Early in the morning of December 2, in the camp of the Ming army on the west side of the Luanhe Stone Bridge north of Malanzhuang, the three regiments of the 1st Guards Division had already lined up, waiting for the emperor's review, and then went out of the camp to fight.

Zhu Youzhen is still wearing a simple ordinary armor today, with leather and black armor, making him look no different from an ordinary military attaché. However, the eyes of the officers and men of the 1st Guards Division were always fixed on the young man.

After Zhu Youzhen rode his horse in front of the queue of the First Guards Division, he stopped his horse and said briefly to the soldiers of the First Division: "I don't want to say anything more today, I just want to say to you that the motherland is behind you, and I am also behind you." I don't want to be taken prisoner in today's battle, I just want to win..."

On November 21, Huang Taiji led the main force to ambush the Ming army under the city of Santun Camp, and easily defeated the Ming army of nearly 10,000 troops. On the 22nd and 23rd, the Jin army had been expelling the Ming army from the east to Malanzhuang, and on the 24th, seeing the Ming army waiting in Malan*, Huang Taiji and other Jurchen generals thought that the continuation of the offensive was not effective, and they were worried that the Ming army in the west would have some changes, so they began to withdraw their troops from the 25th.

Huang Taiji basically transferred the main force of the Jurchen Eight Banners, leaving only part of the army of the Mongolian Right Battalion, the Horqin Division, and the 36th Guanmen Division on the East Road. The commander of this army was still Gushan Ezhen Wunag of the Mongolian Right Battalion, and out of anxiety about Du Du, Huang Taiji simply left Du Du on the east road, nominally to assist Wu Nag in the battle.

Huang Taiji also deliberately left five Jurchen cattle records for Du Du, on the one hand, to let Du Du supervise the battles of the Mongolian troops, and on the other hand, to let them monitor Du Du by the way. Since the main force of the Horqin Department was left behind, Tushetu Khan Oba of the Horqin Department naturally stayed on the East Road.

After the 26th, the main force of the Jin army withdrew from the East Road, and the Ming army in front of the Jin East Road Army did not move in the next few days, and it seemed that the morale of the Jin East Army had completely collapsed by them, and they did not dare to have any thoughts of counterattacking.

However, on the 1st of December, the Ming army, which had been cowering in Malanzhuang, suddenly came to life again, and made a big move along the mile-long river, as if to build several pontoon bridges at the same time, as if preparing for a counterattack.

Wu Nag had to mobilize men and horses to respond to the movements of the Ming army, and the Later Jin Dong Route Army was divided into four positions on the east side of the Luan River, the western side of the mouth was dangerous, and there was Jinshan in the middle as a flank, the situation was the safest, so it was handed over to Tushetu Khan Oba to garrison.

Located in the middle of the east and west gates, although the mountain is not dangerous, it occupies a beautiful place, and it is also a critical place connecting the two passes.

The large camp in the east was naturally garrisoned by Wunag and Dudu, and the only stone bridge over the Luan River, Wunag had his eldest son Demutu garrisoned.

Before and after the Jin main attack, Wu Nag did not feel that he had few people in his hands, but when the Ming army began to counterattack, he immediately found that his forces were a little insufficient. The Ming army built four pontoon bridges at the same time in the southeast of the Luan River where there was a sandbar in the middle of the river, and completed two-thirds of them after one night, which immediately restrained nearly 3,000 men and horses of Houjin.

And the Ming army at the stone bridge also moved frequently, forcing Wu Nag to strengthen the strength of his eldest son, which also reduced the mobile force in his hands to 1,500 people, in addition to Du Du's hands There are five full Jurchen Niulu, a total of 300 people.

Wu Nag ruled the army strictly, so the Mongolian right battalion in his hands was stronger than the Mongolian left battalion. But whether it was him or the Mongolian right battalion under his command, it was the first time to fight such a defensive battle, so he couldn't help but be a little sluggish in reacting to the Ming army's attack.

The Ming army was about to complete several pontoon bridges in the southeast of the Luan River in the morning, which attracted most of Wu Nag's attention, and it was not until the sound of artillery bombardment continued to be heard from the stone bridge in the west that he reacted that the pontoon bridge in the southeast was just a cover, and the main purpose of the Ming army was to seize the stone bridge that was difficult to destroy.

By the time Wu Nag personally marched west with his mobile forces and tried to rescue the stone bridge, Demutu had already retreated with his men and horses, and he not only lost the stone bridge, but also the camp on the east side of the stone bridge to the Ming army.

Frightened, Wunag personally stopped the defeated soldiers, pulled out his own son, and asked Demutu with a grim face: "How did you defend the camp?" In less than half an hour, it was taken away by the Ming army. Didn't Ebendui send troops to your aid? ”

It took a long time for the panicked Demuru to recognize that it was his father Wu Nag who grabbed him, and he replied in a hurry: "Ming, the Ming people have cannons, and there are many cannons. As soon as I led the people to the bridge, I wanted to block the Akito who rushed over on the bridge, and they opened fire. They shot two rounds, and I couldn't find anyone next to me, and then I saw Akito start charging, and then everyone started to run, and I was also dragged down by them, not by myself..."

When Wu Nag heard this, he immediately said angrily: "You bastard, you were coerced and ran down, you are really embarrassed to say, you greedy for life and afraid of death, Lao Tzu must cut you today." ”

Listening to Demutu's forcible explanation to himself, Wunag suddenly pushed him, and then reached out to his waist and touched it, as if he really wanted to kill his eldest son with a knife.

The guards beside Wu Nag suddenly stepped forward and hugged him, and couldn't stop persuading: "Lord Gushan is angry, the little master is just confused by the artillery bombardment of the Ming army, and let him make meritorious service and recapture the bridgehead camp." Now it won't help to cut the little master, but it will fall into the hearts of the army. ”

Under the constant gesture of the surrounding guards, Demutu finally came to his senses, and while he got on the horse with the help of the guards on the side, he turned his head to Wunag and said busily: "The son is wrong, please calm my father's anger." The son went to take people back to the camp, and if he couldn't take it back, the son would die in battle and would not retreat anymore. ”

Although Wu Nag was furious, he had not completely lost his mind, and after he ordered his guards to let him go, he instructed his subordinates: "Pick five hundred men for him, and let him beat the Ming people back and take back the camp at the bridgehead."

In addition, go to the east and tell Baktu that he will leave a thousand men to monitor the movements of the Ming army, and the rest of the horses will be transferred. If Demutu cannot recapture the camp, we will attack again, and we must not allow the Ming army to gain a foothold on the east bank. ”

While Wu Nag was still teaching his son, Sun Yingyuan had already entered Houjin's camp on the east bank of the stone bridge with the second regiment. Sun Yingyuan was born in the Siwei Battalion, that is, the forbidden army force controlled by Wei Zhongxian.

After Wei Zhongxian lost power, this unit was naturally purged by Chongzhen, and finally mixed with the original guard army and the formation of the warrior battalion to form a new imperial guard force.

When Chongzhen began to form the Guards Division, the Second Regiment of the Guards Division, which was mainly established by the soldiers of the Imperial Battalion, made Sun Yingyuan the commander. Whether it was the imperial camp or the guard division, Sun Yingyuan's regiment was on the battlefield for the first time, and he also eagerly hoped to be able to express it in front of the emperor.

The officers and men of the 2nd Regiment of the Guards Division, with the imperial camp as the main force, have always felt that their training is no less than that of the new army, and they are also quite unconvinced that the new army has been praised by the emperor for succession. They who had not experienced the Liaodong War did not have any fear of the Jurchen Tartars, but were a little excited to try. In terms of morale, the morale of the 2nd Regiment was not only higher than that of the Liaodong Ming Army, but also higher than that of the other teams of the Guards Division.

For Chongzhen, the success or failure of the first battle of the Eastern Route Army's attack was not only related to the morale of the entire Eastern Route Army, but also the fundamental force he used to deter the Liaodong Army. Therefore, this battle was only allowed to be won and not lost, so Chongzhen transferred the second regiment with the strongest combat effectiveness at the beginning and collected all the qualified artillery in Malanzhuang.

It is also ridiculous to say that the Ming army fought in array with artillery, which was originally the most commonly used field combat method of the Ming army. However, after Nurhachi's Liaodong Ming army did not dare to fight in the field, neither the Mongols nor the Jurchens had seen the most orthodox field warfare methods of the Ming people for a long time.

In their memory, artillery was nothing more than a weapon used to defend the city, not only was it difficult to move, but also the accuracy was very poor, as long as the distance was shortened, the artillery of the Ming people was useless.

Therefore, although some Tartars had already aimed at the opposite Ming army with two rows of artillery on the riverbank, no one realized how powerful it was to the soldiers in the formation when dozens of artillery pieces were fired together.

The stone bridge over the Luan River was only eight meters wide, and it was enough for eight soldiers to advance side by side, in order to strengthen the firepower of the attack, in addition to the first row of spearmen, Sun Yingyuan set up five rows of musketeers in the rear, equipped with flintlock muskets that could be close together.

When Sun Yingyuan led the second regiment to the middle of the stone bridge, the 240 archers of the Tartars also set up three arc-shaped queues on the east side of the stone bridge. However, the Tartar archers did not have a chance to fire at the fire, and soon after they formed their ranks, they were subjected to a salvo of dozens of artillery pieces from the Ming army, followed by the second fire.

The archers of the Tartars in front of the formation, the cavalry troops assembled in the rear, were completely disrupted by the artillery of the Ming army, and when Sun Yingyuan walked the stone bridge with the second regiment, the remaining Tartar troops that had not yet broken were also dispersed by the spearmen and musketeers of the second regiment.

The Tartar cavalry, who had been hit by artillery and could not find their way, did not even think about running back to the camp on the side, but divided into three routes and fled in the east, west, and north directions.

When the Houjin army at the bridgehead began to rout, Oba in the east only sent a dozen horsemen to check the situation, while Obendui on the gold mountain in the northeast sent 300 horsemen, but the 500 soldiers of the second regiment who had crossed the river formed a battle line of 4 rows, the first row of spearmen, and the back three rows of musketeers.

The 300 cavalry sent by Obenti ran headlong into the seemingly thin battle line of the Ming army, and as a result, the 300 cavalry lost more than half of them, while the Ming army only had more than a dozen spearmen and four or five musketeers who were wounded by the ramming of the mad horses. As the number of Ming troops crossing the river increased, the 2nd Regiment finally gained a foothold on the east bank of the Luan River.