Before the Chu army launched the general infantry attack, the open-air main fort on the east fort had long been turned into ruins. The Chu army continued to use heavy artillery and mortars to bombard this important open-air fort for several days without interruption. It killed and injured the Ming army's gunners, destroyed some Ming army artillery, and once caused the ammunition to explode.
Of the more than ten long-barreled artillery pieces on the turret on the top of the east fort, only two or three are still functional.
The large number of shortcoats and gunners deployed in the waist of the fortress and the trench at the bottom, as well as at least tens of thousands of infantry, also suffered heavy casualties.
And these are the confidence for the Chu army to launch the final offensive.
Otherwise, if the Ming army's artillery fire is still there and they directly attack by force, regardless of whether they can win it, I am afraid that the Chu army infantry on the attacking side will suffer heavy casualties.
In order to avoid casualties, the Chu army did not hesitate to use a hundred or more dozens of various artillery pieces to conduct a violent bombardment of the East Fort for six days. The ammunition fired was worth at least two to three hundred thousand taels of silver...
Well, Chongzhen pieced together things from east to west, and finally allocated about 300,000 taels of silver to the Ming army in Jiliao towns. In the end, the money in the hands of the border troops in Jiliao towns amounted to about 100,000 taels...
This little money is not enough ammunition for the Chu army to fight a large-scale battle!
While the Chu army spent millions and tens of millions on war expenses, the Ming army only spent tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands...
When the Chu army turned a large amount of money into artillery shells and threw them at the East Fort, and then launched a large-scale infantry offensive, Hong Chengchou knew that the battle had reached its most critical moment, no matter how ignorant he was of military affairs.
After staring at the east fort with loud gunfire for a moment, he immediately gritted his teeth and said: "Let Chen Zhong lead the cavalry to attack the flank of the Chu bandits. The east fort must be saved."
The entire Tianjin defense line is a trinity. In the main city of Tianjin, there are two large forts with protruding fronts in the east and west, supporting each other.
If the East Fort is captured, it will have a huge negative impact. The Chu army can launch a fierce attack on the main city of Tianjin from the east, and there is no need to worry about being intercepted by cross fire from the Ming army.
Although the Battle of Tianjin started with the Chu army launching a formal attack, it only lasted six days.
And in these six days, the Chu army had not launched even one attack with more than 3,000 troops before this. They mainly used artillery bombardment combined with small-scale assault operations.
But everyone can see that after six days of preparation, the Chu army has completed preparations for launching a large-scale general attack.
The East Fort, one of the two most important forts in the Tianjin defense line, and the many small forts and trenches and other defensive nodes on its periphery have been successively captured or destroyed by the Chu army.
Now, the Chu army was able to directly face the East Fort itself and launch an offensive.
The Chu army did not hesitate, and directly dispatched a commando team of more than 2,000 people, and there were tens of thousands of troops on the flanks and rear to provide cover and support.
The Battle of Tianjin has reached its most critical moment.
Hong Chengchou was also very aware of this, so after careful consideration, he finally ordered his confidant general Chen Zhong to lead the cavalry to launch a counterattack!
In order to curb the Chu bandits' attack on the East Fort, it is useless to directly launch an infantry counterattack, because if the Ming army's infantry counterattacks were effective, they would not have been retreating steadily in the past six days.
It would be even more unreliable to go out without hesitation and then form a formation to engage in a serious fight with the Chu army.
If the Ming army had this ability and courage, they wouldn't be trapped in the fortress.
How should I put it, huddled in cities and fortresses, they may be defeated, but they can survive for a few days or even longer.
If Hong Chengchou dared to pull out tens of thousands of troops and directly fight the Chu army in a face-to-face decisive battle, I am afraid Li Chengtong would laugh out of his dreams...
Then, tens of thousands of Ming troops will be wiped out in one day!
The infantry was hopeless, so Hong Chengchou could only count on the cavalry under his command to save the situation. As long as the cavalry attack went smoothly, even if it did not cause any major damage to the Chu thieves, as long as they went out and threatened the Chu thieves' flanks, Then the Chu thieves would not dare to attack their own East Fort so unscrupulously, thereby relieving the pressure on the defenders of the East Fort.
Then, under the order of Hong Chengchou, about five thousand Ming army cavalry began to gather from the rear and slowly moved forward.
When Li Chengtong noticed the movement of the cavalry in the rear of the Ming army, he immediately issued his order: "Let Zhu Xingfa also attack!"
"Tell Zhu Xingfa to stop the cavalry on the opposite side!"
Zhu Xingfa, who was on the east and rear side of the battlefield, received the order through the flag language and immediately ordered: "Quick, gather!"
Zhu Xingfa led two cavalry brigades and three divisional cavalry regiments, totaling nearly 4,000 cavalry, in preparation for an emergency attack.
The cavalry of the Ming Army have already begun to dispatch!
There are more than five thousand cavalry. You wouldn't think it was much just by looking at the numbers, but on the battlefield, the momentum caused by these more than five thousand cavalry is greater than tens of thousands of infantry!
Even in order to prevent the more than 5,000 cavalry from causing chaos during the advance, the Ming army's cavalry was divided into three general directions, with a total of more than ten waves, spreading hundreds of meters in front and back.
When the Ming army cavalry in front began to trot and speed up, the Ming army behind them had just finished forming their formation.
It's not that Chen Zhong, the commander-in-chief of the army, gave an order, and then five thousand cavalry rushed out in unison.
Because the cavalry of the Ming army was well prepared and attacked very quickly, while the cavalry of the Chu army was always in a state of combat readiness, in order to take care of multiple directions, it was impossible to allocate the main cavalry all the time. Place it on the east side.
But after confirming the direction of the Ming army's cavalry attack, Zhu Xingfa and the others were able to assemble the cavalry to fight.
If all the cavalry is concentrated in the east in advance, what if the Ming cavalry sneaks around to attack on the west side, wouldn't it mean that the Western Front will be doomed...
In terms of infantry and artillery, the Chu Army was the offensive party, but in terms of cavalry, the Chu Army was the defensive party to a certain extent.
The cavalry of the Ming army had a relatively large advantage in attack time and direction.
But again... an attack of thousands of cavalry is not just a game. It is impossible to say that high-level commanders such as Hong Chengchou or Li Chengtong gave an order and thousands of cavalry went out the next second.
It takes time to assemble the cavalry and prepare for battle. Taking ten thousand steps back, it also takes time to form an array.
What, you said you didn't form a formation and just let the cavalry rush out on their own? Why don't you seek death... If the enemy cavalry lines up to counterattack, the entire army will collapse in minutes.
Under such circumstances, it took a quarter of an hour for the Ming army's cavalry to appear on the battlefield behind the east fort!
Moreover, the Ming army that came was not five thousand, but only more than a thousand cavalry. This was the first batch of cavalry from the Ming army.
When more than a thousand Ming Army cavalry appeared at the side and rear of the East Fort, the Chu army that was attacking the East Fort was also ready to fight.
A quarter of an hour ago, the Chu army that was attacking the East Fort had already learned that the Ming Army cavalry was about to attack. Except for the Eighth Division, which was responsible for the main attack on the East Fort, which remained indifferent, the First Infantry Regiment of the First Division provided cover on the outside. It had already made an emergency maneuver and directly spanned several hundred meters. Three large hollow square formations deployed in a Z-shaped pattern had been placed on the flanks of the 8th Division.
The Second Infantry Regiment in the rear is also making emergency maneuvers. They will also deploy multiple hollow square formations to the south of the First Infantry Regiment.
The mission of these first divisions was not to actually kill or injure many enemy cavalry, but to stop the enemy cavalry and avoid interfering with their operations against the Eighth Division.
In order to storm the East Fort, the Chu army used not only the Eighth Division, but also the First Division as cover and support.
When a large number of infantrymen of the First Division urgently formed a hollow square formation, a large number of field artillery belonging to the First Division, plus a group of field artillery of the Eighth Division, also urgently turned their muzzles.
At least forty field guns stopped shelling the east fort to cool down their barrels in preparation for the subsequent rapid-fire bombardment of the enemy cavalry.
When facing the impact of enemy cavalry, because the enemy cavalry is very fast, it is necessary for the artillery unit to fire out the most artillery shells in the shortest time. This high-speed rate of fire is not only harmful to the artillery crew members. It is a huge challenge, and it is also a huge challenge for the artillery itself.
The quality of the barrel is slightly poor, or it may have been shelled for a long time. If the barrel is not cooled properly, it will blow up in minutes.
Why did the Chu Army formulate the artillery data of barrel life? Once the artillery in the front-line troops reaches the barrel life, even if the artillery seems to have no problems at all, it will still withdraw from the front-line artillery unit directly.
After detailed inspection, these artillery pieces with acceptable quality were transferred to the second-line troops for service. The charges were reduced and rapid fire was strictly restricted.
If after inspection it is found that the artillery barrel has reached the critical point, it will not be used reluctantly, but will be directly taken back to the arsenal for refurbishing.
A large part of the cost of bronze artillery is the bronze itself, and the manufacturing cost is lower... Therefore, if the iron artillery is broken and thrown away, it is thrown away, but the bronze artillery is often taken back and refurbished by the Chu army.
Not only did it limit the service life, the Chu army also completely abandoned iron-cast field artillery in artillery production. All self-made field artillery was exclusively bronze artillery.
Because the barrel life of iron cast artillery is so short, after firing three or four hundred rounds, the pressure-bearing capacity of the barrel will become very poor. If it is fired rapidly, the barrel will often explode.
Bronze artillery can have a barrel life of 800 or even more than 1,000 rounds, and can withstand greater pressure when firing rapidly.
Today, these forty bronze cannons of various calibers reflect the advantages of bronze cannons. After a series of battles in the Northern Expedition, each of these cannons has basically fired at least two to three hundred rounds or more. If you switch to an iron cannon, you have to be careful even in daily use, and even use less charge.
However, the remaining barrel life of these bronze artillery pieces is still very high, and gunners basically don't have to worry about the explosion of the barrel caused by rapid fire at this time.
Forty field guns were ready, and more than a thousand cavalrymen of the Ming Army also climbed over a small hill and appeared more than 800 meters away.
After seeing the appearance of the enemy cavalry, the artillery commanders on the Chu army's artillery positions unanimously ordered the artillery fire!
