On the same day, under the instruction of Liu Zhaosun, the supervisor Qiao Yiqi went ten miles out of the city and explained face to face to the master of economics, Xiong Tingbi, that the Kaiyuan city was still rout, and the soldiers and civilians suffered heavy casualties. They urgently needed rest and recuperation, and hoped that the master of economics would enter the city again in two days.
Several Jizhen generals insisted that the army enter the city to rest and recuperate, and the governor was also a little dissatisfied. However, Qiao Yiqi was resolute and refused to give in, so the reinforcements camped ten miles west of the city.
What Liu Zhaosun was worried about was that foreign soldiers entering the city in a hurry would disturb the local area, which was very inappropriate. He knew that Xiong Tingbi was running the army in a strict manner, but he did not have high expectations for the quality of Ji Zhen soldiers.
Mr. Qiao traveled to the north and south of the Ming Dynasty and witnessed the Saarhu War, so he was temporarily detained for two days to talk with the manager about some anecdotes from Liaodong and interesting stories about Liu Zhaosun.
This time, Xiong Tingbi was ordered to face danger. He rushed from the capital to Liaodong at night, and gathered reinforcements from Shanhaiguan. He thought that Kaiyuan would inevitably fall and Tieling would not be protected - this was originally the case in history - but he did not expect that Liu Zhaosun was able to turn the tide and lead the southern troops to Liao. Town, fight against slaves and thieves openly, and never fall behind.
When Xiong Tingbi arrived with reinforcements, the battle in Kaiyuan was entering a stalemate. The Hou Jin army was at the end of its crossbow, and the Xianglan Banner was severely damaged. Although the casualties of the other three banners were not heavy, they were consumed by Liu Zhaosun and lost their fighting spirit. Seeing Ji Zhen soldiers When they arrived, they hurriedly withdrew their troops.
In this way, Kaiyuan became the first city defended by the Ming army since the East, which is of extraordinary significance.
Many of the staff around Mr. Jinglue have already begun to discuss and plan in a fussy way, mostly sharing some of the planning work with Mr. Xiong, even though they have only been in Kaiyuan for a day.
While Master Xiong's staff were busy competing for the credit of planning, the dog-headed military advisor Kang Yingqian had already taken the lead.
He teamed up with several county magistrates in Kaiyuan who had not had time to die for their country, as well as dozens of local students, to jointly submit a good news to the court.
In this memorial signed by dozens of people, Master Kang directly compared Liu Zhaosun to the reincarnation of Tian Dan Geng Gong and the rebirth of Zhang Xun and Wei Xiaokuan.
It is said that the Jin army killed tens of thousands of people in this battle and killed two slave chiefs, namely Daishan and Huang Taiji.
Since then, three of the four Baylors have died at the hands of Liu Zhaosun.
Of course, it is specifically stated in the memorial that both slave chiefs were hit by artillery fire by the Ming army general. At that time, Houjin was about to ascend the city, and there were heavy casualties in the city. Kang Supervisor and the generals, armed with strong weapons and strong weapons, climbed to the city to fire the artillery in person. Aim at the slave chiefs under the yellow cover of the city and destroy them with one strike.
As for whether Huang Taiji and his brother were completely dead, Master Kang did not say it clearly in his memorial.
This means that even if the slave chief is lucky enough to survive this time, if the two of them get sick and die after some time, the military merits will be attributed to him.
In the memorial, Kang Yingqian also focused on the persistence of the white pole soldiers under Qin Jianxun's command at the north gate, and the final word of the battle led by Rong Touqiang's wolf soldiers. Definitely not a bald guy.
General Ma Lin, General Yu Chengming, General He Shixian and other Liao generals died tragically for their country. Kang Yingqian wept and begged the court for compensation.
Of course, the contribution of former strategy master Yang Hao in planning this battle cannot be ignored.
Anyway, when Yang Hao was deposed, the Battle of Kaiyuan had already begun. His father-in-law repeatedly reminded Liu Zhaosun not to run to the front during the battle, and also asked the general to go home more frequently. This can be regarded as a piece of planning.
As for Xiong Tingbi, who arrived belatedly, there is only a passing mention in the memorial, which makes people feel that Ji Zhen's auxiliary role is dispensable.
Liu Zhaosun read the memorial and sighed. He felt that the plot was too bloody. Would it be called a crime of deceiving the emperor, and would it offend Xiong Tingbi? Kang Yingqian said that it was not bloody, and he looked like he was righteous. :
"This is the regulation of the Celestial Empire. Our Celestial Empire has its own national conditions. How can a warrior like you understand it?"
"Neither Xiong Manzi nor Yan Guan can deal with him, and the Supervisor of Ceremonies does not have his people. Even the Chu party does not like him. Looking at the Ming Dynasty, except for the emperor, no one supports Mr. Jin Lue. We have soldiers and people, what are we afraid of what he will do? !”
Liu Zhaosun didn't know much about these shady officialdom, but he still left professional matters to professionals. Kang Yingqian was much more professional than him in this aspect, so he just let him do it.
Taking advantage of these two days, Liu Zhaosun ordered people to clean up the battlefield and bury the soldiers who died in the battle.
In this battle, a total of more than 6,900 Houjin soldiers and horses were killed, including more than 2,100 Zhenyi people, five Jia Lafa Zhen people, 35 Ba Ya La people, and 4,300 Bao Yi and Zhen girls. There are more than 100 people, and more than 300 people from the Mongolian Aitu and Chaohua tribes. The results of the battle are not without great achievements.
Considering that the population of the Hou Jin regime was less than 300,000 at this time (after the Saarhu War), Zhenyi Dingkou could only account for tens of thousands, and only one-tenth of them were lost in the Battle of Kaiyuan. This pair of ambitious people Nurhachi was definitely an unprecedented heavy blow.
The Xianglan Banner has been completely disabled and its morale is low. The other three banners have also realized the potential combat power of the Ming Army - although this power has not yet been fully utilized.
Liu Zhaosun speculated that if Nurhaci had normal thinking, he would not raise any more troops to attack Kaiyuan within this year at least. Of course, he could not rule out small-scale retaliatory actions by the Jin army in the future.
After the war, the Ming army was busy killing the defeated troops in the city and did not take advantage of the victory to hunt down the prisoners. Therefore, they took very few prisoners this time. They only captured more than a hundred Bao Yi who failed to escape in various gates, and a dozen more. Zhenyi, these people are all filled with looted gold and silver jewelry.
In addition to direct human heads and prisoners, various ordnance and supplies were also harvested in large quantities.
There were more than 3,760 pairs of armors of various types, but after the fierce battle, most of them were damaged, and less than a thousand pairs were usable. Mao Yuanyi asked the craftsmen brought from Shenyang to repair the damaged armors.
There are more than 8,600 weapons such as spears, heavy knives, swords, maces, and lances. Liu Zhaosun plans to train more professional gunmen and spearmen. Except for those long spears and heavy knives, he is not very interested in other weapons. , only reserved for use when training new troops.
In addition, a total of more than 1,370 Houjin war horses were killed and captured, of which 330 were usable. The capture of these war horses was mainly attributed to the Liao Town cavalry led by Yu Chengming. These Liaodong cavalry were in the southern suburbs of Kaiyuan. He and Houjin's elite cavalry repeatedly charged and killed many enemies. In the end, the entire army was destroyed, leaving only thirty-six cavalry alive.
Liu Zhaosun planned to use these captured war horses in two parts, one part for new cavalry training, and the other part for the establishment of an elite special service force, similar to the special forces of later generations.
Of course, these are only preliminary plans, and subsequent details need to be finalized through general discussions between him and each battalion.
In addition to war horses, there were more than 100 oxen and carriages of various types, and more than 30 shield vehicles... many of them were damaged and unfit for use.
The most important harvest was food and grass, mainly from the retreating Xianglan Banner.
Because the whole army of Xianglan Banner collapsed in the end, after the Zhenyi soldiers escaped across the moat, they didn't even bother to collect the oxen and carriages, so they ran all the way north. Naturally, they were unable to transport the grain and grass away. The coated slaves burned part of it, leaving the rest The mountains of food and grass could only be given to the Ming army in vain.
After Liu Zhaosun sent someone to count, the food and grass donated by the four Baylors totaled more than 1,300 shi, enough to feed the more than 3,000 Ming troops in the city for two months.
In addition, the fire soldiers cleaning up the battlefield also found thousands of fried noodles from the Houjin soldiers. This is a unique military ration for Jianzhou Jurchens. It has a crisp taste, is light in weight, and is easy to carry. It is similar to the elk cakes and elk cakes in the Ming army. Wrinkled rice, miscellaneous cakes and the like (1). On the battlefield of Sarhu, the Hou Jin Army relied on this fried noodles to attack three to four hundred miles in three days and eliminate the Jun Song Marin Army.
With this food and grass, Liu Zhaosun no longer has to go to Guiyuan Temple to seek alms from the old monks, and he no longer has to sharpen his swords with the big families in Kaiyuan for the time being. The three thousand soldiers finally have a chance to breathe.
After clearing the battlefield, Liu Zhaosun immediately began to reorganize his troops, which was also a top priority.
The nearly 30,000 Ming troops gathered in Kaiyuan. After this bloody battle, except for those who fled without knowing where to go, those who looted and beheaded, and those who were seriously injured and died, there were only more than 3,700 people left. It can be said that there is not one out of ten left. .
Most of the more than 3,700 people who survived, except for the wolf soldiers who joined later, were veterans who had followed Liu Zhaosun since the bloody battle of Hunjiang River.
Not to mention that each of these soldiers has survived a hundred battles, after these several bloody battles, any one chosen from among them can be regarded as the first warrior to break through the formation and kill the enemy.
The so-called strong army is nothing more than an army that has won battles again and again on the basis of arduous training and continuously accumulated war experience, courage and confidence. A team that is always losing battles cannot be called a strong army, even if it is well-equipped and has many soldiers and generals. To strengthen the army.
This is also one of the reasons why the Qing army became stronger as it fought, while the Ming army became weaker as it fought.
After these bloody battles, these elites were obedient to Liu Zhaosun's orders, and everyone had already regarded General Liu Shen as their spiritual support.
Since after this battle, all battalions suffered total casualties, the army was disrupted, and the organization was uneven, Liu Zhaosun decided to readjust and add a thousand general-level officers.
The entire army was integrated into three thousand headquarters, each with a thousand chief, a deputy thousand chief, and a thousand chief training officer. Liu Zhaosun took charge of the 1,000th Headquarters, with 1,500 soldiers; Wang Erhu, the commander-in-chief of the original war barracks, was appointed as the 1,000th commander of the 2,000th headquarters, leading 600 troops; Deng Changxiong, the former commander-in-chief of the 3,000th headquarters, was appointed as the 1,000th commander of the 3,000th headquarters, leading 600 troops. Six hundred soldiers.
A cavalry battalion was formed with a total of 300 troops, composed of the 36th Cavalry in Liao Town and the former Nanbing Cavalry Battalion. Li Yuchen was appointed as the deputy battalion officer in Jizhen, and the battalion officer was to be determined.
A mountain warfare barracks was set up with 600 soldiers. Qin Jianxun, the commander-in-chief of Baiganbing Qian, was appointed as the battalion officer, and Rong Touqiang, the wolf soldier, was appointed as the deputy battalion officer.
An Intelligence Department was established. The number of troops was temporarily undetermined. They were recruited from battalions at night, war soldiers, and Liao civilians. Pei Dahu was appointed as the director. Liu Zhaosun finally emphasized that the Intelligence Department did not belong to the military system.
In addition, a total of thirty-two of Liu Zhaosun's confidants were incorporated into the General's Chinese Guards.
In order to downplay the role of servants, Liu Zhaosun also made an exception and recruited 20 refugee followers to join the Chinese Army Guards. These Liaodong refugees were not only good at martial arts, but also regarded the general as a god.
Liu Zhaosun was vaguely worried that although the influence of servants had been downplayed in this way, it would intensify the religious overtones and eventually turn it into a personality cult.
However, he comforted himself that there is no perfect system in this world, and it can only rely on continuous repairs in the later stages. Just like the guard system created by Emperor Taizu, the original intention was to raise millions of soldiers without spending one tael of silver. Unexpectedly, it began to collapse after a few decades.
Zhu Yuanzhang is so smart that he cannot solve all problems once and for all, let alone himself.
Note:
(1) Elk cake, use minced moose to make cake, add boiling soup and mix into cake, one minute thick. When cool, cut into pieces, exposed to dry, and stored. If you eat it with fermented soup in the camp, if you eat it dry on the road or in battle, it will be delicious and you will not be thirsty. The rest of the miscellaneous cakes, wrinkled rice, and rice are prepared as usual, but they are extremely dry so that they can last for a long time.
