The commander didn't think much of it.
Although he had just killed the Jurchen general, the hundreds of soldiers he brought were still watching from a distance.
"Stop talking and get ready to fight!"
“There are still thousands of Jurchens to the north, so we must not let our guard down.”
He roared, ordering the surrounding Ming soldiers to turn and form ranks.
By this time, the sky had become even darker, and he could no longer see exactly how many Jurchens there were, so he just casually gave a number.
The Ming soldiers around them, upon hearing this, naturally believed it as well.
"Since even the commander has said so, then the number of Jurchens must be quite large!"
They quickly turned around and lined up facing north.
At this moment, Zhang Xianzhong stood on the city wall, staring intently at the movements in the distance.
He suddenly slapped his forehead.
"Oh no! I forgot to ask you for a pair of binoculars before I went out. What a pity!"
In fact, he had only heard of the name "telescope" and knew that Gao Qingyun did not actually have one.
But he once pestered Gao Qingyun to give him a small gift.
Gao Qingyun was so annoyed by him that she casually agreed to give him the gift if he did well on the exam.
"Oh, it's a pity my exam results weren't good."
"But the fault is definitely not mine, but the world's."
Two guards stood behind Zhang Xianzhong, their faces filled with helplessness as they heard him going mad again.
"What's wrong with our Lord Zhang? Is he out of his mind?"
"Exactly! We can't understand anything he says!"
The two huddled together and began to discuss it in hushed tones.
But before they could say more than a few words, they heard Zhang Xianzhong shout loudly again:
"Guards, bring me my weapon! I'm going to fight the Jurchens for three hundred rounds!"
The guards were completely speechless.
"Lord Zhang, what weapons do you have?"
"Yes, you didn't bring anything with you when you left Beijing this time."
Zhang Xianzhong was stunned for a moment after hearing this, but his delusional thinking had really taken hold of him.
"I myself am the strongest weapon, Teeth."
"Men, raise my banner and come with me out of the city!"
Upon hearing this, the guard exclaimed in alarm, "Sir, please don't take the risk! It's hard to say how bad the fighting is outside!"
"And also, where did you get this big flag?"
At this point, even Zhang Xianzhong was starting to lose his composure.
"No banner... then so be it. I'm going out myself to cheer on the soldiers!"
After saying that, he headed straight for the city gate.
Seeing this, the guards could not stop him and could only resign themselves to following behind him as they left Hanjing.
Beside the hill north of the city, the Ming army was confronting the Jurchens.
After Nikan's death, the Jurchens were also somewhat frightened and did not know what to do.
"The Ming army hasn't withdrawn?"
"Those people who gathered intelligence deserve to die!"
"How could such important information have been missed!"
"Alright, what's the point of saying all this now? The key question is, how many Ming soldiers are there in front of us?"
"If those ten thousand-plus Ming soldiers are secretly lurking nearby, we should retreat immediately!"
They dared not launch an attack, and the Ming army was in the same boat.
The Ming army also did not know how many Jurchens there were.
The two armies then faced off.
At this moment, Zhang Xianzhong charged straight over.
"Brothers, what are you waiting for? Charge!"
Upon hearing this, the Ming soldiers turned around and exclaimed, "Lord Zhang, why are we charging? We don't even know how many people are on the other side!"
"Yes, we've already accomplished a great feat by killing a Jurchen general. There's no need to take any more risks, is there?"
It turns out that they refused to attack again, and that's what they were thinking.
Zhang Xianzhong didn't care about all that.
He laughed loudly, "In my opinion, the Jurchens are nothing but clay chickens and clay dogs."
"If you won't charge with me, then I'll go and fight my way in myself."
Smelling the blood in the air, Zhang Xianzhong had already gone into a frenzy.
He roared and charged out of the Ming army's formation, heading towards the Jurchens to the north, shouting incoherently as he went:
"The entire Ming army is here. Why don't the Jurchens come and die?"
Upon hearing this, the Ming soldiers felt somewhat helpless, but then they thought that if they really watched Zhang Xianzhong go to his death, they would forget about getting promoted.
If they can avoid being imprisoned and having their property confiscated upon returning home, it would be considered a mercy from the emperor.
“Our emperor dares to kill even civil officials like those from the Donglin Party, so he will certainly be even more ruthless in killing us.”
"Hey, you guys really have to say Zhang Xianzhong is... never mind, there's no point in saying all this."
"Let's charge with him, maybe the Jurchens really don't have many people!"
Left with no other choice, they could only shout for battle and charge.
The Ming army's movements also startled the Jurchens.
"How dare these Ming soldiers charge forward?"
"They're all infantry. Once they're in formation, they can still fight our cavalry. Isn't this voluntary disbanding of their formation just suicide?"
"Something's not right! Something's not right! The Ming army on the other side must have a lot of men!"
They panicked immediately and didn't notice that the Ming army's shouts of battle weren't actually that loud, and didn't seem like there were many people there.
Some people turned their horses around and rode north.
"I'll go back first and report what's going on here to the general. You guys hold the line for me for now."
With one person taking the lead, the other Jurchen cavalrymen followed suit and ran away.
That's what they all say.
"That's right, the scouts' intelligence was wrong. The Ming army has actually withdrawn. We must inform the general of this as soon as possible!"
In the blink of an eye, the hundreds of cavalrymen had run far away.
Even the charging Ming soldiers were somewhat stunned.
"Huh? The Jurchens just ran away like that?"
"So, we won this battle?"
They were all somewhat incredulous, but then a surge of joy followed.
They killed a Jurchen general in battle and also repelled the Jurchen cavalry.
Regardless of the enemy's exact numbers, this is still a great achievement.
"Haha, now we really can get promoted three ranks!"
Just as they were having a good time, Zhang Xianzhong came over again.
"Brothers, follow me and give chase!"
He was beaming with excitement, patting each of the soldiers on the shoulder.
"It seems the Jurchens are really finished. If we continue our pursuit, we're sure to be able to take many more heads."
The Ming army certainly did not want to pursue them any further.
"My lord, it's far too late now. If we chase after them and engage in a night battle with the Jurchens, the situation could become very unpredictable!"
Some people offered advice.
But Zhang Xianzhong ignored it all.
He even casually gave himself the title of general.
"Hmph, if you won't chase after them, then I'll go chase them myself!"
"After some calculations, I've determined that today is an auspicious day for winning a battle."
He felt like someone who had just won the lottery, like he was incredibly lucky.
Keep betting, and you'll keep winning.
"Aiya! Kill them!"
Zhang Xianzhong, mimicking the actions in the opera, charged northward with menacing aggression.
At this point, the Ming soldiers present had a significantly different perception of Zhang Xianzhong.
"Whether Zhang Xianzhong was truly capable or just lucky, we should listen to him; in any case, we won the battle."
"This kid really has some skills!"
"Besides, didn't he just say that he can also do some calculations? This Master Gao is said to be able to do calculations, and Zhang Xianzhong was his top disciple, so he might really know these things."
"Then... shall we go for it?"
"Fine, let's risk it! If we can really cut off a few hundred Jurchen heads... no, even a few dozen will do."
"This is a great achievement!"
“That’s right. If we were under someone else’s command, even if we cut off the heads of the Jurchens, the credit wouldn’t go to us.”
"But...who would dare steal Zhang Xianzhong's credit?"
"This business is promising!"
They steeled themselves and charged out with Zhang Xianzhong once again.
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