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

Chapter 99: Seizing Gantang Ferry

At 5 p.m., the sun began to set. The warm wind blew gently, the river flowed gently, and the sunset dyed half of the sky red.

When Gan Tang crossed the west bank, a large group of Ming cavalry rushed in like a tide and began to massacre.

The Qing army was in even greater chaos, with no generals to lead and no generals to follow. They did not obey orders and could not command. At this critical moment, they were like ants on a hot pot, trying to seize the last chance to escape and scramble to cross the pontoon bridge.

The outcome was decided, and Jiao Lian no longer needed to fight the enemy. He immediately made a decision and ordered Bai Gui to lead his troops to break into the Qing army, occupy the floating bridge, and cut off the Qing army's retreat.

Bai Gui was known to everyone for his bravery. He was delighted to see the prey, so he immediately called together his subordinates, selecting 100 heavy cavalry to carry out the assault mission, and 300 light cavalry to clear the way for them.

The White Army rushed into the Qing Army like a sharp knife, killing gods and Buddhas. The Qing Army gave way one after another, and the three hundred light cavalry quickly opened a path to the floating bridge. The remaining one hundred heavy cavalry, led by Bai Gui, rushed onto the floating bridge, hacking and killing left and right, trying to clear the bridge and rush to the other side.

The Qing soldiers on the bridge were even more terrified. Those at the back tried desperately to squeeze forward, while those in front kept falling into the water. Everyone lost their minds and just wanted to escape to the other side as quickly as possible, but no one had the courage to turn around and fight.

On the battlefield, people often lose their rationality and cannot be judged by common sense.

At the same time, the pursuing troops from other towns rushed into the battlefield, split the Qing army into several sections, intercepted them on the west bank of the Li River, and killed them wantonly.

The victory or defeat has been decided, and the remaining battle is just to clean up the battlefield. Danchu stopped to rest and paid close attention to the direction of the floating bridge. As long as Bai Gui can seize the floating bridge, the Ming army can wipe out the Qing army on the west bank of the Li River.

There were about 3,000 Qing army deserters at Gantang Ferry, mostly cavalry. South of Gantang Ferry, in the direction of Lingchuan and Guilin, there were at least 12,000 Qing army deserters, mostly infantry.

Most of these defeated soldiers were surrendered troops from the Ming Dynasty, and were actually He Tengjiao's former subordinates.

Bai Gui personally led a hundred heavy cavalrymen to advance on the floating bridge. The Qing troops on the bridge kept falling into the river. After about an incense stick of time, the Bai army passed the center of the bridge. The number of Qing troops on the bridge in front gradually decreased, and the Ming army gradually approached to a place 30 steps away from the east bank of the bridge.

After crossing the floating bridge, there was a vast river bank in front of them. The remaining Qing troops on the bridge saw the hope of victory, and everyone was excited and rushed forward desperately.

Suddenly, a red flag was raised at the bridgehead, and the archers who had been lying in ambush for a long time began to shoot arrows. Arrows rained down like rain, and the Qing army's fleeing soldiers were hit by arrows and fell off their horses one after another.

Xian Guoan was really ruthless. In order to prevent the Ming army from taking advantage of the chaos to pass through the pontoon bridge, he even shot and killed his own fleeing soldiers.

This group of veteran soldiers from Dongjiang Town were no pushovers. They were well-equipped with bows and arrows, and they cleared out the fleeing soldiers in the front row with a single volley, killing several heavily armored cavalrymen of the Ming army.

Bai Gui did not flinch and tried to rush across the pontoon bridge in one breath. However, the Qing army's bows and arrows shot too fast, and they were skilled in archery, waiting for the enemy to tire, and shooting arrows calmly. The Ming army was crowded on the pontoon bridge, and the team could not move freely. The casualties continued to increase, and Bai Gui himself was hit by a heavy arrow and bled profusely.

I'm afraid it won't work if you force your way in. Jiao Lian made a prompt decision and sent out a flag bearer to order Bai Gui to withdraw his troops.

The morale of the White Army declined, and they retreated along the floating bridge to the west bank of the Li River. The Qing Army was eager to try, and seemed to want to help the defeated troops cross the river.

Upon seeing this, Dan Chu rode his horse to Jiao Lian and volunteered to take over from Bai Gui to defeat the enemy.

"Oh? What's your clever idea?" Jiao Lian already knew that Dan Chu had many clever ideas, so he was not surprised.

"I am pursuing the enemy this time. I am bringing a team of musketeers with me, who can deal with the Qing archers."

When the Ming army was in battle, they usually assigned musketeers to the infantry battalions. During the battle, the infantry battalions would line up in front, and the musketeers would fire before the two armies engaged in battle, providing firepower preparation.

Danchu assigned the musketeers to the standard camp, with one man and one horse, so they can move quickly with the standard camp. In today's battle, the musketeers did not participate in the charge, and their achievements were not as good as those of the cavalry and the personal guards. This time they can be put to good use and make great contributions. "Great! Zhuoru is a thoughtful person, and he brought the musketeers with him. You can go up and try, but don't force yourself."

"promise."

Danchu received the order and ordered the musketeers to assemble. The Yong'an Army paid special attention to flag training and joint formation training, and the soldiers knew to pay attention to flags and military orders at all times before the battle. After the order was issued, in less than half an incense stick of time, the musketeers had gathered 95 people.

Among the various teams in the standard camp, the musket team was relatively disorganized. This was probably because the captain, Ferreira, was a foreigner and the heavy matchlock muskets were inconvenient to carry, which affected the military discipline.

However, once the Musketeers entered the battlefield, they were no less capable. Ferreira had been through many battles and was usually carefree, but once he entered the battlefield, he became a different person, becoming surprisingly serious.

There are actually 116 people in the musketeers. After chasing for 70 miles today, we were able to gather 95 of them, which was really not easy. The remaining 21 people may have died in the battle, may be scattered on the battlefield, or may have been injured and fallen behind.

Danchu was quite satisfied. He rode up to Ferreira and said, "The Qing army has archers ambushing at the bridgehead. Bai Zhen cannot defeat them. I have signed a military order with Marshal Jue. Please ask the musketeers to repel the Qing army's ambush and cover Bai Zhen's capture of Gantang Bridge."

Ferreira was already able to understand the vernacular, and said, "Don't worry, Marshal, the Musketeers will not fail in their mission."

In his eyes, Cen Danchu was a prophet sent by God to Middle-earth, and should serve as his mortal servant.

The musketeers dismounted at the bridgehead and walked onto the floating bridge. The bridge was about two feet wide, barely enough for four cavalrymen to walk side by side.

Ferreira selected thirty elite soldiers from the entire team and risked compressing the formation, placing six musketeers in each row, forming a total of five rows, to carry out the assault mission. Bai Gui's heavy cavalry dismounted and followed the musketeers. If there was an opportunity, they would rush across the pontoon bridge and engage the enemy in close combat.

Following Captain Ferreira's whistle, the musketeers stepped onto the pontoon bridge and advanced until they were sixty steps away from the Qing army.

When the Qing army saw the Ming army's musketeers, they also took alert battle formations, drew their bows and drew arrows, waiting for the Ming army to continue advancing.

The musketeers stopped. Ferreira said in a deep voice: "First row, get ready, fire!"

"Bang, bang, bang, bang!" The six musketeers in the first row fired one after another. Although the bullets were not dense, they came from heavy matchlock rifles and were quite deadly.

Three Qing army archers were shot and fell to the ground.

"Shh!" Once the fighting started, the sound of gunfire interfered with the commands, so Ferreira used whistles to command the troops.

The first row of musketeers retreated and returned to the last row to reload their ammunition. The second row of musketeers took two steps forward and took over the firing, killing two more Qing archers.

This cycle repeated itself, and the musketeers slowly advanced forward, constantly killing Qing archers.

When they were 40 steps apart, the musket team stopped moving forward and fired at the Qing army from where they were. At this distance, the muskets were very accurate and had a high hit rate.

Bai Gui's heavy infantry passed through the musketeers and used large bows to fight back against the Qing archers.

At dusk, when it was getting dark, the Ming army finally crossed the pontoon bridge and engaged the Qing army in close combat. Bai Gui led the heavy armored infantry to fight against the Qing cavalry and held out until his own cavalry arrived.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Xian Guoan had no choice but to abandon Gantang Ferry and retreat towards Xing'an and Yanguan.

(End of this chapter)