In the face of the danger of being divided and annihilated, the leading Manchurian Baylors finally reached a consensus - only by retreating resolutely, decisively, and without nostalgia can the tragic ending of Guan Yu, who walked through the wheat city, be avoided in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

Therefore, the leading troops Mang Gurtai, Azig and others ordered the elite soldiers of the Eight Banners under their command, so they turned their horses' heads and immediately retreated to the east when the encirclement of the Ming army was not formed.

Yuan Chonghuan originally thought that as his Ji Liao Governor, he had made the Manchurian Eight Banners suffer such a big loss in Liaodong, which would inevitably attract Huang Taiji to personally lead the army to attack, so he was prepared for a bloody battle in advance.

But he didn't expect that he only lined up a ladder formation, and he attracted the 20,000 elites of the Eight Banners in front of him, and he showed his defeat in less than an hour after fighting - this kind of level of leading the battle, not to mention the Huang Taiji who is good at using soldiers, is also a little inferior to Dai Shan, who is brave and good at fighting.

However, although I don't know if Huang Taiji really commanded the battle in the opposite formation, the Manchurian Eight Banners are the Manchurian Eight Banners after all, and the unparalleled individual combat effectiveness is placed here.

Therefore, Yuan Chonghuan did not wait to think carefully, only saw that the opposite side was a plain until the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and there was no report of an ambush ahead, so he urged the whole army and horses to pursue forward.

However, the Manchurian Eight Banners were light and fast, while the Liaodong Iron Cavalry was heavily armoured.

After a while, Yuan Chonghuan's cavalry was pulled away by a distance, and the infantry who were fighting together were even more out of breath, and they were still pulled farther and farther away by the cavalry in front.

But in the face of such a situation, Yuan Chonghuan did not have the slightest worry - it turned out that directly east of Guangqu Gate was the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and now it was the cold winter of November, not to mention the watery Eight Banners of Manchuria, it was a duck, and it would have to freeze into ice if it was rashly launched in this cold winter.

So the Manchurian Eight Banners cavalry, who were experienced in pursuing the defeated army and never knew how to retreat, were still running forward with their heads down, but they didn't know that the road ahead was not the way to survive, but the place of death.

Behind him, the Daming Liaodong Iron Cavalry already thought that he had the victory in his hands, and pursued unhurriedly behind the opponent.

Just when everyone thought that the overall situation was decided, there was a sudden huge change on the battlefield.

I saw that the Guangqu Gate, which had been strictly ordered to be closed tightly, was suddenly opened a gap, and a Jinyi guard galloped out of it, and the fast horse caught up with Yuan Chonghuan, who was personally leading the army to pursue the enemy, and before he had time to salute, he sent a will to the hands of the victorious and high-spirited Jiliao Governor.

Yuan Chonghuan did not slow down the horse, and continued to bump on the horse while taking the will and reading it.

The ink of this holy decree has not yet dried, but it was actually written by Yuan Chonghuan's teacher Sun Chengzong himself.

I saw that Sun Chengzong used his thick and mellow pen to inform Yuan Chonghuan of a thrilling and critical military situation: Deshengmen Mangui encountered the main force of the Manchurian Eight Banners led by Huang Taiji, and used several captured artillery, and defeated nearly 30,000 people in Mangui's department in less than half an hour; Now Man Gui is walking around the south of the city, intending to deal with Huang Taiji with Yuan Chonghuan's master.

In this regard, Sun Chengzong, in the name of the emperor's holy decree, ordered Yuan Chonghuan, who had defeated the enemy army in front of him, to meet Man Gui, and the two armies combined forces to fight a decisive battle with Huang Taiji.

I see!

This will solved the doubts in Yuan Chonghuan's heart.

It turned out that Huang Taiji was not in command in the army, and Da Belle Daishan was said to have been injured by Ji Qingwen's musket team, so naturally it was impossible to lead the army to fight with him, so the people who led the Eight Banners cavalry in front of him now should be some second- or third-rate generals - no wonder the opponent in front of him was so easy to deal with.

Since there is no Huang Taiji and Dai Shan's leadership, these Eight Banner cavalry that are being pursued by themselves should be very easy to encircle and annihilate and eat, and the best choice now is not to deal with the defeated Man Gui, but to continue to assault forward, eliminate the opponent in front of him as soon as possible, and then turn his head to deal with Huang Taiji.

But the emperor's will and the teacher's teachings are to ask Yuan Chonghuan to immediately support Man Gui, which is equivalent to letting Yuan Chonghuan let go of the fat in front of him, but instead go to gnaw the hard bone of Huang Taiji with Man Gui, whose teeth have been broken!

Yuan Chonghuan rode on the back of the bumpy horse, thought about it for a while, and finally secretly made up his mind, put away the holy decree, and told the Jinyi guard who came to deliver the decree three words, "I know", and continued to cross the horse and whip forward to pursue the enemy.

Zu Dashou, who had joined forces with Yuan Chonghuan, saw that the Jinyi Guard was coming in a hurry, and he hurried away, so he rode his horse to Yuan Chonghuan's side and asked, "Supervisor, is this Jinyi Guard here to deliver an order?" ”

Yuan Chonghuan didn't look at the first fierce general under him, and said: "It's none of your business, let's annihilate these Manchurian Tartars in front of you first!" ”

Zu Dashou was taken aback, agreed with an "oh", and then rode away again.

Yuan Chonghuan's move was undoubtedly disobeying the holy decree, but now he only had the ancient precept of "the general is outside, the king's order is not affected", thinking that as long as all aspects hold on a little longer, Man Gui will hold on to resist Huang Taiji for a while and a half; Hold on to your side a little longer, and annihilate the four banners in front of you - you can also turn around and work together to deal with Huang Taiji.

Yuan Chonghuan was able to insist, but Man Gui couldn't hold on anymore.

It turned out that Huang Taiji moved his heart before launching an attack.

If he personally leads the army to attack Yuan Chonghuan's troops, he will face a bloody battle of life and death, which may win or lose, and in general, win more and lose less, but it will inevitably lead to a large number of casualties on his side. The other part of the Eight Banners troops dealing with Mangui will also face a situation of winning and losing.

But as long as the target of the attack is adjusted, and Huang Taiji himself leads his troops to attack the slightly weaker Mangui Division, then it is very likely that he will quickly defeat Mangui stationed at Deshengmen in a short period of time and at a small cost. Then wave the army to the outside of the Guangqu Gate, take advantage of the victory to attack Yuan Chonghuan's back, and can wipe out the two most important mobile forces of the Ming army in one fell swoop.

Of course, the premise is the same as Yuan Chonghuan's "two insistences", Huang Taiji must do two best efforts.

The first is that Huang Taiji himself must try his best to defeat Man Gui in the first time.

The second is that the soldiers and horses of the Four Banners who attacked Yuan Chonghuan should try their best to drag Yuan Chonghuan to death.

In order to achieve the first "best effort", Huang Taiji not only led the army to attack Mangui with the respect of the Great Khan, but also was not afraid of trouble and hard work, and took the three artillery pieces captured in Liaodong, and bombarded the opponent Mangui with a few cannons before launching a charge, and finally severely damaged Mangui's troops in one fell swoop and forced them to leave the entrenched Desheng Gate, and began to circle the city to move closer to Yuan Chonghuan.

However, the Manchurian army and horses attacking Yuan Chonghuan, although they were already "doing their best", not only did not drag Yuan Chonghuan back, but after less than an hour of fighting, they retreated to the east, allowing the opponent to take the advantage.

Yuan Chonghuan and Huang Taiji, a pair of life and death opponents, have done the best they can, but they can't control the play of their allies - the so-called "not afraid of tiger-like opponents, afraid of pig-like teammates", Man Gui, You Shiwei and Mang Gurtai, Azig They may not be pigs, but they did not complete their respective tasks.

The battle on November 20, the second year of Chongzhen, that is, the third year of Tiancong, only started less than an hour, and the battle situation had already developed rapidly in a direction that the two commanders could not control.

What's different is that-

As the Great Khan, especially after Dai Shan was unable to govern, Huang Taiji became a man of all persuasions in Manchuria, who could control the overall situation;

And although Yuan Chonghuan is the governor of Jiliao, he still has Emperor Chongzhen on his head, and there are countless civil and military generals around him, and there are many people who monitor him, restrain him, and guard against him......

It is such a difference that will lead to completely different changes in the fate of these two top outstanding figures in the history of the late Ming Dynasty.

But the current end of the Ming Dynasty is not the end of the Ming Dynasty in history.

Not for anything else, just because in the torrent of the seventeenth century, a poor dick named Ji Qingwen inexplicably crossed over from the twenty-first century, and he is using his wings to fan more and more huge and violent air currents, which are slowly, quietly, and gradually changing the direction of historical development.