The confrontation between horse and foot took place in the open area west of the windbreak near the beach on the north shore of Qingniwa Bay in Jinzhou. It started on the afternoon of June 26, the 15th year of Chongzhen's reign, and continued until the dusk of that day. There was still no winner.
The battle that lasted for nearly two hours was not actually intense at all. It was just repeated battles between cavalry and arrows and cannon fire. Of course, there are still some changes compared to when the war first started.
At the beginning, the Ming army only used a team of one hundred cavalry (horse archers when shooting, lancers when holding a gun, and dismounted knights when dismounting) to attack Matsukura Shigeharu's main formation and the surrounding area. The two thousand-man squadrons on the farthest sides of the Japanese battle line.
Around dusk, 200 archers and 4,000 to 5,000 archers rushed to the battlefield and joined the battle to attack the Chongji main formation and the two "sidelined" phalanxes of thousands of Japanese troops.
Among them, there were as many as 100 carriages used to attack the Juji Honjinban, and they were divided into two groups to form a cone-shaped formation, starting from the gap between the left and right wings of the Juji Honjinban and the other two Japanese Thousand-man Banners. Inserting in, trying to isolate Shigeharu's main formation from the rest of the Japanese army's thousand-man phalanx.
The remaining 100 carriages were divided into two groups, outflanking the two thousand-man squadrons located on the edge of the Japanese front line from the left and right wings.
Now the situation of the Japanese army is even more critical!
Not only is this formation at risk of being broken by the Ming army, but the left and right wings may also be broken!
Seeing the cone-shaped formation composed of carriages slowly approaching the two wings of his main formation, Matsukura Shigeharu almost went crazy with anxiety, but he couldn't think of a way - he could actually order the two people on his left and right Thousand-man adventurers moved closer to our formation, but these two thousand-man adventurers were already being stared at by thousands of Ming army cavalry. If you take the risk of moving, you may very well be overwhelmed by the Ming cavalry due to the disorganized formation!
And even if the Ming cavalry did not overwhelm them, the situation of the Japanese army would not be good. Because the two thousand-man bans and the main formation banyi merged, although a large hollow square formation of 3,000 people could be formed. But there will be larger gaps on the left and right of this large square array. At that time, the Ming cavalry will be able to insert and cut the Japanese army into three parts... At that time, Matsukura Shigeharu still cannot escape the annihilation of the entire army!
"Brother, make a decision quickly!" Shigeri Matsukura saw his "resourceful" brother's face pale and his lips trembling, and immediately reminded loudly, "Once the Ming army's carriages insert into both sides of the formation, the formation will be destroyed." Everyone will be shattered!"
Matsukura Shigeharu had long since lost his mind and had no choice but to ask his brother Shigeri, "Shigeli, if you have any ideas, just tell me!"
Matsukura Shigeri gritted his teeth and said: "Please order a decisive attack!"
"A desperate attack?" Matsukura Shigeharu's face turned pale, "Can we win?"
Matsukura Shigetoshi said: "Brother, even if you can't win by launching a decisive attack, you can still die gloriously. Isn't this the pursuit of a samurai? So... please give the order!"
Bang bang bang...
The sound of iron cannon firing suddenly became intensive. This was the iron gunners on both sides of Matsukura Shigeharu's main formation and the iron cannons of the two thousand-man square formations adjacent to Shigeji's main formation.
Most of the lead bullets hit the thick baffle of the carriage and could not penetrate at all! Only a handful of lead bullets could pass through the gaps in the carriage's baffles, and some of them caused minor casualties.
The Ming army pushing the cart forward did not fight back, but only accelerated their advance... Obviously, they wanted to rush under the eyes of the Japanese army in one go, and then throw heavy arrows at the fastest rate of fire. !
"Baga!" Matsukura Shigeharu knew that if he didn't fight hard, he would die in vain, so he shouted and gave orders, "Blow the horn, the whole army attacks!"
"Hai!"
The trumpeters and drummers in Shigeji's main formation had been waiting a little anxiously for a long time. When they heard the order, they started playing the trumpets and drums with all their strength.
The sound of trumpets and drums broke through the noise on the battlefield and spread far away. All the heads of the other nine thousand-man divisions heard it.
The Japanese counterattack finally began just before dusk on June 26.
It was already dark at this time, and the battlefield was extremely noisy and chaotic. There were shouts of killing, the roar of iron cannons, and the neighing of war horses everywhere.
Under such circumstances, even the well-trained Japanese shogunate's Korean expeditionary force became difficult to command and dispatch.
Moreover, Matsukura Shigeharu's camp still maintains a hollow square formation that is difficult to move, and it is impossible to press forward with the other nine thousand-man squads. And two of the remaining nine Thousand-Man Divisions have been fighting hard for two hours, although the casualties are not large. However, the physical strength and spirit of the officers and soldiers were severely exhausted... so it was impossible for them to launch a counterattack at the same time as the other six phalanxes.
Therefore, the Japanese army's counterattack was not carried out together, but fought individually in units of thousands of troops from the beginning.
However, contrary to the expectations of these Japanese devils, their counterattack turned out to be extremely smooth!
The "horse warriors" of the Ming army and the archers pushing the carriages seemed to be afraid of a head-on battle with the Japanese warriors. When they saw the Japanese soldiers rushing forward "killing them", they began to retreat. Among them, the two-legged archers (including the soldier pushing the cart) abandoned the cart and ran away, faster than a rabbit. The Ming army's cavalry still had some courage, and dared to fire arrows from a distance, and retreated westward while firing arrows.
These Japanese samurai, who had been suppressed by the Ming army since the landing, were all holding back evil fire, and they also knew that they were on the verge of death. If they didn't fight hard, there would be no way to survive. So when they saw the Ming army running away, their morale immediately rose, and they all started to chase after them. In the scramble, the formation naturally fell into disarray.
However, those thousand-man squadron leaders and the group leaders below were too lazy to organize their formations, because it was almost dark now and the visibility on the battlefield was extremely poor. Soon, they would no longer be able to fight in a dignified formation and would have to fight in a melee.
Tokugawa Ieyasu's good friend Masuda Shiro Tokisada also rushed forward with his own iron cannon hundred men with their heads covered. Following some strong men of the Ming army who were escaping on foot, they rushed onto an open official road, and soon they were We reached an equally open embankment. Next to the embankment is the Nanguan Canal. The canal is not very wide, only about ten feet wide. This embankment is only twenty or thirty feet away from the earth wall on the opposite side. There were no lights or figures on the earthen wall, so it seemed that it was not fortified.
Masuda Shiro Tokisada thought to himself: The Ming army should gather most of the defenders and use them in the "Fenglin Battlefield". The other places are really empty, right?
Just as he was thinking of this, a group of spearmen rushing in front of the Masuda group suddenly stopped moving forward. Masuda Shiro Tokisada almost ran into his back with his men!
"What's going on? Why did you stop moving forward?" Masuda Shiro Tokisada asked loudly. As he asked, he pushed aside the crowd and pushed forward.
After squeezing to the front, Masuda Shiro Tokisada discovered that they had already rushed to the east bank bridgehead of the Nanguan Canal pontoon!
The bridgehead on the east bank is a newly built earthen and wooden fortress, blocking the Japanese pursuit route. There are obviously guns and cannons on the fortress, and there are many defenders watching.
"Baga..." Masuda Shiro Tokisada's face turned blue. He had been here when he came out for reconnaissance this morning. There was no fortress at that time!
Wouldn't it be better if we took down the east bank embankment of the canal right then? What to do now? How to defeat such a fortress? Do we have to wait for the artillery to land?
Just when I was thinking of this, a few unknown objects flew out of the fortress dragging fire, and then exploded over the embankment behind Masuda Shiro Tokisada, forming balls of fire. Masuda turned around and looked around. Through the firelight and moonlight, he saw the embankment was densely packed with people...
"There are so many people!" Mao Wenlong was also watching at this time - he had ordered those rockets to be launched, just to shine a light.
"Father, all the 12-pound cannons are ready. There are 36 of them in total, and they are all loaded with shotshells!"
"Okay!" Mao Wenlong nodded, "Let the damn Japanese pirates pay for the power of our twelve-pound cannon!"
