From the Battle of Yumajian to the Battle of Fuping and the Battle of Qingyuan Nanyuan, the record of being invincible even in the face of a strong enemy still made the reorganized Guards Teaching Brigade and the Guards Teaching Brigade with a total of more than 10,000 elite main forces have full confidence when fighting along the canal south. Especially when I felt that the target of this battle was only a rabble from the south, even if it was compared with Li Zicheng's department or the northern border army of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, in terms of tactics, the 1st and 2nd Brigades, which had always been very conservative, advanced rapidly along the canal at a speed of about 200 miles a day, and when they approached the Linqing area, the cavalry largely fell behind the infantry.

Zhu Xieyuan, who received the news, led the main force of about 15,000 people to prepare for the blockade battle as quickly as possible, and the other 5,000 people were responsible for coordinating with the tens of thousands of Ming troops gathered near the fortress area outside Linqing City to besiege the tens of thousands of defenders in the fortress.

After more than a year and a half of training and a lot of actual combat, the two training brigades reorganized from the Guards Battalion and the Brave Guard Battalion also made the transition from marching to combat very quickly, and as they grew older, the officers and men seemed to be much stronger in physical strength and energy than before.

However, what Xiao Xuan didn't expect was that at a distance of about five hundred steps and one and a half miles, which he thought was relatively safe, when the teams had just disembarked and completed the hasty assembly, the vanguard of the Ming army, relying on the temporary earthen wall and the car formation, opened fire with heavy artillery, and the sound seemed to be able to feel the shocking vibration at a distance of one and a half miles. It seems to be very different from the sound of the Ming artillery in the past.

At first, the shells continued to fall at a distance from the team, but after several rounds of test firing, powerful shells began to hit the shield carts of the forward battalion of the Teaching Brigade.

The weakened heavy artillery shells still had a huge amount of energy that easily penetrated the heavy wooden shields, and the wind passed over the heads of the officers and soldiers who were hiding behind the cars. When the second cannonball hit the center of the shield, the power of the heavy cannonball was finally revealed. The huge energy made the entire body of the car seem to become a strengthened version of the wooden shotgun, which was crushed and swallowed by several officers and soldiers behind the car at one time. Many officers and soldiers in heavy armor were only able to avoid dying on the spot under such blows.

At a distance of about one and a half miles, the hit rate of the enemy's artillery bombardment does not seem to be high, and after stabilization, it usually takes seven or eight shells to effectively bombard one shell into the array, and about 20 shells to completely smash a shield car and pose a huge threat to the officers and men. However, this kind of enemy army can effectively fire first, and can threaten their own car shield from such a long distance, which has never been done before. It seems that he has become a lot of Houjin troops in the air at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the enemy has become the protagonist army. This has given a huge shock to many officers and men of the teaching brigade, and at the same time, it has made people feel even more uneasy.

"Do you want to start an artillery battle with the enemy?" A pro-soldier beside Xiao Xuan asked.

"All march!" At this time, Xiao Xuan didn't hesitate too much. It is obvious: the enemy's artillery skills do not seem to be too far from the level of their own army, but the specifications and power of their artillery far exceed their own. It is obviously very unwise to fight the opponent in the distance of the artillery battle, especially if he is still the attacking side. It is necessary to close to a distance of at least 200 paces and suppress the opponent's heavy fire with fierce bows and arrows and light artillery, and perhaps have a chance to change the tide of the battle. In this way, Xiao Xuan ordered the infantry to spread out the battle formation, and the infantry in a horizontal formation was scattered in horizontal formations, carrying only shields, and advancing at the fastest speed, not accommodating the speed of the shield car.

The three columns, including the reserve force, are only about five columns, so that the army of more than 10,000 people seems to have a slightly longer ability to control the battle line in the face of the defenders with a slight advantage in strength.

In the process of advancing, the enemy's artillery fire seemed to be becoming more and more accurate, and what surprised people was that the enemy's artillery fire did not seem to have relaxed after firing more than ten rounds in a row, and at this point, even the artillery team of the team led by Xiao Xuan could not do it.

In order to cover the attacking team, the artillery team that stayed in the rear also began to continuously launch fierce fire on the enemy troops 500 paces away, which slightly disturbed the continuous artillery fire.

In the attack on which the army advanced to a distance of less than 200 paces, more than 10 rounds of artillery fire, hundreds of heavy artillery shells, and more than 1,000 rounds of general artillery shells only caused only a few hundred casualties in the attack.

As the front team approached about 200 paces from the enemy line, the shotguns fired by their own team began to pose a slight threat to the advancing team. Heavy shotgun fire from enemy artillery and artillery began to put a lot of pressure on the shield bearers in front.

Fortunately, after a lot of training and actual combat training, the gunners were still relatively proficient at this time, and thousands of guns that had been loaded long ago were handed over to the squad leader with brackets and gun gauges to fire at this time.

In order to put more pressure on the enemy, the battalions also began to advance alternately at this time, until they were about a hundred paces away. The shotgunners, who were firing one after another, began to put another great pressure on the shield-bearers in the front row. The enemy's artillery of various sizes, which fired from the side, also came into full swing at this time. It actually made some of the thin teaching brigade front teams seem to be shaken.

It was also at this time that the strong archers of the teaching brigade, who had really matured, began to throw heavy arrows one after another at the opponent's front team with the help of the cover of their shields, which made the firepower pressure a little less.

Although the Teaching Brigade, which had a large number of one-on-one guns and excellent archers in terms of firepower, had the upper hand with fewer men, the defending Zhu Xieyuan's troops also offset most of the casualties with the fortifications and car shields in the defense. Although Zhu Xieyuan's division was not adapted to the firepower and bows and arrows at the beginning, which were far from being comparable to the combat methods of the main force of the brigade that could be compared with the southwestern opponents in the past, when the troops were further dispersed backwards, the casualties in the firepower battles between the two sides began to become half-hearted. And with the advantage of troops, it is obvious that Zhu Xieyuan's division on the defending side still has a certain advantage.

Seeing that the battle situation was not as easy to defeat the opponent as he expected, Xiao Xuan's heart couldn't help but be clouded, he didn't expect that such a difficult opponent would also appear in the Southern Ming Army. Perhaps the only thing to be thankful for is that these strong enemies, who are also good at using firearms, do not seem to have the reliable cavalry families that are common among the elite of the Ming army in the north. Otherwise, it is not impossible for the entire teaching brigade to have a major crisis.

(End of chapter)