The new wind is biting and a chilling atmosphere fills the sky and the earth.
Only two miles away from the southern suburbs of Zhending City is the Hutuo River that surges toward the east.
The sound of Hutuo River is the same as "Hutuo", and it was also called Huichi or Huchi in ancient times.
The river flows all the way down from the Taihang Mountains into the vast North China Plain.
All the way to the east, the water rushes, roars and rolls, hence the name Hutuo.
"Xu————"
Sun Chuanting gave a light drink and pulled the reins of the horse.
The black horse under the seat raised its front hooves high to stop its forward momentum, and let out a long and passionate neigh.
"Uu——" "Uu——"
A group of generals and generals who followed closely behind them also reined in their horses and stopped their whips, reining in the advancing horses.
Chen Wang held his whip and reined in his horse, and together with Cao Wenzhao, He Renlong and Cao Bianjiao, they stood beside Sun Chuanting.
It has entered winter, and the water flow of the Hutuo River has reached its minimum, and many places have even frozen.
The weather is getting colder year by year, and the winter time is getting longer day by day. You can cross the river directly without a ferry or a pontoon.
The large group of cavalry roared past the rivers and fields, advancing rapidly towards the southern suburbs of Zhending City.
In the southern suburbs of Zhending, the vanguard cavalry that had crossed the river had spread out and started a confrontation with the Qing cavalry.
On the wilderness in the southern suburbs of Zhending, which is only three miles wide, several groups of hundreds of cavalry are constantly launching trials and disputes.
A large number of rangers were scattered outside the cavalry formation and strangled together. The battle between them was more fierce and bloody than the fighting between the cavalry formations.
"There are about 5,000 Jiannu outside Zhending City. They have three Jiala flags. Judging from the shape, two of them are the flags of Jiannu Zhenglan Banner, and the other one is the flag of Beilu."
In the Ming Dynasty, the Mongols were called captives, the Jurchens were called slaves, and the northern captives and Jiannu were called slaves.
The cavalry as the vanguard are all elite cavalry affiliated to Cao Bianjiao. Most of them are from Liaodong and Datong. They used to fight with the Hou Jin soldiers on the battlefield of Liaodong, so they can naturally recognize the flag.
Moreover, in the Ministry of War, there are also relevant documents, including the flags of Mongolia and Houjin, etc., so that the troops of King Qin will not be blinded.
"Three armors..."
Sun Chuanting frowned and looked at Zhending City in the distance.
There are three Jia La, and there are almost 5,000 slaves outside the city.
Excluding the followers and auxiliary soldiers, the number of Zhenyi is about 2,500.
Sun Chuanting was no stranger to the Jiannu in the North. The two Jia La Qing troops both belonged to the Zhenglan Banner, and the flag owner of the Zhenglan Banner was Hauge, the eldest son of the bandit chief Huang Taiji.
There are eight banners in Jiannu itself. The combat power of the eight banners varies with each other, and they are not close to each other.
Although Huang Taiji founded the country and proclaimed himself emperor, in fact he was only an emperor in name and did not have the power of a real emperor.
The Zhenglan Banner is the flag with the highest combat power among the Eight Banners, and its combat power is only slightly higher than that of the two strongest Yellow Flags.
Sun Chuanting's face was solemn, and the faces of Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao were not good-looking. During the Battle of Four Cities, they had taken over the battle with Zhenglan Banner, and they were old rivals with Zhenglan Banner.
At that time, they concentrated several times their troops. Although they won the victory, the result was only a miserable victory, and in the end, most of them escaped.
Chen Wang's heart sank slightly. The one he encountered in the first battle was the Zhenglan Banner, which was among the top eight banners of the Qing army. This was not a good thing.
Although according to the course of history, the Ming army won this battle, when it came to the battle, Chen Wang's heart still sank.
There are three armies under his command, totaling more than 3,000 people.
Cao Bianjiao's men were all cavalry, about two thousand people. Cao Wenzhao's men were dismounted in three steps and seven, two groups of infantry and one group of cavalry, about three thousand people.
He Renlong has more than 3,000 men under his command, including seven horses and three infantry, two cavalry and one infantry, totaling more than 3,000 men.
There were 5,000 supervisors under Sun Chuanting, and they were divided into four camps: the middle camp, the front right camp, the rear left camp, and the new camp.
Within the four battalions, there are officers such as deputy general, guerrilla, staff general, central army, command department, garrison, and general.
The combined force totaled 16,000 men, including cavalry, 6,000 cavalry, and 10,000 infantry.
The Qing army that besieged Zhending was nearly five thousand in size, and its strength was three times worse.
"Zhenglan flag?"
He Renlong raised his eyebrows slightly. Unlike Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao, he had always been in Shaanxi.
He had fought with the Mongols outside the Great Wall, but had never seen the Manchu soldiers.
I don’t like reading books, so my understanding of Jiannu is basically just a few words, without a complete picture.
And it was because a war was about to begin that I learned a little bit about the information about establishing slaves.
Among the generals and commanders in Guan Nei, he knew many people, but the only one he truly admired was Cao Wenzhao.
Seeing that Cao Wenzhao's expression became serious now, He Renlong naturally understood that something was wrong.
"Brother Chen..."
He Renlong led the war horse to move a little towards his right hand and asked in a low voice.
"You have been in Liaodong before. What are the explanations for these flags?"
Chen Wang held the reins in his hand and glanced at the Qing army's changing formations not far away. He was thinking about the next plan in his mind when he suddenly heard He Renlong's inquiry.
It turned out that Chen Wang was promoted along the way and basically did not have many interactions with other generals and commanders in Shaanxi because he was always on the road of pursuit.
The relationship with He Renlong is relatively good, also because of Cao Wenzhao's support.
However, during this period of marching from Tongguan, Chen Wang was already familiar with most of the generals.
The relationship with He Renlong is also pretty good. After all, He Renlong himself is on good terms with Cao Wenzhao.
"We are the town and Jiannu is the flag. He Shuai can regard their flag as our town."
It's a bit too much to call the commander in chief a commander, but not many people would care about it now.
Chen Wang lowered his voice and explained to He Renlong.
"Not counting the Northern captives and those traitors, the Jiannu banners have a total of eight banners: Zhengyang, Xianghuang, Zhenglan, Xianglan, Zhengbai, Xiangbai, Zhenghong and Xianghong."
"The slave-building army is not an iron plate. The Eight Banners are actually opposed to each other..."
Although Huang Taiji founded the country and proclaimed himself emperor, he was not a real court or a real country.
Huang Taiji had no way to act arbitrarily. In fact, the original power was still the old eight-king political system.
"The two yellow flags are from slave chief Huang Taiji in person, and the two blue flags are from Hauge and Jierhalang's agents. Hauge is Huang Taiji's eldest son, and Jierhalang and Huang Taiji are closer than brothers, so these four banners are the most powerful. They are strong and have the strongest weapons. They are the elite of the slave army. You must be careful and careful when encountering them."
The fourth year of Tiancong's reign was the second year of Chongzhen's reign.
After Amin was defeated in the Battle of Yongping, Huang Taiji imprisoned him, deprived him of his position as the leader of the Blue Banner, and gave all the banners to Amin's sixth brother Jierharang.
Although Jilhalang is Amin's sixth brother, he has lived in the palace since he was a child and was raised by Nurhaci. He became familiar with Huang Taiji when he was young, and later his relationship with Huang Taiji became as close as a brother.
Even after his father and brother rebelled, was Jilhalang still trusted and reused?
In the fifth year of Chongzhen, the leader of the Zhenglan Banner, Mang Gurtai, died suddenly, and his younger brother Degelei succeeded him as the leader of the Zhenglan Banner.
Three years later, after Degelei died of illness, Huang Taiji eliminated a large number of party members in the name of Degelei's conspiracy during his lifetime, and took the opportunity to take the Zhenglan Banner as his own.
Then he reorganized the Two Yellow Banners and the Zhenglan Banner, and he served as the leader of the Two Yellow Banners, while the Zhenglan Banner was handed over to his eldest son Hauge.
Nowadays, among the eight banners of the Qing army, Huang Taiji controls four banners in total: Zhenghuang, Xianghuang, Zhenglan, and Xianglan.
Because of this, Huang Taiji naturally vigorously supported these four banners and invested a lot of energy in constantly replenishing manpower and weapons.
"The other four flags are in opposition to Huang Taiji. The flag lord of the two red flags is Daishan, the flag lord of the white flag is Duoduo, and the flag lord of the white flag is Azige. The flag soldiers of these four flags are less well-equipped and their number is higher. A little less."
Since Huang Taiji came to power, in order to consolidate the imperial power, he has been trying to find ways to gain as much power as possible.
Daishan had previously fought with Huang Taiji for the Khan position when Nurhachi died, so the two naturally couldn't deal with each other.
Nurhaci did not proclaim himself emperor, but still called himself Great Khan.
Chen Wang thought about it for a while, and finally chose to persuade.
"I know that He Shuai often takes the lead and thinks that the other troops will set an example, but when fighting against Jiannu, you must not take the lead again."
He Renlong looked slightly solemn, and he was a little confused.
"There are many hunters in the slave army. These people hold heavy bows and arrows. They often hide in the military formations during battles. When the battle comes, they will bend their bows and set arrows to attack and kill our generals."
"They often shoot with several or even a dozen people at the same time. If you don't have much defense, you can't avoid them."
In history, Zhang Xianzhong and Huang Zhigong both died under the attack of Chong Gong, causing their troops to collapse.
Now many historical processes have changed, and many things are no longer certain, so Chen Wang finally reminded He Renlong.
"Thank you for reminding."
He Renlong nodded, cupped his fists and said sincerely.
Although he was called crazy, he was not really crazy.
He knew when to take the lead and when not to.
He had never fought against the Qing army before, so naturally he would not act rashly.
During the conversation, the vanguard cavalry who crossed the river had already stood in the southern suburbs of Zhending and cleared out a relatively open place to cross the river.
The Qing army's cavalry was retreating towards the rear at this time, and the Qing army's formation seemed to be undergoing some changes.
They gained the upper hand in the first confrontation, and the morale of the Ming army gradually increased.
However, Sun Chuanting did not show the slightest smile because of this.
In May of the eighth year of Chongzhen's reign, Jiannu entered the fortress to plunder. He led his servant Ding Xiangyong out of the city to attack. Although they won in the end, it was a tragic victory. This was despite the fact that the number of soldiers was several times greater than that of Jiannu.
Since ancient times, China has been the one with strong armor and sharp blades, but now the situation is reversed.
Their armor is strong and their swords are sharp, but their weapons are rotten and their swords are weak.
Sun Chuanting glanced worriedly at the Qing army formation outside Zhending City.
The troops and horses that came to support this time were said to be 50,000 troops, but in fact there were only more than 30,000 people, of which less than 20 to 30% were elites.
This time the Qing army went south and gathered more than 100,000 people. Not only did they come out with all their elite troops, but they also went south with a large number of Mongolian cavalry.
This battle is really not easy to fight...
It was precisely because he knew the combat power of the Qing army that Sun Chuanting did not order an attack for a long time.
(End of chapter)
