West Shimen is located on the east side of Rufeng Mountain, less than three miles away from East Shimen.
It is better to say that it is a stone path than a stone gate. The so-called West Stone Gate and East Stone Gate are mountain passes formed by two mountains sandwiching a valley. They are the only way from Songshan to Jinzhou City.
The West Stone Gate is closer and wider than the East Stone Gate, so people often use the West Stone Gate. At the same time, the small peak sandwiched between the East and West Stone Gates is also called Shimen Mountain.
In fact, the mountains in this area all belong to the Songshan Mountains. The section south of Jinzhou City is also called Nanshan. It is not properly called a mountain. The highest point of Nanshan is only more than 700 meters.
In this stretch of mountains and hills, there are many large and small peaks and ridges. Among them, the main peak of Nanshan is Rufeng Mountain, but the Qing people called it Hanwang Mountain or Hanwangdian Mountain.
In addition, there are Luweng Mountain, Huangtu Ridge, Maojiagou, Songshan Ridge and other places, and the East and West Shimen are between Luweng Mountain and Rufeng Mountain.
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Yang Guozhu, the commander-in-chief of Xuanzhen, led his five hundred servants in the middle of the army. In front was the guerrilla He Zhenxiong who led the 2,500 new troops to open the way, and behind was the general Guo Yingxian who led the 2,500 elite cavalry of the Chinese Army to follow.
Another guerrilla general, Kuang Yongzhong, led nearly 3,000 soldiers under his command and slowly climbed up the mountain on the right wing of the central army. The capital commander, Tang Xiancheng, led 2,500 new troops behind to suppress the formation.
quiet!
Except for the footsteps of the Ming army advancing, there was no other noise on the mountain road in front of the West Stone Gate. Everyone walked in as breathlessly as possible and nervously observed everything around them.
Suddenly, guerrilla He Zhenxiong, sitting on his horse, seemed to see something strange in the grass ahead. He waved his hand, and the flag soldiers around him immediately stopped and raised the flag in their hands high, and the army immediately stopped advancing.
"Whoosh!"
Just less than three hundred steps ahead, a loud arrow shot into the sky.
"Woooooooo..."
The harsh buzzing sound pierced the sky, and the Ming army's front line was filled with agitation. After all, they were new troops who had never participated in a large battle, so panic was inevitable.
"The enemy is attacking. There is an ambush. All teams are in formation, ready for battle!"
After He Zhenxiong shouted the order, he shouted to the soldiers beside him: "Quick, report to Commander Yang, our troops have been attacked and have engaged the Tatars."
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh..."
The officers and soldiers each formed a tight formation according to their own units. At this moment, a large rain of arrows came from the grass in front and the mountains and forests in the west, blocking out the sky and the sun.
"Raise your shield, be careful with protection, and watch out for stray arrows..."
The commander-in-chief, commander-in-chief, and commander-in-chief 100 were all shouting loudly, reminding their subordinates to guard against the rain of arrows thrown by the Tatars.
As the arrows from the Tatars flew in, there was a loud "ding-dong-dang" sound, and some of the arrows that were thrown landed on the large and small vehicles and equipment behind the formation, making a "ding-dong" sound.
Occasionally, one or two screams were heard, after all, arrows were flying from behind.
Arrows were flying, and He Zhenxiong knew that the Tatar cavalry were about to charge, so he hurriedly ordered: "Quickly, push up all the chariots and equipment behind the formation, form a formation...form a formation...check the muskets...check the ammunition... …”
The soldiers retreated to both sides to make way for the middle mountain road. Light tanks and temporarily modified small artillery carts were pushed forward one after another, forming a wall of vehicles in front of the army and on the right side.
After the three-way arrow rain, densely packed Tatar thieves appeared, numbering in the thousands.
On the mountain road ahead, a Tatar general wearing golden armor was standing on horseback. There were hundreds of fine horsemen beside him, and all of them were bulging as if they had worn at least two layers of armor.
Behind them, to their left and right, and on the slopes of the mountains on their right were all armored Tatar thieves, slowly approaching the Ming army. The two rows in front of them were heavily armored thieves holding large shields, and behind them were armored thieves holding bows. Armored archers shooting arrows.
The Tatars let out bursts of "Jie Jie" screams and howls, and rushed in a black mass. Under the shouts and orders of the officers, the Xuanzang New Army reluctantly formed an array behind the car wall.
"No gunfire is allowed without a trumpet. Anyone who shoots first without orders will be beheaded!"
This sentence was repeated loudly and loudly, reminding the New Army officers and soldiers not to shoot without orders.
"...Don't fucking panic, there's nothing to fear from the Tatars. If you hit them with a gun, they will still bloom. I'll hold them together..."
"Listen to the trumpet. If you don't have a trumpet, don't fire a gun!"
He Zhenxiong also dismounted his horse and came to the northwest corner of the carriage wall, staring at the approaching Tatar thieves: "Send an order to all armies. When the thieves reach one hundred and fifty steps, fire a burst of artillery; only when the thieves reach eighty steps can we follow." Order to shoot!"
He frowned and stared at the approaching Tatars, only to see that they slowed down when they reached 200 steps. More than a hundred small shield vehicles were pushed out from behind the formation and lined up in front of the formation.
Although these shield vehicles could not completely cover the Tatar formation, at least nearly half of the Tatars were hiding behind the shield vehicles. Every time they took more than ten steps, they were hit by a hail of arrows.
"One hundred and eighty steps..."
The observer soldier next to He Zhenxiong stood on the artillery cart holding a large shield, watching the approaching Tatar array and visually measuring the distance.
General Qian, a personal soldier, reminded him softly: "General, the Tatar thieves are numerous and there are many shields and chariots. It seems that they have been prepared for it. We..."
He Zhenxiong raised his hand to stop him from talking anymore. He knew very clearly in his heart: At this moment, there is only one battle, and maybe there is still hope of survival. If he retreats, hundreds of Tatar cavalry will follow closely. At that time, not only The horses cannot outrun the Tartar thieves, and they will even mess up the own army behind them.
He said in a deep voice: "Hold on, you must hold on until Yang Shuai's army forms a formation to rescue!"
"One hundred and sixty steps..." The observer nervously reported the distance to the Tatars.
"Prepare, prepare all artillery!" He Zhenxiong shouted loudly.
The red triangular flag in the hands of the Chinese military flag commander was raised high and kept shaking to remind the surrounding artillery team officers to pay attention.
"Prepare...artillery preparation...prepare..."
Orders continued to be passed around. The sergeants beside each artillery cart nervously checked the matches and torches in their hands. Some sergeants' hands were trembling slightly.
If you say you are not afraid, it must be a lie!
However, Yang Guozhu trained this new army very strictly on weekdays. At the same time, like Zhang Cheng, he mixed a large number of veteran troops among them to serve as team officers, general managers, etc. What they lacked was just a lack of battlefield experience.
After all, Yang Guozhu is General Zhenshuo, the dignified chief military officer of Xuanfu Town. He cannot be as unscrupulous as Zhang Cheng in suppressing bandits and training troops in the territory. If that were the case, he would have been impeached and questioned long ago.
What's more important is that he does not have the full support of Emperor Chongzhen and Minister of War Chen Xinjia. People who have worked hard within the system will always pay special attention to the inherent rules within the system. How dare they not follow the rules.
Next to each artillery carriage, smaller triangular flags were raised one after another to indicate that each artillery piece was ready.
"One hundred and fifty steps!" the observer shouted.
"Fire! Fire! Fire!" He Zhenxiong shouted three times with his real arm.
The Chinese army's triangular command flag suddenly froze, and then waved downwards. The small command flags beside the chariots in front of the Ming army's formation also waved down one after another.
"Fire...fire...fire..."
The shouts of orders were heard, and the flames suddenly appeared, and iron projectiles roared out from the muzzles of each cannon. With extremely fierce heat, they roared towards the oncoming Tatars.
