On the fifteenth day of this month, Liu Wei and Ma Lin left Qijiang, entered Bozhou from Dongxi, and captured Tonggu Cliff.
Both of them were disciples of Gao Pingshi, and even though it was their first time meeting each other, they felt like old friends at first sight. During the march, Liu Wei said to Ma Lin: "When I learned that Yang Yinglong captured Qijiang and attacked Nanchuan, but burned all the savings in the two places' treasury, I knew that Yang Yinglong had no ambition and was like a withered bone in a grave. Sooner or later he would be exterminated.
Ma Zongrong arrived here for the first time, so he may not know the details of the terrain. Going further here is the Sandong Natural Barrier, which is the first line of defense for our army to send troops to Bozhou. It is reported that there are currently more than 10,000 troops stationed in Nanmudong, Yangtai Dong and Jiantaidong. However, the Miao soldiers here are not the elite of Bozhou, and the bandit leaders Mu Zhao, Wu Shanghua and others do not dare to take the initiative to attack, so they have to camp here to defend themselves. How does Ma Zongrong think our army should attack? "
Ma Lin was the son of the late Xuanfu Commander-in-Chief and Governor Ma Fang, and was considered a contemporary of Liu Xian's son Liu Xing. However, he had fought far fewer major battles than Liu Xing, and his reputation was not as great, so he was willing to listen to Liu Xing's advice. I appreciate the comments and am willing to answer them well.
Therefore, after Liu Wei asked, he thought for a moment and then said: "The enemy camps are connected with each other and there are many people and horses. They are defending according to the danger and their momentum is quite strong. If we attack forcefully, even if we can win, I am afraid the gains will not be worth the losses."
In my opinion, it is better for Liu Zongrong, me and the three people from Ma Zhen to each lead a force and encircle them on three sides. They will blow up thick smoke to show the illusion of a fire attack. The enemy will panic and retreat. Our army will take the opportunity to rush forward on three sides and use firearms to open the way to Li. How about destroying Hanba's main force and then charging directly into the enemy's stronghold? "
I don’t know whether Liu Wei was trying to save face or was confident. He agreed to Ma Lin’s suggestion without changing a word.
So the Ming army was divided into three groups, and each group set up a suspicious formation, causing thick smoke to rise from the dense forests in the mountains, choking the mouth and nose. War in the mountains is most likely to be completely uncontrollable due to fire. Therefore, when the Miao soldiers saw this situation, they immediately suspected that the Ming army wanted to burn Santong.
This is terrible, mountain fires are easy to burn but difficult to extinguish, and those who are burned by the fire are extremely unlikely to survive. Therefore, they rushed to report to Mu Zhao and Wu Shanghua, and at the same time retreated urgently.
After Wu Shanghua got his revenge, he really couldn't believe that the Ming army could do such a crazy thing as burning Sandong. Mu Zhaoye said: "If the officers and soldiers dare to burn Sandong, they will undoubtedly be in danger. I am willing to lead my troops to meet the enemy." , firstly to find out the real situation, and secondly, to take the opportunity to gather together to annihilate the officers and soldiers."
Wu Shanghua was quite worried and warned: "The person coming is Liu Dadao. He is the head of the powerful generals of the Confederate Army and is by no means an easy person. If you encounter danger this time and are unable to defeat the enemy, you must withdraw to the camp immediately. This is the best way to deal with it." We can withstand it. If we insist on fighting, not to mention heavy casualties, these three natural dangers will be useless."
Mu Zhao was very displeased and replied: "Why are you so cowardly today? Liu Wei can still be a god descending to earth. In the end, it is all the same between you and me. As for the officers and soldiers, we have killed many officers over the years." There are also many troops, so what are you afraid of? You can rest assured that if things go wrong, I will withdraw to the camp without you urging me."
No matter what Wu Shanghua said before, since he finally agreed to withdraw to the camp when the situation was not good, he agreed to what he said, and Mu Zhao led the main force of the Sandong Miao soldiers to fight.
As expected, there was a little surprise in this battle. Because the mountains in Sichuan and Guizhou are really rugged, the infantry camp and the artillery camp were somewhat disconnected. Liu Wei was always impatient, so of course he led the troops at the front. When he saw Mu Zhao's provocation, he went to the battle in person to supervise the battle without saying a word.
Liu Wei held a sword in his right hand and a brocade bag of gold in his left hand. He shouted: "The one who goes forward with your life will gain wealth and peace. Those who retreat in disobedience will be the souls of my sword!"
After hearing the order, the Ming army roared three times: "Kill! Kill! Kill!" Then they immediately launched an assault from three sides, taking advantage of the cover of thick smoke to capture the outskirts of Sandong. Mu Zhaozheng led his troops to form a formation at Lihanba. When he saw the Ming army breaking in, he led his troops to charge.
Liu Wei's troops were always well-equipped because of their high pragmatic care. At this time, without saying anything, they fired their Wanli II-type volleys of guns. Some Shenji arrow battalions that were not classified as artillery battalions also fired indiscriminately. The Miao soldiers suffered heavy casualties at the front. The three generals Liu Wei, Ma Lin, and Ma Zhen happened to be brave generals. They each took the lead and led the counterattack.
The Ming army advanced in three directions, moving like thunder. It was far from the bear-like behavior of the officers and soldiers of the Southern Guards Station that the Miao soldiers had seen in the past. The shouts of killing were overwhelming, and everyone was frightened. The Miao soldiers almost collapsed on the spot in fear.
Mu Zhao was shocked and ordered not to retreat. He chopped down several deserters with swords and finally stabilized his position. At this time, Liu Wei took the lead and cut off Mu Zhao's head with one sword. The Miao soldiers suddenly collapsed and started to attack. The cottage fled.
The Ming army took advantage of the situation to pursue, with Liu Wei attacking Nanmudong, Ma Lin attacking Yangtai Cave, and Ma Zhen attacking Jiantai Cave. Shocked, Wu Shanghua quickly ordered the Miao soldiers to stay at a high altitude, use dangerous places to throw stones and roll trees, and use bows and crossbows to stop the enemy.
The Ming army's artillery still failed to arrive in time, so they fired back with magic arrows and rockets. As a result, the stronghold was set on fire. The Miao soldiers collapsed again, and the Ming army took advantage of the situation and invaded Sandong.
Liu Wei was indeed an expert in mountain warfare. At this time, he first divided a group of Japanese soldiers to climb up the mountain, jumped into Nanmudong, and worked together inside and outside to seize the gate of the village. As soon as the gate of the village opened, Liu Wei himself had arrived with his elite troops. No one could stop him wherever he swung his broadsword, and Nanmudong was immediately defeated.
After all, the Marin tribe is an elite force on all sides, and unlike the Liu Ping tribe, which needs to retain some cold weapons for mountain warfare, it is equipped with the most firearms. At this time, the fire in Yangtongdong spread, and Marin took the opportunity to lead his troops to attack. After setting up a gun formation and firing two rounds of volleys, the Miao soldiers were beaten and fled in all directions.
The natural dangers of Nanmu and Yangtong Cave were lost almost instantly. Jiantai Cave knew that the situation was over and there was little resistance, so Mazhen was easily captured. The Ming army then burned down the camp and captured Wu Shanghua alive.
When fighting in a place like Bozhou, many times the battle is easy to fight but the road is difficult to escape. This is the same for both the Ming Army and the Bozhou Army. So in early March, Yang Chaodong led tens of thousands of Bozhou elites to the north.
Bozhou's troops were divided into three groups. One group was led by Yang Chaodong personally, heading directly from Yudu to Liu Wei's station. The other two groups were led by Yang Weidong and Yang Zhu respectively, and were outflanked by Songkan and Luogu.
However, the movement of the Bozhou Army had already been detected by the Ming Army. After Liu Wei reported the report, he smiled and said: "This Yang Chaodong actually knows some tactics. He intends to attract the attention of the main force of our army head-on, and then attack from two sides. This is to annihilate me in one fell swoop." .Hehehe...he has a big appetite, but I don't know how this kid's teeth are.
In this case, I also divided my troops into three groups and quickly went to inform Ma Zongrong and Ma Shenrong, asking them to go to Songkan and Luogu to set up ambushes to prevent the enemy from outflanking. Our troops set up an ambush at the camp to surround and annihilate Yang Chaodong. When Yang Chaodong retreats all the way, the other two groups will retreat to Loushanguan. "
When Yang Weidong traveled all the way to Songkan, Ma Lin ordered an attack. Yang Weidong was shocked and learned that the military information had been leaked. At this time, the artillery battalion of the Ming Army was already in place. Ma Lin ordered the cannons and guns of the firearms battalion to fire one after another, and the bows and crossbows. Even if it is not dead, it will be disabled. Coupled with the rain of arrows from the divine machine, Yang Weidong hurriedly sought shelter.
His subordinates repeatedly persuaded Yang Weidong to reorganize his ranks in order to fight back. Yang Weidong had never fought against the elites of the Ming army before. At this time, he was already stunned and shouted: "The Ming army is strong and has been prepared for a long time. How can we reorganize our ranks! Like this If you show up under a hail of bullets, you will die!”
The subordinate further advised: "Our troops are in an ambush. We will retreat when the whole army breaks through and regain their morale before attacking again. If we cannot join the eldest son as soon as possible, the eldest son and his whole group will be in danger. I am willing to risk my life to protect the third young master from breaking out." , Regroup and fight again!”
Yang Weidong was deeply moved and felt that his behavior just now was a bit embarrassing, so he decided to fight to the death and broke out under the protection of a group of cronies. Yang Weidong and all the Miao soldiers followed him, and naturally there were many casualties.
When Ma Lin saw the Miao soldiers retreating, he did not rush to pursue them. Instead, he ordered the formation to be changed in preparation for the Miao soldiers to attack again. From this, it can be seen that Marin had indeed done his homework before this battle.
If he were to fight on an open battlefield in the north, he would have ordered the infantry to press forward steadily at this time, and the cavalry to outflank and raid on both sides. If they could encircle, they would encircle, and if they could not, they would continue to strangle. The enemy would not be able to rest or reorganize, and would continue to lose blood and lose morale. Fall again and again, and then lay the foundation for the final victory. However, when fighting in the dense forests of the southern mountains, this routine cannot be copied.
First, because he had to go into the mountains to fight, he had much fewer cavalry than when he was in the north. Where could he find enough cavalry to form a crane wing formation to outflank him? Besides, the cavalry chasing the Miao people in the mountains sounds unreliable;
Secondly, his unit was not good at fighting in the mountains and forests. Even though the Northern Army soldiers were often taller, they might not be able to match the Miao soldiers one-on-one in the mountains and forests. They relied on the array, which is the firepower density that Gao Pragmatic has long emphasized, so it was necessary to If you have combat effectiveness, you must concentrate your forces and tighten your front;
In addition, the Northern Army under his command could not outrun the Miao soldiers in the mountains and forests, and could not catch up with them. Instead of wasting energy and running in vain, it would be better to wait and see.
Besides Luo Gu, Yang Zhu was also ambushed by the Ming army led by Ma Zhen. Yang Zhu mobilized Teng Dunmen to line up in front, and launched several consecutive charges but failed to break through the Ming army's defense line. Ma Zhen commanded the entire army to occupy the terrain and could not move out. Yang Zhu had no choice but to order the entire army to retreat and form a formation. The two armies formed Shooting posture.
It should be noted here that this Ma Shenrong from Ma Town is not the "Ma" from the Ma family of Datong Right Guard "Dong Li Xima". He is a general in Chaozhou, Guangdong, and he is not leading troops from nine sides, but soldiers from Guangdong. However, the Guangdong soldiers at this time were not weak in the Southern Guards Station, especially the troops stationed in Chaozhou, which were among the elite.
The reason may surprise future generations, because although the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi and the garrison eunuch of Guangdong were both stationed in Guangzhou at this time, the general army of Guangdong was stationed in Chaozhou.
Not only is the commander-in-chief himself stationed in Chaozhou, but even the deputy commander-in-chief of Guangdong, whose official name is "Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Guangdong Zhangchao", is also stationed in Chaozhou (but not in Fucheng, but in Nan'ao). Both the chief and deputy generals are in Chaozhou. It can be seen that Chaozhou is the most trouble-prone place in Guangdong at this time. Therefore, the main force in Chaozhou, which was originally supposed to be stationed in Chaozhou, will definitely not be weak.
Due to developed trade in Guangdong, the province's economy has always been good. The benefit brought by this is that the local army is relatively wealthy. After the military reform of the Ministry of War, although the investment in the south is far less than that of Jiubian, the degree of firearms in Guangdong is very high - the local Bought with my own money.
As a result, Mazhen could not hold out and only used firearms to shoot at the Bozhou Army, while the Bozhou Army only had bows and crossbows. It was no match for the Chaozhou Army and soon found that its losses far exceeded those of the Ming Army opposite.
Yang Zhu was so angry that he yelled: "How could the officers and soldiers detect the information so quickly? We should obviously be the ones walking fast and invisible in these mountains. But now the officers and soldiers are the first to notice everything. Is there something wrong among us?" A spy?" This question made it difficult for everyone to answer.
Yang Zhu was extremely unwilling. He eagerly wanted to complete the outflanking mission, but was blocked by the Ming army and found it difficult to move forward. Now that he was riding a tiger and couldn't get off, he couldn't order a retreat. He could only scold Ma Zhen over and over again in his heart.
Going back to the other side, Yang Chaodong's troops galloped to the Liu Ping military camp. Suddenly they saw that there were few soldiers in the camp. They suddenly felt uneasy and realized that they had been tricked, so they hurriedly ordered the withdrawal of troops.
Liu Wei saw clearly with a telescope on a hill in the distance, and ordered all the ambush troops to be deployed and surrounded on all sides. The Ming army immediately pulled the preset traps, and the magic machine arrows deployed outside because of their slightly better maneuverability were fired everywhere. Every tent in the camp Artillery was also launched and began to concentrate bombardment on the Banzhou Army.
Fortunately, Yang Chaodong was led by all the elites of Bozhou. Although they were ambushed, they still spontaneously formed a group of three or five people with shields, and even had some small group tactics like the Little Yuanyang Formation. At the same time, they would each find bunkers and take the opportunity to counterattack.
However, Liu Wei knew enough about the Bozhou Army that this kind of spontaneous small group tactics was not unusual to him. Speaking of which, combat experience often leads to the same goal in the same era, but Qi Jiguang's summary is the most complete and incisive.
As long as the other armies can be called elites, they will be more or less similar. Not only the elites of Bozhou have this kind of spontaneously formed small team cooperation, isn't it the same for the Liu Jiajun? It's just that Qi Jiajun's theoretical guidance is the best, while other elites from all walks of life wait and follow, and they are divided into many levels. In short, Liu Wei was not moved at all when he saw this situation. Instead, he personally led his troops to attack the enemy.
Since the battlefield was near the camp, there was still a small open space around it, so the Ming army's cavalry came out carrying smoke and dust. Although the number was limited, it was still powerful, and the front of the Bozhou army was quickly dispersed. Yang Chaodong urgently ordered to gather his troops, and after one round of charge, Liu Ping's cavalry lined up again to launch a second charge, and the Bozhou Army also lined up to fight.
When the two armies fought, the Bozhou soldiers were strong and coordinated with each other. The formation of formations to fight against the enemy was indeed somewhat similar to the tactics of the Qi family army. The Ming army also charged in batches with strong tenacity and repeated the cycle. Liu Wei's sword was powerful and heavy, and his sword skills were superb. He quickly killed more than ten people in a row, still looking like he was the brave champion of the three armies.
The Ming army's positions on all sides were still supported by firearms and crossbows. Seeing that Yang Weidong and Yang Zhu were still not arriving, Yang Chaodong knew that the two armies must be blocked and he would be unable to stand alone against Liu Wei's main force, so he ordered the withdrawal.
Liu Ping's tribe was not the Marin tribe. They were very familiar with the mountainous and dense forests. They didn't take the terrain issue seriously at all. They took advantage of the victory and pursued them for fifty miles, and they didn't give up until they reached Shihuguan. Yang Weidong and Yang Zhu were relieved after learning that Yang Chaodong had withdrawn his troops. They quickly withdrew from the battle and retreated to Loushanguan.
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