Chapter 325: Sudden Retreat?
After receiving Li Yan's order, the troops in front of the wooden bridge were the first to cross the bridge. The sword and shield soldiers and pikemen passed first, and under the orders of their respective captains, they directly turned into columns in a lined formation and quickly ran across the wooden bridge. After that, they stopped at a distance of twenty paces on the other side of the bridge, and the front row of the line found a position and stood still, and the troops behind ran after it.
"Turn left!" The captains commanded loudly.
The teams are divided into pairs, and they all turn to the left in unison, and then point their weapons forward. After that, the teams adjusted a little, and a line was quickly lined up.
Then came the crossbowmen crossing the bridge, and then the Tiger Squat Artillery Corps. The people who crossed the river first were only two hundred-man teams, and there were ten tiger squat cannons. Their task was to first guard the bridgehead before the large army crossed the bridge, so that the enemy could not occupy the bridgehead.
These troops passed, and after they had formed formation, the troops far from the wooden bridge began to prepare to cross the bridge. Their previous task was to cover the troops who had crossed the bridge, and in case the enemy attacked with all their might, they were able to make the troops who had crossed the bridge retreat.
At this time, Zhang Nengqi and the others were still surprised. They saw the officers and soldiers running quickly across the bridge in a row, and then lined up in front of the bridge with one turn. Then the troops in the back were the same, and after a short while, they ran to the side of the river and lined up in formation.
"General, they're going to cross the river." Shi Qian reminded.
Zhang Nengqi suddenly laughed and said: "There is a road in heaven that you don't take, and there is no door in hell for you to break into!" Cross the river, I'll give you a half-crossing attack! Hahaha! ”
Yuan Laoshan reminded: "Then the general hurry up, if they let half of them come, we won't be able to attack." ”
"Let the cavalry team prepare, and disperse them for Lao Tzu!" Zhang Nengqi ignored Yuan Laoshan's reminder and ordered loudly. He has more than a thousand cavalry, and as long as the cavalry rushes up, he doesn't believe in rushing or boasting about Li Yan's infantry army.
By the time his cavalry was finally ready, more than a thousand people had already passed over to Li Yan's side, and the Franc cannon had begun to be mounted on the front car and dragged by horses to prepare to cross the river. At this time, Li Yan had also crossed the river, and the position of his troops on the opposite side had been stabilized, so there was no need for him to drag it behind.
He saw that the enemy's cavalry had formed up five hundred paces away, and it looked like they were about to begin to charge.
"Order the Tiger Squat Cannon to get ready, enter two hundred steps and start firing!" Li Yan ordered: "Let the artillery speed up, come over and enter the position as soon as possible, and participate in the defense!" ”
"Yes!" The pro-soldier immediately went to give the order. At this time, the enemy's war horses have begun to trot, and the enemy's horse team has many, many, many, giving people a feeling of Mount Tai pressing the top.
Thirty Tiger Squat Cannons had already come over by this time, but they didn't have much time to level their positions. The war horse ran, two or three hundred paces away, and rushed over in a while.
"Cut the lead shorter!" The artillery commanders all gave orders to their subordinates. Their shell leads were made a bit long, leaving some redundancy to allow enough time for the shells to fall to the bottom of the barrel.
At this time, the loader can only rely on experience, and use the scissors with him to cut the lead a little, just a little. They had to make sure that the shells ignited the propellant at the bottom of the barrel, otherwise even if the shells could be fired, they would not be able to hit far and would endanger the entire unit.
"Boom", "boom" The sound of horses' hooves began to echo by the river, and Zhang Nengqi's cavalry had already rushed up. They were divided into six platoons, intending to take turns to attack Li Yan's army formation, and defeat Li Yan's troops at once.
"Ready, ready!" The commanders of the Tiger Squat Cannon shouted nervously. They observed the enemy's cavalry distance from the gaps in the front troops.
"Ignite, launch!" The enemy's cavalry was still two hundred and fifty paces away, and they unanimously gave the order to light the fire. They are more experienced than Li Yan, and it takes time for the shell to ignite, launch, fly, and ignite the gunpowder explosion with the internal lead. So they all chose to launch a little earlier than Li Yan's order.
"Bang", "bang", "bang" came from behind Li Yan's military formation, and the bombs flew towards the thieves' cavalry. At the same time, other troops were still coming from the bridge, expanding to the two wings, and changing formations as they were prepared, forming a phalanx with the Jingou River.
The cavalrymen knew that the balls would explode, so they tried to turn their horses' heads and avoid them in either way. But the speed of their horses was already very fast, and the range of those balls landing was so large that it was difficult to avoid.
"Boom", "boom", the bombs began to explode one after the other. Some cavalry happened to run by, and the projectiles that flew out hit the horses or cavalry.
The horses neighed and stood up, throwing off the cavalry above. Some of the horses fell directly to the ground, bleeding profusely. The uninjured horses were frightened by the sound and light of the explosion and the smoke and dust, and were no longer under the control of the knights.
The confusion of the rogue cavalry slowed down their speed, and they also began to unconsciously change direction, running towards the sides of Li Yan's army formation.
Li Yan's tiger squat cannon was still firing, and the explosion was still continuing, so that the thieves' cavalry was still seventy or eighty steps away from their military formation, and they all ran to both sides. Only the corpses of men and horses and the wounded remained.
Some of the thieves' cavalry concentrated on the river, while others simply turned around and ran back to their camp. The cavalry troops, which had been a considerable number, were divided into four pieces at once, and there were not many cavalry in each direction.
"Bastard!" Zhang Nengqi roared: "Let them go to the river to concentrate and impact from both sides!" ”
His own soldiers immediately rode over, and asked the cavalry who had run back in a panic to quickly gather their ranks and go to the river banks on the east and west sides of Li Yan's army formation to concentrate.
"General, let's forget about the impact." Shi Qian proposed: "Let's go around from the downstream and go directly to their lair to grab things, so we don't have to spend time here with them." When the cavalry is ready, and Li Yan's cannons are also ready, it is better not to consume any more troops. ”
Zhang Nengqi looked at Li Yan's military formation, at this time Li Yan's troops had basically crossed the river, and there were only a small number of troops on the other side of the river. Moreover, although his cavalry ran out of the explosion area of Li Yan's artillery, the war horses were in a panic, writhing back and forth anxiously, and they couldn't be quiet at all. I don't know how long it will take if I can launch another assault.
He was still very moved by Shi Qian's suggestion, but there was still no response from his stepfather, and he didn't dare to take the troops to take a detour across the river like this.
In the time he hesitated, the soldiers he had sent to ask for instructions finally ran back.
"General," the soldiers said in a panic, "The commander has an order, let us retreat south immediately, and stop entangling with the officers and soldiers." ”
"Retreat?" Zhang Nengqi asked in surprise: "What's the situation?" Although I have some losses here, but it has not reached the point of breaking my muscles and bones, why did I withdraw? Have you clarified our situation? ”
The pro-soldier explained: "It's not the problem of our front army, it's the Chinese army. The marshal suffered a lot of losses there, and he didn't want to fight anymore, so he had to withdraw his troops. ”
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