Tianheng Island, Dragon King Temple.

On the top of Tianheng Island, there are many buildings, and the most complete preservation is only this Dragon King Temple. Because, the Dragon King Temple is right by the sea and has no military value. Whether it was the Tartars defending Tianheng Island or the officers and soldiers attacking Tianheng Island, there was no need to make a move against the Dragon King Temple. After the convoy landed on the island, the Dragon King Temple became the temporary headquarters of the convoy.

Zhang Zhun stood at the door of the Dragon King Temple, holding a clairvoyant mirror, looking at the entire Tianheng Island.

The shape of Tayokoshima is flat, with a small middle and large ends. The west side is much larger than the east side. The Dragon King Temple is just in the middle of the place, dividing the entire Tianheng Island into two. The west of the Dragon King Temple, the terrain is relatively flat, all the way over, is the location of the Tianheng stele forest. To the east of the Dragon King Temple, there is a dense forest called the Magpie Forest. To the south of the magpie forest is the highest point of the entire Tianheng Island: the Old Immortal Cave and the Turtle Stone.

The battle between the officers and the Tartars, it seems, should have been quite tragic. Zhang Zhun can clearly see through the clairvoyant mirror that the Tianheng stele forest was basically destroyed by the war. It may be that the officers and soldiers used artillery here. In such a flat area, fighting against the Tartars, it is necessary to use artillery, I really don't know what the officers and soldiers think. The west side of the magpie forest is also a piece of wolf. A large number of trees were blown off by artillery fire, and the trunks, branches, and leaves were scattered together, seriously blocking the way forward.

On the ground, it is even more of a wolf. The bodies of the officers and soldiers killed in the battle, although they had been carried away, were still covered with blood on the ground. In many meadows, there was clotted blood. When you step on it, it's like you're stepping on a swamp. Broken weapons were everywhere, including waist knives, spears, firearms, and even more, felt hats of officers and soldiers. Of course, the most are the arrows fired by the Tartars. Most of the arrowheads were stained with dark red blood, apparently plucked from human bodies.

From time to time, there are also mutilated fragments of corpses, which are accidentally turned out. When the officers and soldiers retreated, they took away large corpses, and as for the fragments of these limbs, they naturally did not want them. The soldiers of the convoy slowly searched and advanced, and from time to time, there was always an unexpected discovery. The air was filled with a strong smell of blood, and even the constant blowing of the sea breeze outside could not blow away the smell of blood.

In fact, in some traps, there were still the bodies of the officers and soldiers who were killed, and they did not have time to clean up. The most common traps laid by the Tartars are wooden thorns. At the bottom of the trap are sharpened wood, and if someone accidentally falls from it, they will be immediately pierced by the wooden thorns below and die on the spot. Because the corpses of these officers and soldiers were firmly pierced by wooden thorns, the companions behind were lazy and simply ignored. Some well-meaning people buried the traps with mud, and the dead were buried on the spot.

There were also some unlucky officers and soldiers, who were accidentally caught in the rope from the tree, and the whole person was hung upside down and pulled into the air, and was shot alive on the top of the tree by the arrows that came later. The corpses of such officers and soldiers were not taken away either. Because it's really difficult to put them down. To save them, you have to climb a tree to cut the rope. This is a very dangerous move. Because, no one knows if the arrows of the Tartars will suddenly fly and send themselves to hell.

Of course, Zhang Zhun did not want to see such a situation. Regardless of the position of these officers and soldiers, whether they fought actively or not, whether they possessed qualified combat skills or not, however, they died in the battle against the Tartars, and they deserved to be treated as martyrs. Song Degang and his personal soldiers did the work of carrying corpses. Zhang Zhun asked them to clean up the bodies of their companions as much as possible, bury them in one place, and leave a mark.

"There are no idlers on Tianheng Island."

"Or, go to the front and kill the Tartars; Or, clean up the battlefield! ”

Zhang Zhun gave Song Degang two choices.

Song Degang certainly chose the latter.

He really didn't have the courage to face the Tartars. In the previous battle, his subordinates had already suffered too many losses and could no longer withstand the toss. Therefore, he can only arrange his own personal soldiers, who are responsible for cleaning up the corpses. As a result, intermittently, Song Degang's personal soldiers actually cleaned up more than 30 corpses that were left behind. It can be seen how great the losses of officers and men are. According to rough statistics, during the two-day battle, officers and soldiers left at least five or six hundred corpses on the top of Tianheng Island. Together with the wounded, the losses could be in the thousands.

However, the Tartars of Tianheng Island, with combat effectiveness, are only two or three hundred people at most. It is indeed a bit unimaginable that 6,000 officers and soldiers should lose so many people in the face of two or three hundred Tartars. Tianheng Island is not Liaodong, the Tartars have no reinforcements, and they do not have war horses. The Tartars' best mounted shooting has no chance to play at all. Even so, they managed to inflict heavy losses on the Ming army. Thinking of this question, Zhang Zhun could only sigh, it was not that the Tartars were too strong, but that the Ming army itself was too bad. It's so rotten that I don't know what words to use to describe it.

Of course, Song Degang has enough reasons to cry out for injustice.

In fact, in this battle, the officers and soldiers did dispatch the elite, whether it was Song Degang, Du Shengyuan, or Liu Zeqing, they all brought the most elite troops under their command. The private soldiers of each general, that is, their family members, all went into battle. It's just that their elite still can't beat the Tartars, but they pay a heavy price.

For example, Song Degang originally had 300 personal soldiers, also known as Jiading, all of which were private troops armed by him with the money of other officers and soldiers. He, a guerrilla general, relied on the hard work of these 300 people. Without them, he is nothing. As a result, in the first battle of Tianhengdao, half of his personal soldiers were lost, which made the Dengzhou guerrilla general feel terrible heartache.

"My lord, all the staff of the Second Association are in place!"

Hao Linyong came up to report.

"My lord, all the staff of the Third Association are in place!"

Yang Zixuan came up to report.

"My lord, all the personnel of the first combat detachment of the sailors are in place!"

Fang He came up to report.

"My lord, all the personnel of the second combat detachment of the sailors are in place!"

Liu Dong came up to report.

"Come here, I have something to say."

Zhang Zhun nodded.

All four listened quietly.

Song Degang also stood next to him and pricked up his ears.

Zhang Zhun did not signal him to leave, explaining that the next thing to be arranged was not a military secret. He was indeed interested in hearing what Zhang Zhun would have to say before the battle began, and whether he would promise any attractive reward. Song Degang has always been very curious about why Zhang Zhun has the ability to drive the Tartar into a mouse. It's simply unthinkable. The reverse is commonplace. As long as a few dozen people are tartars, you can get hundreds of Ming troops to run around.

On the surface, the soldiers of the escort team are nothing special, they are better disciplined, move faster, and have high morale, as for the equipment, Song Degang didn't see anything. The officers of the escort team are nothing special, they have no prestige at all, and they are basically indistinguishable from the soldiers when they walk together. The convoy has firearms, and the officers and men also have firearms. There is only one kind of firearm for the escort team, but there are several kinds of firearms for officers and soldiers. Among them, the most used are the three-eyed gun, the thunderbolt gun, the bird gun, etc.

Compared with the officers and soldiers, Zhang Zhun's escort team did not even have the simplest armor. Everyone, only a gray military uniform, with some signs on it that outsiders can't understand, nondescript. The equipment of each warrior was nothing but a firebolt, an ammunition pack, a gourd for drinking water, and a bayonet. Well, every officer, or a capable soldier, has a dagger. It was with such equipment that they defeated the Tartars? Song Degang really couldn't believe it.

Zhang Zhun really didn't mind Song Degang standing next to him, he said slowly: "You already know the previous enemy situation report. The stronghold on which the Tartars rely is the Old Immortal Cave, and at the same time controls the area around the Turtle Stone. These two places are the last strongholds of the Tartars, especially the Old Immortal Cave. Their archers went out to the Magpie Grove and hid in the woods, killing us as much as they could. I don't know how many Tartar archers are hidden in the magpie forest, but we must clear them all before we can move forward. ”

"The strategy of the Tartars is very clear, which is to contain our forces in the Magpie Forest, inflict as many casualties as possible on us, and then force us to retreat. Because, according to the experience of the Tartars, as long as the Ming army suffered more than one percent casualties, its morale would fall to the bottom and it would have to retreat. We must see that the Tartar archers, lurking in the woods, do have a great advantage. Most of the Tartars are good hunters, and the forest is their home. The current magpie forest is the hometown of the Tartars. ”

"Because of the terrain constraints, our forces cannot be used, so there is no need for all troops to be crowded around the magpie forest. I decided that the 2nd Concorde Sailor Detachment would be responsible for the main attack on the Magpie Forest and the clearing of the Tartar archers hidden in the Magpie Forest. The 3rd Association cleared the enemy to the west of the Magpie Forest, and then outflanked it in the direction of the Turtle Rock. The Yishijing is the only source of fresh water on Tianheng Island, and we need to control it. At the same time, it is necessary to test it with small animals to see if the well water has been poisoned. ”

(To be continued)