Ming Empire

Chapter 10 What to do next

What Cao Yue didn't know was that the current Cao Bianjiao was fighting fiercely with the imperial guards personally led by Huang Taiji.

Cao Bianjiao's [-] cavalry quickly rushed to Huang Taiji's two yellow banner camps, but his troops soon encountered stubborn resistance from the elite Qing army emperor's pro-army.After rushing all the way, he knew that the defense forces in the Qing army camp were very weak, and that the slave chieftain Huang Taiji had at most only a few thousand guards around him. Cao Bianjiao was revived and ordered his troops to kill Huang Taiji at all costs.

The Ming army attacking the camp and Huang Taiji's imperial army were strangled together, and the camp suddenly became dark.A group of Ming army sergeants took advantage of the situation and set fire to it, and a huge fire ignited in Huang Taiji's two imperial banner camps.

At the same time, Cao Bianjiao sent an order to order Cao Yue's troops to respond quickly.

The sergeant who sent the order met Li Sheng, the general who divided the troops with Cao Yue, and heard that Cao Bianjiao's tribe was attacking the slave chief Taiji's imperial tent, and he was about to succeed. Li Sheng was also very excited, and immediately took [-] troops under his command Riding on horses, we came towards the camp with the two yellow flags.The fighting power of Huang Taiji's imperial army was far superior to that of the ordinary Jurchen Eight Banners. Although the Dongxie cavalry led by Cao Bianjiao was also an elite soldier in hundreds of battles, it was slightly inferior to the Qing army in terms of combat effectiveness.But knowing that the slave chieftain, Huang Taiji, was not far away, the soldiers of the Ming army were very excited and fought desperately, but the two thousand former imperial troops did not dare to take the initiative to attack. They were afraid that Huang Taiji would suffer, so they could only protect him desperately. Huang Taiji, this greatly reduced their combat power.The strengths and weaknesses of each other, the two sides are inextricably fighting.Cao Bianjiao took the lead and rushed to the front. His guards were all desperate and ruthless. Their individual combat capabilities were not weaker than the Jurchen's.

With a loud cry of "Ah...", the sword in Cao Bianjiao's hand cut off the head of a Qing soldier forcefully, blood splashed everywhere, and the head of that Qing soldier flew far away, the body without a head Still holding on to the horse's reins tightly, he continued to charge forward. After a while, the headless corpse collapsed and was trampled into a pulp by the horse's hooves.

Then Cao Bianjiao swung his knife again, and chopped off a Jiannu who had rushed in front of his horse. After rolling a few times, the Jiannu who fell off the horse finally failed to get up in time, and died tragically under the horse's hooves.

Just when Cao Bianjiao took the lead and rushed to kill, hoping to kill the slave chief Huang Taiji under the knife, a cold arrow flew from nowhere and hit Cao Bianjiao's right shoulder. The hand holding the knife suddenly couldn't hold it. The swords of countless Qing troops fell off the horse with a bang.Seeing that his chief general was injured, the guards around him were taken aback and rushed to rescue him desperately.

Fortunately, the guards were rescued in time, and Cao Bianjiao escaped the attack of the Qing army who took the opportunity to rush up.

Cao Bianjiao's injury affected morale to a certain extent. At this moment, the sound of horseshoes and shouts of killing came from all directions, and it was the Qing army returning to the camp to fight back.

After charging for a while, Li Sheng rushed to Cao Bianjiao's side with his bloody saber, and shouted: "Master General, Jiannu has returned to help. Let's withdraw. If we don't leave, the whole army will be wiped out."

Seeing the stars approaching in all directions, Cao Bianjiao reluctantly gave the order to retreat.

Rushing into Huang Taiji's old lair, he almost wiped out Huang Taiji's imperial army, captured or killed Huang Taiji alive, and finally fell short. Of course, Cao Bianjiao was very depressed.

However, Cao Bianjiao is a titan who has experienced countless battles and fights. He knows that many times he can't be arrogant, so he also led his men and horses. When the Qing army returning to the aid was not encircled, he blazed a trail and rushed from the camp of the two yellow flags. come out.

Huang Taiji's imperial troops who had suffered heavy losses did not dare to pursue them, for fear that the Ming army would kill a carbine and completely end the imperial tent. Their task was to protect the safety of the master, not to chase and annihilate the enemy, so Cao Bianjiao's troops were able to easily Break out of the camp of the two imperial flags.

Before the battle, he secretly discussed with Cao Yue, Zhao Zhen, and Wu Ju to break out of the siege and retreat back to the pass, so Cao Bianjiao didn't go back to kill, and directly led his men and horses to rush out of the camp.But the front was blocked by the fire set by Cao Yue, so they had to turn back and change direction to break through.

At this time, there was a Qing army estimated to be in the thousands, charging quickly from the southeast, and Cao Bianjiao had to change direction again, moving closer to the infantry led by Wu Ju.The returning Qing army came from all directions and rushed for a while. Li Sheng, unable to break through, rushed back to Cao Bianjiao anxiously and reported the situation to Cao Bianjiao.

After rushing to a high ground and checking the situation around, Cao Bianjiao reluctantly gave an order to retreat.

"Order the entire army to retreat in the direction of Songshan City, and order Deputy Commander Zhao's troops to retreat in the direction of Songshan City!"

At this time, Cao Bianjiao had already rushed out of the two yellow flag camps, and returned to the Zhenglan Banner's messy camp full of raging fires.In the big camp of the Zhenglan Banner, there were not many Qing troops returning to aid. With the support of the infantry, Cao Bianjiao's troops finally rushed out of the Qing army camp after suffering relatively large casualties, and entered Zhao Zhen's musketeer camp. Under the countermeasures, he retreated to the foot of Songshan City.

At this time, Hong Chengchou in Songshan City commanded the people in the city to take advantage of the Qing army's return to help, and rushed out of the city to prepare to break through.

The troops from both sides met under the city. Cao Bianjiao ran to Hong Chengchou and reported the general situation to Hong Chengchou: "Master Supervisor, the last general led the army to raid the camp of the Qing army and almost broke through the camp of the slave chief Huang Taiji. The Qing army that attacked Ru*feng Mountain suffered heavy losses, but the Qing army has returned to help, and our army has no way to break through!"

"General Cao, except for you and Zongbing Wang, the other six generals have all fled with their troops," Hong Chengchou couldn't suppress the anger in his heart, and said in a bitter voice, "It's a good thing that your troops have severely injured the Qing army, otherwise... Zongbing Cao , Our two armies are united, hoping to fight a bloody path."

"Master Superintendent, the general thinks that it is not a wise choice to break out of the siege now. We might as well retreat to the city and defend. The general has a way to deal with the Qing army." Cao Bianjiao rejected Hong Chengchou's idea of ​​joining the army to break through now, and suggested returning to the city to hold on .

He knew that now that the Qing army was encircling everywhere, it was very unlikely for them to break out.He is injured now, and his ability to move has been greatly reduced. Hong Chengchou led the army to break through the siege. There was no one in Songshan City to attract the attention of the Qing army. The army was wiped out.

In Songshan City, there were still plenty of muskets and ammunition. The other six generals fled, and the remaining food was enough for more than [-] men and horses to feed for a month.The method of splitting fire with muskets made him feel that it was possible to severely injure the Qing army under Songshan City and break the siege of Songshan with his own ability, so he suggested that Hong Chengchou return to the city and stick to it.

Cao Bianjiao's proposal made Hong Chengchou hesitate, but when he saw the dots and stars surrounding him from all directions, he finally agreed to Cao Bianjiao's proposal and ordered the whole army to return to the city and stand by for help.

When he led his army into Songshan City and saw the city gate rumbled shut, Cao Bianjiao finally thought of Cao Yue, who didn't know where he was now: "Fifth Brother, I don't know if you died in the chaos or if you have already broken through!" We are dispatched, I hope you are safe." Although he hoped that Cao Yue would be safe, Cao Bianjiao still believed that Cao Yue, who did not return to the city with the army, was now in danger.

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Because the Zhenglan Banner led by Hauge suffered heavy losses, Cao Bianjiao's troops went to the camp of the Two Yellow Banners and almost took away Huang Taiji's imperial tent. Huang Taiji, who was frightened, called for troops urgently After returning to the reinforcements, they did not order all the troops to chase them out, but ordered nearly half-centuries to guard their respective camps to prevent the Ming army from attacking the camps again.

Huang Taiji had no idea what the Ming army's intentions were, and he didn't dare to use all his strength to pursue the Ming army that had retreated to Songshan City, or the remnants of the Ming army that fled towards Shanhaiguan.This also caused less trouble for Hong Chengchou and Cao Bianjiao's troops to withdraw to the city, and also allowed Cao Yue's troops to escape Songshan easily.However, Dorgon, who wanted to suppress Hauge severely, still led his army to kill the Ming army and defeat them.

The task of intercepting and fleeing the Ming army was entrusted to Hauge, Dorgon, and Duoduo. Poor Hauge met the hard bone of the ASEAN Army, and was beaten to shame by muskets, while Dorgon met Several other major soldiers.Dorgon and Duoduo hardly encountered decent resistance. The Qing army was like chasing ducks, chasing the defeated Ming army and running around.

Wu Sangui, Wang Pu, Tang Tong, Li Mingfu and other general soldiers were in a mess when they fled. They suffered heavy losses when they were chased and intercepted by the Qing army. They trampled on each other and killed countless people. , dead bodies all over the ground.In the end, tens of thousands were beheaded by Dorgon and Duoduo's pursuers, and even more people were driven into the sea and drowned. Wang Pu, Wu Sangui, and Tang Tong escaped with their own bodies. Most of the 13 Ming troops were wiped out by the Qing army, except for the [-] who returned to Songshan.

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At dawn, more than a thousand cavalry led by Cao Yue had fled the Qing army camp in Songshan for about fifty miles.

At this time, there were almost no people in Liaodong. Due to the bloody massacre of Nurhachi, Huang Taiji and his son, Guangning, Haizhou, Gaizhou, Fuzhou, Jinzhou and other guards had become white areas. Cao Yue led his army to withdraw from Songshan. After traveling for dozens of miles, I didn't come across a single inhabited village, not even a living person.

However, Cao Yue was still worried that if he met someone or the patrol team of the Qing army, his whereabouts would be discovered, which would lead to a catastrophe. After daybreak, he led 1000 troops under his command and hid in a nearby valley, and ordered the servants in the back palace to eliminate all traces. .

Fighting and fighting all night, Cao Yue and his sergeants were exhausted and urgently needed to rest, replenish food and drinking water, and discuss the next move.Cao Yue of the later generations was from Jilin in the Northeast, but the terrain of the Northeast at the end of the Ming Dynasty was quite different from that of the later generations. Cao Yue is not completely clear about the current situation, and he wants to discuss with his subordinates which way to go next.

Cao Jie, the leader of the Jiading army, several generals, and Zhao Liang, a thousand general who followed Cao Yue, and the main backbone of this team were summoned by Cao Yue.

"Everyone, my troops have already rushed out of the encirclement of the Qing army, but I expected that Songshan City must be surrounded by the Qing army, Tashan and Xingshan may also fall into the hands of Jiannu, and the road to the pass has been completely cleared. The army blocked it, where should we go next?" Cao Yue asked everyone in front of him in a deep voice.

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, they couldn't think of how to answer Cao Yue's question.

"General, it's up to you to make up your mind." Cao Jie, the leader of the servants, is Cao Yue's confidant. The Cao family, who watched Cao Yue grow up, knew that Cao Yue must be the one who made up his mind at a time like this. They had better say less. Otherwise, if something goes wrong, they will die.

The other people also had similar ideas. They all asked Cao Yue to make up his mind, and said that as long as Cao Yue made up his mind, they would definitely follow.Things have been like this, at most one death, it is their honor to be able to go through life and death with Cao Yue.

The sergeants who followed Cao Yue were formerly Cao Wenzhao's subordinates. They were loyal to Cao Yue. They were used to seeing death. No matter what the situation, they would never flinch or run away. If Cao Yue was in danger, they would spare their lives to help him. save.

Seeing that everyone didn't comment, Cao Yue frowned slightly, and he didn't ask the people around him anymore, but began to meditate quietly.

Suddenly, a bold decision popped out of my mind...

(End of this chapter)