[222] Battle of the Three Towns of Wuhan 2

"Retreat~Retreat~" Zu Dale had to order a retreat, and the Guanning army immediately retreated backwards like a tide

"Chase~~ Catch up!" Liu Fangliang, who had the upper hand, was excited, "Since we came out of Beijing, we have been chased by officers and soldiers, and today we will chase the officers and soldiers in turn!" ”

"Roar!" The soldiers all shouted and began to rush towards the Ming position

Ren Weirong hurriedly rode his horse to Liu Fangliang's side and shouted: "General, the enemy army retreats without crushing, and retreats without chaos, I am afraid there will be fraud." ”

The spear in Liu Fangliang's hand was shocked, and he said with a smile: "There is fraud or not, Lao Tzu will kick him over!" Driving~" Liu Fangliang ignored Ren Weirong's dissuasion, and also rushed to the Ming army's position

Song Youliang, who was watching the battle on the high post, saw that the Shun army began to launch a counter-charge, and looked at Bo Yu beside him proudly, "Bo Gong, have your apprentices practiced all the machine guns?" ”

Bo Yu said with a smile: "I am much more skilled than this old man, and he has the fastest hands and feet, and he can fire more than 13,500 bullets in one moment." ”

"Are there enough bullets? We're going to have four traps this time! Song Youliang asked

Bo Yu replied with a smile: "If it's enough, I'm afraid that there won't be so many thieves to let the machine shoot them!" ”

Just as Song Youliang and Bo Yu were talking, the cavalry of the Guan Ning army had already retreated to their own positions, and at the same time spread out to both flanks. At this time, Liu Fangliang could clearly see the layout of the Ming army's position, in front of the Ming army, many cannons were erected, and the infantry around the artillery were holding muskets in their hands, and there were only two rows of rejecting horses in front of these firearms troops.

Liu Fangliang secretly said in his heart: "The Ming army is so arrogant, they have confiscated these firearms, and asked me to make a great contribution in front of Your Majesty!" ”

"Replace the cannonball on the ground!" Kong Youde ordered the artillery to change their equipment to bloom shells, and at the same time shouted to the soldiers who operated the machine guns: "The machine guns are on alert!" ”

The Trap Gun took one last look at the Trap Gun and replied loudly, "The Trap Gun is ready!" ”

"Shooting~~" Kong Youde shouted

Da Da ~~

呯呯呯~~

Bang ~ Bang Bang ~ Bang Bang ~ Boom

Countless fire snakes erupted from the Ming army's position in an instant, and bullets rained down on the Shun army. The Shun army that rushed to the front was suddenly hit into a honeycomb by the bullets fired intensively, and they did not understand what kind of terrifying weapon the Ming army was when they died.

The Ming army's flying thunder cannon also began to speak with a roar, and one by one the shells loaded with twenty or thirty catties exploded in the crowd of the Shun army, and the huge shock wave and desolation threw countless stumps and broken arms into the air, and countless corpses of the Shun army flew in the air, and flesh and blood flew everywhere. The officers and soldiers of Shun were still rushing forward fiercely with a large number of people, after all, they were elite troops who followed Li Zicheng to fight in the north and south of the Yellow River, and they would not be easily intimidated by this bloody storm. But the storm of steel and lead pellets sent by the Ming army from the position greatly exceeded their capacity

"Flying Thunder Cannon obeys the order~~ Shoot at the rear of the enemy army!" Kong Youde, who was good at using artillery, adjusted his tactics in time according to the changes in the battlefield situation. Therefore, the gunners of the flying thunder cannon immediately turned their guards, raised the muzzle of the guns, and waited for a group of Shun troops to rush through, and then fired their cannons at their backs to block the follow-up troops of the Shun army. After the previous ones have been almost wiped out, then stop firing and let a group of people come over, this is simply an organized massacre. Tens of thousands of officers and men of the Shun army were under the intensive attack of four machine guns and other guns, as well as flying thunder guns and howitzers, and none of them were able to break through the 200-meter range of the Ming army's position. The latter group of soldiers had just rushed up on the corpses of the robes, and under the dense hail of bullets, they went to accompany the robes. There were more and more dead, and the battlefield around Liujiamiao was covered with corpses, and blood flowed like a river. If the officers and men of Shun are accustomed to seeing the scenes of fighting, killing, and parting with life and death, they have never experienced such a scene: the large army of the enemy in front of them is motionless, as if they are watching a play, while their brothers can never rush in front of the enemy.

"Hopeless ~~ brother, don't send it to death, run for your life!" A soldier who had been blown off the lower half of his body shouted loudly with his last breath, and this shout, like a thunderbolt from the sky, suddenly woke up the soldiers who were still in a team to die

"Run for your life~" This sentence infected every surviving Shun officer and soldier like a plague, and they turned their heads and ran back desperately like a flood that opened the floodgates.

"Don't retreat~~Don't retreat~" Liu Fangliang brandished a spear and stabbed to death a few fleeing soldiers in a row, and it was difficult to stop the rout

Mum~~~Doo~~~~~Doo~~~~~

At this moment, the Ming army's position remembered the loud and majestic horn again, and the retreating Guanning Army's iron team returned to the battlefield after that

"Guanning Iron Cavalry, invincible in the world!" Wu Sangui led Yang Kun, Guo Yunlong and others to rush out on the two wings of the Ming army's position on war horses and brandish steel swords, and launched a fatal blow against the retreating Shun soldiers

"The victory and defeat have been divided~" Song Youliang, who was stationed in Gaogang, had already dismounted at this time, and was enjoying fragrant tea with Li Xin, Gu Junen, Bo Yu and others

Li Xin said: "The general's move of three walls, replacing the red tassel gun with a musket, is much more powerful than Li Chuang's three walls. ”

"Haha!" Song Youliang laughed and said, "In battle, there are 30,000 horses." The former looks back, and the latter kills it. The battle was invincible for a long time, and the horsemen feigned to lure the enemy, with 30,000 spears of foot soldiers, and the stabbing was like flying, and the horsemen fought back, all of which were victorious. This set of tactics was actually created by Li Zicheng, but when the cavalry and other troops on his side are very close to each other, they will feint and lure the enemy in battle, and if they are not careful, there will be a large-scale rout, so the organizer needs to have a strong battlefield control ability and a high personal charm. It is not easy for Li Zicheng to come up with such a tactic and use it for many years without failing. But it's a pity that these rogues don't know how to sum up valuable experience~~~"

By noon, Liujiamiao had been firmly controlled by the Ming army, and the Shun army tried to recapture it many times, but they were all scattered by Kong Youde's artillery.

After the loss of Liujiamiao, the heart of the Shun army was greatly shaken, and many Shun soldiers who escaped death under the firearms of the Ming army went back, and exaggerated the power of the firearms of the Ming army, so that people felt that it was not that they were cowardly, but that the enemy army was too strong.

"I didn't expect Song Youliang's firearms to be sharper than when he was in the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve~!" Li Shuangxi touched the scar left by the injury in Thirty Lipu that year, and his heart palpitated.

Yuan Zongdi said: "Your Majesty, don't worry, we also have firearms, just now I found that there are more than 20 Hongyi cannons in the Wuchang arsenal, and they are all newly cast. ”

Li Zicheng also began to be a little at a loss, "Okay~~ Pull them all out~~"

The officers and men of Shun pinned their hopes on the artillery, they hoped that the cannon could defeat the Ming army, and yesterday's scene was the nightmare of every Shun officer and soldier. In fact, when Western missionaries taught Chinese artillery technology at that time, in order to prevent the Chinese from being more powerful than them, they often used one hand, vaguely said some key data, and did not teach the Chinese how to use the star bucket (respectively referring to the star catalog or crosshair, illuminated star erected on the muzzle hoop) to aim, therefore, the artillery of the Ming army at that time was simply indiscriminate, without purpose, really not working, just as a flat-fire cannon to use. Moreover, the Ming army was not trained at all how to make "ammunition proportional" (that is, the ratio of the gunpowder used for propulsion to the weight of the shells, which the missionaries did not tell their Chinese disciples about), and when they loaded gunpowder, they often either loaded too little and fired empty cannons, or they loaded too much and blew up their chambers.

Early the next morning, Yuan Zongdi finally led a group of soldiers to pull more than 20 Hongyi cannons to the vicinity of Xiaobie Mountain, and when they were about to load ammunition to bombard the Ming army, they found that the gunpowder was not enough. I asked the old Kuding who was in charge of the arsenal to ask, and it turned out that the Wuchang arsenal had been neglected for many years, and most of the gunpowder had been stored for too long, and more than half of it was damp and formed into pieces

I had no choice but to take this part of the gunpowder back. Yuan Zongdi couldn't manage so much, so he could only reduce the amount of gunpowder in each cannon, and then he shouted loudly: "Open the cannon!" ”

Boom Boom! More than 20 large and small cannons on the Shun army's position opened fire at the same time, and the momentum was amazing. The generals and soldiers of the Shun army looked nervously at the position of the Han army on the opposite side, but found that the shells had not traveled far before they all fell to the ground.

"What's going on?" Li Zicheng, who was watching the battle at the head of the city, was furious, "What did Yuan Zongdi do? I will punish him. ”

Before Li Zicheng could finish sending the goods, the artillery of the Ming army in the opposite position roared.

The shells exploded on the artillery positions of the Ming army, many artillery pieces were torn to pieces by the shells on the spot, and several cannons were also lifted into the air.

"Add more gunpowder and fire another shot!" Yuan Zongdi was in a hurry at this time, personally picked up a shovel with gunpowder, and filled the gunpowder into the chamber

"Ignition cannon~" Yuan Zongdi roared again

Rumble~~~

Before Yuan Zongdi's words fell, the Hongyi cannon he had loaded just now exploded beside him, and Yuan Zongdi and seven or eight soldiers were blown to pieces and killed on the spot

"God will kill me!" Li Zicheng raised his head to the sky and screamed, and then he only felt a tightness in his chest, a fishy mouth, and a mouthful of blood spit out

"Your Majesty~~" Li Shuangxi and the others hurriedly lifted Li Zicheng and went down the gatehouse

At 13:00, the Ming army began to attack, and under the cover of artillery fire, the Ming army successfully captured Dazhimen, and then successfully occupied Hankou. The Shun army could only retreat to Hanyang, and the Shun army arranged the defense line on the south bank of the mouth, along the Hanshui coast to the Sanyan Bridge, and also deployed heavy troops in Wuchang Snake Mountain, Hanyang Guishan, and Tangjiashan, but did not deploy heavy troops on the west side of Caidian and Kuangou. After the Ming army occupied Hankou, it set up the battle line from Qiaokou to Longwangmiao, preparing to cross the Han River to fight. That night, the Shun army, under the leadership of Liu Zongmin, once counterattacked from Hankou to Yudaimen, but the Ming reinforcements arrived in time and repelled the Shun army

On April 21, after the Shun army's counterattack on Hankou was frustrated, the Ming army launched an attack on Hanyang according to the established deployment. The first part of the Ming army crossed the Han River from Xingou, occupied Caidian, the gateway to Hanyang, and quickly advanced to the vicinity of the Sanyan Bridge west of Hanyang.

At 15:00 in the afternoon, the two armies engaged in a fierce battle at the Three Eyes Bridge. On the same day, another part of the Ming army successfully rushed to the rudder and broke through the defense line of Meiniang Mountain.

At 17:00, the Ming army occupied Meiniang Mountain, and the Shun army took advantage of the unstable foothold of the Ming army to carry out a counterattack, and Meiniang Mountain was lost and recovered.

At 19:00, the Ming army increased its troops in the direction of Meiniang Mountain, and with the support of artillery, it quickly captured Meiniang Mountain and Fairy Mountain.

At 21:00, the Ming army took advantage of the situation to attack the Sanyan Bridge. The Shun army was forced to retreat to Guodi Mountain and Biandan Mountain. After repeated struggles, due to the disparity in strength, Guodi Mountain, Biandan Mountain and Mozi Mountain were lost one after another.

In the middle of the night, the Shun army took advantage of the exhaustion of the Ming army to launch a counteroffensive and recaptured Mozi Mountain and Biandan Mountain again.

In the early morning of 22 April, the Ming army carried out a long and fierce bombardment of the Shun army with artillery fire, and the two mountains were captured by the Ming army. At this point, the commanding heights around Hanyang have been lost. Due to heavy casualties, the Shun army was unable to organize a counteroffensive. Hanyang was declared lost.