The sun suddenly jumped out from the clouds in the east, spreading thousands of rays of light onto the earth, and the world suddenly became warm.
Li Cheng was riding on his horse, squinting his eyes slightly and looking at the Song Army in front. An army of more than 10,000 people formed a formation, and the end could not be seen at a glance. It's just that the Song army's formation is a bit strange today. It is clearly divided into square formations, and the gaps in the middle are larger than usual.
The gaps in the military formation are to facilitate the movement of other troops forward and backward. For example, the cavalry in the army can shuttle through the military formation. There are also crossbowmen, who can also move forward and backward. It's just that these gaps are not big, so they are not considered flaws. The gap between the Song Army today was much larger than usual.
The Song troops from Zhendong could come from this place. They were obviously more numerous and stronger than those from Zhengzhou. Li Cheng ordered his deputy general to lead 3,000 men to fight, while he led the remaining troops to fight against the Zhengzhou Song Army. If God has mercy on him and he can defeat this Song army quickly, the outcome of this battle is still uncertain.
After shaking the steel knife in his hand, Li Chengming raised the flag behind him. The most elite troops began to assemble, and followed Li Cheng directly towards the opponent's central army. The difference in numbers between the two sides was quite large. Without attacking the Chinese army, it would be difficult to inflict a fatal blow on the other side.
Cao Zhiyan was on a mound, holding a telescope and observing Li Cheng's movements. Seeing more than a thousand people gathering behind Li Cheng, he said to his staff officer Fei Lida: "Good luck today! Li Cheng thought he came to our side because we have few people. He must be thinking of defeating our army in one battle. Let’s go and join forces to fight against Li Nong. What a good idea!”
Fei Lidao: "Look at Li Cheng's army formation, just a stone's throw away from us. Are you seeking death?"
Cao Zhiyan smiled and said: "We only started using artillery after the First World War in Luoyang. How did these people know? They can only come and die."
When two armies are fighting, there must be a blank space between the military formations. The attacker must rush through this empty area before attacking the defender's main formation. Therefore, when the two sides fight, they must camp far away. During the battle, the armies of both sides approached and began to form formations. If necessary, they used bows and arrows to block the positions. At this time, the coaches of both sides are either scolding each other or picking sides, which is normal behavior. No agreement could be reached, and the attackers began to attack. When attacking, resist the enemy's long-range weapons.
The crossbows of the Song Dynasty were developed and powerful and were the main offensive weapons. In some Forbidden Forces, archers and crossbowmen can even account for 70%. In other words, the Song army has long been accustomed to using long-range weapons to attack, and close combat is no longer popular. When encountering someone like Jin Jun who is particularly good at close combat, he was restrained. Some less-elite troops quickly collapsed once they were forced up by the Jin army and fought hand-to-hand.
Whether it was the Jin Army or Li Cheng, in their inherent impression, they had to minimize the distance for the Song Army's crossbowmen to work during combat, which would push the military formation very close. The pursuit is to quickly approach the Song army's military formation once it attacks and achieve maximum results.
When field artillery is generally equipped with armies, the gaps in the military formations of both sides are no longer determined by crossbows, but by the range of artillery. When attacking, if the dense formation is still used as before, one artillery shell can penetrate a military formation, causing very heavy casualties. Basically, they rushed through the empty space, and there were not many people left in the attacking army. At this time, it is necessary to pass through the empty area row by row, and the distance between each row ensures that after the shell penetrates the previous row, there is no threat to the following row. This tactic is what people call line infantry. It's just that in Europe, when field artillery matured, muskets also matured. This tactic is often jokingly called queuing to shoot.
The key to determining line infantry tactics is not the musket, but the field artillery. If it is decided by artillery, the attacker should still use a close formation to pass through the empty area, and then quickly expand into a line array to fight. Advancing in close formation can reduce casualties. Spread out into a line of infantry, you can use your own firepower. The actual situation is an infantry attack, and the formation when setting off is a line array. After passing the artillery range, when the two sides engage in battle, they may switch to three rows.
The American movie "Battle of Glory" shows this situation more clearly during the final beach attack. When the attackers set out, they must advance in a linear array and pass through the coverage of the artillery before they can actually participate in the battle. If there were no artillery and just faced with musketry, they could form a close formation and pass quickly. Instead of standing in rows and being constantly attacked by enemies.
There is no shadow of muskets now, and the Jin Army and the Puppet Qi Army are not familiar with artillery. They still form a dense formation according to custom during battles. In this case, facing a salvo of artillery fire is no different than facing death.
Wang Xiao's hunting army simulated a variety of attack methods when facing artillery. The final conclusion is to pass through the empty space in the middle in a linear formation, and then quickly form a dense military formation in front of the enemy's formation to fight the enemy.
Artillery is the king of war. When this monster appears on the battlefield, the form of war changes.
As the horn sounded, Li Cheng's flag waved forward. Taking a deep breath, Li Cheng, wearing armor, rushed to the front.
Cao Zhiyan looked at Li Cheng who was rushing over with his binoculars and shook his head. Niu Gao ordered Li Cheng to line up in formation and wait for a stick of incense. However, when there was less than one stick of incense, Li Cheng rushed forward impatiently.
After just a dozen steps, a clear command to "fire" was heard from the Song Army formation. Li Cheng was stunned for a moment, not knowing what it meant.
At this moment, a dense whistle was heard in the ears. Before the whistle blew, clouds of thick smoke were seen coming out of the Song army's formation. Before Li Cheng could see the shape of the smoke clearly, he saw iron bullets flying towards him in front.
Without any reaction, Li Cheng was knocked to the ground by an iron bullet. One leg was directly broken, and the flesh was molded into a lake.
In his ears, he could only hear the screams of the soldiers around him, but nothing else could be heard.
Seeing the tragic image of Li Chengjun, Cao Zhiyan didn't know what to say. In the past, when I was fighting in the army, no matter how tragic the battle was, I would not feel anything if I was highly nervous. Watching it now, it’s a different feeling.
After a round of artillery fire, a thousand people brought out by Li Cheng were killed or wounded. Just when the puppet Qi army was still in shock, the second round of artillery came. This time, Li Cheng's formation was directly attacked, and immediately there was a howl of ghosts and wolves.
The Song army fired three rounds of artillery, and Li Cheng's military formation was completely chaotic. The soldiers were running around, crying for their fathers and mothers.
In Baisha Town, Liu Lin stood on the roof and was stunned. Li Cheng is a brave general, no one doubts this. Precisely because of his bravery and ability to lead troops, Zhao Gou always wanted to recruit Li Cheng. I just didn't expect that Li Cheng finally escaped and surrendered to the Puppet Qi.
Liu Lin was ecstatic to get Li Cheng. From then on, he had real generals, and the army was never the same. Unexpectedly, he would be of no use on the battlefield today, and he would be knocked off his horse in the middle of nowhere.
"What should I do? What should I do?" Liu Lin muttered to himself, feeling lost.
The soldiers on the side hurriedly stepped forward to support him. Said: "Prince, the situation is over, let's escape. The Song army wants to mop up the remaining soldiers and won't notice us for a while. As long as we swim across the Jinshui River, there is a glimmer of hope!"
Liu Lin's eyes were dull and he didn't speak. Let the soldiers hold him up and go to the Jinshui River next to him.
Li Cheng was defeated, and the puppet Qi army opposite Xie Linong had the same experience. They did not take the initiative to attack, but because the formation was too close to the Song army, the entire military formation was within the range of artillery. After burning incense, the Song army took the initiative to fire, and the army was also dispersed.
At this time, Baisha Town was in chaos, with broken soldiers running around everywhere. Some of them were even blinded and started to chop at anyone with a knife.
No one noticed Liu Lin and the others, and they sneaked to the Jinshui River. Liu Lin couldn't swim, so he was carried into the Jinshui River by several soldiers. The river water in April was no longer too cold, so a few people swam to the other side.
Outside Baisha Town, Niu Gao couldn't help frowning at the scene in front of him. Said: "Zhi Niang, these rebels have been blinded by artillery. It is not easy to gather them. Let's wait until they are in chaos and calm down, and then the army can move forward."
Xie Linong said: "What Du Yuhou said is exactly what it should be. When we saw the artillery for the first time, weren't we shocked and shocked? If such a magical thing is used on the battlefield, who can resist it?"
