The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

The sun rises and sets, morning light and evening shade.

Li Yan's face turned pale. He tightly grasped the railing of the observation deck in front of him and stared at the battlefield not far away where gunfire continued to roar.

The rumbling sound of war drums shook his eardrums, and his nostrils were filled with the stench of blood and the pungent smell of gunpowder.

His mood fluctuated with the turmoil of the vanguard soldiers.

The loud swan sounds were like a death signal, constantly ringing out in various places of the Jingnan Army's narrow front line. No matter how fierce the waves rolled, they could not break through their defense line.

"Marshal, we can't keep fighting like this!"

Zhao Shouping, the clay pot, knelt on the ground in pain. His clothes were tattered and covered with dust, and his face looked tired.

"If we keep fighting, all our men will be wiped out..."

Tears flowed from the corners of Zhao Shouping's eyes.

The situation at the front was so tragic, so terrible that he dared not look at it.

Waves of soldiers poured in, but all they sent down were mutilated corpses.

They had followed them all the way here, and all they wanted was a way to survive.

But now, he was buried worthlessly in the suburbs of Yangzhou city.

They fought for two days, two whole days.

The Jingnan Army's front line had always been solid as a rock, and even a single blow did not waver, while the casualties of the soldiers under their command reached nearly 10,000.

"marshal!"

Li Yan's face turned pale, he clenched his teeth and did not respond to Zhao Shouping's plea.

His eyes were still fixed on the Jingnan Army's line, without moving at all.

On the central military observation tower, all the officers and soldiers of the Wanmin Army turned their heads away, not daring to look at Zhao Shouping.

They also witnessed the tragedy that happened a while ago.

Yuan Shizhong, who was standing beside Li Yan, had a flash of pity in his eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.

"The Fourth Division of the Hanzhong Town of the Jingnan Army has already left Yangzhou City. Now on the front battlefield... we have to face the Jingnan Army with a total number of around 60,000 at the same time."

This number is despairing.

Yuan Shizhong took a step forward.

"The cavalry deployed on both wings of the Jingnan Army has increased in size to 18,000 cavalry due to the influx of the Fourth Division of Hanzhong Town."

During the war of attrition over the past few days, the frontal infantry attack did not achieve much success. Only in the cavalry clashes on the two wings did some results barely appear.

They suffered nearly 4,000 casualties and killed or wounded nearly 2,000 cavalrymen of the Jingnan Army.

However, with the addition of the cavalry of the Fourth Division of Hanzhong Town, the strength of the Jingnan Army cavalry was not weakened but strengthened.

The Jingnan Army originally had more than 16,000 cavalrymen in the western suburbs of Yangzhou, but they killed or wounded 2,000 of them, leaving more than 14,000 cavalrymen.

The Hanzhong Town had about 4,000 cavalrymen. After joining the battlefield, the size of the Jingnan Army's cavalrymen increased to 18,000.

Although they still have more than 40,000 cavalry under their command, their actual combat effectiveness is no match for the cavalry of the Jingnan Army.

Their cavalry horses were no match for the cavalry of the Jingnan Army, and their armaments were not as good as the cavalry of the Jingnan Army's Shandong and Henan towns.

The cavalry of the Shandong and Henan towns of the Jingnan Army were originally all elite cavalry from the 72nd Battalion and the Western Army.

Although the cavalry under their command were not weak either, mainly composed of the cavalry from the Gezuo Fifth Battalion and the Ming cavalry who surrendered from various towns in the southern country, the difference in the quality of the soldiers was not that big.

However, the gap in military equipment is an insurmountable chasm.

The cavalry of the Shandong and Henan towns of the Jingnan Army were all wearing Ming armor or finely crafted cloth armor, and the entire army was equipped with all kinds of armor such as arm guards and throat guards.

In contrast, the armor rate of their cavalry was barely over 70%, and many of the armor was only form but not substance.

Most of their armor was obtained from captives, so it was common for the Ming army's weapons to be short in weight.

In the battle on the battlefield, the gap in weaponry is enough to cause a gap in combat power.

"The big bastion in the north has been lost. Chen Wang has mobilized all the heavy artillery to the bastion. Chen Wang has also moved the central army to the bastion. Soldiers and horses are left to defend the bastions in the north. It has become a restricted area."

At this point, Yuan Shizhong had to admit that the bastion in the hands of the Wanmin Army and in the hands of the Jingnan Army were completely different things.

The bastion in the hands of the Jingnan Army is the complete bastion.

He dispatched a force of nearly 5,000 soldiers from his Propaganda Camp to attack the outermost bastion which was guarded by only two or three hundred Jingnan troops.

But the final result was that after an afternoon-long attack, his Changyi Camp left behind more than 300 corpses and was driven away by the Jingnan Army's infantry and cavalry that came to support.

The intermittent firepower, coupled with continuous artillery fire, was a nightmare for any attacking force.

"We have no way to circumvent the Jingnan Army's cavalry. Once our infantry is far away from the main formation, we will be like fish on the chopping board..."

Their cavalry could only maintain a stalemate with the cavalry of the Jingnan Army by virtue of their numerical advantage. They had no means to break the deadlock and had no support for the infantry far away from the main formation.

Yuan Shizhong felt powerless.

He had fought for so long, but not once had he been completely clueless.

Only this time, he felt deep despair.

Previously, when they fought in Fengyang and Hanzhong Town, they were able to achieve certain results by relying on their absolute advantage in numbers and cavalry.

But now, no matter what they did, no matter how hard they tried, they were helpless against the Jingnan Army.

Chen Wang has made up for the last shortcoming of the Jingnan Army - cavalry!
Gao Jie's surrender, the submission of the southern towns and the surrender of the Western Army enabled the Jingnan Army to acquire a group of powerful cavalry in a short period of time.

Li Yan did not respond to Zhao Shouying's words, nor did he respond to Yuan Shizhong's words.

He raised his head, looked towards the northwest, and just asked a question.

"Where is the Fengrui Battalion under Zhang Chengyi's command?"

Yuan Shizhong looked dazed and his eyes were distracted. He ignored Li Yan's questions.

"Didn't you hear what I asked?"

Li Yan's cold voice seemed to come from the underworld.

Yuan Shizhong trembled all over, and then he woke up as if from a dream.

Li Yan's voice sent a chill down Yuan Shizhong's spine, and an indescribable fear welled up in his heart.

He subconsciously raised his head and looked at Li Yan, his eyes meeting Li Yan's.

Li Yan's eyes, which used to be as calm as an ancient well, were now bloodshot, with the whites of his eyes showing an abnormal red color.

The murderous intent in his eyes made Yuan Shizhong feel a chill down his spine and a sense of silent fear arose in his heart.

Li Yan's usually calm face was now distorted to be almost hideous.

"General Zhang's troops are in the No. 1 military camp in La Liga."

Yuan Shizhong lowered his head, his Adam's apple rolled up and down with difficulty, and he was actually a little afraid to look directly into Li Yan's eyes.

Li Yan's current appearance was very similar to those desperate criminals he had seen in the gambling house who had lost all their money.

"Press it."

Li Yan slowly turned his head, his voice was filled with chilling murderous intent, icy cold without any warmth. The air around him seemed to freeze at this moment, and all the officers on the observation deck lowered their heads involuntarily.

On the central army's observation tower, flags were waving.

In the Wanmin Army camp far in the northwest, a low horn sounded in response.

Then, the camp that had been silent for a long time suddenly became bustling at this moment.

……

"It's our turn..."

Zhang Chengyi withdrew his gaze from the central army observation tower. He stroked the lance placed in front of his knees and slowly exhaled a breath.

He had already anticipated this half an hour ago, when the Shenji Battalion was pushed to the front line.

He raised his head and looked toward the front line not far away.

The rumbling sound of artillery was coming from the front line. The heavy artillery of the Jingnan Army was powerful enough to destroy the city walls. After being mounted on the bastions, they could even directly attack two large bastions not far away.

However, the artillery they mounted on the bastion was difficult to reach even the corners.

The small bastion responsible for providing support between the three large bastions had already fallen, and that place had become the position of the Jingnan Army.

They have no way out.

After the last two large bastions in Hexi fell, what awaited them was being eaten away and swallowed up bit by bit by the attack of the Jingnan Army...

……

"Boom! Boom! Boom boom!!"

A huge roar rang in Wu Ping's ears.

Behind the formation of the Wanmin Army, white mist gradually rose up.

Wu Ping clenched his teeth, and his hand holding the ramrod trembled uncontrollably.

The shrill screams echoed in his ears.

The shattered armor and broken weapons mixed with the blood rain rose into the air, and then fell down in the smoke, hitting the muddy ground with a dull sound.

All sounds were drowned out by the deafening roar of artillery fire.

The strong smell of blood mixed with the smell of burning gunpowder surged in the scorching air. Wu Ping suppressed the churning in his stomach and clenched the ramrod in his hand.

Wu Ping's cheeks were suddenly soaked with warm liquid, and an unpleasant smell of blood spread in his mouth and nose.

He subconsciously turned his head and saw Qian Liu, who had been standing shoulder to shoulder with him, falling to the ground like a dead tree.

In his peripheral vision, he saw Qian Liu, who had been standing beside him, fall to the ground.

The shells whizzed through the Jingnan Army's formation, exploding into clouds of scarlet blood mist wherever they passed.

Qian Liu's legs were cut off at the root by the flying shells. The white bone spurs at the broken parts stood out hideously. A few tendons and broken flesh hung on the bones like rags, trembling slightly as his body twitched.

Qian Liu lay in a pool of blood, with large streams of blood constantly flowing out of his mouth.

He stretched out his blood-stained hand tremblingly. He stretched out his hand with difficulty, as if he wanted to grab something, but in the end he could only let it drop weakly.

He and Qian Liu were both from Ruzhou. They supported each other all the way from Ruzhou to Yunyang, and from Yunyang to Wuchang.

Qian Liu always said that after the war, they would go back to their hometown together to buy land and property.

"what!!!"

Tears blurred Wu Ping's eyes and he roared in pain, but he could not change anything.

The wailing sound was mixed in with the deafening artillery fire and was swallowed up completely by the battlefield in an instant.

In front, countless orange-red flames suddenly flashed above the ranks of the Ten Thousand People’s Army.

The gunpowder smoke surged like raging waves, and in an instant condensed into a long white smoke dragon, rising into the sky accompanied by a loud bang.

In the blinding firelight, a death storm composed of lead bullets roared out, tearing out sharp whistles in the air.

Tears kept flowing from Wu Ping's eyes. The pain of losing his best friend made him almost unable to control himself.

But his hands did not stop moving. Although his body was shaking, he was still mechanically cleaning the barrel of the gun in his hand. He didn't know how many times he had repeated this action in the past two days.

In fact, he had already replaced the musket in his hand with a new one, and the new musket in his hand still smelled of tung oil.

The previous Haishi gun was almost scrapped due to continuous shooting, and there was a risk of explosion if it was used again.

Fortunately, there seemed to be a lot of brand new sea oath guns in the army, which were more than enough for their use.

The deafening sound of volleys of gunfire overwhelmed everything in an instant.

Wu Ping heard the dull thud of a body falling to the ground again, which was very similar to the sound when Qian Liu fell yesterday.

He numbly put the cleaning rod back into place, and then put the Seasworn Gun back into his arms. The hot gun barrel made an imperceptible sound when it touched his breastplate.

The loud swan sound rose into the sky at this moment, and Wu Ping's brain went blank. The muscle memory developed from long-term training made him subconsciously put down the musket in his hand.

After a few seconds, a high-pitched swan sound was heard again.

The sound of volleys of gunfire exploded again from the Jingnan Army's front line, and a large amount of gunpowder smoke quickly spread across the Jingnan Army's front line.

Immediately afterwards, Wu Ping heard a loud roar, which came from behind him - that was their artillery!

A strong north wind blew past, and the thick fog formed by the gunpowder smoke in front of the Jingnan Army was rolled up like a window screen.

Wu Ping subconsciously widened his eyes, and in his field of vision, a cloud of blood mist rose from the formation of the Wanmin Army not far away.

Wherever the shells passed, they plowed out shocking furrows of flesh and blood, and human bodies were cut in half like straw.

Broken limbs and arms were flying in the air, and the blood dyed the ground red in an instant.

Perhaps because he prepared too hastily, a cannonball fired from behind the formation almost grazed his helmet.

Wu Ping tightly grasped the musket in his hand, fear almost devouring his heart.

If the shell had been half an inch lower, it would have been his brains and broken bones that would have splattered in the air.

Wu Ping's vision blurred for a moment, but he still mechanically began the loading process that had almost been ingrained into his bones.

When he bit open the oil paper bag, he tasted blood at the corner of his mouth.

In the distance, an enemy soldier with his arm blown off was rolling and wailing in a pool of blood. The sound inexplicably overlapped with the sound of the ramrod sliding into the barrel of the gun.

Not far away, the Wanmin Army's military formation collapsed again, and the Wanmin Army's artillery positions in the rear also suffered devastating blows from their own artillery.

but……

Everything didn't end as it had before.

A shrill whistle sounded throughout the Jingnan Army’s lines—it was an order to change guard!

Wu Ping stopped loading and subconsciously looked up ahead.

In the field of vision, countless inky black flags were fluttering in the whistling wind.

Those scattered musketeers of the Wanmin Army were actually hacked apart by teams of warriors wearing black armor... (End of this chapter)