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"Order Li Jiu and Ning Yuan to reinforce our army at full speed."
"Order Han Xiu's entire army to march north and cross the river to fight."
"Order Liu Meng, Tian Jianxiu, and Liu Fangliang to gather 100,000 troops and attack us as soon as the Tartars besiege our army on the east bank of the Ju River."
"Order Meng Ke to take a defensive position on the eastern front of Chizhou, and transfer the remaining troops to cross the river from Jiujiang to the north to seize the gap between the southern foot of Dabie Mountain and the Yangtze River to prevent Ajige from escaping eastward through this gap."
Qin Mu's orders came down like flowing water, and the messengers rode away on their horses, carrying the imperial edicts without stopping.
When Huo Sheng, Su Jin and others heard this, their blood boiled and they were invigorated.
Only then did they realize that Qin Mu's determination to cross the Ju River to the east was definitely not just based on bravery. He did not order the crossing of the river immediately, but wanted to wait until the morning of the next day, just to buy time for these deployments.
It was obvious that Qin Mu was not only going to fight to the death, but also wanted to use himself as the commander-in-chief of the three armies as bait to lure all of Ajige's troops.
Then, the Qin army gathered all the troops it could mobilize, plus the remnants of the former Dashun Army, totaling more than 200,000 troops, to engage in a massive battle with Ajige.
The goal of this battle was to completely annihilate Ajige's Qing army, or at least to bite off a large piece of his flesh and make the Qing Dynasty suffer.
Qin Mu also knew that it would be very difficult to completely wipe out Ajige's troops because they were all cavalry and very mobile.
It is now late April, and the Jushui River will usher in the flood season. This is a good barrier. After Li Jiu and Ning Yuan arrive, they will have the opportunity to block Ajige in the area east of the Jushui River and west of the Dabie Mountains and the Yangtze River Pass.
This area is not very large, about 200 miles from north to south and only a little over 100 miles from east to west;
Qin Mu will deploy more than 200,000 troops in this small area.
Among them, Liu Fangliang and Tian Jianxiu's troops had nearly 20,000 cavalry, plus Qin Mu's 10,000. It was still possible to use cavalry to pursue and infantry to encircle and annihilate Ajige.
This is a battle with both opportunities and risks, but as long as there is a glimmer of hope, Qin Mu is willing to make a hundred times the effort for it;
Because the total strength of the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia was only about 100,000, and with the Eight Banners of Han there were only 120,000 to 130,000.
Ajige's army had about 35,000 Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners soldiers. If they could be completely wiped out, it would be like being paralyzed on one side of the body for the Qing Dynasty.
Even though Duoduo surrendered hundreds of thousands of Green Camp soldiers, if Ajige's army was completely destroyed, it is certain that at least half of Duoduo's hundreds of thousands of Green Camp soldiers would immediately defect.
It was with these in mind that Qin Mu decided to take a gamble.
The key to this battle lies in whether Qin Mu's banner can always stand on the east bank of the Ju River. Twenty thousand versus fifty thousand, infantry versus cavalry, on this flat plain, this is a life-and-death gamble.
At the hour of Yin the next day, Qin Mu led 20,000 troops across the east bank of the Ju River from a place called Xuzhi Village.
Qin Mu took great pains to choose this place to cross the river. There is also a two-meter-wide river to the east of this place that flows into the Jushui River, forming a "U"-shaped angle with the Jushui River.
This small river did not pose a significant obstacle to the infantry, but it could effectively slow down the cavalry. Moreover, before the army crossed the river, Qin Mu had ordered a small group of soldiers to go first and drive some sharp wooden stakes into the river.
In this way, if the cavalry wanted to launch a fierce attack on the Qin army, they could only charge from the "U"-shaped gap in the northeast direction.
Qin Mu made all kinds of preparations before crossing the river, but Ajige did not attack him halfway across the river. Instead, he waited until Qin Mu and the last batch of soldiers crossed the east bank before appearing.
It seems that Ajige has a big appetite!
Looking at the black line that appeared like a ghost on the horizon, Qin Mu smiled coldly and said, "Come on, either you swallow me up or I'll knock all your teeth out."
As the black line on the horizon got closer, the trembling sensation on the ground became more and more intense. The noisy smoke and dust rolled up dozens of feet high, and the sound like muffled thunder made people's hearts numb.
The flags were like bird wings, and the dark yellow dust covered thousands of miles. The sound of the horn came, and a heavy and murderous atmosphere filled the plain, giving people a heavy sense of oppression, making it almost impossible to breathe.
The Qin army's horses began to neigh, appearing restless; the soldiers, on the other hand, were completely silent, staring at the yellow clouds pressing down on them and holding their breath.
Qin Mu was standing on a mound. When he saw this, he immediately drew his sword and shouted at the soldiers of the three armies, "Soldiers, are you afraid?"
“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid…” the soldiers responded loudly, but their voices were obviously not loud enough.
Qin Mu shouted sternly, "If you are afraid, throw away your weapons, kneel down like slaves, kowtow to the Tartars and beg for mercy. The Tartars may spare your lives; however, they may also chop off your heads without hesitation, and then point their knives at your bones and say, 'Look, this is a slave.' Tell me loudly, are you willing to be a slave? Are you willing to be slaughtered by others?"
"No!"
"No!"
"No!"
"Then hold your swords and guns tightly and hack at the enemy with all your might! Chop off the enemy's heads and step on them a few times. Use bloody facts to tell them who is the master of this land. Beat the drums!"
Following Qin Mu's roar, the shirtless soldiers fiercely beat the huge drums in the army. The rumbling sound shook the sky, making people's blood boil and their scalps almost explode.
The Qin army's bravery was aroused once again, and their murderous aura soared into the sky, dispelling the sense of oppression brought by the enemy.
The Qing army stopped three miles away. Under the thick smoke and dust, flags were waving and horns were sounding one after another. Then, thousands of Tatars crossed the east bank of the stream, intending to attack the Qin army from both sides.
Immediately afterwards, another two thousand Tatars rode out of the formation on horseback.
The Qing general Tong Dai led two thousand Qing cavalry to charge frontally. Tong Dai was the Melezhangjing, which was equivalent to the deputy general in the Ming army.
Among his 2,000 cavalry, there were 1,000 lancers and 1,000 musketeers. Each lancer was equipped with a two-meter-long lance, standing upright like a forest. In addition, each of them was also equipped with a saber and a bow and arrow.
Each musketeer was equipped with a bird gun, most of which were captured from the Ming army. Compared with other muskets of the same period, the bird gun of the Ming army had the characteristics of long barrel, small caliber, light weight and easy to use. The range could reach about 200 steps, and it could penetrate heavy armor within 70 steps. In addition, each Tartar musketeer was also equipped with a saber and a bow and arrow.
Amid the inspiring horn sounds, the war horses began to take small steps and gradually accelerated. The clanging sounds became louder and louder, and a fierce murderous aura rushed towards them.
On the Qin army side, flags were fluttering, and soldiers holding huge shields were in the front. The whole army was arranged in a neat square formation, marching forward with their heads held high, countless golden swords pointing to the sky, and their movement was as slow as a forest.
The entire military formation was integrated as one, as heavy as a mountain, and every step they took had the power to destroy mountains and seas.
Amid the thundering sound of war drums and the sound of heavy footsteps, the soldiers of the three armies roared in unison with blazing eyes. This hoarse roar had no real content, but it was like the roar of thousands of tigers, shocking all beasts and shattering the earth. It was infinitely tragic and passionate, and completely suppressed the sound of the enemy's galloping hooves.
The enemies that were galloping towards them became a silent picture, as if they could pierce through the paper with just one poke.
Frenzy of horse hooves, flying sand and mud, gloomy sky, and endless smoke and dust swept in wave after wave.
The earth was shaking, and their hearts were numbed by the heavy drums. The Qin army roared in unison, and huge iron shields slammed to the ground, piling up layer by layer, quickly building a solid shield wall in the north.
In the gaps of the shield wall, the tails of two-meter-long chevaux de frise spears were pressed into the mud, with the sharp spear tips protruding from the shield wall and pointing obliquely forward, waiting to pierce the enemy with the spear tips.
Under Tong Dai's command, the Tatar cavalry rushed towards them, and the musketeers in front rushed to the Qin army's shield wall seventy or eighty steps away before suddenly splitting up, quickly drawing two arcs of death.
Then everyone let go of the reins and used their feet to control the galloping horses. They raised the muskets in their hands and pointed them at the Qin army's shield wall. They pulled the trigger and pressed the burning fuse into the powder nest.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
As bursts of gunfire rang out, bullets whizzed out of the barrels and violently shot at the Qin army's shield wall, making a continuous ping-pong sound. The bullets passed through the gaps and pierced the soldiers' armor, bringing out puffs of blood. The dead fell to the ground and the shield wall was in chaos.
After the Tatar finished firing his spear, he immediately changed to a longbow, and rows of arrows rose into the air. The cold arrows, carrying the faint light of death, shot into the Qin army's shield wall, and the casualties caused made the front shield wall even more shaky.
At this time, the Tartars' rear spearmen gathered like a mountain, with countless spears waving and pointing forward, like a forest swirling in. The galloping horses and roaring roars were powerful enough to overturn mountains and seas.
Just when Tong Dai was wondering why the Qin army did not fight back, Qin Mu waved the command flag on the small mound, and the shield soldiers in front raised their shields and flew back, revealing a row of chariots connected by iron chains behind them.
On the chariots, there were two red cannons, ten thousand-jin Portuguese cannons, and hundreds of Hundred Tiger cannons. The dark muzzles of the guns were pointed at the Tartar spearmen who were rushing towards them, emitting a strong smell of death.
The Tatar spearmen who had rushed within a hundred steps were so frightened when they saw this scene that some of them subconsciously reined in their horses, while others howled and turned around, trying to escape from this area shrouded in death.
But it was too late.
Boom! Boom boom boom!
The fire bursting out of the muzzle was like the bloody mouth of the god of death. Countless iron balls as big as fingers spurted out, forming a barrage of bullets. Hundreds of tigers rushed forward and sprayed arrows at the same time. It was like a sandstorm rolled up by a hurricane, sweeping in. The terrified Tatars were swept down like wheat stalks. The war horses neighed sadly, the wounded howled miserably, and blood flowed everywhere. It was like hell on earth...
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ps: It’s the 30th, the last two days of this month, please join us in the fight! If you have money, give money; if you have tickets, give tickets.
Well, I won't open a separate chapter to ask for votes, I'll just shout a few words here:
Please give me a monthly ticket!
Please give me a monthly ticket!
Please give me a monthly ticket!
Please give me a monthly ticket!
Please give me a monthly ticket!
.(To be continued..)
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