In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 116

"Kill..."

"Come on..."

dong dong dong...

As the war drums of the Ming army sounded, more than 4 people rushed forward, shouting and shouting like a flood that burst the embankment.

The mercenaries here, looking at the overwhelming momentum of the Ming army, suddenly became frightened and subconsciously wanted to retreat.

Obviously, being the first to charge does have an advantage.

"Hold still, you will die if you step back!"

"Don't mess around. You must not retreat at this time. We have archers behind us, so don't be afraid..."

At this time, the veteran soldiers in the team played a huge role. Under their shouts and reminders, the young and strong men finally calmed down, gritted their teeth, and tightened their grip on the weapons in their hands.

After all, they had attacked the city and seen battles before. What's more, the mercenaries had also been baptized by cavalry charges a while ago. Now, facing the charge of tens of thousands of Ming troops, they would not be frightened to the point of collapse.

"Archer ready!"

Following a unique horn sound coming from near the command podium, the eight thousand longbowmen pulled out an arrow from their backs and placed it on the string, then pointed it diagonally towards the sky.

At this time, the Ming army had already rushed through nearly half the distance, and the fastest one was only about [-] steps away from the mercenaries.

"put!"

buzzing...

shhhhhh…

When the trumpet sound came again, the archers drew their bows like a full moon, shot out the arrows, and then quickly drew the arrows and continued to shoot.

There was no salvo, they were all self-centered, and they were thrown towards the sky ahead at the fastest speed. Suddenly the entire battlefield was covered by the sharp whistling sound.

Some Ming soldiers listened to the countless sharp sounds coming from their ears, and subconsciously slowed down and looked up. At this glance, they were immediately frightened to death. They saw countless black shadows in the sky, flying towards them at very fast speeds. .

However, the Ming army had no time to react, and arrows fell on the ground like raindrops.

Since more than 4 people were charging together, the Ming army's ranks were very dense. At this moment, they were like cutting wheat, with pieces of people hit by arrows and falling to the ground.

For a moment, the entire battlefield was filled with wails of pain. Those who were hit by the enlarged version of the arrows, regardless of whether they had armor or not, were directly penetrated, and some were even nailed to the ground with their backs on their backs. It was terrible to see.

In a short period of time, each archer shot four or five arrows, and tens of thousands of iron arrows fell on the charging ranks of the Ming army. Even if only [-]% of them hit people, they still killed and injured four to five thousand Ming troops.

"Kill!"

Such a fierce wave of arrows weakened the charge momentum of the Ming army. The mercenaries also took advantage of the situation and launched a charge. In an instant, both sides were fighting together.

The archers were not firing arrows, but retreated quickly to avoid being killed by the charging Ming army.

At this time, two hundred steps behind, the eight youth battalions had changed from a long snake during the march to eight square formations. The eight long archers all followed their own camp flags, changing from the eight square formations. He rushed out through the gap, then turned a corner and merged into the square formation from behind.

The spearmen on the outermost edge of the Octagonal Formation, in front and on the left and right, all held their spears flat to prevent the Ming army from attacking. Only the spearmen in the back held their spears upright and even turned sideways to give up their positions. , allowing those temporary longbowmen to quickly enter the center.

At this time, some frantic Ming troops had already passed the mercenaries and chased the longbowmen to kill them. Many of them rushed directly towards the square formations. As a result, they could not get close at all and were killed by countless The spear knocked him to the ground.

Even if he was lucky enough to escape the spearhead and rush forward, he would be stabbed to death by the spearman who was one step behind the spear.

Facing the dense array of spears of varying lengths, the servants of the Ming army without iron armor were simply targets. No matter how fierce you were or how powerful your martial arts skills were, you would still end up with transparent holes poked into them.

If you want to defeat the enemy, you can only use spearmen holding several feet long spears to stab, or strike from a distance with bows, arrows and firecrackers. Otherwise, even cavalry and even heavy armored infantry will not be able to get much advantage.

Although they were supported by four or five waves of arrows fired by the longbowmen, the mercenaries' fighting will was too poor, and their number was reduced by half. It took only a cup of tea to break down and flee. .

Some fled towards the southern hillside, and some fled towards the distant mountainous area to the north. Most of them turned around and fled towards the young infantrymen behind them.

The Ming army was also chasing and killing everywhere, and the entire battlefield fell into chaos.

However, on this chaotic battlefield, the eight infantry battalions remained motionless. Whether they were the defeated mercenaries or the Ming army, anyone who dared to rush towards the phalanx was directly knocked to the ground by the gunfire.

As the Ming army and defeated troops spread backward from each square formation, under the command of the trumpet sound, the spearmen, spearmen, sword and shield soldiers on the periphery also began to retreat, gradually shrinking the square formation.

From the initial side length of a hundred steps, it shrunk to fifty steps, and the entire square became more dense.

At this moment, Wang Pu and others on the hilltop to the north were laughing happily as they watched the rebels defeated and the remaining small phalanxes were about to be surrounded. They had no idea that the [-] Ming army had completely lost their order. , can no longer effectively control and command.

Although Na Mu Zhong in the south was anxious, he still kept in mind Lin Rui's instructions that the square formation should not be broken and the cavalry could not come out, so he remained stationary on the hillside.

But Hauge, who was more than ten miles behind, couldn't help it.

"Did the Ming army infantry and horse bandits really all hang together?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, the entire battlefield is full of Ming troops and fleeing horse bandits. It's so chaotic."

"Okay!" "Have the cavalry from both sides been dispatched?" Hauge was overjoyed and clenched his fists tightly. He didn't expect that this group of horse bandits and the Ming army actually fought, and all the infantry were thrown in at once. How big is this? The courage?
"Back to my lord, the cavalry from both sides have not been dispatched yet."

Hearing that the cavalry on both sides had not been dispatched yet, Hauge frowned slightly, but still did not intend to wait any longer. If he waited any longer, the winner would be decided by both sides.

"Sony, bring [-] cavalry and kill me immediately!"

"Hey, my lord!"

Sony also replied excitedly, and then led two thousand Jurchen cavalry and eight thousand Mongolian cavalry to rumble towards the battlefield.

Hauge himself, with the remaining [-] Jurchen cavalry, slowly followed behind, ready to press forward at any time.

Obviously, even if the infantry on both sides were caught in a melee, the cavalry was not dispatched, which still made Haug somewhat constrained and did not dare to invest all the cavalry.

As soon as the Jurchen cavalry here moved, the Namu Bell on the hillside immediately had a huge flag hung up.

Even six or seven miles away, an observer in Lin Rui's command car immediately spotted the flag raised on the hillside. He was obviously specially assigned to keep an eye on the hillside.

"Sir, Madam has hoisted the flag."

"Okay, are you finally here?" Lin Rui also clenched his fist tightly. The reason why he fought so hard with the Ming army and used all [-] mercenaries as cannon fodder was to attract the Jiannu to rush to kill him. ?
Otherwise, as long as he puts the phalanx at the front and the archers at the back, the Ming army will be vulnerable, and the mercenaries only need to chase and kill the defeated troops.

However, this was not a simple battle between two parties, but a three-party battle. Compared with the Ming army's more than 4 scattered infantry, the Jurchens' cavalry was a greater threat.

At this moment, the Ming army faced the eight hedgehog-like square formations. No one was willing to rush forward and die, but they didn't leave either. They didn't know what to do at all, because the generals didn't know the soldiers or the generals.

The northern hillside occupied by Wang Pu was farther back. When he discovered that the Jiannu cavalry was attacking, it was already too late to withdraw his troops. He could only watch countless war horses rushing towards the chaotic battlefield.

"Hey! These rebels are really harming others and themselves."

The military attachés all gnashed their teeth and cursed.

Wang Pu, on the other hand, remained calm. When he found that his side could not break through the opponent's eight square formations, he knew that they would never be able to defeat this gang of rebels.

Especially the initial wave of arrows shocked him. He really couldn't figure out how the rebels were able to build so many powerful bows and crossbows in a short period of time. The few waves of arrows just now were not like what ordinary bows could shoot.

"Warriors, kill me!"

"Charge! Kill all these cowardly Han people..."

Sony had already rushed over with tens of thousands of cavalry. All the cavalry were waving their swords and shouting excitedly.

And such an earth-shattering sound finally woke up the Ming army, and they all screamed and ran backwards.

"Run quickly, it's the Jiannu Cavalry..."

For a time, countless Ming troops fled backward through the gaps in each square formation like a tide.

The eight square formations still did not move. All the longbowmen faced the rear, and the shield bearers also stepped forward to protect the spearmen.

All the spearmen pressed Chang Yu's head sideways to the ground, and their nervous palms became sweaty.

Fortunately, after being baptized by countless cavalry charges, the psychological quality of the teenagers has become several times stronger. Although they are still afraid, they all choose to grit their teeth and persevere, and some even simply close their eyes.

"Archer ready."

Lin Rui's command vehicle was also wrapped in one of the phalanxes. When he saw the Jiannu cavalry directly chasing the Ming army's defeated troops and rushing forward, he slowly raised a fist.

As the trumpets sounded, the [-] long archers and [-] young archers in the middle of the eight phalanxes all bent their bows and nocked arrows, preparing to throw them.

"put!"

This time it was a real salvo. The signal was a harsh gong. The gong sounded and the strings were loose. Nearly ten thousand feather arrows shot out at the same time and landed on the cavalry group that was charging at high speed.

War horses have a bigger target than humans. I saw dozens of war horses hit by arrows and fell headlong, and some of them were thrown off their backs.

Even though the two thousand Jurchen cavalry horses were covered with a layer of cloth armor, those who were shot still couldn't bear it and fell down one after another. Sony was so frightened that he turned pale, but at this time, he had to bite the bullet. Rush forward.

More arrows were continuously thrown towards the charging cavalry, and from time to time, war horses were hit by arrows and fell to the ground.

When the cavalry rushing in front found that the eight phalanxes were like hedgehogs, full of long and short spears, they subconsciously controlled their horses to avoid those phalanxes. After all, if they bumped into them like this, both the horses and the people would definitely be stabbed. Become a hedgehog.

The phalanx is only fifty or sixty steps wide, and there are at least two to three hundred steps between each phalanx, which is enough for a large group of cavalry to pass through and then throw a hail of arrows sideways.

"Fire arrows!"

The cavalry did not directly attack the phalanx, and the long archers immediately split into two, back to back, throwing arrows wildly to the left and right.

The range of the longbow, shooting left and right, is just enough to cover all areas, but it will not hit the opponent's formation.

The cavalry passing by at high speed was knocked over again by those who were shot.

Many archers were hit by arrows fired by the cavalry and fell to the ground. The spearmen on the outside were protected by shield bearers and did not hit many arrows.

(End of this chapter)