Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 452 Mingjin Confrontation
"Drive! Drive—"

Time flies, seeing that spring is about to pass and summer is coming, but the temperature in Beishan still can't rise.

The sound of horseshoes sounded in Beishan, and then a large group of cavalry rushed out of the expanded road and came to the still unthawed Duoerbi River.

A cavalryman dismounted from his horse, pulled out a hammer and a long iron nail from his leg, walked to the ice, and began to chisel fiercely with the iron nail and hammer, but the response he got was only shocking, except for the flying ice chips. Numb touch.

He chiseled for more than a dozen breaths, finally pierced through the ice layer, and measured the height with a cloth ruler.

After finishing all this, he shouted to Cao Bianjiao who was on horseback by the bank:
"General Soldier, the ice is one foot and two inches thick, and it will be thawed in about ten days!"

The man shouted out the thickness of the ice layer and the thawing time, but Cao Bianjiao, who heard the words, had a bad face.

More than ten days does not sound like a long time, but it is very long for the current Ming army.

This morning, Cao Bianjiao got the news that Jianlu went north and besieged the stone castle on the south bank of the Duoerbi River at close range, and quickly sent the news to the northeast, so that his uncle and Guo Sangdai came to help quickly.

He himself led [-] cavalry, preparing to go to the south bank to confront Huang Taiji, leaving enough time for Cao Wenzhao and the others to build fortifications.

If no less than 300 women and children are beheaded, they can get 150 million taels of silver just by rewarding them. The current [-] cavalry can each get [-] taels of silver. Who wouldn't be tempted by this?

The number of soldiers in the Jin Army was less than 10,000, but there were [-]+ craftsmen with women and children.

A Min followed Huang Taiji over, and while Huang Taiji was observing the Ming army, he also raised the binoculars to observe.

Who would have thought that it was not Cao Wenzhao who was here, but another person.

The sound of galloping horses disturbed the woods on both sides of the Duo'erbi River, and the beasts and birds that gradually woke up from hibernation flew out of the woods.

Huang Taiji has played against Cao Wenzhao and He Shixian, and he is familiar with Cao Wenzhao's style of play, so he is confident.

After fifteen li to the north, the sentinel sent back the news, and at the same time Huang Taiji also ordered the whole army to stop marching.

There was no blind raid, Cao Bianjiao reined in his horse and stopped, the generals behind him blew their wooden whistles, and Shangzhi cavalry was also ordered to stop.

All Jiala Ezhen and Niu Lu Ezhen who heard this sounded their wooden whistles one after another, and the whistle spread all around for a while, and the Chinese army who was four or five miles away from the front army could naturally hear the dense whistle .

As for Huang Taiji, he didn't respond, but looked up at the sky.

I don't know if it was Cao Bianjiao's deliberate action, but the Ming army lit a bonfire on the top of the low hill, and there were still people busy by the bonfire.

In the dense forest of Beishan, the advantage of the cavalry is not great. Fortunately, the cavalry of the Ming army is not considered a traditional cavalry. In addition, the camps have cleared the river bank forests, so Cao Bianjiao's vision has been broadened a lot.

However, Huang Taiji chose the time to break through very cleverly, just before Duoerbihe thawed.

It's just a pity that the Jianzhou Eight Banners can't meet Huang Taiji's request at the moment, and no one is willing to abandon their family members, so they can only protect women and children while breaking through, which will undoubtedly greatly reduce their mobility.

Huang Taiji's explanation made Mangurtai nod and withdraw his sword, and at the same time he turned his head and told Abatai: "Let the Eight Banners of Mongolia divide 1 troops to cross the river."

Cao Bianjiao turned his head to look at Commander Habayashi, who also glanced at his pocket watch, closed it and responded with a stern face: "According to the time, it is estimated that it is less than twenty miles away from Duo'erbihe."

Sure enough, as soon as his thoughts fell, the brigade of Ming army cavalry holding torches began to return to the back of the short hill.

"What should I do now? Just wait like this?"

At Cao Wenzhao's age, it is impossible to shave his beard, so the leader of the army is obviously not Cao Wenzhao.

Just at nightfall, the Jin army lost thousands of people, which made many people look a little pale, but Huang Taiji remained calm:

But Huang Taiji, he had known for a long time that the rear army would be attacked, so his face, which was lit up and down by the flames, was very calm.

Compared with them, Jianlu in ragged clothes is not enough.

"Buy the pot and cook." Helpless, he could only order to cook.

The sentinel lowered his head so much that he was about to bury it in his chest, and the faces of many Baylors in front of the campfire were also very ugly.

Huang Taiji's rhetorical question silenced Jierharang, and Daishan reacted quickly, frowning and asked, "Do you mean that the army has also dispatched a lot of soldiers and horses to station here?"

His words moved some generals of the Ming army, and a thousand households could not help but bow to each other: "Little General Cao, how about attacking and killing the women and children of the army after Jianlu?"

"According to the flag of this team is "Cao", the leader should be Cao Wenzhao."

"This time Cao Wenzhao did not bring Duogan Nine Battalions, and the Xiao cavalry guards followed Zhu Youjian. Arriving cavalry."

At that time, Zhu Youjian wanted to take people north to catch up, and the thawing river would delay them for a day or two, allowing the Jin army to withdraw calmly.

If it is hot summer now, then after the Duoerbi River melts, the Ming army can easily deploy defenses on the north bank and wait for work at leisure.

"Counting the civilian husbands, it is estimated that there are 8 or [-] of them."

"It's not Cao Wenzhao...he's not that young."

However, Huang Taiji looked further than Daishan.

He asked calmly, but the sentry rider lowered his head even more: "More than a hundred people died in the flag Ding, more than two hundred people died in the Han camp, and more than a thousand women and children were killed."

He had timed it right, and soon after he crossed the Duo'erbi River, the Duo'erbi River would thaw out.

"Not so many, there are really so many people, even Zhu Youjian can't afford it."

"Including the Tang cavalry stationed in Shibao, the Ming army dispatched at least three cavalry guards and three infantry guards."

Daishan and others couldn't help admiring that so much information could be captured in limited information.

Mangurtai, who led the former army, saw a flock of birds flying out of the woods to the southwest of him, and immediately turned his head to Abate, who was beside him, and ordered:
"The Ming army came from the southwest, ready to meet the enemy."

"It's a little troublesome..."

More than [-] cavalry are too many to display on the river bank. Only a thousand cavalry can show their heads, and more cavalry are still on the reverse slope of the low hill.

The night was getting dark, and the temperature also dropped sharply. Huangtai Jiha breathed out the heat, and looked at the direction of Cao Bianjiao's headquarters, which had never been lit by fire, feeling a little anxious.

"Although Dabeile led people to repel the Ming cavalry, our army still lost more than [-] carts of grain, grass, beans and hundreds of cattle and sheep..."

Daishan took two red flags and Fan Wencai's Yihan battalion as the rear army, and waited for Dorgon and Liu Aita to retreat.

"Are you sure there are [-] cavalry?"

"Then where did the remaining 3000 or even more cavalry come from?"

"Drive! Drive!"

Zhu Youjian dispatched [-] iron cavalry to garrison Beishan, which should be the limit.

"Brother, in this way, the iron cavalry of the Ming army is only fifteen miles away from us."

Although he didn't know the extent of Ming's development of Taining Mansion, the number of Ming soldiers and civilians in Duo'erbihe probably wouldn't exceed three times the number of soldiers, otherwise the Ming army's logistics pressure would be too great.

"I'll take orders!" Hearing that they could harass the truck, many people became eager, forgetting that Cao Bianjiao scolded them and embarrassed them earlier.

However, a small mistake doesn't mean anything, it doesn't affect the overall situation, and Huang Taiji is also doomed to fail to break through.

Similarly, Dai Shan of the rear army carefully directed women and children to keep up with the Chinese army.

More than [-] riders were busy for a quarter of an hour, and then they began to cross the river cautiously.

Running out of time, Cao Bianjiao closed his pocket watch, ordered calmly, and then set an example by himself, got off the horse and wrapped the horse with a non-slip coarse cloth.

"The cavalry of the Ming army are mainly the four cavalry guards, the Shangzhi guards, the sentry cavalry of each battalion, and Cao Wenzhao's Duogan Ninth Battalion."

The advantage is that the Duoerbi River will not thaw too quickly, but the disadvantage is that the temperature will not be too high tomorrow.

"Northeast!" Seeing the sound of arrows sounding from the sky in the distance, Cao Bianjiao yelled, and then led his cavalry to rush towards the northeast.

Many nobles are well aware of this problem. Obviously, Huang Taiji is planning to use the hands of the Ming army to get rid of some old and weak.

After finishing speaking, he turned his head to look at many generals of the Ming army, ignored their embarrassing expressions, and continued to scold:
"Decree to the whole army not to harass the main force of Jianlu, women and children."

As for Cao Bianjiao who stayed behind, he took tens of thousands of cavalry to watch from the sidelines.

Although Huangtaiji and the flagmen of the Eight Banners of Jianzhou had cotton armor, cloth face armor, chain mail and other triple armor to keep warm, the Fourth Han Battalion, the Eight Banners of Mongolia, and a large number of craftsmen of women and children did not have this treatment.

In this dark night, whoever lights the fire first is the target.

Therefore, Cao Bianjiao frowned and scolded Qianhu:

Cao Bianjiao is ready to fight steadily, cooperate with his uncle to encircle and build captives, and is not ready to underestimate the enemy and advance rashly.

If the former army went to the other side of the river, the Jin army would have a foothold on the other side, and the cavalry led by Cao Wenzhao was unlikely to charge directly.

"Yes, Big Khan. According to the number of flags, it should be around [-]."

Huang Taiji's estimate is close to ten, and the only thing wrong is the configuration of the Ming army, but this is already very good.

The panicked sentry cavalry rushed from behind, ignoring some women and children who were still on their way in the dark, rushed into the camp, and knelt down on one knee by the campfire:

"Slave leave!" Hearing this, the sentry cavalry breathed a sigh of relief, got up and left after returning the salute, as for Huang Taiji, he looked in the direction of the Ming army cavalry.

"Understood, step back and tell Big Baylor to bring people into the camp early."

"The terrain here is narrow, and their more than 2 cavalry can't use it, so don't worry about them charging."

Although he couldn't see everyone's facial features clearly, he could still recognize Cao Bianjiao's young face.

"Khan, some Ming army cavalry detoured to the rear and attacked some convoys of the rear army."

"Six guards and horses, that's more than 3 people?" Mang Gurtai, who had been silent all this time, couldn't help but then added:

It's just that right now, the Jin army has to protect women and children, and its mobility has decreased, while the Ming army has no scruples. The mobility of the [-] cavalry is much higher than that of the Jin army's horse infantry.

The Jin army can use the luggage carts to form a car formation to defend against the Ming army cavalry. In this way, the Ming army cavalry can only cruise outside the formation.

Huang Taiji ordered to meet the enemy, but the Chinese army did not stop directly, but slowly approached the front army.

The function of the stone fortress is not actually to hinder the Jin army, but to allow the Jin army to divide its forces.

If the Jurchens in Jianzhou can unite as one, he will definitely choose to abandon the women and children, and lead the craftsmen and men to escape.

It wasn't that Huang Taiji abandoned the old and the weak, but that the Ming army picked the old and the weak to attack, and Huang Taiji was really "helpless".

Accompanied by the sound of rumbling horseshoes, when Cao Bianjiao crossed the low hill, what he saw was the Jianlu army in colorful clothes in the forest.

They all knew that Jianlu... was right across from them.

They wear thick cotton clothes and carry dried meat and beans with them.

As he said that, Cao Bianjiao looked down at the time: "According to the time, my uncle should have brought his troops south, and it is even more impossible for Jianlu to break through."

The Tang cavalry of the Ming army rode their horses back to the front of the formation. The horses panted heavily and exhaled white mist.

Soon, Mang Gurtai, as a vanguard officer, led [-] soldiers including the two blue banners of the former army and the Eight Mongolian Banners to set off as the former army. As a Chinese army.

However, this plan has a shortcoming, that is, whether the gold army of less than 10,000 can protect the old and weak of [-]+.

The Jin army was originally good at using high mobility to fight low mobility. In the battle of Liao Dynasty, Nurhachi relied on 10,000 horse infantry to mobilize [-]+ infantry of the Ming army.

Naturally, the changes in Jianlu were first manifested in the sentry cavalry.

With the number of horses in the Golden Army, it is relatively easy to satisfy these 10 people to ride horses to break through.

"Khan, this young general surnamed Cao is too deceitful..."

However, Cao Bianjiao knew better that what His Royal Highness wanted was to completely destroy Jianlu, not just for some women and children.

"Reporting to the general soldier, there are a large number of women and children in the army after the establishment of the captives, the number is no less than one hundred thousand, and the team stretches for dozens of miles."

Cao Bianjiao was also moved, because the beheading of the Ming army was calculated on a collective basis, and the chief general could get 30% of the silver reward, which is [-] taels.

"The Ming army came at a gallop, so they must have not carried artillery. They fought hand-to-hand, and it is unknown who will win the battle."

On the battlefield, after Huang Taiji led the Chinese army closer to the former army, he used the binoculars that had been seized for an unknown number of years to look at the Ming army on the low hill a mile away.

Huang Taiji weighed in his heart, then looked at the time, and found that there was still half an hour before You, he gritted his teeth and made up his mind:
"The army marches towards the Doerbi River, and the former army must camp on the other side of the river!"

As a result, Huang Taiji and Nurhachi did not take the usual path, and they were not prepared to fight in a joint battle, so they had to abandon the millions of acres of cultivated land that had been cultivated for seven years to break through.

Cao Bianjiao scolded the generals, but he also knew that women and children cannot attack, but there is one thing they can attack:
"Assign 3000 cavalry to search for Jianlu's luggage, and reward [-] taels for those who harass the luggage!"

In addition, although it is cold in the north, it is not as cold as it was at the beginning of the month. However, the temperature is four to five degrees below zero, and they can still persist if they report to the group to keep warm.

They couldn't see Jianlu, but when the army stopped, everyone subconsciously touched the blunderbuss hanging on the saddle.

Apparently, Huang Taiji planned to divide his troops into camp at Duoerbi River, which was less than 120 paces away.

As for the Ten Thousand and Mongolian Eight Banners cavalry who crossed the river, they successfully reached the north bank of the river after careful probing.

In Daishan's view, [-] iron cavalry are no small force on any side.

"Where is Jianlu?"

"Get ready to meet the enemy!" Huang Taiji stopped his horse, raised his whip and ordered the Chinese army to meet the enemy.

Without knowing the opponent's style of play, Huang Taiji was unwilling to be the first mover to launch an attack.

Naturally, their every move was under the observation of Cao Bianjiao, but facing Huang Taiji's effort to break through, Cao Bianjiao chose to let it go.

Mang Gurtai made a gesture to draw his sword, but was stopped by Huang Taiji:
"Don't worry about them, send the Mongolian Eight Banners to cross the river first. Our purpose is to break through the encirclement, not to fight to the death."

Cao Bianjiao felt their gazes and knew that they were there to reward silver.

Generally speaking, in this battle, Huang Taiji and Nurhachi did not expect that Zhu Youjian had set up so many stone fortresses in Beishan, Zhu Youjian did not expect that Huang Taiji would run so decisively, and Nurhachi would be willing to give up.

Huang Taiji was waiting for him to make a move, and he was also waiting for Huang Taiji to make a move.

It's a pity that the starry sky didn't appear above his head, what he could see was the sky as thick as ink.

"How many people died?"

In addition to the many days of trekking, the dried meat and sweet potatoes have been eaten up, so if you want to eat meat or rice, you have to cook on fire, so Huang Taiji has no choice.

When the Qianhu spoke, everyone looked at Cao Bianjiao.

Cao Bianjiao did not act rashly, because in this confrontation, he was sure that he could survive Huang Taiji to death.

Needless to say, the cattle and sheep were obviously snatched from Jin Jun just now.

It's just that during this waiting, the sky gradually began to darken, and the surrounding temperature also began to drop.

"Yes!" Abatai heard the words, and immediately blew the wooden whistle on his waist.

That is to say, now the Ming army can use high mobility to attack the Jin army, but the firearms of the Jin army are not as good as the Ming army, and they have fallen into a situation of being passively beaten.

However, what Huang Taiji never expected was that the Ming army actually set up so many stone fortresses in the Beishan area.

"According to the armor and flags of the soldiers and horses stationed in the stone fort, they should all be men and horses of the sixteen guards." Huang Taiji analyzed:
"In the sixteen guards of Shangzhi, each guard has 2000 cavalry, 500 short-armed musketeers, and 100 gunners."

The short-distance running made many horses unhappy, and their hooves kicked the thin snow on the low hills, revealing the dark brown land.

Huang Taiji got up, walked to the back of the luggage cart, took out the binoculars to look at it, and found that the Ming army was cooking sheep and slaughtering cattle.

"The main force that defeated Jianlu, those [-] women and children are lambs waiting to be slaughtered."

The Duo'erbi River is not considered wide, with a distance of less than 120 steps, which is only 80 meters in width in later generations, and the water depth is about [-] to [-] meters.

After they responded, [-] of the [-] iron cavalry of the Ming army were divided into [-], and ten teams were divided from them, and they made a detour behind the low hill that Jianlu could not see, preparing to find the luggage team and harass the luggage.

Two hours is enough time for Jianlu to cross the Doerbi River.

"Yes!"

"More than [-] cavalry, at least two guard cavalry."

Although the Ming Dynasty developed into the late Ming Dynasty, many people were unwilling to grow beards, but as officials, beards were still required.

Ji Erhalang opened his mouth cautiously, and Dai Shan Wenyan also asked calmly: "Should we make a breakthrough? If we can defeat the [-] cavalry, then we will be able to successfully break through."

"But if you let go of the main force of Jianlu for the sake of [-] women and children, neither you nor I can bear the responsibility."

Azig, who couldn't bear it, also joined the topic, but Huang Taiji was also very entangled at the moment.

Abatai glanced at Cao Bianjiao on the low hill, and ordered people to prepare to cross the river.

When Cao Bianjiao led his people to the south bank and was ready, he immediately released the Tangqi, and immediately broke out the competition with the Jinjun's Tangqi.

Zhang Yao, commander of the Yulin Guard, asked Cao Bianjiao, but Cao Bianjiao shook his head:
"It's useless for the former army to break through the siege. There are several stone fortresses on both sides of the road. There are many soldiers, horses and artillery around the Ala Mountain City. There are more than [-] Mongolian rangers. Even if they can't break through, they will die in this northern mountain."

What they brought was a cartload of luggage and a cartload of frozen heads.

Sima, who was in charge of recording merits, began to count, but the same news was also sent to the Jin army.

"Sorry..."

Hearing this, Cao Bianjiao glanced at his pocket watch, only to realize that it was only a moment before (13:15).

Even if one person protects ten people, in order to protect the women, children, and craftsmen from being attacked by the Ming army in Shibao, the Jin army needs to allocate more than [-] soldiers and horses.

They wanted to set up camp, but they were worried that Cao Bianjiao would lead troops to attack, so they could only surround the army with the trucks transported from the rear.

"Bang bang bang-"

Although the price of Jianlu's heads has dropped to 30 taels, you must know that Jianlu's women and children are also counted as heads, otherwise this battle would not be called Liting Sweeping Points.

But when he saw the Ming army slaughtering his own cattle and sheep for fun, he was as calm as he was, so he couldn't help cursing.

In this way, not only can this part of the burden be left behind, but the Ming army can also be blamed.

"Whoever he is, just kill him."

Not long after he gave the order, the Beishan in the dark night lit up with fire, like a lighthouse in the dark, guiding the cavalry of the Ming army and telling them the enemy's position.

This is Zhu Youjian's plan to weaken the main force of the Jin army, but his idea was to retreat with the disabled soldiers and the old and weak after the failure of the Huangtai Jihe battle, so he only left Shen Cewei as a guard.

According to the rising temperature in these weathers, Cao Bianjiao estimated that Jianlu could march until Youshi (17:[-]).

The little flag officer Tangqi reported before the battle that his beard was covered with ice slags that had been frozen after breathing.

The outgoing sentry cavalry saw a large number of assembled Ming army cavalry, and immediately turned back and reported the news to Huang Taiji.

Mang Gurtai underestimated the strength of the Ming army's development of Taining Prefecture, so he felt that there were more than 3 people, at least one person and five civilian husbands were needed to garrison troops here.

Although taking turns to report to the group to keep warm can keep everyone from freezing to death, it requires a lot of physical energy.

"This young general of the Ming army can hold his breath."

"General Xiao Cao, the former army of Jianlu wants to cross the river, so don't we care?"

"Call-"

Huang Taiji saw very clearly that Zhu Youjian could not invest so many civilians in Beishan, because one more civilian is one more ration.

But at this time, the sky also darkened. For the Jin army who were not familiar with the dark night of Beishan, they did not dare to go deep into the north bank, fearing that the Ming army would ambush them.

"The whole army is ready to cross the river and search for traces of Jianlu!"

Everyone knew it well, but no one stood up.

This means that the weather tomorrow will still be cloudy, and cloudy days will be good and bad for the Jin Army.

With Cao Bianjiao successfully leading [-] cavalry to cross the river, the battle in Beishan is about to start.

"Yes!" Hearing Huang Taiji's words, all the generals responded one after another.

"This young general is trying to hold us back. If Fan Wencheng's news is correct, then Cao Wenzhao should be in Beishan and command many troops."

Huang Taiji analyzed with a heavy heart, because he knew that Cao Wenzhao's Shangzhibuwei was the strong enemy of the Jin army.

In the face of the cavalry's face-to-face and short soldiers, the Jin army could still respond with a strong bow, but in the face of the Ming army's artillery and guns...

Thinking of this, Huang Taiji was silent.

(End of this chapter)