At the foot of Tea Mountain in the north of Anji City, there is a relatively open flat land. On the third day of March in the third year of the Republic of Ming Dynasty, it became the battlefield for the decisive battle between the Ming and Dajing armies.
In the southern part of the battlefield, in the center of several square formations of the Dajing Army, lookout carts were erected one after another. Since the Chashan Highlands were occupied by the Ming army, the Dajing Army could only set up a large hollow square formation of five thousand people on the lowland plain seven or eight miles south of Chashan. Because they are on low ground, the commanders of each formation need to use observation poles to observe the opponent's formation and movements.
Under the banner with the word "Jing" and a blue dragon, Geng Jingzhong held a beautifully made telescope and scanned the Ming army's front.
The number of the Ming army did not seem to be large, only about 10,000, but they launched a front that was several miles long.
Under the constant sound of drums and suonas, accompanied by bursts of neat footsteps, the Ming army infantry in red robes and red scarves were entering the battlefield one after another from the tea mountain where they camped, and then transformed from a column into a thin formation. Three rows of horizontal formations or small hollow square formations cover the entire front. But what is the use of such a thin formation? If they were attacked by cavalry, wouldn't they be scattered in one rush?
Geng Jingzhong, who felt a little strange, opened his right eye and took a closer look. In the telescope lens, the Ming army infantry was neatly lined up with strong steps. They looked a bit well-trained. However, their military flags were a bit sloppy, and a red flag was added. The few black numbers on the top look a bit like a mob.
Geng Jingzhong, who was not sure whether his opponent was an elite or a mob, decided to take a closer look - for him, today's battle was a battle that determined the rise and fall of the empire, and there could be no room for mistakes. Otherwise, he, the Emperor of Dongxing, would probably kill Emperor Gao, the founder of the country, and the last emperor of the country, together!
When he took a closer look, he found something was wrong again!
The equipment of this Ming army was very wrong. First of all, all the Ming army soldiers did not wear helmets and armor, and the armor rate was zero! They don't even have any armor. This army must be a ragtag group, right?
Secondly, they all carry guns! Oh, it’s not wrong to carry a gun on the battlefield, but the problem is that these Ming soldiers all carry flintlock guns, no spears, no swords, and they don’t seem to have cavalry. Instead, a dozen horse-drawn bronze cannons were drilled out of the small forest at the foot of Tea Mountain and placed in front of the first three rows of the Ming army.
When those small bronze cannons were pushed to the front of the Ming army's infantry line and spread out, the Ming army's formation was ready. This is a simple formation, consisting of two large columns at the front and rear made of thin horizontal formations and a few small square hollow square formations. The officers and soldiers in the entire formation stood solemnly and silently, and all the flintlock rifles They were all equipped with bayonets, and together they formed neat rows of steel jungles.
Under the spring sunshine, the bright red colors and the dazzling reflections of bayonets on the Ming army's front conveyed a strong visual impact. This momentum did not look like a mob! Even though they were several miles away, the chilling aura they exuded still hit him, not only making Geng Jingzhong feel frightened, but also making Yue Le feel something bad.
Yue Le, who was riding on a war horse and standing next to the pole car where Geng Jingzhong was, had experienced many battles. He could tell at a glance that the Ming army was far more powerful than them, which was three or four times more numerous. Above Jingjun, and he was puzzled, but looking at their equipment, it was too makeshift. Could it be that they were all Chinese recruits who had just completed their formation training, and they had not had time to master spears, knives, or enough armor. It was usable, but at the same time Chen Yonghua and Lu Sanhao happened to have a lot of flintlock rifles in their hands, so they formed an army with infantrymen carrying flintlock rifles?
Yue Le suppressed the uneasy feeling in his heart, and the firm will honed through repeated defeats once again suppressed his uneasiness. He raised his head and glanced at Geng Jingzhong standing in the Wangdou. This man was considered to have passed the emperor's addiction. And now that he has been driven to this place, is it possible that he can retreat in despair? If he really retreats, Liu Jinzhong, who is just sitting back and watching the success or failure, will definitely pounce on him and bite him like a loyal dog of the Ming Dynasty!
Also, where is Zhejiang Province?
At least half of the reformist bigwigs are from Zhejiang!
And because the scholar-bureaucrats in Zhejiang liked to go to Nanjing during the Ming Dynasty, when the Ming Dynasty was about to end, there were still many Zhejiang gentry who helped the unsatisfactory small court of Nanming to fight against the heavenly soldiers. In the end, even after Nanming was destroyed, they did not die. In my heart, I was still dreaming about resisting the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty, but my dream came true! Therefore, after many Zhejiang gentry returned to Nanjing, where Prince Zhu was loyal to him, they regarded themselves as Ming Dynasty people again! Earlier, when the Nanjing Republican Court sold the status of Chinese citizens and national scholars, many Zhejiang people bought it.
Geng Jingzhong's foundation in Zhejiang was weak, and he did not dare to risk his life to suppress the Ming Dynasty people and scholars in Zhejiang. He could only turn a blind eye and deal with it temporarily. If he fled back to Zhejiang in despair, those Zhejiang people and scholars would probably start an army to create a republic throughout the world!
"Guozhang, what do you think of the Ming army on the other side?" Geng Jingzhong asked for advice at this time, "They should not be the elite of the Ming army, right?"
"The elite are definitely not the elite," Yue Le pondered for a moment, then added, "The whole army has no armor, and there seems to be no cavalry to cover the wings. It doesn't look like the elite."
Geng Jingzhong patted the railing of the battle and said with a smile: "I think so too. Although the ranks of these Ming troops are well organized, their equipment is too poor. They don't even have armor, they don't even have spears, and they don't even have cavalry. Father, do you think we should send out cavalry to charge first?"
Yue Le quickly shook his head and said, "Don't rush to attack first. Then we'll see if there might be an ambush on Tea Mountain."
He really thinks so!
Because in his opinion, the Ming army's musketeers on the opposite side looked quite impressive, but they had no cavalry, no spearmen, and no sword players, so there was no way to form coordination. Moreover, their entire army was unarmored and had no melee combat capabilities. almost none.
Such an army simply cannot withstand a cavalry attack. Only a fool would arrange his troops like this. Although Chen Yonghua has little practical experience, he is certainly not stupid.
So there is a high probability that it is a scam!
Geng Jingzhong nodded, looked at the low tea mountain behind the Ming army's formation, and said to himself: "If Chen Yonghua really doesn't know how to fight, then this weak brigade in front of him should be his bait!"
As soon as he said this, several bright red flags suddenly appeared on the hillside of Tea Mountain opposite, and at the same time, a very rhythmic drum beat sounded. An extremely exciting rhythm.
Then, the Ming troops who had already formed their formation actually started singing!
"Rise up, humiliated Guizhou head! Rise up, hungry and cold slaves in the world! Full of blood, fight to the death. The old homeland has been destroyed long ago, and a new world is waiting for our generation to create. Don't know that we are worthless, from now on We want the world to be unified."
This is the latest version of "Song of Datong", which is the anthem of the Tiandihui and the military song of the New Army of the Ming Dynasty. Although the lyrics have been changed a bit, the melody is still the same, which is called magnificent. Tens of thousands of people sang "Song of Datong" together with the military drums, and their morale suddenly soared. The tens of thousands of Jingjun troops on the opposite side were clearly much larger in number and their equipment looked much better, but they all suddenly felt a little frightened.
At this moment, in addition to Chen Yonghua, who was given the title "Near South" by Li Zhongshan, there was also General Li Zhongshan himself on Tea Mountain.
After Li Zhongshan learned that Geng Jingzhong had sent troops to Anji, he flew to Guangzhou where Chen Yonghua was stationing troops. Then he and Chen Yonghua took the model town trained by the Nanjing Jiangwu Hall and went to Chashan to seek help from Geng Jingzhong. Decisive battle.
This model town is a new type of army that Li Zhongshan built based on the army of the Western line infantry era and the teachers of the Jiangwu Hall. There is only such a town in total, and the chief soldier is the current leader of the Nanjing Jiangwu Hall. Hall Director Li Zhongxian.
This model town, together with the two newly formed Chinese towns brought by Chang Wei from Huaidong, formed the Second Army of the Ming Dynasty. Chen Yonghua personally served as the military admiral and was stationed in Guangde Mansion, preparing to fight Geng Jingzhong or join the Second Army. Liu Jinzhong, the admiral of the three armies, attacked Hangzhou together.
In addition to Guangdefu and Huzhou, Li Zhongshan also led the Army's First Town expanded from Shanziying and two Huaixi Chinese towns transferred from Anhui to form the First Army, stationed in Ningguo Mansion, prepare to launch an attack from Ningguo Mansion into Zhejiang Province, or meet Geng Jingzhong's army at Ningguo Mansion.
In addition, Lu Sanhao was also appointed as the admiral of the Fourth Army. He led the Army's Second Town, which was adapted from Yingtian Tuanlian, plus two Chinese towns that also came from Anhui, to station in Huizhou. The tasks were the same as Chen Yonghua's. Prepare to fight against Geng Jingzhong or join forces with Li Zhongshan to raid Geng Jingzhong's lair in Jiande!
In other words, Li Zhongshan, Lu Sanhao, Chen Yonghua, Liu Jinzhong, and Zheng Jing, who was left in Nanjing to take charge, mobilized a total of 120,000 troops and divided them into four groups in order to quickly deal with the scourge of Geng Jingzhong!
If Geng Jingzhong had not been fooled and had not delivered the goods himself, then these four armies would have invaded Zhejiang soon!
The reason why Li Zhongshan wanted to split and use the superior forces in his hands was because he didn't quite know where Geng Jingzhong would send troops. It wasn't until his alternate sworn brother (who had already agreed to be brothers) Liu Jinzhong sent someone to Ningguo The general in charge of the palace reported that Geng Jingzhong was going north to approach Nanjing via Anji and Guangzhou.
And Liu Jinzhong's report is certainly credible - he is the founding shareholder of New Daming, and he is on the same level as Li Zhongshan, Li Fuchen, Li Laishun, Zheng Jing, Lu Sanhao, and Chen Yonghua. One of the seven members of the Ming Dynasty!
If the current situation continues, it is very likely that this seven-member group will develop into seven top families in the future!
With such a bright future, what reason does Liu Jinzhong have for not following Ming to the end?
Moreover, even if Wu Sangui, together with Geng Jingzhong and Kangxi, could gather a million-strong army, Ming Dynasty would not be afraid of them. Isn’t it just a million-strong army? Now the Ming Dynasty’s national scholars, nationals, and candidate nationals total more than one million!
Moreover, at least half of the more than one million compatriots and candidates are concentrated in Jiangsu and Anhui, so the Ming Dynasty's mobilization and organizational capabilities in Jiangsu and Anhui are very strong.
In addition, Li Zicheng and Li Laishun also have many supporters in Hubei, so it is not so easy for Wu Sangui to beat them to death!
This Wu Sangui is outdated!
The current Republic of Ming Dynasty is a country that he cannot understand at all.
Its ability to mobilize the country's war potential is completely beyond Wu Sangui's imagination. This is not only recruiting people to serve as soldiers, but also mobilizing finance and military industry!
During this period, the General's Office has raised as much as 40 million taels of military expenses by selling the status of national soldiers and nationals and selling national debt!
This is "special military expenditure" without additional taxes and stipends, and without even including normal commercial taxes and agricultural taxes!
Therefore, Wu Sangui felt that he had hundreds of thousands of troops and it was completely impossible to lose. And Liu Jinzhong also felt that the Ming Dynasty had millions of citizens, tens of millions of military expenditures, and two military industrial bases in Foshan and Zhangzhou, so it was also impossible to lose.
Due to Liu Jinzhong's "betrayal" again, all four armies in Ming Dynasty are now on the move!
Lu Sanhao and Zhou Chang, commander of the First Army, commanded the two armies to attack Jiande, Geng Jingzhong's hometown. After the attack, they would immediately attack Quzhou and Jinhua, then Taizhou, Chuzhou, and finally join forces in Wenzhou - these two Lu can almost capture half of Zhejiang.
After Li Zhongshan arrived at Guangde with Yao Qisheng's Pegasus, he immediately came up with a strategy of using 60,000 people to encircle and annihilate Geng Jingzhong's tens of thousands of troops! Now Chang Wei and Liu Jinzhong are leading their own troops to penetrate Anji's back. He himself and Chen Yonghua set up formations in Chashan, waiting for Geng Jingzhong to come and die - and he actually came, and they came out in full force!
Li Zhongshan was singing "Song of Datong" and watching the formation.
Geng Jingzhong's Dajing military formation is also quite spectacular. It is completely black and the armor is all green (Dajing is Mu De Shangqing). There are five large hollow square formations arranged in one word.
These five phalanxes all have a thin skin and a big stuff - there are a lot of infantry and cavalry hidden inside the phalanxes.
In addition, there were some Jing army cavalry in front of each square formation. They looked like veteran Youzi. They bullied the Ming army because they had no cavalry, so they frequently ran to the Ming army formation at the foot of the tea mountain to provoke them.
Li Zhongshan said to Chen Yonghua who was beside him: "Geng Jingzhong's large banner is in the middle square formation. We might as well concentrate our forces to break it. As long as Geng Jingzhong is defeated, the other formations of Jing's army will probably disintegrate, and then we will be in trouble." Complete victory."
Li Zhongshan then pointed at Geng Jingzhong's left wing and said to Chen Yonghua: "Geng Jingzhong's left wing is Zeng Yangxing, Fufu, you and he are old acquaintances, right? You bring three battalions and six guns to feint attack, and wait until Geng Jingzhong's reserves have been sent to the left wing, so I will lead the remaining troops to break his center army!"
Chen Yonghua was a little confused by Li Zhongshan's words: "Shikai, their people are many times more than ours! How easy is it to defeat them?"
"It should be possible." Li Zhongshan was actually not too sure. After all, the opponent had so many people, and he had never seriously learned the tactics of line infantry.
"Should it?" Chen Yonghua frowned, "Is it possible?"
Li Zhongshan smiled and said: "Fufu, don't worry, after today's battle is over, no one will say that you, Chen Jinnan, can't fight anymore!"
"Why can't you fight?" Chen Yonghua frowned again, "I can't fight, but I know how to fight. I even defeated Wu Sangui's brother Wu Sanwei in Wenzhou!"
Li Zhongshan laughed and said: "That's no problem! Fu Fu, send troops, and I will personally beat the drum to cheer you on!"
Under the guidance of the sound of drums and the bright red military flag, more than 2,000 Ming army infantry formed eight team-level phalanxes to cover six artillery batteries. They marched out of the formation at the foot of the Tea Mountain and began to attack Geng Jingzhong's left wing. The phalanx advances!
Chen Yonghua himself, escorted by dozens of cavalry guards and messengers, walked behind eight team-level phalanxes.
In addition, these eight team-level phalanxes separated a small number of skirmishers holding rifles, dispersed the formation, and walked in front of the phalanx.
These skirmishers were all skilled with rifled guns and were responsible for driving away harassing enemy cavalry.
Seeing that Chen Yonghua actually personally commanded more than 2,000 people to attack Zeng Yangxing's army, which had more than 10,000 elite troops, Geng Jingzhong was almost shocked. The infantry, or musketeers without long rifles, actually dared to use such a thin formation and risk their lives. At the risk of being scattered by the enemy's cavalry, attack the superior enemy through large open areas.
This is simply courting death!
This Chen Jinnan is indeed a scholar who doesn't know how to fight!
"Bah, bah, bah"
While Geng Jingzhong was still surprised, the skirmishers of the Ming Army had already opened fire on the light cavalry of the Jing Army who were approaching them and wanted to harvest their heads! They use in-line flintlock rifled guns to shoot Minie bullets, and they are all shot by veterans with outstanding marksmanship!
Although the gunfire was sparse, the shooting was "surprisingly accurate". In the blink of an eye, seventeen or eight Jingjun light cavalry were shot off their horses by the sharpshooters.
The distance of the shooting and the accuracy of the marksmanship are simply incredible!
"Sure enough, there are two!"
Geng Jingzhong took a breath, turned to Yue Le and said: "Guozhang, how do you think we are going to fight this? Let them go and have a confrontation with Zeng Yangxing, or send the cavalry to charge one?"
"Send the cavalry to charge!" Yue Le said with a confident smile, "Your Majesty, I will go in person!"
"Okay!" As soon as Geng Jingzhong heard Yue Le's words, he immediately took out a command talisman and threw it to Yue Le below Wangdou, "Captain, all the cavalry are now at your disposal. You can fight how you want. .As long as we can defeat Chen Yonghua."
"yes!"
Yue Le took the token, agreed, and galloped to each formation to summon the cavalry!
At the same time, the light cavalry that had harassed the Ming army in the past did not dare to approach the Ming army anymore because they could not bear the losses of being "targeted" by rifled guns.
Without the harassment, the marching speed of the more than two thousand Ming army fusiliers increased significantly. In the blink of an eye, they had approached less than 300 steps away from the left wing of the Jing army and began to deploy artillery.
At the same time, they were within the range of Jingjun's artillery!
As a result, the shelling from both sides began quickly. As the artillery roared, the roaring shells flew over the battlefield.
(End of chapter)
