"one two three four......"
When the Qing army's Hongyi cannons were pulled one and a half miles to the south of the Ming army's vehicle formation, the great Confucian Shi Kefa on Guishan Mountain began to count.
As a military strategist, of course you must understand mathematics!
"Thirty-five, thirty-six... Dewei, father, did you count correctly?" Soon, Shi Daru had finished counting. He was worried that he had not counted carefully, so he turned around and asked.
"My lord, you counted correctly, it's thirty-six."
"Are they all Hongyi cannons?" Shi Kefa asked again.
"Yes, they are all small red barbarian cannons from the Tatars. We call them three-pound cannons."
"How many cannons does one Hongyi Xiaopao Niulu have?" Shi Kefa asked again.
"It should be six." Stewie replied, "It seems that Dorgon is going to use all the red cannons to blast our front and center... Sir, you can use the ones filled with rice noodles and dried sweet potatoes." If you pile up the cattail bags, you can more or less resist it for a while."
While observing the situation on the front line, Shi Kefa nodded slightly: "It's also a way... let's make arrangements."
Dorgon is now using the tactic of concentrating firepower to bombard a single point, concentrating 36 small Hongyi artillery pieces to bombard the central section directly south of Shi Kefa's vehicle, which is almost a mile wide.
The rate of fire of the Hongyi cannon is not slow. Even if the Qing army's gunners are not very good, one cannon can fire more than 70 shells in an hour. 36 cannons are more than 2,500 shells. If they are all fired on a 500-meter-wide front, the intensity of firepower can be imagined.
And because the distance is very close, there is no problem of miss - even if it misses, it can cause certain damage to the Ming army, because the Ming army formed a tight formation in order to fight against the Qing army's cavalry. As long as the cannonball hits the Ming army's formation, it can cause damage.
On the contrary, it is difficult for the Ming army's artillery counterattack to cause too much loss to the Qing army. Because the Qing army's formation was loose and spread out over a wide front of more than 20 miles, the cavalry and mounted infantry were arranged in groups, and they were not stationary. If they were really bombarded, they would retreat and dodge.
Therefore, the Ming army's artillery counterattack could only be carried out against the Qing army's artillery array. However, the Qing army's artillery also used catbags filled with flour to build bunkers for every Hongyi cannon, making the Ming army's artillery counterattack very difficult. It is difficult to achieve good results.
As for dispatching infantry and cavalry to attack the Qing artillery positions... Dorgon was also prepared. More than 20 Niulu Eight Banners soldiers were deployed 200 steps behind the Qing artillery positions, ready to attack at any time.
In addition, Dorgon also deployed six old Eight Banners Han Army fire guns Niulu to deploy in his own artillery array (placed in the gaps between the cannons) to cover the artillery.
Seeing the artillery, infantry, and cavalry of the Qing army spread out in an orderly formation, Shi Kefa knew that his vehicle formation would not be able to survive the beating. 36 Hongyi small artillery pieces concentrated on bombarding a section of the vehicle formation, and in two or three hours at most, they would be able to open a gap... Even if Shi Kefa's men used the cattail bags containing grain as sandbags, they would not be able to hold it.
Then the infantry and cavalry of the Qing army will attack the gap...
Shi Kefa finally put down the telescope and whispered to the people around him: "Go and invite Gao Futai, Zuo Tuanlian, Huang Zongrong and the two Li Zongrong."
Gao Hongtu, Zuo Maodi, Huang Degong, Li Chengdong and Li Shiyuan were quickly invited to Shi Kefa, and a pre-formation military meeting followed.
"It seems that Donglu has gathered all the cannons and placed them right in front of us..." Shi Kefa said, "We can't just be beaten, we must fight back!"
"Superintendent," Huang Degong also agreed with Shi Kefa's opinion, "at the end of the day, the formation of the Donglu was loose and the front was too wide. Their right wing, the troops in Lizhuang and Niujiazhuang were a bit thin. If we can dispatch more than 10,000 With elite infantry and cavalry, towing the artillery, we quickly circle back to Niujiazhuang and repel the Donglu there. This battle will be promising."
Taking the initiative to attack when you can't withstand the bombardment is a very common strategy in the phalanx era, and this happened in many battles.
Of course, it is generally difficult to win an infantry and cavalry attack launched in a hurry when the artillery battle is unfavorable. However, Shi Kefa is not seeking victory now. As long as he can drag Dorgon's main force on the battlefield until more than 30,000 people led by Zhu Cixiang arrive, he will be able to achieve a complete victory.
Oh, you don’t need to win a big victory, just lose both sides!
Daming could afford to be injured, but Donglu didn't have that much money.
"Can more than ten thousand elite infantrymen move to Niujiazhuang under Donglu's nose?" Gao Hongtu was a little worried.
Niujiazhuang is more than ten miles away from Guishan, and an army of more than 10,000 people cannot get through in an hour or two.
"The general will personally lead the troops!" Huang Degong said with confidence, "The general's 5,000 elite soldiers are just in use."
His 5,000 elite soldiers were organized in the "Morris Formation", with 500 men per battalion, a total of 10 battalions.
Gao Hongtu glanced at Li Chengdong.
Li Chengdong immediately said: "The last general will also send out 2 infantry camps and 2 cavalry camps."
"That's 7,000 people," Shi Kefa thought for a while and then said, "The Qufu Army also has a walking car camp, plus half an artillery battalion, and eight 3-pound cannons..."
Shi Daru's tone has become serious: "General Huang, you will be the commander-in-chief of this team, and Li Tingzhen, you will be the deputy commander-in-chief."
Huang Degong and Li Chengdong stood up quickly, and both bowed to Shi Kefa: "The last general has received his order!"
The counterattack force mobilized by Shi Kefa was originally a reserve force and was not part of the vehicle formation, so it was quickly mobilized. Almost at the same time that the Qing artillery completed its deployment and started firing, more than 9,000 infantrymen and 8 cannons, escorted by more than 800 lancers wearing lath armor, circled out from behind Guishan. It moved towards Niujiazhuang, where the Qing army's right wing seemed weak.
"Huang Ama, the southern soldiers have indeed attacked our right wing... there are quite a few of them!" Shang Kexi had very good eyesight and spotted the Ming army's massive attack without even using a telescope, and immediately started shouting.
Dorgon raised the telescope and looked at it, and said happily to Shang Ke beside him: "It's still quite organized... It's a pity that they are a bunch of blind and deaf people!"
Shang Ke said with a smile: "They are all Huang Ama's saints. Every move of the Southern Army cannot escape Huang Ama's magical calculation."
Dorgon laughed, waved his hands and said: "What a magical plan, it's just an ordinary arrangement... Our cavalry can block the battlefield, so naturally they can hide some back moves and lay some traps. If they have three or five Thousands of fine cavalry are available, and our ambush troops have no place to hide.
Come here, tell me my decree, let Du Lei send out the cavalry to stop the Confederate army! Don't send too many, just send three to five hundred cavalry, that's pretty much it. "
"twitter!"
The red-armored soldiers with the Zhengbai flag under the watchtower cart received Dorgon's military order and flew to the right wing of the Qing army (responsible for Lizhuang and Niujiazhuang) to convey the order to Zhendu Lei, the Zhenghongqi Gushan'e.
Shang Kexi, who was standing with Dorgon, quickly reminded: "Huang Ama, the spear cavalry of the Southern Army in Shandong are not weak... There are seven to eight hundred cavalry escorts, and three to five hundred can ride up." You have to suffer a loss!"
The spear cavalry he mentioned refers to Li Chengdong's group of cavalry wearing lath armor. This group of cavalry is used as shock cavalry.
Although Shandong is in the north, there have been frequent wars in the past three or two years, which has consumed a lot of cavalry and horses. The four towns in Shandong, which could not bear the consumption, had to reduce the number of cavalry that they did not accept at night, and focused on the development of spear cavalry. That is to say, the well-equipped lancers in slat armor use impact and hand-to-hand combat as their main means of combat. Their main task is to cover infantry and chariots.
Even though Li Chengdong only had 800 cavalry, when fighting with the "Morris Square", it was still enough to expel the same number or even more Qing cavalry.
Dorgon smiled and said, "We have to let Nan Bing get some advantages...otherwise, how could they take it lightly?"
Dorgon prepared an ambush of 25,000 to 6,000 men for this Ming army that was attacking his right wing in a roundabout way! In addition to the four to five thousand people already deployed in Niujia Village, there are a total of more than thirty thousand Nine Banners elites who are already sharpening their knives.
This is three times the superior strength of the enemy!
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