Obviously, the reinforcements that had just arrived did not take the hundreds of defenders seriously.
As soon as the 3,000-man battalion of the vanguard arrived, they immediately organized an attack.
The terrain here is narrow and the troops cannot deploy. The battalion soldiers were brought by Chen Guang, deputy commander-in-chief. The quota was 5,000, but the actual number was 3,000.
Soon, the three phalanxes were pressing towards the fortress.
The first phalanx is the shield and sword soldiers. About three hundred people. The second phalanx consisted of pikemen, about five hundred men. The third formation is the gun soldiers. There were about five hundred people, armed with five hundred muskets. There were thirty sidecars waiting behind.
Sidecars are all light vehicles, which were improved models when Qi Jiguang was in charge of Jiubian. In addition to food and ammunition, each vehicle also carries a No. 5 general cannon.
Tian Peng waved his hand, and the fusilier squadron immediately climbed onto the city wall from behind. She took cover behind the battlements made of sandbags and started loading.
Chen Guang waved his hand and said, "Let's start. There are only a hundred or so defenders in total. Defeat them as soon as possible so that we can rescue Zhangjiakou Fort."
Yongning's general Zhao Erdong took the order and left. He ordered the flag bearer to wave the flag and immediately issued the order to attack. In his opinion, these 1,300 people were enough to take over the castle.
Because the water froze and it was originally a trapezoidal shape, plus there was some snow, it looked like a slope.
The rumble of war drums started beating. Three hundred sword and shield soldiers formed a team and moved forward.
They covered the front with their shields. They all carried rattan shields half a meter in diameter. The weight is relatively light. Convenient for swinging and blocking. It is a weapon used in hand-to-hand combat with the Mongols.
The training of shield soldiers is far more difficult than that of spear soldiers, and there is nothing that cannot be trained in two or three years. In this era, shield soldiers belong to elite soldiers.
These soldiers stepped on the snow, making a crunching sound, and walked forward in neat queues.
The width of the valley is only more than thirty meters, making it difficult to spread out if there are too many people. These sword and shield soldiers formed a formation of sixty people in a row. There are five rows in total.
After the shield soldiers are the spearmen. Five hundred spearmen, all armed with three-meter long spears, followed behind.
Tian Peng looked at the Xuan Mansion soldiers, getting closer and closer. Until they entered 100 meters, there was still no order to fire.
Everyone carefully aimed at the shield soldiers without saying a word. Waiting for Tian Peng's order.
One hundred meters, eighty meters, fifty meters. The order to fire was never given.
Thirty meters away, Tian Peng waved his hand and shouted: "Rifle shot in three stages, fire!"
The first team, which had been waiting anxiously for a long time, consisted of thirty-one people, thirty-one flintlock rifles, and immediately pulled the trigger.
A burst of fire and smoke erupted from the crenel. Thirty-one bullets were fired at the shield soldier thirty meters away.
Bang bang bang! There was a sound like exploding beans, and the shields on the opposite side were shot one after another, shaking violently.
Because of the cold weather and marching in the wild, a layer of frost accumulated on the shield. Under the impact of lead bullets, the frost suddenly turned into snow and mist flying all over the sky.
As a burst of snow and fog rose, the phalanx of shield and sword soldiers became a little blurry for a while.
The vine shield was no match for a flintlock shot. At a distance of thirty meters, the bullet has already flown to the maximum kinetic energy distance. As it continues to fly forward, the kinetic energy of the lead bullet begins to decay.
At this distance, the power is greatest.
When Chen Guang saw the first row of sixty shield and sword soldiers, his progress suddenly stalled. A dozen people fell. He was surprised that these Mongols actually had shotguns, and they were very good shotguns.
Chen Guang immediately began to think about who sold them so many shotguns. It couldn't have been sold by one of my own people. After all, the Mongol Tatars' muskets were smuggled in by the Ming Dynasty's border troops.
With the sound of gunfire, the shield soldiers immediately became agitated. They obviously didn't know that the Mongols actually had shotguns. Penetrating a shield at this distance is certainly not something that a fire portal gun can achieve. There was some panic in the team immediately.
The first row finished shooting and immediately retreated with their guns. The second team then moves forward to fill the first team's position. This was followed by another volley, knocking down a dozen sword and shield soldiers again.
These shields were like paper lakes and did not play any protective role at all.
Then the third team opened fire.
In the blink of an eye, Yi Jing fired three volleys, directly knocking down about fifty sword and shield soldiers. The people below were suddenly frightened and panicked.
Zhao Erdong immediately ordered the cavalry to come forward to supervise the battle, forcing the sword and shield soldiers to speed up the charge.
Under the pressure of the cavalry, the sword and shield soldiers began to run. They all know that since the other party has firearms. We must engage the enemy as soon as possible. Anyone who dawdles here will only be knocked down by the opponent one after another.
Behind the sandbags, every six seconds or so, came a volley.
Each time a dozen people were knocked down. However, he quickly rushed over from a distance of thirty meters. Only had time to fire four times.
Seeing these sword and shield soldiers reaching the bottom of the fortress. Start climbing the fortress. Zhao Erdong breathed a sigh of relief. He also didn't expect that the opponent actually had hundreds of gunners. However, after suffering casualties, they finally rushed through.
The swordsmen and shieldmen tried to climb up the slope. However, as soon as a few people stepped on it, they fell down with a snap. As the floating snow covering it was trampled away. They were surprised to find that the slope was actually frozen.
The sword and shield players suddenly panicked and began to climb up using their hands and feet.
Because there are gunmen shooting at them from above. But the more anxious they are, the harder it is to climb up. The ice is very smooth and the slope is very steep. It's impossible to climb up with bare hands without something like a ladder.
Soon, another round of musketry came. A dozen people fell again. The swordsmen and shieldmen couldn't stand it anymore.
Unable to climb up, he was pressed down and beaten with muskets at close range. They turned around and fired back.
The first attack failed completely. Hundreds of people were thrown on the snow in front, some of whom were injured but still wailing. However, in such a cold weather, if no one rescues and bandages them, they will soon die from blood loss and hypothermia.
Hou Shilu felt a little headache when he saw the fortress in front and the tragic situation on the snow.
Although that simple fortress was only ten feet wide, the ice was so slippery that he was dumbfounded. He has never fought this kind of battle.
"Set up camp," after poking Yahuazi for a long time, Hou Shilu popped out a few words from between his teeth.
Chen Guang, the deputy general (deputy chief soldier), looked at it for a while and said: "Sir, this ice city is a bit tricky. But the general looked at it and saw that there were not many defenders inside. There were only more than a hundred people. You don’t have to worry, we probably won’t take the loss in one go if we fight hard, regardless of the losses. We can cut down the trees and make some siege weapons today.”
Hou Shilu said: "These damn Mobei Tatars don't live well in the overwintering camp. They come to Xuanfu to bring trouble on us. God knows how many people they came. This fortress is only ten miles away from Zhangjiakou Fortress. They reinforced it. It’s also very convenient.”
Tian Guang said: "How about we go around. We didn't bring any large artillery when we came out this time. I looked at the frozen solidity, and the No. 3 general cannon and the Xiaoflang machine gun couldn't hit it. We should take down the No. 3 cannon at the head of Xuanfu City. Bring the big bronze cannon from Luzon. It’s not that far anyway. We’ll transport it overnight and it will arrive tomorrow.”
Hou Shilu nodded and said, "That's all we can do. Let's set up camp first."
Tian Peng looked down at the crenel made of sandbags for a while. There are quite a few enemies, tens of thousands of them. The team from afar is coming. Those nearby are setting up camp in the distance.
"Why didn't they attack in one go?" Li Jike asked doubtfully. "It's not far from Xuan Mansion. We haven't used up too much physical strength. We only have a few people."
Tian Peng said: "Hou Shilu is also a veteran. It can be seen that he is quite cautious."
"Look, these guardsmen are shivering with cold. Some of them can no longer walk. They are also weak at work. You can't compare our soldiers with them. Our cavalry officers and soldiers all have beef jerky to eat every day. Yes. How can they compare?"
Li Jike looked at it for a while and found that his opponent's camp was fairly well-organized, with no obvious loopholes. It can be seen that Hou Shilu still has basic military qualities.
"Deputy Tian Ying, you said they are not waiting for the cannon to arrive."
"If they don't fight today, it's very likely."
