In fact, before launching the outpost bombardment, Xiao Xuan had thought about whether the entire formation would fly kites while retreating, after all, the shield wall formed by the opponent's car shield did not seem to be moving very fast. But thinking of the previous deduction, I gave up this plan. After flying a kite, it is only possible to fire while in motion. If you have to stop from time to time to re-measure and fire, this will affect the use of firepower, so the whole army will not be allowed to retreat.

When the opponent's distance approached to about a mile or so, Xiao Xuan began to order a large formation to sing the "Song of the Defenders" in unison with the reserves of the various brigades that had been trained before, among all the military songs, Xiao Xuan finally chose this "Song of the Defenders of Moscow", the reason for the change was of course tragic and not negative, and the tune was simple, and it was easy to not go out of tune when it was tense or disturbed.

When the singing began to sound, the two battalions with still warm breeches and more than 100 general guns all concentrated in the direction of the opponent's car shield and shield wall, and launched a fierce bombardment with double standard charges after the test firing. The fierce sound of their own artillery accompanied by the singing seemed to dispel the tension of the officers and soldiers in the front row of the approaching car shield in an instant. It was as if victory would be its own.

Under the standard of double normal charge, the 400-pound general cannon barrel reached at least half of the energy efficiency of field guns during the war. One after another, the seven-pound buckshot shot into the distance at two-thirds of the speed of sound. And at a distance of about one mile, it ensures that the hit rate of the shield wall composed of car shields is at least about 30%.

Compared with the naval guns of more than 30 pounds in the war era, the muzzle kinetic energy of the shells of about seven catties is more than ten times different. Even taking into account the energy concentration advantage brought by the smaller area of the caliber projectile, the ability to break the wooden shield is only one-sixth or seventh-of the naval naval guns in the war era, and this level is precisely on the edge of the protective thickness of the Jianzhou military vehicle shield, and the powerful seven-kilogram shell of the general cannon is not enough to completely penetrate the shield car at a distance of about four or five hundred meters, but when the momentum of the cannonball hits the middle and upper position of the entire shield car, it can hit the opponent's shield car and overturn instantly.

For a moment, the shield wall, which had been quite neat and slowly advancing, seemed to begin to scatter. Under the continuous casualties, the car shield was still roughly neat, and it could only make the advance speed of the entire shield wall slower to the greatest extent.

Although under the resistance of the shield car, a single shot of a shell that threatened the body of the car could not cause several casualties, but this also made many Eight Banner generals, including Hei Huan Bolie and even Yue Tuo, feel unprecedented pressure.

Such powerful and fierce artillery fire has only been seen since the start of the army. A hundred or so guns, which were not inferior to the number of shield vehicles, obviously brought serious obstacles to the advance of the entire shield array. It seems that if you plan to advance to a distance of about 100 paces, even if you use the spare shield car to constantly fill the gap of the bombed and scattered shield car, you will not be able to hold out much time.

"As long as there are archers who can shoot more than one stone, let the archers of each team take turns to prepare!" At this time, Hei Huan Bolie also saw the strengths and weaknesses of the strong enemy in front of him compared to the unknown Western-style opponent before. The advantage is that the firearm firepower is sharper and more practical, and the scale is larger. And he knows how to use a car shield to cover himself. The weakness is also obvious: the Ming army's Ding-level armor, which is quite familiar, may not be able to compare with those Western steel plate armor in the previous comparison.

At this time, the guard battalion or brave guard battalion led by Xiao Xuan was like a hard snake egg, which could make any opponent who approached suffer a heavy price in the face of the firepower exerted with all his might, but if the opponent approached to a medium or close range, the gap between the two sides in bow and arrow projection ability and protection and even melee skills would be fully revealed.

When the shield wall composed of broken shield vehicles approached a distance of about 200 paces, more than 2,000 small Jianzhou guns also took turns to launch fierce fire. At the same time, more than 5,000 archers capable of firing a bow with more than one stone force were also engaged in projectile suppression, and they launched projectiles at close to the limit.

Many Jianzhou generals understood that the previous combat experience showed that it might take more than one stone and five buckets to effectively kill the kind of steel Western plate armor, but for the general Ming army armor, even if it was a decent iron armor, the eight-bucket bow was enough. A one-stone bow can also pose a threat to the opponent's armor during the projectile.

With the archers in front and the artillery in the rear, thousands of gold projected power over a radius of one hundred and fifty paces to maximize the firepower, although the efficiency was greatly reduced due to the distance. The dense firepower of flying locusts still interfered with the effective firing of the general's gunners to the greatest extent. The officers and men could only concentrate on the front line as low as possible to avoid the continuous coverage of the bullets, and to carry out fierce counterattacks after reloading their cannons from time to time. But even so, the casualties suffered by the officers and men who participated in the frontline increased suddenly. Under the bombardment of tens of thousands of heavy arrows and 20,000 or 30,000 artillery projectiles from the opponent, the car shield facing the enemy's main attack direction also began to become dilapidated.

Seeing the loadout, the main force of the Jianzhou Army began to continue to push the shield wall that was also somewhat broken under the bombardment of the previous artillery fire and kept approaching forward, focusing on the increasing pressure on the front, and also had to make the formation of more than 10,000 troops that were not thin in the first place be further compressed, except for a few people who relied on the car shield to cover, more people retreated. Xiao Xuan also understood that although the armor equipped by the Guards Battalion and the Yongwei Battalion was the best in the Ming army, it was still far from being comparable to the inventory accumulated by the craftsmen of Jianzhou over the years. It is completely unsafe in the face of heavy arrows with more than one stone force.

At this point in the battle, the Guards Battalion and the Yongwei Battalion had suffered nearly 1,000 casualties, and the Jianzhou Army, which was concentrating on the attack, also suffered nearly 2,000 casualties from the outpost battle to the close engagement. The casualty loss rate of about 10% is actually close to the limit of the average army in this era. However, this law is completely inappropriate in front of the main force of Jianzhou, which can always show extraordinary courage and will at critical moments. The armoured soldiers, like the Swiss infantry of the Renaissance, did not seem to show signs of declining morale despite such a heavy blow, and still turned the tide of the battlefield little by little, compressing the Guards and Guards from the front and all directions.

Sensing that the time on the battlefield seemed to be coming, Hei Huan Bolie also decisively issued an order for the fully armored cavalry to deploy a flank and rear attack at this time, even if there was no effective imminent cover of the infantry wall, the formation should be as scattered as possible and close to the distance of heavy arrows and fire, so as to create conditions for breaking the formation.

(End of chapter)