Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 353 Forced Crossing
Today, the Qing army still has more than 10,000 cavalrymen, and in the east, another elite cavalry team also has more than 3,000 cavalrymen.

The two cavalry corps each occupied a strategic location, with strict formations, reasonable troop deployment, and even more formidable combat capabilities.

Even though the Ming army launched a counter-attack, due to the limited carrying capacity of the Ming army's pontoon bridge and the serious disadvantage of its troops, the two sides did not achieve any obvious results after the battle and the battle situation remained stalemate.

Although the thousands of Ming cavalry commanded by Ma Bao and Lin Changfeng respectively were the elite among the elite and their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated, their advantages were not apparent when facing the equally brave and powerful cavalry of the Qing army.

Especially on the vast plains, where the terrain is open, the mobility and impact of the cavalry were fully utilized, which made the Qing army's military advantage more significant.

The effect of the counter-raid was not ideal. The combat effectiveness of the Ming army's vanguard was greatly limited and it was unable to break through the Qing army's defense line.

Ma Bao personally commanded 3,000 cavalrymen and launched several attacks in succession, but still failed to break through the Qing army's defensive formation.

Although each charge seemed to be powerful, it was blocked by the Qing army's solid line.

What's worse, the Qing army's rain of arrows was as dense as a rainstorm, and the powerful armor-piercing arrows were shot from all directions, causing heavy losses to the Ming army's cavalry.

Even the elite cavalry wearing double armor could not escape the fierce rain of arrows.

However, despite this, Ma Bao did not retreat immediately.

The continuous attacks of the Ming cavalry put the Qing army in the north into a passive defensive state temporarily, and they were unable to quickly adjust their formation to launch a counterattack.

This bought Ma Bao valuable time, allowing him to concentrate more troops together to prevent them from being divided and surrounded during the Qing army's counterattack.

In any case, for the Ming army, this battle was a success as it could delay the Qing army.

At the same time, in the east, about two thousand cavalrymen commanded by Lin Changfeng were also engaged in a difficult battle.

Faced with the Qing army taking advantage of the hilly terrain and the momentum brought by the war elephants, Lin Changfeng's cavalry could only barely hold on.

Due to the absolute numerical advantage of the enemy, the Ming cavalry faced tremendous pressure and was unable to effectively break through the Qing army's defense line.

At this time, Lin Changfeng could no longer take the initiative to attack, and could only try his best to maintain the formation and strive to resist the breakthrough of the Qing army.

In fact, Ma Bao and Lin Changfeng both knew very well that on the plain, facing such a large number of Qing cavalry, their disadvantage in terms of manpower made it impossible for them to win.

Even the elite troops of the Ming army found it difficult to gain the upper hand in such an almost equal balance of power.

You know, the cavalry of the Eight Banners Army of the Qing Dynasty were extremely well-equipped and well-trained, and were far from being as fragile as they imagined.

However, the Ming army generals did not lose confidence. Ma Bao and Lin Changfeng were actually waiting for the arrival of reinforcements led by Chen Fu and Chang Denggui.

Once these more than 20,000 cavalrymen gathered together, they would be able to attack the Qing army from both wings, forming a siege. Through a war of attrition, they would gradually weaken the strength of the Qing army and eventually force Dorgon to withdraw his troops.

But on the battlefield, the situation changes rapidly.

Just as Ma Bao and Lin Changfeng were secretly waiting for reinforcements, the situation changed suddenly.

On the northern battlefield, the Qing cavalry was no longer simply fighting against the Ming army.

Under Saige's command, the Qing cavalry broke through several attacks by the Ming army and quickly launched strategic adjustments.

Through precise command, Saige mobilized more troops, trying to take advantage of the Ming army's weakness and terrain advantages to launch a counterattack.

Although the Ming army was still fighting hard, the entire battle situation began to tilt in favor of the Qing army because the two main forces of the Ming army failed to converge in time.

At the same time, in the east, thousands of cavalry led by Lor finally bypassed the two hills in the north after several rounds of maneuvering and successfully entered the western foot of the hills on the east side.

At this time, Lor's army was determined and he was well aware of the heavy responsibility on his shoulders.

In this battlefield that is about to unfold, his goal is very clear - to defeat the Ming army's river-crossing troops and gain a decisive strategic advantage for the Qing army.

When Lor's 5,000 cavalry appeared on the battlefield like a black iron stream, everyone's attention was drawn to them.

Although the enemy troops were slightly larger in number, the situation on the entire east side changed rapidly under the pressure of the Qing cavalry.

The Ming army's retreat accelerated, and the original plan to establish a defense line here collapsed.

The battle situation at this moment has become increasingly confusing. Although the Qing army has the upper hand on the surface, the Ming army is still trying its best to delay time and wait for the arrival of reinforcements.

The persistence of Ma Bao and Lin Changfeng may have been the key to the Ming army's eventual victory.

However, facing the overwhelming Qing cavalry, especially the addition of Lor's new army, it remains unknown whether the Ming army can withstand the pressure and regain the initiative in the battle.

The battle is still going on in blood.

On the battlefield, the Qing court's Mongolian Eight Banners Army, as one of its last trump cards, is quietly gathering.

Although the Mongolian Eight Banners were slightly inferior to the Manchu Eight Banners in formation ability, they were unrivaled in field combat, guerrilla tactics, and harassing enemy positions.

Compared with large-scale head-on conflicts, they are better at flexible maneuvering and rapid penetration, breaking through the weak points of the enemy's defense line, disrupting the enemy's formation, and creating chaos.

This cavalry, like a nimble beast, is always able to tear open a gap in the enemy's weak link and deliver a fatal blow.

At this moment, on the east side of the battlefield, with the sound of a long conch shell resounding through the sky, an elite force consisting of thousands of Mongolian cavalry has begun to assemble.

Under the command of Gushan Ezhen, this cavalry rushed to the front line like a tide. The sound of their horses' hooves was deafening, and a suffocating sense of oppression burst out in the early morning air.

However, Zhu Cilang, standing on the watchtower on the west bank of Qinghe River, stared at all this without any hesitation in his heart.

Although the Qing cavalry was in high spirits, the battle situation remained unresolved and the situation became increasingly complicated.

He looked across the east bank and saw that Chen Fu's cavalry had been fully equipped, with their horses lined up in a row, forming a huge iron stream, gradually advancing, ready to meet the charge of the Mongolian cavalry.

As Chen Fu led 5,000 elite cavalry into the eastern battlefield, followed by Chang Denggui's 3,000 cavalry rushing to support, the Ming army's line, which had begun to shrink, quickly recovered, and the two sides once again fell into a tense confrontation.

Zhu Cilang breathed a sigh of relief. Despite the enemy's fierce attack, the battlefield situation was ever-changing, and a temporary balance of power didn't guarantee victory or defeat. After all, individual prowess was negligible against such a massive army. Even a single faltering formation could lead to the collapse of the entire army.

Therefore, neither side rashly launched a large-scale attack, but instead carefully maintained their formation to avoid giving the other side an opportunity to take advantage.

As time went on, the confrontation between the two sides gradually became stalemate.

Even when Chen Fu was in command personally, he was helpless and fell into a passive situation when facing the Qing army of the same size.

The two sides were in a tense standoff. Although small troops were sent out from time to time to try to find a breakthrough, they failed. The battle situation fell into a stalemate, and it seemed that no one could break the deadlock easily.

However, Zhu Cilang also knew that the real test of this battle was not simply the defense of the position, but the wisdom and decision-making of the commanders of the two armies.

Just as Dorgon had prepared, he did not believe that victory could be easily achieved by simply relying on a two-pronged attack and cavalry charge. Instead, he reserved a backup plan - five thousand elite troops, ready to break through along the river from the north in order to break the deadlock at the critical moment.

Dorgon's strategic thinking is quite far-reaching. Although the current situation between the two sides is temporarily stable and difficult to break, the situation of the Ming army will not last long as the Qing army is attacking from both the north and east banks.

More importantly, the Ming army's defense line was not solid. Although the existence of the river made it difficult for the Ming army to advance in one go, it also gave the Qing army an opportunity to attack.

If the Ming army encountered unfavorable situations on both the eastern and northern fronts at the same time, the possibility of breaking the Ming army's formation on the local battlefield would greatly increase.

At this time, the role of 5,000 cavalry became crucial.

As long as these cavalrymen can break through the Ming army's defense line and penetrate into the enemy's rear, it will be a fatal blow.

Once the Qing cavalry broke in, with their speed and mobility, they would surely start a massacre among the enemy infantry.

At the same time, the Qing army could also use this breakthrough point to push the Ming army's infantry into the battlefield where the eastern and northern lines intersected, creating chaos, disrupting the enemy's formation, and providing favorable conditions for the Qing army's subsequent pursuit.

For Dorgon, the outcome of this battle was no longer determined by a simple cavalry charge. He had already made full preparations for a possible stalemate.

The five thousand elite cavalry were his bargaining chips to break the deadlock. If he launched an attack at the right time, he could destroy the enemy's defense line in one fell swoop, annihilate the core cavalry of the Ming army, and even eliminate a large number of infantry in the process, thus reaping the fruits of victory.

However, the key to all this still depends on the grasp of timing.

Zhu Cilang looked at the other side who had already started to charge on horseback, and a wave of anxiety surged in his heart. He knew that the confrontation between him and the Qing army was far from as simple as he had imagined.

Every decision and every choice on the battlefield will directly affect the final outcome.

At this time, everything on the battlefield was changing rapidly, and the battle situation entered a white-hot stage.

Things seemed to be happening just as Dorgon had expected: although Zhu Cilang and others had long guessed that the Qing army would launch attacks from the west and north, their predictions ultimately failed to fully cope with the changes in the situation.

Although the Ming army did not have an advantage in terms of manpower, it had always relied on the flexibility of its cavalry and the solidity of its defenses. However, what they did not expect was the Qing army's clever use of the terrain.

Especially with the cooperation of commanders Lin Changfeng and Chang Denggui, they had already been cleverly guided by Lor on the northern battlefield, resulting in a big loophole in the defense line that should have been solid.

The riverside area that should have been defended became a defensive blind spot with a width of three or four hundred steps, and all of this was silently captured and exploited by the Qing army.

After careful planning, the Qing army's more than 1,000 Mongolian cavalrymen were lightly armed and, relying on their speed advantage, charged towards the weak points of the Ming army's eastern defense line without hesitation.

Although Zhu Cilang, Zhang Huangyan and others quickly noticed the abnormality on the battlefield, the situation changed so rapidly that even the time they had to react seemed so short.

Before they could fully organize their counterattack, the Qing cavalry had broken through the Ming army's defense line along the river on the east side and successfully opened a gap.

Zhu Cilang stood on the watchtower with a frown on his face. He looked through the battlefield in the distance and clearly saw that more than a thousand Mongolian cavalrymen were rushing into the rear of the eastern defense line like a black tide, appearing both swift and fierce.

At this moment, his anxiety became more intense, because he saw with his own eyes that the hundreds of cavalry had successfully broken through. The impact of the breakthrough point put the more than 1,000 infantry teams that had just been sent to the battlefield on the east side of the north bank to consolidate the front line into a difficult situation.

When the Qing cavalry launched a fierce charge, the Ming infantry was immediately attacked, blood flowed like a river, casualties were heavy, and the soldiers fell into unprecedented chaos.

"This is the death crack on the battlefield..." Zhu Cilang's heart sank.

If the gap had not been relatively small and the Qing cavalry had not been able to completely cross it, the situation would have been much more dangerous and might even have gotten completely out of control.

After all, once the defense line is breached, it means that the support point of the entire army is destroyed. Once it completely collapses, it will be a catastrophic defeat.

However, despite the heavy losses suffered by the Ming army, they still relied on long-term training and combat experience to quickly adjust the infantry formation and strive to stabilize the remaining troops after losing their positions.

In particular, the tactic of using infantry to control cavalry was one of the key points in the Ming army's training.

After suffering dozens of casualties, the remaining infantry troops still tenaciously formed a square formation, blocking the Qing army's further advance and successfully extending the defense line to about one mile west of the gap in the eastern battlefield.

Although the Mongolian cavalry did not dare to attack easily again, they did not give up. Instead, they began to disperse and launch sneak attacks and attacks on the Ming cavalry on the eastern and northern fronts from all angles.

Although the infantry phalanx successfully withstood the Qing army's frontal attack, the Ming cavalry on the flank was caught in a pincer attack by the Qing army from behind, and the situation became increasingly complicated.

The situation on the battlefield changed suddenly, and the situation of the Ming army's nearly 20,000 infantry and cavalry took a sharp turn for the worse, becoming extremely critical.

An originally stable formation can easily collapse if a breakthrough occurs.

Every loophole in the defense line may become a turning point in the entire battle situation. This time, the breakthrough of the eastern defense line put the Ming army in the dilemma of being attacked from both sides.

The situation is complex and serious, and it seems that uncontrollable chaos may break out at any time.

However, despite the fierce attack of the Qing cavalry, there were still opportunities to resist on the battlefield.

Although the Ming army's position was attacked unexpectedly, the enemy's movements were also restricted by the damp, muddy and numerous puddles on the battlefield.

Although the Qing cavalry's mobility was still strong, the soil along the river was soft and there were puddles everywhere, which made their movements slow and awkward.

This natural condition restriction provided the Ming army with a valuable opportunity to catch its breath.

(End of this chapter)