Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1634 Clouds
On the first day of October, the capital was getting colder, and the pattering autumn rain made this majestic ancient capital shrouded in a layer of mist, just like the situation in the court, it was difficult for outsiders to see clearly.

It has been more than one night since the results of the Battle of Horqin were reported to the capital. Some people think it is a victory, some people think it is a defeat, some people think this battle is unbeatable, and some people think that the outcome is different.

At this moment, the cabinet elders should all meet the emperor in the Wenhua Hall.It is conceivable that the bigwigs of different factions will definitely have different interpretations of the results of this battle, and some people may be sloppy, of course, it may be to smooth things over and not offend.However, in any case, His Majesty the Emperor must finally come to a conclusion.

The courtiers and workers are all waiting for His Majesty's holy judgment.

If the holy majesty's conclusion on this war is beneficial to his own side, how should he defend it?

If the holy majesty's conclusion on this war is not good for our own side, how can we overturn it?

If the Holy Majesty's final conclusion on this war is against the enemy and our two factions, how should we deal with it?
How to deal with the emperor's holy order is what the ministers of the world are concerned about. As for the real outcome of the war itself... sorry, let's put this kind of triviality aside in advance, and talk about it when we have time in the future.

So what was the real outcome of this war?From the results of the battlefield itself, the situation is roughly as follows:
The Ming-Manchu-Mongolian allied forces lost 460 people, of which 960 people were killed, 630 people were missing, 660 people were seriously injured, and [-] people were slightly injured.

The coalition forces in Chahar and Wai Khalkha lost about 720 people in battle, among which 3000 heads were obtained, and it is estimated that about [-] people were seriously injured-because this cannot be determined, there is serious controversy within the court.

The above is the overall data, but to be specific, 170 people were killed or missing, 570 people were seriously injured, and 140 people were slightly injured; Four hundred and three people were injured; 73 people were killed in Horqin and the three tribes of Manchuria, 820 were seriously injured, and 380 were slightly injured.

Since Chahar and Wai Khalkha could not tell the difference in the dress codes of the two sides (because the Mongolian army no longer had uniform uniforms at this time, it was impossible to distinguish effectively), it was difficult to determine the respective battle losses of the two troops. However, according to Xiao Ruxun, who represented the Ming army Judging from the above-mentioned battle report, it should be the Wai Khalkha that bore most of the casualties.

According to Xiao Ruxun's battle report, the situation at that time was roughly like this: after receiving the warning, the Ming, Manchu and Mongolian coalition forces had just set up their basic positions, and the Outer Khalkha Department took the lead in launching a wave of probing attacks.

This tentative attack did not achieve good results. The Jinghua cavalry front on the front side of the coalition forces did not move at all, and it was difficult for the Waikalkha Department to determine the loss of the Ming army in the dark.

It stands to reason that under such circumstances, as the main general, he usually chooses to make cautious decisions, and it is unlikely to launch a large-scale attack with all his eggs in one basket.However, this time it was a surprise. Not long after the first wave of offensive ended, probably after that round of cavalry returned to the formation, the Outer Khalkha Department actually launched a large-scale attack directly. It is estimated that the troops in the battle were the Outer Khalkha Department The total force at that time was as high as about [-].

Xiao Ruxun speculated in the battle report that it may be because the Jinghua Cavalry's line is different from the traditional line. It is not a neat line, but two staggered rows like the eight "kou" characters. The layout of the front four and the back four are separated. Therefore, Abadai Saiyin Khan of the Outer Khalkha Tribe believed that the Jinghua Cavalry could be divided and encircled by relying on the superiority of troops. At that time, there were 4000 cavalry in the Outer Khalkha Tribe, and there were only 500 Jinghua Cavalry in total. There are exactly [-] people in the formation.

However, just like Marshal Ney, the most brave French army in the Battle of Waterloo, led the French cavalry to attack the hollow phalanx of the British army, although the division and encirclement of Abadai Saiyin Khan seemed to be completed, the annihilation was impossible. .

The reason why Jinghua Qiding put up two rows of staggered "kou" formations is to reduce the enemy's speed and impact, and to form a disadvantage that they can be hit by the firepower from the edge of the word "kou" in all directions. state.

It may be better to understand this situation by using an analogy: it is like placing eight square bricks in the front four and the rear four in a flat lowland on the ground, and then a large bucket of water is flushed from the side.Although these waters occupy the surroundings of the eight bricks, these bricks can actually touch the water on all four sides—these four sides are the four directions of firepower projection, which means that all the hollow square arrays are exposed to water. Can fire in any direction.

At the same time, due to being trapped between the eight bricks, the distance between the "gap" is obviously not very large, and it is definitely not something that the cavalry can speed up to attack. Therefore, the cavalry of the Outer Khalkha can only kill towards the hollow phalanx in a chaotic manner. Then they were shot down row by row when they couldn't reach the enemy.

Due to the narrowness of the battlefield, there were also Mongolian cavalry shooting from a long distance behind the cavalry in the front row, but the sporadic arrows that could not form a concentrated fire salvo were obviously not enough to cause the collapse of the hollow phalanx, so the Outer Khalkha immediately fell into the quagmire.

Seeing that the situation was getting worse, the horns of the whole army's attack and the sound of thunder and drums sounded from the rear of the Mongolian coalition forces. Yin Khan, don't worry about the hollow phalanx, you will go straight forward and continue to attack, and the hollow phalanx will be handed over to Da Khan!"

Abadai Saiyin Khan, who received the order, did not know why he thought about it, so he obeyed the order without hesitation. He led the Waikalkha cavalry to rush through the "eight-door golden lock formation" against the hail of bullets fired from all directions, and directly killed them. The second of Xiao Ruxun's three lines of defense: Horqin and Manchuria's three lines of defense.

Different from the eight hollow phalanxes of Jinghua Qiding, the Horqin people will definitely not switch from riding to stepping, and even Ye He and the other three Manchurian tribes are unwilling to do so.For Horqin and Ye He, switching from riding to walking is obviously a way to maximize weaknesses and avoid strengths, and the gains outweigh the losses.

Hada's Meng Gebulu believed that using cavalry would better show that the Hada tribe was still strong, and he was unwilling to switch to infantry to fight, not to mention that he was not at ease to hand over the horses to Xiao Ruxun's central army to take care of them, so he naturally kept the cavalry posture.

As for Jianzhou Youwei, who sent only a few hundred troops, since the "allies" around them who were several times stronger than themselves all kept cavalry, it would be meaningless for them to switch to infantry, so they also kept cavalry.

The middle layer of defense line is very strong, the total number is close to [-], and Horqin alone has nearly [-] cavalry. It stands to reason that its strength exceeds that of the partially damaged Wai Khalkha.However, at this moment, the Outer Khalkha Division is attacking from one side of the defense line, while the Ming, Manchurian and Mongolian allied forces have three sides fortification. The side that directly leads to the contact between the two sides is the Outer Khalkha Division with a weak force advantage.

At this time, the eastern line of the second defense line of the Ming army was divided into two forces, one was the 3000 men of the Hada tribe in the north, and the other was the more than [-] men of Horqin in the south.From the perspective of the length of the defense line that the two sides are responsible for, this "Eastern Front" can be divided into three parts, the northern third is for the defense of the Hada Department, and the central and southern two-thirds are for the defense of the Horqin Department.

Abadai Saiyin Khan's choice was nothing special. He slightly gathered the subordinates who had "interspersed" through Jinghua's "eight-door golden lock hollow phalanx", and directly launched an attack on the middle of the second-layer defensive circle.

However, the Horqin people did not foolishly wait for the opponent to attack. Also as professional cavalry, they actually preempted some attacks on the Outer Khalkha.However, a certain mentality that has been formed recently makes their offense look a little bit of a mouse-hunter compared to the Outer Khalkha Department-they worry that in this case, the archery may affect the Jinghua Cavaliers inside the outer circle of defense.

Knowing that Jinghua Dong's family could not afford to offend the Horqin people, they chose to give up archery and go directly to the machete against the machete.At this time, the distance between the two sides is too close, and it is impossible to jog, trot, speed up, and attack in an orderly manner, so the charge is completely unworthy of the name, and can only be fought as a cavalry melee.

In essence, no one who is familiar with cavalry warfare is willing to fight cavalry melee, but wars often do not change according to human subjective will. When something has happened, both sides can only be forced to accept it.

At the same time, the main force of the Chahar Khan court has also taken action.Under the actual command of Brihatu, the Chahar Mongolian army will naturally not make old mistakes and newcomers and rush to attack the hollow square. Arrow showers.

This angle is quite tricky, and in fact it is a bit of a trick, which means that only the one in the northeast corner of the eight hollow phalanxes can reach the effective range, and the counterattack is naturally not strong-of course, on the other hand, they can only reach the effective range. With a hollow square.

However, there is a problem here: the Chahar Mongolian army dragged the front line and passed by a corner. Each "passing" cavalry only needs to shoot one arrow to complete the task, which means that its shooting is almost uninterrupted. Until the whole army passed by and reached the southern line of the Ming, Manchu and Mongolian coalition forces.

At the same time, since only one hollow phalanx can obtain the close range required for counterattack, and even the three-stage strike tactic has time gaps for reloading ammunition and changing formations, the hollow phalanx actually receives almost continuous blows, while It can only give the enemy intermittent counterattacks, so the casualties are significantly greater than when the hollow phalanx was fighting frontally.

Since Jinghua has always emphasized the use of firearms and "de-armorization", this round of confrontation has almost become the most casualty since the bayonet hollow phalanx tactics were used.Thanks to the fact that the Chahar Mongolian army was beaten a little by the hollow phalanx in the previous battle of Liaobei, even if Brihatu came up with this tactic, he didn't dare to get too close, so that the bow and arrow The lethal power is greatly reduced, otherwise the consequences will be unpredictable.

The action of the Chahar Mongolian army gave the Jinghua cavalry a certain shock. Although the casualties of the two sides were really calculated, the losses of the Chahar people might not be lower than theirs, but this time there were hundreds of people in the hollow phalanx that used to hang the cavalry. The loss on the spot still made them more cautious and did not dare to change and move easily, so they kept the formation firmly nailed in place.

Jinghua Qiding's "eight-door golden lock" did not move, but Chahar's army had already cut obliquely to the southern line of the outer circle of the Ming army's defense line like a storm.This is the main guard of the Liaodong frontier army. They were planning to defend against the enemy with a hollow phalanx, but there was a mess behind them. Therefore, the formation has loosened.

To say it is loose, it is better to say that it takes the initiative to change.They changed the rear formation from a hollow phalanx into a typical musketeer infantry battle line, and the three infantry battle lines approached the inner line in reverse.

Their subjective consciousness is obvious, and they intend to attack Horqin and the three Manchurian tribes who are on the inside, directly blocking the Mongolian army of the Outer Khalkha tribe between the two lines of defense and annihilating them all.

This idea is not bad at all. From the perspective of tactical intentions, as long as the coalition forces on the inside line have a tacit understanding with them, they will actively gather in the north and press the Mongolian army in the outer Khalkha line to the south line. Situations can emerge quickly.

However... such a tacit tactical understanding is not so easy for two armies with completely different systems?The Liaodong Army on the southern front waited left and right, while the four Allied forces inside were still fighting bravely and tenaciously with the Mongolian Army of the Outer Khalkha.Although this time even the Hada Army under Meng Gebulu worked extraordinarily hard to avoid defeat, but... this is not what the Liaodong Army wants!
When Tumen and Burihatu led the Chahar Jingqi who came diagonally, they couldn't help the excitement in their hearts. Tumen Dahan didn't even have time to ask Burihatu this time, so he directly swung forward Dao shouted loudly: "Cut diagonally and charge! Blow the horn to let Abadai break out towards our army!"

Brihatu did not make any supplementary orders, because he understood what Tumen Khan meant: since the opponent is prepared and has set up a hollow phalanx, it is impossible to expect a big defeat of the enemy. The strength of the Erka Department should be almost the same now.Let them break out of the encirclement at this time, and the Chahar army cut diagonally to respond, and hit the Ming army on the southern line with an internal and external attack. The Mongolian coalition army should still make a little money.

If this goal is achieved, it means that the Mongols have achieved their first undefeated record against the hollow phalanx!For the Mongolians who have been beaten by the highly pragmatic hollow phalanx several times before to doubt their lives, it must be said to have inestimable psychological significance.

As expected, the Ming army on the southern front maintained four hollow phalanxes, but there was only one column, which was much less effective in slowing down the Mongolian cavalry than the "eight-door golden locks" on the eastern front.However, the infantry battle line they had turned to attack the inside had no time to re-arrange into a hollow square, and was ruthlessly charged by the Chahar cavalry for a while.

The Mongolian Army of the Outer Khalkha, which was trapped in the quagmire of the inner circle, broke out after hearing the sound of the horn, and joined the Chahar Army after paying a considerable price.Since the Chahar army had the upper hand at this time and was extremely powerful, the Manchu and Mongolian allied forces on the inside did not dare to press hard. Instead, they were worried that the Mongolian allied forces would attack concentrically again, so they quickly gathered their subordinates to prepare to meet the enemy.

This gave the Mongolian coalition forces a gap. Tumen Dahan decisively made another oblique cut in the southwest direction, turning the line of attack and breakout into a "V". The phalanx consciously moved a little to the southwest, but under the attack of the Mongolian coalition forces that quickly approached them, they could only stop and counterattack with three-stage strikes.

After paying a certain price, the Mongolian coalition forces rushed out from the gap in the hollow phalanx, and headed southwest without looking back-coincidentally, the southwest direction was the direction to Chahanhot.

The battle came to an abrupt end before reaching its peak.Although in the end Xiao Ruxun reported the battle losses and battle results that the Ming-Manchu-Mongolian coalition forces were superior—the coalition forces lost 460 people and the Mongolian army lost about 720, but after all, the Mongols left only [-] heads. Serious injuries to the Yunyun court will not be counted.Therefore, at this level, the two sides are almost a tie this time.

To put it bluntly, this is the worst battle since the "reform" of the Ming army. It is no wonder that there are undercurrents in the capital.

It was noon, and Gao Yushi, who was not a cabinet minister, also hadn't heard the news, so he could only return to his house from the household office to prepare for dinner expressionlessly.
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Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi" and "Yun Lan" for their support, thank you!
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PS: It’s weird, my backstage daily statistics show that there were 10 monthly tickets yesterday, but the only one that reminds me of the monthly tickets is one from a book friend named “Cao Mianzi”.Where do my readers read the book? Are they not at the starting point?

(End of this chapter)