The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

Chapter 525: Iron Horse
"kill!"

In the weeds that were half a person's height, Wang Yaozu led more than a hundred scouts and rushed over frantically.

In the distance, a dozen Jurchen spies hurriedly turned their horses around and ran in the direction they came from.

With a swish, Wang Yaozu drew his saber and shouted, "Charge forward, don't let any of them escape."

On the battle line of more than ten miles, Li Hu sent out thousands of scouts, and in front of the main force of the army were the five hundred scouts led by Wang Yaozu. He divided the five hundred scouts into nine teams. He personally led more than a hundred scouts to clear out the Jurchen spies in the front, and was equipped with war horses captured from the Russians. This kind of war horse has strong explosive power and extremely fast speed, which is very suitable for scouts.

The Jurchen spies' horses were obviously not as fast as those of Wang Yaozu and others, and they were gradually caught up.

The scouts under Wang Yaozu formed a crescent shape, with the two sides gradually closing in on the middle. The Jurchen spies whipped their horses and drew their bows and shot arrows from time to time in an attempt to stop the scouts' pursuit.

As they got closer, the sentinels started to shoot arrows. More than a hundred arrows were shot at the Jurchen spies from three sides. The Jurchen spies were lucky enough to dodge the arrows, but the horses under their crotches were too big a target. Soon, the Jurchen spies were thrown off their horses and most of them were shot down. The rest of them were still galloping on their horses, but they could not escape. Another round of arrows rained down and they fell off their horses one after another.

The scouts are all elite veteran soldiers skilled in martial arts. They are proficient in all kinds of skills, whether on horseback or on foot, archery, stabbing with long and short weapons, hand-to-hand combat, etc.

The Jurchen spies who had lost their war horses drew their swords, stood in a circle with their backs against each other, and prepared to fight with Wang Yaozu and others!

A sneer flashed in Wang Yaozu's eyes and he raised his hand.

A group of fierce scouts rushed forward with lassoes in hand.

With a whoosh, the lasso flew out.

Several Jurchen spies were put on guard by the neck and dragged to the ground.

The other Jurchen spies hurriedly swung their swords, trying to cut the rope.

Unfortunately, the scouts did not give them this opportunity at all. The moment the lasso fell on the Jurchen spy's neck, they whipped their horses hard and dragged the lassoed Jurchen spy out in an instant.

Soon, all the surviving Jurchen spies were tied up.

Wang Yaozu sat down on a small mound of earth, took out some dried beef and chewed it with difficulty, staring at the Jurchen spy who was being interrogated.

What Heshen meant by "closing the door and beating the dog" actually meant that they cut off Fukang'an's retreat. The number of troops on both sides was almost the same, and Fukang'an's troops were even larger than theirs. The extra troops were the old, weak, women and children of the Jurchens who had surrendered and then rebelled again.

This was actually Li Hu's strategy of taking advantage of the situation. When Fukang'an was defeated and retreated to Korea, the Jurchens east of Shengjing were frightened and laid down their arms and surrendered.

In order to continue staying outside the Great Wall, Li Hu accepted Heshen's advice and did not kill the old, weak, women and children of the Jurchens who had laid down their arms. Now he took this opportunity to thoroughly cleanse the Jurchens in Liaodong!
After swallowing the beef in his mouth, Wang Yaozu took off the cowhide water bag and drank water in big gulps. He analyzed and compared the strength of both sides in his mind, and a smile appeared on his face.

Wang Yaozu had the answer in his mind. They had at least a 90% chance of winning this battle.

The main reason is that the gap in combat power between the two sides is very large. After nearly a year of joint operations, our coalition forces know each other well, cooperate well, and are all elite soldiers who have fought many battles.

On the contrary, the troops under Fukangan were put together temporarily, lacked overall coordination, and had uneven strength. The real elite were only the 50,000 to 60,000 Eight Banners soldiers who followed Fukangan to retreat to Korea. The old, weak, women and children of the Jurchens might still have some fighting power.

But those forcibly conscripted Korean young men are just a bunch of chickens and dogs, and they may even become black sheep. At the beginning, the 30,000 Korean slaves directly broke through the Eight Banners Army. Now there are 100,000 forcibly conscripted Korean young men. If they collapse all at once, the scene will be interesting!

Just as he was thinking about it, a captain came hurriedly towards Wang Yaozu and told him the information he had obtained.

Wang Yaozu's eyes flashed. He didn't expect that Fukang'an had also moved his camp, and was less than thirty miles away from here.

He immediately sent someone back to report to Li Hu, and he led the scouts to continue to gather intelligence.

After receiving the intelligence, Li Hu ordered to slow down the march until he received another report that Fu Kang'an's main force was discovered twenty miles away. The army immediately stopped and prepared for battle.

As Fu Kang'an's main army approached, the scouts had to retreat and eventually all of them returned.

Finally, Wang Yaozu returned with the last group of scouts. Their armors were torn, and some even had arrows stuck in their backs. It was obvious that they had been involved in a fierce battle.

Wang Yaozu brought Li Hu detailed information about the approximate number of Fu Kangan's army, marching formation, troop deployment, etc., and confirmed that Fu Kangan did not arrange an ambush.

Li Hu was slightly stunned. This was a plan to decide the winner in one round! Half an hour later, Fu Kangan's army appeared on the other side of the wilderness. They also stopped and began to organize their troops, waiting for the order to attack. A battle to determine the ownership of Liaodong was about to begin.

As the old saying goes, when there are more than a thousand soldiers, there is no boundary; when there are more than ten thousand soldiers, there is no edge. The two armies deployed, and the battle line was several miles long.

At this moment, a horn sounded from the opposite side. Then, Fu Kang'an's front army moved, and tens of thousands of Korean vassal troops with long spears slowly pressed forward under the drive of the Jurchen cavalry.

Li Hu waved his hand gently, and a messenger holding a red flag waved the flag.

The sound of heavy drums was followed by the sound of uniform footsteps. Li Hu's vanguard troops advanced, with the musketeers in the middle, the spearmen guarding on all sides, and the Yulin cavalry guarding on both sides of the spearmen.

When a large army is fighting, those thousands of muskets cannot affect the battle situation; the decisive battle between cavalry is the key to victory or defeat.

Looking down from the air, the two huge military formations were slowly approaching each other, and finally stopped less than a mile apart. A murderous atmosphere enveloped the entire battlefield.

Suddenly, a shrill horn sounded behind the Korean vassal army, which was the signal to attack.

The Korean vassal army advanced slowly, the front army was on high alert, and the musketeers raised their muskets and aimed at the Korean vassal army that was getting closer and closer.

Four hundred steps, three hundred steps, two hundred steps! The shrill horn sounded again, and the Korean vassal army shouted and rushed forward!

The Korean vassal army quickly rushed forward a hundred steps, flames spurted out from the muzzles of their guns, screams came one after another, and the Korean vassal soldiers who were shot rolled on the ground and wailed.

Li Hu's guess was correct. Facing the overwhelming enemy force, no matter how fiercely these thousands of muskets fired, they could not stop the enemy's advance.

The musketeers retreated and the spearmen advanced. The two armies collided like clashing tides. Spears pierced chests, and blood and flesh flew everywhere. The sounds of fighting, shouting, and screaming were heard everywhere.

Li Hu frowned. Is this still the Korean vassal army?

"Your Majesty!" Wang Daniu exclaimed, "Look!"

Li Hu raised the telescope and was stunned by the picture in it. An authentic golden rat tail, a Jurchen Tartar?

Impossible, the Jurchens were all cavalry, it was impossible for them to abandon their horses and dismount to fight with their own side. Could it be Fu Kang'an's plan?
Substituting one thing for another? Tian Ji's horse race? Fu Kang'an shouldn't be that stupid!

Wang Yaozu spoke up: "Your Majesty, these should be the elite troops trained by the Jurchen Tartars for the Joseon royal family. If we defeat them, the rest of the Joseon vassal army will collapse without a fight."

Li Hu nodded: "Let the heavily armored spearmen go."

The horn was blown immediately, and the herald began to wave the flag representing the heavy armored spearmen.

With the addition of heavily armored spearmen, the battlefield quickly changed. Countless spears pierced the Korean vassal soldiers who were in the front. The spear tips went through the backs of many Korean vassal soldiers, and those Korean vassal soldiers were actually impaled on the spear barrels!
The heavily armored spearmen slowly drew out their blood-stained spears and took turns to slowly kill forward. Where the two armies fought, corpses were everywhere and blood flowed like a river, almost all of them were from the Korean vassal army.

The spears of the Korean vassal army pierced the heavy armor of the heavy spearmen, bursting into countless flames, and then the spears pierced their chests, becoming one of the countless corpses. It was a one-sided massacre!

The Korean vassal soldiers fell down in large numbers. Looking at their comrades rolling and wailing on the ground, the surviving Korean vassal soldiers lost all their courage, collapsed, and threw away their spears and fled.

The Korean vassal troops fled back like a tide. The Eight Banners soldiers in charge of supervising the battle began to suppress them and kill the fleeing soldiers. It took a while to stabilize the situation.

Fu Kang'an was furious. He drew his sword and shouted, "All troops, come forward!"

The shrill horn sounded again!
The Korean vassal army launched an all-out attack, and the mighty army rushed towards the battlefield!

The Eight Banners soldiers also charged and launched a fierce attack on the Yulin cavalry.

Li Hu: "Let the four princes' troops go and defeat the Joseon vassal army with bows and arrows!"

As the command flags waved, the cavalry of the Four Princes, which had been prepared for a long time, moved. More than ten thousand arrows broke through the air, forming a black rain of arrows in the air, and shot into the group of Korean servant soldiers, with screams one after another.

The Mongolian cavalry played to their advantage. They galloped back and forth on both sides of the Korean vassal army, drawing their bows and shooting arrows without aiming. Round after round, the overwhelming arrows were like a woven arrow net, shooting densely into the crowd. The Korean vassal army was knocked to the ground one by one, and was so frightened that they turned around and fled!
Ignoring the fleeing Korean vassal army, Li Hu ordered the entire Mongolian cavalry to attack and cooperate with the Yulin Guards to annihilate the last of the Eight Banners.
Fukang'an, with his face bloody and his hair disheveled, waved his sword and shouted hysterically: "Form a formation! Don't retreat!" Just as he was about to chop down a fleeing Eight Banners soldier, a feather arrow shot at him like lightning. He felt a pain in his brow and then fell off his horse.

Seeing Fu Kang'an falling from his horse, Li Hu slowly put down his bow and arrow.
(End of this chapter)