Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 382 An unexpected beginning

Wu Sangui knew very well that now was not the best time to take sides.

But Li Guohan's repeated pressure left him with no way out.

Perhaps God did not want to see him in such a difficult situation. When there was no escape, the news that the defeated army’s camp was on fire happened to come.

Then he said a few perfunctory words and hurried back to his camp.

"Commander!"

As soon as he stepped into the camp gate, several generals came straight towards him. Against the backdrop of the night, it was obvious that everyone had noticed the fire burning at the southern valley entrance.

Seeing everyone's rather nervous faces, Wu Sangui just waved his hand casually. After the generals calmed down a little due to this action, he spoke lightly.

"The last report said that there was trouble among the defeated troops."

As soon as he finished speaking, the tension on the faces of the generals immediately disappeared, but Wu Sangui felt somewhat dissatisfied.

He knew that the generals were a little scared.

Their army received special attention that night. Although in the end they did not suffer as much as those who had just surrendered, their losses were still severe.

At this point, when the generals saw the fire in the south, they thought that the bandits were chasing them and they had completely forgotten even the most basic common sense.

"Dejie."

"Commander."

"You lead your troops to suppress the fleeing soldiers. Remember to be ruthless."

"Order."

Looking at the figure who was leaving after receiving the order, Wu Sangui finally felt a little comforted.

The general's name was Gao Dejie, and he was one of several powerful generals under his command.

This man is not only brave and knowledgeable in military affairs, but his method of training troops is also top-notch in the army. With such a team, Gao Dejie has always been able to defeat the enemy with a smaller force in battle. He is truly the trump card in Wu Sangui's hand.

As for why the ace was sent to do such a dirty job.
Looking at the remaining generals, Wu Sangui sighed in his heart and walked towards the tent first. After those generals noticed their commander's mood, they followed him quietly.

After a while, everyone stood in their tents. After a long silence, Wu Sangui gave a general account of what had happened before.

As the saying goes, like officer, like soldiers. He is very good at seeking benefits and avoiding harm, and weighing gains and losses, and the generals under him naturally have some experience in this regard.

Now that their commander-in-chief had spoken these matters solemnly, even those who were a little slow in thinking could understand the unusualness of this.

"General, Haoge has just been defeated, and the Qing court has not yet shown any changes. Now is not a good time to take sides."

As soon as Wu Sangui finished speaking, a general stood up and expressed his thoughts. Then he looked at his commander-in-chief anxiously.

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"Li Guohan is a fool who doesn't know how to advance or retreat. I am really forced into a corner," Wu Sangui sighed when he said this. Then he saw that the generals were worried again, so he changed the subject and said, "But this is not a big deal. You have to guard the camp well after I leave tomorrow. As long as there is no chaos in the army, no one can do anything to me."

This is Wu Sangui’s confidence.

Although he seemed to be forced into a desperate situation when he surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, because of Shanhaiguan as a bargaining chip, Dorgon did not try to sabotage him like he did with other surrendered troops.

At this time, his army was extremely special in the entire Qing Dynasty. Without Wu Sangui's military orders, not only could no troops be mobilized, but even the commanders of each battalion had to follow his lead and be wary of Qing officials.

Having said this, Wu Sangui simply made detailed arrangements for each general, and only sent them back to the camp after he felt there were no loopholes.

To be honest, he has always felt like he was walking on thin ice since he welcomed the Qing army into the country.

On the one hand, he had to fight against the Tartars, and on the other hand, he had to keep an eye on the situation in Beijing.

In comparison, the days in the Ming Dynasty were much more comfortable.

Although he was on the front line against the Tartars at that time, there were very few wars due to various reasons. In addition, the court allocated massive amounts of funds to Liaozhen, so Wu Sangui had everything he wanted.

But now?

There is no need to say much about the war, as those fighting to the death were all ordinary soldiers. The key point is that the ever-changing situation in the Qing court has always made him somewhat confused, so now he has to focus most of his attention on dealing with these things.

Thinking of this, Wu Sangui couldn't help but sigh. But when he was about to prepare for tomorrow's audience, a soldier ran over outside the tent, panting.

"Report to the commander-in-chief, something terrible has happened, the bandits are coming to attack us!"

Offer the thief?

How could they? How dare they?

Upon hearing this report, Wu Sangui stood up immediately.

Unlike the exit in Guangyuan, this exit suddenly changes from an open area to a narrow road on both the north and south sides.

In a terrain like this, as long as we make arrangements in the open area, we won't have to worry about enemy soldiers rushing out from the narrow road.

It was for this reason that Hauge decided to stop the military reorganization here instead of retreating to Qipan Pass before doing so.

But now the bandits actually came to kill us, without paying any attention to the disadvantages brought by the terrain.

How could Wu Sangui remain calm in such a situation?
"Where's Gao Dejie?"

"Reporting to the commander, General Gao has surrounded the bandits."

Damn!
Wu Sangui's heart sank when he heard the words. Then he felt dizzy and shouted to the soldier in a hoarse voice, "Pass the order! Retreat!"

There is no doubt that Gao Dejie's siege was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

No matter how many troops he brought to suppress the rebellion, the word "surrounded" made it very clear to Wu Sangui how bad the situation in the south was.

In the final analysis, ten will surround it.

If there were not enough soldiers and horses, how could the bandits surround Gao Dejie's troops?
After figuring this out, Wu Sangui still didn't know how a large number of bandits could have entered the valley. But with those frightened men under his command, how could he dare to bet that Li Guohan would run slower than him?

As for the battalion of soldiers that was trapped in the siege.
"Form a formation! Don't panic!"

Gao Dejie dodged the spear that was stabbing at him, then he swung the blade in his hand forward, then took a few steps back and shouted to the extremely panicked soldiers.

To suppress the rebellion, it was impossible for him to bring all his soldiers with him. However, when he arrived with more than a thousand soldiers, he found that the situation was completely different from what he had expected.

At that time, the camps of the defeated soldiers, which occupied a large area of ​​the valley, had all been set on fire, and soldiers wearing the same military uniforms were constantly killing each other. Faced with such a situation, he naturally thought of Wu Sangui's words "be more ruthless", and then he only left his personal soldiers and servants by his side, and the rest of them went straight in under the leadership of their own small flags.

At this point, he actually hadn't noticed anything unusual about the situation, but as more and more deserters died under the sword, he discovered that some of the deserters were wearing slightly different clothes from the others.

Seeing this situation, even a new soldier would have found something strange. However, Gao Dejie had already gone deep into the camp at that time. When he was about to retreat, he found that his retreat had been cut off.

The situation had developed to this point, and he could see some clues from the traces, but facing an enemy force several times larger than his own, he could only fight like a trapped beast.

"Hey, enemy general, the heavenly soldiers have arrived. It is difficult for you to escape. It is better to surrender as soon as possible to save your lives!"

Faced with the enemy general's persuasion to surrender, Gao Dejie just focused on fighting without saying a word. After seeing his performance, the enemy general retreated and waited until he came in front of a strong man before bowing and reporting.

"General, if these two Tartars won't surrender, why not just shoot them to death?"

The sturdy man was Ai Nengqi who followed him.

When Zhang Xianzhong realized that the Qing army had stopped reorganizing its forces, he and Sun Kewang led their elite troops and chased into the Jinniu Road with his majesty.

Just as Wu Sangui thought, it would be harder than climbing to the sky to break into the valley in an honest way. Therefore, they came up with a brilliant plan based on Sun Kewang's suggestion.

It is said to be a brilliant plan, but it is actually very simple.

Since the Tartars wanted to gather the defeated troops here, they divided nearly a thousand elite troops into small groups and sneaked into the valley where the Termination Post was located through a secret path in the mountains.

On the surface, it seemed that luck was needed to carry out such a plan, but in fact, many newly surrendered troops were disrupted that night, and no one would notice the 1,800 soldiers mixed in.

Just as expected, the elite troops who had infiltrated the valley were not discovered, and the Qing army also considerately arranged them all to be stationed at the southern entrance of the valley.

It is not difficult to imagine what happened next. The elite troops who infiltrated took advantage of the fact that the defeated soldiers did not know each other and stirred up trouble in the camp. Then, while they continued to escalate the incident, they sent signals to Hou's main force in Jinniu Road.

By this time, the vanguard led by Ai Nengqi had all entered the valley. Even though they had not yet completely driven the fleeing soldiers in the camp to the north, the most difficult parts of the plan had been accomplished, and the rest was just ordinary fighting.

"Bring me the bow."

As soon as he finished speaking, a soldier handed Ai Nengqi the bow he often used. He then drew the bow and put an arrow on it, and with the help of the blazing fire, he aimed at Gao Dejie who was fighting hard.

"Whoosh~~~!"

After just three or five breaths, Ainengqi's hand holding the bowstring loosened slightly, and then a sound of breaking air was heard, and Gao Dejie, who was thirty or forty steps away, fell to the ground.

"General!"

"Avenge the general!"

"Throwing a sneak attack! What kind of hero are you?!"

After Ai Nengqi succeeded in his attack, he turned around and returned the bow to the soldier. However, when he turned his attention to the battle group again, he saw that the besieged soldiers not only did not collapse because of the death of their superior, but instead charged towards him with absolutely inferior forces.

Seeing this, Ai Nengqi was a little surprised, but when he thought that these people might be from the Nine Frontiers, that surprise disappeared.

"Order all troops not to linger in the battle, but to defeat the enemy as the most important thing."

As soon as the words fell, waves of orders spread in the camp, and the Qing soldiers also realized at the same time that the enemy had no intention of killing them all.

The situation had developed to this point, and even if the Qing troops in the valley were larger in number, it would be difficult to stop the defeat. And for Li Guohan, who was in charge of gathering the defeated soldiers, there seemed to be no way out except to die in battle.

"Ezhen! Let's retreat. If we are surrounded in the camp, we will never be able to escape!"

"Snapped!"

With a crisp sound, the general who made this suggestion was slapped hard by Li Guohan.

"Retreat? Where to retreat? The prince has entrusted such an important task to us. If I, Li Guohan, run away, how can I face the prince again?!"

If all the generals under his command intend to retreat, then Li Guohan will definitely not go against the public opinion at this time.

But he knew very well that the people under his command were all from the great Han Eight Banners families, and unless it was absolutely necessary, they would not retreat directly, either for themselves or their families.

With such confidence, he was naturally not afraid of dying in the chaos of war. He was even confident that he could fight the enemy for a while.

With this in mind, he ordered his men to tie up the general who advocated retreat, and then he assigned tasks to each person, obviously preparing to rely on the camp to hold out and wait for help.

But then again, how can we only consider tactical factors when fighting a war? I wonder how many battles are decided by factors outside the field.

"Oh my god! Wu Sangui ran away!"

As a shout was heard, Li Guohan was stunned where he was. When his brain was a little confused, the general who had been tied up like a dumpling started shouting loudly.

"Oh my god! Wu Sangui's father was able to run away, and Wu Sangui even flirted with us during the time of the previous emperor. How can we trust such a person?"

People of certain status in the Qing Dynasty could claim to know in detail the achievements of Wu Sangui and his son.

However, in the past, this father and son were their enemies, and they usually just treated them as a joke. Now that they had friendly forces on their side, they finally understood how the Ming army felt.

Obviously, these words have caused great damage to the morale of the army.

If it were another time, even if the various forces within the flag were intertwined, Li Guohan might have directly brought them to justice under military law.

But now.
"Oh my god! When Prince Yu was defeated in Jiangnan, he saved us, the elite soldiers of the Eight Banners. If we die here, other than being the rear guard for that Wu, what good will it do to the prince?!"

Seeing that Li Guohan remained silent, which was completely different from before, the general secretly pointed out Haoge's situation in the court.

At this point, all the reasonable reasons are in place. Unless Li Guohan is determined to die, it is not difficult to guess what choice he will make.

This is why the newly defeated army can no longer fight.

Once there is any sign of trouble, not only the soldiers in the army, but also the generals with certain status will only think about how to save their own lives.

It was for this reason that Zhang Xianzhong had the courage to chase directly into the Jinniu Road.

As the two main forces fled one after another, the defeated troops in the Termination Shop no longer had the ability to stop the enemy.

However, Zhang Xianzhong and his men also understood the principle of fighting with their backs to the river, so they simply followed behind and slowly wasted the enemy's troops, without immediately pursuing and attacking the tens of thousands of Qing troops as soon as they gained the upper hand.

As a result, the battle that began at nightfall did not truly end until dawn of the next day. When the troops pursuing the Qing army retreated to Termination Pu, Zhang Xianzhong finally felt relieved.

"Just wait a few more days and we'll be able to deal with the Ming army with peace of mind."

(End of this chapter)