Chapter 51 Give them a chance to attack from behind
"That group of Ming troops may not be heading towards Gaizhou. Perhaps that post road is their destination. After finding it, they can follow the post road directly to Lushun."

After thinking for a moment, Tulai gave his opinion.

"I don't think so. This Ming army obviously has good reconnaissance capabilities, or there are Han Chinese from Liao in their ranks. The reason for the sudden turn should be to get rid of us. Tulai Ahun, there is no time to lose. We should also gather the bannermen who have been ambushed in various places and chase them. No matter what the situation is, we will be able to respond."

The person who spoke was Guwalja Oboi, a 17-year-old member of the Bordered Yellow Banner. He had average features and a fierce look in his eyes. Although he was still very young, the beard on his philtrum and jaw had already sprouted like weeds in late spring.

Tulai nodded and agreed with his cousin's opinion: "That makes sense. We have more men and horses, so we can split into two groups and attack together. I will lead the two yellow flags and the soldiers at home to march north of Qinghe River. Aobai, you and Wu Likan will lead the two white flags and the soldiers from other flags to march south of Qinghe River. No matter what the intentions of the Ming army are, we must wait for an opportunity to fight tonight or tomorrow morning."

Qinghe River is a small river originating near the eastern part of Dapanling Pass. It flows westward through several villages and Gaizhou City, and flows into the Liaohai Sea near Lianyun Island.

The cold wind was howling, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and it looked like there would be a heavy snowfall.

For some reason, Aobai suddenly felt an inexplicable chill.

But he was a young man after all, full of blood and vigor. After shaking his whole body, Aobai exhaled a stream of white air, and then summoned the sons and nephews of the Ezhen of each flag to come over and prepare for the afternoon march.

The soldiers at home in the two yellow flags were much more fierce and well-trained than those at home in other flags. After Tulai directed the flag bearers to communicate back and forth for two quarters of an hour, most of the matters had been prepared.

Then, nearly three hundred mounted flag bearers, with their pack horses, chased westward in the cold wind.

Aobai and Wu Likan were much more sloppy along the way. It took them half an hour to coordinate the flagmen of each banner. Compared with the northern route, the number of war horses and pack horses was a little less, but the number of flagmen and conscripted bondservants far exceeded that of the two yellow flags, reaching as many as 540.

As a result, the marching team was very long, and from a distance it looked like ants moving their house in an untidy manner.

"I heard that Prince Jirgalang has led his army across the Liao River. Calculating the days when the letter was sent, Prince's troops should have reached the south of Haizhou by now. For some reason, Second Prince Amin sent people from Shenyang to inquire about the movements of this Ming army. If we don't catch up with them today or tomorrow, the military achievement will be lost to the Bordered Blue Banner."

At the front of the southern army, Abahai, wearing a yellow cloth armor, spoke to his distant relative Guwalja Wulikean.

"I understand. This Ming army has been visited by two Beiles, so it must have a great background and must have made great military achievements. Maybe the Khan will have to visit it again in the future. We can't miss this great opportunity."

Tulai, Aobai, Wu Likan and others were all generals of the Later Jin Dynasty and nephews of Ezhen. They had not yet been informed of the glorious achievements of this group of Ming troops in Jinzhou and Youtun areas.

If they had known that the main general of this group of Ming army could disperse and defeat an entire Niulu Jia Banner, they would not have rushed to attack us so eagerly.

Aobai whipped his horse whip and said, "Tulai set out before us. I think he wants to shoot and kill this group of Ming soldiers under Gaizhou City. We can't fall too far behind. I want the head of the Ming army commander."

After saying that, he slapped the horse's butt hard and rode away.

The flag soldiers under his command followed immediately, and Wu Likan and others also ordered the flag soldiers not to fall behind, and the entire team suddenly accelerated.

……

"Tulai and Oboi?"

After hearing the two names translated by Wang Meng, Li Hao was slightly surprised.

During the march, they inevitably encountered a group of Tartar scouts. General Li led three or four fierce generals and soldiers to charge out. After chasing for two miles, they caught a Tartar who was wounded by an arrow. They brought him back and stabbed him in the asshole with a three-barreled gun.

As a result, the names of several Later Jin generals who organized the encirclement and shooting of the Ming army's reconnaissance cavalry were revealed.

"Aobai was still very young at that time. Ask again how many troops they have." Li Hao ordered Wang Meng.

Gou Quanzhong, who knows some Manchu, follows the main general. At present, only the former fierce generals and soldiers know that Gou Quanzhong can understand some Tartar spoken language.

"Okay!" Wang Meng received the order and poked the Tartar's asshole again with the three-barreled gun.

A scream was heard, and a series of words were shouted out by the Tartar.

"He said he only knew roughly that there were two to three hundred soldiers from the two yellow flags coming from Dongsheng Fort, Changning Fort, and Anshantun. These soldiers will soon be added to the camp to wear armor, and they are quite powerful. The rest are ordinary soldiers wearing armor at home, from all flags, mainly from the Bordered White Flag and the Plain White Flag, about three to four hundred."

Gou Quanzhong coughed lightly in response to this statement, and Li Hao knew that there was no major problem with Wang Meng's translation.

"Forget about them, Wang Meng. Cut off his head. In the future, the imperial reward from this head will be divided equally among the few of you."

After getting the truth, he mounted his horse and prepared to lead his men to catch up with the main force. Interrogating the Tartar had taken up a lot of time. "General, these Tartars should be a few miles behind us. Why don't we turn back and kill them? It won't take much time, so that they won't attack us from both sides when we attack the city," Zu Kuan suggested.

Li Hao waved his hand and said, "It doesn't matter. I was just worried that they wouldn't come. As long as we attack the city at dark, they will definitely think this is a good opportunity to attack us from behind. Then I will counter-encircle them and see who will attack whom."

[Clearance rate: 0.2731%]

[HP: 562|576]

The ten villages and fortresses brought him nearly two thousand four hundred kills, so his health limit reached five hundred.

According to a rough calculation, he can now fire nearly a hundred beryllium arrows, which should be enough to enable him to kill two or three complete Niulu on horseback alone.

Oboi and his cousin arrived at the right time. If more bannermen came, Li Hao would have considered running away.

Anyway, Liaodong and Liaonan are so big, there can be villages burned everywhere.
After leading his men back to the main force, General Li ordered these Han people from Liao to speed up their march. Finally, at the second quarter of the evening, they arrived at a manor two miles away from Gaizhou City.

This kind of manor was an ancillary property of Niulu Ezhen, Jiala Ezhen, etc., and was usually composed of thirteen able-bodied men and seven cows. Each manor had a total of 500 acres of land.

Among them, 400 acres were allocated to each able-bodied man for planting, and only a certain proportion of the grain obtained needed to be paid to the Niulu master. The remaining 100 acres were planted by all the able-bodied men together, and the crops planted were generally beans, fennel, cotton and other crops needed by the Ezhen people.

Attacking the manor was much easier. It took Li Hao a quarter of an hour to kill the manor head's servants who dared to resist and the three-headed flag Tartars stationed there.

The remaining twelve able-bodied men and their families knelt in an orderly manner. Considering that a great war was imminent, Li Hao spared their lives and incorporated them into the siege team.

What followed was intensive preparations. Wu Sangui, Zhu Yingtai, Wang Meng and others organized the Han people in Liao to cook. Cao Wenzhao brought a group of people to gather together the ox carts and handcarts looted from the manor to see if they could make something resembling a wooden ladder before it got completely dark.

Li Hao took the time to sharpen his battle axes. Although he had two square axes, after the fierce battles in the past few days, the blade of one of them had become jagged and bumpy, and was about to be retired.

This is the territory of the Later Jin Dynasty, and it is not easy to find some weapons that suit you, so General Li decided to let the old axe fight for the last round.

Of course, in order to prevent the old axe from breaking halfway through the chopping, he also sharpened the new axe.

At the first watch of the night, the group was finally ready, and under the cover of night, they arrived outside Gaizhou city with their families.

There was only one set of siege equipment, so Cao Wenzhao and his men brought out a simple ladder that was long enough to reach the top of the city wall, which was about two and a half meters high.

Obviously, the Zhengbai Banner Tartars in Gaizhou City had already known about the changes in the manor outside the city. Torches were lit early on the city walls, and there were many armored Tartars patrolling back and forth.

By the time the flag bearer on duty discovered that someone had attacked the city, there were more torches on the east wall.

"Brothers, it's time for another archery competition. For every Tartar shot down, I will reward you with a Bayala head."

The pursuers of Tulai, Aobai and others had not appeared yet, so Li Hao decided to give them a chance to attack him from behind. So he did not order anyone to build a ladder, but instead took his men to guard at a distance of fifty steps from the city and started a new round of archery competition.

……

"Master Tulai, the Ming army is about to attack the city and has already formed a battle line outside the city. Master Aobai has not arrived yet."

One mile east of Gaizhou City, the scout Yabulan reported the military intelligence he had discovered to Guarja Tulai.

"This Ming general is really brave. With such a small number of people, he can't even fill a doorway, but he dares to lead his men to charge to the city."

Tulai smiled silently. He really couldn't understand how such a muddleheaded person grew up.

But it doesn’t matter whether you understand it or not. It would be best to launch a surprise attack on the rear while the enemy is attacking the city.

"Send a message to Oboi, order him to speed up and join the battle as soon as he reaches the city. The whole army should advance at full speed and kill this group of Ming troops in one blow."

Tulai first sent someone to give Aobai in the south an order to fight as soon as they arrived in the city, and then led his army directly to the battlefield.

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(End of this chapter)