Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 194: Battle of Dengwang Mountain (3)

The first time Meng Jun saw the Qing cavalry was when he was a captain of the Qing army in the Changshu baggage camp. At that time, he had just arrived in Suzhou and saw hundreds of Eight Banners cavalry in the wilderness. At that time, Meng Jun was amazed by their wild charge. The second time was by the Yangcheng Lake. Although the Qing army commander Fu Ni died in the battle, the powerful heavy infantry still approached Meng Jun's central army flag in the dense military formation.

But this time, seeing that the two armies had been fighting for a long time, Lekedehun still did not dispatch the Eight Banners. Meng Jun looked around the battlefield. Although the infantry formation was a little anxious, under the bombardment of artillery on Mount Qixia, the Qing army's line had been shaken, and they had already gained the upper hand on the battlefield.

On the battlefield, flags were flying and shouts of killing shook the sky. Thousands of soldiers from both armies fought for their lives, with swords flashing and blood raining. Qian Biao led the way, waving his weapons, shouting for a fierce fight, and inspiring the soldiers' fighting spirit. Opposite Wuning Town was Gao Jinku's troops.

Gao Jinku, a native of Yichuan, Shaanxi, was formerly a deputy general in the Ming Dynasty. In the second year of Shunzhi, Duoduo's troops marched south of the Yangtze River and Gao Jinku surrendered. Duoduo despised him and demoted him to the rank of lieutenant general. Later, Hong Chengchou transferred Gao Jinku to guard Jiangning and gave him the title of deputy general of Jiangning. Later, he followed Lekedehun to attack Jilong Mountain.

At this time, Gao Jinku's front line was forced to retreat step by step by Qian Biao on the opposite side. The Mongolian general Sukhbaru, who was supervising the battle behind him, saw that Gao Jinku's patrol was not advancing, and Gao Jinku still stayed in the rear with no intention of fighting to the death.

Sukhbaru's face turned pale, and he ran to the banner of Gao's army, urging Gao Jinku to personally press forward. However, Gao Jinku shook his head and said, "General Sukh, I am the general of the left wing and should command the army. It would be useless for me to go to the front personally. The army will have no one to command it, and I can only kill a few bandits by myself."

Gao Jinku's tone was full of a fear of danger and greed for life. Gao Jinku was a habitual soldier who robbed property, killed people for credit, and did all kinds of evil. He hoped that the enemy army would be defeated, but seeing that the enemy had no intention of retreating, he just wanted to stabilize the front line. It would be best if the enemy had the same mentality as him and waited for the Eight Banners of the Central Army to be dispatched. If he won, he would follow suit. If he lost, there was no need to say anything more.

Gao Jinku only wanted to preserve his strength, and his personal guards and servants were not dispatched at all. If they were really determined to fight, all the property he had worked so hard to build would be gone in a short time. Ever since he went on the expedition, Gao Jinku had been adhering to one idea: he must try his best, but also not use all his strength.

Sukhbaru was furious and cursed: "You are afraid of fighting in front of the enemy. If you don't fight to the death, I will ask the prince to behead you immediately."

Gao Jinku snorted coldly when he heard that. He didn't have the courage to resist openly. Under Sukhbaru's murderous gaze, Gao Jinku reluctantly ordered the flag to move forward, and he led his personal guards and servants to the front line.

On the battlefield, arrows were shot at the Qing army like locusts rain, and artillery made a huge roar. While the Qing army's artillery was moving backwards, projectiles hit the Qing army's line like meteors. In order to avoid accidentally injuring their own troops, artillery were fired at the Qing army's rear line.

The soil at the foot of Jilong Mountain was relatively soft. If the bullets hit the ground, they would not actually cause much damage to the Qing army. However, they would still give the Green Camp soldiers next to the bullets a fright. If they ricocheted, they would cause greater damage to the Qing army. Solid bullets were fired from the artillery on Qixia Mountain, swooping down from the hillside, leaving behind a trail of blood and flesh.

The sun was gradually rising, and the battlefield was in chaos and noise. The sounds of killing, shouting, and metal colliding resounded through the sky. The blood had dyed the earth red, and the bodies of the two armies piled up like a mountain. At this time, Gao Jinku's troops were gradually losing their strength. Some of the Green Camp soldiers had lost their morale and fled to the rear. Even though Gao's flag was approaching the front, it could not stop the fleeing soldiers.

Sukhbaru's face turned pale as he looked at Gao's Green Camp soldiers who had already begun to retreat. He waved his hand fiercely, and more than 500 Mongolian cavalrymen behind him immediately pulled the bowstrings. Under a hail of arrows, more than a hundred fleeing Green Camp soldiers were shot dead on the spot. The other retreating Green Camp soldiers were so scared that they stopped retreating and had to bite the bullet and turn back.

Lekedehun stood on the high platform at the back and sneered, "Such a rotten soldier is useless even if there are millions of them."

After Lekedehun finished speaking, he waved his hand and the command flag waved. The second group of Green Camp soldiers began to rush forward. Anyway, there were many Green Camp soldiers, enough for him to consume. In his mind, these Green Camp soldiers in Jiangnan were the most useless. They could only be used to consume the enemy's arrows and gunpowder, as well as the bandit army's strength. Lekedehun had no such extravagant hope to pacify Jiangnan by relying solely on these Green Camp soldiers.

At this time in Qixia Mountain, Bai Yongfu's Guwu Town was lined up with its back to Qixia Mountain. Guwu Town was on a high ground, and Babutai was attacking from above. In Bai Yongfu's view, the myth of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty being invincible had been broken by the king. The Eight Banners drank water from the Yangtze River, and people from all over the country surrendered. But Bolo, a pure member of the Qing royal family, was killed and fled to Fujian with his troops lost. If Zheng Zhilong had not opened the gate, the grass on Bolo's grave would probably be ten feet high by now.

Ke Yongsheng, a native of Liaoyang, was the nephew of Deputy Governor-General Ke Ruji. The troops led by Ke Yongsheng and Babutai were considered the elite of the Green Camp Army, at least stronger than many people in the Green Camp in Jiangnan. Ke Yongsheng's 4,000 men had quelled rebellions many times in Shandong and other places, and had repeatedly made military exploits. Although the morale of Babutai's more than 10,000 Shun army surrendered soldiers was not high, most of them were old soldiers who had experienced battles.

Ke Yongsheng's 4,000 men formed a dense square formation and began to advance slowly towards Bai Yongfu's troops on the slope, until they gradually approached the range of the enemy's bows and arrows.

At Ke Yongsheng's command, the Qing army rushed towards the slope like a tide, with shouts and trumpets resounding through the mountains. As the Qing army approached, five rounds of arrows had been fired. The slope was densely packed with corpses of the Qing army, and the blood slowly flowed down, dyeing the ground under the corpses red. The blood seeped through the hard stone, telling of the cruelty of war.

As the vanguard of the Qing army gradually approached, Bai Yongfu gave an order and the front line charged downward. Under the rush, the front row of the Qing army formation was knocked to the ground by the soldiers of Guwu Town. Bai Yongfu's troops rushed into the Qing army formation like a tiger descending from the mountain and launched a fierce battle.

Babutai frowned behind the formation. Attacking from above was really disadvantageous. Under Bai Yongfu's counterattack, the Qing army began to waver and they retreated one after another. Bai Yongfu stopped pursuing them because the Qing army was still on high alert behind the formation and his side also needed to reorganize its line.

After Ke Yongsheng's troops retreated, Babutai said in a deep voice: "Anyone who breaks through the enemy's formation will be rewarded with 1,000 taels of silver and promoted three levels."

Babutai used ten times the bounty and three levels of official positions as bait to encourage the somewhat decadent morale. He believed that with a generous reward, there would be brave men. The morale of the Qing army was boosted and it surged up again.