I want to be emperor

Chapter 447 Ming Army Cavalry Attacks
Before the Chu army launched the infantry general attack, the open-air main fort on the East Fort had already been turned into ruins. The Chu army continued to use heavy artillery and mortars to bombard this important open-air fort for several days. It killed and wounded the gunners of the Ming army, and also destroyed some artillery of the Ming army, and once caused the ammunition to explode.

Of the more than a dozen long-barreled cannons on the fort on the top of the East Fort, only two or three of them are still functional.

The large number of short robes, gunners and at least tens of thousands of infantry deployed in the waist of the fortress and the trenches at the bottom also suffered heavy casualties.

And these are the confidence of the Chu army to launch the final general offensive.

Otherwise, if the artillery fire of the Ming army still exists, the Chu army infantry on the attacking side will suffer heavy casualties regardless of whether they can be taken down by direct force attack.

In order to avoid casualties, the Chu army did not hesitate to use a total of one hundred or more dozens of various artillery pieces, and carried out a six-day fierce shelling on the East Fortress. The ammunition fired was worth at least two to three hundred thousand taels of silver...

Well, Chongzhen pieced things together, and finally allocated about 30 taels of silver to the Ming army in the towns of Jiliao, and finally the money in the hands of the frontier troops in the towns of Jiliao cost about 10 taels...

This amount of money is not enough for the Chu army to fight a large-scale battle!

When the war expenses of the Chu army were tens of millions and tens of millions, the war expenses of the Ming army were only tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands...

When the Chu army turned a large amount of money into artillery shells and threw it at the East Fort, and then launched a large-scale infantry offensive, Hong Chengchou knew that the battle situation had reached the most critical moment, no matter how ignorant of military affairs.

After staring at the East Fort where the guns were blaring for a moment, he immediately gritted his teeth and said, "Let Chen Zhong lead the cavalry to attack the flanks of the Chu thieves, and the East Fort must be preserved."

The entire Tianjin defense line is a trinity. The main city of Tianjin and two large forts protruding forward, one east and one west, support each other.

If the East Fort is captured, it will have a huge negative impact. The Chu army can launch a fierce attack on the main city of Tianjin from the east at that time, and there is no need to worry about being intercepted by the Ming army's crossfire.

Although the battle of Tianjin began with the official attack of the Chu army, it only lasted six days.

And in these six days, the Chu army had not launched even one attack with more than 3000 people before this, and it was mainly based on shelling and small-scale assault operations.

But anyone can see that after six days of deliberation, the Chu army has completed preparations for launching a large-scale general offensive.

The East Fort, one of the two most important fortresses in the Tianjin defense line, has many small forts and trenches and other defensive nodes around it, which have been successively captured or destroyed by the Chu army.

Now, the Chu army has been able to launch an offensive directly against the East Fort itself.

The Chu army did not hesitate about this, and directly dispatched a commando team of more than 2000 people, and there were tens of thousands of troops on the flanks and rear to provide cover and support.

The Tianjin battle has reached the most critical moment.

Hong Chengchou was also very clear about this, so after much consideration, he finally ordered his confidant general Chen Zhong to lead the cavalry to launch a counterattack!

In order to curb the Chu thief's attack on the East Fort, it is useless to let the infantry counterattack directly, because if the Ming army's infantry counterattack was useful, it would not have retreated steadily in the past six days.

As for going out regardless, and then forming a formation to fight the Chu army seriously, that's even more unreliable.

If the Ming army had this ability and courage, they would not be trapped in the fortress.

How should I put it, they may be defeated in cities and fortresses, but they can survive for a few days or even longer.

If Hong Chengchou dared to pull out tens of thousands of troops and directly fight a face-to-face decisive battle with the Chu army, I am afraid that Li Chengtong would wake up laughing from his dreams...

Then, tens of thousands of Ming troops will disappear in one day!
As for the infantry, there is no hope, so Hong Chengchou can only hope that the cavalry under his command can save some of the situation. As long as the cavalry goes out smoothly, even if it does not cause any major damage to the Chu thief, as long as they go out and threaten the Chu thief's flank, Then the thieves of Chu would not dare to attack their own East Fort so recklessly, so as to relieve the pressure on the defenders of the East Fort.

Ever since, under the order of Hong Chengchou, about 5000 cavalrymen of the Ming Army began to gather from the rear and slowly stepped forward.

When Li Chengtong noticed a change in the cavalry behind the Ming army, he immediately issued his own order: "Let Zhu Xingfa also attack!"

"Tell Zhu Xingfa to stop the cavalry on the opposite side!"

Zhu Xingfa, who was on the east rear side of the battlefield, received the order through the semaphore, and immediately ordered: "Hurry up, assemble!"

Zhu Xingfa led two cavalry brigades and three divisional cavalry regiments with a total of nearly [-] cavalry in preparation for an emergency attack.

The cavalry of the Ming army has already started to dispatch!

There are more than 5000 cavalry, you don’t think there are many just by looking at the numbers, but on the battlefield, the momentum caused by these 5000 cavalry is greater than tens of thousands of infantry!
Even in order to avoid the chaos of the more than 5000 cavalry themselves in the process of advancing and fighting, the cavalry of the Ming army was divided into three general directions, with a total of more than ten waves, spreading hundreds of meters back and forth.

When the cavalry of the Ming army in front began to trot and accelerate, the Ming army behind them had just finished forming.

It doesn't mean that Chen Zhong, the commander in chief of the army, gave an order, and then five thousand cavalry rushed out in unison.

Because the cavalry of the Ming army had been prepared for a long time, and the attack speed was very fast, while the cavalry of the Chu army was always in a state of combat readiness, but in order to take into account multiple directions, it is impossible to keep the main cavalry at all times Put it on the east side.

But after confirming the attack direction of the Ming army's cavalry, Zhu Xingfa and the others were able to gather the cavalry to fight.

If the cavalry were concentrated in the east in advance, if the cavalry of the Ming army sneaked around the west to attack, wouldn't it be the end of the western front...

In terms of infantry and artillery, the Chu army is on the offensive side, but in terms of cavalry, to a certain extent, the Chu army is on the defensive side.

The cavalry of the Ming army has a relatively large advantage in attack time and direction.

But it's still the same sentence... The attack of thousands of cavalry is not a joke. It is impossible to say that high-level commanders such as Hong Chengchou or Li Chengtong gave an order, and thousands of cavalry rushed out in the next second.

It takes time for the cavalry to assemble and prepare for battle. Taking ten thousand steps back, it takes time to form an array.

What, you say not to line up, just let the cavalry rush out by themselves, then you are not looking for death... Counterattacking the enemy cavalry formation, the entire army will collapse in minutes.

Under such circumstances, it took a quarter of an hour for the cavalry of the Ming army to attack before appearing on the battlefield behind the East Fort!
Moreover, the Ming army who came was not five thousand, but only more than 1000 cavalry. This was the first batch of cavalry from the Ming army.

When the more than 1000 Ming army cavalry appeared at the back of the East Fort, the Chu army that was attacking the East Fort was also ready to fight.

A quarter of an hour ago, the Chu army who was attacking the East Fort already knew that there was an incoming cavalry from the Ming army. Except for the Eighth Division, which was in charge of attacking the East Fort, which remained indifferent, the First Infantry Regiment under the First Division who provided cover outside It has already maneuvered urgently and directly spanned several hundred meters. Three large hollow phalanxes deployed in the shape of a zigzag have been placed on the flanks of the Eighth Division.

The Second Infantry Regiment in the rear is also making emergency maneuvers, and they will also deploy multiple hollow phalanxes to the south of the First Infantry Regiment.

The task of these first divisions is not to say how many enemy cavalrymen were really killed, but to stop the enemy cavalrymen and avoid interfering with their operations against the Eighth Division.

In order to storm the East Fort, the Chu army used not only the Eighth Division, but also the First Division as cover support.

When a large number of infantrymen of the first division urgently formed a hollow phalanx, a large number of field artillery belonging to the first division, plus a batch of field artillery of the eighth division, also urgently transferred their muzzles.

At least forty field guns stopped shelling the East Fort to cool down the barrels in preparation for the next rapid-fire bombardment of the enemy cavalry.

When meeting the enemy's cavalry attack, because the enemy's cavalry is very fast, it is necessary for the artillery unit to fire the most shells in the shortest time. This high-speed rate of fire is not only beneficial to the artillery crew members A great challenge, and also a great challenge to the artillery itself.

The quality of the barrel is slightly worse, or it has been shelled for a long time, and if the barrel is not cooled properly, the chamber will explode every minute for you to see.

Why did the Chu army formulate the artillery data of the life of the body, once the artillery in the front-line troops reaches the life of the body, even if the artillery seems to have no problems at all, they will still directly withdraw from the front-line artillery.

After detailed inspection of these artillery pieces, those with acceptable quality were transferred to the second-line troops to serve, and the charges were reduced, and rapid firing was strictly restricted.

If after the inspection, it is found that the artillery barrel has reached the critical point, then it will not be used reluctantly, but will be directly pulled back to the arsenal for reheating.

A large part of the cost of the bronze cannon is the bronze itself, and the manufacturing cost is lower... So if the cast iron cannon is broken, it is thrown away, but the bronze cannon is often taken back by the Chu army.

Not only did it limit the service life, the Chu army also completely abandoned iron-cast field artillery in artillery production, and all self-made field artillery were all bronze artillery.

Because the lifespan of the iron cast artillery barrel is too poor, after firing three or four hundred shells, the pressure bearing capacity of the barrel will become very poor, and if it is fired rapidly, it will often explode.

As for the bronze artillery, the life of the barrel can reach [-] rounds or even more than [-] rounds, and it has a stronger ability to bear pressure when firing rapidly.

Today, these forty bronze cannons of various calibers reflect the advantages of bronze cannons. After a series of battles in the Northern Expedition, basically each of these cannons has fired at least two or three hundred or more shells. If you switch to cast iron artillery, you have to be careful even in daily use, and even reduce the charge.

However, the remaining barrel life of these bronze artillery is still very high, and the gunners basically don't have to worry about rapid fire at this time, which will cause a bombing accident.

Forty field cannons were ready, and more than 1000 cavalry of the Ming army also climbed over a small hill and appeared more than 800 meters away.

After seeing the enemy cavalry appear, the artillery commanders of the artillery positions of the Chu army unanimously ordered to fire!

(End of this chapter)