Cold rain caused temperatures to plummet.
The handsome tent was set up on a two-foot-high earth mountain. Liu Chengzong walked into the rain curtain wearing an oily raincoat, picked up the telescope and looked to the north.
He knew that the enemy might have artillery, but in this weather, there was little chance that the enemy would bring the artillery to specifically bombard him. On the contrary, if it rained for a longer time, the mountain might collapse on its own.
Through the fogged lenses, we can see the Mongolian army in the distance forming several columns. The cavalry is in the middle of the river valley, and the infantry is in the mountains on both sides, meandering from the north. At the front of the battle formation are several people riding white horses, and the generals on the horses are wearing scale armor. If It would be pretty cool if it doesn't rain.
There were supplies, huge logs and felt tents dragged by yaks in the army, as well as a mobile tent cart pulled by at least twelve yaks. Liu Chengzong fell in love with this apartment at a glance.
Dai Daozi's Tangqi still maintained a distance of one mile from the enemy's forward, but was forced to retreat slowly by the pressure of the army, and quickly crossed the trench.
At this time, the battlefield could no longer be covered. Through his telescope, Liu Chengzong saw on the slopes on both sides of the river valley, Mongolian soldiers holding flags climbed up the mountainside in the rain to report frontline intelligence to the troops in the river valley. .
He can see the enemy, and the enemy can see him.
The Khalkha army was pressing forward with great momentum. The army could not be seen at a glance, so Liu Chengzong could not estimate the number of enemies. He only knew that there were more enemies than himself. He lowered his head and looked down the mountain. The enemy army had formed three formations.
On the left wing are twelve aristocratic cavalry teams composed of light and heavy ones. Everyone has armor. Most of them are mail armor with or without a visor. There are less heavy-duty armor and four-dimensional armor. Each team is based on the armor of the great nobles. The strength of the troops varies depending on their appeal, ranging from one hundred to three hundred cavalry, with a total strength of nearly two thousand.
The Chinese army is composed of 800 veterans of Ah Liu. Their equipment is no different from that of the Ming army, but they have no firearms and use five-armed crossbows as their main weapons. The 1,600 light infantry of the Basang tribe were broken up and distributed to them as Archers and spearmen supplement the troops.
On the right wing were the 600 long Hexi heavy infantry led by Gas. They had the best equipment and were almost armed to the teeth by the standards of a chieftain. They were close to the hillside, which was the terrain they were most accustomed to. The right wing was also the weakest part of the military formation.
Liu Chengzong deliberately set up such a thick military formation on the left and thin on the right in order to allow the lion cavalry to pass quickly from the right formation.
Zhang Tianlin and Gao Yingdeng's 1,800-horse team served as a reserve team and stayed behind the formation.
Most of Huang Shengxiao's artillery troops were huddled in simple sheds in the second ditch due to the weather. There were only a hundred artillerymen carrying lynx grandsons mixed in on the front line. They made simple sheds for the lynx grandsons, which could be used for shooting. Play once.
According to the plan, they will return after the release. If it doesn't work, they have also received infantry and cavalry training in Cowan, and they are not afraid of going into battle with swords.
This was Huang Shengxiao's request. The first time this guy came to prominence under Liu Chengzong was by firing guns in the rain. Now he has caught his old trade.
Seeing the menacing Mongolian army, there was a brief commotion between the left wing and the center army. Zhang Tianlin, who was standing on the mountain to observe the battlefield, narrowed her eyes and said: "Commander, the enemy troops may not be able to defeat the Tatars. They can't even defeat the Xie Erhu in the south. If we put it on the front line and be the first to attack, I'm worried that it will collapse directly."
"No, they won't be afraid after the cannons are fired." Liu Chengzong answered confidently, but asked an irrelevant question: "Does General Zhang know which sword is the most powerful in the world?"
Zhang Tianlin thought that Fanzi couldn't do it with a sword. Besides, even if the Fanzi was powerful, the fans they had didn't have that many swords, so she shook her head and said, "I don't know."
"The blunderbuss sword is the most powerful. It can defeat all swords and even spears."
Liu Chengzong looked at the battle formation in the distance, and the raindrops mixed with ice shards hit his oil jacket, crackling.
He spoke intermittently: "It's not because of the superb forging skills of the blunderbuss, but because it is inserted into the blunderbuss."
After saying that, he turned his head and said: "We are blunderbuss and they are swords. If the Mongols stand on our side, the Mongols can kill Fanzi until the blood flows like rivers; if the Xifan people stand on our side, Xifan will One person can beat the crap out of the Tatars...it's not Xie Erhu who can beat them, it's us."
Of course, the bayonet is not as useful as a spear, and it is not even as good as a normal one-handed knife. But when it is inserted into a musket, it can be invincible in the world with its performance.
Liu Chengzong believed that fifty small cannons could bring a little surprise to the approaching Khalkha horse team.
But it wasn't Xiao Pao who brought the first surprise.
The large Mongolian army stood 300 steps north of a trench. A Mongolian force of 1,000 troops continued to advance forward, accelerating, and outflanked the two flanks... Maybe it was because of the poor visibility in the rainy weather that they discovered the trench after a few steps.
The captain immediately walked around to the two wings, but two horses had their own ideas. Under Liu Chengzong's gaze, he led the cavalry soldiers into the ditch.
The laughter of our own soldiers was overwhelming, and the enemy generals in front of the formation were furious. They drove the yaks to drag the giant trees forward, and used the two wings of rangers and herdsmen infantry to spread out along the trenches to both sides to find gaps.
Tangqi, who had retreated to the main camp, also attacked again under the leadership of Dai Daozi, fighting the Mongolian scouts on the flanking hillsides, but this time the weapons they used were replaced by bows and arrows.
This way the advantage isn't that big.
Ahai Daiqing and Guyang of Khalkha stood side by side on the chariot. They raised their fingers and pointed at Tangqi and said: "On a rainy day, we have to fight for half an hour. Even the bow cannot be used after being soaked in water. I will prepare treasures for them and smash them to death." them."
Bald Qiang was so proud that he was not angry at all when he saw the ditch.
Because he mastered a rare technology among the Mongols, building a cannon.
This is a very backward technology. It is very simple to master it, but you have to be very interested in these things... because it is useless.
It is of little use in Khalkha, and has no use outside Khalkha. It has a short range, is heavy, and is difficult to assemble and move quickly.
Whether it was internal strife with the Mongolian army, or fighting with the Ming army or Hou Jin, it was useless. The Mongolian army ran fast, the Ming army had artillery, and Hou Jin both ran fast and had artillery.
But on rainy days, this old skill comes into play.
Fifty six-liang-heavy stone bullets can be hit by return artillery 150 steps away after being counterweighted, and then supplemented by the attack of horse soldiers. How can the Han army without artillery fight with him?
Not to mention there is a trench!
At this time, the front armies of both sides were only separated by a hundred steps between the two trenches. Except for Tangqi and the scouts, both sides had a tacit understanding not to release arrows, because their bows and arrows were still in their bags and they would not actually take action until they started. It will not be taken out and wound.
Liu Chengzong saw yaks dragging large logs to the front line. The logs were being lifted up and erected. They were not for filling trenches and building bridges, but seemed to be assembling something.
Then Liu Chengzong glared, cursed and drove Zhang Tianlin and his guards away: "Let's go, let's get down except the flag bearers. I can just stand here. What's wrong with these Tatars, catapults? Put Huang Call me up."
Ahai Daiqing's two counterweight catapults were slowly but surely assembled in front of a trench.
These two things brought great commotion in front of the battle. The noble cavalry wanted to lead the crowd across the ditch to attack the stone cannons several times, but they did not dare to face the large number of Mongolian cavalry alone. The leaders of each team anxiously turned back to Tushan.
Fortunately, their commander is still standing on the mountain.
Huang Shengxiao ran up Tushan from the gun barracks. Liu Chengzong pointed at the front of the formation and returned the artillery fire and asked: "Can you hit it?"
He was a little angry, but he never expected that the two trenches he dug would become a powerful barrier for the Tatars to protect the trebuchets.
It's no wonder that Lao Qijia didn't observe carefully. The requirements for detecting intelligence in the snow-capped mountains are too high, not to mention that Lao Qijia may not have seen this thing before.
In fact, this was the first time even Liu Chengzong had seen the Huihui Pao. If he hadn't seen the drawings in a book, he wouldn't have recognized it at all.
Huang Shengxiao felt like he was facing a formidable enemy. Rain had a great impact on gunpowder weapons, but it had no effect on gravity trebuchets such as the returning artillery.
He shook his head and said: "Commander, I don't know. The range is enough, but it's hard to see clearly in rainy days and it's difficult to aim. Our guns can only kill people, but they can't dismantle stone cannons."
"Fight first and then talk. If you can't dismantle the cannon, then kill everyone."
As soon as Liu Chengzong finished speaking, the flag guard quickly gave orders, and then the sound of orders sounded in the gun shed. The soldiers with firearms on their shoulders changed their positions to set up their weapons. Fifty guns were organized into five teams, aiming at the trench before assembling stone throws. Cars of enemy troops.
The Mongolian cavalry still surrounded the two catapults in front of the trench to show off their power. They enjoyed the shock the catapults brought to the enemy.
Two two-foot-high tripods have been installed. The shepherd soldiers stood on the side of the wooden ladder and shouted down. One end of the strength arm was tied with a rope, and the short arm at the other end hung a stone box, which was filled with large counterweight stones.
Four soldiers pulled the rope, and one person on each side of the stone cannon turned the winch, pulled the parabolic end of the force arm downward, and drove the pebble bullet into the thick leather bag. The long force arm was fixed on the cannon body by a live hook, and on the wooden ladder The soldiers shouted that they were ready.
With the order of the Mongolian general on the front line, the moment the live hook was smashed open, there was a buzzing sound, and the heavy stone that had been charging at the front of the force arm suddenly fell, pulling the entire force arm to draw a semicircle in the air, reaching its highest point at the force arm. At one point, the movable buckle at one end of the leather bag came out of the free arm, and hundreds of flying stones in the bag were shot forward.
Nearly half a kilogram of stone bullets passed through the wind and rain with a buzzing sound. Almost at the same time, Liu Chengzong's entire military front line was in panic. People shouted in various languages to raise their shields. For a while, those with shields raised their shields and those without shields squatted down. I dare not look directly at the flying rocks.
But the flying rocks will eventually fall.
At one time, two catapults threw flying stones one after another. Hundreds of stone bombs were thrown in the air. Most of the stone bombs, which weighed nearly half a kilogram, fell on the second trench and the open space, but there were still twenty or thirty stone bombs. In the central army where the Tubo nobles and Ah Liu Basang were, they beat the soldiers until they cried for their fathers and screamed for their mothers, and ran away with their heads in their hands.
Those without shields were knocked down, and those with shields were knocked to the ground. Some were hit in the head without wearing helmets, and were knocked unconscious.
Ah Liu was the first to react. He immediately ordered his veterans to set up hundreds of crossbows in front of the formation and fire a barrage of crossbow bolts near the catapult.
His big crossbow can hit that far, but it has no power at that distance.
The Kangning light soldiers who were mixed together also strung their bows, spraying out a rain of arrows, and were immediately stopped. Their bows were weak and powerful, and they had no use except wasting arrows... No, Don't waste feathered arrows, because their arrows often have no feathers.
Under normal circumstances, they would have been defeated by now.
The enemy can hit me, but I can't hit the enemy. If I don't run away, am I going to stay here and be beaten?
But at this moment, there was a loud noise from the cannon shed behind the formation, and the ten large guns sticking out of the shed spewed out a cloud of gunpowder smoke. The ten two-and-a-half lead lumps responded to the call from the siege equipment four hundred years ago. .
The Mongolian general riding a white horse still held his neck high to admire the scene of flying rocks smashing the enemy soldiers into hiding. The next moment, a piece of gunpowder smoke rose in the distance in the rain curtain, and a whooshing sound flashed in his ears.
He turned back sharply, and the soldiers lined up beside him all looked down at their abdomens in a daze. One after another they fell down, their blood mixed with the mud, and they were in so much pain that they couldn't even scream.
The last soldier held up his half-parted arm, with a round shield hanging on it. Blood oozed from the leather armor on his chest, and then he let out a heart-wrenching cry.
"this……"
General White Horse had not yet reacted to the sudden change, and all he could think about was: What?
There was another burst of fire in the distance, and he quickly turned his head. The previous handful of gunpowder smoke had just been dispersed by the rain, and another piece of gunpowder smoke rose there, and another whooshing sound passed across the battlefield.
This time the enemy's attack was particularly clear in his eyes. Some things hit the catapult, like pegs built into the wood, and some things passed over the front line, lifting up a large piece of turf behind them and disintegrating wet soil and mud. Flying around.
Something else hit his soldiers, and there was only the sound of tearing cloth and breaking wood. It no longer mattered whether the leather armor was inlaid with iron or whether the shield had iron.
As long as they are in one line, shields, armors, horses, and soldiers will all be penetrated. Sometimes there are even more than one line, and those lumps of lead that are broken when they hit hard objects will still fly and kill people.
Lightning flashed across the sky, and in the blink of an eye, he saw a cavalry captain holding up his saber that reflected the lightning, trying to contain the soldiers from dispersing.
A piece of lead hit the saber, and the blade broke into three sections from the middle. The lead bullet was cut into two halves. One half flew to an unknown place, and the other half hit the neck of a war horse, causing it to throw off the captain and trample two people as it galloped. An infantryman.
The front line was already in chaos, and another burst of smoke rose in the peripheral vision, and the sound was mixed with the rolling thunder in the distance.
Various sounds hit the ears of General White Horse. His mind was confused and the horse under his crotch was panicked. For a moment, he couldn't care about anything and just turned his head and turned the horse to run back.
The thousand-man team gathered next to the catapult immediately fled, and even the army formation behind was overwhelmed by their broken troops. At the same time, the Corning nobles who formed the team also collapsed.
For the mob, charging and retreating are just a form of collapse. There is no order from Tushan, and I don't know who started it. The noble cavalry came forward one by one, galloping forward with their spears.
The Ah Sixth Army, who did not know what was going on, also raised a flag and formed a formation to cross the trench.
Liu Chengzong was dumbfounded. Thirty lead balls defeated the Thousand-Man Team, which was beyond his expectation.
But he never expected that this thousand-man team would actually turn around and rush towards his own position. He was really impulsive and ran northwest with people in his arms.
What's more, he never imagined that his Xifan nobles would rush out like wild boars that had never won a battle in their lives.
Originally, he wanted to lead his cavalry to stop the Chinese army. Although information communication probably failed in rainy weather, what if they were faking defeat? The enemy has tens of thousands of troops parked behind him, so he just rushes over?
But before he thought about it, he considered the matching mechanism between Xifan and Mongolia in this era.
Perhaps following the charge and converting a false defeat into a rout is the correct way to start a war.
Digging trenches, building mountains of earth, encircling two sides, and advancing slowly are all about fighting the air with wits and courage.
Finally, he folded his arms and sighed on the dirt mountain. He glanced at the snow-capped mountains to the north and said with great disappointment: "Forget it, let Gao Yingdeng protect the flanks of the Chinese army and move forward. What the hell!" What's the point of encirclement?"
"Zhang Tianlin doesn't move. If it's a fake defeat, at least there is still a front." Liu Chengzong said, and he raised the telescope and took another look: "I guess we won."
