The battle was over, but the enemy was defeated.

Lu Cheng led his troops to Liaoyang, and after joining forces with the troops of other generals, he set out to the northwest.

Although the generals in Liaodong did not want to fight this battle, the imperial court had already issued an order, and they had to obey it.

He Shixian, You Shigong and other generals gathered with Lu Cheng and held a small meeting in advance: "My dear brothers, this time we are going to the grassland to fight a decisive battle with the Later Jin, purely to attack the strengths of others with our own weaknesses. At that time, I am afraid it will be difficult for us to stop the tens of thousands of cavalry of the Later Jin."

"Yes, I don't know whether the cavalry of Lin Danhan is reliable or not."

"The general also has opinions on this, but the court listened to the strategy of the governor and gave up the defense strategy of the general. Alas, the prospects are worrying."

"As generals, you and I can only follow orders."

"When the time comes, we must be careful. If any brother encounters difficulties, everyone will help."

"No problem, I don't ask for much credit this time, I hope to save the lives of the soldiers."

Listening to the discussion of the crowd, the soldiers have lost confidence before the battle even started, and it is impossible to win.

The best result is that both sides will suffer losses, and Jiannu will lose some soldiers and continue to return to Jianzhou to recuperate.

When the generals of Liaodong led their troops to Liaoxi, Liaoxi also gathered some soldiers from all over the country.

This time, nearly half of the soldiers from all over Liaodong were mobilized, more than 80,000, plus more than 60,000 soldiers from all over the country, the total force has reached 150,000.

This number seems a lot, but in fact, they are basically all infantry, and most of them are unarmored infantry.

Especially those soldiers mobilized from all over the country, they are even more mixed, and there are many old and weak among them. Some old soldiers have white beards, and I don’t know if they can still run.

So many soldiers gathered together. Without training and unified command, it is difficult to form effective combat effectiveness.

But Wang Huazhen, the governor of Liaodong, was obviously very confident. He mobilized all the soldiers before the war, and then led more than 100,000 troops and marched towards the grassland with a solemn oath.

However, as soon as the troops marched out, they encountered problems.

Due to the different speeds of the troops in different parts and the lack of unified command, the entire army became more and more chaotic.

Especially when it came to distributing food and supplies, the troops from various places sometimes had some conflicts, and the scene was simply unimaginable.

Even many generals who were familiar with military books might not be able to command a large army of more than 100,000 people, let alone Wang Huazhen, a civil servant from the Donglin Party.

After Xiong Tingbi discovered this situation, he immediately reported to the court and suggested that the troops should be reorganized first, and then look for an opportunity to fight the enemy.

However, the hundreds of thousands of troops gathered together, and the daily consumption of food and grass supplies was a huge number. Naturally, the court could not let the soldiers reorganize before fighting the enemy.

In the end, the court adopted some of Xiong Tingbi's suggestions, with Xiong Tingbi leading the Liaodong troops and Wang Huazhen leading the troops gathered from all over the country, and the two routes entered the grassland.

However, after this incident, Wang Huazhen resented Xiong Tingbi even more, and the conflict between the two was difficult to reconcile.

Although Xiong Tingbi, the governor, was one level higher than Wang Huazhen, the Liaodong governor, Wang Huazhen was a backbone of the Donglin Party and a disciple of Ye Xianggao, the current cabinet chief. He had someone to back him up and did not obey Xiong Tingbi at all.

Before the battle even started, various problems had already accumulated.

When the two armies finally entered the grassland and prepared to join Lin Danhan and then start a decisive battle with the Later Jin army, a battle report suddenly came from the front. After Lin Danhan's troops came into contact with the Later Jin army, they almost collapsed at the first touch. Lin Danhan directly led the remaining troops and fled to the Tumed tribe in the west.

Wang Huazhen, who had previously fantasized that Lin Danhan could gather 400,000 troops and destroy the Later Jin army together with the Ming Dynasty, was dumbfounded on the spot.

Next, whether to continue to march forward or retreat in time, Wang Huazhen did not know what to do.

It was Xiong Tingbi who stood up and suggested to lead the army to retreat immediately, withdraw to Liaodong, and rely on the city to defend, and absolutely not to fight a decisive battle with the Later Jin cavalry on the grassland.

Wang Huazhen's dream of "sweeping Liaodong and leaving a name in history" was mostly shattered. He felt a little unwilling, but he did not dare to take the risk of a decisive battle with the Later Jin army.

However, the Later Jin cavalry had already approached the army with its high mobility advantage.

The Ming army of more than 100,000.

At noon the next day, the Houjin cavalry caught up with the retreating Ming army. After observing the troops led by Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen from the east and west, the Houjin cavalry rushed directly to Wang Huazhen's army.

The troops under Wang Huazhen were already in disarray, and the Houjin cavalry rushed into chaos, and even many troops from various places began to flee.

Xiong Tingbi immediately ordered the generals of all routes to strictly guard the army and never let the defeated soldiers disrupt their own army. Otherwise, it is possible to directly form a major defeat, and the situation will be difficult to reverse.

For this reason, the generals of all routes also issued strict orders. If those fleeing defeated soldiers dared to attack their own army, the archers would shoot them directly.

Seeing that the eastern army did not accept them, the defeated soldiers immediately turned around and fled to the southwest.

The Houjin cavalry charged back and forth in Wang Huazhen's army, directly dividing the local troops and defeating them one by one, and soon formed a great rout.

The Liaodong governor who came from the Donglin Party was not very good at commanding troops, but he was an expert at escaping. When the enemy army began to attack the army, Wang Huazhen immediately fled to the interior of the country under the protection of his personal guards.

He had already fallen out with Xiong Tingbi, and did not believe that Xiong Tingbi would help him, so he naturally did not dare to flee to Liaodong.

After stabilizing the army of the Eastern Route Army, Xiong Tingbi immediately ordered all the generals to send out cavalry to prevent the Jiannu cavalry from dividing and slaughtering the local troops, and at the same time let the infantry phalanx advance layer by layer, using bows and arrows and firearms to kill the Jiannu cavalry.

The chaos lasted for most of the day. The Houjin cavalry tried to attack the East Route Army under Xiong Tingbi, but was stopped by the strict army. After losing some soldiers, they immediately turned around and continued to pursue the fleeing soldiers.

It was not until the evening that the Houjin cavalry retreated, and Xiong Tingbi immediately ordered the Liaodong troops to return.

Fortunately, the Houjin army had not arrived yet, so the Liaodong troops had time to withdraw.

Xiong Tingbi was relieved until the Liaodong army withdrew to the east of the Liaohe River.

At least, the Liaodong troops did not lose much this time.

As for the troops summoned from various places, Xiong Tingbi could not take care of them.

After hastily withdrawing to the Liaodong area, Xiong Tingbi immediately organized defense, dividing his troops to garrison Guangning, Xipingbao and other cities, while letting the rest of the troops return to Liaoyang and other places.

This decisive battle, which had been prepared for several months, ended in a muddle.

The Ming Dynasty suffered heavy casualties, and Lin Danhan also fled westward. Nurhaci's Later Jin army occupied most of the Chahar area, initially forming a three-sided encirclement of the entire Liaodong.

After the news was sent back to the capital, Emperor Tianqi was furious. In order to escape the crime, Wang Huazhen blamed everything on Xiong Tingbi, falsely accusing Xiong Tingbi of not cooperating with him and slowing down the march, which gave Nurhaci the opportunity to defeat Lin Danhan and then defeat the Ming army.

Ye Xianggao, the chief minister of the cabinet, also tried his best to protect his apprentice Wang Huazhen, accusing Xiong Tingbi of only knowing how to preserve his strength and not knowing how to rescue other troops, causing heavy losses to troops in various places.

In this regard, Xiong Tingbi could only write a petition and tell everything in detail.

In the end, Emperor Tianqi considered that Xiong Tingbi still needed to continue to stay in Liaodong, so he only punished Xiong Tingbi slightly and severely warned him, and dismissed Wang Huazhen from his post for investigation.

This time, the Liaodong troops were able to retreat unscathed, which was already a very good result.

At this time, Lu Cheng did not pay much attention to the situation in the court. Instead, he sent a team of soldiers and horses to launch another surprise attack while the Later Jin was empty.

Two days later, the special forces, with the cooperation of the reconnaissance brigade and the cavalry team, successfully attacked Zhenjiang Fort and captured Tong Yangzhen, the Later Jin garrison commander alive...

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