Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 401: Envoy

The advantage of cavalry lies in its speed of charge. Once the infantry forms an array, the cavalry generally will not attack the tightly organized army formation.

But this does not mean that cavalry has no way to deal with infantry. If this were the case, there would be no need for dynasties to develop cavalry. As long as there were plains, the world would be ruled by cavalry.

Once the infantry forms a tight formation, their movement speed is extremely slow. If they are not careful, they will be found by the cavalry who are watching from the side and take advantage of the opportunity to attack. Moreover, the army is also made up of people. The daily consumption of military rations must come from logistics supplies. The cavalry can move like the wind, which can not only cut off the infantry's food supply, but also take advantage of the instability of the infantry's formation and seize the opportunity to break the formation at any time.

Liu Tichun naturally knew about the actions of the Qing army outside the city. Since Hauge dared to open the city gate, he was already prepared for Hauge to take the opportunity to attack the city.

When a war breaks out, the ones who suffer the most are always the civilians. Many of these refugees have lived peacefully and dutifully their entire lives, but in such chaos, they are like dust, disappearing into this world.

As soon as Oboi came within the range of bows and arrows, the archers on the city wall immediately shot dense arrows, like a black waterfall pouring down from the city wall, with sharp whistling sounds, attacking Oboi and his cavalry.

Seeing the rain of arrows approaching, Aobai lowered his head and used his helmet to block the arrows. At the same time, he raised his round shield with one hand and tightly held the reins with the other.

It was impossible to completely avoid such a dense rain of arrows. Some soldiers of the Eight Banners were shot in the neck by arrows, or their horses were shot, and screams were heard one after another.

"Charge forward!" Aobai roared loudly. Although he was hit by two arrows, such minor injuries could not stop his determination.

Just as Oboi rushed to the city gate, logs and stones were thrown down from the city wall in large numbers. For a moment, the stones fell like rain and hit the heads of the Eight Banners soldiers. The charge momentum of the Qing cavalry was interrupted, and many people and their horses were directly hit by the rolling logs.

Even Aobai's warhorse was hit on the head by a stone and fell dead at the city gate. Aobai saw the opportunity quickly and jumped to the side the moment the horse fell dead. However, there were also cavalrymen rushing into the city gate. However, these cavalrymen saw that there were two low walls inside the city gate, and they all stood there in a daze, not knowing what to do.

Liu Tichun, who was behind the gate, waved his hand, and another dense rain of arrows shot towards the city gate. The Eight Banners soldiers, who had originally thought they could break into the city and kill everyone, fell into panic at this moment. They did not expect that the Zhou army would build two low walls behind the city gate.

The low wall was too high for most war horses to cross. Even if a good horse jumped over it, there was another one behind it. Moreover, the city gate was only thirty steps away from the wall, so the cavalry could neither move freely nor run.

At such a close distance, when the dense rain of arrows came straight at them, several cavalrymen in the lead were shot like a hornet's nest, it was a horrible sight.

Oboi was furious and ordered urgently: "Dismount and fight on foot!" Dozens of people used shields to fight in the front line and rushed forward under the rain of arrows.

What Abahai did not expect was that because too many rolling logs and rocks hit the city gate, a barrier as high as a person was slowly piled up at the city gate. Among them were stones, wood, Qing soldiers and horse corpses. The bloody scene was so uncomfortable to see.

The cavalry outside the city gate could no longer rush in and could only passively take the beating outside the city. Then the remaining Eight Banners soldiers had no choice but to leave the battlefield.

It was not until the light in the city gate began to dim that Aobai looked back and discovered with horror that no cavalry had come in. If he delayed any further, he would be blocked at the city gate.

Oboi ordered a retreat urgently. He quickly climbed over the obstacles and ran out of the city. Oboi cleverly tied a shield behind his back to block the arrows from the city wall.

Abahai ran very fast, but the Eight Banners soldiers behind him were obviously not as lucky as him. The defenders on the city had already raised bricks and stones high up and were aiming at the bottom. As long as any Qing soldiers crawled out, they would immediately smash down dozens of bricks at once.

No matter how well-armored the Qing army was, they could not withstand such an attack. Of the thirty or so Eight Banners soldiers in the city, except Oboi and another lucky one, all the others died outside the city.

In this battle, except for three deaths of Zhou army who were maintaining order outside the city, there were no other casualties. However, it was different for the Qing army. In just a short period of time, more than 300 of the 1,800 elite cavalrymen of the Qing army were killed.

Hauge, who was standing in the rear, had his mouth twitching as he watched these, these were his elite soldiers, the capital for his future fight for the throne. Hauge came to Yuncheng to see if there was any bargain to be picked up. To be honest, unless Meng Jun was in the city, Yuncheng was just an insignificant county to Hauge.

After the failed attempt to capture the city, Hauge realized that he had no way to deal with the defenders in the city.

However, in Yuncheng, there was laughter and joy. Hao Yongzhong even stood on the city wall and laughed loudly at Haoge. Haoge was so angry that he was fuming, but he could do nothing about it.

…………

Jinan City.

At this time, Meng Jun was meeting an envoy, who was the Korean envoy Yin Shandao whom he had met before.

Yin Shandao was handsome, with a long beard neatly trimmed. Although Meng Jun had no good impression of this Korean, he did think he was very elegant at first glance.

Yin Shandao bowed respectfully to Meng Jun and said, "Foreign minister Yin Shandao pays homage to His Majesty the King of Zhou!"

Meng Jun hummed, and then said: "Please take a seat, envoy."

Yin Shandao thanked him again respectfully, and his etiquette was almost impeccable.

After sitting down, Meng Jun asked, "Does the envoy have any important business here?"

Yin Shandao stood up again after he had just sat down and said righteously, "My king heard that King Zhou raised an army of righteousness and launched a large-scale northern expedition, and now it has reached Shandong. My king is willing to raise an army to help the Heavenly Dynasty and avenge His Majesty Liezong!"

After Li Hao had robbed Bolo fiercely, he was more afraid of the Qing court than hated it. Until he heard that the Qing army had suffered repeated defeats and King Zhou had even sent troops to the north and the army had already reached Shandong, Li Hao felt that perhaps the time was ripe. On the one hand, he could take revenge, and on the other hand, he could also flatter King Zhou.

Hearing this, Meng Jun became interested and asked, "How many troops can North Korea send?"

Yin Shan said: "The year before last, Your Highness sent a group of officers to train soldiers for our country. Our king treated the generals of the Celestial Empire as honored guests. In the past two years, our country has 5,000 elite soldiers and all kinds of military equipment and armor."

Meng Jun was somewhat disappointed when he heard that there were only 5,000 people, but he still consoled them: "Korea has such a heart, which is worthy of the kindness of Emperor Shenzong who saved Korea."

Yin Shandao also knew that the scale of wars in the Central Plains was very large, and 5,000 people were indeed not enough. However, North Korea was already poor and had been severely looted by Bolo. It was a result of Li Hao's painstaking efforts to gather an army of 5,000 well-equipped troops.

After hearing this, Yin Shandao hurriedly said, "Your Highness, although our country only has 5,000 people, the enemy court does not have many soldiers outside the Great Wall. Dorgon has sent a large number of troops outside the Great Wall, and the area outside the Great Wall is already empty. If the Celestial Empire can send troops outside the Great Wall, it will surely succeed in one fell swoop!"