Chang'an, Guanzhong, Shaanxi, this world-famous city was once the capital of twenty-one dynasties or regimes.
Among them, during the Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties, it was the best city in the world!
During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Chang'an gradually became an ordinary city due to various reasons. However, last year, after the Chu army captured Youzhou City and Chongzhen committed suicide, Sun Chuanting established Emperor Longxing in Chang'an and proclaimed himself emperor. The Longxing regime was established in Xi'an. The government is the capital, and the city of Chang'an is the capital.
This is also the twenty-first dynasty or local government in history with Chang'an as its capital.
However, the Longxing regime only stayed in Chang'an City for more than half a year, but it hurriedly evacuated Chang'an because of the fall of Tongguan and the disastrous defeat of Sun Chuanting.
Although Sun Chuanting also left thousands of troops in Chang'an City, and recruited all the young men who could be recruited in and around the city to defend the city, trying to rely on this large city to delay the Chu army's westward advance.
But as soon as Sun Chuanting left, these people quickly surrendered to the Chu army that was fighting outside Chang'an City.
These civil and military officials who were left by Sun Chuanting to hold back the Chu army were not stupid. They knew that they were regarded as abandoned by Sun Chuanting, and they understood even more clearly that even if they were all dead, they would not be able to hold back the Chu army.
So the civil and military officials left behind in the city gritted their teeth and surrendered directly.
Of course, the efforts of the intelligence personnel of the Dachu Empire such as the Military Intelligence Department are also indispensable. The Military Intelligence Department of the Dachu Empire has always had a presence in Chang'an. Especially after Sun Chuanting established the Longxing Emperor, he regarded the city of Chang'an as a focus. A lot of manpower and material resources were dispatched to the intelligence battlefield.
In this process, many civil and military officials from the Longxing regime were naturally won over.
These officials were also an important factor in Sun Chuanting's retreat and the overall surrender of Chang'an.
Chang'an surrendered without a fight, which meant that the Chu army was not held back by Chang'an for even a day. Except for a small number of troops stationed in Chang'an City to take control of the city and began to clear the city inside and outside, the main force of the Chu army still marched westward in pursuit.
In particular, the two cavalry brigades held a tight grip on the Longxing regime's brigade.
If Sun Chuanting retreats westward with only a few thousand cavalry, then the Chu army may not be able to catch up!
However, Sun Chuanting retreated westward with tens of thousands of people and a large amount of baggage, and the speed could not increase at all.
Among the tens of thousands of people fleeing the Longxing regime, Sun Chuanting personally led several thousand cavalry and several thousand more infantry to the rear.
In the middle were Emperor Longxing and the civil and military officials of the Longxing regime, as well as family craftsmen, as well as a large amount of supplies and baggage and thousands of ordinary infantry.
There are some cavalry and thousands of infantry at the front serving as the vanguard!
The entire team is more than ten kilometers long.
Such a fleeing team could not reach that speed. Not to mention that the Chu army's cavalry troops could bite them to death, even the infantry behind them could catch up and continue to close the distance.
After all, the pursuing Chu army did not need to bring a large number of men, women, old and young nobles with no fighting capacity, nor did it need to carry craftsmen and a large number of various materials.
Even though they carry artillery and a large amount of baggage, the main force of the Chu army has always had good maneuverability, and they carry only field artillery and 18-pound light howitzers, not even mortars. There are also a large number of horse-drawn carriages for the transportation of ammunition and grain. Along with the army's transportation, there are also a large number of transportation groups organized by the Logistics Department in the rear for continuous transportation.
Therefore, the Chu troops pursuing on the front line can fully guarantee a marching speed of more than 20 kilometers per day.
This speed was unmatched by Sun Chuanting's troops who were fleeing at the front.
Seeing that they were about to be overtaken, before Sun Chuanting could give the order, the civil and military officials of the Longxing regime in front had already abandoned a large number of craftsmen and a large amount of baggage, and a lightly-armed evacuated, and after joining the thousands of soldiers and horses in front, Let’s go to Longxi first.
Sun Chuanting, who was behind, looked at the craftsmen and large quantities of materials that were left behind, and finally sighed, and only asked his soldiers to carry as much food as possible. As for the rest of the strategic materials such as iron, cloth, and the elderly and the weak, he left them alone.
The pursuers behind them had less than a day's journey, and it was impossible for them to continue to flee with these encumbrances.
But Sun Chuanting was also worried that he would flee lightly and not even take much food with him. Even if he fled to Longxi, he would probably fall into a food shortage crisis soon.
At that time, even if they want to escape to the Western Regions, they will not be able to escape because they will starve to death on the way!
Sun Chuanting was even more worried. Even if they abandoned the old and the weak and their baggage and fled, they might not be able to escape.
In fact, this is indeed the case!
How could Huang Dingquan, who led his army in pursuit westward, allow Sun Chuanting and Emperor Longxing to escape westward smoothly?
If we don't kill the remnants of Ximing's army, we don't know how much trouble they will cause in the future.
On April 6, Huang Dingquan led more than 10,000 people. After three consecutive days of forced march, he finally caught up with Sun Chuanting's troops at the foot of Qishan Mountain in Fengxiang Prefecture.
In order to force the opponent to stop escaping, Huang Dingquan asked the two exhausted cavalry brigades to rush forward directly, forcing the enemy to form a formation to fight.
Sun Chuanting's troops, who were attacked by the cavalry, had to stop their escape and began to form a formation to fight.
Soon, a cavalry unit under Sun Chuanting, who had also traveled all the way, and was exhausted, attacked to intercept the Chu cavalry.
The two cavalry units, which had little physical strength left, started fighting in the wilderness. However, the battle was not fierce, and there was not even a large-scale group charge.
Because of these two cavalry units, most of the horses' physical fitness is seriously insufficient.
Nowadays, these war horses can barely charge, let alone charge, and can barely even carry cavalry at a trot. Therefore, in addition to sporadic fights on horseback, the battles between the two sides are more about wandering cautiously, or simply dismounting and fighting on foot.
Taking advantage of the cavalry confrontation between the two sides, Huang Dingquan personally led more than 10,000 infantry and field artillery troops of the 24th Division to launch an attack on the enemy.
Numerous field artillery were urgently dragged forward by mules and horses. The artillery crew members trotted forward directly, then deployed the artillery on the spot, and pointed the muzzle at Sun Chuanting's troops who were hurriedly arrayed in front and opened fire.
Similarly, the remaining ten or so field guns of Sun Chuanting's unit also deployed and fired back.
Field artillery from both sides began to bombard each other.
Amidst the rumble of artillery, the musketeers of the 24th Infantry Division began to form columns one by one in battalion units and began to advance towards the center of the battlefield.
After approaching the battlefield, these columns quickly expanded into horizontal formations!
And these horizontal formations are different from the Chu army formations that the Ming army was familiar with in the past!
There are no spearmen among them, but all musketeers!
Their formation did not have six rows, but only a three-row formation that looked very thin and seemed to be able to break through with a single impact.
Then, these Chu army musketeers moved forward step by step amid the drums of the military band!
Occasionally, artillery shells fired by the Ming army fell into the array of Chu army musketeers, injuring several Chu army musketeers, but these sporadic casualties were almost negligible to the tens of thousands of Chu army musketeers on the battlefield.
On the contrary, the dozens of large and small field artillery carried by the Chu army caused greater casualties to the Ming army opposite!
The arrays listed by the Ming army on the opposite side are more dense, basically large square arrays of six or even eight rows, and the effect of solid artillery shells against such thick square arrays with so-called strategic depth has always been very good.
However, the main force of the Ming army on the opposite side was also the New Qin army that Sun Chuanting had painstakingly trained for many years. They had also fought against the Chu army many times, so they were relatively capable of withstanding shelling.
It would be impossible to directly destroy tens of thousands of Ming troops simply by relying on artillery bombardment.
But when the infantry of the Chu army came forward, everything became very simple.
The first battalion of the 96th Infantry Regiment, located on the right side of the battlefield, was the first to approach the enemy, and soon the distance between the two sides was reduced from a few hundred meters at the beginning to about 180 meters.
At this time, the infantrymen of the first battalion of the 96th Infantry Regiment stopped one after another and began to form and reload their troops!
"Rebirth of the Great Era of Fighting Waves"
After loading, they continued to move forward. When the distance was reduced to 134 meters, the musketeers in the Ming army array opposite could not help but open fire on their own.
Scattered gunshots rang out, but few of the Chu army infantry on the opposite side fell.
"Damn it, they haven't come up yet. They can't hit from such a distance, so don't fire!" An officer of the Ming Army rode on his horse to stop his soldiers from firing pointlessly from a long distance.
But seeing this scene, a Chu army major who led the army forward smiled!
Then continue to lead his troops forward in formation!
After approaching a distance of about 80 meters, the leading major officer gave the order: "Stop and prepare to fire!"
The soldiers in the infantry battalion under his command all stopped, and then the first row of soldiers in the queue raised their muskets!
"Fire!"
Following the officer's order, the first row of musketeers launched the first wave of infantry attacks on the battlefield!
Then there are the second row and the third row.
Three rows of musketeers took turns loading and firing, and as the infantry battalion musketeers continued to fire, the soldiers in the Ming army array opposite fell one after another under the intensive firepower!
Although the arquebusiers among them were also firing back, the density of firepower on both sides was completely incomparable.
The Ming army on the opposite side actually had a lot of troops, more than 600 people. This was a very typical Chu army's old-style first-class division, consisting of about 200 arquebusiers and an equal number of spearmen. Plus some sword and shield hands.
The various new standard armies in the Ming Army, including the infantry units in the New Qin Army, almost all copied the Chu Army's old first-class divisions without any changes except for the names.
There are only more than 200 musketeers in this organization, and these two hundred people are divided into six horizontal lines, which means that there are only more than 30 musketeers in the front row.
Opposite them, the First Battalion of the 96th Infantry Regiment of the Chu Army, with the same tactical width as them, had more than 250 musketeers in the first row.
The density of firepower on both sides was almost seven to eight times more!
