In the face of the onslaught of 20,000 cavalry that had been ambushed long ago, although the Western gunners from the Portuguese knew that relying only on eighteen heavy guns could not resist the opponent's attack in the process of the opponent's attack, unless the opponent's organization and morale were like a rabble of second- and third-rate bandits, they also used their unique passwords to require the gunners to pull the artillery as quickly as possible and readjust the gun position to deal with the enemy's attack.

In the late Renaissance era, because of the rampant fortresses, large-scale mobile field battles such as the Seven Years' War or the Napoleonic War were not particularly representative, so the heavy artillery weighing 2,000 catties was also considered to be within the scope of field artillery in a sense, and did not particularly emphasize the power of the campaign. A real fortress cannon or siege cannon is much larger than the Hongyi cannon level. Just as even the Russians or Indians cast bronze cannons weighing tens of tons.

An experienced and well-trained contingent of more than 10,000 or so people under the city also hurriedly formed a formation at this time, preparing to deal with the onslaught of the enemy cavalry. All kinds of car shields also retreated to the front, ready to block the attack of the enemy horsemen.

Outside the city, the cavalry vanguard led by Gao Yingxiang, Li Guo and others was about 100 steps away from the Ming army vanguard under the head of Dongchang City, and only a very small number of skilled archers and horses could throw bows and arrows at this distance.

Although it did not contain the main body of cavalry in the rear brigade, it allowed the loose formation to suppress the opponent's mainly cavalry archers, who had to temporarily stop their horses and wait for the attack under the cover of the dismounted infantry shieldmen.

Since the beginning of the Two Song Dynasty, it seems that the cavalry storming the formation of military formations has been a matter of more than worth the loss, and it is necessary to cooperate with the shield hand to weaken the opponent's projection firepower before it is possible to charge the formation. In particular, the loss of the source of horses in Central Asia, the hoplites of the Northern and Southern Dynasties era had long since declined in Asia in this era.

Just when the firing of various firearms had slightly delayed the vanguard of the enemy's cavalry attack, the eighteen heavy guns, which were ready to fire, opened direct fire at the charging cavalry at a very close distance.

Eighteen cross-facing shells knocked down more than two hundred horses almost instantly, and with the accumulation of thousands of powerful muskets, it seemed that the cavalry charge, which had been quite powerful before, had lost its energy to accumulate impact and attack before it approached the effective range of the bow and arrow.

Of course, relying on the cover of the infantry shieldmen, the army finally approached a distance of about ten zhang from the enemy formation. However, just as the attacking cavalry was ready to attack suddenly, the explosions and smoke from the thunder of the continuous throwing of the gourds revealed their position to the cavalry hidden behind the shields. At this time, the artillery fire was also concentrated in the direction of preparing for a breakthrough.

The fierce battle in front of the battle lasted about a stick of incense, and with the infantry who resisted the impact attack, eighteen heavy artillery guns continued to fire more than ten rounds at close range.

Under the threat of continuous fire, the cavalry of the invading army, which had paid the price of two or three thousand men, had to withdraw from the attack at this time. In the past, if the attack was not effective for the time being, you could still retreat to the edge of the infantry projection power of about 100 paces, and look for an opportunity to attack again at any time. However, the continuous rumbling of artillery made the losing team almost choose to withdraw from the battlefield completely.

In this way, the Chuang army, which had a strength of about 40,000 or 50,000 troops, was unable to hold Dongchang City after all, and had to finally give up Dongchang City under the attack of Zhu Xieyuan's only 20,000 Ming army vanguards.

After the capture of Dongchang Mansion, a large number of Ming troops gathered in the Jining area also began to sail north, and the cavalry along the entire canal accompanied the fleet, showing the strength of the Ming army that seemed to have never really been reflected in the past.

Because the attacking Ming army was dominated by the southern army and did not have too many strong cavalry, although more than 10,000 soldiers were lost in the Dongchang blockade, the intruding army in the city still withdrew from Dongchang City in time when night fell.

At this time, there was no concealment between the "Central Army" led by Xiao Xuan and Li Zicheng's subordinates. Even ordinary soldiers knew the news that they were "rebelling by order" at this time, so the new battalion of nearly 20,000 troops who arrived in the capital around Linqing along the canal gathered troops in one place, and once again prepared to block the offensive of the Ming army with about 40,000 or 50,000 men and horses.

This time, Xiao Xuan did not personally lead the team to the expedition, but asked Zhou Yuji and Sun Yingyuan to lead more than 10,000 men and horses respectively, a total of two armies and six brigades together with Li Zicheng's troops to block the opponent in the canal area, and in the months before this, a unique fortification system had already been built outside Linqing City, at least enough water for more than a year to make a long-term plan.

On the one hand, Xiao Xuan planned to test the real combat effectiveness of the newly established battalions, and at the same time, he also wanted to know whether many traditional generals who had been loyal to the emperor in history were really on his side at this time.

Hearing that the vanguard had broken through the Dongchang City, which was held by tens of thousands of enemy troops in almost one day, with 20,000 troops, the people of the Protector Army, who were originally a little lacking in confidence, also began to become active, and in a very short period of time, they almost changed the previous situation in which Zhu Xieyuan's troops fought almost alone.

Yang Sichang saw that the defenders in the Linqing area actually gave up the head of the city in Linqing and chose to build it outside the city near the canal, but the low earthen fortress breastwall like a powerful family couldn't help but feel disapproving: "Legend has it that the one in Shuntianfu who is good at training troops and arranging formations, and those who are ordered to rebel are also quite good at attacking and defending battles, and it is really disappointing to see it today." There is no danger to defend the city wall, but there is no danger to defend the radius is only more than a mile, as long as our army also builds the same fortifications and approaches step by step, even if it is difficult to conquer for a while, it will not take much manpower to control this group of stubborn enemies... ”

Of course, Yang Sichang is not an ignorant and arrogant person, and after learning a lot of things in the seven years since the Apocalypse, he never dared to despise the one in the capital. I felt that there must be a reason why the other party abandoned the city and built a unique fortress in the wild, but the corresponding countermeasures were also thought of.

Zhu Xieyuan was not so conservative, of course he had heard of some more difficult to conquer cottages with bunkers when he was fighting in the southwest, but that was relying on the danger of mountains and rivers, and in such a flat land, it seemed that there should be nothing difficult to deal with with the stubborn enemies gathered together.

(End of chapter)