open sea

Chapter 1199 Blasting
Difficult scenes once again appeared in front of Earl Shire.

Seeing that the infantry of the Ming army was getting closer and closer, many nobles had just helped the left-wing phalanx stabilize the morale of the troops and regrouped, when they saw a lot of flames rising from the formation of the Ming army, blasting gunpowder smoke in the front of the noble cavalry and heavy infantry. , the infantry of the French Levy Legion behind began to flee in large numbers.

He could only send out the only entourage as a reserve team to join the left-wing phalanx, and regroup them into the whole team.

The better one is the right wing, which is the battle-hardened Swiss mercenary regiment. The Earl of Charles knew that the Swiss were very dissatisfied with his embarrassing deployment when they were besieged at the riverside camp, but these loyal and brave fighters were very brave on the battlefield. Reliable, and has its own set of internal captain officer system, which can be effectively restrained without sending nobles.

And because of the existence of the military order, even if two arrows from the Shenwei Mechanism hit their formation, there was not even a single deserter.

Speaking of them, they are a bit like the Qi family army recruited. The soldiers are all fellow villagers and neighbors. When the rout occurs, the first deserter will be caught and hanged in public. They are very afraid of this, because even if they die, Parents, brothers, and even descendants of the family will be shamed for their cowardly deeds, which will further lead to them being eliminated when recruiting mercenaries.

On the contrary, if whoever fights bravely, even if he dies because of it, his parents and brothers will be well taken care of, and he will be given special preferential treatment because of his actions when recruiting soldiers.

This is a legion with great endurance on the battlefield, only one thing is wrong - they don't obey orders.

Not obeying the orders of the Earl of Charles.

Charles believes that they should retreat gradually at this time, and delay as far as possible until Marshal Matteon successfully snatched the powerful artillery, and then engage in battle when the artillery hits the Ming army; the Swiss Army has no cavalry, and lacks long-range offensive forces , only a small number of crossbows and muskets, Charles believes that it is extremely risky to fight the Ming army, but the Swiss do not listen to the advice.

The left-wing phalanx has not yet recovered from the process of collapse and reassembly, and the right-wing Swiss phalanx has marched towards the Ming army with the drums and flags.

There are two ways for the Swiss to deal with long-range fire strikes. If the opponent has more bows and arrows, their soldiers in the back row will station their spears and shake them constantly, hoping to knock down the thrown arrows; if there are more direct arrows or muskets, how they respond It is more direct: charge.

They knew that the muskets of the Ming army were equipped with short knives instead of long spears, but the length of the weapons was about the same as the swords of German Doppler swordsmen, far less than the Swiss axes and spears, and even less than long spears, and they did not occupy much space in close combat. advantage, so for them the greatest possibility of winning is in close combat.

As long as chaotic close combat is achieved, the musket will misfire.

The width of the battlefield of the troops of both sides is similar. The horizontal formation of the Ming army is 30 soldiers wide, and the Swiss Army is three small phalanxes with a width of [-] people. The difference is that the Ming army is only four rows deep, while the Swiss phalanx has ten rows of soldiers.

It was Xu Jin's horizontal team that attacked the Swiss. Their troops stopped when they were about 250 paces apart. The engineers in the front row lowered their shields, set up the general flag and arrows and blew fire to let the enemy continue to approach, and then released rockets.

The tiger squatting cannons of each headquarters have been fired more than three times, and the portable scatter canisters and medicine packs carried by the banner troops have been exhausted, so the wave of tiger squatting cannons can only be omitted in the wave of attacks, and the enemy can be directly sent into the headquarters. Flag arrow range.

Amidst the roar of the rockets, the Swiss's swaying spear tactic was very successful. The general flag arrow that should have been shot at the back of the formation was knocked down from mid-air, stabbed obliquely at a hapless ghost, and pushed him backwards. The others retreated a few steps, and the solid human wall was pushed away, blasting all the soldiers who made way for him into hedgehogs.

Many legions will collapse when they are attacked by rockets, and the extremely tough army will stop their charge momentum because of this. Only the Swiss Legion suddenly speeds up their charge after being attacked by rockets to highlight the smoke, and their formation is not chaotic.

Their heroic performance won the respect of the Ming army, and Xu Jin and the other two hundred households praised in unison: "Small flags and arrows are ready!"

The engineering soldier Baihu, who was alone in the lead, behaved very out of gregarious. He shouted for the engineer to remove the palm mine hanging from his waist.

During the dense formation charge, the suffocating Swiss Army also fired back at the Ming army. A small number of steel crossbows and muskets were shot at the opposite side by the naked Swiss infantry at a distance of nearly 150 steps.

They weren't naked, but wearing tight linen trousers in winter was no different from naked guys in the eyes of the Ming Banner soldiers in padded jackets and padded armor on the opposite side.

The lead bullets came and landed on the shields, making the engineers squatting behind them feel nothing, and landed on the shoulders and chests of the flag soldiers behind, as if they had been crushed by a stone.

Then the small flag arrows with their tails smoking with anger flew over densely.

The Swiss phalanx is marching one after another. They have only one belief, no matter what kind of attack they encounter, they must rush to the enemy, and they will win if they enter close combat.

In this belief, no one even noticed that the three squares were already a third shorter.

The two armies entered a distance of a hundred paces, and the two small phalanxes on the left and right flanks distanced themselves from the central army, trying to encircle them on three sides. The Swiss Army entered the most tense moment in their hearts. They knew that the Ming army had a lot of guns, and the power of the salvo was extremely powerful without even thinking about it. Stunningly, they were all waiting for the musket salvo.

Once the salvo is complete, they can then pick up their pace during the reload time and rush to the enemy, forcing them into melee.

But the Ming army never opened fire.

The tall and burly Ming soldiers in blue foam-nail iron cotton armor were holding muskets, quietly as if they were asleep.

Eighty paces, no shots.

Sixty paces, no shots.

After forty steps, they were close enough to hear the soothing drum music of the Ming army on the opposite side. The Swiss musketeers finished reloading while marching, and began to shoot for the second time sporadically.

Some of the shields of the Ming army were pierced, and some of the standing flag soldiers were startled with padded armor and crossbow arrows. Some people were hit by muskets and groaned. Will stand up again with a calm face.

But they still didn't shoot.

The soothing drumbeat and the performance of the Ming army even made the Swiss infantry wonder if the Ming army on the opposite side had no gunpowder.

They didn't even shoot at thirty paces.

But the figures squatting behind the shields with their helmets and guns exposed made movements that the Swiss soldiers could not see clearly, and the three rows of infantry strode left and right, until the distance between the two armies was twenty paces.

At this time, the dense formation of the Ming army spread out, the two wings were separated from the shield protection, and each soldier was separated by one person.

Twenty steps, 30 meters, this is the distance that the Swiss soldiers have already started running with their spears upright, and it only takes a few seconds to run to the distance in front of them.

Suddenly, the soothing drumbeat joins a strange high-pitched instrument, rushing sharply and loudly, soaring high.

The muffled sound of hundreds of blunderbuss hitting the chests of Ming army soldiers was like a drum, and the blunderbusses released a cloud of gunpowder smoke forward.

During the brief pause of the gunpowder, the engineers behind the shields each threw a smoking iron ball forward.

At the next moment, the gunners in the first row retreated to the rear right to reload, and the infantrymen in the second row raised their guns and stepped forward to continue shooting; the gunners in the first row pulled out the cleaning bar while the second row continued to push back, and took out the cartridges. Pour into the gun barrel and continue to retreat to the third row; the third row of infantry stepped forward to fill the gun, and continued to move forward to fill the position after shooting in the second row.

While the second row was firing, the engineers behind the shields continued to ignite and throw a grenade.

Then three rows of infantrymen fired and retreated to the side and rear. The engineer threw a third grenade and grabbed his steel pickaxe and sailor's axe.

When the first row of infantry returned to the original position, the military order did not allow them to continue shooting. They held the loaded bird guns, lunged forward with their sharp thorns, and put them on the shields to prepare stab.

Amidst the rumbling sound, the first grenade exploded.

(End of this chapter)