I

Dorgon stood on a high platform and observed the battlefield with a telescope.

The rain curtain interfered with the sight, making it difficult to see clearly. But one thing is certain, the Datong Army did not bother to move artillery, because there were no buildings such as awnings near the battlefield.

The camps of the two armies were several miles apart, and the artillery had to be slowly brought over. They had to protect themselves from the rain along the way, build awnings on the forts, and clean the drying pools. With that spare time, Dorgon had already withdrawn.

The elite main force of the Eight Banners Army in the middle was led by Nikan and Yue Le respectively.

Both are the grandsons of Nurhachi, and were promoted by Dorgon to rise to power quickly (mostly to win over the factions behind them). Especially Yue Le, who is only twenty years old this year and has already been named the Duke of Zhenguo, can be said to be brave and good at fighting.

One foot was deep and the other was shallow. Yue Le's boots got stuck in the mud and he pulled them out several times.

He looked around and found that many of his soldiers had their shoes torn off in the mud. Yue Le said to the messenger: "The whole army stops, take off your boots and start again!"

On the Datong Army side, they took off their shoes halfway.

"Dong dong dong dong!"

The Chinese troops on both sides were beating drums, but soaked by the rain, the drums sounded dull and weak.

Li Zheng was in charge of the central army, while Xiao Zongxian and Hu Dinggui led their troops forward to fight Nikan and Yue Le respectively.

Although each other's cavalry abandoned their horses and fought on foot, they were still classified as two wings and habitually carried out flanking attacks.

The total number of troops fighting head-on on both sides totaled about 30,000. Due to the rainy weather and muddy ground fighting, both sides did not increase the width of the battlefield, but invariably increased the depth of the formation - Dorgon was afraid that the formation was too thin and would be killed, but Li Zheng wanted to confuse the enemy.

Nikan sent two troops, intending to test the attack first, but saw Hu Dinggui scattering all the troops.

"The whole army is pressing forward!"

Nikan thought that Hu Dinggui would give it a go, so he naturally did not dare to neglect, leaving only a few reserve teams and sending the rest out to fight.

The situation with Xiao Zongxian and Yue Le was similar.

On the east side of the battlefield, after abandoning their horses, the cavalry of both sides marched towards a slope, hoping to gain an advantage by occupying the high ground in advance.

On the west side of the battlefield, close to the river, there is a depression. In the rainy season, it is almost like walking in a paddy field. Both sides advanced slowly, and most of their strength was used to get out of the mud.

On the frontal battlefield, every time they advance a certain distance, the generals of both sides will stop, reorganize their formation, and then continue to advance. Because the ground is too difficult to walk on, if you advance more than ten steps, your formation will inevitably be uneven.

Yue Le suddenly moved forward with his own soldiers and reserves.

He was afraid that if something went wrong, it would be difficult for the reserve team to rescue him. When the ground is muddy, it is necessary to get closer to the battle line so that the reserve team can rush up quickly to fill the leak.

The elite main forces of both sides are getting closer and closer. Fifty steps, forty steps, thirty steps, twenty steps...

They were already twenty steps apart, but they were still stopping to sort out their formation first. Because there are no long-range troops, and there is no fear of the opponent's charge, the team can be formed calmly and unhurriedly.

What we are fighting today is a cold weapon positional battle. Whoever has a neat and well-prepared formation will have a greater chance of winning.

Dorgon watched with a telescope, and there were soldiers holding umbrellas beside him. Although the telescope was not exposed to rain, the rain was getting heavier and heavier, and it was almost impossible to see the situation in the distance clearly.

"Raise the gun!"

Thor and drew their swords and shouted, and the flag commander waved the flag, and the troops began to advance with their spears.

Solhe is from the Yehenala clan and is the founder of the third and ninth collars of Zhenghuang Banner in Manchuria. He can also be regarded as a small shareholder of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, because he founded the Shiguan Zuoling, and this army can be passed on to his children and grandchildren in the future.

At this moment, the distance between the main forces of both sides was only ten steps at the nearest and fifteen steps at the farthest.

The Datong army stopped advancing, and immediately after, Hu Dinggui and Xiao Zongxian asked the ordering soldiers to wave the order flag.

As a front-line commander, Yuan Siqian also conveyed the military order, and then looked at Sol He's troops more than ten meters away.

Solhe and his troops accelerated, and when they rushed eight meters in front of the Datong Army's formation, they suddenly saw the front row of the Datong Army squatting down, revealing the muskets behind them.

Is it possible to fire a gun on a rainy day?

While Sol He was wondering, he suddenly heard a burst of gunshots in the rain.

The volley of guns was only eight meters away. It was only eight meters away. A pig could take aim with a gun!

When Sol He defected to Huang Taiji, he could only command 300 people, but now he can command 3,000 people. As gunshots rang out, the front row of his unit fell instantly, leaving only a few lucky ones standing.

This is just the beginning.

The Datong gunmen in the first row would squat down to fix their bayonets after shooting, or pick up the spears carried by friendly troops. The second row of gunmen, after squatting down in the first row, fired forward again.

"Bang bang bang!"

The Eight Banners Army, which had suffered all casualties in the front row, faced another round of shooting, and fell down after being shot inexplicably.

The second row of firecrackers squatted down, and the third row of firecrackers began to take aim.

"Nanmanzi knows magic!"

"The blunderbuss is a blunderbuss, it can be fired even on rainy days!"

"..."

The Manchus in the back row who had not yet fallen looked at the corpses of friendly soldiers and turned around and ran away.

The main reason is that the Datong Army did not respect military ethics and promised to fight with cold weapons in positions, but the result was nothing. Which army in the world can withstand being shot at from a distance of eight meters?

"Bang bang bang!"

A large number of Eight Banners soldiers were killed during their escape, and the survivors immediately ran faster. From time to time, people would slip and fall, get up and continue to run away, all of them covered in mud and water.

"Army attack!"

"Dudududududadudududududu..."

The order flag was accompanied by the charge, and the Datong soldiers of the front army charged across the front in the mud. The few Eight Banners formations that had not been shot by the cannons were immediately faced with being surrounded on three sides and subconsciously turned around and ran away.

Dorgon was observing the battle situation and adjusting his troops' formation according to the battle situation. Unexpectedly, the battle ended as soon as it started.

What the hell is shooting guns on a rainy day?

Of the 10,000 Manchu and Qing ex-army troops, three to four thousand were shot dead on the spot. Moreover, they died without any warning, and if they were not defeated in this situation, then the Eight Banners Army would become immortals.

The front troops of the Datong Army charged for a while, and according to the predetermined plan, they separated to kill on both sides, and launched a joint attack with the friendly forces on both sides.

The troops of Zu Dashou and Wu Sangui were on the east side of the battlefield, engaged in infantry combat with the Datong Cavalry.

When they heard gunshots coming from the front, they were already frightened. Then they saw the Datong Army coming from the side, and they would be attacked from two sides.

"Run away!"

Wu Sangui once again showed his strengths, and Zu Dashou also rubbed his feet. The Han soldiers under their command scrambled to flee without the commander's orders. Anyway, they would not die if they ran faster than their friendly troops.

"Kill the Tartars!"

Wang Tingchen drew his sword and shouted, chasing Wu Sangui.

Wang Tingchen and Li Dingguo led cavalry raids in Liaodong. In recent years, they rescued many Han people and captured many real women. Today, Li Dingguo is transferred to Hebei as a division commander, while Wang Tingchen stays in Liaodong as a cavalry division commander.

Both sides were chasing and escaping, but both sides slipped on their feet and fell into the mud in various embarrassments.

Han Junqi, who was too slow to escape, was stabbed when he was caught. So after falling down, these Han military flags simply knelt down and asked for surrender, kowtowing crazily in the mud and water and begging for mercy.

Wu Sangui was wearing cotton armor that was soaked by the rain. When the sole of his foot slipped, he fell down from the breakthrough.

He was thinking of getting up and running away when suddenly he was stepped on on his waist, causing the soldier who stepped on him to stumble. Immediately, another defeated soldier came and stepped on Wu Sangui's chest.

"Get out of the way!"

Wu Sangui endured the pain and got up, killing a defeated soldier beside him to vent his anger, and then continued to flee towards the northeast.

Yue Le, a rising Manchu general, was also fleeing with his remaining troops. His troops suffered heavy losses and were blinded by volleys of fire cannons. Although the Datong Army did not pursue them, but attacked the two flanks, in panic, Yue Le still attacked Dorgon's central army.

"Your Highness, leave quickly!" the soldiers shouted.

Dorgon stared blankly at the completely collapsed front army and blankly at the collapsing wings. Everything in front of him seemed like a dream, completely different from the battle he imagined.

In Dorgon's prediction, the brave and fearless Eight Banners soldiers would kill the Nanmanzi in a cold-weapon positional battle and leave them without armor.

"Your Highness, leave quickly, it's too late!" The soldiers were still urging.

Dorgon finally came to his senses and saw that his middle army was in chaos and was disrupted by the rout of the front army.

At this point, the battle was lost, and Dorgon had no choice but to escape.

In other words, Dorgon does not need to make decisions. The Eight Banners nobles in the Chinese army were already fleeing spontaneously. They were all battle-hardened men and knew that if they did not flee, their entire army would be annihilated.

Sol He also fell down and was trampled by the defeated troops, but he survived as a result, like a dead corpse on the battlefield.

His calf bones were broken and he could only crawl in the mud.

The follow-up troops of the Datong Army chased after him. Sol He struggled to stand up and even tried to raise his knife to fight, but was stabbed to death on the spot by several spears.

These follow-up troops, regardless of the fighting on both sides, pursued Dorgon's central army directly.

Wu Sangui rolled and crawled and escaped two miles away.

The cotton armor was too soaked in water, and running on the mud was too difficult. He was almost too tired to run. He wanted to call the soldiers to come over and help him run away, but there was no sign of the soldiers at all.

Wu Sangui heard the sound of footsteps, and a Datong army was chasing him in the rain.

He saw the person leading the team clearly and shouted quickly: "Brother Wang, I am willing to surrender, don't kill me!"

Wang Tingchen laughed loudly and spat out again: "Who the hell is your brother? Tied up and caught a traitor!"

Zu Dashou was also tired from running and sat in the mud wearing his armor.

He drew a knife across his neck and wanted to commit suicide. But he couldn't take it off, and kept the knife on his neck for a long time. It wasn't until the Datong Army came after him that he threw away the knife and waited to be captured.

"Boom!"

There was lightning and thunder, and the rain became heavier.

The Eight Banners soldiers in Yaozhou City are always paying attention to the battlefield situation. After learning that Dorgon's main force was defeated, he no longer dared to defend the city. The general took his family and abandoned the city in the rain and fled to Xining Fort in the northwest.

As for the supplies Dorgon transported to the city, they couldn't take them away at all, they were just waiting for the Datong Army to receive them.