Chapter 17: Wall of Advancement
This young Ming soldier was naturally the eighteen-year-old Wu Sangui. Although he was close to his uncle Zu Dashou, he looked down on his uncle's behavior of guarding his turtle shell and not moving.

As for his more stable father Wu Xiang, the young Sangui didn't even want to look at him, so he always followed his uncle in Ningyuan City.

In his eyes, generals like Man Gui and Zhu Mei were no more than livestock. They received hundreds of taels of salary from the court every year for nothing, but the work they did was worse than that of the soldiers who built the city.

He heard that a few days ago a brave general appeared who dared to go out of the city with five or six servants to kill the Tartars. He had long wanted to make friends with him. Today, he learned that he dared to fight against the great Tartar Daishan with fifty people, and he was even more shocked.

When he saw the heroic feat of General Li leading his troops to charge directly at Daishan's camp, he felt his mouth watering and his heart pounding. So he bypassed the other generals and went to a battlement to watch intently, fearing that he would miss the scene of General Li's flag-grabbing and bravery.

"This is what I should do as a man," he murmured.

Man Gui and other Ningyuan generals were also stunned by Li Hao's behavior of leading his troops to charge into the battle.

Looking from afar on the northern wall of Ningyuanwei City, thousands of Tatar cavalry formed a seemingly unshakable wall a mile away from the city. Although the Ming troops led by Li Hao who were charging forward were also well-organized and full of momentum, the power contrast between the two sides was so great that the generals could not believe what they saw.

"There are such brave men among the Liao people." Man Gui pulled his beard and finally confirmed that this was true.

In addition to the generals, there were three or four thousand Ming soldiers of all sizes on the city wall who could see the battle situation in the north. The charge distance of two hundred steps was fleeting, but to the Ming soldiers on the city, it seemed as long as a year and several months. Under the expectation of thousands of eyes, General Li and others who went out to fight finally collided with the slightly agitated Jiannu cavalry wall.

The Ming army on the city wall far away from the battlefield could only see the two sides fighting close to each other and hear some shouting, but they could not even wave flags or shout. Fortunately, there were some alert soldiers in the camp who beat the war drums at the north gate to cheer them on.

Li Hao, the big and small Caos, the servants and other tough frontline soldiers had a different feeling. The sixty Bayara cavalry sent by the Tartars only fought with them once. A round of volleys of Qing bows caused four or five servants to be injured and dismounted, while their own bows and arrows did not cause any casualties to the enemy. After the two sides fought, the combat effectiveness of their more than fifty people was reflected. Together with Li Hao, the big and small Caos and other brave generals, they chopped down a total of fourteen and fifteen Zhajia Bayara Tartars.

Then Li Hao took advantage of the fact that the Tartars in the rear were not prepared and rushed straight to the group of Zhenghongqi Tartars with the most flags.

The enemy's chaos was expected, but the reaction speed of the Jiannu cavalry exceeded Li Hao's imagination. The motionless cavalry could better exert the power of the bow, so before they rushed to the enemy formation, two rounds of horizontal shooting and hundreds of powerful arrows were fired, resulting in the loss of eight or nine servants.

Fortunately, the Jiannu's advantage was not that great. Li Hao, with forty servants who had long been furious, as well as top-notch brave generals such as Cao Bianjiao and Cao Wenzhao, rushed to the front of the Zhenghongqi Tatar formation which also began to accelerate its charge.

Close combat was about to break out, the sound of weapons clashing was terrifying, and screams and shouts were endless.

The Eight Banners generals all had the habit of over-decorating their hats and helmets. On their helmets, the most common decorations were jade beads and gemstones.

Therefore, it is very easy to distinguish the Ezhen who leads the troops and the Beile who is the leader of the flag from thousands of Tatars.

Li Hao had already asked Cao Wenzhao to point out Daishan's appearance and the area where the formation was located, so he rushed forward while firmly locking onto the biggest target of this trip.

Before and after both sides were ready to fight, the Zhenghong Banner cavalry organized themselves into three rows, front and back. Before Li Hao and others launched the charge, Daishan and other nobles in the banner gathered in the first row, but as soon as the attack started, they quickly retreated to the second row.

Li Hao saw it for real. After colliding with a large group of Zhenghong Banner cavalry, he immediately drew his sword and chopped down a Zhajia Banner soldier who was blocking his forward momentum. Then, with the cover of the Caos around him, he rode his horse and squeezed into the second row of Tatars.

The three-layer cavalry formation of the Jiannu was charged by more than 40 people, and a bulge was formed. The Tatar cavalry on both wings took advantage of the situation to make a detour and surrounded the Ming army.

The raised area had turned into a pile of flesh, and both sides were basically unable to move. The bows and arrows that the Jiannu were good at were also ineffective, so they each used their own methods, some using knives to chop, and some using guns to stab back and forth.

There were more Tartars around Li Hao, and the space for him to move was even smaller. He couldn't even use his Ming Dynasty long sword, so he simply threw away the long sword in his right hand, took the short three-barreled gun in his left hand, and the heavy hatchet in his right hand, smashing and chopping. Most of the personal guards around the flag owner were Zhajia Bayala, and the hatchet had to be cut to the connection between the armor pieces to be effective, otherwise it would only cut a groove, and the damage to the Tartars was not as good as the smash of the gun head.

So Li Hao could only chop hard with each blow. The first blow would split the armor plate, and the second blow would make the blood come out. Fortunately, the hatchet was heavy and strong enough to swing it. The Tartar couldn't withstand the heavy blow of the second blow on the neck.

On Li Hao's right side, Cao Bianjiao, wielding a broadsword with both hands, was like a fish in water. The standard waist knife of the Jiannu could not stop his broadsword at all. Often, when a Tartar raised his knife to fight back, he would be chopped off with his arm and the knife. Sometimes, Cao Bianjiao could not control his strength and even the Tartar's warhorse under his crotch would be hit by the knife.

Cao Wenzhao and several of his servants were not far to the left of Li Hao. These men were much more experienced on the battlefield. They huddled together to make sure there were only their own people behind them, and then they wielded their swords to kill.

They cleared the situation quickly and almost all the Tartars on the nearby side were killed. The Tartars a little further away could not come over on their horses, so they prepared to shoot with arrows. Cao Wenzhao reacted quickly and ordered the servants on his left and right to keep killing.

"General Li, you have to charge out first." Da Cao did not forget to remind Li Hao and others who were enjoying chopping.

"I understand. If we chop down these few, we can kill our way through the enemy formation."

Among the ten servants assigned by Man Gui, the leader was a servant of a flag chief named Ji. The commander-in-chief was only concerned with killing enemies, but this Ji flag chief was quite responsible and followed Li Hao to gather the servants of other generals.

As it happened, the Tartars around Li Hao and Cao Bianjiao had been almost dealt with by the two of them, and there were no Tartars to kill in Ji Banner, so he took over the command and, by shouting back and forth, ensured that the Ming army maintained a flat circle formation and was not torn apart by the Zhenghong Banner Tartars.

This group of Ming troops came with great force. Although Daishan, the great prince, was also famous for his bravery, he was not as fearless as Ajige, Manggurtai and others. He retreated to the protection circle of his own guards early, and commanded the various Niulu of the Zhenghong Banner in Manchu to complete the encirclement and suppression.

However, he did not expect that the Ming army would charge so resolutely, using a life-or-death and invincible style of fighting, and rushed straight to the front of his personal guards.

Daishan was a little timid because of this. He drew out his sword with a ruby ​​on the hilt and slowly rode his horse backwards. However, the horse under his crotch was also caught up in the army formation and he had no way to retreat. The guards around him were chopped down one by one. When the Ming army really rushed to him, he could only shout loudly and use his sword to block the knife that was coming towards him.

"Cao Bianjiao, Daishan is mine, so you better cut him off."

As Li Hao squeezed in front of Daishan, Cao Bianjiao slashed at the leader of the Zhenghong Banner with his sword. Fortunately, Daishan reacted in time and raised his sword to block, but then Cao Bianjiao chopped off his sword.

Li Qianzong was greatly alarmed by this, and while shouting loudly, he smashed the big Tartar Daishan with the head of his gun.

"Does killing the Tartars involve you and me?" Cao Bianjiao was not willing to be outdone, and slashed at the Tartar with his broadsword again. Fortunately, a cloth-covered dark-armored flagman squeezed over from the left rear of Daishan and blocked the knife for his master.

The leader of the Zhenghong Banner used a broken half of his sword to block Li Hao's short three-barreled gun, but he didn't expect that the brave general in front of him also had a hatchet, so he could only watch the hatchet chop down his neck.

The neck guard of the great prince was naturally not comparable to that of an ordinary soldier. Li Hao's slash only left a scar. Daishan took the opportunity to dodge backwards, preparing to jump onto the horse of the personal guard behind him.

Li Hao seized the opportunity and swung his gun head hard at Daishan's iron helmet, and the red jade inlaid on the helmet needle of the gorgeous iron helmet was smashed into pieces.

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(End of this chapter)