Chapter 281: Unexpected Path (VI)
In the matchlock era, any officer with a sound mind knew that three-stage firing was much more effective than single-row firing. The Qing army officers also knew this. Especially after fighting Huo Chong so many times, even the extremely difficult-to-change Qing army had strengthened their technique of multiple-row continuous firing.
Since the Eight Banners Army from the capital had decided to join Lao Ba's camp, they naturally knew that they had to completely annihilate Basai in Luanzhou. Among the more than 10,000 people, there were more than 3,000 musketeers. Seeing that Basai was surrounded, he led his troops to launch a surprise attack on the Eight Banners Army that was blocking the way back to the capital. At the order of the commander, more than a thousand musketeers were mobilized to form a multi-stage shooting array.
The three rows of muskets were fired quickly, and the commander of the Eight Banners Army from the capital was relieved a little. The first two rows of muskets were at a relatively long distance, so not many people were killed or injured. The last row of muskets was only 14 or 15 steps (about 20 meters) away from Basai's troops, and knocked down 40 or 50 people in an instant. This attacking Qing army had only more than 1,000 people, and even the most powerful team would have collapsed!
Fourteen or fifteen steps is not far. One step is the distance between the two positions of the right foot when the left foot steps forward and lands, using the left foot as a fulcrum and the right foot steps forward and lands.
The attacking team sent by General Basset not only did not stop, but also stepped over the fallen bodies of the wounded and dead brothers, wielding their swords and guns, and slashed at the musketeers in front of them.
When the melee soldiers approached, some of the smart ones began to retreat continuously, but the distance between the two sides was too close, and they were killed by the melee soldiers. The musketeers almost started to flee at the same time, and those who fled a little slower were killed or injured by swords and guns. The screams came one after another, which shocked the commander from the capital.
This cannot be blamed on the Qing Dynasty musketeers. The weapons in their hands were still the old-fashioned matchlock rifles, which were not designed with the idea of being able to participate in close combat.
In a matter of seconds, the musketeers' line collapsed. The fleeing Qing troops desperately squeezed into their own formation, causing chaos in their own ranks.
General Bassey's commando team was the one he trusted the most. They were also a rare group of troops in the Qing army that could survive the bloody battle with the Shandong Han army and escape for more than ten days.
The team was led by Ban Long, who was in the front row. While wielding his weapon to kill the Eight Banners Army on the opposite side, he also commanded his subordinates to charge forward.
In the eyes of the commander in chief of the capital, the three-stage attack consisting of more than a thousand musketeers was already fierce enough, and there was even a case where they defeated dozens of Qing troops in one attack.
In Banlong's eyes, the bullets fired from these muskets were like a breeze blowing on his face. A row of guns only killed and injured dozens of people, which was so weak that Banlong wanted to laugh. The 300 Shandong Han soldiers did not need three-stage shooting, and each soldier automatically loaded and fired. After a row of guns, at least hundreds of Qing soldiers died. Thousands of Qing soldiers who were trapped in desperate situations also launched a desperate breakout. When the Qing soldiers began to realize that they were doomed to die in the continuous extreme shooting, two or three thousand of them had been killed and injured.
Charge to the enemy? Even if the enemy only had 300 people, the charge of several thousand Qing troops would only lead to their death.
After witnessing such a sea of blood and corpses, Banlong was no longer afraid of the matchlock gun that could be resisted with a shield and cotton armor.
Holding a single blade, Banlong slashed at the Eight Banners Army on the front line. Not only did he kill all the opponents in front of him, but he also led his subordinates to cut into the enemy formation. Finally, the enemy could no longer withstand such an impact and fled to both sides with a cry.
With just this one charge, the road to the capital appeared within Banlong's sight.
General Basai knew that the opportunity was now and would not come again, so he commanded all the troops he could still command to rush towards the gap without caring about the Shengjing rebels behind him who were desperately chasing him.
Ban Long originally wanted to rush out first, but when he saw the fleeing Eight Banners Army, anger rose in his heart.
These people were also Manchus, but they were no longer Banlong's companions. When these people chose the Shengjing rebels, it meant that the two sides were bound to fight to the death.
After calling his own troops, Banlong chased the Qing army that had fled to the left. Killing the enemy was not that important at this time. The important thing was to drive these people away and prevent them from forming a line again.
Seeing his most trusted subordinate opening a wider road, General Basai led his troops to retreat from the gap while commanding his own troops to pursue and drive away the enemy on the right. At the same time, he sent someone to greet Banlong and asked him to be ready to retreat at any time.
Although his strength was not as good as that of Ortai and Yue Zhongqi, Basai was an old soldier after all. He had fought many more battles than those guys in the capital. When the main force of the army broke out of the encirclement, Banlong's troops and Basai's personal army gathered back and became the rear team.
The two commanded their troops to block the enemy in turns. Although they no longer trusted the Qing army's muskets, the enemy was not the Shandong Han army, but the Manchu Eight Banners. The muskets still had an effect on them.
The two men fought and retreated at the same time, struggling to hold on, hoping that the enemy who was chasing them like a hungry wolf would stop chasing because of exhaustion.
At this moment, a group of people came back from the front. Basai looked closely and saw that the people in the middle were tied up with ropes. They turned out to be the Eight Banners of Han.
After a brief inquiry, while the deputy battalion commander of the Han army was still stuttering because he had no idea what was going on, General Basai already understood what was going on.
Facing the deputy battalion commander of the Han Eight Banners, General Basai shouted: "Listen to me . Now, you are no longer the Han Eight Banners. I will promote you to the Manchu Eight Banners!"
The officers of the Han Eight Banners Battalion were dumbfounded and could not believe what they heard.
The Eight Banners of Han Army are one of the three main components of the Eight Banners. The reason why it is mistakenly called "Eight Banners of Han Army" is that the Eight Banners established by Nurhaci, whose members are mostly Manchus, are also called Eight Banners. At the beginning, it only included Manchus, and there were also a few Mongolians and Han people in each banner.
After Huang Taiji ascended the throne, on the one hand he actively pursued an expansion policy, and on the other hand he still paid attention to easing ethnic and social conflicts. He ordered his subjects to do a good job of "feeding people", especially to settle the newly captured or surrendered Mongols and Han people.
The number of Mongolian and Han officers and soldiers who submitted to Huang Taiji increased day by day, so that the Eight Banners could not accommodate them. Therefore, Huang Taiji established the Eight Banners of Mongolia (25,000 people) on the basis of the Eight Banners of Manchuria in the 9th year of Tiancong (1635), and then established the Eight Banners of Han Army (33,000 people) in the 7th year of Chongde (1642). Together with the existing Manchu banners, there were eight banners of Manchu, Mongolian and Han. This made the Eight Banners system complete and the armed forces continued to expand.
But no matter what they said, the Manchus' vigilance against the Han people never weakened. So the Han Eight Banners themselves were a kind of class.
What Basai said about making these Han Eight Banners become Manchu Eight Banners was to modify their banner status. As long as they were included in the Manchu Eight Banners, they would enjoy the same treatment as the Manchu Eight Banners. It was almost like the difference between a sleeping maid being promoted to a concubine.
No wonder the camp officers of the Eight Banners of Han were so shocked and couldn't believe it.
Basai didn't have time to explain. He shouted, "The pursuers are all rebels from Shengjing. Follow me to fight and beat them back!"
After saying that, Basai stared at several Han Eight Banners officers. Seeing that the officers were hesitant, Basai shouted angrily: "You are bannermen, fighting for the emperor, why are you so hesitant!"
The battalion commander quickly asked, "General, are those people... all traitors?"
Basai was so angry that he wanted to whip people with a horsewhip, but he finally held back his anger and shouted, "Don't worry about what they did before! They are traitors now! Do you want to fight the traitors to the death? If you win, you will be promoted! I am from the Aixinjueluo family, I said, I will not lie to you!"
Hearing the name "Aisin-Gioro", the officers of the Han Eight Banners suddenly gained courage and immediately obeyed the order.
Originally, they were ordered to stop ten miles away from the battlefield and had been resting for a while. Now they were ordered to move and deployed their troops. First, they sent General Basai's troops to the back to reorganize the troops from the gaps between the Han Eight Banners camps. Seeing the pursuers approaching, the Han Eight Banners troops, led by the camp officers, bravely moved forward and rushed towards the Manchu Eight Banners who had been fighting for nearly two hours.
The battle was fierce but short. The physical strength of the two sides was too different, and the Manchu Eight Banners did not expect that the troops in front of them were so brave. After a short fight, they not only failed to gain an advantage, but also suffered some losses.
The leaders of the Eight Banners knew that their troops were running out of steam, so they simply called off the battle and ordered the troops to retreat.
Here, General Basai discovered that his camp had not been captured by the Shengjing rebels, so he quickly ordered his troops to retreat into the camp.
After counting the number of people, it was found that among the original 40,000 people, 10,000 Eight Banners soldiers defected to the Shengjing rebels. Under the fierce attack of the rebels, the troops suffered heavy casualties. Only less than 20,000 people retreated.
Of the 20,000 reinforcements from the capital, only 7,000 Han Eight Banners joined General Basai. The total force was less than 30,000, only about 25,000.
Recalling that he still had 40,000 troops before the war, General Basai was angry and scared. If it weren't for the thousands of people he brought back from Shandong, if it weren't for the 7,000 Han Eight Banners who were still loyal to the court, General Basai would have had no choice but to flee all the way back to the capital.
There was some progress in reorganizing the troops, and the camp reported, "General, reinforcements have arrived!"
When General Basai heard the word reinforcements, he immediately panicked. To General Basai, reinforcements were like evil spirits demanding his life.
After asking, I found out that the reinforcements were 20,000 troops coming from the south. They were expected to arrive in the afternoon, and they did arrive at about the same time. However, the reinforcements' scouts had already discovered that things had changed, and they did not dare to attack from the side of Luanzhou as planned, so they could only go straight to the main camp.
"How many Han Eight Banners are there among the reinforcements?" General Basse managed to avoid asking the question of how many Eight Banners troops there were.
The answer came immediately: "There are more than 18,000 Han Eight Banners."
Hearing that there were no full Eight Banners, General Basai finally felt relieved . After a quick count, he understood the general situation. Now the main camp, including the reinforcements, had 45,000 troops. Among them, 8000 to 9000 were Eight Banners troops, and the remaining 36,000 or so were all Han troops.
At this time, General Basai had to use such a large army to continue dealing with the Shengjing rebels until Emperor Hong Zhou in the capital issued new orders.
