Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 189: The Qing Army Breaks Through the Barricade

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, military technology was already quite mature. The army could use trenches to repel the enemy, while the enemy could use trench-crossing vehicles to build bridges directly in front of the trenches for soldiers to cross.

Lekedehun came in a hurry, so he naturally did not have a trench-crossing vehicle. However, he had heard the story of Jueluo Guoke being blocked by the trench, so he came prepared this time, with wooden poles, planks, and other items.

During the battle of Tangjiapu, the Red Army had enough time to prepare and dug two trenches, one around the camp and one 200 steps in front of the camp. This time when they entered Leigongling, the Red Army hurriedly crossed the river and only dug one trench around the camp, but widened the trench to 20 feet. The trench was exactly 60 steps away from the camp gate, which was within the effective range of the matchlock guns.

The Qing army began to build a bridge in front of the trench. First, they used two large timbers to cross the trench, and then nailed wooden stakes on both sides of the timbers to secure them. Then, they laid wooden planks on the timbers as the bridge deck. Finally, they nailed coffin nails between the bridge deck and the timbers.

"Lekdehun is indeed a prince, much smarter than Jueluo Guoke." Danchu thought to himself and ordered: "Send a message to Ferreira, tell him to find a way to blow up the Tartar's crossing bridge."

The commander of the artillery battalion, Ferreira, also noticed the trench bridge. The Qing army was preparing to build five bridges, and the soldiers gathered in front of the trench bridge, providing an excellent target for the Red Army artillery.

"Damn it, order all the teams to fire their cannons at the Tartars. Replace the first team's mountain-splitting cannons with solid bullets and use them to attack the five trench bridges. Use lead bullets for the second and third teams' mountain-splitting cannons to deal with the Tartar soldiers."

The artillery battalion of the imperial guards has been equipped with mountain-splitting cannons and sky-rocketing cannons, and no longer equipped with traditional cannons such as tiger squat cannons, falconet cannons, and sub-mother cannons. The power of falconet cannons, sub-mother cannons, tiger squat cannons, etc. is limited and poses little threat to armored enemy troops. The nine-section ten-percent cannon has been successfully trial-produced, but it is still under experimental improvement and has not yet been finalized for production.

Compared to breech-loading artillery such as the falconet and the submachine gun, the muzzle-loading artillery has a very slow firing rate. Even for a skilled gun crew, it takes several minutes to fire a shell. The heavy red cannon has an even slower firing rate, and it takes more than ten minutes to fire a shell.

The Red Army's artillery did not scare Lekedehun. The shrapnel fired by the sky rocket was very powerful, but the firing rate was very slow. The lead bullets fired by the mountain-splitting cannon were very dense, and their power at long distances was greatly reduced.

Lekedehun had been through many battles and had seen bloody battles, so his heart was as hard as a rock. The Red Army might be more powerful than the average Ming army. They had defeated Jueluo Guoke by chance, but could they defeat Lekedehun? As long as the Manchurian soldiers approached the Red Army camp and used their unique skill of "shooting in the face with five steps", the Red Army would be defeated.

The Qing army was fearless and brave enough to build a bridge across the trench under the fire of the Red Army. Many people kept falling into the trench and being stabbed to death by sharp wood.

At the same time, the musket battalion, which had withdrawn from the chevaux-de-frise, was deployed again and found a firing position at the wooden wall of the camp. The wooden wall is a common defensive facility in the camp, made of wood nailed into the ground and then crossed with wooden strips, shaped like a fence.

Together with the musketeers from the training team and cavalry battalion, the Red Army ambushed more than 600 musketeers at the wooden wall, under the unified command of the musketeer battalion commander Qiao Song. As long as the Qing army jumped onto the chevaux de frise, Qiao Song would give the order to open fire.

At noon, half an hour had passed since the Qing army lined up and advanced. The Qing army left corpses in front of the trench, but also built five bridges across the trench. Two bridges were hit by many holes in the shells and could not be used, and only three bridges across the trench were satisfactory.

The heavily armored soldiers swarmed to the chevaux de frise and used shovels, chisels and other tools to dig at the chevaux de frise. More soldiers of the Eight Banners swarmed to the trench. The bridge was narrow and too crowded to pass through in a hurry. The chaos was perfect for them.

Leigong Ridge is located at a high altitude. Although the Red Army musketeers cannot shoot at the heavily armored soldiers behind the chevaux de frise, they can perfectly shoot at the Eight Banners soldiers in front of the moat bridge.

The time had come. Qiao Song whistled a series of sharp and rapid blasts and shouted, "Free shooting!"

With a "bang", Qiao Song fired the first shot. Immediately afterwards, more than 600 musketeers fired one after another. The sound of gunfire was endless and resounded through the sky. Bullets rained down like rain, shooting at the Eight Banners soldiers in front of the trench.

Lekedehun didn't care at first. The Eight Banners knew that the southern Ming army had many matchlock guns. However, most of the Ming army's matchlock guns were light matchlock guns such as bird guns, with limited power.

In response to this, the Eight Banners often arranged heavy armored soldiers in the front team, wearing two layers of iron armor. The power of the Ming army's matchlock guns was limited and it was difficult to penetrate two layers of iron armor. The Eight Banners soldiers were not afraid of the Ming army's matchlock guns when they went into battle. After the battle, they took off their iron armor and often shook off a few liters of bullets, but their bodies were unscathed. The lead bullets fired by the Red Army's matchlock guns had a straight trajectory and were much more powerful than the lead bullets fired by the mountain-splitting cannons, not to mention the bird guns.

The Qing army was caught off guard, and the front row soldiers were shot one after another. If they were lucky, the bullets did not hit the vital parts, and the soldiers managed to save their lives. If they were unlucky, they would be killed if they were hit in the face, neck, heart, abdomen and other vital parts. The Qing soldiers at the scene were groaning in pain, some were killed on the spot, and some were crying and wailing, which was terrifying.

Lekedehun was furious. He quickly took out his binoculars and saw that the front team had suffered heavy casualties, but fortunately it was still under control. Because it was free shooting, the subsequent gunshots suddenly weakened a lot. Some of the dead soldiers had already passed the trench and were digging a wall of chevaux de frise.

The chevaux de frise walls are made of new soil that has not been compacted and have a reverse slope, so they are not actually very high and have limited barrier effect.

We have already passed the trench, why not try again? Lekedehun made up his mind and ordered to speed up and approach the Red Army camp as soon as possible to meet the enemy.

The situation was clear. The Qing army had only prepared five trench bridges, so it was impossible to attack other places. In fact, only three trench bridges were available, and the Qing army had very limited troops to deploy to the front line. The Red Army should be confident of holding the camp.

"Marshal, the Second Infantry Battalion also sent a flag signal, asking if reinforcements are needed." Operations Director Yang Yuqi came over and said.

Dan Chu was confident and ordered in a deep voice: "Tell them to stay where they are and keep an eye on my flag. There is no need to come to reinforce them for the time being."

The Qing army gradually broke through the chevaux de frise. The front team of soldiers dug five passages in the chevaux de frise and then poured in through the passages. More Tartars piled up in front of the chevaux de frise and used human ladders to climb over it.

After climbing over the chevaux-de-frise, the Qing army was only 40 steps away from the Red Army's wooden wall. The only thing that could stop the Qing army was a stake and a wooden wall. The stake and the wooden wall were very low and their protective capabilities were far inferior to the trenches and chevaux-de-frise.

The situation was urgent. Qiao Song, the commander of the firearms battalion, rode on horseback to inspect the musketeers and shouted, "The Tartars have broken through the wall. Aim at the Tartars at the chevaux de frise and hit them hard."

The Eight Banners soldiers began to shoot back. The Manchurian large-pointed bow was later called a javelin thrower. It was powerful in close combat with heavy arrows and its firing speed was much faster than that of a musket.

At first, the Eight Banners were few in number and at a disadvantage. Gradually, more and more Eight Banners crossed the barricade and kept moving forward. Arrows rained down, and the Qing army's bows and arrows gradually overwhelmed the Red Army's advantage in muskets.

The fiercest battle took place near the camp gate. The Qing army had broken through the fortress and approached within ten steps, using their special shooting skills, causing particularly heavy casualties to the Red Army.

"Send the first and second musket squads of the personal guard battalion to join the battle and reinforce the left and right sides of the camp gate."

Danchu ordered the reserve troops to be dispatched, and he was already quite anxious.

Yang Yuqi passed on the order and asked in a low voice: "Should we notify the Second Infantry Battalion to come for reinforcement?"

Yes, of course! But the time is not right yet. Danchu looked at the rear of the Qing army and saw that the rear cavalry had not yet passed the trench, so he resolutely said: "Not yet."

(End of this chapter)