Chapter 57 I'm really dizzy now [ copies plus more for follow-up reading]

The number of able-bodied men surrendering in the city was far less than General Li had imagined.

There were more than 280 artisan households, but only 220 able-bodied men. The remaining 200 or so Tartar households consisted of about 40 young boys and 40 or 50 young men.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, look at these people. If I ran into such Tartars in the wild, I wouldn't even bother to swing my knife."

The Later Jin Dynasty's manpower was indeed insufficient. Except for those with skills, all the able-bodied men in the city were taken out to fight in battles or perform patrol missions. However, there were still quite a few able-bodied men in the villages, forts, and manors.

The good news is that there are not many able-bodied men among the remaining Tatar households.

Therefore, General Li's plan to go to people's homes to explain the principles of swordsmanship was implemented quickly.

Often the surrendered young men would climb in with a ladder, open the door, and then settle accounts one household at a time.

What Li Hao did not expect was that the Tatars outside the city arrived even faster. Just at noon, three or four complete Niulu of the Bordered Blue Banner arrived and gathered outside the west gate, probably waiting for the arrival of siege equipment.

"Cao Wenzhao, Zu Kuan, each of you take a hundred strong men and eliminate the Tartars who refuse to surrender in this city one by one. I will take the rest of the people to the west gate to teach these Blue Banner Tartars a lesson."

Amin also had to leave a lot of Niulu to guard the direction of Dongjiang, so this wave should be all the Tartars from the camp who could arrive in the next few days. After they were defeated this time, before attacking Fuzhou in the south, there should be no large group of Tartars coming to disturb the Ming army.

Therefore, Li Hao was full of fighting spirit. He planned to give Amin a hard blow to let this Second Prince feel the pain.

Even if the Bordered Blue Banner had many Niulu, they could not withstand three or four attacks a day.

……

"Open the city gates, and let the rest of the people retreat inside. Wu Sangui, you come up and take charge of the city walls."

As soon as he arrived at the west gate, Li Hao put on an attitude of opening the door to welcome guests.

The sun was very good today, at least it could illuminate the main entrance, so he decided to fight there.

He wore two layers of armor, one layer of cotton armor compacted with nine pounds of cotton, and one layer of iron armor weighing more than forty pounds. Both were new armor found in the Zhengbai Banner's arsenal and had never been used in the battlefield.

Wu Sangui, with an admiring look on his face, led the surrendered Han people into the main gate, and trotted to General Li, "Then I will hold the axe and knife for godfather and serve by his side."

Li Hao slapped his helmet and shouted, "Don't you see what time it is? If you can't manage the city walls well and let the Tartars attack, don't even mention your godfather. Can Zu Kuan, Huang Long, and the Cao brothers be saved? Do you think this is Ningyuan City?"

Xiao Wu still did not give up, "At least let me command from the foot of the city, so that I can see the majesty of my godfather."

General Li kicked him directly and said, "You will know when we clean up the battlefield later."

Wu Sangui had no choice but to run to the top of the city wall in disappointment, and arrange the defense of the city in an orderly manner with a few brave generals and soldiers.

Outside the city, the Tatar army is in formation.

Seeing that the city gate was wide open, several leaders of the Niulu Army of the Bordered Blue Banner were ready to rush in and force their way in.

Baiyintu was worried about this. "Generals, this is the conspiracy of that Ming general. He wants you to rush in and fight him. In the city wall and the gate, our archery formation cannot be deployed and we will suffer a great loss."

He tried to stop the reckless behavior of the group of flag bearers.

"Master Baiyintu, Nuyan has been shot dead by this Ming general. His bannermen must rush forward to seek revenge no matter what."

"We still have soldiers from the Black Camp, armed with spears and swords. We are not afraid of fighting in the gate. Even if we have to fight with the flag soldiers, we will wear down this Ming general."

"The Second Beile has already issued an order that whoever beheads this Ming general will be rewarded with two manors and a promotion. Which bannerman wouldn't want to receive the reward?" Several leaders of the Niulu of the Bordered Blue Banner who arrived later had long been eager to win merits. They had always looked down on Baiyintu, a well-known wimp, and therefore would not listen to his advice.

After the agreement, they sent out the Black Camp soldiers, that is, the flag soldiers of the camp who dismounted and fought on foot, one by one in the order of arrival, and rushed into the west gate city with great momentum.

When the leading officials such as Bashiku discovered that the main gate was wide open and only a Ming soldier with an axe was guarding it, the Niulu bannerman who entered first became excited. After Bashiku and his companions organized the spearmen into rows of three or four, they sent the bannermen to squeeze into the gate.

The spears are much longer than the axes, so they have the advantage in weapons.

But after five or six rows of flag soldiers rushed in, the minor officials such as Bashiku who organized the attack discovered something was wrong. It seemed that the Ming general in the doorway was not afraid of being stabbed with spears, and often every time a flag soldier stabbed him with a spear, he would be hit with an axe.

The Niulu masters who were left outside the range of muskets and bows became even more excited when they learned that the main gate was open. There were not many able-bodied men in the city, and this group of Ming troops had only twenty or thirty of them. Even if the bannermen and Ming soldiers were exchanged one for one, they could still kill all the Ming soldiers in Gaizhou city.

Therefore, they sent out all the soldiers from the Black Camp, attempting to advance step by step, slowly kill their way into the city, and then occupy the city walls.

Unfortunately, General Lee's battle axe taught them a lesson: never rush through an open city gate.

After fighting for two quarters of an hour, the gate and the inner city circle were covered with corpses. The Blue Banner Tartars were so scared of being killed that the dismounted Black Camp soldiers did not even dare to enter the inner city gate, and the cavalrymen supervising the battle from the periphery did not come in either. A strange balance was achieved in the situation.

Until the Niulu masters no longer believed in evil and forced the cavalry to dismount and enter the city to fight.

This process was quite uncomfortable for Li Hao, because he often had to be hit by several arrows before he could rush to the archer.

Fortunately, the ground in the city wall was littered with corpses, so the archers could not form a formation after entering and could only stand there and shoot on their own.

The Niulu masters kept staring at the top of the city wall, hoping that the bannermen would rush up and drive away the Han people who were not even fully armed. Unfortunately, the longer the time went on, the less likely their hope would be realized.

As waves of archery flag soldiers rushed in, there were fewer people supervising the battle, until the remaining flag soldiers in the city could no longer hold on and rushed out from the two gates, seizing horses and escaping.

Several leaders of the Niulu of the Bordered Blue Banner had no choice but to lead their personal guards to gather the fleeing bannermen. Their plan to take the Ming general's head failed, and instead they lost the heads of many bannermen.

……

On the evening of February 9th, Guangning Guard, Zhenning Fort, and the Eight Banners Central Army Headquarters.

In order to facilitate the advance of the large group of ox carts, the Eight Banners camp chose to go all the way north to Xinmin and then turn east to the post road in Shenyang.

The looting was extremely rich, but at this moment all the nobles of the Eight Banners who were summoned by the old Khan were in a bad mood because of a piece of extremely bad news.

"That Ming general led his troops to capture Gaizhou five days ago. Most of the Zhengbai Bannermen were killed and scattered. By the time the patrol officers from each banner went there, Gaizhou City was already deserted."

"Ming general Li Hao burned, killed and looted everywhere. More than a dozen large villages and forts of the Bordered White Banner were destroyed. Horses, food, and beans were all looted. Not even a sack was left."

Listening to the scouts reporting the shocking military intelligence, Huang Taiji's swollen face became redder and redder, until he could no longer bear it and fell to the ground in the tent with a thump.

A noble from the Eight Banners who knew about this shouted, "Poke the Fourth Prince's nose, and it will be fine once the blood comes out."

This really worked, and Huang Taiji woke up slowly after being poked.

"All of the Fourth Prince's relatives and servants in Gaizhou are gone."

The messenger scout put the most important one at the back. Huang Taiji was shocked when he heard it. His head tilted and he fainted again.

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(End of this chapter)