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

Chapter 198: Field Battle
The sky was cloudy and rainless, with a cool breeze, suitable for fighting.

Minoyiferry is less than ten miles away from Leigong Ridge, and cavalry can arrive there in a moment.

At noon, the sound of artillery fire was heard from the direction of Leigong Ridge. The Qing army launched an attack on the second battalion of the Red Army Infantry.

The scouts continuously sent back intelligence, saying that the Qing army had formed a tight battle formation and had begun to attack the Leigongling camp.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, battlefield reconnaissance methods had become quite mature. After decades of fighting, both the Ming and Qing armies attached great importance to battlefield reconnaissance and sent out scouts widely. Before the enemy was engaged, the battlefield was already semi-transparent.

When Jirgalang went to reinforce Quanzhou this time, he did not bring any reinforcements. It was not because he did not want to, but because the Qing army was too small and had already launched four attacks in Hunan, so there were not many troops that could be sent to Quanzhou.

"Personal soldiers, open the camp gate and go to Leigong Ridge for reinforcement." Having decided to fight, Cen Danchu no longer hesitated and resolutely gave the order.

The personal guards opened the west camp gate, and the auxiliary soldiers were the first to go out of the camp, open the stakes, clear a passage, and then carry materials such as wooden boards and ropes, cross the chevaux de frise, and build a suspension bridge over the trench.

Digging trenches around the camp was beneficial to the Red Army's defense, but a suspension bridge must be built to facilitate the entry and exit of the Red Army's troops. Whenever a battle was about to begin, the Red Army would demolish the suspension bridge to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of it.

Conversely, the Qing army could also use trenches to besiege the Red Army. This method was stupid, but very effective. In the early days, the Eight Banners captured strong cities such as Ningyuan and Jinzhou by digging deep trenches, besieging for a long time, and finally breaking the city.

This time, Jirgalang came from afar, with little food and grass, and was anxious to reinforce Quanzhou, so he obviously would not use such a stupid method. The Eight Banners were all cavalry, with many horses for each person, and the consumption of food and grass was alarming, so a quick battle was necessary.

The suspension bridge was completed, and the cavalry battalion was the first to leave the camp and drive out the Eight Banners soldiers outside the camp. These Eight Banners soldiers were left to monitor the Suoyidu camp, and there were less than 200 of them. After a brief contact with the Red Army cavalry battalion, they retreated to the direction of Leigongling.

The personal guard battalion, musket battalion, artillery battalion, and training team successively went out of the camp and formed a battle line, while the auxiliary soldiers battalion stayed behind in the main camp.

Each team of the four battalions had only 2,000 soldiers, forming a horizontal formation. The musketeers and artillery battalions did not ride horses, and the musketeers in the personal guards and cavalry battalions did not ride horses either. Therefore, there were only 700 to 800 cavalrymen among the 2,000 soldiers. Six heavy cannons were also brought out, towed by draft horses, making the Red Army's march even slower.

By the time the personal guards had lined up and were ready to march forward, less than half an hour had passed.

"Report to Marshal Jue, the Tatars have approached the trenches of the Leigongling camp, and the Second Infantry Battalion is desperately resisting."

The scouts came to report, their fear evident in their words. Suoyifal was ten miles away from Leigongling, and the scouts' intelligence was already lagging behind. At this moment, I'm afraid the Qing army had already surged onto the barricade.

The Qing army's climbing up the chevaux-de-frise wall was enough to prove that they were going to attack Leigong Ridge. At that time, the Tusi soldiers could come out of the camp to reinforce. The Tusi soldiers camped on both sides of Guanjiang River. There were about 1,500 Tusi soldiers on the east bank, about a mile away from Leigong Ridge, and they could quickly send troops to reinforce.

Although Jirgalang was strong, he could not capture Leigong Ridge in a short time.

The Second Infantry Battalion camped on the site of Leigong Ridge, where trenches and chevaux-de-frise walls were already built, so the work involved was relatively small. Taking advantage of this, the Second Battalion added several new defensive facilities, including caltrops and deer traps, as well as a chevaux-de-frise and a minefield.

The second battalion was mainly composed of infantry, with few war horses, and buried a lot of mines between the chevaux-de-frise and the wooden wall. This type of mine uses flint to ignite, and generally will not explode when stepped on by a person. War horses, chariots, and artillery are heavy, so they will definitely explode if they are pressed.

"Okay, I understand." Danchu said calmly, "Speed ​​up a little and make sure to maintain the formation."

This battle was of great importance, for it was the first time that the Red Army fought against the Eight Banners in the field. Danchu led the battle himself, while the Director of Operations Yang Yuqi led the front team.

At 3 p.m., the Red Army approached Leigong Ridge and the Qing Army was already clearly visible.

"Report to Marshal Jue, the Tartar soldiers are divided into two groups. One group will attack Leigong Ridge, and the other group will line up behind the enemy, ready to fight against the personal guard." Intelligence Director Feng Jiali went to the front line to survey the enemy situation and said breathlessly.

"Which group has more Tartars? Where are the Tusi soldiers?"

"There are many Tartars in front of me. The Tusi soldiers are arrayed on the left wing of Leigong Ridge to block the Tartars."

It seems that the Tartars want to surround the enemy and attack the reinforcements, forcing the Red Army to fight them in the field. Danchu did not hesitate and ordered: "Send a message to Cen Xun, tell the Tusi soldiers to move closer to the personal guards and attack the Tartars together with me. Send a message to Kuang Shi, tell the second infantry battalion to hold on to Leigong Ridge and contain the Tartars in front of them. Don't lose. The musket and artillery battalions will move forward and prepare to engage the enemy."

There are only two more hours left before it gets dark. As long as the Red Army can hold out for two hours, they will be able to force the Qing army to retreat.

Soon, the guards changed their formation, with the musket battalion in the middle, the sky rocket team behind the musket battalion, the two mountain-splitting artillery teams on the two wings, and the cavalry battalion and the guards battalion at the rear. There were also one-third of musketeers in the cavalry and guards battalions, and they were all assigned to the musket battalion to strengthen firepower.

The Qing army seemed more eager and rushed towards the Red Army first. The cavalry trotted forward, and although they did not charge, their speed was still very fast.

After all, Jirgalang was the commander of the Qing army, and he had an artillery team with him. Fortunately, their artillery team was small, with no red cannons or sky rockets, and mainly light sub-cannons and Weiyuan cannons.

The Red Army was already ready for battle.

"Ferreira, replace the mountain-splitting cannons with grapeshot and chain bullets. Fire as soon as the Tartars enter the range." The Qing army was very fast, and Danchu quickly notified the artillery battalion commander Ferreira.

Grapeshot and chain bullets can both be fired from mountain-splitting cannons. Their advantage is that they are powerful and can cause great damage to cavalry. Their disadvantage is also obvious: the rain of bullets formed by grapeshot is not as dense as that of lead bullets.

"promise."

"Boom, boom, boom", the Red Army fired first, first the sky-rocketing cannon fired shrapnel, followed by the mountain-splitting cannon firing grapeshot and chain bombs.

The Qing army was thrown to the ground wherever the shells hit them, but the artillery was too slow to fire and too few in number to pose much threat to the Qing army.

Without trenches or chevaux-de-frise walls to block their advance, the Qing army advanced very quickly.

Soon, the Qing army's vanguard advanced to a hundred steps away. The musketeers opened fire in advance, but after only one round of volleys, they were unable to stop the wolf-like and ferocious Eight Banners cavalry. The Qing army had a large number of people, was brave and fearless, and gradually had the momentum of overwhelming the enemy.

Danchu felt deeply uneasy. He looked at his guards and saw that most of them were terrified and intimidated by the Qing army's momentum. He hurriedly ordered: "The mountain-splitting artillery team withdraw and form a hollow square formation!"

A burst of rapid trumpet sounds resounded throughout the Red Army's positions. The musketeers on both wings stopped firing, followed the commander's whistle, marched in place, and turned around, gradually changing from a horizontal formation to a square, surrounding the cavalry and the rocket team in the middle.

The mountain-splitting artillery team hurriedly pushed the artillery and withdrew from the gaps in the horizontal and vertical columns of the musketeers. The gaps were quickly closed, and before the Qing army arrived, the imperial guards completed the formation change.

The Red Army attached great importance to training in queues and formations, and at this moment of emergency, it finally came in handy.

More than 50% of the guards were equipped with muskets. There were more than 1,000 musketeers in the whole regiment. They were divided into two rows and located outside the hollow square. They attacked with bullets and defended themselves with bayonets. The artillery and cavalry were inside the square and protected by the musketeers.

The entire square formation was shaped like a big hedgehog, with the musketeers on the periphery firing deadly bullets at the Qing army, while the cannonball team inside continued to fire, and the cavalry stood by, waiting for an opportunity to counterattack.

Throughout the ages, spear infantry formations have always been the nemesis of cavalry. No matter how strong the soldiers are, they never dare to charge directly into spear infantry formations.

Danchu combined the traditional spear infantry formation with the European hollow square to create the Red Army square, replacing spearmen with musketeers with bayonets.

When the Qing army saw the gleaming white bayonets, they really did not dare to charge. Instead, they circled around the Red Army and shot at them with their long bows.

The air was humid, and the power of the bows was reduced. The Qing army was in a chaotic formation, which was not conducive to shooting arrows.

The Red Army's musketeers fired calmly, and the Qing soldiers fell off their horses and died from time to time. For a while, the Red Army was able to gain a slight advantage.

(End of this chapter)