At the foot of Jiefan Mountain, countless Ming troops have gathered.
The brand new Ming flag fluttered in the wind.
The Ming army soldiers under his command were wearing bright armor and were full of fighting spirit.
Dorgon stood on a high place and took a look, and found something was wrong.
He pointed at the Ming army formation and asked Hong Chengchou: "Mr. Hong, why are the Ming army's cavalry in front and the infantry in the back?"
Hong Chengchou was also very confused.
If the Ming army wanted to attack Jiefan Mountain, they would definitely use infantry, not cavalry.
Then when arranging the battle array, the infantry should be in front and the cavalry in the back.
Even if the Ming army had no plans to attack the mountain, if there were infantry, the infantry would be in the front and the cavalry would be in the rear or on the two wings.
Now the Ming army has deployed cavalry at the front. What is their intention?
He looked for a while with his clairvoyance and said, "Your Majesty, I think the Ming army has known our army's formation in advance. They want to repel our cavalry on both sides of the mountain first, and then attack the mountain."
Dorgon put down his clairvoyance and said suspiciously, "When the Ming army was forming its battle array, our army had not yet assembled. How could they have known our battle array in advance?"
"This..." Hong Chengchou pretended to be silent: "Perhaps the Ming army guessed our army's deployment in advance."
Dorgon said nothing on the surface, but his suspicion deepened.
During the conversation, the Ming army moved.
More than ten thousand cavalrymen charged directly to the two sides of Jiefan Mountain and engaged in a fight with the Eight Banners cavalry there.
Just when Dorgon thought that the Ming army infantry would take the opportunity to attack the mountain, a scene that made him dumbfounded appeared.
I saw tens of thousands of Ming army infantrymen on the plains changing from the front formation to the rear formation, and from the rear formation to the front formation.
Under the command of the general, they began to retreat in an orderly manner.
Dorgon couldn't believe what he saw. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, and found that the Ming army was really retreating.
He pointed at the retreating Ming army and asked the people around him: "What...what's going on? Why did the Ming army suddenly retreat?"
Man Dahai was even more surprised than Dorgon, "Could it be...something went wrong within the Ming army?"
Dorgon thought it made sense: "It's possible, otherwise the Ming army would not retreat in the face of the enemy!"
While the two were talking, Hong Chengchou kept blinking his eyes beside them, with doubts in his heart.
He was wondering why the Ming army suddenly retreated.
Did something really happen within the Ming army?
It is possible.
But...what could possibly happen?
Unless Huang Degong died suddenly, the Ming army would not retreat suddenly.
Will Huang Degong die suddenly?
It's not impossible, but it's very unlikely.
"No," Hong Chengchou's voice made Dorgon and Man Dahai shut up at the same time and look at him.
"What's wrong?" Man Dahai asked.
"This Ming army is feinting an attack."
"Feint attack?" Dorgon didn't believe it and picked up the clairvoyance again to look at the cavalry who were fighting.
In the field of vision.
A Ming army soldier is wielding a sword and fighting a bloody battle with an Eight Banners soldier.
Both sides used all their strength, and every blow was aimed at the vital points.
It's a completely desperate fighting style.
The same was true for the rest of the Ming army, which did not show any sign of feinting.
"The Ming army fought so fiercely, how could it be a feint?" Man Dahai asked puzzledly, "Besides...what is the purpose of a feint?"
"Yes, Mr. Hong, what's going on?" Dorgon asked hurriedly.
Hong Chengchou took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, then said seriously: "Your Majesty, if I am not mistaken, we have fallen into the Ming army's plan of making a feint to the east and attacking in the west."
Dorgon already had a bad feeling, he stepped forward and asked: "Mr. Hong, what do you mean..."
Hong Chengchou replied: "What I mean is that the main force of the Ming army is not here. Their purpose of attacking Jiefan Village yesterday was to attract our main force here, so as to create opportunities for the real main force! Now that our main force has been successfully attracted here, their mission has been completed, and there is no need to continue the attack, so they have to retreat."
"Isn't this possible?" Dorgon pointed at the tens of thousands of Ming troops on the battlefield and said, "The Ming court has between 80,000 and 90,000 troops available in Liaodong. These soldiers are at least 40,000 to 50,000. How could they not be the main force?"
"Your Highness, look carefully," Hong Chengchou also pointed at the Ming army on the battlefield and said, "This Ming army has many flags but few men, only 30,000 at most."
"That's not right!" Dorgon's mind was a little confused. He looked at Man Dahai and asked, "How many Ming troops did you say there were when you asked for help?"
"Forty or fifty thousand."
"Why is there such a big difference?"
Man Dahai lowered his head and said, "It must be the Ming army who did this on purpose."
When estimating the number of enemies on the battlefield, it is impossible to count them one by one.
Can only visually estimate.
In an emergency, scouts would estimate the number of troops based on the length and width of the enemy's formation.
In order to further refine the number of people, scouts will make estimates based on the number of the enemy's flags.
There are many military flags.
There is a picture of the Ming army’s flag in the Wanli period’s “Picture of Victory in Subduing the Barbarians”.
The highest level is the central army flag, also called the big banner (dào).
It is triangular in shape with ribbons on it, and is where the commander-in-chief of an army sits.
Further down there are general flags, camp flags, etc.
As long as you know how many people are under each flag, you can estimate the number of people based on the number of flags.
Dorgon looked carefully in the direction of Hong Chengchou's finger and saw some clues.
The flags in the Ming army's formation were very dense.
The scouts had no way of seeing how many people were under the flag.
If the Ming army deliberately increased the number of camp flags, the scouts would draw wrong conclusions.
Dorgon glared at Man Dahai fiercely and was very angry.
It was because Man Dahai provided wrong information that he brought his main force to Jiefan Village.
Man Dahai felt a little aggrieved.
The Ming army's attack yesterday was very fierce. If he didn't ask for help, he would be unable to handle it alone.
Hong Chengchou continued, "I just calculated in my mind that there are only 30,000 Ming troops here at most, and the remaining 50,000 to 60,000 should be somewhere else."
Dorgon asked: "Since the Ming army in the north is not the main force, then where is the main force? Yagu Pass? Or Abudaligang?"
"This matter is of great importance, and I dare not make rash guesses."
"Then what's next..."
"I think Your Highness should bring the main force back to Hetuala. Wherever the main force of the Ming army is found, Your Highness should go there!"
"Wait!" Man Dahai asked loudly, "If you leave, what will happen if the Ming army from the north comes back?"
Dorgon thought about it and felt that this was indeed a problem.
In order to ensure the safety of Jiefan Village, Dorgon left another 5,000 soldiers to Man Dahai.
Together with the previous ten thousand, Mandahai’s total military strength reached fifteen thousand.
Although they were unable to launch an attack on the Ming army, they were more than capable of defending against 30,000 Ming troops.
After everything was settled, Dorgon led his troops back to Hetuala.
On the way back that afternoon, Dorgon suddenly received two pieces of news.
The Ming army in the middle set out this morning and headed towards Yagu Pass.
The Ming army in the south set out this morning and headed towards Abudaligang.
Because the mountain roads were narrow, the Ming army's marching team was very long.
The scouts were unable to find out the specific strength of the two Ming armies in a short period of time.
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