At the end of September of the first year of Tianqi, the main force of Nurhachi's Eight Banners marched eastward and reached Fushun Pass.
The Eight Banners troops set up a wide formation in the wilderness and set up a large camp. They were yellow, red, red, blue and yellow, white, white and blue respectively from north to south. The flags are symmetrically arranged in the west and east; among them, the red flags, the red flags and the white flags, and the white flags are juxtaposed to the west and east respectively. The yellow flags and the blue flags, and the yellow and blue flags are inward, symmetrically arranged in the north and south; the flag masters of each flag Facing south is the honor. Maintain the dignity of the flag owner. Camp or fight with the flag owner as the core. All soldiers of the Eight Banners are arranged according to this fixed relationship position in daily life and march. During sacrifices, they line up left and right. During battle, they deploy left and right wings. Under any circumstances, the direction and order are not allowed to be changed. Otherwise, disordering the order will be regarded as a major mistake.
In addition to the 70,000 soldiers used in the battle, there are also 70,000 to 80,000 men, women, children, and family members accompanying the army in this camp, as well as a huge team of baggage. They are all looted property from the Liaoshen area. Outside each banner camp .There are also countless Han people who were forcibly brought here.
Whenever there is a war, many young men in the Eight Banners who are not old enough to be listed in the official ranks will accompany their family masters to act as cannon fodder in the battle formations. After setting up camp, they will collect water to make food and graze horses at night in order to plunder more spoils. When going to war, the Eight Banners generals at all levels are accompanied by domestic slaves. There is no limit to the number. They can be accompanied by armored cavalry as they wish. Therefore, when the Eight Banners of Houjin fought, their family members and slaves who were not listed in the regular quota also participated in the battle. In this way, the number of troops sent often exceeded Specified quantity.
This post-Jin Dynasty army marching eastward is less like a marching force and more like an armed ethnic migration. The total number of people is close to 180,000.
Therefore, the marching speed of Hou Jin's army back east was very slow compared to the previous marching speed of the Eight Banners soldiers. It was impossible to escape the pursuit of the Chinese army behind them.
Although the Chinese cavalry brigade in hot pursuit could not shake the behemoth Eight Banners army, harassment and containment battles continued day and night. Yang Dacheng led seven main regiments of the Second Infantry Division and the Sixth Infantry Division. A total of more than 20,000 people followed closely behind the Eight Banners soldiers returning eastward. Due to the artillery brigade's artillery and logistical equipment, the Chinese army was unable to catch up with Nurhaci's main force. Therefore, the cavalry brigade became the main force of this stage of the battle. the main force.
The Houjin Eight Banners ambushed the pursuing Chinese cavalry at Fushun Station, on the deck and other places. However, they were always unable to eliminate even one battalion of the Chinese cavalry in an organized manner. They were ambushed and surrounded by the Chinese cavalry. They had extremely strong will to fight. They can always endure heavy casualties and defend themselves in formation. They rely on intensive firearms fire to hold on until reinforcements arrive. When the Chinese infantry forms a black wall of people and slowly and resolutely presses over, the Eight Banners soldiers have to retreat and use their mobility to escape. The battlefield. However, the surrounded Chinese army successfully rescued the siege. The rear guard of Nurhachi's army - the red flag troops directly under King Khan received Nurhaci's strict order: resolutely not to entangle with the Chinese army. If a hit is missed, it will immediately leave the battle formation. The Eight Banners Army Now he is dragging his children with him and carrying countless looted belongings. It is simply not suitable for him to fight the Chinese army in this state.
After the establishment of Nurhaci, the Jin Kingdom spent forty years of conquest. His loyal soldiers have become famous and have become masters with thousands of acres of fertile land and hundreds of slaves. They never want to go back to the jungle to fish and hunt. The hard days of farming were over. The decision to abandon Liaoshen and return to Jianzhouwei was actually opposed by many Eight Banners generals. It was only Nurhachi's unparalleled personal prestige that could convince everyone. However, the news that his hometown was burned, killed, and looted by the Chinese army also stimulated Many Eight Banners generals were killed. They were all eager to return to Hetuala to avenge themselves.
The senior leaders of the Houjin Kingdom, headed by Nurhachi, were in a very impatient mood at this time. Everyone felt that the crisis was coming. Now they are facing two groups of Chinese armies attacking. They must defeat one of them first so that the Jin Kingdom can have a chance to reverse the war.
The decisive battle with the Chinese army will be a life-and-death battle that will determine the life and death of the Jin Kingdom and the newly formed Eight Banners of Manchuria.
…
Zhang Pan, the temporary commander of the Second Regiment of the Fifth Division, was marching toward Jiefan City with two battalions of infantry brothers. Accompanying the Second Regiment were two battalions of militiamen. The team was sparsely spread out on both sides of the road. All along the way
The villages were all burning and smoking. The unharvested crops in the farmland on the roadside were all smoking and burning. The 1,500-man infantry team of the Chinese Army was passing through an area filled with fireworks. According to Yan Siqi's order
.All buildings and crops in this area must be burned to the ground. All resisters will be executed on the spot. All refugees will be driven towards Jiefan City and Shangjian Cliff.
The original commander of the second regiment died in the battle at Maldun Village, halfway between Hetuala and Jiefan City. He was capturing Maldun Village at the time. He was accidentally shot in the face by an Eight Banners archer.
He fell to the ground and died. The deputy commander of the second regiment was seriously injured while fighting in the southern city fortress of Hetuala. The supervisor officer was also killed in a night attack by the Jurchen tribe. Zhang Pan, who had just arrived at the battlefield of Hetuala for only ten days, temporarily.
Appointed as acting head.
Yan Siqi considered that most of the regiment was composed of new recruits from Liaodong. Therefore, it was more appropriate for him to be led by Zhang Pan, a native of Liaodong. Moreover, Zhang Pan performed well in the battle formation and in the military academy. Therefore, he was promoted as an exception. Zhang Pan may be the first one.
He was a native of Liaodong who held the position of regimental commander in the Chinese military system. He was also a former Ming Dynasty official who was defeated.
Traveling through this land where everything was being destroyed, Zhang Pan felt no excitement at all. His own fields, manors, and houses were completely destroyed by the Eight Banners soldiers back then.
For him, the family's blood feud has just begun to pay off.
However, among the Chinese military officer class, he was the only exception who was born as a Confucian scholar. Along the way, thousands of Houjin Eight Banners refugees fled in all directions. Those Eight Banners people who were accidentally captured by the Chinese army, Zhang Pan did not
All of them were beheaded or driven away. He ordered his subordinates to take in these old and weak women and children, give them food and drink, and sent people to escort them back to the Hetuala camp. Zhang Pan did not kill all the residents of the Eight Banners villages who were captured after the resistance.
Kill. Instead, send someone to screen for identity: those pure Jurchens will be executed. As for those former Liaodong Han people who fled to Jianzhou Guards to avoid the harsh rule during the Wanli Period and the Gaohuai Rebellion, Zhang Pan was determined not to kill them.
.They were all taken as prisoners to the rear camp. He preached everywhere that the Chinese army's crusade against Hou Jin was doing justice for heaven and punishing the people. Anyone who surrendered voluntarily could save his life.
During the period when mining supervisors and tax envoys were rampant in Liaodong, tens of thousands of Han people could not live under the harsh government of the Ming Dynasty. Their families fled outside the customs and joined the Jianzhou Wei Jurchen tribe of Nurhaci. Even earlier, they lived together with the Jurchens in the early Ming Dynasty.
The Han people have almost assimilated with the Jurchens. They are completely indistinguishable from each other.
Zhang Pan's army slowly approached Jiefan City. His mission was not to capture Jiefan City. Yan Siqi ordered him to occupy Gule Village, 30 miles south of Jiefan City, and establish an outpost position.
At this time, Yan Siqi had already contacted the Tumen River task force. The Marine Corps and several militia battalions had passed through the Changbai Mountains and marched along the upper reaches of the Tumen River towards the Hun River Basin. The target was towards the Sarhu. The Jurchens along the way The tribe was beaten to pieces and fled in all directions. The new Eight Banners troops were composed of the Barbarian Jurchens and Haixi Jurchens who were originally going south to reinforce the main force of the Eight Banners of Nurhachi. They were equipped with the most primitive weapons such as spears, bows and arrows. Cowhide armor is the best armor. They gathered their forces on the banks of the Hun River in an attempt to block the advance of the Marines. However, as soon as the battle began, they were defeated by thousands of thunderbolt rockets fired by the Marines. They had never seen or heard of such jungle tribesmen with such sharp and explosive firearms. They ran away in all directions, thinking that the gods had sent thunder and lightning. All the courage to resist disappeared.
Thousands of soldiers of the New Eight Banners retreated towards Sarhu and fled into Jiefan City. Then, the news of the Chinese Army's Tumenjiang Task Force reached Nurhachi's ears. He interrogated the messenger repeatedly in disbelief. I dare to believe that the Chinese army can still take such action. The move of the Tumen River Estuary Task Force is very risky. The Marine Corps is now fighting under conditions with almost no logistical supplies. But they have cut off the main force of the Nurhachi Eighth Banner and the Jurchen tribe in the Songhua River Basin The hope that the new Eight Banners soldiers from the Northeast would come to reinforce the main force of the Nurhachi Eight Banners was very slim.
Yan Siqi sent a large number of cavalry to search and suppress the remaining Jurchen tribesmen in the forests. The first division surrounded the old city of Hetuala and prepared to capture Nurhachi's home base. He did not know that Nurhachi had returned eastward with his entire army. The Eight Banners' All the main forces were approaching him. At this moment, except for the main force of the First Infantry Division, which consisted of two regiments and one artillery regiment, they were gathered around the city of Hetuala. The rest of the troops were scattered everywhere to kill the Jurchen tribe.
Yan Siqi did not go around preaching the justice of the Chinese army's crusade against Hou Jin. He only killed those who did not surrender; the propaganda work is now under the supervision of the Propaganda Section of the Ministry of Military Supervision. The Ministry of Military Intelligence also sent personnel to spread the word: the original Han people could survive as long as they surrendered. You can still live in Liaodong under the rule of the Chinese army in the future.
On this day, he had just inspected the artillery position under the city of Hetuala. He rode his war horse back to the old camp. His guards were all former Nanyang Brigade soldiers. They were short, capable and brave. Yan Siqi followed the Spanish army and the German heavy armored infantry. He specially asked the Ordnance Research Department to create dozens of sets of steel breastplates suitable for the southern body shape, and distributed them to members of his guard. Therefore, his guards often wore fine and bright breastplates, proudly and proudly. Galloping horses in the camp: The only person who has the right to gallop in the camp is Yan Siqi himself.
Yan Siqi rushed into the tent with his guards, only to find a messenger wearing a feathered armor lying in front of his desk, snoring with his head buried in his arms.
Yan Siqi's guard captain said: "Looking at the armband, he is a brother from the Second Regiment of the Fifth Division..."
"Wake him up. It's probably the messenger sent by Zhang Pan."
The messenger woke up and saw that Yan Siqi was present. He quickly stood at attention and saluted: "Zhang Pan, the acting commander of the second regiment, reported to the general manager: A large number of enemy troops have appeared in the direction of Jiefan City. They are heading south. They are very large. There are yellow flags and banners. The yellow flag appears."
Yan Siqi was lazily sinking his body into the tiger-skin Taishi chair. Hearing this, he was shocked. He jumped up and said, "What? Nurhaci is here."