When Huang Taiji reported to his father Khan, he found Nurhachi with a red face, panting and sitting on the throne of the Khan. He seemed to be enduring pain. He looked around in surprise and saw more than ten nephews and nephews of the Aisin Gioro family.
They all looked sad and angry.
"What's going on?" He couldn't help but ask Abatai, the commander of the Great Khan's personal soldiers.
Abatai whispered: "Yue Tuo was shot and died in the battle..."
The eldest son of Daishan, Yue Tuo, the leader of the Xianghong Banner, was killed by shotgun while attacking the Chinese army on the northern front. He was hit by hundreds of iron balls and bullets and died instantly.
The red-flag troops braved the intensive artillery fire from the city of Hetuala in an attempt to bypass the Chinese army's rear. As a result, they suffered heavy casualties. The Mongolian soldiers who cooperated in the battle were the first to flee again just like yesterday. The Chinese army camp in Yuetuo was directly bombarded by dozens of Chinese artillery pieces.
, not only was the main general killed, but the entire army was defeated and suffered heavy casualties. Five of the 29 Jurchen Niulu were destroyed.
Nurhachi was sad and upset not only because of the death of his capable grandson in the battle, but also because of the diversionary attack on the northern front because Yue Tuo died in the battle and Daishan was seriously injured and could no longer be launched.
Early this morning, Nurhachi ambushed his most elite Bagal soldiers and two yellow banner troops on the two wings and back of Zaotu Mountain, and used Han servants, armored men, and heavy troops to lure the enemy into battle.
He is an old warlord who has been fighting for forty years, and he is absolutely unwilling to accept yesterday's major setback. He thinks: The Eight Banners soldiers cannot win when the Chinese army holds their position, so after leading them out of the fortified position, they can use the Eight Banners soldiers' rapid maneuvers to attack the Chinese army.
An army marching column should have a chance of winning.
The Chinese army did start to counterattack, but their heavy cavalry was too powerful and the Eight Banners soldiers could not stop it anyway: Fortunately, the Chinese army's heavy cavalry was small in number and had extremely limited impact durability. It quickly retreated automatically. Finally, a Chinese army
The infantry troops of the Army rushed over, but there were only a few thousand people - Zhang Pan's second regiment. Nurhachi ordered that except for the two yellow flags and the white flag troops to surround this unit, the remaining Eight Banners troops once again pressed on the entire Chinese Army.
Making a move to eliminate the Second Regiment of the Fifth Division of the Chinese Army, he planned to use Zhang Pan's troops as bait, hoping that the main force of the Chinese Army's infantry would be eager to rescue friendly troops, leave the parapet position, break away from the artillery cover, and come to the fields suitable for the maneuvers of the Eight Banners cavalry.
In order to facilitate the Eight Banners soldiers to divide and surround.
Yan Siqi is not that kind of cold-blooded general. In essence, he is an impulsive person. But this time during the battle under the city of Hetuala, Yan Siqi unexpectedly insisted on rescuing Zhang Pan's troops without dividing his troops. He forced the main troops to line up step by step to meet the enemy.
The formation advanced slowly. Throughout the afternoon, the three square formations composed of the three regiments of the Chinese Army's center line and the square formation of the first regiment of the Fifth Division on the southern flank advanced slowly for less than two miles. Basically, they pushed forward in a straight line.
During this period, they repelled countless attacks by tens of thousands of Eight Banners soldiers. Within a few miles of the phalanx, the bodies of Eight Banners soldiers were scattered everywhere.
Zheng Zhihu, young and energetic, came to Yan Siqi in the square formation of the Third Regiment of the Fifth Division and asked again: "Manager Yan, let me lead the cavalry to rescue Brother Zhang. The Second Regiment has not sent a rescue signal for an hour."
Yan Siqi was standing on a carriage carrying two "Lightning Honeycomb Guns". He was serving as the shooter himself, turning the handle to fire the ammunition. He was firing "Kaka Kaka" vigorously. Hearing this, his face became cold and he glared at Zheng Zhihu:
"Boy, go back to the cavalry. You are about to attack, but you must wait for my order. Now is not the time."
"It's getting dark, Mr. Yan, Brother Zhang and the others..." Zheng Zhihu had a quarrel with Zhang Pan yesterday because of the Han prisoners, but he was a straight man and a young man. He didn't have any qualms, but wanted to help Zhang Pan. A handful.
"Captain Zheng," Yan Siqi interrupted Zheng Zhihu: "I order you to return to your own unit. You are not allowed to attack without an order."
Zheng Zhihu was dissatisfied and returned angrily. When he returned to the cavalry unit behind the phalanx, he saw the soldiers of the artillery post of the second regiment untying the reins of the horses on the artillery carriage, and each one of them was carrying a musket and riding on the horse. He He hurriedly grabbed the commander of the artillery sentry and asked, "What do you want to do?"
"Captain Zhang is in danger. The second regiment has been surrounded for most of the day. General Manager Yan does not divide the troops to save people. Our brothers go to save them by ourselves."
When the second regiment attacked, the artillery post had poor maneuverability on the battlefield, so it stayed behind. Half of the members of this artillery post were from Liaodong, and most of the rest were from Shandong. The supervisory officer of the sentry was of Ryukyu Chinese descent, and the supervisory officer was also at this moment. As he was mounting his horse, Zheng Zhihu grabbed his saddle: "What are you doing? Why don't you care about them? You are going to die."
The prison officer smiled bitterly: "I have fulfilled my duties, but no one listened to me, and I couldn't arrest everyone in the sentry and put them in solitary confinement, so I had no choice but to go with everyone."
This is a temporary gathering place for the cavalry troops. The cavalry troops have no jurisdiction over the artillery of the second regiment. Several high-ranking cavalry officers also sympathized with the second regiment, so they did not take any coercive measures. They watched the artillery sentries of the second regiment He abandoned four field guns and rushed out on horseback.
At this moment, the sun has reached the edge of the dense forests in the west, and the blood-red sunset has already reflected half of the sky. Under the blood-red sunset, the second group ushered in the most dangerous moment of the day.
Nurhaci had nothing to do against the slow advance of the main force of the Chinese army. No matter how many Niulu troops he sent to attack, no matter how much he made a big movement around the second regiment, the bodies of the Eight Banners soldiers were everywhere and rivers of blood flowed. The Chinese Army maintained a strict line and advanced slowly. The Eight Banners soldiers could not break through the Chinese Army's formation, nor could they stop their advance. There was almost nothing they could do. Some of the once disciplined and battle-hardened Eight Banners troops began to lose control. : The Eight Banners system pays attention to the master-slave, master-servant relationship. As the frontline officers of the Eight Banners troops united by Niulu died in battle and were injured, chaos broke out in those related troops. More and more Eight Banners soldiers broke up and fled. , the Eight Banners soldiers who were fleeing in all directions were panicking. This was also the reason why scattered Eight Banners soldiers were attacked everywhere around the Chinese army's positions.
After Huang Taiji's Zhengbai Banner retreated from the central front again, and Daishan and Yuetuo's troops on the northern front retreated, Nurhaci finally couldn't hold back anymore and ordered the main force of the two yellow flags to stop circling around the second regiment and launch an all-out attack. He didn't believe that the Chinese army would really disregard the life and death of his friendly troops. He still had 4,000 Bagal soldiers in hand, as well as the white flag and Zhenglan flag troops that had rested for a long time. He could launch a surprise attack when the Chinese army divided its forces to attack. .
Zhang Pan's Second Regiment now has only more than 1,000 people left, and the cooperating Marine Corps only has more than 600 people left. They are surrounded on a small hill south of Zaotu Mountain. There is not much ammunition left. All the soldiers have joined in hand-to-hand combat, and, Including Zhang Pan, most of the surviving soldiers of the second regiment were injured.
Zhang Pan gathered the remaining brothers into a circular formation and stood guard on the hill. All the remaining ammunition was concentrated and supplied to the remaining brothers of the battalion facing the west: that direction had the largest number of Eight Banners soldiers.
The person who commanded the two yellow flags to attack the second regiment's position was Nurhaci's seventh son Abatai. Nurhachi, Huang Taiji, Mang Gurtai and others were all watching the battle on the hillside of Zaotu Mountain.
"This team is carrying a banner with the word "Liao" and the name of the 2nd Regiment of the Fifth Division. They are mostly composed of people from Liaodong."
The speaker was Nurhaci’s most trusted Han nationality, former Shenyang County student member Fan Wencheng.
Nurhaci, who was sitting under a golden umbrella, had little patience at the moment, but he still spoke in a gentle tone and asked with a frown: "We are all from Liaodong, why do the Liaodong people of the Ming Army fear my Eight Banners brothers like tigers; and these people now, Even though we, the Eight Banners, broke through the formation, they were able to fight to the death without retreating, dispersed and reunited, and without the help of firearms, they were still able to withstand the elite of our Eight Banners for so long..."
As he spoke, he suddenly became angry: "Why is Abatai so incompetent?" He ordered loudly: "Let Abatai lead the troops to attack from the east, and shoot with bows and arrows from the other three sides to destroy this army as soon as possible."
The main force of the Zhenghuang Banner were direct descendants of the Jianzhou Jurchen tribe who followed Nurhaci to conquer the world. After receiving strict orders, they launched a desperate attack on the position of Zhang Pan's second regiment.
"Let's send a signal rocket, Brother Zhang,..." Zhang Pan's soldier captain knelt behind him and said.
Zhang Pan struggled to hold a new flintlock musket with a half-bayonet. Looking at the Eight Banners cavalry who were gathering a hundred steps away, he gasped and said: "It's not necessary. It's getting dark. Eight Banners soldiers rarely fight at night." , Our Manager Yan likes surprise attacks, and fighting wars outside the routine is his strength. As long as we persist until dark, we will be saved,"
Zhang Pan was covered in blood, and he led his personal guards on the front line to resist the enemy's attack. This round of attacks by the Eight Banners soldiers was due to the sudden appearance of the artillery sentry of the second regiment, and attacked Abatai's Chinese army from behind. The group was able to breathe.
Immediately, after the troops of the Eight Banners on the northern front retreated, the Zhengbai Banner sent by Nurhachi to maintain the front on the northern front was suddenly attacked by a group of troops on the north bank of the Suzi River.
At this moment, the sun had already set below the horizon. Yang Qi led his ragged elite marines, covered by the shrubs by the river, and suddenly broke into the camp of the Eight Banners soldiers arrayed by the river. Yan Siqi happened to give the order at this moment, the heavy cavalry. , a total of 5,000 light cavalrymen broke out of three large square formations at the same time and rushed towards the white flag on the northern front.
The Zhengbai Banner Cavalry, which suffered nearly half of its casualties in two days, was attacked by two sides at the same time. After a desperate confrontation, the main grassroots officers lost their patience and launched a suicide charge against the Chinese Army, while other units of the Eight Banners Northern Front began to After exhausting the last of his courage, he began to collapse.
The Eight Banners troops on the northern front were first broken through by heavy cavalry. The Zhengbai Banner could not stop the Chinese cavalry from breaking through. More and more Eight Banners soldiers and horses were scattered and fled to the northern foot of Zaotu Mountain.
At this moment, Nurhachi decisively ordered the two yellow flags and other troops to stop fighting and retreat to the edge of the dense forest to the west of Zaotu Mountain.
At this moment, there were more than 300 people in Zhang Pan's second regiment, and there were only more than 200 Marine soldiers left. Seeing the Eight Banners soldiers suddenly retreating like a tide, Zhang Pan took a breath and fell down on the ground, unable to stand up anymore. ,