Chapter 42 No matter how small a mosquito is, it’s still meat

"It's not that we are incompetent. It's just that Li Hao rushed into the battle too fast. We only had time to shoot two rounds of arrows before he rushed into the army. We fought him in close combat."

"The Khan and the Beile knew about the bravery of the Ming general Li Hao. We fought to the last moment. Most of the bannermen died in the battle. There was really no one to surround the Ming general. Other Ming soldiers from the periphery also attacked. In order to save our bodies, we continued to fight for the Khan and then left there."

Most of the Bayara who fled to the south were Bashiku of the Bordered Yellow Banner, who had fought with Nurhaci through thick and thin. They had high status and were not afraid of taking responsibility for the defeat. They explained what had happened one by one.

"So you just sent him more than sixty heads and did nothing else?"

Although Huang Taiji was eager to have General Li Hao weaken the strength of the two yellow flags, this was not the right way to do it.

If he continues to fight like this, by the time he inherits the throne, there might only be three or four banners left out of the Eight Banners.

In fact, the entire Later Jin Dynasty relied on these core 20,000-plus armored bannermen to go out to fight. The remaining 40,000-plus men were good at guarding the city and patrolling the Liaodong and Liaonan areas, but it was a bit difficult for them to plunder the Ming territory, let alone climb ladders to attack the city.

"Reporting to the Fourth Prince, Li Hao's troops have more than 30 war horses and nearly 50 pack horses. The military fodder they carry is enough to support a round trip to the Liao River. Therefore, we speculate that they went to rob our house."

Most soldiers who can be pulled hundreds of miles away to fight in the field can understand the relationship between rations, beans and the destination.

For example, the regular military raids of the Later Jin only carried about one month's worth of food for the army, and the radius of the battle was within fifteen days' journey.

If they go to plunder beyond the fifteen-day journey and fail to rob, it will be a disaster. They have to kill some of the bondservants accompanying the army to reduce the consumption of food rations in order to keep the army from collapsing.

As for the practice of killing horses and cattle to reduce the consumption of soybean feed, that would never happen in the Later Jin Dynasty. In the minds of the Eight Banners people, bannermen were higher than livestock, and livestock were higher than bondservants.

Huang Taiji waved his hand, signaling the group of Bayalas to stop talking, and turned to his father lying on the couch.

"Khan Ama, this is roughly what happened. Although the slaves of the Bordered Yellow Banner messed things up, the responsibility is not theirs. It was the Ming general who was too brave. Please give me your instructions on how to deal with Fucha Boni and others."

Nurhaci wrapped his yellow cloak tightly around himself, stared at his eighth son for a long time with a look of disappointment, and then he uttered a few words:

"Temüjin only managed to accumulate ninety-five thousand households by the time he died, and I only managed to accumulate more than two hundred Niulu by the time I died. Letting you brothers run the family like this, four or five Niulu's Jiaqi were lost in the past few days, and dozens of my Bayalas were killed in battle."

He did not demote Bayala of the Bordered Yellow Banner immediately, but instead pushed the responsibility onto Huang Taiji who was on duty.

The Fourth Prince also knew that this was a difficult task. It was because he had encountered the tough Ming general Li Hao during his one month on duty!

"The only brave Ming general is Li Hao. The rest of the Ming soldiers dare not even cross the Sancha River. As long as we kill this Ming general, Liaoxi will be as fragile as a window paper. We can order Amin Beile to lead the army from Shenyang, bring more soldiers and horses, and make sure to shoot him to death with a rain of arrows."

Although he felt that Li Hao was a great drain on the family business he was about to inherit, Huang Taiji still hoped to kill Amin.

In the Bordered Blue Banner, the most powerful small banner leader was Jirgalang. He had a very good relationship with the Fourth Beile. As soon as Amin died, Jirgalang took over the position of banner leader of the Bordered Blue Banner.

Although the old Khan could seize the two red flags and the two yellow flags at will, the Bordered Blue Flag was Shurhaci's property and the old Khan could not interfere in this change.

Unless Jirgalang made a huge mistake, he would be deprived of his status as a small flag owner and would not be able to inherit Amin's position as flag owner.

Nurhaci stared at his eighth son who was bowing his head. "I have always been satisfied with what you do, but I have to intervene in this matter. I know Turushi's fighting ability. He can't even withstand five sword strikes. It will be difficult for Amin to lead the army to fight Li Hao."

He turned his head to look at his nephews, nieces and generals who were standing in the military tent with their hands in their sleeves, and pointed out the name that Huang Taiji least wanted to hear.

"Jirgalang, I haven't questioned you about the crime of watching Daishan Ahhun being beheaded a few days ago. This time I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself and make meritorious contributions. You lead some troops back and work with your Ahhun to besiege and kill this Ming general. Don't let him run rampant at home. Do you understand?"

Nurhaci's tone was much gentler towards his little nephew, and he even asked the two brothers Amin and Jirgalang to remain neutral on the succession to the Khanate.

Jirgalang walked past the crowd and stood in front of the old Khan. "Your Excellency, how many Niulu should I take with me? Should I leave the bondservants of the Bordered Blue Banner behind to help transport food or besiege Ningyuan City? After returning, should I first cooperate with Amin Ahun, or lead an army on my own and dispatch the remaining soldiers of the two Yellow Banners to besiege Li Hao's troops?"

He had to inquire about the authority for this operation to avoid any mistakes and extra responsibility.

"Just watch them all. They are just a few dozen Ming Dynasty soldiers. Just surround them and shoot them like hedgehogs."

Nurhaci waved his hand weakly and sent away his children, grandchildren and nephews. Jirgalang felt depressed when he received the reply and immediately realized that this matter was difficult to handle.

The responsibilities and powers are not clear, so he will have to bear the blame no matter how big it is in the future.

He secretly exchanged a glance with his cousin Huang Taiji, who, behind the Khan's back, raised three fingers.

Jirgalang understood that the Fourth Beile asked him to find him at three o'clock in the morning to discuss the matter.

The Fourth Prince has always been very opinionated, and the small leader of the Bordered Blue Banner felt much more at ease. So he walked out of the tent calmly and, accompanied by his personal guards, headed towards the Bordered Blue Banner's camp.

……

At the beginning of the afternoon on the 26th day of the first lunar month, that is, around 1:00 p.m., Li Hao led his team to the vicinity of Zhongtunso in Guangning.

This is a thousand-household fortress with similar specifications to Tashan Fort. The name Guangning Zhongtunso only appears in some official documents. In spoken language, its name is Songshan Fort.

This is also one of the battlefields of the Battle of Songjin during the Chongzhen period, where the field troops under the command of eight generals were completely defeated.

Since there was a post road from Yizhou, about eighty or ninety miles in the north, to Jinzhou, and this post road went south through Tashanbao, Ningyuanweicheng and other places, there were many bannermen stationed in Jinzhou City, but there were only about twenty bannermen and bondservants in Songshanbao.

"No matter how small a mosquito is, it's still meat. I'm determined to eat this Songshan Fort."

Li Hao looked around and first praised the twenty-five brave generals and soldiers who followed him north.

"We set out at 7:00 pm, had a meal in between, and by 5:00 pm, three hours and sixty miles, our speed has been increased."

Eighty-seven top-quality horses were collected from the group of Bayalas, and twenty-five ordinary horses were obtained from the city wall of Tashanbao. Together with the eighty-five war horses and pack horses that were already there, Li Hao's team now had a total of one hundred and ninety-seven horses. The carrying capacity was greatly increased, so they marched sixty miles in the morning.

This is Mado's advantage.

General Li himself estimated that they could advance about a hundred miles by evening today.

If there were no large number of Tartars blocking the way, he decided to lead the troops to Guangning Zhongzuo, also known as Dalinghhe Fort, and camp there overnight.

In the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, Yuan Chonghuan sent people to repair Dalinghhe Fort. Although it was not completed, the basic appearance of the city wall was there.

The Later Jin moved south quickly and did not even have time to destroy Tashan Fort, let alone Dalingh Fort.

Of course, if this group of people simply advanced along the post road, they could actually go further. But considering that there are Tatars stationed in Jinzhou, Youtun, Songshanbao, Dalinghbao and other places, Li Hao is prepared to spend two and a half days in this area this afternoon and tomorrow morning.

Complete the task of eradicating evil!

Because Li Hao eats and sleeps with these fierce generals and soldiers, and helps with the hardest tasks such as night watch, this group of people are now extremely respectful and obedient to General Li, and are full of fighting spirit.

Even the little Zhang, Zhang Cunli, who had a knife wound on his thigh, showed that he could fight on horseback.

"Give me your orders, General!"

Everyone looked at Li Hao eagerly, hoping that he would give the order to recapture Songshan Fort.

General Li smiled and waved his hand to show that there was no need to rush. "I have said many times that military discipline must be strict. The journey from now on is beyond the control of the Ming Dynasty in the past few years. How to march, when to march, how to deal with prisoners and bondservants, etc., all depend on my opinion. If you don't obey, you will be killed without mercy!"

In the future, there will be more bondservants, and Li Hao has to set some rules for them to prevent anyone from thinking that the bondservants are Han people and showing them mercy.

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(End of this chapter)