In the past few days, the mountain paths that the field camp traveled were mostly in the dense forests on the ridges and halfway up the mountain. To ambush the Mongolian cavalry in the ravine, you only need to go two miles to the lower left from the hill where they are resting. However, before setting off, Cao Ergou first sent his elite troops to find out the road, and then killed the Mongolian sentries. The Mongolian sentries on guard, like their horses, were not used to the hot and humid climate in the south. At this moment, they were drowsy amidst the noise of chirping cicadas and the sound of rushing mountain streams. They were half-consciously spotted by the scouts from the field camp. The throat was slit in silence. In the ravine below, most of the Mongolian soldiers were sitting on the edge of the mountain stream enjoying the cool air. Only a few Mongolian soldiers and the generals of the New Affiliated Army were swimming in the stream - very few Mongolians knew how to swim, and the middle and low-level officers of the New Affiliated Army and Soldiers were not qualified to swim with the Mongols. In this ravine, the Mongolian cavalry and the newly attached generals were in the upper reaches of the mountain stream, where the water is the coolest and clearest, and in their opinion the safest; the horses were cared for or drank by a few Mongolians in the middle reaches of the stream. Or they were tied to rest in the forest by the stream; while the lower-ranking officers and soldiers of the newly attached army, the fourth class in the eyes of the Mongols, were sent to guard the lower reaches of the stream, where there was the only exit of the ravine, and they were not even allowed to do so. Stay close to the stream and only use water that the horses have drunk.
Field battalions lurked quietly on the mountainside above the Mongols, waiting for the signal to attack - artillery fire. Each company of this field camp brought twelve light tiger squatting guns, five companies equaled sixty guns. This lightweight tiger squatting gun weighs less than 40 kilograms, and its ballistic trajectory is similar to that of a mortar, making it particularly suitable for mountain operations. Although it is much less powerful than field artillery, it is not too easy to deal with the Mongols who only wear leather armor. According to Cao Ergou's estimate, there were about 300 Mongolians by the mountain stream, and there were 200 people at the mouth of the ditch and about 500 horses. Cao Ergou was very talented in fighting, and he accurately judged the situation of the Mongolian army in the ditch. This was also the fundamental reason why he became the number one general of the Perak Army. In fact, there were 450 Mongolian troops in the ditch, including 250 Mongolian cavalry, 200 new auxiliary troops, and 600 horses. According to Cao Ergou's thinking of one man and one horse, the Mongolian army had 500 men, and the number of horses should also be 500. But in fact, these 600 horses did not belong to the new auxiliary troops guarding the mountain pass. The extra horses were replaced by the Mongolian army when they charged.
The cries of cicadas and the sound of running water dampened the loud noise of the Tiger Crouching Cannon. The Mongolian cavalry who were lying, lying or sitting heard a dull banging sound. They all looked towards the mountainside. The forest in the middle was shrouded in white mist. Just as he was wondering, densely packed small iron balls fell from the top of his head with a sharp whistling sound. In an instant, the crowd in the ravine was enveloped in smoke and dust, and screams and howls began to sound one after another. At first, wisps of red appeared in the stream, and then the red became more and more intense, until finally the entire stream was dyed deep red. In fact, these Mongols do not lack vigilance. Relying on the super high mobility of the cavalry, they not only have the right to choose and take the initiative on the battlefield, but also have unparalleled information advantages in reconnaissance and intelligence. Take this Mongolian cavalry as an example. They have three teams of reconnaissance cavalry on the official road between Baizhang City and Mingshan City. Once the Perak Army appears, information such as numbers and weapons will be quickly transmitted to the rear, and the hidden Mongolian army will also have sufficient time to respond. But what they didn't expect was that Ouyang Xuan didn't take the usual path at all. He would rather spend several times more time and consume a lot of energy to walk through the wilderness trails in the mountains. And by coincidence, their hiding place was discovered by the Thunderbolt Army. .
The light tiger crouching cannon is just a scratch against targets such as city walls, but it is absolutely like a knife cutting through tofu against a human body wearing only leather armor. Sixty cannons were fired at the same time, and the scattering of shotshells covered most of the cavalry. After the first round of shelling, one-third of the 250 cavalry were killed or injured. Some of the Mongolians who woke up grabbed their weapons and rushed up the hillside, while more rushed to the horse tying place downstream of the stream. Those who rushed up the mountain were stabbed to death by spears thrust from the top as expected, while the Mongolian cavalry who mounted their horses rushed towards the mountain pass. However, the road in the ravine was rugged and narrow, and the horses could not charge up at all. For a time, it was blocked. . As for the mountain pass, due to the short range of the muskets, the Perak Army had to sneak closer to the foot of the mountain. However, the woods at the mountain pass were sparse and there were few chirping cicadas. In addition, the water flow was slow and the sound of the water was quiet. The newly attached troops tasked with guarding duties were more alert, so they were discovered before they reached the musket range. These new auxiliary troops were also the elite of the new auxiliary troops in Qiongzhou. They did not panic when they saw someone attacking, but instead faced them. However, there were three companies of the Perak Army that came to attack the mountain pass. In addition to the 200 musketeers, there were also 100 people specialized in throwing grenades. Under the grenade bombardment and three rounds of musket fire, the two hundred new auxiliary troops collapsed in an instant, turned around and fled out of the mountain. The fast one among them saved his life, but the slow one was unlucky - he was trampled to the ground by the horses rushing from behind. The Mongolian cavalry fled for their lives, and even the own cavalry blocking the road were beating and slashing with whips and swords. They did not care about the life and death of these cannon fodder soldiers.
After the initial panic, the Mongols also tried to counterattack but were blown away by the reloaded artillery. They had to mount their horses and rush toward the mountain pass along the stream. There were also a few Mongolians who refused to give up their horses. They thought it was too slow to untie the reins, so they just used their swords to cut the ropes. These horses are all well-trained war horses, and even if no one is riding them, they will follow the Mongolian whistles and run out of the mountains. This made Cao Ergou, who was commanding halfway up the mountain, anxious and asked the soldiers protecting the artillery to rush down and kill the Mongolians who were cutting the horse ropes. In his eyes, horses are excellent things. They are better alive, but they are also extremely valuable meat even when they are dead. However, when the soldiers of the Perak Army rushed to the horse-tying area to deal with the Mongolians, the horses had already run away a lot, and more than half of the horses had rushed out of the mountain with the Mongolian cavalry.
The Mongolian cavalry fired arrows while fleeing. These Mongolians were even very good at riding and shooting. A hail of arrows knocked down the thunderbolt soldiers who were throwing grenades at the mountain pass. Even if thrown from a high position on the mountain, the Pili Army's grenades can only be thrown forty or fifty meters, while the effective range of the Mongolian Army's compound bow is about 100 meters. This elite Mongolian army had excellent archery skills, and for a time it suppressed the Perak army at the mountain pass. The firing speed of muskets in this era was far inferior to that of bows and arrows, so Cao Ergou ordered the musketeers to fire from 200 meters away to avoid losses to the Mongolian bows and arrows. Even if a bow and arrow hits such a long distance, it will have no lethality, but the hit rate of the musket is really not high. Although the Mongolian soldiers and horses were densely packed and every round of shooting would hit many people and horses, these Mongolian soldiers were very fierce in the dangerous situation. With the speed of their horses, they were not afraid of casualties and charged towards the mountain pass, which actually allowed them to rush out. More than a hundred cavalry and more than a hundred empty horses.
In this battle, the Perak Army killed more than 50 Mongolian cavalry and more than 50 new auxiliary troops, while eight of their own were killed and 25 wounded, all of whom were injured by bows and arrows. The number of wounded soldiers in the Mongolian army was more than 150, including 90 wounded in the Mongolian cavalry and more than 60 wounded in the newly attached troops. Most of the injuries suffered by the Mongolian cavalry were caused by shelling, while the injuries sustained by the newly attached troops were mostly caused by grenades, and there were also some injuries caused by gunshot wounds and horse trampling. Because they hated the burning, killing and looting of the Mongolian troops at Baizhang Pass, the wounded officers were killed on the spot, while the wounded soldiers were driven back to Mingshan City. When executing the order to release the wounded soldiers, Cao Ergou also ordered people to cut off the thumbs, index fingers, and ring fingers of the captured Mongolian cavalry. This meant that after they recovered from their injuries, they could neither draw their bows nor hold their swords.
