stubborn thief

Chapter 690 Spear

The roar of gunfire echoed across the wilderness.

You don't know until you fight. When the gunners of the two armies first clashed with each other, Xiang Xiyin realized that the problem was serious.

The Ming army has always been known for its strengths in guns and artillery, especially large numbers of rapid-fire cannons and muskets.

This type of rapid-fire firearms configuration is very scientific. It can effectively block the enemy at multiple levels and has a strong deterrent effect against nomadic cavalry.

The densest distance of their firearms killing was exactly thirty to fifty steps away from the maximum range of the nomadic archers.

At this distance, the continuous firing of the falconet, the light-weight cannon such as the Mielu Yongzhu, the bird gun and the bow and arrow three-barrel gun can all cause effective damage and pose a huge threat.

This means that in terms of individual soldier quality, the Ming army may not be much stronger than the Mongolian soldiers, but as long as they form a battle formation, they will encounter dense firepower from the Ming army that is several times their own at a distance where the Mongolian soldiers can draw their bows and shoot from horseback.

This is also the reason why the Ming army launched a dimensionality reduction attack on the Mongolian army.

However, this set of firepower equipment became awkward when used against the Marshal's Army, which was also known for its firearms.

When the falconets fired, although they could not cause substantial damage to the chariots, they were able to completely suppress the marshal's army and bring advantages to the Ming army's approach.

But when they approached a hundred steps, problems arose.

Just as Xiang Xiyin's gun and artillery troops approached the enemy within a hundred steps, they saw a man step out of the Marshal's army line, holding a fully drawn bow and shooting feather arrows forward at a large angle.

Several sharp arrows with their tail feathers still shaking were stuck in the ground, marking the distances of twenty to thirty steps, fifty to sixty steps, and eighty to ninety steps respectively.

The Ming army hurriedly raised their long shields and set up barricades to quicken their pace.

According to their thinking, fifty or sixty steps is the most dangerous place, and all kinds of firearms will be very effective at that distance.

As a result, as soon as he quickened his pace and took two steps, the Marshal's army's guns opened fire first.

Hearing the sound of gunfire in front of the battlefield, Xiang Xiyin was delighted at first.

In the eyes of an experienced veteran like him, this act of firing before reaching the predetermined distance was a complete manifestation of the gunner's lack of training.

But as soon as the joy rose in my heart, it was suppressed by greater doubts.

Because they are the first to fire, there are usually a few sporadic gunshots before other gunners will nervously fire.

And the sound of gunfire in front of the Marshal's army... was a little more orderly.

Xiang Xiyin looked over there hastily, and saw that the chariots with spears mounted on them had their roofs covered with gunpowder smoke, but the bottom of the chariots could be seen clearly.

  Teams of soldiers were replacing guns on the vehicles in an orderly manner. Their muskets were bigger than his!

Looking at his own army formation, he couldn't see Xiang Xiyin's position clearly, but he felt that his infantry seemed to be missing a layer.

Moreover, the 400-odd cavalrymen who were making a detour in the rear were clearly about to approach the 300-odd cavalry enemy troops who were outnumbered. Just as they were about to enter the range of a cavalry charge, the captain in charge reined in his horses.

They seemed to be a little shaken and fearful, and actually turned around, and were caught by the Marshal's cavalry who had already launched a charge, and ran towards the northwest of the battlefield.

The cavalry captain was named Ma Ning, and he was from Ningxia.

No one could see more clearly than him what was happening in the middle of the battlefield.

He watched helplessly as the Marshal's Army's musketeers were suppressed by the Portuguese behind the carriages. It was not until the Ming army was within a hundred steps that they filed out and lined up in front of the carriages.

At the same time, the small red cannon on the two-wheeled cart, the musket, and the extended rifle on the carriage all fired at the same time.

As powerful as thunder.

The Ming army's muskets and infantry, which were still accelerating forward in front of the formation, fell down in unison like wheat being cut.

Even the infantrymen with long shields and heavy armor were no exception. Few of the front row soldiers could stand after the volley of gunfire.

This burst of gunfire frightened Ma Ning so much that he was out of his mind. What the hell was that gunfire? With this range and density, even if he could drive the Marshal's cavalry out of the battlefield, he wouldn't dare to charge into the infantry formation.

Not to mention that the Mongolian cavalry on the other side had begun to charge into the Ming army formation.

Border troops have seen many Mongolian cavalry charging into the enemy's formation, but they usually only concentrate their elite troops to charge into the enemy's formation when the battle gets really intense. This Mongolian cavalry that broke through the enemy's formation right at the beginning of the battle has never been seen before, no matter who they were called upon.

  This is just a joke!

Could it be that he really works for Hong Chengchou?

Even if I have to risk my life, Hong Chengchou has to buy it. You can't buy it on credit.

Xiang Xiyin on the other side was also dumbfounded. If it weren't for the firearms of the Marshal's Army, he wouldn't have cared about that side at all. He was just stunned by the Mongolian cavalrymen wearing heavy armor and holding long poles.

  Are these people crazy?

The Portuguese cannon had to fire only two sub-guns. The Tartar soldiers, despite their fear, scattered in a line of only a dozen or so horses, each hiding in their stirrups and charging with their spears thrust diagonally. In the distance, cavalrymen who had not yet come up rained arrows at the artillerymen.

They then rushed into the range of musket fire. The bullets from the three-barreled gun wheels were like shot, and the bows and crossbows shot flying, but they could not stop their momentum in the slightest.

At first, some Tartars fell off their horses, either because they were hit or their horses were injured, but they just got up, drew their swords, stabbed their horses' buttocks, and drove their horses back into the formation.

  They don't feel sorry for the war horses at all. Are they still nomadic cavalry?

Only three of the first wave of more than ten riders crashed into the formation. One of them was hit in the face by a gun while trying to climb over the chevaux de frise and fell face down. The remaining two riders crashed into the formation, disrupting the formation. The soldiers hurriedly fought with them with bone clubs and swords.

Soon after, another wave of cavalry charged over. The leading cavalry pulled the reins and rode their horses into the formation with their hooves raised.

Afterwards, the cavalrymen, with their spears held high, charged from both sides through the gap.

Seeing that the Ming army's line had been shaken and that two more groups of people would break the formation, Xiang Xiyin drew his sword and led his servants to rush to the gap and fight a bloody battle, which stopped the collapse. The Mongolian soldiers behind him saw that they could not break through the army formation, so they slowly retreated.

Xiang Xiyin heaved a sigh of relief. He thought that the morale of the Mongolian Tartars was high, but after killing them for a while, they probably wouldn't dare to charge forward.

He turned around and saw the servants and soldiers dragging the corpses and horse carcasses into the formation, and quarreling over the heads. He couldn't help but get furious.

How could he know that the cavalry of the Mongolian thousand headquarters of the mobile battalion charged into the battle not because of their high morale.

This was because the cavalry charging the battle were all from Oirats, and a large part of them were from the Khoshut tribe.

A major tactical feature of the Oirats cavalry was their habit of charging into battle with spears.

The Mongolian tribes north and south of the desert, the Russians, the Kazakhs, the Nogai, and even the Crimean Khanate and Poland and Lithuania were all charged through by them, and one by one they were all defeated on the battlefield.

Relying only on a spear, they were the undisputed best light lancers in the world in the first eighty years of the 17th century.

Lancers were everywhere, and the Oirats were by no means the best at combat skills, but the problem was that in this era, forces with more cavalry than them often favored archery, and those who were more proficient in charging with spears than them often had far fewer cavalry than them. The Torghut tribe, which had moved to the west, could gather more than 2,000 lightly armed cavalrymen with three spears each on any battlefield at any time, and charge any opponent to pieces in a whirlwind.

However, due to their limited size, this was all they could do. The most they could do was to force the cavalry of Eastern European countries to make tactical improvements in the 17th century and learn the essence of their tactics.

Even their new master, Liu Chengzong, had been charged at by their cavalry with spears in the past.

This is the combat habit of the Oirats.

However, it was exactly as Xiang Xiyin thought. As long as the three weapons of bows and arrows, spears and sabers could not break the formation and could not charge at once, the commander of Oirats would have to think of other ways.

This is a common problem of nomadic armies. Even if they are just a little bit away from success, they must give up, because the casualties and losses that the feudal nomadic nobles can bear, although the lower limit is high, the upper limit is relatively low.

But they are no longer a nomadic army.

Just as the defeated troops in the front withdrew from the firing range and the Ming army reorganized, the Mongolian commander of the Second Tourist Barracks was also reorganizing his troops in front of the battle, and commander Wen Lianggao was giving a speech.

Wenlianggai is Tuba, who was born in Uriankhai. He was previously a Zaisang of the Khoshut tribe under the command of Liutai Jidorji.

The position of Zaisan could be a managerial official of varying degrees, depending on who the master followed. The Zaisan of Ligdan Khan was the prime minister of the Northern Yuan Khanate, while the Zaisan of Guoshi Khan was only a minister of the Khoshut tribe, and the Zaisan of Dorji was at best a township official.

However, this official position was the highest position that Wen Lianggai, who came from a commoner family, could climb to.

Because he can only manage a small herd of livestock in his hometown. As for going further up, no matter how talented he is, his background and experience have already limited him.

He did not know the nobles of other tribes, nor did he have any personal relationships with the Zaisans of other tribes. He was away from his living environment and knew nothing about geography and pastures. The little Zaisan of the little Taiji was the end of his life.

But the Oirats' expedition changed all that.

When the Grand Marshal employs people, he is not bound by bloodline.

Zaisan, who was born in a commoner family, became a captain under the command of Dorji, the lieutenant general of the Khoshut Camp. He was wounded in the siege battle of Gaotai against Yang Jiamo, and with this merit he was admitted to the Huben Camp and became a captain of the Second Field Brigade of the Grand Marshal in Guanzhong.

His official position remained unchanged, he was still a thousand-man commander.

However, Wen Lianggai, who was born in Zaisan, knew it best. Although they were all Zaisan, they served under different nobles and their levels of power and nobility varied greatly.

And at this moment, he was serving under the most honorable Khan in the world!

In the army of the Grand Marshal, the only thing that the nobles had over the sons of common people was the right to carry a flag on the battlefield.

"They failed to stop us a few times, so why be afraid? Don't be stingy with your horses. Push aside the barricades and charge in. If you take the first place, the Khan will give you good horses from the Tianshan Mountains!"

Soon, the cavalry of the Mongolian thousand headquarters gathered again at the call of Wen Lianggai. The flags symbolizing various tribes, families and even battalions were all rolled up, and they surrounded the periphery of the Ming army.

In fact, the cavalry that had not yet launched a charge was more feared by the Ming army than those who had just launched a head-on charge.

Because it was just a pause in the collision, the Ming army was divided into two camps, the front infantry was almost defeated.

Liu Chengzong's newly formed brigade was itself a military reform. Although the dispersal and reorganization of the troops from various units reduced the coordination ability of the soldiers and generals to a certain extent, it also reorganized the marshal's army that had been fighting in the east and the west.

The powerful and effective tactics of each unit on the battlefield were also spread to every unit of the two field brigades as the officers of the Huben Battalion performed their duties.

For example, the heavy guns that originally only existed in Gao Yingdeng's camp required the disassembly of the cannon's shotgun ammunition bag and the use of four lead bullets, one large and three small. This shooting technique has now become the standard shooting method of the Marshal's Army's heavy guns.

This Han soldier headquarters, which was responsible for the artillery firepower in the mobile camp, had only a thousand members. It carried only one thousand-jin field gun and ten 200-jin lion cannons, but was equipped with more than 500 muskets.

Among them were one hundred gun-carrying carts and, on paper, four hundred and forty heavy muskets.

However, since it takes time to replenish equipment, the heavy guns of the Marshal's Army brigades are insufficient. In fact, only a part of them can be allocated first, and the rest will be replenished by the local garrison using captured bird guns, and replenished at a rate of more than ten guns per month for each thousand headquarters.

Even so, at a distance of one hundred steps, they still unleashed terrible killing power.

In an extremely short moment, the thousand-jin cannon fired solid bullets at the enemy's flag, ten lion cannons fired scattershot bullets, a hundred gun carts fired two-liang lead bullets specifically at the long-armed heavy troops, more than a hundred bird guns fired volleys, and more than two hundred heavy guns used the dense firepower of one gun with four bullets, spraying thousands of projectiles at the enemy's front.

The firepower of this thing is equivalent to that of twenty lion cannons.

The overwhelming rain of bullets was like the King of Hell holding up his sickle to cut wheat, mowing down the Ming army's formation in an instant.

The Ming army soldiers didn't even have time to react, and the officers in the rear only stared at the large flags that were not hit by the thousand-jin cannon. People were still moving forward by inertia amid the sound of pulling cloth.

After taking a few steps, someone looked down and saw a few spots of blood-red seeping out of the cloth armor on his body. He touched the blood flowing on his face, blinked his eyes, and looked around in panic. The strength in his body was lost quickly, and he didn't even care where the pain should come first. His legs went weak and he fell to the ground with his head down.

This is considered lucky.

The heavily armored soldiers holding long plates were not so lucky.

The lead bullet from the two-liang rifle hit the long shield with unparalleled power. The lead bullet deformed and shattered, making it look more like it had exploded on the small hole. In the process of penetrating the long shield, the fragments were cut again by the broken surface of the long shield, breaking into several small lead blocks, which chiseled the soldiers behind them.

It's unpredictable as to who will be hit and where on the body it will hit.

Just one volley of fire was enough to cause the Ming army to fall in large numbers. Some continued to advance in panic, while others waited for an opportunity to escape on both wings. After running a few steps, they realized that they had been shot and fell to the ground.

Even the officers at the back turned their horses around.

Because the boss is dead.

The formation of the Ming army has always been that the chief officers of low-ranking officers are in the front, the adjutants are in the back, and the chief officer is in the middle.

  With one shot, almost all the regular troops on the front line were knocked down. How can we fight this battle?

Seeing the enemy's front team becoming the rear team and running back to the main camp one after another, Mako was not in a hurry: "Send the message to Li Fengji, there is no rush to chase them, the fire soldiers reload the ammunition and press forward steadily, they can't escape!"

Of course I can't run away.

Wen Lianggai was watching from behind. His cavalry had already gathered and prepared for a second charge. Seeing the Ming army fleeing back from the front, he immediately shouted to boost morale, raised his spear high and galloped past the front of the formation, and ordered his subordinates to unfold the various military and family flags.

With the army flags fluttering and the low and mournful sound of the xiao (a Chinese flute) playing, the galloping cavalry thrust their spears out again, made a huge circle, and with the cover of the fleeing soldiers in the front, charged diagonally towards the army formation again.

good afternoon!