The war drums are beating and the horns are sounding!
Storms and clouds gathered together in this land of fertile water and grass. The land here had been here for thousands of years, but today the earth was disturbed.
Shilie Tuo stood on a hilltop three or four miles away from Li Ming's army on his war horse. He sat down on the black horse, carrying an ancestral sword in his hand, wearing brand new leather armor, his hair was tied down from both sides, and his beard was short and dark. The facial features are not as rough as those of the Meng Yuan people, but have a little bit of the delicacy of the Ming people. Surrounded by more than a dozen leaders of large and small tribes, they looked at the Ming army in the distance without saying a word.
Seeing the formation set up by Ming Dynasty, Shi Lietuo chuckled: "I didn't expect that these Ming people are quite brave. I thought that they would run away like rabbits in the face of tens of thousands of our cavalry."
"The big leader." A man next to him laughed and spoke, punched Shilie Tuo in the chest, bowed and said, "Let the Hara tribe test them for the big leader whether they are timid rabbits or not."
Shi Lietuo nodded happily and said to this person: "Since the Ming people have chosen the battlefield, then Brother Yesuli, go and show these Ming people what a true prairie warrior is."
Even if the tribes on the grassland were called together, they would not choose to go to war easily. After all, people will die in war, and the tribal population is small to begin with. Each one is precious and cannot be wasted casually. Even if you want to fight, there must be enough benefits to make up for the losses.
But Brother Yesuli saw that most of the Ming Dynasty had sword and shield soldiers, and they also put the only cavalry in the rear. He thought that the general of the Ming army opposite him was incompetent in fighting, and Brother Yesuli was confident that he could defeat the Ming army with a single charge. Thinking of the Ming army's baggage, Brother Yesuli salivated. How could he endure such fatness?
The benefits that Brother Yesuli can see are naturally seen by others. However, these people are different from Brother Yesuli. They are shrewd and calculating. They will not act rashly until they understand the situation of the Ming army.
In addition, their strength is not as good as Brother Yesuli. Brother Yesuli can't afford to lose, but they can't afford to lose.
Even the other person next to Shi Lietuo saw that Brother Yesuli was the first to speak and was about to speak, but was stopped by Shi Lietuo's look.
"Thank you, chief." Brother Yesuli happily bowed to Shilietuo, then crossed his legs, drove the horse back to the tribe, and summoned all the warriors to prepare for the attack.
"Woo~"
As the horn sounded, Brother Yesuli led four thousand cavalry and charged towards the Ming army.
The opening left by the Ming army was so good that people couldn't take their eyes away when they saw it, and they rushed towards the front opening without thinking.
As the Meng Yuan cavalry charged, the wind blowing on the grassland seemed to disappear in an instant. The green grass leaves on the ground also stopped swaying and stretched straight towards the sky, as if embracing this moment of complete silence.
The three trenches were full of people, and everyone had a ring of thunder hanging around their waists. They lit the fire sticks in their hands and held them nervously. Behind the trench was a row of sword and shield soldiers who tightly covered the cannons. Fifty cannons were arranged in two staggered rows, with their ferocious muzzles slightly tilted forward. The gunpowder fuses for the cannonballs have been installed, and the soldiers are standing aside with torches, waiting for the order to fire.
The silence between heaven and earth was broken by a sudden burst of Wang Dou, and Xu Chengfei immediately shouted after hearing the sound:
"Prepare!"
The sword and shield soldiers blocking in front of the cannon retreated suddenly, and the cold light of steel suddenly shone out.
The drumbeat suddenly stopped.
"fire!!!"
Following Xu Chengfei's order, all gunners immediately lit the fuses.
"呲呲呲" The burning fuse keeps beating, as if counting down.
"boom!"
The deafening sound made the gunners somewhat deaf. Before they could recover from their slight dizziness, the continuous sound of artillery began to roar.
"boom......"
"boom......"
"boom......"
The Ming army has cannons!
Brother Yesuli couldn't help but feel his heart sink when he heard the roar, but he was charging at full speed and there was no way he could turn around or stop. Now he had no choice but to bite the bullet and charge forward. He could only hope that Daming didn't have many cannons and he could forcefully break through the camp.
"The Ming Dynasty has traveled thousands of miles, so it is impossible to bring too many cannons. Charge with me, the leader. The first one to rush in will be rewarded with ten cows and thirty sheep."
In order to fully utilize the power of the cavalry charge, Brother Yesuli concentrated too densely. And Han Du deliberately left only a small opening, facing the direction of the cannon bombardment.
The dense artillery shells fell among the cavalry, and blood blossoms immediately exploded. Just one round of shelling left fifty bright red blood stains among the cavalry.
Brother Yesuli saw it with astonishment and his eyes were red, but he had no choice. At this time, it was difficult to get off the tiger. No matter how great the loss was, he could only continue to charge under the gunfire, hoping to break through the Ming army's formation. Only in this way would his loss be reduced. can be reduced to a minimum.
"Quickly, load the gunpowder..."
"Load the gunpowder and release the shells..."
In order to increase the speed of loading gunpowder, Han Du had already ordered the Ordnance Bureau to create fixed gunpowder. The total amount of gunpowder is weighed in advance, then wrapped in paper and sealed, and then wrapped in a layer of oil paper. When needed, just tear the oil paper open and put the wrapped gunpowder directly into the barrel.
The paper wrapping the gunpowder is not ordinary paper, but nitrated paper soaked in concentrated nitrate and then dried. Like nitrocellulose, such paper will all turn into a plume of smoke after burning, leaving nothing behind.
In this way, it is naturally extremely convenient.
The gunner quickly put a fixed gunpowder into the cannon, then put in a cannonball, suddenly inserted the fuse, and it took less than ten seconds to ignite it.
"Boom~"
Another cannon shot out.
Although Han Du only brought fifty cannons, the time it took for these cannons to fire was less than half that of ordinary cannons.
Therefore, the firepower was so fierce that it was like more than a hundred cannons firing at once, and raindrop-like shells flew towards the Mongolian cavalry.
Brother Yesuli had only heard of cannons in the past, but had never seen one. After the sudden encounter, he was immediately stunned.
The tribal cavalry charged forward one after another, but it was like there was an invisible city wall in front of them, and those who rushed forward exploded one by one.
The distance of less than two miles has become a chasm of despair in Brother Yesuli's eyes. The huge loss made Brother Yesuli close his eyes happily.
"Withdraw~"
We had to withdraw, even if the retreat would cause considerable losses, Brother Suli had to choose to retreat. If he didn't withdraw, his entire tribe might die here.
As the Meng Yuan cavalry retreated, cheers like a roaring tsunami suddenly erupted in the Ming army camp, and everyone's fear of the Meng Yuan people was swept away.
Originally surrounded by tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry, no matter who they were, they would feel fear. It doesn't matter whether you have courage or not, it's human nature.
But now that they saw the menacing attack, they were bombarded by cannons and fled before they could even get close, leaving broken limbs and broken arms all over the ground. Less than half of Yesuli's four thousand cavalry were able to withdraw alive. More than two thousand cavalry fell in front of the Ming army in just a moment.
The first time the ferocity of firearms came to light, it made the enemy extremely frightened and inspired the Ming army soldiers.
Brother Yesuli retreated dejectedly, and did not go to see the big leader, but directly led people back to the location of the tribe. The huge casualties instantly calmed down Brother Yesuli. He no longer wanted to eat the Ming army's good things, and he urgently needed to lick his wounds.
When Shilie Tuo saw that Brother Yesuli hadn't come back, he didn't care. Although he is the big leader, this is just because he has the highest prestige among the people, and he has no absolute binding force on tribal leaders like Brother Yesuli.
"The Ming army actually has so many cannons..." Shi Lietuo's eyes suddenly focused and his face became solemn.
The other leaders also looked at the Ming army's camp with lingering fear. Fortunately, Brother Yesuli couldn't wait to rush up to test it out. Otherwise, no matter who of them went up, they would be caught off guard and end up with the same fate as Brother Yesuli.
"Explore again!"
Shi Lietuo gestured to a leader next to him.
The leader obviously didn't want to go, but he couldn't refute Shi Lietuo in full public view, so he had no choice but to send people to continue the attack. Fortunately, the Meng Yuan people also learned well. Although they also charged towards the Ming army, they did not dare to gather the troops together like Brother Yesuli. They kept a certain distance from each other.
But even so, it was difficult to withstand the bombardment of the Ming army's artillery.
After charging several times in succession, the Ming army was easily repelled, leaving dead bodies everywhere.
Although the Meng Yuan tribe took turns fighting against the Ming army, which was equivalent to sharing the losses equally, even such a huge loss made many tribal leaders feel heartbroken.
Everyone looked at Shilietuo. Now only Shilietuo had not sent his men forward. If there was still a confrontation with the Ming army, they would have to work together to force Shilietuo to send his men forward immediately.
All of them are now damaged in strength. If Shilietuo's strength is not damaged at all, then they are worried that Shilietuo will annex them.
Shi Lietuo naturally knew the purpose of everyone, and it was impossible for him to force the leaders to a dead end before the Ming army was defeated. He looked up at the sky and saw that it was starting to get dark.
Shilie Tuo said confidently: "Have you noticed? The Ming army's cannons are becoming more and more sparse and weak?"
After everyone heard Shi Lietuo's words, they thought about it carefully and found that it was indeed the case. When Brother Yesuli charged at the beginning, the shells were like raindrops, and the roars continued one after another. But by the time of the last charge, the roar had become intermittent, and the originally dense shells had become sparse.
