Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 435
When the soldiers heard this, they suddenly raised their heads and saw Cao Wenzhao sitting upright on the horse, staring at the crowd coldly. The soldiers couldn't help being excited, straightened their bodies hastily, clasped their fists and said, "Commander."

Cao Wenzhao pointed at the crowd with a whip and shouted sharply: "You have been fighting with Cao for a long time. You have fought the Battle of Datong, the Battle of Gyeonggi, and the Battle of Mongolia, but just now you are like recruits who have just joined the army. , Facing the enemy, you can't even hold your guns steadily, are you worthy of the military salary you get? Are you worthy of the hard work that the commander put in on you?"

Hearing Cao Wenzhao's scolding, an officer cupped his fists and smiled wryly: "Commander, it's not that the brothers dare not kill the enemy, but the fact is that the enemy army on the opposite side is completely different from the enemy we have encountered before. They are simply going to die, brother Our killing hands are soft. We are fighters, not executioners, these people have no power to fight back, brothers really can't bear to do it."

Cao Wenzhao smiled coldly when he heard the words: "You are soldiers, not executioners. You can't bear to kill these enemies who have no power to fight back, but if you let these people rush in front of you, you will be the ones who will be slaughtered! It is your own fate. Is it important, or the life of the enemy? This is a battlefield, if you don't kill people, the enemy will kill you!"

As he said that, Cao Wenzhao pointed at the officer with a horsewhip: "You! Take your subordinates and get back to the front line immediately. If you still behave like just now, I will cut off your head!"

Then Cao Wenzhao sneered and said to the crowd: "If you want to die, I won't stop you, but even if you die, you have to die at the front line, don't implicate other brothers. Get out! Get out of here!"

The officer didn't dare to speak, he cupped his fists at Cao Wenzhao, and then led his men back to the front line.

Cao Wenzhao's remark was timely. The soldiers who were reprimanded finally realized that this was a battlefield, and on the battlefield, one should not worry about whether the enemy was incapable of fighting back.

And they finally figured out that the enemy's inability to fight back was only because the enemy hadn't charged in front of them. If the enemy charged in front of them, then it wouldn't necessarily mean who would die and who would live.

Thinking that on the battlefield, either the enemy will die or we will die, the soldier's hands finally stabilized.

These soldiers stabilized their minds in time, so that the front line that had already appeared in danger was quickly stabilized.

But as time went by, Cao Wenzhao's face became more and more serious when he saw the Qing army charging one after another.

The Qing army was really desperate. Cao Wenzhao knew very well that the chief general of the Qing army was putting all his eggs in one basket and wanted to drag his troops to death here.It is conceivable that what I am facing is just a miscellaneous army, and the pressure is so great. One of the two directions of Zu Dashou and Chen Guozhu must have the main force of the Qing army. He and Chen Guozhu were absolutely unstoppable. Even if Li Dingguo and Sun Hutou came to reinforce them, they might not be able to stop the constant onslaught of the Qing army.

Cao Wenzhao no longer remembers how many times he raised his binoculars. The front line between [-] and [-] paces was covered with corpses of Qing soldiers and horses, and countless wounded lay on the ground rolling and crying.

Casualties have also begun to appear on the side of the Ming army. Due to the obstruction of a large number of corpses, the soldiers' sight of shooting was seriously interfered with, while the Qing army was getting closer and closer to the Ming army's defense line under the cover of corpses. In China, the bows and arrows of the Qing army already had lethality, especially the Ming army were all dressed in civilian clothes, which had almost no defense effect. Many soldiers were shot and killed by bows and arrows, and more and more wounded soldiers.

Clenching his fists hard, Cao Wenzhao shouted in a deep voice: "Order the artillery to cover with artillery fire, don't begrudge the shells, blow up the front for me, and let the captain of the heavy artillery unit come to me."

"Yes!" The soldiers received the order and hastily delivered the order.

After a while, the artillery captain rushed over, Cao Wenzhao didn't say much, handed him the binoculars, pointed to the front and said: "The main force of the enemy army is about five miles away from our front line, do you dare to put the heavy artillery on it? Attack the main force of the enemy army?"

The artillery captain held up his binoculars and looked forward for a while, then said hesitantly: "Commander, if the heavy artillery is pressed forward, it can hit the main force of the enemy army, but the infantry must also press forward to protect the artillery when the heavy artillery is pressed forward. Come on, the enemy's artillery can also hit our army, and I feel that the loss outweighs the gain."

Cao Wenzhao nodded silently when he heard the words.Although the cannons of the Ming army and the Qing army were quite different in power, their shooting ranges were similar. The range of the Ming army's artillery was about five miles, which was only a little more than one mile farther than that of the Qing army.

If the two sides in the battle were just firing artillery, and the Ming army had a range of one mile, it would have had an absolute advantage, but now the two sides are not fighting artillery, the Qing army dispatched cavalry, it is impossible for the Ming army to arrange clumsy heavy artillery on the ground. On the first line, face the cavalry assault of the Qing army.Infantry must be arranged in front of and around the artillery for protection, but infantry deployed in front of the artillery will be attacked by the opponent's artillery.

Although the cannons of the Qing army were not powerful, they were still cannons. Even if stones were shot out of the cannon chambers, they would kill people.

The artillery captain didn't dare to disobey Cao Wenzhao's order, but he had to tell Cao Wenzhao the consequences, otherwise if the soldiers suffered too much damage, it would be his responsibility.

Cao Wenzhao looked at the sky, pondered for a while, and said in a deep voice: "This battle has been fought for two hours now. If we continue to fight like this, we will not be able to finish it for another two hours. If the enemy's main force cannot be defeated before then, once it gets dark, the advantage of our army's weapons will be greatly reduced, and the casualties will be even greater at that time.

I order you to push the heavy artillery forward immediately, I will send infantry to protect your wings, let the light artillery block your front, and ensure that the heavy artillery will not be attacked by the enemy. "

Seeing that the captain opened his mouth to speak, Cao Wenzhao waved his hands and said: "I know that doing so has certain risks and will consume a lot of shells, but I can't take care of it right now. I can't let the soldiers continue to fight back like this. At this hour, our army has already started to suffer many casualties, and if it continues, the casualties will be even greater. If it gets dark, the consequences will be even more unpredictable. Therefore, I must defeat the main force of the enemy army and eliminate the enemy's artillery. Only light artillery can exert its power."

"Yes, the humble officer takes orders!" the captain hurriedly said.

Cao Wenzhao mobilized the army here, and the Qing army on the opposite side quickly noticed it, and then responded quickly: retreat.

Seeing this scene, Cao Wenzhao was secretly surprised. The generals of the Qing army were so powerful that they expected that they would push the heavy artillery forward.

However, Yue Tuo did not know that because of the continuous defeat of the Qing army, these days he could barely sleep, he had a detailed understanding and analysis of the weapons of the Ming army, and then made adequate preparations for the characteristics of the weapons of the Ming army.

However, Yue Tuo also knew that no matter how well prepared he was, it would be impossible to defeat Cao Wenzhao's main force due to the fact that his weapons were completely at a disadvantage. Hold it firmly so that it cannot reinforce the Zu Dashou Department and Chen Guozhu Department.

In fact, the biggest problem for Yue Tuo was the implementation of tactics, because most of the Qing army was composed of domestic slaves and ordinary people, and it was even more difficult to defeat the Ming army in just two days.

But Yue Tuo is indeed a great military genius. He took the method of disrupting the organization and organized the Manchu soldiers into the ranks of these miscellaneous troops. Each soldier was in charge of a small team. Just be your captain.

In this way, the problem of command was solved, and tens of thousands of miscellaneous troops were integrated together with only a few thousand soldiers.

At the same time, Yue Tuo also knew that when soldiers fell in batches on the battlefield, the recruits would inevitably retreat timidly.

So Yuetuo sent a supervising team to supervise the army, and anyone who retreated, whether it was Han, Mongol or Manchu, would be killed on the spot.

If it is said that Yue Tuo only used the soldiers' flesh and blood to attack the enemy to the death, then obviously he underestimated him. Yue Tuo also referred to the tactics of his predecessors, and used fire bulls to assist the assault from time to time during the intervals between soldiers' charges.

Yue Tuo was able to mobilize so many horses and cattle because the Jurchens have formed alliances with various Mongolian tribes in Liaodong over the years, and the Mongolian side provides Jurchens with a large number of cattle, sheep and horses every year. At that time, a large number of cattle, sheep and horses were seized and looted. It can be said that the Jurchens had nothing else, but enough cattle, sheep and horses.

This battle was a decisive battle for the Qing army, Yue Tuo was not polite, and almost all the livestock in Shengjing and surrounding areas were recruited into the army.

Yue Tuo wasn't afraid to wipe out his family's wealth. The Qing Dynasty was at a critical moment. If they lost the battle, they even lost the capital. What do you need so many cattle and sheep?Is it left to the Ming army as spoils of war?

Yue Tuo has used so much manpower and animal power, and it has indeed played a great role. At least for now, it has achieved the effect Yue Tuo expected.

But what Yue Tuo didn't expect was that Cao Wenzhao had already dispatched the cavalry unit commanded by Li Dingguo, and it would take at least half a day to reinforce Zu Dashou and Chen Guozhu with infantry. After such a long time, the battle might have ended long ago.

If Yue Tuo had personally commanded in the north at this time, he would have realized that Cao Wenzhao's troops had no cavalry, and he would definitely adjust the deployment of the campaign immediately. Unfortunately, Yue Tuo had to take care of the three routes, and his main energy was still on the east. As for the movement of the army, these details are not known.

However, the situation of the battle was indeed as Yue Tuo had expected. Although the Qing army in the west had suffered [-] to [-] casualties and only killed and wounded hundreds of Ming troops, Cao Wenzhao did not dare to move lightly, and forced Cao Wen Zhao ordered the artillery to press forward in order to break the deadlock.

However, Zu Dashou's troops in the north suffered heavy casualties under the constant attack of the Qing army. Seeing that they could not hold on, Zu Dashou ordered the whole army to retreat for [-] miles, giving way to the north passage, but Li Dingguo led his troops to join the battlefield immediately.

Li Dingguo gave full play to the weapon advantages of the Ming army and the mobility of the cavalry. On the battlefield with a radius of ten miles, he circled the Qing army like peeling onions, shooting and killing the Qing army layer by layer. More than [-] Qing troops were captured.

Seeing that there was no hope of breaking out of the siege, the Qing army had no choice but to retreat to Shengjing.

(End of this chapter)