Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 261 Regaining the Advantage
The Ming army's southern wing had just successfully repelled two consecutive rounds of attacks by the Qing army. The entire formation had already been in chaos, and before it had time to reorganize, it was suddenly attacked by the Qing cavalry.

This swift attack was like a sharp hammer, directly chiseling into the Ming army's formation, causing the originally precarious line to collapse instantly.

The musketeers in the front row had no time to reload their ammunition and were rushed away in all directions by the Qing cavalry, with their formation fragmented and disorganized.

On the southern wing position, after a loud bang, all kinds of noisy sounds mixed together, and the Ming army's formation, which was already turbulent, completely collapsed at this moment.

Many soldiers scattered to protect themselves, and musketeers fled in groups. The pikemen at the rear of the army had no time to react before the situation fell into chaos.

Although the weapons in their hands were long and sharp, they were completely helpless in the face of the relentless cavalry charging towards them.

Faced with the charging Qing cavalry, the entire southern wing defense line of the Ming army collapsed amid the sound of the iron hooves of war horses.

A large number of Ming army soldiers instinctively chose to retreat.

At this moment, the gunfire in the battle formation was chaotic. The soldiers had no time to pay attention to the order to fire in a volley and raised their guns to fire in panic.

However, although these scattered counterattacks shot down dozens of Qing cavalrymen who were charging forward, they were far from enough to curb the fierce offensive of 5,000 cavalrymen.

As white smoke spread across the battlefield, obscuring the vision of some soldiers, more Ming soldiers fell into panic.

Although these counterattacks caused some damage to the Qing army, the Ming army's defense was obviously insufficient after losing its formation and was unable to withstand such a fierce attack.

Five thousand Qing cavalrymen poured in like a tide, quickly tearing through the Ming army's lines. The musketeers and pikemen were forced to retreat step by step, and the situation became increasingly unbearable.

Despite this, the Ming army soldiers were not completely without fighting spirit.

At this critical moment, many soldiers still withstood the fierce charge of the Qing army and fought to the death.

Although these people knew that their chances of winning were slim, they delayed the Qing army's attack with their tenacious will and bought precious time for subsequent reinforcements.

Although their stubborn resistance could not turn the tide of the battle, it at least made some preparations for the second line of defense in the rear.

However, the Ming army's defense line did not rely solely on the first line.

In the rear, the armored soldiers supervising the battle were ruthlessly killing those soldiers who fled in the face of the enemy, to ensure that they would not break through the defense line in the rear.

Faced with the approaching Qing cavalry, these defeated soldiers fled in panic, but when they saw the well-prepared barricades behind them, they finally regained a bit of rationality and fled to both wings.

The supervising soldiers used cruel methods to force these deserters to return to the battlefield, but this method failed to completely stop the Qing army's offensive.

Just as the old saying goes, "A defeat is like a mountain collapsing," disadvantages on the battlefield are often magnified in an instant.

Although the Ming army's first line of defense had collapsed, the second line of chevaux de frise in the rear was still struggling to hold on.

Facing the Ming army, which had laid down its spears and formed neatly into a chevaux-de-frise array thirty steps away, the Qing cavalry, although aggressive, were not completely unstoppable.

Although the second line of defense was weak in manpower, the soldiers still gritted their teeth and held on despite knowing that the Qing army was coming in full force.

In a short period of time, they formed a simple spear and horse-barricade formation, blocking the Qing army's first frontal charge.

These soldiers had undergone slightly more adequate preparation and showed tenacious resistance at this critical moment.

As the war horses galloped, the chevaux-de-frise array was repeatedly hit and became shaky, but relying on its solid formation, the Ming army successfully consumed a lot of Qing troops and killed hundreds of cavalrymen.

However, the Qing army's cavalry was large in number and had extremely strong impact.

After paying a certain price, the Qing cavalry gradually broke through the second line of defense.

Although the Ming army's stubborn resistance and chevaux-de-frise array posed considerable obstacles to the Qing army, it was not enough to curb the enemy's offensive.

With the collapse of the chevaux-de-frise formation, the Qing cavalry continued to advance and quickly tore through the defenses of the southern wing position.

At this time, the Ming army's southern defense line was already in danger, and the remaining soldiers were defeated one after another under the powerful impact.

Faced with the overwhelming cavalry offensive, the southern wing was defeated like a whirlwind.

Although the armored soldiers supervising the battle in the rear were fighting desperately to stop the attack, the fierce attack of the Qing cavalry was still unstoppable, and the battlefield was littered with fallen Ming soldiers.

The situation on the battlefield was almost irreversible at this moment.

The Ming army soldiers were defeated one after another under the iron hoofs of the Qing cavalry. The defense line on the southern wing almost completely collapsed, and the entire battle situation fell into the control of the Qing army.

The Ming army's southern wing was on the verge of collapse.

Although the Qing army's 5,000 cavalry launched a fierce charge, in this fierce head-on confrontation, only about 3,000 cavalry were able to continue fighting.

However, the current battle situation did not make Ajige and Jin Li feel at all relieved.

Their eyes looked across the battlefield and saw the Ming army's reinforcements approaching rapidly from a distance.

The arrival of reinforcements means that their surprise attack strategy has failed, and the two sides are about to fall into a bloody and inevitable fierce battle.

Both Ajige and Jin Li were well aware of the cruelty of this battle.

The Ming army's reinforcements were obviously fully prepared. Although they arrived late, they were destined to change the situation of the battle.

Although the Qing cavalry achieved initial success in their charge on the southern front, the Ming army's defense was extremely resilient.

Although the Ming army on the southern wing was exhausted, they still fought tenaciously, greatly delaying the Qing army's offensive.

If the Qing army had not launched a fierce attack at all costs, even sacrificing more than a thousand Green Camp soldiers and Baoyi soldiers for early consumption, it would have been difficult for the Qing army to break through the Ming army's defense line so quickly.

However, the crisis goes far beyond this.

Although Ajige decisively sent out the last two thousand elite soldiers to block the Ming army's reinforcements, there were still several small-scale Ming army troops on the mountains on both sides, quickly raiding down along the winding mountain roads.

These small Ming army units flexibly went around the rear of the Qing army and launched a counterattack using the terrain.

More soldiers continued to emerge from the dense forest. They rushed to the battlefield from the hidden mountain paths and quickly gathered on the plain.

Among the first batch of assembled troops, there were at least seven or eight hundred Ming troops who could immediately engage in battle.

These soldiers were not only numerous but also experienced in combat. They quickly recovered their strength and after a short rest on the ground, they were ready to join the battle again.

After the first wave of Ming troops launched the attack, subsequent troops will join the battle one after another, exerting new pressure on the Qing army.

Small groups of the Ming army dispersed and launched a flexible offensive by taking advantage of the terrain of mountains and dense forests.

They formed a group of more than a dozen archers, hiding among the trees on the flanks, and fired heavy arrows that could penetrate armor at the Qing army. These arrows were shot sparsely from the dense forest, with deadly power, piercing the air and accurately hitting the Qing soldiers.

Once the heavy arrows hit the weak points of the Qing army's armor, they could easily penetrate the armor and cause great damage to the Qing soldiers.

Although these scattered arrows could not cause large-scale casualties to the huge Qing army, their threat could not be ignored.

Every arrow shot brought a psychological threat, especially to the Qing soldiers who watched their comrades being shot and falling to the ground. Their morale was obviously hit.

With the continuous rain of arrows, the Qing army's formation began to show some chaos. The soldiers looked around with nervous expressions, as if the shadow of death would be looming at any time.

The harassment tactics of these small Ming troops not only caused actual casualties to the Qing army, but also disrupted the Qing army's deployment, making Ajige and Jin Li's command more difficult.

The strategic deployment they had already arranged in the rear is now facing the risk of gradual disintegration.

As the Ming army's heavy arrow attacks from both wings gradually intensified, Ajige's brows furrowed more and more.

He knew very well that the Ming army's counterattack was not just an ordinary harassment, but a planned, organized and targeted attack.

If these small Ming army units cannot be quickly eliminated, the Qing army's rear will continue to be threatened and the rhythm of the attack will be completely disrupted.

At the same time, Jin Li's gaze was wandering around the battlefield.

He realized that the attacks launched by the Ming army from the mountains on both sides were gradually approaching the weak links of the Qing army, and the arrival of reinforcements further exacerbated the tension of the situation.

Although the Qing army had the upper hand in the frontal battle, the defense on both wings was no longer sustainable.

Faced with this situation, Jin Li had to consider mobilizing more troops to support the flanks, but the available troops at hand were very limited.

The battle situation changed rapidly. The Ming army's reinforcements poured in like a tide, forcing the Qing army to retreat step by step.

The Ming army archers who suddenly attacked from the mountains were using their heavy arrows to tear through the Qing army's defenses.

In this brutal battle, the balance of victory and defeat seemed to be gradually tilting towards the Ming army as time went by.

Ajige and Jin Li looked at each other, and both had an ominous premonition in their hearts.

Both sides realized that the battle had entered the most critical moment, and if they were not careful, the Qing army's advantage would be completely reversed.

The sounds of war drums, shouts and weapons clashing echoed across the battlefield, and the wave after wave of Ming army attacks seemed to never stop.

Ajige understood that if the current deadlock could not be broken quickly, the Qing army would fall into deeper trouble and might even face the fate of annihilation.

He had to make a decision immediately, mobilize the remaining forces in his hands, and launch a fatal counterattack against the Ming army reinforcements as soon as possible.

Zhong Dingfu led the last cavalry of the coalition forces of Ajige and Jin Li, and had just defeated the Ming army line on the southern wing. He was preparing to take advantage of the situation to pursue and drive these defeated Ming troops to the center of the battlefield in order to expand the victory and completely crush the morale of the Ming army.

However, at this moment, more than 2,000 Tianqi cavalrymen led by Lin Changfeng appeared on the battlefield in time like a storm, instantly cutting off the offensive of Zhong Dingfu's troops.

These more than 2,000 Tianqi troops were the elite troops of Chen Fu's army. They bypassed the dense forest at the foot of the mountain from the south and penetrated into the Qing cavalry formation at lightning speed.

This cavalry unit was extremely brave and its tactics were precise and decisive, which immediately brought the Qing army's offensive to a standstill and the situation was reversed in an instant.

A deafening roar rang out in the valley south of the battlefield.

Thousands of horse hooves trampled on the solid ground, making a rumbling sound, and the neighing of war horses and the roar of soldiers rose one after another.

The metallic clashes of swords, axes, spears, and short spears intertwined together, forming a chilling sound of killing.

Short axes, iron clubs, maces and other armor-piercing weapons whistled and flew in the air, exuding cold light, as if they were the scythe of the god of death, passing over the heads of the soldiers.

Those Ming and Qing cavalrymen who were unfortunately hit fell off their horses one after another. Some of them were trampled into the mud by the ruthless horses' hooves before they could even utter a scream, and disappeared in the bloody dust of the battlefield in an instant.

The smell of blood and sweat filled the air, and the battlefield instantly turned into a Shura land.

Amidst the fierce sound of gunfire, Zhong Dingfu could still clearly hear the noisy sounds on the battlefield, and he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart.

He clearly felt the sudden change in the situation and was even afraid to look back at the tragic scene.

But as a battle-hardened veteran, he knew he had to face it.

So he gritted his teeth and turned his head to look, but the scene before him rekindled the hope in his heart.

Although their own cavalry was cut off by this Ming cavalry that risked their lives, overall, the Ming army's strength was not too large.

In addition, the defeated soldiers on the battlefield were fleeing everywhere, hindering the charge of this elite cavalry. Only five or six hundred cavalrymen actually entered the Qing cavalry formation.

Although their tactics were fierce and life-threatening, in terms of numbers, such an impact was not enough to completely change the situation of the war.

However, the Eight Banners veterans of the Qing army were not easily defeated.

These veteran soldiers who had experienced many battles on the battlefield were not intimidated by the fierce attack of the Ming army, especially the troops in the rear of the cavalry formation. They were also fearless and charged head-on, intending to curb the momentum of the Ming army.

The fierce collision between the two sides resulted in extremely tragic casualties, otherwise such shocking battle sounds would not have erupted on the battlefield.

In this chaotic situation, although the Tianqi Army led by Lin Changfeng was brave, it paid a heavy price.

Because their attack was too swift, the horses continued to charge forward under the huge inertia after passing through the Qing army's formation, causing many cavalrymen to temporarily lose control of their horses.

This situation gave Zhong Dingfu a chance to catch his breath. He quickly reorganized his troops and tried to organize a counterattack again.

Lin Changfeng also realized this. He knew that although his cavalry had successfully broken into the enemy camp, if he did not gather the troops in time and allowed the horses to scatter, he would eventually fall into a greater crisis.

Therefore, he decisively ordered the reintegration of troops and prepared to launch a new round of offensive.

The battle situation at this time has entered a white-hot stage. Both sides are aware that the outcome of this battle will determine the direction of the entire campaign.

Although Zhong Dingfu saw hope, he also understood that it would not be easy to completely defeat this ferocious Tianqi Army.

At the same time, Ajige and Jin Li also realized the appearance of Ming army reinforcements. They had already noticed the unusual movements on the southern battlefield, but under the current situation, they were simply unable to withdraw troops to block them.

In fact, before Zhong Dingfu achieved initial victory on the southern wing front, the entire southern wing battlefield had been almost completely controlled by the Ming army.

Reinforcements of the Ming army continued to pour in from the rear of the battlefield, and the mountains to the south were also firmly controlled by the Ming army.

Although Ajige and Jin Li were extremely anxious, they could only pin their hopes on Zhong Dingfu's victory and pray that he could achieve a decisive breakthrough in the next battle.

(End of this chapter)