I

  Chapter 565 562【Singing in the rain】

  Dorgon stood on a high platform and observed the battlefield with binoculars.

  The rain curtain interfered with the line of sight, making it difficult to see clearly. But one thing is certain, the Datong Army did not bother to move the artillery, because there were no buildings such as canopies near the battlefield.

  The camps of the two armies were several miles apart, and the artillery had to be slowly brought over. All the way had to be sheltered from the rain, a canopy had to be built on the fort, and the medicine pool had to be cleaned and dried. With that spare time, Dorgon had already evacuated.

  The elite central force of the Eight Banners Army is led by Nikan and Yue Le respectively.

  Both are grandsons of Nurhachi, and they were quickly promoted by Dorgon (more to win over the factions behind them). Especially Yue Le, who is only 20 years old this year, has already been named the Lord of the Town, so he can be called brave and good at fighting.

   Moving forward with one foot deep and the other shallow, Yue Le's boots got stuck in the mud, and he pulled it out several times.

  He looked around and found that many of his soldiers had their shoes ripped off in the mud. Yue Le said to the messenger: "The whole army stops, take off their boots and go!"

  The Datong army took off their shoes on the way.

   "Boom boom boom boom!"

  The Chinese troops on both sides were beating drums, but under the rain, the drums sounded dull and weak.

  Li Zheng was in charge of the central army, while Xiao Zongxian and Hu Dinggui led their troops forward to fight Nikan and Yue Le.

  Even though the cavalry of each other abandoned their horses and fought on foot, they were still classified as two wings and habitually outflanked.

   There are more than 30,000 troops on both sides who are confronting each other head-on. Due to the rainy weather and muddy battles, neither side increased the width of the battlefield, but increased the depth of the formation. Dorgon was afraid that the formation would be too thin to be completely killed, but Li Zheng did it to confuse the enemy.

  Nikan sent two troops, intending to test the attack first, but Hu Dinggui sent out all the troops.

   "The whole army presses up!"

  Nikan thought that Hu Dinggui would give it a go, so naturally he didn't dare to neglect, leaving only a small number of reserve teams, and sending the rest out to fight.

   Xiao Zongxian and Yue Le's situation is similar.

  On the east side of the battlefield, after abandoning their horses, the cavalry of both sides marched towards a slope, hoping to occupy the high ground in advance to gain an advantage.

   On the west side of the battlefield, near the river, it is a depression, and the rainy season is almost like stepping on a paddy field. Both sides advanced slowly, and most of their strength was used to pull their feet out of the mud.

   On the frontal battlefield, every time a certain distance is advanced, the generals of both sides will stop and adjust their formation before moving on. Because the ground is too difficult to walk, if you advance more than ten steps, the formation will inevitably be uneven.

  Yue Le suddenly led the soldiers and the reserve team, and pressed forward.

  He was afraid that if something went wrong, it would be difficult for the reserve team to rescue him. In the case of muddy ground, it is necessary to get closer to the battle line, so that the reserve team can quickly rush to make up for the leak.

   The elite main forces of both sides are getting closer and closer. Fifty steps, forty steps, thirty steps, twenty steps...

   It’s twenty steps away, and they’re still stopping. Let’s arrange the formation first. Because there are no long-range troops, and they are not afraid of the opponent's charge, they can calmly form a team.

   Today is a battle of cold weapons. Whoever has a well-organized formation will have a greater chance of winning.

  Dorgon watched with binoculars, and there were soldiers holding umbrellas beside him. Although the telescope was not exposed to rain, the rain was getting heavier and heavier, and it was almost impossible to see the situation in the distance.

   "Raise the gun!"

  Sol drew his sword and shouted, the flag commander immediately waved the flag, and the army began to advance with long spears.

  Solhe came from the Yehenala family, and was the founder of the third and ninth leader of the Zhenghuang Banner in Manchuria. He can also be considered a minority shareholder of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, because he founded the Shiguan Zuoling, and this army can be passed on to his children and grandchildren in the future.

  At this moment, the distance between the main forces of the two sides is only ten steps from the closest one, and fifteen steps from the farthest one.

  The Datong Army stopped advancing. Immediately afterwards, Hu Dinggui and Xiao Zongxian asked the messengers to wave the order flags.

  As the front-line commander, Yuan Siqian also conveyed the military order, and then looked at Solhe's troops more than ten meters away.

  Solhe led his troops to speed up, and when he rushed to the front of the Datong Army eight meters away, he suddenly saw the front row of the Datong Army squatting down, revealing a barrage of firecrackers behind them.

   Is it possible to fire guns in rainy days?

  Solhe was wondering, when he suddenly heard a gunshot in the rain.

  The platoon gun is only eight meters away, only eight meters away, a pig can aim it with a gun!

  Solhe could only command 300 people when he defected to Huang Taiji, but now he can command 3,000 people. As the gunshots sounded, his troops fell down in an instant in the front row, leaving only a few lucky ones standing still.

   And this is just the beginning.

  The Datong firecrackers in the first row, after shooting, they squatted down and put on their bayonets, or went to pick up the long guns carried by friendly troops. The second row of firecrackers, after squatting down in the first row, fired forward again.

   "Bang bang bang!"

  The Eight Banners Army, which was completely dead and wounded in the front row, ushered in another round of shooting, and was shot and fell down in a daze.

  The second row of firecrackers squatted down, and the third row of firecrackers began to aim.

   "The Southern barbarians know how to bewitch!"

   "The demon blunderbuss, it's a demon blunderbuss, it can be released even in rainy weather!"

   "..."

   Man Qing's back row, who hadn't fallen yet, looked at the corpses of the friendly soldiers, turned around and ran away.

  The main reason is that the Datong Army did not pay attention to martial arts ethics, and the cold weapon positional warfare that was agreed, turned out to be a shuttle. Which army in the world can withstand a row of guns at a distance of eight meters?

   "Bang bang bang!"

  A large number of Eight Banners soldiers were killed in the process of escaping, and the survivors ran faster immediately. From time to time, some people slipped and fell, and got up and continued to flee, all of them covered in mud and water.

"Army attack!"

   "Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo..."

  The command flag was accompanied by the charge, and the Datong soldiers of the former army charged across the mud. The few Eight Banners Army formations that were not shot by the firecrackers immediately faced the situation of being surrounded on three sides, turned around and fled subconsciously.

  Dorgon was observing the battle situation, adjusting the formation of troops according to the battle situation, but the battle was over as soon as it started.

  What the **** is firing a gun in the rain?

   Out of 10,000 troops of the former Qing army, three or four thousand were shot and killed on the spot. And if they die without warning, if this situation is not defeated, then the Eight Banners Army will become a god.

  The former army of the Datong Army charged for a while, and according to the predetermined plan, they separated and killed towards the two sides, and launched a joint attack with the friendly forces on both sides.

  The troops of Zu Dashou and Wu Sangui are all on the east side of the battlefield, fighting on foot with the cavalry of Datong.

  They heard gunshots coming from the front, and they were already terrified, and seeing the Datong army coming from the side, they would be attacked from both sides.

   "Run!"

  Wu Sangui once again used his strengths, and Zu Dashou also put oil on the soles of his feet. The Han soldiers under their command rushed to flee without the commander's order. Anyway, they would not die if they ran faster than their friendly troops.

   "Kill the Tartars!"

   Wang Tingchen drew his sword and shouted, and chased after Wu Sangui.

  Wang Tingchen and Li Dingguo led cavalry to attack Liaodong. In recent years, they rescued many Han people and captured many Jurchens. Today, Li Dingguo is transferred to Hebei as a division commander, while Wang Tingchen stays in Liaodong as a cavalry division commander.

  The two sides chased and fled, both slipped on the soles of their feet, and fell into the mud in various embarrassments.

  The flag of the Han army, who was slow to escape, was stabbed when chased. So after falling down, these Han army flags simply knelt down and begged for mercy in the muddy water.

  Wu Sangui was wearing rain-soaked padded armor. When the soles of his feet slipped, he rolled down from the breakthrough.

  He was thinking about getting up and continuing to escape, when suddenly his waist was stepped on, and the soldier who stepped on him was also tripped. Immediately, another rout soldier ran over and stepped on Wu Sangui's chest.

   "Get out of the way!"

  Wu Sangui reluctantly climbed up, killed a broken soldier beside him to vent his anger, and then continued to flee towards the northeast.

  Yue Le, a rising general of the Qing Dynasty, is also fleeing with his remnants. His troops suffered heavy losses and were stunned by the volley of firecrackers. Although the Datong army did not chase after them, but went to attack the flanks, Yue Le still attacked Dorgon's central army in a panic.

   "Your Highness, let's go!" The guard shouted.

  Dorgon looked blankly at the former army that had completely collapsed, and at the two wings that were collapsing. Everything in front of him seemed to be a dream, completely different from the battle he envisioned.

  According to Dorgon's prediction, the brave and fearless Eight Banners fighters will kill the southern barbarians in the cold weapon battle.

   "Your Highness, hurry up, it will be too late!" The soldiers were still urging.

  Dorgon finally came to his senses, he saw that his central army was in chaos, and it was destroyed by the rout of the former army.

  Fighting to such a point, the battle has been lost, and Dorgon had to choose to escape.

   In other words, Dorgon is not required to make decisions. The Eight Banners nobles in the Chinese army are already fleeing spontaneously. They are all veterans of the battlefield, and they know that if they don't flee, the whole army will be wiped out.

  Solhe also fell down and was trampled by the rout soldiers, but he survived because of it, like a dead body on the battlefield.

  His calf bones were broken, so he could only crawl in the mud.

  The follow-up troops of the Datong Army chased after them, and Solhe struggled to stand up, and even wanted to raise his knife to fight desperately, but was stabbed to death on the spot by several long guns.

  These follow-up troops, regardless of the battle on both sides, went straight to chase Dorgon's central army.

  Wu Sangui rolled and crawled and escaped for two miles.

  The cotton armor was soaked in water and it was too difficult to run on the muddy ground. He was almost too tired to run. He wanted to call the soldiers over and help him run, but he couldn't see the soldiers at all.

  Wu Sangui heard footsteps, and a Datong army chased him in the rain.

  He saw clearly the leader of the team, and quickly shouted: "Brother Wang, I am willing to surrender, don't kill me!"

  Wang Tingchen laughed loudly, and spit out again: "Who the **** is your brother? Bind up and catch a traitor!"

  Zu Dashou was also tired from running, and sat in the mud wearing his armor.

  He drew his knife across his neck and wanted to commit suicide. But he couldn't let go, the knife was clamped around his neck for a long time, until the Datong army chased him, and he threw away the waist knife and waited to be captured.

   "Boom!"

  Lightning and thunder, more rain.

  The Eight Banners soldiers in Yaozhou City are always paying attention to the situation on the battlefield. Knowing that Dorgon's main force was defeated, he didn't dare to defend the city anymore. The general took his family and abandoned the city in the rain and fled to Xining Fort in the northwest.

  As for the supplies that Dorgon transported to the city, there was no way to take them away at all, and they were just waiting for the Datong Army to receive them.

  (end of this chapter)