0p0 Chapter 159 Rout
Chapter 159 Rout
Lu Cheng led his troops to Liaoyang, and after joining forces with the troops of several other generals, he set out towards the northwest.
Although the generals in Liaodong did not want to fight this battle, the imperial court's order had already come down and they had to obey it.
He Shixian, You Shigong and other generals gathered with Lu Cheng and held a small meeting in advance: "My dear brothers, this time we are going to the grassland to fight a decisive battle with the Later Jin, purely to use our own weaknesses to attack the enemy's strengths. By then, I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to stop the tens of thousands of Later Jin cavalry."
"Yeah, I don't know if that Lin Danhan's cavalry is reliable or not."
"The governor also had a lot of opinions about this, but the court followed the governor's strategy and abandoned the governor's defensive strategy. Alas, the future is worrying."
"As generals, you and I can only follow orders."
"When the time comes, we must be careful. If any of our brothers encounter difficulties, we will all help them."
"No problem. I don't ask for great merit this time, but I hope I can save the lives of the soldiers."
Listening to everyone's discussions, the soldiers had already lost confidence before the battle even started, and it was impossible for them to win.
The best outcome would be a mutual defeat, with the Jiannu losing some soldiers and horses and having to return to Jianzhou to recuperate.
When the generals from Liaodong led their troops to western Liaoning, some troops from all over the country also gathered in western Liaoning.
This time, nearly half of the troops were mobilized from all over Liaodong, totaling more than 80,000. Together with more than 60,000 troops mobilized from all over the country, the total force has reached 150,000.
This number may seem large, but in fact they are basically all infantry, and most of them are unarmored infantry.
Especially those soldiers mobilized from various places, they are of mixed quality, and there are many old and weak among them. Some old soldiers have white beards, and I don’t know if they can still run.
It is difficult for so many soldiers and horses to form effective combat power without training and unified command.
But the Liaodong Governor Wang Huazhen was obviously very confident. He made a pre-war mobilization for all the soldiers, and then led an army of more than 100,000 and marched towards the grassland with a solemn oath.
However, as soon as the troops set out, they encountered problems.
Since the troops in different parts marched at different speeds and there was a lack of unified command, the entire army became more and more chaotic.
Especially when it came to distributing food and supplies, conflicts sometimes occurred between soldiers from different places, and the scene was simply unimaginable.
Even many generals who are well-versed in military books may not be able to command a large army of more than 100,000 people, let alone Wang Huazhen, a civil servant from the Donglin Party.
After Xiong Tingbi discovered this situation, he immediately reported it to the court and suggested reorganizing the troops first and then looking for an opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the enemy.
However, with more than 100,000 troops assembled together, the amount of food and supplies consumed every day was a huge number. It was naturally impossible for the court to let the soldiers reorganize before fighting a decisive battle with the enemy.
In the end, the court adopted some of Xiong Tingbi's suggestions. Xiong Tingbi led the Liaodong troops, and Wang Huazhen led the troops assembled from all over the country, and the two routes advanced into the grassland.
However, after this incident, Wang Huazhen hated Xiong Tingbi even more, and the conflict between the two became difficult to reconcile.
Although Xiong Tingbi, the governor, was one level higher than Wang Huazhen, the governor of Liaodong, Wang Huazhen was a backbone of the Donglin Party and a disciple of Ye Xianggao, the current chief minister of the cabinet. He had someone backing him up and did not submit to Xiong Tingbi at all.
The war hasn't even started yet, but problems have already accumulated.
When the two armies finally entered the grassland and were ready to join up with Ligdan Khan and engage in a decisive battle with the Later Jin army, news of a battle suddenly came from the front. After Ligdan Khan's troops came into contact with the Later Jin army, they almost collapsed at the first blow. Ligdan Khan led the remaining troops directly and fled to the Tumed tribe in the west.
Wang Huazhen, who had previously fantasized that Lindan Khan could gather an army of 40 and work with the Ming Dynasty to destroy the Later Jin army, was dumbfounded on the spot.
Next, Wang Huazhen didn’t know what to do, whether to continue advancing or retreat in time.
It was Xiong Tingbi who stood up and suggested that the army be led to retreat immediately to Liaodong and rely on the city to defend itself. It was absolutely not possible to engage in a decisive battle with the Later Jin cavalry on the grassland.
Wang Huazhen's dream of "conquering Liaodong and going down in history" was largely shattered. He felt a little unwilling, but he did not dare to take the risk of a decisive battle with the Later Jin army.
However, the cavalry of the Later Jin Dynasty had already approached the Ming Dynasty's army of more than 100,000 by virtue of its high mobility.
At noon the next day, the Houjin cavalry caught up with the retreating Ming army. After observing the eastern and western troops led by Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen going around, the Houjin cavalry charged directly at Wang Huazhen's army.
The troops under Wang Huazhen were already in disarray, and when they were charged by the Later Jin cavalry, their formation was immediately disrupted, and many soldiers from various places even began to flee.
Xiong Tingbi immediately ordered the generals of all the routes to strictly guard the military formation and absolutely not allow the defeated soldiers to disrupt their own military formation. Otherwise, a major defeat might occur directly, and the situation would be difficult to reverse.
For this reason, the generals of each army issued strict orders that if the fleeing soldiers dared to attack their own army, they would be shot to death by archers.
Seeing that the eastern army would not accept them, the defeated soldiers immediately turned around and fled towards the southwest.
The Later Jin cavalry charged back and forth in Wang Huazhen's army, directly separating the troops from various places and defeating them one by one, soon forming a great rout.
The Liaodong governor, who was from the Donglin Party, was not very good at commanding troops, but he was an expert at escaping. When the enemy began to attack the army, Wang Huazhen immediately fled to the interior of the country under the protection of his personal guards.
He had already fallen out with Xiong Tingbi and did not believe that Xiong Tingbi would help him, so naturally he did not dare to flee to Liaodong.
After stabilizing the Eastern Army's formation, Xiong Tingbi immediately ordered all generals to send out cavalry to stop the Jiannu cavalry from dividing and slaughtering the troops in various places. At the same time, he ordered the infantry phalanxes to advance layer by layer and use bows and arrows and firearms to kill the Jiannu cavalry.
The chaotic battle lasted for most of the day. The Later Jin cavalry tried to attack the Eastern Army formation under Xiong Tingbi, but were stopped by the well-organized army formation. After losing some soldiers, they immediately turned around and continued to pursue the defeated soldiers.
It was not until the evening that the Later Jin cavalry retreated, and Xiong Tingbi immediately ordered the Liaodong troops to return.
Fortunately, the Later Jin army had not yet arrived in full, so the troops in Liaodong had time to withdraw.
Xiong Tingbi only breathed a sigh of relief after the Liaodong army withdrew to the east of the Liaohe River.
At least, Liaodong did not suffer much loss of troops this time.
As for the troops summoned from all over the place, Xiong Tingbi had no time to take care of them.
After hastily withdrawing to the Liaodong area, Xiong Tingbi immediately organized a defense, sending troops to garrison Guangning, Xipingbao and other cities, while sending the rest of the troops back to Liaoyang and other places.
This decisive battle, which had been prepared for several months, ended in such a muddle.
The Ming Dynasty suffered heavy casualties, and Ligdan Khan fled westward. Nurhaci's Later Jin army occupied most of the Chahar tribe and initially formed a three-sided encirclement of the entire Liaodong.
After the news was reported back to the capital, Emperor Tianqi was furious. In order to escape punishment, Wang Huazhen pushed everything onto Xiong Tingbi, falsely accusing Xiong Tingbi of not cooperating with him and slowing down the march, which gave Nurhaci the opportunity to defeat Ligdan Khan and then defeat the Ming army.
The chief minister of the cabinet, Ye Xianggao, also tried his best to protect his apprentice Wang Huazhen, accusing Xiong Tingbi of only knowing how to preserve his own strength but not knowing how to rescue other troops, causing heavy losses to troops in various places.
In response to this, Xiong Tingbi had no choice but to write a letter to the emperor, telling him everything exactly as it happened.
In the end, Emperor Tianqi considered that Xiong Tingbi was still needed to continue to be in charge of Liaodong, so he only gave Xiong Tingbi a light punishment and warned him severely, and dismissed Wang Huazhen from his post and investigated him.
The fact that the Liaodong troops were able to escape unscathed this time is already a very good result.
At this time, Lu Cheng did not pay much attention to the situation in the court. Instead, he sent a team of soldiers to launch another surprise attack while the Houjin was weak.
Two days later, the special forces, with the cooperation of the reconnaissance brigade and the cavalry, successfully attacked Zhenjiang Fort and captured Tong Yangzhen, the Later Jin general alive...