"Gonna...gonna win!"
At three o'clock in the morning, when the sky on the battlefield northwest of Seoul had become quite dark, Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, who was standing high in Xingzhou Mountain City and supervising the battle, had tears in his eyes.
Victory is almost within reach!
His large-depth formation, three-line arrangement of infantry and roundabout tactics of cavalry really achieved miraculous results!
Although the power of the "high sugar" Ming army in artillery and infantry coordination and position attack battles still exceeded Kangxi's expectations, they were not invincible... The Ming army had "more sugar than horses"!
Therefore, after the Ming army broke through the first line of the Qing army, they did not have enough cavalry to invest in the gap to pursue and expand the results, so they could only take the risk of investing infantry to pursue and annihilate. If the opponent's formation has enough depth, set up a three-line or even four-line infantry formation, and then use a large number of cavalry to counterattack at any time. Then you can use the front line as bait to lure the Ming army into your depth and annihilate it!
The Ming army that broke into the enemy's depth was unable to receive strong fire support because it was far away from its own artillery. Also, because of the threat of the enemy's cavalry, it had to form a hollow square formation with no mobility. Even those who evacuated in time Probably all gone. We can only passively wait for the enemy to surround us...
"We win! Your Majesty, we are really going to win!"
"Your Majesty, we are going to win. The Qing Dynasty's national destiny is back!"
Gabra and Duolong both felt like crying with joy. Although the sky was very dark at the moment, they could still clearly see the general situation on the battlefield.
The eight Ming army battalion-level vertical formations that had just broken through the front line of the Qing army had now formed two hollow square formations next to each other, and were still approaching slowly, as if they wanted to huddle together to form a large rectangular formation. But no matter how they changed their formation, they could not change their fate of being besieged by the Qing soldiers. . Because as many as twenty Qing army's leading columns have pressed forward from three directions!
More than 10,000 cavalrymen under the unified command of Bahai bypassed the two hollow square formations of the Ming army, isolating them from the following troops.
Facing the threat of more than 10,000 Eight Banners cavalry, the Ming army's follow-up troops, a total of eight battalion-level columns, were too scared to rush forward. Instead, they relied on the earth wall that originally belonged to the Qing army's front-line troops to launch a defense.
Moreover, the Ming army has not yet completely captured the earth wall guarded by the Qing army, because there are eight or nine infantrymen led by the Qing army on both wings of the front line, relying on the earth wall to resist desperately.
The three villages of Shuisedong, Yicundong, and Shangyandong, which were half occupied by the Ming and Qing Dynasties, are also currently engaged in fierce fighting.
In addition, on the northeastern edge of the battlefield, the battle on the high ground of Mount Astori is now starting, and further away, from the southern foot of Bukhan Mountain to the line of Beiyake Mountain, there are also vague sounds of cannons and gunshots.
Obviously, Wang Fuchen's troops are launching a diversionary attack on the flanks of the Ming army. Although Zudouli Mountain and Beiyue Mountain cannot be captured immediately, the gains and losses of these two positions are also related to the overall situation of the entire Seoul Battle. . Therefore, the Ming army cannot ignore it... This will make their already stretched troops even more nervous.
When both Gabra and Duolong thought that they were going to win this battle, Emperor Kangxi's slightly trembling voice rang out again: "Quick...quickly go to Tuhai." , Fei Yanggu, and Tong Guogang ordered them to take down the besieged rebels as soon as possible! If we take down this group of rebels, our national destiny of the Qing Dynasty will be restored!"
"嗻!"
...
"Squat down, squat down, squat down... Qing Yao is going to fire!"
At this time, Liu Yan was striding around in the hollow phalanx that had just been integrated, while shouting at the soldiers below to squat down to avoid the cannons.
In the days of "line to shoot", it was not a good idea to have fusiliers crouch down to avoid gunfire. Because it’s easy to squat but hard to stand up!
On a battlefield where bullets and artillery shells are flying everywhere, who is willing to stand when they can squat?
But General Liu Da has nothing to do now. His artillery is still behind and has not moved up! There are only some battalion small mortars and iron fists issued to the pikemen on hand, and the ammunition of the small mortars and iron fists are limited, so they have to be used sparingly.
The Qing army not only had Weiyuan general cannons, but also bronze general cannons that could fire five kilograms of solid bullets. Although there were not many in number, they had a long range and great power, and were no less of a threat to the hollow square formation. The explosive shell fired by the Weiyuan Cannon.
Fortunately, Liu Yan still had some small mortars that could fire high-caliber ammunition, which could prevent the Qing army from pushing the general's cannon into the shotgun range.
Sixteen Weiyuan general cannons and eight general cannons have been pulled up by the Qing army!
Among them, sixteen Weiyuan general cannons were deployed on the wings, and eight general cannons were placed in the center. In the afterglow of the setting sun, the muzzles of the twenty-four cannons were revealed, and the gunners were busy stuffing bags of gunpowder and shells into the barrels. Then the fuses were lit, and tongues of flame spewed out from each muzzle!
These artillery pieces of the Qing army were very close to the Ming army's positions, with a direct range of no more than 300 steps. The opponent's muskets and small mortars were no threat at this distance. However, the Qing army's Weiyuan artillery and general artillery can achieve quite good accuracy. Although the shells fired by the Qing army's general artillery passed over the heads of the crouching Ming army, they did not cause any damage. But the explosive shells fired by the sixteen Weiyuan General cannons exploded on the Ming army's position.
Of course, not every one explodes. The fuses of these days' explosive bombs are not that good. About half of the bombs on the Ming army failed to explode, while the Qing army had a misfire rate of 60% to two-thirds... But for Liu Yan and his men, If more than a third of the shells exploded, the damage caused would be great enough.
I could only see clouds of smoke rising from the Ming army's position, and clouds of fireballs exploding. Although they were not particularly dense, these shells were filled with powerful sugar pills! As long as it falls on the line of Ming army infantry, a gap will be blown immediately!
In the gap, there were soldiers killed and injured by the explosion!
Fortunately, it's already dark now. The Qing army was also reluctant to "line up and shoot" at night, so their artillery bombardment stopped abruptly after less than two-quarters of an hour and only fired less than 200 sugar-powdered explosive shells. The infantry led by seven generals had formed three large horizontal teams. Under the supervision of Tong Guogang, Tu Hai and Fei Yanggu, before it was completely dark, they launched the first attack on the Ming army's position. Wave attack.
In the hollow phalanx of the Ming army, the heart of the commander-in-chief Liu Yan was twitching... The feeling of being bombarded was really unpleasant!
He, a veteran with a martial arts background and a long history of fighting, was scared to death just now, not to mention the people below... I wonder how many people can stand up and fire?
Thinking of this, he immediately struggled to get up from the mud, took a deep breath of cold air filled with the smell of gunpowder smoke, and shouted: "Blow the suona...get ready to shoot!"
Following a burst of harsh suona sounds, Korean curses could be heard from all over the hollow square array of the Ming army.
"Damn it, stand up...if you want to be a double shifter, stand up!"
"Asshole, why are you still squatting? The king is waiting for our victory! As long as we win, the king will let you work in double shift!"
"Pick up your guns...stand up and call double shift!"
"Stand up and work double shift!"
Being a yangban... What could be more exciting to a 17th century Korean commoner, slave or Chinese than being a yangban?
In the 17th century, North Korea was in a state of chaos. It had no industry, undeveloped agriculture, and a large population. It was also caught up in the Little Ice Age. If you couldn't work two shifts, you would definitely starve!
The desire for the two squads finally defeated the fear. As the shouts of "two squads, two squads" rang out in the Ming army formation, all the squatting North Korean recruits stood up!
Although most of them were trembling with fear, their minds were completely blank except for "two classes". However, two or three months of high-intensity training can still enable them to habitually raise their rifles at the officer's command and pull the trigger at the enemy in front.
