Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 210: Well
"Major General, the Tartars are heading towards Mingyuan Fort!"

Upon hearing the report from the soldiers, Hou Shilu, who was still thinking about something, immediately ran to the small hill behind him.

Their army was originally stationed on the river defense line and was rotated back to the main camp for repairs yesterday. However, who would have thought that just one day later, news of the Qing army's massive attack came.

It was a coincidence that at that time all the generals in the army followed the Crown Prince to the river defense line, and those who stayed in the camp did not dare to act on their own.

As a result, as the only general in the camp who could take charge of the army, Hou Shilu naturally led his cavalry to the left side of the fortress.

When he arrived, the single fortress on the north had already been breached, and from a distance it looked like the Ming troops in the remaining two fortresses were ready to meet the enemy.

As a result, Hou Shilu was not in a hurry to charge out, but instead hid behind a small hill near Mingyuan Fort with his cavalry.

He understood clearly that this cavalry team had only about a hundred people, and they had no heavy armor. Their cavalry tactics were far inferior to those of the Tartars. If he didn't seize the opportunity to defeat the enemy, the whole team might be trapped.

It would be better to hide near the battlefield and wait for the right opportunity to strike out.

With this thought in mind, he looked carefully for a moment and then quietly retreated down the hill.

According to common sense, he and his men were already near the battlefield. Even if he did not intend to monitor the enemy's movements personally, he should not have retreated from the hill just like that.

But the Tartar's arrival was really strange, and he was used to thinking about these things, so he took advantage of this opportunity to think about it again.

Time passed minute by minute, and no matter how hard Hou Shilu thought, he could not find any clues.

joke.

Although people's minds are not much different, the amount of information they receive can make a huge difference in the decisions they make.

At his level, he didn't know much. Besides, Tu Lai's trick was indeed a bit weird. It would be unreasonable for him to come up with anything.

"Major General, take up the battle."

At this point, Hou Shilu realized that he could not figure out the origin of this battle, so when he heard the report from the soldiers, he went to the small mound again.

At this time, several teams of Qing soldiers had arrived within a hundred steps of Mingyuan Fort under the cover of huge shields.

Seeing that the enemy was within shooting range, the Ming soldiers on the fort showed no mercy and immediately drew their bows and arrows. In just half a breath, the arrows instantly covered the city like a rainstorm.

Contrary to what most people think, although arrows will make a sound of breaking through the air, it is generally impossible to avoid the sound when it reaches the ears.

The Qing soldiers were naturally aware of this, and as soon as they saw the Ming army on the city take action, they quickly hid under the cover of the giant shields.

If this situation continues, these Qing soldiers will probably be able to reach the fortress smoothly, but their mission is to suppress the firepower on the city. If they just hide under the protection of the giant shield, not to mention the officers on the battlefield will not let them go, even the supervisory team who is carefully observing the battle situation in the rear will take it seriously.

In this situation, they naturally did not have much room for maneuver. When they heard the sound of the arrow hitting, they rushed out from behind the giant shield at an extremely fast speed. Then, it was not known whether they aimed or not, but they shot an arrow towards the fortress before rushing back.

Most of the soldiers on the battlefield here are veterans. Even though this set of movements is extremely complicated, it only takes them one or two breaths to perform it.

However, what determines life and death on the battlefield is not only skill but also luck. Even though the Qing army soldiers were extremely familiar with this set of movements, it was still inevitable that some of them would be hit by an arrow as soon as they poked their heads out.

With round after round of shooting, the Qing soldiers finally approached the fortress under the cover of giant shields, and the musketeers of both sides finally began to attack the enemy at this optimal range.

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

After a roar, the sound of lead bullets penetrating the giant shield followed. The general in charge of the Qing army's shield formation did not bother to check the casualties, and took advantage of this opportunity to shout loudly behind him.

"Well!"

Following this loud shout, the shield formation immediately split into several paths, and several machines as big as tall buildings following behind slowly approached the fortress under the push of dozens of strong men.

This siege tower is a tool for climbing up to attack cities. It has four wheels at the bottom and a viewing platform on top. In the middle, there are not only several thick wooden pillars, but also a ladder at the back connecting the upper and lower parts.

If it were allowed to move up, the attacking soldiers would be able to climb the city walls unhindered, and the defenders, having lost the advantage of being on high ground, would have no other options except to resist with hand-to-hand combat.

Seeing this, Hou Shilu did not wait any longer. He called out to his soldiers and ran down the hill straight to his mount.

According to his original plan, he was going to wait until the battle became extremely intense before attacking the Qing army from the side and rear. However, given the current situation, it was unknown when the large group of reinforcements would arrive.

If the well was really allowed to reach the city wall, the Qing army, with their superior strength, would be able to breach the fortress in just half an hour.

"Focus on those who push the well sill, and don't worry about the others!"

After he finished speaking, Hou Shilu took the lead and rushed down from the hill, and his cavalry followed closely behind.

Although there were only a hundred or so of them on horseback, the slight slope of the hill made a noise no less than a volley of musket fire, and everyone on the battlefield was attracted to them.

"Where did they get the cavalry?!"

Seeing this situation, Tian Xiong, who was in charge of the war here, was shocked.

There is almost no room for cavalry to be deployed in the Jiangnan area, so the army stationed here only has some knights for delivering messages and gathering intelligence, but there are very few generals who can form such a cavalry.

As a result, soldiers from various armies had little experience in dealing with cavalry charges.

"Master Beizi."

Tian Xiong's reaction was not slow after all. He thought of a way to deal with it in just a moment.

But when he looked at Tunqi for help, he saw that he had no expression on his face, as if he didn't care about the sudden appearance of the cavalry.

In this situation, he could only swallow back the rest of his words.

"Why panic? Isn't there a giant shield in front of us? As long as we deal with it properly, it won't be difficult to stop these half-witted people."

Tun Qi's words explained why he didn't care, but Tian Xiong almost vomited blood after hearing this.

Easier said than done!
Proper response! What does it mean to respond properly? !
At that distance, the giant shield would have no effect on the muskets, but it could certainly block the arrows.

If they really moved all the giant shields to the flanks as they said, those soldiers would probably be overwhelmed by the rain of arrows from the city before the cavalry arrived.

"What you said is true, but if we can mobilize some Eight Banners warriors to destroy this Ming army, we can save a lot of trouble later."

"No hurry, it's not time yet."

Since Tun Qi had said this, Tian Xiong could only reluctantly turn his attention back to the battlefield.

In his opinion, this battle was really unnecessary, not to mention that almost all the troops had come out. But he was only a general of the surrendered army, and to describe him as a person of low status was to flatter himself. How could he possibly resist the decision made by Tunqi and Tulai?

Although he obeyed the order, the doubts in his heart did not diminish at all.

According to common sense, unless the military situation is really urgent, generals must give their soldiers some time to equip themselves after making their plans.

But today, Natulai and Tunqi discussed secretly in the tent for a while, and then directly ordered all troops to launch a full-scale attack on the fortress controlled by the Ming army.

What's even more outrageous is that after taking down a fortress, the two men did not allow the troops to rest and recuperate, as if they wanted to completely defeat the enemy in front of them within a day.

In this way, although Tian Xiong could not see through the real intentions of the two men, he couldn't help but feel alert.

Of course, no matter how vigilant he was, it was useless. After all, he was a man who had captured Hongguang by stabbing him in the back. What other choice did he have except to follow the Qing Dynasty to the end?

To put it bluntly, if Tun Qi ordered him to commit suicide on the spot, Tian Xiongxu would still hesitate for a while, but if he asked for something else, he would have no choice but to obey.

"Send your cavalry."

Just as Tian Xiong was watching the cavalry charging towards his own soldiers with great heartache, Tun Qi's emotionless voice reached his ears again.

"what?!"

"What? Don't you dare?"

"No, it's just"

Facing Tunqi's military order, Tian Xiong was going to explain a little, but before he could say anything, Tunqi's explanation came first: "They are just some half-baked troops, not much different from the cavalry you have."

Hearing this, Tian Xiong felt suspicious, but his eyes turned towards the battle group.

But he was not a cavalry general after all. After watching for a while, he only felt that the cavalry team seemed not as sharp as the Eight Banners soldiers, but he could not see any other points.

In this situation, what else can he say?
Even though he only had seventy or eighty cavalrymen, he had no choice but to send them out according to Tunqi's instructions.

Accept fate.

This was the only thought in Tian Xiong's mind.

At this point, his guesses had been confirmed by Tunqi's various performances. Even though he still didn't quite understand why he did that, he had done such a thing. What other choice did he have except to go all the way to the end?

Under such circumstances, even though he was in great pain, he could only pray in his heart that Tunqi would not be too ruthless.

Tian Xiong thought so in his heart, but he never thought about whether he had done something too extreme.

After all, he was different from the surrendered soldiers under Gao Jie, and was far inferior to those under Liu Zeqing.

Although these two groups of people also betrayed the Ming and surrendered to the Qing like him, no one would deny in private that they did so because they were in desperate situations.

Even though they will be criticized openly and punished severely when encountered on the battlefield, when they turn around and surrender again like Hu Maozhen, they will be glad to accept them.

But Tian Xiong was different. He could have just led his army to surrender to the Qing, but he kidnapped Hongguang for his own title and salary, which led to Huang Degong's death before his army was defeated.

If such people wanted to return to the Ming Dynasty again, I think Zhu Cilang would be very willing to use their heads to win over the hearts of the people.

Tian Xiong naturally knew the whole story. Even though he had some guesses in his mind, he could only follow Tunqi's orders like a puppet.

As Tian Xiong's cavalry rushed out, Hou Shilu couldn't help but hesitate.

At this time, as they went back and forth, although a small half of the Qing army responsible for pushing the well embankment had died under their various tactics, the well embankment only moved a little slower.

One knows one's own business. Although his cavalry can be said to be skilled in horse and archery, they are far inferior to the Tatars.

But if they left the battlefield because of this, the well would definitely come into contact with the fortress with the help of various equipment of the Qing army.

In this way, the city wall would pose almost no restriction to the Qing army's ability to climb the city, and the fall of the fortress would be foreseeable.

"Sweep again!"

Faced with such a situation, Hou Shilu finally made a decision. After shouting, he didn't care whether the soldiers behind him followed him or not. He made a circle and rushed towards the well again.

"Major General! You retreat first!"

The meaning of Hou Shilu's words was very clear. They would retreat after completing this circle. However, at this time, the cavalry that had emerged from the Qing army's formation had already traveled nearly half the distance. If they really finished this circle and then retreated, there was a high possibility that they would be entangled by them.

Under such circumstances, as comrades who had lived in the same garrison for generations, it was natural for them to make the thoughtful suggestion and ask them to leave first.

But Hou Shilu was also very strange. Most smart people would weigh the pros and cons in all their actions, but this smart man seemed to be possessed by a powerful general after entering the battlefield.

Seeing that his proposal had not received a response from the major general, the general knew his master's temper and could only follow closely with a wry smile.

In fact, Hou Shilu didn't hear the voice at all, his whole attention was focused on the chosen target.

Thirty steps.

When the soldier saw the cavalry coming again, although his face was full of fear, he finally just squeezed a little into the crowd and tried his best to push the huge monster in front of him.

Twenty steps.

The situation suddenly changed. The general who was leading the attack in the formation did not seem to want to reduce the number of soldiers. At this time, he could only split into several parts from the shield formation to try to block the attack of the Ming army.

Ten steps.

The soldier holding the giant shield moved a little slower, but Hou Shilu had already positioned the sword in his hand. He only needed to run six or seven steps forward and the soldier would be within his attack range.

"Whoosh!"

At this moment, a sound of breaking air came into Hou Shilu's ears, and then he heard a snap, and then a sharp pain came from his left shoulder into his brain.

"Well!"

Being on the battlefield, how could he not be mentally prepared for such a thing?
Just as the arrow penetrated the armor and sank into his shoulder, he suddenly gathered his strength and forced the impact to the minimum. Then, regardless of whether his arm could withstand such force due to the speed of the horse, he swung the blade and chopped at the pawn's neck.

"withdraw!"

"Chase!"

(End of this chapter)