Chapter 177: "Qijie"
Wu Sangui guessed well, as soon as the war drums sounded on his side, the cavalry rushed, and the other three chief officers were stunned. Especially Mako, he is the commander-in-chief, he hasn't given the order yet, why did he start attacking?
But the drums of war affected everyone, because the timing was good, the Qing troops had just stopped, and they had not yet had time to line up, and at this time they rushed forward, and they would definitely be able to disrupt the enemy and achieve a great victory. So Liu Zhaoji followed with the cavalry first, and his infantry also began to move forward.
Although Cao Bianjiao saw that Ma Ke did not move, he also rushed forward with the cavalry after a little hesitation. He had already seen the Qing soldiers begin to adjust their formation in a panic, and at this time they rushed forward, and a credit should be very good.
This unintentional hesitation just formed three waves of continuous horse team impact, which made the Qing soldiers who had just arrived suspicious. Some began to prepare to return fire with bows and arrows, while others wanted to retreat first and then line up to meet the enemy.
Seeing the chaos in front of the Chinese army, Hauge immediately ordered the Chinese army to line up on both sides to cover the retreat of the troops in front. And let Du Du withdraw with the rear team one after another, and answer in the back of Jiama Mountain.
When the Qing army's front team received the order to retreat, it became more and more confused. They turned around and retreated in a hurry, while Wu Sangui of the Ming army approached quickly.
While Wu Sangui's cavalry was rushing forward, they lined up in three lines of attack, and the cavalry in the first row were all three-eyed guns in their hands. They opened the fire fold with their left hand early, controlled the horse with both feet, and held the three-eyed gun between their right arms, nervously estimating the distance. Because it is an arquebus ignition, it takes time from ignition to launch, so this ignition distance is extremely important. If they are far away, they will not be able to fight the enemy, and if they are close, they will be at a disadvantage.
However, they generally choose to ignite the fuse as early as possible, so that the projectile can be launched early, and it also allows them to be at a safe distance.
Fortunately, the Qing army used horse bows in the panic, and the range was not far, so if you want to ensure that there is a killing effect, it is best to release it within twenty steps. Therefore, Wu Sangui's cavalry has not encountered an arrow attack until now.
"Bang", "bang", the three-eyed guns of the front row cavalry finally fired one after another. Their mission was complete, they were still at least forty paces away from the Qing soldiers, and there was still room for them to turn around and run away on either side.
They will not directly attack the Qing army, and they will only send them to death if they do so. Although the Qing army is now in chaos, as long as they rush in and lose their horse speed, two or three of them will not be able to deal with a single Qing soldier. So their goal is to fire firearms, confuse the Qing soldiers, and make them retreat.
The cavalry of the second platoon came up with them, this time with their bows. Forty paces away, they threw a round of arrows at the Qing soldiers, and then followed the footsteps of the front row, also parting to both sides, and then retreating backwards.
Wu Sangui's cavalry was followed by Liu Zhaoji's cavalry, and Liu Zhaoji's tactics were the same as Wu Sangui's, which was also to launch three-eyed guns and arrows from a long distance, and did not dare to fight the Qing soldiers head-on.
Behind Liu Zhaoji's cavalry is Cao Bianjiao's cavalry, but Cao Bianjiao has always fought against thieves, and cavalry is the ultimate weapon for thieves, and thieves can rarely stop it. But he saw that the two Liaodong generals in front of him were shooting arrows from afar, so he had to follow Wu Sangui's footsteps and go back in circles from afar. There were not many cavalry under his command who could fire arrows on their horses, and his men were armed with long knives, steel whips, and bone weapons, which were equivalent to horses that came out and slipped around.
This round of cavalry offensive did not cause much damage to the Qing soldiers, and even if they were injured, their companions grabbed them on their horses and retreated together.
In the Chinese army on both sides, there were many people who took foot bows, dismounted and stood still, and began to carry out long-range strikes against the cavalry of the Ming army. The killing distance of the Qing army's infantry bow is at least forty paces, and as long as the Ming army has not gone crazy, it will generally not rush hard. The fact is that the Ming army was still as timid as ever, and after being hit by a rain of arrows forty paces away, they turned around and retreated, not daring to enter their range again.
The Qing soldiers in front finally retreated some distance, and then sorted out their ranks and lined up to defend to provide cover for the retreat of the Chinese army. After the initial panic, the Qing army returned to order, but they had lost the opportunity to attack the cavalry, so they had to constantly cover each other and retreat.
Ma Ke, on the other hand, led the infantry behind, as well as the car battalion and the artillery team, slowly advancing forward. In fact, it can't be fast, especially in the car battalion, where there are ten soldiers and two artillery pieces in the heavy car, and there are five people in the light car. Coupled with the thick planks, you can't get up fast if you want to.
Wu Sangui and the others used their cavalry to keep up from a distance and shoot arrows, falling so far behind the Qing soldiers, constantly driving the Qing soldiers to retreat.
Hauge and Du Du were worried that the Ming army of Songshan Castle in the north would also come to flank the attack, so they did not get entangled in Jiama Mountain, so they broke away from the pursuit of the Ming army and quickly retreated.
And Wu Sangui and the others did not dare to pursue. Don't look at them, they have more than 2,000 cavalry, but if the Qing soldiers really turn around and fight them, they can rush up at least seven or eight thousand cavalry. Therefore, they could only watch the Qing soldiers retreat calmly, and did not dare to pursue too much.
As for the battle merits, it depends on the subsequent battle report. Wu Sangui, the righteous son with high potential, is naturally the first to make the first contribution, and Wu Sangui is indeed the first to take the lead in rushing up to fight against the Qing soldiers. The reported result of the battle was that the Qing soldiers suffered numerous casualties and then withdrew to Yiju. As for why there was no head, it was because Wu Sangui saw his cavalry dismount to harvest the head, and was afraid that the pursuit of the Qing army would be delayed by cutting the head, so he did not let the cavalry dismount, so he let the Qing soldiers leave with the dead corpses.
Liu Zhaoji, Ma Ke, and Cao Bianjiao also made outstanding contributions, and everyone achieved this "Qijie" against the Qing army. The reason why it was "Qijie" was because the battle killed countless enemies, but the casualties were small and insignificant, with eleven killed, sixty-five wounded, and fifty-six horses lost.
Dolgon's report to the Emperor was also a victory, but it was not a great victory. It's just to pursue the Ming army, cover up and kill outside Xingshan City, and capture 70 war horses.
Since then, the Qing army and the Ming army have fought many times in the Song and Xing areas, but the scale is not as large as this time. And the Ming army won without exception, because they repelled the attack of the Qing army and did not lose Songshan Castle and Xingshan Castle.
These successive victories made the ministers of the imperial court and Emperor Chongzhen extremely excited, and they saw the hope of defeating the Qing army. They were no longer satisfied with simply lifting the siege of Jinzhou by the Qing army, but began to plan for a bigger goal.