"boom!"
The six four-pound cannons let out a thunderous roar at the same time, and six iron bullets flew out of the gun barrels at high speed, drawing dazzling arcs in the air and hitting the Wenxiang Sect thugs two hundred steps away.
The tens of thousands of Wenxiang Sect thugs in front of them were looting from Yanzhou to Qingzhou, burning, killing, looting, and committing all kinds of evil. All the people who refused to join them, whether officials or civilians, rich or poor, were all killed by them.
Coming from Dengzhou, along the way I saw countless villages burned down by Wenxiang sect thugs. Except for strong men and strong women, children and the elderly were killed by them.
The Wenxiang Sect caused far greater damage to the social economy than the Li Chuang refugees in the late Ming Dynasty.
What Liu Zhaosun needs now is stable order.
The Intelligence Bureau's investigation revealed that there were 5,000 women robbed from various places around Wendeng County, some of whom had been abused by the thugs and became pregnant.
Leaving these disciples behind and letting them return to the common people will sooner or later be a disaster. Soon, the Wenxiang Cult will revive again.
In the original history, Yuan Keli, the governor of Dengzhou, and Zhao Yan, the governor of Shandong, led their troops to quell the rebellion of the Wenxiang sect. They only killed the leader of the sect, Xu Hongru, and several big leaders, and only persuaded the other sect members to disperse.
This tolerant policy led to another outbreak of the Wenxiang Sect a few years later.
Liu Zhaosun will not make the same mistake again. He will drive the Wenxiang Sect thugs out of Dengzhou and drive them towards Duke Yansheng in Yanzhou Prefecture.
"I will save you on behalf of Maitreya Buddha's mother. I wish you to achieve bliss as soon as possible."
Liu Zhaosun thought silently in his heart.
The light infantry field guns modified from Fran cannons have good mobility. This is their first official appearance on the battlefield.
The first round of shelling was effective, with three of the six shells hitting the crowd of scent-smellers.
The shells swept through the dead leaves like a storm, and the archers in the front row were wiped out.
Several believers who were shooting arrows were hit with bloody holes by cannonballs, leaving mutilated corpses on the ground.
The three kilograms of iron bullets, after killing the archers, retained their power and hit the armored Red Turban soldiers in the rear row like hammers.
These armored Wenxiang cultists are all small bosses, and their sophisticated chainmail and cotton armors cannot block incoming cannonballs at all.
A fat leader had a big hole in his stomach from a cannonball, and a drop of blood flowed from his intestines. He didn't die for a moment. He covered the hole with his hands and rolled around on the ground like a ball.
A dozen steps to the left of the ball, an archer from Yanzhou surrendered. His left leg was cut off by a cannonball. He was jumping around like a toad with his bow in his left hand. He let out a shrill wail. The archers around him raised their bows and aimed aimlessly. Fight back at the other side.
The cannonball that cut off the archer bounced high after falling to the ground, raising a cloud of smoke and dust, and then jumped towards the congregation behind, continuing its killing journey.
Along the path of the cannonball, the Wenxiang Sect members screamed incomparably with human voices. As long as they were touched by this hot iron ball, they would either lose an arm or break a leg.
The three shells were like death scythes, plowing through the dense crowd, leaving a pile of broken limbs, armor and broken weapons on the ground.
More than twenty followers of the Wenxiang Sect returned to heaven and went to see Old Mother Lishan early.
An iron ball covered with internal organs and human skin rolled slowly in front of three cabinets of futons.
"Don't run away! Watch me destroy the evil tricks of the army!"
Wang Haoxian suppressed the fear in his heart and shouted loudly.
A strong man carrying a sedan ran away. Sangui raised his sleeves, and a poisonous arrow flew out, shooting the man to the ground.
The other bearers immediately fell to their knees and shouted that Mother Lishan had appeared.
Wang Haoxian pointed the duck feather fan forward slightly, and the hand holding the fan was trembling.
"Old Mother Lishan! Maitreya Stone Buddha!"
"Zhu Ming is gone, smell the fragrance and come!"
However, the scent did not come, what came was the cannonball.
The artillery position of the Kaiyuan Army two miles away fired again. Six four-pound cannons let out a shocking roar, and six artillery shells roared down to the world.
Five artillery shells hit the Wenxiang sect believers, and again took away the lives of more than 30 believers amid the cries of fathers and mothers.
A shell passed over the incense-smelling believers in the front row and directly hit the futon where Wang Haoxian was sitting. Finally, it hit the arm of the strong man carrying the sedan chair. The strong man screamed and fell to the ground. The broken part of the arm was bleeding profusely, exposing the white bones.
The bearer screamed in surprise, no longer paying attention to the three cabinets, and rushed away.
Wang Haoxian witnessed the artillery shells plowing three bloody grooves in the crowd, and heard the screams of the churchgoers in his ears. He saw that tens of thousands of churchgoers were about to collapse.
"The Jockey Club, Zheng Jingtou, and Zhao Touhui organized the old brothers to block the archers and kill all those who fled!"
Wang Haoxian shouted to the leaders of the Wenxiang Cult around him, asking these buddies to block the fleeing archers in front and force them to launch a counterattack against the Kaiyuan Army.
The only long-range weapons the Wenxiang Cult has are these walking bows. If the archers collapse, the followers behind will die faster.
The fusilier soldiers in the front row were approaching fifty paces, and they could already see the faces of the Wenxiang Cult archers.
The marching drums had not stopped, and amid the rapid bamboo whistles of the flag captains, the faces of the young fusiliers showed nervous and excited expressions.
A dense rain of arrows suddenly rose in front of the Wenxiang Sect's front line. Thousands of light arrows clanged against the armor. Soon someone was shot in the face and fell to the ground screaming.
The fire riflemen in the rear row immediately filled the vacant positions. The battalion bugler delayed in blowing the firing order, so the fire rifle soldiers could only continue to advance toward death like puppets.
At this time, they had entered forty steps away from the Wenxiang Cult archers. Another round of arrow rain came from the opposite side, and several comrades fell down around them again.
Yang Tong, a fusilier of the First Flag Team of the 3000 Headquarters, felt his heart almost jump into his throat. This was his first time on the battlefield.
Yang Tong didn't expect that the Wenxiang Sect's combat power would be so powerful. After being hit by three rounds of artillery, they could still shoot back with arrows.
However, their first battalion was not afraid of building slaves at once, let alone the group of parishioners in front of them.
The Third Thousand Headquarters fought against the Zhenglan Banner on the south bank of the Hunhe River battlefield, killed 1,500 Zhenglan Banners, and assisted the main force in defeating the two yellow flags. The first battalion had a strength of 1,200 men, of whom only 317 were alive after the war.
Standing in the middle of this honorary force, Yang Tong felt full of strength, and no enemy could block the flintlock gun in his hand.
There was a crisp clang sound, and a light arrow landed on Yang Tong's iron helmet. It was light and had no lethality. A comrade on the right was hit in the eye by the arrow and rolled to the ground screaming.
The team was not affected and continued to move forward amidst the rapid sound of steps and drums.
There were only thirty steps away from the Wenxiang cultists, and all the archers on the opposite side looked frightened. They had never seen such a Ming army that was not afraid of death.
Many archers stayed on the spot, not knowing what to do. Facing the double-layered armor of the fusiliers, their light arrows were basically useless.
Some archers hurriedly changed to heavy arrows and shot, while others wanted to escape in both directions.
The Chinese army flag finally tilted forward, the flags of all headquarters and flag units also tilted forward, and the trumpeter blew the attack horn.
Cheng Liang, captain of the First Flag Team, raised his command flag and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"First Flag Troop, raise your guns!"
"aim."
"shooting."
Yang Tong suddenly pulled the trigger of the flintlock gun, and the hammer hit the steel sickle of the fire door, making a crisp clicking sound. In a cloud of sparks, the gunpowder in the gun barrel was ignited, making a loud bang, and the huge recoil hit the fire gunner on the shoulder. .
Yang Tong stepped back slightly, and the flintlock gun in his hand was like a fire dragon rising out of the clouds, spitting out orange-red flames and white smoke.
Amidst the dense explosions of firecrackers, clouds of white mist rose above the heads of the first row of fusiliers, forming a wall of white mist hundreds of meters wide, spreading to both wings of the formation in the morning wind.
The improved flintlock gun had a longer range and greater accuracy.
Countless lead bullets crashed into the chaotic crowd of Wenxiang Cult archers with screams, like hail hitting the melon field, making a crackling popping sound.
A dense mist of blood suddenly rose in front of the Wenxiang teaching formation, like a rain of blood falling from a clear sky. The archer's face and body were all splattered with the blood of his companions.
Many people's hands and feet were broken by lead bullets, and they endured the severe pain of the lead bullets stirring up their internal organs and bodies. They fell to the ground and struggled in pain, rolling and crawling.
The tranquility of the rural land of Dengzhou was broken. Under the reflection of the burning villages, this land seemed to be an Asura hell.
More than a thousand archers fell instantly, and five to six hundred of them fell. Those who were not killed could no longer bear it, and screamed and fled to the two wings. What awaited them was the encirclement and suppression of the cavalry.
The leader of the Wenxiang Cult who was supervising the formation at the back saw that the situation was not good, shouted to Old Mother Lishan, and led the armored cultists towards the fusiliers.
They carried heavy knives or long axes, wore chainmail, and shouted loudly in the crowd, similar to the Ba Ya La of the slaves.
The flintlock gun rang out again, and the Wenxiang Cult thugs at the front fell to pieces again.
The elite offensive of Wenxiang Sect, which had just rushed out a few steps, stopped. They saw that their surrounding comrades were hit by lead bullets, and their blood and intestines flowed all over the ground, emitting a disgusting stench. The whole army lost morale and retreated towards their own formation.
The cavalry on both wings also rushed back, driving those Wenxiang Cult members who tried to escape to the two wings back to the core of the position.
The lead bullets fired from the Kaiyuan Army's flintlock guns swept in like a storm, leaving the Wenxiang Sect's formation riddled with holes.
After the Kaiyuan Fusiliers completed three rounds of shooting, more than 2,000 corpses fell on the opposite side, and the 50,000 to 60,000 Wenxiang cultivators collapsed completely.
Wang Haoxian finally couldn't bear it anymore and jumped down from the futon. Under the protection of his confidants, he ran away in a hurry.
A long trumpet sounded, the fusiliers in the front row retreated, and the pikemen advanced with their guns.
These spearmen were on the battlefield for the first time. Under the orders of the captains of each banner, the spears continued to thrust, assassinating the Wenxiang Cult thugs who fell to the ground but were not dead.
The sharp spears harvested those Wenxiang believers who had fallen behind. Some of the surviving believers desperately waved their swords and axes, trying to split the spearmen's line. They were quickly stabbed with blood holes and fell into a pool of blood.
All the Wenxiang Cult members in the front immediately dropped their weapons and ran away screaming.
Even the bravest thugs were intimidated by the forest of spears that was constantly devouring lives. No one dared to come forward to fight the Kaiyuan Army.
Some of the churchgoers who reacted quickly fled to the two wings, and after finally escaping the attack of the cavalry, they had no time to rejoice and were swallowed up by the Yuanyang Formation soldiers.
The mandarin duck formations on both wings drove the congregation closer to the center, further compressing their space for movement.
The fleeing people huddled together, and some archers started shooting arrows again.
The flintlock muskets fired again, and hundreds of believers were killed. The flintlock muskets fired a volley at a distance of thirty paces and could penetrate most iron armor, whether it was chain mail or fish scale armor.
The flintlock volley was completed, and the pikemen came forward again.
~~~~~
On that day, the Kaiyuan army formed a formation and killed more than 3,200 members of the Wenxiang sect. The rest of the sect members all fled. The cavalry battalion drove them toward the southwest, toward the Yanzhou Prefecture.
Liu Zhaosun asked the new recruits to take turns going into battle. The cavalry chopped and the soldiers chased and killed. Most of the new recruits killed the thugs themselves. Although the battle was very easy, it was considered a training experience for them.
When Sangui Wang Haoxian fled, he set fire to Wendeng County and massacred thousands of people.
The thugs killed nearly half of the women who could not be taken away, leaving only more than 2,000 people alive.
Liu Zhaosun rode his horse on the Wendeng official road, which was littered with corpses, in the direction leading to Yanzhou Mansion. The horse was blocked by the corpses piled on the ground and could not move forward.
The brutality of Wenxiang's thugs shocked Liu Zhaosun. He had never seen such atrocities among Hou Jin's soldiers.
A pregnant woman's belly was cut open by the roadside, and her dead baby was abandoned by the roadside...
Kang Yingqian frowned and said nothing.
Liu Zhaosun originally planned to drive this defeated army to Yanzhou Prefecture. Yanzhou Prefecture still had more than 50,000 main Wenxiang Cult members and more than 3,000 Armored Cult members.
He now has an impromptu change of plans.
"Order Burhanggu to continue pursuing southward, intercept this broken army, and kill them on the spot, leaving no one behind."
Lewen
