Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 137 Crazy Thursday, V I 50
The Tangma returned from their routine reconnaissance, and the scouts of "Golden Money Rat Tail" rode their war horses slowly through the barracks.

The camps of tens of thousands of soldiers and horses surrounded the fallen state city in circles. The area within a radius of twenty miles was a security zone for the Qing soldiers, and anyone who dared to approach would be quickly killed.

The Tatars outside the camp gathered in groups of three or five, cooking food with iron pots and clay pots on the fire. A freshly slaughtered pig was placed on a straw mat next to them, with blood and flesh all over the ground.

The little chief shouted and drank the mare's milk with his subordinates. There were large spurting blood marks on the mud at his feet.

A shrill scream echoed throughout the camp, and a half-naked woman stumbled out of the tent. However, before she had gone a few steps, a pigtail soldier with a sinister grin rushed out from behind her.

The Tartar had a ruddy complexion, with a look of contempt on the corners of his mouth. The "rat tail" behind his head swayed from side to side with his body, and his whole body exuded a foul odor that repelled people.

But no matter how hard the woman ran, she could not escape the Tartar's Qilin Arm and Ten Finger Mountain.

The man only rushed forward ten steps and grabbed the woman into his arms.

"Hahahaha!" The man laughed arrogantly, as if he was hugging a struggling prey. The more the latter struggled, the more excited he became, and the more sense of accomplishment he felt in successfully catching the prey.

The sound of bowstrings being pulled was heard. The man turned his head and saw a group of people shooting arrows at targets. The targets were the captured Han people.

One of them was the woman's husband.

The couple looked at each other, their humiliated expressions revealing their worry for their loved ones and their despair of being unable to protect themselves.

This detail was noticed by the Tartar. He raised his eyebrows, curled the corners of his mouth slightly, and a brilliant idea came to his mind.

He stripped off all the woman's clothes and began to do it outdoors in the cold winter in front of everyone, even her husband...

The woman watched her husband being shot to death by arrows, while she could only fall into the abyss of despair in shame.

"Oh oh oh!"

Hundreds of Tartars who had come to collect food rode back on horseback, roaring and shouting excitedly. Their joyful voices could be heard from a long distance away.

They had just gone out to plunder and fight, and the group of minions transporting food and mules and horses followed closely behind them.

The Qing soldiers on horseback held ropes in their hands and pulled the men and women who were tied together in a chain as if they were dragging cattle or horses.

The cavalry quickly passed a large pit filled with dead bodies. There were hundreds of bodies of men, women, old and young, piled up in it, dumped in an open pit like garbage.

However, the Qing soldiers continued to move forward without any concern, as if they were already accustomed to the mud all over the ground after the rain.

The senior officers of the left-wing army stationed in Dezhou City received news from scouts: the main force of the Ming army was gathering towards Linqing, with a total strength of more than 40,000.

Dorgon looked around the room and saw Hauge, Abatai, Mazhan who had escaped with injuries, Dudu who was almost seriously injured and had to lie down, and Gushan Ezhen of the two armies.

When the right wing army was defeated, he, as the commander-in-chief of the left wing army, had the responsibility to take charge of the entire army.

After listening to the scouts' report, Dorgon threw out a sentence, hoping to stir up a stir. "The Southern Dynasty commander really wants to fight us in the wild. Tell us what you think."

Du Du was lying on a stretcher, half dead. He knew very well that his injuries were too severe and he would not be able to return to Shengjing alive.

He can die, but the blood of Manchuria cannot be shed completely.

Du Du raised his head slightly, but only for a moment before he was forced to lie back down. "We've plundered enough people, livestock, and food on this trip, and the Han soldiers are gradually becoming more resilient. Let's retreat before they can encircle us."

"We can't retreat!" Ma Zhan's forehead was bandaged, blood oozing from the broken wound. He bit his teeth and held hatred in his throat. "The Han dogs killed my elder brother. They cut off his head and mutilated his body. All the soldiers of the right wing army suffered heavy casualties. This is the blood of my Manchuria. How can we not avenge this great hatred!"

"We can't retreat," Hauge joined the discussion. "The right wing's sudden defeat has boosted the morale of the Han invaders. Their scouts have recently approached us within thirty miles, whereas normally they wouldn't even dare to advance sixty. Our left wing has been victorious throughout the campaign, capturing countless people, livestock, money, grain, and treasures. We can't march any faster unless we lose all the spoils."

"Oh, the hard work and sweat of several months since we came south have been thrown away, and the flag soldiers should kill people." Abatai said in a cold tone.

Gushan Ezhen of the right wing army did not dare to speak because of the recent defeat, while Gushan Ezhen of the left wing army, who had been winning, was unhappy and said that it was inappropriate to withdraw.

Since they entered the pass and plundered the south, they have never been defeated by the Ming army.

They always robbed the Ming army, and the Ming army could only watch their backs and dared not pursue them.

Even if the right wing army suffered a defeat due to negligence, or even lost the head of their commander, the main force of their left wing army is still there.

The right wing army lost a lot of auxiliary soldiers, but many bannermen escaped back one after another. Together with the left wing army, they still had 60,000 combat auxiliary soldiers and several slaves.

That Han dog commander only gathered 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers. In terms of field combat strength, how could the Ming army stop the main force of the Qing Dynasty?

"The Ming army has a Black Banner Battalion that is fearless and brave in battle. They are on par with the warriors of the Qing Dynasty and even surpass the Eight Banner Manchus."

The performance of the Black Flag Battalion in the Battle of Julu shocked the world. People in Zhili and Shandong were talking about the fearless soldiers of the Black Flag Battalion. Even Dorgon and others had heard of them.

Whenever the newly defeated bannermen talked about the Black Flag Camp, they would look terrified - even if the brave Black Flag soldiers were hit by several arrows, stabbed several times, and bleeding profusely, they would still drag their broken bodies to the front of the Tartars and try their best to stab the Qing soldiers.

There were even soldiers from the Black Flag Battalion who deliberately pretended to be dead, lying on the ground and being trampled by several people, and in the end they had to endure the severe pain and wield swords to kill the enemy.

Some Black Flag soldiers were burned by the flames, but regardless of the pain, they roared, brandished their swords and rushed into the crowd to kill the enemy, and finally hugged the flag bearers and died in the flames together.

Some Black Flag soldiers were willing to sacrifice themselves, using their flesh and blood to block Bayala's movements, and let their teammates stab the White Armored Soldiers to death.

"Horror, horror! Are the Black Flag Army monsters who are not afraid of pain or death?"

After listening to these oral battle reports, the senior leaders of the left-wing army could not help but exclaim, "What a madman!"

Rumor has it that most of the Black Flag Army were farmers from the north. The Qing army's repeated invasions caused them to be separated from their wives and children, and their families were destroyed. They moved south to survive in hunger and cold, and finally settled in a small county in southern Henan.

Unfortunately, there has been little rain in recent years and the harvest has been insufficient. In order to prevent their families from starving to death, they resolutely joined the army and went north to fight with hatred for the Tartars.

From the moment they said goodbye to their families, they had no intention of returning alive.

They were like a group of self-exiled abandoned children, who wanted to kill the Tartars for revenge and save a mouth to feed for their families.

So some flag soldiers felt that the Black Flag Camp was like wild wolves, like a group of old and frail wolves who had been driven out of their family, and they started every fight with the intention of dying.

No wonder the Black Flag Battalion is so powerful. It turns out that they are warriors who know they will die. They are far more powerful than the elite Sauron soldiers.

It’s a pity that this powerful army is an enemy and has a blood feud with the Qing Dynasty. Otherwise, if they were incorporated into the Eight Banners, they would be another powerful force of the Qing Dynasty.

At first, Dorgon and others did not believe the rumor, but after seeing the miserable conditions of Dudu and Mazhan, and the other Gushan Ezhen hanging their heads like defeated dogs, everyone began to believe in the bravery of the Black Flag Battalion.

Ma Zhan roared loudly, "What does it matter how brave the Black Flag Battalion is? There are only about a thousand of them. If one dies, there will be one less. If they all die, we will be wiped out!"

"As long as we kill all the Black Flag soldiers, the other Han dogs will be scared out of their wits. Then these hundreds of miles of land will become our horse pasture."

Seeing that the generals had agreed to fight again, Du Du did not want to persuade them any further. He just hoped that the generals would be more cautious, collect more gunpowder to use for the captured Ming army cannons, and make sure to quickly break the mule cart formation of the Black Flag soldiers.

As the commander-in-chief, Dorgon actually wanted to fight. Although the deceased Yuetuo was often stripped of his title and demoted by Huang Taiji, he knew that this was just a drama of centralization performed by Yuetuo and Huang Taiji.

Dorgon never forgot the great hatred that Huang Taiji had forcibly killed his mother when he ascended the throne!

Huang Taiji has lost a trusted confidant. If he continues to make great contributions, he will definitely become an important official that Huang Taiji must rely on in the future, and then he will make further progress...

Dorgon had already thought of a strategy to attack the main force of the Ming army.

"If we want to defeat the main force of the Han dogs, we must lure them out and into our pre-set ambush."

"How to do it?"

"Besiege Jinan."

Dorgon took out a simple sketch, which was drawn for them by a wealthy merchant who secretly funded the Qing Dynasty.

Although the map was crude and the distances between cities were distorted, the main rivers and important cities were depicted. With the help of spies and traitors, they felt like they were returning home when they plundered the interior of the country to the south.

"Surround the city and attack the reinforcements?" a Gushan Ezhen suggested.

Dorgon nodded and continued, "The Southern Dynasty Emperor values ​​his vassal states the most. If we surround Jinan, it will surely cause panic among the Southern Dynasty officers and soldiers. If the Southern Dynasty Emperor orders an advance, those Ming troops will surely come to rescue us."

"Great! That bastard emperor will be our helper!"

"What if the Han dogs let us stay here for more than ten days without coming to our rescue, and instead gather a large force to trap us?"

Abatai tried hard to find loopholes in the military plan. This strategy, which concerns the entire army, cannot be sloppy in the slightest, and all aspects must be adequately prepared.

"Then we will capture Jinan and take the Southern Dynasty emperor's relatives as hostages. If the Southern Dynasty soldiers follow us for even a day, we will kill a few of their clansmen and force them to stay away until they 'escort' us back outside the Great Wall."

"Yes, very well prepared." Abatai nodded. "How many enemy soldiers do you plan to let in and eat?"

"At least 20,000. It would be best if the Black Flag Battalion was included as well. This battle would crush the morale of the Southern Dynasty officers and soldiers and prevent them from pursuing us again."

"Just fight like this! I'm going to kill all the people in the Black Flag Camp!" Mazhan had a ferocious look on his face, and the crisp sound of his knuckles cracking could be heard from his clenched fists.

"Won't the Han dogs discover our ambush?" Hauge was a little worried.

"No," Dorgon said confidently. "My scouts have searched the Jinan area extensively. It's hilly and sloping, so tens of thousands of soldiers and horses could hide there without being discovered. Jinan will be the burial place of the Black Flag Battalion and the Southern Dynasty commander."

(End of this chapter)