Gao Jingshi received two battle reports in the afternoon of that day, the first one at 11:00 a.m., and the second one at 3:00 a.m. ET. The two battle reports were only half an hour apart, which is about an hour later.
Obviously, major changes had occurred on the battlefield, which could lead to the frontline generals sending back battle reports continuously in just half an hour.
When he saw the first battle report, Gao Pragmatic's mood was calm, and he even breathed a sigh of relief.
This is because the news in the first battle report was almost all good news: the ambush went extremely smoothly, and the front line launched a parallel half-crossing attack by land and water as planned, giving the Tumen allied forces a hand in hand. You cut it into three pieces."
Then there was a great victory on the Liaohe River. The Mongolian army was killed and drowned "five or six thousand people without worry". Tumen Khan, who had not yet crossed the river, fled in panic. The remaining fried flower Taiji continued to fight between Madong and Ma Chengen. Under the attack, "more than a thousand tribes were lost first, and then they ran south, met Zhang Wanbang's tribe, and were unable to attack them. Ma Cheng'en chased them and captured them."
As for the battle report, Ma Dong also added some words of praise and praise for Gao Pragmatic. Gao Pragmatic just glanced at it and didn't take it seriously. It was the most common thing in this era, so don't take it too seriously.
He was not very excited about winning the Chaohua Division, because although he knew that the Chaohua Division in the original history later became the most powerful division in Inner Khalkha. From the middle of Wanli until it was defeated by Jianlu, Chang Hua For decades, it was a powerful force near Liaodong, known as the "Five Camps of Speculators", but that was the original history after all, and I am afraid it will not appear in this era.
Besides, although the "Five Camps of Chaohua" in the original history always had Chaohua himself as the leader, in fact, in the later period, Chaohua was already old and most of the time he only existed as a political symbol and was not the actual leader. It's Zaisai.
After Zaisai was defeated and captured by Nurhaci, the fear within the Chaohua Department reached its peak and they almost did not dare to fight with them. However, Chaohua himself did not know whether he was old and confused, or he insisted on being tough before he died. He firmly rejected Nurhachi's proposal to "change the contract", which led to a large-scale military expedition by Jiannu and turned the "Five Camps of Speculators" into a historical term.
So from this point of view, the image of Chaohua Taiji himself in Gao Pragmatic's mind is very average. If he has to say what is great about him, he probably only lives a long time. Although because of the age record of Chaohua in Mongolian literature, It's unknown, but based on his active years, Gao Pragmatic estimated that he might have lived to be eighty or ninety years old, which was really rare among the Mongolians of the same period.
And most of today's fried flowers probably don't live that long. Although he was captured alive and must have been sent to the capital as a rule, judging from the habitual calls from the Ming Dynasty and the public, this man's head basically cannot be saved.
Since they are all dying anyway, Gao Pragmatic naturally won't care too much, so his mentality is more of "relieved".
Don't look at Gao's pragmatic performance after the Tumen and Fried Flowers coalition forces went south this time. He even decided not only to fight them right away, but also to give them a hard blow. But in fact, this battle was his most powerful in recent years. An uncertain battle.
In the original battle, Gao Pragmatic either had crushing military and firepower advantages, or he had made various arrangements long in advance. This meant that at least one of the military advantages and political advantages must have the absolute upper hand, so he could calmly In response, as long as you maximize your advantages, you can ensure victory.
But this time the Liaohe ambush battle was different. Although the total number of troops of the Tumen and Chaohua coalition forces was slightly less than that of the Ming army, they were not only very small in number, but they also probably had a qualitative advantage.
The bulk of the Ming army was composed of more than 20,000 guards mobilized from the Four Guards in southern Liaoning. However, even if Gao Pragmatic gave a heavy reward, it could only ensure that their fighting will would be better than that of others. It's a lot stronger, but its combat level is still completely lacking.
Therefore, the Ming army actually had very few elite forces that it could rely on. There were only about five thousand servants and Jinghua's fleet on the Liao River. They were also the core of the tasks assigned by Gao pragmatism.
In a highly pragmatic plan, unless the Mongolian river-crossing troops make a "dispersed breakout" to the south, there is basically no need for the large number of guard soldiers to directly engage the Mongols.
Facts have also proved that the Mongols did not do this, and the guardsmen did not confront the Mongols head-on.
At this time, Gao Pragmatic was relieved enough. He defeated Tumen and Chaohua's 20,000 cavalry with five to six thousand troops (plus fleet). The Mongols lost five to six thousand men and horses in the Daliao River. Tumen The Great Khan fled in despair with the remaining five thousand cavalry. Chaohua himself was captured, and his troops were surrounded in Hanjiawan. They were unable to fly...
The plan before the war can basically be said to have been successfully completed, and only the final step is left.
With weak attacks and strong attacks like this, everyone should be relieved.
However, the fact is that Gao Pragmatic relaxed too early, because half an hour later he received the second battle report. In the battle report, Ma Dong told him with self-blame: Originally, after Chaohua Taiji was captured, he and Ma Chengen and other generals discussed it and believed that the leaderless Chaohua tribe could not fly. Moreover, when they crossed the river, they carried almost no food and grass, and even the marching tents were behind the army... Therefore, today or tomorrow at the latest, the remaining Chaohua tribe will either be dispatched directly. If someone wants to surrender, or there will be internal strife, there is no need to rush to attack, lest it arouse the opponent's desperate resistance.
So the Ming army just guarded the defensive line to prevent the Mongols from suddenly attacking and breaking out. Unexpectedly, after a while, they suddenly discovered that the Mongolians had taken advantage of the Jinghua fleet to finish two rounds of demonstrative shelling on the north bank and were just about to turn around. They gathered the remaining rafts and suddenly fled across the river from the upstream direction.
Realizing that something was wrong, the Ming army dispatched urgently on both land and water, but in the end the fleet reported that they only destroyed or crashed dozens of rafts, and "about a thousand people" fell into the water, while Ma Dong and Ma Chengen's The cavalry only intercepted 1,493 Mongolian cavalry, and the remaining remaining soldiers of the Chaohua tribe, about 3,500, escaped successfully.
Gao Bingxian, who "knew everything he could", finally missed it this time.
To be honest, Gao Qingzhi, who had just seen the battle report, was very angry at the moment.
These Mongolians are surrounded in such a desperate situation. You have an absolute advantage on the water, and your strength on land is more than five times that of the opponent. Just like this, you can actually let them escape?
Gao Jingshi was silent for a long time while holding the battle report. The servant of the Ma family who brought the battle report was so frightened that he dared not speak out. However, Ma Fang took the initiative to get up and go to Gao Jingshi to take the battle report and read it, then smiled slightly: "Congratulations on the military constitution."
Gao Pragmatic was stunned and frowned: "The plan has not been completed, why did the governor say this?"
Ma Fang shook his head and said: "Tumen and Chaohua went south with 20,000 cavalry, and now less than half of them have escaped. In other words, Bingxian wiped out more than 10,000 enemies in just one battle. How can it not be a great victory?" ?Why shouldn’t I congratulate you?”
Gao pragmatic frowned and said: "It's not easy to find the heads of those in the river."
"It's not easy." Ma Fang nodded to express his approval of this sentence, but still said: "But so what? These heads can't be found, and what's affected is only the silver reward that was finally obtained. I think Bing Xian will take these silver rewards seriously. The key lies in whether this victory can count. This is the most important thing to Bing Xian."
Gao Pangshi's heart moved slightly, and he understood Ma Fang's meaning, and said thoughtfully: "The number of Mongolian troops sent and the number of people who fled back is easy to verify. Jin Yiwei should have such capabilities in Liaodong."
That is to say, the results can be determined, but this battle is a rare battle with the Mongols in the north in which water battles are the highlight, so that the Mongols' losses were more on the Daliao River, Therefore, there is really no solution to the problem of the head. Even if people are sent to search after the war, not much can be recovered.
But since the performance can be determined, it is impossible for the court not to reward Gao Pragmatic accordingly.
Ma Fang's meaning is also very simple. Gao Jingshi is not short of money, and the water battle is mainly fought by the Gao family's servants. Gao Jingshi can pay for the reward himself. Anyway, this battle on the water is one-sided. The loss to Jinghua was minimal and he could fully afford it.
On the contrary, how to distribute the military merits on land is the big problem.
The war achievements on land are divided into two parts, one for cavalry and one for infantry. But as for the cavalry, except for Ma Dong and Ma Chengen's servants, the rest are also Gao's cavalry. Ma Fang is not sure how Gao Jingshi plans to arrange it, but he doesn't care much about it. Judging from Ma Dong's respect, he should not be treated badly, and the same is true for Ma Chengen.
The trouble now is that the two cavalrymen, Ma Dong and Ma Chengen, did not realize that the Mongols would suddenly choose to escape from the river at the huge risk of being sent to feed the bastards by the entire Jinghua fleet, which made Gao Pragmatic Ma Fang was very angry just now. Ma Fang didn't know if this would affect Gao Pragmatic's decision.
In addition, the issue of infantry is also a bit tricky. The key is that in terms of infantry, only Zhang Wanbang's troops fought against Chaohua. Although the results of the battle look quite good, the weak infantry withstood the breakthrough of the strong cavalry, and the losses themselves were not huge. Wherever this is placed, it will be a must-reward.
But here's the problem. The Ming army dispatched more than 20,000 infantry, and most of them didn't even meet the Mongols. It was like they went to Hanjiawan to look at the scenery and dug trenches for several days in vain. , trapped horse pits and other fortifications, but in the end no credit was gained.
This means that except for Ma Chengen, the other three commanders in Liaonan have not received any military merit. If this is the distribution, I am afraid that Gao Bingxian will be criticized by his subordinates afterwards, saying that his arrangement is unfair. Every position that can be used to gain military exploits has been given to one's own people. Could it be that their local generals in southern Liaoning were adopted by their stepmothers?
If you want to say that the battle achievements are small and not enough, then forget it. Everyone is not too jealous, but it is different now. The Mongols lost more than 10,000, more than 11,000 to be precise. Such a great achievement, Who doesn't want to go up there and rub it in?
Not counting those in the river, the total number of beheadings and captures on the southern bank was about 3,500. This amount alone is enough to brag about! Ning Yuanbo Li Chengliang has been in Liao Dynasty for ten years. How many three thousand and five can he get?
Taken together there are less than two!
What kind of great achievement do you want? Relying on a mere Liaonan, do you still want to replicate the Monan War again? Not to mention that the total number of Tumen Fried Flowers was only 20,000. If they came more, Liaonan wouldn't be able to eat it. Now there are no 70,000 to 80,000 Tumote cavalry!
Being reminded by Ma Fang, Gao Pragmatic immediately connected the relevant situations and figured it out. He couldn't help but reflect: Could it be that I really started to expand subconsciously after the battle in Monan?
After finally calming down, Gao pragmatically thanked Ma Fang for the reminder and was about to speak when a servant hurriedly ran out from outside and shouted from a distance: "Bing Xian, Qin Xierong is reporting urgently!"
Qin Xierong? Qin Deyi?
Not only was Gao Pragmatic stunned when he heard this, but even Ma Fang didn't expect it and frowned in thought.
Gao pragmatic waved to the servant, who quickly handed over the letter. Gao pragmatic took a look at the paint and saw that it was intact. He opened the envelope and took out the letter and newspaper inside to read.
After a few glances, he met Ma Fang's searching eyes, with a hint of ridicule on his face, and handed the letter to Ma Fang: "Commander, please take a look, too. Qin Xierong refused to move his dignity before the battle. Listen. Talking about a big victory ahead, I became impatient and asked to 'cross the Liao River to the west and level the fried flowers'... Haha, what a good crossing of the Liao River to the west, what a good way to level the fried flowers! I really didn't see it. It turned out that Qin Xierong had such ambitions. So big.”
Ma Fang had already glanced at the letter quickly while Gao Pragmatic was speaking. In fact, the letter was very short, and the writing in the letter was scrawled. At first glance, it seemed that it was written in a hurry. It can be seen that Qin Xierong not only has great ambitions, but also has great ambitions. Very urgent, very urgent.
Ma Fang pondered and asked: "Although Qin Xierong is a military minister, he is not the general of Liaonan, but the deputy commander of Liaodong Xierong. If he wants to send troops to the west of the Liao River, it stands to reason that he only needs the consent of the governor and the general. Can……"
Gao Pragmatic said: "There is no need to supervise the general. He was ordered by Zhou Zhongcheng to assist Liaonan. Even if we send troops to the Hetao (Liaohe River Hetao) at this moment, it can be said that it is to completely relieve the siege of Liaonan. There is always a reason to find."
Ma Fang said: "Yes, but in this case, he needs to reach an understanding with the military constitution. Otherwise, this reason will be just him talking to himself, which is not enough."
Gao Pragmatic originally disliked Qin Deyi's unwillingness to fight and was the most aggressive in attacking. But after thinking about it, he felt that Qin Deyi's unwillingness to come to Liaonan was mainly due to Li Chengliang's explanation. , Qin Deyi naturally did not dare to offend Li Chengliang, so he had to offend Gao Pragmatic, who only took care of Liaonan. Although it made him unhappy, Qin Deyi was forced to have no choice after all, and his reluctance was excusable.
As for whether he wants to go to Liaohe Hetao...
Gao Pingshi pondered and said: "Captain, I think it's better to let Qin De lean on him. What do you think?"
----------
Thanks to book friend "Yao Rui Tianxia" for your monthly ticket support, thank you!
