It was a moonless night, and there were only a few cold stars in the sky, exuding a cold light, but it could not dispel the dark night a little.

In this night when they couldn't see their fingers, a team of cavalry dressed in dark heavy armor quietly slipped out of Ningyuan City, galloped eastward, and quickly disappeared into the night.

This cavalry is the Guanning Iron Cavalry of the Ming Army, and the leaders are naturally Zhu Youzhen, the king of letters, and Li Chongyao, the eldest lady of the Li family. Their target is more than 20 miles east of the coastline, a lonely boat in the vast sea, Juehua Island.

Although the Later Jin army surrounded Ningyuan City on all sides, the focus was on the south, west, and north. Not far to the east is the vast sea, which is an insurmountable natural obstacle, so there are only thousands of soldiers of the Han army flag stationed there, and they have already fallen asleep in the camp at this time.

Li Chongyao led these hundreds of Guanning iron horsemen, with their heads and horses wrapped in hooves, without making a sound as much as possible, and cleverly bypassed the mobile posts of the Houjin army, and came to the sea in a short time.

Zhu Youzhen looked eastward, but because the night was too dark, he couldn't see far at all, let alone the direction of Juehua Island.

Li Chongyao has lived in Ningyuan for a long time and is extremely familiar with the terrain here. After a little discernment, he led his horse to the thick sea ice.

Zhu Youzhen said with a smile: "Miss, why don't you ride a horse?" So saying, he jumped onto the ice. The ice surface was as smooth as a mirror, and although the four hooves of the war horse had been thickly wrapped in linen, which was both cold and slippery, it was still a stumbling and slipping suddenly.

As soon as the mount fell, Zhu Youzhen on the horse immediately lost his balance and fell down high. Seeing that his head was about to touch the ice, Li Chongyao suddenly rose into the air, grabbed Zhu Youzhen's waist, and landed lightly on the ice.

Zhu Youzhen was so frightened that his head was full of cold sweat, hugged Li Chongyao tightly and didn't dare to let go, and smiled awkwardly: "This place can be used as a natural skating rink!" If it weren't for the eldest lady, I would have had a severe concussion! ”

Li Chongyao sneered: "Now you know why you want to walk!" Hey, aren't you standing firm now, why don't you let go! ”

Zhu Youzhen's face turned red and he hurriedly let go of his arms. Fortunately, the night was extremely dark, and people in the distance couldn't see the condition of the two at all. The nearest cavalrymen also pretended not to see it, but just bowed their heads and led their horses, and walked cautiously forward.

After walking forward for a while, the situation on the ice surface really became extremely complicated. Some ice cubes bulge from the surface of the ice, and if you are not careful, you will trip; In some places, a deep ice pit is formed, and the ice wall at the bottom of the pit is so thin that if you accidentally fall into it, you will immediately break through the ice and fall into the icy water.

In some places, the waves pushed the ice floes and squeezed them repeatedly, and finally they all froze together, forming a high wall of ice, which was impassable at all. The cavalry had no choice but to pick up their sledgehammers and smash the ice walls to a narrow passage through them.

The crowd walked cautiously for miles, not noticing anything out of the ordinary, except for the biting cold wind of the call sign and the boundless darkness. Li Chongyao also regretted it a little, and complained in a low voice: "After a day of fighting, I have to go to this kind of place to play if I don't sleep well!" ”

Before Zhu You could answer, the direction of the wind on the sea suddenly changed, just now it was a northwest wind, but now it is an east wind. Everyone marched forward against the cold wind like knives, and it was difficult to even open their eyes. Li Chongyao complained even more, and almost beat Zhu Youzhen.

At this moment, there was a faint murmur in the wind. Everyone thought that the sea ice under their feet was cracked, and they were all startled, so they quickly stopped and listened.

"Not good! It is the direction of Kyaw Island! Li Chongyao's pretty face changed color.

Everyone hurriedly picked up their speed, and gradually noticed that there seemed to be a fire beating on the horizon ahead.

"Damn, sure enough, let the Tartars take the lead!" Zhu Youzhen scolded, flew on the horse, and didn't care about the difficulty of walking on the ice, and galloped forward.

And the hundreds of Guan Ning Iron Riders behind him, like sharks smelling blood, immediately lifted their spirits, like a black dragon, pounced on Juehua Island with their teeth and claws.

A few miles further on, I only heard the sound of killing in the direction of Huadao, and the fire soared into the sky, illuminating half of the sky.

Zhu Youzhen became even more impatient in his heart, and desperately beat the horse forward. And the further you go, the more the sea freezes harder, and in the end it is almost like walking on the ground.

But when he looked at Juehua Island by the light of the fire, he scolded angrily: "Uncle, it's late!" ”

It turned out that Nurhachi adopted Dolgon's strategy, on the one hand, besieged Ningyuan City, and on the other hand, sent the main force of Zhenglan Banner and Zhenghong Banner, wading through the ice from the sea at dawn, attacking Juehua Island, and it has been seven or eight hours now.

Although Juehua Island was an important place for the Ming army, because it was lonely in the sea, the successive governors of Liaodong of the Ming army believed that the Jurchen cavalry had no sailors at all and could not cross the sea, so they did not pay much attention to the defense of Huadao.

There is a grain hoarding city on the island, the city wall is about three zhang high, but it has long been in disrepair, full of holes, and has collapsed in more than ten places, which is not much stronger than a hornet's nest.

In order to guard against a possible attack on Juehua Island, the sailors of the Ming army anchored hundreds of large and small warships at the port of Jianya Pass on the north side of the island. It stands to reason that this can be regarded as a precaution, but unfortunately now that the weather is freezing, these warships are firmly frozen on the ice, and they can't move at all!

As for the defenders on the island, there were more than 7,000 of them, in addition to the guerrilla Golden Crown. But these Ming soldiers were called soldiers, but in fact they were only sailors, and they were no different from ordinary peasants on land.

And due to the neglect of defense, there are neither Hongyi cannons, nor Franc cannons, nor even bird guns on Juehua Island. The weapons of the sailors were just ordinary swords and no armor, and once they clashed with the Jurchen elite cavalry, the consequences could be imagined.

When they found out that the Houjin army was coming through the ice, they immediately panicked. Although Jin Guan and other guards tried their best to organize their manpower, they dug an ice trench around Juehua Island on the ice, trying to block the Jurchens' footsteps. But it was so cold that the trenches had just been dug and frozen, and so on and so forth, that the defenders' fingers were broken, and they still could not dig out a trench wide enough.

And the Jurchens naturally did not watch the defenders digging a ditch and immediately launched a fierce attack, and arrows rained down. The defenders suffered heavy casualties and could no longer dig the ice, so the golden spirit rode over the trench and reached the city of grain hoarding!

The other Houjin army went straight to the mouth of the Jin, burning hundreds of warships frozen in the harbor, as well as thousands of fishing boats and grain ships!

Zhu You looked at the flames that soared into the sky, and knew that Juehua Island was gone. At this time, he hated Yuan Chonghuan very much in his heart, thinking that it was he who advocated building a city in Ningyuan and regarded Juehua Island as a supply warehouse, but he ignored the defense of Juehua Island, which caused the defenders on the island to be wiped out!

At this time, there was a great chaos around Juehua Island, and the Houjin army had already rushed into the grain hoarding city, killing people and cutting them when they met people. But they only cared about rushing and killing, and they didn't notice that there was another army behind them!

Li Chongyao gritted his teeth and said: "Lord Wang, let's rush up from behind and catch the Tartars off guard!" ”

Zhu Youzhen stared at his blood-red eyes, and said after a while: "It's useless!" There are only a few hundred of us, and there are tens of thousands of Tartars! Even if we can catch them off guard, once we are surrounded, we won't be able to escape! ”

"Then what do you say! Could it be that we just watched the Tartars slaughter the city, and we came here for nothing to wander around and go back in disgrace? Li Chongyao said hurriedly.

"No, we're going to rush into the city now!" Zhu Youzhen yelled.

Li Chongyao said inexplicably: "What are you doing rushing into the city?" Do you still want to carry food and gunpowder? Not to mention that it's too late, even if it's too late, how many of us can move a few hundred people? ”

"Who said they were going to move? Burn them all for me! Zhu Youzhen shouted anxiously.

Li Chongyao came to his senses, didn't say more, took the lead, and rushed towards the grain hoarding city.

At this time, the Jurchens were immersed in the joy of victory and the thrill of slaughter, and when they saw another cavalry rushing into the city, they didn't figure it out in the dark light, and they thought it was reinforcements from other banners, so they didn't stop it at all.

Zhu Youzhen entered the city and found that there were dead bodies of the Ming army everywhere, and his heart suddenly chilled, but he didn't have time to pay attention to it, and went straight to the warehouse to kill him.

At this time, the Houjin army had already killed thousands of defenders on Juehua Island. A Niu Lu Ezhen led his subordinates to occupy the warehouse, and was about to open the warehouse door to appreciate the rich booty, when the Guanning Iron Cavalry suddenly killed.

This Niu Lu really thought that another Niu Lu was coming, and wanted to compete with him for the spoils, so he was very dissatisfied, scolded and greeted him, and asked in Manchu: "Which Niu Lu are you?" I've taken the warehouse, what are you doing here? ”

Zhu Youzhen rushed to the front, seeing that he was getting closer and closer to the enemy, and he was about to reveal his stuff, so he stopped pretending and scolded angrily: "You fucking grunt!" As he spoke, he raised his hand and shot it.

Even the battle-hardened Zhengbai Banner Lord Zilharang was planted under Zhu Youzhen's flintlock pistol; This little cow in front of him is really good, how can he be the opponent of the musket! This shot hit him right in the center of the eyebrow, and he was about to burst into the brain!

And the Guan Ning Iron Cavalry behind rushed up, surrounding more than 20 of this dead ghost's subordinates in the formation and slashing and smashing them all indiscriminately, and it didn't take long to turn them into a pile of meat sauce.

Seeing that there was no enemy nearby for the time being, Zhu Youzhen shouted: "Hurry up and set fire!" Retreat as soon as you're done! ”

The cavalrymen immediately took out the fire fold from the marching bag and blew it with their mouths, and the fire fold burned. They threw the fire into the storehouse or onto the roof, and then they turned their horses and galloped back.

The granary and ammunition silos were made of wood, and they were most afraid of open fire. A short time later, the flames ignited a box of black powder, which suddenly exploded. And this violent explosion also ignited the entire ammunition silo, and finally made an earth-shattering loud noise, completely blowing up the entire ammunition silo, as well as the nearby granary!

And Zhu Youzhen and hundreds of Guanning Iron Horsemen rushed out of Juehua Island like a violent wind with this huge explosion.

Seeing a violent explosion on the island, a Jia Lae Zhen on the opposite side hurriedly stopped Zhu Youzhen's way and said in Manchu: "What happened on the island?" Where are you going? ”

"I'll go to your uncle's!" Zhu Youzhen raised his hand and fired another shot, and shouted wildly at the Guan Ning Iron Cavalry behind him: "Withdraw to Ning Yuan immediately!" ”