Chapter 17: The Great Avalanche
The Ming army is on the offensive again?
As an old man outside the border who has been in the Han army flag for many years, Zhang Jie's first reaction was to gather the family members and soldiers around him and shout to the officers and soldiers: "The Jinhua thieves don't know whether they are alive or dead and revive the offensive again, and this offensive will inevitably end in failure!"
After fighting with the Ming army in the muddy water for so many days, both sides were exhausted and also accumulated a lot of corresponding offensive and defensive experience, several sieges of the Ming army were fruitless, Zhang Jie did not think that the Ming army's offensive had any possibility of success: "Bolobel still has 10,000 elite soldiers in Hangzhou City, as long as he transfers these 10,000 elite soldiers up, it will be the end of the Ming army, and everyone should not forget such a God-given opportunity to fight for the future!"
Zhang Jie's words made the floating battalion settle down, and some outlaws were even more eager to try to fight for a future, but Zhang Jie's words were not finished, and several of his own soldiers and family members who sent out ran back in a panic: "The camps in the south and east can't hold on!" We need to prepare!"
Can't hold up the camps in the south and east?
Zhang Jie felt that this was a bit incredible, although the Ming army occupied the advantage on the water, but the 20,000 Manchu and Han officers and soldiers who Boluo put into the battlefield were all elite in a hundred battles, and at worst it was also Huang Degong's old department, and now it was the confrontation stage when both sides were exhausted and unable to launch an offensive, and no matter which side launched an offensive, it would suffer greater losses, why did the Ming army suddenly take the wrong medicine and break through several camps one after another.
Zhang Jie felt that these family members and generals were talking nonsense to fool themselves: "How can there be such a thing, you will report back after you find out!"
It's just that Zhang Jie and the generals around them soon found that there was no need to find out at all, because now there are hundreds or even thousands of remnants of the defeated soldiers who will run back from the south and east, not only have they lost their camps and baggage, but even their weapons and flags have been lost all the way, and they see that a big defeat is imminent!
What kind of medicine did Ming Jun take wrong?
Zhang Jie didn't understand why such a dramatic change had happened, although he had thousands of officers and soldiers under him as a lieutenant general with real power, but at this moment he was also anxious: "Hurry up and tell Lord Zhang Cunren to send the Eight Banners to come over to support, we are very tight here, and we have to rush to the aid of the Eight Banners!"
After the collapse of several camps in the south and east, Zhang Jie's two camps faced the full impact of the Ming army, Zhang Jie felt that the ordinary Ming army could cope with it by himself, but the elite army of Yue Guogong was absolutely unable to parry, so he had to invite the Eight Banners to come and sit in town.
It's just that a family member next to him pointed to the defeated soldiers outside the camp and said: "Lord Zongzhen, that is the Eight Banner Soldiers, and the defeated ones are the Eight Banner Soldiers!"
This defeated Eight Banners?
Zhang Jie took a closer look, it was indeed the Eight Banners that were defeated, and Zhang Jie had never seen the Manchurian Eight Banners defeated so badly for so many years in the Han Army Banner, these Eight Banners soldiers were almost all fished out of the muddy water, not only lost the battle flag, armor and even the war horses and clothes, but only knew how to run back, while the Ming army behind him was advancing all the way.
Although there were only a few dozen defeated Eight Banner soldiers in total, Zhang Jie's psychological defense line was completely defeated at this moment: "Run, run, brothers, hurry up and run with me to Hangzhou, it's too late to run again!"
Although Zhang Jie had 1,000 newly attached green battalion troops under his command, he felt that staying in the barracks was definitely a dead end, and even the Eight Banners of Manchuria had been defeated, so what could they do even if they had 10,000 elite Han troops? Not to mention that there are only more than a thousand of them!
For Liu Yongxi, the situation is completely opposite, although the reinforcements put into the battlefield are only more than 1,000 people, but Empress Zhang's personal expedition has brought incredible miracles, and the morale of the officers and soldiers is like a rainbow, and there is no camp that cannot be taken!
Several camps have besieged six or seven times in the past without progress, but now as long as they decide to attack, they will definitely be able to take it, the morale of the Ming army is invincible, and the progress of the battle is like a bamboo!
One camp after another was taken down, the first to collapse was the newly attached Green Battalion Army, they followed the Qing army for only a month or two and saw that the situation was not right, and then some of the new attached Han army surrendered and recruited in the north, and then the Eight Banners Han Army and the Outer Mongolian Army, and finally collapsed was the Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banners, which were known as invincible in the world.
Of course, in the midst of the great collapse, the Qing army also had many individuals and detachments who stood up to try to turn the tide, but in the face of the overwhelming offensive, these efforts have become a wave of blood under the offensive, but in an hour, the Ming army has conquered more than ten camps, captured thousands of Qing troops, captured weapons, and countless baggage, and now Wang Zhiren is extremely excited: "Niangniang is worthy of being the daughter of the Mandate of Heaven, the Mandate of Heaven is in the Ming, and this battle will inevitably make Jianyu tremble!"
Liu Yongxi saw the messy corpses, flags, weapons, mules and horses in front of him and said loudly: "Generals, now is not the time to relax, we must annihilate this group of prisoners in one go, and we must not let them escape back to Hangzhou City!"
The generals of the Ming army, including Wang Zhiren, Xing Shengping, Fu Ding, and Zhang Huangyan, all felt that Liu Yongxi's judgment was extremely wise, after all, the Qing army was now in a situation close to an avalanche, and as long as they added strength, they could annihilate or severely damage the Qing army in front of them.
Although I don't know how many troops Boluo has in the south and west of the city, according to the estimate of the Ming army, it should be about 20,000, including thousands of Eight Banner soldiers and Mongolian soldiers from other domains.
With Liu Yongxi's order, the battlefield within a radius of dozens of miles is already a bloody rain, especially after Liu Yongxi personally led the horse team into the battle, the situation is completely reversed, although the Eight Banners is indeed the leading elite force in the entire East Asia, even in the muddy water, it can fight with the Ming army for 300 rounds, but the problem is that now Gushan Ezhen can't find his subordinate Niu Lu, Niu Lu Ezhen also can't control his armor soldiers, even if there are thirty or fifty Manchurian Eight Banners super level play, But at most, it was to defeat one or two hundred Ming troops and then be overwhelmed by more Ming troops, and more often than not, it was directly crossed by the defeated Han army and the new annexed army.
The battle has developed into a tailwind battle in the later stage, hundreds of new annexed troops have knelt down and surrendered, and the Eight Banners, the Mongolian soldiers of Waibo and a part of the old Han army desperately broke through to Hangzhou, but only half of them can highlight the heavy encirclement.
The Ming army swept away more than 40 camps in one go, cut off nearly 2,000 heads, and continued to search for the small group of defeated enemy troops.