While Luo Zhixue and his men were observing the Ming army on the top of the mountain in Zhaozhuang, Chen Yongfu, who was several miles away, also took his son Chen De and several generals under his command to climb a short mountain, climbing high and observing from afar. The situation in Zhaozhuang ahead.
Although Chen Yongfu had learned the basic situation of Zhaozhuang from the scouts many times before, after arriving with his troops yesterday, he also personally climbed up to observe Zhaozhuang on the opposite side.
However, when I look at it today, I still feel weird about Cong Yongfu.
These thieves of the Hometown Protection Army looked weird, and they didn't look like a thieves army at all.
Even Chen Yongfu had a feeling that the rural protection troops on the opposite side were more like officers and soldiers than himself...
Look at the Baoxiang Army opposite. They are all wearing gray military uniforms. This is very rare among the bandits. Not to mention that there are very few uniforms in the bandit army. Even some officers and soldiers cannot wear uniforms.
And I don’t know why the military uniforms of these thieves have to choose an ugly gray color. It’s very ugly...
Naturally, he couldn't know that the Baoxiang Army initially chose gray military uniforms simply because it was convenient and cheap to dye the fabric gray, not for aesthetics or other needs.
In fact, after leaving Lushan County in the east and Nanzhao County in the south, the Baoxiang Army became large in scale and the sources of various supplies increased. It has already begun to try to use more colors in military uniforms, such as those currently in production. The spring and summer officer uniforms are scheduled to be navy blue.
What makes Chen Yongfu strange is not just the unified military uniforms of the Baoxiang Army. In fact, the military uniforms are only good-looking at best. If they are worn out, it will affect the image of the Baoxiang Army.
But it has little impact on actual combat effectiveness.
However, the large number of guns and artillery equipped by the Baoxiang Army were a serious threat in Chen Yongfu's view.
This is one of the main reasons why Chen Yongfu regards them as the elite of the bandit army.
Although the Baoxiang Army thieves are far away in sight, you can still see that the camp of the Baoxiang Army thieves is set up around a hill. There is an obvious artillery position on the top of the hill, with troops deployed on it. At least a dozen artillery pieces.
These artillery pieces seemed strange to Chen Yongfu, and they were quite different from the artillery pieces he knew.
In Chen Yongfu's understanding, when it comes to artillery, some heavy artillery is often fixedly deployed on the top of the city, using very thick and low gun mounts.
This kind of heavy artillery often cannot be directly brought down for combat in the field, because maneuvering is too troublesome.
Only some artillery pieces weighing less than two to three hundred kilograms can be maneuvered more easily.
However, some of the artillery pieces of the Baoxiang Army were big, weighing at least several hundred kilograms, but the Baoxiang Army could drag them around and do so very fast.
The most critical thing is that these artillery have obviously been deployed on the hilltop, but the cannon mounts have not been removed. Their artillery is directly installed on the large double-wheeled gun mounts.
Judging from his many years of military experience, the artillery of the rebel army itself is nothing special. Even the long-barreled artillery of several hundred kilograms in the rebel army is not surprising. There are a large number of Hongyi artillery in the Ming army, and there are many of them. Self-imitated light Hongyi artillery.
The Ming army was actually equipped with a lot of Hongyi artillery, which weighed about 1,000 kilograms.
However, the gun mount of the Baoxiang Army rebels on the opposite side was very strange. It was an iron gun mount instead of the common wooden gun mount, and it also had two large wheels.
In addition to artillery, another major feature of the Baoxiang army is that they have a large number of musketeers.
To be honest, Chen Yongfu couldn't understand why the bandits were equipped with so many musketeers.
The musketeers in the Ming army were generally equipped with blunderbuss. The blunderbuss seemed to be able to hit far, but the rate of fire was too slow. It was impossible to fire a few shots when approaching the enemy. Once the enemy got close, the blunderbuss would become a target in minutes. Instead of a fire stick, it might as well be a three-eyed gun. At least the three-eyed gun can be used to hit people...
Moreover, even bird guns lack accuracy, and it is often difficult to hit the target from a distance of forty feet.
At the same time, the power of this bird gun is actually not very good. It can't even break through heavy armor at a slightly farther distance.
This musketeer is not as useful as an archer. If an archer uses heavy armor-piercing arrows, they are quite powerful, and the rate of fire is extremely fast in battle. Even if the enemy is charging at close range, he can still hit the enemy three times.
Therefore, although there are many gunmen in Chen Yongfu's army, they are far less exaggerated than the thieves on the opposite side. Almost all of the infantry are musketeers.
Moreover, Chen Yongfu did not dare to use the gunmen together. They were all dispersed and mixed with spearmen, swordsmen and shieldmen to form a combat team.
However, Chen Yongfu had no idea that although the muskets in the Baoxiang Army were derived from blunderbuss, they had actually been upgraded and modified.
For example, use a more ergonomic wooden stock.
For example, paper-packed ammunition is used to facilitate loading and speed up the rate of fire. In addition to increasing the rate of fire, paper-packed ammunition also has an additional effect, that is, paper is also inserted during loading to reduce the number of rounds fired. The effect of air leakage.
For example, the addition of a sleeve bayonet is very important.
At first, the Baoxiang Army used a through-type spearhead. Later, they found that this thing was too inconvenient. It was okay to install it for on-site defensive operations, but it was not suitable for carrying a bayonet to charge or perform a stabbing, because If the plug is too tight, it cannot be pulled out; if it is too loose, it will fall off...
The most important thing is that once it’s stuffed in, you can’t shoot…
So later, with the support of Luo Zhixue, I started to use a sleeve-type spear stab, so that the spear stab would not fall off, and there would be no need to worry about not being able to remove it after the war.
Moreover, you can still fire after installing the spur, and you can still load ammunition after firing. Because the spur is installed on the side, although it will affect the loading action, you can still load ammunition with sufficient training.
The emergence of this sleeve-type spear truly allowed the musketeers of the Baoxiang Army to possess both long-range and short-range combat capabilities.
It's just that the Baoxiang Army still used matchlocks. In order to avoid accidental fire during combat, the matchlock gunners could not stand too close, which resulted in an insufficiently dense formation. Insufficient formation density resulted in insufficient firepower density, making it difficult to defend against an impact. Problems such as insufficient strength and so on.
Otherwise, Luo Zhixue would have just formed an independent army of matchlocks and gone out to fight, and there would be no need for spearmen.
Finally, there is another change that is not an improvement...
That is, the caliber of the muskets of the Baoxiang Army was very large compared to the blunderbuss used by the Ming Army!
The calibers of the blunderbuss used by individual soldiers of the Ming army varied, ranging from nine to thirteen millimeters. There were also heavy long-barreled muskets that needed support from brackets, and their calibers could reach about twenty millimeters.
Relatively speaking, the magnification is relatively large, and it has a relatively large maximum range.
The matchlock gun of the Baoxiang Army is actually a large-caliber short-barreled musket. The weight and length are similar to the old individual light matchlock gun, but the caliber is a full 18 mm. The length remains the same and the caliber becomes larger. This actually means reducing the diameter.
The 18mm-caliber Baoxiang Army matchlock has a much stronger penetrating power than a small-caliber matchlock within a hundred meters. Within fifty or sixty meters, even a person wearing double-layer heavy armor cannot withstand the bullets of this kind of gun. .
As for the maximum range, Luo Zhixue has never considered this thing.
It is enough to ensure the effective hit rate within one hundred meters. If it is beyond one hundred meters, if he dares to shoot at the enemy one hundred meters away during the battle, Luo Zhixue will kill him first.
In the era of muzzle-loading muskets, a range beyond a hundred meters was meaningless.
The Baoxiang musket improved under the leadership of Luo Zhixue has basically reached the peak level of matchlock guns in this era in actual combat, and even exceeded it.
After all, these days, no one has put a sleeve-type spear on a musket. If it is too tight, they will just put a plug-type spearhead on the barrel.
The matchlock gun of the Baoxiang Army, which has been improved by Luo Zhixue in many aspects, is not the same thing as the blunderbuss of the Ming Army. There is a huge difference.
It was this improved matchlock that allowed the Baoxiang Army to equip a large number of musketeers, directly elevating them to the status of one of the main infantry.
And these are things that Chen Yongfu cannot understand.
In Chen Yongfu's view, the rebel soldiers of the Hometown Protection Army equipped with a large number of guns and artillery were weird no matter how they looked.
But this kind of weirdness did not make Chen Yongfu despise the Baoxiang Army, but made him pay more attention to it.
When he commanded the army to move out of camp one after another, the formations he listed reflected his caution.
In the front is a square formation composed of several guardsmen, in the back are the headquarters soldiers, and on the west side are more than 300 cavalry, which are used to guard against the elite cavalry of the rebel army.
In the array, there are more than twenty artillery pieces ranging from one hundred kilograms to two to three hundred kilograms. These artillery pieces are installed on thick wooden frames. There are four wheels under the wooden frames, and there are mules in front of them. .
Chen Yongfu put up an extremely tight formation. At first glance, he regarded the Baoxiang Army as his real opponent and did not dare to look down upon him at all.
Moreover, he arranged the garrison soldiers at the front very cunningly. In this way, even if the attack was unfavorable, it would be the garrison soldiers who would suffer losses, not his own soldiers.
As for the more than a hundred soldiers, the most elite in the entire army, each wearing armor, they naturally stayed in the rear with Chen Yongfu.
These personal soldiers are either used to make the final decision or to protect Chen Yongfu. They will not rush forward to fight like ordinary guards and soldiers.
Chen Yongfu led his troops out of camp and formed a formation, and at the same time he was advancing slowly. After walking a short distance, he would stop to reorganize his team, and maintained the battle formation at all times. This process lasted more than two hours, and he did not approach Zhao until half past nine. Zhuang kilometers away.
The Ming army was cautious and came slowly. Luo Zhixue and others on the opposite side were also happy to wait. After all, the Baoxiang Army also needed to delay time.
Luo Zhixue and the others only need to delay for about an hour and a half, and then the 4th Infantry Battalion and other troops led by Wang Dazhuang can reach the battlefield.
Luo Zhixue had received news from Wang Dazhuang in the morning.
According to the battle plan, Wang Dazhuang's troops will enter the battlefield from the west on time at around 11 o'clock noon.
Before the arrival of the 4th Infantry Battalion, 2nd Artillery Post, and 2nd Cavalry Post led by Wang Dazhuang, the battle at Zhaozhuang will be mainly defensive operations.
The first to start this defensive battle was Zhang Malin's artillery sentry.
When some Ming troops in the front row were only seven or eight hundred meters away from the Zhaozhuang defense center, that is, the artillery position, although the distance was still far and they could not accurately aim the artillery fire, Zhang Ma faced a large area of enemies that could be hit without aiming. Lin still ordered his gunners to fire one after another.
As the six 600-pound long guns of the first artillery post of the Baoxiang Army opened fire one after another.
This strategic decisive battle concerning Nanyang Mansion and even the ownership of the entire Nanyang Basin has officially begun!
