Out in full force.
The eight thousand troops gathered from Xining City were divided into three armies and marched forward along the Huang River.
Chengyun took off his blue satin robe, put on a khaki military uniform and chain mail, carried a heavy gun on his shoulder and marched on his beloved little donkey.
The real commander of this army was the infantry battalion staff general Wang Wenxiu, who led the 3,600 infantry battalion as the central army. The left wing was led by Liu Jiajun, and the right wing was a miscellaneous army led by Nanshan Fort guard Zhong Hu.
The left wing said it was the Liu Jiajun, mainly because there were two temporary commander-in-chiefs under the command of General Liu Chengyun, the monkey Liu Jiusi and the monkey Liu Guoneng, both surnamed Liu.
There are more than 2,000 men under the three surnames Liu, most of whom are urgently recruiting Mongolian soldiers. But Liu Chengzong, who is extremely cautious, will not use these people to fight even if he does not recruit troops.
What kind of political status a person has in the Marshal's Office depends not on blood or race, but on how the Marshal's Office knows the person.
The people of the two counties of Haixi and Haibei are no longer the same as before under the rule of the Marshal's Mansion. The local Fanmeng people have gone to Juerwan and other places under the influence of marriage, work, and conscription, and they have been given to the Marshal alone. Raising cattle and sheep will make more money than in the past in Haixi.
The poor people may not have much education, but they are not stupid. They raise sheep in Haixi to drink milk and sell sheep for lion tickets to buy noodles in Juerwan. Then why not just go to Juerwan to raise sheep and drink the Grand Marshal? Milk, earning lion tickets to buy noodles?
The current Fan soldiers and Mongolian soldiers there are all outsiders like the Han people. They are prisoners of war in the southern and northern expeditions. The Fan soldiers are prisoners of failed rebellion; most of the Mongolian soldiers are the subordinates of Chuoktu Taiji.
Those who surrendered were all under Ahai Daiqing. These people were the ones who were defeated if they did not surrender.
They lived the same life as those in the Mongolian tribes who lost the war. They were discriminated against because of their status as prisoners of war, and they could not have children if they could not get their mothers-in-law.
Chengyun calculated again and again in Xining. The military strength currently left by the Marshal's Mansion in the rear was not enough to complete the two tasks of guarding Xining and supporting Liu Chengzong at the same time.
Even if they all go out, Xining City needs at least 800 reliable soldiers to guard the warehouse under the leadership of Liu Xiangyu... It is not realistic to think about defending the city. There are fewer soldiers than the battlements.
Therefore, Chengyuan made a wish to these prisoners of war, granting them the status of normal civilians. Then he recruited more than a thousand people, distributed weapons, found some old ordnance that no one wanted in the warehouse, and brought them to the battlefield with hasty weapons.
The soldiers that Liu Guo was able to bring out into the Taotian, the more than 400 Haixi Army carrying stone cannons and mines on their shoulders, were all the best among the best on the left wing.
Although the right wing is a motley army, it is actually much more reliable than the left wing.
In terms of elite troops, there are 1,200 elite soldiers from Zhong Hu's department on the right wing, all from the Lion Army, 200 banner troops from Bao Hu's army, and 200 local soldiers from Chen Shiwen's army.
In terms of armor and weapons, Zhong Hu has a fully equipped 60-man Yongzhu cannon, Chen Shiwen has a Mongolian forged iron cannon supervised by Chuoketu Taiji, and Bao Hu is even more amazing. Mr. Hong Wu, who was watching the scene, was dragged out.
On the earth hill of Sansanlipu, He Yongji looked at this very strange army, frowned, and tried his best to suppress his desire to attack head on.
Chengyun or Wang Wenxiu's army looks very attractive.
The clothing on the left wing was scattered, including those wearing cloth masks, some wearing Mongolian leather armor, and thousands of others wearing leather jackets.
The clothes on the right wing are okay, but the Yuan Dynasty heavy armor and the early Ming Hongwu cannon appear very strangely.
It can be seen at a glance that the Chinese army is a very elite regular army, but the problem lies in the fact that the three military formations are all large columns advancing together, with two rows of black figures sandwiched in the middle, most of which are scattered cavalry.
What's the meaning?
He Yongji doesn’t understand.
The three long snake formations lined up side by side were for the march, but he could see the enemy, and the enemy could definitely see him. The two sides had already entered the visual range, and they would only be five or six miles apart if they were to die. ?
Chief He was feeling itchy. He had 8,000 native soldiers. The infantry attacked them head-on, and the cavalry attacked from the flanks. They stopped the two long snakes on the left and right flanks and broke up all the messengers and military formations. Even a god could not do it. He commanded these seven or eight thousand people through dreams.
It was a pity that Wang Chengen did not let him take action, but the enemy's three columns were running very fast, so He Yongji could only order the soldiers to retreat in columns.
For a time, nearly 20,000 people formed a large column at the western end of the Hehuang Valley and marched eastward. The vast clouds of dust covered the sky and blocked the sun.
The dust in front has not yet settled, but the floating soil behind has been kicked up by the hoofs of donkeys. As they immersed themselves in driving, the horsemen were ordered to gallop back and forth between the columns, conveying Wang Wenxiu's orders one after another.
Wang Wenxiu ordered the three armies to advance but not to retreat, and those who retreated would be killed.
Later, a messenger was specially sent to Chengyun to persuade him to hand over the team to Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi and go behind the Chinese army.
Chengyun Xin persuaded me several times, and he looked down on others. I gave you the army to lead because I thought I couldn't win, but it wasn't because I, Liu Chengyun, was greedy for life and afraid of death.
When my second brother went to war, I personally escorted the vehicles to deliver artillery shells to the front line!
Chengyun waved his hand to the messenger and said, "I won't go, I'll be on the left wing."
Not long after, Wang Wenxiu's messenger came again and said: "General Liu, General Wang said that since the general wants to stand with the soldiers, it is better not to be reckless. The left wing only needs to face the enemy's block for a moment. General Wang is here. After the victory, we can have wine and talk with the general."
Cheng Yu nodded.
Block for a moment?
What does Wang Wenxiu want to do?
Chengyun didn't ask. Since he had already made up his mind to believe Wang Wenxiu, he didn't send anyone to question him. He just informed the soldiers leading the troops, Shangtianhou and Chuangtaotian, of the news.
However, even though the news had been conveyed, Wang Wenxiu still sent out horsemen to raise flags in three directions: in front of the left wing, in the middle of the right, and in the rear of the right to convey the order to advance.
The two armies moved farther and farther in the river valley. Wang Wenxiu used flag soldiers from behind to control the marching speed of the three large columns, sometimes slowing down and sometimes speeding up, making the generals on the left wing miserable.
There was originally a problem with verbal communication. They were not walking, but riding mules and donkeys. Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi's cost of leading the troops was even greater, and the formation was in a mess.
On the other hand, Liu Chengyun, who was a mascot in the army, in the spirit of learning more, used the binoculars to see something. He could see that Wang Wenxiu was always controlling the distance from the enemy in front.
But how far is the distance? He doesn't have as much command experience as Liu Shizi, nor has he studied in a training camp, so he doesn't know.
This made him think, maybe Wang Wenxiu wanted to form a column to attack the enemy, right?
If a large column like theirs were hit by a heavy cannon, twenty people would probably be crushed to death by one cannonball.
But if they want to attack the enemy in large columns, why do they bring so many guns and artillery?
Liu Chengyun was puzzled.
The infantry camp has a lot of heavy guns, guns and artillery.
Forty lion cannons were pulled out alone, twelve of them were from the infantry camp, and twenty-eight of them were almost scrapped by Liu Shishi in the Bajiao City. They were left in Juerwan to wait for recasting, but Wang Wenxiu pulled them out.
There were a total of thirty-six cannons in that batch, eight of which had bulges on the outside of the barrel, and Wang Wenxiu did not bring them.
But in fact, the insides of the barrels of these twenty-eight cannons are also expanded and deformed. If the firing is slowed down, two cannons can still be fired.
Now Wang Wenxiu led thirty hundred columns, and concentrated lion cannons, rifles, and heavy muskets in the first ten columns. He also changed formations while marching. At first, the infantry camp was three columns of hundreds of columns, walking in parallel. As we walked, it became two parallel columns, making the entire team longer.
In fact, Wang Wenxiu's army was very comfortable during the march. Although most of the soldiers were wearing armor, it was the donkeys that did the hard work. The Hezhou native soldiers in front were different. They did not have so many donkeys and mules. They even came over the mountains and ridges, not even horse soldiers. many.
At this moment, through the dust raised by the advancing army, a large number of horns sounded from the front. Chengyun saw that the enemies in front of him were spreading from the center to the sides.
Then he heard the faint but consistent sound of horse hooves.
A cavalry troop walked out from the middle of the river valley that the Hezhou native soldiers had given up. The native soldiers gave way to the center. One after another, the formations turned and arrived at the predetermined position in the process, just like an ancient scroll unfolding in the river valley, moving from the middle to Spread out slowly on both sides.
But the hundreds of cavalry did not stop, and continued to move forward across the infantry line, and then spread out in the river valley, seemingly trying to drive away Wang Wenxiu's Tang soldiers.
Wang Wenxiu gave orders to the left and right wings, ordering the army to continue advancing. At the same time, the cavalry attacked to drive away the enemy cavalry.
The cavalry of Zhong Hu's department on the right wing moved upon hearing the order, and three hundred horsemen came out from the gap between the large columns. They first dispersed into three hundred regiments in front of the formation, and then dispersed into six regiments, each carrying a spear and a bow. Ride up to meet the enemy.
In comparison, the left wing looked like a demented old man with unclear mind and weak legs and feet. After the enemy cavalry ran across the center of the battlefield, groups of horse soldiers ran out, and even Mongolian soldiers riding mules followed.
Chengyun sighed in his heart. With the quality of the soldiers, it seemed quite difficult to hold them back for a quarter of an hour.
He rushed forward on his little donkey, approached Liu Guoneng and said, "Liu County Magistrate, it's up to you to stabilize the front soon."
After all, Liu Guoneng had trustworthy soldiers and a strong back. He led the horse on the back of the mule and said with a smile: "Third general, don't worry. My people will form an formation at the front in a moment and use stone cannons to scare them."
These stone cannon mines were first prepared for Arslan, but no one attacked him and they almost died in their hands.
When Liu Chengyun called him this time, Liu Guoneng originally wanted to make some wooden fence antlers in Haixi County and take them away in a cart. But then he thought that these things could be made in Xining City, so he took the stone cannons and mines with him.
Unexpectedly, they came here to fight in the field, and they just used the stone cannons. The enemy might not dare to charge with the stone cannons. They fired arrows and blunderbuss through the mine array, which made them less likely to be defeated.
Of course, this is only relative, because only the left wing has the possibility of being defeated by enemy arrows, and they are not regular troops.
As for the regular army, as long as the military formation is still there and there are no super-range weapons, people can use small means like shooting arrows and blunderbuss to repel them to death, unless they are shot and still fall behind in combat. Downwind, otherwise it would be impossible to be easily defeated.
No matter what, the leading cavalry of the two armies still collided in the center line of the battlefield, and a small-scale melee broke out. During this process, Wang Wenxiu's army was still moving rapidly in column.
Wang Chengen, the general in command of Lintao, arrived late and led his infantry to the battlefield just after the cavalry. As he rode forward to listen to chieftain He Yongji's report on the enemy's situation, he saw the army of the Marshal's Mansion advancing rapidly through the valley in three large columns. Both sides The distance is only three or four miles.
After listening to He Yongji's report, he learned that the enemy's left wing seemed to be weaker, and then contacted the enemy to advance in a large column. A plan to fight was formed in Wang Chengen's mind.
He immediately ordered Biaoying, who was also marching in a long snake formation: "Don't move your head, and the brigade will change into a horizontal formation to the north."
The standard battalion in Lintao also has three Qianzong headquarters. The head means that the leading Qianzong headquarters will not move, and the two following units form a formation on the right side of the head, merging the three Qianzong columns together.
Since the enemy wants to use columns to engage in hand-to-hand combat as quickly as possible, it is decided that his Lintao soldiers cannot use large horizontal formations with small depth to fight against columns. However, even if they also use columns, they must maintain their horizontal advantage.
It is still the old tradition of dividing the troops into five posts. Only when the horizontal width is larger than the opponent's, can the encirclement be completed faster and better.
However, Wang Chengen did not plan to encircle him head-on at this time. Although he despised Liu Chengzong when discussing matters in Lanzhou, Liu Shizi had defeated He Huchen head-on after all and had the ability to fight head-on with the general. This battle would not be easy.
Therefore, his plan was to encircle Wang Wenxiu and his right-wing troops from the north and squeeze them at the foot of the southern mountain. He Yongji would lead the Hezhou soldiers to first defeat the weakest-looking left wing, and then rely on the double strength advantage of tens of thousands of people to deal with it. There are five or six thousand people left.
In the blink of an eye, the two armies were thousands of steps apart. Wang Wenxiu still did not change his formation, and just led three formations to charge forward. This made the Lintao cavalry, who were inextricably locked in the center of the battlefield, not dare to fight. They all raised their bows and nocked arrows while facing east and fighting. And retreat.
Upon seeing this, Wang Chengen also issued advance orders to the soldiers who had not completed the change of column.
This caused his army to form three disjointed columns running from south to north as they marched.
On the left and right wings of these three columns, the Hezhou native soldiers who spread out to fill the north and south of the valley formed a large array of spears, forming an ancient scroll that was unfolding to both sides.
As his main force advanced, his right wing spread out while marching slowly, and his left wing stayed and spread out, 11,000 men formed a huge crescent moon formation across the river valley, swinging forward.
Eight hundred steps away, the left wing of the Marshal's Mansion was a little unsteady. His troops were still riding donkeys and mules in response to military orders. The soldiers were also full of panic. Doubts came one after another from the commander-in-chief and even the commander-in-chief. People suspected that the commander-in-chief was I don't want them to ride donkeys and crash into the enemy lines.
Both Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi were full of doubts about this, especially Liu Guoneng: "Stop, we have to get the soldiers off their mounts and reorganize the team. If we move forward, we will rush to the front and be shot!"
He still had vivid memories of the army's artillery. If the army's artillery hadn't broken one of his legs, he would have participated in so many battles and he would have been a general more or less.
Even if he is not a general in the Marshal's Mansion, he may be a general in the imperial court. Then Yang Yanchang is a general!
Chengyun's brows twitched on the white face, and his heartbeat was swaying rapidly. Finally, a fierce look flashed in his eyes, and he raised his riding crop and said: "I don't understand military affairs, but if you give an order, you can't stop without a military order, move forward!"
Wang Wenxiu of the Chinese Army kept looking left and right as he advanced, clenching his fists, and looking very panicked. It wasn't until he saw that the left and right wings did not stop at this distance that he finally nodded and smiled: "Go and pass the order, order the left and right wings to refuse." When the enemy takes 500 steps, dismount and stabilize the line, leaving the matter of breaking the line to the Chinese army."
Having said that, he finally relaxed and rode into battle.
Then the soldiers of the Chinese army mobilized their donkeys and mules, and their marching speed suddenly accelerated. The left and right wings stopped when they were five hundred steps away from the enemy. The Chinese army continued to move forward, facing the sharpest edge of the Moon-Crueling Sword on the opposite side.
After four hundred steps, the cavalry of both armies slowly returned to their own formation. Their next mission was to find opportunities to rush into the formation during the formation battle.
The Lintao Town frontier troops, marching in three thousand columns, also stopped at this distance. The soldiers pushed the Franco machine guns and moved towards the front of the formation.
Taking this opportunity, Wang Wenxiu advanced another fifty steps, and then ordered the sergeants to get off the donkeys and mules and drive dozens of donkeys and mules toward the front of the formation.
At this moment, the army's artillery was deployed, and Fran cannons opened fire towards the front of the formation.
Some shells hit the donkeys. The donkeys were frightened and ran around in front of the formation. Some shells fell in front of the formation, and a few shells fell in the formation. However, the distance was far away and the caliber of the shells was small. The casualties were also small. Not big, just knocking down a few people in the first two hundred troops.
One by one, the Fran cannons fired, reloaded, refired, and reloaded again.
Under the rapid fire of rows of artillery pieces, Wang Wenxiu's front army trampled on the corpses of donkeys and mules, and drove more donkeys and mules forward slowly. At fifty steps, the officers and soldiers completed a round of Fran machine rapid fire.
When the smoke in front of the battle gradually dispersed, Wang Chengen took two steps forward to fight his horse and frowned. He saw the blood of donkeys and mules scattered all over the valley. The two columns of the enemy army were like waves being split by the sound of horns. The first two were also like waves. They pushed the artillery carriages in phalanx to both sides as if they were unfolding a scroll.
There is no doubt that the opponent also realized the problem of the width of the two columns. Wang Chengen immediately ordered that the left side of his own army formation should go left and the right side go right. The middle column should move forward to form a reserve team to complete two hundred-man square formations. of depth.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, Wang Wenxiu on the opposite side saw the Lintao border troops disperse their formation, clenched their fists tightly on horseback, and smiled wildly: "Haha, you really changed the formation like this!"
The formation changes of the army are such that the rearmost formation is spread out diagonally towards the edge. The further forward the small formation is in the larger formation, the shorter the distance traveled and the more energy is conserved. The further back the formation is, the farther the distance is. The arrival time is also later.
As for Wang Wenxiu's military formation, the person in the front has to go the farthest, and the last two small military formations only need to move forward directly to the front position. In general, each small square formation takes almost the same time, but Overall, the transformation should be completed quickly.
Three quick volleys of musket fire.
Military formations unfolded rapidly one by one. The two Centurions who were the first to complete the formation change were still rushing to pack up their artillery. Wang Wenxiu's last four Centurions had arrived in front of the formation, pushing four lion cannons and continuing to advance under Wang Wenxiu's command. .
The four hundred commanders on the left and right followed each other, slightly behind, also pushing the lion cannon forward; followed closely by the ninth and tenth troops on both sides, the entire military formation had completed the formation, with the four hundred commanders in the middle as the front. , formed a flying goose formation and continued the assault.
Two hundred and fifty steps, the Lintao army, whose formation was not stable, became more and more nervous. More than ten tiger squatting cannons in front of the formation were released, scattering stones and iron slag all over the sky. At the same time, a Franco machine gun was finally cleaned up and installed with a cooled gun. Zigun fired a shot at the front of the formation.
However, Wang Wenxiu's two hundred commanders, who were the vanguard, had already reached the 200th step. They placed four lion cannons in front of the formation, and fired shells at the formation in front of them at the maximum horizontal firing range of the artillery.
But this was just the beginning. The two military formations that followed him closely also arrived at their positions. They also fired several artillery shells in this direction. Like flying geese, they flapped their wings one after another and blasted each artillery shell into the enemy formation at a flat range. .
The shells struck, fell, bounced, and fell again, running over soldiers one after another.
Until the edge of the phalanx on the north and south sides, the officers and soldiers opposite them had not yet formed up. These two military formations took the lead in firing a cannon, and then launched a quick attack on the enemy.
The musketeers in the enemy formation fired scattered shots in panic, and scattered pieces of weak lead hit the soldiers' feet.
Several people groaned after being beaten, two people picked off the lead cakes while covering the place where they were hit and continued to move forward, and three people struggled to get up after being knocked down, and fell into the gap in the military formation, losing their combat effectiveness.
The others continued to advance, each step faster than the other, and then they stopped. Ten of them raised their guns and released huge lead pellets at the enemy formation amidst the sound of military orders. One hundred and fifty steps apart, several gaps were made in the 100-man phalanx.
Then the gun bearer was abandoned, and the gun bearer entered the battle lightly. The military formation quickly attacked again. After another hundred steps, the opponent finally completed the change of formation in a hurry. The general formation stabilized and the soldiers at the back filled the gap in front. However, the Centurion of the Marshal's Mansion They also stopped, this time it was a row of heavy gunmen.
boom!
A burst of smoke rose in front of the formation, but the situation was still the same. Heavy guns were thrown to the ground, and the formation continued to advance. The gunman drew his sword and leaned it on his shoulder, and followed the team forward for another sixty steps.
President Bai commanded from the left side holding the waist sword to the left front. The entire military formation suddenly circled to the left at a distance of eighty or ninety steps from the enemy's formation.
Another centurion team was revealed twenty steps behind them. Their swordsmen had picked up their guns and their swordsmen and shieldmen had picked up their heavy guns. They had finished loading the ammunition and were forming a double team of guns and heavy guns, with double the width. , assuming a shooting pose.
Before their commander-in-chief could give the order to fire, the military formation in front of them was already trying to retreat out of fear of wavering. Amidst the volleys of gunfire, gunpowder smoke rang out, and human walls fell down one after another. Amidst the silent sounds of falling to the ground after being shot and weak groans, After completing the shooting, the Hundred Corps threw down all their firearms and marched forward in four rows, with archers first, swords and shields second, spears second, and swordsmen last, shouting and taking big steps forward.
At the same time, Zhong Hu's troops on the right wing fired a large number of gushing cannons at the local soldiers, and then they also started a hand-to-hand fight.
In the middle of the battlefield, in the center of the Flying Geese Formation where Wang Wenxiu was, he looked around the battlefield and saw no enemy breakthroughs in his line. A cruel smile appeared on his face: "General Wang, your stuff is outdated. !”
The deformed Yanxing Formation charged forward as a whole. At this time, the Yanyue Sword that was slashed in their faces had been shattered. Instead, they formed a brand new Yanyue Sword and took the Lintao Army's head!
