Chapter 394: Look at the formation diagram when the willow camp (below

At dawn, the dawn begins to open; And the sky is still hidden below the horizon, and only a little gray fish belly white. The mist of the morning dew has not yet cleared the city of Dantu, but it is filled with the noise of continuous fighting.

Between the staggered swings of knives, guns and arrows, slashing and stabbing through the human body under the armor, and constantly splashing fresh flesh and blood on the trampled mud and damaged fortifications without hesitation, just like the background version of this human slaughter, continuously and patiently spray-painting one bright mottled color after another.

"This is the fifth time."

Zhou Huai'an, who was standing on the Tutai watchtower, stopped the scanning of the audience again and spoke.

"Pass on my order, and the engagement troops with the fourth battalion of the First Army as the support point will retreat and disengage in batches to widen the distance; Let the teaching brigade outflank it on two wings, prepare the lasso of sticks, and catch as many prisoners as possible. ”

Because, in his perception, after the night continued to fight until now, those unmarked vital signs representing the enemy army also became more and more dim and weakened like candles in the wind, and some people suddenly fell to the ground in the middle of the action, and slowly lost their body temperature characteristics.

Although they had broken through the second line again after several hard battles, the line of defense was formed by the rejection of horses and fence walls, ditches and bamboo sticks, and hoof pits; But most of them are already at the end of their strong crossbows, and it is difficult to muster up enough strength to continue to move forward. In this case, there is no need to dwell too much with it or to fight to the death and generate unnecessary casualties.

You must know that they did not even touch the edge of the earthen fortress laid by the Taiping army, but they had to withstand the continuous fire of bows and crossbows from behind the sandbags and earthen baskets on the earthen platform in the same place with a good view after dawn, without any support, containment and cover from the city wall.

Although people were falling every moment, after the Taiping soldiers who engaged and intercepted in front of them alternately covered the retreat and gave up the forward position. They continued to roar and scream as if they had seen a needle, squirming forward and rushing forward.

Obviously, after a long siege and facing various clues and clues, the defenders in Dantu City finally reacted, and began to make tentative breakthroughs and counterattacks in the past few days, and each time it became more fierce and stronger and stronger.

However, this is not useful. They have fought until now, and even the full strength of the firearms unit with Zhou Huai'an as one of the hole cards has not been able to force it out.

Although in fact, most of the main combat forces of the Taiping army have been sent by Zhou Huai'an to carry out the task of besieging the city and sending reinforcements. Only a small number continued to maintain the basic orders and prohibitions and seemingly meticulous siege preparations as Zhou Huai'an sat under the city.

That is, to use the other rebel armies that occupy and take over the city as bait and support points; With a small number of cavalry and cavalry battalions as iron felts to contain and entangle the enemy, and with mules and horses and vehicles as the infantry team that moves on behalf of the enemy, it is the hammer that sets the tone in one fell swoop; Batch defeat battles and local annihilation battles were conducted.

According to the different countermeasures and arrangements of the corresponding plan. If the enemy forces want to drive straight in, they should be weakened by constant attacks and pinning down by mobile troops, so as to create opportunities for ambushes and breakdowns in the field; If the opponent wants to seize the city as a credential, then rely on the city to carry out a central flowering battle that combines the inside and the outside.

In this way, theoretically, it is possible to use a relatively small number of elite troops, relying on the superiority of the Taiping Army in terms of mobility and means of communication, to form a local advantage and upper hand in a short period of time, and to defeat the officers and troops who are rash and rash.

After all, according to Zhou Huai'an's experience and lessons all the way to the war, or the heart. Relative to most people of this era, under the plain terrain lacking obstacles; Whether it is an official army or a rebel army, they prefer to occupy a city or a well-defended stronghold as a support point for corresponding offensive and defensive operations; In this way, it is possible to choose a limited battlefield prediction and positional layout.

But relying only on the multiple defensive lines and cascading fortifications, pitfalls and obstacles that have been built under the city; It is not a problem to block any of the gates of the city in the moment of surprise and give warning.

Then add the second-line garrison battalions that were subsequently replenished from Jiangning; and collected the defeated rebels from other tribes, and the elite soldiers selected in the preliminary reorganization and retraining; It would not be much of a problem to contain a counteroffensive from any direction in the city with all its might.

The battalions and the directly subordinate sequences and technical arms under the direct control of Zhou Huai'an are used as reserves and mobile forces; When necessary, the sailors patrolling on the river can also be allowed to land nearby to support and respond.

Coupled with the range scanning ability of the local battlefield, as the secret hole card of Zhou Huai'an's personal command and control, it is enough to make any targeted breakthrough and sneak attack from the city disappear.

This is also one of the basic foundations for him to dare to take risks and pretend to besiege the city inside and outside, and really carry out encirclement and reinforcement to clear the external obstacles. It's like the bluff under Daluo City in Jiaozhou back then, a further upgraded version.

Of course, in case the situation develops to the worst, he can rely on these small but elite forces, plus his ability to grasp the local battlefield trends, and retreat to Jiangning and then plan later under the response of the naval army. And in fact, the situation did not have a chance to develop to this point.

After some of the costs and losses of the initial panic and jerkiness against the enemy, and with the support of the surprise soldiers of this formation, they stabilized their positions; These systematically trained recruits and the soldiers of other rebels who were recruited also quickly completed the transformation and run-in of the corresponding roles and identities, and gradually became more comfortable in front of the enemy.

Perhaps in the field battle directly face-to-face, their performance may still be tested and the shortcomings that need to be discovered, and there is still a long way to go before a military army that can be retracted and released freely.

But at the very least, under the cover of intact fortifications and defensive lines and arrays, they can resist the fierce attack of the enemy protruding outward, and at the same time, they can also carry out follow-up siege operations to further strengthen and consolidate their positions and camps; As the saying goes, under the catalyst of the war in the face of death, it has become more and more decent.

It can be described as a kind of "Tian Ji horse racing", but the following horses are getting stronger and stronger, and the corresponding potential and qualifications are fully explored. Zhou Huai'an was just thinking about a little gain, seeing that these outstanding officers and soldiers were about to be cut off and surrounded by the back road.

At this time, the gate of the city where the Dantu was confined suddenly opened again, and in the whistling sound of the sand and soil under the wall, he took the initiative to kill a new force with bright colors of helmets and armor, and everyone was very vigorous and vigorous.

Different from the previous assault troops who stood out lightly at night, all of them were armored and long knives and axes, and at first glance they were reserves originally used to block the door and block the road. Like the wings of a big bird, they spread outward along the edge of the city gate, and quickly and smoothly pulled out two long irregular horizontal formations.

"Tell the leader, the appearance team and the fire throwing team, they have been ordered to prepare, just wait for the order."

At this time, Luo Nian, who was responsible for coordinating and coordinating the many long-range strike means in front of the formation, also spoke at the right time

"Let the stone cannons (trebuchets) and crossbows fire first, and the whirlwind cannons fire second with oil-soaked pebbles; Then throw fire with a hairpin rod (catapult). Then the shooting team advanced in front. ”

Zhou Huai'an immediately ordered a micro-manipulation. Although it adopts a virtual and external strategy, the various heavy equipment used as siege equipment is not lacking at all in a state of full staff.

It's just that artillery and rockets, which are used as weapons of mass destruction in the army, are not easy to replenish because of the limited number of carrying; The so-called good steel has to be used on the blade. At the moment, these enemies who are just the underdog are not worthy.

Then the air resounded with the dull clatter of stone cannons swinging their arms; One after another, it turned into a whistling sound that broke through the air. Although it looked like the stone cannons were not very good at hitting the infantry array, most of the landing points crossed the rows and smashed into the walls; There was a powerful thumping sound.

However, they bounced and fell down large pieces of wall adobe, and fell on these armored soldiers who were lined up; Suddenly, they were caught off guard and knocked down from behind, knocked over several figures, and were shrouded in billowing smoke and dust.

Then the winch crossbows that were arranged on the earthen platform with a buzzing sound also fired heavy arrows like short spears one after another according to the marked firing range and sight distance; The officers and soldiers who began to evade were in the horizontal column, and the human bodies in the places where they passed were connected in series, and they were nailed diagonally to the ground and the root of the wall. It's like a string of people flowing with blood out of thin air.

When the whirlwind cannon threw pebbles like drops, and the burning flames burst out one after another, the battered and incomplete team became shaken and crumbling in the terrible screams and shouts.

After all, no matter how heavy armor and protection are, how can any human flesh and blood compete with the steel flames of the boulder. Not to mention the sluggishness of their movements.

Some of the remaining armor soldiers, Yu Yong, began to scatter and recoil, trying to make that desperate last stand. The other part of them retreated inward on their own with all their fighting spirits, but they were thrown into the doorway by several large cans of fire and oil, and then they were driven out again in the midst of the terrible screaming fire.

And Qian Gumei, who got the license and Cao Ling, mixed with the generals of the rebel army watching the battle on the side, was already shocked and sweated profusely. began to question and reflect on whether his own advice was a mistake of seeking the skin of the tiger under serious forces and information asymmetry.