The New Destiny of the Ming Dynasty

As soon as Yang Zhen finished speaking, the Tartars at the forefront had already entered within about a hundred paces. In the blink of an eye, Yang Zhen could see their faces contorted with rage.

A group of men on horseback charged forward. Yang Zhen didn't even need to aim. He simply rested his gun on the front of the trench and fired another shot. A bullet, carrying Yang Zhen's rage, shot out of the barrel and struck the leader of the Tartars in the face amidst the rain of arrows.

The Tartar man flipped off his horse, and just then, one of the gunpowder shells thrown by Pan happy and the others landed not far in front of the stray horse and exploded with a loud "boom." The horse, now without its master, instantly turned right.

Immediately afterwards, gunfire erupted and arrows rained down from the crescent-shaped trench where Yang Zhen was located, with gunpowder shells falling like raindrops at the feet of the Tartar warhorses.

The Tartars at the front fell from their horses instantly. Several warhorses that charged with greater momentum were either hit by bullets or blown up, and they neighed and fell to the ground.

As the leading warhorse turned right, the other warhorses behind it followed suit. The remaining Tatar cavalry, whether unable to control their frightened horses or seeing the intense firepower ahead, charged back towards the reed marshes.

"My lord! The Tartars have turned back! They're heading towards our musketeer unit's position! What should we do!? Should we go back to their aid immediately!?"

Just as Yang Zhen saw the Tartars turn away and his heart finally settled, he heard Zhang Guogan's voice boom in his ears like thunder.

"Rescue, rescue, rescue my foot! Can't you see I'm deliberately leading them that way?!"

After Yang Zhen finished speaking, he saw a large flag with the words "Provisional Ningyuan Vanguard Battalion" suddenly waving vigorously at the edge of the reeds in the distance.

This is the flag signal that Yang Zhen had previously given to Zhang Degui!

Upon seeing this signal, Yang Zhen immediately blew his iron whistle sharply, a piercing sound cutting through the battlefield, followed by Yang Zhen's loud shout: "Crouch down! Crouch down!"

As Yang Zhen shouted, he quickly squatted down, and the crowd in the trench next to him also squatted down immediately.

Just then, a series of loud artillery shelling booms rang out from the edge of the reed marshes!

One subject after another, round after round...

By this time, Yang Zhen had completely relaxed and a smile had appeared on his face, a smile that had disappeared from his face since the start of the war.

At this moment, he knew he had won this gamble. Although not many Tartars came, none of them escaped.

This is enough.

When all the gunfire ceased, a silence that had never been heard before settled over the land.

I don't know who stood up first, but someone cheered first, and then the whole trench was filled with cheers.

Yang Zhen stood up, leaning on his long musket, and looked into the distance. He saw Zhang Degui raising the flag of the vanguard battalion and leading the artillerymen out of the hidden reeds, cheering and jumping on the sandy ground at the edge of the reeds!

Even some of Zukeyong's men, who had been guarding the trench in front of the reeds, abandoned their previous aloofness and disdain for the other units of the advance battalion, and joined the crowd in cheering and jumping...

Seeing this, Yang Zhen knew the outcome of the battle was decided, and immediately shouted, "Kill the Manchu Tartars! Go and cut off their scalps!"

After shouting, Yang Zhen leaped out of the trench, musket in hand, and slowly poured some ignition powder into the flintlock of a Tartar knight who had just fallen from his horse. Then he pressed the flintlock against the knight's forehead, and a shot rang out with a "bang"...

Unlike Yang Zhen's somewhat pretentious approach, after hearing Yang Zhen's shouts and especially after seeing what he did, those who were cheering and celebrating their victory instantly changed, rushing to draw their swords and charge onto the "battlefield".

Some followed Yang Zhen's example, and after finishing off the Tartars, they would cut off the scalp with the coin-shaped rat tail on the top of the Tartar's head and put it in their pockets so that they could record their merits in the future.

Others, finding that too troublesome, simply combined two steps into one: severing the head with a single stroke, then using the braid as a handle to cut off the next head.

In just about fifteen minutes, the Tartar knights who had arrived on the battlefield were all killed.

Those who were already dead need no further explanation; many more who were shot but survived also lost their lives.

Some even lost the scalp with the money rat tail on their heads.

Some even lost their own heads.

The left wing of Yang Zhen's musketeer squad, along with those that Yang Zhen himself had taken, obtained thirty-three heads and scalps.

The right flank of the musketeers obtained a total of twenty-six Tartar heads and scalps.

The artillery flanks and the musket squads directly killed and wounded the most Tatar knights, and obtained a total of 107 Tatar heads.

The right wing of the grenadier unit, namely Pan happy's troops, killed and wounded Tartars in the area of ​​Xianma Pit. They wounded quite a few Tartars, but in the end, they only got thirty-nine heads.

The original plan was for Zukeyong to pursue the Tatar cavalry, but it was not carried out before the battle ended.

Zukeyong's troops wounded a considerable number of enemies, but killed relatively few.

This group of Tartars wore cotton armor with iron armor over it. Apart from close-range attacks by muskets, cannons, and gunpowder shells, Zukeyong's heavy cavalry archers and Xu Changyong's light cavalry archers rarely managed to kill the enemy with a single shot.

However, they were experts in the final "battle" to seize the heads, especially since everyone under Zukeyong was equipped with a special decapitation knife, which was much sharper than an ordinary waist knife.

Therefore, in the end, Zukeyong's troops obtained the second most heads, only after the left and right flanks of the artillery, totaling ninety-one heads.

Of the remaining Mongol soldiers under Xu Changyong's command, only 121 survived and returned to fight.

However, among the various units of the advance battalion, Xu Changyong's troops still constituted the largest force.

However, they did not obtain many heads, only fifty-seven in total.

Many Mongol soldiers, finding it difficult to seize heads, simply targeted the Tartars' armor, swords, bows and arrows, and even their clothing, stripping many Tartars naked.

After Yang Zhen led everyone to clean up the battlefield, he sent someone to inform Li Lu to leave a few people on guard while the rest of them withdrew.

When Li Lu returned, upon inquiry, it was discovered that Li Lu had also obtained a total of seventy-three Tartar heads and scalps, as well as thirteen warhorses with saddles and stirrups that had lingered and fallen into Li Lu's hands.

Meanwhile, after taking stock of the battlefield spoils, 162 healthy and lively warhorses became the spoils of war for the advance battalion.

Yang Zhen thought the other dead and dying warhorses could also be taken away as meat, but there were too many, and everyone was willing but unable to do so, so they had to give up.

The battle on the salt flats outside the reeds and in the grove of trees lasted less than an hour from start to finish. Even including the time wasted on collecting the spoils at the end, it was only about an hour and a half.

The intermittent artillery fire from the Songshan City area provided excellent cover for Yang Zhen's advance battalion. Otherwise, the loud gunfire on Yang Zhen's side, coupled with the fact that the battlefield was only about ten miles away from the Tartar camp outside Songshan City and less than ten miles from the Niangniang Palace camp, would have certainly attracted the attention of the Tartars.

Even so, Yang Zhen did not dare to linger here. He believed that he had already done more than enough for Jin Guofeng and the others in Songshan City.

Thus, on the tenth day of the third month, just after noon, Yang Zhen ordered the remaining troops of the Provisional Ningyuan Vanguard Battalion to retreat, leaving only his personal guard captain Yang Zhan'ao, along with Guo Xiaowu and six oarsmen on a boat, to remain in the nearby reed marshes to lie in ambush and observe the enemy situation.

The journey back was much easier. Apart from Xu Changyong being somewhat sullen, all the other units were in high spirits.

Since Xu Changyong returned, Yang Zhen has not had a chance to speak with him or ask about his experiences along the way.

On the way back to Shazhou Island, Yang Zhen deliberately traveled with Xu Changyong. Seeing that he remained sullen, he said to him, "Brother Xu! On the battlefield, life and death can change in an instant! Casualties are inevitable in any war! Fortunately, we have avenged the sacrifices made by your Mongol cavalry! Their spirits in heaven will not blame you or me!"

"Brother! It's not that I, Lao Xu, am reluctant to part with those Mongol soldiers, nor am I worried about how to explain things to Sanggarse! It's just that the group of personal guards and retainers I personally trained have almost all been wiped out by these Tartars in this one fell swoop!"

"More than thirty old men who had followed me for over ten years! This time, more than twenty of them perished, more than half! If they hadn't fought to the death to cover our retreat, I, your old brother, wouldn't be back this time!"

At this point, Xu Changyong suddenly gritted his teeth and said, "The heavy casualties suffered by the Mongolian cavalry this time are not my responsibility! I have nothing to hide from my superiors! It was that Nomqi. The man I sent to monitor him ran back and reported that he defected as soon as he encountered a Tartar patrol!"

"He not only handed over the letter I asked him to deliver to Songshan to the Tartars, but he also informed them of my whereabouts! If I hadn't run away quickly, we would all be finished! Moreover, if he hadn't been unaware of our plan, we would all be in deep trouble this time! Alas—"