Although the breastwork built by the forward troops of the First Army was only more than two meters and less than a zhang high, it was not easy for the Ming Army to climb over, because there were still soldiers of the First Infantry Corps who were waiting for the battle at the other end.

If the two sides fought against the chest wall, the Ming army outside the chest could only raise their spears and bayonets, and they could only attack the heads of the Tang soldiers above the shoulders.

However, the soldiers of the Tang Army above the breastwork were able to calmly condescend to kill the enemy.

In addition, a key point is that the Datang Army is now a large-scale replacement of plate armor, and the first step of the corps has completed the reorganization, and it is natural to replace the plate armor with homeopathy.

Even the original light-armored spearmen and light-armored sword and shield soldiers are also equipped with the original cotton iron armor or iron armor, after all, these are also armor, and the Tang Army has not been extravagant enough to throw away these replaced armors directly, but gave these cotton iron armor and iron armor to the original light armor spearmen, light armor sword and shield soldiers.

In other words, in fact, the spearmen, swords and shields in the fully integrated units in the Tang Army are already all heavy armor troops.

Even musketeers and archers will be equipped with busts or cuirass, depending on the situation, for example, in defensive battles that do not require frequent maneuvering.

This is the case with the first corps of the forward troops, whose armor ratio is far higher than that of the Ming army on the opposite side!

If it weren't for the fact that both sides had entered the age of firearms, but were still in the era of cold weapons, the First Infantry Corps would have been able to kill the 30,000 Ming troops in front of them just by relying on these armors.

It's a pity that the current armor, even if it's plate armor, plays a secondary role on the battlefield, after all, armor can't stop shells, not even bullets!

But in the current hand-to-hand combat stage, armor still plays an irreplaceable and important role!

The geographical advantage, coupled with the armor advantage, as well as the physical fitness and combat skills of the soldiers of the Tang Army, are indeed much higher than those of the soldiers of the Ming Army!

That's why there is such a huge casualty exchange ratio!

And this kind of tragic casualties, but also the first time to make the two guards of the new army heart shaken, the front row of soldiers are all dead, the rear of the Ming soldiers looked at the dense corpses in front of them, for a while they did not dare to step forward, and then they did not know who began to turn around and run away, but in less than a minute, the Ming army of these two guards was chaotic and even collapsed!

Then, like the previous local military trainers, they were defeated in front of the Datang Army, and they all wished that their parents gave them two legs!

Looking at the new army of Governor Biao who was rushing away, Wang Chaohong on the top of the mountain showed a sneer at the corner of his mouth: "Governor Zhang Yue, that's it!" ”

However, even though he said this, the first line of defense, the few front-line officers who had just experienced a battle, were still apprehensive!

The First Infantry Corps is a veteran ace unit of the Tang Army, and it has naturally fought a lot of battles, but it is the first time that it has encountered such a fierce opponent.

In the hand-to-hand combat just now, although the opponent was repulsed, the Tang army also paid a lot of price!

In this round of defensive operations, the total casualties of the Tang Army of all units were no less than 400 people!

A small number of them died in the shelling of the enemy, some in the throwing of bows and arrows from the enemy, some in the musket fire, and some in hand-to-hand combat.

Although they killed and wounded more Ming soldiers, the total strength of the Ming army was large, a total of 30,000 people, and their forward troops were only more than 5,000 people, and there were 800 cavalry who were not here, and there were also hundreds of artillery and hundreds of soldiers of the baggage troops who could not participate in these hand-to-hand combat.

The combat infantry that can fight on the front line is actually only 3,000 people of the First Infantry Corps.

And just after the first battle, the first corps suffered 300 casualties, accounting for three-quarters of all casualties of the forward troops.

That's a lot of casualties.

What's more, if you come a few more times, your first regiment will probably be consumed alive by the enemy.

Several officers of the First Infantry Corps had heavy faces and palpitations, but Cheng Hongan of the Ming Army was so dark that he was about to eat people.

He didn't expect that the two new armies of Wei Du Biao, who had high hopes for him, were still defeated from the front of the puppet Tang thief army, and they suffered heavy casualties!

Because the new army of the Governor has a higher will to fight, and its ability to bear casualties is also higher, so that they can rush to the chest wall to fight hand-to-hand, but in this way, their casualties have risen in a straight line, especially in the final hand-to-hand combat stage, thousands of people have fallen directly!

In the charge stage, they originally suffered no less than 1,000 casualties, but because of the large number of total troops, the proportion of casualties was about 10 percent, and the proportion of casualties was barely bearable for the new army of the superintendent, but after rushing to the low wall on the opposite side, instead of being able to rush in directly, they suffered huge casualties in a very short time, and this kind of casualties were no longer what the new army of the superintendent could bear.

If it weren't even for the fact that it happened for a short time, and it didn't give the soldiers on the front line much time to react, I'm afraid they would have collapsed long ago.

And the consequence of this is that the more than 5,000 new troops who went out to fight only came back with more than 2,000 people, which means that half of the troops have fallen in front of the puppet Tang thief army!

In addition, the 3,000 local training troops who fought together were not as good as there, and hundreds of people were killed and wounded.

The total number of casualties reached almost three thousand!

If you add in the three waves of offensive in the previous three waves of casualties, Cheng Hongan's troops have already killed and wounded 6,000 troops in this small mountain!

However, after paying such heavy casualties, the position of the puppet Tang thief army on the opposite hill is still standing there!

At this time, a civilian official beside him who looked like a staff member said: "My lord, you can't fight anymore, if you continue to fight, all the brothers will have to die here, and they are all our soldiers!" ”

At this time, a young civil official who had just come back and was still covered in blood did not care about the dignity of the official, and cried on the spot: "It's over, there is no one out of ten children who go out to fight, how should this official explain to his hometown father!" ”

"And this is all the official's fault!"

"Today, this official has no face to face his parents in his hometown, and he can only apologize with death!"

Then he suddenly pulled out the long knife on his waist, and wiped it directly towards his neck!

Instantly, a bloody arrow splattered from this person's neck, and it was too late for others to stop it, and those who begged for death couldn't stop it.

Looking at the subordinates who killed themselves in front of him, Cheng Hongan's body trembled slightly!

He knew, and even was very familiar with, this young civil official, and even his third son, Wang Bingquan, an old friend of the same year, served as the post of a thousand households in the left guard under Cheng Hongan, and was awarded the title of governor.

Wang Bingquan's Qianhu, like other new army commanders, was also recruited by him in his hometown, from soldiers to low-level officers, they were all his fellow villagers or even his clan, and the hundred households under his command and the middle-level officers such as Zongqi were all his relatives, friends, sons and nephews, and even his own cousins and cousins.

In the battle just now, his thousand households were almost wiped out, and all the sons and nephews of those hundred households and Zongqi were killed, and most of the soldiers of the same clan and township were also killed, and less than one-tenth of them escaped alive.

The father of his hometown handed over his children to him, because he wanted to follow him to get a half-official position, in order to earn a salary to support his family, but now they are all dead in this barren mountain and wilderness.

He couldn't explain it to his hometown elders at all!

He had no choice but to die!

Looking at him who was no longer breathing, Cheng Hongan took several deep breaths in a row before he said: "Restrain well, this official will personally fold the seal for him!" ”

After speaking, he looked at the group of subordinates under his hands who had no fighting spirit, and then sighed and said, "Collect the troops!" ”

After saying this, he felt like he was a teenager old!

Wang Bingquan, who killed himself before, is not what he looks like!

His former army, to some extent, is an enlarged version of Wang Bingquan's thousand households!

The Wei Commander and the thousands of households under his command, most of whom are also his relatives, friends, sons and nephews, suffered such a fiasco today, with heavy casualties, he himself didn't know how to explain to his relatives and friends!

After instructing his staff and several other subordinates to start organizing the retreat of the army, he took out a pen and paper in the tent of the Chinese army, and first wrote a letter to his teacher.

In the letter, he wrote the details of the battle, and said that he was ready to lead his army north, and the success or failure of this trip was unpredictable, but he would do his best to bring the remaining 20,000 troops to Changsha!

At the end of the writing, he thought about it, and then added another sentence temporarily: "In the humble opinion of the disciples, the thief army guards the city and is better at field warfare!" ”

After writing the letter to Zhang Yue, he wrote another letter to send to the defenders in Changsha, on the one hand, to report the battle situation, and on the other hand, he also hoped that Changsha could send troops to meet one or two!

After writing these two letters in a row, he still had no intention of stopping the pen, but took out another piece of letter paper and put pen to paper......

He is going to send a letter to Wang Bingquan's father, his best friend, to inform Wang Bingquan of the news, and at the same time, it can be regarded as a plea!

His friend entrusted his son to him, expecting to be able to take this opportunity to win a career for his son, but he would think that a battle would be gone.

To this day, he still remembers that his old friend personally handed over this young man to him, and said with a smile that his three sons were stubborn and asked him to discipline him more in the future.

This letter, he wrote very hard, the words were repeatedly considered, and after writing it, he sighed twice in a row!

After writing this letter, he still did not finish, and took out new stationery and began to write the last few letters, which were different from other letters, but letters he wrote to his family.

One is for the second brother who is an official in Shandong.

One is for the old mother at home.

One is for his eldest son who has just been admitted to Xiucai!

But after these three letters were written, they were not sent away immediately by Cheng Hongan like other letters, but were collected and put away personally, because this is not an ordinary family letter, but a suicide note!

When he was about to send someone to send away these three suicide notes, it was when he was defeated and died!