Although the Ming army on the Salhu Heights suffered serious casualties, because the reinforcements were several miles away, they all fought bravely to defend it, although the camp was broken, it had not yet shown the trend of rout, and the battle situation was fierce; And the Ming army on the north bank of the Suzi River also set up a position to defend to the death, its foot soldiers are still desperately digging trenches, although the Kaiyuan general soldier Ma Lin is old and timid, but it is not easy to win if he defends to the death, if he does not hesitate to lose the casualties of the Eight Banners Army, he may be able to defeat the two Ming armies before dark, but this place is more than 100 miles away from Hetuala, he wants to defeat the two Ming troops and then gallop back to Hetuala and the Ming Dynasty's east and south armies for a decisive battle, then there is no chance of victory-

Because to completely defeat the two Ming armies of Juniper and Marin, how many casualties will the Eight Banners have to pay, Nurhachi can't afford to consume, there are already a few Jiala Ezhen who have been crying out because of the heavy losses of their Niu Lu, and one of the Jiala Ezhen with yellow flags simply disobeyed the order to withdraw from the attack, and was tied up on the spot by Dai Shan, and this person also screamed that his Jiala has no combat effectiveness, and he should rest and replenish-

These Jiala's true under the jurisdiction of the Eight Banners are the leaders of the Jurchen tribes, and they were compiled as their Jiala's after the conquest of Nurhachi, and they all have the selfishness of their respective tribes, and they fought bravely to be the first when they attacked the city and plundered the people and property, but this kind of cruel positional warfare, the casualties were so large, so that these Jiala's foreheads were really unbearable, and this decisive battle of Salhu, their children's property was in Hetuala and Feiala, so when they heard that the eastern and southern armies of the Ming Dynasty were approaching Hetuala, they all had the intention of retreating-

Nurhachi rode his horse to the Nether Domain, and ordered a strong attack on the Juniper Department on the Sarhu Heights and the Malin Department on the north bank of the Suzi River, and the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry rushed across the Suzi River under artillery fire. Stormed the positions of the Marin. Yehe's cavalry and Kaiyuan Road infantry fought hard -

The attack of the Houjin Bu Cavalry was as turbulent as the tide of Qiantang. The fierce charge of the Eight Banners gave the Marin army great casualties, but this wave of attacks came and retreated quickly, and the Eight Banners left more than 200 corpses and quickly retreated to the southeast-

Ma Lin was chilled by this wave of Jiannu's attack, and when he saw the Eight Banners retreating, he didn't know why, so he only hurriedly ordered the Cheying infantry to hurry up and repair the fortifications. Didn't expect the chase at all.

Houjin's tens of thousands of cavalry retreated quickly, and only two moments later, the Eight Banners Army that was originally black around the Salhu Heights all retreated, but there were still thousands of foot soldiers and hundreds of cavalry on the Jiefan Mountain who did not retreat with the army and guarded the line of Jilin Cliff.

After a brief period of suspicion, the overseer Pan Zongyan concluded that the Nu chieftain had received the news of Hetuala's attack, so he withdrew his troops and went back to make an emergency, and Pan Zongyan suggested that Marin immediately pursue him.

Ma Lin said: "The old slave is good at using soldiers, but he is deceitful to lure our army to attack." There was no danger in this valley, and he drowned it with his cavalry on both wings. How can he be defeated? He also said: "Yehebel Jintaiji was wounded by an arrow in his right arm, the Beiguan cavalry was seriously damaged, our army also suffered more than 1,000 casualties, and General Ma Shen was also wounded. ”

Pan Zongyan was waiting to talk about it again, but he heard that the sergeants under Ge Shifeng and the cavalry of Ye Hebu fought for the head of Jiannu and had a dispute, the Ming Dynasty used the enemy's head to talk about military merits, just this fierce battle, there were more than 200 corpses left on the north bank of the Eight Banners, and the soldiers of the Ming army did not care about dealing with their own dead and wounded sergeants, and they competed for the head, and there were more than 100 corpses of Jiannu on the other bank, at this time most of the Jiannu had retreated, and the soldiers of the Ming army rushed to cross the river to cut the head, and there was a conflict with the cavalry of Yehebe-

Pan Zongyan rushed to deal with it, and beheaded the Ming army hundred households who fought for the head of the Ming army with the eleventh article of the fourteen military orders set by Yang Hao before the army, and the eleventh military order was: "Those who fought for the heads of Goryeo and Beiguan were beheaded", and the Ming army infantry did not cross the river to fight, and the hundred households were obviously competing with Ye Hebu.

……

Jun Song on the Sarhu Heights saw that the Jin army retreated, even if Jun Song was brave, he was unable to pursue at this time, and Zhang Quan, the supervising army, did not suggest pursuit, the main force of Jiannu was there, and they withdrew in an orderly manner, and the Ming army on the high ground suffered more than half of the casualties, and the rest were also exhausted, how could they still pursue the enemy, and furthermore, the North Route Army on the north bank of the Suzi River did not pursue.

Juniper ordered the soldiers to rest, treat the wounded, count the names of the soldiers killed in the battle and cut off the heads of the dead bodies of Jiannu, Juniper's Western Route Army fought hard for a day and a night, 6,813 were killed in the battle, 4,751 were seriously wounded, and countless people were still able to act with minor injuries, the total number of 28,000 people in the Western Route Army, nearly half of the dead and seriously wounded, and some of the sergeants under the command of the Qianhu garrison have been completely wiped out, but only 1,123 Jiannu heads were cut, and these were killed in the Ming army formation. The corpse of Jiannu who died under the high ground was taken away by the retreating Jiannu army, and it is estimated that there are more than a thousand-

Zhao Menglin, the general soldier of Liao, was killed in battle, Wang Xuan, the general soldier of Baoding, was seriously injured, and more than ten officers above the thousand generals were killed and wounded, which made Juniper extremely depressed, he did not know that his fate had changed, and he was only anxious about the loss of his soldiers-

The guards came to report that Zhou Qinghu had returned, and there was also the Tieling guerrilla Zheng Guoliang, who was ordered by Ma Lin to contact Juniper.

When Jun Song saw Zhou Qinghu, he hurriedly asked Mu Jingyan where he was, and learned that Mu Jingyan was seriously injured, and Jun Song urgently ordered the military doctor to rush to treat him, and he was determined to save Mu Jingyan's life.

The sentinel also reported that the Jiannu army had retreated in the direction of Tailangang, and Juniper was convinced that Nurhachi had withdrawn, and it seemed that it was indeed Hetua's urgency, and Jiannu had to go back to the division to save -

Jun Song and Zhang Quan went to the Suzi River to meet with Ma Lin, Pan Zongyan, Jin Taiji, and Buyangu to discuss countermeasures, and Ma Lin advocated sending an envoy to report urgently to Yang Hao, who was sitting in Liaoyang, and waited for Yang Hao's order; Pan Zongyan and Buyanguli followed the Jiannu army to Hetuala, and cooperated with the Ming army on the east and west routes to fight together; Juniper also advocated continuing the attack on Hetuara -

Ma Lin pointed to the Jiefan Mountain not far away and said: "There are nearly 10,000 people on this mountain, how can you enter Hetuara without destroying them first?" ”

Zhang Quan said: "The vast majority of the soldiers on the Boundary Domain Mountain are the foot soldiers who built the Boundary Domain City, the combat strength is mediocre, and the cavalry is only hundreds, the reason why the old slaves stay here is precisely to contain our western and northern route armies, so that most of them can calmly return to the division Henggang (that is, Hetuala) to deal with the eastern and southern armies. Every step of the way. Steady progress. Let Jiannu have the worry of suffering from the enemy, and dare not attack the two-way army of Qinghe and Kuandian with all his strength, so that he can win a big victory. ”

Jun Song and Pan Zongyan all took what Zhang Quan said, but Ma Lin said: "What if the slaves on the mountain attack my back road?" ”

This is indeed something to worry about, Zhang Quan said: "Then lead the enemy down the mountain and concentrate forces to annihilate it." ”

Ma Lin no longer objected, he also wanted to make meritorious contributions, the enemy army in the Boundary Fan Mountain was easier to deal with, and the second chapter of the fourteenth chapter of Yang Hao's military order had "Although the thief is killed on this road, the army is collected." Seeing that the other road is taken by thieves, it is not the rescuer, it is clear that it is a wait-and-see, and the commander will behead the following officers" -

……

In the early afternoon, the two route armies of the west and north of the Ming Dynasty began to leave the Salhu Valley and advance in the direction of Tailangang, the Houjin cavalry on the Jiefan Mountain did not move at first, and when they saw that the Ming army car battalion also began to leave, the five hundred Houjin cavalry who were ordered to undertake the task of attacking and harassing suddenly rushed down the mountain, and crossed the Jiefan River to attack the rear camp of the Ming army, and waited until the two wings of the main force of the Ming army were outflanked. These cunning Jiannu quickly retreated back to the Jiefan Mountain, and the Ming cavalry was not as fast as the captive cavalry. Unable to stop this group of captives—

The temptation of the enemy failed, but a number of foot soldiers, Juniper and Marin decided to clear the Jiannu on the Jiefan Mountain first, Juniper's Western Route Army can still fight more than 10,000 soldiers, Marin's Kaiyuan Army main force is not damaged, plus the cavalry of Yehebu, a total of about 40,000 people, the Houjin army on the Jiefan Mountain is about 5,000 people, most of them are auxiliaries and pawns, rarely participate in the charge, although the order of Nurhachi fought to the death, but under the fire of the Ming army's artillery and muskets, these Houjin infantry without thick armor protection suffered heavy casualties, and fought fiercely for two hours, The 5,000 Jiannu troops in Jilin Cliff were all wiped out and annihilated, and the Ming army also paid the price of nearly 2,000 casualties-

Juniper finally breathed a sigh of relief and completely annihilated the Jiannu of the Boundary Domain, so the casualties of his Fushun army would not be so shocking.

Cleaning up the battlefield and sending the dead and seriously wounded soldiers back to Shenyang, the Ming army set up camp in Jiefan Mountain that night.

……

Yang Hao, who had moved from Quang Ninh to Liaoyang, received a good news from the messenger of Liu Wei on the East Road before noon on 11 March, saying that since Liu Wei and the Korean allied forces marched from Kuandian Fort on the 6th day of the first month of March, they had killed two villages, Niu Lu Ezhen, Jiannu, and annihilated more than 300 enemies, and the forward troops had now reached Abu Darigang, 120 miles away from Hetuala.

At the same time, Qiao Yiqi, a guerrilla under Liu Wei's department, reported: "There are more than 500 elite soldiers of Jiannu, who are approaching the mountain to lure the battle, and even retreat, and set up more roadblocks to stop our army——"

In just a few days, Yang Hao's original gray hair has turned white, which shows the consumption of hard work, after reading the good news of the East Route Army, Yang Hao was not happy, but became more and more worried, whether Nurhachi would take the risk to concentrate his forces to deal with Fushun Yiyi, there is no news yet, but looking at Qiao Yiqi's battle report, Nurhachi obviously used a small group of cavalry to attack and harass to stop the advance speed of the East Road-

In the early morning of March 12, Juniper was ambushed by the main army of Jiannu in Salhu and the news reached Shenyang, Yang Hao, Zhou Yongchun, Chen Wangting and others were shocked, and Yang Hao urgently ordered the messenger to order Han Yuanshan, who had been out of the Yahu Pass, and Ma Lin, who had come out of Sancha'er Fort, to rush to help Salhu——

Although the military order was issued, Yang Hao also knew that it was difficult to save the fire from far away, Liaoyang was four hundred miles away from Salhu, and when Marin and Han Yuanshan received the order and then rushed to Salhu, Juniper's army was afraid that it had already been defeated, at this time Yang Hao realized that Nurhachi was going to adopt the strategy of concentrating forces to break each one, and Marin and Han Yuanshan, who hurried to Salhu, were very likely to be ambushed by Nurhachi, of course, provided that Nurhachi had already defeated Juniper's 28,000 army-

Governor Zhou Yongchun offered a plan: "How can you besiege Wei to save Zhao? ”

Yang Hao knew that Zhou Yongchun was referring to the order of Han Yuanshan and Liu Wei to lead their troops to attack Hetuala and force Nurhachi of Salhu to return to the rescue, so that the siege of Juniper could be relieved, but when the order was transmitted, it was a question whether Juniper's army was still there, and the battle situation was unclear, and he was afraid that he would suffer a greater defeat if he urged the troops to march in the east and south!

Liaoyang north to Kaiyuan and east to Kuandian are more than 700 miles, in such a vast range to command a four-way march of the army, which is a mistake in the Ming Dynasty itself that relies on horses to transmit news, the four-way Ming army and the Eight Banners Army that can be mobilized not only does not have an advantage in soldiers, but also in combat effectiveness is a huge disparity, the Eight Banners Army has not been defeated for many years, and the Ming army's slack of combat readiness is not an overnight thing, now it has been clear that Nurhachi concentrated the Eight Banners troops to ambush Juniper all the way, Juniper's defeat seems inevitable, On the snowy night on the fourth day of the winter lunar month last year, a long conversation with Zhang Yuan surfaced in Yang Hao's heart, and Yang Hao deeply regretted his carelessness and the mistake of the four-way march. But it's too late to remedy it. Only by strengthening the reconnaissance cavalry can we learn about the battle situation ahead as soon as possible. In order to make a timely decision to withdraw from the army and defend itself.

In the early morning of the 12th, when Ma Lin sent troops to aid Juniper in Salhu at Shangjian Cliff, he sent an envoy to Liaoyang to report the situation to Yang Hao, and also sent someone to Yahu Pass to ask Han Yuanshan to reinforce Salhu subsequently. Shangjian Cliff is not far from Salhu, and it may be too late to rush to help-

Yang Ho immediately perked up, thinking that it would not be a blessing for Juniper's messenger to find Marin's army in time in the dark night!

Yang Hao immediately sent Han Yuanshan's 23,000 soldiers and horses to Salhu, and together with the army of Juniper and Marin, he fought a decisive battle with Nurhachi, and at the same time ordered Liu Wei and the Korean coalition army to attack Hetuara quickly, and since it was known that most of the Jiannu were assembled on the western line of Hetuala, the Ming army on the east road could advance quickly and launch an attack on the two cities of Hetuara and Feiala—

……

The military orders issued by Yang Hao were actually an afterthought, and they could not keep up with the unpredictable situation on the battlefield at all. The fierce battle at Sarhu had long since ended, and the main force of the Nurha Chibu cavalry had rushed back to Hetuara at dusk and began to arrange an ambush against the Ming army on the Qinghe Road. Compared with the Ming army, the Jianzhou Jurchens are of course far more familiar with the area of hundreds of miles around Hetuala, and most of the people who live here are Jurchens, so Nurhachi can better grasp the dynamics of the Ming army-

At dusk on the 12th, Nurhachi received the news that the Liu Wei Department and the Korean coalition forces on the East Road were only fifteen miles away from Hetuala, and the forward of the Han Yuan Shansuo Department on the South Road, He Shixian, was twenty-five miles away from Fei ala, the old capital of Jianzhou, eight miles southwest of Hetuala.

Nurhachi decided to ambush the Ming army on the south road first, the south road is mountainous, easy to ambush, although Liu Wei on the east road is menacing, but according to the sentry cavalry to report, Liu Wei's military discipline is relaxed, kill an enemy soldier, there are more than ten horses off the horse to fight for the head, such an army is not afraid, let him come over to attack the city, the most important thing is to defeat the Qinghe this way, as for the juniper and Marin of Salhu, Marin is cowardly, forgive me for not leading the army to chase, although Juniper is brave, but its main force has been hit hard, and it is not enough to be afraid, And he left a thousand cavalry guards at Zakha Pass on the west side of Hetuala, although a thousand soldiers and horses could not compete with the armies of Juniper and Marin, but as long as they were blocked for half a day, it was enough to block them for half a day, according to the sentry cavalry, the five thousand defenders of the Boundary Fan Mountain had been annihilated, and the Ming army stayed in Salhu at night, and did not dare to advance to Hetuara overnight, these were all expected by Nurhachi, and the five thousand steps of the Boundary Fan Mountain were killed, which was a defeat that he had never had since he raised his army with thirteen pairs of armor thirty-five years ago-

The loss of the Eight Banners Army's storming of Qinghe Fort and the heavy casualties in the Battle of Sarhu made Nurhachi regret his decision to raise troops to fight against the Ming Dynasty, and felt that the time to declare a break with the Ming Dynasty had not yet come, and he should first sweep the Beiguan, make up with the Mongols to isolate Kaiyuan, and gradually encroach on Liaodong, and now, the strategy of concentrating troops to annihilate Juniper has not been completed, so that the capital Hetuara is in danger-

On the night of the twelfth, Nurhachi's nephew Erbeile Amin led three thousand armored troops to quietly approach the Qinghe Road forward He Shixian's department, the two sides launched a fierce battle in the dark night, the Houjin army braved the guns of the Ming army to move away from the chariots and rattan canes and other obstacles, rushed into the Ming army camp to fight, Liaodong fierce general He Shixian struggled to meet the enemy, half an hour later, Dai Shan led another army to appear on He Shixian's left flank, the arrow rained, the Ming army suffered heavy casualties, He Shixian was hit by several arrows in the back, and the enemy was killed more than ten strong enemies and led hundreds of people to rush out of the encirclement -

When Han Yuanshan heard that the forward was attacked, he hurriedly led Zhang Yingchang and Li Huaizhong to rescue him and take him to He Shixian, but the strange thing was that Jiannu's ambush soldiers quickly retreated, and Han Yuanshan was shocked and did not dare to advance, losing the perfect opportunity to attack Hetuala!

When Daishan and Amin ambushed He Shixian, a major event occurred in the city of Hetuala, and He Heli, one of the five ministers who was ordered to guard Hetuala, ordered to capture and kill Li Yongfang, because it was rumored in the city that Li Yongfang would sacrifice the door when the Ming army attacked the city, Li Yongfang was a rebel general of the Ming Dynasty, and it was not easy to gain the trust of the Jurchens.

Li Yongfang didn't think of resisting until he died, but it was too late and he was killed by He and Lige.

He Heli also ordered the killing of the Han people under the command of Li Yongfang, these Han people were captured by the Later Jin in the Battle of Fushun, there were more than 20,000 people, most of them lived in the walled city between the old city of Feiala and Hetuala, at this time it was natural to resist and flee for their lives, and the new capital of Houjin and the old capital were in chaos, and Nurhachi, who was fighting with Liu Wei and the Korean coalition army, was in a hurry to suppress Daishan and Amin Hui to suppress and stabilize the situation in the capital-

If Han Yuanshan can get the information in time and storm Hetuala, Hetuala's terrain is flat, there is no danger to rely on, and it is not difficult to capture, then Nurhachi can only lead his troops away to Huerha, and Liaodong can be peaceful for several years.

Nurhachi led 30,000 Houjin elite in the north of Abu Darigan to block Liu Wei and the Korean coalition army, Nurhachi first ambushed in the valley south of the Varkash Mountain, and when the Ming Dynasty and the North Korean 30,000 army marched halfway, the waist launched an attack, Liu Wei since the Kuandian march, all the way did not encounter strong resistance, morale is very strong, but at the same time careless underestimate the enemy, neglect the sentinels, so that it was attacked, fortunately Han Yuanshan led the army to rescue, Nurhachi led the troops back to Hetuala.

———————————————————— (To be continued......)