Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1109 Cavalry
Just when Sony and Oboi were relieved, they suddenly received news from the front that a large group of cavalry were blocking the way ahead. Judging from their equipment and flags, they should be Wu Sangui's Guanning Iron Cavalry.

"You little bastard Wu Sangui! You're going too far in bullying us!" Aobai cursed loudly. He was a veteran who had fought during the time of Nurhaci. No matter when he was the old Khan or later when Huang Taiji was the emperor, he had fought against the Ming army many times and made countless contributions. His hands were stained with the blood of the Ming army.

Until now, Oboi had never fought such a frustrating battle. Every time he fought against the Ming army, he was invincible and defeated them with ease.
This Panshan Battle was frustrating enough, with the Ming army suppressing them and suffering such heavy losses. Now Wu Sangui actually led the Guanning Cavalry to detour ahead of them and block their way. Could it be that Wu Sangui thought that he and Sony could be kept back by relying on the Guanning Cavalry?
Oboi admitted that Wu Sangui's Guanning Iron Cavalry was good at fighting and was as strong as the Eight Banners elite troops under his command. But the problem was that the Guanning Iron Cavalry had never been large in number. Although the Ming Dynasty always claimed to have 30,000 or even 40,000 Guanning Iron Cavalry, in fact, the Guanning Iron Cavalry had only more than 2,000 people at most, less than 3,000.

If the Ming Dynasty really had 30,000 to 40,000 Guanning Cavalry, they would have been pinned to the ground and beaten by the Ming Dynasty early in the morning. How could it be possible that they were always defeated by the Eight Banners?

Now the news from the scouts in the front was that the Guanning Iron Cavalry led by Wu Sangui in front had only more than a thousand people, while his side, including Sony's Eight Banners soldiers, had more than 3,000 people. They were all cavalry, so who was afraid of whom? Even if Wu Sangui was waiting for the opportunity, Aobai had absolute confidence that he could defeat Wu Sangui's Guanning Iron Cavalry with his cavalry.

Seeing that Oboi was furious and intended to teach Wu Sangui a lesson, the steady Sony hurriedly stopped him and said, "Since the Ming army sent Wu Sangui to block the road ahead, it can be seen that the Ming army had been prepared for a long time and intended to keep us all in the Liaoxi Corridor."

"The current situation is not favorable for us. We are not far from Panshan. Now that the Guanning Iron Cavalry has appeared, the Ming army on Panshan will soon find out that we have withdrawn. In this case, the Ming army will definitely follow and pursue us. In this situation, we must not fight to the end, otherwise we will fall into the trap of the Ming army. Let's remember today's revenge first and take revenge later. The most important thing is to break through the interception of the Ming army."

Facing Sony's persuasion, Aobai nodded slowly. He was brave in battle but not a real reckless man, and he understood the current situation better. If he only wanted to annihilate the Guanning Iron Cavalry on the opposite side, then he would lose the opportunity to escape from the pursuit of the Ming army as soon as possible. Once the Ming army that was following and pursuing arrived, plus the Guanning Iron Cavalry that appeared in front, their army would be in danger.

In this case, the only tactic they could adopt was to launch a surprise attack to break through the Guanning Iron Cavalry's blockade. Aoba immediately ordered preparations for an attack, and he himself was fully armed, sword in hand, his red eyes fixed on the Guanning Iron Cavalry not far away. With an order, the well-prepared Eight Banners Cavalry began to gradually speed up and pounced towards the Guanning Iron Cavalry.

Opposite to Aobai, Wu Sangui made the same move. Wu Sangui received the order to take a detour, with the purpose of intercepting the retreat route of the Panshan defenders. However, he did not expect that just as he arrived at the designated position, the Eight Banners Army retreating from Panshan arrived, and the speed was so fast that Wu Sangui was very surprised.

The two armies were in similar situations. One was taking a detour from a long way, and the other was evacuating directly from Panshan. They had walked all night, and were tired and exhausted. Neither of them was in peak condition. But one wanted to break through the blockade and escape, while the other wanted to desperately block the opponent's way to buy time for the friendly army to arrive. At this time, Wu Sangui had no time to make other preparations. Since the Eight Banners Cavalry had already formed a breakthrough formation, the only thing he could do was to try his best to stop the opponent. Wu Sangui wanted to see whether the strongest cavalry in the world was the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty, or the Guanning Iron Cavalry that he had trained and invested countless efforts in.
As cavalry charges began on both sides, the sound of horse hooves gradually became louder and louder, and the ground began to tremble slightly as thousands of cavalrymen ran.

Wu Sangui was wearing armor and riding on a warhorse. He held a sword in his left hand and stared at the Eight Banners cavalry that was getting closer and closer. Not far behind him, a large flag was fluttering in the wind, with the big word "Wu" on it clearly visible.

"My sons! Today is the day to make achievements. Follow me to kill slaves!"

"Kill the slaves! Kill the slaves!"

"Kill!"

For a moment, the sound of killing was deafening. The Eight Banners also erupted in shocking shouts of killing. The two cavalry forces were like a torrent, one heading south and the other heading north, and they were about to collide with each other.

As the cavalry got closer, the Guanning Iron Cavalry launched the offensive first. The three-eyed muskets equipped by the Guanning Iron Cavalry fired. The three-eyed muskets were the standard equipment of the Ming cavalry. It had been one of the main equipment of the cavalry since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. However, as the Ming Dynasty had been established for a long time, its military had slackened and the Ming cavalry was no longer as powerful as it was at the founding of the country. You must know that the Ming cavalry at that time was the best cavalry in the world, chasing the Mongols who had once swept across the world and making them flee in embarrassment.

After that, the Ming cavalry gradually became unusable. It was not until Sun Chengzong's military governorship in Liaodong that a strong cavalry was formed in Liaodong as the main cavalry unit. This is the origin of the Guanning Iron Cavalry. It can be said that the most elite cavalry in the Ming Dynasty is the Guanning Iron Cavalry. Although the number of Guanning Iron Cavalry is not large, it is the only strong army that can fight against the elite cavalry of the Eight Banners on the front battlefield and not lose to it before the emergence of the new army.

After Zhu Shenzhu ascended the throne, he adjusted the military system of the Ming Dynasty and also paid special attention to the Guanning Iron Cavalry. However, due to the special nature of the Guanning Iron Cavalry and the fact that they were from Liaodong, Zhu Shenzhu did not invest too much in the Guanning Iron Cavalry. He only provided them with supplies, logistics, and equipment, and their organization remained the same.

After all, the Guanning Iron Cavalry was not a new army, and Zhu Shenzhu could not ensure full control. Moreover, before the Liaodong war was completely resolved, the Liao army was a relatively special army, and it was even more impossible to split and reorganize it like other troops in order to stabilize Liaodong. Therefore, except for the number of people in the Guanning Iron Cavalry being supplemented to 3,000 at its strongest, there were not many other changes, and Wu Sangui was still the commander. As for the new army's equipment, the musket was rarely equipped in the Guanning Iron Cavalry. Except for generals such as Wu Sangui, most of the cavalry were still equipped with the original three-barreled musket.

However, these three-eyed muskets are different from the previous ones. Whether in terms of manufacturing quality, power or range, they are much stronger than the original three-eyed muskets, which further enhances the combat effectiveness of the Guanning Iron Cavalry.

The sound of crackling gunfire continued to ring out. Even though these three-barreled muskets were fired from war horses and their accuracy was somewhat unsatisfactory due to other factors, the continuous firing of thousands of three-barreled muskets still caused a lot of trouble to the Eight Banners cavalry charging from the opposite side.

As the gunshots rang out, the Eight Banners soldiers who were hit fell off their horses screaming. Some horses were injured and rolled to the ground with the cavalry on their backs.

In the case of a high-speed cavalry charge, if a cavalryman falls off his horse like this, the chances of survival are extremely small. Even if he survives, the hooves of the horses of the cavalry behind him will step on him, making it impossible for him to survive.

In a blink of an eye, the charging Eight Banners soldiers lost dozens of cavalrymen, which made Oboi's eyes red. He shouted loudly, waving his sword and shouting. At this time, the Eight Banners soldiers also launched a counterattack. The Eight Banners cavalrymen who were skilled in archery and horse riding drew their bows and shot arrows. Countless arrows whistled towards the Guanning Iron Cavalry. However, because the cavalrymen of the Guanning Iron Cavalry were not only wearing iron armor, but even the horses under them were also armored, although the arrows of the Eight Banners were indeed accurate, it was not that the strong bows could not break the armor, and they did not pose much threat to the Guanning Iron Cavalry.

Except for a few unlucky guys who were hit in the vitals or whose horses were injured and fell, most of the Guanning Iron Cavalry continued to charge forward in the face of the Eight Banners' arrows. In addition, as the distance between the two sides kept getting closer, the Guanning Iron Cavalry's three-barreled fire guns became more accurate and powerful, and the Eight Banners cavalry were constantly shot and fell, their lives unknown.

Judging from this situation, the Guanning Iron Cavalry had the upper hand, and the Eight Banners suffered a great loss. However, the three-barreled fire guns would eventually be used up, and the two sides would eventually collide and engage in close combat.

When the distance was shortened to the last twenty steps, the last bullet of the three-barreled musket of the Guanning Iron Cavalry was fired. As the musket finished firing, the cavalrymen of the Guanning Iron Cavalry either raised their swords or directly used the three-barreled muskets as maces. The cavalry of both sides collided fiercely in an instant and started a fierce fight.

The battle between cavalry and cavalry relies on horsepower. It is definitely not like in movies or TV shows where both sides run to a close position, stop their horses, and then fight with knives or spears. If that's the case, how can it be called a cavalry war? It's clearly a joke.

Cavalry combat is fast and brutal, with both sides using horsepower to charge head-on while running at high speed, and then using the weapons in their hands to greet each other at the moment when their horses pass each other. The head-on confrontation between the two sides only lasts for a short moment, and the winner can be decided in this moment. The winner will continue to charge and fight the next opponent, while the loser will fall off the horse and be trampled into meat paste by thousands of horses.

Wu Sangui had experienced war since he was a child and had an outstanding talent in cavalry, otherwise he would not have replaced Wu Xiang as the chief general of the Guanning Iron Cavalry.

As the warhorse galloped, Wu Sangui stuck the used plum blossom spear into his waist and raised the sword in his left hand. He did not make a killing gesture, but instead crossed the sword with the blade facing outward. He gripped the handle tightly with both hands, clamped his feet on the horse's belly, controlled the horse with his lower body, and rose and fell with the horse's run with his upper body, his eyes fixed on the first opponent he was about to face.

In an instant, the two sides were about to collide. Wu Sangui calculated the time in his mind, and suddenly pressed the sword in his hand slightly downward, and at the same time lowered his upper body slightly towards the horse's head. In a flash, Wu Sangui and an Eight Banners cavalryman intersected each other. He could even see the other's face clearly in an instant, and could also feel the fishy breath of the other's heavy breathing.

At the moment when the attack was close at hand, Wu Sangui dodged the opponent's sure-shot blow by changing his body posture, but the long sword in his hand directly cut the opponent's waist.

With the speed of the horse, Wu Sangui didn't use any strength at all, and cut off the opponent's waist in one go. With a heart-wrenching scream, followed by the sound of falling heavily off the horse. At this time, Wu Sangui didn't even look back to see the results of the battle, because he knew that the Eight Banners cavalry he had just fought was finished. He immediately set his sights on the next target, and continued to charge forward without slowing down his horse's speed.

(End of this chapter)