The intuition of those Ming soldiers who saw the mines was not wrong, because in the next moment, these ignition ropes continued to detonate the mines, and suddenly more than 20 huge clouds of smoke and dust rose violently in the Ming army's array, and the explosion sound was even louder than the loud sound of artillery firing!

And the power is not comparable to that of a mere solid ball shell or a grenade.

These mines are said to be mines, but in fact they are an iron powder bag with a charge of more than ten catties, although it is said that limited by technology, the explosive power of gunpowder in this era cannot be compared with various explosives in later generations, but so many gunpowder explosions, the power is also quite huge, not only has a shock wave, but also these large mines explode at the same time, they will also spray shrapnel outward, which will cause more serious damage!

A six-inch howitzer in later generations is enough to sweep the entire football field-sized place, and the Tang Army's large-sized mine, which was used on the battlefield for the first time, although the gunpowder power is relatively small, but the quality is not good, so the explosive power of this super-large mine is still quite large.

More than 20 large mines exploded one after another, causing heavy casualties in the Ming army array, especially the small phalanx of the Ming army in the center of the explosion, and almost the more than 100 people in the entire phalanx were collectively reimbursed, and there were no bones.

Such a violent explosion and such heavy casualties inevitably caused the shaking of the Ming army's formation!

Not to mention ordinary soldiers, even those high-ranking generals of the Ming army were at a loss for a while, because this way of fighting was beyond their cognition.

In their opinion, the battle should be like this: their own side with absolute superiority in strength to advance preliminarily, although the process of advancing will inevitably be bombarded by the artillery of the pseudo-Tang thief army, but this kind of casualties are controllable, and it is also something that their own side can bear, and when the bowl-mouth artillery in front of them advances to about 100 meters, they will open fire, and at the same time, the archers will come forward to shoot, and kill and injure a large number of pseudo-Tang thief troops in the mode of arrow rain covering.

However, the soldiers rushed forward with spears and swords and shields!

At this time, the fragile phalanx of the puppet Tang thief army will inevitably collapse, after all, they have too few troops, and although the musket is easy to use, but at a distance of only 100 meters, when their own side rushes over at high speed, they will only fight two or three rounds at most.

After your own soldiers rush forward, you will be able to defeat the puppet Tang thief army in one fell swoop, and in this way, a great victory will be in the bag!

However, this is obviously their wishful thinking, the Tang Army and the Ming Army have fought many times, and they have long known these routines of the Ming Army Guards, so the Tang Army is also focusing on the development of medium and long-range firepower, not to mention a large number of field artillery, but also generally equipped with two-pound shotguns with an effective range of 150 meters, and at the same time, division-level troops have also begun to be equipped with heavier, but more powerful three-pound shotguns.

The three-pound shotgun is not only more powerful, but also has an effective firing range of 200 meters.

If the Ming army did not have an absolute superiority in strength and the ability to withstand huge casualties, it would actually be difficult to rush from 500 meters to the front of the Ming army of the Tang Dynasty in a head-to-head confrontation.

Because in the middle and long distance of 500 meters to 100 meters, the Ming army, which was not equipped with high-power artillery, could only be passively beaten!

And the crucial point is that at this distance, it is difficult for the Ming army to charge, and they move very slowly.

The soldiers of the Ming army in this era, let alone the army, even in the troops of the Tang Army, there are a large number of soldiers wearing heavy armor, these soldiers and spearmen are very lacking in mobility, it is basically impossible to charge at a distance of about 100 meters, and it is best to launch a final charge at a distance of 20 to 30 meters.

That is to say, at a distance of 100 to 500 meters between the two sides, the side with weak artillery power will suffer more casualties one-sidedly, and it will be multiple rounds of continuous killing, resulting in a large number of casualties and a collapse of morale.

If the artillery is strong enough, the artillery bombardment alone can completely kill and casualize the combat effectiveness of an infantry phalanx of the opponent in the process of advancing.

For example, if an infantry unit of the Tang Army withstands two or three rounds of solid-ball shells in a dense and thick formation, the casualties of the entire infantry team will often exceed one-third.

If it is an infantry battalion, then it will not be able to withstand multiple rounds of shelling!

Because excessive casualties will inevitably cause the collapse of the troops!

Those who can continue to attack even with more than 30 percent of the casualties are the most elite troops in this era without exception, and in the entire Tang Army, only a small number of troops of the First Infantry Division, or more precisely, only the First Infantry Corps can do it.

However, if the casualty rate is increased to 50 percent, then the first corps will still collapse, and there are very few troops in the modern army that can continue to attack despite 50% casualties, and the only ones are all elite units that are famous in the history of human warfare, such as Napoleon's Guard.

In addition, the above ratio does not apply to an army armed with a state, a nation, or all kinds of chaotic ideas, but only to an army armed with interests as the core bond.

Otherwise, if you use the old Japanese army from the Meiji Restoration to World War II, the German SS during World War II, the Soviet Army during World War II, and other armies armed with spirit, and the modern army formed with interests as the core link, there is no comparison, because the two are not the same era or even the same nature of the product.

The Tang Army is like this, so the Ming army on the opposite side, and it is also a guard soldier, then the performance is even more unbearable.

When the continuous large mine exploded, the Ming army's array was full of dead and wounded, and even the wide and dense formation appeared with many small holes, and the sudden heavy casualties directly broke the backbone of this Ming army.

They stopped and began to look around blankly, with panic and bewildered expressions on their faces, because most of the soldiers of the Ming army knew what was going on, even those generals didn't know either.

They didn't know what was going on, they didn't know if they would get a more horrific blow if they kept going, or even if they would get this almost devastating blow if they stayed where they were.

So, after a short pause, these Ming troops retreated as violently as the tide!

Of course, although it was blown up by a mine, the retreat of the Ming army was self-organized, so it could not be said to collapse, but it would soon collapse completely.

At this time, Gu Shizhong also seized this rare opportunity, and he directly ordered the lightly armed soldiers in the army, that is, the soldiers without armor, to advance quickly.

He didn't want to give the retreating Ming troops on the opposite side any chance to regain their foothold, as long as the pressure of continuous pursuit was maintained, these Ming troops on the opposite side would collapse sooner or later.

So, in the middle of the queue, many musketeers, archers, armorless swords, shieldmen, and spearmen began to trot forward to pursue the retreating Ming army!

At this time, Gu Shizhong sighed a little: "If there is a cavalry at this time, how good it would be, not more, as long as you give me five hundred cavalry, then this official will definitely be able to completely defeat the Ming army in front of you!" ”

In the face of the enemy who has retreated and is even about to collapse, if there is a cavalry behind to cover the killing, then it will definitely be a fruitful battle, and it is a very high probability to completely defeat the enemy army.

Because in this kind of frontal field warfare, in fact, the mass casualties do not occur in the frontal battle of the infantry of both sides, but in the pursuit phase after the collapse of one of the sides.

And there is nothing better for such a task than a light cavalry!

It's a pity that there are not too many cavalry in his provisional fourth regiment, only a team and more than 50 cavalry, and these cavalry are only regimental cavalry in the Tang Army sequence, not cavalry in regular cavalry battalions.

In the Tang Army, there are two classifications of cavalry, one is the regimental reconnaissance cavalry, which is mainly assigned to various regiment-level units, and has two main tasks, one is responsible for forward reconnaissance, and the other is a very important task to act as a rapid messenger.

The other kind of cavalry is the regular cavalry in each cavalry battalion, which usually shoulders the task of reconnaissance and patrol on the periphery on a daily basis, and on the battlefield is the mobile strength of the troops, and is put into battle at the most critical moment, attacking the flank of the enemy army and covering up the enemy army that has been defeated.

Although it is said that these two types of cavalry are equipped with long-pole muskets, short-pole muskets, sabers and other equipment, the reason why these two classifications appear is because the quality gap between the horses and cavalry of the two sides is relatively large.

Generally speaking, the horses in the cavalry battalion are of the best quality, and they are all Mongolian horses or carefully selected southwestern horses, while the horses of the regimental reconnaissance cavalry are ordinary southwestern horses.

The same is true for the quality of cavalry, only the best cavalry can be selected for the cavalry battalion, and the poorer cavalry will serve in the reconnaissance cavalry first, and only if they perform well will they be transferred to the cavalry battalion to serve.

This can be regarded as an innovative model for the cultivation and training of cavalry troops by the Tang Army, after all, the Tang Dynasty was in war period, and the demand for cavalry was very large, and how many cavalry would be sent to the battlefield.

However, if the novice cavalry with poor quality is sent to the battlefield and let them directly play the brutal cavalry charge, then the loss will be too great, so they will be sent to the reconnaissance cavalry battalion for training for a period of time, and then transferred to the cavalry battalion to serve.

In fact, in other words, the reconnaissance cavalry directly under each regiment is actually a cavalry training unit, which is just training in actual combat.