The suspicious Nurhachi was worried that the Ming army coming from the upper reaches would disrupt his encirclement and annihilation of Juniper, so he ordered the fourth son, Tang Gu, the lord of the yellow flag, to lead his troops to intercept him.

At this time, the rest of the Ming troops on the opposite bank who had not crossed the river heard the sound of artillery from the upstream, and they also took action to push out the artillery trucks in the battalion and shell them towards the opposite bank.

Because of the night and distance, some of the shells fired by the Ming army before crossing the river fell on their own camp, but they also caused certain casualties and impact on the Jin army.

The rumbling sound of artillery gave the Ming army crossing the river the courage and confidence to persevere.

Juniper, who was fighting to the death with the Jin army, found that there were soldiers upstream, and thought that it was Gong Niansui, a general who had not crossed the river, and others risked their lives to save the pontoon, and his heart was very moved.

Seeing that the Jin army divided its troops to intercept it, he decisively grasped the fighter plane, and ordered Wang Xuan, Zhao Mengxuan, Zhang Daji, Chai Guodong and other generals to march forward in formation, and shouted the slogan "Capture Nurhachi alive", creating the appearance that the Ming army echoed on both sides and was anti-guest.

Although the army did not carry artillery, the Chai Department relied on the advantage of firearms, so that the Jin army that charged into the formation suffered a lot of losses.

Juniper's decisive command made the morale of the Ming army, which was initially thought to be defeated, very strong, although there were Jiannu attacks from all directions, but all the troops held their camp and did not waver. The generals who led the army also took the lead and fought bravely.

Late at night, although it hid the Jin army very well, it also gave the Jin army great trouble. After half an hour of fighting, Nurhachi saw that the Ming army was still fighting to the death, knowing that the fighter had died, and it was impossible to annihilate the Juniper Department tonight.

But he was not discouraged, and only ordered the banners to cover the retreat, luring the Ming army deeper and then choosing an opportunity to annihilate the enemy.

The retreat of the Jin army made the Ming army rejoice, and the various units took advantage of the situation to advance for more than ten miles, successively captured the two military villages hidden in the valley of the Jin army, and captured 14 Jin soldiers.

However, the Ming army could not advance any further, and the fierce battle was so fierce that the officers and soldiers were exhausted. Even if he is as brave as juniper, he still feels sore shoulders and arms at this moment.

Juniper ordered all units not to advance again, and to camp in place to be on guard, and to act after dawn.

After dawn, Siye was no longer in sight of the Jin army. After counting, the Ming army, together with the soldiers who were washed away by the water, lost more than 4,000 soldiers last night, while the Jin army left only more than 700 corpses.

The losses in the first battle were so heavy that some of the Ming generals felt very heavy about the next battle.

But Juniper comforted the generals and said: "There is no need to do this, our army fought last night, and its morale was all setbacks, but it was able to make the slave army return without success, which is enough to prove that our army's combat effectiveness is higher than that of the slave army." After the next battle, our army will definitely be able to wipe out slaves in one fell swoop! ”

Later, Juniper personally met with Xu Xianchun, who forced the slave army to divide his troops with suspicious soldiers at a critical time last night, and praised his brave act last night, saying that he should repay the slave thieves after he put down them.

Xu Xianchun thanked Jun Song, and replied that his troops and Gong soldiers had lost more than half of their troops last night, and he did not ask for anything else, but only asked General Du to ask for mercy from the court for the fallen soldiers, so that the dead would not be blinded, and the living would not be cold.

Juniper promised.

Xu Xianchun also said that now that the Jiannu army has retreated, his troops can immediately repair the pontoon bridge and cross the river in all the departments that have not crossed the river.

In this way, the army can set up a large camp on the east bank, and immediately send the information that the main forces of Jiannu are gathered in the area of Salhu to the Malin Department on the North Road and the Liu Ling Department on the East Road, requesting that the Second Division can immediately advance towards Salhu.

After contacting the second department, the three families acted together, so that no matter which way Jiannu was dealt with, they could get support from the other two.

Xu Xianchun's opinion was supported by Zhou Tiexin, the supervising army, and Zhao Mengxuan, the chief soldier, and others, who did not think that now was a good time to continue to go deeper.

Jun Song led people to inspect the terrain, and after thinking about it repeatedly, he decided to divide the troops into two routes, one led by Wang Xuan and Zhao Mengxuan to advance to the east of Jiefan Mountain and build a large camp.

On the other hand, he personally led the attack on Jilin Cliff, which choked the east-west-north-south traffic according to the dangerous situation. After Juniper takes Jilin Cliff, he can form a bull's horn with the Salhu camp, and the initiative of the war will be in the hands of the Ming army.

Zhao Mengxuan, Wang Xuan and others disagreed with Juniper's decision, but Juniper insisted on this, in his opinion, the terrain of Jilin Cliff was too important to be controlled by Jiannu.

"Don't say it again, if our army gets Jilin Cliff, we can lock the main force of Jiannu to the east of Salhu, so that he can't get an out!"

Seeing that Juniper did not listen to persuasion, Zhou Tiexin, the supervising army, had to suggest that he should take a group of men and horses to set up a defense battalion in Dali Ahab in the middle of Sarhu and Jilin Cliff, so as to prevent either side from losing anything, the soldiers and horses could be gathered in time, and this battalion could be used to ensure the operation of the Hunhe pontoon bridge and the logistics would not be lost.

Juniper only said that this Zhou Tiexin was a civil official who was greedy for life and afraid of death, so he proposed to leave a way for himself to escape, and he was secretly ashamed, but he didn't break it, so he asked Wang Xuan to allocate 2,000 soldiers to Zhou Tiexin, and ordered Xu Xianchun to also be under the command of Zhou Tiexin.

Two days later, after all the Ming troops crossed the river, Juniper, who wanted to occupy Jilin Cliff and lock up the main force of Jiannu, ordered Wang Xuan and Zhao Mengxuan to lead more than 18,000 troops to advance eastward, and the Zasarhu camp was forty miles east of Jilin Cliff. He led the generals Chai Guodong, the guerrilla Wang Hao, Zhang Daji, the guerrilla Yang Qin, Wang Hailong, and Guan Fushun guerrilla preparation Yang Ruda and other generals and more than 12,000 soldiers and horses to march to Jilin Cliff.

Zhou Tiexin, the supervising army, led more than 3,000 troops and horses to Dada Ahali a defense battalion at the junction of the three forks east of the Hunhe River. General Gong Niansui and his heavy vehicles were all in this defense camp.

On March 4, after discovering that the defenders on Jilin Cliff were only three or four thousand at most, the Juniper Department began to storm Jilin Cliff.

Liu Xingzuo, the deputy general of the Jinzheng Red Banner stationed at Jilin Cliff, couldn't resist and asked the flag owner for help. Dai Shanzhi ordered 4 Niu Lu more than 1,000 soldiers to quickly reinforce Jilin Cliff.

Although the Ming army had made a lot of preparations before the war, although they had the advantage of firearms, in the face of the condescending defenders of Jilin Yajin, the various departments were never able to capture it.

During this period, several younger brothers of Liu Xingzuo, the general of Jilin Cliff, persuaded his brother to return to Ming immediately and dedicated Jilin Cliff to Juniper, in order to make a great contribution before the battle.

But Liu Xingzuo did not agree to surrender to Juniper, and the brothers secretly spoke, and showed the secret letter of Wei Liangchen, the eunuch of the imperial army, who had just been brought back by the third brother Liu Xingyi.

In the letter, Wei said that the Liu brothers could only be the imperial army, not the Ming army.

The brothers of the Liu family are all puzzled, whether it is the imperial army or the Ming army, aren't they all soldiers and horses of the Ming Dynasty, why can they only be the imperial army, not the Ming army.

Liu Xingzuo was also puzzled, but the fifth brother Liu Xingxian listened to the Wei eunuch, and he had been in contact with the Wei eunuch before, and all the evidence about the Liu brothers in Jinying was also in the hands of the Wei eunuch, and now he suddenly surrendered to Juniper, it is difficult to say that Juniper will believe them and use them.

Therefore, he can only defend this Jilin Cliff, hoping that the imperial army of Eunuch Wei can enter Heituala as agreed and end the nest of Jianzhou.

Liu Xingzuo's personal captain is a Jurchen named Ah Sitong, but although Ah Sitong is a Jurchen, his ancestors have always lived in Kaiyuan, so he was better with Liu Xingzuo when he was a child, and later he also voted for Jianzhou with Liu Xingzuo, so he was very trusted by Liu Xingzuo, and his idea of preparing to return to Ming was not hidden from Ah Sitong.

Ah Sitong is not interested in being a Ming person or a gold person, he will go wherever Liu Xingzuo goes. It's just that after listening to what Liu Xingzuo said, this Ah Sitong said: "Brother, the eunuch surnamed Wei is very vicious and ambitious. ”

Liu Xingzuo was puzzled and asked why.

The eunuch surnamed Wei of Ah Si Channel did not let us join Juniper, because he was afraid that Juniper would defeat Nuerhachi because of Jilin Cliff, so that he Wei Eunuch and his imperial army would not be able to get credit in this war, and his prestige in the future would be far inferior to Juniper in Dangping Jianzhou. Therefore, the Wei eunuch did not let them surrender to any part of the Ming army except him.

"Have you ever thought about it, these armies of the Ming Dynasty are the elite transferred from Guannei, if they are all defeated here, won't the imperial army of his Wei eunuch become the only soldiers and horses that the Ming Dynasty can fight and count on? At that time, this Wei eunuch will probably be a character in the Ming Dynasty. ”

After speaking, Ah Sitong grinned "hehe", "Sure enough, everything without that thing is very bad, and he, the eunuch Wei, wants to bury all the soldiers and horses of the court for his own interests, which is even more poisonous than Pan Renmei of the Song Dynasty!" ”

"What's the matter with us, as long as the Wei eunuch keeps his promise, whether it is the imperial army or the Ming army, isn't it all for the imperial court." Liu Xingjie didn't care after listening to it on the side.

"Yes,"

Aston sneered, "This will not be of much benefit for us to sell ourselves to Juniper." His Ming army has been defeated in several ways, and this is when we are really worth a lot of money. ”