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 walk through 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 500 servants in the middle of the army. In front was the guerrilla He Zhenxiong who led 2,500 new troops to open the way, and behind was the general Guo Yingxian who led 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 commander-in-chief, Tang Xiancheng, led 2,500 new troops to press behind.
quiet!
Apart from the footsteps of the Ming army advancing, there was no other noise on the entire mountain road in front of the West Stone Gate. Everyone tried to hold their breath and nervously observed everything around them.
Suddenly, guerrilla He Zhenxiong, riding on his horse, seemed to see something strange in the grass ahead. He waved his hand, and the flag soldiers around him immediately stopped. He raised the flag in his hand high, and the army immediately stopped advancing.
"Whoosh!"
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, it was a new army that had never participated in a large battle, so panic was inevitable.
"The enemy is attacking. There is an ambush. Each team forms a formation and is ready to engage in battle!"
After He Zhenxiong shouted the order, he shouted to the soldiers beside him: "Quickly, report to Commander Yang that 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 to the west, as if it blocked the sky and the sun.
"Raise your shield, be careful of protection, and be careful of stray arrows..."
The commander-in-chief, commander-in-chief, and commander-in-chief of the hundred 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 "ding-dong-dang" sound, and some of the arrows that were thrown fell on vehicles and equipment of various sizes 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: "Quick, push up 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 on both sides in front of the army.
After the three-way arrow rain, a dense crowd of 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 armored Tatar thieves, slowly approaching the Ming army. The two rows in front of them were heavily armored thieves holding large shields, and those behind them were holding bows.
Armored archer 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 an order will be beheaded!"
He shouted loudly and kept repeating this sentence, reminding all the new army officers and soldiers not to shoot without orders.
"... Don't fucking panic. The Tatars have nothing to fear. If you shoot them down, they will still bloom. Just let me 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 chariot 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; when the thieves reach eighty steps, they can not 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 chariots could not completely cover the Tatar formation, at least nearly half of the Tatar thieves were hiding behind the shield chariots. Every time they took more than ten steps, they were hit by a hail of arrows.
"One hundred and eighty steps..."
The observer next to He Zhenxiong stood on the artillery cart with a large shield, watching the approaching array of Tatars and visually measuring the distance.
A soldier, Mr. Qian, reminded him softly: "General, the Tatars are powerful and have many shields and chariots. They seem to 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 they retreat, hundreds of Tatar cavalry will follow closely. At that time, not only
It cannot outrun the Tatars' war horses, and it 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 shaking constantly to remind the surrounding artillery team officers to pay attention.
"Prepare...artillery preparation...prepare..."
Orders continued to be passed around, and the sergeants beside each artillery cart nervously checked the matches and torches in their hands. Some of the sergeants' hands were trembling slightly.
If you say you are not afraid, you must be lying!
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 there is no Emperor Chongzhen behind him, and the Minister of War, Chen Xinjia, is fully defending him. 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 loudly.
"Fire! Fire! Fire!" He Zhenxiong shouted three times with his real arms.
The Chinese army's triangular flag suddenly froze, then waved downwards, and the small flags next to the Ming army's chariots also waved down one after another.
"Fire...fire...fire..."
The shouts of orders were heard, and in the sudden flash of fire, iron pellets roared out from the muzzles of each cannon. With extremely fierce heat, they roared towards the oncoming Tatars.