The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 113 Kaiyuan War Chronicles

The Kaiyuan soldiers stepped onto the pontoon bridge and marched towards the south bank in battle formation. Their ranks were neat and their appearance was solemn.

Mao Wenlong couldn't help but sigh:

"Commands and orders are strictly enforced, which is indeed the style of a strong army."

Last night, before the Bordered White Banner launched its fifth attack, Mao Wenlong led the remaining troops down the city wall from the east gate. Under the cover of the Kaiyuan Cavalry Battalion's charge, they crossed the river overnight and retreated to the north bank.

The bloody battle of Hunhe River made this Liaozhen military leader numb to death. When Mao Wenlong witnessed his fourth brother's heroic sacrifice and Xiong Jinglie being beheaded by the Jiannu, he was also prepared to die in battle.

However, when they saw Liu Zhaosun leading the cavalry battalion to attack the pontoon bridge and fighting a bloody battle with two yellow flags, they were like moths to a flame, not caring about death.

The bravery displayed by the Kaiyuan general rekindled Mao Wenlong's dead heart.

He chose to live and continue fighting.

"General Liu, last night, I observed the Kaiyuan soldiers' fierceness and fighting prowess, far surpassing the ordinary servants. I wonder how you, sir, train your troops?"

Mao Wenlong had heard about the battle record of the Kaiyuan Army long ago. When he was in Yiyang, he heard that Liu Zhaosun's soldiers were not afraid of death. They defeated the Bordered Blue Banner in Hunjiang and exchanged their lives for others in Kaiyuan to defeat four of the Eight Banners.

He was quite interested in the Kaiyuan Army. At first, he thought that they were servants recruited by Liu Zhaosun at a large sum of money. However, when he saw that there were three or four thousand soldiers, he rejected this idea.

If all three thousand people were servants, how much silver would it cost to support them? You must know that when Li Chengliang was at the peak of his power, he only had three thousand servants.

Liu Zhaosun looked up at Mao Wenlong. He didn't know much about this controversial figure in late Ming history.

It is said that there was an inseparable love-hate relationship between this person and Yuan Chonghuan.

It’s a pity to think that hundreds of years later, a group of keyboard history enthusiasts split into two factions, arguing fiercely over who was right and who was wrong between Mao and Yuan, and wishing to kill each other.

Liu Zhaosun decided that if there was a chance, he would let the two of them work together to see what magical things would happen.

"There's nothing special about my training. I just provide them with adequate food and pay and enforce strict military discipline. I was born a servant and I've always been at the forefront of every battle. Treat the soldiers like human beings, and they'll be able to charge forward."

A fishing boat studded with arrow feathers arrived at the south bank beach first. Two long-shield fighters jumped towards the beach under the dense rain of arrows, and a team of mandarin duck formation soldiers followed closely behind the long-shield fighters.

This Ming army that arrived at the south bank first received special attention from the archers on the south bank. A rain of arrows was immediately shot out from the river bank, which was more than one person's height away from the river beach, covering the thirteen-man mandarin duck formation soldiers.

The Later Jin soldiers of a Niulu group responsible for defending this section of the river included both baoyi and Zhenyi, and they belonged to the Zhenglan Banner.

At present, the various banners are short of troops, so the baoyi are arranged to serve in the various Niulu to assist their masters in defense.

After several rounds of rocket attacks, they suffered heavy casualties and their morale was low. Now there are only less than a hundred Later Jin soldiers who can still fight.

A dozen or so Baoyi, with their necks hunched, wearing armor stripped from dead bodies, holding swords and clubs in their hands, looked nervously at the Ming army landing.

In comparison, their masters were slightly better. As soon as the boat reached the shore, the Zhenyi armored soldiers raised their bows and fired a volley of heavy arrows.

Under the protection of long shields, the first wave of soldiers suffered no casualties and quickly approached the Later Jin soldiers on the river bank.

The armored soldiers fired two waves of heavy arrows, but found that they had no effect, so they threw another wave of dense flying axes.

The flying axe hit the long shield with a dull thud. The two long shield holders fell backwards and were held up by the arms of the halberd holders behind them.

The spearmen quickly approached to within ten steps. The archers in the front row on the shore dropped their bows and ran around like ants on a hot pan.

The spear stabbed at the swaying figure in front of him, and two Later Jin archers fell to the ground with screams. A spearman climbed up the slope and was hit by two heavy swords. He fell down with screams. The spearman behind him continued to stab and killed a Later Jin sword and shield man.

As soon as he climbed up the slope, he was attacked by two Later Jin armored soldiers. After stabbing one of them, he was quickly killed by the Later Jin soldier.

Then a sword and shield soldier climbed up from the riverbed and used his shield to block the siege of two Later Jin soldiers.

This boy, about fifteen or sixteen years old, was very agile and dodged left and right, so the three Bayalas could not kill him for a while.

Soon, a tall halberd wielder jumped up. He was originally a miner and had great strength in his hands. While shouting strangely, he brandished the halberd, which was more than seven feet long, in his hand with great vigor.

Facing this ferocious halberd-wielder, the three Bayalas found it difficult to approach him. Soon, another musketeer climbed up. Before he could see what was happening above, he raised his already loaded flintlock rifle above his head and pulled the trigger in the direction of the Later Jin soldiers. With a loud bang, the fire exploded.

A Bayala was hit in the lower abdomen. The two sides were only five steps apart, and the armor was no different from paper at this distance.

He covered his stomach and rolled around on the ground. The halberd-wielder roared and thrust the halberd towards Bayala's neck. Bayala was unable to dodge and half of his face was pierced by the halberd teeth and torn off. The Jurchen warrior let out a shrill howl.

The two Bayalas swung their maces and charged towards the halberd-wielders. A spearman climbed up from behind, followed by a sword and shield-wielder. The four of them formed a Three Talents formation, forcing the two Bayalas back a few steps. The musketeer reloaded his ammunition, hid behind his long shield, and pulled the trigger again.

As the remaining fourteen fishing boats approached the shore, more than thirty Yuanyang Formation soldiers quickly landed on the riverbank.

At this time, more than 400 soldiers who had landed had already carved out a small position on the shore, and the long-card players used their long cards to form a shield formation.

They advanced towards the pontoon bridge on the south bank, facing the swarm of Later Jin armored soldiers.

The spearmen and halberd bearers stood behind their shields and continuously charged at the densely packed Later Jin soldiers at the front.

The musketeers had given up the slow reloading and threw the stone mines they were carrying into the sky one by one.

The 13,000-strong Zhenyi armored soldiers of the Zhenglan Banner had lost over 2,000 in the fighting last night. Just before the Ming army landed, another 1,000 archers were killed in the rocket attack, and another 1,000 armored soldiers were injured. Now, only 8,000 armored soldiers were left who could still fight.

There were about 3,000 people surrounding the shield formation, and the remaining 4,000 armored soldiers of the Zhenglan Banner were responsible for guarding the pontoon bridge.

Three thousand Zhenyi armored soldiers surrounded the five hundred Kaiyuan Legion soldiers. In the front row was a group of Bayara holding axes and heavy swords. They swung their weapons and slashed at the shield formation, trying to create a gap.

The long-blade soldiers behind the shield formation leaned forward to hold the long shields tightly, while the spearmen and halberd soldiers thrust their spears and halberds over the long shields and thrust them towards the opposite side. The opposite Bayala also had long swords to chop at the spearmen who showed up.

The short and agile swordsman lowered his body and rushed out from the gap at the bottom of the long shield, chopping the calves of Bayala who was running outside.

Stone mines exploded on the south bank position like frying beans, and each explosion took the lives of seven or eight Later Jin soldiers around the explosion point.

The Later Jin soldiers who were hit by stones and porcelain fragments fell to the ground and rolled around, and were soon trampled to death by their panicked companions.

By the time each musketeer had thrown all five stone mines they carried, the shield formation was already shrouded in white mist. The injured Later Jin soldiers ran around like headless flies. Many of them were pushed to the ground and trampled on by their companions, and there were shrill screams everywhere.

The Later Jin soldiers on the periphery were frightened by the tragic situation around the shield formation and no longer dared to rush over here.

There was only a group of fierce armored soldiers and Bayala stabbing each other through shields and spearmen, cruelly exchanging lives.

At this time, the auxiliary soldiers and gunners who crossed the river on the fishing boat also went ashore.

Under the cover of a group of soldiers in the Mandarin Duck Formation, ten gunners quickly moved the five-gun tiger squat cannon to a pile of sand on the shore.

Three long-shield bearers blocked the heavy arrows flying from the east, west, and south, while the auxiliary soldiers quickly built a circle of large pebbles more than a foot high around them.

The artillery began firing at the Later Jin soldiers who were approaching the shield formation fifty steps away.

This distance is just within the range of the Tiger Crouching Cannon. The Kaiyuan Workshop designed the Tiger Crouching Cannon shells with warheads similar to the Divine Fire Flying Crow. Every time it explodes, hundreds of deadly shrapnel are ejected and fall into the dense crowd. One shell is a dense rain of blood.

The Later Jin army had no artillery to fight back, and the heavy arrows were difficult to penetrate the stone walls and injure the artillerymen.

The five-door tiger crouching cannons were like the god of death, continuously harvesting the lives of the Later Jin soldiers at the rate of one shotgun shell per minute, turning the already chaotic Zhenglan Banner formation into pieces.

Despite continued bombardment, the shield formation was stuck more than two hundred steps away from the south bank of the pontoon bridge.

Bayala and the Zhenyi armored soldiers pushed the wounded soldiers and the bannermen to the front to block the approaching long shield formation. More and more Later Jin soldiers were killed, and finally formed a circle around the shield formation, with the corpses covering the calves of the long shield bearers.

The shield formation was blocked by a circle of piled-up corpses and could no longer move. Bayala drove the bannermen to pile up the corpses on the ground into a small hill. Archers stood on the hill of corpses and shot arrows at the unarmored musketeers in the shield formation.

At this distance, muskets had no advantage over bows and arrows. Accompanied by bursts of screams, most of the musketeers who had no way to escape were quickly shot to death, and hundreds of Bayala were killed by them.

Without the shield formation for long-range attacks, their combat effectiveness dropped sharply. The 360 surviving Kaiyuan soldiers had no choice but to carry long shields and step on the uneven corpses of the Later Jin soldiers on the high ground, and stand firm against the siege of the enemy that was five times their number.

(End of this chapter)