Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 459
The north wind was bitter, and when the Ming and Jin armies retreated, the entire hilly highland was already covered with corpses, and the whole plain was stained red with blood.

The Ming army withdrew to Xishan Fort and Beishan Fort respectively, while the Jin army obtained this hilly plain, although it cost a lot.

"..."

When the fighting ceased for a while, Huang Taiji commanded women and children to rush to the hills and plains to clean up the corpses, pull off their armor, burn the corpses of their own soldiers who died in battle, and let their relatives hold their ashes in water bags and wait to break out.

In order to prevent the plague, a large number of corpses were burned, so that the already gloomy sky became even more gloomy, billowing thick smoke brought down the ashes like snowflakes, and suddenly a sad atmosphere filled the plain.

I don't know who started crying first, so that the crying in the follow-up blockbuster continued.

Huang Taiji was stationed on the Ma Plain, and the scene he saw in front of him may never be erased from his memory in this life.

Today's battle may be among the top ten beheadings in a single day in the history of ancient warfare.

"The inventory is over..."

Daishan, Manggurtai, Jierhalang, Dorgon, Duoduo and others rode to Huang Taiji's side.

They are like eggplants beaten by frost, and their spirits are sluggish.

"The Ming army left the corpses of 340 people, we..."

Dai Shan paused for a moment, seeming to be hesitant to speak, but in the end he bit the bullet and said:

"There are still more than 200 people in the two yellow flags, more than 3000 people in the Mongolian Rangers, more than 200 people in the two white flags, more than 1000 people in the two red flags, and [-] people in the Fourth Han Battalion. More than [-] people, more than [-] people from the two blue flags."

"The front army, the middle army, and the rear army are less than 5 people..."

After Daishan finished speaking, the atmosphere around him instantly froze.

It must be known that before they crossed the river, there were still more than [-] people in the army.

In just one day and one night, or even one day, they lost a quarter of their soldiers and horses. Who can accept this?
"Beep--"

When the atmosphere was low, the whistle of the sentry cavalry sounded, and a group of sentry cavalry came on horseback. After arriving in front of everyone, the sentry cavalry got off their horses and saluted Huang Taiji:
"Big Khan, Minggou built fortifications at Xishan Fort and Beishan Fort. The Habayashi Guard cavalry retreated to the east mountain pass, the Tiance Guard cavalry guarded the river valley, and three other 2000-man cavalry deployed defenses on the southern pass."

"Are they going to trap us to death?" Mang Gurtai looked at Huang Taiji worriedly. Obviously, without soldiers and horses, he had no right to speak.

However, Huang Taiji did not blame Mangurtai, but asked:
"Who is guarding Xishan Fort and Beishan Fort? Where is Wuli Fort?"

"Looking at the banners, Xishan Fort and Wuli Fort are both gods guards, but Beishan Fort is personally occupied by Cao Wenzhao, and Cao Bianjiao is also camping on the highland hills. The two sides are horns of each other."

The sentinel reported the information he found one by one, which made Huang Taiji's face very ugly.

"Come on, let's go and see!"

In order to make specific arrangements, Huang Taiji led people to the front line, and the first thing to check was the arrangement of Xishan Fort.

They used binoculars to observe the battlefield on the plain three miles away from Xishan Fort, and saw barbed wire fences, horse-repelling horses, and horn walls all being moved to the battlefield beside Xishan Fort in the distance. See the misty cooking smoke.

Behind them, there are about [-] artillery pieces, probably arranged by Cao Wenzhao.

Next to the artillery position, there are carts of pickled heads.

The heads of the cars had different expressions. The Ming army didn't close their eyes for them, as if to show off, they turned them in the direction of the Jin army, creepy...

Huang Taiji felt terrified, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he went to Beishan Fort, then turned back to Wuli Fort, and the rear army to observe.

He can judge decisively that after this day's bloody battle, the Ming army has changed its policy and is preparing to adopt the tactic of defending and besieging the Jin army.

"How much food and grass do we have, and how long will it last?"

After realizing Cao Wenzhao's intention, Huang Taiji asked Ji Erhalang, and Jierhalang replied quickly after hearing the words:
"The rear army was attacked and harassed, and the Ming army burned a lot of food and grass, but we suffered a lot of casualties. If we really count, it is still enough to feed for five months."

"Five months..."

Hearing this time, Huang Taiji calmed down a little.

Right now it is only March [-]th, and it will be August [-]th in five months. Beishan has not yet entered winter, and there is still hope for breaking through.

"Distribute all the collected armor to healthy women in Jianzhou."

Huang Taiji was at his wit's end, and was going to drag some of the more robust women from the Jianzhou Jurchen into the battlefield.

In this regard, no one has any objection, because they all know that the women in Jianzhou are also very good at fishing and hunting. They may not be able to beat the Ming army with short-handed soldiers, but there is no problem with confrontation.

When the war has reached such a point, it is inevitable for women to go to the battlefield.

When they die, children under the age of 13 will also go to the battlefield. This is war...

"At this location, the artillery from the various stone fortresses of the Ming army can't hit us, so we can rest overnight."

Huang Taiji looked at the evening sky, and could only stay on the complex terrain of hills, highlands, plains, and river valleys.

They had to keep people in the valley, because there were no wells in the hilly highlands, and there was a small river in the valley.

Even if the Ming army dug up the small river, the abundant groundwater in the valley could guarantee drinking water for more than [-] of them.

Thinking of this, Huang Taiji looked at the Xishan Fort in the distance, feeling extremely heavy...

"Our army killed 170 and 320 people, and wounded 430 and [-], of which [-] and [-] were seriously injured."

"Today's fierce battle has resulted in a total reduction of 610 people from all armies."

In Beishan Fort, when Cao Wenzhao took a hot bath and sat at the head of the meeting hall of Hundred Households in the Fort, Cao Bianjiao lowered his head and reported today's battle situation.

Inside the fort, the commanders of the Six Guards including Cao Wenzhao, Cao Bianjiao, Liu Bian, and Shen Chaofeng were all there, and thirty thousand households from the six guards were also listening in the courtyard outside the house.

When the number of casualties was reported, everyone couldn't help but twitch their eyes.

Before the war, the Ming army had a total of 500 troops in the river valley, but after the war, it dropped sharply to more than [-]. In addition to the dead and wounded soldiers, there were nearly [-] missing soldiers. .

It is probably difficult for these missing soldiers to survive, so it is really counted that the death toll of the Ming army reached 5000.

5000 people were killed in battle in a single day, four years after the apocalypse, it can be said that the military governor's government would not dare to bear the casualties.

Not to mention Cao Wenzhao, but all the governors of the Five Armies Governor's Mansion, including Zhu Youjian, whoever suffered such casualties in a single day would have to be demoted to at least three ranks.

Fortunately, the Ming army had more than 1 heads, plus some unharvested corpses on the battlefield, it is estimated that it could reach [-]. have to be dismissed.

In terms of the battle damage ratio, Ming Jin has basically reached a battle damage ratio of one to three, and the casualties of both sides are one-sixth and one-fourth of their own respectively.

However, if the 2000 people killed by Shence Guards are excluded, the actual battle loss ratio between Ming and Jin is at most 1.2:1.

Such a battle ratio made Cao Wenzhao a little uncomfortable. Even though they were outnumbered, he still couldn't help but belittle himself:

"In this battle, Jianlu was able to produce tens of thousands of blunderbusses. This is something I never expected. I will report to His Highness and demote myself to three ranks."

"Uncle, this is not a crime of war. The Jin army has a large number of people, and our army can kill tens of thousands with a small number. It is not bad..." Cao Bianjiao couldn't help comforting, but he also knew that self-deprecation inevitable.

What he was worried about was that Cao Wenzhao's failure would cause the war to be delayed.

Fortunately, Cao Wenzhao is not as fragile as he thought. After all, he also followed Zhu Youjian in the battle of restoring the Liao Dynasty. He experienced the great battle of building [-] captives and attacking more than [-] Ming troops. He knows that the battlefield dominates. The power is still with them.

Therefore, Cao Wenzhao raised his hand to signal Cao Bianjiao not to speak, but looked at Liu Bian:
"Apocalypse Eleven Type Rifle, how many Shence Guards do you have?"

"There are 1000 in total, only [-] have arrived on the battlefield so far, and another [-] are scattered in the hands of the god strategy guards in various stone castles. The time is too short, and I have no time to gather them, so I will bring [-] people first. Ambush Mangurtai."

Liu Bian explained why he only brought 1000 people to the battlefield. By the way, after explaining, he also explained:
"Although there are 15 rifles, there are only [-] rifle cartridges."

"On average, each soldier has less than sixty bullets..."

"Transfer our gunpowder and bullets to Shen Cewei." Cao Wenzhao heard the words, and ordered directly without any explanation. Seeing this, Liu Bian hurriedly explained:

"General Soldier, the bullets of the Apocalypse Eleven Type are different from those of the rifle."

After speaking, Liu Bian explained the difference between the two bullets, and Cao Wenzhao and others couldn't help frowning after hearing the explanation.

"In other words, even if these two thousand and six hundred people get together, they can only fight a tough battle?"

Although Cao Wenzhao was a martial artist, Zhu Youjian often asked him to read books, especially basic mathematics books such as "Yanshan Arithmetic".

He couldn't see it very well, but Hao Lai still saw a third of it, so he could easily calculate a number.

After the production of pocket watches, Zhu Youjian unified the written time of Ming Dynasty, that is, units such as year, month, day, twelve o'clock, eight quarters of an hour, 15 minutes, and 60 seconds.

Liu Bian said that the Shence guards can fire ten rounds of bullets in one minute, and the bullets that are less than sixty can only fire for six minutes.

In other words, Shence Guards can only be dispatched to the battlefield for 6 minutes.

For such a short period of time, it can be said that it is insignificant for a battlefield that often fights for several hours.

"Although we can only fight one game, 15 rounds of bullets can be fired in this game. Even if only one-tenth of the bullets hit the Jianlu, it can kill 5000 Jianlu."

Facing Cao Wenzhao's concerns, Liu Bian said proudly: "What's more, in today's battle, our army fired 15 bullets and killed tens of thousands of Jianlu, and 2 bullets can kill at least [-] Jianlu. Many people."

In fact, what Liu Bian said was a bit modest. If the two thousand and 600 guards with magic tactics were to fight the Jin army head-on under the cover of a large army, then the number of Jin troops they could kill could reach [-] or even more. many.

However, Cao Bianjiao next to him also took the opportunity to say:

"In today's battle, tens of thousands of Jianlu were beheaded. I am afraid that Huang Taiji will jump off the wall in a hurry and let women and children join the battle."

"It's not impossible..." Cao Wenzhao also nodded thoughtfully.

After a moment of silence, he looked up at Shen Chaofeng: "Guo Sangdai and the others are still a few days away from here?"

"At least two days!" Shen Chao bowed in response, and Cao Wenzhao looked at Liu Bian again:

"Didn't Beizhili arrange the supply of bullets?"

"It has been arranged. In February, the officials of the Ordnance Institute replied that the 42 rounds of ammunition produced before February [-] had already arrived on the battlefield." Liu Bian replied first, and then explained the response;

"People from the Ordnance Bureau said that the machinery and equipment of the Ordnance Bureau are insufficient, and the current production capacity is only [-]% of the expected production capacity, so the daily output of ammunition is only [-] rounds, and [-] rifles."

"After the war broke out on the first day of March, the minister in charge of the Ordnance Bureau wrote to me."

"The 17 rounds of ammunition and 360 rifles produced from February [-]th to March [-]st have all been escorted northward."

"After that, every ten days, the Ordnance Bureau will escort no less than [-] rounds and [-] bullets and rifles to the north."

"But..." At this point, Liu Bian was also a little upset:
"It's [-] miles from the Ordnance Bureau to this place. Even if the convoy is as fast as two horses per cart, it can only march [-] miles a day. It's only been [-] days. I'm afraid they haven't even arrived in Taining County. It will take at least a month to reach the battlefield."

The logistics were too long, and the war broke out in a hurry, so that many military supplies failed to keep up. This is the disadvantage of the Ming army in this battle.

In Zhu Youjian's original plan, if the war broke out on the first day of June, with the continuous increase of machinery and equipment, the production capacity of the Ordnance Bureau could barely reach one-third of the estimated production capacity, and at least three The guard's equipment has no less than 300 million rounds of ammunition, ensuring that each soldier has two hundred rounds of ammunition in his hand.

As a result, the war broke out four months ahead of schedule, and the production capacity of the Ordnance Institute was only one-tenth of the preset production capacity. It was the result of three shifts to be able to equip [-] rifles, not to mention bullets.

Manufacturing metal fixed ammunition is not difficult for the Armament Academy. After all, the primer has been produced. Although black powder is not as powerful as smokeless powder, it is enough to propel the warhead.

The reason why Shence Guards are not equipped with metal fixed-loading ammunition is that the difficulty lies in the lack of mechanical equipment.

The mechanical equipment for metal fixed ammunition was only developed in the middle of last year with the success of the percussion gun. The equipment is still being calibrated and tested, and it will not be put into the factory until the end of the year at least.

If it is made by hand, it will take too much energy. It takes one person to make a metal fixed ammunition, enough time for him to make ten rounds of paper shell fixed ammunition, so Zhu Youjian uses paper fixed ammunition to make the transition.

Although the paper fixed-load ammunition will leave a lot of residue in the barrel after use, but for the current Ming army, the number of bullets on its own side will not last until then.

In other words, the current percussion gun is actually a broken version, because it lacks metal fixed ammunition.

But even so, in the bloody battle in Beishan, it still shined brilliantly, making both the Ming and Jin armies fear it.

Its appearance represents the end of the era of cold weapons.

It only needs to equip 5 soldiers with percussion guns and plenty of ammunition, and these 90 soldiers can even defeat the [-] Ming army, which is currently known as invincible, head-on on the battlefield in a province.

Brave generals such as Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao felt a little disappointed when they thought of the bravery of firing their guns during the day.

After the percussion gun appeared, Cao Bianjiao charged straight into the formation of the Golden Army, and Huang Taiji's bravery was instantly eclipsed.

"Let's stick to it for the time being. Tomorrow, Huang Taiji will test which direction is easier to break through. Let's stick to it until Guo Sangdai arrives, and then launch a general attack."

Cao Wenzhao absent-mindedly issued the military order for the meeting, and Liu Bian and others responded one after another. After seeing that he had no other arrangements, they retreated one after another.

After everyone retreated, Cao Bianjiao said to him:
"Uncle lamenting the power of the rifle?"

"No..." Cao Wenzhao stroked his hair: "I was thinking that Huang Taiji is indeed a difficult opponent."

"If Sun Jinglue, Mandu Dudu, and Hong Jinglue were here, or if His Highness personally commanded, I am afraid that Huang Taiji would be defeated today."

"Fighting against him, I still can't command the army. I am afraid that the reason why His Highness only sent seven guards to me is because of my ability."

Cao Wenzhao is very clear about his ability. Although he talks about commanding eight guards, in fact his ability is at most commanding four or five guards, and he can't see more.

Just like today, Huang Taiji was keenly aware of the loopholes in his command and let Dorgon lead his troops to break in.

If the riflemen in the back row hadn't responded in a timely manner, the riflemen in the front row would be attacked on the flanks, and the entire army of four thousand riflemen in the front would be wiped out.

Cao Wenzhao understood Zhu Youjian's thoughts, and to put it bluntly, he was training him.

Zhu Youjian has steps in cultivating people, whether it is Man Gui, Sun Yingyuan, Sun Chuanting, Cao Wenzhao and others...

Once Zhu Youjian wants to train them, he usually starts them from the bottom generals.

When they can master these soldiers and horses, Zhu Youjian will slowly increase them.

This training method is very simple, and many kings are also using it, but they are not as good as Zhu Youjian. The point is that Zhu Youjian will flexibly find opponents for generals.

For example, Cao Meng, Sun Shoufa, Liu Bian, Shen Chaofeng and others in Shangzhi are basically civilian generals trained with Zhu Youjian from the Pingbai Lotus Sect and the first and second North Sweeps.

If the potential of this general has been tapped, he will be appointed to an important post in the mainland, such as Fan Ming, Liu Daocheng and others who once served as the four cavalry guards.

Cao Wenzhao knew that Zhu Youjian wanted to use Huang Taiji to temper himself, and he had enough self-confidence before the war, but it was a pity that he was far behind Huang Taiji.

He can be sure that if Sun Chuanting, Man Gui, and Hong Chengchou are in command of today's battle, then Huang Taiji will be defeated by at least [-] or more soldiers, and it can even be said that today is the decisive battle.

"Being able to command [-] troops is already considered a famous general. Uncle doesn't need to be humble."

Cao Bianjiao was comforting Cao Wenzhao, Cao Wenzhao also looked at him when he heard the words, and said with relief:
"Looking at it today, Jiao'er, your potential is immeasurable. I'm afraid you will become the pillar of the country in the future."

Cao Wenzhao could see clearly that his nephew was highly valued by His Highness, except for Li Dingwai, Cao Wenzhao hadn't seen anyone that His Highness cared about so much.

"My nephew is ashamed..." Cao Bianjiao humbled himself when he heard the words, which made Cao Wenzhao chuckle.

Just after chuckling, Cao Wenzhao looked around, and then said:

"Tomorrow, more than [-] cavalry from your army will be stationed on the hilly plain in the northeast of the river valley, and I will lead troops to garrison Beishan Fort."

"Tomorrow, Huang Taiji will definitely lead troops to investigate the reality of each castle, and the remaining [-] riflemen of Shence Guard will take a day to reach the battlefield."

"Tomorrow I will give Liu Bian an order to deploy [-] riflemen to support Wulibao, and the remaining [-] will be stationed in Xishanbao."

"You order Habayashi Wei, Tian Cewei, and the cavalry of the guards to guard the other river valleys."

"As long as I defend well, even if I can't beat Huang Taiji on the frontal battlefield, I can still trap them to death by defending."

Cao Wenzhao's words were a bit demoralizing, because he admitted that he couldn't beat Huang Taiji, and also admitted that the Ming army could not beat the Jin army when they took the initiative to attack. This surprised Cao Bianjiao, but Cao Bianjiao soon reacted.

Shence Guard's rifles are sharp, but their ammunition is insufficient, only 15 rounds.

It seems that with 15 rounds of ammunition, it is not a problem to deal with the Jin army with a population of [-] to [-].

But the problem is that the Jin army does not only have 20 to [-] soldiers and horses, they also have more than [-] women and children.

Once the Jin army chooses to attack with women and children and consumes the ammunition of the shence guards, then the shence guards can only meet the Jin army after running out of ammunition.

Cao Bianjiao has no doubts about whether the Jin army will use women and children to break through.

For many Jinjun, it is impossible for them to agree to use their relatives to break through, but what will happen to the women and children of the group of Jinjun who died in the battle today?
Men are pillars, whether at home or outside, or on the battlefield.

Women and children with a man can rely on them, and they don't have to go to the battlefield, but women and children without a man's protection become lambs.

Huang Taiji can use their children to persuade them to go to the battlefield and ask them to exchange their flesh and blood for their children's future.

In terms of the number of people who died in battle today, the Golden Army can pull out at least [-] to [-] healthy women, and they are enough to consume the ammunition of Shence Guards.

Although this will have an indelible blow to the morale of the Jin Army, the problem is that the Jin Army is already a trapped beast, and tens of thousands of healthy women who have nothing to do with it have died. You can only make peace with your heart for the sake of your family and your own life.

In war, what happens to the women of the defeated side?No one knows better than the healthy women in the Golden Army, after all, they have witnessed the fate of many tribal women.

As long as the children can survive, they will go to the battlefield no matter how frightened they are, and exchange their lives for that one or two bullets.

"Huang Taiji..."

Cao Bianjiao's heart sank. He didn't want to believe his uncle's words, but his rationality told him that as a person in power, Huang Taiji was very likely to do so, but he didn't believe it.

In fact, when Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao were talking, Huang Taiji had already started to do it...

　The nursing work is almost done. If there is no accident, the two shifts will resume tomorrow. As for the explosion, it is unlikely. After all, I still have work during the day...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)