It is not easy to observe the people and horses entering the valley from the east on the eastern slope of the ravine, and there are birds chirping there, and occasionally you can see birds rising and falling on the tops of the trees.
The larches on the west slope are low but dense, and not as steep as the east slope. There is no sound there, but Zhou Yijie closes his eyes and listens carefully. There is a low sound of communication in the distance. Several veterans discovered from a low place on the west slope that it was not cleaned properly.
's footprints.
A few people didn't speak, only communicated with gestures, and went out pretending that they didn't notice anything.
When Zhao Hannian walked out of the valley, he felt a gust of wind blowing from the west of the valley. It turned out to be northwest wind.
A few people remained calm and pretended to be disappointed and led 200 people towards Yuxi. They knew that the Jiannu on the hillside had seen them a long time ago and knew that they were a path exploration team. They were afraid that they would not dare to come out if they found out about the ambush. They only hoped that they would come out as soon as possible.
Go west.
The mountain stream made a bend and was already half a mile away. Zhao Hannian led 200 people into the pine forest on the south slope, climbed halfway up the mountain, walked east, and then turned south.
After stopping, I found that the northwest wind here was quite strong. Compared with the bottom of the ditch to the south that I had just visited, I felt that the slave soldiers were hidden more than 100 steps down to the southeast, on a gentle slope 60 to 80 steps away from the bottom of the ditch.
Zhao Hannian asked everyone to collect dry pine branches, fallen pine bark, and dead grass. Keep your voices down, find astringent grass to twist the rope, and tie these things up. Be careful to carry them on your back so as not to be scraped by the branches, and be careful with the dead branches under your feet.
Leaves, don't make any sound.
The 200 people moved down cautiously and step by step, stopping and walking, closing their eyes and listening carefully. They stopped until they could hear the sounds of Jiannu breathing and urinating while lying on the ground.
Zhao Hannian measured the wind direction again, first signaled everyone to move in unison, took out the oil bottle and poured the oil on the dry firewood, poured the oil on the woodland and pine trees, then lit the fire and retreated.
After a while, the fire started. Because the oil fueled the fire, the fire spread quickly. The surrounding dead branches and leaves quickly burned with the wind. The dead wood and hay burned quickly, and the flames climbed to the top of the tree.
The fire burns away the oxygen in the air and reduces the density of the surrounding air, causing the air to flow rapidly and replenish it from the upper wind. This is the principle that fire borrows wind and wind helps fire.
The pine trees burned, and the fire soon reached the hiding place of the slaves. Naturally, they would not wait for death. They ran and yelled, shouting. Although they were good at climbing mountains, they tripped over branches in panic and slipped on the grass.
His feet were in the air, he accidentally hit a tree, or his hair and clothes caught fire, all of which were ugly.
Many people suffered injuries, scratches, sprained feet, and burns, but few were actually burned to death. When they ran down to the bottom of the ditch, they found that not only was the ditch on fire, but the fire had spread to the east slope.
He quickly ran to the valley, but there was no fire there due to the direction of the wind. When he ran to the valley to catch his breath, he remembered the weapons and horses.
Suddenly the ravine remembered a "rumbling~" sound, and more than a dozen war horses with partially burned manes and tails rushed out of the fire. Among them was Mang Gurtai's big white horse. The big white horse was the least injured, with only a few wounds on it.
Bloodstains.
Only a dozen of the 3,000 horses came out.
Before he could care less about his sadness, Wang Hongyu came with more than 2,700 Ming troops.
"Run!~~"
Mang Gurtai is not stupid. Why would he not run away and wait to die without weapons or horses?
Turning around and rushing into the thorny jungle on the north slope, other people also rushed into the jungle. Even the dozen or so sick horses followed their owners. When the Ming army rushed over, no one was caught.
The army is really not that good. Those Jiannu can run faster than rabbits.
The man with the blue flag surrounded him and ambushed him, and was immediately set ablaze.
The scene was like migrating wildebeest in the African savannah~
The Ming army did not stop and quickly headed west of the valley.
There was a huge fire in the forest, but it did not become smaller until the evening. Huang Taiji asked Mang Gurtai, who had missed the opportunity, to lead people to put out the fire. However, Mang Gurtai thought that he was his elder brother and did not want to suffer from the shame of being a coward, so he did not do his best to put out the fire.
Huang Taiji held his forehead and sighed, and had no choice but to personally put out the fire with Zhengbai Qi and Kormi Meng. It wasn't until that night that the fire was put out.
The Ming army took advantage of this time and walked 30 miles away to seize a favorable terrain. After taking precautions, they set up camp and built simple fortifications.
At this time, a full 100 injured cows and horses were killed, barbecues were gathered on the spot, spring water was poured from the bottom of the ditch, and they started eating and drinking. After eating the horse meat, everyone packed up a lot of it and took it away.
There will be no reconnaissance alert tonight, and 100 sentries will be deployed. The other soldiers will rest quickly after they have eaten.
Because Wang Hongyu judged that the enemy did not dare to make any small moves tonight, and there would be a big battle tomorrow morning.
After Huang Taiji and others put out the fire, they also sent scouts to get a rough idea of Wang Hongyu's location.
Do you want a night attack?
of course not!
The two scouts last night were easily eliminated. People like Zhou Dunji and Wang Hongyu are very sinister...
To attack them at night is simply to do the same thing.
This time, Mang Gurtai's winding ambush was a very powerful killing move, and it was actually cracked by them, which really made people feel chilled.
Jiannu still doesn't know that Zhou Dunji has passed away.
At most, it was thought that Zhou Dunji was seriously injured in the Zhenghuang Banner camp. The main reason was that Nurhaci was halfway through the siege at that time. He became furious just after being wounded and turned around to fight Zhang Shenwu.
Mang Gurtai then fought with Zhou Dunji, but he could not gain any advantage at all, so he did not know that he had been seriously injured and died.
Huang Taiji believed that the Ming army was powerful, so the ambush was unsuccessful, and he did not blame Mongol Ertai too much.
But Mang Gurtai hated Huang Taiji!
Well, you Huang Taiji is too sinister and vicious. Let me, Mang Gurtai and Zhenglan Qi, come forward. Father Khan praised you for being smarter than Zhuge Liang. How could Zhuge Liang not know that the troops hidden in the mountains and forests are easily attacked by fire?
Are you trying to steal the inheritance?
The seeds of hatred have already taken root and sprouted in Mang Gurtai's underdeveloped mind.
Early the next morning, Huang Taiji planned to fight openly and openly.
I want Mang Gurtai to be in the center, Kormi Mongol soldiers to the west, and myself to the east, so as to directly besiege this Ming army.
Upon hearing this, Mang Gurtai felt that putting himself in the middle was just a waste, and flatly rejected Huang Taiji's proposal. He refused on the grounds that he was tired from running around Zhenglan Banner and was burnt by the smoke, so he could not serve as the main attack.
Huang Taiji had no choice but to put his Zhengbai flag in the center and face the Ming army head-on, leaving Kormi and Zhenglan flag to attack from both sides.
That night, Wang Hongyu actually didn't sleep either.
He had prepared materials in the past few days and built a coffin for his eldest brother Zhou Dunji with Zhou Yijie, Li Tiezhu and others.
Arrange Zhou Dunji's body and put on his armor. There is not enough lime now. When we arrive at the Liaohe Ferry, we need to use lime to treat the elder brother's body so that he can return home intact.
The eldest brother has in his heart the millions of people in Liaodong, the safety of the entire southwest region, and the life and death of the entire nation.
The eldest brother is the military spirit of the Ming Army!
After placing the sacrifices, offering incense and kowtow, he solemnly said: "Brother, please witness the battle tomorrow!"