While the main force of the Tatars was attracted by the white pole soldiers at the south gate.
Qi Jin led nearly three thousand Qi's troops to rush out of the west gate and passed through the trench dug by Jianlu.
Although Kuandian is not far from the Liaodong border wall in a straight line, it is only 40 miles away.
However, the distance between the passes on the north and south sides is not close. 120 miles to the south is the southernmost end of the Ming Dynasty and Liaodong Wall, Jiulian City on the Yalu River; 190 miles to the north is Crow Falcon Pass.
Even if the weather is good, they will need to march for more than a day to reach Jiulian City in the south. If they choose to go north to Crow Falcon Pass, it will take at least 2 days.
Therefore, it is impossible for the Qi Army to escape the pursuit of the Eight Banners cavalry by relying on their own foot power. Their goal is to enter a mountainous area 5 miles northwest of Kuandian Fort.
As long as the cavalry of the Eight Banners penetrates into the mountainous area, it will be difficult to exert its power, while the Qi Jiajun's Yuanyang Formation can better utilize its advantages in mountain warfare.
Although the Qi Jiajun moved very quickly, the muddy ground still limited their speed of action.
Kuandian Fort was not big, and Jianzhou's cavalry soon caught up with them before they reached the mountains.
Although Qi Jiajun is good at using a variety of weapons, they are not all spearmen like the white pole soldiers.
However, Qi Jiguang was proficient in a variety of battle formations. In addition to the Yuanyang formation, the Qi family army also had chariot formations and spear formations specifically designed to deal with cavalry.
Therefore, they were not frightened when encountering cavalry.
Although they were forced to give up their cannons due to weather conditions, they lacked the firepower for long-range strikes at this time.
But soon a spear formation consisting of wolves (more than 3 meters long) and spearmen appeared in front of the Eight Banners soldiers.
Just now these Manchurian cavalry suffered a loss in front of the white-armed soldiers. At this time, Shishan does not dare to be too big!
In fact, Manchuria's Eight Banners cavalry was supplemented by light and heavy cavalry.
The number of heavy cavalry actually used to charge into battle has always been only a few thousand, and the majority are still light cavalry.
Of course, their light cavalry also wear cloth armor, and their protective capabilities are not weak. When encountering the Ming army infantry with weak defense, the impact of these light cavalry is also quite powerful.
At this time, in addition to the heavy cavalry that attacked the Eight Banners, a large number of light cavalry were also bending their bows and arrows behind them, and bursts of arrows hit the Qi army.
Following Qi Jin's order, the Tengpai players and Longpai players in Qi's army raised their shields one after another, while the other soldiers approached the shield players in a well-trained manner.
Most of the Tatars' arrows were blocked by their shields and did not have much impact. Even if some soldiers were hit by bows and arrows, others quickly took their places.
Soon Jianzhou's cavalry ran into Qi's army's spear formation.
Although some Ming troops could not withstand the impact of the cavalry and were knocked over, the fighting formation composed of these wolves and spearmen still blocked the Tatar attack.
The Jianzhou cavalry, who was caught in the battle, was quickly besieged by the Qi army.
The Ming army's changeable cooperation caused them to be attacked from different directions.
Fortunately, these Bai Bai Ya La were wearing multiple layers of armor, otherwise they would all have been killed long ago.
Under the cover of waves of arrows from behind, they were able to withdraw.
Dai Shan only led more than 2,000 cavalry to pursue them first. When he found that the Qi army was so difficult to deal with, he did not dare to attack with all his strength.
They had no choice but to suppress the Ming army with a rain of arrows and wait for the follow-up troops to arrive for reinforcements.
Although this contact battle blocked the Tatar cavalry, many soldiers in the spear formation were still attacked by the cavalry and were killed. The constant shooting of bows and arrows by the Jianlu still caused some casualties.
After losing nearly 500 people, the Qi army was able to withdraw to a mountainous area called "Guhu Ridge" northwest of Kuandian.
At this time, the main force of the Eight Banners had also arrived. After learning that the Ming army had broken through, Nurhachi personally mobilized the troops of each banner to carry out encirclement and suppression.
They finally lured the Ming army out of the city, so naturally they couldn't easily let go of this opportunity to annihilate the Qi family army.
However, the current battle situation does not seem optimistic. The Eight Banners cavalry does not seem to have any advantage in using cavalry against infantry when facing the two Ming armies.
Now that the Eight Banners have insufficient flag men, it will not work if we continue to fight like this.
So tens of thousands of Han troops were sent into the mountains to fight against the Qi army. The Eight Banners only dispatched a small number of supervising troops to urge the Han troops to fight, and from time to time they launched cold arrows for sneak attacks.
Qi Jiajun's Yuanyang Formation was originally the most suitable for mountain warfare, and the long and short weapons cooperated tacitly. In addition, the Yuanyang Formation itself could be flexibly divided into "Er-Cai Formation" and "San-Cai Formation", making them More comfortable in melee.
Although the battle was fierce, the Han army failed to achieve a breakthrough and was repulsed by the Qi army several times.
At this time, these Han army soldiers had been fighting with Qi's army for an hour and a half. From a distance, the mountains were full of corpses of Han soldiers wearing various armors.
Mang Gurtai said: "Great Khan, the Han army has lost three to four thousand people, and the physical strength of these Qi army has also been exhausted. It's time for our Jianzhou warriors to attack."
By this time, the heavy rain had stopped long ago and the sky was getting brighter. It was indeed time to encircle and suppress the Qi family army.
However, yesterday the Eight Banners ambushed He Shixian's troops and fought with the Baigan soldiers and Qi's army, which already resulted in 2,000 casualties.
If the loss were several thousand more, he would not be able to bear the loss.
So he said: "Now that the rain has stopped, let the Han army's fire gun team join the battle. We must destroy the Qi army."
When he saw these Han army soldiers rushing forward again, Qi Jin also began to frown.
It seems that the Tatars are determined to use this group of "cannon fodder" to consume themselves today.
Soon these Han troops were fighting with the Qi army. At this time, the fire gunman behind him did not light the bird gun in his hand.
Niu Lu'erzhen, who was supervising the battle, asked: "Why don't you light a fire?"
The fireman of the Han army said: "The enemy and we are fighting together. We can't aim at all. If we set fire directly, we will probably hit more of our own people than the Ming army."
Fire cannons cannot be thrown like bows and arrows. If the Han army fired fire cannons from behind their own troops, they would definitely kill more of their own people than the enemy.
Niu Lu'erzhen did not force them to fire now, so he said: "All gunmen are ready. Once our army cannot hold on anymore and retreats, you will light the fire for me."
At this time, the Qi army was killing the enemy heartily. Through the cooperation of the Yuanyang formation, they could easily kill these Han troops with very little casualties.
They fought from midnight to dawn. At this time, no less than 5,000 Han troops were killed by them, and the casualties of the Qi Army were less than one-tenth of their number.
Many people were shot and killed by Tatar archers in sneak attacks, otherwise the battle damage would have been even more exaggerated.
Soon after, these Han troops retreated again. Just as the Qi Army relaxed, they found a lot of white smoke coming out of their rear formation.
"Bang, bang, bang"
Thousands of muskets fired indiscriminately at the retreating Han and Qi troops.
In an instant, hundreds of people fell in front of the formation and howled in pain.
Although these Han army's blunderbuss did not use granular black powder, they were still able to penetrate Qi Jiajun's shield and armor at a distance of fifty or sixty paces.
"Grandma, these Tatars don't have martial ethics. They even beat their own people," some Qi Jiajun scolded.
Soon, thousands more Han soldiers rushed forward with weapons in hand.
Some injured Qi Jiajun were killed by them.
The two sides fought again.
The Qi Jiajun, who was attacked by the Han army's gunmen, were also furious at this time. They broke up the Han army's formation and charged at the gunmen behind them.
The Eight Banners supervising the battle quickly saw the Ming army's intentions and quickly ordered the gunmen to shoot.
Although after the output of this wave of firepower, at least half of the people killed were their own people, the panicked Han gunners could not care so much.
"Bang, bang, bang" was another blast of fire.
Although the backs of many Han soldiers were pierced by their own muskets, a considerable number of muskets also penetrated the chests of the charging Ming troops!
Reason told Qi Jin not to fight like this at this time, but it was impossible for Qi's army to retreat like this while leaving their injured comrades alone.
So following his order, all the Qi soldiers descended from the mountain like tigers and directly countercharged these Han troops.
At this time, the Eight Banners supervising the battle also joined the battle with weapons in hand, but the Han troops holding firecrackers were like a group of lambs waiting to be slaughtered.
This scene frightened the Jianzhou Baylor players who were watching the game from a distance.
If the Baigan soldiers and Qi's army were included in Li Xianzhong's Liaodong cavalry, they would probably beat the Eight Banners in the field.
Fortunately, the Ming army fought independently, and these groups did not fight together.
Now that we have finally surrounded the Qi family army, we must not let them escape.
This time, Mang Gurtai, Daishan and others personally came out and led tens of thousands of bannermen to attack from all directions.
The Qi army had been fighting all night, and half of their three thousand men and horses had been lost. It would be a disaster to confront the main force of the captives at this time.
Soon the Eight Banners soldiers had the advantage. If this continued, they might be wiped out by the Tatars, so Qi Jin had to order everyone to disperse and break out.
Thanks to the flexibility of the Yuanyang Formation, the Qi family's army was able to explode into considerable combat power. Soon many Ming troops broke through the blockade of the Eight Banners and hid in various corners of Guhu Ridge. .
After four days of searching the mountain, they finally forced the remaining dozens of Qi soldiers into a forest near the cliff.
In order to encircle and suppress these Qi Jiajun, the main force of the Eight Banners lost another 1,500 people, and the cumulative casualties of the Han army were as high as 7,000 or 8,000.
This price really made Daishan feel a little painful.
Huang Taiji said: "The wind direction is blowing towards the forest at this time. I see there are many dead trees and leaves in the forest, so why not use fire attack. If the Ming army does not want to be burned to death by fire, then they can only choose to jump off the cliff!"
Although it rained heavily a few days ago, the sun has been shining brightly these past few days, and the forest is not humid at all now.
Some Han soldiers quickly collected a lot of dead wood. In order to ensure that they would not be burned due to changes in the wind direction, they also dug a fire trench.
Soon they set fire to many dead trees. For a while, thick smoke billowed, and the fire burned deep into the forest instantly with the help of the wind.
Although this forest is not small, the fire will soon burn here.
Qi Jin and the others only had more than thirty people left, and most of them were injured.
At this time, the general manager Lin Haoran said: "If I had known that the Tatars were so vicious, I might as well have rushed out and fought with them!"
Many people are even ready to jump off the cliff. Although this cliff is not too high, it is still dozens of feet away from the bottom of the mountain.
There is no chance of survival if you jump, but it is still better than being burned alive by a fire!
Although it was urgent at this time, Qi Jin, as the general, was not disturbed by these emotions, and countless battle examples from past and present flashed through his mind quickly.
He finally remembered a battle example his uncle Qi Jiguang once told him.
During the Western Han Dynasty, Li Guang's grandson Li Ling once led 5,000 infantry and was besieged in the woods by the 80,000 cavalry of the Xiongnu Chanyu. The Huns also used fire attacks at the beginning.
Later, Li Ling set a fire before the fire burned him, and then his troops entered the place burned by the fire to take shelter. The place that had been burned by the fire naturally could not be burned again.
He quickly asked people to collect branches and dead wood on the ground, and used the weapons in his hands to dig a relatively shallow fire trench to prevent the fire from burning back.
The area near the cliff is only a few dozen meters wide and they can still do it.
Although the remaining Qi Jiajun were choked by the thick smoke between the two fires, fortunately the woods were relatively large and they still had enough places to take shelter. And there is more air near the cliff, otherwise they would be killed by smoke even if they were not burned to death by fire.
Finally, the sky closed the curtain, and the wind neither changed direction nor stopped.
When the fire was about to burn, they quickly entered the area near the cliff that had been scorched by the fire, and finally escaped.
Lin Haoran discovered that the entrance to a previously small cave was almost invisible after it was blackened by fire. It was relatively narrow inside, but there was no problem in hiding seven or eight people.
So he said: "You guys quickly take General Qi and hide in. I will lead the people to fight with the Tatars to attract their attention. Maybe you can escape."
Qi Jin firmly disagreed and said, "How can I leave my brothers and live alone?"
Lin Haoran didn't waste any more words. When Qi Jin wasn't paying attention, he punched him directly and knocked him out.
Not long after, a group of Han soldiers came over and searched. At this time, Lin Haoran and others suddenly came out and killed dozens of people on the spot. The remaining Han soldiers immediately turned into birds and beasts.
In the end, Lin Haoran and others chose to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff after killing many Eight Banners soldiers.
At this time, the Tatars had been completely attracted by them to the edge of the cliff, and it was already dark, so they didn't even notice that there was a cave nearby.
The Qi Jiajun in the cave only heard the Tatar say: "Inform the brothers guarding under the cliff to pay attention to the search for the Ming army who jumped off the cliff. If you want to see the people alive, you want to see the corpses if they die."
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Sorry, brothers, my wife suddenly suffered from stomach bleeding at night and was sent to the emergency room. I am currently accompanying you in the hospital. This chapter only has 4,000 words, so I will post it first because I am afraid I may not have time to post it during the day.
(End of chapter)
