The victory of the Ming army in the battlefield west of the city was decided, and many masters immediately returned to reinforce the camp.

Li Daliang, Meng Wei, Sun Cheng, and Sun Bai are all back.

Helian Batai and the three red-capped men had already fled by now, how shrewd were they?

For the sake of safety, when it was dark, Qin Shuhuai did not order to hunt them down. One is that it is dark and difficult to chase, and the other is that the four of them are not weak in kung fu, if you want to chase and kill, you have to send a bunch of masters to chase and kill, and you can't get it.

However, they left Su Kechaole, who said that he would not leave.

Qin Shuhuai admired Su Ke Chaole's spirit of never giving up on his peers, and then happily led a group of masters to kill him - more than a dozen first-class masters besieged him, and no matter how strong Su Ke Chaole was, there was only one way to die.

Did Suke Chaole know that he would definitely die if he stayed?

Everyone believes that he knows.

Maybe he thought that the death of the two brothers was his fault, so he didn't have the face to go back.

He wants to die on the battlefield, so that it is glorious and decent.

Such a "warrior" is kind of funny.

But when you think about it, you can't laugh.

After killing Su Kechaole, the masters of the Ming army continued to fight, and everyone was like an assault squad, where they rushed, the battle line would develop in the direction favorable to the Ming army.

The battle was becoming clearer, and the night was already falling.

What's the most important thing right now?

Chase the Tartars who are ready to escape, of course!

Sure enough, as soon as it was dark, the Tartars withdrew, leaving only a few thousand dead soldiers behind the palace, and all the soldiers on the periphery ran away.

Of course, Qin Shuhuai wanted to take advantage of the victory to pursue, but he only chased for a few miles, afraid that if he caught up again, if he encountered an ambush ahead, he would suffer.

Will there be an ambush ahead?

I can't say for sure, because this is Houjin's territory, and who knows where soldiers and horses will suddenly appear? What if someone fakes a flight and is really in ambush?

After nightfall, except for the soldiers and horses on the periphery, the rest of the soldiers and horses on the periphery cleaned the battlefield overnight and counted the results.

The small city of Tai'an is surrounded by countless corpses.

At first glance, you can't see the end at all.

In this battle, the Ming army suffered more than 29,000 casualties, of which more than 18,000 were killed and more than 8,000 were seriously wounded.

Of course, the losses of the Tartars were even more severe.

They invested a total of a staggering 16,000 cavalry and 63,000 infantry, totaling nearly 80,000 men.

Among them, the cavalry lost about 13,000, the infantry lost 35,000, and the total number of troops lost 48,000!

Of these 40,000, about 10,000 were pursued and killed by the Ming army during the retreat - the army was fighting, which was the inevitable price of retreat!

In addition, the Tartars also lost three masters: Ao Bai was seriously wounded and captured, and Suk Chaole and Yamabatei were killed.

Among the high-ranking members of the Ming army, only Zhang Taicheng, Ma Sansao, Meng Wei and others were slightly injured and were fine.

When the army entered the city, they immediately summoned them to arrest the strong men from house to house, and repaired the city wall overnight with part of the Ming army.

However, if you catch a strong man, Qin Shuhuai still promised to give one person 500 yuan a day, which is not low.

Inside the tent.

Qin Shuhuai looked at the statistics of the battle report and felt uneasy.

He had an army of 78,000 at his disposal, and now there were only about 49,000 left.

I don't know what happened to Li Dingguo and Zhao Shujiao?

At this moment, suddenly the general on duty outside the account came to report.

"Marshal Qiyu, General Zhao on the left has sent an urgent report!"

"Bring it in!"

After receiving the urgent report, Qin Shuhuai quickly opened it and looked at it.

The urgent report said that Zhao Shujiao began to attack the Great Black Mountain Fort this morning, and sent 15,000 men to ambush on the road from the Little Black Mountain Fort to the Great Black Mountain.

Originally, he thought that the Tartars would inevitably send troops from the Little Black Mountain Fort to help, because the Tartars liked field battles the most.

Unexpectedly, the Tartars just held on to the city, neither coming out nor sending reinforcements from Fort Xiaoshan.

His soldiers fought from morning to dark, and still have not captured the Great Black Mountain Fort.

Originally, he wanted to attack again while it was dark, but suddenly it snowed heavily, which was not good for the attacking side, so he planned to let the soldiers rest for one night and make plans tomorrow.

In addition, there were about 20,000 Tartar defenders in the Great Black Mountain Fort, which were well-equipped, and the walls were thick and strong, and they took the initiative to build the city gate, and even the red-coated cannons could not open it.

Qin Shuhuai understood when he saw this.

Huang Taiji's strategy in the first line of defense should be to hold on to the left and right roads, and while consuming the strength of the Northern Expeditionary Army, he will stubbornly drag the troops on the left and right.

In the middle lane, he concentrated superior forces, trying to inflict heavy losses or even defeat Qin Shuhuai's Chinese army in one fell swoop.

Once Qin Shuhuai is defeated, then it will be easy for them to deal with Zhao Shujiao and Li Dingguo.

It's a good strategy, but it's a pity that he miscalculated one point, that is, the strength of the Ming army today is much higher than that of the Ming army during his second southern expedition.

Now that the middle lane is defeated, Huang Taiji is very passive.

Because the big and small Black Mountain Fort and the Sand Ridge Fort were under siege by the Ming army, he had to go to the rescue.

If they turn around and their middle road is defeated, then Li Dingguo and Zhao Shujiao will have to withdraw their troops, and this year's Northern Expedition will be a dead end.

Sure enough, it didn't take long for Li Dingguo's battle report to be delivered.

His army's assault on Fort Sandridge also did not go well.

Although the Shaling Fort is not big, the city wall is also very thick, and more than 15,000 Tartars are stationed in it, and those Tartars cannot hold out, and Li Dingguo has not beaten them down after a day.

Now his soldiers are besieging the city, and the initial plan is to trap the Tartar soldiers inside, because he estimates that the Tartar soldiers inside will not have too much food and grass, and they will not last long.

Qin Shuhuai can be seen clearly, the city with the word "fort" in the name is generally not big, but it is very hard.

Li Jingting, who was still on duty tonight, walked over and asked, "Grandpa Guo, how is the left and right roads?"

Qin Shuhuai showed him the battle report.

Li Jingting thought for a while and said, "Didn't you fight on both sides? ”

Qin Shuhuai nodded, "Yes! If you fail to enter the city, the Tartars are likely to send heavy troops to counterattack, the problem is that we don't know if the Tartars will focus on Li Dingguo or Zhao Shujiao." ”

Li Jingting said, "What Grandpa Guo said is true. These castles should not have much food left, and it is impossible for the Tartars to abandon them, and they should soon send troops to relieve the siege. But fortunately, we won the battle here, and the Tartars couldn't pull out so many troops at once, so even if they fought, they would have less pressure. ”

Qin Shuhuai smiled bitterly, "This is the territory of the Tartars, how can we be sure that they don't have many soldiers?"

"What does Grandpa that mean?"

Qin Shuhuai pondered for a long time, and finally said, "The Great and Small Black Mountain Fort is close, if the Tartars also garrison troops in the Little Black Mountain Fort, then it is likely that because of this convenience, they will go to save the Great Black Mountain Fort first." ”

"Yes! After all, there are soldiers in the Little Black Mountain Fort, and the Tartars will add some more troops to the past, and it will be easier and faster to save the Great Black Mountain Fort. Li Jingting nodded hurriedly and said, "Then why don't we send heavy troops to reinforce General Zhao?"