Chongzhen Ming Dynasty: Starting from Meishan Chapter 457 Hollow Square Formation
Let’s go back and explain the Qing dispute.
After several days of silence, a war broke out again on the Xuzhou battlefield.
First, a Zhengbai Banner cavalry of about 3,000 people surrounded a fortress in northern Xuzhou.
The soldiers in the fort quickly lit up the smoke. Seeing the smoke, the Ming army cavalry stationed in various nearby forts rushed to the rescue. At nearly noon, no less than a thousand cavalry gathered.
Although at a clear numerical disadvantage,
However, the Ming cavalry still attacked Jiannu brazenly.
Relying on their increasingly proficient equestrian skills and riding and shooting skills, although the Ming army's cavalry was small in number, they firmly controlled the initiative on the battlefield. They did not break away from the Eight Banners soldiers, but always maintained oppression on the Eight Banners cavalry.
After that, Eight Banners soldiers continued to come to help in the battle, and more and more Ming army cavalry arrived after hearing the news.
Towards evening, more than 5,000 Eight Banners soldiers rushed to the battlefield, and the number of Ming army cavalry increased to 8,000. Infantry and chariot battalions also rushed to the battlefield.
According to past practice, the Eight Banners soldiers should withdraw at this time.
But this time, the Eight Banners soldiers were uncharacteristically unwilling to retreat. They engaged in brutal hunting and counter-hunting with the Ming cavalry in the vast wilderness, seemingly determined to decide their lives.
By midnight, more than ten thousand Eight Banners soldiers had gathered on the battlefield.
After hearing the news, more than 20,000 Ming army infantrymen came to help in the battle, and there were more than 1,000 sidecars.
Now the situation of the Eight Banners soldiers was even more unfavorable, because the Ming army cavalry could return to the car formation to rest when they were tired, and they could return to the car camp to replenish their ammunition when they ran out, but the Eight Banners soldiers did not have this convenience.
Towards the end of the Chou period, most of the Eight Banners soldiers' heavy arrows were exhausted, and their men and horses were extremely exhausted.
Finally, the leader of the army, General Jian Nu, gave the order to retreat. With the sound of horns, the Eight Banners soldiers who were still chasing the Ming cavalry turned around and returned north without hesitation.
But how could the Ming cavalry be willing to give up?
Hu Guozhu immediately led the cavalry battalion to launch a pursuit.
It was almost midnight and we chased them all the way to the vicinity of Guting Town, twenty miles southwest of Nanyang Lake.
A gust of wind blew by, and the soldiers walking beside Hu Guozhu suddenly chanted loudly: "Chilechuan, at the foot of Yinshan Mountain. The sky is like a dome, covering the four fields. The sky is blue, and the fields are vast. The wind blows the grass and you can see cattle and sheep."
"
Hu Guozhu's heart skipped a beat. When he looked around anxiously, he saw that the sky was already bright, and all he could see were lush green weeds, as if he were on a prairie.
When the strong wind blew, weeds half as tall as a man fell down one after another.
Occasionally, you can see pheasants flying in the grass.
"No!" Hu Guozhu roared secretly in his heart.
Then he ordered the ordering soldiers around him: "Quick, pass the order, the rear team will change to the front team, and withdraw!"
However, at this moment, he remembered that it was too late to retreat. As soon as Hu Guozhu finished speaking, the dozens of knights who had been sent out to guard him flew back from all directions without stopping at night.
"Military Gate, Mongolian cavalry was found five miles to the east! The number is unknown!"
"At the military gate, seven miles away to the west, we found Jiannu cavalry, at least 10,000!"
"At the military gate, Mongolian cavalry was found eight miles away to the southeast, at least eight thousand!"
"Junmen, a large number of Mongolian cavalry were found ten miles northeast, at least 20,000 cavalry!"
Dozens of riders rushed back all night without stopping, and at the same time reported the bad news to Hu Guozhu one by one. Hu Guozhu's heart instantly fell to the bottom of the Nine Nether Valley. This was an ambush!
This is not an encirclement on all sides, but an encirclement on ten sides!
It's possible to be ambushed on the plains. Who would believe it?
"Junmen, what should we do?" The leading soldiers of the cavalry battalion also gathered over.
Hu Guozhu was also panicking. How had he ever seen such a battle before?
But after all, Hu Guozhu was born as a general in western Liaoning, and he stayed with Chongzhen for three years. He had never eaten pork, and had he never seen a pig running? At this time, you must not panic, but stay calm.
"Calm down!" Hu Guozhu shouted in a deep voice at that moment, "Don't panic, there is nothing to panic about."
"Junmen, why don't we choose a direction to break out of the encirclement with all our might?" Some scholars suggested, "Before the Eight Banners soldiers and Mongolian cavalry have completed the encirclement, break out of the encirclement quickly."
"Yes, let's break out of the encirclement. It will be too late."
"I'm afraid it's already too late. The nearest one is only five miles away."
"Then we can only lose soldiers to protect the chariot, and use a small group of cavalry to block the enemy and ensure that the main force breaks through."
"Junmen, give me five hundred cavalry, and I will hold back the 20,000 Mongolian cavalry in the northeast."
"Junmen, give me five hundred cavalry, and I will hold off the real slave cavalry coming from the west!"
"Junmen, I only want 500 riders, so I'll go too!"
I have to say that the scholars in Shiziying are really talented.
At this time, their first reaction is not to run away.
Instead, he sacrificed himself without hesitation to cover the main force's breakout.
If it had been Wang Pu, Yang Guozhu, Tang Tong, Ma Ke or Liu Zeqing, Liu Liangzuo, Zuo Liangyu and the like, they would have been out of sight by now.
"Shut up, everyone, can you hold on?" Hu Guozhu was furious.
All the soldiers unanimously shut up. They had been joining the cavalry battalion for some time, and they had sufficient knowledge of the mobility of the cavalry. The mobility of the cavalry was much better than that of the infantry.
Therefore, it is purely wishful thinking to use hundreds of cavalry to hold back thousands or even tens of thousands of cavalry.
If it were on a steep mountain road, it might still be possible, but this is a large plain, and you can't even see a hilltop dozens of feet high within a few hundred miles. How can you hold back the enemy's cavalry?
Another scholar said: "Then we can only break out of the encirclement in one direction."
"Can you break out?" Another scholar immediately retorted, "Before we can penetrate the enemy cavalry in front of us, the enemy cavalry from other directions have already arrived. By then, we will really be dead."
"Then what do you think we should do?" the scholar from before asked with a dark face.
A look of determination flashed across Hu Guozhu's face, and he shouted: "Dismount!"
"Eh? Get off your horse?" Dozens of Qinwang scholars looked at each other in disbelief when they heard this.
"What are you still doing?" Hu Guozhu said angrily, "Everyone is here, dismount! Dismount and form an array! Hollow square array!"
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Hollow Phalanx?" After hearing this, dozens of Qinwang scholars woke up like a dream. When they were infantry before, they also had new troops led by their respective subordinates.
The sergeants often train the hollow phalanx, so they are no strangers to the hollow phalanx, including the soldiers of the cavalry battalion. After all, they are selected from the infantry.
But can the hollow phalanx really block a cavalry attack?
All the scholars did not believe this in their hearts.
…
Duduo meandered southward, surrounded by Vasinga and more than a hundred Baya soldiers.
From time to time, Duduo would look up to the south in the direction of Nanyang Lake.
If everything goes well, the ambush should have surrounded the main force of the Ming army's cavalry, right?
For this ambush, Duduo really worked hard and spent a lot of money, even urgently transferring the Eight Banners of Mongolia from Beijing.
Now, there are 28,000 Mongolian banners plus 48,000 Manchurian banners.
A huge ambush circle has been set up within fifty miles around Nanyang Lake. As soon as the Ming cavalry enters the valley, the banner cavalry will surround the Ming cavalry in the center from all directions.
But Duduo was not sure whether this ambush plan would work.
If this ambush fails, it may be difficult to find such an opportunity.
Just when Duduo felt uneasy, dozens of riders galloped back from the front.
"Master!" The leader was Zhen He Luohui with a white flag on his forehead. He rushed to the Duduo horse and gasped, "The cavalry of all banners have completed the encirclement of the Ming army's cavalry!"
"Really? Surrounded?" Duduo was overjoyed when he heard this.
"Yes, they are surrounded!" He Luohui nodded heavily and added, "The Ming army cavalry knew they couldn't escape, so they all dismounted and prepared to fight with us in a trapped beast fight."
"Haha, that's great." Duduo said, "What a shaman Baozuo."
After saying that, he whipped the horse's butt hard with the riding whip. The horse suddenly raised its head and hissed in pain, then threw off its four hooves and galloped away in the direction of Nanyang Lake.
He Luohui, Vasing Ah and others quickly followed.
After running for more than an hour, Duduo and his party arrived near Nanyang Lake.
But I could see the dark cavalry appearing on the distant horizon.
Duduo quickly opened the telescope and looked forward. With the help of the monocular, he could see more clearly. He saw that the large arable land around Nanyang Lake had now turned into prairie.
And on the green grassland, there are horse heads moving everywhere.
The 40,000 cavalrymen of the Eight Banners Manchuria and the 20,000 cavalrymen of the Eight Banners Mongolia almost covered the grassland.
There was no Ming cavalry in sight, but Duduo could guess with his toes that the Ming cavalry must have been surrounded by the Eight Banners Manchuria and the Eight Banners Mongolia in the center of the battlefield.
…
The Ming cavalry was indeed surrounded in the center.
However, the Ming cavalry was not in chaos.
The calmness of Hu Guozhu, more than a hundred Qinwang scholars and more than three thousand old cavalry infected the new cavalry. In fact, these new cavalry have also grown into old cavalry. The hunting and counter-hunting with Jiannu in the past half month can be said to be...
It's not false, and the sacrifice of more than a thousand soldiers was not in vain.
In a word, more than 8,000 soldiers were very calm.
"Tie up your horses and don't mess up the formation!"
"The extra war horses are tied up in the center of the phalanx and can be substituted at any time."
"The battalion with a small number of people will be temporarily divided, and only six cavalry battalions will be retained."
"Two battalions each on the front and rear, and one battalion each on the left and right wings."
"After the temporary formation is completed, stand in the standard queue and shoot in three sections!"
Under Hu Guozhu's methodical command, more than 8,000 cavalry quickly completed the temporary formation. After the formation, the cavalry was divided into six battalions, each with approximately 1,350 cavalry.
Then it quickly formed a huge hollow rectangle.
The two long sides of the rectangle are about 300 meters long. On each 300-meter long side, there are 2,700 cavalry standing in three rows at the front and back, each row with 900 cavalry.
The two short sides are about 150 meters, and 1,350 cavalry are stationed on each short side.
Surrounding this large hollow rectangle, there is a protective wall made of war horses, and the excess horses of the cavalry battalion are enclosed within the rectangle formed by the cavalry for protection.
