Li Yuanyin and Xia Wanchun glanced at each other, and Li Yuanyin said: "It was our flintlocks that fired... It should have been an encounter with Donglu's cavalry. You can bring someone to support you! If you encounter a large group, then Just withdraw immediately."
"Here!"
Xia Wanchun responded, and immediately led his two platoons, put on their war horses, and with the cavalry as the guide, they galloped towards the place where the gunfire rang out.
Li Yuanyin raised his hand and called a few messengers, and then loudly said: "Call the battalions to prepare for battle!"
Li Yuanyin is now leading 3 battalions, with a total of 1,500 cavalry, deep into the vicinity of Dacheng County at the junction of Hejian Prefecture and Shuntian Prefecture. Naturally, he has to be careful and be prepared to start a war or flee at any time.
And the reason why they went so boldly in-depth was to clear the country in the southern part of Beizhili!
How can 1,500 cavalry strengthen the walls and clear the country?
In fact, it can be done!
Because the southern part of Beizhili has not been peaceful in recent years, although the Ming army did not enter Beizhili during the last Northern Expedition, it was still under the front of the Ming army, so there were many "villages".
Moreover, these villages and the Qing Dynasty were not on the same page. After all, the Qing Dynasty's rule in these places only lasted a few years, and there was no system to communicate between the upper and lower levels, such as the imperial examination. Although Shunzhi announced the imperial examination, it was not actually implemented.
Therefore, once the local centers of Qing rule - state towns and counties - were broken by the invading Ming army (unless it was a fortress, it would not be able to stop the black gun mule soldiers attached to the artillery Ming army), and the traffic in the countryside would Controlled by mule cavalry, these villages became "independent".
It is very natural to close the village to protect yourself!
Once the villages in the southern part of Beizhili closed to protect themselves, the rule of the Qing Dynasty would also collapse!
Although the Ming Dynasty may not be able to take over these villages immediately, the Qing Dynasty will definitely not be able to continue to obtain resources from there.
If Emperor Shunzhi still does nothing and watches the rule of southern Beizhili disintegrate, then it won't be long before the Qing Dynasty will really become the "Liao Dynasty".
If he is not willing to become the "Liao Kingdom", he will have to send troops from Beijing!
As long as Shunzhi sends troops, Shi Kefa's goal will be achieved.
...
Xia Wanchun had already led two platoons, totaling more than 70 cavalrymen (there were some attrition in previous battles) to the front where the firefight was taking place.
This is a long-abandoned village, full of ruined walls and burned houses. It is next to an unknown river, the surface of which has frozen. There is a broken bridge nearby and a forest on the other side.
When Xia Wanchun's platoon was crossing a small river on the ice, they were suddenly attacked by Mongolian cavalry rushing out of the woods.
Fortunately, the Mongols like to ride horses and shoot arrows, and they are timid and dare not rush too close, so the first wave of attacks did not cause any casualties, but only alerted the enemy.
The standard for the march of the Ming army's "mule soldiers" is that the archers clear the way, the black spearmen are in the middle, and the spearmen hold back. The first wave of Mongolian attacks hit the Ming army's horse archers who opened the way. These horse archers were all experienced veterans and reacted quickly. They immediately took out their Kaiyuan bows to fight back - their bows and arrows were all high-quality. The bow is a Kaiyuan bow that uses a lot of buffalo horns, and the arrows are three-in-one arrows, which are far better than the bows and arrows in the hands of the Mongols. Moreover, they did not spare any effort and started shooting continuously. The nine horse archers shot more than 50 arrows in the blink of an eye. Although they did not shoot a single Mongolian to death, they shot down five Mongolian horses (they were shooting horses). The Mongolians saw that they shot arrows fiercely and did not dare to step forward for a while.
Because of this hesitation, the 19 black lancers behind got off their mules, and handed their horses and mules to the lancers behind them to lead them into the village. The dismounted black spearmen stood in a row on the bank of the creek, then loaded their bayonets. They finished their work, and the horse archers in front just retreated. When the Mongols saw that the Ming army's horse archers were about to run away, they became bolder and rushed forward one after another. However, they retreated after being shot at for a while, leaving four or five corpses and three horses lying on the ice of the creek. The war horse was still twitching and wailing on the ground.
Seeing the Mongols retreating, the archers who had just withdrawn and the eight lancers who had returned from the village (two lancers were left in the village to guard the livestock) launched an attack together. The 17 cavalry charged and killed them. They actually drove thirty or forty Mongolian cavalry into the woods, and even chopped down and stabbed six of them!
Just when they thought the battle was about to end and these Mongolian cavalry who couldn't help but fight would soon run away, a large group of Mongolian cavalry suddenly rushed out of the woods. There were always hundreds of them, and they could kill more than thirty Ming troops. The mule soldiers were frightened and hurriedly ran together to the abandoned village by the river - they did not intend to defend the village, but some of their horses and all their mules, as well as many salutes, were lost there. But the losses were heavy.
As soon as they entered the village, the Mongolians outside surged across the river like a tide, and were about to surround the village. The gunshots suddenly rang out again, and then the Mongolians who came in like a tide receded across the ice like an ebbing tide. Sealed creek.
It turned out that Xia Wanchun arrived with more than seventy "black spearmen". From a distance, he saw hundreds of cavalry wearing Mongolian leather robes running around a dilapidated village. They also made strange screams from time to time, and he knew that his men They were surrounded inside.
Because there were many people on the other side, Xia Wanchun did not dare to fight head-on. He just wanted to bluff and scare the Mongols so that his men could break out. So he ordered the "black gun and mule soldiers" to get on their horses and use the tactic of riding on horseback and firing guns to scare people.
But who knew that as soon as more than 30 flintlock guns were fired, hundreds of Mongolian cavalry fled in confusion like frightened sheep.
Seeing this scene, Xia Wanchun quickly ordered his lancers and archers to attack. Dozens of Ming cavalry chased four to five hundred Mongolian cavalry and killed them for a while before driving them across the river.
When the thirty or so Ming army cavalry who were originally hiding in the village saw the Mongols retreating, they thought their own brigade had arrived, so they rushed out excitedly. When they reached the river, they discovered that Xia Wanchun had arrived with two platoons.
"Company commander, where is our brigade?" The person asking the question was a platoon leader under Xia Wanchun, whose surname was Niu. He was a hero in overcoming difficulties, but his official luck was not good. He had been in the army for so many years, with ups and downs, and he had been a company commander several times, but In the end, he was demoted to platoon leader, so he was nicknamed "Steak".
"Still behind!" Xia Wanchun said, "It's just us... How many enemies are there? Are they all Mongols?"
"We're the only ones in the company?" Steakhouse didn't respect Xia Wanchun very much, so he muttered, and then stood up on the saddle - this is real skill! Xia Wanchun can't.
Standing on the horse, putting his palms on his eyebrows, looking into the distance for a while, Steak turned his head and said to Xia Wanchun: "It's incredible...it seems like there are tens of thousands of riders! There was no movement just now, and now they are all out. , divided into several shares, and they are all coming to us!"
At the same time, another experienced horse archer had dismounted and lay on the snow to listen. After a while, he also shouted: "Company Commander! There are countless of them! The sound of horse hooves was so dense that they became one... ...I’m afraid there are tens of thousands of horses!”
"Steak" sees snow dust, but this veteran listens to the sound of hooves.
The two people reported similar situations, so they are almost inseparable!
This time I encountered a large number of Qing troops!
"Let's retreat!" As soon as Steak Chief said these words, a deep horn sound came from the woods on the other side of the river.
Then I saw more Mongolians rushing out of the woods. This time they did not rush forward, but lined up at the edge of the woods. They came in a steady stream, and their number soon exceeded a thousand.
Xia Wanchun shook his head and said with a wry smile: "These Mongols really think highly of us! Thousands of people are fighting against more than 100 of us... Send two people to report the news, and the others will follow me. Let's fight and leave!"
