The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

The sound of rapid drums suddenly rang out in the Jingnan army, rolling across the battlefield like thunder, and the shrill sound of trumpets also sounded at the right time.

Wu Ping put down the musket in his hand and looked back.

Behind him, a group of armored soldiers with neat hair and spears in hand were marching in unison.

They had practiced this tactic countless times on the training grounds and on the battlefield, advancing and stopping, smoothly and effortlessly.

More than a thousand armored soldiers from the Shandong Town of the Jingnan Army formed a tight formation and marched forward in unison to the beat of drums.

Countless red helmet tassels fluttered like raging waves.

The dense drum beats were like the sound of pine waves in the valleys, creating a wave of sound like an overwhelming sea across the plains.

The dense clinking sounds of the iron armor plates colliding merged into the sound of flowing water, echoing above the front line.

The iron tip of the gun formed a gleaming silver line in the sunlight.

There were no deafening shouts of killing, no roars like mountains and seas.

All that could be heard on the battlefield were the sounds of trumpets and drums, and the sound of countless soldiers' footsteps as they stepped over the pool of blood.

The rumbling sound of footsteps became louder and louder as the Wanmin Army's Vanguard Camp advanced.

At a distance of thirty steps, the front-row armored soldiers of the Vanguard Battalion of the Wanmin Army had already raised the short axes and iron bones in their hands and were about to throw them.

Some archers behind also seized this last opportunity to shoot the armor-piercing arrows in their hands.

In the Jingnan Army's formation, the sword and shield soldiers in the front row also raised the iron bones in their hands.

There were cries of pain in front of both armies, and the last round of attacks before close combat was completed.

The dense military formation makes it impossible for anyone to escape, and martial arts skills will not play much of a role at this moment.

Thousands of people are marching forward in a line and rushing forward together. How can anyone be allowed to dodge?

All people can only entrust their lives to the unpredictable fate...

Two torrents of steel collided with each other, steel thorns intertwined in front of the two armies, and the cold light of death flashed back and forth in a small space.

The dull sound of the gun tip piercing through the armor and the screams of the dying were intertwined in an instant.

The brutal cold weapon combat mercilessly harvests lives at a faster rate than guns and cannons.

The death zone between the two armies quickly piled up with layers of corpses. The pain caused by cold weapons was very intense. The wounded rolled and wailed in pools of blood. The heart-wrenching howls echoed on all fronts, even drowning out the roar of war drums.

People are like ants, and their lives are like grass...

The neat military formation was twisted and deformed in the bloody tug of war, and the array of the living and the hill of the dead gradually merged into one.

"The front line of the Third Battalion of the First Division of Shandong Town was suddenly attacked by the Vanguard Battalion of the Wanmin Army, and the front line has been defeated."

"Our cavalry was intercepted by the elite cavalry of the Wanmin Army when they came to the rescue. When the Fengrui Battalion attacked, the Central Army had already ordered the Shandong Town's fourth battalion as a reserve to be deployed to the battlefield."

The central platform of the No. 1 bastion in the north has become the command post of the Jingnan Army.

On the high platform, a group of staff officers from the Central Military Department were continuously planting red and black flags on the sand table that had just been set up.

Hu Zhili stood beside Chen Wang, pointing in the direction of the far right formation.

After occupying Bastion No. 1, the central army of the Jingnan Army also moved to Bastion No. 1.

Three thousand armored cavalry guards were deployed on the north side of the bastion, and two battalions of infantry were placed on the east and west sides.

As Zuo Guangxian led his troops to support, the three towns of Shandong, Henan and Hanzhong gathered together, forming an arc formation with the No. 1 bastion as the center and six small bastions around it.

Zuo Guangxian had the strongest army, with more than 18,000 men, so Chen Wang arranged him in the middle.

Shandong Town had the least military strength, so Chen Wang placed it in the west.

Because in the east, they will be attacked by the armies of nations from both the east and south.

After all, Henan Town, which originally belonged to the Western Army, had more than 20,000 soldiers and horses, the largest number of troops.

Both Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi have the potential to be famous generals, capable of standing on their own and being able to resolve any emergency that may occur.

In comparison, although Gao Jie's original position was much higher, he had not had much experience in commanding and coordinating large armies.

In the ranks of the rebel army, Gao Jie often led only one battalion of soldiers.

After joining the Ming army, he only served as a camp officer, still leading a battalion of soldiers.

Later, Gao Jie was recruited by Sun Chuanting and served as a guerrilla and a lieutenant general.

After Yang Yufan's death, Gao Jie was appointed by the court as the deputy general of Shandong Town, but the troops under his command were only about 10,000.

Moreover, when the battle was about to begin, most of the decisions were made by Sun Chuanting, and the generals of each camp performed their duties.

Although Gao Jie has abilities, he is still far behind Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi.

"Gao Jie has already led his personal soldiers to provide assistance, but the situation is still not optimistic."

"The combat power of the Vanguard Battalion of the People's Army is stronger than the Central Army Department expected..."

Hu Zhili's expression was solemn and he paused.

"The Central Military Department has dispatched the First Infantry Battalion to provide assistance... But Gao Jie must withstand the current assault from the Sharp Battalion..."

At first, the Wanmin Army mobilized a large number of troops to attack the eastern line of Henan Town, with more than 100,000 troops deployed on the battlefield.

Afterwards, he dispatched soldiers from the Changyi Camp and several other camps, totaling more than 70,000 troops, to launch a fierce attack on the front line of the central army guarded by Zuo Guangxian.

In Shandong Town, the Wanmin Army sent out its firearms unit, the Shenjiying.

The Shenji Battalion of the Wanmin Army was one of the five battalions led by Li Yan himself. The army used all firearms and was equipped with many artillery pieces. In the Battle of Baiyang River, it was under the command of Yuan Shizhong together with the Changyi Battalion.

In the Battle of Baiyang River, Yuan Shizhong led 15,000 soldiers from two battalions to defeat the combined forces of 20,000 towns led by Hu Dawei head-on, beheaded 3,000 people, and killed more than 20 guerrillas, lieutenant generals and below.

The Shenji Battalion of the Wanmin Army was even equipped with a number of flintlock rifles, and could be said to be the unit most similar to the current Jingnan Army.

But it is just like the flintlock rifles used by the Wanmin Army, which are far weaker than those of the Jingnan Army in terms of reliability, power and range, not to mention the quantity.

In addition to a small number of flintlock rifles and bird guns, nearly half of the soldiers in the Shenjiying of the Wanmin Army were equipped with banjiu guns, which were heavy matchlock rifles.

This heavy matchlock gun is not light, and it is very difficult to hold it in your hand during combat, and it will seriously reduce its accuracy.

Therefore, the turtledove gun often needs to be equipped with a fork stick for support.

The bullets of the banjiu gun weigh one tael and five cents, and can still effectively kill people at a distance of one hundred and twenty steps, but don't force the armor-piercing effect at this distance.

Its power and range are much greater than the Haishi Gun currently in service with the Jingnan Army. The effective killing range of the Haishi Gun is about 100 steps. In a duel, the Banjiu Gun can completely shoot outside the range of the Haishi Gun.

However, the Jingnan Army was not completely without means of countermeasures. Although the muskets could not reach the target, the artillery could.

Therefore, after the Shenji Battalion used the Banjiu Gun to shoot outside the range for a while at the beginning, they withdrew the Banjiu Gun soldiers.

After sending out cannon fodder to consume the enemy's resources, the Shenji Battalion directly sent the opposing camp's musketeers and flintlock soldiers to the front.

In this era, continuous firing of artillery would have the risk of exploding, so there would always be intervals.

Taking advantage of this gap, the Shenji Battalion of the Wanmin Army approached and deployed a battle line.

The two sides engaged in fierce shooting at a distance of eighty steps.

The final result was that the Jingnan Army won.

However, the gunfire and artillery fire from the Shenjiying of the Wanmin Army did make the Shandong Town's line much weaker.

It was precisely by taking advantage of this opportunity that the Sharp Battalion was able to advance forward with relatively few casualties.

Chen Wang looked in the direction of Shandong Town, but just took a glance and turned back.

"It's too late..."

Hu Zhili was slightly startled and froze in place.

All the staff officers in the Central Army turned their heads and looked to the west. Compared to the experienced and sharp-armed Fengrui Battalion, the infantry of Shandong Town was inferior after all.

Densely packed gun barrels moved back and forth between the lines of Shandong Town and Fengrui Battalion, and the bangs of collision were as frequent as raindrops.

The gun arrays of the two armies were completely entangled.

The gun barrels thrust out, retracted, and thrust out again amidst the orderly shouts, and each thrust brought out a howl of agony.

When someone in the front row falls, someone in the back row will immediately take his place.

The gun barrels were crisscrossed like a dense forest, and blood slowly flowed down the gun barrels, staining the land, which was already stained red with blood, even darker.

Under the reflection of the sunlight, the blood gradually began to look strange.

The battle lines gradually twisted in the repeated tug of war, and the gaps between the gun arrays were gradually filled with corpses.

The guns of both sides are still clashing and fighting, and all this will continue until one side's front completely collapses, or one side sheds the last drop of blood.

"Hold on, hold on, hold on for me!"

In the chaotic battle line, a captain from Shandong Town was shouting hysterically, holding a sword in his hand.

He had fought many battles and knew the consequences of exposing his back to the enemy in a rout if his army's formation collapsed.

If the army formation is broken, all of them will be doomed.

The soldiers on the front line either clenched their teeth or roared loudly in an attempt to suppress the fear in their hearts.

They were all veterans and knew the consequences of a disintegrating army, so even though their comrades kept falling around them, they still did not dare to retreat even a single step.

Many of the military laws of the Jingnan Army were directly applied from the military laws of the Qi Family Army.

One of them is that if a soldier retreats in battle, he will be beheaded.

If the whole team retreats, only the captain will be killed.

If the captain fights to the death and the soldiers in the team retreat first, resulting in the captain's death, the entire team will be executed.

The soldiers in Shandong Town did not dare to retreat.

Even if you are lucky enough to survive the enemy's pursuit, you still cannot escape the harsh punishment of military law.

Those who died on the battlefield would receive pensions, have heirs, and be enshrined in the Shrine of Heroes.

But as deserters, they will not be eligible for any of these preferential treatments.

They dare not retreat, nor do they want to retreat...

However, in this world, there are only a handful of armies that can fight to the last man, and there are only a handful of troops that can persist until annihilation in hand-to-hand combat in the cold weapon era, even if they have been going on for thousands of years.

The wind blows the drum and the mountains and rivers move, and the flashing flags are high with the sun and the moon.

Zhang Chengyi was wearing Ming armor, a Ming helmet, holding a shield and a sword, and walked slowly forward.

Right beside him, a group of sharp soldiers wearing heavy armor and holding swords were protecting him.

The sharp edge shimmers like autumn water.

The gun formation of Shandong Town has been broken, and the subsequent sword and shield soldiers hurried over, trying to stabilize the line again.

However, it is extremely difficult to make up for the gap that has been opened.

A young sword and shield soldier from Shandong Town had just arrived when he was met with Zhang Chengyi who was charging at him with his shield.

The sword and shield soldier was shocked. He saw the unique armor on Zhang Chengyi and the elite armored soldiers guarding him.

But now that things have come to this, he did not retreat. The current situation did not allow him to have any more thoughts.

"die!"

The sword and shield soldier from Shandong Town roared and charged towards Zhang Dingyi with his shield.

Zhang Chengyi's eyes turned slightly, he held his breath, concentrated his mind, lowered his shoulders and waist, and then his whole body suddenly rushed forward.

"boom!!"

A heavy muffled sound suddenly rang out from within the battle line.

The sword and shield soldier from Shandong Town groaned, feeling as if he was hit by a warhorse, but was knocked to the ground by Zhang Chengyi.

Zhang Chengyi didn't care about the sword and shield soldier lying on the ground, because right in front of him, two soldiers from Shandong Town were coming towards him from the left and right.

Zhang Chengyi was not panicked at all. He just took a half step forward and raised the shield in his left hand.

A harsh sound of steel friction came from the left, and a series of sparks suddenly exploded. It was the sound of a steel knife scratching an iron shield.

Zhang Chengyi didn't look to the left. He exerted force with his legs and leaped forward.

He turned his wrist slightly, and as the cold light flashed, the angry look of the Shandong Town armored soldier who was roaring and charging at him with a sword in his hand froze on his face.

The armored soldier from Shandong Town subconsciously covered his neck, but blood gushed out from between his fingers.

He opened his mouth and blood kept flowing out of it.

Before he could make any other reaction, a group of armored soldiers from the Fengrui Camp were already charging at him from behind.

The outcome has been decided...

As Zhang Chengyi led his personal guards into the battlefield, Shandong Town's already precarious front began to collapse.

The dawn of victory is just around the corner!
"Wan Sheng!"

All over the army's ranks, shouts of victory rang out one after another.

Gao Jie, holding a lance in his hand, was galloping towards the front line with his personal armored cavalry.

But the soldiers at the front did not hold out until his reinforcements arrived.

"No!"

Looking at the collapsing military formation not far in front of him, Gao Jie's eyes were bloodshot.

In the center of the Wanmin Army's formation, large groups of Wanmin Army's armored cavalry were crossing the plain and galloping towards the opened gap.

Many gaps have been opened in the front line. Even if subsequent troops continue to fill in, it is difficult to reverse the declining situation.

The defeat was like a mountain collapsing...

The mountain is about to fall, who can stop it?

"General, we can't go any further!"

The close attendant beside him pulled the reins of Gao Jie's warhorse.

They have encountered such situations many times, and the situation is irreversible.

The followers in the center all reined in their horses, while the cavalry on both wings continued to gallop away and scattered in front, ready to cover the retreat and intercept any pursuers that might come later.

"Do not……"

All the followers turned their heads. They did not hear the order to retreat from Gao Jie's mouth, but heard a "no".

"Do not."

Gao Jie gripped the lance tightly in his hand and clenched his teeth.

"We can't lose!"

"We can't lose!"

"We haven't lost yet!!" (End of this chapter)