Regarding the immediate launch of a pursuit, several foreign officers from the cavalry reinforcements of the West Route Army reversed their attitude of actively requesting a fight yesterday. Based on their decades of war experience, they believed that the attack should not be launched for the time being. Liaison officer Zheng Zhihu also expressed objections , they believed that Chief Nu was most likely trying to lure the Chinese infantry out of the immediate position, and then kill them midway, or set up an ambush to invite an attack.
However, Yan Siqi, in his capacity as the commander of the East Route Army, directly ordered that all the cavalry of the West Route Army attack. Previously, under Zhang Pan's order, all 2,100 cavalry of the East Route Army and the heavy cavalry reinforced by the West Route Army had already pursued them. go out.
The Chinese cavalry, led by heavy cavalry, rushed to the southwest, passed through the hollow square formation on the south wing, broke through the Eight Banners soldiers' line in one fell swoop, and opened a large gap in the dense team of Eight Banners soldiers on the south wing. Then, more than 4,000 light cavalrymen of the Chinese Army attacked in one fell swoop. Breaking in, the Eight Banners soldiers were defeated one after another by the Zhenghuang Banner, Xianghuang Banner, and Zhenglan Banner troops. No matter how hard the Eight Banners soldiers tried, the heavy cavalry broke through to Zaotu Mountain without hesitation. Behind them, more than 4,000 light cavalry spread their wings and defeated the Eight Banners soldiers. A big hole was opened in the camp.
As the first batch of infantry to attack, Zhang Pan's Second Regiment of Reserves and 1,000 sailors and marines crossed the position first. A total of 3,000 people did not move forward in a long line as before, but lined up in a row. Four columns advanced rapidly, with seven or eight lightning strike honeycomb guns pushed on small carts. However, the field artillery could not keep up with the marching speed of the columns and did not attack.
Zhang Pan led his troops quickly through the chaotic battlefield, and fought with the Eight Banners soldiers who rushed in front of him from time to time. He felt that the Houjin Eight Banners camp had begun to be chaotic, and the Eight Banners troops on the southern front no longer fought according to strict regional divisions. Encountered Eight Banners soldiers with various banners on the road.
Soon, a regiment from the First Division and the Fifth Division of the Chinese Army moved in to attack. The Chinese Army behind the center line ignited rows of Thunderbolt rockets on the racks, and continuously launched them all over the sky as if they were free of charge, covering the sky and the earth. Shooting at the Eight Banners soldiers' position, this time, Artillery Chief Li Kuiqi transported 80% of the rockets in the Northeast to the city of Hetuala. Therefore, the Eight Banners soldiers were bombarded by thousands of rockets at the same time.
The Eight Banners soldiers who were still attacking on the center line were caught off guard by the rockets fired from their pockets, and then were beaten to their knees by the Chinese infantry who attacked in a horizontal formation. Soon, the messenger came to Yan Siqi and reported: "The Eight Banners soldiers on the center line The team began to retreat,"
However, before the Chinese army was ready to attack, the battlefield within a radius of dozens of miles of Hetuala was completely chaotic. Eight Banners soldiers and Chinese soldiers were everywhere. A small group of Eight Banners soldiers broke into the reserve camp in the south of Hetuala city. , no one knows how they came. Since most of the reserve team followed Zhang Pan to attack, there was almost no one to defend them. Fortunately, Yan Siqi's guard was still here, and a militia battalion in Hetuala City also happened to come to collect ammunition. Passing by After a fierce hand-to-hand killing, the Chinese army relied on their numerical advantage to eliminate all the Zhenglan Banner soldiers.
Yan Siqi received more than a dozen reports at the same time. Eight Banners stragglers appeared in all directions of Hetuala City at the same time. The number of teams varied, and there seemed to be no unified command. They were attacking the Chinese army's camp aimlessly. He couldn't help but feel overwhelmed.
Yan Siqi, who was originally impatient and daring to take risks, now shouldered the life-and-death burden of the front army. Instead, he calmed down and did not order the entire army to attack. Instead, he sent a messenger to the cavalry who were breaking through to Zaotu Mountain to give the order: to detour in front of the central front. Stop attacking forward. The infantry on the center line began to form formations in front, forming two hollow square formations with regiments as units. Only Zhang Pan's troops fell into the southern battlefield, and the messenger did not find him.
"What the hell are the Tatars doing? They ordered all the troops to form formations on the spot. All troops in the city, except for the militia battalion left behind, assembled at the South Fortress,"
…
Li Xiao was a junior officer in the former Liaodong Frontier Army of the Ming Dynasty. He was very familiar with the terrain along the border. Because he was injured while fighting the Xianglan Banner last year, when the Northern Expedition began, he was left in the rear Jinzhou Guard to serve as defense logistics. Channel tasks.
When Nurhaci suddenly evacuated Liaoshen, he could no longer stay in the rear and urged to come to the front line.
The West Route Army went north from the Liaoshen line and marched eastward, detaching its forces to recapture the fortresses and guard posts along the eastern border of Liaoning. Only then did Yang Dacheng realize that Nurhachi suddenly abandoned Liaoshen in order to disperse the West Route Army's forces and delay them. With the marching speed, he asked Lu Xiaotian to gather all the remaining horses of the cavalry brigade, plus the divisional cavalry battalions of the Western Route Army units, and concentrated 5,000 cavalry, leaving the brigade to pursue Nurhachi. Li Xiao just arrived to report. Lu Xiaotian still appointed him as the commander of the forward cavalry battalion.
As soon as the pursuit began, Li Xiao's forward battalion went into the jungle and lost contact with other troops of the cavalry brigade. It was not until Nurhaci pushed out of Fushun Pass that a messenger sent by Li Xiao came to Yang Dacheng's old camp. Within days, Li Xiao had passed Fushun Pass to the south of the Eight Banners Brigade and was approaching Sarhu.
Li Xiao's boyhood coincided with the heyday of the Li Chengliang family. Since he was twelve years old, he followed the Ming army that came out to suppress the barbarian tribes and traveled throughout the Liaodong border. There were some places south of the road from Fushun Pass to Sarhu where only ginseng was collected. People, hunters know that the secret road is not suitable for cavalry to pass through. Only the path along the river can pass through horses, but it cannot be passed by riding people. However, Li Xiao just took his cavalry along this line. He asked all People dismounted their horses and marched through the water. On September day, the river valley in Liaodong was covered with wild grass and shrubs as tall as a person. Li Xiao ordered people to set fire outside the jungle. The fire took advantage of the last south wind of the year in Liaodong and burned the dense forest ahead. Flames soared into the sky and thick smoke billowed. Then, Li Xiao directed his men and horses to enter the burned-black forest along the river valley, setting fires all the way.
Some Jurchen tribes were burned and fled in embarrassment, and some Jurchen villages were burned and killed by Li Xiao's troops. Li Xiao, who had grown up fighting with Jurchen Tatars and barbarian tribes since he was a child, would never show mercy to any Jurchen tribe.
After Nurhaci led his troops from Jiefan City to Hetuala City eastward, the Western Route Army Cavalry Brigade had already defeated the blockade of the Eight Banners soldiers and arrived outside Jiefan City. At Shangjian Cliff, the Sarhu area and the remaining Xianglan Banners The Red Banner and the newly formed Eight Banners troops were fighting. On the third day after Nurhachi moved eastward, when Yang Dacheng's 9,000-strong infantry force of the Second Division of the West Route Army and the main artillery brigade arrived at Sarhu, Li Xiao was still trekking in the jungle. Moving forward, Yang Dacheng's old camp did not know where his troops were.
In fact, Li Xiao was a little lost at this time. Although he was familiar with the terrain outside the Liaodong border wall, he had never gone so far into the Jurchen tribe area. Soon, he found that the dense forest in front of the troops had disappeared and was replaced by a bush. And there were obvious traces of large groups of people walking. At this moment, he had to capture some Jurchen tribe prisoners to ask for directions, and then he discovered that he had arrived at the south bank of the Suzi River, approximately near Gule Village.
Only some Jurchens and Han hunters would come here. It was a completely undeveloped wasteland. Li Xiao only had a few Jurchen prisoners and a rough map from the Ministry of Intelligence. He couldn't help but hesitate: should he go to Jiefan City to cooperate with the West Road? The main force of the army to attack the city should continue to go west to support the Eastern Route Army in the battle. His troops now only have 5 days of food supply left. The Jurchen villages along the way burned their food warehouses as soon as they discovered them. Therefore, after more than 20 days of arduous march, the soldiers of Li Xiao's Chinese Army Cavalry Brigade forward battalion could basically only eat the dry food they had on hand when they set out.
Most of the land in Liaodong is still undeveloped at the moment. According to the latest "Meritorious Land Distribution Order" issued by Yin Feng, the vast land is waiting to be divided by the meritorious officers and soldiers of the Chinese Army.
By interrogating the prisoners captured along the way, Li Xiao learned that Nurhachi had begun marching eastward to Hetuala. He issued summons orders to villages along the way and removed all men over the age of 12 and under 60. Near Gule Village, Li Xiao's men We also met several soldiers of the Second Regiment of the Fifth Division of the Chinese Army who were separated from the brigade, that is, the defenders of Gule Village who broke out from Gule Village with Zhang Pan. So everyone knew: Nurhachi was in Hetuala front.
Most of the 600 soldiers of the First Forward Battalion of the Chinese Army's Cavalry Brigade had the same idea as Li Xiao, marching eastward to Hetuala and following Nurhaci's footsteps to strive for greater merit and gain more land.
Li Xiao crossed the Suzi River at night and attacked the Gule Village. The Gule Village had already been almost reduced to ruins in the early tug-of-war between the Chinese Army and the Eight Banners soldiers. At this moment, there were only dozens of Eight Banners defenders in the village, and they were unprepared. They were all killed by the Chinese cavalry. Li Xiao now marched eastward along the original route of the cavalry reinforcements of the West Route Army, intercepting and killing the Eight Banners' logistics troops and scattered skirmishers along the way.
Li Xiao didn't know that just when he started to follow Nurhaci's footsteps and march eastward, Nurhaci's Eight Banners Army had already broken out into a battle with the Chinese Army's Eastern Route Army under the city of Hetuala.
…
In the dense forests of the Changbai Mountains, more than a hundred miles north of Li Xiao's army, a Chinese Navy Marine Corps of more than a thousand people was also in a dilemma of almost running out of food.
The supervisor of the Tumen River task force is Fan Tao, commander of the Navy's First Northern Fleet, and the Marine Corps supervisor who led the landing team is Yang Qi, the commander-in-chief of the Northern Corps of the Navy.
After landing, he went upstream along the Tumen River, defeated the obstruction of the Haixi Jurchen tribe, defeated the obstruction of the newly formed Eight Banners, and marched westward along the Hun River to Sarhu. On the way, he led the vanguard of the Marine Corps across the Hun River and headed south. , intending to take the back route to Jiefan City, but the Han hunter who had no choice but to lead the way got lost in the dense forest because the road was unfamiliar, and led Yang Qi's vanguard in a thousand circles.
When Yang Qi finally lost his temper and planned to kill the guide, the Marines who were exploring the path came to report that they found a village ahead.