1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 702 Red Snow (V)

"First row, second row, change grape bombs!" Gu Shuangquan, artillery battalion commander and lieutenant (major) Xuan Jie, roared loudly: "Third row, change special bombs (blossom bombs). Damn it, the heavy artillery company hastened to bombard the Qing Dynasty on the other side!" The place where the captives are assembled!... Bomb those vicious Tartars to death!"

The entire ice surface of the Yalu River was densely covered with soldiers of the Qing army. Driven by the generals of the Eight Banners, they fought hard towards the north bank.The entire Qing army seemed like bloodthirsty beasts in the wasteland, brandishing their weapons, frantically rushing towards the north bank, constantly impacting the first earth barrier of the Ming and Qi allied forces.

From the north bank of the river to tens of meters in front of the earth barrier, there were corpses of soldiers of the Qing army, and the muddy and dirty snow was dyed dark red.With the help of the terrain or the cover of corpses, many Qing soldiers and archers desperately threw feather arrows at the earth barrier.

Fortunately, the Qing army was not shot by the muskets, crossed the trench, and then quickly climbed to the earth barrier with hands and feet, shouted, and slashed at the soldiers of the Qi army with their knives.But before he jumped up, he was knocked to the ground by the self-rescue saber behind the earth barrier.

More than 160 township soldiers, more than 380 marines, and more than 120 self-rescue army musketeers, like a sophisticated war machine, followed the command of the chief, numbly and mechanically raising guns, shooting, retreating, loading ammunition, waiting to shoot again...

From time to time, a soldier was shot at the vital point by the Qinglu's feather arrow, and fell to the ground with a muffled grunt. Immediately, two self-rescue soldiers quickly dragged him away, and then the soldiers in the back row silently stepped forward to fill the vacant position. make up.

The position of the ditch 50 meters in front of the earth barrier seemed to be an invisible line of death. Row after row of Qing soldiers fell to the ground under the continuous firing of muskets. Gradually, the only line The trenches three to four feet deep and two feet wide had been filled with the corpses of the Qing prisoners, so that the subsequent attacking Qing prisoners could easily step on the corpses of their companions and charge towards the earth barrier behind dozens of people.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..." Several cannons fired grape bullets, and the dense rain of bullets swept towards the Qing army rushing on the river bank in a wide fan shape, knocking down all of them immediately. Numerous blood holes appeared, howled, and kept rolling on the snow, and finally stopped struggling slowly, looking helplessly at the dim sky.

"Damn it, are the Qing captives crazy? They attacked here regardless of the cost." Pu Heqing, the commander of the sixth company of the Marine Corps, held up his binoculars. Through the dim twilight, he saw that the Qing army had suffered huge casualties. Charge forward one after another.For ordinary troops, as long as the casualty rate reaches [-]%, the entire army may collapse.At present, with the offensive of the Qing army, it is estimated that the casualty rate of the frontline troops has already exceeded [-]%, and the continuous attack has put the Qi army under tremendous pressure.

"Immediately take the sixth company of your Marine Corps to support the front line;...immediately detonate the explosives and blast the ice!" Ren Maoyong, commander of the third battalion and lieutenant (major) Xuan Jie, patted Pu Heqing on the shoulder and ordered loudly .

"Battalion Commander, the cavalry of Qinglu has not yet dispatched." A combat staff officer reminded in a low voice.

"It's getting dark soon, and we won't be able to see the river." Ren Maoyong roared: "Don't care about the Qing cavalry, let's set off the explosives immediately."

"Yes!" The combat staff officer turned and ran forward, conveying the command of the battalion commander.

After the earth fortress, Yue Zhongwu, the deputy battalion commander of the third battalion, had rushed to the front line with a company's reserve team. After an hour of fierce fighting, due to various reasons, some officers and soldiers' guns malfunctioned, and the sky turned dark. It affects soldiers' reloading, which makes the firepower output density drop a lot compared to before.This made the densely charged Qing army take advantage of the situation to continue to climb up the earth barrier, and to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the self-rescue army and Marine Corps officers and soldiers.

"Get ready! Let go!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!..."

"dash forward!"

Seeing the Qing army swarming up the earth barrier, Yue Zhongwu ignored the support troops and formed a three-stage shooting array, and directly fired a dense volley of more than one hundred people from the entire company to the large group of Qing troops who attacked the earth barrier. Sweeping away, temporarily suppressing the offensive of the Qing army.Then he took the soldiers and was about to launch a countercharge with bayonets upright.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..." There was a sudden explosion on the ice near the Jiangbei side, a large piece of ice broke open, and dozens of ice holes appeared on the ice hundreds of meters across. The layers also began to break and collapse, exposing the icy cold river water below.

"what!"

"Ouch!"

"help me……"

Countless soldiers of the Qing army continued to fall into the river as the ice cracked and collapsed. The heavy armor made the soldiers of the Qing army sink to the bottom of the river after struggling for a moment.However, the Qing army, who was unable to catch up, was constantly pushed to the break of the ice surface by the companions rushing from behind, and fell into the river. Before they could call a few times, they submerged in the water.

Zu Kefa, deputy commander of the Zhenghuang Banner of the Eight Banners of the Han Army, was lying on the bank of the river, lying between the two corpses, turning his head to look behind him.In the twilight, shadowy soldiers of the Eight Banners kept falling into the river, and indistinctly, a section of river water reflecting the moonlight could be seen flowing slowly.

Hiss, the enemy army is so vicious that it even blasted the ice surface, separating the soldiers and horses that came from the Qing Dynasty continuously on the riverside.That being the case, the only way to survive is to gather soldiers and desperately capture the enemy's fortifications.

Thinking of this, Zu Kefa shouted loudly: "It's getting dark, the enemy's sight is unclear, and the firecrackers can't be loaded with ammunition. Brothers, follow me to make the last blow bravely, attack the enemy's fortifications, and the defeated army will kill the general. It's the right time! kill!"

After finishing speaking, Zu Kefa held a dagger in his mouth, and using both hands and feet, he quickly climbed up to the earth barrier.Seeing this, several guards followed immediately, and quickly passed the general to protect him behind him.

"Throw!" A grenadier platoon leader shouted standing behind the mound, and dozens of hand-throwing bombs were quickly thrown out, falling into the densely packed Qing army formation.

"The whole army charges!" After the bomb rang, Yue Zhongwu raised his command saber and swung it forward.The ice layer on the river exploded, and the Qing army's support was cut off. As long as the Qing army that attacked the earth barrier was forced to retreat, the large-scale offensive of the Qing army would inevitably be disintegrated.

More than [-] officers and soldiers of the [-]rd Battalion of the Marine Corps rushed down from the earth barrier with bayonets straightened. Nearly [-] soldiers from the Changshan Island Township, the Wuzi Battalion, the Gengzi Battalion of the Self-Rescue Army, and the middle part of the Ming Army Peishu The officers and soldiers shouted loudly, and then rushed out.

When Zu Kefa saw the counter-charge of the coalition forces, he was a little stunned.The enemy army did not defend the base, but fought back with high morale.Just after a burst of intensive artillery and firecracker attacks, the Eight Banners troops had already suffered heavy casualties, and then another bomb hit their heads and faces. The team was already in disarray, and before they could regroup, the enemy suddenly charged down.

Zu Kefa stood up just now, holding his waist knife to face the Qi army who was rushing towards him.But just one face to face, the two guards in front of them were stabbed to the ground by several bayonets.

Gritting his teeth, he swung his knife at a rushing shadow and slashed at it.The soldier thought he rushed too fast, and before he could dodge, his left shoulder was cut by a knife. He groaned and swayed for a while, but he didn't stop. Instead, he slammed into Zu Kefa's arms fiercely and followed him Roll down the slope together.

The waist knife in Zukofa's hand fell to the ground when he fell.But years of battlefield experience prompted him to react as quickly as possible.In the process of rolling down, his left hand immediately took out a dagger from his bosom, and then ruthlessly stabbed at the soldier's back.

With a sound of "clang", the dagger seemed to have pierced something hard like armor, but failed to penetrate the opponent's back.Zu Kefa then waved his arm again and stabbed at the back of the opponent's neck.

A stream of blood splashed on his face, Zu Kefa stretched out his hand to push away the Qi soldier, and was about to stand up.Unexpectedly, several more people rolled down the slope, tripping him to the ground, and then being crushed underneath.

"Tiangong?" When Zu Kefa was struggling, there was a sudden shout from beside him.

"Huh?..." Zu Kefa was stunned for a moment, and was about to stand up.

"It's a Tartar!" Immediately, two tough bayonets pierced Zukofa's lower abdomen and side ribs through a seam in his armor, and then kicked him to the ground with a big foot.

Under the counter-charge of the Qi army, countless soldiers of the Qing army continued to roll down the slope, and then were driven to the river, or fell to death under bayonets and swords, or were forced into the broken ice and fell into the river. .As for the Eight Banners soldiers who knelt down and asked to surrender, they could not be recognized under the night sky, and they were all cut down on the ground. Only when there were no enemies standing, did they slowly retreat to the soil barrier.

Afterwards, dozens of huge bonfires were ignited one after another, illuminating the entire north bank of the Yalu River, revealing countless corpses of the Qing army, densely scattered all over the river and shore, and soon frozen into stiff ice sculptures.
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Compared with the fierce and bloody offensive and defensive battles on the north bank of the river, the battles on the north and west sides of the camp seemed short and decisive.After Sharhuda heard the rumbling sound of the cannon along the river, he immediately ordered Mao Wenzhong, the leader of the Eight Banners of the Han Army, and the commander of the White Banner, to lead more than [-] troops to attack from the north. More than [-] people attacked from the west. He and Lai Da each led more than [-] armored soldiers from the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia to supervise the formation, and after the Han army broke through the camp, they entered the camp.

I don't know if it was for the purpose of building the camp, or in response to my surprise attack from the side of the Qing Dynasty. The Ming and Qi allied forces cut down the forest outside the camp, exposing a piece of bare tree stumps, so that the Eight Banners soldiers who lined up the attack array had to march quickly. Watch your feet from time to time to avoid tripping over tree stumps.

When the Qing army approached the camp for more than 200 meters, more than ten artillery shells began to bombard them one after another. The continuous flying shells made the charging Qing army spread out even more.

All the officers and soldiers of the Eight Banners knew that if they could not attack the enemy camp in one go and cooperate with the main force of the frontal attack to defeat the enemy, they might not have a second chance to launch this large-scale assault.Even if the Eight Banners troops on the south bank of the Yalu River were defeated, they could return to the south bank, rest for one night, and continue fighting tomorrow.

However, if these troops who crossed the ice and smuggled across the river failed to occupy the opponent's camp under full attack, they would not even have a place to camp for the night.There are no barracks, let alone tents to shelter from the wind and snow. How many people can survive the cold night in such extremely cold weather?I didn't see the more than a thousand soldiers carefully selected by Lai Da's troops. Most of them were Jurchen fighters from Jilin and Heilongjiang. Nearly 200 of them froze to death overnight.

Therefore, when launching the offensive, the Qing army was a little more decisive and tragic.Either desperately break through the coalition camp and win a big victory, or after the defeat, be silently frozen to death in the cold winter night.

Chen Hui was mentally prepared for the savagery of the Qing captives, but he was shocked when he actually experienced the desperate charge of the Qing captives' Eight Banners army.Rows of Eight Banners soldiers fell to the ground under the volley of muskets, and the roaring shells, after wading out bloody paths, were instantly filled by the swarming Qing troops.

The Eight Banners archers who rushed to the forefront, after approaching the camp, quickly shot the feather arrows in their hands, pierced the musketeer's chest through the gap in the outer fence.

After suffering certain casualties, the Zheng Jun Firearms Battalion felt a little unstable. A series of actions such as stuffing gunpowder, reloading, and shooting... began to deform, and even made frequent mistakes.In a panic, some musketeers reversed the ammunition and ammunition, so that the musket could no longer be fired, and some fired the cleaning rod together, and some soldiers even threw away the musket and turned around and ran back.

"Those who retreat, beheaded!" Chen Hui yelled, and raised the long knife in his hand forward, "Gan Hui, bring your men to the top! Anyone who retreats without authorization, beheaded!"

Gan Hui made a promise, and rushed over quickly with more than [-] people under his command. First, he knocked down several musketeers who had fled before the battle, chopped them off with a knife, and then ran to the wall of the village with their bloody heads.

At this time, hundreds of soldiers of the Eight Banners had rushed to the wall of the village, holding short knives in their mouths, climbing on the wooden fence, trying to climb in.

"The muskets continue to shoot!" Lan Yan, the general of the firearms battalion, saw Gan Hui leading hundreds of officers and soldiers stabbing the Eight Banners soldiers who had climbed over the wall with spears, and then turned his head to command the officers and soldiers of the firearms battalion to continue shooting.

"Those who retreat will be cut!" Qin Sangui, the Eight Banners Zhengbaiqi Xiao Cavalry School of the Han Army (the sixth rank), chopped down a soldier who was trying to flee back, and shouted loudly: "Keep moving forward! Break the camp, and the enemy will surely flee. Like a lamb to be slaughtered! Keep going!"

Dozens of Eight Banners soldiers in front who were about to turn around and flee looked at the bloody head in Tan Sangui's hands, their faces turned bitter, and they could only turn around and continue to attack.Hundreds of firecrackers fired continuously, and countless companions were shot twenty or thirty steps away from the camp. Even if they rushed to the camp by chance, they were stabbed to the ground by the defenders.Moreover, there are more than ten cannons, roaring continuously, and those who hit them will be killed immediately.No matter how brave a warrior you are, under the blow of firearms, you appear so powerless and fragile.

"Order the Ninth Company of the Marine Corps to go to the north side of the camp immediately to support the Zheng Army Firearms Battalion!" From the high observation tower in the middle of the camp, Li Fade ordered: "Order the First Battalion of the Marine Corps in the Weicheng of Xuancheng, Changshan The Island No. [-] Squadron immediately left the city and flanked the rear of the Qing captives."

"Yes!" A combat staff officer quickly jumped off the watchtower after receiving the order.

"There are four combat companies temporarily formed by more than 500 naval officers and soldiers in the battalion. Should we also send them to the north side of the camp to defeat the Qing prisoners there first?" He Yunfeng suggested: "Then we can take advantage of the situation and come over to the Acropolis of Xuancheng." reinforcements to encircle and annihilate the Qing troops on the west side."

"Navy officers and soldiers are hard-won, so don't waste them lightly, and treat them as the last reserve." Li Fade shook his head, "Besides, it's already dark, and if the army goes out to encircle the Qing captives, we will lose our advantage in firearms. They may be killed by the Qing captives in the dark. We only need to keep the Qing captives out of the camp, and this winter night will help us kill half of them."

More than [-] marines and township soldiers in Xuancheng Weicheng suddenly appeared in the rear of Qinglu on the west side. After firing five rounds of guns and emptying the projectiles, they did not stop at all, and charged with bayonets.More than [-] officers and soldiers of the Eight Banners of the Han Army and the Zhengbai Banner were suddenly attacked. Under the attack of the Qi army, they immediately collapsed and fled in all directions.

Afterwards, more than a thousand Qi troops attacked, bypassed the barracks, and appeared on the right wing of the Qing prisoners who were attacking the north side of the camp. After three rounds of neat salvos from muskets, the Eight Banners and White Banners of the Han Army also retreated.Sharhuda, who was in charge of the battle at the back, let out a long sigh, and then led the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia to slowly withdraw from the camp of the coalition forces.

(End of this chapter)