"Report!" The scout came to Li Dingguo and said, "There is thick smoke rising from the direction of Zhenjing Fort. It should be a big fire in the city. It has been burning for a long time and has not been extinguished yet."
"Investigate further and report back!" Li Dingguo said with a sad face.
Although he didn't know exactly what happened in the city.
But based on the height of the smoke, I could make a pretty good guess.
Besides food, what else can burn for so long?
After observing for a while, as it was getting dark, he could only temporarily retreat to the Zhen'an Fort area and set up camp.
At nightfall, scouts came again to report: Wang Yongji, the governor of Pingliao, had led his troops to recapture Liaoyang and was about to march towards Shenyang, the "capital" of the Jiannu.
After receiving this news, Li Dingguo immediately became nervous.
"The Governor is about to march to Shenyang to attack the 'capital' of the Jiannu. As long as Shenyang is captured, the Jiannu will lose the upper hand. Why are you still so worried, second brother?" Liu Wenxiu asked.
"This is indeed good news, but it is not good news for us."
"Why?"
Li Dingguo explained: "Since the Governor-General has already arrived at the gates of Shenyang, he must be determined not to return until Shenyang is conquered. Unless the entire Liaoxi falls, the Governor-General will never return."
"That means...we have to fight against the main force of the Jiannu alone?" Liu Wenxiu asked with a frown.
"That's about right. This is the current situation." Li Dingguo nodded. "Now both sides are betting! The Jiannu are betting that they will be the first to capture Liaoxi, and the Governor-General is betting that our army will be the first to capture Shenyang."
"The Jiannu have more troops than ours, how should we deal with them?"
"I haven't thought about it yet. We'll know after the fight tomorrow." Li Dingguo said.
The next morning.
Without waiting for Li Dingguo to take the initiative to attack, Dorgon led his troops to Zhen'an Fort (now around Weichengzi Village, Heishan County) in the north of Guangning.
The terrain near Guangning is not flat.
The west is mountainous, and the east is plains and depressions.
The north is a complex mixture of mountains, hills, plains and depressions.
There is a mountain in the northwest and southeast of Zhen'an Fort, with beacon towers on each mountain.
The two armies lined up and faced each other, accompanied by the sound of wolf smoke.
"How are we going to fight today?" Dorgon looked at Hong Chengchou.
Although Dorgon did not know that practice was the only criterion for testing truth, he knew clearly how to identify whether Hong Chengchou had command ability.
The fact that Hong Chengchou could defeat Li Dingguo proved that he was capable.
Hong Chengchou naturally understood this truth.
He bowed deeply to Dorgon and said, "Your Majesty, please send a small force to test the attack first. I want to see the true combat effectiveness of Li Dingguo's soldiers."
"Okay," Dorgon sent five hundred cavalrymen into the battlefield as requested by Hong Chengchou.
Li Dingguo knew that it would be difficult for his cavalry to repel the Jiannu head-on.
So he sent out three hundred infantrymen and two hundred cavalrymen, trying to win by combining infantry and cavalry to fight.
Some of the Jiannu cavalry were mounted infantry.
When they entered the battlefield, they dismounted and formed up in battle array.
Both sides had heavy armored infantry in the front and archers or firearmsmen in the back.
The cavalry protected the two flanks.
After the formation was completed, the two sides began to attack each other.
The Jiannu cavalry was the first to move out.
They attacked the cavalry on the left and right wings of the Ming army respectively.
The Ming cavalry was quickly defeated and forced to retreat behind the infantry formation.
The Jiannu cavalry began to harass and contain the Ming army's infantry.
At the same time, the Jiannu infantry launched an attack.
They first entered the battlefield at a constant speed.
Once they entered the range of the Ming army's bird guns, they ran forward quickly without caring about the integrity of their formation.
Until the Ming army came within the shooting range of their archers.
Because most of the Ming army's infantry's attention was attracted by the Jiannu cavalry, and the Jiannu ran fast enough.
Therefore, the damage caused to them by the Ming army's bird guns was limited.
Seeing this, the Ming cavalry reorganized their formation and fought again with the Jiannu cavalry.
As a result, they were defeated and retreated behind the infantry again.
The Ming army's infantry was attacked from three sides and soon began to retreat.
Seeing this, the cavalry could only flee.
The Jiannu cavalry pursued from behind.
The Ming cavalry ran fast and did not suffer much loss.
The infantry was in a worse situation.
The army suffered repeated losses under the pursuit of the Jiannu cavalry. If it had not been close to the main force, it might have even been wiped out.
Even so.
After Li Dingguo took inventory, he found that he had suffered at least a hundred casualties in this small-scale battle.
Looking at the victorious Eight Banners soldiers, Hong Chengchou had already thought of a battle plan in his mind.
He said to Dorgon: "Your Majesty, I think we should divide the troops."
"Divide the troops?" Dorgon rolled his eyes around his eye sockets and asked, "Please tell me in detail, Mr. Hong."
Hong Chengchou urged his horse to take a small step forward, pointed at Li Dingguo's army and said, "I see that although the Ming army's formation is strict, its fighting power is not as strong as the Eight Banners Army. In this case, it is better to divide the troops and fight."
"Li Dingguo has only 20,000 soldiers, while our army has 30,000! We only need to use the same number of troops to confront Li Dingguo's main force, and the remaining troops can take the opportunity to attack other nearby fortresses."
"If Li Dingguo sends his troops to rescue them, Your Majesty will attack his main army. If Li Dingguo does nothing, those fortresses will fall into our hands."
Dorgon thought for a moment and asked, "The terrain here is narrow and we cannot see the situation behind the Ming army. How can we tell whether Li Dingguo has divided his troops?"
Hong Chengchou smiled and said, "Your Highness only needs to feint an attack on his army formation to force Li Dingguo not to split his troops!"
"This is a great plan!" Dorgon laughed and gave the order.
After the military order was issued, five thousand soldiers attacked Huaer Camp.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
