"Charcoal" is Niulu Zhangjing, who was under the command of King Kong Youde. His surname was Cao. No one knew his original name. Because he looked dark, everyone called him Charcoal or Cao Chartan.
He was originally from the Liao Dynasty, and later fled to Shandong with his family. When he was eighteen years old, he served as a soldier under Kong Youde. From the beginning, he was a fire gun soldier. The Portuguese gun soldiers invited from Hao'ao by the Ming Dynasty taught him step by step how to use the turtle dove foot fire gun. At that time, he was young, learned things quickly, and completely mastered the Portuguese gun skills. It can hit a human-sized target from a hundred steps away - and it's a perfect hit!
However, in the eyes of the Ming Emperor, this skill was not as valuable as a scholar, and he could not earn much military pay at all. He was also very angry with the Shandong people (at that time, many refugees from Liaodong fled to Shandong and had no food and clothing, so they naturally did a lot of sneaky things. ). When they sent troops to the front line of Liaodong and entered Wuqiao Town in Cangzhou, the Shandong people went on strike due to insufficient supplies. One brother couldn't help but steal a chicken from the house of Wang Xiangchun, an official who had retired at home. Trouble was caused, from stealing chickens to killing people, and finally there was a mutiny! Charcoal turned from an officer and soldier of the Ming Dynasty into a rebel, and later went to join the Donglu who had a blood feud with his family...
What he never expected was that everything he didn't get from the Emperor of Heaven - land, money, wives, slaves and official positions - was all obtained from the Emperor of the Tartars!
The reason why the Tatar emperor was so generous was because he valued his ability to play with fire guns. If anyone thinks that Donglu relied on their skill with bows and horses to conquer all directions, they are totally wrong.
In fact, starting from Tianming Khan Nurhaci, Donglu attached great importance to firearms. Starting from the sixth year of Tianming, Nurhaci ordered the Han officials and Han craftsmen who surrendered to them to cast cannons. By the eighth year of Tianming, the artillery team of the Hou Jin Army at that time was complete and ready to go on expeditions with the army!
In the fourth year of Tiancong (1630), Hou Jin began to trial-produce Hongyi cannons, and even cast one. After Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming led the firecrackers and artillerymen trained by the Portuguese and surrendered to Houjin with a large number of turtledove-footed firecrackers and Hongyi cannons, Houjin's firearms troops became quite powerful.
If we ignore the factors of Foshan's private iron industry and imports from Hao'ao, and simply compare the firearms produced by the government-run handicraft industries of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (Later Jin Dynasty), the Qing Dynasty (Later Jin Dynasty) obviously has a huge advantage.
After all, under the strict supervision of Nurhachi, Huang Taiji, and Dorgon, explosive cannons and blunderbuss were rare - if you fool them, you will be beheaded!
The reason why Duolong and Geng Zhongming suffered in the battle at Dagukou was because they did not carry firecrackers (Geng Zhongming's tribe had firecrackers, but because of the heavy rain for days before, Geng Zhongming left the firecrackers in Yongping) . Moreover, most of the firecrackers used by Zhu Cixiang's new army to overcome difficulties were made in Hao'ao and Foshan, and were by no means the explosives commonly used by the Ming army.
After the Battle of Dagonkou, Dorgon, the regent of the Qing Dynasty, paid even more attention to firearms!
As soon as he entered Beijing, he immediately ordered people to search for craftsmen who could make guns and cast cannons, and asked them to serve as slaves under the two white flags. At the same time, Dorgon also issued an order to the Korean Kingdom, asking them to donate bird guns and send fire gun soldiers to Beijing to assist in the war.
In addition, Dorgon also ordered the Han armies of each banner to increase the number of firecrackers as much as possible. Cao Mutan also rose to prominence because of this decree and became Niu Lu Zhangjing, responsible for commanding and training 300 fire rifle soldiers of the Zhenghong Banner Han Army.
Now Cao Mutan and Cao Zhangjing are even more motivated! He is now a noble Eight Banners official! Why don't you work hard to train troops for Prince Dorgon in the spirit of "having an official is your father"?
After five months of rigorous training, Cao Mutan's 300 brothers in the Red Flag Han Army have all trained! One hundred of them wielded turtle-dove-footed fire blunderbuss, one hundred wielded bird blunderbuss, and a hundred wielded swords to cover the musketeers. The two types of fire gun soldiers are not only capable of loading and firing projectiles skillfully, but they can also skillfully cooperate with the sword players to fight together.
...
"Don't fire! Don't fire! Keep moving forward..."
Cao Mutan shouted at the top of his lungs, urging the 300 soldiers under him to form a somewhat loose three-row horizontal formation, and slowly pressed forward against the Dashun army who was firing randomly in front.
On the right side of the three-column horizontal formation he commanded, there was another three-column horizontal formation with the red flag. The two horizontal formations formed exactly the same formation. The swords are all in the front, the heavy turtle-dove-footed fire blunderbuss is in the middle, and the bird blunderbuss is placed at the end. Among them, the swordsmen are all servants of the Zhenghong Banner Han Army, and the ones holding bird blunderbuss and turtle-dove-footed fire blunderbuss are Zhengding.
Because the Eight Banners' gun soldiers were not equipped with paper shell ammunition and used matchlock guns that easily ignited gunpowder, the formation was not too dense. Two three-line formations of three hundred people spread out over a large area, and from a distance it looked a little chaotic.
However, their morale was extremely high, and despite the firepower of the Dashun Army, they moved forward without even frowning!
The Dashun army facing them was not the elite of the old battalion, but the Ming army that had defected and surrendered during Li Zicheng's march to Beijing at the beginning of the year. After Li Zicheng returned to Taiyuan, he reorganized them, replaced unreliable generals, and added a small number of old soldiers to serve as the backbone. Moreover, monthly payments have also begun, and there is a relatively sufficient supply of military rations.
But even so, their morale is still not as good as the Han army under the red flag...
Because the Eight Banners Han Army is also the Eight Banners! They have all the treatment that the Eight Banners deserves! Qitian, Qinu, Beijing hukou and real estate in the inner city of Beijing are all the same!
And these benefits can be hereditary! They had a share in the Qing Dynasty, and the strength of the Eight Banners soldiers in the early Qing Dynasty was also guaranteed by the system!
As the artillery soldiers of the Eight Banners and Han Army approached step by step, the Pingxingguan garrison, which was already low in morale, began to waver - they did not know at first that they were coming from the Tatars, and they thought it was the Ming army from Datong who was looking for trouble. !
Because Kong Youde played a clever trick and deliberately advanced under the banner of the Ming army. In addition, the color of Ming military uniforms is mostly red, which is relatively close to the color of the Zhenghongqi uniforms. Therefore, the defender at Pingxingguan was fooled, and then he attacked in confusion.
As soon as I attacked, I realized something was wrong!
It’s the Tatars who are coming!
These Dashun soldiers who were transferred from the Ming army are more or less phobic. Knowing that their opponents are Tatars makes their calves weak! So their fire cannon soldiers began to shoot indiscriminately - in fact, there were not many usable fire cannons, most of them were three-eyed cannons that could only be used within twenty steps. If you can really get close and fire, it may still have some power, but if you are far away, you can't hit anything at all!
However, as the enemy approached step by step, this group of shun soldiers had already seen the bird cannons and turtle dove leg fire cannons carried on the shoulders of the Tatar soldiers in the rear row.
The Tatars have powerful fire blunderbuss... What can we do!
"Stop!"
Cao Mutan roared loudly. He was walking in front of the sword soldiers, and there was a flag bearer beside him, holding a red military flag. Hearing his roar, the soldier holding the flag immediately waved the flagpole in his hand. When the soldiers following him saw it, they all stopped. Cao Mutan, on the other hand, moved to the left side of the horizontal formation with his flag bearer's escort.
At the same time, there was no need for Cao Mutan to continue to give orders. Dadan Zhangjing, who was leading the team, ordered the sword players to kneel down on one knee to make room for the soldiers behind them who were holding turtle-dove-footed fire guns. The second row of turtle-footed firecrackers flattened the loaded firecrackers, placed them on their stands, and aimed at the enemies who were already in chaos.
"hair!"
Cao Mutan, who had just taken his position, roared again, and the flag bearer beside him lowered the red flag at the same time. Then there was a roar of firecrackers, and the Dashun officers and soldiers who were thirty or forty steps away suddenly fell down.
Before they could reorganize their ranks, Cao Mutan's two rows of fire musket soldiers had completed the rotation. The bird musket soldiers moved up to the second row. They had no stand, so they directly held the fire muskets flat with their hands and aimed forward.
"Fat!" Cao Mutan ordered again, and then there was another roar of firecrackers and smoke filled the air!
Dashun's army, which had been hit by two volleys in a row, was already in chaos. Seeing that the time was right, Cao Mutan loudly ordered: "Swordsmen, get up! Birds and blunderbuss, get your blunderbuss!"
