Chapter 1356 Looting the Racecourse
Although no reconnaissance was done here beforehand, because the racecourse is relatively open, you can have an unobstructed view of this area from a slightly higher ground in the distance, so it is easy to see the scale of the buildings here, and then refer to the general cavalry Harugong can deduce the approximate strength of the Ming army stationed here based on the organization of the troops and horse farms.
Although the cavalry battalion he leads is small in strength, its individual equipment and combat skills are at the top level among the Haihan Army. Unless it encounters an enemy with an absolute overwhelming advantage in strength, this kind of outdoor combat environment will , they really are not afraid of any opponent. Therefore, even though the target was in an unfamiliar environment, Harugong decided to take action immediately to take down this secret racecourse.
The cavalry battalion left some of the pack horses and manpower responsible for the baggage in place, and the remaining combat cavalry was divided into two teams, attacking from the north and south, and outflanking them towards the racecourse.
There were no bunkers near the racecourse that could be used to cover their tracks, so not long after the Haihan Cavalry appeared, the other party had already discovered their presence. In their haste, the other party probably didn't recognize the identities of the two groups of riders. It wasn't until they got closer that someone recognized the riders from their clothes as the Haihan Cavalry, and then they hurriedly rushed into the stable. Leading the horse, there was no time to put a saddle and bridle on the horse in a hurry. Before the Ming army stationed in the local area could prepare, the Haihan cavalry had already arrived nearby.
At that moment, there were several Ming troops who were herding their horses and were preparing to come forward to resist. However, when they saw that the Hai and Han troops had drawn their weapons and were preparing to charge into the formation, they immediately turned around and fled to the west. The Haihan Cavalry is equipped with repeating muskets that are easy to use on horseback. This is something that many people know. If only a few people go to confront the Haihan Cavalry, most of them will be shot down by other people's muskets from a long distance away. If you rush over, you will only die in vain. It would be better to retreat immediately when the situation is bad and go back to Dengzhou City to report the news.
There were a few brave men who still charged over with sabers, but this kind of resistance was indeed in vain. When they were still thirty or forty meters away from the Haihan cavalry, they were greeted by a volley of fire, including men and horses. Knocked to the ground. The Haihan Cavalry is one of the very few combat units in the army that is fully equipped with seven-shot rifles, which makes their long-range firepower output very impressive. Such a charge-style attack launched by a sporadic few enemies basically did not even get a chance to fight against the Haihan cavalry.
After each suffered a round of volleys, these Ming soldiers who bravely rushed towards the Haihan cavalry were all eliminated. After seeing the long-range firepower of the Haihan cavalry, the more than 20 Ming soldiers in the racecourse who had not yet had time to mount their horses soon lost the courage to continue fighting. In addition, the Haihan soldiers on horseback shouted "surrender without killing". slogan, these soldiers did not make any more unwise moves, but laid down their weapons and knelt down to surrender.
After controlling the inside and outside of the racecourse, Harugong took the prisoners and collected the bodies of the Ming soldiers who had been shot. Although the two armies fought each other for their own masters, Harugong, as a soldier, still maintained enough respect for their bravery in a situation where the enemy was outnumbered. After the battle, these soldiers should not be allowed to fight again. The dead were exposed in the wilderness.
Due to the huge disparity in strength and Haihan's cavalry surprise attack, the confrontation between the two sides only lasted a short time and came to an end. The cavalry battalion easily occupied the horse farm with zero casualties and captured more than 20 Ming soldiers who had not had time to escape.
This horse racing farm is located more than 40 miles away from Dengzhou City in the north. Harugong didn't have to worry about the escaped Ming army being able to move reinforcements from Dengzhou City in a short time. He calmly got off his horse and let The prisoner took the accounting documents of the horse farm to check the assets here.
The most important asset of the racecourse is naturally the war horse. Although this horse farm was not established for a long time, it has produced more than 200 horses. In the horse roster, these horses are divided into two categories: war horses for cavalry troops and pack horses for baggage. Among them, there are only about 80 war horses, and many of them have been marked as "leaving the field." ", he should have been recruited by the Dengzhou garrison.
After Harugong looked through it, he called a captured officer to him and asked him: "Are you responsible for this place?"
The Ming army officer was obviously not a tough character, and he responded timidly: "Wei Xin, the villain, is the officer in charge of this horse farm. I wonder what the general's orders are?"
"Since you are the head of the racecourse, you should be very clear about the situation here." Harugong shook the document in his hand and said: "How many of the horses recorded in this are still in the local area, please report the number. ! ”
Wei Xin responded: "General, the number of horses in this racecourse is just like the accounting records. There is no falsehood... that is, the few horses that were ridden by the people who escaped just now are just a few horses."
"Oh? Are your accounts here so true? Why did I hear that many of the war horses here are draft horses requisitioned from the private sector?" Harugong will not be fooled by his words. The news he previously received from Xindian Town, It made him realize that the management of this racecourse might not be so formal. What Wei Xin said is obviously not that high in credibility.
Wei Xin swallowed, looked at Harugong's face, and then looked at the account book in his hand, and then explained: "General, this... horse... is actually..."
"Speak carefully and don't hesitate to make up stories!" Harugong scolded impatiently.
"Yes, yes, yes!" Wei Xin responded quickly: "This racecourse was established in a hurry, and there was no way to gather enough war horses. We can only replace some of them with ordinary pack horses..."
Harugong understood when he heard this. It was obvious that the person in charge used pack horses to increase the number of war horses in order to cope with the situation above. This was consistent with his previous expectations. However, such a racecourse cannot be full of pack horses. There will also be some war horses.
Harugong immediately called a platoon leader over and asked him to escort Wei Xin to the stable to help count the actual number of horses here. The value of a pack horse and a war horse are completely different concepts. Harugong has worked hard for so many years and has only trained a few hundred war horses, but if he can make a fortune here, of course he will not let it go. At present, the cavalry battalion dispatched several cavalry on the periphery to serve as patrols and warnings, while the remaining men and horses took the time to rest in the racecourse and gradually counted out the original horses here. They can only stay here for one night at most, and they have to leave tomorrow. Otherwise, if Dengzhou receives the alarm and sends troops, Harugong's plan to take all the horses away from here may come to nothing.
Before nightfall, the cavalrymen, with the assistance of prisoners, completed the inventory of the domesticated horses on the horse farm. Among them, there were only more than 20 horses that could meet the standard of cavalry battalion war horses. This number made Harugong a little disappointed. He originally thought that even if he could not reach the more than 80 horses recorded in the accounts, there should be at least half the number. But obviously the water in it is too heavy, and many pack horses are simply not up to the level of war horses, and are also registered as war horses by the racecourse.
However, nearly two hundred pack horses is not a small number. Haihan has settled in Dengzhou for a year, and the number of pack horses purchased and recruited from the local area is only about the same as this number. This unexpected gain should help Haihan alleviate the problem of insufficient transportation capacity.
Since Haihan landed on Zhifu Island at the end of last summer, he has been continuously searching for livestock that can be used for baggage transportation. However, the Dengzhou area has been so severely affected by the war that ordinary people cannot even guarantee their survival, so how can they care about it? Enter livestock. After doing this intermittently for more than a year, the number of livestock collected is still extremely limited, not even comparable to the number that can be purchased from the market in Guangzhou within a month. Without sufficient transportation capacity, Haihan would face many difficulties if he wanted to carry out large-scale construction and promote trade in the occupied areas.
The Dengzhou government apparently realized the dilemma that Haihan would face very early on, and issued extremely strict restrictions on local livestock trading in Dengzhou through government decrees, prohibiting people from selling all livestock to Haihan. Live livestock. Especially large livestock such as mules, donkeys, oxen, and horses that can be used as animal-powered transportation tools. If they are found to be sold to the Haihan people, the person involved will not only be severely financially fined, but may even be imprisoned.
Although the Dengzhou government could not defeat Haihan's army on the frontal battlefield, the effect of this kind of government order on the local level was not something that Haihan could easily eliminate. Therefore, more than half of the livestock used for heavy transportation in Haihan were even transported thousands of miles from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places in the south. Such a helpless solution will naturally greatly increase Haihan's local operating costs. Qian Tiandun and others have also long planned to build a ranch in Fushan County to fundamentally solve the local livestock demand problem.
If Harugong could bring these pack horses back to the occupied area, it would undoubtedly be a great achievement. At least it would be more meaningful than killing the same number of Ming troops. However, in this way, Dengzhou must have received news of the attack on the racecourse at night, so that they could determine the approximate location of Harugong's team. He originally planned to go to Dengzhou City to show off his force. Now it seems that it is definitely impossible to implement. To bring these pack horses back safely, the cavalry battalion could only retreat with them.
Although they failed to reach the gates of Dengzhou City, Harugong was still in a good mood and asked the soldiers to slaughter a few goats raised in the horse farm and perform a tooth sacrifice collectively after nightfall.
As soon as it got dark the next day, Harugong ordered the cavalry battalion to set off, and slowly headed eastward with more than 200 horses, as well as pigs, cattle, sheep and other livestock collected from the racecourse. He was also worried that the Dengzhou garrison would arrive overnight and launch a counterattack in the early morning, so he set out early to avoid a head-on encounter with the opponent.
However, what Harugong didn't expect was that Dengzhou did send a warning message to the soldiers who escaped from the racecourse before nightfall yesterday. However, Liao Jie hesitated for a long time after receiving the news, not sure whether to pay attention or not. Rescue troops were dispatched in the direction of the racecourse. He was worried that Haihan deliberately let people go back to Dengzhou to report the news, and then set up an ambush at the racecourse, waiting for the rescue troops to come and fall into the trap.
If there are few troops sent, they may be directly eaten by the Haihan people, but if there are more troops sent, it will probably take another day or two just to prepare for departure. Such a long time is enough for the Haihan people to retreat to their occupied area, and Liao Jie does not think that the Haihan people will wait there for the Ming army to appear.
As for the assets of the racecourse, Liao Jie no longer had any luck. He knew how urgent the Haihan people were for livestock, so how could he let go of the horses in this racecourse. If he were in the position of the Haihan people, he would definitely loot the racecourse before leaving.
Liao Jie was not entirely distressed by the losses caused after the horses were robbed. After all, he also made nearly ten thousand taels of silver from the process of setting up the racecourse. What he was worried about was that after the horses were taken back by the Haihan people, their various local construction projects might advance faster, which would definitely not be conducive to the Ming Dynasty's recovery of lost territory in the long run.
So after such hesitation, Liao Jie did not send reinforcements to the racecourse before dark. Instead, he waited until the next morning to order a battalion of soldiers, both on foot and on horseback, led by Staff General Guo Xingning and rushed to the racecourse. . However, when this group of people set off from Dengzhou City, Harugong's cavalry battalion had already left the racecourse and headed east. When they groped their way to the racecourse, they naturally had no choice but to miss.
But as soon as the outpost of Guo Xingning's team arrived near the racecourse, Dengzhou sent another fast horse, saying that there was an urgent military situation, and they turned around immediately. So before Guo Xingning's troops entered the racecourse, they turned around and headed back. The outpost cavalry who arrived at the racecourse only found more than 20 Ming soldiers trapped in the kitchen. As for the rest of the racecourse, almost everything had been moved, except for more than 200 horses that had been looted. , even the saddles, bridles, whips and various weapons were not spared, and even the prepared winter fodder was all hauled away on large carts. The entire racecourse was relocated by the Haihan people overnight, leaving only an empty frame. Even if Guo Xingning's troops came, it would be meaningless.
Guo Xingning led his team back to Dengzhou City, only to find out that the reason why Liao Jie reported that he was coming back was because he had received news that Haihan had begun to gather troops in Fushan County, and it seemed that he was going to do a big job before winter. Field. Although he didn't know what Haihan's goal was, out of careful consideration, Liao Jie definitely wanted to protect Dengzhou City first. He became more and more worried that what happened at the racecourse was a trap deliberately set by the Haihan people to lure the enemy, so he quickly ordered Guo Xingning's troops to recover to avoid being ambushed outside.
Although he had expected it, the news Guo Xingning brought back about the racecourse still made Liao Jie so angry that he dropped his tea cup. This is the first time this year that the Haihan people have so blatantly gone deep into the areas controlled by the Ming Dynasty to plunder official property. Liao Jie knew very well that this was not an accident. It was most likely Haihan's revenge for the Zheng Ai incident.
(End of chapter)