On March 19th in the second year of Wanli, Wang Gao led his army out of the green mountains and stormed Tianshui Fort. Although more than 400 Ming troops put up a desperate resistance, under the attack of the two barbarian coalition forces who had gone crazy for a day without food, the fort wall was broken after three hours, and more than 1,200 soldiers and civilians in the whole fort were massacred.
The desperate resistance at Tianshui Station and the subsequent looting greatly slowed down Wang Gao's progress. On March 22, the main force of the Ming army that followed was less than twenty miles away from Wang Gao, and the scouts from both sides began to strangle each other.
The Tartars had already penetrated deep into the Ming Realm. Although he had anticipated this situation when he chose this path, Wang Gao still went crazy when the noose was really wrapped around his neck. He kept thinking whether Li Chengliang had used his prediction of the Liaodong Army's tactics to lure him into his trap.
As it turned out, crossing the Liaoyang Guard was a huge mistake that could wipe out his entire army. After Wang Gao organized his army and headed north to enter the Liaoyang Guard, none of the scouts who had gone out at dawn had returned for more than an hour. Wang Gao, who had been fighting for many years, knew that what was supposed to come had finally come.
At this time, the army was marching on a small piece of wilderness. In front of it was Weiming Mountain to the northwest and Wuding Mountain to the southeast. It was surrounded by hills, which was not conducive to the deployment of cavalry. An official road in the field leads to Hupiyi. If Wang Gao wants to carry out his plan to cross Liaoyang and enter the Hetao from the west wall, he must quickly pass through the thirty-five-mile official road - can the Ming army still give him a chance?
After another incense burning time, a scout finally returned covered in blood and reported: "Mafa, the official road ten miles ahead was blocked by the army and infantry. There was a row of resisting horses, numbering three thousand people. "
After hearing this, all the Tartars laughed and said, "How long can 3,000 infantry troops stop my 7,000 cavalry troops?" But it can pass by in a flash! Wang Gao heard this and shouted: "As long as we are blocked for two or three hours, Li Chengliang's army can come up from behind. What will we do then?"
He also asked the scout, "How is the wild land beside the official road?" Can you run a horse? The scout vomited a mouthful of blood and then replied: "Mafa, the Ming army diverted water from the river and soaked the surrounding fields for who knows how many days. Now the ground is full of mud, and horses can't run even if they get in." After listening to the prisoners, They all took a breath.
Wang Gao calmed down and mobilized: "Everyone, you have to fight hard at this time. There are infantry blocking the way in front. If you rush over, you will survive. If you can't rush over, the whole army will be wiped out! I, the Jianzhou soldiers, are in the vanguard, followed by Tumote and Taining. , we must kill it!"
After hearing this, all the captives didn't say anything and arranged their cavalry separately. The cavalrymen all dismounted and walked to save horse power. As the soldiers walked, they took out the beans they had snatched from the dry food bags and took the time to feed the horses. He also chewed dry food, drank some water, and arranged his weapons.
After walking for half an hour, the vanguard saw that the fields beside the official road were wet and knew that they were about to reach the Ming army's blocking area. After turning along the official road and passing through a low hill covered with shrubs, the army stopped - three miles away, the Ming army formed three military formations in front of and behind the official road and in the fields on both sides, blocking the way.
At this time, Wang Gao looked back on his horse and saw smoke and dust in the distance behind the army. He guessed that Li Chengliang's army was about to arrive on the battlefield. He pulled out his sword, pointed forward and said, "There's no time, charge!" The soldiers on the side took out the horns and blew the whistle, and the world was suddenly filled with a murderous atmosphere.
Because the official road could not expand the army, most of the cavalry could only stand on horseback in the field to form a team. In the first wave, there were six horizontal lines, each with more than 50 cavalry, and a total of more than 300 cavalry clamped down on the horse's belly and charged forward with bows and arrows in hand.
In the second square formation on the opposite side, Li Rusong was riding on a horse, surrounded by a hundred households in brocade clothes and a bunch of soldiers. Seeing that the Tartar cavalry began to charge, he calmly ordered: "Move my flag to the front formation!" After speaking, he urged his horse forward and entered the rear of the first square formation.
In just a few breaths, the cavalry from three miles away arrived in an instant. When the Tartars rushed 150 steps in front of the formation, half of the cavalry in the first row stumbled, and the fallen men fell over with a tragic hiss. It turned out that the Ming army was digging in on the road. Got into a lot of traps.
The horse trap dug by the Liaodong Army was particularly dirty. It was not a large horse trap several feet long, wide and deep, but a small hole the size of a sea bowl and less than half a foot deep. The densely dug ground in front of the horse was covered with branches, grass and leaves, and then sprinkled with soil. It looked like normal ground, but if the unlucky horse stepped on it, its front legs would break, and the horseman would fly high and fall to the ground. If you don't die, you will lose most of your life.
The official road was no more than three feet wide. After the Tartar cavalry charged, because the horses on the official road ran fast and the horses in the field on the roadside ran slower, they naturally formed a cone-shaped formation. At this time, the top of the cone-shaped assault formation had already collapsed, and the entire offensive slowed down. Seeing Ming Jun standing in the front row, his heartbeat that was pounding to the beat of the snare drum slowed down.
Hearing the sound of a big drum from the Chinese army, the Ming army in the front row pressed the end of the spear that was more than one and a half feet long on the shoulder against the ground, and placed the front section diagonally on the horse. The front of the infantry square immediately looked like a porcupine. A dense jungle of spears appeared. Wang Gao saw it from a distance, and his scalp felt numb.
The Jianzhou soldiers did not use the momentum of their horses to collide with the phalanx, but still used mounted shooting tactics: when they approached the phalanx fifty steps, they moved their horses sideways and at the same time sprinkled a shower of arrows at the infantry.
Unexpectedly, the Ming army did not use the firearms they were good at. Instead, they heard a trumpet sound from the Chinese army. The archers behind the front row of infantry also threw a wave of arrows at the cavalry. At the same time, all the infantry raised their small round shields to block the phalanx. Diagonally above.
This formation of Jianzhou soldiers has never been seen in the Liaodong Army. In previous battles between the two armies, Ming infantry and Tartar cavalry rarely fought in the field. There was at least a wall or a chariot formation between the two armies. It was a common way for the Ming army to hide behind the wall or chariot formation and use their firearms. .
Unexpectedly, although the Ming infantry they encountered this time did not set up a vehicle formation and only used spears and bows, their defensive and counterattacks were also well-organized, and they were on par with the Jianzhou soldiers with strong cavalry.
Both sides came and went in front of the formation, and the ground was full of arrows. The Tartar cavalry could move, and the Ming infantry could hold their shields steadily. The casualty ratio between the two sides gradually reached one to one, that is, one Ming army was replaced by one Tartar cavalry.
However, the Ming army was in the square formation. After being injured by an arrow, someone quickly took over the position, and the wounded could immediately be withdrawn to the rear formation to deal with the injury. The cavalry on horseback did not have such a good thing. They could only bend down on their horses and withdraw from the battlefield. Some of the horses were hit by arrows, and they rushed around randomly, messing up the charging formation.
Wang Gao mobilized his troops and generals and charged three times. Seeing that the phalanx's feet had not loosened, he became increasingly impatient. If he was given two or three hours, and the Ming army was small in number, he could use cavalry and archery to slowly wear it down, and he would be able to break the formation with little loss. But at this time, time was tight, and there was no room for taking things slowly.
The soldiers who went to the rear team to investigate returned to the center and reported in a low voice: "Mafa, the cavalry behind us is less than five miles away from us and will be here in a blink of an eye."
Wang Gao knew that life and death depended on this, so he personally picked up the horn and blew it hard. Then he waved his scimitar and commanded: "If you don't ride and shoot, charge into the formation!"
The Jianzhou cavalry in the front row received the order and made a whooshing sound, like a wild beast roaring. Put down the blindfold on the horse's forehead, rush towards the high speed with the horse's eyes blindfolded, and ram the horse diagonally towards the spear-laden horse.
When the horses and men were about to hit the tip of the spear, the Tatars immediately twisted their bodies with all their strength, hoping to get into the gap in the spear formation. At this time, the Ming army, who was pressing the spear with his body, also drew out his three-eyed blunderbuss and lit the match. Fight against the cavalry rushing up.
A war horse weighed more than a thousand kilograms with a man, and coupled with the high speed at which it rushed, even though the front row of horse-repelling stakes were buried deep in the soil, it was hit by the cavalry dozens of times and almost fell apart in many places.
At this moment, both sides were red-eyed. Between the lines, blood and flesh were flying everywhere, crying fathers and mothers shouting in pain, and grass fathers and mothers yelling and cursing. Accompanied by the loud noise of firearms and the sound of golden drums and horns, it was shocking.
At the cost of more than a hundred cavalry deaths, the Ming army's first row of horse and spear formations finally broke through several holes. Wang Gao saw that almost all of his death squads were killed in the battle. He clenched his teeth in pain and the flesh on his cheeks bulged.
Su Bahai did not expect that his good Mongolian Khan would actually fall into death. At this time, he did not care about conserving his strength and commanded the Tumote cavalry to enter through the gap to kill the Ming army.
At this time, the front line to meet the enemy were all elite soldiers of the Li family. Although they saw a gap in the front line, they did not panic. When they listened to the order from the army, the spearmen in the second and third rows rushed forward a few steps. They went all out to keep the array intact, and those guarding the rear continued to fire arrows and three-eyed cannons.
Wang Gao saw that the infantry of the opponent's first phalanx became thinner and thinner, but still did not collapse. At the same time, the soldiers of the second phalanx began to hold back the horses in front of him. His heart became cold, knowing that he had been tricked by the opposite general.
When Wang Gao first saw the opponent's three-thousand-army formation, the opponent only had a row of horses and spears, and no common chariot formation, which gave him a feeling that the formation could be broken.
When the attack started and the Ma army was trapped in a wave of traps, he had a bad premonition: The Ming army had time to dig holes but no time to set up car formations?
But at that time, he was still lucky and thought that the Ming army did not bring chariots. This was not impossible. When the mounted shooting began, the Ming army actually did not use firearms, which made Wang Gao more lucky. Could it be that they did not bring any firearms?
As a result, after the cavalry shooting was completed, the Ming army used the spear formation; the spear formation was about to be broken, and the familiar three-eyed blunderbuss also appeared; the first phalanx was about to be broken up, and the second phalanx was deployed again, what the hell are you doing? What does it mean to hide a horse behind a flag in a war?
