Griffin Commander in the Late Ming Dynasty

Just as the bandits were making a fuss, they heard a strange noise.

The sound was sharp and violent, as if something was quickly cutting through the air and falling towards his head with a terrifying scream.

The next moment, a violent explosion occurred in the tent of the bandit leader. The entire tent was torn apart by the rising air waves. The rising grass splashed all around, blowing the surrounding generals away.

"What's wrong!!! What happened!!"

The bandits were in a panic, but the generals reacted faster. Many of them were once military men and had fought in many battles after becoming bandits. They quickly made a judgment on the current situation.

"Enemy attack!!! It's artillery fire!! Everyone get down!!!"

New soldiers are afraid of artillery, and old soldiers are afraid of machine guns. This saying became popular after World War I. The target of the artillery fire was a parabola, and as long as you lay on the ground, the probability of being hit by the artillery fire was actually quite small. Especially after seeing that the target of the first artillery fire was the central army tent, many people crouched down and left the area.

These bandits had rich experience in fighting the Ming army, and their ability to save their lives was comparable to that of a 777. They were as slippery as a loach. Despite being attacked by surprise, they still made the correct judgment at the first time. The artillery mainly fired iron beads and projectiles. Even if they were shotgun shells, they only needed to lie down and have a little cover in front of them to greatly increase their survival rate during the bombardment.

However, is this really the case?

Before the bandit army had finished hiding, that extremely sharp whistle sounded again, and once again, an explosion roared within the bandit army's formation.

“Retreat!!!”

"Where on earth did the cannon come from?!"

The artillery fire from an unknown line of defense threw the entire camp into panic. The officers tried to find the direction of the cannon firing to confirm the escape line, but they couldn't see anything around them. And why was there no loud roar when the cannon was fired?

You know, the sound of gunpowder explosion is very loud. It is impossible for me and others not to hear it. Why were we hit by a cannonball without any warning?

"Direction left five, angle up three notches, ready to launch"

A piece of ammunition was taken out from the cartridge and placed in the upright cylindrical barrel. Then, there was a muffled explosion with a metallic buzzing sound, and the shell flew high into the sky from the barrel, then tore through the air and fell straight towards the bandit camp.

M2, 60mm mortar, has a maximum range of 1.8 kilometers and can fire an average of 18-35 rounds per minute. Moreover, due to its small caliber, the sound of the 60mm mortar's firing is quite small and will not shock people at all.

At the same time, the ground rumbled loudly. Before the bandits could escape from the dark clouds of the bombing, they saw a black line approaching quickly from afar.

"It's the officers and soldiers!! Those are the officers and soldiers' cavalry!!"

The sharp-eyed bandits had already seen the Ming army armor on the cavalrymen on horseback and screamed loudly.

Why did the government troops appear here? The bandits were confused and puzzled. They couldn't figure out what was going on.

The officers and soldiers of the Volunteer Army rode their war horses and galloped forward. Everyone wore an iron helmet, with cotton armor lining and iron armor outside. A sense of eerieness arose spontaneously.

As the distance continued to shorten, the cavalry of the Volunteer Army had begun to change the pace of their horses' running, from a slow pace to gradually increasing the speed. They took out lances from their horse holsters, one hundred steps, fifty steps... As the distance got closer, the speed of the horses also increased. At about twenty steps, the running speed of the horses had reached the maximum!

"Hurry and meet the enemy!!!"

A bandit leader let out a desperate roar.

The volunteer cavalry attacked the bandits' camp like a black tide, smashing it into pieces.

The cavalrymen used their lances to lift the bodies of the bandits into the air, then threw them away and stabbed at the next target. The bandits kept fleeing amid wailing and were unable to organize any effective resistance.

The bandits learned the military system of the Eight Banners and divided the soldiers into five levels. The hungry people were at the outermost circle, followed by the infantry, then the cavalry, then the brave cavalry, and the innermost were the lifeblood of the bandits, the old camp soldiers.

The soldiers from the old camp are the most powerful among the bandits, and are the absolute support of every bandit leader. With the soldiers from the old camp, even if all the others are wiped out, they can quickly raise a large army again. Li Zicheng made a comeback several times with the help of the soldiers from the old camp.

However, their old camp soldiers were now unable to provide any supervision or stabilizing effect to the army, because the first few artillery fire were directed directly at them.

The artillery bombardment was specifically aimed at the soldiers of the old camp who were hiding in the center of the army formation. They started by showering the area with artillery shells, firing 35 rounds in one minute, which directly stunned the soldiers of the old camp.

How could these hungry people and infantrymen have any fighting spirit in the face of the cavalry's charge? They smiled when the wind was favorable, but they were upset when the wind was unfavorable. The commander was blown to pieces by the mortars from the very beginning. The entire bandit army was faced with the embarrassing situation of no one to command. As a result, the bandits, who had no formation at all, were almost shattered at the first touch.

An officer even tried to gather the soldiers from the old camp and flee in one direction, but as soon as he opened his mouth, a bullet came from nowhere and completely shut him up.

There was no command, and lack of supervision. The main combat force was blown into a suffocated rabbit at the very beginning. The battle instantly became one-sided. The volunteers chased these bandits like chasing ducks, and would catch up and beat them up if they showed any signs of slowing down.

"Wu Gou Frosty Moon Bright"

Another general fell under the gun. These generals were as helpless as Melozong in the convertible.

Everyone was ruthless and ignored the bandits' requests for surrender. Jiang Han raised his sword and gave a death order that these bandits should not be given any chance to survive!

"Kill one person every 10 steps"

QBZ191's feet were so fast that she looked like a hacker in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds chasing a jeep to promote his own products. What's more terrifying was that she was aiming while running.

Each precise shot represented the death of the soldiers from the old camp of bandits.

"Kill them all!!!"

The volunteers let out a deafening roar.

"No one leaves a thousand miles without leaving a trace!"

Volume 201: Chapter Chapter : Destroy the Bandits

There was a drawback in ancient warfare, which was that in long-distance pursuit battles, horses consumed a lot of physical strength. Carrying more than 100 kilograms of objects on their backs, they needed to rest frequently, so many cavalrymen often rode two horses and took turns riding.

However, horses are scarce in the Jiangnan region. Even the 30,000 Ming troops that came to encircle Jiang Han had a total of 1,000 horses in the entire team. This shows how rare this thing is in the south.

The bandits' fighting ability is not very good, but they are not afraid of escaping. They are very good at running. Seeing that there are many horses in the volunteers, they all start to run into the hills and forests nearby. In such places, it is difficult for horses to run fast, and the threat is reduced a lot. Even a few people can knock a person off the horse.

Looking at these bandits who ran faster than rabbits, the volunteers felt helpless and were forced to slow down.

Seeing that the pursuit behind them had slowed down, the bandits gathered again under the orders of some generals, led by the soldiers from the old camp. They thought that the ones chasing them were the Ming Dynasty's official troops.

They have a deep hatred for the government troops, and in the eyes of the bandits, the Ming government troops are just a bunch of losers, which is like a bronze man scolding a silver man who is in the late stage of cancer.

A bunch of government troops forced us to this point? No! We must strike them hard and give them a surprise attack!

Although they are called bandits, their number is often extremely shocking. Even this not-so-large army has about 7,000 people, and a large number of them are hungry people.

After the first round of bombing, the bandits suffered heavy casualties, and most of them were lost in the subsequent pursuit. Despite this, they knew that they had to turn back and fight back, otherwise they would be endlessly pursued and killed.

Unlike the starving people, the soldiers in the old camp knew very well what kind of people they were and what would happen if they fell into the hands of the government troops, so as long as there was a slight possibility, they would try their best to resist and escape.

Their numbers are few, but the generals of the old camp are very confident at the moment. In the dense forests and mountains, the advantages of the cavalry cannot be fully utilized. The soldiers of the old camp are not cannon fodder dressed in rags with only a long sword in their hands. They are experienced in battles, well-equipped, and have a full range of strong bows and crossbows in their hands. As long as the ambush is proper, the continuous shooting will make those cavalrymen who rush in have no chance of returning.

However, he was too naive.

"Everyone dismount and change into military gear! Kill all the bandits!"

"promise!"

As horses could not travel in the mountains, they dismounted and walked, in teams of six, with their equipment replaced with muskets.

Looking at the muskets in the hands of those "official troops", there was a commotion in the bandit camp. Everyone knew that this thing was extremely powerful, and if hit by it, it could basically be said that Curry was dead.

"Jixiao Xinshu" once recorded: The bird gun is sharp and can penetrate armor, and can hit the target, which bows and arrows cannot reach.

The bird gun can shoot at a distance of 100 steps, and can penetrate heavy armor at 70 to 80 steps. The bow and arrow can only shoot at a distance of 60 steps. The bow and arrow are not as powerful and lethal as the bird gun. However, in terms of stability and range, the bird gun is still inferior to the bow and arrow.

The bandit general looked at his men with fear on their faces and encouraged them: "The fire sticks of the government troops can't even make fire, we have all seen it before! There are also many who blew themselves to death, there is nothing to be afraid of! Hold your position, we will kill them all without leaving a single piece of armor!!"

Since taking over Yangzhou, Jiang Han took over a number of iron factories and integrated them under unified management. He gave each craftsman scattered throughout the city a quota in a state-owned enterprise and hired them all to work in the steel machinery factory.

One of their main tasks was to improve the musket.

The muskets used by the Ming army today are called Rumi guns. They were produced in the 26th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty and were improved upon the matchlock guns that Zhao Shizhen paid as tribute from the Turkish Kingdom of Rumi. They are much more advanced than bird guns and three-eyed muskets, with a longer range and greater power.

The range of the Rumi gun can reach 150 meters, and it is equipped with a fire gate device, which allows it to ignite stably even in strong winds. This is something that the matchlock gun and the three-barreled musket cannot match, but it also has a disadvantage: it is too heavy.

More importantly, in the late Ming Dynasty, due to the uneven production levels in various places, the quality of the muskets produced was also worrying. They were extremely easy to explode and injure soldiers, and their stability was extremely poor, causing the soldiers to prefer taking up swords to fight the enemy. It was really too unacceptable that they were not killed by the enemy but instead were killed by their own weapons.

Ultimately, it is the manufacturers' corruption and the extortion of officials that causes the craftsmen below to cut corners.

Although this type of musket is very good, Jiang Han does not really want to use it. What he wants is the most advanced flintlock rifle of the same period, which has already been installed in Europe.

As the name suggests, a flintlock is a musket that uses the method of striking flint to ignite and fire. Compared with a matchlock, it has a faster rate of fire, a smaller caliber, a shorter gun body, less recoil, and a longer range.

Especially in nighttime environments, the flames from the burning matchlock guns could easily expose the soldiers' positions, while the flintlock guns had no such hidden dangers at all.

In fact, Jiang Han didn't know that someone in the Ming Dynasty had already invented the flintlock rifle at this time. This person was called Bi Maokang, and he was the former Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War in the late Ming Dynasty. After inventing the flintlock rifle, he wrote to the court, requesting that it be popularized in the army, but the ministers in the court had the same answer: no money!

What's even more coincidental is that this person is now in Nanjing, serving as the Right Vice Minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue and the Governor-General of Money and Grain. The food and fodder for the "30,000 troops" that Jiang Han had robbed before was raised by this person.

Jiang Han didn't know that he would be so angry if he knew. Zhenzi was really a genius in playing cards. With a good hand, he could play four twos and two kings in a row, leaving only a pair of threes for himself. It would be really difficult for such a good weapons design talent to hold back when he was asked to look after the granary.

Not only that, Sun Yuanhua, a student of **Qi and a talented firearms designer, was also killed in the Denglai Rebellion a few years ago.

When he took office as the governor of Denglai, he specially formed a foreign army with Portuguese gunners. When Nurhaci led the Eight Banners Army to kill people in Liaodong and was about to become a god, it was he who brought eleven red cannons to Ningyuan and gave Nurhaci a good modernist course called "Sir, the times have changed". The Eight Banners soldiers were all numb, thus achieving the famous "Ningyuan Victory".

Nurhaci, the wild boar-skinned man, was invincible in battle and conquered every city. However, he was bombed into a fool outside the city of Ningyuan. Nurhaci, who was narrow-minded than that man, could not accept this result. He could not sleep for three days after returning home. In his dreams, he saw red cannons chasing and bombarding him.

How could he have a gun?

In the end, Wild Boar Skin was unable to recover. Eight months later, he contracted Jade Disease and died.

Civil and military officials were ecstatic at the time. One of the main artillery pieces was given a title called "General who Safeguards the Country and the Army, Pacifies Liao and Quiets the Enemy".

After being promoted to an important position, Sun Yuanhua was full of confidence. He wanted to train a powerful army equipped with advanced weapons and repeatedly teach the Tartars the lesson that times have changed until he recovered Liaodong. However, fate played tricks on him.

"A mutiny caused by a chicken". Generals under his command, such as Kong Youde, rebelled, and Dengzhou fell. Sun Yuanhua was also captured by the rebels. Later, these generals, grateful for their commander's patriotism, released him. After returning to the court, Sun Yuanhua was in trouble. A group of political enemies were worried about how to deal with him, so they set traps for him. Yu Yinggui, Wen Tiren, Lu Zhenfei and others joined forces to frame him, and eventually Sun Yuanhua was unjustly killed.

With Sun Yuanhua being killed, the famous and rare Kong Youde led Sun Yuanhua's old troops, hundreds of warships and a large number of skilled Western gunners directly to the Later Jin.

Huang Taiji was overjoyed and personally led the beiles to welcome the Later Jin Dynasty ten miles outside Shengjing. From then on, the offense and defense situation changed, and the Later Jin Dynasty officially had the power and capital to rule the Central Plains.

Sun Yuanhua's three sons, influenced by their father, were also proficient in firearms manufacturing. However, before his death, Sun Yuanhua entrusted Johann Adam Schall von Bell to tell his sons not to resent the court because of his death, but also not to become officials. Instead, they should organize his posthumous works and leave them to future generations.

It can be said that Zhenzi had almost all good cards above SR in her hand. It was not like what many people said that there were no other talents except Wei Zhongxian. It was just that Zhenzi was a big fool who didn't even know how to play Landlord and played a good hand of cards badly.

Although Jiang Han now knows the manufacturing process of the humanoids under his command, the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty lack sufficient education and many things are difficult for them to understand. He is in urgent need of talents.

Back to the topic, looking at those bandits who were strong on the outside but weak on the inside and tried to resist stubbornly, Jiang Han had no mercy at all. It was God's job to have mercy on them, and he was only responsible for sending them to see God.

"The target is the woods on the mountain east of the city. Prepare the mortars and grenades."

"Received! Altitude deviation 6, direction 78.4 degrees to the right, ready to aim!"

Heavy armored troops are often composed of three people in small teams, one of whom is responsible for moving and firing the launcher body, one is responsible for transporting ammunition, and the last one is responsible for observing the firing parameters and instructing the firing gunner.

The shell was suspended above the barrel, and it was quickly released. With a dull metallic bang, the mortar shell fell rapidly towards the mountains and forests.

Jiang Han found that he had underestimated the humanoids. The humanoids did not have the shackles of humans, and their proficiency in weapon manipulation was top-notch. In today's early spring when the weather was extremely cold, the mortar tubes hardly required excessive cooling, which allowed the shooters to fire as much as they wanted. The two blonde girls cooperated seamlessly, and almost an afterimage formed between their hands. Their firing speed reached about 100 rounds per minute.

Coupled with the unreasonable firepower coverage of the grenade launcher, it's a case of tactical infiltration when necessary, and bombing me when necessary!

Looking at the soil flying everywhere in front of him, the tall trees were uprooted by the huge impact force, and the shells even directly broke the thick tree trunks. The roar and screams merged into one.

"No matter how many times I see it....Mr.'s methods are always so mysterious..."

"Yeah, it's really scary..."

Even the volunteers themselves were frightened by the destructive scene before them. Such a battle was too despairing. Endless shells fell from the sky, and they were blown into pieces without any chance to fight back.

Beg for mercy? Escape? It's useless. When they were locked by Jiang Han, their death was already confirmed.

"Prepare for a sweep! Don't let any one escape!!"

Despite their sighs, the soldiers still carried out their battle plan step by step. After the intensive bombing ended, they dispersed into groups, loaded their muskets, and moved towards the mountain.

The land on the mountain had been blown soft and the tall trees were blown to pieces. There was an arm on the east side and a butt on the tree. The scene was quite tragic.

The soldiers of the volunteer army walked slowly forward, and when they saw the bandits still struggling, they stabbed them to death. Some of them were lucky enough not to be killed by the bombing, but soon, gunshots rang out, and lead bullets hit their bodies without a layer of armor and went straight through them.

The sound of muskets continued, one after another. Those lucky ones who survived the explosion kept falling down, blood was everywhere, and screams were endless.

Such a large-scale bombing and pursuit made it impossible for even the soldiers from the old camp to organize an effective resistance. Due to their strategy of going up the mountain, they did not even have a chance to escape and were surrounded and attacked by a large number of volunteer soldiers.

The people nearby watched this scene in horror. The bandits' escape lasted for most of the day, and this continuous pursuit also lasted for most of the day. The people who had heard the news of the bandits' coming hid in a nearby Chaigou and watched this almost one-sided massacre.

They were actually somewhat happy in their hearts that these bandits were in trouble, but they became worried afterwards: where were these troops from? Would they come to rob their property after the battle?

Some volunteers rode on their war horses and found the anxious civilians hiding in the distance. They shouted loudly: "The volunteers are wiping out the bandits. There is no need to panic. We will not harm anyone. Just go home in peace!"

Having said that, without waiting for the other party to recover, he rode his horse back to regroup.

Hearing this voice, all the people were very happy. No one was harmed. Where did this benevolent and righteous army come from?

"Volunteers? Which unit is the Volunteers?"

After the information came confusion. The people looked at each other in bewilderment, having never heard of the name of this army.

"Oh! I remember now. This volunteer army seems to be the one that captured Yangzhou City a few days ago!"

Someone shouted.

"Ah!? Are the rebels and the bandits fighting?"

"Shut up, do you want to die?"

The common people watched the volunteers go away anxiously and collected the bodies of the bandits. As the old saying goes, it is not poverty that worries us, but insecurity. No matter how poor we are, we can at least have a way to survive. If we provoke the bandits, we may lose our lives.

In the eyes of the common people, this group of rebels who captured Yangzhou City seemed to have a completely different temperament from those other troops.