Xinghai thought about it for a long time and finally decided to launch a surprise attack immediately when he arrived in Sanshi City before dark, and if he arrived after dark, he would rest for another night and attack at dawn.

The reason why he thinks so much is the relationship between the temperature difference between day and night. The temperature in Ningguta during the day allows people to move outdoors, but at night the temperature outdoors is so low that even bare skin can cause frostbite.

In such a season, bows and arrows with ox tendon as bowstrings can no longer be used, which undoubtedly abolishes half of the Jurchens' strength. And if you want to fight hand-to-hand face, you have to rely entirely on physical strength and organization.

After driving hundreds of miles, fighting hand-to-hand with the young people who were waiting for work at night, it was a scuffle, and Xinghai did not feel that this was beneficial to him.

When Xinghai's troops were on the road again, he noticed fresh traces of plows passing on the ice in front of him, and he didn't know if it was someone from a nearby tribe who had passed here, or if the sentinels who had given birth to Jurchens had already discovered him. However, he and his subordinates speculated that the latter was more likely, which led Xinghai to slow down the advance of his troops and send a small team of sentinels to explore the way ahead.

Abukai overtook the front of the group five or six miles with five ploughs, stood up straight with the front handle of the plow, and then surveyed the river and sides for suspicious signs. The rapid sliding of the plow on the ice made the oncoming air feel like a small knife, and his grease-covered face began to tingle.

The width of the Mudanjiang River varies between 100 and 300 meters, and the downstream section of the river is basically around 200 meters. Although it is the ice surface, in fact, there is a layer of snow on the ice that does not reach the lower leg, if it were not for the rock bank on the left that is more than one person high, and the protruding lumps in the snow layer of the sand bank on the right, and the bushes or rocks below, ordinary people really would not recognize that this is actually a river, not an official road.

On the relatively gentle sand bank near the right, there will also be wind-fallen logs from time to time, the small ones are more than ten meters long and more than one meter high, and the large ones are 2 or 30 meters long and more than 2 meters high. These fallen logs are usually the places that Abukai pays the most attention to, because behind these logs are the best places to ambush.

In the Ningguta region, the winter days are short and the nights are long, with about 6-7 hours of dawn a day, and the rest of the day is shrouded in darkness. When Abukai's outpost ran to about three o'clock in the afternoon, the sky was already dark, and he finally saw the place where the Mudanjiang River forked, which meant that the journey from the three surnamed cities was more than half an hour at most.

Abkai stopped the plough and intended to rest here for a while, but the observation of standing on the plow for a long time made him feel that his strength was about to run out. Abkai sat down on the plough, took out the dry tobacco pouch in his bosom, prepared to take two sips to relieve fatigue, and ordered his men to go down to the riverbank by the side to find some timber and come back, and prepare to make a fire and boil water and make a cup of hot tea to warm up.

However, just as Abkai was finally playing the fire sickle and was about to put the smoke pot up, he heard a scream, which made him quickly drop the fire sickle and the smoke pot, got up and looked in the direction of the scream, and shouted while guarding: "What's the matter? What did you encounter? ”

The scream was one of the six men he had sent to collect dead wood, but his loud question was not answered, and the forest in that direction was silent, as if no one had ever entered. This scene made Abkai's heart a little furious, he really couldn't believe that the six big living people disappeared without even resisting.

Abkai and the remaining four people around him looked at each other, and finally he stubbornly said: "Uletai and I will go up and take a look, Abusa, Niuhe, you two will turn back the climbing plow, if there is really someone lying in ambush there, you should go back and tell the leader of Xinghai." ”

Abusa and Nyuh immediately hurried to the plough and turned around on their horses, while Abukai trotted with Ultai towards the east bank, which was gently upward.

Although the east bank of the Mudanjiang River is gentle, there is a snow-covered bulge here, which obscures the view from the river to the forest on the east bank. From the middle of the river to the east bank, about seventy or eighty meters, Abukai realized that the snow bulges seemed to be artificial masonry walls.

This made Abukai suspicious, and although he feared the demons and gods, he was not afraid of the enemy. Therefore, he was a little relieved, and soon motioned to Ultai and himself to go left and right, to see clearly what was hidden behind the snow wall.

Just as the two of them were standing on the edge of the snow wall and looking in, two handfuls of bright things suddenly flew towards them from the forest. Abkai reacted quickly and blocked it with the knife in his hand, and his whole body fell backwards, which allowed him to escape. And Ultai's luck was not so good, a hand axe slashed into his head, and he fell down without a snort.

"Enemy attack, enemy attack," Abukai cried out hoarsely as he ran towards the plow in the river, trying to escape the trap.

When Abusa and Nyuh saw this, one of them immediately ran to the way he came without looking back, while the other rode the plough to Abukai. After Abukai jumped on the plow, he said, "Get out of here, for there are a large number of men in ambush in the woods..."

Before he could finish his words, seven or eight Jurchens who had stepped over the snow wall again drew their axes from their waists and threw them at the climbing plow, aiming at the horses that were dragging the plow. The distance between the two is only more than 20 meters, which is the best distance for these hand axes to throw.

The horse wailed and fell, and even Niu He, who was driving the horse, was hit by two axes in the chest and shoulder, although there was a cotton armor to block it, but the axe in the chest was too deep, and Niu He immediately fell into the snow, with more air and less air in. As for Abukai who was thrown three or four meters out after climbing the plow and turning over, his left hand fell to the ground first, and this hand immediately lost sensation, and just as he tried to get up, the raw Jurchens had already walked in front of him.

The first thing Abkai smelled was a foul stench when the Jurchens stepped forward, and then he finally saw the appearance of the Jurchens who had attacked him, wearing bearskin coats and mink hats that he had never seen before, and they were at least a head taller than ordinary people, with a large beard.

"What tribe are you from? Why do you want to attack the army of the Houjin Kingdom, our Great Khan will not let you go..."After realizing that the weapon in his hand had been thrown somewhere when he rolled down the plow, Abukai had to threaten these strange-shaped Jurchens with words.

But after speaking a few words in a dialect he had never heard before, he wiped his neck in disappointment, and before he could lose consciousness, Abukai realized that the climbing plow he had hoped would rush back to report the news had been forced back by seven or eight fierce dogs. Abusa was also taken prisoner in despair, and their outpost was tantamount to the destruction of the entire army.

Zhao Chengdong, who was standing on the rocky bank of the west of the Mudanjiang River, looked at this sudden outpost worriedly, and he was a little worried that the large groups of men and horses behind the enemy army would hear some movements, so he stopped. On a night like this, it is not a good choice to confront each other in the wild.

Of the 1,500 troops sent this time, 600 belonged to the official establishment of the Ming army, 600 militia were recruited from the tribes in the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River, and 300 came from the port of Magadan on the land north of Sakhalin Island, which was discovered by whaling ships coming to the Sea of Okhotsk.

The Chukchi people living near the port of Magadan make a living by catching sea beasts, while their tribesmen further north are said to have made a living by herding deer. They have good dogs, worship shamans, and are friendly and welcoming to strangers, but they are never afraid of any outside threats.

Whether it was a war between clans or a war with outsiders, these Chukchi people were just as brave and tenacious, fighting until the last moment, even in the face of adversity. Ever since the discovery of Magadan, many of the Ming whaling ships have come here to hire Chukchi people to catch sea beasts and whales for them, paying nothing more than alcohol, tobacco, cotton cloth and some cheap iron tools.

Due to the too many injuries and illnesses of the Ming army who migrated to Temple Street, after hearing the story of the Chukotka people, Zhao Chengdong hired 300 people as a supplement to the strength of this expeditionary force. So far, these 300 Chukchi people have performed very well, not only can they adapt to the cold weather in the Heilongjiang Valley, but their cooperation on the battlefield has exceeded that of the militia recruited from the local tribes.

However, before facing the serious Jurchen Eight Banners, Zhao Chengdong was still worried about the battlefield performance of these Chukchi people. This is especially true when an ambush is likely to turn into a strong attack.

Zhao Chengdong's worries did not last long, and a quarter of an hour later, the main force of Ningguta reinforcements led by Xinghai finally appeared. Looking at the three fires lit in the middle of the river in front of him, and the climbing plow placed on the edge of the fire, but he couldn't see the figure of Abkai and the others, Xinghai immediately stopped the convoy and looked at the surrounding environment suspiciously.

It's a pity that except for some reflections on the ground, the surroundings are as dark as ink, and you can't see any scenery at all. However, the three fires on the river in front of them can still illuminate a large area.

Several guards who had stepped forward to check on the fire walked around the fire, then hurried back and reported to Xinghai: "There is nothing unusual around the fire, only two broken climbing plows. Xu was Abukai and they found something, and rode forward to investigate. ”

Xinghai thought for a moment and said, "The four of you are divided into two teams, and you will go to the two forks of the river to look forward, and if you meet Abukai, they will quickly go forward and report back." ”

After sending four cronies to follow him to inspect, Xinghai divided the team into two teams, the rear team rested in place, and the front team stepped forward to rest at the fire. In this way, even if something is wrong, the second line of defense can still catch the front team, and the gap between the two camps is about 120 meters.

Xinghai thought that his class was very prepared, but he didn't expect that it was not only the Jurchens who attacked the city of the three surnames, but also the army of the Ming Dynasty.

The Sheng Jurchens, like them, could not use bows and arrows in such weather, but could only fight in hand-to-hand combat, so Xinghai could sit and rest by the fire that no one had lit without any scruples. However, these three piles of fire were essentially used to verify the trajectory of the artillery of the army. The Ming army only carried 4 3-catty * cannons on this expedition, and in order to ambush this Ningguta reinforcement, Zhao Chengdong transferred two.

Both cannons were placed in the northwest direction, the first did not hit the fire, but flew far over the top of the fire, and the second hit the climbing plow on the edge of the fire, and the flying wooden thorns injured many people.

The next round of artillery fire hit the fire and the crowd on the west side in succession, and after two rounds of firing, the front army finally became confused, and even Xinghai's lecture was suppressed by the noise and noise.

Hearing the horn suddenly blowing on the sand bank on the right bank at this time, Xinghai's face turned pale, knowing that the front army was finished. With the firm support of his subordinates, he finally retreated to Houjin's camp. By this time, the front army had been submerged in the 150 men led by Churkko.