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

Chapter 672: Bloody Battle at Xifengkou
At the same time as the Ming army completed its assembly, the army of the Qing Emperor Huang Taiji also arrived at Baimachuan in the Chahar grassland north of the Great Wall. The vanguard, the Bordered Yellow Banner and the Bordered Blue Banner, were stationed here under the leadership of Hauge and Jirgalang. The rest of the troops arrived a few days later.

When they arrived at the location, a war was about to break out. Huang Taiji was an experienced general. He was a little surprised when he found that the Ming army had already prepared the Great Wall defense line. But in his opinion, even if the Ming army noticed the arrival of his army, his Eight Banners would still be able to break through the Great Wall defense line and attack the Ming Dynasty.

Huang Taiji's attack direction was exactly as Wang Jinwu predicted, which was Xifengkou.

However, after Huang Taiji made a tentative attack on Xifengkou, he realized that the Ming army not only stationed troops in Xifengkou, but also deployed an army on the high ground northeast of Xifengkou. When the two were defending each other, Huang Taiji adjusted his tactics at the first time. While attacking Xifengkou fiercely, Huang Taiji ordered Abai, Turg and others to lead troops to attack the high ground in the northeast, intending to take the high ground first to weaken the defense of Xifengkou, and then directly break through the Great Wall defense line.

The battle was extremely fierce on the first day. Since the Great Wall at Xifengkou had been destroyed by Huang Taiji before, Wang Jinwu had temporarily sent people to repair it in the past few days, but it could not be restored to its original appearance. In addition, the Qing army attacked very fiercely. Huang Taiji's army also carried a large number of artillery and other firearms seized from the Ming army. Moreover, because of Shang Kexi's surrender, there were many skilled Han army flag gunners in Huang Taiji's army. They set up artillery to the north of Xifengkou and bombarded it fiercely, making it extremely difficult for the defenders of Xifengkou to resist.

Although the Ming army also had artillery, they were all small cannons, and even if they were high above the enemy, their range could not match that of Huang Taiji's cannons. Moreover, Huang Taiji showed a determined attitude from the beginning. He used the Eight Banners of Manchuria as the core, and mobilized the Eight Banners of Mongolia and the Han Army Banners as the main force to attack. The offensive was one wave after another, leaving no chance for the defenders to breathe. In just half a day, the Ming army stationed at Xifengkou suffered more than 200 casualties.

Not only Xifengkou, but even the high ground to the northeast of Xifengkou was attacked fiercely by the enemy. Both sides suffered casualties and the fighting was extremely fierce.

In the afternoon, Huang Taiji, who was watching the battle, frowned. He did not expect the resistance of the Ming army to be so strong, and the Ming army on the opposite side had been prepared for a long time. This was very unexpected. It took less than half a month from Huang Taiji's decision to send troops to the arrival of the army to start the war. How did the Ming Dynasty make arrangements in such a short time?
Originally, according to Huang Taiji's judgment, he suddenly launched a war against the Ming Dynasty with great speed, and he took a detour from Mongolia to attack the Ming Dynasty. With his understanding of the Ming Dynasty, even if he deployed troops to garrison, the reaction would not be so fast. Moreover, Huang Taiji was very clear about the situation in Jizhou Town. In addition, when Huang Taiji retreated during the Jisi Incident, he had destroyed the Great Wall defense line in the Xifengkou area. Logically, this attack on the Ming Dynasty should be very easy. It was not difficult to capture Xifengkou. Once Xifengkou was captured, his army could go south and directly attack the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

However, he never expected that the Ming army at Xifengkou would be so difficult to defeat, and the Ming army also deployed troops to the northeast of Xifengkou. This deployment was even more unexpected for Huang Taiji. It was for this reason that Huang Taiji's side failed to take the pass after several attacks on Xifengkou, and was instead repelled by the Ming army with heavy casualties.

Huang Taiji could not have known that his whereabouts were exposed because there was a spy named Zhu Shencui among the Mongols. As soon as his army entered Mongolia, the spy passed the news to Zhu Shencui. Zhu Shencui in the capital responded immediately and dispatched troops north to garrison Jizhou.

"Father, let me lead the men to charge!" Seeing Huang Taiji frowning, the eldest son Haoge couldn't help but volunteer.

Glancing at Haoge and seeing that he was eager to try, Huang Taiji shook his head and said, "No need!"

"Father!" Hauge was about to persuade him again, but seeing that Huang Taiji looked unhappy, he could only swallow the rest of his words.

"Yanguli!"

"The slave is here!"

"You lead a group to support Aobai and take the Northeast Highlands for me!"

"Your servant obeys your command!" Yangguli stood up and hurried there. Then Huang Taiji continued to give orders, asking Shi Tingzhu and Ma Guangyuan of the Han army flag to cooperate with Wu Bai in the frontal attack and continue to attack Xifengkou. Since the Ming army was guarding this place strictly, Huang Taiji wanted to see how strong the Ming army's combat awareness was and how long they could hold out under his repeated attacks.

The order was issued and the battle continued. With the reinforcement of Yangguli and others on the battlefield, the friendly forces that had originally attacked repeatedly attacked the Ming army's defense line. Under the command of Shang Kexi, the artillery in Huang Taiji's hand repeatedly bombarded the two high grounds to help the Qing army break the defense. Huang Taiji's actions suddenly increased the pressure on the garrisoned Ming army. The defenders who had been gritting their teeth and holding on gradually became unable to hold on. In particular, the Ming army stationed at Xifengkou was a reorganized force from the Beijing camp and the local Ming army. Although the equipment was not bad and the number of people was not small, after all, this force lacked training. Coupled with such a high-intensity battle, these Ming troops were even more willing to retreat.

In just a moment, the casualties of the Ming army rose sharply, especially when they saw that their fellow soldiers were fine one moment and fell to the ground struggling after being shot by the attacking Qing army the next moment, or were chopped down by the Eight Banners soldiers who climbed up, or even those who were unlucky were hit by cannonballs and rocks flying from nowhere and were instantly smashed into meat paste. These Ming soldiers who had never experienced war were terrified.

"Anyone who retreats will be killed without mercy!"

Wang Jinwu had long known that these Ming troops were not his elite troops, and that such problems would inevitably arise during the battle, so he prepared a supervision team before the battle. This supervision team was composed entirely of his own people. There were more than 50 people in the supervision team at Xifengkou. Although the number was small, all of them were elite. Moreover, Wang Jinwu had already given an order that the defenders at the front must not retreat without orders. Even if they all died in battle, they must die on the position. If they dared to retreat a step, the supervision team's knives would not be eaten by vegetarians.

Just when some of the Ming soldiers in front could not bear it anymore and dropped their weapons to flee the battlefield, the supervisors immediately stepped forward and chopped off the heads of the Ming soldiers who were fleeing in front without saying a word. This move frightened the Ming soldiers stationed there. They could not win if they continued to fight, but they could not escape either. Seeing the fierce and ferocious appearance of the supervisors and the horror of the chopped heads, everyone was terrified.

"Go back! The Marshal has given an order! As long as you hold off this wave of attack, you can withdraw to rest!" The supervision team does not only know how to kill people. Killing alone cannot prevent the army from being defeated. Wang Jinwu is not stupid. He knows this very well. If people are pushed into a corner and the defenders are left with no way out, even the supervision team will be useless.

As the saying goes, even a rabbit will bite when it is anxious, not to mention that these are the soldiers at the front. People always need to be given some hope. If there is no hope at all, there is no guarantee that they will not gamble everything. Therefore, Wang Jinwu also made arrangements in advance. In addition to the thousand soldiers stationed in the front, the defenders at Xifengkou also have several rotating troops in the back. However, Wang Jinwu naturally had plans for when to rotate and how long it would take to hold off the enemy's attack. Just like now, it is naturally impossible to rotate when the battle is fierce. At least the troops in the front that have suffered heavy casualties must be replaced after repelling this wave of attacks.

With the toughness of the supervision team and their promise to repel this wave of attacks and rest, the Ming army, which was already unable to resist, suddenly gained a surge of strength from somewhere. Many people looked back at the murderous supervision team, and then looked at their comrades who were still fighting hard on the front. Driven by hope, these Ming soldiers suddenly shouted "Kill the enemy! Kill the enemy!" mixed with all kinds of dirty words, and continued to fight with the Qing army that had crawled to their doorstep like crazy, holding swords and guns.

For a while, the fighting on the battlefield was extremely fierce. After half an hour, this wave of attack was finally repelled by the Ming army. After the Qing army retreated in a panic, the battlefield was littered with corpses, and there were many injured and alive compatriots and enemies lying there wailing.

After holding the position and seeing the Qing army finally retreat, the defenders could not believe that they had actually done it. The surviving soldiers were so excited that all their strength was drained away at once. Many of them staggered and could not stand steadily. They sat down on the ground, gasping for breath, with smiles on their faces, and the relief of having escaped death.

Wang Jinwu's supervision team kept their promise and took advantage of the enemy's retreat to quickly order the follow-up troops that had been prepared long ago to replace the tired troops on the front line. At the same time, they rushed to rescue the wounded and chop off the heads of the Qing soldiers. As for the Qing soldiers who were not yet dead, they showed no mercy. After killing them with swords, they collected their heads and threw the bodies directly down the mountain.

The exhausted troops who retreated originally had a thousand men but now only had less than six hundred men left, and almost all of them were injured and could no longer continue fighting.

But this was nothing to Wang Jinwu. He had anticipated this result long ago. In his opinion, although the losses of the less than half of the defenders were not small, after experiencing this battle, these soldiers were completely different from before.

War is the best way to train soldiers. If we follow the training method of the new army, it will take at least a year to train a qualified army, and we need to let the army experience the baptism of war after the training. But now, let these troops face the battlefield directly and change them through the brutal fighting on the battlefield. Although the cost is a bit high, the effect is significant.

Wang Jinwu could afford the nearly 50% casualties, not to mention that these troops were not originally Zhu Shenzhui's old base, so even more casualties would be worth it. After these troops were nursed for some time, they would be reborn. Although they were not as elite as the new army, they were strong soldiers that could fight and be used.

In the future, by using the new army as the base and reorganizing these troops again, you can directly expand your military strength. By that time, these troops can be truly used for your own benefit. You can kill two birds with one stone. Why not do it?
(End of this chapter)