The capture of Liaoyang was unimaginably smooth. The biggest problem for the Revolutionary Army was how to transport the troops from Gaizhou over a hundred kilometers of road. Due to the lack of reinforcements, the price of food in the city skyrocketed. Many people starved to death and the Ming Army in Liaoyang had no morale. If it wasn't for Nurhachi taking people as slaves and massacring them, Liaoyang would've surrendered long ago.
After Zhou Qingfeng led the troops into the city, he immediately provided relief to the entire city. A large number of closed grain stores opened and set up porridge stalls. Everyone in the city could eat and drink to their heart's content. As for the profiteers who hoarded, they were put on trial and executed. The most powerful Ye family in Liaoyang was uprooted. In one day, hundreds of people were hanged just to appease the anger of the people.
Liaoyang's Buddha's heart was instantly stabilized.
Liaoyang was settled, but the Kennu in Shenyang, 60 kilometers away, couldn't just sit back and watch.
Zhou Qingfeng personally led the troops to Liaoyang and immediately sent cavalry to the north to investigate and conceal the enemy's movements while preventing them from understanding the situation in Liaoyang. In the era of cold weapons, cavalry was used to investigate, conceal, circle around, and pursue. It was absolutely stupid to use cavalry to fight a well-organized infantry head-on.
Since Liaoyang was only 60 kilometers away from Shenyang, the Revolutionary Army took Liaoyang under the enemy's nose. To buy time to migrate people and build defenses, Han Shi of the Imperial Guard Cavalry Battalion personally led a company to Shenyang to investigate.
The scouts were all one man on two horses. Three platoons took turns advancing to cover each other. When Han Shi and his men approached the Hun River on the south bank of Shenyang, they found that the Kennu were unaware of the Revolutionary Army's operation. When his men appeared, the Kennu scouts outside the city seemed to wake up from a dream and blew their horns for help.
The north wind howled and the world froze. It was so cold that people could get icicles under their noses. Han Shi rode on a horse and looked at the top of Shenyang with a pair of binoculars. When he passed the Tiger Skin Inn to the south of Shenyang, he found that there was no one there. The Jurchen barbarians thought that the Han didn't dare to come and were unprepared.
"The weather is so cold that these barbarians are too lazy to move." Han Shi chuckled. He couldn't attack the city, but he was happy to see the panicked expressions of the patrolling sentries outside the city. "Their horses have lost weight because they don't have any meat to eat. They don't even have as much armor as we do. It's quite nice to have a mouse tail hanging behind your head. "
In response to Han Shi's teasing, the cavalrymen who followed him burst into laughter. The cost of raising one cavalry was equivalent to the cost of raising five infantry soldiers. The cavalrymen of the Revolutionary Army were all carefully selected. They ate well, wore well, and trained extremely strictly. Even though it was winter, they were still warm. In terms of equipment, any one of them was at the level of the enemy's mid-level generals, so their morale was extremely high.
Han Shi cursed from atop his horse. He raised his hand and called for the three squad leaders of the cavalry beside him. "Those barbarians are all arrogant soldiers. They definitely won't allow us to loiter outside the city. Squad One, lie in ambush in the woods on the east side. Squad Two, go behind the low slope on the west side. Squad Three, follow me. We'll go ahead and lure the enemy. As long as the number of barbarians doesn't exceed fifty, we'll make them into dumplings. "
Luring the enemy deep in and ambushing them from the flanks. This was a tactic that all the squad, platoon, and even battalion level officers of the Imperial Guard had to practice repeatedly. Although this tactic was simple, it had many variations and was very flexible. Everyone repeatedly used it on the chessboard and continued to duel.
The three squads of cavalry immediately spread out according to Han Shi's arrangement. Very soon, a group of Jurchen cavalrymen rushed out of Shenyang City. Han Shi led the squad forward and saw everything clearly through the binoculars. He grinned and said: "Fifty men, only one Niu Lu came out."
The Muddy River was frozen and the surface of the river was very solid. The Jurchen cavalrymen directly crossed the river and charged towards Han Shi's men. Through the binoculars, the barbarians on the opposite side were all wearing armor. They were definitely the elites under Banner Commander. There were even more people on top of Shenyang City. Although they couldn't see them clearly due to the distance, the appearance of the Han cavalrymen had clearly alarmed the high-ranking Jurchen officers in the city.
"Let's go and lure them over." Han Shi turned his horse around and retreated with his men. Their horses had been eating beans and hay for the entire winter. Horses ate more than humans. At this moment, the horses were plump and strong. They led a squad of men and ran away.
When the Jurchen cavalrymen saw that Han Shi was leaving, they also whipped their horses and chased after them. However, their horses weren't treated as well. It was already good enough for them to eat hay in the winter. The barbarians' cows, goats, and horses would lose weight every winter. Therefore, they would always take advantage of the autumn when their horses were strong to go south to plunder the Han people.
Han Shi looked back as he ran. After running for two li, he could clearly feel that the Jurchen cavalrymen behind him were slowing down. This forced him to slow down and continue to chase after the enemy. The distance between the two sides was only about a hundred meters. The Jurchen barbarians behind him were shouting and cursing at each other.
When the barbarians ran past the ambush, Han Shi immediately shouted to the messenger beside him: "Sound the horn, attack from the left flank."
It wasn't easy to play the suona on a horse. The messenger had no choice but to let go of the reins and play the suona with both hands. The sound of the suona startled the Jurchen cavalrymen behind them. The leader of the cavalry, Niu Lu, was stunned when he saw the ambush on the left flank.
The sound of the suona startled the Jurchen cavalrymen behind them. The leader of the cavalry, Niu Lu, was stunned when he saw the ambush on the left flank. He quickly assessed the strength of the enemy and realized that he had more than twice as many men as the audacious Han. He quickly ordered one unit to turn left to face the enemy while the other unit continued to chase after them.
Han Shi, who was at the front, was in the midst of turning around. When he saw the enemy splitting up, he immediately laughed and pulled out his cavalry saber. He raised it above his head and shouted: "Blow again! Attack from the right flank! Surround them!"
In the various drills on the Martial Arts Chessboard, everyone was very used to luring the enemy in. Judging whether the enemy was really defeated or pretending to be defeated was a difficult problem that every commander had to master. The repetitive drills had resulted in the emergence of many tactical experts in the Imperial Guard who were good at seizing the right timing.
Han Shi was worried that the enemy might turn around and run if two ambushes appeared at the same time. He decided to wait for the enemy to make a certain response before sending out the ambush on the right flank. The enemy who had fallen into an ambush would definitely panic. Two ambushes would only cause the panic to grow. This was especially so when the Jurchen cavalrymen who had turned to the left flank had their butts aimed at the imperial cavalry who had appeared on the right flank.
Even though the Jurchen cavalrymen had nearly doubled in number, facing the encirclement from three sides, Niu Lu was so angry that he roared. Speed was the life of a cavalryman. At this moment, it would be too late for him to turn around and run. Han Shi, who was luring the enemy, would definitely turn around and stab him in the butt.
Right now, the pursuing Jurchen cavalrymen could only charge forward without any hesitation. The leader of the cavalry, Niu Lu, hoped that he could make use of his advantage in numbers to defeat Han Shi's team which only had around ten men.
Han Shi, on the other hand, was very cunning. He had grasped the rhythm of the battle. When he saw that his opponent wasn't going to turn around, he turned diagonally and wasn't in a hurry to fight his opponent head-on. He maintained a distance of fifty meters away from the enemy and baited them. Zhou Qingfeng liked to fight recklessly, but he required his subordinates to use their brains.
It was winter, but the leader of the cavalry, Niu Lu, was drenched in cold sweat. His heart instantly turned cold. When he turned around, he saw that the twenty men he had ordered to block the enemy's left flank had already been outflanked. The heroic imperial cavalry had really charged forward, unlike their opponents who were in a dilemma.
A cavalry squad leader raised his saber and charged at the front. His companions followed closely on both sides. When the enemy discovered that another group of imperial cavalry had appeared behind them, they panicked and immediately fled to the sides. However, it wasn't easy to escape when they were charging at each other. The cavalry squad leader quickly closed the distance between him and his opponent and lightly dragged the saber in his hand.
With a swoosh, the saber flashed.
The speed of the horses was applied to the saber. The cavalry saber that had been forged repeatedly also quenched the edge to increase its hardness, making it extremely sharp. When the saber slashed on the metal plates of the enemy's armor, the metal plates were immediately shattered and flew everywhere. There was also a layer of cotton armor under the armor, but it was also quickly cut open, revealing the flesh inside.
The elite Jurchen soldiers liked to wear two layers of armor because the current quality of the armor was not good. It was also a symbol of their status. In the past, only officers of the Niu Lu rank could wear a layer of cotton armor on top of a layer of warm cotton armor. But now that they had conquered Shenyang, ordinary elite soldiers could also be so extravagant.
It was the defense of these two layers of armor that gave these barbarians great confidence. They felt that they could still fight to the death if they were surrounded. However, this confidence was quickly shattered!
A Jurchen soldier at the front shouted and rushed forward, but he was pulled back by the enemy's saber. The armor protecting his chest and abdomen was directly cut open, and blood gushed out from underneath. His body tilted and he fell off his horse.
Without waiting for the Jurchen soldiers to understand what happened, in the blink of an eye, several more cavalrymen were fighting with their sabers. Without exception, the Han cavalry that should have been weak and easily bullied won one after another. The speed of their horses was faster, and the force of their charge was greater. Even when they were fighting, they were extremely familiar with it.
Every slash of the cavalrymen was similar. There were no unnecessary feints or useless shouts. They were just dragging the horses with the fastest speed — armor broke, blood gushed out, and corpses fell to the side.
Finally, someone risked his life and slashed at the cavalrymen. But no matter how much strength the Jurchen barbarians used, their sabers could not cut through the silver armor of the other party. When the sabers clashed, they bounced off with a crisp clang. There were even situations where the sabers fell out of the hands or broke when they slashed too hard.
The result of the collision between the two sides was that the cavalrymen were unharmed, while the Jurchen soldiers were hacked to the left and right, and seven of them died. However, this was not the worst part. The worst part was that the Imperial Cavalry had caught up to them from behind. They even stabbed at the buttocks of the Jurchen soldiers.
The Jurchen soldiers, who had just suffered a setback, were in a state of panic and had no ability to defend against the enemies charging at them from behind. At most, they would turn around and wave the sabers in their hands in an attempt to stop the enemies from approaching. But the high-spirited cavalrymen showed no mercy. They raised their sabers and slashed at them.
The screams of the dying rang out continuously. The pursuing Jurchen soldiers were cut down one after another. Heads rolled on the ground, stimulating the cavalrymen to let out cheers of revenge for the people of Liaodong.
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