Chapter 357 Decisive Battle

Style: Historical Author: Crane City FengyueWords: 3148Update Time: 24/01/18 19:02:32
In mid-September, the food and grass supply in Dalinghe City was cut off.

Huang Taiji learned of this situation immediately.

Because a businessman named Zhang Yifu ran out of the city at night and informed Huang Taiji of the situation in the city.

After the city ran out of food and grass, they began to kill horses. The horse meat has been eaten up, and now it has reached the point of cannibalism.

Unarmed civilians building forts and starving soldiers were used to satisfy their hunger.

Huang Taiji was overjoyed when he heard the news and immediately sent a letter to the city, once again persuading Zu Dashou to surrender.

Zu Dashou was unmoved.

He knew that Sun Chengzong would definitely come to save him.

His guess was not wrong.

In order to save Zu Dashou, Sun Chengzong used all his energy, even at the cost of turning against him, and completely suppressed Qiu Hejia and Gao Qiqian.

And this time Sun Chengzong was no longer alone, he had the support of Zhang Chun.

After Zhang Chun arrived in Liaodong, he realized that the situation here had collapsed to such an extent.

Zhang Chun was furious about the chaos caused by Qiu Hejia and Gao Qiqian, and sent several impeachment memorials to the court.

However, what made him despair was that all these memorials fell into the sea and there was no response at all.

Not only that, Chongzhen and the court sent letters urging the war one after another, each one with harsher wording than the last, and there was a faint smell of blaming Zhang Chun for being afraid to move forward.

Only then did Zhang Chun realize that Chongzhen's appreciation for him turned out to be a life-threatening talisman.

In desperation, he had to cooperate with Sun Chengzong to mobilize reinforcements again.

This time, after more than ten days of preparation, Sun Chengzong and Zhang Chun finally gathered more than 18,000 troops and set out towards Daling River City with great sorrow.

The wind rustles and the water becomes cold, and the strong man is gone never to return.

Standing at the top of Jinzhou City, Sun Chengzong's eyes were full of tears and he was wailing.

The old man knew very well that it would be impossible for Zhang Chun to win if he left.

How could a makeshift Ming army of less than 20,000 men fight against more than 50,000 Houjin elite troops?

Faced with a desperate situation, Zhang Chun calmed down and devoted all his attention to the battle.

On September 25, the Ming army crossed the Xiaoling River. To be on the safe side, Zhang Chun built a position here.

As a result, after waiting for three days, the Hou Jin army did not attack.

There is no way, they are reinforcements and cannot afford to wait.

On September 27, Zhang Chun sent his army across the Daling River and arrived at Changshan, which was only fifteen miles away from Daling River City.

The outcome of a war is never determined by generosity and passion. Victory or defeat has its own cruel iron law.

Every move of the Ming army was always under the supervision of Hou Jin.

When the Ming army crossed the Daling River, Huang Taiji knew that the time for a decisive battle had come.

Huang Taiji personally led the generals Daishan, Manggurtai, Degelei, Ajige, Erke Chuhuer, and Xiuli, and together with more than 20,000 Manchu and Mongolian tribes, they fought.

Standing on the slope, Huang Taiji had a panoramic view of the Ming army's formation.

Zhang Chun knew that the troops he had at hand were just a mob, so in order to avoid chaos, he simply ordered Wu Xiang and Song Wei Hedgehog to gather together to form a hedgehog formation.

Song Wei's chariot camps were arranged on all sides, with various guns and artillery covering the battlefield. Then he ordered the shield chariots in front and led the entire army forward slowly.

Wu Xiang's cavalry was on the left wing, used to protect the infantry and ready to attack at any time.

"We can't wait any longer, otherwise the enemy's shield vehicle will move forward and it will be difficult to deal with it."

Huang Taiji is a veteran on the battlefield and makes a decision immediately.

"Degelei, you lead the left wing and look for opportunities to defeat the enemy; Azig, you lead the right wing, bypass the shield formation and kill the infantry."

Degelei and Azige took the order and left. Not long after, two cavalrymen roared out from the Houjin formation and pounced on the Ming army from two directions.

"Sir, do you accept the challenge?"

Zhang Chun stood in the car and was also observing the movements of Hou Jinjun.

"Order the two wings to hold fast and not let the enemy cavalry get close. The remaining troops and horses should go straight to the enemy's center."

Zhang Chun thought of a solution that was not a solution. Instead of entangled with Hou Jin's cavalry, he only went to Huang Taiji's Chinese army for a decisive battle.

As long as Huang Taiji is defeated, the threat from both wings will no longer be a threat.

The Houjin Cavalry on both wings was indeed just a test.

As light cavalry, they just cruised back and forth outside the Ming army's array, looking for flaws, and did not dare to move too far forward.

Occasionally, they launched a charge and were immediately bombarded by Ming army guns and artillery. The fire was blazing, leaving some corpses behind, and they quickly retreated.

During the tense test, the wind became stronger and stronger, and black clouds gradually enveloped the battlefield. It was clearly daytime, but the visibility was probably decreasing rapidly.

The strong wind was filled with sand and dust, which made people unable to lift their heads.

Dege tried back and forth several times, but could not get close to the Ming army's main formation. As a result, swamps appeared in front of them, making it impossible for the cavalry to move.

In desperation, Dege had no choice but to lead his army to make a detour.

Who knew that after this detour, he would capture the fighter plane.

It turned out that under the strong wind and sand, the Ming army's formation became loose.

Especially between Wu Xiang's cavalry and Song Wei's chariot camp, due to the reduced visibility, the two sides gradually drifted away, and a gap more than 300 meters wide appeared.

What's even more terrible is that Azige came with his army in the wind and crashed into Wu Xiang's formation with strong momentum.

The Jurchens grew up in the white mountains and black waters. Before they became warriors, they were the best hunters in the old forest.

Dege instinctively seized this opportunity and immediately took the lead, following the gap between Wu Xiang and Song Wei, and cut into the back of Wu Xiang's butt.

It was already very difficult for Wu Xiang to resist Azig. When the battle was in full swing, the rear army suddenly fell into chaos. Looking back, I saw Houjin's armor vaguely exposed under the wind and sand, and immediately the souls of the dead came out.

He thought he was surrounded by cutting, and without caring about anything, he immediately galloped away.

As soon as the general fled, the Ming army was in chaos. The clever ones followed Wu Xiang one after another, only running to the place where there was no Hou Jin army.

We are all cavalry. The Ming army really wants to run away, but in fact, the Jin army has nothing to do.

In fact, the losses of Wu Xiang's troops were not large, only more than a hundred people.

But his escape was equivalent to betraying Zhang Chun, Song Wei and others. Of course, the hope of rescuing Zu Dashou was completely lost.

The world is big, and your own destiny is the biggest.

At this time, even the brother-in-law couldn't care less.

Wu Xiang escaped into the strong wind and disappeared. Zhang Chun was still ignorant and still commanded the remaining Ming troops to fight fiercely.

But Huang Taiji, who was standing at a high place, had already noticed the abnormality and immediately ordered Xiuli to lead the firearms troops to occupy the east side of the Ming army. Various artillery and rockets violently bombarded the Ming army.

Zhang Chun's personal visit to the front line greatly boosted morale. The Ming army refused to retreat and also used firearms to fight back.

For a time, bullets rained down and gun smoke billowed, and the casualties on both sides skyrocketed.

Seeing how sharp the firearms of the Hou Jin Army were, Zhang Chun became extremely anxious, hoping to get rid of them as soon as possible so that he could turn around and fight against the Hou Jin Cavalry.

"Sir, set fire!"

Lieutenant General Zhang Hongmo's reminder made Zhang Chun overjoyed and immediately ordered it to be carried out.

All of a sudden, all kinds of arson weapons of the Ming army were fired at the camp of Xiwuli. The fire took advantage of the wind and quickly started a prairie fire. The souls of Xiwuli were so frightened that the order to retreat came to the throat.

However, when people are at the end of their rope, God is their enemy.

It suddenly began to rain in the dark sky. Not only that, the wind direction also turned back strangely. The fire in the Xiuli camp was quickly extinguished, but the Ming army was attacked by the fire.

The situation reversed, the morale of the Hou Jin army was greatly boosted, and the artillery fire became more fierce, making the Ming army unable to stand.

As it turns out, it was just a brief, heavy rainfall. After noon, the rain passed and the sky cleared, and the situation on the battlefield was fully revealed.

Seeing that Zhang Chun and Song Wei's troops were surrounded and Wu Xiang's troops were nowhere to be found, Huang Taiji personally came to the front of the formation to supervise the battle.

In fact, Hou Jin's tactics were basically similar to those of the Ming army.

After the weather cleared, Hou Jin's shield chariot arrived. Countless Hou Jin troops were like ants, hiding behind the shield chariot and began to attack the Ming army.

The cavalrymen of Derge and Azige also charged from the other side, and within thirty steps there was a hail of arrows.

The Ming army was compressed into a very small area, causing each wave of arrows to fall, harvesting lives in large areas.

Zhang Chun was still forgetful about supervising the battle, and suddenly felt something was wrong. He grabbed Zhang Hongmo and asked, "Where is General Song?"

Zhang Hongmo didn't know when he was hit by an arrow, and he didn't even care to deal with it. I wiped the blood on my face, but the result was even blurry.

At this time, he was in despair, and he no longer cared about basic etiquette and politeness.

"Who knows? Maybe he died in the battle, maybe he ran away."

Song Wei did run away.

When the wind direction reversed, Song Wei became afraid.

In his view, this was God's will, and the Ming army had no hope of victory.

Wu Xiang had already run away anyway, so there was only one more person left. So Song Wei saw the opportunity, led his soldiers to fight a bloody road, and went all the way west.

Only poor Zhang Chun knew nothing and still worked hard to direct the battle.

However, both generals ran away. What could he, a civil servant, do when faced with such a situation?

Just when Zhang Chun was stunned, an earth-shaking roar suddenly came from very far away.

He looked up and saw that the Ming army's wall was pushed open from the outside, and countless Hou Jin troops poured in through the breach.

The Ming soldiers who were still alive had lost their fighting spirit, dropped their weapons one after another, and surrendered on their knees with their hands raised.

Zhang Chun sighed, drew out the scribe's sword with his backhand, and wiped it towards his neck.

But Zhang Hongmo and other generals next to him acted faster and pounced on him to stop him from committing suicide.

"No sir, keep the green hills and don't worry about running out of firewood."

Just kidding, if you die like this, your brothers have no weight among the Tatars. Wouldn’t they all be beheaded?

As long as you are here, everyone can survive!