"go ahead!"
In the bandit firearms camp, the captains, brigade commanders, department commanders, and sentry commanders of each department roared and commanded the 40,000 men in the camp to move forward in a mighty manner.
At the same time, Liu Fangliang led the left camp of the bandits, and Li Guo led the right camp of the bandits also advanced at the same time, but their troops were about a mile behind the firearms camp.
Li Zicheng invested 340,000 to 50,000 troops from the beginning, pressing down on Liu Yan's new army like a stormy wave. Chen Yongfu, who was preparing for the bombardment on the top of the city, was under great pressure, and even his breathing became heavy.
"General Liu should be able to withstand it. After all, the new army is so elite, they will definitely be able to withstand it!"
Chen Yongfu cheered himself up in his heart, and at the same time kept roaring, urging the artillerymen on the city head to seize the time to load the artillery, and according to the order sent by the guards camp messenger just now, more than 160 men and women on the city wall were fired. The machine cannons were aimed at the approaching Ryuu Bandit Firearms Battalion, while the eighteen Hongyi cannons were all aimed at the longest range of the Ryuu Thieves' center army, where Li Zicheng was located in the middle camp.
At the same time, Liu Yan had already given an order to Zhang Yi before leaving the city, ordering the baggage soldiers of Zuoying to seize the time to prepare a large number of sandbags and bamboo baskets, load them with soil, and transport them all to the army formation outside the city. Soldiers and civilians brought sandbags and bamboo baskets from the city, and soon built a semicircular sandbag defense in front of the New Army's formation, protecting the artillery battalion and other New Army battalions inside.
"It seems that Li Zicheng wants the tiger to pounce on the rabbit!"
Liu Yan sneered, wondering who was the tiger and who was the rabbit!
Then Liu Yan looked at the sandbag fortifications in front. Due to time constraints, the defenses in front of the formation were still very crude. They only used sandbags and bamboo baskets to form a low wall half a person high. The height was about the chest of the New Army soldiers. .
In order to strengthen the fortifications, some wooden boards were deployed inside the front sandbag fortifications for reinforcement. Such fortifications are naturally not as good as the semi-permanent combat fortifications in Hongluo Mountain in Liaodong, but they are still enough to be used against the newly established firearms camp of the bandits.
"Order the artillery battalion to prepare for the bombardment, and at the same time give the order to Chen Yongfu. After our artillery battalion opens fire, all the large and small Folang machines on the city head will open fire. They will aim at the bandit's firearms battalion and continue to bombard them. They will not stop until the artillery heats up!"
"Got the order!"
The messenger rode forward to deliver the order. Miao Shao looked at the approaching bandit firearms camp in the distance and said worriedly: "Sir, there are many artillery and muskets in the bandit army. If we fight, the soldiers will probably suffer many casualties." few."
Liu Yan nodded. As the reputation of the new army in Qinglai Town became more and more popular, both the bandits and the Manchus imitated the new army and began to train their own firearms and horses. This was inevitable. From Liu Yan on down, everyone must adapt to this change as soon as possible. The battlefield in the future will be dominated by firearms. The war on the land of China will accelerate the transformation from cold weapon war to hot weapon war. Whoever cannot adapt will be completely destroyed. disuse!
"Order the gunners in the middle camp and the guard battalion to prepare. After the artillery battalion stops shelling, they will all approach the sandbag wall and prepare to fire a salvo!"
"Order all the cavalry battalion soldiers to dismount and stand by. No attacks are allowed without orders from this town!"
"yes!"
Then Liu Yancai said to Miao Shao: "Look, Li Zicheng can't wait any longer. He thinks that the firearms battalion can break through our army's formation and then defeat our army with numerical superiority. Hmm, what a wishful thinking!"
"Today, this town will let Li Zicheng see how firearms are used in combat!"
The two sides are one mile apart!
"Stop!"
Li Dingguo ordered the entire army to stop advancing. In Li Dingguo's view, this distance could already unleash the full combat power of the firearms battalion.
There are 40,000 soldiers and horses in the bandit firearms camp, of which 5,000 are fire gunmen. The fire guns they are equipped with are mainly bird guns and three-eyed guns. Although they are both called bird guns and three-eyed guns, their styles are different. , the sources are even different.
In addition, the firearms camp is also equipped with 170 artillery pieces of various types, many of which have been recently transported from various cities. Most of them are Folan cannons of different sizes, and a few have seven Hongyi cannons. , but they are all more than three thousand kilograms in size, and the cannon can only hit about six to eight kilograms.
In addition, there are 30,000 spearmen and 5,000 cavalry in the firearms battalion. These soldiers and horses have the same organization as the other battalions. At this time, they are already lined up behind the 5,000 gunners and more than 100 artillery pieces. The formation is completed.
In the military formation, Ai Nengqi commanded 5,000 knights and Sun Kewang commanded 30,000 spearmen. The two were on standby in their respective military formations.
Li Dingguo went to the front line in person and commanded five thousand gunmen to line up behind the artillery array. He imitated the tactics of the official army, with one thousand people in a row and all the gunmen arranged in five rows, taking turns to fire volleys to ensure firepower. ’s endless stretch.
Li Dingguo looked at the New Army battle formation a mile away and saw a large number of civilians in the distance quickly building a low wall. He couldn't help but frown slightly: "Build a low wall with sandbags and broken bamboo baskets to block our army's artillery fire. Then Liu Yan It’s too simple to think, how did such a person defeat the Qing army’s cavalry?”
"General Qizhi, General Zuo Guoyi and General You Guoyi are ready!"
"Report!"
"Zuoying has sent someone to contact us and is ready!"
"Send someone from the rear camp to contact us. We are ready!"
"Report!"
"King Chuang has an order: Our battalion is ordered to start attacking. Without King Chuang's order, we are not allowed to retreat even half a step!"
Li Dingguo took a deep breath, exhaled the worries and doubts in his heart, and then said loudly: "All artillery, concentrate your fire on the army artillery camp, let go!"
boom!
A burst of fire exploded, and one hundred and seventy artillery pieces fired one after another. Large and small shells streaked through the air. In the expectant eyes of Li Zicheng, Li Guo, Liu Zongmin and others, as well as Li Dingguo, Sun Kewang, and Ai Nengqi, they fell heavily. In front of the new army formation.
However, what stunned Li Zicheng, Li Dingguo and others was that those seemingly powerful artillery shells landed in front of the New Army formation, but did not cause the killing effect that everyone expected. Except for a very small number of artillery shells that crossed the low wall, Most of the cannonballs were blocked by the seemingly thin and crude low wall. Li Dingguo even saw a cannonball directly embedded in the sandbag!
"How can it be!"
Li Dingguo only felt that his understanding of firearms combat was beginning to collapse. As we all know, artillery salvos can clearly defeat military formations and kill enemy troops, but why did they become useless when it came to Liu Yan?
"Fill it!"
Unwilling to fail, Li Dingguo roared angrily: "Let go!"
One hundred and seventy artillery pieces roared again, and the seven Hongyi cannons also concentrated their fire on the front of the new army.
But Li Dingguo and others were disappointed again. The bombardment effect this time was the same as the last time. Most of the cannonballs were still blocked by the low wall, but more cannonballs passed over the low wall than last time and hit the new ones behind. The soldiers of the military artillery formation caused some gunner casualties.
The soldiers of the battalions behind the formation and artillery battalion were basically unscathed.
"Why is this happening!"
Just when Li Dingguo, Li Zicheng and others were furious, Liu Yan smiled and said to Miao Shao: "I didn't expect that Li Zicheng actually assembled a hundred or dozens of artillery pieces. If these sandbags hadn't been prepared in advance for defense, this would have been impossible. We will really suffer in this battle!”
Miao Shao also smiled and said: "It's better to prepare for a rainy day, sir. It's just that Li Dingguo is also normal. So many artillery have to fire in sequence, so strong firepower is not used. If it were Qian Qian's bad temper, he would definitely fire at the same time. .”
In fact, this is not because Li Dingguo is incompetent, but because most of the troops are like this at this time. They say they fire a salvo of artillery, but they basically bombard them in turns, and they rarely think of firing at the same time. Moreover, the training level of the gunners at this time was generally not high, and even the various instruments for aiming were not fully equipped, so they could not fire all the elements uniformly. Even if they fired at the same time, the fired shells would fly everywhere, and the miss would be thousands of miles away. , unable to concentrate firepower to bombard one place.
Liu Yan pointed to the artillery camp in front and said: "Qian Qian was probably furious after being bombarded by the bandits twice. Send an order to the artillery camp to fight back!"
On the artillery camp position, Qian Qian had already rolled up the sleeves of his hands, gritted his teeth, held up his telescope, and roared loudly: "One mile away from the enemy, seventeen steps!"
"Distance adjustment completed!"
"The enemy's artillery array is arranged horizontally, three steps apart, and the width is more than a mile!"
"The bombardment range is locked!"
"General Fo Lang's cannon is ready, seventy-two artillery pieces are firing, give me a damn blast!"
"put!"
As the swan whistle sounded in the artillery camp, the seventy-two artillery pieces of the Folang Machine Gun Command opened fire at the same time. The firing angles and muzzle positions of all the artillery pieces were uniformly standardized, and the shells fired were uniform and uniform. Smashed at the artillery array of the Flow Bandit Firearms Battalion.
boom!
At this time, Li Dingguo looked forward in horror. He saw that the artillery shells fired by the New Army landed accurately on his own artillery array. The artillery shells, which were almost the same size and shape, fell on the ground. Some of them directly hit the artillery, and the cannon body was blown away. Smashed into scrap metal, or even overturned the cannon. The falling artillery shells may hit the ground, and then ricochet, flying around in the artillery array, taking away gunners and soldiers one after another in the surrounding area, and broken limbs and broken arms keep flying up.
There were even many shells that directly hit the gunner, crushing a large living person directly, and clouds of blood mist splashed around. The surrounding gunners and bandit soldiers immediately ran away screaming.
Immediately afterwards, the artillery on the top of Kaifeng City also began to roar. At this time, more than a hundred various Franco machine guns were deployed on the west city wall. Although they were not accurate enough for the New Army artillery battalion, many of the shells were empty, but The shots were fired in turns, and the momentum was sufficient, which aggravated the chaos in the artillery array of the Rogue Firearms Battalion.
"Report!"
"General Zuo Guoyi invites you to fight, please give me the order from General Zhi!"
At this time, Sun Kewang couldn't stand it any longer. The artillery competition would definitely not be able to defeat the new army. He could only win with a large force of troops and horses, relying on the numerical advantage.
Li Dingguo also knew that he could not hesitate at this time. If he was bombarded by the New Army artillery like this, his battalion would be defeated.
So Li Dingguo ordered the gunners of the artillery team to retreat immediately, and then he led 5,000 gunmen to form a formation. At the same time, he ordered Sun Kewang to lead 30,000 spearmen to follow up. Ai Nengqi led 5,000 knights to charge directly, preparing to attack with cavalry. The New Army's artillery camp first eliminated half of the Ming Army's artillery fire.
Soon, nearly 40,000 horses from the Rogue Firearms Battalion began to take action, with Ai Nengqi taking the lead. These 5,000 warriors were basically the three old subordinates, and they were all members of the Daxi Army who had followed Li Dingguo, Ai Nengqi and Sun Kewang to join the army. These people are not only powerful in battle, they are all confidants who have fought with the three for many years. They are also very well-equipped. Almost everyone is wearing armor, and each person has two horses. They charge with great momentum.
Liu Yan saw it from a distance and sighed: "It seems that there are capable cavalry among the bandits. This cavalry under Li Dingguo will not give in to the Qing army even if they are hedging against the Qing army!"
"Order the gunners of the center camp to prepare, the gunners of the personal guard camp to guard the low wall defenses on both wings, and order the cavalry battalion to stand by!"
"yes!"
Then Liu Yan looked at the approaching five thousand bandit Xiaoqi, and saw that the flag should be Ai Nengqi. After all, he was the only one among the bandits who carried the battle flag with the word "Ai".
"Ai Nengqi? I don't know if his life will be tough or not!"
Some people died, but not completely...
