When Chen Yonghua commanded two battalions and eight teams of red scarf musketeers to arrive in front of Zeng Yangxingbu's phalanx on Geng Jingzhong's left flank and began artillery preparations before the infantry attack, Li Zhongshan issued another order for the entire army to press forward.
The Ming Dynasty Army Model Town on the Chashan battlefield is a town with infantry, artillery, carriages, cavalry, and workers. However, the only ones that appear in front of Geng Jingzhong's army now are infantry and artillery.
Among them, there are a total of three brigades, twelve battalions and forty-eight infantry teams. Each team has a large establishment of 200 men. Just these forty-eight teams together have more than 9,000 fusiliers.
In addition, there are twenty skirmishers equipped with rifled guns under each musketeer team. They are usually scattered in each row to serve as shooting instructors. During the battle, they can either disperse and shoot coldly, or they can gather together to fight in line like the line infantry. Shot.
The artillery that appeared on the battlefield was an artillery regiment consisting of six artillery teams, a baggage team and an engineering team, all equipped with six-pound field guns, a total of thirty-six. Li Zhongshan had previously allocated twelve gates to Chen Yonghua, and the remaining twenty-four gates were slowly pushed forward together with the remaining ten battalions of infantry.
As for the cavalry regiment under the jurisdiction of Model Town, it is currently led by Li Zhongzheng and is on standby in a forest behind Tea Mountain.
With waves of unhurried military drums, and guided by bright red military flags, they began to slowly approach the remaining large square formations of the Jing Army.
If you can look down from a high place, you will find that in the current Ming army formation, the two battalions on the right wing have advanced sharply, and have been forced to a place only more than a mile away from the front line of the left wing of the Jing army. The remaining battalions have formed The array, which was roughly two thick red lines, was slowly moving forward, but it would take a while to fill up the left side of the two battalions on the right wing that were advancing forward.
As for the right side of the Second Battalion on the right wing of the Ming Army, there happened to be a small stream flowing through it. Of course, it was a standard small stream in the south of the Yangtze River. It was also the rainy season in spring, so it was impossible to cross it.
In other words, if the cavalry of the Jing Army wants to attack the two battalions on the right wing of the Ming Army, they must hurry up. Otherwise, once the ten battalions of the Ming Army come forward, there will be less space left for the cavalry to attack.
Geng Jingzhong, who was standing in the battle with the pole car, could clearly see that he was a little anxious. He ordered the soldiers below: "Quick, go to King An to urge him. If we don't launch a cavalry attack, it will be too late." !”
"yes!"
The soldiers below got his order, got on their horses, and looked for Yue Le's recognition flag. When we found Yue Le, Prince Zhang'an of Dajing, Prince of Qing'an, and Duke An of Great Zhou (so awesome, a veteran of three dynasties!) were talking to Bai Xianzhong, the general under Geng Jingzhong!
It turned out that Bai Xianzhong was unwilling to hand over his two hundred cavalry to Yue Le - the Ming army in the south of the Yangtze River was short of horses and did not have many cavalry, and the Jing army, which was also shrinking in the south of the Yangtze River, was of course also short of horses. Moreover, the horse administration of Dajing Kingdom has not yet been resolved. Originally, Geng Jingzhong's vassal still managed some horse farms in Fujian, which could more or less provide Geng Jingzhong with some war horses. But when Dajing withdrew from Fuzhou, the horse farms outside Fuzhou did not follow him. Even the people and horses, plus the word "chang", were all named Zheng.
Therefore, most of the war horses in the Dajing Dynasty are now "old horses from three dynasties", and they are all castrated "eunuch horses from three dynasties". There is no way to foal Geng Jingzhong, so one horse will die and one will be missing, which is rare. .
And the military leaders under Geng Jingzhong who were preparing to become four ministers also knew the value of cavalry, so how could they be willing to hand it over to Yue Le so easily?
So Yue Le had no choice but to coax and lie, and even promised a lot of benefits to Geng Jingzhong, and finally managed to get seven to eight hundred cavalry, including two hundred of his own!
"Mr. Bai, the emperor is anxious. If you don't hand over the cavalry to me, it will delay the battle. It will be difficult for the emperor to explain. I'm afraid it will be difficult to talk to the people in the west if they ask me about it in the future!"
Yue Le is really capable. He is still serving as the prince for Geng Jingzhong, but he has already used "the one from the west" to bluff people.
"Western" of course refers to Wu Sangui!
Bai Xianzhong may not care about Geng Jingzhong from the "east", but he cannot ignore Wu Sangui from the "west". The "east" will not last long no matter what, and it is the "west" that can give him a wealth that will be passed down from generation to generation!
However, he was still unwilling to hand over all the cavalry to Yue Le. He just gave Yue Le one hundred and thirty cavalry, and he kept seventy or eighty cavalry to save his life.
With the 130 cavalry given by Bai Xianzhong, Yue Le finally gathered more than 900 cavalry. Then he urgently organized the more than 900 cavalry into nine teams, each with more than 100 cavalry, and then began to Chen Yonghua's left wing advanced.
While Yue Le was organizing the cavalry to launch a charge, Chen Yonghua's side had already finished firing the artillery, and began to use the smoke cover from the artillery fire from both sides to launch the infantry attack.
In his first wave of charges, he took out one battalion and four teams, with almost 800 musketeers, forming four thin horizontal lines and pushing forward against the lead bullets fired randomly from the front.
The rhythm of the military drum is getting faster and faster, and the red turban musketeers are walking faster and faster. The field of vision in front of Chen Yonghua is full of undulating head-colored turbans. Those red turbans are actually covered with a semi-circular turban. Iron helmet. It's just that this helmet doesn't have any exaggerated shape, and it's wrapped in red cloth. It looks like a bald man. But A really doesn't have it, it's just a cotton robe dyed red.
Zeng Yangxing's troops on the opposite side also stopped shelling and started shooting randomly with shotguns and bows. It's not that the training of these Jing troops was poor, but that a small number of Ming army skirmishers walked in front of the eight hundred musketeers, and came to a position only a few dozen steps away from Zeng Jun, half-crouching in the grass. Use the flintlock rifle in your hand to name the musketeers, artillerymen, and officers of the Zeng family army one by one!
Before the enemy even gets close, there are already many casualties on our side, and no one can stand it! Therefore, Zeng Yangxing had no choice but to let the shotgun soldiers below start shooting, in order to strengthen everyone's courage.
At the same time, he also knew that the flintlock muskets equipped in large numbers by the Ming army were very powerful in a volley of guns. The shotgun soldiers under him were no match at all, and the archers were not very good either - good archers could fight against the flintlock muskets. Soldiers, but it is too difficult to train good archers, and he doesn't have many men. Most archers lose their accuracy at twenty paces, and the "soft bow ends" at fifty paces.
Therefore, he simply mobilized seven or eight hundred selected forwards, all wearing double armor and holding plain knives, squatting behind his own musketeers and archers, waiting for the Ming army's musketeers to approach, and then launched a counterattack!
At this time, the four teams of Ming Army musketeers had already entered the range where Zeng's army's shotguns and bows could exert their power, and sporadic casualties began to occur. The two Ming army battalion commanders who were in charge of the command did not have the idea of playing "a volley of guns within twenty steps" - that would be a life-threatening situation! The lives of people in the Ming Dynasty are still very precious and cannot be beaten like this.
Moreover, the Ming Dynasty’s army has advanced technology - hand-rubbed cork bullets are mini bullets!
This mini bullet does not have to be inserted into a rifled gun to exert its power. It is just as useful when inserted into a smoothbore gun! Not to mention anything else, the "chrysanthemum" of the cork pushing open the lead bullet after receiving pressure can improve the air tightness of the musket by several levels.
Therefore, a well-trained musketeer, using Mini bullets, can achieve good shooting accuracy at a distance of dozens of steps. This is also the reason why all the infantry in Model Town do not wear armor.
With a rapid and harsh sound of the suona, the four Ming Army musketeers who formed a horizontal line all stopped advancing, and then reorganized their ranks, turning the three horizontal lines into two horizontal lines, and then began a volley of muskets. shoot!
At the same time as there was a thunderous roar, seven to eight hundred lead bullets were splashed on the dense crowd like raindrops. After the first two rounds of volleys, Jing Jun's front stool all fell down!
But after two rounds of salvos, the front of these Ming Army musketeers was filled with smoke. Because of the reduced visibility, subsequent musketry shots were not so accurate.
And Zeng Yangxing, who was frightened by the two rounds of musket fire that was a bit too accurate, was waiting for this moment!
"Choose the vanguard and charge for me!"
After he roared, the passionate drums suddenly sounded in his military formation. The hundreds of selected frontmen were all veterans who had been licking blood from their swords for many years. In addition, Zeng Yangxing had offered a heavy reward, and even offered a reward of fifty taels of silver to the head of a red scarf soldier, expelling the ferocity in their blood. All inspired. Crazy shouts of killing suddenly resounded across the ground, and the dead soldiers of the Jing Army wearing double armor jumped out from their phalanx. They didn't form a whole team, they just covered their heads and moved forward as fast as possible, as if they would be sure of victory as long as they fought hand-to-hand with their opponents!
In order to prevent accidental injuries, all the musketeers of Jingjun stopped shooting, leaving only the archers who were still throwing arrows like crazy!
The two battalion commanders of the Ming Army also discovered that the dead soldiers of the Jing Army were beginning to attack, and they immediately issued an order to stop shooting and stay calm!
After two long suona sounds, all the musketeers stopped shooting, and after loading their ammunition, they stood still.
There was no roar of guns and artillery for a while on the battlefield, only the shouts of the soldiers with all their strength were left!
"kill"
After most of the gunpowder smoke had dissipated, Chen Yonghua, who stood up on the stirrups, opened his mouth and stared blankly at the nerve-wracking scene in front of him: The Ming army's battle line was so slender, as if it were a thin thread. The red line! Dozens of steps ahead of them, groups of Jingjun infantrymen were roaring and charging!
Can this stand up?
Just as he thought of this, the two battalion commanders directing operations from the front issued another order. Their orders turned into the harsh sound of suonas. The Ming army musketeers who had been standing still all raised their muskets, fixed their bayonets, and pointed at the Jing army rushing in front. Everyone held their breath, waiting for the suona to blow again!
These musketeers in Model Town are not cannon fodder who went to the battlefield after half a month of training. They are all Huaixi people. They were on the battlefield during Li Zhongshan's battle to pacify Huaixi, and have been attending the martial arts hall in Nanjing ever since. Receive training in the camp. And the focus is on practicing formation, practicing marksmanship, following orders and lining up to shoot!
The enemy who was shouting and charging was getting closer and closer to them! Thirty steps, twenty steps, fifteen steps, ten steps!
When the closest distance between the two sides was less than ten steps, a long and piercing sound of the suona suddenly sounded in the ears of the Ming Army musketeers!
It's now!
Eight hundred muskets fired at the same time! Although it was a musket, it made a roar like a bombardment, and its lethality was no less than ten or twelve six-pound field cannons that sprayed shotgun shells at the same time!
And the soldiers who died in Jingjun really died with their eyes open this time! They were about to rush towards the enemy. Those among them who were closest to the enemy's musketeers had already rushed within seven steps!
They say that a gun is faster from seven steps away, and a sword is faster from within seven steps! But how come it has become so fast and accurate that the gun can be fired within seven steps?
Almost no one of the dead soldiers of the Jing Army who rushed at the front could escape the blow of this "seven-step gun". In front of the "thin red line" of the Ming Army, all the dead soldiers of the Jing Army had been killed or were about to die. .
Even if there were a few who slipped through the net, they were all scared to death. They just stood there, not knowing whether to kneel down and surrender or rush forward to fight for their lives?
And those Jingjun soldiers who rushed slower were frightened when they saw the three or four hundred people in front of them fell down at once!
Isn't this too fucking cruel?
And just when they were too frightened to move forward, the Ming Army musketeers on the opposite side had already very skillfully taken out the pre-loaded Mini bullets, and quickly completed another loading - the loading of Mini bullets was inherently It is easier than ordinary lead bullets, and these Ming soldiers are "skilled soldiers". According to Westerners, one reloading time takes twenty or thirty seconds. Before the people over there could react, they had already raised their guns and were about to shoot again.
"Run!"
I don't know which "genius" suddenly roared at this time, and the "soldiers" of Jingjun who were already shrouded in fear all turned around and ran away. But they were all wearing two layers of armor, and they had consumed a lot of energy when they charged. How fast could they run at this time? Can't outrun bullets!
"boom"
With a piercing suona, the roar of flintlock volleys sounded again on the battlefield!
Surging to the left and right of Yue Le were the Manchu and Qing cavalry who had been with him for many years. The riders' pigtails swayed left and right in the air behind their heads, and from time to time they made strange screams and several roars of artillery (actually a volley of flintlock rifles). It did not scare these battle-hardened Manchu warriors. They were no longer the pampered Eight Banners dudes living a good life in Beijing, but had been trained by years of brutal war to become real warriors!
It is no exaggeration to say that their skills are comparable to their villain Amma!
Therefore, their charge cannot be stopped by two thin red lines!
That's right, on Chen Yonghua's left side, two thin red lines and a vague skirmisher line also appeared at this time!
Facing the charge of the Manchurian cavalry, the battalion commander of the Ming army adopted a response method of not a hollow square formation, but a thin red line plus a skirmisher line.
From the perspective of an old soldier like Yue Le who has been fighting for almost a lifetime (a lifetime is very fast, and the point is about to be reached), this Chen Yonghua doesn't know how to fight at all, and is completely giving random directions. This battle is definitely won!
In fact, his guess was not entirely wrong. Chen Yonghua really didn't know how to fight, because all the orders were given by Wang An who was with Chen Yonghua on his behalf!
In fact, Chen Yonghua's entire attention just now was on the "soldiers who were afraid of death" sent by Zeng Yangxing, and he did not even notice that Jingjun's cavalry had rushed to his left flank!
And when he withdrew his attention from the front, he realized that the staff around him had gone. After looking around, he found that the group had changed direction and all turned to the left. He quickly raised his head and looked to the left, and was stunned for a moment.
On the battlefield, groups of cavalry were rushing towards the slender red line composed of several Ming army infantry. Shouldn't they use a hollow square formation? How to use these "thin line"-like infantry formations to deal with the enemy's cavalry?
Whose order is this? Isn’t this giving blind orders?
Just when he was about to ask a question, he realized that Wang Anzheng, the left-joined soldier from the General's Mansion, was sitting on the ground on his horse, not panicking at all.
Since Wang An didn't panic, Chen Yonghua certainly didn't panic either. He was the "chief helmsman", so how could he panic? So he looked calm and composed, picked up the reins, and rode his horse to Wang An. Looking at the Jingjun cavalry galloping in front of him, he nodded and said: "Well, the Jingjun cavalry is very fierce! Brother! Can they withstand it?"
Wang An said with a smile: "They are seeking death! The Jing Army's cavalry is less than a thousand. If they charge forward in one fell swoop, they might be able to break through our defense line, but they are a group of more than a hundred cavalry. How can they charge through?"
I feel relieved when you say that!
Chen Yonghua nodded with satisfaction, and took out a folding fan and started fanning it gently. This look rivaled that of his old master, Zheng Jing, who always liked to dress up like Zhuge Liang.
(End of chapter)
