Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 181 The Jurchens' Nightmare: The Escape Route
This battle on the outskirts of Beijing ultimately became a nightmare that Huang Taiji could never shake off. He intended to retreat eastward, but instead ran headlong into the White-Spear Soldiers, with whom he had a blood feud. After wave of charges, they lost nearly a thousand cavalrymen in less than half an hour, while the White-Spear Soldiers fought with increasing ferocity.

Helpless, Huang Taiji could only head south, hoping to join forces with Amin's Bordered Blue Banner and Mangultai's Plain Blue Banner. However, he ran into Yu Zigao's Light Chariot Battalion. Yu Zigao was also unlucky. He inherited his father's merits and spent half his life working his way up to the rank of general, but he almost lost his life because of a mere pirate.

He went and fought with the Mongols, but because he didn't meet his KPIs, although he survived, he wasn't reinstated. He's not young anymore, and he's lived in the south all his life. Does he expect to die eating sand in the north? People mock him for being a tiger father and a dog son; he has his pride, you know.

Although it's true that it's difficult to catch up with his father's level, at least he can't disgrace his father's reputation, right? Nowadays, whoever leads an army on their own isn't a general, and they all have a bunch of second-rank and first-rank military officer titles on their shoulders. He's just a deputy general, and he's too embarrassed to even show his face.

But now his chance has come. He's incredibly lucky; he's caught the fleeing enemy soldiers and can now reap the benefits. If he can kill two or three slave chieftains, securing a high position for his wife and children is a sure thing.

Yu Zigao's light cavalry battalion was originally drawn from the Jizhou garrison, numbering only 1,500 men. When they came to relieve Beijing, the Datong garrison supplemented them with 1,500 infantrymen and 500 elite cavalry. After arriving in Beijing, Zhu Youjian (Emperor Zhu Youjian) waved his hand and ordered him to select another 2,000 men from the Beijing garrison.

As a result, this unfortunate fellow from the south, a commander without any personal guards, managed to assemble a makeshift wagon battalion. Of course, his wagon battalion couldn't compare to Sun Chuanting's elite wagon battalion; if they had been the ones besieged, the Jurchens would probably have broken through that very day.

The Jurchens fled for their lives, blocking their escape route and instantly turning the situation into a fight to the death. Yu Zigao divided his six thousand men into three groups, disregarding their retreat, and united against the enemy. The three groups took turns firing volleys, bullets and shells raining down, and the Jurchen cavalry fell like wheat being harvested.

But this time the Jurchens had no room to maneuver. The White-Spear Soldiers from the flanks and rear had caught up, and from the west, the wagon battalion that had left them with psychological trauma the previous night had also attacked. The Ming cavalry battalion, which had been suppressed by them, had also stood up with the help of artillery support from their allies, and kept hunting down the cavalry squads they had sent out to scout ahead.

Hauge was released again. Huang Taiji gave him only 1,500 cavalry, ordering him to break through the Ming army's wagon camp blocking his way and clear a path for the main army. If he failed, he need not return to see him. Hauge was still young, and he didn't want to die, but looking into Huang Taiji's bloodshot eyes, he knew that if he dared to disobey the military order, he would die immediately!
He then knelt and kowtowed to bid farewell to Huang Taiji, and together with Sony and Abatai, each led five hundred cavalrymen out to charge. Despite being at a disadvantage, they still chose to fight against overwhelming odds; Huang Taiji clearly had no intention of letting them return alive. All fifteen hundred cavalrymen became dead soldiers.

To survive, they had to brave the Ming army's artillery fire and use their own flesh and blood to break through the Ming army's chariots. If they retreated, not only would they themselves be implicated, but their families would also be affected.

The Jurchens donned triple armor, mounted their tallest warhorses, pulled out daggers and stabbed them in the horse's rump, then lay low on the horse's back. There were no tactics or strategies to speak of; it was all about one word: charge!

From a hundred paces away, the Jurchens had seventy or eighty riders shot down; at fifty paces, casualties increased dramatically, with two hundred riders killed; and within twenty paces, the Ming army's formation was finally disrupted.

Yu Zigao had no choice but to order the other two teams to fire. In an instant, the light chariot battalion opened fire at full power. Eight red-coated cannons, three hundred breech-loading cannons, fifty extermination cannons, fifty pearl-surge cannons, five hundred tiger-crouching cannons, and two thousand seven hundred muskets fired at the same time. In that instant, it could be said that there were more cannonballs flying on the battlefield than the number of Jurchens.

Buzzing! Due to the intense cannon fire, many Ming soldiers experienced ringing in their ears. In this state, they seemed to have lost their hearing, and could only see the silent scene ahead:

The iron casing of the cannonball collided with the Jurchen's iron armor, the immense force sending the Jurchen flying backward. The leather straps connecting the armor plates could not withstand the impact and snapped, scattering the delicate armor plates. The triple armor was indeed formidable; even smaller cannonballs could not penetrate it. But even so, after taking such a blow, was there any chance of survival?

The scene was quite different when hit by the larger cannons. The Jurchens were torn to shreds, armor and all, their flesh splattering and turning into mud. Yu Zigao stood on the chariot, his hand on Xuanyuan. He squinted, gleefully estimating that at least seven or eight hundred cavalrymen must have been killed in this attack. Even if some Jurchens had their heads smashed, he wondered if the Ministry of War would still recognize them.

Suddenly his eyes narrowed, and he saw that behind the corpses scattered on the ground, there were still hundreds of riders who had survived. They were not deterred, but instead continued to charge forward, stepping over the bodies of their comrades.

Boom! A warhorse crashed straight into the Ming army's wagon and died. The Jurchen cavalryman on its back was thrown off, his teeth clenched, his face contorted in a ferocious grimace, still clutching his lance. He fell from the sky, breaking his own neck, his lance embedded only three feet deep in the ground, which had been softened by the rain.

The Ming soldier's musketeer fell to the ground with his buttocks down, and the lance was stuck right between his legs.

One, two, three... three hundred! The Ming army's hardwood chariots were smashed to pieces, and those that didn't fall apart were knocked over and toppled.

At this moment, the Ming army, whose firepower had been interrupted due to mounted archery, completed the gunpowder reloading once again. However, it was too late to stop them now, as the slave cavalry charged at their maximum speed, and even they could not stop themselves.

The warhorses showed expressions of resistance and fear; they struggled desperately, their bits tearing their mouths apart. Cannon fire pierced through these enormous creatures, but even after their massive bodies collapsed, they continued to roll toward the Ming army's chariots.

The cannons in the wagon camp were all mounted on the wagons, and along with the destruction of the wagons, the firepower of hundreds of cannons was also lost. This created a firepower gap for the Ming army in the breached positions. Then, with a thunderous roar, the Jurchen cavalry arrived, thousands of horses charging in.

Yu Zigao's wagon camp could still fire, but the previous attack had disrupted their rhythm, making the cannon fire chaotic. With so many enemy cavalry in front of them, he began to panic.

"Father Khan, your son has lived up to your expectations!" Covered in blood, Hauge returned to Huang Taiji's side, his right arm empty.

Daishan stared at him as if he'd seen a ghost: "He's still alive?!"

Huang Taiji was also surprised. He was somewhat afraid to look Hauge in the eye, but he was a good actor and tears came easily. He and Hauge put on a show of filial piety, which disgusted Daishan.

“Where is Abatai?!” Daishan asked.

Hauge remained silent, and Daishan swallowed hard without asking any further questions.

(End of this chapter)