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

Chapter 500: Zhenglan Banner

When the fleeing Ming army began to turn and fled left and right towards Zhu Shenzui's camp, when Hei Mingzhong and his men were reorganizing, the pursuing Eight Banners soldiers also arrived.

The Eight Banners soldiers were fighting in high spirits in the back when they suddenly saw a group of soldiers in the Ming army camp who had stood firm and were ready for battle. They were surprised but did not think much about it.

In the eyes of these Eight Banners soldiers, the entire Xuanda army was defeated by them, let alone such a small Ming army. Even if they set up a posture and had things like chevaux de frise, what would it matter? The Eight Banners were invincible in the world. With just a few hundred of them, they could defeat the enemy with just one charge.

The Eight Banners soldiers rushed forward without stopping, intending to break into Zhu Shenzui's camp and defeat the Ming army in one fell swoop. By then, the Ming army would be slaughtered like cattle and sheep to be killed. Thinking of this, the Eight Banners soldiers' eyes lit up and their spirits were lifted. Looking at the Ming army opposite them was like seeing heads one by one.

Zhu Shenzhui sneered in his heart when he squinted his eyes and saw that the Eight Banners soldiers no longer drove away the fleeing Ming army soldiers, but instead came directly towards him.

He didn't expect that the Eight Banners soldiers would be so arrogant and planned to break through his camp head-on without even stopping.

It seems that these Jiannu really think they are invincible. Victory has gone to their heads. It would be fine if there were more of them, but they only came with a few hundred cavalry. They think they can defeat them with these eight banners? It's simply wishful thinking!

Although Zhu Shenzhui's new army was small in number, they were all elite soldiers, and they were all veterans who had experienced several battles. Over the years, the new army had been fighting on the Mongolian grasslands and had fought against the Mongolian cavalry many times. They already knew how to fight this battle. When they saw the Eight Banners soldiers roaring towards their camp, the new army was unshakable and remained on full alert, without any fear.

When the Eight Banners soldiers rushed into the artillery range, Li You gave the order to open fire.

The new army carried a lot of artillery, and in addition to the ones they carried themselves, they also carried the artillery that was originally from the Ming army in the camp when they gathered the remnants. Although these artillery pieces were not as powerful as the Red Cannon, they were enough to deal with the Eight Banners soldiers in front of them.

With an order, the artillery opened fire. The cannons mounted behind the barricades and carriages roared, and shells flew out one after another, sweeping directly towards the front.

In a blink of an eye, the dozens of Eighteen Banners soldiers in the front were under artillery fire and suffered heavy casualties. But even so, the Eight Banners soldiers behind them still did not stop charging, and even increased their horse speed. The Eight Banners soldiers who had fought with the Ming army many times knew very well that the Ming army only had three tricks to start a war. First, they would attack with firearms, and as long as they could withstand one round, the Ming army would have no resistance once they got close.

"kill!"

A Niulu Zhangjing shouted, and he drew his bow and shot, being skilled in archery and horse riding. The two sides were very close, and his horse passed over his subordinates who were hit by the Ming army's artillery without stopping, and continued to charge forward. In front of him were three rows of chevaux de frise, which he did not even notice, and the carriages behind the chevaux de frise were even more disdainful to him. In his opinion, such things could be knocked away by just rushing over them. Without them, the Ming army would not be able to stop the Eight Banners cavalry.

As Niulu Zhangjing drew his bow and shot arrows, the other Eight Banners soldiers following him also shot their arrows one after another. However, they did not expect that the effect was not good. The feather arrows in the air cut through the space between the two sides and fell into the opposite Ming army camp. The opposite Ming army had been prepared. They raised their shields for protection, wielded long weapons, and used carriages for cover. Dozens of feather arrows did not cause any casualties to the Ming army. They either missed the target or were blocked. The Ming soldiers still stood firmly, without any sign of retreat, as if they regarded the Eight Banners soldiers rushing towards them as nothing.

A hint of surprise flashed across Niulu Zhangjing's face, but he still didn't think much about it at this time, or perhaps the sudden change in the battle situation made it impossible for him to think too much.

Seeing that they were getting close, Niulu Zhangjing put the bow on his warhorse, took out the lasso he carried, and swung it around. Just as he was about to throw away those annoying barricades just like he had pulled away the fence outside the Ming army camp, suddenly dozens of flames came out from the gaps between the Ming army's carriages opposite, followed by gunshots like frying beans. Before Niulu Zhangjing could come to his senses, he felt a force of gravity hitting him directly. His body shook on the warhorse and a look of confusion appeared on his face. When Niulu Zhangjing realized what was happening, he found that he had been hit by a Ming army's musket bullet. There was a hole in his chest and blood was flowing out. He had difficulty breathing. After a brief numbness, severe pain spread throughout his body. He covered his right chest and tried to understand why this happened. He could no longer sit still on his horse and fell off. He lay on the ground gasping for breath, with blood foaming from his mouth, but he was only exhaling but not inhaling at all. After a short while, his body became motionless and his wide-open eyes lost their expression.

Niulu Zhangjing fell to the ground and died. There were also more than a dozen Eight Banners soldiers who were hit by muskets like him. However, the remaining Eight Banners soldiers were still fierce and continued to rush towards this side. In their view, the Ming army's muskets were just one round. Since the artillery and muskets had already been fired, there was no need to be afraid of the next one.

Just when these Eight Banners soldiers thought victory was in sight, who would have thought that the Ming army had just fired a round of musket fire when suddenly another round started. At the same time, the Portuguese gunners had reloaded again. Li You directly gave the order to continue firing, and the artillery continued firing instantly. This time, because the distance was close, the power of the Portuguese gun was much stronger than the first round. This round of artillery fire coverage, coupled with the continuous musket fire, caught the Eight Banners soldiers off guard in a blink of an eye, and they fell down in unison.

The battlefield changed very quickly, in just a dozen breaths, but in these dozen breaths, the hundreds of Eight Banner soldiers who charged forward were almost half gone as if swept by a strong wind. The Eight Banner soldiers who were lucky enough not to be injured by artillery fire and muskets all showed horrified expressions. They had never seen such a powerful Ming army, and they couldn't understand why the Ming army's firearms became so fast? The battle that they thought was a sure win suddenly turned into a situation where they suffered heavy casualties, while the Ming army on the opposite side was unscathed and continued to fire at them calmly.

"Retreat! Retreat!" another Niulu Zhangjing shouted in fear, and hurriedly turned his horse's head and ran away. Although he didn't understand what was going on with this Ming army, he knew that there was no chance of victory if he continued to charge, because of the barricades and wagons, they had to deal with these things before they could rush directly to the front of the Ming army, and the Ming army's firearms were too fierce and they were simply unable to resist.

The Eight Banners soldiers came like a gust of wind and left like a gust of wind.

As the Eight Banners soldiers fled the battlefield, the artillery of the New Army stopped firing one after another. The gunners took the time to clean the artillery and reload it. The muskets fired another round in pursuit of the Eight Banners, leaving behind several corpses, and then stopped. The musketeers also took the time to reload and be ready to fire again at any time.

The brief battle lasted only about ten minutes. The Eight Banners, which had been chasing the Ming army's defeated soldiers, were defeated. Not only did the new army not lose a single soldier, but nearly half of the Eight Banners soldiers were left behind. The defeated Ming army, which was reorganizing behind, was stunned by the battle. They could never have imagined that such an elite force had emerged from their army, and its combat effectiveness was simply amazing.

The Eight Banners retreated and dared not come again for a while. The two sides formed a standoff with a long distance between them. Zhu Shenzhui was not idle at this time. He took advantage of this rare opportunity to let Hei Mingzhong organize the rout and reorganize the ranks. Then he placed the reorganized Ming army on the left and right wings slightly behind the army formation to assist the new army in consolidating this temporary camp. Although the combat effectiveness of these Ming troops was not very good, after all, the Xuan Army was the elite border army of the Ming Dynasty. The reason why they were defeated so badly was, on the one hand, because they caught Huang Taiji off guard, and on the other hand, the morale of the troops collapsed after Man Gui was killed.

Although the border troops were not very good, they were still much stronger than the garrison troops. Moreover, there were many brave men among these defeated soldiers. Some of them wanted to turn around and fight back when they were fleeing just now, but under the control of the majority of people, they had no choice but to flee with the crowd.

Now Zhu Shencui directly blocked the Eight Banners soldiers who were chasing him, and gave them a rare opportunity to catch their breath and regroup. Looking at the corpses of the Eight Banners lying in a pool of blood not far away, and a few Jian slaves who were dying, they suddenly felt angry and their morale was instantly boosted. When they thought of the people who were being chased like dogs just now, and the countless people who died tragically at the hands of these Jian slaves, these border troops were no longer timid, and they shared the same hatred and their courage gradually returned.

The Ming army that escaped had been disorganized, and most of them had no weapons, not even cotton armor. Hei Mingzhong led his men to reorganize, and at this time he didn't care about anything else, and reorganized the troops according to the number of people, letting his subordinates temporarily serve as their grassroots leaders.

As for weapons, Zhu Shenzui prepared some in advance. Although the quantity was not large enough to equip all the Ming troops, it was enough for several hundred people. In addition to the nearly 1,000 people originally gathered by Hei Mingzhong, he also searched nearby and got some weapons discarded by other Ming troops. Only then did he barely complete the temporary reorganization.

At this time, more than a thousand Eight Banners soldiers arrived not far ahead and joined the more than a hundred Eight Banners soldiers who had just escaped. From afar, the newly arrived Eight Banners soldiers were flying the flag of the Zhenglan Banner. The armor on the leader was different from that of ordinary Niulu Zhangjing, and looked much better. He was riding on a horse and looking at Zhu Shenzhui. The Niulu Zhangjing who had escaped back was talking to him.

"Seems like an important person?" Zhu Shenzhui looked over and thought to himself, wondering who this person was? Zhenglan Banner? Could it be that the guy in armor opposite him, who was not of low status, was Manggurtai, the leader of Zhenglan Banner?
(End of this chapter)