On this day, the Ming army led by Li You engaged the Qing army blocking the road 5 times, and all of them were broken. Even the guards around Xing Ne began to change color when they saw the Ming army charging. When the day was about to end, the infantry around Xingne increased to more than 900 people, and the cavalry around Rausa also expanded to nearly 500 horses.

Although the morale of the Ming army did not fall, the march on this day still did not exceed 10 miles, and the losses increased by more than 100 people. The whole army numbered less than 1,100 men, and at the time of their departure there were nearly 1,600 in number.

When they were stationed that night, when they heard this loss figure, Li You and Cao Cien were both speechless for a long time. After a long time, Cao Cien looked at the canned whale meat boiling on the bonfire in front of him, and couldn't help but say a little indifferently: "We have discarded most of our baggage under Yaozhou City, if we continue to fight like today tomorrow, I am afraid that the ammunition carried by the troops will be exhausted." Do you think Staff Officer Li will really be able to arrive in time tomorrow? ”

Li You is also difficult to answer this question. Although Li Yan once told him that if there was no news back to Yingkou in three days, he would come out with men and horses to meet them. However, it is impossible for Li Yan to send troops directly, he always has to settle the affairs of Yingkou City before he can send troops, so it will take a day, and it will take another day to run from Yingkou to meet them, so the most optimistic estimate is that he can only meet them on the third day.

But under the stubborn beating of these Qing troops, can they carry it until the third day? Li You let out a long breath, and then said firmly: "I remember that every time Your Majesty inspected the Guards, when someone mentioned difficulties, Your Majesty would first say: People must help themselves, and God will help them. We must first find a way to solve the problem ourselves, and then the court will help.

It seems to me that the same is true of today's events. No matter when Staff Officer Li appears, if we move a foot further to the west, we will see reinforcements a moment earlier. Therefore, in the final analysis, if we want to get rescue, it depends on how many miles we can advance to Yingkou.

Besides, this afternoon, I saw that the number of troops coming to help the Qing army had been greatly reduced, and it can be seen that they have drawn all the troops from the vicinity here. Without the addition of new blood, these Qing troops are almost at their limit.

The brave wins when they meet on a narrow road, and now everyone can only compare, who can hold back the last breath and not relax. The one who gives up first loses..."

Although Li You is telling the truth, Cao Cien's heart is still heavy, he is different from Li You, a ruined Xiucai who failed the imperial examination, and his family can be regarded as a generational general, a hereditary garrison home in Hebei.

It is precisely because he understands what the army is better than Li You, so he has never been able to have an idealized belief like Li You. In other words, he is more recognizant of what happens in reality.

In the current situation, he believes that it is better to take advantage of the darkness to break through, although it is inevitable that most of the soldiers will be lost, but at least he can keep the next part of the seeds, and wait for rebuilding after returning.

But he knew that Li You would never agree with his opinion, and even the two of their deputies would not agree with his idea. If before departure, Li You became the commander of this temporary force was only a temporary assignment, then the courage he showed under Yaozhou City and his concern for the soldiers during the retreat had made this unit truly regard him as the backbone of the army.

Cao Cien only realized at this time that the secrets of officialdom taught to him by the elders in the family were basically useless on such a battlefield. These cheats include how to please your boss, how to hand over your colleagues, and how to win over your subordinates, but they don't tell him how to win the hearts of ordinary soldiers.

And Li You, a nerd, easily gained the recognition and followers of the troops just because he refused to give up the corpses of any wounded and ordinary soldiers. Although they had to pay even greater sacrifices during the battle, no one blamed Li You's decision, as if it was a matter of course.

It was difficult for Cao Cien to comprehend what was happening around him on this day, which was completely contrary to the education he had received in the past, but the result did not seem bad. Even though they were still surrounded by the Qing army, most of the soldiers around them were still eating, drinking, and talking as usual, but there was a little less laughter.

Looking at the canned whale meat that began to exude aroma in front of him, Cao Cien suddenly felt that he had no appetite, and his mind was really messed up at the moment.

The fierce fighting that followed not only exhausted the Ming army, but also made it difficult for the Qing army to continue. After discussing with Xingne, Rausa decided not to even use the harassment at night, so that his subordinates could rest for a while, and also gave the Ming soldiers time to relax.

For such an army immersed in battle, the lack of harassment would only keep these Ming soldiers on alert and not have time to think about their situation, but rather relax after the fierce battle, which might make these soldiers withdraw from their state of high concentration and make them aware of the hidden dangers around them.

In this way, when the battle is fought again tomorrow, the soldiers of the Ming army may be discouraged, and there will be no more such crazy and focused combat state as today. Under this consideration, the Ming army took the opportunity to rest for a night.

When the sun rose on the second day, the Ming army, which had been quiet for a night, regained its vitality again, watching these Ming soldiers tidy up the camp and line up in an orderly manner, as if they were just carrying out a field outing activity, even Xing Ne himself was a little discouraged, and couldn't help but ask himself softly: "How many more battles do you have to fight before you give up hope?" ”

The soldiers of the Guards naturally couldn't hear the question of Xingne, but their neat pace of attack undoubtedly answered this question very well. The first to be brave was not the Ming army, but the foot soldiers around Xingne.

After all, these Manchu and Han soldiers are not the Eight Banners Army that have lived together for a long time, and the connection between them is not deep, and it can even be said that the estrangement is extremely deep. After Huang Taiji ascended the throne, although he tried his best to eliminate the difference between Manchu and Han, and changed the discriminatory policy of suppressing the Han people in the Nurhachi era, he still gave preferential treatment to the upper class of the Han people in Liaodong and the surrendered Ming generals, and did not change much in the situation of the people and soldiers at the bottom.

And with the influx of Ming commercial capital into Liaodong, for the Han people in Liaodong, the oppression was not reduced but deepened, after all, in terms of production and labor, a Han man was worth at least two or three Manchurians.

Therefore, Huang Taiji's policy of trying to liberate the Han serfs under the name of the Eight Banners was more resisted by the Manchu nobles of the banners in this era, and the Manchu relatives and nobles who privately raised Han slaves were also larger than in another time and space.

These Han Chinese sergeants in Tuntian had no problem fighting a dozen old-fashioned wars under the supervision of the Manchus, but in this fierce platoon of guns and white-knuckle charges, the fear brought to them by the Ming army far outweighed the pressure on them from the Manchus behind them.

Yesterday, when they first arrived, they could still stand in front of the Ming army in ignorance, but today, when they saw the Ming army approaching and raised their muskets, the Han soldiers in the front row immediately scattered and fled, and even the whips and swords of the Manchurian masters who supervised the battle behind them were useless.

In fact, even the Manchus themselves couldn't take care of these fleeing Han people, when the Han soldiers in front of them fled as a shield, the Manchus in the back row also chose to flee, instead of reprimanding those fleeing Han people, after all, the bullets of the Ming army would not give them much time to think.

The bravery of the Manchurian people actually depends more on the self-confidence given by the equipment. Nurhachi established the Eight Banners system, and the compilation of his military cattle records was to distinguish between regular soldiers and auxiliary soldiers by wearing armor and no armor.

From the early seizure of the weapons and equipment of the Ming army, to the recruitment of blacksmiths at the north gate to build their own weapons and armor after the occupation of Shenyang, although the Manchus were a backward slave country, they were not much behind the Ming Dynasty in terms of military science and technology.

When the weapons of the generals of the Ming army could not even kill the cattle of the head shaman, the regular soldiers of the Manchurian people were already wearing double or triple armor, so that the well-protected soldiers were naturally easier to exert their combat effectiveness on the battlefield.

However, when they realized that the armor they were wearing could not withstand the lead bullets fired by the Akito at close range, the bravery of the Manto was gone. The choices they make when their lives are in danger are no different from those of Han Chinese soldiers who have fled.

Even if Xingne himself is in the array, he can't stop this panic escape, but in the end, the military order of the Qing Dynasty is still a little more deterrent than the military order of the old Ming army, these soldiers do not dare to escape from the area outside the battlefield, and the phalanx of the Ming army is slow to move under the control of the cavalry and cannot let go of the pursuit, so after escaping from the guns of the Ming army, these Qing soldiers will stop and watch the wind, so that Xingne can send people to drive them all back.

This war has been fought to such an extent, even Xing Ne can only use both soft and these soldiers, and dare not blindly use military law to persecute them. He could only gather the defeated troops again and again and intercept the way of the Ming army.

At this point, the commanders of both armies knew that victory in the war would depend on who could hold on to their last breath or whether a new foreign force would join in.

To some extent, the heavens still favor the Manchurians. After being routed three times by the Ming army in one morning, it was noon when the largest reinforcements of the Qing army finally arrived.

The arrival of Haizhou reinforcements composed of 600 foot soldiers and 100 cavalry immediately boosted the morale of the Qing army, and this army also brought good news to Laosa and Xingne.

When they heard the news, Lausa and Xingne were also relieved, Lausa looked at the Ming soldiers who were resting and eating, and subconsciously said to Xingne: "While our reinforcements have just arrived, it is better to send someone to say surrender and suppress the morale of the Ming army." ”

Xing Ne subconsciously replied: "I'm afraid it won't have any effect...", but he glanced at the faces of the surrounding generals, and then changed his words and said: "It's okay, we must always give these Ming troops a chance to surrender." ”

Hearing Xingne's answer, the surrounding Manchurian generals finally became a lot more relaxed. At this time, those young Manchurians with eyes above the top, after more than a day of fighting, are also looking forward to ending this damn war at this moment.

(. = )