More than forty artillery pieces of the Chu army opened fire one after another. It was naturally impossible to carry out any precise artillery bombardment from such a long distance. However, the Ming army had too many cavalry and the overall target was very large, so only covering the artillery bombardment could achieve effective damage. .
In fact, if the Ming army's cavalry had not used the rugged low mountains to block the Chu army's artillery fire, they would have been bombarded by the Chu army's nine-pound field artillery more than a thousand meters away.
If they hadn't waited until they entered 800 meters before ushering in the first wave of artillery fire from the Chu army.
However, even the shelling from 800 meters away still caused the Ming cavalry on the opposite side to feel tremendous pressure.
These Ming army cavalrymen were bombarded by the Chu army as soon as they climbed over a low slope. Many cavalrymen were immediately killed and injured by solid artillery shells.
The leading Ming cavalry general glanced behind him, but did not make any changes. Instead, he asked his cavalry to hold steady and continue to advance quickly.
He couldn't even get his horse to speed up and rush past.
Because we need to maintain the formation!
Whether it is ancient warfare or line warfare, maintaining formation is a very important basic tactical requirement.
One of the important purposes of maintaining a formation is to allow brave men and timid soldiers to go up together...
Sun Tzu's Art of War says: A brave man cannot advance alone, and a timid man cannot retreat alone.
This is why the Chu army placed great emphasis on formation, and even resorted to extremely stringent military laws to maintain the formation.
The Ming cavalry general on the opposite side wanted to maintain the formation and only let the cavalry continue to advance quickly...
Continuing to use the quick step is not only necessary to maintain the formation, but also has something to do with maintaining the physical fitness of the war horse.
The physical fitness of the war horses is limited. At the same time, a considerable number of these Ming army cavalry are still wearing armor. Even if the armor they wear is not super heavy armor, the armor plus weapons still weighs dozens of kilograms.
The horses of the Ming army cavalry are basically Mongolian horses, and the shoulder height is generally only about 1.2 to 3 meters. It is quite difficult to run with a fully armed cavalry on their backs. If they charge at full speed hundreds of meters in advance, The war horse had to fall down from exhaustion before reaching the enemy's formation.
This kind of short Mongolian horse is not suitable for use as a war horse according to the military concepts after the 19th century.
It is not suitable to use horses even as unarmored light cavalry, let alone as armored heavy cavalry.
It's too short.
In the modern cavalry of various countries after the 19th century, the shoulder height of armored heavy cavalry horses is generally more than 1.5 meters, and even the unarmored light cavalry horses are generally more than 1.45 meters.
Not to mention Europe, even when the Fuso people engaged in cavalry after the Meiji Restoration, the war horses they introduced and bred generally had a shoulder height of more than 1.5 meters, and most of their cavalry were not as tall as their horses' shoulders.
Of course, these are the requirements for war horses for cavalry in some countries in later generations, and these war horses, without exception, are military horses bred through crossbreeding, with a good balance between load-bearing capacity, explosive power and even endurance.
However, in the contemporary seventeenth century, no kind of horse can meet the requirements of later generations of cavalry... Even the contemporary Arabian horses, which are most suitable for use as military horses, are generally only about 1.45 meters tall at the shoulder, and very few outstanding ones can Able to reach more than 1.5 meters.
At this time, everyone is still using native horse breeds. For example, cavalry in Central Asia, West Asia and other regions use Arabian horses, while in East Asia, most Mongolian horses are used.
Regardless of whether it was the Mongolian cavalry, the Ming army's cavalry, or the Chu army's cavalry, they all used typical Mongolian horses, with at most a small amount of horses brought from the northwest.
Riding this kind of war horse and wearing armor... it's good to be able to run, but you still expect them to start sprinting at full speed from a few hundred meters away... This is pure nonsense.
To walk quickly now, to be honest, it was already a choice made by the Ming cavalry on the opposite side out of desperation. After all, the Chu army's artillery fire was too powerful, and they couldn't walk slowly all the way to four or five hundred meters before moving faster. Walk.
The pressure of casualties would be too great.
After all, the artillery fire faced by the Ming army was much more ferocious, forcing them to start walking quickly from 800 meters away.
While the first wave of Ming army cavalry continued to advance at a brisk pace, the Chu army's artillerymen continued to fire step by step.
Numerous solid artillery shells fell into the Ming cavalry array one after another, inevitably causing a large number of casualties to the Ming cavalry.
However, even if the Ming cavalry on the opposite side is not an elite cavalry like Guan Ning's cavalry, it is still an elite cavalry in the frontier army, so its ability to withstand artillery fire is relatively high. About meters.
If this had been replaced by ordinary cavalry from inland areas, it would have collapsed long ago.
However, when these Ming army cavalry suffered a lot of casualties and reached a distance of about three to four hundred meters, they found that the flanking troops of the Chu army on the opposite side had already formed a formation and were waiting.
It's just that there seems to be a loophole in this formation!
At this time, what was in front of the Ming cavalry generals were six huge infantry phalanxes. These hollow infantry phalanxes seemed to be very thin.
At the same time, there are wide air strikes between these hollow infantry squares!
This allowed the Ming cavalry generals to see the hope of breaking through these Chu army infantry phalanxes. No matter what happened, they could directly rush through the air attack, and then attack the artillery positions behind the Chu army.
Therefore, the leading Ming cavalry general ordered to speed up.
Even if they accelerate at this distance, it will cause chaos in the formation in advance and consume the physical energy of the war horses early, but they can no longer care about this now.
The Chu army's artillery attack was so fierce that they had already suffered casualties of at least 200 cavalry just from such a distance.
If they continued walking so fast, they would probably kill or injure the centaurs before they even started charging.
Then give me a spanking!
Besides, the cavalry among the Chu thieves has already appeared on the edge of the battlefield. If we delay for a few more minutes, the opponent's cavalry will probably come over.
The first wave of Ming army cavalry, with limited time, didn't care about much and launched a charge more than 300 meters away!
Under the galloping force of thousands of horses, it seemed as if the whole earth was shaking!
In the three large infantry formations of the 1st Infantry Regiment under the 1st Division on the front line, many soldiers already had trembling legs and weak hands.
In one of the hollow square formations, Lieutenant Colonel Wen Junfeng was riding on a war horse, squinting at the Ming army cavalry that continued to accelerate in front of them.
At the same time, he continued to give orders: "Get ready for the impact!"
The officers under him also maintained their formation on the front line and asked the soldiers to load their ammunition!
One hundred and twenty meters!
A captain on the front line shouted: "Aim!"
After the enemy cavalry entered eighty meters, he decisively ordered: "Fire!"
After giving the order, dozens of gunmen opened fire at the infantry post where he was located, followed immediately by the second row of musketeers!
And another infantry sentry on his side also continued to fire.
The crackling gunshots continued to ring out in multiple square formations of the Chu army, and gunpowder smoke began to fill the air!
Amidst the smoke, some musketeers in the front row squatted directly on the ground. The butts of their muskets with bayonets in their hands were leaning on the ground and thrust forward diagonally, acting as short spears.
This is the basic tactic of the hollow square formation when dealing with cavalry attacks. Some musketeers use muskets to act as short spearmen, and some musketeers fire.
The muskets with bayonets can prevent the opposing cavalry from rushing in directly, while the musketeers in the rear row continue to fire to kill the enemy cavalry.
This is what these Chu army musketeers are doing now.
Of course, after the Ming cavalry on the opposite side rushed to this distance, many Ming cavalry bent their bows and fired arrows directly at the galloping horses. The arrows fell into the Chu army's infantry square and suffered certain casualties.
However, even if the Chu army has soldiers in the front row killed or wounded, the musketeers in the back row will quickly step forward to fill their positions to avoid gaps in the formation.
When the distance between the two sides narrowed, the two sides competed in terms of firepower output and ability to withstand casualties.
Obviously, the number of Ming cavalry on the opposite side was insufficient, and the number of bows and arrows fired was also limited. Although it caused some casualties to the Chu army's infantry, it still could not shake the Chu army's infantry phalanx.
The most important thing is that these Ming cavalry were unable to face the bayonets of the Chu infantry phalanx, and they did not have the courage to rush forward directly. They could only detour through the space between the phalanxes deliberately left by the Chu infantry...
Then...the musketeers on the flanks between the two square formations of the Chu army will fire at the cavalry entering the air attack...
The casualty rate of these Ming army cavalry suddenly increased again...
After rushing in, they didn't run very far when they discovered that there was an infantry phalanx of the Chu army blocking the road ahead... So they could only continue to turn and take a detour...
After going around and around, some Ming army cavalry looked up and saw that there were not many comrades left around them...
Looking back, the ground was filled with the dead and wounded of our own cavalry and wailing horses!
Looking forward, it is still the infantry phalanx of the Chu thieves...
The Chu thieves' bullets continued to hit them from all directions, causing continuous damage to them.
Some people were scared and wanted to escape, but they didn't know where to escape. They could only keep running in circles in the Chu army's square formation, and eventually they were hit by bullets and fell down.
The somewhat desperate Ming army turned their horses and rushed directly towards the Chu army's infantry formation.
There is no doubt that this is a suicide charge. Although it can kill several Chu soldiers, at the same time, he himself will be beaten into a hedgehog by the bayonet forest...
At the same time, Hong Chengchou, who was watching the battle from the rear, staggered and then collapsed to the ground... He was still muttering: "This is impossible... impossible..."
Even in the Chu army's rear highland headquarters, Li Chengtong watched the scene of more than a thousand Ming army cavalry attacking his own infantry square. He couldn't help but open his mouth, but he didn't say a word for a long time. Come.
On the other hand, the adjutant beside him murmured in a shocked tone: "There are charges here and there, this is obviously suicide..."
