Chapter 166
It is actually impossible to achieve supremacy of firepower and complete suppression in the late Ming Dynasty. First of all, machine guns are not yet available. There is still a clear gap between Thunderbolt guns and real machine guns. Secondly, there is a breech-loaded rifled gun. Cheng Shijie has only achieved half of it. The breech-loaded smoothbore gun has appeared, but the rifle has not yet appeared.
What's more, there are only twenty-four artillery pieces now, which is still far from hundreds or thousands of artillery pieces. In order to make up for the gap in firepower, Cheng Shijie adopted flying thunder cannons as a supplement to short-range firepower. Although the flying thunder cannon has many shortcomings, no one will doubt the power of the flying thunder cannon.
"Big gold wins!"
Yue Tuo clamped his legs on the horse's belly, and the horse galloped out like the wind, rushing towards the Ming army's artillery position. As Yue Tuo roared, thousands of Jiannu cavalry roared like wild beasts, which almost shocked the audience. The clouds in the sky dispersed, thousands of horse hooves raised and fell at the same time, and the ground rumbled and shook, like an earthquake, making people unsteady!
Cheng Shijie nodded and said: "It is indeed the strongest army in East Asia. Thousands of light cavalry are coming from the wild, like an avalanche!"
The officers and soldiers of Guan Ning Army and Dongjiang Army couldn't help but change their expressions in shock, and the excited expressions on their faces solidified in the blink of an eye.
Sun Chengzong looked solemn and murmured: "It's like thunder, unstoppable...so strong, really strong!"
Zhao Wencai stepped forward and cupped his hands and said: "Commander, I am requesting to go to war!"
"No, it's just a group of horse archers who are eager to reincarnate. Let's take a rest!"
Huang Long couldn't help but clenched his fists, his palms were covered in cold sweat, and murmured: "Jiannu's attack is so fierce...can you stop it?"
Sun Chengzong was secretly nervous, but his face was expressionless. All generals must keep their expressions unchanged because they are the bravest of an army. If they are even afraid of them, the morale of the entire army will drop to freezing point. , A cowardly general cannot lead brave soldiers who are not afraid of death.
Cheng Shijie saw Sun Chengzong's nervousness and smiled disapprovingly: "Teacher, please rest assured, if Jiannu only has this means, we will definitely win this battle!"
Huang Taiji also looked at the direction of Ning Haijun's artillery with binoculars. At this time, Ning Haijun's artillery fired a salvo. The target was no longer Jiannu's artillery unit, but instead aimed at Yue Tuo's elite cavalry with red flags. .
"Boom boom boom boom..."
Twenty-four shells landed in the cavalry formation under Yue Tuo without any accident. The shells exploded, causing a large rain of blood in the cavalry formation with red flags...
Yue Tuo was a little surprised. He found that the power of the Ming army's artillery seemed to be a little weak. Yes, these twenty-four shells only caused casualties of two to three hundred cavalry. This price was still affordable for Xianghongqi.
"Spread out, spread out, and launch a skirmish line attack!"
Yue Tuozai unexpectedly discovered that as long as their formation was dispersed enough, the killing effect of Ning Haijun's artillery would be much smaller. They rushed into the five hundred-step range of Ning Haijun's artillery.
Huang Taiji also clenched his fists tightly: "We must rush forward!"
Yue Tuo lived up to Huang Taiji's high expectations and successfully broke into within two to three hundred steps of Ning Haijun's artillery. This distance was only an instant for the high-speed charging cavalry.
"Boom boom boom..."
In front of the artillery position of the Ning Navy, the thirty-six flying thunder cannons used to cover the artillery of the Ning Navy sprayed out large clouds of choking gunpowder smoke and dark red flames at the same time. The sound was so dull that it made people palpitate. ,
The explosive exploded in the barrel, and the shock wave of the explosion poured outwards, throwing the large bag of explosives out, swirling all the way, and drawing strange trajectories. More than a dozen bags of explosives landed crookedly between the two armies, but Still, more than 20 bags were dropped directly among the Jiannu warriors.
Then……
"Boom boom boom boom..."
Frightening clouds of gunpowder smoke wrapped in flames soared more than 20 meters into the air. Thunderous and violent noises shook everyone present, and the pores were torn open. The blast swept everything.
The few white-armored soldiers with red flags beside Yue Tuo were the first to bear the brunt. The shock wave of the explosion hit them head-on. The three-layer iron armor worn by the white-armored soldiers could ignore the stabs of swords and spears. Under normal circumstances, the Ming army wanted to kill them on the battlefield. A white-armored soldier would suffer at least twenty or thirty times the casualties.
However, the three layers of iron armor on their bodies were like paper in the face of the shock wave from the explosion of the thunder cannon. The shock wave tore through their armor and their bodies without any delay.
The white-armored soldiers with red flags were like this, but the ordinary soldiers were even more unbearable. I don’t know how many Jiannu warriors just felt like they were standing on the crater of an erupting volcano. The dazzling fire flashed and the ground shook violently. Spears and armor . The body, the war horse, everything was shattered, including their bodies.
Many people's bodies were torn apart by the blast wave and were thrown around. Many were so shaken that their feet flew several meters off the ground and then fell heavily to the ground. Their orifices were bleeding and they could never stand up again. His internal organs were shattered.
The most unscrupulous thing is that the damn Ming army actually put a lot of iron nails into the explosive bags, which undoubtedly greatly enhanced the lethality. I don’t know how many people were hit by the iron nails that were burned red by the high temperature of the explosion, wailing. Falling to the ground and tumbling, some even had their eyeballs smashed!
Those who were lucky enough to be uninjured were also frightened. They stood there stupidly like clay and wood sculptures, with blood raining on their heads, broken limbs and arms and organs falling on their bodies. They remained motionless, with pale faces and horrified expressions. My eyes completely lost focus, and I just felt like the sky was falling, the earth was cracking, and the end of the world was coming!
Cheng Shijie was very satisfied to see that the front line of the slave army had turned into a slaughterhouse, with minced meat everywhere, blackened and mutilated bodies, injured people with bloody flesh, and a piece of intestine hanging on the body. The soldiers with trembling legs all proved how terrifying the thunderous strike just now was.
When testing the Ming army's defense line, the thunder cannons fired by Ning Haijun's garrison were usually fired by a single cannon, and at most two groups were fired at the same time. Therefore, the Belles who built the slaves did not pay attention to the thunder cannons. I think that although the power of the flying thunder cannon is great, its accuracy is flawed.
But the problem is, when thirty-six thunder cannons fired in volley, accuracy really didn't matter. With a round of thunder bombardment, Jiannu's war horses were roaring wildly, and people were crying and running around. It was so lively. The phalanx of more than 4,000 cavalry under Yue Tuo was already in a bit of chaos. If the Ming army continued to fire, the battle would be impossible to fight!
Huang Taiji's fingers had already penetrated into the flesh of his palm, and he was very nervous: "Charge forward, don't stop!"
Huang Taiji knew very well that he could not retreat now. Once he retreated, the soldiers killed by the Ming army's artillery would all die in vain, and their deaths would become meaningless.
"Continue the attack!"
Yue Tuo did not live up to Huang Taiji's expectations. He actually knew very well that if he retreated now, his achievements would be in vain.
Yue Tuo roared: "Don't be intimidated by their superficial firearms. Only cowards will rely on these things to fight! Jurchen warriors, mount your horses, draw your strong bows, wave your sabers, and defeat them." Crush them, let their corpses cover the battlefield, let them know who is the king on the battlefield! Cavalry attack!"
After regrouping, Yue Tuo's elite cavalrymen with red flags formed a huge horn and crashed into Ning Haijun's artillery position. These slave cavalry straightened their backs and raised their bows. The shooting range of their riding bows is generally between 80 and 120 meters. If they use heavy arrows, anyone hit within 50 meters will be killed immediately.
Sun Chengzong was nervous. His palms were sweaty. He held a cup of tea for half an hour but did not take a sip.
But Cheng Shijie was relatively relaxed. He roasted a few sweet potatoes in a small red clay stove. As the sweet potatoes ripened, they gave off a sweet fragrance.
"Teacher, please try this sweet potato!"
"Jian Nu is coming!"
"They can't come over!"
As the Jiannu cavalry under Yue Tuo rushed into the range of the Thunder Gun, the Thunder Gunman took the lead in firing.
"Bang bang bang bang bang bang..."
Thirty-two millimeter thunderbolts and more than 800 gunmen spewed tongues of fire at the same time, and the sound of gunfire was like thunder, causing severe pain in people's eardrums.
One hundred and twenty meters away, hundreds of slave cavalrymen or war horses suddenly exploded with a large cloud of blood mist. They screamed and hissed and fell down with a crash. Almost everyone on the front line was wiped out.
Yue Tuo almost fell off his horse: "Damn it, the Ming army's fire cannons actually hit so far and so accurately?"
This is actually the result of nitrocellulose, because as a propellant, nitrocellulose has a higher chamber pressure and a faster muzzle velocity of the bullet, so it is more powerful.
If it weren't for the fact that the rifling problem had not yet been solved, with rifling, the bullets fired would be more accurate, and with collodion as the propellant, the bullets would hit farther and harder.
Despite this, Jiannu under Yue Tuo suffered a big loss this time!
At this time, the Houjin light cavalry was far from the effective range of the cavalry bow!
I'm afraid there won't be many people left under Yue Tuo's command this time.
Several white-armored soldiers threw Yue Tuo to the ground, and bullets flew over their heads. As long as they were still riding on horseback or standing, all the Jiannu cavalry were shot and fell to the ground without exception.
However, everyone learns in the war, especially Yue Tuo. After this attack, he learned two tricks. Spreading the attack can reduce casualties. Climbing on the ground, the Ming army's musketeers have nothing to do with them.
I don’t know how long it took, but the terrible gunfire finally stopped.
The soldiers of Ning Navy jumped out of the formation and started to harvest the heads. At this time, Yue Tuo took the opportunity to pat the war horse, and the war horse jumped up...
Because Ning Haijun's infantry blocked the Thunder Gunman's firing range, Yue Tuo managed to escape, but the problem was that he attacked with more than 4,000 men and lost more than half.
Only more than 1,300 Quanhu soldiers returned, and several hundred wounded soldiers.
Yue Tuo retreated in defeat, and the entire Jiannu camp was filled with an atmosphere of depression. You can't even chew off a hair from someone's head after fighting for a long time, and you can be killed and wounded with just one volley. How can you fight this battle?
"Master, there is no way to fight this battle!"
Yue Tuo did not speak, and knelt directly in front of Huang Taiji. However, Quarquabezi from the Mongolian right camp spoke up: "Ming Gou has a large number of strong bows, crossbows, and firearms. We can't defeat them. We can't fight anymore." Go down and withdraw, otherwise our army will be severely damaged!"
Quarqua is Nurhaci's son-in-law and Huang Taiji's third brother-in-law, so he dares to speak in front of Huang Taiji. Of course, the butt determines the head. Now this attack is the Xianghongqi attack. Xianghongqi suffered heavy losses, but did not inflict heavy losses on the Ming army. cause any casualties.
According to Huang Taiji's habit, the Han army and the Mongolian servant army attacked next. Quarqua led his troops to seek refuge with Nurhachi because he wanted to live a good life with Huang Taiji, but instead followed Jiannu to death.
All the Baelors were silent. They all saw clearly just now that Yue Tuo did his best. During the attack, he suffered heavy casualties from the strong bows, crossbows and firearms of the Ming army. The most terrible thing is that the Ming army's artillery has been bombarding their phalanx. Every time a cannon is fired, they will kill and injure a large number of them. How can they fight?
Huang Taiji stared at Cheng Shijie's general flag, gritted his teeth, and roared: "Continue to attack! Their crossbows are not unlimited. Their fire blunderbuss will get hot and even explode if fired for a long time. Then our chance It’s coming! Attack! Don’t give them any chance to breathe!”
Quarqua was stunned and almost cried: "Master, calm down! If we fight like this, even if we win, not many of us will survive! When we fight in Daikin, we always move to avoid the enemy. With the sharp edge of the army, how can they form a majestic formation to attack their weak brigade..."
At this moment, Haug suddenly struck Quarqua's head with a knife. Quarqua's voice suddenly stopped, and Dou Da's head flew out spinning with the blade, bringing with it a rain of blood.
Everyone was stunned.
Huang Taiji looked at Hauge with a satisfied look on his face. Hauge finally did something that satisfied him.
If it were in the past, Huang Taiji would indeed not have fought such a tough battle, especially using cavalry to attack the solid defense line of the Ming army. But the problem is that he has no choice now. In the fourth year of Chongzhen's establishment of the slaves, there was a snowstorm. In the fifth year of Chongzhen's reign, He did not regain his strength. What made Huang Taiji even more uncomfortable was that he originally wanted to extort some food from North Korea.
But the problem is that with the support of the Dongjiang Army, North Korea also became unusually tough. Not only did they expel their envoys from the Kingdom of Jin, they also prepared to prepare to use force to resist the Kingdom of Jin.
Huang Taiji looked at the Baylors and said, "Use your brains and think about it seriously! How many people did Ning Haijun have just more than a year ago?"
As Cheng Shijie's status increased, he officially entered Huang Taiji's field of vision, and public information about Cheng Shijie was also collected in front of Huang Taiji.
Huang Taiji knew that Cheng Shijie was originally an official of Dengzhou Guard Zuo Qianhu, and he spent 8,000 taels of silver to buy the official from Sun Yuanhua. Later, with the support of Sun Yuanhua, he became a guard of Ning Haijun.
"A year ago, how many people did Ning Haijun have, and what equipment did they use? In just over a year, they have grown several times, and they even have extremely powerful cannons!"
Huang Taiji pointed at Cheng Shijie's general flag: "If we let them continue to develop like this, within a few years, we, Daikin, will be facing annihilation! This is our last chance!"
Huang Taiji was right. Give Cheng Shijie a few years, and without the power of the Ming Dynasty, Cheng Shijie could overthrow the Jin Kingdom. There is no doubt that this is also Cheng Shijie's strategic plan.
Huang Taiji had actually discovered Cheng Shijie's left-wing army. The forward army was composed of Ning Navy soldiers with good equipment and many firearms, but the right-wing army was dominated by the Dongjiang Army and Guan Ning Army, which had low combat effectiveness.
Huang Taiji knew very well about Guan Ningjun, his old rival. This was an army that specialized in cheating his teammates. The key to his victory also rested on Guan Ningjun.
Huang Taiji did not attack immediately, but ordered the sheep to be killed and the whole army had a feast.
Of course, when Jiannu was killing the sheep and preparing to have a feast, Cheng Shijie also realized that Huang Taiji was preparing to focus on the Dongjiang Army.
However, Huang Long had his own pride. He said to Cheng Shijie: "Don't worry, Commander Cheng, if Huang Long doesn't die, the Dongjiang Army's defense line will not be broken through by Jian Nu!"
Regarding Huang Long's persistence, Cheng Shijie also had to give him face. After all, if he forcefully rejected Huang Long's persistence, it would be too demoralizing.
The aroma of roasted mutton was floating in Jiannu, and the Ming army also started cooking.
Half an hour later, Jiannu, who had eaten and drank enough, Yue Tuo said with red eyes: "Xianghongqi has never suffered such a big loss. I will fight them to the end!"
With that said, Yue Tuofei got on his horse, rushed down the mountain with a group of red Baya soldiers, and blew the horn.
The cavalrymen with red flags mounted their horses one after another. The cavalry soldiers with red flags had red eyes and rushed forward, howling and screaming.
Mang Gurtai cursed: "Father, you are the only one who is a hero on behalf of the Shan family, but we are all cowards? Boys and men of Zhenglan Banner, charge! Let Ming Gou know how powerful we are!"
Without saying a word, Hauge drew his saber and led his six thousand fine cavalry to rush down like a flash flood.
Huang Taiji looked at Bao Chengxian and Sun Youguang in silence.
Bao Chengxian bowed helplessly and said: "Master, this slave leads the Han army flag!"
At this time, the battlefield suddenly became lively. Jiannu took advantage of the large number of people to attack the Ming army from all directions.
"Big gold wins!"
The Jiannu cavalry galloped with lightning speed, faster than thunder. In the past few decades, no Ming army had ever been able to withstand such a crazy impact.
Fate played a terrible joke on them. At this time, the Jin Dynasty was booming, and the Ming Dynasty met its real opponent when it was dying.
Cheng Shijie smiled faintly: "Pass this command to the commander, and the entire army will shrink and defend!"
"yes!"
In fact, there is no good way to deal with Jiannu's harassment war. The cavalry has the initiative. They can choose any point as the direction of attack anytime, anywhere, while Ning Haijun can only defend passively.
In order to turn passivity into initiative, Ning Haijun contracted across the board. On the surface, it seemed that the Ming army was afraid of Jiannu. In fact, Cheng Shijie asked Ning Haijun's soldiers to plant more than 6,000 landmines.
At this time, Ning's navy officers were like a sophisticated killing machine. Musketeers and thunderbolts were arrayed in a majestic array, holding powerful crossbow rockets and firing at them continuously. The metal storm was roaring, the bowstrings made the air tremble, and the tongues of flames pierced through the muskets. Like the scythe swung by the God of Death, the arrows and bullets with almost no gaps drew an icy death line a hundred meters ahead. If you touch it, you will die!
The golden knight kept screaming and fell down together with his horse and man, blood quickly accumulated in pools, and when he kicked down, blood spattered everywhere.
The heavy arrows fired by Hou Jin's cavalry also did little damage to Ning Haijun. The main casualties occurred on the right wing. On the Dongjiang Army's defense line, people continued to fall down after being struck by arrows.
However, what made the Jiannu cavalry desperate was that they managed to shoot down one of them. The Dongjiang Army soldiers immediately added another, picked up the bloody crossbow, skillfully loaded the arrows, and aimed and shot with their surrounding companions.
The Baile who established the slaves gritted their teeth and endured heavy casualties, and continued to attack fiercely. They did not expect to be able to defeat Ning Haijun's frontal defense line head-on. They just used archers and cavalry to continuously attack and run away at a touch. The main force bypassed the terrifying firepower network and launched crazy attacks on the Dongjiang Army again and again.
If Cheng Shijie had not equipped the Dongjiang Army with a large number of crossbows, it would not have been easy for the Dongjiang Army to block Jiannu's attack. But the problem is that the Dongjiang Army has more than 18,000 men and is equipped with more than 8,000 weapons. Mulberry crossbow.
This was very scary. The Dongjiang Army soldiers used long spears and heavy shields in the front row to form a simple defense line. An archer held a strung crossbow and aimed an arrow at the Jiannu cavalry or Mongolian cavalry, and then Throw the crossbow on the ground and let your companions pick it up and load the arrows.
There is no way around this. The Dongjiang Army is too poor and many soldiers cannot shoot arrows, so they can only use this method. Crossbow shooting is a physical job, especially stringing.
Jiannu launched several attacks in succession, with the purpose of consuming the Ming army's crossbow arrows and ammunition. They firmly believed that what the Ming army relied on to fight them was nothing more than powerful crossbows and muskets. As long as their crossbow arrows and ammunition were used up, they would win.
However, they were disappointed. Anyway, Ning Haijun's gunfire and cannon fire never stopped. As Cheng Shijie, who values firepower first and complete suppression, how could he make such a low-level mistake?
Especially the Thunderbolt gunman, who easily pressed the bullets while bragging nonsense. As for the crossbowman, the crossbow bolts were not used up yet, and dozens of carriages came from behind, unloading bundles of crossbow bolts from the four-wheeled carriages. Continuously replenish it into the hands of every crossbowman.
As for the grenades and artillery shells, they were all assembled openly and openly. Ning Haijun did all this blatantly and had no taboo at all for Jian Nu to see.
The Dongjiang Army also received supplies, including more than 4,000 spare spears, more than 2,000 shields, and the key is crossbow arrows, and 30,000 pots were sent up in one go.
There are fifteen arrows in each pot. Almost every archer has about fifty arrows. Want to use up our crossbow arrows? You have to ask if your people are dead enough first!
"Cheng Shuai ordered that no one should go out to harvest heads!"
Huang Long looked at the front of the Dongjiang Army formation, where Jiannu dropped another corpse and retreated like a tide. He stroked his beard and looked at Cheng Shijie's general flag, only to see that Cheng Shijie's general flag was always flying on the front line.
Huang Long couldn't help but admired: "Cheng Shuai is really capable. He not only defended the city well, but also fought in the wild. If every battle was fought like this, Jiannu would have been wiped out long ago!"
Shang Keyi sighed and said: "If there had been a commander like Cheng Shuai earlier to lead us to fight against the Jiannu, why would we Liaodong Han people have suffered so much?"
(End of chapter)
