Lu Ming

Yet this is enough.

With an army of 20 in hand, Ma Shilong didn't care that those people were killed.What Ma Shilong cares about is real information: Is the main force of the Tartars really gone?Did Zunhua have an ambush?

After being tested by the two cavalry infantry, the definite information came: the number of Tartars who left the city was very small, and after killing the scattered people, they hurried back to the city without even cleaning the battlefield.

This information, together with the reconnaissance news from the direction of the cavalry, Ma Shilong can now be sure: Shuo Tuo really left, with a large army.

Now that this is the case, what are you waiting for?

So Ma Huihui immediately ordered Zu Dashou to lead the [-] elite cavalry to "pursue and kill"...the whole army of Shuotuo must be called...to stay...something, we can't just run away like this.

And Lao Ma himself led an army of 300, led by his brave general Cao Wenzhao, and set out from Jimen (now Jixian), preparing to attack Zunhua City in all directions with the momentum of hungry tigers. ) can't look at each other from head to tail, and won the first victory in the great cause of recovery!Let out the bad breath that 20 people have been blocked by 2000 people for such a long time!

……

As the saying goes, one hair can move the whole body.The things that the people who traveled through these two days were really big enough, so on April 1630, 4, the Ming and Qing wars in North China underwent a qualitative change, breaking the previous silent situation in one fell swoop. out of response.

At noon that day, the crossing crowd set off from Yongping City to Santun Camp; at the same time, the Shuotuo Division began to attack Santun Camp; in the direction of Zunhua, a small number of white armors who left the city dispersed the probing troops sent by Ma Shilong.

While the various ministries mobilized to fight, there was another force that responded to the war situation in a timely manner-the Minister of the Ministry of War sitting in Shanhaiguan, the Prime Minister of Military Affairs, bestowing Shang Fang with a sword, sitting in a python robe, and old man Sun Chengzong, a scholar of the Hall of Martial Arts.

In fact, Lao Suntou received the news yesterday: there was smoke in the direction of Qian'an.

The Ming army entrenched in the Shanhaiguan area, these days, its main combat target is the three cities of Yongping headed by Amin.

Shanhaiguan is only 100 miles away from Yongping. Before this, the two sides, just like Ma Shilong confronted Shuotuo, were scouts and cavalry everywhere to exert military pressure on each other and maintained small-scale contacts.

After receiving the letter yesterday, Sun Chengzong immediately stepped up his investigation efforts and sent a large number of sentries to find out the reason why the Tartars raised the smoke.

The current situation of Lao Suntou is actually very embarrassing-the Houjin troops occupied the front line from Yongping to Zunhua, which made it difficult for him to communicate with Ma Shilong. The old man is now equivalent to being trapped in Shanhaiguan.

In real history, it was not until May that Sun Chengzong and Ma Shilong communicated with each other, formulated a general attack plan, and made an appointment to launch at the same time, and finally drove away all the post-Jin troops in one fell swoop.

So after learning about the smoke of war yesterday, Sun Chengzong did not dare to pin his hopes on the Ming army attacking Qian'an City.

After all, he and Ma Shilong haven't discussed it well yet, and Jizhen will never take the risk of launching a large army attack, and even hit Qian'an-this means that Zunhua and Santunying have been taken down. Sun Tou thinks this is impossible.

In fact, in the eyes of Lao Suntou, the most reasonable explanation for the beacon smoke in Qian'an County is that the tartars accidentally released it by mistake.

Unexpectedly, after dark, a sentry came back to report an important news: a battle broke out in Yongping City in the afternoon, and there was a huge cannon sound outside the city. From a distance, it seemed that someone was attacking the city, and there was a flash of gunpowder.

The old grandson is not calm now.

A single wolf smoke can't explain anything, but since there is also a situation in Yongping City, he has to consider the possibility of Ma Shilong's division of troops and detour from the south of Tangshan.

However, the [-]th century was such a rush - even if the old grandson jumped in a hurry, the fast horse journey of two hundred miles back and forth made the transmission of information not only slow, but also had misjudgments and omissions, which caused the old grandson to be delayed. Unable to make a decision.

So he could only send out a few more waves of sentries to investigate Yongping and Qian'an overnight.

At dawn the next day, the first sentry sentry came back desperately, and brought a shocking news to Lao Suntou: last night, the four gates of Yongping City were closed, and there was a lot of noise in the city. From a high place, there were many fires, and it seemed that someone was massacring the city. Burn the city.

The stunned old Sun's first thought was: Could it be that Ma Shilong really brought down Yongping?Judging from this style, I'm afraid Zu Dashou personally led the army?

In the morning, the second wave of spies who risked their lives to get close to Yongping came back, and the news this time was even more shocking: it wasn't burning or massacring the city, but the aborigines in the city were noisy and eating barbecue all night.

In addition, Yongping has been taken down by General Zhenguo... Commander Tongzhi...Cao XX! (In ancient times, the banner only had a surname but no first name, and the sentry cavalry only saw a big Cao character)

Sun Chengzong sat back in the official hat chair with a "bang"—the amount of information was too huge, and the old man needed to concentrate his blood to his brain to think, and his legs couldn't hold it up anymore.

Amidst the huge amount of chaos, it took a long time for Old Sun to get the rich southern general out of his head, and then recalled the previous interaction between the two parties.

"You mean what you say? Didn't you get deceived by the natives?"

After thinking for a long time, Sun Chengzong still felt that what the sentry cavalry said was too unreal, and he couldn't believe it.

"My lord, it's absolutely true!" The sentinel replied, "The soldiers in the south were wearing green jackets, and the villain caught up with him through the door and asked a few questions."

After the sentry knight paused, he explained some details: "The head of Yongping city has been replaced with the banner of the commander-in-chief. Outside the city, there are natives digging pits to bury the corpses of Tartars. The villain went to see it, and there were thousands of people there. They are all strong and headless Tartars."

"In this way, Amin's entire army is wiped out? I'm afraid the Tartars in Qian'an won't please them either!"

When Sun Chengzong said this, he clapped his hands: "Come here, send a quick message to Zongzhen Zhu, Zhang Shenzheng and you two come to see me."

Not a moment later, with the seal of the former general of Ningyuan, Zhu Mei, the veteran of Shanhaiguan General Town temporarily, and Zhang Chun, the soldier of Yongping Road, came to see the old grandson in a hurry.

These two men, one civil and one military, are the key figures sent by the imperial court to Shanhaiguan to assist Lao Sun in controlling the local army of nearly [-] troops.

After listening to Sentinel's information again, the two were also dumbfounded: "Is it really true?"

Sentinel: "...".

At this moment, the sentry from Qian'an City, which had been sent a little farther before, also returned.The arrival of this group of sentinels put an end to the debate between true and false: Qian'an County has been restored, and the city is now self-governing, waiting for the county magistrate to take office!

Forcibly suppressing all doubts about this General Cao, Sun Chengzong and the two civil and military officers had a brief discussion, and finally decided that the veteran Zhu Mei would lead a cavalry unit to set off immediately to Yongping City to find out.

Sun Chengzong and Zhang Chun are preparing troops at Shanhaiguan. Once the news of Yongping comes, more infantry will be sent here.

So the veteran Zhu Mei immediately selected three thousand elite riders, set off from Shanhaiguan, and headed straight for Yongping City.

Zhu Mei, a veteran player who is over fifty years old, is quite famous.During his long military career serving the Ming Emperor, this person had "five-hanging general seals" and participated in the battle against the Houjin many times. He can be regarded as an old soldier like Lian Po and Yan Yan.

This time, it was the last time that the old man was on the battlefield, and he was on a temporary errand—the old man had retired and returned home, but after the gold came into the bandits, the court recruited him again.

Running wildly with three thousand elite riders, it was already afternoon when Zhu Mei arrived at Yongping City.Then the troops came to the only intact Ximen Suspension Bridge, and after a clear communication with the officials guarding the city, Minzhuang, Yongping opened the city.

After that, Zhu Mei learned everything about the crossing people in Yongping.After hearing the news, Sun Chengzong hurried all the way to Yongping regardless of his age.

After confirming that all the legends were true, the extremely shocked old grandson immediately planned to mobilize his soldiers and horses, and follow the footsteps of the crossing crowd to the direction of Santunying.

But at this moment, the sky was already dark, and it was nightfall on April 4nd. After the crossing people left the city at noon, they had already pulled Old Sun's head far behind.So the old grandson had no choice but to suppress his thoughts and set off again tomorrow.

……

Yongping is 150 miles away from Santunying, so the crossing people didn't hurry up after leaving the city in the afternoon - they couldn't make it to Santunying in half a day, so there was no need to work hard.

In addition, according to the telegram from the Santun camp, it can be said that it is as stable as Mount Tai, so there is no need for emergency rescue by the crossing people.

Apart from sending a report to Zhang Dongdong who is in Tianjin, Qian Tieshan asked him to come to Santunying to prepare to deal with big bosses like Lao Suntou and Ma Rulong, but he didn't do anything else.The troops that set out from Yongping rested that night on the river beach north of Qian'an City where they had been stationed before.

Early the next morning, the whole team set off and returned to the Yanshan Corridor along the old road from Santunying.At noon, the travelers could already hear Erba Dagai's unique gunshots on the mountain road.

At this time, Aixinjueluo Shuotuo and his soldiers and horses have also reached the final juncture.

Chapter 458 Huarong Road

The corpses of dead people and horses were scattered all over the bumpy mountain road, and every stone on the ground was stained red with blood.

It was the darkest moment before dawn, in the reception hall in the west of Santunying City, Shuotuo was stretching his arms, with a expressionless face, ready to charge under the guard of his own guards.

This time he had to go in person, because the remaining number had reached a critical point, and the pursuers behind him were also approaching.So this time it was Stud, or escaped from birth, or died under the city of Santunying, there was no third way to go.

……

When Shuo Tuo led 1500 cavalry to the city of Santunying yesterday morning, he couldn't help but gasped.

The mountain road, which was originally fairly flat, has completely changed its appearance at this moment.

Within the boundary of the city head, from west to east, there is a section of "Pockmark Road" with potholes.

There are dense small potholes all over the Mazi Road.These small pits seem simple, but they were dug with an engineer shovel, but the vertical planes of all small pits are also from west to east.

Trapped in a horse pit.

The principle of trapping a horse is very simple, just like a person descending a step, the vertical plane is at the heel.When the horse is running at high speed, the heel of the horse's hoof stepping on the pit will have a "slip" step on the air, and then the horse's hoof will break.

In fact, when people sprain their ankles, most of the accidents happen when they go downstairs. This is the reason.

It seems inconspicuous, but in fact, after a section of pockmarked road that is extremely vicious, there is a section of stone road next.

The Luan River is next to Santunying City, so there are many stones in the river.These stones have now been picked and placed on the road.

The stones are big and small, messy.The only thing in common is that the sharp side of the stone is all facing upwards.

This section of the road is not only used for trapping horses, even people walking on it must be careful to find a foothold, otherwise the soles of the feet will be pierced and the ankle will be broken.

After studying this malicious road against the cavalry, Shuotuo raised his head, and immediately saw the wretched opponent's name: the big banner with the word "Cao" flying on the top of the city.

"Dismount, go to a Niulu, and attack the city."

No matter how dangerous the mountain road in front of Santunying Gate is, it is only used to prevent the rear golden cavalry from joining Amin in the east.However, the Shuotuo Department said in theory that the best strategy is to take Santunying itself, and then enter the mountains from the north of the city, and rendezvous with Amin can only be regarded as the middle strategy.

So Shuotuo quickly made a judgment, and he ordered a soldier of Niulu to test the siege to see what kind of opponent was in the city.

The 300 cavalry were ordered to dismount, carrying shields and sabers, and with hooked ropes behind their waists, they walked slowly down the city wall.

To tell the truth, this level of siege can only be regarded as a feint.As long as the defenders are reliable, the cavalry without the slightest preparation for attacking the city cannot pose a threat to the city at all.

If a well-regulated military city like Santunying really wants to attack with a stance, it will first need a large number of auxiliary soldiers to manufacture equipment such as ladders, and then it will be possible to talk about using human lives.

When Hou Jin entered the bandits, he originally planned to pile up human lives insanely. As a result, no one expected that the redundant soldiers in the city opened the city gate in order to avenge the court's long-term arrears of wages. , and gained a new layer of understanding.

Today, Shuo Tuo does not intend to encounter such a good thing again.

Since the opponent was able to sneak attack on the Santun camp under such circumstances, it must be a small-scale army composed of elite soldiers and family members, and it would definitely not affect the battle situation because of the salary.

……

On the top of the city of Santunying, except for the fluttering banners and the howling northwest wind, there seemed to be no one there.

However, at the moment when the attackers were 50 meters away from the moat, a row of heads suddenly appeared on the top of the city, followed by continuous volleys of guns.

Like all the Tartars who were dealing with the time-traversing people for the first time, these 300 people did not hesitate to accelerate their charge after receiving the first shot, trying to make something out of it while the muskets were reloading.

The outcome of the matter is of course not unexpected.

Also like all the Tartars who dealt with cross-travelers, after a few quick rounds of gunfire, the casualties of this bull record have been hit unreasonably to less than 50%.

In the era of cold weapons, weaker troops, such as the Ming army, would retreat when their casualty rate reached 5%. Even the elite of the late Jin Dynasty, a casualty rate of up to 10% would also cause the troops to collapse.

Note that the above casualty rate refers to the number of battlefields when both sides have mutual casualties.

If the opponent does not die, but just firing a gun in the distance can cause the death of one's own personnel, then whether it is the Houjin or the Ming army, the casualty rate will never exceed 3% and they will collapse-watching the opponent leisurely killing themselves When a person is killed, the powerlessness and fear will crush the soldiers in an instant, which is far more powerful than melee combat.

Shuo Tuo's Niu Lu killed more than 2 people within 150 minutes.This has far exceeded the tolerance limit of everyone, so the remaining soldiers fled back in despair.

"I can't complain that I can steal the city. It turns out that the equipment is sharp!"

Shuo Tuo now finally knows how Santunying was lost.

Seeing the faint smoke spreading from the top of the city, and looking at the pile of corpses beside the moat, Shuo Tuo knew that his best plan seemed to be unworkable: with this row of strange guns, even if the top of the city The number of people was actually not many, and the cavalry in his hands couldn't fly up to the top of the city to take down the three camps in a hurry.

"Send someone to open the way to Yongping."

Shuo Tuo quickly grasped the weakness of the defenders at the top of the city according to the situation: there were few people, and they could not go out of the city to fight in the field.After seeing this layer clearly, Shuoto gave up his illusions and made the best choice under the current situation.

After that, a group of people started to fill in the hole with some temporarily collected branch shields in their hands.Others walked through potholes, stooping to clear rocks from their feet.

When the scavengers cleaned the road, they chose a location on the south side of the road, near the foot of the opposite mountain, more than 400 meters away from the city.Their task was simple: to clear a narrow road, just enough for the troops to lead their horses to walk through this bad road about three miles long.

The next moment, a row of gunfire continued, and several scavengers fell in response.

After seeing this scene, Shuo Tuo couldn't help being taken aback, and quickly pulled his horse back to a safe distance.Even if he killed him, he would never have imagined that the range of the firecrackers at the top of the city would be so far. It seemed that in the battle under the moat just now, the opponent still kept his strength.

"Scatter, scatter, continue on the flat road, don't stop!"

Seeing that the row of guns had knocked down several scavengers, Shuo Tuo quickly ordered that the scavengers keep a distance to avoid being shot.

Humans learn very quickly in harsh environments.The scavengers quickly learned without a teacher, and learned to dodge with a cat's waist and move forward in a snake shape in the constant rain of bullets.

Although people were knocked down from time to time, the road surface was still being cleared.

But this situation was quickly stopped again: a different gunshot sounded from the top of the city tower.

The frequency of this kind of gunfire is not high, it only rings once every few seconds, but the hit rate is quite high, reaching [-]% to [-]%.So hundreds of scavengers broke down again not long after, and collectively withdrew to the safe zone.

"We can't pass the day, let's wait until night." Seeing that the matter had come to this point, Shuo Tuo could only hold back his thoughts and wait for the dark.

It is said to be waiting, but it is not that simple: there are still thousands of Ming cavalry hanging behind Shuotuo.

Just when he ordered a timeout, the letter behind him came: The Ming army in Shankou had already tangled up the brigade and charged twice, and the broken Niulu couldn't stand it anymore.

Shuo Tuo said indifferently: "Stand back, let the dog cavalry come over."

In the afternoon of the same day, 3000 cavalry led by Zu Dashou successfully broke through the block.After that, the Ming army was on the mountain road 20 miles away from Santun Camp, but was confronted head-on by the 1000-year-old Golden Cavalry led by Shuo Tuo.

The Tartars, who had no way out, were extremely vicious, and everyone was desperate to kill Zu Dashoubu. More than 500 corpses were left on the mountain road.

Having just captured Zunhua, he was standing on the top of the city wall and was about to chant a doggerel to pretend to be a forceful horse Huihui, so he witnessed Guan Ning's cavalry fleeing from the mountain pass like a wolf galloping like a hog.

The large troops of the Ming army immediately centered on Zunhua and set up an eight-door golden lock array: It seems that Shuo Tuo is going to return to the carbine!

……

After killing Zu Dashou, Shuo Tuo gained precious rest time.

When it was about to fall into the night, the restless Tatar soldiers began to clear the road again.