Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 322 Reinforcements Arrive

Shen Zhong originally believed that this Ming army would inevitably choose to surrender in the face of the current desperate situation. After all, the number disparity was huge and there was no way to retreat.

However, when he witnessed the other side launching a tenacious counterattack without hesitation, his patience was completely exhausted and his anger burned like wildfire.

He ordered in a cold voice: "Quick, go and kill them!"

He then sent out his personal guards and servants. These people were all elite warriors who had been on the battlefield for a long time, had rich combat experience, and were all equipped with high-quality swords and guns.

As soon as the servants received the order, they quickly locked onto Liu Bin's flag - they understood that as long as they destroyed this flag that symbolized command and hope, they could completely defeat the morale of this exhausted Ming army.

The Qing army rushed towards the flag like a tiger descending from the mountain.

On the top of the mountain, the few dozen remaining Ming army soldiers were already exhausted and were struggling to hold on relying on instinct.

However, faced with a new round of fierce attacks from the enemy, many people were forced to retreat step by step due to exhaustion, and even fell under the enemy's spears.

Every time someone fell, the surrounding soldiers would quickly shrink their defense line, almost tightly surrounding the entire formation, covering each other and barely resisting.

However, despite such cruel circumstances, Liu Bin's recognition flag still swayed stubbornly in the wind and fluttered tenaciously on the top of the mountain.

"As long as the flag is not fallen and Captain Liu Bin is still alive, we have not lost!" This idea became the obsession in the hearts of every Ming army soldier.

Their bodies were covered with scars, but they gritted their teeth and held on to the location of the flag, even if every step forward meant losing their blood and flesh, they would never let the flag fall.

Chen Ruian suddenly pulled out the spear that was inserted into the neck of the Qing army. The tip of the spear was covered with blood. When he was about to take a breath, he suddenly heard a heart-wrenching scream from the side.

He quickly turned his head and saw that the soldier carrying the recognition flag was stabbed in the abdomen by a Qing soldier's spear, with pain and determination intertwined on his face.

"Ah!" The soldier staggered a few steps but did not fall down.

His eyes were fixed on the soil on the top of the mountain. He gritted his teeth, and used all his last bit of strength to raise the recognition flag high and thrust it hard into the ground.

Blood was oozing from the corner of his mouth, but he still held the flagpole tightly, as if that was the last meaning of his existence.

It was not until a Qing soldier stabbed him in the chest again that he finally fell to the ground exhausted, but his hands still refused to let go of the flagpole.

"The flag cannot fall!" Chen Ruian's heart seemed to be ignited by a fire. He gripped his spear tightly and rushed towards the Qing soldier with a roar.

Before the other party could react, he aimed at the enemy's calf and stabbed it with a gun. The Qing soldier was unable to dodge and was forced to kneel on one knee, groaning in pain.

Following closely behind, Guan Qifu arrived with a gun. The tip of his gun was as fast as lightning and pierced the Qing soldier's throat.

The enemy soldier's eyes widened, blood gushed out of his mouth, and he finally fell down powerlessly.

Guan Qifu's face was still brimming with anger. He stood beside Chen Ruian, looked back at the flag still flying in the battle formation, and gritted his teeth and said:

"As long as the flag is still there, we can hold on!"

Chen Ruian bent down without hesitation, grabbed the recognition flag, and held it high. The flag was broken but still fluttered in the wind.

He stood back to back with the remaining Ming soldiers, swords, spears and shields intertwined, forming the last line of flesh and blood defense.

On the hill, the Qing army surged, and hundreds of enemy soldiers surrounded the big flag with the word "Chen" on it.

There were less than ten Ming army soldiers under the flag. They were covered in blood, but their eyes were still burning.

Each of their actions was no longer driven by instinct, but rather by conviction. Amidst the flashing of swords and sabers, their movements seemed slow, but they showed no sign of retreat.

Liu Bin stood at the front of the team. The blade of the sword in his hand was already bent, but he still held it tightly.

He was gasping for breath, his body covered in blood, unable to tell which were his and which were the enemy's.

He looked back at Chen Liang behind him. Both of them were exhausted, but there was no intention of retreating. They looked at each other with a complicated smile in their eyes.

"I'm afraid I'm really going to die here." Chen Liang laughed, but his voice was fearless.

"I should have expected this." Liu Bin smiled slightly.
"But we can still hold them off a little longer."

The two looked at each other and laughed, as if this battlefield full of swords and guns was not a place of life and death at all.

They laughed out loud, and the laughter echoed in the night wind on the top of the mountain. There was no trace of fear, only the unyielding tragedy and heroism.

The Qing army's retainers pressed forward step by step, and the Ming army on the top of the mountain retreated step by step. Every inch of land was soaked in blood, and every shout of killing carried the final determination.

But the flag of recognition never fell.

This was a battle that was destined to be difficult to turn around, but the remaining Ming army used their flesh and blood, will and faith to demonstrate an extremely heroic resistance to the besieging Qing army.

The stars and the moon are silent, and the mountain wind is howling, as if they are whispering a elegy for the warriors of this land.

Chen Liang was obsessed with dealing with the Manchu Tartars, but he didn't notice that they were retreating at full speed from the west side of the hill.

The news of the riot soon reached the ears of the Green Camp soldiers surrounding the top of the mountain, and the originally tight encirclement suddenly loosened.

The Qing army's chief general, Ba Ming, obviously had no intention of fighting the Ming army head-on here. Through observation, he found that hundreds of Ming cavalry were rapidly approaching from the direction of Shimen Pass, and another Ming army launched a surprise attack from the north.

He was worried that the troops would suffer heavy losses and their morale would be severely affected, so he decisively ordered Shuosai to lead a group of people to cover the rear, while he led the main force to retreat along the river, trying to preserve strength for later battles.

This sudden retreat left Shen Zhong confused for a moment. He wondered why the main force of the Ming army had arrived, but Ba Ming did not inform him.

He could have continued to encircle and suppress the dozens of remaining Ming army remnants on the top of the mountain, but the situation between the enemy and us suddenly reversed. He did not dare to take the risk of fighting alone, so he decided to lead his troops to retreat immediately.

However, before retreating, he ordered his servants to chop off dozens of heads, trying to report these "results" to Ba Ming and gain some face for his performance.

As the sky brightened, news of the Qing army's retreat gradually spread. When Ma Bao led the reinforcements to the hill where Liu Bin and others were defending, he was greeted by the large "Chen" flag fluttering in the wind on the top of the hill.

The flag still stood tall, but beneath it, only seven Ming soldiers remained alive. They were covered in blood, their clothes were tattered, and they could hardly stand.

Ma Bao looked at the scene in front of him, feeling both relieved and doubtful. The enemy retreated so cleanly with almost no resistance, which made him keenly aware of the unusualness.

He suspected that this was a trap set deliberately by the Qing army. In order to ensure that there was no mistake, he immediately sent people to contact the Ming army stationed in another place to contain the Qing army from the flank.

At the same time, he decided to act cautiously and led his troops to quickly withdraw to the city without further fighting.

At the same time, the Ming army that took the initiative to raid the Qing army from the direction of Shimen Pass successfully disrupted the enemy's deployment, but also suffered heavy losses.

After the battle, the battlefield was littered with the bodies of Ming soldiers, with over forty dead and over twenty critically wounded, requiring urgent medical treatment. The cost of this battle was heavy, resulting in the Qing army's defeat and a severe blow to morale.

Compared with the sacrifices made by the Ming army, the losses suffered by the Qing army were even more tragic. Not only did Shen Yongzhong's Green Camp soldiers lose nearly 300 men in battle, they also completely lost their strategic offensive capability.

This elite Green Camp force, originally regarded as a trump card by Ba Ming, is now devastated, its morale has plummeted to the bottom, and it is impossible to recover its combat effectiveness in a short period of time.

As for the Eight Banners soldiers of the Zhenglan Banner under Ba Ming, although the losses were relatively light, the operation was unsuccessful and they fled in a panic before the Ming army, which undoubtedly dealt a serious blow to their morale.

In the army, a psychological shadow of fear of the Ming army has begun to appear.

The Eight Banners soldiers were once famous for their bravery, but now a series of failures have caused their morale to decline and they no longer have the same fighting spirit as before.

War is originally a psychological game. Morale is an important pillar of an army's combat effectiveness. However, the morale of the Qing army was defeated by repeated failures.

From the Battle of Huaihe River to the current battle, the Ming army won victory after victory, and their reputation also formed an overwhelming deterrent among the Qing army.

In contrast, the Qing army suffered a series of defeats, especially this night attack which failed even with the help of an insider, which made the Eight Banners soldiers completely lose the belief that they would win.

The current Qing army is no longer the iron cavalry that once swept across the Central Plains, but a remnant army with low morale and abandoned by victory.

Their struggle is more like the last struggle of a dying person. Although they have the potential to fight back, they are no longer able to rewrite their fate.

The balance of war is tilting towards the Ming army in an irreversible trend.

Although the morale of the soldiers participating in the battle was low, good news came from the Eight Banners and Green Camp soldiers other than those under Ba Ming's command - "more than a thousand enemies were annihilated, and the strategy shifted!"
The news of this great victory was like sweet dew sprinkled on anxious hearts, temporarily lifting the atmosphere within the Qing army.

At the same time, the Ming army's propaganda methods were no less impressive.

After being "processed" by Zhu Cilang, the battle results reported by Chang Denggui were presented in the military newspaper in a stunning way.

By simply swapping the positions of the units and hundreds digits, the total number of enemies killed tripled, or even more.

The battle report that was finally submitted was full of dramatic elements that boosted morale.

Among them, Liu Bin and Chen Liang's titles of "God of War" immediately became legends known throughout the army.

They had originally claimed to have personally killed more than twenty Green Camp soldiers in the Battle of Shimen Pass, but after being "polished" by the military newspaper, these enemies were "upgraded" to more than twenty Manchu soldiers and more than forty Green Camp soldiers. The total number of enemy troops killed was also exaggerated to more than 800.

There is no doubt that such results will play a huge role in boosting morale. As for how true these military reports are, perhaps only the veterans who have personally experienced the battle know.

However, for an army facing a life-or-death situation, the meaning of battle is never just the number of enemies killed, but whether it can overwhelm the enemy spiritually.

Time passed like an arrow, and Zhu Cilang gradually focused his attention entirely on the decisive battle that was about to take place in Gaizhou.

Ba Ming's night attack on Shimen Pass actually gave the Ming army an excellent opportunity to adjust its strategy. Zhu Cilang seized this opportunity and decisively accelerated the pace of the various armies to gather in Gaizhou.

In order to make up for the losses in previous battles with the Qing army, especially the losses in the Battle of Fuzhou City, he transferred thousands of elite troops from Shandong to strengthen his combat power.

Most of these soldiers had undergone standardized military training and could quickly engage in battle with just simple military formation coordination drills, which kept the Ming army's combat effectiveness at a high level.

This effective replenishment of combat power was the important guarantee for the Ming army to stand firm when facing powerful enemies.

After completing the replenishment of troops, Zhu Cilang was not in a hurry to launch a general attack.

He knew that before the war came, it was equally important to ensure that all preparations were perfect.

He inspected the camps, checked the distribution of military supplies, and ensured that every soldier had enough weapons, armor, and food.

This attention to detail not only brought practical protection to the soldiers on the front line, but also greatly enhanced their confidence in the upcoming decisive battle.

In the battle of Shimen Pass, almost all the veterans under Liu Bin were killed or wounded, with only two left.

One of them had his arm cut off in the battle. Although he survived, he could no longer stay in the army.

So, the only people left by Liu Bin's side were Chen Liang, an old soldier, and three new recruits: Zhang Xiaoliu, Guan Qifu, and Chen Ruian.

Although this team, which is composed of old and new members, is small in number, in Zhu Cilang's view, they are heroes who fought bravely in the Battle of Shimen Pass and deserve due honor and rewards.

As a result, Liu Bin was promoted personally by Zhu Cilang because of his outstanding military achievements, and he jumped from a hundred-man commander to a thousand-man commander, a promotion of two levels in a row.

Chen Liang was also promoted to a higher rank and continued to work with Liu Bin to jointly manage the troops under his command.

Zhang Xiaoliu, Guan Qifu and Chen Ruian were appointed as flag commanders, each commanding more than 30 people, and still under the jurisdiction of Liu Bin's thousand-man commander.

In order to further motivate the officers and soldiers and build up the confidence of the entire army in victory, Zhu Cilang personally inspected each camp and checked the armaments.

The first stop of his inspection was the famous "front army" of the Ming army, which was led by General Ma Baoma himself.

Zhu Cilang's arrival made the soldiers of the front army very excited.

They lined up to greet them, looking full of energy, as if they were already prepared to show their prowess in the upcoming battle of Gaizhou.

Zhu Cilang's inspection of the front military camp was not only to check the distribution of supplies, but also to convey to the soldiers his importance of this decisive battle and his belief in victory.

He encouraged his soldiers:

"You are the bravest warriors of this dynasty. The victory or defeat of Gaizhou is related to the entire war situation, and you will be the key to victory or defeat!"

These words were like a shot of adrenaline injected into the soldiers' hearts, boosting their fighting spirit.

The entire army was in high spirits and their eyes were bright, as if they had already seen the dawn of victory.

Upon learning that His Majesty was about to come in person to inspect the military preparations, Ma Bao immediately became nervous and began to make every effort to prepare.

He knew very well that this opportunity was extraordinary. It was both a chance to demonstrate his abilities and a test.

If there is even the slightest mistake, not only will you lose face, but it may also affect your future career.

In order to satisfy His Majesty, he personally took care of almost every detail, from the distribution of equipment to the formation of soldiers, striving to make every detail perfect.

Ma Bao is more tactful and experienced than Zhang Mingzhen, and he is flexible and adaptable in his handling of matters.

(End of this chapter)