After Hu Dawei asked his guerrilla generals to ask for help, Lu Xiangsheng quickly sent a Qianzong to lead his troops to support him, bringing with him two teams of bird gunners, including one team each of Lumi gunners and self-made fire gunners. , a total of more than two hundred fire gun soldiers.
At this time, there were more than 400 fire gunners in the Dubiao camp, half of whom were bird gunners, and the rest were Lumi gunners and self-made fire gunners. Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei both asked Lu Xiangsheng for urgent help. Although Lu Xiangsheng still had nearly 2,000 people under the Xuanfu Commander Zhang Yan's army, the firearms in Zhang Yan's army were not even as good as those of the two generals. Lu Xiangsheng had no choice but to split his fire gun soldiers into two to support Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei respectively. After these firecrackers arrived on both wings of the defense line, they favorably reversed the battle situation on both wings.
The gunpowder of the Dubiao Camp is equipped with an automatic opening and closing fire door device on the gunpowder pool, so it can be used in cold weather. Moreover, the range of these bird muskets is the same as that of the flint-haired bird muskets of the Xiahe Village New Army. Although their armor-piercing ability is slightly inferior, they are equally sophisticated and there is no danger of exploding the barrel.
The gunners in the Supervisory Base Battalion are also trained rigorously and spend a lot of gunpowder and projectiles on live shooting. In terms of combat effectiveness, they are much better than the gunners in the main barracks on both wings.
In fact, the Dubiao camp originally had more than a thousand gunmen, but most of them were snatched by Chen Xinjia before Lu Xiangsheng led his troops south.
In addition to the bird gunners, Lu Xiangsheng also supports the Rumi gunmen on both wings. They are also quite powerful. The Lumi gunfire door device they use also has a unique feature and can be used in cold winds. Although the Rumi gun is heavy, it has outstanding armor-piercing capabilities, its effective range can reach one hundred and fifty steps, and its accuracy is very high, almost comparable to the rifles of later generations.
Liu Yan felt itchy when he saw a powerful weapon like the Rumi Gun. It would be good to use it as a sniper rifle if you could get a few shots of such a sharp weapon.
However, the capabilities of the Firearms Supervisory Office are limited, and it is still unable to build a technology like the Rumi Gun. However, under today's war situation, Liu Yan was surprised to find that Lumi guns were widely used in many armies of the Ming Dynasty. As early as the Tianqi period, the Ministry of Industry at that time issued two thousand Rumi guns to Shanhaiguan. Except for a few Rumi guns, most of them were excellent.
This is a terrifying number, which proves the Ming Dynasty's strong ability to mass-produce high-quality artillery and fire guns. Just like all kinds of Folang machine artillery, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was unable to master this high technology until the Westernization Movement of later generations. However, in the military fortresses all over the Ming Dynasty, Folang machine artillery was only a very common firearm.
Therefore, in Liu Yan's view, the Ming Dynasty did not lose on whether its weapons and equipment were advanced, but on various political factors. Moreover, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, various towns became seriously warlords, and coupled with poor logistics supplies, these factors greatly affected the promotion and use of various advanced firearms. Firearms require systematic and rigorous training, and all aspects of support are complex issues.
As for cold weapon masters, they can randomly recruit some strong men and issue them with swords, guns and sticks, and then they can fight. They can also brag to the outside world that they have tens of thousands of powerful soldiers and occupy an important position in the eyes of the court. Why not? 33
Back to the original point.
At this time, Lu Xiangsheng not only supported the bird gunmen and Lumi gunmen on both wings, but also had a team of self-generated fire gunners. The self-generated fire guns are flintlock guns, and there is no problem fighting in the cold wind. With the emergency support of the supervisor's camp fire gunners, the Qing soldiers outside the defense lines on both wings encountered a huge obstacle when they marched towards the third layer of low wall trenches. resistance, the number of casualties soared instantly.
There were more than 400 supervising campfire cannons on both wings, constantly aiming at the auxiliary soldiers who came out from behind the wooden shields of the Qing soldiers to fill the trenches, knocking them to the ground one by one. Yang Guozhu and the archers in Hu Daweizheng's barracks were also desperately assisting in shooting. At this time, the Qing soldiers attacking on both wings had already moved closer to the position fifty steps in front of the earth wall. Their archers also posed a great threat to the Ming army behind the earth wall. The two sides exchanged fire for a while. There were casualties on each other, and there was a stalemate for a while.
Towards evening, the Qing army retreated. In Liu Yan's defense line, the Qing army filled in two trenches and pushed them to a distance of fifty steps in front of the earthen wall. In front of the defense lines of Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei on both wings, the Qing soldiers filled in three trenches and pushed them as close as forty steps in front of the earth wall.
After Ming Jin withdrew his troops, the Qing army retreated like a tide. When they retreated, they brought back the bodies of their wounded and wounded soldiers, leaving Xuan's army unaware of how many of them they had killed and wounded. When they retreated, the rough wooden shields were left between the low wall trenches.
It seems that the Qing soldiers were not afraid of the Ming army dragging away and destroying those wooden shields. Presumably there were many such rough wooden shields in their camp.
After cleaning up the battlefield after the war, the Ming army officers and soldiers dragged back all the wooden shields left by the Qing army and used them as firewood. Liu Yan, Lu Xiangsheng, Yang Guozhu, Hu Dawei and others urgently discussed military affairs.
No one could think of any good method for the Qing army's tactics. The artillery must strictly guard the passage and not move rashly. It seemed that they had to fight bloody battles in the trenches.
In this battle, the Xuanda and Shandong armies still have terrain advantages. Every step forward by the Qing army will require greater casualties than the Ming army. It depends on who has a stronger fighting will and can withstand their own troops. The soldiers were damaged.
That night, Lu Xiangsheng, Liu Yan and others also interrogated those captured Qing prisoners, but no useful information was obtained.
Early the next morning, the Qing army came in like a tide again. Using sophisticated tanks as cover, they braved the artillery fire of the Xuanda army and approached the low-wall trench. As expected, they pushed out dense layers of wooden shields again.
The trenches filled by the Qing soldiers yesterday were flat and hard and extremely difficult to dig. In order to maintain the strength of the sergeants, Lu Xiangsheng ordered the digging to be abandoned. Along the filled trenches, many rough wooden shields of the Qing army were lifted over the low walls one after another, until they approached the unfilled trench with low walls.
The flames of war were ignited between these low wall trenches. Many Qing soldiers stormed the frontal defense line of the new army in Xiahe Village. Their armors were of different colors, and they seemed to be archers and auxiliary soldiers from the Eight Banners Manchuria or the Eight Banners Mongolia.
Those Qing soldiers used wooden shields to shoot arrows at the new army gunners in Xiahe Village behind the earth wall to cover the trench filling of the soldiers. After one group of people shot to exhaustion, another group was immediately replaced. There were always archers shooting, seemingly without interruption.
These densely packed archers who were good at shooting posed a considerable threat to the soldiers of the new army in Xiahe Village. The key was that there were too many of them. Not to mention the light-armored archers in the Qing army who were good at shooting, they were the auxiliary soldiers in their various banners. Although they were not qualified to wear armor, they had also practiced bow and horse since childhood, and their combat ability was not bad, and the arrows they shot were the same. Tricky.
Facing the dense archers of the Qing army, Liu Yan had already put all the two generals, Wang Bo and Zhang Yi, on guard. In addition, two generals, Shen Tuo and Miao Shao, were mobilized as reserve teams, ready to support the frontline battles at any time.
From morning to afternoon, the Qing army's fierce offensive continued. They had a large number of people and could constantly replace their troops to rest and eat, and then another few waves of people would immediately attack.
Moreover, when the Qing army archers were shooting, the heavy armored soldiers of each flag guarded the sides of the wooden shields to prevent the Ming army from rushing out of the passage and raiding the archers between the low walls.
Such a fierce and continuous offensive by the Qing army surprised Liu Yan. Now there are many reserves of the new army in Xiahe Village, and they can constantly replace the tired soldiers to rest. The Qing army's fierce offensive could not shake the determination of its own army to fight. I don't know whether the defenders on both wings could withstand such huge pressure.
In the afternoon, the Qing troops, who were attacking the new army's defense line in Xiahe Village, finally pushed the layers of wooden shields in a ditch into the town until they were forty steps away from the earth wall.
Compared with the bows and arrows of the Ming army, the bows of the Manchus and Mongols were weaker than the bows of the Ming Dynasty. They were only capable of seven fights. The effective range was about seventy steps, and they only had obvious damage to the target after entering fifty steps. To break through the opponent's armor, whether leather armor, cotton armor, iron armor, etc., it is necessary to get closer to about thirty or forty steps. However, the arrowheads of their arrows were extremely long and shaped like chisels. The arrowheads were soaked in horse dung, making them difficult to remove after being shot. As the poison in the arrowheads spread, injured soldiers could easily lose their lives.
At this distance, the Qing army's bows and arrows posed a great threat to the new army gunmen in Xiahe Village. Their arrows were hard and accurate, and a fierce rain of arrows came over them. Many of Xiahe Village's new army gunners were hit by arrows one after another. Although the blunderbuss in their hands were powerful, their shooting speed and accuracy were far inferior to the bows and arrows of the Qing army.
The gunmen of the new army in Xiahe Village are now equipped with sophisticated iron armor. Even if some soldiers are hit by arrows, most of them cannot break through the armor. Even if the armor is shot through, the arrow will not penetrate deeply into the flesh. Liu Yan still ordered these sergeants to be helped to rest and receive treatment.
The fierce rain of arrows from the Qing soldiers continued at this time, and their number of archers was too many. Behind the earthen wall, the new bird gunners of Xiahe Village were suppressed by the fierce arrow rain, and they had to lower their heads lower. After firing a shot, they quickly lowered their heads and crept back to reload.
The new troops in Xiahe Village were very experienced in dodging bows and arrows. Half of them still had iron masks. However, some sergeants were still unable to avoid the roaring rain of arrows. Some people without masks were hit by arrows in their faces, and some The man's helmet was shot through.
Despite this, Xiahe Village's new weapons and cannons from behind the earthen wall continued to fire, and the deafening sound of the bird cannons in their hands seemed to never stop.
From the side of the Qing soldiers, the smoke was so dense in front of the earthen wall that even the howling cold wind couldn't blow it away, and it also affected the sight of the Qing army's archers. Violent firelights emerged from the smoke, causing debris from the wooden shields of the Qing soldiers to fly.
Including the heavy troops of the two generals, the two generals under Wang Bo and Zhang Yi had more than a thousand cannons, and they continuously attacked the Qing soldiers in front of the earthen wall. From time to time, Qing army archers and auxiliary soldiers filling trenches were hit and rolled to the ground, and the casualties on both sides continued to increase.
As if feeling the fierce fire of the new army in Xiahe Village, the advance of the Qing troops attacking the frontal defense slowed down, but the rain of arrows fired by their archers did not stop for a moment. The followers continued to throw mud to fill the trenches, letting the soil The new army of Xiahe Village behind the wall did not dare to take it lightly.
The frontal battle was stalemate. Looking at the fierce battle in front of him, Liu Yan looked calm on the outside, but in fact he was secretly anxious inside. The war seems to be getting tougher. From yesterday afternoon to this afternoon, and now, the casualties of the gunmen in our army have reached more than 200 people.
And since yesterday afternoon, although the Qing army has also continued to suffer casualties, most of the dead are cannon fodder of Aha, Baoyi and other slaves who filled the trenches of each brigade. Their heavy armored soldiers, and even the iron-inlaid cotton vests and infantry in each banner, suffered few casualties. If they continue to be exhausted like this, the prospect of this battle will not be optimistic.
Some people died, but not completely...
