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Chapter 809 He succeeded
In the south of Jinzhou, on Shimen Mountain, when the offensive and defensive battles between the Ming and Qing Dynasties were in full swing, an even more tragic battle was also going on around Huangtuling on the west bank of the Xiaoling River in the southeast of it.

The reason why the battle here is more tragic is because many new tactics were applied for the first time in the battle.

Moreover, in the offensive and defensive battle of Huangtuling, the use rate of the artillery was the best, and the effect was the best. With the new tactics, its advancing speed was completely faster than that of Shimen Mountain.

It can be said that the Battle of Huangtuling was a brave and risky attempt by Zhang Cheng. Fortunately, he succeeded!

Different from the soldiers and horses of the Ming army in Biezhen, each battalion has its own general. During the war, they are divided into various places according to military orders, or they are responsible for attacking each fortress. There is no coordination between them.

Moreover, at this time in the Ming Dynasty, although there were some infantry, vehicle and cavalry coordination, and even infantry, vehicle and artillery coordination tactics, but because each battalion belonged to each other, the coordination was not effective.

However, the soldiers and horses of the Xuanfu under Zhang Cheng's command did not have these disadvantages!

The first is the Xuanbei Army. At the beginning of its establishment, Zhang Cheng firmly controlled it. All battalions took him as the supreme commander, and the general was only responsible for the execution of specific tasks.

The income, expenditure and allocation of the required money and food, the replenishment of the battalion's battle-damaged troops, these key points of controlling the army, will be completed by another group of officials in the future.

In this way, the disadvantages of being a general are prevented, and the commanders of each battalion must therefore completely obey Zhang Cheng alone. Otherwise, once Zhang Cheng cuts off the supply of money and food and the replenishment of soldiers, the battalion will not be far from disappearing.

In addition, during the establishment of the Xuanbei Army, Zhang Cheng adjusted the generals of each battalion several times in order to make the battalion leaders get used to this kind of operation. The master will replace the foreshadowing.

Moreover, Zhang Cheng did not simply form an infantry or cavalry army. Even in the early days of the formation of the Xuanbei Army, limited by the lack of resources and prestige under his control, he could only form two infantry battalions.

Zhang Cheng did not give up on his long-term plans, and kept the most elite cavalry at night, and set up a craftsman camp in Yunzhou early on to research and manufacture artillery, chariots, etc.

Looking at the dozens of commander-in-chief military towns in the entire Ming Empire, I am afraid that only the soldiers and horses of Xuanfu Town under the command of Zhang Cheng are the most complete troops, can be commanded and dispatched in a unified manner, and can effectively coordinate with each other. up.

As early as in the several battles before aiding Liao, the troops and horses of Zhang Cheng's battalions had practiced the coordination of infantry, cavalry, and bicycles many times. , Kill the intruder and lose a lot.

It can be said that the officers and soldiers of the Ming army in Xuanfu town under the command of Zhang Cheng have been hard to come since the Ming Dynasty. Except for Qi Jiguang and Qi Shaobao's Qi family army, they are the strongest border town troops.

And this time the attack on Huangtuling created a new method of warfare in which the infantry, cavalry, and artillery armies coordinated!

Due to the attack on Huangtuling, the chariots were inconvenient for mountaineering operations, so Zhang Cheng ordered to dismantle all the small Flang machines, tiger squat guns, mortar guns, etc. of each battalion, and distribute them to the infantry battalions along with the gunners.

In the previous round of battles, this was the arrangement. Under the cover of infantry battalion gunmen, the gunners approached the Qing army's position with small cannons, and bombarded them in turn with three or five guns.

This way of fighting did surprise the Qing army guarding the mountain, but the effect was not obvious. After all, the Qing army hid behind the piled stone and earth walls.

Even if such as tiger squatting guns and mortar guns, you can hang the wire like a long-range throwing parabola, and throw the guns into the wall, but the power of sporadic guns is limited.

However, Zhang Cheng's purpose at that time was only to test the maneuverability of this small artillery in field battles, as well as the synergistic effect of infantry artillery. A volley of firearms.

However, in the current battle against the mountain, they have changed their style of play.

According to Zhang Cheng's arrangement, his Xuanda soldiers and horses here will be divided into two parts.

One is Wang Pu's Datong soldiers and horses. They are responsible for inserting from the northeast side of Huangtuling to cut off the connection between the defenders of Huangtuling and the Qing army in Shimen Mountain; the other is the soldiers and horses of Xuanfu Town. ridge.

Among the soldiers and horses of the Xuanfu, Guo Yingxian's Zhenbiao Battalion has been included in the mobile unit according to Zhang Cheng's proposal because it is full of cavalry. They form a battalion together with the elite cavalry from Datong Town. Under the command of Guo Yingxian, they are waiting for orders in Pingchuan on the west side of Songshan Mountain. .

Therefore, only the original Xuanbei soldiers and horses participated in the attack on Huangtuling, plus He Zhenxiong's troops from the Zhenbiao Left Wing Battalion, less than [-] soldiers and horses.

The specific allocation of soldiers and horses in the Xuanfu is that Li Jiyu's Department of Dengfeng Camp is the main attacking force, and he is also assigned a battalion of carriages, artillery and gunners of a battalion of chariots to assist in attacking the mountain.

When Zhang Cheng attacked the mountain this time, he changed from the piecemeal tactics of the round battles in the past, and instead used small cannons to focus fire and carry out cover bombing.

Concentrate the original dozens of various artillery pieces of the Dengfeng camp, plus the artillery pieces of the two car battalions, and fire a round of salvos at the Qing army's mountain guard position, striving to achieve full coverage of the Qing army's position with its own artillery fire.

Even if they were all solid iron bullets, the momentum would be enough to collapse the Qing army guarding the mountain.

Moreover, according to Zhang Cheng's assignment, at the beginning, it was the small Frang machine, the tiger squatting gun, and the mortar gun, and the rocket box would be added later, and later, the flying gun would be used to shoot the explosive shells.

Such a method of increasing power will make Shoushan Qingbing feel more and more collapsed, and there is no hope at all.

The soldiers and horses of the Chicheng Battalion of Zhang Guodong of the Xuanfu Army bypassed from the southern foot of Huangtuling to the rear, preparing to rush across the Xiaoling River in due course.

The two infantry units of Zhang Cheng's central army, the chariot soldiers on the left side of the carriage, and the cavalry of the Tiger Guard Battalion were all reserved as the reserve force of the central army. .

The Chariot Right Battalion, at the request of Datong General Soldier Wang Pu, was sent to assist him in blocking the connection between Huangtuling and Shimen Mountain.

There are also some chariots in Datong Town, but like other towns, they are reluctant to spend money. Their chariots are almost all light chariots, not only weak in protection, but even the artillery and rockets on the chariots are second-hand. .

Naturally, such a chariot cannot be compared with Zhang Cheng's chariot battalion. Not to mention the superiority and sturdiness of the Xuanfu Army's chariots, even the artillery and rocket boxes on the car are also extremely sophisticated.

In addition, a part of artillery from Shenji Battalion led by Fu Yingchong stayed behind to support the attack on Huangtuling.

Huangtu Ridge is slightly different from Shimen Mountain. Shimen Mountain still has East and West Shimen that need to be guarded. Moreover, it is close to the Qing Army’s Waijin Camp. Even on the south bank of the Naughty River, there are some Qing Army camps stationed, and they can be rescued in case of emergency. .

The Huangtu Ridge is in the southeast of Shimen Mountain. Although the two places are also connected by roads, since the Qing army shrunk the defense line, most of these passages have been controlled by the Ming army.

Now Huangtuling communicates with the outside world through the valley road on the west bank of the Xiaoling River, or the pontoon bridge across the Xiaoling River, which communicates with the Qing army on the east bank of the river and transports supplies.

Therefore, it has laid many ditches, earth walls, and stone walls on the north, west, and south sides of Huangtuling to carry out key defenses, especially in the west direction, because it is facing the camp of the Xuanfu army and facing the enemy. Its key lies.

Moreover, the Xuanfu army has been fighting for these barriers with the Qing soldiers guarding the mountain for more than half a month, and many of them have changed hands several times, so the Qing soldiers can only continue to strengthen in order to prevent the Xuanfu army from attacking.

Because of this, Zhang Cheng left the gunners and heavy artillery of Fu Yingchong's Shenji Battalion in the Chinese army, in order to rely on their powerful artillery fire to carry out a full-coverage bombardment of the Qing army's defensive front at the foot of Huangtuling Mountain.

Of course, although the Shenji Battalion's heavy artillery is good, it is inconvenient to transport it. If it is okay in the Pingchuan area, it is nothing more than a waste of manpower and time, but it cannot be transported to the mountain during the mountain attack.

…………

Chongzhen 14th year, August 27th, Chenshi.

Following the order of Zhang Ruoqi, the commander-in-chief of the Liao Ming Army, the soldiers of the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army rushed out together amidst the sound of trumpets, and each rushed to his own battlefield.

Fu Yingchong also bid farewell to Zhang Cheng, the commander of the army Zhang Ruoqi, and the military commander Zhang Dou. He was going to the front line of the artillery formation of the Shenji Battalion to personally command the gunners to bombard the Qing army's position at the foot of Huangtuling Mountain.

The Shenji Battalion received Fu Yingchong's orders this time, and the lieutenant general came to the front of the battle to command, and they also worked extraordinarily hard on the artillery. After they were tested and positioned, they directly bombarded indiscriminately.

Indiscriminate saturation bombardment, which is also a term first created by Zhang Cheng, not only calibrates the center point of the bombardment target, but then concentrates all the firepower of the artillery, extending a certain distance from the center point, and conducts indiscriminate artillery bombardment.

No matter what is within the coverage area of ​​its artillery fire, it will be flattened and destroyed, and it will not stop until the barrel of the gun turns red, or the guns are all fired. This is the saturation bombardment.

In the days to come, this indiscriminate saturation bombardment will become the most violent method of artillery in the Xuanfu Army.

The cannons of the Qing army on Huangtuling had all been withdrawn, and there were only some small and medium artillery left. Before they saw the Ming army attacking the mountain, they received a burst of extremely violent shelling.

The entire defense line at the foot of the Huangtuling Mountain of the Qing army was like a purgatory on earth. There were cannons flying around everywhere in the position, and there were many cannons inlaid on the earthen walls, while most of the stone walls were knocked down.

During the bombardment, Fu Yingchong also used some poisonous bullets and ash bullets, but he was instructed by Zhang Cheng not to use too many, for fear of hurting the soldiers of the Xuanfu army who were about to attack the mountain.

But even so, the ground at the foot of Huangtu Ridge was full of yellow smoke, which was also mixed with white powder, slowly drifting in the air.

Those Qing soldiers who thought they were lucky were not hit by the flying cannons, but they could not escape the invasion of poisonous smoke and lime. soldier.

…………

The yellow smoke at the foot of the mountain was gradually blown away by the wind, and those soldiers guarding the mountain who hadn't died were secretly glad that they had escaped a catastrophe.

Not far away, like a red cloud, figures in red armor flashed out. Looking at them in the thin yellow mist, their faces seemed to become ferocious and terrifying, like Yama who came out of hell to reap human lives. .

Gradually, it became clear that the patches of red clouds were the soldiers of the Ming army rushing to attack Huangtuling, but the Qing soldiers who were dying were already powerless to fight again.

A few surviving Manchurian Zhengbai Banner Tartar soldiers insisted on standing up reluctantly. They were worthy of being a fighting nation. Even so, they still held bows and arrows in their hands, or held shields and broadswords.

Originally, they were at the back of the formation, and they were counted as the last combat force of each line of defense, and used as the main force for close hand-to-hand combat, but it could not be ruled out that they were meant to be a supervising team.

After all, the Han army and the Korean army are the main guards on the mountain at this moment. How can we rest assured if we don't leave some elites from various Manchurian banners to watch?
Suddenly, these Tazi soldiers seemed to hear the sound of trumpets coming into their ears, and then vaguely saw the soldiers of the Ming army in front, gradually spreading out, changing from a dense formation to an extremely loose formation.

Isn't this unconventional?

All the Tazi soldiers were puzzled. From their point of view, every time they were about to charge, all the armies would fight fiercely in a dense formation, so that they could break through the enemy's formation quickly and save most of their physical strength.

But the performance of the Ming army in front of them actually made them confused. Their heads were already full of paste, and they were half-dead by poison gas, but now they became even more confused.

They also forgot to rush up to fight, or maybe they just put on a fierce look, but they were like other Qing soldiers, unable to fight any more.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!..."

With the crisp sound of firecrackers, those Manchu Zhengbai Banner Tartar soldiers who barely stood up fell to the ground in an instant, unable to stand up again, because they all went to another country.

They are also happy, because they will no longer feel uncomfortable and pain!
The reason why these rushing soldiers of the Xuanfu army suddenly formed a dense array and transformed into a scattered linear array was actually Zhang Cheng's arrangement.

In the previous rounds of battles, he had already been to the front line to direct the change of formation.

Zhang Cheng suggested that the team attacking the mountain can advance densely, but when approaching the enemy's formation, it can also become sparser, so as to prevent the enemy's ricochets from causing serious damage to our soldiers.

And if the opponent rushes in in formation, then quickly form a tight formation again.

This is actually very easy to do, because when the armies of the Ming Dynasty formed formations, they almost all used trumpets as their trumpets.

It is also the sound of the swan trumpet that we often say. Each battalion and each corps march in formation, and they mostly use this as a trumpet. If the swan sound is blown by a trumpet, it means to spread out the formation, and there is an open space between each soldier and each team.

And the trumpet blows a single tone to spread out, and the distance between each team is one foot and five feet. If it is blown again, the formation will be looser or denser.

The same is true for sparseness and density, left turn and right turn, which can be easily achieved by simply changing the sound of the horn.

Of course, whether the array after opening is neat or not, and the speed of opening and closing, also has a lot to do with the elite level of each army.

The reason why Zhang Cheng dared to make this suggestion during the war was largely based on the drill level of the Xuanfu Army.

After all, this is a team that he brought up with his own hands. From the selection of soldiers, to the organization of the battalion, to the battalion operation, until the final suppression of bandits, every step is proceeding according to his plan.

Naturally, it is not comparable to those old troops in Biezhen who rely on servants to support the scene!

(End of this chapter)