No. 087 Rescue Qingyuan (5)

Li Chengdong's base camp is built along the river, built on a high ground, convenient to get water and convenient to guard, behind the camp is a large area of dense shrubs from the forest, outside the camp, there is a low-lying valley with a radius of hundreds of zhang, there is a small river on the north and south sides of the valley, and the other bank of the river is also a dense shrub forest. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoIn this way, the valley is either a small river or a forest on three sides, and only the east side of the valley can lead directly to the base camp of the Qing army, which is an excellent ambush area. If the night attack troops of the Ming army wanted to sneak attack the Qing army's camp, they had to pass through this valley.

When Li Chengdong learned that the Ming army would launch a night attack that night, he began to make careful arrangements. He first evacuated the big battalion, and then concentrated all the elite of the headquarters and the infantry of Zheng Zhilong of the Fujian department, led by Wu Yibo Shifu and his son Li Yuanyin, more than 1,000 infantry soldiers each, and ambushed them on the other side of two small rivers on both sides of the valley. In the bushes and jungles behind the camp, Li Chengdong personally led the men and horses of his headquarters to ambush more than 2,000 foot soldiers and nearly 2,000 cavalry.

Just when he secretly dispatched troops to deal with the sneak attack of the Ming army, Ye Chengen, the chief soldier of the former Ming general, Zhang Daoying, and Li Yangchen, the deputy generals, gathered in Li Chengdong's camp and asked to lead his troops to participate in the battle.

However, Li Chengdong kept Ye and Zhang's other former Ming troops as reserves, stationed six or seven miles away from the camp, and was ordered to reinforce when necessary, which made the generals extremely disappointed, but they had to obey the order.

The reason why Li Chengdong made such an arrangement was, first, considering that the combat effectiveness of the surrendered army was low, and it was only suitable for being cannon fodder and fighting a tailwind battle, and it was not suitable for arranging heavy tasks; second, because it was an extraordinary period, the grain supply of the army had been cut off, there was a shortage of food in the army, and there was already some instability within the army, and there were quite a few complaints in private; except for the Fujian system, the surrender of the two Guangxi troops was no longer very reliable; if he had not accumulated great power in the army, and there were thousands of old soldiers who had died in the army as minions, I am afraid that the army's morale would have been in great confusion and the army would have collapsed without a fight.

In view of these reasons, he could not but consider the situation of surrendering troops to the battlefield at the critical moment and ramming his own army, so he made such arrangements.

When Jiao Lian found that the Qing army camp was an empty camp, and led the Ming army that attacked at night to retreat to the valley, Li Chengdong gave an order, under the protection of the old soldiers of the headquarters, rushed out of the bushes behind the camp from the forest, passed through the empty camp, and rushed straight to the Ming army on the valley.

The first was more than 1,000 cavalrymen wearing armor, and they rushed down to the Ming army in the valley from the large camp on the high ground, like an iron wall, covering the sky and giving a great shock to the Ming army in chaos. The Ming army's sneak attack failed, and in the panic, seeing the cavalry of the Qing army so terrifyingly charging and killing, they couldn't help but be terrified, and in the hazy moonlight, it was difficult to organize an effective defensive formation, some of them were scurrying around in the valley, and some were running to the side of the small river on both sides, trying to break through the small river.

At this time, the Qing army ambushed in the woods on the other side of the river, under the leadership of Shi Fu and Li Yuanyinzhen, rushed out and rushed towards the Ming army in the valley. A large number of Ming troops fell to the ground in the chaos, and then, more than 7,000 Qing troops roared and surrounded from all directions, surround more than 3,000 night attack Ming troops on the valley.

The Ming army that fell into the encirclement was attacked by this series of sudden attacks, the army was in turmoil, and lost the idea of turning defeat into victory, under the command of the commander Jiao Lian's exhausted command, the rear team of the Ming army was forced to change to the front army, desperately breaking the siege and fleeing, Li Chengdong had already calculated this, he arranged layers of rangers on the periphery, copied and killed the rout soldiers who broke through the encirclement, and on the other hand, he ordered the main force under his command to rush into the chaotic Ming army, slashing and slashing, the two sides were entangled together, and fought desperately in the dark night.

The Ming army of this raid is the most elite and brave group of soldiers in the guards, most of them are Jiao Lian's old department, who have been on the battlefield for a long time and have quite rich experience in war.

After several waves of killing, the iron cavalry of the Qing army was almost useless, and the foot soldiers on both sides were all mixed together, so the cavalry dismounted and fought with the foot soldiers.

In the open valley, the deafening shouts of killing, the sound of swords and guns, and the screams of the sergeants on both sides as they fell, presented an unusually tragic picture. There were about 500 foot riders gathered around Jiao Lian, and they protected the commander while fighting and retreating, but in the dark night, there were soldiers fighting together everywhere, and the war horses could not run at all. Seeing that the situation was urgent, Jiao Lian immediately dismounted and retreated on foot while fighting.

In a scuffle, the Qing soldiers saw that the Ming army on Jiao Lian's side was desperately gathered together, protecting him and fighting and retreating, knowing that Jiao Lian was not an ordinary Ming general. So, the Qing soldiers rushed towards Jiao Lian's side one after another. For a while, Jiao Lian's surroundings became the place where the two sides fought the most fiercely.

In the face of the Qing soldiers who gradually surrounded him, Jiao Lian with unimaginable bravery, galloped in the thousands of troops, he shot arrows with guns, whipped and slashed, under the escort of the infantry guards, killed and scattered batch after batch of Qing soldiers who came up, layer by layer to break through the encirclement, the Qing soldiers who intercepted him were shocked by his bloodshot eyes and hideous faces, afraid of being poisoned by his poisonous hands, they retreated one after another, seeing that Jiao Lian and the hundreds of paces around him were about to break through the encirclement.

As time went by, the casualties on both sides became larger and larger, and outside the encirclement, Li Chengdong, who was guarded by layers of personal soldiers, also became anxious in his heart. Although their own number was larger than that of the Ming army, it was difficult to deploy all their forces at the bottom of this low-lying valley, which was not spacious. A considerable part of the opponent's night attack force is unexpectedly tenacious, and the commander is also unstoppable, if it continues to drag, it will obviously be unfavorable to his side, and in the end, even if he annihilates this sneak attack Ming army, his own casualties will not be small. Thinking of this, he felt that he had to change his tactics immediately, break the will to fight of this remnant army as soon as possible, and end the night battle. So, he summoned a herald and issued a new military order.