Chapter 50 Climbing the City Wall
At noon on the 4th, in Gaizhouwei, in the fields near Shanghatadun.

"They came again, shot an arrow and fled far away."

A servant of the Cao family led the injured Liao people back to the main force and reported what had happened to the commander-in-chief.

"Damn it, the Tartars have found our weakness."

Li Hao is very angry now, and he urgently needs a killing to calm his inner restlessness.

The current situation is this: From the evening of the 29th to noon of the 4th, this small group of cavalry had burned ten villages of the Bordered White Banner and gathered nearly 200 surrendered Liao people.

Although they collected local inferior horses in every village they passed, and added the war horses previously captured in Tashan, Jinzhou and other places, allowing everyone to march on horseback, the marching speed was still greatly reduced.

No. 1 and No. 2 were able to attack three villages and forts, but No. 3 managed to burn down two, and No. 4 only burned down one in the morning, and had not yet reached the second village and fortress.

The efficiency is not as good as in the past few days.

The soldiers of the Bordered White Banner and other banners who were patrolling along the Liaohe River had already gathered together, but they did not launch a charge at once. Instead, they sent out small teams of five or six people to move around the Ming army. Once they encountered the Ming army's reconnaissance cavalry stationed around them, they would shoot arrows at them. If they hit them, they would rush up to fight. If they missed, they would flee several miles away and wait for another opportunity to fight.

Even though Li Hao moved the reconnaissance cavalry to a distance of two or three hundred steps away from the main force, he was still unable to inflict effective damage to the Tatars, because when he chased them, the Tatars would flee in all directions, and shooting them with bows was not very efficient.

This fly-like tactic was specifically designed to defeat the Ming army that was carrying large quantities of food, wages, pack horses, and Liao people.

In order to reduce damage, the Ming army has now mixed the surrendered Liao people and fierce generals and soldiers into a team and sent them out as reconnaissance cavalry.

According to Li Hao's observation, the Tatar generals who were chasing his army should be extremely powerful commanders. They used this harassment tactic and had caused the deaths of two brave generals and soldiers, and four others were injured in the arms and thighs.

Including Zhang Cunli who was killed earlier, there have been seven cases of combat casualties.

"General, we can't go on like this. The way this group of Tartars fight is to make us shrink our reconnaissance range, and then take advantage of the fact that we don't know the location of their main force to besiege us in one fell swoop."

Cao Wenzhao also felt the pressure. In the past few days, he strongly requested his commander Li Hao to abandon the surrendered Liao people and head directly to the two blue flag garrisons in the east. Only in this way could he get rid of the patrolling Tatars along the Liaohe River and Sancha River.

"I understand your intention, but I am not being merciful. I have my own use for these surrendered Liao people. It's just that the Tartars' harassment has made my plan a little difficult."

Li Hao originally thought that after he had coerced enough surrendered Liao people, he would attack a big city where a flag owner was stationed. However, he did not expect that the plan of coercing the Liao people was broken up by a powerful figure among the Tartars just as he had just started.

Of course, the Tartar officers would never have thought that Li Hao would dare to use such a small number of people to attack the big city. Their actions were only to attack the Ming army that was carrying Liao people.

"Gou Quanzhong, Zu Kuan, both of you come here."

After calling the two marching supervisors, Li Hao asked: "What are the villages and fortresses with hundreds of households nearby?"

"There is Shanghata Dun one mile away from us, there is Dapanlingguan ten miles to the northeast, and there is Shimenguan eighteen miles to the southwest. There are many Zhengbai Banner Tartars and Liao people living in both banners."

Gou Quanzhong pointed out the approximate locations of the three villages to the commander-in-chief.

"Zhengbai Banner...how far is their leader's headquarters from us? If we set out now, when can we arrive?" Li Hao asked again.

"The Plain White Banner is under the jurisdiction of the Tartar Huang Taiji, and the banner master is stationed in Gaizhou, sixty miles west of us."

"If we march now, we can reach Gaizhou City by dusk."

The two men each provided military intelligence for the commander's reference.

After a few moments of hesitation, General Li made a decision: "Gather all the scout cavalry and advance at full speed towards Gaizhou. I will stay at Huang Taiji's house tonight."

Generally speaking, the Eight Banners leaders have residences in Liaoyang, Shenyang, and the Banner Leader's residence. I don't know if Dayu'er, who never takes a bath, married Huang Taiji, Li Hao muttered in his heart.

Cao Wenzhao was shocked when he heard this and urged: "General, we can contact the brothers in Dongjiang in four or five days. We have already moved to the territory of the Plain White Banner. Why do we have to turn back to the west? Many brothers have been injured. If we attack the big city again, there may be accidents!"

Gou Quanzhong also objected, "Master, even Liu Maocai was hit by an arrow. It may not be appropriate to attack a strong city like Gaizhou. We should follow Master Cao's advice and go east to Lushun and other places, contact the brothers in Dongjiang, and then make plans."

Huang Long and others gathered around, and this man from Nanchang supported the idea of ​​the commander Li Hao.

"Killing the Tartars for a few days is the life's work of a real man. With my martial arts skills, I am willing to follow the general to recover Gaizhou!"

He said a few words in a very literary manner, meaning that the number of Tartars killed in the past few days was enough to meet the standard of what a real man should do in his life, and killing more would be a profit, and he was willing to follow General Li to conquer Gaizhou Wei.

These words were encouraging, and Li Hao gave him a thumbs up on the spot.

Li Tianyang, Yang Shigong, Zu Kuan, Cao Bianjiao and others were eager to try. As for Wu Sangui, the direction pointed by his godfather was the direction he would go, so Li Hao didn't have to worry about it at all.

"Da Cao and Quan Zhong, there's no need to persuade me. I know you two are scared." General Li said something provocative. "At worst, I can take my brothers to kill the Tartars, and you two can go to Dongjiang to rest for a few days. As I said before, as long as I climb the city wall, Gaizhou City will be captured."

Although they did not have large equipment such as ladders and siege equipment, they brought soft ladders and iron hooks, so it was not a problem for a few people to climb to the top of the city wall.

When Cao Wenzhao heard this, he became anxious and pointed to the sky and swore that he was not a coward and was willing to join in the siege.

This group of brave generals and soldiers finalized the details of the march, and after packing up, the entire team galloped all the way towards Gaizhou City in the west.

……

Two miles east of Shanghata Dun, nearly 400 flag soldiers from various banners gathered together, led by Guwalja, Tulai and his cousin Oboi of the Bordered Yellow Banner.

"According to their marching route, the next village to be attacked should be Shanghata Dun. We will launch the attack when they attack the village. Even if we cannot kill the fierce Ming general, we must defeat their troops and kill all the main Ming soldiers!"

Tulai explained his battle plan to the Ezhen sons and nephews of each banner.

"It would be best if we could kill that damned Ming general today. If we let him continue killing people, my father's position as Jiala Ezhen would be lost."

A general of the Plain White Banner was extremely anxious because this fierce Ming general had burned down his family's manor and villages under his jurisdiction in the past two days.

"This is natural. It is our responsibility to protect the people of each banner."

Tulai comforted the man with a few words.

At this moment, a team of scouts suddenly came galloping.

The leading flagman was named Jueluo Yabulan. He hurried to his master Tulai and reported loudly:

"Masters, General Ming led everyone to the west. I think they are heading to Gaizhou."

When these words were spoken, Tu Lai and others who had already prepared for the battle were shocked. They couldn't understand what such a small number of people were doing in Gaizhou.

PS: Jueluo Yabulan was a well-known archer of the Eight Banners. You can guess who he shot in the original history.

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(End of this chapter)