On the third day of March in the forty-seventh year of Wanli, the Hunjiang River under the night was like a black python, winding to the north. In the deep mountain forests on both sides, there was the faint sound of night owls screaming, followed by a fierce sound of sharp arrows piercing the air. The sound of clashing with metal.
The bright moonlight shines through the trees on the snow in the forest, a bone-chilling chill envelopes the earth, and there is not a living thing in the forest.
Suddenly, a piece of white light spread through the forest.
But I saw a forest of spears, shining iron armor, and a group of strong armored soldiers, all holding their spears in their hands without saying a word, walking through the forest like ghosts.
Several cold corpses were discarded on the ground. Each of them was wearing blue armor, with a small blue flag on his back, and his eyes were wide open.
These were all elite white armor men with blue flags. It was these people who made the hooting owl just now. Under siege by the Ming army servants several times their own size, they had no time to escape and were all killed.
Not far ahead of the infantry of the Ming army, groups of horse soldiers were walking in the snow. Each man had two horses and well-made armor. At first glance, he looked like a servant.
A sentinel horse returned from the front to report the situation to the general.
"Jiannu didn't set up secret sentries. Amin really doesn't take our east-route army seriously!"
Liu Zhaosun stood on his horse and looked up to the north.
The moon is sparse and the stars are clear, the snow is clear, and the vision is far away. Five miles away due north, the Jurchen Blue Flag Camp in Jianzhou is clearly visible.
Behind Liu Zhaosun, a thousand elite dead soldiers were rushing towards the Jiannu camp, which made the general feel so proud.
"Er Beile, I'll do the surgery on you first today!"
Of course Liu Zhaosun was not just dreaming. Although he only brought a thousand men and horses for this night attack, they were all elite soldiers, including:
The commander-in-chief Liu Wei had 300 elite servants, 500 long-armed soldiers from Zhejiang, and 200 Korean archers.
Guerrilla general Deng Qilong and North Korea's left deputy envoy Jin Yinghe both volunteered to join the night raid.
The Zhejiang soldiers led by Deng Qilong are well-organized. This powerful army with the blood of the Qi family army is enough to compete head-on with the Eight Banners soldiers.
The two hundred archers under Jin Yinghe were elites selected from the 13,000 Korean soldiers. Although the overall combat effectiveness of the Korean soldiers was worrying, their superb shooting skills were not inferior to Jiannu Bagara.
In the original historical plane, the Korean soldiers who were good at using bows were equipped with blunderbuss and shot against the Jin army. Due to the poor quality of the blunderbuss and the wind direction of the battlefield, the dense fog and fireworks after the blunderbuss were fired obscured the Ming army. In the field of vision, the array fell into chaos, and was harvested by a wave of heavy arrows from the Jurchen hunters, and was defeated.
It is necessary to add some additional explanation about Liu Zhaosun's process of selecting night attack soldiers.
After the influx of North Korean troops, the strength of Shajianzi Camp reached 30,000 people. It was not an easy task to select 1,000 elites capable of night attacks from 30,000 people. The proportion of night blindness among soldiers in this era far exceeded Liu Zhaosun's estimate. If you take those soldiers with night blindness and sprint thirty miles for a night attack, you will probably lose half of them before you even reach Amin's camp.
Liu Wei had already risked his life and bet all his wealth on defeating Nurhaci.
In the past two days, Liu Zhaosun took the trouble to popularize historical knowledge to him, making it increasingly clear to the Ming Dynasty commander-in-chief that if he could not repel the Jiannu, he would die without a burial place. Liu Wei offended all the forces around him that he could offend, from Liao Town to Dengzhou, from the capital to North Korea. Li Rubai, Yang Hao, and many others were waiting to see Liu Wei's jokes, and some were waiting for Liu Zongbing to stab him at the market. They deceived the North Koreans by saying that there was someone in the cabinet, but in fact few civil servants in the capital were willing to help. Of course, they now had two civil servant buddies: Kang Yingqian and Qiao Yiqi.
If he can't win this time, he doesn't need to be impeached by the imperial censor and imprisoned by Jin Yiwei. The two sworn enemies Yang Hao and Li Rubai can kill him. So when he heard that Liu Zhaosun decided to launch a night attack, the commander-in-chief naturally gave his full support. This quasi-warlord sent servants overnight to count the supplies. For more than a year, Liu Wei shamelessly requested all kinds of firearms and armor from the imperial court. (Although the East Route was short of weapons and weapons), it was more than enough to equip a thousand elites.
Liu Zhaosun was not polite. Needless to say, he had excellent armor. Except for the French cannon, which left the army to guard the camp, the remaining tiger cannons, divine fire flying crows, and all kinds of firearms against ten thousand enemies were carried with them. Let’s see. The generals nearby were stunned.
Three hundred servants are equipped with line guns, big clubs, and a small number of bows and arrows to fight against ten thousand enemies. Each of them wears two layers of armor, with a layer of cotton armor wrapped under the chain mail armor. They ride on two horses, one for marching and one for approaching. During the charge attack, this 300-man cavalry force was used as a mobile force to contain the enemy's counterattack and cover the pikemen in breaking the camp.
The 500 Zhejiang soldiers led by Deng Qilong serve as spearmen, equipped with two layers of thick armor, each holding a spear, waist knife, javelin, and rattan. They are also equipped with 500 auxiliary soldiers. These 500 spearmen will serve as the main force of this night attack and will form a mandarin duck battle. Formation, appeared on the battlefield after the cavalry launched a surprise attack, harvesting the lives of Jiannu.
As for the two hundred elite archers of Korea, the equipment given to them by Liu Zhaosun was even more luxurious, so that all the servants were envious. Each Korean archer has two horses, and is equipped with a long and short bow. The long bow is used to break armor, and the short bow is convenient for rapid shooting. There are also thirty heavy arrows, eighty light arrows, two strings, and a bow plug. , an arrow inserted, a trigger finger, and a lance. Like the servants, the Korean archers also wore two layers of armor, namely chain armor and cotton armor, and wore a helmet with only their eyes exposed. They faced Jiannu. When shooting, unless you are hit in the face, you will never be killed by an arrow.
In addition, the accompanying auxiliary troops also carried a considerable number of squatting tiger artillery and ten thousand enemies.
The so-called Crouching Tiger Cannon is actually similar to the mortar of later generations. Its shape is like a tiger squatting on the ground, hence its name. In the early Ming Dynasty, the squatting tiger cannon was used, mainly distributed in Jiubian. After a long period of development, by this time, the range of the squatting tiger cannon of the Ming Dynasty was about twenty or thirty steps. Although the range was short, its power was amazing, and it was especially suitable for use in mountainous areas. Terrain combat.
As for the enemy of ten thousand people, it can be understood as the hand grenade or grenade of the Ming Dynasty, but its size is much larger than the grenade of later generations. It is about the size of a basketball. It has a stone shell on the outside, a hollow inside, stuffed with explosives, and fills the gaps with soil. , usually used to defend the city and placed in the crenellations of the side walls. When the enemy attacks the city, they can be thrown from the top of the city. Even if it does not explode, it can kill and injure a few unlucky people. As far as Liu Zhaosun knew, once this thing exploded, it would be incredibly powerful, and due to its rough design, the damage to tens of thousands of hostile enemies was completely random. It is said that some people will not be injured standing next to ten thousand enemies, while other enemies will be hit by stones if they stand a hundred steps away...
Although the power of ten thousand enemies is not great, the sound of the explosion is alarming. Throw a few at the Xianglan Banner camp during a night attack, and you will be awakened no matter how hard you sleep. If you do this in the middle of the night, you might even trigger a fire. The camp howls.
At midnight, after groping for more than an hour in the dark night, Liu Zhaosun and Jin Yinghe took the lead in arriving at the outskirts of the Xianglan Banner camp in Dong'eli.
The slave sentries around the camp have been eliminated by the servants in front. Liu Zhaosun asked everyone to rest on the spot and counted the number of people. Three hundred servants and two hundred Korean archers, fifteen people were lost. Liu Zhaosun did not intend to go back to look for them. Under the leadership of two Ye Bushou, they climbed to a high ground around the camp. It was dark and the road was slippery, so we fell down twice along the way. Fortunately, we were familiar with the terrain at night, and the three of us climbed to the high ground, with the Jiannu Camp in full view.
Liu Zhaosun made a plan in his mind and couldn't help but sneer. Qi Shaobao once said that when setting up a camp in the wild, you must explore the terrain, either guarding the plains, or occupying dangerous fortresses, or somewhere convenient for advancing and retreating, and where livestock, water and grass are convenient.
Amin set up his camp at the mountain pass of Dong'e Road, close to the river bank and in a depression. If the Hun River could be diverted, it would be the Seventh Army flooded by the Sarhu version.
"The slave thieves won two games in a row. It is inevitable that they will get carried away. Furthermore, Amin saw that our army was hesitant and thought that our army was frightened, so he dared to do so."
"Master Thirteen, this Tatar doesn't know how to defend the city!"
Coming down from the high ground, Liu Zhaosun ordered everyone to replace the horses they would ride on with spare horses with sufficient horsepower in preparation for launching a night attack.
Jin Yinghe looked at the Jin Army camp in front and behind him, but his expression remained unchanged. He had walked for more than an hour at night. He had already sharpened his sword and was planning an attack in a low voice in Korean to the surrounding archers.
Liu Zhaosun called the commander-in-chief Ye Buhui. He was a thin and capable cavalryman from Shaanxi. He had been with Liu Wei for many years. His name was Zhang Dong and his nickname was Zhang Mazi.
"Thirteenth Master, we are sentry during the day today. The slaves and thieves are setting up a car camp. There are chariots, baggage carts, and oxen and carriages piled up in a circle outside. There are pits for blocking horses and trapping horses at the entrance of the camp. The situation in the camp is very different. Far away, no sentinel knows,"
Amin did not want to garrison Dong'e Road for a long time, nor did he take the Ming army seriously. He set up camp hastily and did not even set up hidden sentries. He only relied on resisting horses and traps to stop the Ming army.
Liu Zhaosun called everyone forward, looked up at Zhang Dong, and whispered:
"Zhang Mazi, did you see that on the mountain opposite, you sent people to set off more big torches in the woods and rocks, and pour tung oil on them. When we start fighting later, let them set fire to the mountain and burn tens of thousands of people. The louder the enemy, the better. In the chaos of the slaves and thieves, they will not be able to figure out the location of our troops and will be confused! It will be easier for us to evacuate!"
Zhang Dong immediately took the order and arranged for a few capable people to go up the mountain all night to prepare to set fire.
Liu Zhaosun turned to look at Jin Yinghe. In his opinion, two hundred Korean archers were most suitable for an ambush.
"General Jin, you personally lead the archers and hide in the surrounding highlands. Block the camp gate to prevent slaves and thieves from leaving the camp. When the pikemen arrive, you will cover the pikemen to fight."
Jin Yinghe groaned. Rather than being Voldemort, he would rather rush into the enemy camp with Liu Zhaosun and fight. However, before setting off, Deng Qilong repeatedly warned the Koreans to provide cover for his spearmen and suppress the heavy arrows of the white armored soldiers. Otherwise, when Jiannu reacts, the five hundred spearmen on our side will only become the target of the opponent.
Finally, Liu Zhaosun pointed out several traps in the camp opposite to block horses, and asked everyone to pay attention to avoid them when attacking. After the arrangements were made, he led three hundred servants, armed with line guns and big sticks, and rode into the night to rush towards the camp.
Three hundred war horses charged at high speed, moving forward inexorably. The horses' hooves were like thunder, and the ground shook slightly.
When we were still about a hundred steps away from the Jiannu camp, a few cold arrows were shot out from the camp. A servant in front was shot in the chest. There was a clanking sound, but it was not serious.
Then, several frightened Manchu voices and messy drum beats came from the camp. Through the blazing bonfire at the camp gate, several figures of Yu Ding with blue flags on their faces were vaguely visible.
Liu Zhaosun pointed his gun at the money rattail flying high in front of him and roared angrily:
"Kill the slaves!"
