Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 4 Breaking Out
Dashun Army Zhongjiying, Shuai Biaoyou Mighty General Li You rode a yellow pussy horse standing proudly outside the Chaoyang Gate, beside Li You was the Ming Dynasty general Zhou Fengwu.

Lining up behind was Li You's [-] elite cavalry.

Li You originally had [-] horse infantry outside the Chaoyang Gate, but he had to leave enough troops to deter the hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the three major battalions of the Ming army, so he could only bring [-] fine cavalry into the city.

However, Li You felt that three hundred elite riders were enough.

Because there is no need to fight this time, only to show military might.

The three hundred elite cavalry behind him were all veterans who followed him from the mountain of corpses and the sea of ​​blood. Picking out a few at random can make the hypocritical official Xungui tremble with fear.

In order to demonstrate, three hundred cavalry formed a four-way column.

It's not that the Dashun Army didn't want to form more columns,
But the opening of Chaoyangmen can only accommodate four horses in parallel.

Zhou Fengwu said: "General, I heard that the guard of Chaoyang Gate is Zhu Chunchen. This person is the top nobleman of the Puppet Ming Dynasty. When this person leads the officials of the Puppet Ming Dynasty out of the city to surrender, the General will humiliate him."

"No." Li You waved his hand and said, "The lord has issued a strict order. After entering the city, you must treat hypocritical officials and gentry with courtesy, and you must not offend the common people. Anyone who violates the order will be executed!"

Zhou Fengwu was a little embarrassed, and patted his horse on the leg.

At this time, there was a faint neighing in the Wengcheng.

"What's that sound?" Li You said, "I've never heard it before."

Zhou Fengwu frowned: "It sounds like the neighing of an elephant."

"Elephant?" Li You looked blank, "What is an elephant?"

Zhou Fengwu said: "This is an auspicious beast that a small country in the South Seas paid tribute to."

"Auspicious beast?" Li You said with a smile, "It's quite grand."

Li You took it for granted that this was a guard of honor to welcome the Dashun Army.

……

The elephant herd has been driven into the Wengcheng.

The first group of elephants has been driven into the outer corridor.

"My lord?" Gong Yonggu looked back at Chongzhen.

Chongzhen nodded slightly, and Gong Yonggu immediately shouted: "Raise the fire!"

Even with two servants holding torches, they walked behind the tail of the first group of elephants.

With a light flick of the torch, the fuses connected to the eight gunpowder barrels burst into flames.

The two servants flicked down again, and the cotton cloth soaked in kerosene that was wrapped around the tails and backs of the two elephants burst into flames.

The flames scorched the skin, and the two elephants felt the pain immediately.

Under the severe pain, the two elephants ran forward instinctively. At the beginning, the direction was a bit off, but the gate corridor that only allowed the two elephants to run side by side quickly corrected the direction of the elephants.

The two elephants immediately rushed out along the outer corridor at a faster speed.

Gong Yonggu led his men to drive the second group of elephants into the corridor of the city gate and set fire to them.

Then came the third group, the fourth group, the fifth group... All fourteen groups of elephants quickly entered the tunnel.

When the last group of elephants entered the passageway, Chongzhen raised the three-eyed blunderbuss in his hand and drew it forward, shouting: "Soldiers, follow me to break through, kill!"

……

Outside the Chaoyang Gate.

From the first group of elephants rushing out of the city gate, across the suspension bridge, and heading straight towards the formation of the Dashun Army, Li You and Zhou Fengwu already realized that something was wrong.

But it all happened so suddenly.

Li You and Zhou Fengwu only had time to move away subconsciously to the two sides.

"Be careful, hurry up..." Before Li You could finish his sentence, the first group of elephants rushed into the cavalry ranks of the Dashun Army.

An adult Asian elephant can grow to be four meters tall and weigh five tons!

And the weight of a war horse is only two to three hundred kilograms, and the weight of the cavalry will not exceed half a ton, so it is not in the same weight class as an elephant.

"Boom!" With two loud bangs,

The two cavalry captains who were the first to bear the brunt were knocked and flew backwards.

The elephants that had been burned madly by the flames continued to charge forward, and the horses that flew out also knocked over more cavalry, and the cavalry formation of the Dashun Army fell into chaos in an instant.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning.

Immediately afterwards, the second group of elephants rushed into the cavalry formation violently.

Then came the third group, the fourth group... a total of fourteen groups of elephants, except for one group that fell off the suspension bridge and fell into the moat, the remaining thirteen groups of elephants all crashed into the cavalry formation of the Dashun Army.

At this time, the cavalry formation of the Dashun Army had been trampled beyond recognition.

Of the [-] cavalrymen lined up, except for a few who reacted quickly and escaped by chance, most of the rest were knocked to the ground, and many cavalrymen died tragically under the giant hooves of the elephants!

Seeing the chaotic cavalry formation, Li You was stunned.

Zhou Fengwu was also dumbfounded, is this an elephant cavalry?It doesn't look like it either.

However, the savage charge of the elephant herd didn't stop. After trampling the cavalry of the Dashun Army into a mess, they charged violently into the formation of the three major battalions from multiple directions.

I saw that where the elephants passed by, the soldiers in the Beijing camp were in chaos like waves splitting.

The thirteen groups of fire elephants are like thirteen iron rakes, plowing out thirteen deep grooves in the ranks of the three camps, but what was plowed up in the field was dirt, but here it was flesh and blood.

This is not over yet, followed by successive explosions.

After these thirteen groups of fire elephants crashed into the depths of the three battalions' formations, they exploded one after another.

More than a hundred barrels of well-sealed gunpowder exploded continuously. While blowing up the elephant to pieces, it also cleared more than a dozen blank areas in the queue of the three battalions.

On the edge of these dozens of blank areas, there are piles of broken limbs and remains!

Seeing this cruel, bloody and chaotic scene, Li You and Zhou Fengwu were completely stunned.

What the hell kind of tactics is this?Never seen it!

And this is too cruel, right?
Just when Li You and Zhou Fengwu were at a loss, there was a sudden tide of killing from Chaoyangmen.

When I looked back anxiously, I saw four puppet cavalrymen rushing out of the city gate. The first rider was wearing a mountain armor, with a hood on his head, a torch in his left hand, and a three-eyed gun in his right.

The moment he met Li You's eyes, the cavalry general lit the three-eyed blunderbuss with the torch in his left hand, and then aimed the lit three-eyed blunderbuss on Li You's left forearm.

Li You bent down subconsciously.

I only heard a bang in my ear.

Immediately the horse hissed and fell to the ground, and Li You also fell off the horse.

Fortunately, Zhou Fengwu rode over, grabbed Li You's outstretched right hand and swung it up vigorously. Li You immediately flew into the air, and when he fell again, he had already landed on the back of Zhou Fengwu's saddle.

……

"hateful!"

Gong Yonggu held the three-eyed gun upside down, and as soon as he reined in his horse, he turned his head and chased after him.

However, just after less than ten steps, there was a sudden shout from behind: "Come back!"

When I looked back anxiously, I saw that Shengjia had rushed out of the city gate under the protection of Wang Chengen.

"Don't worry about those two bandits." Chongzhen stopped Gong Yonggu, pointed to the front and shouted, "Follow the rout of the Beijing camp and disperse the bandits outside, break out as soon as possible!"

"Yes!" Gong Yonggu agreed, and then reined in his horse and turned back.

Soon, more than [-] cavalrymen of the Ming army rushed out from the Chaoyang Gate like a tide. In fact, there were more than [-] cavalrymen, because nearly half of the cavalrymen were two people riding together.

After rushing out of the city gate, the whole team charged towards the chaotic Beijing soldiers.

Of the more than [-] Beijing soldiers outside the Chaoyang Gate, at least three-quarters were refugees or even beggars who were caught temporarily to make up the numbers, and the remaining quarter were all impostors.

How can such an army have any combat effectiveness?

After being charged by more than a dozen groups of fire elephants, and then blown up, the battalion was directly blown up.

These frightened defeated soldiers only hated their grandparents for losing two legs, and only wanted to escape as soon as possible.

Now, the five thousand thieves who were left by Li You to intimidate the three battalions also suffered disaster.

Because when the front was chaotic, the back didn't know what was going on. When the Beijing camp soldiers behind were also in chaos, it was too late to suppress the bandits.

Firstly, the number of defeated soldiers is really too much.

The second is because the distance between the two sides is too close.

By the time the bandits who suppressed the formation didn't realize it and wanted to suppress it, tens of thousands of defeated soldiers from the Beijing camp had already poured into their formation.

It is true that these Beijing soldiers are mobs.

But when hundreds of thousands of mobs ran, it was an unstoppable torrent.

The five thousand thieves resisted for less than half a quarter of an hour before they were crushed and dispersed by the endless routs of the Beijing camp, and then they also turned into routs and fled in embarrassment.

If you don't run, you will be trampled to death.

Fortunately, escaping is a traditional skill of thieves, so it is not a big problem.

Therefore, Chongzhen rushed out with "more than six hundred riders" all the way, and basically encountered no resistance, but there were still many unlucky people who fell off their horses and were scattered among the rebellious army.

A quarter of an hour later, the Jingying soldiers and the bandits completely collapsed.

"Hoo." Chongzhen reined in the horse lightly, and lowered the horse quickly.

"Call." Gong Yonggu, Wang Jiayan and other noble officials also slowed down.

The cavalry behind them also slowed down their horses one after another. The physical strength of a war horse also has its limit. After sprinting at high speed for a certain distance, they must stop to rest, or enter a jog.

After a while, Liu Wenbing who was behind also caught up.

But Zhu Chunchen, who died together with Liu Wenbing, was nowhere to be seen.

"Your Majesty!" Liu Wenbing chased up and said, "Chengguo Referendum is gone!"

Wang Jiayan, Wu Linzheng and other ministers were shocked when they heard the words. The dignified prince actually voted for the traitor?
"This traitor!" Gong Yonggu said angrily, "Your Majesty, I'm going to catch him!"

"Let him go." Chongzhen said with a smile, "Just in time, I also want to use his mouth to sue the thieves, and at the same time, I also tell the subjects of the world that although the capital has fallen, I am still alive."

"As long as I'm here, Daming's sky won't fall!"

(End of this chapter)