Chapter 063: Attacked ashore
"coming..."
Wang Xiaojie has never had any contact with the Tatars. He became a commanding officer in the military examination after the formation of Songjiang Guards. However, he is very soldier-like. When he saw the Tatar cavalry coming to kill him, he felt as if he had been given blood. He shouted sternly: "Archers are ready, spears are ready."
Two hundred steps, one hundred and fifty steps, one hundred steps...
"put..."
Whoosh whoosh whoosh...
"Meet the enemy..."
A huge crash sounded, and Wang Xiaojie's troops took the lead in engaging the Tatar cavalry coming from the right.
After receiving the report, Chen Cao paced back and forth. From time to time, messengers would report that the River Guards on the left were engaging the Tatar cavalry.
"Which direction will they attack from?" Chen Cao looked at the distant battlefield and the shouts of killing, his hands were shaking, and he was ready to join the battle himself.
"Report, uncle," the messenger said in a panic: "The forward position of the River Guard has been breached. Commander Weng has led his troops to engage the Tatars in our own formation. Commander Weng asks uncle for support."
Chen Cao took a deep breath. Weng Linzhi's River Guards were old soldiers in Huai'an. Moreover, most of them were newly formed personnel. It was the maximum limit to be able to fight the Tatar cavalry with one breath.
"Immediately send an order to Song Che and ask the Nanjing Right Guards to dispatch three hundred households to support Dahe Guards." Chen Cao shouted.
The messenger ran away, and Chen Cao ordered again: "Deploy three hundred households to support Songjiang Guards." After saying that, he turned around and looked at Zhao Xin: "Bring me my sword."
Wang Xiaojie took a risk and just knocked down a Tatar cavalry. The defense line behind him collapsed. He finally wiped away the Tatars under him with his knife. His servant came over and said, "Sir, leave quickly. Our formation is under attack." We broke through and Wu Bangwen behind us ran away."
"Bullshit..." Wang Xiaojie scolded angrily: "Quickly, pass on the order. Our team will assemble and move closer to Uncle Dingwu. Send a message to him. The commander of Songjiang Guards, Wu Bangwen, escaped from the battle, causing our great guard to flee. defeat."
Although the Songjiang Guards were part of the army of Nanzhili, they also belonged to the Zhejiang Preparatory Japanese Army and had been dealing with Japanese pirates all year round. However, during the Japanese Rebellion in Zhejiang, Lu Hua, the former commander of the Songjiang Guards, was defeated without a fight. I guess this group of people was not an elite force. In addition, the commander Wu Bangwen was originally supporting the reserve team behind Wang Xiaojie, but when he saw Wang Xiaojie's front team camp was breached, he immediately assumed the role of quitting and took his own bodyguards with him. The servants then retreated.
The people in his formation ran away when they saw the commanding officer, and followed suit. As a result, Wang Xiaojie's troops, who were fighting the Tatars in the front line, were also defeated.
"Run in?" Wang Xiaojie came to Liaodong for the first time. He was not a fool. There was the sea behind him. If he ran over and attacked Chen Cao's army, he would not be killed on the spot. Commander-in-Chief, if anyone dares to leave the team and run away, I will kill his entire family."
"Uncle," the messenger came running again: "Songjiang Guards were defeated. The Tatar cavalry broke through their formation, and the defeated troops rushed towards us."
Chen Cao was shocked and immediately shouted: "Zhang Fengnian, please mobilize your servants to follow me to Songjiang Wei's position to supervise the battle. Anyone who dares to attack our formation will be killed without mercy."
It is not uncommon for the troops to attack the formation and cause the entire army to be defeated. It is not yet dawn, and once the soldiers' escape mentality spreads, it will spread like a plague. Although Chen Cao is confident that his right guard will not Suffer twists and turns, but if you are hit by a defeated army, big trouble will inevitably happen.
Yan Chun's hundred households now only have about forty people left, and the rest all died on the forward positions. However, even if Ha Sihu's elite armored soldiers with yellow flags attacked Tang Kainian's forward positions, they were still blocked. Unable to move after being trapped in the car formation, and Song Che's troops arrived in time, the reinforcements defeated all of Ha Sihu's men within a cup of tea. After leaving more than 300 corpses, they could not move. Do not retreat to seek opportunities for combat.
"Mobilize the five hundred households here to support Tang Kainian's troops." Song Che shouted: "Order the third thousand households to go to the right to support Songjiang Guards."
"Sir, Songjiang Wei was broken through by the Tatars, and my uncle led his men to attack them."
Song Che was shocked, and after a second thought, he shouted: "Two more hundred households will be sent to the left to support Dahewei. The other teams will immediately follow me to reinforce uncle."
"yes..."
When Chen Cao arrived with his retainers, Songjiang Guard's defeated troops had just arrived at the right side of Nanjing Right Guard's main formation.
The Jinyi Guards team stood in front of them.
"Get out of the way, the Tatars are coming."
"Get out of the way..."
"I'll chop you to death with one knife..."
"If the Songjiang Guards dare to run away again, they will be killed without mercy." A Baihu official who was supervising the battle whipped out his Yanling sword and glared at the Songjiang Guards in front of him.
As soon as he finished speaking, the noise behind him became louder and louder. Wu Bangwen came riding on horseback with his bodyguards, followed by a large group of soldiers. Tian Xiaonian's whereabouts were unknown at the moment.
"Get out of the way. I, Songjiang Guard, am commanding Wu Bangwen. Our vanguard has been attacked by the Tatars. Let us pass quickly."
Wu Bangwen's words happened to be heard by Chen Cao. Chen Cao dodged through the crowd and shouted sternly: "Come here, take this beast and kill it on the spot to show the moral integrity of the army."
Wu Bangwen was trembling all over. As the saying goes, the law does not punish everyone, not to mention there are so many soldiers behind him, but he suddenly became jealous and shouted: "Brothers, Uncle Dingwu asked us to die, so he can just sit back and take it." It's a fisherman's advantage, rush over to me, all the responsibilities will be borne by me."
Behind Wu Bangwen were his personal guards and trusted soldiers. Being so bewitched, and the sound of horse hooves behind him getting closer and closer, they all raised their swords and spears and slashed at the Jin Yiwei who was blocking the front.
"What a brave bitch..." Chen Cao cursed angrily: "Zhang Fengnian, engaged in military law."
The Songjiang Guards had never seen the firearms of the Nanjing Right Guards, so they did not know how powerful the flintlock rifles were. After the Jinyi Guards stepped aside and retreated, Zhang Fengnian led a team of 300 servants to step forward, raised their guns, and started firing indiscriminately.
Bang bang bang...
After the deafening gunfire sounded, the rebellious soldiers in front fell to the ground one after another. Wu Bangwen was shot several times and fell off his horse and died.
Seeing this, Chen Cao raised his hand and said, "Listen, I'm not going to kill all of you. As long as everyone doesn't attack our Nanjing Right Guard Formation, I'll let you do whatever you want. I'll give you three months' salary." , is this how you repay me?"
After Chen Cao finished speaking, the soldiers fell silent. Just when the group was leaderless, the messenger came with a message: "Uncle, the forward team of Songjiang Guard Commander Wang Xiaojie is approaching our formation."
"Listen up, Songjiang Guards, and go immediately to meet up with your commander Wang Xiaojie. I'll let bygones be bygones."
Chen Cao said he would forget about it, and when the soldiers heard that Wang Xiaojie was still resisting, they immediately filed away.
"Uncle," Gao Chong ran over quickly: "Hurry up, the Tatars bypassed Wang Xiaojie's formation and drove the defeated troops directly to the beach."
Chen Cao was shocked. Once this tactic of driving sheep into the sea was successful, his side would be in a desperate situation: "Go tell Commander Song to bring troops to support."
"Uncle..." Another messenger came over: "The River Guards were defeated, and the Tatar cavalry attacked our army's formation."
Chen Cao felt dizzy. The first battle in Liaodong, which he had vowed to fight, actually started like this. The most important thing was that he was a sneak attack.
Boom...boom...boom...
There was a sound like a muffled thunder, and the Hongyi cannon on the Caojiang Navy warship on the sea level opened fire after receiving the order. What came flying towards was not a solid bullet, but a shell.
The cannonballs were thrown along the arc. At this moment, the time was close to Chen Shi, and the sky was already a little bright. Chen Cao could clearly see the cannonballs flying: "Be careful."
boom...
The explosion sounded, killing one thousand enemies and losing eight hundred. The Tatar cavalry had already mixed with the Songjiang Guards. After the shells exploded, half of the people killed were killed.
"Uncle, be careful..." Zhao Xin threw Chen Cao down, and a cannonball exploded a few meters away from Chen Cao.
It was the first time that Chen Cao came into contact with an explosion at close range. His ears were roaring so much that he felt dizzy and tinnitus when he stood up. He covered his forehead with his hands and staggered around: "Zhao...Zhao Xin...quickly...quickly signal to make them stop." Fire."
There was no time, but the people on the warship seemed to have sensed that something was wrong, and stopped the bombardment after firing ten shots.
"Yaozhong..." Song Che already had blood stains on his body. He ran over in a panic at this moment. It was obvious that something was wrong: "Let's go quickly. The beach can't hold it anymore. Both the left and right wings have been breached. Escape. Escape first..."
Chen Cao slapped himself hard twice, then shook his head: "Organize the team and retreat first..."
Chen Cao felt the defeat of the Ming army for the first time. He was led away by Song Che in a daze. He didn't wake up until daybreak, but the Tatar cavalry appeared in front again.
"Uncle..." Zhao Xin held Chen Cao's horse: "My subordinates will cover your retreat."
"Retreat?" Chen Cao said fiercely. Last night, it was because he was at a loss when he came into contact with a large-scale battle formation for the first time. Now that he has suffered a loss, how can he retreat again: "Where is this place?"
"It's less than ten miles away from Gaizhou Acropolis."
The team behind him was a little lazy except for the Nanjing right guard. After Song Che reprimanded the defeated Dahe Guard in the rear, he rode over. After seeing the cavalry in front, he sent scouts to investigate.
There were rewards from time to time. Song Che rode his horse and came to Chen Cao: "Yao Zhong, it seems that the Tatars think that we are being driven into the back alley. There are only more than a hundred cavalry in front of us."
"More than a hundred cavalry?" Chen Cao felt that he had been humiliated. When he killed Mulhaqi, the opponent had thousands of cavalry: "I want revenge..."
After Chen Cao finished speaking, he drew out the Yanling Sword, then raised the sword and shouted: "Organize the cavalry team and follow me to charge into the formation. Shi Xiu, bring the musketeers to raid the formation for me."
Song Che couldn't stop Chen Cao, so he saw Chen Cao rushing out with more than two hundred cavalry.
"Sir, the Tatar cavalry are chasing down the defeated soldiers on the beach. The navy's warships have held back the Tatars before they can catch up." A scout came to report.
Song Che frowned and stared into the distance, then turned around and shouted: "Follow me to the battle."
Chen Cao rode his horse and accelerated towards the Tatar cavalry. When the distance between the two sides was less than fifty meters, Chen Cao pulled out the musket from his waist and pointed it at the leader. A short Tatar fired the first shot.
boom...
There was very little gunpowder smoke, indicating that the workshop had further improved its gunpowder. The Tatars knew about the handguns of the Ming army, but those old-fashioned handguns could only hit twenty or thirty steps, and their lethality was limited, so they did not take them seriously at all. Naturally, when you despise your enemy, you will die.
After killing the first Tatar, Chen Cao had no time to reload, so he put his gun back into the gun bag on his waist, then leaned forward and rushed forward with the knife.
Xin Zhao was followed closely by several Jinyi guards to cover him.
Bang...
There was a sharp sound when the blades of the two sides exchanged. The Yan Ling Saber in Chen Cao's hand was a new type of thousand-layer steel sword made by Youwei. In just one round of collision, the old-fashioned Yan Ling Saber in the opponent's hand was broken into two pieces. Festival.
Chen Cao then swung his sword diagonally, and the Tatar's cloth armor was cut through. Following the impact of the horse, he knocked his opponent to the ground.
'Bang bang bang...'
Song Che, who was skimming the formation, ordered his muskets to be fired and drove back the Tatar cavalry who wanted to attack from the flanks. Not long after, all the Tatars who blocked the front had retreated, leaving more than 70 corpses behind and fled.
Chen Cao then ordered to gather his troops and advance towards Gaizhou Acropolis.
"The Acropolis is empty?" Chen Cao frowned: "It's impossible..."
Song Che came on horseback and frowned after hearing the news: "Yao Zhong, I think this is what the Tatars did intentionally."
Chen Cao's eyes rolled around, and then he smiled helplessly: "The Tatars attacked us at night, and after breaking us, they rushed to the Gaizhou Acropolis. Once the acropolis was empty, we who are familiar with the defense must enter the city. However, there must be nothing inside, as we were attacked as soon as we landed, and we made a hasty retreat without bringing any food with us.”
Song Che suddenly realized: "Sure enough, the Tatars have sinister intentions."
Chen Cao turned around and looked around: "After the wall has been cleared, we will definitely launch an offensive at noon or in the afternoon, and then we will besiege the city and fight with trapped animals. We have no food. If we fight to the death, we will be exposed to their cavalry. Defending the city will be difficult." Starved to death in there.”
Song Che suddenly felt pressure: "Our reinforcements haven't landed yet."
"Ashore?" Chen Cao suddenly remembered: "Oh no, the Tatars like to encircle a point for reinforcements. Only then did I remember that they will definitely let the reinforcements come to save us, and then gather the superior cavalry to defeat our reinforcements one by one."
"Uncle, why don't my subordinates evacuate first and notify the various troops on the island." Xin Zhao raised his head and asked.
"Do you want to die?" Chen Cao sneered: "The Tatars dare to let us defend the city, but we are determined to defend the city. There are countless Tatar scouts ambushing in the surrounding plains. If you lead the people, they will be killed." .”
When Chen Cao said this, Zhao Xin followed Chen Cao's example and looked around. Song Che frowned: "Yaozhong, we suffered a big loss here, but over there in Guangning..."
Chen Cao knew Song Che's worries and said: "We can figure it out through calm analysis. First, our actions were 100% leaked, otherwise they would not have assembled heavy troops to suddenly attack us at night; second, according to me As we know, Nurhaci has assembled a heavy army in Guangning, and all the Eight Banners troops are involved. The Tatar cavalry alone has 80,000 people, not counting the surrendered soldiers. The Tatars have limited men and horses, so they will leave room for a full force. Therefore, I dare to conclude that the Tatar cavalry that attacked us in Gaizhou this time must have been mobilized from Guangning;
In addition, the intelligence said that Nurhachi was contacting the Duoyan Three Guards. I think they will definitely attack Guangning after eating us. "
