Chapter 104 Li Shuai is mighty
On a flat area on the west bank of the Sancha River, the corpses of the Ming cavalry were piled together. Thousands of regular bannermen had already gone ashore, leading their war horses and stepping one step at a time across the shore that had been trampled into mud.

More Tainikans, dead soldiers and civilian laborers who were temporarily pulled over to push the chariots were constantly being transported over, and along with the ships came a large number of ox carts and shield carts.

The artillery, bird guns and other firearms within the Eight Banners were also transported over. Many artillery pieces were captured from the Ming army, but there was always a shortage of gunpowder, so the Eight Banners soldiers seldom used artillery pieces.

The commander of this expedition, Amin, the leader of the Bordered Blue Banner, stopped on a hill on horseback and looked at the convoy that was in chaos due to the muddy ground.

Compared to his father Shurhaci, Amin is more like his uncle Nurhaci.

Cruel, ferocious, bloodthirsty, and will do anything to achieve his goals.

"Just chop off the fallen bondservants. Don't waste time whipping them. We have plenty of slaves to take down the Ming army camp."

Amin gave these orders to the flag bearers who were whipping the laborers.

Several messengers rushed out, shouting loudly, spreading the commander's orders to all directions.

Amin's younger brother Fengu was waiting by his side. He suggested, "The Second Beile and the Fourth Beile have fled to Shenbei, so Li Hao should be leading his army back south. We should just pretend to fight a war like the Mongols did. If we really provoke Li Hao to come out and kill us, there won't be many bannermen left."

This was a very pertinent statement, and many veteran generals from the Bordered Blue Banner and the Two Yellow Banners strongly agreed with it.

"The bannermen are all scared out of their wits. It's ok to ask them to follow the dead soldiers and supervise the battle, but it's absolutely wrong to let them rush in and fight."

"The Fourth Beile has committed serious sins, and the two white flags are almost empty. From now on, the Second Beile should be the most respected among the Beiles. As long as the bannermen and Tainikan can be protected, the banner leader Beile will be considered successful."

These Niulu and Jiala Ezhen naturally understood the thoughts of their bannermen.

The idea that the Ming army would collapse at the first blow was still firmly ingrained in the minds of many bannermen. It was just that a particularly capable Ming general had suddenly emerged in the past four or five months. The genuine bannermen were not opposed to fighting the Ming army, because if they won they would receive huge rewards, including land, bondservants, and everything else they wanted.

They just didn't dare to fight Li Hao, especially they didn't want to be close to this Ming general.

Amin turned around and looked at the many Ezhens following behind him, "Is this what you all mean?"

Everyone remained silent, but their evasive eyes showed their attitude.

Amin said nothing more, waved his hand and ordered someone to bring over a skinny Han servant.

The servant bowed his head and forced a false smile on his dull face, hoping that the ezhens would give him a thumbs up and let him go back to pushing the chariot.

He only felt at ease when he was away from these masters in armor.

Amin did not say anything, but signaled with his eyes to his brother Fengu to kill the slave.

Fingu didn't understand why, but he carried out the task happily.

He didn't have the courage to lead troops to fight Li Hao, but he had the courage to kill a bannerman.

Controlling the warhorse forward and forcing the man in front and behind him, Fengu swung his sword and a stream of blood spurted out, staining his blue armor.

"Ah, this slave doesn't know how to stay away from me. He has stained my armor."

Fingu shouted, hoping that his brother would be amused by his strange cry.

The leader of the Bordered Blue Banner ignored him and pointed at the corpse with mud on its trouser legs, saying to the crowd, "In front of the bannermen's heavy arrows, what is the difference between the Ming army and these baoyi?"

The eunuchs of each flag shook their heads, saying that there was indeed no difference, like lambs to be slaughtered, but the situation of their elite flag soldiers under Li Hao's axe was similar.

Amin asked again: "Fengu, if I send someone to lure Li Hao away and let you lead the troops to attack the Ming army camp, would you be willing to go?"

His brother was very happy. "Of course I am willing to go. They are just soldiers of the Ming army camp. They are no different from cattle and sheep. Besides, the Ming army servants are all in Haizhou City. There are not many strong soldiers in this camp on the west bank."

Fen Gu felt that his brother was concerned about him and asked him to stay away from Ming general Li Hao.

The leader of the Bordered Blue Banner looked at the ezhen of each banner and said, "I will lead the troops to urge the fire gun soldiers and the dead soldiers to hold back Li Hao. Do you dare to break through the wooden camp of the Ming soldiers?"

The generals looked at each other, wondering why the Second Prince had taken on the hardest and most tiring job, but with the opportunity of not having to fight Li Hao in front of them, no one wanted to let it go.

So they responded in unison.

Amin nodded in satisfaction, "After we break through the Ming army camp, we will get more than 10,000 strong slaves. How many people can Li Hao kill? We can just rob them and run away."

He was not being stupid, but he dared to do so after summarizing the ways in which many great generals and nobles died.

Daishan underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly, Yangguli led his troops to charge, Manggurtai was too slow to dodge, and Hauge was unlucky as he happened to be at the landing point of Ming general Li Hao.

There is no need to talk about Turushi. His style allowed him to survive until he met Li Hao, purely because he was not as good as the Ming generals he faced.

Amin was not afraid of that special trebuchet. As soon as he saw the trebuchet, he led his troops to retreat and move to another battlefield.

His subordinates are all cavalry, and the infantry pushing the catapults cannot catch up. After Shengjing City was destroyed by Li Hao, the four beiles might not even be able to save their lives. He is the only one left among the four beiles. Amin intends to take advantage of this opportunity to rob a group of Ming soldiers and consolidate his position.

The old Khan's health was deteriorating, and he only had a few months left to live. The leader of the Bordered Blue Banner had already begun to want to become independent.

He can also fight for the Khan position.

……

At the end of the afternoon and the beginning of the afternoon, the Later Jin soldiers, who had eaten fried flour, finally assembled in front of the Ming army camp.

Hundreds of shield carts were pushed to a distance of fifty steps. Although it was just a camp, the Eight Banners soldiers still deployed serious siege tactics.

The Ming army camp was generally built on the east side of a hillside, occupying from the top to the foot of the hillside. This was done to prevent the Eight Banners soldiers from intercepting the water of the Hunhe River and then flooding the Ming army camp.

Of course, in order to ensure that the camp had water to drink after the siege, the Ming army dug a ditch from the bank of the Hunhe River to the camp.

Therefore, the initial attack of the Later Jin army was not smooth. Their shield carts were either fired upon by the Ming army's muskets from a high position, or they were placed halfway up the hillside and exchanged fire with the musketeers hiding behind wooden fences.

After the two sides fired bows, arrows and firearms at each other for a while, they finally used their respective methods.

Hundreds of dead soldiers pushed two siege vehicles, trying to break into the Ming army camp.

Afterwards, seventy or eighty Tartars of the Plain Yellow Banner came to supervise the battle.

Feeling that it was time for a charge and to boost the confidence of the soldiers in each camp, Li Hao led only the seven or eight most powerful generals and 150 carefully selected elite cavalry out of the main gate of the camp and headed towards the two siege vehicles.

In order to highlight his status as the commander-in-chief, the Jinzhou general specially changed into the mountain-patterned armor and phoenix-wing helmet given by Liu Yingkun.

Senior generals of the Ming army generally had such a set, which was mainly worn in various occasions where they needed to show off their power. The purpose was to allow passers-by to distinguish between soldiers and generals at a glance.

Today is the time to boost morale, so Li Hao will not wear that kind of cloth armor so that the soldiers in the spectating camp can quickly notice him.

His idea was correct, but the enemy quickly noticed the Ming general in his beautiful new armor and the huge axe in his hand.

More than a dozen dead soldiers pushing the siege vehicle immediately fled back regardless of their lives, and were then shot to death one after another by the flag officers supervising the battle.

The remaining dead soldiers were so terrified that they could hardly stand, let alone push the cart forward.

"Stay here and don't move. Wait for me to kill these dead soldiers and then come back to call you to charge together. If anyone recognizes Amin, find him for me. I will kill him later."

All the soldiers responded in unison.

Under the gaze of thousands of eyes from both the enemy and our side of the camp, Li Hao rode his horse slowly towards the dead soldiers.

The dead soldiers were mostly armed with spears and broadswords, with few bows and arrows, so they posed limited threat to the war horses. The Jinzhou general then rode forward on horseback.

If a man was to charge into a Tatar army with infantry or cavalry archers, he would be reluctant to ride his horse, because every time he charged, a warhorse would die.

The horses' hooves moved slowly, but the psychological pressure on the dead soldiers gradually increased.

Before Li Hao could reach the two siege vehicles with an axe, the dead soldiers who could not hold on any longer dropped their weapons, knelt on the ground, and shouted loudly for surrender.

After all, retreating is impossible. Under the current situation, only surrendering to the Ming army can give us a chance of survival.

"Li Shuai is mighty!"

In the Ming army camp, a few messengers with loud voices suddenly shouted something, and then swept through this side of the camp like a surging wave, and the mighty sound was endless.

Li Hao gave a call and ordered the dead soldiers who had dropped their weapons to walk to the edge of the camp, but they were not allowed to enter the camp or get close to the wooden fence. They were only allowed to stay about ten steps away and wait until the battle was over before dealing with them.

He waved his hand, and the brave generals and soldiers who were selected to follow the charge waved their whips and shouted as they moved closer to the commander.

"Have you found where Armin is?"

The Jinzhou general asked.

Cao Bianjiao pointed to a blue flag and said, "It's probably under that flag, but I'm not sure who it belongs to."

"No matter if he is or not, just kill him first!"

Without much movement, Li Hao kicked the horse's belly with the tip of his boot and charged straight over there. The soldiers behind him spread out like his two wings and followed the commander into battle.

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(End of this chapter)