Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 354 A Decisive Battle

Zhu Cilang was on the watchtower, and seeing the strong attacking posture of the Qing cavalry, he had already made a decision in his heart.

"Xuan Zhu, immediately organize the remaining cavalry and my imperial camp to support the north bank!" He ordered in a deep voice, his tone full of urgency and decisiveness.

At present, the entire eastern battlefield has been breached, and the defense line on the north bank is in urgent need of strengthening.

Faced with the rapid advance of the enemy cavalry, Zhu Cilang did not dare to hesitate for a moment. Once the defense line on the north bank collapsed again, all the efforts of the Ming army on the battlefield would be in vain.

After receiving the order, Zhang Huangyan quickly led the imperial cavalry and the remaining troops to the north bank, trying his best to slow down the pace of the Qing army's attack.

At the same time, Zhu Cilang personally commanded other troops, trying to reorganize forces and repair the gaps in the eastern defense line.

Command and deployment on the battlefield are like a precise chess game, where every move and every form is crucial to the overall outcome. And right now, Zhu Cilang faces not only a tactical adjustment, but also a tremendous test of his command abilities.

Faced with the Qing army's swift attack, Zhu Cilang's mood became increasingly heavy, but he still remained calm.

In his mind, although the Ming army was in trouble for a time, as long as it could adjust quickly and find opportunities to counterattack, it was still possible to turn the situation around.

Zhang Huangyan stood on the watchtower, his eyes sharp as torches, staring intently at the gradually deteriorating battle situation before him.

The situation on the battlefield has become extremely complicated, and all the subtle changes point to one conclusion - the Ming army must take immediate action, otherwise the entire battle situation will quickly get out of control and may even lead to the annihilation of the entire army.

"Come here, put on armor!" he ordered in a low voice.

Several personal guards immediately stepped forward and quickly put heavy armor on Zhang Huangyan. The heaviness of the armor seemed to remind him of the unusual nature of this decision.

Whether as a martial artist or a commander, the choice at this moment is crucial.

Zhang Huangyan knew very well that he had to go out in person and lead the elite cavalry to fight, not only to preserve his own troops, but also to protect the victory of the entire Liaodong war.

The guards quickly put on his armor. Zhang Huangyan did not hesitate at all. He jumped on the horse, holding a long sword and tightly grasping the reins, his eyes determined.

He led a thousand cavalry guards around him and galloped out with a clear goal - to go to the pontoon bridge, break through the Qing army's heavy encirclement, and open a gap on the battlefield.

Although Zhang Huangyan, as a scholar, was already familiar with the cruelty and complexity of the battlefield, he had personally led the troops into battle several times and had accumulated a lot of command experience.

However, the situation this time is very different from usual. The enemy is powerful, and if the battle gets out of control, the consequences will be disastrous.

Zhang Huangyan knew this very well, so he made the decisive decision to lead the team to break out.

Recalling the cause of this battle, Zhang Huangyan couldn't help but fall into deep self-blame.

As early as the beginning of the battle, the strength of the Qing army far exceeded the expectations of the Ming army, especially the Qing army's cavalry, which was a powerful weapon on the Liaodong battlefield.

The army led by Dorgon had nearly 10,000 elite cavalrymen. Although the Ming army also had strong infantry support, it could not gain an overwhelming advantage when facing such a large cavalry.

At the beginning, Zhang Huangyan and Zhu Cilang had already anticipated that the Qing army would most likely launch an attack through the pontoon bridge and the mountains on both sides, so they made several tactical adjustments.

However, due to over-reliance on infantry and artillery support, and underestimation of the Qing army's combat effectiveness, the Ming army's infantry and baggage train were forced to stay at the ferry, which greatly limited the mobility of the cavalry.

What was even more fatal was that in the early stages of the battle, the Ming army did not reinforce its cavalry units in time, which allowed the Qing cavalry to gain an overwhelming advantage in the early confrontations and caught the Ming army off guard.

"If the situation is not controlled in time, the combat effectiveness of the entire army will be severely damaged." Zhang Huangyan gritted his teeth secretly, knowing in his heart that once the Qing army broke through the Ming army's line, the situation in Liaodong would likely collapse quickly.

At that time, it would not only be the loss of 20,000 elite infantrymen, but the main force of the entire Ming army would face the risk of being surrounded and annihilated, and it might even completely change the fate of the entire country.

At the same time, Zhu Cilang in the distance was also staring at Zhang Huangyan's actions intently. He still had full trust in Zhang Huangyan in his heart.

As a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Huangyan not only made outstanding contributions in civil governance, but his military decision-making and courage also enabled him to resolve difficulties many times.

Zhu Cilang watched him wield his whip and lead the imperial cavalry to the front line, and he couldn't help but feel a shock in his heart. Those 1,000 guards were carefully selected, each of them extraordinary skills. They were the most elite troops in the Ming Dynasty.

Although they were escorting Zhang Huangyan into battle, their mission remained unchanged—their primary mission was to protect Zhu Cilang's safety. Without Zhu Cilang's orders, they would not have been able to act this way.

Under the cover of this imperial camp team, Zhang Huangyan broke through the enemy's blockade like a sharp sword and struggled forward.

At the pontoon bridge crossing, they cooperated closely with the infantry on the east bank and began to command thousands of infantrymen to fight in order to buy time for the subsequent cavalry to cross the river.

The battle was extremely fierce, and the Qing cavalry was pressing forward step by step. Seeing that the pontoon bridge was about to become the key moment of the decisive battle, Zhang Huangyan had an idea.

He made a decision in an instant, commanding the guards to work closely with the infantry to set up a tight defense line around the ferry.

He was not in a hurry to charge immediately, but chose the time cleverly, waiting for the most favorable opportunity to break through.

He knew very well that only by holding his ground and launching an effective counterattack could he achieve the final victory in this life-and-death battle.

At this moment, although the Qing army had gradually broken through the Ming army's defense line, it still failed to completely break through.

To some extent, the Ming army still had a chance to turn defeat into victory, as long as Zhang Huangyan could lead the troops to hold their ground and wait for reinforcements from the main force.

The more than one thousand Mongolian Eight Banners cavalrymen rushed into the Ming army line like a torrential rain.

Although the cavalry was unable to break through the orderly infantry formation, whenever they encountered skirmishers or unprepared Dashi Army infantry, they would swing their spears without hesitation, and with their powerful mobility and overwhelming impact force, they would tear these infantry apart in an instant.

The war horses galloped and the iron hooves crushed the enemy. The flesh and blood of the Ming army had no power to resist under the charge of the cavalry. Groups of Ming army infantry had almost no chance to resist on this vast battlefield.

Originally, the army commanded by Zhu Cilang planned to advance steadily, but this sudden cavalry charge disrupted the entire deployment.

The infantry sent to the inner side of the army was originally intended to stabilize the formation and avoid enemy attacks. However, they did not expect that they had just disembarked from the pontoon bridge at the ferry and had not yet reached the designated position quickly according to the original tactical arrangement, but unexpectedly became an obstacle for the Qing cavalry to break through.

These newly landed infantrymen instantly became a "meat wall", unable to fight back and completely unable to adapt to the ever-changing situation on the battlefield.

Even the most elite infantry could not withstand the fierce charge of the Qing cavalry. Although the Ming army was brave, the outcome of this asymmetrical battle between infantry and cavalry was already determined.

Cavalry has higher mobility and stronger impact, and infantry cannot compete with it simply by relying on their numerical advantage.

Faced with such a powerful enemy, even the most carefully planned tactics seemed powerless.

At this moment, Zhang Huangyan stood on horseback, watching his soldiers struggling to resist the charge of the Qing cavalry.

Although his troops had been overwhelmed, those brave infantrymen still fought desperately with their flesh and blood. They fell in a pool of blood one after another, blocking the advance of the Qing army.

However, with the rush of Qing cavalry, the situation became increasingly serious. Zhang Huangyan's infantry suffered heavy casualties, and the number of soldiers exceeded one thousand.

Despite this, the Ming army still stubbornly blocked the advance of the Qing cavalry until Chen Fu personally led the cavalry to the eastern battlefield.

At this time, the situation on the battlefield had changed dramatically.

The battle on the east bank of Qinghe River was still raging. On the vast battlefield, nearly seven miles west of the north-south hill on the east side and nearly nine miles across from east to west, Chen Fu and Ma Bao were leading nearly 10,000 Ming troops in a fierce battle with the Qing army.

At the same time, Lin Changfeng and Chang Denggui each led a force of nearly 5,000 to fight against the Qing army. The whole battle situation was extremely complicated, and the two sides were in a stalemate. There was no way to withdraw troops to support other fronts.

Although Ma Bao and Lin Changfeng's troops launched counter-attacks many times in encounters with the Qing army, the effectiveness of the counter-attacks was extremely limited due to their disadvantage in troop strength.

It was not until Chen Fu and Chang Denggui's troops joined the battlefield that the Ming army was able to barely drag the situation into a balance.

But even so, the battle between the two sides remained in a stalemate, and the situation did not change substantially.

If this stalemate could continue, once the infantry and firearms battalion crossed the river and built a defense line, and the civilian laborers crossed the river and set up camp, the Ming army might be able to effectively prevent the Qing army from advancing further.

Zhu Cilang's original strategic intention was almost realized, but fate took a dramatic turn at this moment.

At the critical moment when the battle was at a stalemate, another 5,000-strong Qing army force quietly bypassed the southern foot of the eastern hills and broke through to the east along the bank of the Qing River.

This move completely broke the original tactical balance.

This breakthrough by the Qing army posed a new threat to the Ming army in the east, and the originally stable front line suddenly became precarious.

If the Qing army could successfully break through the eastern line, the two wings of the Ming army would be attacked from both sides by the enemy, and the situation of being attacked from both sides would be very serious. The war situation might deteriorate at any time, and the entire defense line would be out of control.

This change was precisely the key reason why Zhang Huangyan decided to take the risk.

Faced with a situation on the verge of collapse, he knew very well that the Ming army's cavalry units were still behind the west bank, and that only this elite guard could assemble and form combat effectiveness the fastest to go to the north bank for support.

At this time, the actions of other troops were restricted, but the combat power of this royal guard was strong enough to pose a threat to the Qing army in a short period of time, delay the enemy's advance, gain more time, and even create favorable conditions for subsequent counterattacks.

Zhang Huangyan made the decision without hesitation that the Royal Guards must act immediately.

He knew that this was not just a simple counterattack, but also concerned the direction of the entire war. If he could organize a counterattack in time, perhaps he could turn the tide.

However, if the Qing army cannot be successfully held back, the situation will inevitably get out of control and the Ming army may fall into complete collapse.

At this moment, Zhang Huangyan was very clear in his mind that his actions were not only for defense, but also to buy precious time for Zhu Cilang's strategic layout.

Despite the grim situation, Zhang Huangyan still firmly believed that with the elite combat capabilities of this personal guard and the fighting will of the Ming army, he could at least gain an opportunity for the Ming army and bring a glimmer of hope to the battlefield.

The current war situation has developed to an extremely critical point. It seems that the Ming army and the Qing army are evenly matched, but in fact, in the deep-level contest, the Qing army's situation is extremely grim.

Although the Ming army fought bravely, it was still able to maintain a certain level of combat effectiveness, while the Qing army seemed to be increasingly struggling.

The most fatal thing was that the Qing army lost its room for error.

For the Qing army, this battle was related to their foundation in Liaozhong. If they were defeated, not only would these 20,000 elite troops be completely destroyed, but the defense line in Liaozhong would also collapse.

At that time, organizing a blockade of such a scale would have been a fantasy and impossible to achieve.

At such a critical moment, Zhang Huangyan shouldered an extremely heavy responsibility.

As the commander of this army, he understood that if he could not quickly reverse the situation and lead his troops to victory, not only his own future but also the future of the entire Ming army would fall into a deep quagmire.

The powerful pressure from the Qing army made the situation more complicated. At this moment, Zhang Huangyan had to shoulder the heavy responsibility of turning the tide, lead his troops to fight bravely, completely repel the Qing army, and take Liaozhong back from the iron hoof of the Qing army.

Otherwise, the situation of the Ming Dynasty would become increasingly difficult, and it might even completely lose this former territory.

On the battlefield, the fierce offensive of the Mongolian Eight Banners cavalry forced the Ming army to retreat step by step. After a period of tug-of-war, the Qing army finally showed a flaw.

As the Saige Army's cavalry rushed forward, the attack of the Eight Banners of Mongolia stopped immediately, and the more than 2,000 cavalry behind them failed to successfully break through, and the passage was blocked in time.

At this moment, the situation on the battlefield changed subtly. The fierce offensive of the Qing army was finally curbed, and the balance on the battlefield began to favor the Ming army.

At this critical moment, the performance of the Ming army soldiers was particularly outstanding.

Some quick-witted, brave and combat-savvy infantrymen seized the opportunity when the Qing army's formation was slightly loose, quickly assembled and launched a fierce counterattack.

With their spears flashing coldly, they suddenly launched a stabbing attack on the Qing cavalry.

The horses under the cavalry were frightened and struggled violently, making it impossible for the cavalry to react and defend quickly.

Especially those Mongolian Eight Banners cavalrymen, who were lightly armed and only wore simple cotton armor, and had no power to resist the counterattack of the Ming infantry.

The Ming army's spears were extremely sharp and easily pierced through their fragile defenses, causing the cavalry to fall down almost in an instant, emitting painful howls.

(End of this chapter)