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

Chapter 478: Disadvantage in the First Battle
Early the next morning, Yuan Chonghuan sent someone to contact the capital, proposing to lead his troops into the city for rest and to meet with Emperor Chongzhen.

But his request was rejected as soon as it was made. News came from the capital that Emperor Chongzhen demanded that his troops could only be stationed outside the capital, and not a single soldier could enter the city, not even Yuan Chonghuan. Emperor Chongzhen sent a message to Yuan Chonghuan, asking him to lead the troops outside the city with peace of mind, and as for the rest, he could deal with it after the Jiannu were defeated.

After receiving the reply, Yuan Chonghuan was even more worried. He originally just wanted to let the troops enter the city to rest, and he went into the city to meet Emperor Chongzhen in person to explain to him. Unexpectedly, both requests were rejected. Although Emperor Chongzhen said that everything would be discussed after the war, Yuan Chonghuan felt something was wrong at this moment, as if Emperor Chongzhen no longer believed him.

Frowning and thinking carefully, Yuan Chonghuan couldn't come up with a better solution. After thinking for a long time, he finally decided to take practical actions to eliminate Emperor Chongzhen's suspicion of him. As for how to do it, the answer was also very easy, that is, let Emperor Chongzhen watch a battle between him and the Jiannu in the capital, and personally drive the Jiannu out of the capital to completely solve the crisis in the capital. Only in this way can Emperor Chongzhen trust him again.

Yuan Chonghuan did what he said. That day, he called Lieutenant General Liu Tianlu and asked him to lead more than a thousand cavalrymen to attack the camp at night.

Raiding a military camp at night is a common tactic in warfare. Once successful, it will deal a huge blow to the enemy. Moreover, Huang Taiji's Eight Banners came from afar and entered the Ming Dynasty via Mongolia. Although the enemy is powerful, they can only carry a few supplies. In addition, they are now in the heart of the Ming Dynasty and are surrounded by enemies. If the attack on the camp is successful, the Jiannu will retreat.

That night, Liu Tianlu led his troops to attack the camp under the cover of darkness. Yuan Chonghuan was anxiously waiting for the news of the attack in the army. In the second half of the night, he heard a noise outside. Yuan Chonghuan hurried out of the tent and saw Liu Tianlu and his men returning.

Seeing that Liu Tianlu and his group showed no signs of fighting, Yuan Chonghuan's heart sank, but he still asked about the situation with some hope.

Liu Tianlu told Yuan Chonghuan with a look of shame that when he was leading his troops halfway and about to arrive at Gaomidian, they encountered scouts of the Eight Banners. Because of this, Liu Tianlu's night attack was exposed. In order to avoid losses, Liu Tianlu led his troops back without even making a test, and the attacking troops returned empty-handed.

"Sir, I am incompetent. Please punish me..." Kneeling on one knee on the ground, Liu Tianlu clasped his fists and said guiltily.

Yuan Chonghuan sighed lightly, did not blame him, but waved his hand and let him go down to rest.

After Liu Tianlu left, Yuan Chonghuan felt bad luck. Why did he run into the Jiannu scouts? If the attack on the camp was successful, the pressure on him would be reduced by half. But now, it was impossible to attack the camp after being discovered by the Jiannu. Now he had to fight the Jiannu with real swords and guns.

On the other side, Huang Taiji was also shocked when he heard the scouts report that they had discovered the Ming army's cavalry attacking the camp, but at the same time he was secretly glad. Fortunately, he had made preparations in advance, otherwise it would be troublesome if the Ming army succeeded in a sneak attack at night.

Then, Huang Taiji decisively dispatched additional scouts to closely monitor the movements of the surrounding Ming troops. At the same time, he ordered another part of the Eight Banners troops to sweep back and forth in various places east of the capital to ensure the safety of his main force.

After doing all this, Huang Taiji knew his weaknesses. Although he led the Eight Banners to break into the heartland of the Ming Dynasty for the first time and even approached the capital, his situation actually looked good, but it was also full of dangers.

No matter how powerful the Eight Banners were, together with the Mongolian cavalry that came with them, they only had more than 60,000 people. Moreover, although the Eight Banners were unparalleled in riding and shooting and invincible in field battles, it was simply wishful thinking for them to capture the capital.

The capital city had high walls and thick walls, and was also equipped with many firearms to defend the city. There were nearly a million soldiers and civilians in the capital alone, plus the number of people in the Beijing camp. It was impossible for the Eight Banners soldiers, who lacked siege equipment and firearms, to break through the capital. In addition, the Guanning Army outside the capital had already arrived, and the Xuanda Army was not far away. In addition, the capital was in danger, and Emperor Chongzhen had ordered all places to come to the rescue. It would not be long before reinforcements from the prefectures and guards of the Ming Dynasty would arrive in an endless stream.

If he continued to delay here, within ten days or half a month, when the Ming troops from all over the country gathered, Huang Taiji would not be able to attack the capital, and it was possible that all the main forces of his Eight Banners would be lost in the Ming Dynasty.

Huang Taiji was not stupid, he was very smart. In fact, he had never thought of conquering the capital of the Ming Dynasty from the beginning, because it was impossible. The reason why he was now pretending to attack the capital was to confuse the Ming army and force them to focus their attention on the capital. The detachment he sent out was the one who carried out the real mission. Taking advantage of the Ming army gathering towards the capital, his detachment not only swept the surrounding areas, but also burned, killed and looted the heartland of the Ming Dynasty in order to achieve the purpose of sending troops.

Huang Taiji knew the advantages and disadvantages of himself and the Ming Dynasty. Not to mention that the territory of the Ming Dynasty was much larger than his own in Liaodong, just from the population base, the eight banners of Liaodong, including the banner slaves, could not match the population of a province of the Ming Dynasty. As for the others, let alone, Huang Taiji lacked everything, from population to food, from military equipment to production materials, and from craftsmen to other things, all of which were urgently needed by Huang Taiji. Since he had come this time, he could not return empty-handed. Huang Taiji wanted to take advantage of this great opportunity to weaken the Ming Dynasty while plundering to get himself a series of things he needed, including people, food, utensils, and other things.

His detachment was responsible for these, while his main force would tie down the Ming army to the east of the capital to buy himself time. The longer the time, the better, and the greater the profit he would make.

In order to better paralyze the Ming side, Huang Taiji launched a tentative attack on the capital on the second day after Yuan Chonghuan's unsuccessful night attack on the military camp. The main force moved forward and finally camped at the eastern corner of Tucheng Pass, eight miles outside Deshengmen, and sent two armies to attack Deshengmen and Guangqumen at the same time.

At this time, Yuan Chonghuan, who received the intelligence, also responded quickly. He ordered Man Gui and Hou Shilu to garrison Deshengmen, and he and Zu Dashou's Guanning Army to garrison Guangqumen, ready to go to war at any time.

In the afternoon, Huang Taiji launched the first attack and sent Abatai, Ajige, Dorgon, Hauge and others to lead the Eight Banners soldiers to attack the two gates. Yuan Chonghuan was not afraid at all. He had made preparations long ago. He sent the commander Dai Chengen to choose a position outside Guangqumen, Zu Dashou led the main force to line up in the south, Wang Chengyin lined up in the northwest, and Yuan Chonghuan himself and Zhou Wenyu lined up in the west.

When arranging the battle formation, Yuan Chonghuan deliberately left the east side without any troops. This was not an oversight on his part. He intended to use this formation to attract the Eight Banners to attack from the east, and then attack the Eight Banners from three sides to form a pocket formation.

Unfortunately, although Yuan Chonghuan had a good plan, he overlooked the ferocious cavalry and archery of the Eight Banners. The main force of the Eight Banners attacked directly from the east without hesitation. Yuan Chonghuan was overjoyed and commanded his troops to attack from three sides. At first, the Eight Banners were a little confused, but they soon counterattacked fiercely. Their fighting power was simply not something the Ming army could contend with.

Seeing that his formation was about to collapse under the reckless charge of the Eight Banners soldiers, Yuan Chonghuan was very anxious. He drew his sword and rushed into the battlefield without caring about his own safety, calling on his soldiers to fight, intending to boost morale and annihilate the enemy in one fell swoop. However, Yuan Chonghuan overestimated the fighting power of the Guanning Army again. Before he could reorganize his troops and return to attack, the fierce Eight Banners soldiers broke through his front line, and hundreds of Eight Banners cavalry rushed directly towards him.

The Eight Banners were really good at archery. Yuan Chonghuan was hit by two arrows before he could react. Fortunately, he had good armor and soft armor underneath, so the two arrows had no effect on him. But in the blink of an eye, an Eight Banners cavalryman rushed in front of him, smiled wildly, and slashed at Yuan Chonghuan's head with a knife.

Yuan Chonghuan was frightened out of his wits and quickly raised his sword to block. However, with a clang, his sword was cut into two pieces by the opponent's saber due to the violent shock to his palm. The opponent only paused for a moment, then raised his saber again and continued to chop towards Yuan Chonghuan.

"My life is over!" Yuan Chonghuan's face turned pale and a thought flashed through his mind. It was too late for him to hide now and he could only close his eyes and wait for death.

At this moment, the personnel officer Yuan Shenggao finally arrived and shouted, "Don't hurt my master!" He swung his sword and barely blocked the knife, thus saving Yuan Chonghuan.

Yuan Chonghuan, who managed to escape, was so frightened that his hands and feet went limp. At this moment, he had no idea of ​​surrounding and annihilating the enemy on three sides. All he could think about was escaping back first and saving his life.

Yuan Chonghuan immediately led the central troops to retreat hastily. His retreat was not a big deal, as the Eight Banners saw that the encirclement that they had barely maintained just now collapsed in an instant. Everyone was overjoyed and hurriedly led their troops to pursue and kill. For a while, the Guanning Army suffered heavy casualties, and countless soldiers fell off their horses and died one after another, or were hacked and shot by the Eight Banners and fell to the ground wailing for their lives.

Yuan Chonghuan no longer cared about these things. He rode his horse as fast as he could and ran back in one breath. After running back, Yuan Chonghuan turned around in fear and saw that the Eight Banners not far away had defeated his Ming army and were about to attack him.

At this time, Yuan Chonghuan hurriedly ordered the artillery units in his rear to open fire immediately and use artillery fire to intercept the attack of the Eight Banners. Once the Eight Banners attacked, he might not be able to stop them with the troops in his hands. Now he could only use the power of firearms to stop them.

After the order was issued, Yuan Chonghuan's artillery began to fire. After a few shots, the Eight Banners on the opposite side could not resist and began to turn their horses around and circumvent the Ming army's artillery fire from the north and south. At this time, Yuan Chonghuan ordered to continue the artillery fire. The Ming army's gunners adjusted the direction of the artillery fire and continued to fire at the Eight Banners. However, no one expected that Yuan Chonghuan would find something wrong after just a few shots, because the Eight Banners that had just avoided the artillery fire suddenly turned around and ran away, and his artillery fire did not hit the Eight Banners soldiers, but instead hit the friendly forces that came to reinforce. Looking at the flags over there, it was clearly Man Gui's cavalry.

(End of this chapter)