On the east bank of the Liao River, under Liangfangkou Pass, early morning on September 19th.
The sound of gunshots rang out sporadicly, but never stopped. Outside Liangfangkou Pass, on the wide Liaohe River, a fleet of more than 200 large sand ships were using small boats to transport artillery and baggage. The three mound bastions belonging to Liangfangkou Pass, arranged approximately in an equilateral triangle, were all controlled by the Ming army. After Doni led the main force to retreat from Liangfangkou Pass, the only people left behind in these three bastions were an impressive group of more than 200 people, which was simply not enough to withstand the 17,800-strong Ming army's young guards. division. Fortunately, Niu Lu Zhangjing, who led the troops, was smart enough. When he saw the Ming army fleet rushing into the mouth of the Liao River, he asked his men to prepare horses. Once the Ming army landed, the whole team abandoned the pass and left.
It's all nonsense to kill or injure more than a hundred Ming troops.
Although the landing and occupation of the three castles at Liangfangkou Pass were completed without bloodshed, the entire landing operation was not over. There are six infantry regiments, one baggage regiment, six artillery companies and one division headquarters battalion. All kinds of supplies and baggage are piled up into a small hill. The wharf at Liangfangkou Pass had long been burned down by the Qing army. There was no ready-made wharf to use, so we had to rely on small boats for barges. The workload was astonishingly heavy.
However, the Young Guards Division is not an ordinary army. This force is a special force composed of 8,000 Jiubian boys, more than 2,000 young non-commissioned officers from the martial arts hall, and 5,000 to 6,000 veterans selected from various divisions of the New Army. force. Everyone is more excited up and down. When you see them, you are so excited. The sailors on the Beiyang sand boats (most of these sand boats are hired temporarily) are also infected. They all work like crazy, on the water and on the land. I worked for two days and two nights in a row. All 26 artillery squads from the six artillery companies were ashore, and the carriages and horses transporting food began to be transported. Division Commander Qin Mingtao and Beiyang Navy Admiral "Fire Gun Liu" Liu Chongwen also sat in person for two days and two nights without sleeping a wink. Command the troops to land.
The young troops of the brigade have begun to assemble and move north of Liangfangkou Pass to occupy strongholds and establish positions. Although Niu Lu of the Qing army left without fighting, he did not go far. Instead, he dispersed into small groups of cavalry and swam near Liangfangkou Pass, trying to delay the Ming army's actions. The Ming army that landed did not carry cavalry, so it was difficult to annihilate them for a while. However, the fusiliers who moved out in battalion units were still difficult for these Qing cavalry to contend with.
The organization of the infantry companies under the Young Guards Division is already close to the line infantry of the fusilier era. Among the four platoons of the company, three were fusilier platoons, and there was another platoon called pike grenadiers, which was a combination of pikemen and grenadiers - in theory, they could perform two tasks at the same time, fighting against cavalry. At that time, a spear formation was used to protect the fusiliers and grenades were thrown during the offensive. But in fact, these extremely tall and strong Jiubian boys are also proficient in using flintlocks, bows and arrows, and can charge on horseback... They are almost all-round soldiers!
Five to six years of rigorous training have turned these 17- and 18-year-old youths into the sharpest knives in the Ming Empire!
Therefore, a battalion of Youth Army infantry can definitely fight against a comparable number of Manchurian white-armored soldiers!
After two days and two nights of busy work, the elderly Qin Mingtao and Liu Chongwen couldn't bear it anymore. They sat on a pile of wooden boxes containing solid ammunition and listened to the artillery staff Sun Shining's report on the artillery team's landing.
"Commander, all six artillery batteries have been ashore. 16 3-pound bronze cannons, 4 12-pound cast iron short cannons, and 6 24-pound cast iron mortars are all intact. All artillery carts and ammunition carts are also intact. Ready to deploy at any time!”
Qin Mingtao nodded with satisfaction. The Young Guards Division did not carry cavalry. If it did not have cannons, it would not be able to exert its power...
He yawned, and just when he was about to find a place to take a nap, a burst of gunfire, as dense as fried beans, suddenly came from somewhere in the distance.
The sleepiness on Qin Mingtao's face suddenly disappeared, and then he squinted his eyes and stretched his ears to listen. Gunshots kept ringing out, quite densely, but they were not salvos and sounded a bit messy.
After coming here for a while, the gunfire didn't stop. Qin Mingtao finally spoke and said: "We must have encountered the enemy's brigade...but we should not have suffered a loss."
Whether you have suffered a loss or not, you will know by listening to the sound of gunshots!
The Young Guards use the latest Hongxing ten-year-old flintlock gun. The sound of this flintlock gun is particularly light and crisp, which is obviously different from the old matchlock gun.
Qin Mingtao heard the gunshots of the Hongxing ten-year-old flintlock guns still being intensive, completely overwhelming the dull gunshots of the Spanish light matchlocks.
This shows that the young army had the upper hand in the musket shooting... Considering their marksmanship, the Qing army should have suffered a lot of losses!
At this time, the gunshots suddenly stopped all. They were all the sounds of Spanish matchlocks, and there were also faint shouts of killing.
Needless to say, it was the Youth Army who launched the bayonet and lance assault!
In the era of flintlocks and matchlocks, the side that had the upper hand in the exchange of fire was unlikely to lose in an active bayonet charge.
The myth that one can persist despite being at a disadvantage in rifle and artillery fire, but is completely defeated by the enemy's bayonet assault, is completely deceptive - if the side that is at a disadvantage in rifle and artillery fire is unable to launch an assault, Then they will inevitably be close to collapse in the process of being shot and shelled.
As long as the opposing commander is not stupid, he will never launch a bayonet charge prematurely... The charge must be launched when the enemy has begun to collapse in chaos. One side's formation has disintegrated, but the other side has high morale and rushes into formation. Of course it is one-sided!
Considering that the Young Guards had a huge firepower advantage, they took the initiative to launch an attack (because the flintlocks did not fire, but the matchlocks were still firing sporadically, indicating that the Young Guards were charging), which meant that the contact battle had been divided. There's a winner.
Qin Mingtao laughed: "Victory! We should be able to capture the prisoners."
Sun Shining also responded: "If we capture the prisoners, maybe we can find out where the Donglu Brigade is going!"
Qin Mingtao smiled: "It would be nice to know where they are... then we can try to trick them into taking the bait!"
Liu Chongwen also smiled and said: "The armed sand ships sent by the Navy have already explored the road. You can sail 150 miles north from Liangfangkou Pass... As long as you sail along the Liao River, the armed sand ships of the Navy will I can support you.”
The armed sand ship is an improved version of the centipede ship. It is driven by paddles and has a very shallow draft. The hull has been reinforced and has ribs (it originally has a keel). It can be equipped with a 24-pound gyrating bombardment cannon!
"That's good!" Qin Mingtao had already stood up, "Let's go to the division headquarters to interrogate the prisoners!"
Of course there are prisoners, a group of crying peasant soldiers - of course they have to cry, they can't stay in the Northeast anymore, they have to settle in the Gulf of America in the New World. In the future, there will be no healthy whole grains to eat, so they have to wait for meat. Eat fresh seafood...
"Stop crying, I'll behead you if you cry again!"
When a young soldier of seventeen or eighteen years old saw Qin Mingtao, Liu Chongwen, Sun Shining, and division commander Li Shaowen (Li Ruolian's son) coming together, he roared at the top of his voice.
Now all the prisoners suppressed their cries, and no one dared to cry.
Qin Mingtao sat down on a chair and asked pleasantly: "Who can tell me?"
say what?
The prisoners below didn't understand.
"You won't say anything?" Qin Mingtao smiled, "You're a tough guy...then you have to fight!"
Now someone finally reacted.
"Don't fight, don't fight... If the commander has anything to say, just ask him. The younger ones will tell you everything they know!"
"Okay," Qin Mingtao said, "Then let's stop fighting." He pointed at the person who spoke first, "You stay, and everyone else will be escorted away!"
You have to separate them and then question them - question them one by one, and then compare their confessions. If they are right, they will not be beaten, but if they are not right, they will be beaten!
Seeing that the other prisoners were being taken away, Qin Mingtao asked, "Tell me, do you know where Doni's army is?"
