Sleepless nights. The next day, guarded by tens of thousands of troops, the emperor's royal chariot left the fortress.

All the way north. The farther north they went, the more solemn the expressions of the Qing troops who once seemed to be fierce became, and they even looked panicked.

After all, everyone knows that the further north. The easier it is to encounter the Ming army. For these soldiers who are the emperor's imperial guards. Of course, they did not think that one day they would need to go to the front in person. Fight with the Ming army with real guns.

However, now that even their master, the emperor, has gone to the front, how can they not go?

Despite the panic. But they can also only advance northward step by step. And prayed in his heart, praying that he could save his life in the next battle.

The journey was safe and there were no accidents.

Three days later, Xuan Ye's imperial camp arrived at the Kurdai frontier. The imperial guards, who had been looking panicked, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

By this time, the Kurdai in the valley had gathered more than 20,000 troops, and the army was centered on the fortress on the mountainside, and the surrounding defense was built in layers.

And in front of the fortress, it was already covered with the positions of the Ming army. This is the front line of the confrontation between the armies of the two sides.

After a short rest, Xuan Ye came to the top of the fortress and checked the enemy situation through the binocular. Observing the deployment of the Ming army, but seeing that the Ming army had built simple fortifications several miles away, the front of the fortifications was also full of deer ditches, and their positions were surrounded like copper walls.

The scene in front of him made Xuan Ye can't help but admire.

"Well, these generals of the Ming army may not all have the talent to govern the army, but they all have a clear eye when they start fighting, and when they use their troops to march, from the generals to the soldiers, they all fight according to their tactical combat principles, and there is no chaos, which makes it difficult for people to take advantage of the gaps. No matter what the generals are, but they can be down-to-earth and meticulous in their work, which is really intimidating! ”

Dealing with the Ming army for so many years, for the Ming army, Xuan Ye has his own understanding, in his opinion, the Ming army does not have many famous generals, their generals are neither good at using strange, nor good at risk, the biggest feature is that they are steady, down-to-earth, meticulous in combat, but the more so, the more difficult it is to deal with, because whether it is training or ordnance, the Qing army is far from being able to compare with them, and the Ming army is relying on the advantages of training and firearms, meticulous attack, attack, The Qing army was no match for them at all, even if there were times when the Qing army wanted to take risks and sneak into its rear, but they had to face their consolidated rear positions. It's simply invulnerable.

This is precisely the helplessness of the Qing army. Even if they want to use trickery and trickery, they will do everything possible to set traps. In the face of such an opponent who always fights steadily, the so-called tricks are naturally useless. It doesn't even work at all.

"Your Majesty, today's Ming army, is not yesterday's Ming army, the Ming country has been peaceful for 20 years, and its children are born and comfortable, all of them are good and evil, the minister has calculated, ten years ago, the Ming army marched up to 80 miles a day, and now it is only fifty miles, which shows that its soldiers are used to a good life, so the endurance has been greatly inferior to the past, and its soldiers are addicted to pleasure, and they are all greedy for life and afraid of death, and they must be vulnerable."

Suo Etu's words made Feiyangu speak on the side.

"That's not necessarily the case, the Ming Kingdom may have been peaceful for 20 years, and the people enjoy peace, but it is not necessarily all greedy for life and afraid of death, and the Ming army has advanced weapons, and it is difficult for ordinary enemies to be enemies with only the advantage of weapons."

For the Qing Kingdom, what they have felt most over the years is probably that the guns of the Ming Dynasty are sharp. Even over the years, they summed it up, and the final result was that the key reason for their repeated defeats was that their guns were not as sharp as those of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, this excuse sounds comfortable to everyone, and they are willing to admit it. If the instrument is not as good as the person, it is better than the power is not as good as the person.

"Did we bring our rifled guns?"

Xuan Ye didn't pay attention to their differences, but asked directly.

Feiyangu hurriedly replied.

"Back to the master, the fifty-eight rifled guns carried by our army have all been arranged, and the firing range is more than ten miles. As soon as our artillery opens, these earthen camps of the Ming army will be wiped out in an instant. ”

For the Manchu Qing Dynasty, in the past ten years, they have been trying to imitate the Ming Dynasty's rifled guns and rifled guns, but limited by the technical level, until now, they still have not produced qualified rifled guns, the reason is because of the limitations of processing equipment, the Manchu production and rifled guns have been high defective rate, resulting in high costs, coupled with the inability to ensure the consistency of the caliber of the guns, so until now the rifled guns are still only a small amount of equipment.

However, rifled guns are easier to produce than rifled guns. Moreover, they produce front-loading rifled guns, but because of cost and other reasons, the production of rifled guns is also limited.

Although the number was limited, for the Qing army, rifled artillery was still their killer weapon. It is still at the heart of their victory.

"Compared with artillery, we will definitely not be able to compare with the Ming army!"

Even with rifled guns. Xuan Ye also knew very well that even if the Qing Dynasty was in artillery, it would not be able to catch up with the Ming Dynasty in ten years.

Pointing to the valley in front of him, Xuan Ye said to Feiyangu.

"There, if the Ming army wants to attack it, it must attack from the valley, when they attack, let them in first, and then bomb them with rifled cannons, block the valley, close the door and beat the dogs."

Before Xuan Ye could speak again, an explosion suddenly sounded in the distance, although the explosion sounded far away, it still made everyone nervous. Dozens of imperial guards gathered around Xuan Ye, looking nervously left and right.

The nervousness of the guards made Xuan Ye laugh.

"Hey, look at your nervousness, the Ming army is coming? Look, they're miles away. At most, this is just a temptation of the Ming army. ”

He as an emperor. It is very clear that the cannonballs that came at this time are definitely not coming at him, and the cannons are still so far away, as the emperor, he must maintain the momentum of the Son of Heaven. You can't be as flustered as these people, what kind of system.

Xuan Ye is right, the Ming army is indeed tempting.

The tentative offensive, and even the attacking troops, did not line up in a horizontal line. In fact, as early as the Western Expedition, the Ming army had already determined the basic principle of attacking the fortress - the skirmish line attack. Instead of lining up for the enemy to shoot at.

Although the skirmish line could not form dense firepower, it could minimize casualties. In the midst of this offensive temptation. The skirmish line can at least protect itself to the maximum.

Although the red military uniform has always been the symbol of the Ming army, in the earthy yellow mountains, the red is extremely eye-catching, like a moving flame, jumping from valley to valley.

Overhead, the bullets whistled by, a hundred feet apart, everyone knew that the smoothbore wanted to hit the target at this distance, unless God blessed, but despite this, Wang Dong still cautiously walked forward, instead of standing up straight and running.

That way, you will die quickly!

With his experience in the southwestern mountains, after each section of his advance, Wang Dong would rely on a stone, try to hide behind the stone, and then aim his gun at the enemy.

The muzzle of the gun spit out a puff of white smoke, and when the white smoke dissipated, he saw that the bullet he shot pierced into the body of the Qing army who was shooting, and the red top of the man did not fly there, with a bare head, holding a flintlock gun in his hand, after being shot, his head shook, and the tail of the mouse behind his head also shook, and then he fell.

Call!

With a long breath, Wang Dong's heart did not swell with the pleasure of killing the enemy. Instead, he became more cautious. Didn't show any excitement about killing enemies. He knew that the battle had only just begun, and that he had to be as cautious as possible at this time.

Once careless, there will definitely be a price to pay when the time comes. That price could be your name.

Lying behind the stone, facing the sky, and clamping the fire gun in his leg, Wang Dong took out the bullet from the cartridge box on his waist.

Bite through the tail of the paper bullet, pour the gunpowder into the gun, then erect the gun, shake it, and only then ram the gunpowder with the loading rod and stuff the projectile again. Lying there is time-consuming, but safe. At this time, protecting one's own safety is often more important than speed.

Finally, after several leaps forward, Wang Dong advanced to a distance of only ten zhang from the enemy's defense line, at this time, he could even see the appearance of the Qing army, many of them looked like Semu people, most of them were very young, but they were eighteen or nineteen years old. They were shouting and desperately pulling and shooting, trying to block their attack with guns, as for the artillery in the rear, they kept bombarding the front, and bursts of shotguns passed by them like raindrops, but with the half-human-sized stones, they did not pose any threat to Wang Dong, only some comrades were unlucky enough to hit the flying shotguns, and then fell softly and fell in the snow.

Seeing that the artillery of the Qing army was being loaded from the gap, Wang Dong immediately picked up the firearm, aimed at a Qing army, and then pulled the trigger, and in an instant, the person's brain was like a watermelon that fell to the ground, and it shattered, and the white and red ones scattered.

Then, Wang Dong hid behind the stone again, and when he reloaded, he could even hear the sound of the stone behind him being hit by a gun, and a swarm of guns kept falling on the stone, Wang Dong did not move, but looked around. Look at the position of the comrades.

Yang Sen arrived, Zhang Yue also arrived, and ......

Looking at his comrades-in-arms, with their heads bowed and their waists bent, they jumped to a place only thirty or forty meters away from the enemy with the help of the protection of obstacles such as stones and shallow pits. Wang Dong shouted loudly.

"Has the captain arrived?"

"Not yet, it's going to be pressed behind."

"Then wait a little longer!"

"When you see an opportunity, let it go, cover the behind!"

On the battlefield, their shouts did not spread far, but they fell into the ears of the Qing army, and those Qing soldiers turned their guns one after another, trying to clean up these guys who were close at hand, and even they threw up grenades, trying to suppress the Ming army with grenades and drive them back.

For a while, grenades exploded around Wang Dong and others from time to time, but because they were all lying on the ground as much as possible, the grenades of the Qing army did not have any impact on them. And the Qing army's attention to them created opportunities for the comrades-in-arms who were attacking in the rear. Soon, more and more brothers rushed to the front, they all bent down, their heads and faces pressed tightly to the ground, dodging the oncoming bullets, rushed to Wang Dong's side of the squadron leader, regardless of the rain of bullets, he looked at the Qing army.

With a "whoosh", a bullet flew almost to his head, but he seemed to have no reaction and gestured at the nearby brothers.

There was no loud shouting, just a gesture, and these fighters, who had been trained rigorously, immediately understood what the squadron leader meant. They took out grenades from their waists.

Pull the fire, silently count...... Throw!

Without any signal, almost at the same time, hundreds of grenades dragged white smoke trails, crossed parabolas in the air, and flew towards the positions of the Qing army.

"Grenades!"

The Qing troops in the trenches and behind the breastwork, looking at the black spots that seemed to be flying like raindrops, all shouted in horror, as soon as their words fell, grenades fell on their side, and many of them fell into the trenches and breastwork. In an instant, the smoke clouds raised by the rolling explosions completely engulfed the forward positions of the Qing army.

Almost at the moment of the explosion, the Ming army, which had been hiding behind various obstacles, began to charge, even if it was several miles apart, because of the red uniforms of the Ming army, Xuan Ye could still see how easily the Ming army conquered the front line of the Qing army.

Almost at the moment when they tore open a hole, more Ming troops poured up, and when they ran forward and charged, they still maintained the order level, obviously they were all strictly trained, compared to the Qing army, every Ming army received at least a year of rigorous training before being sent to the front.

Soon, the forward positions were occupied by the Ming army, watching those reds swallow up the front line, watching the Qing army begin to retreat. Xuan Ye's face was pale, and when he raised the telescope in his hand, his hands were even trembling, this was the first time he had witnessed the attack of the Ming army, such a rapid attack, which he had never seen before, he even thought that the first line of defense could hold on for at least a day.

But now it seems that this is simply impossible. Not even a single face-to-face effort can hold up.

"Now, everybody sees it!"

Staring at the Ming army in the distance, Xuan Ye said in his mouth.

"We will never be their opponents, and if we want to defeat them, we have to find another way!"