Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 396: Battle in the South City
As soon as the order was issued, heroes from all directions responded. In less than two days, the Red Army had piled up two earthen hills three feet high, only a hundred steps away from Xiangchun Gate.

The Red Army was skilled and daring. They pushed their artillery pieces onto the hills and bombarded the city walls at close range. They also deployed riflemen on the hills to snipe at the defenders.

Li Dingguo led the 10th Infantry Brigade, and Ma Jinzhong led the 11th Infantry Brigade, approaching Changsha successively. The Red Army increased its manpower in Changsha and was determined to capture Changsha.

Hong Chengchou was greatly frightened and ordered Shen Yongzhong to fight back. Shen Yongzhong was afraid of fighting, so he had to repair the city wall quickly, reward his soldiers with a large sum of money, and then escape from the city wall to attack the Red Army, but was defeated.

Tunqi was stationed at Shimapu in the south of the city. Knowing that the situation at Xiangchun Gate in the north was urgent, he could no longer hold back and began to take the initiative to attack the Red Army in front of him.

At 9:00 p.m. on the morning of September 3, the Eight Banners troops set out in full force from the Shimapu, Chigangling, and Baoziling camps.

Upon hearing the news, Ma Bao also mobilized his troops to fight. He had three divisions of troops under his command, with a total of about 30,000 people, and they deployed a double formation to meet the enemy. The second division of the personal guards was in the front, the third division of the personal guards was in the back, and the cavalry division was on both wings.

There were artillery in front of the formation and auxiliary troops behind it. Ma Bao himself was in the back with the central army and auxiliary troops, with two battalions of elite cavalry as the reserve.

At 3:30 pm, the two armies approached each other. Tunqi saw that the rear of the Red Army was weak, so he relied on his large number of cavalry and did not take the usual route. He directly drove the Mongolian cavalry to encircle the two wings of the Red Army.

The Red Army's personal guard brigades were organized into one cavalry brigade with one horse for each man. However, in reality, war horses were in short supply. Except for the first brigade which was fully staffed with war horses, the second and third brigades were very short of war horses, with the war horse equipping rate being less than half.

Fortunately, firearms were cheap, and the Red Army's rifle production was also increasing, so the riflemen of the Royal Guards could each carry a rifle. When facing a battle, the Royal Guards usually dismounted and fought on foot. Like the Eight Banners of Manchuria, they could be considered highly mobile mounted infantry.

The Huben Town had deep trenches and high fortifications south of Shimapu, and had been confronting the Eight Banners Army for a long time. Today, they went out to fight, but the soldiers and horses stayed in the camp, and the soldiers went into battle lightly, still fighting on foot.

"The Tartars are so arrogant that they think our Huben Town is the imperial army and the volunteer army of the people?" Upon seeing this, Ma Bao ordered the entire army to attack.

The cavalry chariots galloped from both wings to meet the enemy. After only one round of artillery fire, the enemy was within a hundred steps. The two chariots advanced alternately, and the Dinglu rifles plus bayonets had rarely met an opponent.

After fighting for less than a quarter of an hour, a gap appeared on the right wing. The Red Army Cavalry Corps had only 8,000 men and their defense was relatively loose, so a group of Mongolian cavalry crossed the gap and rushed towards the rear of the Red Army.

The Eight Banners had a lot of cavalry, and they often used this tactic to defeat the Ming army. No matter how wide the Ming army's battle formation was, as long as the Eight Banners had enough cavalry and the terrain allowed, they could dispatch cavalry to attack the Ming army's flanks or even the rear, often easily winning in field battles.

"How dare these Mongolian Tartars dare to challenge the emperor!" Ma Bao was furious. He drew the whip gun from his waist and was about to lead the team to fight.

The people around him advised: "Zhantai is the commander of an army, how can he risk being shot at lightly? Just send the reserve troops to block the gap."

Ma Bao was good at commanding cavalry and was used to personally participating in the battle. Seeing the Tartars coming, he was eager to use his skills and said, "It doesn't matter. My whip spear hasn't been stained with blood for a long time. If I don't use it any longer, it will get rusty."

He looked at the battlefield situation and felt that it was generally under control, so he said to the instructor beside him: "Lao He, you take charge of the central army for me and protect the flag. I will go and have some fun."

The commander of Huben Town was named He Yun, a native of Changshu. He had been a member of the imperial army for a long time. He advised, "Why should the governor personally go out to fight against the Mongols? Just let Captain Wang intercept them. Please stay in the center of the army."

"It's okay. I'll be back soon." Ma Bao got excited, rode out on his horse, and swung his whip gun, making a crackling sound.

The sound of whips resounded through the sky, and it was definitely Ma Bao. The Red Army soldiers looked back and saw Ma Bao himself on the field, and everyone was immediately excited. The Qing army was afraid before the battle, and they spread rumors: "Ma Sanbao is coming! Ma Sanbao is coming!"

When they heard that Ma Bao was coming, they all tried to hide from him. However, a Mongolian lieutenant refused to believe in evil and rushed to Ma Bao with a double-hook spear.

In close combat, the most commonly used weapon for the Mongolian cavalry was the saber, which was mostly a scimitar that could cut smoothly. They also used the long spear commonly used by cavalry, that is, the lance. However, the Mongolian lance was shorter, and there was often a hook or double hook on the iron neck to drag down the enemy.

"A nobody, are you worthy enough to fight me?" Ma Bao sneered and whipped the Mongolian lieutenant. He was as strong as an ox, and he wielded the whip-spear weighing more than ten pounds in his hand with ease, which could be said to be one with him.

The Mongolian lieutenant was surprised and secretly sighed in his heart: As expected of Ma Sanbao, he is so skilled in using a whip spear. Even if I am in his hands today, it is not unfair. Seeing that the whip spear was already flying, the lieutenant used the double hook spear to block it.

With a "clang" sound, the whip gun and the double-hook gun collided violently, emitting golden light.

The whip gun had a sharp blade at the end, and it continued to fly around the double hook gun. The lieutenant was quick-witted and crouched down in panic.

The sharp blade flew over his head and cut off half of his helmet.

What a close call! The Mongolian lieutenant was still in shock, realizing that he was no match for Ma Bao. He tried to retract the double hook spear, but saw that Ma Bao was as still as a mountain, and the whip spear was like a pair of steel pliers, holding the double hook spear tightly.

The lieutenant had no choice but to drop his double-hook spear and ride his horse to escape behind the formation.

"Humph!" Ma Bao retracted his whip spear and snatched the enemy general's double hook spear, shouting, "Give it back to you!"

When the lieutenant heard the "whoosh" sound, he knew something was wrong, so he kicked the horse's belly hard and crouched down.

The double hook spears hit the small colonel's horse, causing him and his horse to fall to the ground. The Red Army cavalry caught up with him and stabbed the Mongolian small colonel to death with their spears.

The Mongolian cavalry on the right wing were defeated one after another, and they realized that Ma Bao could not be violated, and their offensive weakened. The Red Army blocked the gap, and Ma Bao led his troops back to the central army.

At this time, the battle formation had already moved forward. The second and third regiments of the imperial guards used overlapping formations to provide cover, and although their speed was slow, they advanced slowly and were unstoppable.

The Manchurian Eight Banners faced the Red Army head-on, using large bows and armor-piercing arrows to fight back. However, armor-piercing arrows were heavy, and even with large bows, their range was very short.

Seeing the heavy losses of the Manchu soldiers, Tunqi decided to make a desperate move and launched a frontal charge. The Manchu soldiers braved the Red Army's artillery fire and ignored casualties, approaching the Red Army for hand-to-hand combat. The Mongolian cavalry maintained their offensive and entangled the Red Army cavalry.

The Eight Banners were well-equipped with armor and weapons, strong in protection, and good at hand-to-hand combat. The Red Army lacked armor, but had high morale, and their rifles were simple and practical with bayonets.

The two armies were evenly matched and it was difficult to tell who was better. The battle lasted from 3:15 pm to 5:00 pm and the game was still undecided.

In contrast, the Eight Banners soldiers came from the bitter cold of the Northeast, and their soldiers had strong endurance and were very resilient on the battlefield. The Red Army was still mainly composed of Han people, and the old soldiers in western Guangdong were able to endure hardships and age, but they were still no match for the Eight Banners Tartars.

By the beginning of the afternoon, the Red Army soldiers were hungry, tired, and their positions were beginning to waver. But Ma Bao fought hard and held on, hoping for reinforcements to arrive.

Cen Danchu and Hong Chengchou also noticed the Shimapu battlefield and dispatched reinforcements respectively.

The most capable fighter among Hong Chengchou's men was Shen Yongzhong, Duke of Xushun. Shen Yongzhong sent his troops in two groups, one to go out of the east city to intercept the Red Army reinforcements, and the other to go out of the south city to reinforce Tunqi at Shimapu.

However, Shen Yongzhong's troops were too incompetent. They were good at defending the city but not at fighting in the field.

The commander of the Fourth Regiment of the Red Army, Jiao Lian, personally led 4,000 cavalry to reinforce, first defeating Shen Yongzhong's troops in Dongcheng, and then attacking Tunqi from behind. The Qing army was thrown into disarray, and the situation on the battlefield was reversed in an instant.

Jiao Lian and Ma Bao joined forces to counterattack the Eight Banners, first defeating the Mongolian cavalry and then fiercely attacking the Manchu and Han Eight Banners.

The Qing army was defeated, and Tunqi personally covered the rear, fighting and retreating, and still guarding the Shimapu camp.

The Red Army took advantage of the situation to pursue and capture the two camps at Chigangling and Baoziling.

(End of this chapter)