open sea

Chapter 778 The Battle
Acapulco's Ming army finally decided to attack Bernal after several days of defense.

Hunting in the mountain wind, 23 Spanish companies formed a phalanx in the valley. The spear forest was denser than the woods. Gunners carrying heavy arquebus guns set up the fork at the front of the battle formation to build the first fire defense line.

Bernal still planned to form a defensive line of companies to face the Ming army. The thirteen companies on the front line and the ten companies behind formed the backbone of the battlefield. Due to the disadvantages in the field, more troops including Indians were assembled.

The right wing is relatively strengthened. More than 170 feudal knights and their retinues form a powerful front. Not only shock cavalry and light cavalry, but also a large number of soldiers who also form a phalanx can protect the right wing firmly and wait for opportunities to tear it apart. Enemy lines.

Two Franco cannons were placed on both sides of the heavy musketry in front of the front line as supplementary firepower. In the depth of the company's phalanx, Bernal specially assigned merchant gunners to place the two stone cannons behind the reserve team and cover them with sackcloth. with.

The Spaniard's army was being dispatched, and Bernal and Jesus stood side by side in front of the formation, looking up at the mouth of the valley in the distance, where the Ming army was also dispatching.

In the beginning, five hundred families of the Ming army led the infantry and ran out at a fast pace. When the brightly colored flags were placed in front of the Chinese army, they changed from a column into a three-row line with great width but lack of depth. The last two rows of flags The army carried a flat bird gun, and the front row flag army used a shovel to dig the Juma trench.

Immediately behind them, five infantrymen from hundreds of families of the Ming army stepped forward, and spread out in a horizontal formation just three steps away from the gunmen in front. Two rows of infantry with spears slanted.

There were a thousand infantrymen setting up their positions, and the army behind rushed out one after another. The cavalry with their spears paced neatly and spread out on both wings. Take General Zhenshuo's cannon under his command to adjust the shooting angle.

At a position closer to the rear, the Acapulco militia team carried logs one by one to build a tall general's platform in the rear. The flag and drum musicians were also separated, and the entire wartime army formation tended to be complete.

The pre-made wooden parts of the platform were quickly spliced ​​after the formation, and the high platform of nearly two feet was quickly completed by the aboriginal militia with a large number of people under the guidance of the flag officer. The canopy was wide open, long flags and banners stood in a row, and Chen Muduan, who was dressed in armor, led more than ten soldiers to the high platform with a square sword and sat on the top chair.

A low-pitched horn sounded behind him.

The situation is clear at a glance on the wide valley road battlefield where the platform is condescending, and the wind blows through the valley to blow a lot of dust.

Behind the canyon, Zou Yuanbiao led the militia and slowly withdrew from the battlefield, and formed with Zhao Shizhen a grain escort team to go east after victory or a reserve army to guard the port after defeat.

Compared with the boundless and huge force of the Western Army, the Ming Army's formation is really too thin. The front army composed of the commander-in-chief Shao Tingda and the guerrilla general Fu Yuan only had [-] infantry, and Hei Yunlong's left-wing cavalry was only [-] infantry. There are nine hundred.

The right wing was even weaker, only Chen Mu's [-] cavalry led by Juniper, and Lian Dou, the small captain of the reserve team in the central army, led [-] infantry troops also composed of family members.

It's a full count, only three thousand seven hundred.

If it is insisted that the taller one out of the dwarfs has an advantage, it is probably that Chen Mu has [-] generals under Chen Shuo's command and a large number of tiger squat cannons carried by the former army infantry.

They still have some advantages in the ability to suppress the enemy's group charge with firepower.

The personal soldiers set up three binoculars with tripods on the general platform, and the deployment of the Western Army, which has adjusted its countermeasures, came into view. Chen Mu saw the cavalry running back and forth in the small phalanx with a large number of enemy troops. The situation was thin, and the huge cavalry on both wings gradually spread out, and the Chinese army's [-] or so infantry phalanxes were also eager to move forward.

Although the march was slow, the flags flying in the infantry phalanx representing the coats of arms of various minor nobles felt like overwhelming mountains.

"Report to Commander, the distance between the two armies is between [-] and [-] steps."

"The enemy's front line moved forward, and our army's front line began to shrink."

Shao Tingda's troops began to change formations, and the appearance of the Western Army's advance was even more shocking from his perspective. Countless spear phalanxes moved forward and filled the sky with loess. The rear army had enough time to march and change formations, but for him As far as the former flag army under his command is concerned, every second counts.

A row of thin and shallow trenches for rejecting horses was dug, and the Banner Army immediately took bundles of captured spears from Spanish native soldiers and stabbed them diagonally along the edge of the trench to protect their fronts from being trampled by the cavalry of the Western Army. The army retreated a little, hit the ground with the help of long shields and large shields, and began to build a defensive line of fire.

Dressed neatly, Shao Tingda stood behind the formation with his sword pressed, his eyes swept over the busy and heavy banner army, he was very clear about their responsibilities in this battle, facing the charge of several times the enemy directly, his subordinates would suffer heavy casualties.

But no one can avoid it. Acapulco took the initiative to attack not only because Lin Manjue's guerrilla army had camped behind Bernal, but also because Deng Zilong had sent back the news that the fleet was hit by a storm. Did not start.

The situation facing Acapulco now is that the Peruvian fleet may bypass Panama's Deng Zilong fleet to attack the port, and then they will fall into an embarrassing situation where they will be attacked from both sides.

In comparison, taking the initiative to attack Bernal now can at least keep the situation under the control of the Ming army.

"Shao Shuai, the enemy army is already [-] steps closer to me!"

As soon as the voice of the Commander Banner Army fell, there was already the roar of Fran's machine gun on the opposite side, and two shells fell towards our own army formation, kicking up dust on the ground.

The advantage of the Francois machine is rapid fire. Although the Western Army only has two guns left, it can still use its multiple guns to achieve the same continuous shooting ability as many guns.

However, the Ming army's three-row horizontal formation was not bad against artillery defense, and what they were afraid of was facing the impact of the Western army's armored cavalry.

Under the pressure of continuous artillery, the front line of the Western Army accelerated its marching speed. After a while, accompanied by the muffled sound of shells smashing into the trench, the messenger reported again: "Shao Shuai, the enemy has approached [-] paces!"

"Hold your ground and don't be afraid!"

The distance between the two armies was getting closer and closer, and the messengers in the audience rushed into each formation more frequently, and informed the front army and the cavalry on the two wings one by one of the movement of the western army.

Chen Mu could see it clearly on the general platform. When the distance between the two armies was [-] paces, Shao Tingda's blunderbuss players set up a burst formation, and each blunderbuss team had a saber and spear team ready to take off at any time. Going up to fight, the sub-guns of the two Franco cannons of the Western Army have been blasted out. It seems that the casualties of the soldiers are more than the two small flags.

The Ming army also opened fire, and six solid bullets blasted out in the roar, falling into the dense phalanx of the Western army, and a few vertical leaps smashed a path of blood.

Accompanied by the sound of military music, the Western Army with a huge cross began to move forward at a fast pace, almost rushing to get [-] steps away from the next round of artillery fire.

The two sides officially engaged in battle.

(End of this chapter)