Accompanied by the dense sound of "rustling", Zamparini slowly marched forward to the beat of the military music. As the platoon commander, he stood at the head of the right platoon, with two loaded pistols hanging from the armed belt around his waist, a 32-year-old mechanical non-commissioned officer knife in his hand, a copper whistle around his neck, a cuirass on his body, and a helmet on his head, covering his body tightly. To his left was his old partner, An Dahai, who was also heavily armed, but with a 32-C flintlock rifle and a 41-year steel bayonet at his waist, standard infantry musketeers' equipment.

A few meters to the right of Zamparini, the artillery brothers were shouting and neighing several field guns to the front line. These are 8-pounder short-barreled howitzers, which can fire solid shells, explosive shells, grape shells, scattered bullets, and chain shells, and are sharp weapons in field combat. By this time, several artillery pieces had already been pushed to the front line, and the artillery soldiers were roasting the ground with fire, and at the same time using shovels and sapper shovels to quickly dig simple gun emplacements.

In this battle with the Qing army, artillery was the protagonist - in fact, the artillery of the people on the east coast was the protagonist in every major battle, and they mobilized a total of 20 field artillery pieces to accompany the infantry to fight. This kind of firepower is unique in Shandong, you must know that Ye Chen, who attacked Taiyuan in the Qing army, only had more than 30 red-coated cannons, and this kind of heavy artillery was extremely inconvenient to move, and it took a long time to reach the front line.

As the company deputy Gao Shan blew a sharp copper whistle, the troops stood in place and stopped. This is the front of the left flank of the battlefield, behind them are two infantry phalanxes arranged in a strict array, of which in front is the infantry battalion of the Eight Banners New Army, and behind is the five infantry squadrons of the Standing Force, which add up to more than 1,500 people. The officers and men of the Eight Banners Infantry Battalion wore helmets and armor and held 3.5-meter standard infantry spears, with an interval of one and a half meters between people. The queue is orderly and looks quite imposing. Half of them were armed with spears of different lengths, others such as the Shandan people were holding harpoons, bear hunting spears, broadswords, and foot bows, the Japanese samurai were holding katanas, and the Koreans were holding bird guns, anyway, they gave people a sense of chaos, so they were decisively transferred to the back by Mo Ming.

To the right of the 104th Company was a narrow artillery position, in which 20 large and small guns were placed in turn. The artillerymen unloaded the horses pulling the carts and urgently planted the artillery and loaded the ammunition. At the same time, a barbed wire fence was hastily pulled up in front of the artillery position, and a piece of thistle terrestris was sprinkled to protect it. On the right side of the artillery position is the 105th Company of the Army, and behind the 105th Company is another infantry battalion of the Eight Banners New Army, and behind the Eight Banners New Army are also five squadrons of advanced teams. Behind the artillery position was a large number of baggage vehicles, and at this time the men of the sergeant corps were unloading their horses. Then try to connect the carts end to end and form a ring formation.

That's it. At this time, there were about 4,600 troops on the east coast on the battlefield (including 1,000 soldiers). Furthermore. There are about 500 cavalry, more than 180 security scouts, and 1,500 soldiers in Anqiu County in the rear, who can be put into battle at any time.

The officer gave another order, and Zamparini carefully examined the primers in the pistol pot to make sure they hadn't been blown away by the wind. After checking the ammunition in the ammunition pack on his waist, the strip on the side of the barrel, and the bayonet on his waist. Zamparini looked indifferently at the battlefield ahead through the gap between the soldiers in the front row. It's not the first time he's fought with someone, and now he can deal with these scenes with a very indifferent mentality.

The drummers and trumpeters behind the artillery positions blew the march "Victory Belongs to the Army" for an unknown number of times, and the enemy in front of them was already faintly visible, and the officers standing on the side frequently raised their binoculars to observe the enemy's movements. The artillery has also begun calibrated test firing. Several intern staff officers from the artillery department of the Dingyuan Military Academy raised binoculars to observe the landing point of the shells, and at the same time re-adjusted the firing parameters of each artillery gun in combination with the landing point and the estimated wind speed.

The enemy's formation seemed to be a little chaotic, especially after several 12-pounder cannons were test-fired to a limit distance of more than 800 meters under the condition of strong charge, and there was a cry of surprise, their formation was obviously a little chaotic, but it was finally largely maintained under the strong suppression of the officers. The artillerymen stopped after the test firing, then adjusted the elevation angle of the artillery, loaded the projectile pack, projectile, and primer, and then quietly waited for the officer's order.

Although it was a sunny day today, the sun was still very small, hanging in the air like a faint fireball, and the temperature outside hovered around freezing. At this time, another cold wind blew, and Zamparini, who came from warm Italy, was a little uncomfortable, this ghost weather was too cold, especially when people stood here and couldn't move. However, his complaints did not last long, and as the rumbling cannons rang out, the battle was about to begin in earnest.

At a distance of six or seven hundred meters, four 12-pounder cannons were the first to fire! One of these heavy iron eggs was missed, but the other three all fell into the enemy's formation, and those who collided were either killed or wounded, plowing three bloody paths directly through the dense crowd. When did the Ming army of Zhang Ruxing's department see such a scene, many people hesitated for a moment, but under the shouts of the officers and the deterrence of the two thousand elite cavalry of the Tai division led by Li who supervised the battle in the rear, these people finally reluctantly continued to move forward. At this time, their speed was also much faster, after all, no one wanted to stay in place and be beaten slowly, but this also made their formation gradually chaotic and disjointed, and when the enemy army was in front of and behind the formation, I am afraid that they would have to stop and reorganize, otherwise they would not be able to enter the battle.

After the distance was closer, the 8-pounder cannons and 12-pounder howitzers joined the fight. Especially those short-barreled howitzers that fired explosive shells, the volley explosion of the shells caused huge casualties and psychological pressure on these former Ming soldiers. Although the explosive bombs of the people on the east coast were not very reliable, and the dud rate of the shells fired was as high as more than 60%, they still caused nearly 100 enemy casualties to the ground.

Zhang Ruxing's troops were immediately thrown into confusion in the face of an unprecedented and dense fire attack on the ground in the Far East. The artillery fire of the Yellow Thieves still loomed over their heads, and their casualties increased dramatically. Solid iron eggs, explosive bombs, and even chain bullets used to fight cavalry were smashed into their formation, and now they were still three or four hundred meters away from the infantry of those hateful yellow-clothed thieves, but their two-thousand-strong force had already suffered more than three hundred and thirty casualties, and some soldiers at the edge of the array could not bear such high casualties, and began to run into the field regardless of the officer's command. Under their leadership, more soldiers began to flee, and their formation quickly collapsed.

"Less than 20% of the casualties were dispersed, and Zhang Ruxing's gang is getting worse and worse." Mo Ming, who was riding on a war horse, held up the telescope and said, "But Li Shutai actually used these new annexes as cannon fodder, two thousand people, hehe, it's ruthless enough." ”

"If 20% of the casualties still persist and do not disperse, then it is not an ancient army. With these undertrained and demoralized Zhang Ruxing's guards, it's not that I look down on them, and now it's already surprising that they can form a complete military formation. Mao Desheng also put down the binoculars and looked ahead. The artillery was still firing non-stop, the trend of the 2,000 men of Zhang Ruxing's division was becoming more and more difficult to contain, and the officers had given up their plans to regroup. Li led the 2,000 cavalry troops of the Han Army Banner of the Tai Department who supervised the battle in the rear and there was also some commotion, although Zhang Ruxing's troops were unbearable, but they did not expect them to be defeated so quickly and so badly.

More than 20 minutes later, the 2,000 people of Zhang Ruxing's division had broken up from the two wings to the rear, and then they were successively contained by the soldiers and generals sent by Li Shuotai, and after removing the killed, trampled on each other on the way to disperse, and fled to the wilderness, there were still more than 1,200 people left in the 2,000 people of Zhang Ruxing's department, and many of them lost their weapons, and their spirits were also hit a lot, and their morale was so low that they could not be regained, at least today they could no longer fight.

Zamparini looked at the enemy army in front of him with some ease, and at the same time felt some sympathy in his heart. In that position, in the face of the bombardment of so many large and small caliber artillery, although it will not collapse like them, he is not sure how many percent of the battle will be lost before he can hold on, this is a cruel topic.

The officer's command sounded again, and the musketeers in the first row raised their guns in unison. Zamparini looked ahead through the gap and saw that the enemy's cavalry had moved. They moved in turn and in batches from their original positions, and then slowly accelerated, rushing towards the army of the people on the east bank. However, judging by their stance, it seems that they do not intend to smash the heavily defended front of the East Coasters - Zhang Ruxing has already completed the task of testing the firepower well, but is preparing to make a detour from the side.

The Army Musketeers, who had been preparing to shoot while retreating into the spear formation, were disappointed and a little glad. However, at the sound of the officer's command, they were led by the platoon commanders and soon got into the spear formation, ready to shoot at the cavalry who might be rushing towards them. Liu Zhong, the standard commander of the Eight Banners New Army, stood in front of the formation and shouted to destroy these "Manchu pseudo-flags", while ordering the soldiers on the outermost layer to insert the handle of the spear diagonally into the ground, the tip of the spear pointed obliquely forward, and the soldiers behind put the spear on the shoulder of the person in front of him in turn, forming a hedgehog formation.

The infantry of the two phalanxes of the Qing army kept their place while containing the scattered soldiers of Zhang Ruxing's troops. They know that they can't win this battle today, so there is no need to make unnecessary sacrifices. (To be continued......)