Yan Siqi raised his head and pointed at a major sent by the Northern Corps of the Marine Corps: "You, it's you. Your troops didn't fight much last night. Please set off immediately. People from the East Route Army's Military Intelligence Department will give you You lead the way and immediately go to the direction of Gule Village to assist the second regiment in defending,"
The Marine major stood at attention and accepted the order. He was very dissatisfied: the Marines only arrived at the Hetuala camp at noon yesterday, and they were dragged up to participate in the siege at night. Although the militia battalion in front fought fiercely, the Marine soldiers were not fierce. It was a war, but after all, they had not slept a wink all night. The other troops participating in the war could rest for a day, but the Marines had to keep spinning...
However, the temporary formation of the Marine Corps has been placed under the control of the East Route Army. The direct leader, Yan Siqi, is also an infantry general. The Marine Corps cannot help but suffer some losses. Nowadays, the infantry army and the navy army compete with each other for credit. There are already a lot of them. The Marine Corps does the work of the infantry and is attached to the command of the Navy. I always feel that both sides are unhappy.
Yan Siqi didn't have time to think about the mentality of the Marine officer. He just thought that the infantry was the main force in the final decisive battle and had to rest before going to the battlefield. The Marines were just auxiliary troops, so it didn't matter if they had to do more legwork first.
While Yan Siqi was busy arranging troops, the East Road Military Supervisory Officer in charge of the militia camp came to complain: a fight broke out between the militia camp and the Ryukyu Regiment in the city of Hetuala over the spoils of war.
"When the hell is this happening? These guys from the pioneering group really know how to cause trouble. Bring my guards here. Any troublemakers will be killed without mercy. All the loot will be collected and managed by the old camp and tell them: Nurhaci is coming. He brings with him the gold and silver treasures of the entire Jin Kingdom, and everything looted from Liaodong is with him. If you want to make a fortune, just fight this battle well,"
Yan Siqi threw away his hand and left, cursing non-stop. Those militia groups led by veterans of the Chinese Army fought with their lives, and they were equally desperate to grab loot. Yan Siqi and other senior officers of the Chinese Army were very fed up with the militiamen of the Pioneer Corps. Their Military discipline and weapons are not as good as those of the regular Chinese army. They risk their lives in close combat. This is the only place they can take advantage of.
…
At this moment, Zhang Pan was using the five rapid-fire firearms posts that had just arrived at Gule Village to violently fire at the Zhenghuang Banner cavalry who was trying to rush through Gule Village. This group of Eight Banners soldiers suddenly appeared at noon, intending to pass between Suzi River and Gule Village. They rushed south on the plains, probably intending to support the troops in Hetuala City.
Zhang Pan used five rapid-fire firearm sentries, a total of fifteen honeycomb guns, and more than 30 six-gun revolvers, to shoot fiercely at the flanks of the Zhenghuang Banner marching column, knocking down the Eight Banners soldiers who were trying to pass quickly to the ground.
After the Battle of Sanlipu, Zhang Pan was very interested in volley guns and rapid-fire repeating guns. At this time, they were used to shoot at the dense marching columns of the Eight Banners. The firepower of the rapid-fire guns was maximized, and he watched the Eight Banners fall to the ground one after another. Cavalryman, Zhang Pan finally felt a sense of revenge.
The Eight Banners soldiers soon discovered that if they wanted to cross Gule Village and go south, they must occupy Gule Village, at least so that the Chinese troops in Gule Village could no longer fire firearms along the Suzi River.
Mang Gurtai led his troops and joined the Zhenghuang Banner cavalry who had arrived earlier. A total of 10,000 people acted as the vanguard of Nurhachi's main force and officially launched an attack on Gule Village.
Nurhaci also wanted to rescue the city of Hetuala, where he started his career and the first capital of the Later Jin Kingdom. For Nurhachi himself and the entire Houjin Kingdom, it was a place that must be preserved. Now, the Eight Banners of Manchuria have a country. The nation is no longer the original jungle tribe that combined fishing, hunting, herding, and farming. No one from the Eight Banners wants to go back to the jungle to live a hard life, so they must fight the Chinese army decisively.
Moreover, large tracts of farmland in the hinterland of Houjin Kingdom were destroyed before they could be harvested. The large amount of grain and grass stored in Jiefan City and Hetuala City became the only food for the Eight Banners of the entire Houjin Kingdom to survive this winter. If the Chinese army is not defeated, Nurhachi and His people would not be able to rob Liaodong's grain, and then the days of famine would be right around the corner.
Whether politically or just for the survival of the tribe, Nurhachi must send troops to fight the Chinese Army in a head-on battle. This was the strategy set by the Chinese Army from the beginning of the Northern Expedition and the Battle of Jin Dynasty. It was just the original decisive battle plan of the West Route Army. From the beginning, Nurhachi took measures to not stick to the city, shrink and concentrate his troops, and avoid a decisive battle, but failed midway. However, the reality that the Chinese army's three-pronged advance had eroded the hinterland of Houjin forced Nurhaci to make the decision to have a decisive battle with the Chinese army in the wild.
Gule Village has now become an outpost of the Chinese army and an obstacle to the main force of the Nurhachi Eight Banners marching into the army.
Nurhachi's actions were as fast as ever. It was only two days after arriving in Jiefan City. After the main force of the Eight Banners basically gathered around Jiefan City, Nurhaci immediately launched an attack. He left behind more than 10,000 troops including the newly formed Eight Banners and the newly formed Xianglan Banner. At strategic points such as Shangjian Cliff and Jiefan City, they held tight positions to resist the Western Route Army of the Chinese Army that was approaching Sarhu. At the same time, he sent thousands of troops to Yehebu and other places to recruit troops to resist the Western Route Army that was approaching along the Hun. The Tumen River Task Force of the Chinese Army approaches Jiefan City.
He personally led the main force of the Eight Banners: seven banners, nearly 250 Niulu's 70,000 troops, plus the Allied Army's 10,000 Chahar Mongolian cavalry, a total of 80,000 people marched towards the city of Hetuala.
Zhang Pan in Gule Village only had two battalions of infantry and one battalion of cavalry. The cavalry troops coming to support from the Western Route Army were ordered to go to the Hetuala camp to join Yan Siqi's small cavalry, leaving only one militia cavalry battalion. To support him in guarding Gule Village, the total number of defenders was less than 1,500.
More than 10,000 people from the Mang Gurtai tribe, the main forward force of the Eight Banners Army, flocked to Gule Village like a tide.
The Eight Banners infantry carried their shields and pushed the artillery-proof shield carts, attacking the civil structure of Gule Village one after another. The wall of the village was only one person high. The Eight Banners cavalry bypassed the two wings of Gule Village and attacked the back of the village in a roundabout way. , some Eight Banners cavalry rushed out of the range of the Chinese army and ran towards the city of Hetuala.
The shield carriages of the Eight Banners Army could block the solid artillery shells of the Ming Army, but they could not stop the explosive shells of the Chinese Army. The bows and arrows of the Eight Banners Army did not have much damage to the Chinese Army who were hiding behind the village wall and firing guns. The defenders of Gule Village had a day Within a short period of time, they repelled seven charges of the Eight Banners soldiers. The last attack took place before dusk. An Eight Banners firearms unit participated in the attack, but there were no cannons, only fire from matchlock guns. Zhang Pan held up his binoculars for a long time and figured out this group of soldiers. Origin of the Firearms Troop: This is a group of Koreans, probably formed by members of the Korean Firearms Troop who surrendered in the Battle of Saarhu.
Every attack by the Eight Banners soldiers would develop into a hand-to-hand fight on the edge of the wall. The Chinese soldiers had to throw grenades down as if they were free to block the desperate attacks of the Eight Banners soldiers.
Zhang Pan counted the number of people in the evening and found that there were only more than 600 people in his army, and less than 500 people could continue to fight. The ammunition in the village had been exhausted, there were not many grenades left, and the shells had been fired. At dusk, , Zhang Pan has already seen Nurhachi's golden tent and the heavily armored "Bayale" soldiers in the telescope. It is very likely that Nurhachi and the main force of the Eight Banners have all arrived here. In any case, Gule Village can no longer defend it. .
He called the battalion commander of the cavalry battalion of the Fifth Division and found out that the cavalry battalion still had more than 500 horses trapped in the stockade. Zhang Pan thought about it and decided to take advantage of the night and all the remaining Chinese soldiers on horseback. Breakout.
The supervisory officer of the Second Regiment, Huang Linzhong, was the nephew of Huang Qiang, the director of the China Company. He was originally a fisherman along the coast of Quanzhou. He volunteered to lead the team to explore the road first.
Fortunately, the Eight Banners soldiers fought fiercely all day long, and the main force of the Eight Banners arrived one after another in the evening. Although they had surrounded Gule Village, the road to the Suzi River in the direction of Hetuala was not tightly blocked. Zhang Pan asked the slightly injured to lead him. The seriously injured people set off first and were escorted by themselves. When passing through the woods on the river bank, they encountered a small group of Chinese cavalry who came to investigate without any danger. Zhang Pan and other more than 600 survivors of the Second Regiment of the Fifth Division were walking with their brothers. With the help, Successfully returned to the Hetuala Camp of the Eastern Route Army of the Chinese Army's Jin Army at dusk the next day.
At dawn, the Eight Banners soldiers broke into the deserted Gule Village. The forward soldiers accidentally stepped on the trap. The gunpowder Zhang Pan had hidden in the ambush exploded. All the rapid-fire guns, light field artillery and the remaining few weapons that could not be taken away Ten grenades and three hundred kilograms of gunpowder were piled together, and finally turned into scrap metal. At the same time, they also took away the lives of more than 30 Eight Banners and Zhengbai Banner soldiers.
After returning to the camp, Zhang Pan, who had not slept for three consecutive days and nights, was really sleepy. After forcing himself to report to Yan Siqi, he fell asleep on the haystack behind Yan Siqi's tent.
…
Boom boom boom boom.
Zhang Pan was awakened by the sound of artillery in his sleep. He jumped up and was surprised to find that he was sleeping on a big bed covered with tiger skin, and the place where the big bed was was the tent of Yan Siqi's old camp.
Zhang Pan was startled when he heard the thunderous sound of cannons and the sound of muskets being fired in the distance. He jumped up and rushed outside the tent. One of his personal guards was standing outside the tent and saw He then shouted excitedly: "Brother Zhang, you finally woke up. You have slept all night and half the day..."
"Where's Mr. Yan, has the war started yet?" Zhang Pan quickly tightened his belt and took his own rifle and command sword from the guards.
Zhang Pan's personal guard was from Liaoyang like him. He was originally a refugee and joined the Chinese Army with Zhang Pan. He regarded Zhang Pan as his eldest brother. He replied: "General Manager Yan has gone to the front line. The Tatars of Nu Chief The soldiers drove to Qiyun Mountain in the west in the morning. The Shandong First Militia Battalion discovered them. Our people rushed over immediately. Now they have probably started fighting across the board. Here is the order from General Manager Yan. Our regiment is now in reserve. Yan The steward said that as soon as you wake up, you must form a team and set off..."
Zhang took stock of the remaining soldiers of the Second Regiment: He still had two complete battalions, the 400 men who were still able to fight who were withdrawn the night before, the remaining soldiers of the Second Regiment plus the temporary militia, a total of 2,100 men , he sighed. In just a few days, the second regiment and the cavalry battalion, which were mostly composed of Liaodong people, had almost been damaged.
Zhang Pan, who had just tasted the sweet taste of revenge in Gule Village, was filled with hatred again.