Two years ago, during the armistice negotiations in Yangzhou, after that contest with Dolgon.

Wu Zheng has been thinking about how to maximize the advantages of the musketeers, so that they can also face the Tartar Iron Cavalry head-on when they are unfavorable.

Not to mention, I thought too much, there are no good ideas that work, but I come up with a lot of crooked ideas.

Seize this rare opportunity to conduct an actual combat training for the soldiers of the second guard, this is Wu Zheng's real intention, in fact, the river behind the defense line, has already collected no less than 100 ferries, how can there be the possibility of a fart "fighting against the water"?

In Wu Zheng's view, even if he is in a desperate situation, he will never learn the tragedy of the overlord, this is his character.

Accompanied by the continuous gunfire like fried beans, the invincible iron horseman continued to have fallen off the horse, although the number was not much, but it was enough to shock people's hearts.

The iron cavalry, which was inferior to the sword and gun, actually fell off the horse in a single salvo, which already accounted for 20% of the feint attack on the iron cavalry.

This scene made the enemy panic a little.

Could it be that the Northern Expeditionary Army has a secret weapon?

Of course not!

In fact, the mystery of Wu Zheng's tactics this time lies in the trench of the defensive line.

When the soldiers were digging a trench, they piled up a large amount of excavated earth and stones on the enemy's side of the trench, and piled up as much as they dug out, and then left a one-foot-wide firing buttress on the piled earth, like a battlement on a city wall.

In this way, the upper, middle and lower orders are formed.

The soldiers were divided into three groups, standing in the trench, half-kneeling between the trench and the earthwork, and lying on the earth, but the firing surface formed was almost at the same height.

In other words, almost three shooting positions were compressed into one and a half shooting positions, which indirectly caused twice the shooting intensity.

Of course, the density of bullets is also unable to effectively kill the iron horseman.

However, the density of bullets can effectively kill the war horse, to be precise, shoot at the leg of the war horse.

This is also the reason why the soldiers had to be within 50 paces before braving the enemy's dense arrows to block the attack.

An arrow fifty paces away can pierce a solid plank half a foot thick, but not a few feet of earth.

Even a longbow that was fired could not hit the officers and soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army who were leaning on the trenches and earthworks.

However, the legs of the iron cavalry cannot be covered, which is also a variation of the role of the sickle hook gun and the ground knife when the Southern Song Dynasty army resisted the Northern cavalry.

At the very least, muskets avoided the danger of throwing soldiers under the hooves of their horses.

The speed of the iron cavalry was relatively slow, far less than that of the rangers, and after the second round of gunfire, no less than ten iron horsemen fell from their horses, so the remaining enemy horsemen, about twenty paces ahead of the earthwork, drew an arc to the left and right, and retreated.

The crossbowmen behind the iron horseman, having lost the protection of the iron horseman, also hurriedly retreated.

But the battle was not over and entered the second half.

The rangers, who originally protected the left and right wings of the Iron Cavalry, entered the effective combat area here.

Compared to the slowness and heaviness of the iron hooves, the ranger can jump over the trench, which means that the trench has little effect on the light rider.

When the iron cavalry retreated, the soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army quickly retracted the trench and earthwork, and began to load, allowing the two rangers to easily cross the trench and break through the first line of defense.

After the enemy cavalry crossed, the officers and men of the Northern Expeditionary Army quickly turned around and fired from behind the enemy cavalry.

The slight defects of the cavalry, at this time were infinitely magnified.

Everyone knows that no matter how powerful the cavalry is, when it rushes rapidly, it cannot quickly turn the direction and turn back, especially the group of cavalry, can only draw an arc to the left and right to adjust the direction, or slowly reduce the speed to adjust the direction, otherwise, they will collide with each other and collapse without a fight.

But often in field battles, the defenders attacked by the cavalry did not have the opportunity to seize this defect, and were invisibly covered up by the cavalry's collision potential.

But Wu Zheng was prepared to fight, deliberately grasped this defect, and then used earthwork and trenches to magnify this defect.

So, these two hundred light horsemen, this can only be slaughtered by others. The first and second lines of defense, after three volleys, between the two lines of defense, there was no enemy still on horseback.

Annihilated!

……。

After this tentative feint.

The enemy did not attack again that day.

The two sides confronted each other within a recognizable distance to the naked eye.

But at dawn the next day, the ugliest thing of the battle happened.

In the city of Pizhou, the Tartars captured no less than 1,000 people overnight, strung them with ropes, and drove them towards the first line of defense.

The entire battlefield was filled with the mournful cries and wails of the Han people.

It's a shame.

Now, it's really out of the question.

Wu Zheng could only order a voluntary retreat, and in just half an hour, he lost two lines of defense in a row.

In other words, if you withdraw again, you will have to swim in the river with the whole army.

"The prince can't retreat!" Lu Zhiyu anxiously persuaded, "Once our army retreats across the Zhihe, the Tartars rush southward, and the newly recovered Suqian will be lost, not to mention the life and death of the eight hundred soldiers who defended the city, just say that the Tartars have tasted the sweetness this time, and then take the people of Suqian to repeat today's events, I am afraid that our army will not have to fight again in the future, and simply retreat all the way to Wusong." ”

Wu Zheng is really embarrassed, how can he not understand the truth that Lu Zhiyu said?

But the problem is that if this order really comes out of his own mouth, then in this life, he will have to live in the spittle of the world.

It's not a matter of dying in a war, and neither is it a matter of dying civilians.

But if thousands of innocent people are shot to death, I am afraid that only a demon can give such an order, and Wu Zheng thinks that he can't do it!

"Order, retreat to the east coast!" Wu Zheng said in a deep voice with a straight face.

Lu Zhiyu was anxious, "Lord Wang...... If we retreat to the east bank, the Tartars will drive the people across the river, how will we deal with it? ”

How to deal with it?

God knows!

Wu Zheng cursed viciously in his stomach for dozens of generations of the Aixin family.

……。

But human nature is often not the most vicious, only more vicious.

The third voluntary retreat of the Northern Expeditionary Army had no way to retreat, and all the soldiers got on the boat to prepare to cross the river, and those who could not get on the boat also climbed the side of the boat to prepare to swim across the river.

It stands to reason that this should be called the heart of the Tartars.

But when the Tartars saw the inevitable chaos that occurred when the Northern Expeditionary Army retreated, they were evil from the side of their hearts!

They, charged!

Tactically speaking, this is undoubtedly the biggest gain.

Confusion can occur in any army when retreating, especially when boarding a boat to cross a river.

There are few actions that can be regulated.

Take advantage of his illness and ask for his life. Wu Zheng also often said this.

But the problem is that there are thousands of innocent people in front of the Tartar Iron Horse.

What happens when the people are strung with ropes and the Tartar iron riders suddenly charge?

You don't have to think about it to know .......

It's a hell on earth!

Inhumane slaughter, frenzied trampling, bloody, ugly, unsightly, heinous bloody and ugly.