Dong E. Du Lei received Dorgon's order in Niujiazhuang. He is the fifth son of Dong E. He Heli, one of the five ministers in the early Qing Dynasty, and his mother is the daughter of Nurhaci. When Nurhachi was alive, his grandson was very favored. Not only did he have a prosperous official career, but he was also assigned to two Niu Lu of Zhenghong Banner, and was ranked among the eight princes. However, after Huang Taiji came to power, he began to have bad luck. When he attacked North Korea, he was punished for robbing his troops in Seoul. When Chongde attacked Jinzhou in the fourth year, he was punished again because his troops retreated. In the same year, he was reported by his subordinates. When entering Jinan to attack Jinan, he secretly unearthed the property hidden in Prince De's palace of the Ming Dynasty and committed suicide. Huang Taiji pretended to spare his life and beat him to the end. It was not until the eighth year of Chongde that he resumed his duties as Gushan Ezhen. However, Those two Niulu are gone...
People who Huang Taiji hated could often turn around in the hands of Emperor Amadorgun. Therefore, Du Lei received a lot of benefits from Dorgon. He was granted the title of second-class uncle and his position within Zhenghongqi was secure.
So he was very grateful to Dorgon and was willing to work hard at critical moments - Dorgon also knew this guy's temper, so he gave him the most difficult task!
He is now commanding fifteen Niulu under the Zhenghong Banner and four Niulu under the Zhenglu Banner to guard Niujiazhuang. Looking down from Turtle Mountain, his troops are far away from Dorgon's main formation and far away from Lizhuang. The Qing army is not close either, so it looks a bit isolated no matter how you look at it.
After getting Dorgon's order, Du Lei immediately ordered two Niu Lu with red flags and half of Niu Lu with green flags to greet him.
The "Morris Battalion" of the Ming Army was very capable against cavalry, but after all, Huang Degong and Li Chengdong's vassal army was not a new army that could overcome difficulties.
The latter were trained by foreign generals hired by Zhu Cixiang at a high price, and officers at all levels were trained in the Nanjing Martial Arts Hall. In addition, their equipment has relatively good firecrackers, and they have begun to replace Spanish light matchlock guns on a large scale! Moreover, the soldiers in the front-line troops (organized into seven model divisions) were protected by slat armor, so it was difficult for the Qing army's bows and arrows to hurt them.
The armies of Huang Degong and Li Chengdong only learned a little bit of the "Morris Formation" and could fight, but it was a bit difficult to march under the harassment of the Qing cavalry.
Fortunately, Li Chengdong's two cavalry battalions were not vegetarians. Seeing that there were not many cavalry in the Qing army, they immediately yelled and rushed towards them.
Of course they don't use the so-called wall charge. They are not that powerful. They are just a group of dozens of riders. After approaching to a distance of more than one to two miles, they charge with carbines. Now they are still a little far away from Du Lei's men and have not started to charge into the formation, but they have already shouted slogans: "Blessed by Saint Kong... you are invulnerable!"
Although they are not practicing troops in Qufu, they are also followers of Confucius... After they died in battle, they all became great Confucians!
Du Lei has been in Shanxi to suppress the three princes in the past few years, but he has never seen such a fierce Ming army. He was immediately frightened. Fortunately, the Niu Lu Zhangjing who followed him was Shang Kexi's younger brother Shang Kexi. We have fought with the Qufu Army, Tai'an Army, and Huaibei Army for a long time, and we know their "one-size-fits-all approach". So he quickly said to Du Lei: "Gushan Ezhen, let's retreat quickly! The Confederate Army's Lancers are powerful..."
"What?" Du Lei was stunned, and then he glared at Shang Keai, who had a tanned face, a bit of unshaven beard and was not cute at all, "How can we Manchu warriors be afraid of Nikan's cavalry?"
Shang Keai was speechless for a moment and didn't know what to say.
How could he be afraid of the Ming army's cavalry? I just don’t want to go head-to-head... The cavalry of the Ming Army is not a three-axe trade, but a one-axe trade. They are not good at riding and shooting, and their equestrian skills are mediocre. They just rely on a good suit of armor to charge with a gun - their lath armor is not only Sturdy and relatively light weight. Therefore, the Ming cavalry wearing slatted armor put a much lighter load on their horses than the Qing cavalry wearing cotton armor and chain armor, so they could often reach high speeds at the beginning of the battle.
However, they have one man and one cavalry, while the Qing cavalry, especially the Laoba Banners, have two or even three cavalry per man.
Therefore, veterans like Shang Keai, who have fought against the Ming Army's lancers many times, know that they must first avoid the edge and consume their horse power, and then switch horses to fight, so that they can gain the upper hand.
"Shang Zhangjing, you lead the charge first, and I will hold the line for you!" Du Lei despised those who were greedy for life and afraid of death, so he immediately sent a "death soldier" to Shang Keai.
Shang Keai, who thought he was unlucky, had no choice but to bite the bullet and lead his more than 200 cavalrymen to meet them.
The Ming army was led by Li Chengdong's adopted son Li Yuanyin. He, Shang Kei, and these Green Flag Cavalry were old rivals and were familiar with their tactics. Today, when I saw them approaching, I was stunned for a moment, then I immediately realized what I was doing, pointed my carbine forward, and said loudly, "This is Saint Kong blessing us, come with me!"
At this time, the dozen cavalry groups he led were divided into three waves: front, middle and back. After receiving the order, they immediately began to accelerate forward, first jogging, and then sprinting with all their strength. Amidst the rumble of hoofbeats, more than 3,000 horse hooves brought up snow powder all over the sky, which was like shaking the earth and the mountains.
Shang Keai also tried his best and launched a charge with his Zhengluqi cavalry. They also charged in groups, and soon ran into the Ming army's cavalry group. Because the formations of both sides were not too dense, the collision was not brutal. After the first wave of collision, only a few cavalry were knocked off their horses, and most of them passed by.
However, because the Ming army was larger in number, it was divided into three waves, while Shang Keai's cavalry only had one wave. Therefore, the formation was disrupted in the first wave of collision, and the Green Flag cavalry, which had reduced its speed, was fighting against the opponent's second wave. During the collision between the first wave and the third wave, they suffered a big loss. They were beaten to the point of being knocked off their feet and nearly 180 riders were lost.
Du Lei's Zhenghongqi cavalry did not go up to charge into the battle. Instead, they used Niulu as a unit to attack the two wings of the Ming army's cavalry in two ways. They did not engage in head-on collisions or hand-to-hand combat, but used horseback archery. The Ming army cavalry were all wearing lath armor, which was very strong and not very afraid of arrows. However, their horses were unarmored, so they suffered some losses from the Qing army's bows and arrows. At least a dozen of them were shot over. , there are also many war horses decorated with feathers and arrows stuck in their bodies.
However, because Shang Keai's cavalry had been defeated, Du Lei did not dare to continue fighting with the Ming army's lancers who were twice as numerous as him, so he had to retreat towards Niujiazhuang.
After repelling the Qing cavalry's blockade, the roundabout Ming army was able to continue its attack on Niujiazhuang.
At the same time, on the front of Guishan, the Ming army also risked its life to launch a counterattack against the Qing artillery position.
Shi Kefa sent a Qufu army car camp (without cars), commanded by Shi Dewei, to charge from the left flank of the Qing artillery position. At the same time, more than a dozen 3-pound guns and one-pound guns were deployed to fire at the Qing artillery position from another direction.
The chariot soldiers who left the chariot formed a large pike formation, a bit like the Spanish phalanx. The core was the pikemen in the chariot camp, forming a square formation. The musketeers and archers relied on the pike phalanx and the swords. The hands circle the phalanx to cover its movements.
As soon as this huge phalanx started to move, it was bombarded by the Qing army's artillery! The 3-pound shells made gaps one after another in the Ming army's square formation. Some shells even bounced and flew through the Ming army's formation, knocking everything in their way to the ground.
However, the Qufu Army's fighting will is very strong, and their formation is not too dense, and the barrels of the Qing Army's artillery have become hot after firing for a long time, so they can only fire at a lower speed. In addition, they are starting from the Qing Dynasty. The Qing army's artillery positions came up from the left wing. The firing angles of many artillery pieces were blocked and they could not be fired. Therefore, the Qing army's artillery bombardment failed to drive them away.
Zhengbaiqi Gushan'e Zentala Azignikan, who was commanding the battle on the front line, had no choice but to order some of the cavalry arrayed behind the artillery array to dismount and join the battle with the firecrackers guarding the artillery array.
