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

Chapter 578 Great Victory
As Dorgon fled, Duoduo, who was fighting fiercely with Wang Hai, didn't know what was going on at first. When he found that something was wrong, the two wings of the Tenger cavalry that had retreated earlier had already surrounded him. From a distance, he saw Dorgon's flag leaving in the northwest direction, and countless Tenger cavalry were chasing after him. From time to time, the lagging Eight Banners soldiers were shot by arrows or hacked to death on the spot. The whole battlefield was full of shouts and screams, and countless people shouted: "The Jiannu are defeated! Dorgon ran away! Kill! Kill!"

"How is this possible!" Duoduo never thought that his brother Dorgon would be defeated. The two brothers grew up together, and Duoduo knew Dorgon's abilities better than anyone else. In his opinion, Dorgon was the one with the highest military talent and the best fighter among all his brothers, even the Great Khan Huang Taiji could not compare to him.

This battle had been planned for a long time, and Dorgon's tactics were flawless, and the changes from the beginning of the war to the later stages also proved that Dorgon's tactics were correct. But just when victory was in sight, Dorgon, who had defeated the central army of Tenger's army with a surprise attack, ran away, and ran away in such a miserable manner.

"Beile! It's too late to do anything about it. Let's retreat quickly! Otherwise it will be too late!"

Just when Duoduo was so shocked that he could not control himself, the general beside him hurriedly tried to persuade him.

The situation was not right now. The hunters had become the prey, and the prey had become the hunters. As Dorgon's main force began to flee the battlefield, it was impossible for Duoduo to continue fighting. Once he was tightly entangled by the opponent, once the cavalry of the Tenger tribe arrived, Duoduo's troops would be unable to escape.

As long as the mountains remain, there will be no shortage of firewood. Duoduo is not stupid. Only a fool would continue to do something that is obviously impossible.

Duoduo immediately gritted his teeth and ordered a retreat. He and Dorgon were indeed brothers, and they adopted exactly the same approach. He let the rest of the Mongolian cavalry and the Eight Banners soldiers from other banners cover the rear, while he himself turned around and fled with the elite Zhengbai Banner troops from his own banner, without caring about what would happen to the friendly forces on the battlefield, let alone the chaos that the coalition forces of other Mongolian tribes were still in.

As Duoduo also began to flee the battlefield, the initiative of the entire battlefield was completely in the hands of Zhu Shenzui. On the one hand, Zhu Shenzui continued to hunt down Dorgon himself, and on the other hand, he asked Wang Hai to unite with the other tribal cavalry to chase Duoduo. At the same time, the remaining tribes led by Li You, Hu Lin, and Moerge encircled and annihilated the coalition forces that followed Dorgon.

The battle situation changed rapidly. With the escape of Dorgon brothers, the coalition forces composed of Khorchin, Zhaluut, Bahrain, Naiman, Aohan, Kharchin, Alukhorchin, Ongniud and Asut tribes directly lost their will to fight. Under the leadership of their leaders, they either fled with Dorgon brothers or scattered like headless flies. The entire battlefield was in chaos and completely lost command.

The battle lasted from morning till evening. When the sun set and it was dark, the pursuing troops gradually returned.

Zhu Shenzui was ultimately unable to capture the Dorgon brothers, as the two brothers ran really fast. After leaving some troops behind to stop them, the Dorgon brothers rode their horses one towards the northeast and the other towards the east without looking back, and disappeared without a trace.

In this battle, the Tenger tribe won a huge victory. Not only did it force the Dorgon brothers to flee in a panic, but it also left several thousand Eight Banners on the battlefield. As for the Mongolian coalition forces they brought with them, they killed nearly 10,000 people in the battle and took countless prisoners. Among them, Budaci, the uncle of Khorchin Jinong Badali, was captured alive, Sebuteng, the Taiji of Balin Right Banner, was captured, Gulusiqibu, the Taiji of Kharchin, was captured, and Aji, the Taiji of Asut, was captured. The leaders of the remaining tribes either took advantage of the chaos to escape or disappeared.

This battle not only broke the myth of Jiannu's unbroken victory in wars with Mongolia, but also dealt a heavy blow to the Eight Banners. In addition, the Mongolian tribes such as Chahar and Khorchin that were affiliated with Jiannu were defeated and could not recover.

The total number of Dorgon's brothers who eventually escaped was less than 10,000. If the number of people who escaped from other tribes is added, it is estimated that the number was less than half of the original number.

The rest were either killed in battle or captured. Several tribal leaders were also captured. As for the Mongolian generals, there were also many lower-level generals such as Niulu Zhangjing of the Eight Banners. Among them, one person, Jiala Ezhen, was also captured alive. This was an unprecedented great victory.

Although it was a great victory, Zhu Shenzhui also suffered heavy losses. The elite Eight Banners of the Dorgon brothers were not pushovers, and the other Mongolian allies were also strong. Even if they won, they had to pay a certain price.

After the battle, the casualties were counted. It was found that 2,463 cavalrymen from Tengger's main unit suffered casualties, 4,177 cavalrymen from other units suffered casualties, and 73 cavalrymen from the new army suffered casualties, for a total of 6,713 casualties (cavalrymen).

Of the total number of casualties, nearly half, or about 3,400, were killed in battle, and about 70% of the wounded were able to return to the battlefield, excluding those who were disabled. Such losses were not small, but judging by the results of the battle, it was worth it.

Wang Hai, who withstood Duoduo's fierce attack, was the first to make contributions. He led the way with only 6,000 cavalrymen to block Duoduo's Eight Banners main force and the coalition forces totaling more than 10,000 people. He was hit by three arrows, but fortunately his armor blocked them and he was only slightly injured. As for the other generals, many were injured, and two ordinary generals were killed.

After cleaning up the battlefield, when the data was reported to Zhu Shenzhui, the joy on Zhu Shenzhui's face gradually faded. Looking at the cold numbers in his hand, he felt very unhappy.

The saying that "one general's success is built on the bones of thousands of soldiers" is absolutely true. War is cruel, and every war is accompanied by blood and death. Sacrifice is inevitable. Without these soldiers' selfless bravery in killing the enemy, how could we have the victory today?

Zhu Shenzhui asked his guards for some mare's milk and sprinkled it directly on the grassland to bid farewell to the soldiers who died in the battle. Then he instructed his subordinates to bury the dead soldiers properly and to treat the wounded as soon as possible. After the great victory, everyone was excited, but Zhu Shenzhui rejected his subordinates' suggestion to hold a banquet. After all, the battle had just ended and the follow-up situation was still unclear. Moreover, Dorgon's brothers had escaped now, and it was unknown whether they would come back to kill him. It was better to be cautious.

After the war, Zhu Shenzhui would naturally not treat everyone unfairly. Not only the generals of his own army, but also the Tumed tribes that followed the army were rewarded. However, these are all later matters. They have to wait until the battlefield is completely cleaned up and then the army returns to Guihua City to make arrangements. It is too early to talk about these things now.

Now there is another critical question, which is whether to return directly or continue to advance eastward.

This battle not only drove away the Dorgon brothers and inflicted heavy damage on the Eight Banners, but also defeated the coalition forces of Khorchin and Chahar in one fell swoop.

Forget about Khorchin, the Khorchin grassland is located in Mongolia near Liaodong, and there is the entire Chahar in between. But Chahar is different, Chahar is adjacent to Tumed, and the land they are standing on now belongs to the territory of Chahar Left and Right Front Banner.

As the coalition forces of the Chahar tribes were completely defeated, and even many tribal leaders and generals were captured, Chahar was now at its weakest moment. At this time, if the troops continued to advance eastward, it should not be a problem to capture Chahar. After all, most of the main forces of Chahar had already stayed in this battlefield, and its tribal headquarters had little combat power.

Burigude suggested that Zhu Shenzhui take this opportunity to attack Chahar. Even if he could not take over the whole Chahar, he would definitely have no problem taking over half of Chahar. Not only Burigude, but also Li You and Hu Lin had similar ideas. In everyone's opinion, Chahar was already in their pockets, and the rules on the grassland had always been like this. If they were defeated, they had to pay the price. Not only the original grassland, but even the entire tribe should be annexed.

In Zhu Shenzui's tent, Zhu Shenzui was thinking intently. He had to say that Burigude's suggestion was quite tempting. If Chahar or half of Chahar could be captured, it would be of great benefit to the Tengger tribe.

But Zhu Shenzhu was hesitant because while it would bring benefits, it would also bring huge risks. Should he do this? He couldn't make up his mind for a while.

"Uncle!" At this moment, Wang Hai came.

"How is your injury?" Zhu Shenzhui stood up and walked forward a few steps, putting his hands on his shoulders and looking him up and down.

"It's just a minor injury. No bones or muscles are broken. It has been bandaged." Wang Hai replied with a smile and even moved around a bit. Seeing that he was indeed fine, Zhu Shenzhui finally felt relieved.

The most dangerous person in this battle was Wang Hai. If he could not stop Duoduo's fierce attack and was broken through by Duoduo's main force, it would be hard to say what the outcome of this battle would be. Zhu Shenzhu made a decision after learning that Dorgon intended to adopt a roundabout strategy and Duoduo's east-west attack, thus determining the response to today's battle.

It is difficult to set up an ambush in grassland warfare due to the terrain, and it is very different from fighting in the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Shenzhu could not use the tactic of dividing his troops to lure the enemy. After all, once he divided his troops, it would be easy for the Dorgon brothers to detect him, and the other side would be able to respond quickly.

For this reason, Zhu Shenzhui finally adopted today's tactics, which was to lure Duoduo to attack head-on, and then use one of his troops to block Duoduo so that he could not break through. After the battle, his left and right wings took the initiative to reveal their flaws, so that Dorgon, who was waiting for an opportunity, thought he had seized the opportunity, and then attacked his own headquarters with all his strength.

This tactic carries a huge risk, that is, if it fails to stop the front and back attacks of Dorgon's brothers, and the friendly forces pretending to be defeated fail to return to support in time and cooperate with the headquarters to implement the counter-encirclement tactics, then this tactic will fail.

At that time, it would not be a question of victory or defeat, but the possibility of being directly defeated by Dorgon. If defeated, the army would be finished. Not only that, even Zhu Shenzhui himself might not be able to escape.

Compared with Dorgon's side, Dodo's side is more important, because the troops fighting against Dodo act as bait. Not only do they have to block Dodo's attack, but they also have to give the other side an illusion, an illusion that they can immediately capture the central army headquarters if they make a little more effort. Only in this way can the next plan be implemented smoothly.

Therefore, the person in charge of Duoduo has an extremely heavy task. Not only must he be able to fight, but he must also be absolutely trustworthy. Wang Hai is just such a person. Only by handing this task over to Wang Hai can Zhu Shenzhui be completely relieved.

(End of this chapter)