Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 416 Escape

But Intertabunang never expected that just as he was changing his formation, two even more unexpected things happened.

The first thing was the frequency of the enemy's musket fire. As a general under Ligdan Khan, he was no stranger to firearms. He had directly seen the firearms used by the Ming army, and he even had a bird gun from the Ming Dynasty.

When the Mongols fought against the Ming army, the Ming army often gained a lot of advantages by relying on the sharpness of firearms. However, in actual wars, except for defending cities, firearms were not very effective in field battles because firearms had many limitations in use, the biggest of which was the firing frequency.

Ordinary fire guns or bird guns were fine, as they could only fire once in battle. The three-barreled guns that could fire three times were usually used by the Ming cavalry, and their accuracy was really disappointing. Although they were barely lethal, the actual effect was not very good. In a battle with the Ming army, they only had to withstand three rounds of fire from the enemy. Once the Ming army had finished firing their firearms, they would no longer pose a threat, and the Mongolian cavalry would dominate the world.

But Intertabunang never expected that the enemy's muskets seemed endless. Although the number of people holding muskets was not large, only a few hundred people, and these few hundred people were scattered on both sides of the army, but they fired one shot after another with their muskets. Not only were they hard and accurate, but they could still fire bullets after three shots. Coupled with the cooperation of the infantry bows, the cavalry who thought they could approach quickly suffered a great loss.

In addition, the enemy's formation was different from the Ming army they had seen before. When shooting, they were divided into two rows, one row shooting and the other waiting. After the first row finished shooting, the second row would take over and continue shooting, while the former began to reload. Their reloading speed was also incredibly fast. When the second row finished shooting, the first row had just finished loading. This formed a continuous and sustained firepower. Coupled with the cooperation of the Portuguese cannon and the tiger squat cannon, his cavalry could not get close at all.

The second thing that shocked Intertabunang was that the enemy cavalry that had been fleeing in all directions had gathered in the distance without knowing when. It turned out that the previous fleeing was just an illusion, the purpose of which was to lure Intertabunang into the trap.

When Intertabunang's cavalry began to attack the enemy's main camp, the cavalry that had fled out in the distance quickly gathered together. Not only did they gather together, they also quickly formed a formation and began to speed up to encircle the position of Intertabunang's troops from the left and right wings.

If you look down from the sky, you can find that the battlefield is in a very strange posture. In the northwest direction is Zhu Shenzui's circular military formation with the New Army as the core. This army has a small number of people, only more than 2,000 in total, but their formation is tight and the combat coordination is rigorous. There are chariot formations and horse traps on the front for protection. It is impossible for the enemy's cavalry to break through head-on.

On the two wings, musketeers and artillery kept firing, just like sharp knives, weakening Intertabunang's attacking cavalry piece by piece. The force of their attack was extremely fierce, and these Mongolian cavalry could not stop it at all.

In the southeast direction was Intertabunang's cavalry unit. Because he underestimated the enemy at the beginning, Intertabunang did not adopt any tactics, but directly charged in an attempt to directly defeat the enemy.

As a result, although the number of Intertabunang's cavalry was several times that of the enemy, they were unable to exert their true combat effectiveness. Except for the cavalry in the front and the two cavalry teams on the left and right that had just dispersed and attempted to charge from the side, most of the cavalry troops were crowded in the back, densely packed into a mess, rolling like a huge black ball with difficulty. Moreover, due to the failure of the charge, the formation of different speeds was in chaos, and the cavalry could no longer play its role.

On both sides of the cavalry, Zhu Shenzhui's cavalry had already started to attack, taking a flanking attack from behind. This caused the cavalry on both wings of Intertabunang to withstand the double attack of the new weapons and the cavalry in the rear. Under the fierceness of this attack, the Mongolian cavalry, which was not a truly professional army, showed signs of collapse without any surprise.

After just a few rounds, the cavalry on both wings of Intertabunang could no longer hold on and no longer had the courage to continue attacking. They were terrified and turned their horses around to flee towards their own camp in order to protect themselves.

At this time, Zhu Shenzhui's troops also launched a counterattack. The new army in the front adopted a counter-push tactic with the cooperation of chariots and artillery, and forced Intertabunang's central army to retreat step by step, unable to resist at all. At the same time, the two wings deployed to cooperate with their own cavalry to start counter-encirclement and directly press the central army. At this time, less than half an hour after leaving the battle, Intertabunang's side, which had an absolute advantage in numbers, had already shown signs of defeat.

"How could this happen? How could this happen!"

Intertabunang was dumbfounded. He stared at the changes on the battlefield with wide eyes, and couldn't understand why the battle ended like this.
Even if he fell into the enemy's trap, with nearly 30,000 cavalry on his side, it should be a sure thing to defeat the enemy of several thousand people.

But it had only been a short time since the start of the war, and the situation had deteriorated to this point. The left and right wings that he had managed to separate had been beaten to a pulp by the enemy's counterattacking cavalry, and he had been unable to break through the front and was even suppressed by the enemy's counterattack.

His own troops were several times larger than the enemy's, but most of them were completely useless. The cavalry troops in the back were squeezed into a ball because the troops in the front were suppressed and implicated. Everyone was terrified and intended to leave the headquarters to regroup, but the retreat on both wings made it impossible to leave the headquarters. In addition, the enemy's firearms were too powerful. He had never seen such a fierce firearms attack in his life, and he couldn't understand why the firearms used by the enemy could be fired continuously until now as if they would never stop.

"General! Retreat! Retreat quickly! Retreat first and reorganize the army after leaving here. If we continue fighting like this, we will be finished!" On the side, Qianhu anxiously suggested to Intertabunang. Even a fool could see that the battle had reached this point and if they didn't change, they would be completely defeated.

So what if there are more people? The key is that there is no way to fight now. One hundred percent of the fighting power is suppressed and only one or two percent can be used. Such a frustrating battle has never been encountered before. The best choice now is to leave the battlefield as soon as possible, reorganize the army and make a comeback. After a brief hesitation, Intetabunang also made this judgment. Qianhu's suggestion is right. If he continues to fight like this, failure is inevitable. If he loses like this, how can he face Ligdan Khan?

But Inteta Bunang also knew that retreating at this time would inevitably result in huge losses. A hasty withdrawal from the battlefield would likely lead to a rout. Once a rout occurred, his side would become like cattle and sheep slaughtered by the enemy.

But the problem was that Intertabunang didn't have many choices now. He had to make a decision immediately. Would he fail in the end? Or would he suffer a certain loss and have a chance to make a comeback? The answer was naturally the latter. Intertabunang immediately issued an order to retreat without hesitation, and ordered the cavalry in the front to block the enemy's attack at all costs. He led the rear army to become the front army and withdraw from the battlefield before the enemy surrounded him.

The plan was good. Inttabunang made a bold decision to sacrifice a part of his cavalry to save the majority, retreat and reorganize the army, and then take the initiative on the battlefield. However, he forgot that although his cavalry was the elite of Ligdan Khan, there were very few professional soldiers in the cavalry of the various Mongolian tribes, and most of these cavalry were drawn from various tribes.

Although they all had good individual abilities and were fierce and good at fighting, they had not undergone rigorous training and could not be considered a professional cavalry unit. In addition, Intertabunang overestimated the fighting spirit of his own cavalry and took it for granted that as long as he gave the order, this cavalry would cover the main force's retreat.

But he never expected that when the order to retreat was given, the cavalry, who had already been frightened by the continuous attacks, simply ignored the order to guard the rear and rushed away on their horses.

For a moment, the army was in complete chaos, everyone was running for their lives, and no matter how hard Inttabunang tried to control them, it was useless. Seeing this, Qianhu hurriedly advised Inttabunang not to worry about it, to run away first, and think of a way after leaving the battlefield. It was too dangerous to stay here now.

In this way, Inttabunang could only turn around and run with the fleeing cavalry, not caring about anything else. At this time, Zhu Shenzhui was overjoyed and immediately ordered the whole army to attack. The cavalry on both wings drove the enemy in the direction of escape and used the cavalry shooting tactics to weaken the enemy like peeling an onion. As for the new army in the front, they also chased after them with an indomitable momentum. When they met the Mongols who fell behind, they took up weapons and greeted them without saying a word. After greeting, they continued to chase and kill them regardless of the life or death of the enemy.

Less than an hour after the fighting began, Intertabunang's cavalry army was completely routed. Intertabunang, along with his personal guards and several thousand soldiers, fled in a panic without looking back. They fled dozens of miles in one breath. When the sun set, they looked back and saw that the pursuers had disappeared. Only then did they breathe a sigh of relief.

At this time, Intertabunang finally thought of gathering the remnants of his army. As his men had fled in all directions, he did not know where many of them had gone, and he did not know how many of them had been left on the battlefield. In the end, there were only less than a thousand people left with Intertabunang. Of the 30,000 cavalrymen who had set out on the expedition, only this small number remained. This made Intertabunang so angry that he almost vomited blood.

For safety reasons, Inteta Bunang and his group did not dare to stay here for too long. They ate some dry food and rested for a while before continuing to run east. He had to meet up with the rear team immediately, which had cattle and sheep and two thousand-man teams. As long as he met up with the rear team, he would have at least 3,000 soldiers in his hands, and he would be able to barely protect himself.

During the following night, Intertabunang fled on and off. By dawn of the next day, he had gathered a thousand men during his escape. Now he had more than two thousand cavalrymen. Although he was still in a miserable state, it was at least better than yesterday.

"General, take a rest. We have run nearly a hundred miles. We should be safe now." The captain said to Intertabunang while panting. Running all night was too much for humans, even for war horses. Moreover, their current situation was very bad. They were almost fleeing. Although they had gathered some people, many cavalrymen had dropped their weapons in order to lighten their burden when they fled. Many of them were left with nothing except the war horses they were riding.

At this moment, they were not far from the rear team, so there was no need to flee like a stray dog. They could rest for a while and let the horses recover. When they met up with the rear team, they would be completely safe.

Intertabunang glanced at his subordinates around him, with a bitter look on his face. He had never thought that he would be defeated so miserably, let alone end up like this. He glanced at his exhausted subordinates and was about to say something when his face suddenly changed slightly, because he felt the ground was shaking, and the direction of the shaking was not from the west, but from the east, which was the direction they were fleeing.

"Could it be that the rear team is coming?" Just as Intertabunang was thinking this, suddenly a Mongolian cavalryman came running quickly from the east. Intertabunang recognized this cavalryman. He was the scout he had sent to contact the rear team.

Before Intertabunang was ready to ride forward to inquire, he heard the scout's frightened cry.

"Oh no! Oh no! General! The enemy! The enemy is coming, the rear guard... the rear guard is finished..."

"what!"

(End of this chapter)