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

Chapter 763: Clever Wuerte
"Uncle, if we leave like this, what if we are blamed by our superiors?" Just as Li You led his troops into Jinzhouwei, nearly a hundred miles north of Jinzhouwei, the commander of Jinzhouwei, Wuerte, the Niulu Zhangjing of Zhenglan Banner, was marching hurriedly with his men.

"What? Are you planning to turn back?" Wuerte asked with a squint.

The young man who asked the question smiled and shook his head and said, "Of course not. Since Wuer Te had issued the order to retreat, how could he, as a subordinate, disobey it? He just felt that abandoning Jinzhou Guard without even fighting would inevitably lose the reputation of their Eight Banners."

"Reputation? Reputation is shit!" Wuerte cursed with a smile, and suddenly said with a stern face: "Don't think that the Ming army is easy to fight, kid. Do you know which Ming army is coming this time?"

"I don't know. Could it be that the Ming army also has an explanation?" The man who asked the question was very young, no more than eighteen years old, and had a curious look on his face.

In the eyes of this young man, their Eight Banners Army is the most capable force in the world. This is a belief that has been instilled in him since childhood. Ever since the old Khan started his army, their Eight Banners have been active in Liaodong, and the Ming army is no match for them. Even the Mongols in the west have been suppressed by the Eight Banners.

The young man's father was a subordinate of the Wuerds, but he died in the invasion of Ming Dynasty a few years ago. But the young man didn't think it was a big deal. Since he followed the Khan... no, he should be called His Majesty now, and followed His Majesty to fight, it was normal to die in the war. Moreover, the great victory won by the Manchus in the Ji Si Rebellion was real. His father was just unlucky.

After his father died, the young man followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Wuerte tribe. He put on the armor left by his father, picked up the sword and bow and arrow left by his father, and became a member of the glorious Eight Banners Zhenglan Banner.

Originally, the young man thought that he would go to the front line to fight against the Ming army like his father, and kill more Ming soldiers for His Majesty to build merit. However, he did not expect that not long after becoming a bannerman, he followed Wuerte to Dalan. Their Niulu had been stationed here and had not even been on the battlefield in the past two years, which made the young man very disappointed.

Yesterday evening, news suddenly came that a group of Ming troops landed from the south of Dalan and suddenly attacked Jinzhou Zuowei, a hundred miles away. Jinzhou Zuowei was captured by the enemy soon. Except for two people who escaped by chance, the rest were either killed by the Ming army or became prisoners of the Ming army.

Upon hearing this news, the young man was furious and was ready to fight the Ming army. In his opinion, the Ming army, which had never been good at fighting, had the courage to attack Dalan by boat, capture the left guard of Jinzhou, and even lead the troops to attack Jinzhou guard directly.

The young man had never looked down on the Ming army. In his view, the Ming army was just a bunch of idiots. How could they be a match for the Eight Banners? The fall of Jinzhou Zuowei must have been the result of some conspiracy by the Ming army. In addition, there were not many troops stationed in Jinzhou Zuowei, which made it easy for the other side to succeed.

It is simply impossible to replace them with Jinzhou Guards. Jinzhou Guards are not Jinzhou Left Guards. Jinzhou Guards not only have strong city defenses, but also have a whole Niulu of Eight Banners soldiers stationed there. In addition, there are hundreds of Han troops. With all the troops at hand, what can these Ming troops do to them?
But the young man never expected that just when he thought Wuerte was preparing to mobilize troops to prepare for defense and welcome the upcoming war, Wuerte suddenly issued an order for the entire army to abandon Jinzhouwei and evacuate quickly. After receiving this order, the young man thought he had misheard it. After confirming it again and again, he realized that Wuerte's order was correct, not to fight but to evacuate.

More than half a day has passed since the hasty evacuation last night. After Wuerte led his troops out of Jinzhouwei, he ran north without looking back. This action puzzled the young people.

Wuerte was a warrior of the Zhenglan Banner. He had fought with the old Khan in his early years and had fought countless battles. He was also a dignified Niulu Zhangjing. How could such a person be afraid of the Ming army? If he was not afraid, why did he make such a decision?

"You kid, be smart, every Ming army is different. The one coming this time is not an ordinary Ming army. If a fight really breaks out, our number won't be enough to fill their teeth." Wuerte whispered to the young man. The young man's father was Wuerte's old subordinate and also his old brother. So after the young man inherited his father's career and became a bannerman, Wuerte used his authority as Niulu Zhangjing to bring this kid to his side so that he could take care of him.

To him, this young man was no different from his own sons and nephews. Seeing the young man's indignation and some unconvinced tone in his words, Wuerte couldn't help but sigh and gave him a brief explanation.

Wuerte told the young man that after he learned that Jinzhou Zuowei had changed hands and that Ming troops had landed in Dalan, he sent people to investigate the situation. After receiving the scouts' report and adding the descriptions of the two people who had managed to escape from Jinzhou Zuowei, Wuerte immediately determined that the landing Ming troops were not simple.

These were definitely not ordinary Ming troops, they were the elite of the elite among the Ming troops. Moreover, the Ming troops had the courage to cross the sea and land in Dadan and attack his Jinzhou Guards, which further demonstrated that the combat effectiveness of this Ming army was not weak and they definitely had the confidence to take down Jinzhou Guards.

Although Wuerte was brave, he was not a brainless man who only knew how to fight. Otherwise, he would not have become the Niulu Zhangjing.

In this situation, it was meaningless to defend Jinzhou. If they could not defend Jinzhou, then their entire Niulu would be finished. As a Niulu Zhangjing, if the Niulu he belonged to was defeated, not only would Wuerte not be able to gain a foothold in the Eight Banners in the future, but even their wives, children, and the elderly would be annexed by other Eight Banners or even become slaves. How could Wuerte let such a situation happen? So he gave up Jinzhou Guards and led his troops to retreat without saying a word. In his opinion, it was not worth fighting hard. Why risk your life and your family's future to fight a battle that you can't win?

Apart from these, there was one thing that Wuerte did not tell the young man. It was not that he concealed it intentionally, but he felt it was better not to tell the young man.

Because Wuerte had a keen sense of smell, he discovered through the descriptions of scouts and those who escaped that he was very familiar with this Ming army. During the Ji Si Rebellion, Wuerte followed Manggurtai to fight against the Ming army. He even fought a fierce battle with the Ming army under the city of the Ming capital and broke through the defense line of the Xuanda army. The Ming army's fierce general Man Gui died under the city, and the Eight Banners won a great victory.

But although our side won the battle, there were also losses. As the saying goes, if you kill one thousand enemies, you will lose eight hundred of your own. Even if the Eight Banners were good at fighting the Ming army, they were no pushovers. The Eight Banners also suffered considerable losses in this battle, but compared to the results of the battle, they were nothing.

However, as one of the main forces, Wuerte encountered a tough obstacle in this battle. When he followed Manggurtai to break through the defense line of Xuan's army, he suddenly encountered an extremely powerful force. It was the existence of this force that ultimately led to the failure of the battle. The elite Eight Banners failed to completely wipe out Xuan's army. As Xuan's army gradually stabilized its position and organized an effective defense with the assistance of this force, Wuerte had no choice but to give up while it was ahead.

It was in this battle that the young man's father was killed, and his father died in a head-on battle with this army.

During the battle, this unit left a deep impression on Wuerte. He had never thought that the Ming army actually had such a capable army. Especially the opponent's battle formation coordination and tactics, which made Wuerte think of the Zhejiang army that almost made Nurhaci doubt his life in the Battle of Hunhe River.

After the war, not only Wuerte, but even Manggurtai became very interested in this sudden appearance of the Ming army. They originally thought that there would be another opportunity to fight in the future. However, due to the change of Huang Taiji's attack target, the Eight Banners were mobilized. Wuerte followed Manggurtai to the north to fight and never encountered this army again.

After the Jisi Incident, Wuerte withdrew with the army to Liaodong, and the incident was over. But who would have thought that not long after, Wuerte heard a piece of news that Dorgon and his brothers were defeated in the grassland and beaten badly by the Tumed tribe. The Eight Banners troops in their hands and the Mongolian coalition were defeated, and Dorgon and his brothers fled back with the remnants.

Later, according to intelligence, there was an army among the Tumed tribe that the Dorgon brothers encountered on the grassland that was extremely similar to the army he encountered at the gates of the Ming capital, and their tactics were almost identical, which attracted strong attention from the upper echelons of the Eight Banners.

When great changes took place within the Ming Dynasty, a member of the Ming royal family named Zhu Shenzui suddenly rose up in rebellion and captured the capital in one fell swoop, thus taking control of the Ming government and becoming regent. The army controlled by Zhu Shenzui was finally revealed to the world.

It was only then that everyone realized that the army they encountered at the gates of the Ming capital, including the army that defeated the Dorgon brothers, were all Zhu Shenzui's troops. This army was extremely powerful. Not only were their tactics no different from those of the Zhejiang Army back then, but they were also equipped with sharper firearms that were much more powerful than those of the Zhejiang Army. It was the trump card among trump cards in Zhu Shenzui's hand.

The sudden emergence of this army attracted great attention. Part of this army also participated in the subsequent Battle of the Great Wall and played a huge role, which completely bankrupted Huang Taiji's plan to attack the Ming Dynasty again.

Since then, the Eight Banners have attached great importance to this army, and they all believe that if they fight head-on with equal numbers of troops, this army's combat effectiveness will be stronger than the Eight Banners. This is a very high evaluation for the Eight Banners, which have always felt that they are invincible. The old people of the Eight Banners still remember the cruelty of the battle of Hunhe River. Now the Ming Dynasty has a more powerful army than the Zhejiang Army, so they have to be on guard.

Fortunately, according to the intelligence sent by the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Shenzhu's army was not large, at most less than 10,000 people. If the Ming Dynasty had more than 100,000 such troops, what would it be worth fighting for? Not to mention competing with the Ming Dynasty for the world, as long as this army was sent to the Liaodong battlefield and pushed forward directly, how could the Eight Banners resist?

This is why when Wuerte learned that the army that landed in Dalan this time, easily captured Jinzhou Zuowei with a thunderous force, and then turned around to attack Jinzhouwei was most likely the powerful new army of the Ming Dynasty, Wuerte immediately made the decision to abandon the city and leave.

This is simply a joke. Wuerte only has one Niulu in his hand, and the dozen or so subordinates stationed in Jinzhou Zuowei are already dead. He can now mobilize less than three hundred soldiers from the Eight Banners. Adding the Han Army Banner, the total number does not exceed five hundred.

With such a small number of people, they are going to fight against the thousands of the most capable new troops of the Ming Dynasty? Wuerte is not stupid. Isn't this the same as using eggs to hit rocks? Knowing that he can't win, he still fights. This is not only stupid but also foolish. It would be strange if Wuerte didn't run away.

(End of this chapter)