Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 238: Encirclement and Annihilation of the Main Force of the Qing Army
In a sense, a battle between two powerful armies is quite boring, especially when both sides are well prepared. It is even possible that even the most eye-catching victory or defeat cannot be determined.

After all, both sides have extremely strong organization and firm fighting will. No matter whether it is maintaining the formation, rotating the queues, or alternating between the front and rear armies to cover the retreat, no fatal mistakes will occur.

Moreover, to take a step back, even if something really went wrong, the enemy might not be able to discover it, let alone seize the opportunity to counterattack in the chaos.

In other words, the battle between two powerful armies will basically become a competition of military strength. Whoever has more reserve troops and whose soldiers are more resilient will win in the end!

This is also the reason why Delekhhun hurriedly led his troops out of the city, while Zhu Cilang sat firmly in the center.

The former attempted to attack all the way without giving the Palace Army any chance to react, while the latter relied on its powerful military force and was not worried about the Qing army's surprise attack at all.

As the thousands of Palace Army soldiers on the east and west sides basically completed the deployment of the encirclement, the rest of the troops in the camp also reorganized their army. Zhu Cilang began to gather his troops and prepare to move, leading the powerful Qing army led by Delekhun into the depths of the camp.

However, at this critical moment, Zhu Cilang would not make a large-scale transfer.

After all, when two armies are facing each other, any action taken by the commander of one army may lead to the collapse of military morale and the shaking of the front line, which may be fatal.

With the addition of the Eight Banners troops under Delekhun, the Qing army's offensive became more fierce. However, the Palace Army, which was originally deployed on the outside and had less than two thousand soldiers, seemed to have finally collapsed and was quickly defeated.

Delekhun saw a large flag flying high in the distance, retreating all the way but always standing firm, so he naturally had some guesses.

At this time, apart from the howling of the soldiers, there were endless shouts and cries of killing, the sound of muskets, arrows, the collision of weapons, and the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground.

When he saw teams of horsemen passing by him and rushing towards the defeated soldiers of the Palace Army, Delekhhun became even more full of vigor. He shouted "Kill" and squeezed his legs against the horse under his crotch and rushed forward.

In an instant, hundreds of war horses gathered around Drake also started to move at the same time, like a black torrent, rushing towards the camp of the palace army.

Shang Kexi's heart trembled as he watched the Eight Banners Army surge toward the Palace Army camp like a tide. This massive force of three to four hundred cavalrymen was likely to be annihilated by the Ming army in a single blow.

He knew very well that the Ming army was much stronger. Although Delekhun was now on the offensive and unstoppable, it wouldn't be long before this favorable situation would come to an abrupt end!
Thinking of this, Shang Kexi immediately turned his head to look at the head servant beside him and said, "The Ming army reinforcements will be here soon, let's retreat."

Shang Kexi knew the combat effectiveness of the Palace Army. Although he was also confident in the Eight Banners Army's armor, the Ming army's encirclement was now complete and Delekhun had fallen into the trap. The Tartars would undoubtedly be defeated.

At this time, Delekhun knew nothing about these things.

Lin Changfeng's troops quickly circled back to the outside of the camp, and the encirclement was about to be completed. The thousands of Eight Banners troops under Delekhun would have no way to escape.

Not only that, inside the camp, the counterattacks of the various units of the Palace Army also arrived as expected, with shouts of killing shaking the sky.

Thousands of musketeers from the Palace Guard, who were on high alert, fired directly at the charging soldiers of Delekhun and Shang Kexi, instantly killing and wounding hundreds of them. Then the archers fired another round of volleys.

Shang Kexi's troops had already suffered heavy losses in the battle when they had just attacked the camp. Now they had only more than a thousand soldiers able to fight, and Delekhun had only a few thousand Eight Banners cavalrymen. After this blow, their offensive was halted.

After all, those Eight Banners cavalrymen who followed closely behind chose to stop their attack after hearing such dense gunfire.

With the Qing army having an absolute advantage in military strength and being well prepared to block the attack, the situation reversed too quickly. With the well-prepared Qing army and the Tianqi army joining the battlefield, the offensive of the Qing army was completely contained in just two quarters of an hour.

Afterwards, the various units of the Palace Army, which had the advantage in military strength, gained the upper hand in the counterattack.

Not only that, Chang Denggui did not wait for the Qing army to catch its breath, and immediately sent out thousands of soldiers to cooperate with the Tianqi Army to form a square formation to surprise attack the Qing army. Suddenly, the camp was filled with spears like a forest, and the swords were flying. With an unstoppable momentum, they began to attack the Eight Banners vests that entered the encirclement.

You must know that the spearmen in the central army in front of the palace were attacking very fiercely. Under such a rapid attack, as long as the Qing army could not withstand it, it would soon be defeated.

Of course, the Eight Banners cavalry under Delekhun were elite troops after all. Although they could not figure out the situation for a while and had no idea that they had fallen into a trap and had been surrounded by the Palace Army, their offensive inertia remained and their resistance was very tenacious.

After all, no matter how small their troops are, there are still thousands of them, and they are all elite troops, well-trained, with good combat effectiveness and extremely quick reaction.

However, the military superiority of the Palace Army was soon demonstrated in this bloody battle. Subsequent troops were continuously replenished, and the Qing army began to lose strength under the huge casualties, and its front began to collapse.

Most of the troops at the front of the Qing army were from the vassal states under Shang Kexi, while most of the Eight Banners troops under Delekhun stayed in the rear to provide support, or served as the core force to break through.

These vassal soldiers were already a little tired after the hard battle in the camp. Many of them were defeated under the attack of the Palace Army. Although the Eight Banners soldiers came forward to help, they could only barely hold on.

About a quarter of an hour later, Delekhun finally realized that something was wrong, and under the protection of dozens of Bayara soldiers, he began to command a retreat.

But at this time, the Eight Banners soldiers under his command were either dead, injured, or still fighting hard on the front line with the Palace Army and could not retreat at all. In the end, including Bayala, he only took away less than a thousand people.

Once the retreat and defeat were complete, the Qing army could no longer withstand the attack of the Palace Army. Many people simply lost their will to fight, turned around and wanted to run, and then died even faster under the swords and guns of the Palace Army.

In order to avoid a tragic defeat, Delekhun divided hundreds of the troops he had gathered into a group before retreating, intending to block the attacking Palace Army.

However, this group of soldiers attacked the Palace Central Army and the Heavenly Cavalry Army that were surging like a black tide. Dozens of armored soldiers in the front were directly drowned and died in the chaos.

In the dark night, long spears, short axes, and countless machetes flashed coldly, blood rain splashed out, screams and wails were endless, the battle became more and more intense, and the casualties of the Qing army continued to increase.

"Report to the Prince." A soldier with a flag on his back suddenly rode up from the camp gate and said anxiously, "A large group of Ming cavalry have been spotted surrounding the camp. They seem to be surrounding us."

After hearing this, Delekhhun was shocked. He and his Bayala officers looked at each other in confusion. Then he remembered something and asked immediately:

"Shang Kexi, where is Shang Kexi? Quickly let Shang Kexi take his troops to the front to resist the counterattack of the Ming army." Delekhun was completely panicked when he heard the news that the Ming army had surrounded them.

"Ambush, we must have been ambushed by the Ming army. The Ming army is now..." The Bayala officer under Delekhhun was also very excited at this time and spoke hesitantly.

"Shang Kexi is inextricably linked to this matter." Delekhhun's face darkened, and he immediately ordered the Bayala officers under his command to find Shang Kexi.

The Bayala officer had no way to disobey the order, so he had to bow his hands in agreement. Then he squeezed his legs together and rushed towards the front line where the two armies were fighting again. Delekhun ordered his troops to gather and prepare to break out.

As for the rest of the words, Delekhhun naturally didn't let them continue, otherwise the morale of the army would immediately collapse.

He now just wants to gather the defeated soldiers and retreat back to Xiangyang City, but this is probably not an easy task.

However, at this time, many soldiers still followed their officers out of inertia. The situation changed too quickly, and many people did not understand what was happening.

Now, as the Palace Army completed the encirclement and the counterattack began, in just half an hour, the Qing army fell into chaos and had gone from a great victory to a complete defeat.

Such rapid changes confused not only the ordinary soldiers but also the grassroots officers and generals of the Eight Banners.

However, Zhu Cilang didn't care about these things. After enduring for more than half a month, the Qing army he had been longing for finally arrived at his doorstep, and they came in full force. How could he be polite?
Moreover, now not only the southern camp, but also the Qing army that attacked the western camp has been repelled and is now surrounded.

Although the various units of the Palace Army in the camp paid a heavy price in the process, as long as they could completely wipe out these two elite Qing troops tonight, unless Dorgon immediately transferred a large army from Northern Zhili, Xiangyang City could be captured tomorrow.

Soon, teams of infantry and cavalry emerged from behind Zhu Cilang. Under such continuous counterattacks from the Qing army, some of the vassal soldiers began to surrender.

As the Tianqi Army began to launch a more fierce offensive, the ambush that Delekhun had just organized was already in danger.

At this time, the Palace Army had almost completed the encirclement. In addition to the more than 10,000 soldiers under Chang Denggui, the troops deployed in the southern camp also included more than 6,000 cavalry from Lin Changfeng's Tianqi Army and a cavalry battalion from the Xiaoqi Army.

According to the encirclement and annihilation plan that Zhu Cilang had just decided, more than 2,000 cavalrymen had already circled outside the camp, waiting for the Qing troops that had entered the camp to be forced out, and then they could launch a charge and annihilate the enemy completely.

The reaction of the Palace Army far exceeded the Qing Army's expectations, and relying on its superiority in manpower and mobility, it quickly counterattacked. Although Delekhun reacted quickly, he was already unable to escape.

This was actually what the Qing army was most worried about, and it was also the point that Delekhhun was most hesitant about when formulating the night attack plan.

But Delekhhun finally held on to a lucky mentality and wanted to achieve success in one battle.

Moreover, he never expected that Shang Kexi was actually a traitor, which led to his complete defeat.

This obviously far exceeded Delekhhun's expectations. Even if he wanted to retreat with his troops, it would be almost impossible.

After all, with the cavalry of the Palace Army coming from outside the camp, a direct breakout was no longer feasible. He could only fight and retreat to delay time.

However, Delekhun was a veteran and experienced man after all, and he quickly realized that the Palace Army's encirclement would be difficult to maintain a tight formation at the intersection at the beginning. He could break out before the Palace Army had time to complete the real encirclement.

In fact, he knew very well that once the Ming army completed its troop deployment and began to organize a large-scale counterattack, he would probably have no way out.

At this moment, he just wanted to retreat back into the city. There were hundreds of cannons of various sizes mounted on the walls of Xiangyang City, including more than 30 red cannons, and there were thousands of soldiers defending. As long as he could retreat, he would still have a chance to survive.

With this thought in mind, Delekhun immediately led his army to break out.

Although some of the Tianqi Army that was encircling the Qing army had noticed this force, due to time constraints, they had no time to organize troops to strengthen their defense.

As a result, the Tianqi Army's encirclement was quickly disrupted by Delekhun's swift counterattack, which directly caused a major flaw in the Dianqian Army's encirclement plan outside the central army camp.

Under the attack of the Qing army, the Palace Army fell down in an instant, with dozens of soldiers killed or wounded. Under the fierce attack of the Qing army, there was a great panic. Although officers in the Tianqi Army quickly took advantage of the gaps in the Qing army's attack to organize soldiers to counterattack, the effect was minimal.

However, it was not so easy for Delekhun to break through the encirclement of the Tianqi Army. The charge of the Eight Banners Army did not create an irreparable gap in the latter's encirclement.

At this time, inside and outside the southern camp of the Palace Army, there were constant shouts and sounds of horses' hooves. The various flag armies that had previously fought with the Palace Army saw their commander's flag going away, and their morale immediately collapsed. Hundreds of defeated soldiers tumbled and crawled, fleeing the battlefield in panic.

But it was too late. For various reasons, they were unable to escape and died under the arrows and spears of the Palace Army.

On the other side, Xu Erxian had already withdrawn his troops from the western camp of the Palace Army. Looking at the flames rising from the Ming army camp in the south and the defeated soldiers retreating back into the city, he had basically guessed the situation of the battle.

Now, the sound of gunfire and shouting on the southern battlefield was getting louder and louder. Xu Erxian did not think that Delekhun could hold out for long when the main force of the Ming army had already been mobilized. He was secretly glad that he and Shang Kexi had made the right choice.

However, what he is most worried about now is how many troops Shang Kexi has brought out. According to the current situation, even if he can finally break through, he will inevitably suffer heavy losses.

In other words, if he went to support them as agreed, he would probably lose most of his troops.

Looking at the current situation, Xu Erxian naturally began to have second thoughts.

After all, if he were to change his ways, the final outcome wouldn't be too bad. At least Emperor Ming wouldn't kill him, and he might even give him a high-ranking official position.

(End of this chapter)