South of Yongding Gate in Beijing, where the Xiaolong River merges into the Liangshui River from east to west, there is a stone bridge lying across the Liangshui River about sixteen miles south. The stone bridge connects the official roads on both sides of the river. It is more than ten feet long and only three feet wide. Husband.
On October 20, the eleventh year of Chongzhen, at Chen hour, the sky was clear and the sun was rising.
One hundred and two knights from the Right Sentinel Armor of the Qianqian Cavalry Headquarters in the town of Xuan Town of the Ming Dynasty, led by General Tong Shoushan, crossed the Liangshui River from here and entered the eastern suburbs of Beijing.
For the past few days, Zhang Cheng has sent a group of cavalry across the Liangshui River every day. Then they will find a deserted village and abandoned fort, or a densely forested mountain, as a temporary camp. As a team, we went out to investigate the topography and landforms in the eastern suburbs, as well as the movement tracks of the captives and other slaves.
Today, Commander-in-Chief Tong Shoushan led his team out and set up camp on a hillside about 20 miles away from Liangshui River. It is about 300 meters high and gentle, so the hillside is relatively long and has lush trees. , the weeds are densely fallen and easy to hide.
At that moment, it was decided that Team A would stay among the trees on the hillside. Zuo Qinghe, the deputy commander of Team A, led Team A to hide on the top of the slope to observe the surrounding situation. Team A hid in a ditch in the southeast of the hillside. , the redundant war horses are basically concentrated here for easy drinking and feeding of fodder. The third armor is hidden in a dilapidated temple in the northwest of the hillside. They are about a mile apart from each other.
Commander-in-Chief Tong Shoushan personally led Teams B and C to the north. Their destination today was near the Queen Mother Xiao River. If possible, they would cross the Queen Mother Xiao River to the north to have a look.
They were divided into two teams. Tong Shoushan led Team B to explore the road first, and Team C followed behind. The two teams kept a distance of more than 300 steps and rushed to the Queen Mother Xiao River one after another.
There is a hill on the north bank of the Queen Mother Xiao River. This area is mostly covered with weeds and shrubs, but there are not many big trees.
There were about a dozen figures lurking among the weeds on the hill. They lay there motionless, with their heads facing outside, surrounding the city in a circle, observing all the goings-on around them.
Beside the official road a hundred steps northeast of them, there was a forest. Tong Shoushan was leading the remaining fifty people to rest in the forest.
Suddenly, a sergeant stood up suddenly and said to Tong Shoushan: "Commander, there are more than ten cavalry."
Tong Shoushan was resting against a tree. After hearing these words, he immediately became energetic and whispered: "Did you hear it correctly?"
When he asked the question, the sergeant felt a little unsure. He quickly put his ear to an inverted Dendrobium on the ground and listened carefully.
Ma Yuan, the officer of Team C next to him, was born in Yebushu. After listening to the sergeant's words, he quickly pulled out a dagger, inserted it into the ground, and put his ear to the blade of the dagger. Listen carefully.
After listening for a while, he raised his head and said to Tong Shoushan: "Tong Tou, they should be Luqi, there will be no more than twenty people in the northeast."
The sergeant just finished listening, raised his head, and nodded fiercely.
At this time, a sergeant came running up from the hill, came to Tong Shoushan, and said hurriedly: "Commander, there are about sixteen Tatar cavalry, less than two miles away, come over there." .”
As he spoke, he pointed to the northeast.
Tong Shoushan waved his hand, and two team officers and five armor commanders all gathered together, and he only heard him say: "You tell your armor commanders to lie there, looking for opportunities to steal the enemy with bows and arrows;
Ma Yuan and two of you, Team C, go to the ditch under the official road opposite and hide in the ditch. Grab some leaves and hide them under the grass;
Bao Jiqiang, one of your team B will guard the horses, and the rest will follow me to ambush in the woods.
Listen up, everyone, the Tatars ambushed our left sentry in Mafang. Let's give him a damn today. I've prepared bows, arrows, blunderbuss, and three-eyed blunderbuss. Wait until I take action before attacking. Let's fight quickly. Don't fall in love with fighting. "
Everyone was busy for a while. Even the footprints on the official road were cleaned with branches and some residual leaves were sprinkled. Everything was ready, just waiting for the arrival of the Tatar cavalry.
…………
A group of Qing cavalry is galloping in. The leading Qing soldier is very strong, riding an equally strong black horse. He is wearing bright armor, with iron leaves exposed, and a black tasseled helmet on his head. Carrying the flag was actually a Qing soldier named Bo Shiku.
A horse beside him wore pure white cotton armor with iron leaves inside, and also carried a smaller pole flag. Behind him were fourteen Qing cavalry, all wearing pure white cotton armor with iron leaves inside. .
There are a total of sixteen cavalrymen in the Qing army, including one Fende Bashiku, one Zhuangda, and fourteen ordinary horse-armored cavalry. Judging from their attire, they are all sentry cavalry from the Aliha Chaoha Camp of the Zhengbai Banner.
…………
After Emperor Taiji ascended the throne, in order to further disperse the power of the banner owners, Niu Lu was no longer the only military unit, but a number of strong men were drawn from each Niu Lu to form separate armies.
Before the Qing troops invaded this time, the reconstruction of the three major camps of the Qing army had basically been completed, forming the Ebagala camp, which was later known as the guard camp; the Alha Chaoha camp, which was later known as the Xiaoqi camp; and the Garbushixian camp. , that is, the new military system in which the forward battalion of later generations fought as the main force, weakened the control of each banner owner over the army, and strengthened the imperial power's control over the army.
In addition to these three major battalions, infantry battalions, sharp key battalions, firearms battalions, tiger gun battalions, Shanpu battalions and other battalions have also been established.
It was also from this time that Jiannu truly got rid of the tribal military system and gradually became like a national army.
However, the current Bushxian Camp, under normal circumstances, only serves as a sentinel when Huang Taiji and others patrol, and will not easily accompany the army on expeditions.
The leader of the Baya La camp of each banner, Baya La Zhuzhangjing, has no more than six or seven hundred Baya La soldiers under his command, and they cannot be used easily. They can only break down the border walls, climb the city to attack the fortress, or the most critical It will only be used when there are sentry detectives.
For ordinary sentinels like this, it is natural that the most elite Baya La soldiers in the flag are not involved. They are all ordinary sentry riders from the Alihachaoha camp of Zhengbai Banner.
…………
In an instant, they turned along the official road.
Tong Shoushan was lying in the woods fifteen steps east of the official road. His body was covered with dead branches and leaves. His three-eyed blunderbuss was stuck out from under the dead leaves, aiming towards the official road. He was motionless, not even breathing. Dare to come out.
He heard the sound of horse hoofs getting closer and closer, and in the blink of an eye, he seemed to be beside him. He saw a particularly strong Qing soldier riding a black horse flashing past his eyes.
"boom!"
Tong Shoushan fired the first shot.
The Qing army was strong and galloping beside Fende Bashiku. Suddenly there was a sound of cannons. He was startled at first, and then the front legs of the war horse under his crotch buckled and fell to the ground. He was also thrown off. war horse.
"Bang...bang...bang...bang..."
There was a burst of cannon fire, and under the remaining leaves of the weeds on both sides of the official road, white smoke rose one after another, which was really beautiful.
Then there was the sound of the bow string being tightened and creaking.
"Whoosh... whoosh... whoosh... whoosh..."
Arrows flew across the sky. First, arrows flew out from the woods east of the official road. The Qing cavalry on the official road had just been bombarded by a burst of musketry. Before they could react, dozens more arrows came.
"Swish...swish...thin..."
Then the remaining leaves of weeds rose up on the west side of the official road. The smoke from the firecrackers that had just been set off had not yet dissipated. It soared together with the dead leaves in the air. More than a dozen Ming soldiers suddenly stood up, quickly drew their bows to full capacity, and arrows flew away one after another. Strings fly.
The three-eyed blunderbuss and bird blunderbuss arranged by Tong Shoushan were lying on the ground under the residual leaves of weeds and shooting directly, but the archers were hidden behind the big trees. When the fire blunderbuss was set off, the archers appeared and fired volleys.
There are no big trees to the west of the official road to hide. The archers are like musketeers, lying down under the residual leaves of weeds. When the muskets are fired, they suddenly stand up and then draw their bows to fire a volley.
