Chapter 309 Riding a Tiger

"Is this the Xia Thief's armor..."

Dorgon seemed to be saying to himself: "Simple and lightweight, invulnerable to bullets and guns, and with the exception of a pair of eyes behind the armor, there are no flaws in his body. I probably already know how Abatai's army was wiped out. I also know How can a mere front guard be so strong?"

On the left and right sides of the hall, all the important ministers and generals of the Qing Dynasty were silent.

In the stalemate with Xia Jun to this day, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties gradually discovered that their previous understanding of Xia Jun was so ridiculous and underestimated. Six thousand armored soldiers? Up and down Shanhaiguan, there were tens of thousands of armored soldiers! Why is it just a mere front-line garrison?

That's not all. The strength of Shanhaiguan troops is now roughly estimated to be no more than 30,000. Compared with Dorgon's overwhelming army of hundreds of thousands, it was less than one-tenth. Even if they are all armor soldiers, they may not lose. But armor is invulnerable, which is a problem.

Except for a pair of eyes, arrows cannot penetrate anywhere else, blunderbuss cannot hit, and swords, guns, swords and halberds are completely useless. Except for artillery, there is almost no possibility of breaking armor. Even if artillery hits within a certain distance, it may not be able to kill someone.

Faced with such an iron can, the invincible elite soldiers of the Eight Banners became paper trash.

In the past few days, Shanhaiguan has always dispatched three thousand soldiers and horses to fight the Manchu vassal troops on the front line of Beiyinzhang Village. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that they have no specific target. Today they will hit Beiyinzhang, and tomorrow they will hit the front. So, either attack Yong'an Fort or Kaolingyi, not with the purpose of destroying the city, but only with the criterion of killing.

In just seven or eight days, the frontline troops, mainly Koreans and supplemented by the Han Eight Banners, suffered more than 40,000 casualties! On average, more than 5,000 people died in their hands every day, and all of them had their heads chopped off and piled up outside Shanhaiguan to form a Jingguan.

Such a loss, even if he was not a direct descendant of the Eight Banners, would still be painful for Dorgon. When he received these battle reports earlier, he was still furious. He just said that these vassal armies were ineffective and severely punished several generals.

But then I gradually realized that something was wrong, so yesterday I dispatched ten Niulu 3,000 Eight Banners elite soldiers to suddenly rush out from the side when Shanhaiguan troops were attacking Gaolingyi. This battle finally made Dorgon feel the pain of his skin.

Almost all the elite soldiers of the 3,088 Banners were wiped out, and the result of their battle was the armor on Dorgon's body. The only one.

It took the lives of 3,000 elite soldiers of the Eight Banners and the lives of 8,000 Gaolingyi defenders to seize such an armor from the Shanhaiguan army.

Dorgon laughed harshly at himself: "Just one piece of armor cost more than 10,000 people. It's really great."

It's not that the soldiers don't try their best, but that the enemy is too strong.

The three thousand soldiers and horses at Shanhaiguan were not without losses, and not only one man was killed. Under the attack of the Tatars regardless of casualties, there will always be an unlucky person who is seriously injured. But it is extremely difficult to seize the body. Every soldier who died in battle must take their body back no matter what, just like the elite soldiers of the Eight Banners of the Tatars. The Tatars fought against the Ming Dynasty, and there were some casualties. However, every time they successfully retreated and took away the bodies of their tribesmen, not many fell into the hands of the Ming Dynasty.

This is especially true for Ying Yi's troops.

In order to seize this armor, a clever Tatar general peeled off the armor and discarded the bodies of the Shanhaiguan soldiers to achieve his goal. Otherwise, the struggle will continue, and in the end the Tatars may lose more than 10,000 people.

This battle allowed Dorgon and other high-level officials of the Qing Dynasty to fully see the tyranny of the enemy, and the morale in their hearts that had more than half a chance of winning suddenly dropped to the freezing point. Fortunately, Dorgon saw the hidden danger and ordered people to block the news. Otherwise, at this moment, the Tatar army in the Sanshan Camp would have lost all morale.

what to do?

This problem puts the Tatars in a dilemma.

Under the siege of 3,000 elite soldiers of the Eight Banners and tens of thousands of subordinate troops, Shanhaiguan District had a general-level establishment of 3,000 troops, but more than 10,000 people were killed, countless others were injured, and only one piece of armor was harvested. This is still only three thousand. There are at least more than 20,000 such troops in Shanhaiguan, and there are still 6,000 in the former garrison.

What about Guan Nei?

The enemies of the Qing Dynasty were by no means only 20,000 to 30,000 troops.

By this time, Dorgon's support for the two groups of Tatars had already wavered. Sarhuda's troops also did not have high expectations for a surprise waterway attack.

So what to do?

decisive battle?

retreat?

If it's a decisive battle, what are the chances of winning?

retreat? Can it be evacuated smoothly? Even if we withdraw, what will we do next? Will Ying Yi let them go?

The bloody facts were before his eyes, making Dorgon uneasy all night.

"Tell me everything."

Dorgon said indifferently.

All were speechless.

After a long time, a decadent voice came: "Retreat."

At first glance, it turned out to be Hauge.

It was high-spirited before, never again. All that was left was a shaggy beard and bloodshot eyes, and his face was sallow and decadent.

The former garrison gave Hauge a severe blow. Almost all his troops fell to the former garrison. He was also deprived of the title by Dorgon and became Baylor.

He realized how powerful his enemy was, and was so disheartened that he no longer expected anything in return.

"Easy to say!" Duduo said: "Retreat? Haugbeile thought that the Xia army in Shanhaiguan would watch us retreat smoothly? What's more, if we withdraw, what will we do in the future? The enemy will not let us go! Think about it In the Ming Dynasty, how many years have they been fighting the Tatars since Zhu Yuanzhang? The Han people will never let us go because of our retreat, we have a grudge against them!"

"Then what do you think we should do?!" Haug roared: "We can't beat them! If we lose too many of our own people, what can we do to suppress the Tatars? What can we use to suppress the Koreans? They will bite back. , we will be exterminated before the Han people come to attack!"

Duduo was speechless.

"It's hard to get off the tiger..."

Dorgon sighed.

...

Shanhaiguan.

"A lot has been gained in the past few days, but Donglu must have suffered from it." Ying Yi read the battle report and said calmly: "If he only attached himself to the army, no matter how many people died, it would probably only be physical pain. But Donglu's elite soldiers Almost the entire army was wiped out in the field battle, and they should have remembered Abate's lesson."

As he spoke, Ying Yi looked into the distance: "The news about Qian Yue should be arriving soon, right? A decisive battle must be fought within two days, otherwise there is no guarantee that the Tatars will not escape."

Zhu Bingkun said: "Back to the king, it stands to reason that Lao Qian's headquarters should have completed the set strategic goals. At the speed of our army's journey, it will take at most five days from Horqin Grassland to Jinzhou. It has been seven or eight days since we left, and the situation there is It should be clear by now.”

Ying Yi nodded slightly: "No matter whether the news from Qian Yue arrives or not, just wait for two days. In two days it will be August 15th. When the moon is full, troops will be launched to attack. You go down and be prepared, and be sure to kill as many people as possible. Donglu headquarters troops and horses."

"Here."