South of Fushun County, Rongxi Bridge battlefield.
The fighting here was fierce from the beginning, with gunshots ringing like exploding beans and bullets raining like weaving. The black smoke exploded by the shells fired by General Weiyuan's artillery sent out clouds of smoke on both sides of the Rong River. There were also several ounces of projectiles fired from the cannons that penetrated into the soil, stirring up wisps of smoke.
The above, coupled with the repeated fighting between the infantry and cavalry of both sides, formed a bloody and cruel war picture.
The Eight Banners soldiers on the battlefield at Rongxi Bridge had so much firepower that it was difficult to associate them with the invincibility of bows and horses.
In fact, in the original history, the Qing army of the Kangxi Dynasty had the strongest firepower of the Qing army before the Westernization Movement!
As for the idea of "taking the world with bows and horses", Kangxi never boasted about it.
Kangxi knew the importance of firepower very well. What he liked was the mother-and-gun cannon that could quickly replace the muskets, the Weiyuan general cannon that could fire heavy explosive shells, and the kind of heavy siege artillery that easily weighed several kilograms!
There seems to be a bit of phobia about lack of firepower.
In addition to artillery, Kangxi was also very keen on equipping his Eight Banners soldiers with shotguns. The proportion of shotgun equipment in the Eight Banners infantry was usually as high as 50%, and even many Eight Banners vests were also equipped with shotguns!
Moreover, the artillery and shotguns produced by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Industry during the Kangxi Dynasty were of very high quality, no worse than European artillery and muskets of the same period, but they were not equipped with a large number of flintlock muskets.
However, at that time, the armies of European countries had not completed the replacement of flintlocks for matchlocks, and the Ottoman Empire had not even begun to equip and install flintlocks. Therefore, until the Kangxi Dynasty, there was no generational difference between the firearms of the Qing Dynasty and those of Western countries.
Although the artillery and shotguns of these Eight Banners soldiers were quite good, they did not cause many casualties to the Wu soldiers on the other side. This is because the position Wu Yingqi chose was so clever that it just avoided the fire coverage of Weiyuan General's artillery. Of course, the shotgun couldn't hit it. Only the single projectile fired by the combination cannon could reach it. However, the sub-guns equipped by the Eight Banners Soldiers are very light, and are used by them as direct-aimed artillery in the field. Because the sub-guns can be replaced, the rate of fire is very fast, but the lethality is very limited. If the distance is far, it will only kill one person at a time.
And after the Eight Banners masters fired a burst of gunfire, of course the green battalion soldiers shouted to kill!
Another "death charge" of the green camp cannon fodder has begun!
Their "death charge" had been carried out several times, and now the corpses of the green battalion soldiers in uniforms were lying like grains on the Rongxi Bridge and on the south bank of the Rongxi Bridge until the open land in front of the Wu soldiers' position. Especially near the Wu Bing phalanx, there are layers upon layers, which is shocking. However, the Green Camp soldiers on the north bank of Rongxi Bridge were still driven by the Eight Banners masters and launched wave after wave of attacks.
Moro Luo's Ganshan Green Battalion was the main force of this almost suicidal attack. They used battalions as units, like a stormy sea, repeatedly impacted the Wu soldiers' phalanx south of Rongxi Bridge, retreating in one wave and then another. to.
The reason why we have to fight so hard is because the situation that was originally good has suddenly become very critical!
The mere two thousand or several hundred Wu soldiers blocking the south side of Rongxi Bridge are the main culprits that caused the battlefield situation to change suddenly! With such a blockade, they cleverly cut Yue Le's 40,000 Qing troops into two parts!
Yue Le's headquarters, which was separated from Rongxi and the south bank of Tuojiang River, was also attacked by two Wu armies with more than 10,000 people. The situation was very critical.
If Leerjin and Moruo cannot open the Rongxi Bridge as soon as possible, and when Yue Le is defeated by the two armies of Wu Yingqi (perhaps Wu Sangui), then the entire Sichuan war situation will only have one word - the Qing Dynasty can neither The people were unpopular with the soldiers, and the logistics were very difficult. They relied on the shadow of "the powerful Eight Banners and the invincible heavenly troops" to support them. Once this phantom is completely shattered by Wu Yingqi (Wu Sangui), the whole province of Sichuan will have to surrender, and the remaining Qing troops will have to be beaten up by everyone, and it is hard to say how much they can run back!
Since the gains and losses on the Rongxi Bridge side are so critical, the Gansu and Shaanxi green battalion soldiers can only be driven forward in waves to attack the Wu soldiers' phalanx.
However, the terrain of Rongxi Bridge is too narrow. Every time a battalion crosses the bridge, the soldiers have to form a crowded column. When crossing the bridge, they will be violently fired by the Wu army. It is almost like a living target!
Of course, the firepower of the Wu soldiers is a bit different from that of the Eight Banners soldiers. The main reason is that there are not so many explosive bullets-gunpowder is so expensive! Put it in a hollow iron ball and blast it out with a short-barreled cannon, and you still don't know whether it will explode or not. This is simply throwing away money!
Wu Sangui's land was so poor that he was not in a position to spend as much money as Kangxi did, but Wu Bing had a lot of shotguns and small bronze cannons!
Their shotguns are of the same type as those used by the Eight Banners soldiers, and they are quite well made, but they are not the kind that explode if not careful. Wu Yingqi brought the elite of the Wu army to Rongxi Bridge to block the road, so the infantry was equipped with a high proportion of muskets, almost half of them. They were all experienced "old guns" with accurate marksmanship and would not shoot indiscriminately. Move the enemy closer and then attack.
Their bronze cannons are smaller versions of red cannons, let’s call them small red cannons. Wu Yingqi’s troops brought a total of six this time, which didn’t seem like many, but they were all pointed at the Rongxi Bridge. The Qing army's bombardment was still very lethal!
Under the rain of artillery shells and bullets, the Rongxi Bridge, which was only a few dozen paces long, quickly became a bridge of death for the Gansu and Shaanxi Green Camp soldiers!
Even if these green soldiers from Gansu and Shaanxi could rush forward with the artillery shells and bullets of the Wu army, their formation would be beaten to pieces. There are often one or two hundred panicked Green Camp soldiers huddled together. This is the ideal "prey" for Wu Jun's Bamboo Lancers.
The impact of these bamboo spear cavalry is so strong that the infantry cannot resist them unless they form an array. Moreover, they retreated after charging, coming and going like the wind, leaving only the enemy's corpses and broken bamboo spears on the ground, giving their opponents no chance to fight hand-to-hand. Not to mention that the chaotic green camp soldiers had no way to deal with them. Even the dozens of sub-cannons mobilized by Leerjin could hardly hit them, and they could only kill them occasionally.
Le Erjin and Moro Luo, who were standing at the city wall of Fushun County to supervise the battle, were so anxious that their heads and faces were covered with sweat. Their official robes were soaked, and they looked as if they had been fished out of Rong River!
The Eight Banners soldiers and the Green Camp soldiers under their command have tried their best - the Eight Banners soldiers tried their best to fire guns and cannons, and the Green Camp soldiers tried their best to charge to the death. But no matter how hard they tried, there was no way to shake the Wu army's military formation south of Rongxi Bridge!
Under their own eyes, the fierce attack launched by the Gansu and Shaanxi Green Battalion was once again repelled by those damn Bamboo Lancers. Moreover, the defeat of the Gansu and Shaanxi Green Battalion came faster and faster, and became more and more straightforward!
At the beginning, the Green Battalion soldiers would try their best to resist the attack of the Bamboo Lancers, but soon they found that the resistance was completely in vain! It is impossible for them to stop the dozens or hundreds of cavalry lined up in a row, holding long bamboo spears and roaring towards them!
So this time, as soon as the Wu family's light cavalry launched an attack, the Green Battalion collapsed, and the shouts of "defeated, defeated" rang out from heaven to earth.
But how can two legs outrun four legs?
Leerjin saw with his own eyes through a telescope that a green battalion officer wearing a plain gold hat seemed to be scared out of his wits by the roaring bamboo cavalry, and plunged into the Rong River in a hurry. However, he did not seem to be very good at water. In this way, after flopping a few times in the rushing stream, it sank and never floated again.
He then discovered that some veterans from the Green Camp of Gansu and Shaanxi were very smart. Seeing that there was no way to escape, they simply knelt down and begged for mercy. There are so many people who are ministers these days, not to mention they are just soldiers. of?
The Wu cavalry who rushed into the formation were quite happy to take prisoners. When they withdrew, they also took dozens or hundreds of surrendered Green Camp soldiers into custody.
Seeing such a scene, King Leerjin of Shuncheng County also had a mental breakdown. His lips trembled and he said to himself: "How come Wu Sangui's cavalry is more powerful than my Eight Banners cavalry?"
Moro was also a little confused, and just kept shouting: "Come on me, charge on me quickly. Anyone who retreats will be killed, and anyone who surrenders to the enemy will be killed!"
On the other hand, the Yunnan candidate Lu Yifeng was rare enough to remain calm. At this time, he was able to come up and loudly make suggestions: "Prince, Zhijun, we can't fight hard like this! The brothers below can't die in vain!"
Leerjin actually knew that it wouldn't work, so he glanced at him: "What do you think we should do?"
Lu Yifeng said: "Your Majesty, don't let your humble position lead people to find a few boats. Let's build another bridge elsewhere."
When Moro heard this suggestion, he thought it was a solution, so he nodded and said: "Yes, yes, this is the only way!"
Leer Jinze looked around. Both sides of Rongxi and Tuojiang Rivers were desolate! Where is the boat?
In order to build the Rongxi Bridge, we had already searched all the boats that could be found around us. Now even if we could find a few boats, they wouldn't be enough to build a pontoon bridge.
However, he didn't have any good ideas now, so he had to kill the horse and become a living doctor, so he asked Moro to send Lu Yifeng an infantry battalion from the Gansu and Shaanxi Green Battalion, which had collapsed from the front line, suffered heavy losses, and was no longer able to fight anymore, and asked him to Lead him to find the boat.
When the Qing army on the battlefield of Rongxi Bridge was completely unable to attack, in an open area northwest of Daguan Town, more than 20 miles away from Rongxi Bridge, two groups of cavalry met on a narrow road and had just formed their formation.
One side of the battle was the 1,500 bamboo lance cavalry led by Wu Sangui's cavalry general Ma Bao, while the other side was the 2,480 banner cavalry led by Garhan, the right-wing commander of the Eight Banners New Army!
Among them, Ma Bao on the Wu side was Wu Guogui's deputy general.
In today's battle, the Wu army attacking from Yibin was divided into two groups, the front group was 2,500 people, and the leader was Wu Yingqi. The task was to block the Rongxi Bridge and divide the Qing army into two parts.
There are 12,500 main troops on the rear route. The leader is Wu Guogui, and Ma Bao is the deputy general. Their task is to fight the main force of the Qing army on the southern front ambushed in Tazi Mountain and Mojiafeng Mountain, attract them as much as possible, and avoid Wu Yingqi was attacked from both sides.
In addition, the number of Wu troops attacking from Nanxi County was as many as 15,000, and the leader was Wu Sangui himself! Since Nanxi County is relatively far from Tazi Mountain and Mojiafeng Mountain, Wu Sangui may not be able to reach the fighting area until late at night or early tomorrow morning.
The specific time it will arrive depends mainly on how many troops Yue Le will dedicate to block the attack?
Of course, it also depends on the outcome of the battle between Wu Guogui and Yue Le!
Zhuangzi, where Wu Guogui's troops rested this morning and noon, is also a certain distance from Tazi Mountain, Mojiafeng Mountain and Daguan Town. In order to ensure that the Qing cavalry would not be harassed or blocked during the march, they could arrive on the battlefield in time to engage in battle with Yue Le's troops. So Wu Guogui sent his deputy Ma Bao to lead the cavalry first!
And Yue Le had figured out Wu Yingqi's (Wu Sangui) intention at the first time, and immediately made the most reasonable choice at the time - he did not choose to evacuate immediately because he believed that Lerjin and Moro could He used 20,000 troops to quickly defeat the 2,000 to 3,000 Wu troops in front, so he decided to dedicate 5,000 troops to delay the Wu troops coming from the direction of Nanxi, and at the same time concentrated 15,000 troops to fight Wu Jun's rear troops. As long as he could Defeat the Wu army's rear troops, and this battle will be a complete victory.
In order to prevent the Wu army's rear troops from seizing the relatively open terrain northwest of Daguan Town, Yue Le also sent 2,480 bannermen led by Garhan as the vanguard to hinder the Wu army's advance. When dusk came that day, the two cavalrymen finally encountered each other near a shallow creek four or five miles northwest of Daguan Town.
The two cavalrymen formed their formations on the north bank of the creek, among the wild grass that was taller than a man, in the sweltering dusk.
Among them, the formation of the Eight Banners Soldiers was composed of four hundred cavalry with the same flag color. They spread out a large horizontal formation and stretched the formation very long in an attempt to surround the Wu Army cavalry with their superior strength.
Ma Bao, on the other hand, formed a team of hundreds of cavalry and formed fifteen dense two-row charging formations. Ma Bao himself was in the center, with seven two-row charging formations on each side. Including Ma Bao himself, every bamboo spear cavalry carries two bamboo spears about one foot and five feet in length, as well as sabers and bows and arrows!
Every cavalryman has put on cloth armor and a helmet wrapped in a red scarf.
As for the Qing army, the Eight Banners cavalry temporarily gave up their most powerful "weapon" - domestic slaves!
Although many slaves may be better at fighting than their masters, Yue Le still does not allow them to take the place of their masters. When marching, they can be served by domestic slaves, but they have to do it themselves when going into battle, otherwise the domestic slaves will have the heart to deceive their master. So all the domestic slaves were left in Fushun County.
The Eight Banners soldiers, who no longer had servants to serve them, now wore cloth armor that was extremely heavy and very stuffy, and wore helmets that were not breathable at all. They also rode horses for a long distance under the bright sun and it was very hot. They were bored and tired, and some people didn't even have to drink water because they didn't have domestic slaves to serve them (they set off before the water bag was full, and drank it halfway), and now they are all a little thirsty.
The relative with the blue flag, the "bear-killing warrior" who killed a panda outside Shunqingfu City, is now dying of thirst, and his throat is so dry that it's almost smoking!
He is a son of the Eight Banners who was born only after the Dingding Central Plains in the Qing Dynasty. He is a native of "Old Beijing" and has never suffered much hardship since he was a child. Even if the training is organized in the banner, it is only two domestic slaves holding drinks, snacks and towels. Waiting on the side. Even if he later picked up a new army, there would always be domestic slaves following him. It was not until this time that he went to the battlefield that he had no one to serve him.
He just couldn't figure it out. Why couldn't he bring two slaves to serve him during the war? Who sets the rules? How inconvenient will it be if you can't come down to take a breath for a while? No one will be there to take care of you?
"Dong dong dong dong."
Just when Na Qin was complaining in his heart, a drum suddenly sounded.
Then the team leaders and assistant leaders started shouting.
"We're about to charge, check your bows and arrows, raise your spears"
"At the second tom sound, rush forward!"
Naqin quickly collected his attention and shouted with the others: "嗻!"
"Qingtian is dead, Zhoutian will be established, the fields will be equalized and the land will be divided, and the world will be safe!"
At this time, the other side started shouting slogans!
The sixteen-character slogan was shouted very neatly, as if shouted by one person, and the voice was very loud and full of murderous intent. It was frightening to hear it!
The kisser's attention was attracted by this neat slogan. He stretched his neck and looked forward, only to realize that something was wrong!
Isn't the formation of Wu Jun's cavalry on the opposite side too neat? Why is it like cutting with a knife and chopping with an axe? Are these rebels from Pingxi Fan all having enough to eat and nothing to do, and are they practicing formations every day?
Just when the pro was extremely surprised, there was a rapid sound of drums from the opposite side.
Afterwards, most of the Wu army cavalry raised their spears, shouted the slogan "Qingtian is dead, Zhoutian should be established, equalize the land and divide the land, and the world will be safe" and began to gallop forward.
Not all the Wu cavalry moved forward, but fourteen Wu cavalry in two rows began to move forward. The horizontal formation led by Ma Bao in the middle remained motionless.
Although there were only 1,400 cavalry advancing forward, and only 700 cavalry on the front line, the formation was tight and neat, like moving walls, crushing towards their opponents.
"Dong dong dong"
The second whistle and drum sounded on the Qing army's side, and the leading officers and assistant leaders opened their throats and shouted.
"Go! Go, go, go!"
"Don't embarrass your ancestors! Charge!"
The father also acted very bravely and shouted: "Don't embarrass our ancestors and charge! Charge! Long live the Emperor! The Qing Dynasty will last for tens of thousands of years!"
He roared while raising his riding crop, holding it up high and tapping it gently - but not too hard, otherwise the horse would be in pain. Once the horse was in pain, it would lose track when running! The spear on the opposite side looks very long. If you stab it, you will die.
And there are quite a few people who hold similar thoughts to that pro!
They are all men who grew up in Sijiu City, and they are very lively. How can they be compared with the ancestors who grew up in the white mountains and black waters?
And when there are too many people who are quick-thinking, the formation of the cavalry charge becomes a bit sparse.
(End of chapter)
