A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

Chapter 137 Enemy Attack

(Protagonist's infantry armor)

When more than 500 Later Jin cavalrymen, chasing Lu Cheng, completely entered a mountain road, a whistling arrow shot into the sky. Suddenly, some huge rocks rolled down from the hillside behind the Later Jin cavalrymen, blocking their retreat.

Immediately afterwards, bursts of arrows were shot from the hillsides on both sides, and the Later Jin cavalry trapped in the middle suffered heavy losses.

After a period of panic, the Later Jin cavalry saw that the mountain road behind them was blocked, so they rushed forward.

However, just as they rushed out not far, half horse ropes rose from the ground, and people and horses immediately fell to the ground.

The cavalry behind had no time to stop and collided with the cavalry in front.

The Ming archers on the hillsides on both sides would not stop. They shot arrows from their high positions, and the Later Jin cavalry fell one after another. The screams of the cavalry and the neighing of horses echoed throughout the valley.

There is no doubt that this was a perfect move of luring the enemy deep into their territory and setting them off in an ambush. Lu Cheng suffered almost no casualties and completely wiped out this group of Later Jin cavalry.

During this period, some Later Jin cavalry abandoned their horses and fled from the hillsides on both sides, but were ruthlessly assassinated.

Even if a few people managed to escape from the valley, Lu Cheng's cavalry were still roaming around outside and would shoot and kill those who escaped one by one.

In the end, a total of more than 550 Later Jin cavalrymen were basically all killed, leaving no one alive.

It is somewhat regrettable that most of the more than 500 horses were injured.

After all, bows and arrows have no eyes, and horses are bigger targets than humans, so they can easily be hit by archers on both sides.

Afterwards, Lu Cheng immediately sent people to clean up the battlefield and report the news here to other generals.

In just one day and one night, Lu Cheng had caused such heavy losses to the Later Jin. Later, he would definitely attract the Later Jin army.

Although this valley is very suitable for ambushes, if the Later Jin Dynasty sends 10,000 or even more enemy troops to besiege, Lu Cheng's 2,000-plus soldiers will definitely not be able to withstand it.

Therefore, Lu Cheng acted decisively and ordered the troops to withdraw overnight.

Of course, Lu Cheng did not forget to inform friendly forces of the news.

In fact, after achieving certain gains, the other generals also decided to stop while they were ahead and withdrew their troops.

After all, no one wants to face the enemy's crazy revenge, and now the entire Liaodong does not have the strength to confront the Later Jin head-on.

Some generals even withdrew their troops to their respective camps during the day.

This time, Lu Cheng captured more than 1,300 heads of adult male Tatars, including more than 700 real cavalrymen. This is comparable to the gains of a large-scale battle between the Ming and Qing armies.

Today, the total strength of the entire Later Jin Dynasty is less than 100,000.

With this achievement, Lu Cheng, the assistant commander, will definitely be promoted.

After retreating all the way back to Haizhou Wei, Lu Cheng immediately organized the soldiers, arranged defenses, and moved all kinds of city defense supplies to the top of the city. More than one hundred reconnaissance cavalry were also sent out to keep an eye on the movements of the Later Jin at any time.

At the same time, Lu Cheng also sent people to send more than 1,300 Jiannu heads to Liaoyang.

Lu Cheng also received some news that General He Shixian had successfully attacked a Later Jin tribe and lured the enemy deep into their territory, capturing 283 Tartar heads.

General Chai Guozhu also successfully attacked a Later Jin tribe, but on his return, he encountered a group of Later Jin cavalry. Both sides suffered heavy losses, with 86 people beheaded and more than 100 cavalry lost.

General Li Huaixin successfully encircled and annihilated a team of Later Jin cavalry, killing 105 enemies.

As for the rest of the generals and lieutenant generals, although they also mobilized a lot of troops, the number of enemies they killed in the end was very small, and some even lost money.

No matter how good the tactics are, if the generals fail to give adequate command and the soldiers under their command are not strong enough, everything will be in vain.

In fact, the total number of heads captured by the generals and lieutenants other than Lu Cheng was less than half of Lu Cheng's.

But no matter what, this operation was able to behead 2,000 people and successfully disrupt the Jiannu's harassment plan, which was already a great victory.

Xiong Tingbi also immediately wrote a letter to the court to commend the achievements of his generals and soldiers.

When it comes to promoting and appointing generals, Xiong Tingbi is never vague. As long as it is your contribution, he will report it to you without any less.

After all, Xiong Tingbi was a civil servant who coordinated the entire Liaodong region. As long as the generals under his command could win the battle, all the credit would be his.

Of course, while writing a letter to praise his achievements, Xiong Tingbi also immediately organized the entire Liaodong, withdrew the troops, and narrowed the defense circle to deal with the retaliation of the Later Jin.

In fact, at this time, the Later Jin was also recovering and accumulating strength.

Although the Later Jin Dynasty is now in its heyday, its foundation is still weak, with limited population and military strength.

At the beginning of last year, the Later Jin mobilized the entire country's military forces and fought the Battle of Sarhu. Although it directly shook the foundation of Liaodong, the Later Jin's own losses were not small.

Next, the Later Jin attacked Kaiyuan, Tieling, Beiguan and other places successively. Since it was a siege war, the Later Jin also suffered many casualties.

The death or injury of tens of thousands of soldiers in the Ming Dynasty was not a big deal at all. With a huge population base, they could recruit new soldiers at any time and continue to draw troops from all over the country.

The Later Jin suffered several thousand casualties, and even if they were severely injured, they would not be able to be replenished for some time.

Therefore, after conquering Kaiyuan, Tieling, Fushun and other places, the Later Jin did not occupy the cities, but just looted and slaughtered them before withdrawing.

If the Later Jin Dynasty really sent troops to garrison the city at this time, Liaodong would be happy instead.

This is also the reason why the Later Jin Dynasty, when seeing Xiong Tingbi organizing and building defenses, did not launch a large-scale attack while the Ming Dynasty’s defenses were not yet established, but only sent troops to harass.

After the two sides had harassed each other, the Ming Dynasty could still bear the losses, but the Later Jin would definitely be the first to collapse.

In a field battle, the Ming Dynasty is still a little weak, but in a game of attrition and numbers, the Ming Dynasty is definitely not afraid.

It’s just that many generals in Liaodong did not see this and were pessimistic.

But after all this trouble, Nurhaci had to fight even if he didn't want to.

Especially when Nurhaci got the news that the Ming army generals who led their troops to slaughter two Later Jin tribes in succession were the ones who had penetrated deep into the Later Jin and killed Fan Wencheng and Li Yongfang, Nurhaci made a prompt decision and assembled 50,000 troops to prepare to directly attack Haizhou Wei.

In Nurhaci's view, the main troops of the Ming Dynasty were distributed in the two main cities of Liaoyang and Shenyang. The four guards in southern Liaoning, namely Haizhou Guard, Gaizhou Guard, Fuzhou Guard and Jinzhou Guard, had few troops. It was much easier to capture Haizhou Guard than to attack Liaoyang and Shenyang.

If Liaoyang and Shenyang sent troops to rescue Haizhou Wei, they could just surround the point and attack the reinforcements, then engage in a decisive battle with the Ming army in the wild and destroy the Ming army's effective strength.

Moreover, this move was also to retaliate against Lu Cheng and eliminate Lu Cheng, a general who might grow into a threat to the Later Jin, in the bud.

Therefore, this time the Later Jin army directly changed its previous marching direction from north to south, bypassing Liaoyang and marching towards Haizhou Wei.

Lu Cheng was the first to obtain the direction of the Later Jin's advance through scouts, and then immediately sent a message to Xiong Tingbi, asking him not to send troops to rescue for the time being, but to wait until Nurhaci's siege was thwarted, and then to attack the Later Jin army from both inside and outside.

After receiving the message, Xiong Tingbi also admired Lu Cheng's boldness, agreed with Lu Cheng's tactical policy, and kept a close eye on the situation of Haizhou Wei.

In late May, Nurhaci's 50,000-man army arrived at Haizhou City. Immediately, Nurhaci ordered 20,000 troops to camp in two places in the north to prevent the Ming army from rescuing Haizhou. The remaining 30,000 troops were stationed outside Haizhou City to build siege equipment and prepare for the attack.

In this regard, Lu Cheng was not afraid at all. He sat firmly on the top of the city wall and observed the Later Jin camp through a telescope.

At this time, Nurhaci's camp was less than five miles away from Haizhou City, but it was also out of the range of the artillery on the city wall.

Of course, Lu Cheng didn't expect the solid iron balls fired from the cannons on the city walls to have any effect.

If Lu Cheng wanted, he could hide in the mountains outside the city and use his AUG rifle's accurate shooting within 500 meters to find an opportunity to snipe Nurhaci.

But killing Nurhaci now would not bring Lu Cheng the greatest benefit.

Although Nurhaci was good at fighting, his ability to govern the country was average. In comparison, Huang Taiji was more talented in governing the country.

Moreover, with the external threat of the Later Jin, Lu Cheng can better develop in Liaodong...