As the drums sounded like winter thunder, the arrays of the two sides continued to approach each other, from five hundred meters to three hundred meters to one hundred and fifty meters.

At this time, in the array of the new army of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Chaofeng, who was riding on a war horse, suddenly raised his hand and said at the same time: "The whole army stops!" ”

At the last moment of the battle, stop and rearrange the formation and reload the ammunition, which is also the standard procedure for the new army of the Tang Dynasty to conduct line operations.

Officers at all levels issued all kinds of orders as soon as the troops stopped!

Zhou Song, the young captain of the 1st Musket Brigade of the 5th Infantry Battalion, trotted in front of his troops on horseback while shouting: "Arrange the formation!" ”

"Reload!"

"Light the Rope!"

With the order given, the troops who had been in a state of forward march just stopped and began to form their formations, while the musketeers and gunners began to reload, ready to shoot at the first opportunity.

Seeing that the pseudo-Tang thief army on the opposite side stopped, Qiu Yu was not ready to stop, but urged the soldiers to continue to advance!

It's not that he thinks the puppet Tang thief army on the opposite side is afraid, but he knows that the puppet Tang thief army on the opposite side has a firepower advantage, and their muskets can kill and injure a large number of their own soldiers at a distance of 100 meters, while the bowl mouth cannons of the puppet Tang thief army are larger than his own and have a longer range.

Therefore, staying at a distance of more than 100 meters to shoot, whether it is your own bowl cannon or your own archers, will be at a great disadvantage, you must continue to shorten the distance into 100 meters, or even 50 meters to fight, and then use the advantage of troops to completely rush forward for hand-to-hand combat.

While letting his subordinate infantry continue to advance, he also said a few words to a thousand households beside him, only to see that the thousand households nodded slightly after hearing this, and then pulled out the dock and headed towards the rear.

And in the rear, there was a cavalry of about 100 horsemen!

This Chido was clearly the commander of this cavalry, and when he returned to his headquarters, he began to take the cavalry around the infantry in front and go around to the left.

Wang Chaofeng on the opposite side saw this scene, and he didn't know what attention these Ming troops on the opposite side were fighting, he must have wanted to attract his own attention with his infantry team, and then rushed over from the flank with cavalry.

The opposing cavalry naturally did not have the courage to attack their own Chinese spear phalanx, and the target of their attack was only the musketeers on one side.

Because the musketeers give the impression to outsiders that they are very fragile and cannot fight in close combat, even the mature European musketeers of this era.

However, the musketeers of the Datang New Army were an exception, for a very simple reason, because the muskets of the Datang New Army were equipped with bayonets, and they were also sleeved bayonets, which could also be loaded and shot after being loaded with bayonets.

The reason why the new army of the Tang Dynasty still retains a large number of spearmen, sword and shield men, and archers is not because the musketeers cannot replace them, but because the production of muskets in the Tang Dynasty is too small.

When this musket is insufficient, it can only be helpless to continue to retain a large number of cold weapon troops.

If these Ming cavalry came to attack their musketeer phalanx, Wang Chaofeng would let them take a good look, the musketeer phalanx was not so easy to impact.

What's more, the cavalry on the opposite side was not a heavy cavalry, but a light cavalry, or more precisely, a mounted infantry, and it was still a horse from the southwest, and he was still certain about such cavalry.

As for why he is so sure, because the cavalry of the Datang New Army is like this!

And how did the cavalry of the Datang New Army develop? In fact, it was developed from the selected personnel and horses of the captured Ming cavalry, so to a certain extent, the cavalry of the Tang New Army and the cavalry of the Ming Army were similar.

Specifically, the horses on the horse are not suitable for riding combat, and the cavalry is not good at riding and shooting anything.

Take the cavalry of the Tang New Army itself as an example, most of these cavalry are captured by the Ming army or recruited by themselves to know a little bit of cavalry, horsemanship can only be said to be average, basically do not expect them to be able to shoot arrows on horseback and hit the enemy, immediately charge hand-to-hand combat is also a show, bullying and bullying the enemy army that has collapsed, it's okay to cover up, but you let them impact the enemy's infantry phalanx, Cao Mingda can spray you to death with a mouthful of spittle: you are paralyzed and want Lao Tzu to send him to death, just say it!

This is not only the basic quality of the cavalry, but also the horses that are not very good!

The Tang New Army and the Ming cavalry in Guizhou were all short horses in the southwest region, mainly Yunnan horses and Guizhou horses, and most of their shoulder heights were about one meter to one meter, and very few were more than one meter two.

Generally speaking, horses in the southwest have good endurance and can be used for a long time, which is more suitable for use as pack horses or pulls in mountainous areas.

However, as a riding horse, these dwarf pony breeds are seriously unsuitable, and their fatal flaws are insufficient weight and shoulder height.

Take the war horses in Napoleon's army as an example, the horses used by the cuirassiers are between 1.55 and 1.6 meters high at the shoulder, the shoulder height of the dragoons is about 1.53 to 1.55 meters, the hussars are typical light cavalry with a shoulder height of between 1.49 and 1.53 meters, and the light lancers are between 1.46 and 1.5 meters.

It is worth noting that even if they are used to pull guns, they use horses between 1.53 and 1.55 meters, and the specifications are the same as those used by the dragoons.

Although it is unfair to use the horses of the French cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars as a comparison, because the different types of horses in Europe and Asia cannot be effectively compared, it is worth mentioning that in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the war horses used by the Japanese army, the so-called Oriental horses, were imported and bred from France, and their shoulder height could reach more than one and a half meters!

Therefore, judging from the data of the modern army, a cavalry, even if it is a light cavalry without loads, must reach a height of more than 1.4 meters at the shoulder to meet the minimum standard.

It's a pity that the new army of the Tang Dynasty can't get horses that can meet these standards, not to mention the war horses that are 1.41 meters and 5 meters high, even if they are 1.2 meters high, they are few, and the few horses in the army that are 1.21.3 meters are still a small number of Mongolian horses from the north to the local area.

In the Datang New Army, the horses used are basically all southwestern horses, and the shoulder height is only between one meter and one meter, so if you pull a nine-pounder gun crew, eight or ten horses in the modern European army are enough, but the Datang New Army needs more than ten horses.

Fortunately, the cavalry of the Tang New Army was hard, and the cavalry of the Ming Army here in Guizhou was also hard!

In ancient China, except for a few periods when the northwest region was controlled and war horses from Central Asia were introduced, most of the other times, the Central Plains Dynasty was unable to obtain these excellent war horses, and could only select and use them from Mongolian horses and southwest Mali.

Therefore, in history, you will see that in the early days of most of the Central Plains Dynasty, the cavalry was also very strong when the national power was at its peak, because at this time they were able to control the northwest region and the Mongolian region, and obtained a large number of excellent horses, but in the middle and late stages, after the national strength weakened, they could not control these regions, so the cavalry would gradually weaken, and finally

It can only be a wave of playing homeless!

After all, not every dynasty is as rich as the Song Dynasty, and you can play hoplites without war horses!

To some extent, this is also the reason why heavy cavalry has not been really developed in China since ancient times, carrying knights and hundreds of pounds of equipment to carry the weight of combat, too short horses can not do.

The Ming Dynasty was okay at this time, the northern border army could obtain Mongolian horses and even the northwest and Central Asian horses introduced from the northwest region, although the Mongolian horses used in large quantities were not good, but they had a shoulder height of about one meter two to one meter three, and they could barely be used as light cavalry horses.

However, the Yunnan-Guizhou region was originally a horse-producing area, and there has never been much external threat here, and the mountainous terrain is not suitable for cavalry combat, so from ancient times to the present, there is no ruler of the feudal dynasty who will spend a huge price to develop cavalry in these areas and introduce high-headed horses.

Now, what Wang Chaofeng saw was a group of Ming cavalry riding only one meter high at the shoulder, and they walked around the front in a chaotic formation.

Although their cavalry is not good, nearly a hundred cavalry are running in front, and the momentum is still very strong!

Immediately, Wang Chaofeng strengthened the defense of the right flank, let the musketeers on the right flank put on their bayonets to guard against the impact of the cavalry, and at the same time shifted the muzzle of a battalion gun and aimed it at those Ming cavalry.

As long as the cavalry of the Ming army dared to come up, it was to first open artillery and shoot, and then meet the enemy with bayonets!

The distance between the two sides was very close at this time, although the cavalry of the Ming army also moved, but they would not rush up at the first time, they were waiting, waiting for the opportunity to attack the flank of the pseudo-Tang thief army.

At this time, the troops under Wang Chaofeng had officially entered the battle, and as the Ming army approached a hundred meters, the artillery fired first, and then the musket troops fired in turn.

Whether it is artillery or musket troops, their target is not those sword and shield soldiers of the Ming army, but the artillery and archers of the Ming army.

Now they want to take advantage of the advantage of range to intercept the long-range firepower of the Ming army, so as not to cause a large number of casualties to their own side after the long-range firepower of the Ming army is projected.

When the guns and cannons rang out, it was inevitable that casualties began to appear on the Ming side!

However, the number of casualties is not much, and it can even be said that it is small, because the distance is still too far, and the hit rate is very limited at a distance of 100 meters.

But with the death and injury of his comrades-in-arms, the scene of flesh and blood flying reminded these Ming soldiers of the Battle of the Bronze Drum Acropolis a few days ago.

The Acropolis of Brass Drums, that's a sad place!