In early April of the sixth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, Xiaoling River in western Liaoning.
The sound of the firecracker firing was as loud as popping beans. The three-eyed muskets of the Ming army's cavalrymen had already rang out, and occasionally there was the sound of the Tiger Crouching Cannon and the 3-pound field cannon firing each other.
On the south bank of the Xiaoling River, after daylight fell on the second day of April, a large number of Ming army cavalry came out from their Songshan camp and rushed towards the south bank of the Xiaoling River, which was still under the control of the Hou Jin army. The team fought together with the Manchu Eight Banner and Mongolian Eight Banner horse teams sent by Jinzhou.
This cavalry vanguard battle that took place before the main force deployed was not a casual battle, but a battle to seize the initiative on the surrounding battlefield. The winning side will become the master of the battlefield around Xiaolinghe and thus take the initiative. The losing side will fall into passivity because it cannot control the battlefield, cannot conduct effective reconnaissance of the enemy, and cannot cover its own actions and camps.
At this time, the cavalry on both sides of Ming and Jin were taking the "chore job" route, and there was no professional shock cavalry that was common on European battlefields. They are all miscellaneous cavalry who can do all the other jobs that belong to the army except artillery and engineers... Of course, whether they can do the miscellaneous jobs more accurately is another question.
The reason for this is of course determined by the needs of the battlefield in East Asia. The East Asian continent is too vast, and the areas most prone to wars are along the Great Wall where farming civilization and nomadic civilization meet. The terrain along this line is open and covered with grasslands and deserts.
Without a sufficient number of miscellaneous cavalry, there would be no way to deploy them on a vast battlefield. Without the miscellaneous cavalry to do the miscellaneous work of reconnaissance, search, ordering, expulsion, pursuit, cover, etc., the infantry can only passively guard isolated strongholds, which is of no use at all!
Therefore, heavy cavalry, which is expensive and difficult to operate alone on a vast and complex battlefield, is difficult to develop and grow in East Asia. The miscellaneous cavalry, which is relatively adaptable and has a wide range of uses, has gradually become the mainstream of cavalry, and even the backbone of a country's army.
The Eight Banners soldiers that Hou Jin relied on to rise among the white mountains and black waters were actually a miscellaneous cavalry. The core of the Eight Banners soldiers in this era is that each cow recruits 10 white-armored soldiers and 40 red-armored soldiers. These are all warriors who are highly skilled in martial arts and are versatile in various combat techniques and tactics, such as dismounting immediately, forming formations, and fighting!
Before Zhu Youjian's black lancers appeared, relying on these elite and brave white-armored and red-armored soldiers, the Later Jin Army was able to firmly grasp the initiative on the battlefield most of the time. Not only can you move forward and retreat freely, but you can also turn your enemies blind or deaf.
Of course, it is easier to win in this case... The initiative of fighting or not fighting lies with Hou Jin. If you are not sure, just don't fight. The rest will naturally be "win if you fight".
However, the number of such powerful white armor and red armor is limited. Normally, a Manchurian Eight Banner Niu Lu only has 50 white armor and red armor. The total number of cows in the Eight Banners of Manchuria is only over 200. Each cow can theoretically produce 50 white and red armors, and the total number is more than 10,000 white and red armors.
And these more than 10,000 people are the real backbone of Hou Jin’s army!
Before Zhu Youjian took action to seize Yanshan and Monan Grasslands, the battlefields where the Ming army and the Eight Banners soldiers of the Later Jin Dynasty came into direct contact were very limited. Only the western Liaoning Corridor, Jinzhou Peninsula, and areas near Pi Island have contact. Moreover, contact between the two sides was not frequent. Except for Mao Wenlong's army, no one on the Ming side would take the initiative to attack. Since then, Kim has been maintaining a "buffer zone" to reduce daily contact between the two sides.
In this case, more than 10,000 white and red armors are completely enough.
But now, due to the emergence of the Yanshan, Daning, Liaoxi (Yingzhou two guards), Xinzhou and other armies, the front line of contact between the Ming Dynasty and Hou Jin Dynasty has become very long. Moreover, after the Ming army established the Yan and Ning defense lines, it began to switch from defense to offense, and also developed the very tough "Black Lancers".
Therefore, the more than 10,000 white-armored and red-armored soldiers of the Eight Banners of Manchuria are simply not enough, and they cannot afford to consume them - no matter how high your martial arts skills are, you are still afraid of black guns!
Therefore, Huang Taiji had to expand the Hou Jin's bannermen team, and expanded the Eight Banners of Mongolia, the Eight Banners of the Han Army, the Eight Banners of Korea and the Outer Mongolia League in one go, turning the Eight Banners into sixty-four banners. In this way, there are more flagmen, more cattle soldiers, and naturally more white-armored soldiers and red-armored soldiers... However, the number of white-armored and red-armored soldiers who can really fight will not increase at the same time.
There are still so many white-armored and red-armored people selected from the old Manchurian cattle records. The white armor and red armor (firearms soldiers) selected from the Mongolian, Han and Korean armies are nothing more than names. On the battlefield, not to mention the black spearmen in front of the tent, even the 6,600 servants and cavalry in Liao Town couldn't beat them!
As for the soldiers Hauge and Amin brought to Jinzhou, most of them were assigned from more than 1,400 Niu Lu. How many soldiers were produced by each Niu Lu, and they were not all white and red...except for Hauge. , Amin's own Niu Lu, other Niu Lu will not give them white armor soldiers easily, it would be good if they can give them a red armor (firearms soldier).
Therefore, among the more than 10,000 Houjin soldiers gathered here in Jinzhou to serve as the main force, if we do not count the white armor and red armor of Hauge and Amin's own old Manchuria, there are only less than 2,000 red armor and firearms soldiers left. Among them, there can be Those sent out to compete with the Ming army's Liao Town servants were only more than 1,000 Mongolian red armor plus several hundred red armor soldiers with blue and yellow flags. Their number is only one-fifth of the Liaozhen cavalry brought by Yuan Chonghuan...
At the height of a wooden castle on the north bank of the Xiaoling River, Hauge and Amin were holding telescopes to watch the fighting on the south side of the Xiaoling River.
In their telescopes, the south bank of the slow-flowing Xiaoling River is a large flat wilderness. At the beginning, the Ming army's cavalry consisted of about a hundred cavalry, and dozens of teams were lined up in a row, and they were pushing Hou Jin's cavalry towards several bridgeheads on the south bank of the Xiaoling River.
These Ming army's servants and cavalry have not yet found out the strength of their opponents, so they fight more carefully. I saw them constantly launching fire cannon attacks at the retreating Houjin cavalry - not directly attacking with guns, but firing three-eyed cannons first. Groups of cavalrymen rushed to the rear with three-eyed cannons that lit the fuse. They opened fire near the Golden Cavalry group and hit and ran.
At the same time, there were cavalrymen with long spears forming a horizontal line. They waited for the Jin cavalry to disperse and then launched an attack.
Then the Golden Cavalry used bows and arrows to fight against the enemy - they were actually Mongolians. They were best at horseback archery and did not dare to fight hand-to-hand.
In the confrontation with the three-eyed blunderbuss of the Ming army servants, they were no match for each other. However, when a group of Ming army cavalry went up to hit people with three-eyed blunderbuss, they immediately showed their timidity and scattered in order to avoid close combat.
This is not the true Manchu style!
After ascertaining the true situation, the Ming army servants began to attack boldly. The lancers launched an attack. The cavalryman who fired the three-eyed gun did not retreat to reload, but swung the three-eyed gun and hit people. The group of Mongolian Eight Banners red-armored soldiers were soon forced to several bridgeheads on the south bank of the Xiaoling River - these bridgeheads were all connected to pontoon bridges, which led directly to the north bank.
But before they could retreat across the Xiaoling River, the Ming army used mules and horses to bring in a few artillery pieces, both large and small, and they quickly placed them and began to bombard them!
The Houjin firearms soldiers who stood firm on the bridgehead used squatting tiger cannons to fight back... However, these squatting tiger cannons could not reach people at all and could only make a sound.
Seeing this scene, Hauge sighed deeply, turned around and said to Amin: "Er Beile... no way! The new red-armored soldiers can't defeat the servants of the Southern Army at all! This has already shown his cowardice, Yuan Chonghuan will react soon..."
"What can we do?" Amin looked at the situation ahead and felt a little numb. "Brother, it seems that we have to ask the Khan for help... There are so many servants on the south bank of Xiaoling River, Yuan Chonghuan is There are quite a lot of people brought here, maybe 100,000! If the Great Khan doesn’t come to rescue us, Jinzhou won’t be able to defend it!”
Hauge took a breath: "I personally wrote to Amma... Amma will definitely bring soldiers to save Jinzhou!"
Hauge still believed in his Armma, that was his dear Armma! However, when he said this, he never thought that his mother had secretly left Shenyang City and headed for the Qianli Pine Forest.
