As soon as the official archers appeared on the battlefield, they were noticed by Zhang Hongtu, who had been watching the battlefield closely.
"Captain, the archers from the army are here, and they may threaten our gunmen." There was a hint of worry in Zhang Hongtu's tone.
He wasn't too worried about the gunmen in the army before.
It is difficult for a bird gunman to threaten them from a hundred steps away. Even the fire gun made of fine iron from their tiger-shaped flag can hardly injure the enemy from a hundred steps away, not to mention that the bird gun used by the army is not very heavy. Made of fine iron, the quality is very different from the fire guns of their Tiger Banner Weapons Bureau.
In fact, as he expected, the bird gunmen sent by the army not only did not pose a threat, but because of the quality of the bird guns, several officers and soldiers who used bird guns were damaged.
But the archers in the official army are different. If you can become an archer, you will definitely have no problem with your accuracy. For their fire gunners, they are definitely a fatal threat.
Marin on the side said: "Captain, why don't we ask our gunmen to retreat first and get out of the range of the official archers."
"It's useless." Zhang Hongtu shook his head, "Even if our fire gunners retreat, the opponent's archers can press forward further, and the officers and soldiers in front of our fire gunmen will also take advantage of the situation to rush forward, unless we retreat to the stronghold. inside."
"It would be great if we had a Fran machine cannon. If we can hit it with one shot, no matter how many archers the army has, it won't be enough." Marin sighed.
The cannons of the Tiger-Character Banner are given priority to three thousand-man brigades. Their military brigade in Daliang Mountain cannot have its own cannons for the time being.
Zhang Hongtu turned to look at Cao Guang and said, "Captain, why not retreat to the stronghold and use the stronghold wall to deal with the officers and soldiers."
"No." Cao Guang waved his hand and said, "The gunmen cannot retreat. If you retreat at this time, it will easily cause panic. It is very likely that the officers and soldiers will take advantage of the situation to cover up and kill them."
"If the archers of the official army inflict heavy damage on the gunmen of several squadrons, it will easily lead to a rout." Zhang Hongtu frowned.
"Deputy Captain Ma." Cao Guang suddenly said, "I order you to take a squadron of gunfire from the third squadron to flank the army's archers. You must not let these archers threaten the firepower of the three squadrons. Gunslinger."
Marin nodded vigorously and said, "Yes, I'll go right away."
After saying that, he bowed and ran to Chen Miao to convey the order.
Zhang Hongtu on the side said worriedly: "If more than thirty gunmen are transferred at once, the pressure on the remaining people will be greatly increased when facing the front-facing officers and soldiers."
"Don't worry, we still have the Crouching Tiger Cannon. Once the officers and soldiers rush within thirty steps, we can let them know how powerful our Crouching Tiger Cannon is." A sneer appeared at the corner of Cao Guang's mouth.
Zhang Hongtu said: "In fact, we can have people hold the bed board close to the archers of the army, and then use the Tiger Crouching Cannon to hit those archers."
"Our Crouching Tiger Cannon cannot be used on the archers of the army." Cao Guang rejected Zhang Hongtu's proposal and immediately continued, "There are hundreds of officers and soldiers in the front, and the gunmen of the three squadrons are under the greatest pressure. On the other hand, the archers of the official army, with more than thirty gunmen brought by Marin, will definitely be able to successfully contain the opponent."
"That's all it can do." Zhang Hongtu sighed.
In the distance, Marin brought more than thirty gunmen to the flanks of several squadrons of gunmen, less than a hundred steps away from the archers of the official army.
However, at this time, neither side attacked the other. The distance of a hundred steps was also a great test for the archers. It was not easy to hit the target.
While the archers of the official army need to approach slowly, Marin's musketeers are already well prepared and can fire the muskets as soon as the opponent enters the shooting range.
When there were still more than eighty steps between the two sides, the archers of the official army had already begun to draw their bows and shoot arrows.
One arrow after another turned into a parabola, falling towards the fire gunner on the opposite side.
The accuracy of the bow and arrow was not as uncontrollable as that of the fire gunners, but the distance of more than eighty steps still caused many arrows to miss. Only a few arrows shot into the team of fire gunmen beside Marin, but they were shot by the fire gunmen. The cotton armor on his body blocked it for a while, but no one was hurt.
Even so, many of the fire gunners showed signs of fear and couldn't help but take a few steps back.
Fortunately, several of the captains in the team were old men from Lingqiu and veterans of many killings, and they forcibly stopped the inappropriate behavior of these gunmen.
As the temporary commander of these gunmen, Marin's heart was in his throat.
If these gunmen fled because they were afraid of panic, a chain reaction would easily occur, causing the three squadrons of gunmen and spearmen not far away to flee together.
Fortunately, the several team captains were veterans from Lingqiu and had rich experience. They were able to suppress the gunmen in their respective teams, and there was no chance of them being defeated and fleeing.
The soldier who commanded the archers saw that the gunman on the opposite side was not injured, so he knew that it was because the distance was too far and the accuracy and strength were not enough.
Immediately, he ordered: "All archers move forward ten steps."
Even if he advanced ten steps, he was still more than seventy steps away from the bandits on the opposite side, and was not within the range of the opponent's muskets, so he felt relieved and let the archers continue to press forward.
All the archers advanced about ten steps and stopped.
"Ready, cum!"
Following the order, twenty archers drew arrows from their quivers, strung them, and shot towards the bandits on the opposite side.
Twenty archers shot the arrows in their hands almost at the same time, and arrows rained down.
Most of the arrows missed, but a few arrows still hit the team of fire gunners. One of the arrows even scratched the right side of Marin's face, bringing up a series of blood drops.
Marin didn't move even though there was burning pain on the right side of his face.
He knew that if he did anything he shouldn't do at this time, it would easily make the gunmen around him fearful, leading to the possibility of defeat.
Therefore, even if the arrow cuts his face, he will still stand facing the archer.
In the hands of the musketeers beside him, two people were wounded by arrows.
One of them injured his arm and the other his thigh.
The two injured musketeers were taken to the back to have their wounds bandaged, and the vacancies left by them were filled by the musketeers behind them.
A corps commander next to Marin said at this time: "Deputy captain, this is not going to work. We can only be beaten passively. With the arm strength of the archers, each person can shoot at least a dozen arrows, but our fire gunman We have only been training for a few months, and we were just ordinary people before. If there are too many casualties, we will definitely not be able to withstand the pressure, and it is very likely that we will collapse."
Marin also knew this, so he asked: "If we fight back now, can you guarantee that those archers will be severely damaged?"
"No." The captain shook his head and said immediately, "But if it is a salvo, it can still cause some damage to the archers of the army."
Marin hesitated for a moment and said: "No matter what, fight back now. We can't just be passively beaten and not fight back."
"Yes." The team leader nodded heavily, and immediately ordered the gunman beside him, "Listen to my order, the first team is ready, release!"
Bang...bang...
A dozen firecrackers were fired.
At the same time, a third round of arrow rain came over from the army archers.
