stubborn thief

The fighting on Taizi River became more and more intense.

The roar of gunfire extended for dozens of miles.

The more they fought, the more frustrated Jiala Zhangjing Lu of the Haizhou Navy became.

His troops landed, and the infantry attempted to seize the artillery positions on the riverbank under the cover of ship guns.

The river bank was a small slope only ten feet high. His well-equipped infantrymen in bright armor launched three consecutive attacks, but were repelled three times by the infantrymen in red armor on the bank.

During every battle, soldiers on the embankment would be armed with hawk-beaked guns and fire powerful bullets.

In fact, there was no need to fight. When they fought on foot, the jumping soldiers of the Haizhou Navy were frightened when they saw the standard equipment of the Marshal's Army.

Because compared with the Ming army inside the Great Wall, most of the Haizhou soldiers who came from the new army were more knowledgeable.

They all knew the equipment of the Marshal's Army, except for slight differences in the names and shapes.

The heavy gun is the Eagle Gun, the Lion Cannon is the Destroying Cannon, the field gun is the Red Cannon, and there is also a uniform set of Ming-style armor.

The Haizhou soldiers were quite familiar with this kind of new organized armed force. Back then, Xu Guangqi wanted to train 100,000 soldiers, but the imperial court approved 30,000. In the end, a new army of 4,600 people was trained. In theory, they should have been equipped with this set of equipment.

But in fact, the last 4,600 new troops were equipped with many great generals, second generals, and bird guns as replacements.

As a result, this new army was trained by the rebels!

When the Eagle Gun opened fire, it frightened the soldiers on the front line more than the Red Cannon.

Being hit by the Red Cannon means certain death, but the advantage is that it is a quick death.

You won't survive being hit by the Eagle Gun, but you won't die immediately.

It hurts!

Even though the key equipment is already so good, the dismounted cavalry at the Marshal's Army artillery position still fights very skillfully.

There was a Mongolian soldier from the Baizong Bureau in the army. Since Liu Chengzong gave the reward to the infantry, which was a silver bar for capturing two sets of armor, they became the backbone of this battle with the hook-sickle spears in their hands.

The Haizhou soldiers had never seen an enemy so keen on capturing prisoners.

They all wore bright silver armor, which was also cloth armor, but the armor plates were hung outside, mainly used to distinguish between friend and foe.

The cannons on the dike fired, and the air was filled with smoke. The Haizhou soldiers attacked from above, shooting arrows like rain, while the Marshal's army attacked from below, shooting lead bullets like hail.

The height difference needs blood and flesh to make up for it. The plan of the Haizhou soldiers was very simple. There would be a little height difference at the beginning of the attack. At most, the corpses would pile up together, and they could rush up to drive out and kill all the enemy troops.

Now the problem comes. Not to mention those who were shot and fell to the ground, even the Ming armored soldiers who rushed upwards under the cover of smoke would be hooked by a hook-and-sickle spear that was extended from the dark when fighting with the red armored soldiers.

After being hooked, the Ming armored soldiers would most likely not resist because they were unable to figure out the situation at the moment.

He was about to attack upwards, and was fighting with great passion, when suddenly something caught on his body without him realizing it. He just felt as if he was helped by a god, and a huge force was pulling him upwards along with his strength.

Climbing has never been easier.

I couldn't see clearly what was happening around me in the smoke, and I couldn't react when I went up the slope.

He pulled the hook-sickle spear backwards, took a step, and a golden melon hit his head on the left; he took another step in a daze, and another bone hit his head on the right.

When they arrived at the place to unload, the soldiers tied up the goods and loaded them onto the carts, and the Mongolian soldiers took up their guns and went to other places.

It's like following an assembly line.

Lu Ke's attention was not at all on the armored infantry fighting on the front line to attack the dike.

Ming armor and soldiers are treasures, but people in the Ming Dynasty could not feel this because, after all, the country had a vast territory, huge amounts of materials and unparalleled population support. Forming a battalion of troops and getting one or two thousand sets of armor was as easy as drinking water.

But once it comes out, there will only be as many sets of armor as there are, and it will be difficult to increase the number.

The Tianzhu Army was not the Eight Banners Army. They fought in Sarhu and dominated Liaodong. They seized a lot of armor and had enough to rely on their accumulated wealth.

The Ming Army and the Eight Banners Army were the troops with the highest armor rate. When it came to Mongolia, the Later Jin captured Guihua City and counted the Mongolian population and armored soldiers. There were 78,000 males, but only 5,456 sets of iron armor.

If the Tianzhu Army wanted to increase their armor, they had to go to the west bank of the Liao River to ask the Liao soldiers for it. The problem was that the Liao soldiers would not agree.

Without a decisive battle, the Eight Banners soldiers did not dare to go to the other side. After all, no one knew whether they would meet Zhang Dabing, whose monthly salary was deducted by his superiors by four cents, or Wu Sangui, who was as fierce as a tiger or a bear.

If he ran into Wu Sangui, he would definitely be killed, but if he met Zhang Dabing, he would not be able to defeat him either, as the Liaodong soldiers were also sharpening their knives and ready to take his head.

Lu Ke had more than a thousand landing troops, but only more than 600 sets of armor, and he had to use up all his family's assets.

But he is a naval officer, and all the things a naval officer can bring out are treasures.

Armored infantry and cavalry are treasures, but warships and artillery are also treasures, right?

But his boat is sinking!

To be honest, Lu Ke’s head was about to explode.

At first he thought that the Marshal's Army had twenty-four Red Field Guns and that the two artillery teams took turns firing, so he was not sensitive to their firing rate and did not think there was any difference between the two armies.

It was not until the landing troops approached the shore and rushed the dike that the ship's guns replaced the scattered bullets with solid iron bullets. After four rounds of salvos, they successfully hit a cannon and the shells were firmly embedded in the gun barrel.

This would have been a good thing.

But the enemy's second round of shooting turned into a salvo of eleven rounds.

This incident made Lu Ke's face change drastically.

The eight red-haired cannons and sixteen breech-loading general cannons were suppressed by the enemy's twelve muzzle-loading cannons in terms of firing rate!

The sky is falling!

One of their guns was damaged and some artillerymen were killed or wounded, but he had already sunk four ships.

The shipwreck itself was not a big problem. The Taizi River was shallow, so the soldiers would not drown if the ship sank. However, the food and artillery on board were soaked in water and had to be pulled ashore to dry after the war.

But once the four boats sank into the river, they completely blocked the river and prevented him from retreating.

In order to rest, he had to drive out the enemy troops along the coast. Unfortunately, his ships and guns were beginning to lose their power.

Sometimes the mainmast of the stern ship broke and it took on water and ran aground; sometimes the barrel of the warship's gun was hit by a cannonball and extinguished; sometimes the cannonball rolled over the deck, killing and injuring several artillerymen.

The breech-loading gun was suppressed by the muzzle-loading gun in terms of firing rate, and was bombarded by the enemy with a loud bang.

no way.

The Invincible General of the Haizhou Navy has a fast firing rate due to its design.

But there are no perfect weapons in the world. There are only people's designs and choices of weapons according to local conditions.

This cannon was designed by Qi Jiguang for use in defense against the northern invaders when he went north. It was designed to be used for garrisons and field battles. It was originally made of copper and should have weighed 1,050 kilograms.

Because a cannon is equipped with three sub-guns, each weighing 150 kilograms, which are pre-loaded with ammunition and can be fired immediately after loading. The first three shots are fired the fastest.

As for the Mongolian cavalry heading south, three shots were fired from the platform, which basically solved the problem.

The purpose was not to kill the Mongolian cavalry, but to create enough threat to scare them away.

Even if the problem cannot be solved, the ammunition can be loaded calmly on the pier where the ladder has been removed.

But when Shang Kexi first surrendered to the Jin Dynasty, he had no copper, so he changed to iron casting, which almost doubled its weight.

The Invincible General's rapid-fire advantage is still there, but it is not as obvious because it is heavy.

While firing, the disassembled sub-guns need to be reloaded. Each sub-gun is equivalent to a small cannon, and the sub-gun barrel needs to be cleaned, dried, and then the powder can be loaded.

The Marshal's 1000-jin cannon had a crew of 14 artillerymen, with one chief and one deputy at each battle position. In fact, only six people were needed to take care of a cannon in wartime.

The rest served as gunners, did odd jobs, drove livestock, replaced in case of casualties, and even served as a veterinarian.

The minimum manpower required to maintain one cannon on the ship, the Iron-Cast Invincible General, is eighteen strong artillerymen.

If it suffers a little damage, the firing rate will drop.

Moreover, as the Invincible General fired six shots in a row, the iron gun body began to turn red. The continuous cooling made the barrel too hard and too brittle. Finally, the first General cannon exploded while firing, killing several artillerymen nearby.

The explosion of their own artillery could make the Haizhou artillery more sober than the heavy shells of the Marshal's army's field artillery, and no one dared to fire to their death.

The Marshal's Army's thousand-pound field cannon with iron lining and copper wrapping is much better. The wrought iron inner barrel is wear-resistant, and the cast copper outer shell has good ductility and fast heat conduction, and there is no risk of cracking due to excessive cooling.

The most important thing is that the risk of explosion of copper-wrapped iron is lower, because copper is softer and has a self-tightening effect when cooled, fitting tightly to the inner chamber of wrought iron.

When the inner iron chamber is deformed and about to explode, the outer copper shell will generally bulge first.

This technology makes good use of the advantages of both copper and iron while avoiding their disadvantages.

The opposite is not possible. It can only combine the disadvantages of the two. The copper core is not wear-resistant and is easy to deform, while the iron shell has slow heat dissipation and is too hard, so it will explode after a few shots.

When the ship's guns were unable to suppress the field artillery, and the ships sank into the river or ran aground one after another, Lu Ke's heart slowly sank.

And his hope of landing infantry to seize artillery positions was obviously in vain.

Not only did he fail to seize the artillery position, but when he looked through the telescope at the front of the battle, he saw that the entrepreneurial expert from the Mongolian Plateau was using a hook-and-sickle spear to pull out his soldiers who were lying on the ground.

Instead, the armored soldiers were taken away by others!

Lu Ke could never have dreamed that one day he would use the word "seized" to describe his own army.

Neither the infantry nor the artillery could defeat the enemy. Although he did not see the cavalry fighting, no matter how confident he was, he did not dare to imagine that the cavalry could defeat the marshal's army.

The donkey in Guizhou has run out of tricks.

Withdraw!

Lu Ke immediately called his trusted men on the ship and ordered: "Let the cavalry withdraw first, and the infantry will cover them on the shore. After they get on the ship, the whole army will retreat."

The order cannot be wrong.

Retreating after a failed battle could lead to collapse if one is not careful.

The problem of collapse is extremely fatal to the Marines. The artillerymen and sailors on the ship will first sail to the other side, and the rest of the people will be drowned on the shore under the pursuit of the enemy.

Because they are fighting bravely now, no one is retreating. Once the retreat order is given, everyone will be afraid of being trapped on the shore.

But in fact, behind the long dike that Lu Ke could not see, compared with the artillery being completely suppressed and the armored infantry being captured in batches, the cavalry of the Haizhou Navy fought very well.

At least, in the beginning, they were not only able to fight on equal terms with the Cavalry Battalion, but even had the upper hand.

After all, the infantry have guns and cannons, and even if they are physically tired, as long as they have enough will to fight, the performance of their weapons is good, which means they are strong.

The situation was different for cavalry, as it was a type of soldier that relied purely on physical strength. Zuo Guangxian's cavalry battalion was exhausted, and although they had more soldiers, they could no longer pull their bows to their full strength, making it difficult for them to gain an advantage in a cavalry fight.

However, they have a high armor coverage rate, and if they are hit by arrows occasionally, the arrows either do not penetrate the armor or only cause minor injuries. Even if they lose their combat effectiveness, it is difficult to be fatal.

Therefore, they took advantage of the large size and fast charging of the Hequ horses under their crotch, and whenever they got the chance they would engage in close combat with the enemy cavalry under the arrows. The Mongolian cavalry would hook them with their hook-and-sickle spears, and then the Wala cavalry would stab them to death with their spears.

The fighting continued until the navy cavalry became anxious and formed a large group.

They were stunned.

Although the Haizhou Navy's service time is not very long, they have rich combat experience. They have fought against the Eastern Tartars and rebels at sea, but they have never seen such an outrageous tactic - hooking a person to prevent him from moving, and then stabbing him to death with a spear.

What a rogue tactic.

You're bullying the navy cavalry because it's inconvenient to carry long weapons, right?

Who knew that it would be fine if they didn't assemble a large force. As soon as they assembled a large force, the Cavalry Battalion also assembled a large force. The two sides stared at each other, and suddenly someone from the Han cavalry on the opposite side took off his helmet, revealing his hair scarf, and raised his hand to point at their cavalry formation.

The cavalry, which had been solemn and murderous, suddenly burst into laughter.

The navy cavalry was furious.

It’s bad enough that you just look at me, but you also fucking laugh at me!

But when they saw it themselves, they knew why it was laughed at.

Half of their cavalry had no armor or wore scattered armor, and many of them only wore warm hats or large caps on their heads.

As a result, during the chase and fight on horseback, the warm hat fell off, revealing the small braid on the back of his head.

The naval cavalry thought that the other side was mocking them for defecting to the Eastern Tartars and shaving their heads.

This hairstyle is sometimes used to scare people in the capital area. After all, poor communications symbolize foreign invasion. Seeing such hair means that the enemy has broken through the pass.

But that is the feeling of the common people in the Central Plains, where the division of labor is clear.

What good can the Marshal's Army be?

In fact, the Han soldiers in the Cavalry Battalion were indeed laughing, but they were not laughing at them for surrendering to the enemy, nor were they even laughing at their hairstyle.

The soldier who took off his helmet just lamented that Liu Chengzong didn't want his head, otherwise he could just chop off his hair and tie his braid around his waist.

As a result, a Khoshut cavalryman next to him also took off his helmet to reveal his pigtail and said, "This is the great Khan's wisdom. What if you want my head?"

Everyone is happy.

During Liu Chengzong's rule, the country was a country of free hairstyle. Braids were everywhere in the Marshal's Mansion, and there were many different styles.

Some had shaved heads, some had braids at the back of their heads, some had braids on the top of their heads, some had the signature Mongolian braid with a tuft of hair left on their foreheads, and some even had the Oirat hairstyle of not having any braids at all and letting the hair on top of their heads swing to one side. There were Han soldiers with shaved heads and Mongolian soldiers with long hair. There were all kinds of hairstyles.

The bald head and braided hair style is not unique to the Later Jin Dynasty, and has nothing to do with the Tungus people in Outer Manchuria.

The Tungus people were so busy fighting against nature that they had no time to take care of their hair, so they let it grow freely.

Braiding hair was a custom of the Donghu people. As early as the Han Dynasty, Han people in Liaodong said that the Wuhuan people were all bald.

Everyone's living habits are very tenacious. The Han and Qiang peoples have been growing their hair for thousands of years. The Donghu people have changed countless names over the past thousands of years, including Wuhuan, Xianbei, Rouran, Khitan, and Mongolia, but their bald heads and braids have never changed.

The laughter of the Marshal's cavalry subsided, and they stared at the enemy's cavalry formation with disdain: "Even individual cavalry can't beat us, and we can't win even if we form a formation to collide with them!"

The navy cavalry were also filled with anger due to the ridicule. They threw their warm hats on the ground in frustration, rode their horses with their braids on, and drew their swords, ready to fight the marshal's army to the death.

At this moment, the order from the rear came for the cavalry to bypass the long dike and retreat.

But the fighting between the two camps had already begun, and the messenger cavalry had not even come into contact with the naval cavalry before they were pulled off their horses with hook-and-sickle spears by the Mongolian soldiers roaming around the periphery, and were dragged straight to Zuo Guangxian's horse.

"Retreat? Retreat for nothing!"

Zuo Guangxian pressed the saddle and widened his eyes: "Since you are here, you are all silver and no one can escape!" (End of this chapter)