The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 254
Five quarters of the hour (8:15).

On the south bank of the Daqing River, the Qing army camp was in a commotion, and the sky was filled with excitement.

In the Qing army camp, a large number of Qing army soldiers wearing heavy armor were walking quickly towards the front along the corridor left by the military tent inside the camp.

The chaotic footsteps were mixed with the hoarse orders of officers at all levels.

The sound of artillery outside the camp was continuous, like thunder, rolling in with unparalleled momentum.

The main camp of the Qing army is the white flag camp. In the camp, there are many soldiers standing with flags like feathers.

A huge lookout tower stood in the center of the camp among the layers of military tents and patches of halberds.

This observation tower was the command platform of the Qing army. As the commander-in-chief of the Qing army, Dorgon was scanning the entire battle situation with a heavy head.

The sky in the north lights up very late in winter, and it doesn't start to light up until Tatsuki.

Dorgon's original plan was to wait until the four quarters of the hour, when the wind cleared and dawn dawned, to order the army to attack.

But at the quarter of the hour, when the sky was just twilight, the Ming army of the brigade had already stepped out of the military camp and took the lead in launching an attack on them.

The sudden attack of the Ming army exceeded Dorgon's expectations and completely disrupted his original plan.

Moreover, the number of the Ming army was larger than that reported by previous scouts, with the total strength reaching almost 3.

The extra tens of thousands of troops were the troops originally stationed in Dezhou City in Shandong Province. They had fallen behind and were not discovered by the scouts.

But now, the [-] Ming army has arrived
The entire army of the Ming Dynasty came out and formed a formation on the dry channel of the Daqing River. On both sides were cavalry guards, numbering about six to seven thousand.

Arranged in the middle are more than [-] infantrymen, divided into five formations, each with about [-] people. Three of them are chariot camps, with chariots on the outside for protection. The rest of the soldiers stay behind to guard the large army. Battalion, as support for the rear formation.

The Ming Army's chariot and camp tactics existed for a long time, and are now used by the Ming Army.

Basically, they were customized after the reform of car camp tactics carried out by Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang during the Wanli period.

Yu Dayou believed: "The chariot must be equipped with firearms to defeat thieves, and the firearms must be equipped with chariots to repel horses."

To put it simply, the chariot must be combined with firearms. The firearms serve as a supplement to the live firepower, while the chariot is used to resist the charging horses.

After the restructuring by Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang, the tactics of the Ming army's chariot camp were completely perfected.

After Qi Jiguang, the carriage camp in Bian Town has been changing over time and according to the battlefield situation, but it has remained true to its origins, and the fundamental core has not changed much.

The Ming army's car camps generally had two types of vehicles: heavy vehicles and light vehicles, with different models depending on the firearms loaded.

There are long shafts at both ends of the chariot, and horses can be driven at both ends, and can advance or retreat.

In the carriage camp reformed by Qi Jiguang, each heavy carriage was equipped with two cannons and was equipped with twenty soldiers, including ten regular soldiers, two horse guards, six gunners, one commander, one helmsman, and ten others. Soldiers are responsible for close combat.

The light vehicles leave shooting spaces for the use of muskets and bows and crossbows. There are 3000 people in a battalion, and each battalion is equipped with 120 and eight military vehicles.

When fighting against the enemy, the chariots should be arranged on the outermost side according to the terrain, with your own cavalry in the center, and then the infantry, archers, and gunmen will advance layer by layer.

When the enemy is far away, use artillery and firearms to attack. When the enemy is closer, use bows and crossbows to fight back. When the enemy rushes closer, the infantry will rely on chariots to defend and resist horses. Weapons and weapons are lined up in front of the formation, and they will assassinate them with spears. After the enemy is defeated, , and then sent cavalry to pursue it.

Qi Jiguang led troops to guard northern Xinjiang for more than ten years. He repeatedly defeated Mongolia with his chariot and camp tactics and became famous in Monan.

In the bloody battle at Hunhe River, the Zhejiang soldiers fought fiercely with Houjin soldiers who were several times larger than themselves based on the chariot camp. They reached a stalemate for a time and were unable to break the Zhejiang army's chariot formation.

It was not until the Zhejiang soldiers exhausted all the gunpowder and projectiles they carried that the Houjin soldiers relied on their numerical advantage to break through the Zhejiang soldiers' carriage camp and win the final victory in the Battle of Hunhe River.

The Ming army's car camp tactics were very effective against the Mongolian tribes who were poorly armed and lacked heavy artillery.

But when facing the Qing army with heavy artillery, they inevitably fell into a disadvantage.

Because Qi Jiguang originally wanted to deal with the threats from the Mongolian tribes in the north in the early stages of his reform.

In Qi Jiguang's era, the Jurchen tribes outside the Great Wall of Liaodong were still loyal servants of the Ming Dynasty.

At that time, Nurhachi was just a minion of the Li family in Liaodong.

No one could have predicted at that time that the Jurchens would rise rapidly in the following decades and become the overlord of Liaodong...

If Li Chengliang learned about his second son Li Rubai and his third son Li Rubai under Jiuquan, they would die because of the Jurchens.

I wonder if Li Chengliang will regret that he raised the bandits to respect himself in order to have a smooth career.

With the progress of the times and the advancement of weapons, Cheying is destined to withdraw from the era of tactics.

It's just that for the current Qing army, they didn't have many easy ways to deal with the Ming army setting up such a car camp.

In Liaodong, outside the Great Wall, they were able to collect a large number of artillery, and even arranged red heavy artillery.

Under the bombardment of heavy artillery, even the city walls made of bricks and stones could not resist. How could the wooden chariots resist?

But now this is within the pass. In this entrance battle, they went deep into the interior of the Ming Dynasty in order to plunder property and people. They were all lightly armed and did not even bring food and grass, let alone heavy artillery.

Heavy artillery, such as the red cannon, required several pack horses to drag it forward. It could not cover many miles in a day and would greatly delay the march. Naturally, they did not carry it with them at the entrance this time.

The artillery used in Jiazhuang were also captured from the Ming army. They were basically small and medium-sized artillery, mostly various Fran cannons. Their range was not far and their power was not very powerful.

It is almost impossible to rely on these artillery pieces to bombard the Ming Army's car camp.

So if you want to defeat the Ming army's chariot camp, you can only push the shield chariot to the front and forcefully break the formation in close combat.

But in this way, the casualties will inevitably rise sharply, which is unacceptable to the Qing army.

The infantry of the Ming Army were divided into five formations, arranged in a line. The first formation, the third formation, and the fifth formation were the vehicle camps, and the second and fourth formations were ordinary military formations.

Vehicle camps and ordinary military formations are intertwined, echoing and relying on each other.

Dorgon frowned tightly, with gloomy eyes, scanning the entire Ming army's formation, trying to find any flaws.

But how could there be any flaws in these military formations laid out by Sun Chuanting? Almost all details were noticed by Sun Chuanting.

Dorgon looked at it for a long time but could not see any flaws, and the sound of artillery in his ears hardly subsided for a moment.

What annoyed Dorgon the most was the artillery camp set up by the Ming army in front of the formation.

The Ming army had a large artillery fleet, and the power of those artillery pieces was smaller than that of ordinary red-coated artillery pieces.

But it is much larger than the Fran machine, and its range exceeds the Fran machine cannon in their army.

Above this distance, they can only be beaten but not fight back.

The Ming army's artillery positions fired in rounds. For nearly half an hour, reports of losses continued to come from each battalion.Almost all the walls outside each battalion were damaged. Although there were not many injuries to the personnel, morale was greatly affected.

Dorgon looked towards the left and right wings. The cavalry under his command on the left and right wings had already gone into battle after receiving his order. Several cavalry troops were already in close combat with the Ming army's cavalry, fighting in a melee.

But this time, the Ming army's cavalry did not collapse as before, but was extremely tenacious.

The Ming army's cavalry relied on the favorable terrain and the firepower of their own car camps to make the line unprecedentedly stable.

Even if he sent armored cavalry from the guard camp to attack, he was unable to break the stalemate in the end.

Just as Dorgon was scanning the entire battle situation, Duduo, who had led the armored cavalry to the front line, finally returned to the camp.

"The scouts have reported."

Wearing white polished armor and a double-edged helmet, Duduo strode up to the observation deck. He was ordered to go to the front line to find out the details of the army. After nearly half an hour, the scouts who had dispersed had already It is almost possible to grasp the intelligence of the Ming army.

"What are the arrangements for the Ming army?"

Dorgon asked directly without turning his head.

"After repeated confirmations, the commander-in-chief of the Ming army was confirmed to be Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi in the Ming Dynasty. The Shaanxi army under his command was the main force in the army. The troops remaining in the camp were the Shandong troops originally stationed in Dezhou."

Duduo stepped forward and stood with Dorgon. He raised his finger and pointed to the center of the Ming army's formation in the distance, and answered in detail.

"The Ming army arranged troops on two wings. The right wing was the Shaanxi cavalry led by Cao Bianjiao, the deputy general of the Ming army, and the left wing was the Guanning cavalry led by Zu Kuan."

Dorgon's eyes slowly swept from right to left across the large formation of the Ming army in the distance. He had heard the names of Zu Kuan and Cao Bianjiao, and Zu Kuan was considered an old rival, quite decent.

Cao Bianjiao's name first appeared during the Battle of Four Cities in the fourth year of Tiancong, and he became famous for his bravery.

Dorgon also knew something about the domestic affairs of the Ming Dynasty, and they would also collect some relevant intelligence from the generals and commanders in the Ming army who dared to fight.

In the mountains and forests, if you want to subdue a tribe, you must first kill the bravest person in their tribe.

As long as the most courageous people in the tribe are killed, no matter how many people are left, they are just lambs to be slaughtered.

As it is with tribes, so it is with nations.

Therefore, whenever they fight, as long as they find a Ming army who dares to fight, even if the wealth is close at hand, they will give up the wealth they are about to get and gather together to defeat the Ming army who dares to fight.

Thirty percent of the brave men in the Ming army died in Saarhu.

Another [-]% died in the Hun River outside Shenyang City, and another [-]% fell in the bloody battles that lasted for decades.

Only the last [-]% is left in the pass.

As long as the last ten percent of courageous people are killed, the Ming army will be in ruins for more than ten years.

When he was in Jiazhuang, Dorgon wanted to give the final word to all the diligent kings in the Ming Dynasty.

But it is a pity that the battle in Jiazhuang ended in nothing. All his plans fell short in the end, and he failed to achieve his goals despite losing troops and generals.

And all of this is because of one person.

That man was now galloping thousands of miles away, leading his troops to meet him again.

Dorgon raised his head and looked into the distance. To the north of the company camp, the Ming army's large formation was moving, raising countless dust.

After passing through the numerous military formations, passing through the layers of spears, and passing through the hemp-like flags, Dorgon's vision finally settled on the fiery red banner in the center of the Ming army's formation.

Under the banner, countless armored soldiers wearing red armor, red helmets, and robes and belts surrounded the fiery red banner like stars holding the moon.

The biting and violent cold wind swept the dust, whistling across the dry and frozen Daqing River, and then passed over the Ming army formations arrayed on the south bank.

Countless flaming red flags were rolling in the strong wind, like a prairie fire!
In front of the Ming army's formation, the sound of artillery was like thunder and a landslide.

Countless balls of white gunpowder smoke rose into the air, and orange-red firelight bloomed in Dorgon's eyes. In the end, there were shrill wails, accompanied by the crumbling walls of each camp.

Dorgon clenched the sword at his waist, and the cold chill slowly overflowed from his eyes. The sight in front of him made the murderous intention in his heart reach the critical point.

All of this was because an emotion that should not have existed in his heart - fear.

For decades, the power of the Ming Dynasty was declining day by day. It became weaker and weaker day by day.

However, their power was at the height of their power and growing stronger. Just four years ago, after he led his army across the Yellow River and surrounded Ezhe's camp in heavy fog, he sent Su Tai's brother Nanchu to persuade him to surrender.Su Tai, Ezhe, mother and son surrendered under the imperial seal passed down by the Meng Yuan Dynasty.

At this point, all the Mongolian tribes in Monan were in awe. Along the way, the chiefs bowed their heads and the princes knelt to welcome them.

How can one not breed ambition?
Hundreds of years ago, the Mongols rose up in Mobei, went all the way south to destroy the Jin Dynasty and Pingxia, overthrowing the Song Dynasty, and finally aspired to dominate the world and dominate the Central Plains, succeeding the emperor of China.

Nowadays, the land thousands of miles away from the northern kingdom has become a place for their Jurchen tribes to herd horses. Why can't they follow the example of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty in the past and take over the Central Plains? !

In the past, Dorgon was always confident because of the weakness of the Ming army, the corruption of the Ming court, and the weakness of the Ming country.

But the Ming army, which was now waiting in formation on the south bank of the Daqing River and with high morale, gave Dorgon a fear that he should not have had.

It seems that some confusing changes are taking place within the Ming Dynasty. These changes are not bad changes, but good changes.

The heart in the chest of the old red tiger was still beating hard.

The sight in front of him and the slight fear in his heart reminded Dorgon of many bad memories from the past.

The idea of ​​preserving strength that originally existed in his heart has disappeared in his heart.

Whether it is for future plans or for his current status, he must defeat the Ming army in front of him and must not let the Ming army regain its strength.

The low sound of the horn slowly sounded in Dorgon's ears, and it also brought Dorgon's mind that was drifting in the wind back to the observation tower.

Dorgon withdrew his gaze and turned to the place where the horn sounded.

Most of the soldiers of each banner had already been ordered to fight and lined up in the field. The sound of the horn was the signal to him that the flag response was over.

The soldiers and horses under his command are ready.

Dorgon held the sword at his waist tightly, and the heart-stopping murderous intention flowed in his eyes.

"Beat the marching drums, blow the trombones, put the dead soldiers in front, protect the troops to suppress the formation, send orders to the flags, and attack with all our strength!"

"The drums don't stop, the offensive doesn't slow down, and those who retreat without being ordered will be killed by sitting down, regardless of whether they are full or Mongolian!!!"

(End of this chapter)