Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

"King Chuang, let me go!" Hao Yaoqi bowed and asked for instructions. After getting Li Zicheng's consent, Hao Yaoqi walked towards the direction of the prisoners of war.

Everyone understood that after this battle, there would be no turning back. Such behavior of stealing from Huang Taiji would certainly make the Qing Dynasty very angry.

In this case, there is no need to hide it. The reason why Li Zicheng used his 30,000 soldiers and asked the Marshal of Army to exchange for 10,000 war horses was to adapt to the high-mobility tactics of the grassland.

Keeping these thousands of prisoners would not only affect the army's march, but also pose a security risk.

Li Zicheng understood very well that he had to eliminate all threats as much as possible since he was trapped outside the Great Wall.

After Hao Yaoqi arrived at the place where the prisoners were guarded, his personal guard whispered to him:

"General, there is a Mongolian who can speak the Great Ming language. He said that if we release them, not only will they hand over all the horses and sheep in their tribe to us, but the Great Qing will also give them a large reward."

"Quickly notify Wu Sankun and ask him to bring archers over." Hao Yaoqi replied expressionlessly.

The guard immediately understood the decision of his superiors. While carrying out the order, he heard Hao Yaoqi mutter:

"If I don't let them go, the horses and sheep will also belong to me."

A quarter of an hour later, more than two thousand archers approached the prisoners of Balin, who were all tied up with ropes.

They were filled with fear and terror. This group of Han people who appeared out of nowhere were too fierce. Their leader, Sebuteng, was dead, and their tribe was finished. Now they only hoped to save their lives.

Unlike the Han people inside the Great Wall, the Han people need a reason to fight, and when they are captured, they always find various excuses and never look for the reasons in themselves.

For the Mongols, they only cared about the winners and the losers. No matter where these Han people came from or why they attacked them, if they lost, they lost.

The Mongols were different from the Han people in one respect: if a tribe lost a war, they would generally become slaves of the victor. No matter what, they would at least survive.

However, all the Mongols present admired the man who could speak the Ming language. That man said that the Han people were greedy for money, and as long as they promised enough things, perhaps they would not have to be slaves.

With so many expectations, they were waiting for the enemy leader to come out.

When Hao Yaoqi came over with a large group of people, the prisoners all looked at the tribesman who could speak the Ming language, hoping that he would negotiate with the Han Chinese who looked like the leader as soon as possible.

The man also tried to force a smile, but he fell speechless as soon as he opened his mouth.

But then they saw a large group of Han soldiers, each taking out a crossbow and pointing arrows at them.

"Ready! Release!"

shhhhh--

There were bursts of breaking sounds in the air, followed by the dull sound of iron arrows piercing the bodies, and then the wailing of the Mongols.

"Why? Why are you doing this? We have surrendered, and we are willing to do anything for you!"

The guy who could speak Ming language was hit by an arrow in the shoulder. He struggled and spoke loudly to Hao Yaoqi.

"Those who are not of our race must have different hearts." Li Zicheng whispered while standing behind.

"Keep shooting arrows and leave no one alive!" Hao Yaoqi gave the order again.

"Uncle, I think we'd better burn all those corpses, especially those of the prisoners of war." Li Guo said calmly.

"General Li's words make sense. If other tribes knew that we killed prisoners, it might be difficult to attack others in the future." Niu Jinxing took over the conversation.

Li Guo nodded upon hearing this.

In less than two quarters of an hour, more than 5,000 Bahraini prisoners of war had been slaughtered, and the entire place where the prisoners gathered was filled with a strong smell of blood.

The temperature of the blood melted the snow on the surface, but because it was still cold outside the pass, the blood soon mixed with the soil and snow and solidified, and the ground became soft.

Another quarter of an hour later, Liu Zongmin ordered his men to dismantle all the yurts in the gathering place of the Balin tribe, and set fire to the yurts mixed with the hay collected by the Mongols, and threw the corpses into the fire one by one.

During this period, all the soldiers were busy. Some collected food supplies from the Mongols, some slaughtered cattle and sheep, and some collected and distributed war horses.

The cattle and sheep were stabbed to death with a single blow and then placed on the horses' backs. The war horses that could be used as mounts were kept, while those that were not suitable were either used as inferior horses to carry supplies, or were directly killed and dismembered and then also placed on the horses' backs.

This was the order Li Zicheng gave them before they charged, they must resolve the battle as quickly as possible.

Another quarter of an hour later, Liu Zongmin led his cavalry back. Most of the 3,000 people who broke out were killed. He gave up the pursuit for fear of missing the opportunity to fight.

When Liu Zongmin returned, it was already completely light. Li Zicheng planned to lead the army to temporarily retreat to Guihua City for rest.

After this great victory, Ombu of the Western Tumed tribe would probably not dare to look down on them anymore.

After all, Li Zicheng was not very familiar with the situation of the Mongolian tribes outside the Great Wall, so it would be safer if he could unite with Naombu.

This time, the entire battle lasted less than two hours. Under the sudden attack, the Bahrain tribe was beaten so badly that they had no power to fight back.

"Report! King Chuang, Mongolian troops are attacking here from the northeast, about twenty miles away." The army was beginning to retreat when a scout came from the rear.

"King Chuang, he must be from the Ujumchin tribe." Niu Jinxing frowned.

"How many people have come?" Li Zicheng asked the scout.

"Reporting to King Chuang, the vanguard is the cavalry, roughly three to four thousand people, and the rear team has several thousand infantry." The scout said again.

"Brothers, since they have come, why don't we keep them here?" Li Zicheng looked around at Liu Zongmin and others and said.

The casualties of the Sin Camp were not high, with only over 500 killed and more than 2,000 injured, not even serious injuries.

Although the Ujumchin tribe was stronger than the Balin tribe, the entire tribe had only a little over 10,000 combat soldiers.

Now the enemy is in the open and we are in the dark. We must take advantage of the fact that the surrounding Mongolian tribes do not know much about Li Zicheng's situation and win as many great victories as possible.

"I think the soldiers haven't lost their energy yet!" Hao Yaoqi took over the conversation.

"We will follow the orders of King Chuang's army!" Liu Zongmin, Liu Tichun and others bowed one after another.

This time they had a rich harvest, with more than 6,000 cattle and sheep alone. If the killed war horses were included, the 30,000 people would have enough to eat for several days even if they only ate meat.

Having meat for every meal was something the soldiers below could not even dream of. The first victory had boosted their morale, and now the soldiers below were all saying that it would not be bad outside the Shanhai Pass if they could eat meat for every meal until they were full.

In addition, the biggest gain this time was the horses seized from the Bahrain tribe. There were about 7,000 horses that could be used as combat horses and more than 4,000 horses that could be used as pack animals.

Li Zicheng had already written a letter to Marshal Zhang Shikang, asking for the captured war horses to be used by the Zui Camp first, and Zhang Shikang agreed.

After this battle, the number of horses available for combat in the army of 30,000 has exceeded 20,000.

This was still a little short of his all-cavalry plan, but he believed that with one more big victory, it might be almost there.

Seeing that all the brothers were full of fighting spirit, Li Zicheng immediately said:

"In that case, the army will turn around immediately, with the tail becoming the head. Tian Jianxiu and You Dongsheng, you two will each lead 4,000 cavalry and ambush on the left and right wings."

……