom~Boom~Boom~" The cannons of both sides began to roar, and as the two armies engaged in an engagement, the sound of the cannons gradually subsided.

"Da~da~da~" The horse hooves sounded like thunder, and Wang Zhili's troops galloped to the front of the guards' spear formation, turned their horses' heads, and swung their swords to cut off the spear tips.

Behind the army, archers from both sides knelt on one knee, tightly grasped strong bows made of tough wood and tendons, put arrows on the strings, and threw them at the enemy, with a rain of arrows covering the sky and the sun. The armor rate of the Wei army was higher than that of the Ming army, and the archers were more well-trained, so the casualties in the shooting were less than those of the Ming army.

After several gallops, Wang Zhili finally led the cavalry battalion to wedge into the guards, swinging his sword and killing one person with every swing. Suddenly he saw a familiar face: Luo Maotong, his former comrade-in-arms and now the general of the guards.

"Traitor, die!" Wang Zhili's eyes were bloodshot and he rode his horse towards Luo Maotong.

"Wang~Crazy Wang~" Seeing it was him, Luo Maotong was frightened and turned his horse and fled.

It happened so fast that before the warhorse had even run a few steps, Wang Zhili had already caught up with him. "The rule of the old camp is that surrendered generals will not be killed, but rebellious generals will be killed!" With this roar, the knife flashed like lightning, and Luo Maotong's head fell to the ground.

"Kill, kill ...

Seeing that his cavalry had lost horsepower, Li Laiheng ordered the cavalry to withdraw to their camp and replaced them with infantry led by Yidu Hou Ta Tianbao.

Tatianbao's troops were extremely fierce, and as one group fell, another group came. Soon, the front line of the guards was in danger. Seeing this, Melas had to withdraw his own guard, the captain Ada, and the deputy captain Anbahai and other troops to reinforce.

"All troops attack!" King Li Laiheng of Jiangling saw the opportunity, roared, and sent out all his troops.

I was careless! I didn't expect the bandits in Kuidong to be so fierce! Seeing the enemy coming like a storm, King Melas of Qi secretly groaned in pain. At this moment, he only had 500 guards around him.

"Flag-bearing officer, listen to my order. Move the banner forward. As long as the banner is alive, the people are alive. If the banner is gone, the people will die!" He glared at the flag-bearer behind him fiercely and led 500 personal guards to rush towards the Ming army.

"Haorui~Haorui~Haorui~" Seeing the King of Qi's banner move forward, the morale of the guards was greatly boosted, and the originally shaky battle line stabilized again.

The central armies of both sides fought fiercely, neither side was willing to retreat. In the fierce battle, the Ming army general Tian Shouyi was knocked out of his hand by the long spear of the Wei army guerrilla Wang Xiqi, so he simply jumped into the air and rolled off his horse holding Wang Xiqi, and both were stabbed to death.

The incident first occurred on the left wing of the Ming army. Chahar Admiral Alinbao led the right wing of the guard army to gallop towards the left wing of the Ming army, using 500 heavy cavalry to break through the Ming army formation, and 7,000 light cavalry followed to kill. The left wing Ming army general Bai Minghe was a veteran of the Chuang army. He was hot-tempered and eager to make a contribution. He rushed too far forward. When he found that the enemy's vanguard was actually heavy armored cavalry that was difficult to be injured by arrows and swords, he had no time to form a battle formation and defend. He was quickly disrupted by the heavy cavalry in the attack and was defeated by the light cavalry that came in like a tide.

In just over an hour, the left wing of the 10,000 Ming army was defeated by the right wing of the 7,500 guards, and Bai Minghe himself died in the chaos. After defeating the left wing of the Ming army, Alinbao did not bother to chase and kill the fleeing enemies, but went to kill Li Laiheng's central army.

Compared with the left wing, the right wing of the Ming army was much stronger. Seeing thousands of enemy cavalry rushing towards them, led by hundreds of heavy cavalry, the right wing Ming general Wu Zhiqi immediately ordered his men to form a long spear formation to resist the enemy, and mobilized all his gunners to shoot at the enemy cavalry. This move caused a large number of casualties to the guards. Although Asu Husseinhan led the left wing to charge desperately, he could not do anything to the Ming army for a while, so he had to order his men to shoot at the Ming army.

Li Laiheng had not expected that his left wing would be defeated so quickly. At this moment, he had already pressed all the elite troops of the central army, and had no elite troops to deploy. He had to order General Li Zhicui to lead 5,000 rear troops to resist, and at the same time quickly dispatch troops from the front to support. The rear troops of the Ming army were mostly composed of old and weak soldiers, who were usually only responsible for transporting food and supplies. They were not strong in combat, and King Jiangling himself had no idea how long they could delay.

"Line up~Line up~" Li Zhicui shouted at the top of her lungs as she led her troops to line up. The soldiers were lined up in a mess under the command of their officers, and the guards' cavalry had already arrived.

"Bang~" The spear in Li Zhicui's hand was knocked away. The enemy opposite was covered in heavy armor, with only two eyes exposed. What a great strength! The big iron hammer in his hand knocked the spear away with just one blow, and smashed his helmet and crown with another blow.

Not long after, the rear of the Ming army collapsed, and the cavalry of the Wei army deliberately drove the defeated soldiers towards the royal flag of King Jiangling.

"Your Highness, please retreat quickly. I will stop them." General Wang Jiayu bowed deeply to Li Laiheng and led the few personal guards around him to meet the oncoming cavalry of the guards.

"Bai Minghe, you are known as a fierce general, how come you were defeated so quickly?" Li Laiheng cursed in a low voice, bit his lip hard, and shouted at the flag officer beside him: "Order a retreat, return to Hudukou, quickly!"

"Woo~wu~wu~"

The desolate horn sounded, and the Ming army retreated one after another. In the panic, the generals could not find their soldiers, and the soldiers could not find their generals, and the situation became chaotic. The Wei army pursued them relentlessly, killing them wantonly, and finally turned the enemy's retreat into a rout. In the chaos, the Ming army general Wang Jiayu's troops who were guarding the rear were completely wiped out.

Li Laiheng led the defeated troops back to Hudukou. After counting the troops, he found that only 30,000 were left. What made him even more distressed was that more than 100 generals above the rank of guerrilla general were killed in this battle, including more than a dozen generals. It is easy to get thousands of soldiers, but it is difficult to get a general. The loss of these generals was even more fatal to the Ming army.

"Report! General Hu failed to capture Shangbailizhou and has led the navy back to Xiabailizhou." The scout brought the news that the navy commander Hu Jungui's attack had failed.

This was actually good news for Li Laiheng, after all, the main force of the navy was still there. After calming down, he ordered: "Immediately break camp and return to Jiangling." (End of this chapter)