The purpose of writing this article is, first, to understand the combat situation of the Eight Banners through some battles recorded in the literature; second, to present some records of the actual combat use of the clear bow and heavy arrows introduced above.
Nurhaci, in the eleventh year of the Wanli Calendar, with the thirteen deputies of his grandfather and father, launched a war of annexation against the Jurchen departments of Jianzhou and unified the ministries of Jianzhou. Entrepreneurship is difficult, there are not many soldiers in the early days, and the quality is not high, not a professional army. Therefore, in some early actual battles, Nurhaci often needed himself and his brothers to wear armor and take the lead and reverse morale. There are many related records of these, and here are three simple paragraphs to explain and explain.
One
Nurhaci's army was in the name of revenge for his father and ancestors, but it was the Ming army that killed them by mistake, at this time Nurhaci's strength was not enough, he would not want to die, so he found a small target, that is, the Tulum City Lord Nikan Wailan, who was sending a message to the Ming army at that time. He united several of his enemies, including The Lord of Jamukhu, Kahashan Hashu, who was Nurhaci's brother-in-law. Unexpectedly, his clan member Long Dun and others were afraid of trouble, and colluded with their stepmother's brother Namzan to seduce Kahashan Hashu and kill him. In June of the twelfth year of the Wanli Calendar, Nurhaci, in order to avenge his brother-in-law, commanded an army to attack the city of Maldun.
"Taizu took revenge on Ganghayan and led four hundred troops to attack Namuzhang, Shamuzhang, Neishen, and Wanjigan. Straight to the bottom of The Ma'erdun Mountain, I saw that the mountain was steep, but three chariots were marching side by side, and the road was gradually passed, one car advanced, and two cars followed. Approaching the city, the road became more and more passing, so that the three vehicles were connected to attack. Flying stones in the city hit it, reused wood to hit its car, the front car was destroyed, the rear car was successively, the two cars were broken, everyone was covered behind one car, and the head could not be attacked. Taizu bravely went forward, and when he was far away from the city, he shot a arrow behind a wooden stake, right in the face of Neishen, straight through his ears, and shot four people, all servants, and all the soldiers in the city. ”
Nurhaci's tactics were very appropriate, and three shield vehicles slowly approached the charge, at that time they did not have red cannons, and there was no heavy firepower in the siege, all relying on the pile of people, which could be well protected. But after approaching, it was obvious that the recruits were afraid of death and afraid of battle. Nurhaci saw that this would not work, and if he continued to fight, he would have the upper hand. So he hid behind a wooden stake about three meters away from the city wall, drew a bow and arrow, and shot one arrow at a time, shooting five people in a row, and the people on the city wall were afraid. In this regard, the tide of battle was completely turned around, and finally successfully captured. At that time, many of the so-called cities were actually just villages, and the larger cities had fixed adobe walls, and the smaller walls were almost all wooden fences, and the height was basically not more than three meters. In this battle, it can be seen that Nurhaci fought very bravely, and the tactics were appropriate, the arrows were accurate, and the 100% shooting rate within five meters was achieved. A group of recruits, all on his own, amazing courage, to turn the situation around.
Two
Another year later, in the thirteenth year of the Wanli Calendar, Nurhaci led seventy troops (thirty-five heavy armored soldiers and forty cotton armor soldiers) to attack the Jiefan City of Zhechenbu, but due to lack of preparation for a long time, he injured many people himself, and he had to order a retreat. Unexpectedly, the lords of the four cities of Jiefan, Salhun, Dongjia and Balda, who rushed to support the Zhechenbu, led four hundred pursuing troops to pursue and kill, and Nubu saw the enemy army that was several times larger than himself, and he was frightened and quickly fled, basically Nurhaci himself could not scream. In the end, there were seven soldiers left and his "queen", and the enemy four hundred quickly surrounded them in several regiments, ready to be chopped into meat paste. Seeing that the enemy army was approaching, Nurhaci once again bravely stood up, rode alone to meet the enemy, and used his heart and mind to go straight to the leader of the group, Nashen. The enemy was extremely red when he met, and Neshen rushed up without showing weakness and slashed with his sword, the blade cut nurhaci's waist, and almost the protagonist hung up, but fortunately, he reacted quickly to avoid a disaster, and only cut off the horse whip at his waist. Immediately returning to the saber, Nurhaci did not give Neshen another chance, and slashed Neshen in the back with a knife, directly killing him. Then he quickly drew his sword and bow, turned around and shot another city lord, Bamuni, who was taking revenge. The battle ended in minutes and quickly led the people to flee, leaving behind a bunch of enemy soldiers who looked at each other and were leaderless.
In this battle, it can be seen that Nurhaci is very skilled in riding, and the sword technique is exquisite, and he can't stand up to ordinary people who cut him; at the same time, he once again saw Nurhaci quickly pulling a bow and arrow, and the strength of the arrow method was accurate. You know, just hacked one, immediately someone chased up, can quickly switch the pull bow, one is not very far, the second is to turn back to shoot the arrow there is not much aiming opportunity.
Three
Three months later, Nurhaci led five hundred more soldiers to take revenge, and as a result, the road encountered flooding and the marching difficulties. So Nurhaci, selecting a hundred elite soldiers to follow him first, got lost and walked to the front of the enemy line. At that time, Jiefan Wuzhai received information that Nurhaci had come again, so he gathered eight hundred troops and prepared to meet the enemy, and just waited in a strict position, and Nurhaci himself just happened to be delivered to the door. So the plot is always similar, Nubu's recruit egg is once again weak legs, in order to give the brothers courage, Nurhaci himself carries a big flag to the front, but still does not use it, the lower side of the small soldier's legs stuck to the ground and does not go. Nurhaci had to take his brother Mulhaqi, the left and right guards Yan Bulu, and WuLingga to dismount and fight. Nurhaci's four men formed a battle group, pulling their bows to form a network of firepower, causing the enemy to be confused, and the leader of the creeps shrunk into a group. Although the enemy is numerous, they do not belong to each other and have different orders. Nurhaci's four men rained arrows and fell several leaders, and as a result, the soldiers who had lost their leaders were suddenly chaotic, and even the tribal soldiers who were still a little fighting were out of inches, and their leaders could not give orders. At this time, this group of soldiers saw the battle scene of Nurhaci and others, and their morale was immediately boosted, nurhaci once again personally led the soldiers and horses to launch a charge, and the enemy army collapsed on the spot and fled.
This battle belongs to the classic battle of Nurhaci with less victory, the cavalry can get off the horse to fight, the infantry can pull the bow and shoot strongly, and it is rushed into the formation, close-range veneer shooting, the efficiency is very high. Even if the four people had twenty arrows, a total of only eighty arrows, they all shot and killed more than twenty enemy soldiers, and the combat efficiency was very high. At the same time, it still belongs to a similar tactic of digging the heart, first killing the leader of the enemy army, messing up his square inches, and then affecting the rest of the part, which is very classic.
In summary, we can see that in several actual battles, Nurhaci's personal individual combat ability is very prominent, and it is very heroic, and his personal military quality is very high, whether it is cavalry saber skills, or riding and shooting, rifle shooting. At the same time, its tactics are appropriate, and it can adapt to local conditions and exert maximum efficiency. No wonder Master Jin Yong commented in the Yuan Chonghuan Book Review: "... The enemy he faced was a military genius that had never appeared in the world for more than four hundred years since Genghis Khan."