In Shengjing, Liaodong, when Huang Taiji received Daming's reply, although he was mentally prepared for such a reply, he was still a little disappointed.
Because for Daijin now, the best way is to recuperate and get through the food shortage caused by the Ming army's troubles last year. Then find ways to shorten the gap in military strength with the Ming Dynasty to reduce the chance of facing the Ming Dynasty's new army.
Feeling of powerlessness.
Since the defeat in the Guan Dynasty last year, Dai Jin has lost a lot of troops without realizing it. Although he tried his best to make up for the lack of troops by plundering Jurchens, and reorganized the Eight Banners of Mongolia, it seemed that the number did not decrease but increased, but Huang Taiji understood that
Daikin's overall combat power has dropped a lot.
Now Huang Taiji no longer dared to squander his troops at will. Therefore, although he was still preparing for war under the banner of peace talks, he only deployed a large army at Niuzhuangyi instead of deploying troops along the Liao River.
When Zhong Jinwei received a report from the Clippers that Jianlu destroyed the dock at Niuzhuangyi and deployed countless catapults, he just smiled contemptuously.
He asked the replenished new army to dock not far downstream from Niuzhuangyi. Under the watch of Jianlu Tanma, the new troops came ashore one after another, and then formed a defensive formation.
Although there were no dock facilities, it took a long time for the New Army's car camp to disembark. But Zhong Jinwei was not in a hurry this time and took a whole day to disembark.
After Jianlu returned from the expedition, many troops came as spectators and watched from beginning to end how the new army car camp disembarked from the ship, but they were helpless against the new army who was waiting for them.
The slave chief stationed at Niuzhuangyi was Dorgon. He tried to sneak attack the New Army camp several times at night. However, because the New Army camp was backed by the Liao River, it was covered by the fleet on the Liao River on both sides, and the front was heavily defended.
There were also landmines buried that were difficult to detect, so that the Jianlu soldiers lost their troops in vain, but did not gain any benefits.
Dorgon finally realized the power of the new army's weapons just like Huang Taiji, and he had no way to deal with the new army that was slowly advancing towards Niuzhuangyi the next day.
When Zhong Jinwei was heading toward Niuzhuangyi along the Liaohe River, he suddenly received a report from a speedboat on the Liaohe River that the Jianlu captives at Niuzhuangyi were evacuating.
When Zhong Jinwei heard this, he immediately held a military meeting while walking. He said to Cao Wenzhao: "We can't always let Jianlu escort us, the initiative in the field battle must be taken over. Now that Jianlu sees that we can't prevent our army from advancing,
I just want to move the catapults at Niuzhuangyi to the rear, and I guess I want to find a place with suitable terrain to block our army."
Before Cao Wenzhao could speak, his nephew Cao Bianjiao asked for instructions: "Master Marquis, we can't let Jianlu escape. Shall we chase him?"
Zhong Jinwei smiled after hearing this, and then said: "That's what I meant. Those catapults are built to be very large to counter our army's artillery, and evacuation will definitely be very inconvenient. I am recruiting you here to prepare you to take the initiative to attack.
Leave those catapults behind."
When he said this, Cao Wenzhao led his three men to stand up straight and said loudly: "Please give the order, Lord Marquis."
At this time, all the death camps had been integrated into the New Army. After preliminary training, Cao Wenzhao became the commander of the New Army and was directly responsible to Zhong Jinwei.
It didn't take long for the new army to adjust its formation. A thousand heavily armored fusiliers led by Cao Bianjiao were the first to attack.
Although it was a heavily armored fusilier, it only had extra protective gear on key parts of the body, and its movement was not affected much.
A hole soon opened in the carriage camp, and the new army inside mounted their horses and came out of the hole and rushed straight to the Jianlu on the opposite side.
Jianlu did not expect that the new army would take the initiative to attack. Their main force was now at Niuzhuangyi. Jianlu, who was monitoring the advance of the new army, only had more than 3,000 troops.
After getting over the initial surprise and panic, it was replaced by ecstasy. Jianlu was powerless against the car camp, but now the Ming army had escaped from the turtle shell. Wasn't this asking for death!
So, while sending people on horseback to report to Niuzhuangyi, they began to organize a counterattack against the Ming army that rushed out.
Jianlu made no mistake this time and directly sent out cavalry for hedging. They had reason to believe that the cavalry's hedging would definitely kill a large number of Ming troops.
But because the new army moved first, they gained the initiative. Before Jianlu's horse speed could reach its maximum, the new army rushed in front of Jianlu.
I saw the new troops dismounting one after another, quickly forming multiple lines, and gun platoons appeared.
As soon as the gunshots rang out, the Mongolian cavalry who charged first became timid and unconsciously wanted to bypass the front of the Ming army.
But the Ming army was not the only one to fight. They rushed over one after another, and the gun array became thicker and thicker, so that no one in the Jianlu cavalry dared to charge towards the gun array.
Because the Ming army's guns have a bright spear head on the muzzle, this gun can both shoot and be used as a spear. Although it is not as long as a specialized defensive spear, the fact that this gun can shoot is more than enough to make up for it.
Besides, a cavalry charge is most suitable against an unformed infantry. Chasing down a defeated army is also a specialty of the cavalry, but once it faces an infantry in a tight formation, it will not be easy to use.
After losing a group of troops, the Jianlu cavalry army fled back in despair.
Jianlu, who was leading the army, could see that the most suitable opportunity to break the Ming army's formation was when the Ming army was charging but not in good formation. He very much hoped that such an opportunity would appear again so that he could have a chance to make a contribution.
The Ming army seemed to know what he was thinking and gave him hope.
I saw that the Ming army began to mount their horses again and rushed towards Jianlu. However, Jianlu, who was leading the army, still had no choice but to lead the army back.
Because the Ming army's men and horses rushing out of the carriage camp had exceeded his strength, he didn't have the courage to fight even if he wanted to.
Seeing Jianlu fleeing, Cao Wenzhao, who finally led the army to rush over, immediately ordered to deviate from the banks of the Liao River and go straight into the direction of Jianlu's retreat.
And Zhong Jinwei led the car camp to speed up and rushed to Niuzhuangyi.
Fortunately, the ground is no longer as muddy as when we came to Liaodong, and the car camp is moving very quickly, rolling towards Niuzhuangyi.
When Dorgon heard that the Ming army had taken the initiative to attack, he was also shocked. When he quickly led 10,000 troops to prepare for support along the Liao River, he saw that of the 3,000 troops he had deployed, only 2,000 were left, and they fled back in embarrassment.
The Jianlu who escaped back reported to Dorgon that more than 4,000 Ming Army cavalry were inserted into their retreat, trying to cut off the road from Niuzhuangyi to Haizhou.
When Dorgon heard this, he could not control the Ming army's chariot camp, and the army immediately turned to look for the Ming army's cavalry.
Zhong Jinwei still didn't see the Jianlu army rushing towards him, so he knew that the Jianlu army was probably looking for trouble with Cao Wenzhao.
However, he was not too worried because Cao Wenzhao had more than 4,500 fusiliers. As long as the formation was completed, Jianlu's cavalry would be powerless.
In order to destroy Cao Wenzhao's army, Jianlu had to use long-range weapons to blast away Cao Wenzhao's gun array, or use infantry to attack.
The only threat to Cao Wenzhao's troops now is the catapults of Jianlu. If they are archers, the shooting ranges of both sides are about the same. However, the Ming army's muskets are obviously more powerful than bows and arrows, and there are heavily armed fusiliers blocking the front.
If they really wanted to fight each other, Jianlu would just cry.
Zhong Jinwei once again ordered the car camp to speed up, in order to bite the retreating Jianlu and prevent the Jianlu from moving the catapults.