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The cold wind in western Liaoning carried icy debris, causing pain on people's faces. The gunpowder smoke outside Pingyang Bridge was wrapped in a thick smell of blood, weighing heavily on the dead wasteland.The Ming army retreated, abandoning their helmets and armour, and even their cries were hoarse with despair. They just ran away. Behind them, Jin Zhenglan Banner's pursuit team galloped wildly. The horses' hooves severely crushed the corpses and severed limbs on the ground. The flesh and blood stuck together with the frozen soil, leaving dazzling blood marks. The entire battlefield was already a purgatory on earth.

This Houjin pursuit team only cared about killing defeated troops and competing for military exploits. The formation was completely loose, the soldiers were unsuspecting, and they completely ignored the Ming army that was defeated across the board.At this moment, a sound of horse hooves going against the flow of fleeing people, accompanied by the icy wind, slowly tore through the din of the battlefield. There were no loud shouts, only the dull sound of the friction of the armor and the heavy breathing of the horses, revealing the silence of dying.

Qi Bingzhong took the lead, with a chill all over his body. Two thousand cavalrymen followed behind him silently. There was no fear on their faces, only dead determination.Along the way, he stopped the defeated soldiers who were in despair. He only heard a few intermittent wails and knew that the situation on the front line was over - the main force was wiped out, the Pingyang Bridge was completely protected, and the Houjin Iron Cavalry was driving straight down, pointing directly at Guangning.

At this moment, he could still save the troops by retreating, but Qi Bingzhong's hand holding the handle of the sword had bulging veins and he did not retreat even half a step.He knew better than anyone else that the troops in Guangning City were lax, and Wang Huazhen and Xiong Tingbi did not know the bad news of the collapse of the front line. If Houjin Iron Cavalry was allowed to take advantage of the victory and kill them, Guangning would be destroyed in less than an hour, the entire western Liaoning defense line would completely collapse, and thousands of people outside the pass would become dead souls under the iron hoof.

Needless to say, there was only ice-cold determination in his eyes: with two thousand lone troops, he would hold back Houjin's elite soldiers from the south, and use their flesh and blood to gain a chance to defend Guangning.Even though he knew it was a dead end, he still wanted to lead his soldiers to smash the enemy's front.

Without an excited oath, Qi Bingzhong rode his horse and whipped his horse, and took the lead in rushing into the Zhenglan Banner pursuit team. Two thousand Ming troops followed closely behind him, like a cold sharp knife, plunging straight into the enemy's loose formation.This Houjin team was caught off guard. They didn't expect that even though the Ming army was defeated across the board, there were still people who dared to turn around and fight to the death. For a moment, people fell on their backs, the muffled sound of sabers cutting into flesh, and the screams of Jin soldiers were heard one after another. Blood instantly spattered on the withered grass, condensing into dark red ice stains.In just a moment, the unprepared pursuit team was scattered to pieces, suffering heavy casualties. The remaining gold soldiers fled in panic and went straight to their main force for help.

The collapse of this small enemy force instantly alarmed Mang Gurtai, the leader of the Zhenglan Banner on the high slope.He witnessed the disastrous defeat of the forward pursuit team with cold eyes, his face turned livid, and he shouted angrily. He immediately waved his command flag and quickly mobilized his most elite Bagala heavy cavalry and a large number of main cavalry.The black heavy cavalry, wearing double layers of heavy armor, was like a moving iron wall. Accompanied by the rumble of horse hooves, it was crushing towards Qi Bingzhong's lone army. The cold blade shone in the cold wind, revealing a devastating killing intent.

The moment the two armies collided, there was no earth-shattering cry, only the crisp sound of swords clashing, the dull sound of broken bones, and the shrill cry of war horses.The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty initially waved their sabers to meet the enemy, but the sabers struck Bagala's double-layered heavy armor and only scratched out a string of sparks, which could not even split the armor leaves. They were completely unable to break through the defense. Instead, a piece of it was chopped down by the Jin soldiers' heavy sabers.

"Change the hammer and axe! The saber is useless!"

Qi Bingzhong roared loudly, and the Ming army under his command reacted instantly. They abandoned their light sabers, grabbed the heavy armor-breaking hammers and fine steel axes hanging from their waists, and rushed forward against the rain of arrows from the golden soldiers.The dull roar of blunt weapons hitting the iron armor, and the sudden crackling sound of sharp axes chopping at the gaps in the armor, truly shook Bagala's heavy armor defense.However, there was a huge disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves. Houjin's heavy arrows could easily penetrate the thin cotton armor of the Ming army at a distance of dozens of steps. Even if the soldiers fought desperately with hammers and axes, it was still a one-sided massacre.

A heavy hammer hit the chest and abdomen of a Jin soldier, causing the opponent to vomit blood and fall off his horse. However, in the gap between swings of the axe, Houjin's scimitar would cut off his wrists and split his neck. Many soldiers had just used a sharp ax to split the enemy's armor, and were stabbed through the chest by the surrounding Baya soldiers. Before they fell to the ground, their chests were severely trampled by the galloping horses' hooves.The soldiers around him fell one after another, blood covered the ground, and formed thin ice in the cold wind. It was slippery and sticky when stepped on, and the corpses of his comrades were stepped on with every step.

Qi Bingzhong held an iron ax and chopped several Baya soldiers in succession. Severe pain suddenly came from his waist. The heavy sword of a Houjin heavy rider struck hard, splitting the armor and going deep into the flesh. The blood instantly soaked into the shirt. When it came into contact with the cold wind, he shivered with cold.Before he could turn around, another knife swiped at him, and his left arm was broken in response. The broken arm flew out, and blood gushed out from the wound, instantly dyeing half of his body red. The bone-chilling pain made his eyes darken, and he almost fell off his horse.

He gritted his teeth tightly, his mouth was full of the smell of blood, his vision gradually blurred due to blood loss, and the ringing in his ears covered up the fighting on the battlefield, but his gaze towards Guang Ning remained firm.He weakly spoke to the sobbing soldier beside him, his voice so hoarse that it was almost inaudible: "Tie me...on the horse...can't fall..."

With tears in his eyes, the soldiers tied his broken body to the horse with thick hemp ropes, and the tight ropes were embedded in his flesh and blood.Qi Bingzhong only had his right hand left, struggling to hold the blood-stained iron axe. His body was supported by ropes and he was barely steady on the horse. The blood from the broken arm continued to drip and formed a small blood stream under the horse.He did not roar, but slowly mobilized his war horse and rushed step by step towards the enemy's encirclement. His broken figure looked like a blood-soaked ice sculpture in the sky full of gunpowder smoke.

The Mongolian soldiers under his command looked at the general's appearance, and no one flinched. They tried their best to use their last strength until they fell into a pool of blood. All two thousand soldiers died in the battle, no one survived, and no one surrendered.

In the end, Qi Bingzhong was exhausted and was held down by Hou Jin soldiers, and was tied up in front of Nurhachi.He was covered in wounds, and the wound on his broken arm had already turned purple from the cold, but he still stood upright with his head held high and his spine as straight as a pine tree.

Nurhachi heard that the Ming army general had been captured and came to the battle in person.Looking at Qi Bingzhong who was tied up and covered in blood but still holding his head high, Nurhachi recognized this Mongolian descendant.He put on a tone of cherishing his talents and said slowly in Mongolian: "Dajin and Mongolia are as close as brothers and have the same roots. The Ming Dynasty is our enemy. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty treats us poorly and treats us as a foreign race. Why do you sacrifice your life for them? Why don't you surrender to me? I will promise you a high official position and a generous salary, and share the wealth."

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