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

Chapter 639 Breaking the Camp
The scouts who stayed behind saw their troops arrive and hurried over to report.

After listening carefully to the scout's report and ascertaining the situation of the entire camp, Wang Jinwu and Wang Hai made the decision to attack immediately without any hesitation.

A quarter of an hour later, Wang Jinwu led a thousand elite cavalrymen to rush into the camp from the southeast to the northwest, while Wang Hai rushed from the southwest to the northeast. The two troops followed the rear guard and tied white cloth around their necks to avoid accidental injuries. Li You led the infantry and was not idle either. He went straight into the camp of the Beijing camp and set up artillery two miles away from the camp. He stared at the camp not far away with his eyes, calculating the time in his mind. When he counted to one hundred, Li You immediately ordered the artillery to fire.

When the gunner lit the fuse, several heavy Portuguese cannons were deployed and fired at the same time. Ordinary Portuguese cannons could only fire about one mile, but Zhu Shenzhui's Portuguese cannons had a much longer range than the Ming army's Portuguese cannons because of their sophisticated manufacturing process and better gunpowder, usually reaching one and a half or even two miles.

The several heavy Portuguese cannons that Li You is carrying now are even more powerful, with a range of more than four miles. From his current position, he can easily hit the center of the Beijing camp. Moreover, they are very powerful in field battles and can be used for sieges. Now is the time for them to be useful.

The cannon roared, and the muzzles glowed with blazing light. In the flames, the cannonballs whistled out, heading straight for the Beijing camp. As the cannons fired, Wang Jinwu and Wang Hai, who were already prepared, gave the order to attack without hesitation. The sound of horse hooves rang out, and thousands of horses galloped, rushing from high to low, from left to right, straight towards the camp.

At this time, the admiral of the Beijing camp, Wu Weiying, was resting in the big tent. He was sleeping like a dead pig in the tent, with several women lying beside him. These women were all brought from the capital by him. A few hours ago, he had been drinking and having fun with these women, and fell asleep after being exhausted.

He was sleeping soundly when he heard a rumbling sound. Wu Weiying thought it was thunder in his dream, smacked his lips and ignored it, turned over and continued to sleep. But something seemed wrong while he was sleeping. Why was the thunder getting louder and louder? And it was accompanied by noises from all directions. Wu Weiying cursed in annoyance, turned over but did not open his eyes, just shook his head which was a little confused after being drunk.

"Master Hou! Master Hou!"

"What's the matter?" Wu Weiying asked subconsciously, not coming back to his senses for a moment.

"It's terrible, my lord. The thieves have broken in!"

"Thieves? They broke in? Where did the thieves come from?" Wu Weiying was still confused, but then there was another loud bang outside, followed by crying for parents, which made Wu Weiying shudder and open his eyes.

"My Lord... come here..." At this time, the noise also woke up one of the three women. A pair of jade arms directly came up, and her delicate voice was unusually soft.

But how could Wu Weiying have any other thoughts at this time? Even if he was a playboy, he was from a noble family, and his ancestors had earned their wealth through real swords and guns.

Feeling that something was wrong, Wu Weiying pushed the woman aside, got up, grabbed the clothes beside him and put them on, then ran out of the tent to check.

When he arrived outside the tent, he was stunned by the scene. The entire camp was in chaos, with flashes of artillery fire coming out from time to time. As the cannonballs fell, the tents were smashed to pieces, and the limbs of the people who were hit by the cannons flew everywhere, and the cries and shouts shook the sky.

Countless soldiers fled in all directions like headless flies. In the southwest and southeast, countless fires appeared, and the tents were burning fiercely. At the same time, the sound of rapid horse hooves struck people's hearts like thunder, making them panic.

"The thieves are coming! Run!"

"It's over... it's all over..."

"We've lost...we've lost...everybody run for your lives!"

Countless people were crying and screaming, and there was no way to organize an effective defense. How many thieves were there? Where did they come from? The current situation was the same, and no one knew.

Seeing this, Wu Weiying was so frightened that his face turned pale and his legs were trembling. He was not a courageous man to begin with. What he liked in his daily life were just romance. As for fighting in the battlefield, he was good at boasting, but when it came to real action, he was like a silver-plated spear tip. Faced with such a situation, his brain went blank in an instant and he stood there in a daze.

"My lord! Go quickly! I will protect you!" At this time, a familiar voice was heard. Wu Weiying looked carefully and recognized the other party in the light of the fire in the camp as a retainer from his own mansion. Immediately, two lines of tears flowed down his face like a drowning man grabbing a life-saving straw.

"Old Liu, this Marquis... This Marquis..." "My Lord, there is no need to say more. Hurry up and leave! I will bring people to escort you away. As long as we can save you, there will be a chance to start over. Once you are trapped in the battle, it will be all over."

"Old Liu! If I can escape, I will definitely reward you handsomely. I will definitely treat everyone in your Liu family as my family, and we will share our wealth and glory together. I will never forget it!"

"Your Majesty, there is no need to say all this now. My family has been in the mansion for three generations. I am a member of the mansion and I should protect you. Your Majesty, there is no time to lose. Go now! Go now!" The family servant Lao Liu smiled bitterly. It was meaningless to say all this at this time. It was unknown whether he could escape or not.

He took a few servants from the Marquis' Mansion and dragged Wu Weiying to run north, not caring about anything along the way, lowering his head and rushing forward, but how easy was it to run away? You have to know that Wu Weiying's tent as the commander of the Beijing Camp was in the center of the camp, and it was nearly two miles from here to the north.

Normally, this distance was not far, but now the whole camp was in chaos, with soldiers fleeing everywhere and cavalrymen rushing into the camp to chase the Beijing camp. These cavalrymen were extremely fierce, and no one could stop them from killing them all the way. It was not easy to escape in this situation.

After running nearly half the distance, Wu Weiying, who was already weak, was out of breath and almost fainted. Seeing that he could not run any longer, the family general Lao Liu secretly complained and could only support Wu Weiying with a servant on the left and right to continue running. At this time, Lao Liu did not dare to find a horse for Wu Weiying, because as time went by, the enemy cavalry that broke through the camp was not far away from them. At this time, it might be possible to escape by running on two legs, but once he changed to a horse to escape, he would definitely be the target of the enemy, and would be chased by the enemy.

Anyway, Wu Weiying is not wearing official uniform or armor now. He is just wearing a small piece of clothes and looks disheveled. Who can recognize who he is in the dark?
In this way, the group stumbled out and ran, and they didn't know how long they ran, but finally reached the north side of the camp. Just when Wu Weiying breathed a sigh of relief and thought he was about to escape, suddenly the sound of horse hooves came from behind him. Wu Weiying looked back in horror, only to see several riders coming towards him, and instantly scared Wu Weiying out of his wits.

"It's over! Am I going to die like this?" Wu Weiying was filled with despair. Just as he closed his eyes and waited for death, the family general Lao Liu beside him suddenly grabbed his clothes and whispered quickly in his ear: "My Lord, I can no longer work for you from now on. Please treat my family well when you return. I have... offended you..."

It happened in a flash. Old Liu raised his hand and hit Wu Weiying on the back of the head without hesitation. Wu Weiying was knocked unconscious by the blow before he could understand anything. His eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground.

Seeing Wu Weiying fall to the ground, Lao Liu didn't even look at him. He drew his sword and said to the servants around him: "Brothers, it's time to fight to the death. Follow me to kill the enemy!"

"Master Liu is right. Brothers, kill them!"

These people were all adopted sons of the Gongshun Marquis's Mansion. Their elders had been in the Gongshun Marquis's Mansion for several generations. Now they had no way to retreat and were being chased from behind. It was time to fight to the death. They saw through Lao Liu's actions and knew that Lao Liu's intention was nothing more than to use their lives to give Wu Weiying a chance of survival.

The few of them were not afraid at all. They drew their swords, turned around and charged back at the cavalrymen who were chasing them. Seeing these deserters turning around, the cavalrymen who were chasing them were overjoyed and surrounded them from both sides with a whistling sound.

Although Wu Weiying's family generals and servants were fearless and their martial arts were not bad, it was a pity that they encountered elite cavalry. Facing these cavalry, Lao Liu and his companions could only barely resist for a few times, and were defeated in the blink of an eye. Lao Liu, who was in the lead, was shot in the chest. The spear went straight through his chest, and blood gushed out like water. Lao Liu, who fell to the ground, opened his mouth and tried to turn his neck to look in the direction of Wu Weiying, but before he could turn around, he stopped moving. His eyes gradually lost their luster and stared blankly at the sky. His body also gradually became cold as the blood flowed...

Lao Liu and others died in the battle. After killing them, the cavalry did not clean up the battlefield, let alone check the fallen bodies. Because the battle was still going on, although the camp of the Beijing camp collapsed, the battle was not completely over.

Wang Jinwu and Wang Hai led the cavalry to continue charging back and forth, completely turning the entire camp upside down. Li You, who was on the periphery, was also not idle. He led the infantry to advance northward, killing and wounding the fleeing soldiers of the Beijing camp with arrays and firearms.

The battle lasted until the early morning hours, and ended when the sky in the east gradually turned white.

In this battle, Wang Jinwu and Wang Hai won a great victory. With only 2,000 cavalry and 2,000 new army infantry, they directly defeated the 30,000 Beijing troops.

After the war, the casualties of Wang Jinwu and Wang Hai were almost negligible. As for the 30,000 Beijing troops, they were wiped out in one night. More than 3,700 people were killed or trampled to death in the chaos, more than 21,000 people surrendered and were captured, and the rest fled in the chaos and their whereabouts are unknown.

Among them, the commander-in-chief of the Beijing Camp, Wu Weiying, was missing. No one knew whether he died in the chaos, was burned in the fire, or escaped in the chaos.

Seeing his defeat was like a landslide, Xiangcheng Marquis Li Guozhen was disheartened and attempted suicide, but was captured after being rescued by his personal guards. Linhuai Marquis Li Hongji died in the chaos, Dingyuan Marquis Deng Wenming surrendered voluntarily, and Xinning Marquis Tan Hongye was also captured alive. As for the eunuch sent by Emperor Chongzhen to supervise the army, Han Zanzhou, deputy admiral of the Beijing camp, tried to escape in disguise but failed and fell into the hands of Wang Jinwu.

In this battle, the Beijing camp was completely wiped out. The main general, deputy generals and even the military supervisor were almost all captured. When the news reached the capital, Emperor Chongzhen was stunned to hear such sad news. He never expected that the Beijing camp army that had just left the capital yesterday would disappear overnight.
(End of this chapter)