Chapter 43 Liaodong Unlimited Fighting Competition

After a brief speech, General Li made tactical arrangements for capturing Songshan Fort.

He continued to use the four teams divided by Cao Wenzhao. Except for Zhang Cunli, a servant of his ancestors who was injured in the leg, the remaining brave generals and soldiers were exactly 24 people.

Huang Long, who was born as a flag commander, led five people, Li Tianyang, Zhu Yingtai, Gou Quanzhong, Yang Shigong, and Liu Maocai. This team was a fire gun team, and their main weapons were three-barreled guns, broadswords, waist swords, etc.

Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao each led a team, whose main members were their servants. Their medium and short-range weapons were a mixture of large bows and three-barreled guns, and their close-combat weapons were Cao's broadswords.

Zu Kuan, Wu Sangui, the remaining two Zu family servants, and the two Cao's servants formed a pure archery group. They were responsible for long-range archery suppression, but also had close combat capabilities.

In the subsequent battles, the Huanglong, Da Cao and Xiao Cao groups were responsible for following the main general Li Hao to clean up the battlefield, while the Zu Kuan and Wu Sangui group was responsible for the early archery suppression and encirclement and interception.

As for the parts outside of fighting, such as managing and driving horses during the march, tying up horses when camping, feeding fodder, setting up tents, cooking, taking turns to keep watch, etc., everyone takes turns to do it.

Most of these brave generals and soldiers were originally privates and had basic experience in survival in the wild. Although they had to do a little more work, they had no problem supporting the group's march northward.

"You four teams, each team blocks one door, and I'll go in and kill them."

Songshan Fort was a little more difficult to deal with than Tashan Fort because all four gates of the former were destroyed, and the garrisoned flagmen had already known about the arrival of Li Hao's group of Ming troops.

The good news is that the Tatars in the area north of Tashan are still unaware of the battle situation outside Ningyuan City. They probably only know that the great prince Daishan was killed in battle.

As for the areas actually controlled by the Later Jin east of the Liao River, the news of Daishan's death should not have spread there.

The Later Jin Dynasty did not have the express delivery shops and water horse stations that were popularized to the grassroots level like the Ming Dynasty, and the flow of information was still at the primitive tribal stage of word of mouth.

When Nurhaci went on an expedition, he often brought the prominent generals and Ezhen masters of the Eight Banners with him, leaving only Amin and some troops of the Bordered Blue Banner in Shenyang. However, Amin was a brainless Li Kui-like general, and unless there was a military deployment, the old slave would not send anyone to inform Amin of the battle situation on the front line.

This is a huge benefit for General Li.

In the two battles yesterday, the Bayaras of the Bordered Yellow Banner were obviously more ferocious. Even though about half of them were killed in the battle, they were still able to organize a siege, and more than 20 bannermen managed to escape.

The fighting spirit and organization of ordinary soldiers of the Bordered Blue Banner were much worse. Although they were able to form a formation and shoot bows under the command of their Niulu master, the army formation was almost in chaos once the master fled with his personal guards. Small leaders at the level of Bashiku failed to launch an effective small-scale counterattack, and the ordinary soldiers fought on their own.

The main reason why the Niulu of the Bordered Blue Banner performed so poorly was that they had already known in advance how brave and fierce the Ming general Li Hao was. After a close combat, they verified the rumors that Daishan was beheaded in the battle and dozens of Bayara were killed in the wild. Therefore, they no longer had the intention of gathering to resist and each used some means to escape.

Li Hao felt much more relaxed when facing these armored flag soldiers in the north who were unaware of the war in the south.

Because these people have not been defeated yet and are still in the mood to fight a fierce battle.

After the four teams sorted out their gunpowder and arrows, they headed towards Songshan Fort not far away, with their leader Li Hao as the center.

The Eight Banners defenders of Songshan Fort had long discovered the Ming cavalry that were investigating near the city, so they made preparations early.

All the armored bannermen and bondservants gathered near the city wall at the west gate of Songshan Fort. About ten of them leaned against the city wall to shoot arrows, and the rest gathered near the city gate. There were five or six people near each of the two small gates.

When they approached within seven or eight hundred steps, Li Hao and his companions had already discovered that the main defenders had gathered at the west gate, but to be on the safe side, they ordered the other three teams to encircle them.

Huang Long's team followed behind the main general.

When they were about eighty steps away from the city wall, Li Hao pulled the reins and ordered Huang Long and others to stop.

This distance is exactly the awkward distance for the Tatars defending the city. Their Qing bows cannot reach it, so if they want to shoot the invading Ming soldiers outside the city, they have to leave the city.

"It's still early today. We've almost conquered Songshan Fort, Jinzhou City, and Dalinghe Fort. We have plenty of time. Let's practice first."

Songshan Fort is about ten miles away from Jinzhou City, and Dalinghhe Fort is a little further away, about thirty miles away from Jinzhou City. It is winter now, and all roads and rivers are frozen. It takes about an hour and a half to walk these two sections of the road.

Therefore, there is still an hour of fighting time during the day. If Li Hao chases and kills them, it will probably only take a quarter of an hour to really get rid of the Tartars in Songshan Fort. Cleaning up the battlefield will only involve beheading them and taking away the horses, food, and beans here.

There is indeed plenty of time.

After Li Hao finished speaking, he handed the large bow and a pot of feather arrows on his back to the nearest Huang Long.

The warhorse under his crotch was the most majestic one captured from the group of Yellow Banner Bayalas, so General Li fixed all the weapons he could use on his body and horseback, including a giant axe, a hatchet, a short three-barreled gun, a large bow, etc. He also installed a Qing bow for horseback shooting and a corresponding pot of light beryllium arrows on the victory hook of the saddle for ready use at any time.

Most of Huang Long and Li Hao's former servants used long three-barreled guns and were not good at bows and arrows. Only Gou Quanzhong's archery skills were pretty good.

"General, you should practice archery in your spare time. Now is a good time to kill the Tartars."

After Huang Long took the bow and arrow, he did not do as General Li ordered.

"Idle time? Where is there any idle time? It is this idle-war mentality that led to the loss of Liaodong. Once the war starts, people will fight regardless of age, regardless of north or south, and regardless of time. Now we should use war instead of training, and use training to promote war."

Li Hao scolded Huang Long for his idea. Liaodong and Liaonan were about to enter the unlimited fighting competition. There were 26 contestants on their side, while there were only 300,000 Manchus and a few hundred thousand bondservants on the Later Jin side. If they did not practice archery, they would suffer a great loss.

"If you don't practice archery now, it will be too late when you encounter trouble in the future." Yang Shigong tried to smooth things over.

Huang Long had a look of shame on his face. After muttering a few words of apology, he fixed the quiver on the saddle, drew out an arrow, put it on the bow, aimed at the Tartar lying near the battlement on the wall of the city wall and shot at him.

Whoosh!
Sure enough, the arrow didn't even fly over the battlement, but hit the middle of the city wall and fell to the ground.

"Tian Yang, let's shoot an arrow and see." Li Hao ordered.

Li Tianyang, who was called upon, took the bow and quiver from Huang Long. He had no target because the Tatars on the city wall had hidden behind the battlements, so he made preparations and shot randomly at the top of the city wall.

The arrow flew over the battlements, and the final point of impact could not be seen because it was blocked by the parapet and the battlements.

The remaining four also tried to shoot an arrow each. It could be seen that the one with the best archery skills was Gou Quanzhong, who accurately shot the arrow at the flagpole of the Later Jin.

There is a five-sided yellow flag on the flagpole, with a rectangular left part and a triangle on the right part, fluttering freely in the cold wind.

"If you can't shoot people, how can you shoot down a flag?" Li Hao pointed at the flag. "Look, the flag is just a piece of cloth. If the wind blows, it will flutter. Can it really fly? I don't think so."

After saying that, Li Hao drew out his Qing bow and small halberd arrows, rode his horse forward, and approached within a distance of thirty-five steps.

Then aim and draw your bow to shoot an arrow at a dragon.

There was no surprise, the arrow hit the target, but it did not break the flagpole as Li Hao had imagined.

"Bad luck! Follow me and charge forward."

After fixing the Qing bow, he gave orders to his subordinates behind him.

If they didn't charge, the Tatars near the city gate would come out and shoot them.

……

The south gate of Tashanbao.

Early in the morning, Jirgalang took five Niulu bannermen and nearly four hundred bondservants and headed northwest for Tashanbao.

Taking into account that there were supplies along the way and the final destination was still their own territory, this team of more than 800 people only carried 500 to 600 pack horses, and each of the more than 400 flag men carried an extra war horse as a backup. Therefore, the marching speed was not low, and they traveled 70 miles in just around 3 p.m.

Of course, they were able to reach Tashanbao at this time thanks to the fact that they bypassed Ningyuan City and did not take the long route from Juehua Island to Ningyuan City and then go north along the post road. Instead, after landing on land, they went straight to Zhaiershanbao along the edge of the sea and land, and then went north to Tashanbao.

Because they had more horses but no carts, this Later Jin cavalry unit had more marching routes than the Eight Banners main formation with a large number of shield carts and ox carts.

"Heshuo Beile, the South Gate is full of dead bodies of bannermen and horses. Our people crawled in to take a look. There are no living people in the city. There are traces of fires made by the Ming army in the city wall, but the ashes are cold. I guess the Ming army left here and headed north this morning."

Jirgalang had the title of Heshuo Beile. Heshuo means place in Manchu, and Heshuo Beile together means the leader of a place.

He recalled his cousin Huang Taiji's instructions, and then ordered: "Shuo Erhui, you take 20 bannermen all the way to Shenyang and pass the news of Daishan Ahun's death to me, Ahun. Don't tell me anything else about the battle. Just pass on the Khan's order to me, Ahun, to fight and kill the Ming general Li Hao."

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(End of this chapter)