The infantry of the Ming army at the front lined up neatly under the cover of the artillery behind them, with the shield bearers in front and the archers behind, followed by several rows of spearmen, pressing forward one by one.
Although several more arrows flew out later, under the rapid artillery fire of the Ming army, the dense arrows quickly became sparse.
Li Chengliang knew that even if he sent troops to those places now, he would not gain much.
The Jurchens would take away the wounded and corpses when they retreated.
"Father, Donglu has been defeated."
Li Rusong had already rode back to Li Chengliang at this time, looking at the battlefield in the distance and said.
Li Chengliang knew that his eldest son was ready to rush forward.
However, Li Chengliang would not let him leave at this time. He also wanted to find an opportunity to let the servants break through the defense line in front of them at the minimum cost, and at the same time completely defeat the Jurchen army blocking them.
Behind is Gule City. No matter how ignorant they are, the enemy generals will not give up their position easily and continue to retreat.
They have no way out.
Soon, the advancing Ming army discovered the Jurchen defense line that was waiting for them.
No one rushed directly up, but they still lined up neatly and approached the opponent under the greeting of the team officer.
After seeing the Ming army approaching, the other side rushed over.
Perhaps this is the difference between the barbarians and the Ming army. When they see the enemy, they will only rush forward with enthusiasm.
As they rushed up, the archers and gunners behind the shields of the Ming army had already begun to attack.
The gunfire sounded like fried beans, and arrows flew out of the Ming army and shot forward. Jurchens who were charging continued to fall.
At this time, another arrow flew out from behind the Jurchens, passed over the head of Pao Ze in front and fell into the Ming army formation.
"Ah"
Soon, screams rang out in the Ming army formation.
The soldiers in the front row were somewhat affected, but they did not dare to look back.
Who knows where the team leader is at this time, and when he turns around, he might be hit with a scabbard.
This is also the iron law of the Ming army's operations. It is forbidden to look back.
The Ming army and the Jurchens finally came into contact, but they were crushed one-sidedly.
The Ming army's marching speed did not slow down at all, but the Jurchens who rushed up kept retreating.
At this time, the shield bearers have been replaced by spearmen. The spears in their hands are placed on the large shields and they are constantly thrusting.
The Jurchens in front often had to face spears thrust from three directions at the same time. They were in a state of embarrassment while blocking with the left and the right. Many of them had suffered losses due to this.
Another hail of arrows flew into the Ming army formation, leaving groaning wounds everywhere.
The Ming soldiers behind him walked directly past the injured Paoze and joined the queue in front.
"Rusong, you lead the team to rush over from the other side of the mountain ridge, then forget about it and go straight to Gule City."
Li Chengliang finally gave the order at this time.
"Yes, father."
Li Rusong agreed loudly, then waved sideways to the cavalry team behind him, and ran towards the other side of the mountain ridge with more than ten soldiers behind him. Behind him, two A cavalry team composed of thousands of servants also followed closely.
The reason why the Jurchens stopped the Ming army from advancing on this mountain ridge is because there is a highway on one side of the mountain ridge.
If the Ming army wants to reach Gule City, they can only march along the road, otherwise it will be difficult to transport the food and grass behind.
With the little advantage of the mountain ridge, it is the only pass that blocks the Ming army's attack path.
However, the equipment and training gap between the two sides was too great, and the personal bravery that the Jurchens were proud of was really useless on the battlefield.
Of course, it may be effective locally, but in the face of an army that moves neatly, what effect can this bit of bravery have?
When they saw the Ming army rushing towards them in the distance, the Jurchen team visibly swayed.
As the cavalry seemed to be surrounding them from the side, a horn horn sounded from behind the Jurchen army formation.
The Jurchens in front turned around one after another, carrying or dragging the injured tribesmen back.
Yes, this was the purpose of Li Chengliang asking Li Rusong to attack, to make them mistakenly think that the Ming army was planning to make dumplings and cut off their retreat, so they hurriedly recalled the soldiers in front to avoid being surrounded and annihilated.
When Li Rusong led his troops to attack, Li Chengliang also recruited the guerrilla generals Xiong Chaochen and Wang Chaoqing and asked them to lead the cavalry to prepare for the attack.
Since the Jurchens have retreated, the infantry are certainly not suitable for pursuit, as it will cause their formation to scatter.
To pursue and defeat the enemy, cavalry is naturally the most suitable.
When the Ming army launched a full-scale attack, Lai Lihong also noticed something was wrong.
The thousands of cavalry sent by the Ming army had already passed through their defense line, but they had no intention of outflanking them. Instead, they ran directly into the distance and soon re-entered the road, continuing without looking back. Run forward.
"Oops."
At this time, Lai Lihong still couldn't guess the Ming army's intention. This cavalry was heading for Gule City.
However, it is too late to react now. Even if he sends a fast horse back to warn, he may not be much faster than the Ming army.
Although it was a little late, Lai Lihong still sent two waves of troops to rush back to Gule City to report the news, which could be regarded as a way to make up for the situation.
As for him, he continued to command the Jurchen army to fight and retreat. He also thought bitterly in his heart that he had long known that fighting Mingguo head-on would not be beneficial, so the only way to win was to attack them secretly.
In the future, we still need to avoid head-on confrontations with Ming Dog. As for battles with other tribes, we will use frontal charge tactics.
After Li Rusong led his troops through the Jurchen defense line, he just glanced at the situation behind the Jurchen formation and continued to charge forward without looking back.
Knowing the importance, this Jurchen army outside has nothing to fear.
If they are outflanked and eaten, some of them will rush out and rush back to Gule City to report the news.
It is difficult to attack a city, even if it is a city wall built with stones by the Jurchens.
It is not that Li Rusong has never seen the construction of a Jurchen walled city. Although the two-person-high stone wall outside is not difficult to climb, if you want to break in, losses are inevitable.
What's more, most of these fortresses are located in difficult terrain, and the brigades cannot deploy in many directions. They can only rely on infantry to approach the city wall and climb more to seize the city head.
If we can capture Gule City in one go, the losses of our subordinates will be minimal.
The loss is small, and the reward naturally does not need to be too much.
Although he did not control the army independently, Li Rusong still knew that what a soldier needs to fight is money.
The more fierce the battle, the more silver reward you will get. Without it, people will not sacrifice their lives for you.
Of course, if the fight goes smoothly and there are no risks, they will not ask for a high reward.
Although Li Chengliang has been appointed as the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, he has so many guard posts that require military pay, and there are more than 2,000 servants behind him, so the huge amount of money is not enough.
Although the commander-in-chief wants to withhold or deduct military pay, which is a rule that is understood by everyone above and below, they still have to give money to the subordinates, and they must give them as much as they can, otherwise the soldiers will starve to death. .
As for the more than 3,000 servants supported by the Li family, their monthly consumption is almost the full supply of two guard stations. If the disbursements from the capital are taken into account, it is almost the military salary of five or six guard stations.
If it were an ordinary person, it really wouldn’t be able to afford it.
Because they were in Liaodong, the Li family gritted their teeth and maintained a team of three thousand servants.
After all, without this team, General Li would not feel at ease when he went to fight.
Driving quickly, Li Rusong did not dare to delay at all and headed straight for Gule City.
That night, when it was getting late, he stopped his horse and chose a dense forest, arranged the soldiers on guard duty at night, and let the whole army rest.
Of course, he will not forget to block the road and lay down several stumbling ropes.
This place is not far from Gule City. Get up early tomorrow morning and after dinner, you can rush into Gule City in one go.
He has already calculated that even if the Jurchens send a messenger back to Gule City to report the news, they will definitely not dare to take the mountain forest laugh road, not to mention the twists and turns, and it is not easy to walk at night.
Therefore, the Jurchen messenger was probably hanging behind them, and when they left the road to camp and rest, he would go in front of them to report the news. Don't think that just because your servants are well maintained, you can use them as you please.
People can survive with a little energy, but horses cannot.
After running all this way, my horsepower has reached a limit and I need to rest.
Li Rusong walked around after setting up camp and saw that the servants were feeding bean cakes to the war horses. This was the best horse food. Not only did the war horses love to eat it, but it could also quickly restore their horsepower.
Bean cake, this is a good thing that even some military households cannot eat.
However, using it at this time is not a waste.
Tomorrow's battle is crucial, and Li Rusong is not a stingy person. He asked his servants to prepare these just to come in handy at a critical moment.
There was no words for the whole night. When Li Rusong woke up, he quickly packed up and gathered his servants for dinner to prepare for today's battle.
The subordinates also knew that they were going to attack Gule City today, so they took off the burdens on their war horses. Not only did they feast themselves, they also fed the war horses a large amount of bean cakes and other food to replenish their horsepower.
At the same time, a lot of food was stuffed everywhere on his body.
This is all so that you can eat while fighting when you are in a tough fight.
On the battlefield, physical strength is extremely valuable. A little physical strength may save your life.
"Major General."
While Li Rusong was feeding the war horses bean cakes in person, the sentry captain came back and reported: "Two waves of messengers were stopped on the road last night, seven or eight people. , they were all beheaded.”
“Very good, they didn’t escape.”
Li Rusong put a smile on his lips and said casually.
“No, they were all stopped.”
The man said immediately.
"Is there any more? Let your people go to investigate the movement in Gule City. Have you found anything?"
Li Rusong asked again.
"The situation in Gule City is not good. The security is very tight. Maybe it's because they know that we are not far away from them."
The captain said immediately.
Li Rusong didn't get angry after hearing this. In fact, he thought on the way here that the two sides had started a war, so he would naturally be on strict guard.
If it were like usual, he would have to be careful.
“Nothing, let’s talk about it later when we get to the city.”
Li Rusong just said lightly, and then ordered: "Send more manpower to monitor the movements around Gule City."
In order not to waste horse power, after breaking camp this time, Li Rusong did not let the servants move quickly, but It is slowly approaching Gule City.
He has to wait for the opponent to open the city gate and get close to a certain position concealedly before he can launch the charge, so he is not in a hurry.
However, just more than ten miles away from Gule City, a sentinel came back from the front to report the news.
“You said a lot of people passed by to the west? How many people were there?”
When Li Rusong heard the report from the sentry, his heart twitched.
At this time, a large group of Jurchens entered the city. I am afraid that it will be difficult to capture Gule City.
"Two to three thousand people, look at the flags, there seems to be Wang Gao's flag."
The sentry said nervously.
“Wang Gao is in this team?”
Li Rusong, who had a toothache at first, suddenly became excited.
Gule City is nothing. It is easy for the Ming army to defeat it, but capturing Wang Gao is another matter.
Once people turn to the mountains to the north, it is difficult to find traces.
"How far are they from Gule City? Where is Wang Gao's location?"
Li Rusong immediately asked.
"It should be six or seven miles away. It's not far away. It seems that Wang Gao's flag is in the middle of the team."
The sentry said immediately.
There are only two options before Li Rusong. One is to make a surprise attack when the opponent's large group of troops enters the city.
However, if Wang Gao is decisive and leaves a group of troops to stop them, and only takes the remaining troops into the city, then their sneak attack may fall short.
There is another option, which is to launch a surprise attack before this force enters the city to prevent them from entering the city.
If Wang Gao is really in the army, with the Ming army's combat power, both sides are evenly matched, and it is very likely to defeat the other side, and there will naturally be a chance to seize Wang Gao.
At this time, Li Rusong had more or less guessed the origin of this team. They should have gone to intercept Qi Jiguang's troops, but he didn't know what the outcome would be.
However, thinking of the slight resistance he encountered along the way, Li Rusong guessed that Wang Gaojun probably did not take advantage.
"It should be him."
Li Rusong muttered something in his mouth, and then made up his mind.
Gule City doesn't want it anymore, he only wants Wang Gao.
"The whole army mounts up."
Thinking of this and thinking that the other party would reach Gule City first, Li Rusong knew that he could not waste time and could only attack immediately to prevent Wang Gao from entering the city.
"Surprise attack and intercept the Donglu army outside the city."
Li Rusong waved his hand and led his men to quickly run towards Gule City.
The four hooves of the war horses hit the mountain road, and soon bursts of white smoke rose up, and the ground trembled slightly as the horses galloped.
The first person to notice the abnormality was naturally the guard on top of Gule City, and the gong was sounded in an instant.
The changes at the top of the city also made the Jurchen army, which was still a few miles away from the city, aware of something unusual.
"What's going on?"
The middle section of the Jurchen army was led by Wang Gao. When he heard the news from the front, Wang Gao immediately asked.
But before the people in the front camp could reply, a slight tremor was felt on the ground, and no answer was needed.
Not far away, a large group of cavalry is rushing towards here.
In the distance, you can faintly see the gray smoke splashed by the horse's hooves.
"It's Mingguo who's coming to kill."
Behind me, someone shouted something.
Knowing that the situation was urgent, Wang Gao immediately ordered: "Follow me and fight to the death with Ming Gou."
Immediately, he turned to the guards behind him and said: "Send someone back to the city, summon the people in the city and I will attack from both sides.
Li Chengliang If you dare to send someone to steal the city, I will let him never come back."
In a moment, Wang Gao guessed that Li Chengliang should have sent the cavalry relatively close to Gule City. He made a sneak attack on Gule City, but he didn't expect to be hit by himself.
If it had been half a day at night, there would not have been such a critical moment.
But no matter what, since they collided, there was only one fight.
The Ming army did not have many cavalry. (End of this chapter)