Dragon Sea Empire

Nurhachi's army was crowded in the Suzi River Valley, and it was actually impossible to fully deploy its forces, and it was impossible to give full play to its superiority. Therefore, after capturing Gule Village, Nurhachi decisively sent his most important son, Huang Taiji, to lead 5000 cavalry up the Suzi River. , Taking advantage of the fact that the Chinese army was still gathering troops, they attacked and occupied Maldunzhai ten miles away in one fell swoop.

The Maldunzhai defenders were a small force of more than 200 people from the fifth division. After being attacked, they resisted desperately, and finally ignited the gunpowder depot and died together with more than a hundred Eight Banners soldiers. The fiery red fireworks signal issued before the fall of Mardunzhai was captured The cavalry post directly under the old battalion of the First Division, who was walking on the road to reinforce Mardunzhai, saw it, and immediately, the Eight Banners cavalry with heavy armor and spears rushed in front of them.

Most of the Chinese cavalry who were caught off guard died in the battle, and dozens of them escaped, and the news of the Eight Banners' rapid march was sent back to the Hetuala camp.

Before Yan Siqi could react to this, Zhang Pan and others arrived after breaking out from Gule Village.

Zhang Pan provided the exact news: Nurhachi had indeed conscripted himself, and the Eight Banners soldiers of the brigade had already marched up the Suzi River.

Yan Siqi and the staff officers of the combat department reckoned that the Eight Banners Brigade would have to walk along the Suzi River no matter what. There are dense forests and mountains on both sides of the valley, and it is impossible to march with large troops. It will definitely go eastward along the valley.

They underestimated the marching speed of Huang Taiji's vanguard troops. Just when Zhang Pan fell asleep, Huang Taiji took his own guards and the Bayal soldiers assigned to him by Nurhaci, a total of 3000 elite soldiers, and marched overnight. On the morning of the first day of October, 60, Huang Taiji led a team to march [-] miles in a hurry, and raided Qiyun Mountain at dawn.

Behind this hill is the basin with a radius of more than ten miles around the city of Hetuala. Among the mountains and dense forests in this area, it is the only place suitable for large army battles.

From here, the Suzi River flows westward through the mountain pass. The Qiyun Mountain on the north bank and the Zaotu Mountain on the south bank just block the main road entering the valley plain around Hetuala City from west to east.

Guarding this place is the militia battalion that is building fortifications: the first battalion in Taiwan, which was formed by the pioneering regiment established in the name of Li Lihua, Princess of Jinghai. He is Li Dan's subordinate, one of the first batch of veterans of the company's guard.

Among the members of Taiwan's First Battalion, there were Han Chinese hunters who hunted for deerskins in the Shengfan Mountains of Taiwan, and there were also Taiwanese natives of the Pingpu ethnic group. They discovered Huang Taiji's surprise attack troops with their keen senses formed from long-term hunting, and caught them in time. Open fire, their weapons range from the arquebus guns used by the Ming army to the first batch of improved arquebus guns of the Chinese army, the first batch of flintlock guns, bows and arrows, sailor crossbows, etc., and a large number of grenades. In the fierce battle, Huang Taiji's surprise attack failed.

This shocked Yan Siqi, but no one knew how many soldiers from the Eight Banners came. Huang Taiji disappeared under Qiyun Mountain immediately after missing a hit. Yan Siqi felt that this should be a test before the arrival of the Nurhachi army. The west of Ala City deployed troops to form an array, ready to meet the enemy.

Huang Taiji moved quickly, and immediately crossed the south to attack Zaotu Mountain. Yan Siqi didn't send any soldiers to guard here, only dozens of signal soldiers from the Fifth Division stationed there. Soldiers engulfed.

It wasn't until noon that Yan Siqi realized that it was not the main force of the Eight Banners who launched the raid in the morning, but only a vanguard of the Eight Banners.

But the Chinese army had already set up their formation at this time, Yan Siqi just blushed and cursed a few words, and then ordered the whole army to prepare for battle.

Staff officer Zheng Zhihu stepped forward and asked, "Sir, don't you need to send troops to take back Zaotu Mountain?"

Yan Siqi sneered: "Why do you want to recover? Nurhachi wants to control these key points, and then let his large troops enter the surrounding area of ​​Hetuala from the valley between these two mountains. We just wait here for them to come."

Zheng Zhihu disturbed his head in doubt, and retreated, not knowing why.

……

On this morning, more than 9000 people from the Zhenglan Banner (21 of them were pure Manchurian cows) led by Mang Gurtai, the fifth son of the banner owner Nurhaci, came to Qiyun Mountain first, but when they attacked the mountain, they found that the defenders on the mountain had fled. , the top of the mountain is full of broken guns and knives behind the parapet fortifications.

Huang Taiji's 5000 Zhengbai Banner troops arrived at the foot of Qiyun Mountain, on the north bank of the Suzi River, at noon (including 18 pure Manchurian Niulu, plus several Mongolian Niulu and Korean Niulu).

Afterwards, the main forces of the Eight Banners arrived at the south bank of the Suzi River one after another, only half a day behind the forward Huang Taiji troops. The main force of the Eight Banners, both soldiers and infantry, were equipped with horses, and their marching speed was indeed faster than that of the Chinese army.

There are 5600 people in the Xiangbai Banner (including 15 pure Manchurian Niulu), and the owner of the banner is Dudu, the eldest son and grandson of Nurhachi; more than 10000 people in the Zhenghong Banner (including 25 pure Manchurian Niulu), the owner of the banner is Daishan, the second son of Nurhachi; 10000 people (26 pure Manchurian Niulu), the owner of the banner is Yuetuo, the eldest son of Daishan; most of the troops of the newly created Xianglan Banner stayed in Jiefan City to fight against the Chinese Army's West Route Army, and only 4 Niulu with 1000 people arrived , the temporary banner owner is Amin's brother Jierhalang.

More than 18000 people from the Zhenghuang Banner (45 Manchurian Niulu) and 7000 people from the Xianghuang Banner (20 Manchurian Niulu) under the command of Nurhachi himself were on the south bank of the Suzi River, close to the river popular army, and soon deployed troops by the Suzi River.

Nurhachi's two yellow flags were led by his young 17-year-old son Azig as the deputy general. He also led 5000 elite personal guards "Ba Yale soldiers", of which 1000 were allocated to the forward Huang Taiji.

In addition, 10000 cavalry of the Mongolian Chahar Allied Forces, led by Wu Jige, launched in the valley north of the Suzi River.

The main force of the Eight Banners totaled more than 8 people, and they were successively deployed on both sides of the Suzi River. In their southeast direction, the right wing of the Chinese Army was against the city of Hetuala, and the left wing was facing the direction of Zaotu Mountain. Regiment, two regiments of the Fifth Division) 6 people deployed across the board behind the two-mile-long earth-stone parapet, arranged in four rows of burst formation, on the left wing of the center line is the first regiment of the Fifth Division in a hollow square formation, and on the right wing is the guard The Ryukyu regiment and ten militia battalions behind the walls of the old city of Hetuala totaled 12000 people.

On both sides of the horizontal infantry formation on the center line of the Chinese Army, there is a regiment of the Artillery Brigade, two artillery regiments directly under the First Division and the Fifth Division, and some Marine Corps are directly under the Heavy Firearms Sentinel. More than 200 large and small cannons were deployed, especially a large number of pull-type bronze field cannons were arranged in the hollow square formation on the left wing, and ten heavy-duty artillery pieces were arranged at the head of Hetuala City, forming a cross-firing fire in front of the central front. net.

Zhang Pan took his understaffed second regiment and 2100 supplementary troops of the militia battalion to stand at attention outside the west gate of Hetuala City. His troops and marines consisted of more than 1000 people, 3000 cavalry troops of the West Route Army, and 1000 cavalry troops of the East Route Army. As a reserve team, Zhang Pan was temporarily appointed as the chief of the reserve team for this battle at the fifty paces behind the front parapet.

The Chinese Army, including soldiers from the militia battalion, has a total strength of no more than 3400, which is less than half of the main force of the Eight Banners.

However, Nurhachi is still not sure about the decisive battle ahead.

The Chinese army on the opposite side has raised a large air bag on its own position at this moment, and the lower part seems to be burning with fire, floating slowly in the sky at a hundred feet high. Looking at this strange thing dreamily.

Nurhachi was setting up his own golden tent at the foot of Zaotu Mountain. It was very strange to hear a commotion outside the tent, and then silence. , rushed into the big tent in panic: "Grandpa Khan, here, there are monsters on the formation of the pirate army,"

Nurhachi glared at him angrily, Yue Tuo shrank his head silently, and still pointed to the southeast involuntarily.

Nurhachi strode out of the tent, and suddenly saw a huge airbag slowly rising from the opposite naval camp. He couldn't help being stunned for a while, and soon understood, and shouted: "This is just a large air bag." It’s just a Kongming lantern, and the Liaodong Han people also play with this thing during festivals... Don’t you need to work, hurry up and do something.”

Nurhachi's tall figure flickered at the door of the big tent, and the generals of the Eight Banners had already woken up. Hearing the old Khan's reprimand, everyone hurriedly dispersed to work. Although the Eight Banners disciples were nervously preparing to meet the enemy, they often raised First of all, let's take a few more glances at the weird big sac.

"This new type of Feiyun hot air balloon is made entirely of silk and paint, and is lighter than the old scout balloons, so it can hold two people standing up,"

A captain of the reconnaissance balloon unit of Jinghai Wang Laoying was a thin and thin boy from Danmin in Hainan. Although he tried his best to shrink his body, the strong Yan Siqi still felt that the balloon basket was too small. He held up the binoculars and said angrily: "I Fortunately, I have lived on a boat since I was a child, and it won’t be too crowded here. Brother Zhao Tie’s burly body, I’m afraid he won’t be able to squeeze in here. Didn’t the owner of the ship say that he can build a bigger airship?”

The captain of the reconnaissance balloon troop smiled wryly, and tried to move his body to the side, his upper body was almost protruding out of the gondola: "Boss Yan, I don't know about this. The Research Department creates a new musket,"

Yan Siqi held up the binoculars and observed northwest and west directions for a while, then glanced around, frowned and muttered: "The Eight Banners soldiers are making a detour to the south, and they want to detour to the south of the Hetuala camp. Go, why, Nuqi, who is famous for his decisiveness and speed in combat, has not launched an attack until now, "

"Our cavalry reconnaissance post has fought against the Tazi soldiers in Suzihe River," Captain Dan Min exclaimed. He has been watching the sailors in the distance on the sailing ship all the year round. The acuity of his eyes is comparable to that of ordinary binoculars. .

Yan Siqi turned his binoculars to the direction of Captain Dan Min's finger, and sure enough, he saw a troop of Chinese cavalry rushing out of the dense forest of Suzi River, followed by a troop of cavalry with red flags.

Soon, the cavalry of the Chinese Army approached their position, and the cavalry with the red flag turned around and retreated slowly.

At this time on the South Road, the Xiangbai Banner troops who were tentatively advancing encountered the cavalry troops of the Chinese Army. As soon as the two sides engaged in battle, the Xiangbai Banner troops began to retreat, and the Chinese Army did not pursue. step back.

The Eight Banners and the 10,000+ Chinese Army confronted each other within a range of tens of square miles. Both sides were surprisingly cautious, and no one wanted to attack first.

In the evening, the generals of the Eight Banners Army, which had basically completed their formation, gathered in the king's tent and anxiously challenged Nurhachi.

Nurhachi sat on the throne of Baihupi Khan, silently looking at the people in front of him, showing unprecedented stability and prudence, and did not issue a battle order for a long time.