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

Chapter 503 Turn around and leave
"Wolf Whip! Mandarin Duck Formation? Zhejiang soldiers!"

When Zhu Shenzui's troops began to counterattack and the new army was officially dispatched, Manggurtai, who had been confident all along, suddenly widened his eyes. He looked at the scene in front of him in disbelief, staring at the new army that was "slaughtering" the Eight Banners soldiers over there, and was completely stunned.

When Manggurtai was young, he followed his father Khan Nurhaci to fight in battles and experienced countless battles, including many battles with the Ming army.

He had been fighting for so many years, relying on his bravery and the Zhenglan Banner Manggurtai in his hands, he could be said to be invincible and had killed countless enemies. This was especially true when fighting against the Ming army. In his eyes, the Ming army, whose combat effectiveness was far inferior to that of the Eight Banners, was a group of weaklings in the field, except for defending the city, and could not withstand a single blow.

However, Manggurtai had encountered tough opponents over the years. The one he remembered most vividly was the Battle of Hunhe River that year.

In the Battle of Hunhe, the Eight Banners, which had never had an opponent since Nurhaci started his rebellion, encountered for the first time an army stronger than their own. And this army was not one but two. One of these two armies was called the White Spear Army and the other was called the Zhejiang Army. The latter also had another name, the Qi Family Army.

That battle was the first time that the Eight Banners fought against the most elite Ming army. After this battle, even Manggurtai had to admit the ferocity of the White Spear Army and the Zhejiang soldiers.

The former was fine. Although the White Spear Soldiers were strong, the Eight Banners could still barely defeat them. After paying a certain price, they finally annihilated this army with their cavalry advantage and large numbers of people. As for the Zhejiang soldiers, the Eight Banners at that time really couldn't defeat them. A mere 3,000 Zhejiang soldiers actually stopped the fierce attack of more than 20,000 elite soldiers of the Eight Banners for a whole day. The battle was fierce. More than 20,000 elite soldiers of the Eight Banners faced 3,000 Zhejiang soldiers and ended up with more than 10,000 casualties. This was something that had never happened since Nurhaci started his rebellion.

Manggurtai was one of the generals who led his troops to attack the Zhejiang troops and witnessed the battle personally.

This battle was unprecedentedly difficult, and Manggurtai almost collapsed at the end of the battle.

Because no matter what he did, he could not break through the Zhejiang soldiers' line, and countless elite Eight Banners suffered heavy casualties. Facing the Zhejiang soldiers whose numbers were several times larger than their own, they were not afraid at all. Relying on the coordination of the Mandarin Duck Formation and the Military Formation, they used the weapons in their hands to suppress the Eight Banners' attack and even took the initiative to counterattack, causing huge casualties to the Eight Banners.

The victory was entirely due to the help of the surrendered Ming army artillerymen, because the Ming army's artillery and artillerymen were captured by the Eight Banners. Seeing that the battle situation was unfavorable and that if they continued to fight, they would not only fail to win the battle, but would even lose, Nurhaci became anxious. He had people put knives on the necks of the captured artillerymen, threatening them with life and death, and ordered them to set up the Ming army's most powerful and sharpest red cannons and turn the muzzles to bombard the Zhejiang soldiers.

It was precisely because of this reason that these 3,000 Zhejiang soldiers were eventually killed and wounded by their own artillery. The Eight Banners also took great pains to annihilate these Zhejiang soldiers with the support of fierce artillery fire, and finally won the Battle of Hunhe.

Although the battle was finally won, the Eight Banners suffered the greatest loss since the uprising. The casualties of tens of thousands of Eight Banners soldiers were unbearable for Nurhaci. If another Zhejiang army arrived at the battlefield at this time, the Eight Banners would surely be defeated, and the entire situation in Liaodong would be completely changed.

Unfortunately, the Ming army only had this one Zhejiang army, and no second one.

With the demise of the Zhejiang Army including the White Rod Army, the two most powerful armies of the Ming Dynasty disappeared, and the Eight Banners no longer had any opponents. From then on, the Ming army lost its field combat capability and could only hide behind the city walls, relying on the tall city walls and the advantages of firearms to compete with the Eight Banners.

After the Battle of Hunhe, Nurhaci was seriously injured and had no ability to continue attacking, so he had no choice but to withdraw his troops. This withdrawal not only surrendered nearly half of the territory occupied before the war, but also the troops withdrawn to the front line turned from offense to defense, which also gave the Ming Dynasty a rare breathing space in Liaodong.

After the war, Nurhaci and his sons were still haunted by the battle. They were lucky enough to have destroyed the Zhejiang soldiers of the Ming army in this battle. If it were not for the support of artillery, they might have been completely defeated. The ferocity and strength of the Zhejiang soldiers also left a deep impression on all the Manchus.

Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty never had another Zhejiang Army, and Qi Jiguang, who founded this army, had long since died. After the Battle of Hunhe, it was said that the Ming Dynasty planned to reorganize the Zhejiang Army, but later news came that due to the court's unfair treatment of the Zhejiang Army, the Zhejiang Army's hometown rejected the court's request, and the plan to rebuild the Zhejiang Army was shelved, and there was no news afterwards.

This was good news that Nurhaci had been waiting for, and it also made Manggurtai, who had suffered a blow in the Battle of Hunhe River, completely relieved. To be honest, after that battle, Manggurtai was frightened by the strength of the Zhejiang soldiers, and even he almost died on the battlefield.

After the war, Manggurtai suddenly woke up from his sleep countless times, shouting and yelling, "The Zhejiang soldiers are coming! Stop them! Stop them!" When he came to his senses, he realized that he was just dreaming, but the palpitations in Manggurtai's heart, sweating and frightened, were real.

As time went by, and after hearing the news that the Ming Dynasty could no longer rebuild the Zhejiang Army, Manggurtai gradually returned to normal. After a few years, the events of the past were slowly forgotten. The strength of the Zhejiang Army was gone, and the nightmare scene would never happen again. Manggurtai himself thought he had completely forgotten it all.

But the scene that happened today suddenly made the fear buried in his heart suddenly emerge. He looked closely with wide eyes and found that the troops on the opposite side were actually using wolf-whips, and the skilled coordination and formation of the Ming army in the battle formation was the mandarin duck formation he had seen before. Seeing that his own Eight Banners soldiers had no power to fight back under the attack of the Ming army, and were easily slaughtered like melons and vegetables, Manggurtai's face changed. "This... How is this possible? How is this possible?" Manggurtai's hands trembled, his eyes were about to pop out of his sockets, and he kept muttering to himself.

Didn't they say that all the Zhejiang soldiers in the Ming Dynasty were gone? How come one suddenly appeared here? And they are so powerful.

Manggurtai, who had personally experienced the Battle of Hunhe River, still remembered vividly the strength of the Zhejiang soldiers. In his opinion, although the army in front of him was small in number, in terms of tactical coordination and ferocity, they were even stronger than the Zhejiang soldiers of that year.

They had never encountered such an army since they rushed into Ming Dynasty and came to the capital to fight against the Ming army, but now they suddenly appeared. What was going on?

For a moment, Manggurtai's brain crashed and he was completely dumbfounded. At this time, the elite troops of the Zhenglan Banner who were sent to reinforce him were preparing to replace the defeated friendly troops. Seeing that his flag leader did not issue orders in time and even stared at the front stupidly, Jiala Zhangjing could not help but remind him.

"What?" Manggurtai asked subconsciously. Jiala Zhangjing continued to repeat what he had just said, which made him come back to his senses.

"withdraw!"

"Retreat? Master..."

"Stop talking nonsense! Retreat!" Manggurtai gritted his teeth and gave the order to retreat without hesitation. He ordered people to call back all the elite soldiers of the Zhenglan Banner who were ready to charge. Then he took a deep look at the opposite army that had almost killed all the Eight Banner soldiers who had just charged. He turned his horse around and ran away without looking back.

Continue to charge? What a joke!
Manggurtai was reckless but not stupid. He had personally experienced the strength of the Zhejiang soldiers. Moreover, the army on the opposite side was no less well-equipped or well-trained than the Zhejiang soldiers that had frightened him so much back then, and they even seemed to be stronger.

In the battle of Hunhe River that year, Manggurtai was frightened by the Zhejiang soldiers. The sudden appearance of this army today reminded him of the situation back then.

You have to know that the Zhejiang soldiers defeated more than 20,000 elite Eight Banners troops with only 3,000 people. If it were not for the captured Ming army's artillery units and the use of the surrendered Ming army gunners and red cannons to break the Zhejiang soldiers' formation, the Eight Banners might have been completely defeated in that battle.

Although the enemy’s number of people is not large now, it seems that there are less than a thousand people, but the problem is that Manggurtai does not have many people under his command now!

At present, Manggurtai only had nearly a thousand elite soldiers of the Zhenglan Banner, and with the other banners fighting together, there were only more than a thousand people in total. How could such a small number of people defeat the powerful Zhejiang soldiers? Moreover, Manggurtai did not have any artillery units, and the opposing army had already made defensive preparations. Not only was the combat effectiveness strong, but it also had a lot of Portuguese and tiger squat cannons. In addition, the complex terrain in the camp was not conducive to the large-scale detour of the cavalry, so he was even less of a match.

In addition to the emerging Zhejiang soldiers, the enemy also gathered nearly 3,000 defeated Ming troops. After being armed, even if the combat effectiveness of these Ming troops was not strong, they were still not dead. With these Zhejiang soldiers to support them, it was still possible to fight to the death with the Eight Banners in their hands.

What frightened Manggurtai even more was that when the opposing army counterattacked, hundreds of cavalrymen emerged from the army formation. The combat effectiveness of these cavalrymen seemed to be no weaker than that of his own elite Eight Banners. Once the opponent launched a direct counterattack against him, Manggurtai felt that he would not be able to stop it on his own and would definitely be defeated.

If that's the case, then why stay here? It's better to just leave. Anyway, the Ming army's camp has been breached, the commander Man Gui has died in the battle, and the Ming army is fleeing in panic everywhere. This battle has already been won.

Fighting a war does not rely solely on force, but also on brains. Why should Manggurtai pick on rocks? Besides, he was only the leader of the Zhenglan Banner, and Huang Taiji was the current Khan. The elite troops of the Zhenglan Banner were his trump card to protect his capital. He and Huang Taiji were not on good terms, so there was no need to waste the precious strength of the Zhenglan Banner in vain.

Apart from these, Manggurtai was also clear about one thing, that is, it was a fluke that he could capture the Ming army camp today. Although the Eight Banners were powerful, it was impossible for them to completely wipe out all the Ming troops in a short period of time. There were other Ming troops around, and even the Ming army artillery on the city wall. Once the Ming army came to their senses and came to rescue from all directions, the Eight Banners could only retreat. Now the military exploits were enough for him, and there was no need for Manggurtai to continue fighting here.

(End of this chapter)