Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 72 Decisive Battle: Climax ([-])

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" After entering a distance of 150 meters, the two warring parties started shooting almost at the same time, and gunpowder smoke immediately filled the entire battlefield.The 48 muskets in the front row of Liao Meng's detachment fired nearly [-]% of them. Unfortunately, the accuracy of the flintlock guns was not very good at this distance. Only a few people fell in the infantry phalanx of the opposite Spaniards.The Spaniard's aim was also ridiculously poor, and they couldn't even knock down a man here.

The sharp copper whistle sounded again, the first row of soldiers who finished shooting stopped in place to reload, and the second row of soldiers crossed the first row through the gap and fired another round of salvo under the command of the officer. Several people fell down.

The fusiliers that the Spaniards had finished firing were still reloading, but their arquebuses had not yet reached full range, so these musketeers shouldered their muskets, silently passed the fusiliers who stayed where they were loading, and continued to stride forward.

"Third row, let's go! One-two-one...one-two-one..." The Spaniards paused their shooting, and the crossing crowd didn't care about it. The soldiers in the third row fired up immediately.

"Stand still! Raise the gun!" With a clatter, 48 muskets were lifted up almost at the same time.

"Aim!" The musketeers roughly aimed their barrels at the Spanish infantry phalanx.

"Ready... Let it go!" The musketeers closed their eyes and pulled the trigger in their hands.Their shoulders shook almost at the same time, and the 18mm lead bullets flew towards the Spaniard opposite at an unstoppable speed in the choking smoke.This time the distance was closer, and a dozen of the Spaniards fell among the advancing musketeers and pikemen.

"Load! Fourth row, move forward...one two one...left and right...stand still!" The battle continued, and the pace of the Spanish infantry was getting faster and faster. They had to close the distance between the two sides as soon as possible. After the launch distance, they can return fire.However, the tens of meters distance between the two sides due to the weapon gap is enough to shoot a few rounds of volleys, especially when the distance between the two sides is shrinking, the damage caused by the flintlock volley is also large. Growing at an astonishing speed, this short distance of tens of meters is destined to be covered with flesh and blood.

The Spaniards fired again, and two iron bullets fell on the crowd, one of which made a bloody path through the crowd. At least six spearmen were killed under the iron ball.The other one rebounded on the ground and knocked down two or three musketeers in a row. The thick armor on the musketeers greatly offset the kinetic energy of the iron ball, which made the damage caused by this shell far less than expected .

The brothers at the artillery post would not let the Spaniards focus on the front. The 12 artillery roared and fired deadly projectiles at the Spaniard's infantry phalanx, causing huge damage to the Spaniards.Among them was a magical ricochet that jumped directly and knocked down a war horse, causing a poor Spanish officer to be crushed under the horse.

The five rows of soldiers had finished their round, and the soldiers in the first row came to the front again.The distance between the two sides was less than 80 meters, and the Spanish matchlock gunners stopped. While nervously starting to charge and reload the muskets, they blew the matchlock on the matchlock to ensure that the matchlock would not go out .

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" The first row quickly fired a round of salvo, and the Spaniards' gunners suffered a lot of losses, but the people behind quickly made up under the order of the officer to ensure that the first row firepower is not weakened.

Lan Guo nervously watched the movement of the Spaniard on the opposite side, and the helmet was full of rapid breathing sounds. Feeling that he was not breathing well, he simply flipped the helmet up, and then he felt a little better. "Second row, raise your gun...aim...ready, release!" Lan Guo leaned forward, and while blowing the copper whistle, he swung down the [-]-year-style command saber tightly held in his right hand.

Both sides opened fire almost simultaneously.After Lan Guo leaned forward and swung down the saber, he suddenly felt that the curved steel armor on his chest was hit hard by a high-speed object. The huge kinetic energy knocked him backwards with his center of gravity leaning forward, almost falling to the ground .

It was a 19mm buckshot.The lead bullet was shot from the front right, and after hitting somewhere on Lan Guo's steel armor, it was almost completely deformed and dented, and then bounced to the ground.Lan Guo, who was still in shock, realized that he had been shot at this time. Fortunately, the lead bullets fired by the enemy did not seem to be able to penetrate the bulletproof plate armor he was wearing at a distance of 80 meters.At this moment, Lan Guo really appreciated the arsenal of the vest from the bottom of his heart. The [-]-year-style full-body armor they produced perfectly proved their quality in actual combat.

The casualties of both sides in the round of confrontation just now were very heavy. Nearly 20 people fell down on the crossing crowd, while more than 30 people fell down on the Spaniards who lacked armor.This is still in the case that the frontal firepower of each line of the Spaniards is nearly twice that of the passers-by. The real exchange ratio may make the Spaniards even more unbearable.

The gun battle between the two sides continued.The high rate of fire of the flintlock guns was fully reflected at this time. The rate of fire of the musketeers of Liao Meng's detachment was two to three rounds per minute, which surpassed the rate of fire of the Spaniards' one to two rounds. The amount of ammunition projected by the gun is only a few dozen rounds more than the projected amount of the 450-man crossing fusiliers.Moreover, this gap is rapidly decreasing with the continuous casualties of the Spanish musketeers, and finally even started to hang upside down.

The musketeers were shooting at each other in the air, while the spearmen lined up in the middle of the two sides had already started close combat at this time.The 3-meter spears of the Spaniards originally took a lot of advantage in this kind of fight, but the spearmen of the crossing crowd were all wearing full-body armor with excellent protection performance, which was much better than the Spaniards who only wore breastplates. Stronger by more than one grade.I saw that they met the sharp spear points of the Spaniards without fear, and then stabbed the spears in their hands fiercely at the enemy on the opposite side.

"Puff, puff" the sound of the spear tip piercing the flesh, shouting, cursing, crying, and screams continued. The spearmen on both sides used sharp cold weapons to constantly stab at the enemy's body, fighting It's been heated up almost from the start.

Liao Meng rode on a miscellaneous horse to observe the battle situation. Generally speaking, his side has the upper hand at present, and this advantage is gradually increasing with the passage of time.On the two wings of the battlefield, the Spanish musketeers were beaten back steadily, with heavy casualties; in the middle battlefield, [-] spearmen from both sides fought together. After the initial persistence, the Spaniards also began to slowly but irreversibly move towards Step back, it seems that a rout is inevitable.

The only thing that makes people uncomfortable are the four small cannons of the Spaniards.The shells fired by those guns continued to cause casualties among their troops, which was very annoying.

"Lieutenant Xu, immediately take your troops to destroy the Spanish artillery positions. Pay attention to the Spanish cavalry, they may come to intercept you." Liao Meng turned his head and ordered Xu Yu.

The cavalry battalion in Xu Yu's hands was urgently replenished with more than 30 Ukrainian Cossacks who immigrated just a few months ago before the war, and it has now returned to a scale of nearly 90 cavalry.After he got the order, he immediately gave the order loudly, and after a little adjustment of the formation, he led the troops towards the Spanish artillery position behind the battlefield.

The nearly [-] Spanish cavalry who had already crossed the river saw it and started to intercept it. Under the leadership of the officer, they rushed towards Xu Yu's cavalry battalion. It seemed that most of them were Gauchos, and their formation was very loose. , seems to be quite afraid of the pistols passing through the cavalry.

The distance between the two sides quickly approached. As usual, the officers and soldiers of the cavalry battalion took out their pistols and fired a round first. Twenty or so Spanish cavalry fell down immediately.Their deliberately dispersed formation couldn't stop the cavalry battalion attacking in clusters. The 90 cavalry easily broke through their interception, then raised their sabers, circled around and slashed at the panicked Spanish artillery.During this process, the Spanish cavalry has not effectively stepped forward to interfere.These gauchos seemed to have lost their courage in the battle a few days ago, and their performance at this time was not as good as that of girls.

Xu Yu smiled contemptuously, and returned to the rear after going around in a circle. He reloaded his pistol while counting the battle damage, and then rushed forward again. This time their target was the enemy's musketeers.

"Raise the gun...aim...ready, release!" Lan Guo kept blowing the copper whistle, the saber in his hand had been inserted back into the scabbard, and now he held the pistol in his hand instead.Explosive gunshots kept ringing from the sides, and the musketeers actually no longer needed officers to command them at this time, and they skillfully and quickly poured firepower into the chaotic phalanx of the enemy on the opposite side. In the process, a large number of casualties can be caused every time, but the enemy's counterattack seems a bit intermittent, and the firepower is rapidly weakening.

The artillery continued to bombard, and 12 guns began to hit the musketeers who bombarded the Spaniards, and screaming iron bullets fell among them.The Spaniards, who suffered heavy casualties, couldn't hold on anymore. Some were still bravely shooting, but some began to turn around and escape, and the formation became chaotic.

It was Xu Yu's cavalry battalion who gave them the fatal blow. They rode tall horses and charged into the Spanish musketeers lacking the protection of spearmen from the flanks, wielding sabers and killing the fled musketeers wantonly. .After breaking the phalanx on the right, it turned to the left again, inserting obliquely from the rear of the Spanish musketeers, messing up their formation.

At this time, less than thirty Spanish cavalry rushed towards Xu Yu's cavalry battalion. After a burst of pistol shooting and hand-to-hand combat with sabers, the cavalry was finally completely wiped out.The remaining [-] or [-] gaucho cavalry were watching from behind the whole time. After seeing that the cavalry battalion had rushed into the Spanish infantry phalanx and slashed wantonly, this group of people simply ran directly to the crossing. Over the bridge, retreat!

(End of this chapter)