Chapter 588: Ming Army Artillery

Rows of infantry, under the command of officers and drums, walked down the pontoon bridge to the south bank of the Van River, and lined up according to their own formation, behind them were artillery carriages dragged by horses, and the cannons were dragged by horses, and the soldiers pushed and pulled to the opposite bank.

On this battlefield, it's all the Great Plains. There was no terrain too high, and the artillery would not be detected behind the soldiers at all, and in the barracks of the Liaozhen army, the drums of the marching array were sounded early, and the infantry and cavalry swarmed out and lined up in front of the camp.

The camps of the two armies are about fifteen miles apart, and there is also a process between approaching, so naturally this will not be the same as in the opera, where both sides are standing still.

There have long been light cavalry to harass the other party, so that the opponent's march can not be smooth, by the way to observe what flaws and wrongs are in the opponent's military formation, this is the right way of the art of war, but the Ming army also uses, the Huazhou army also uses, the light cavalry of the two sides is directly strangled in the center of the battlefield.

In addition to the chief soldier Li Gufeng's personal soldiers, the rest of the cavalry in Liaozhen can be regarded as infantry with more time on horseback, because the training of cavalry costs money and labor, and the general soldier, deputy general, staff general, guerrilla, and first-class officers are down, except for their own personal soldiers, no one is willing to train others.

In such a big battle, their personal soldiers and generals are all by their side, and they are reluctant to spread it, so the level of these cavalry who come out is unsatisfactory.

But the Huazhou army is different, most of the cavalry in Huazhou, especially the light cavalry, are transformed by the guards outside the pass, these people serve in the army for their wealth and privileges, and obtain the title of Huazhou, the wealth and glory of his life, and even the wealth of his children and grandchildren are in his own battles, and they usually do their best to hone their equestrian martial arts, and the guards rotate outside the pass and on the grassland, and have more contact with the Mongolian herdsmen, and these guards also stay on the horse every day, this is not those" Mounted infantry" is comparable.

The two sides encountered, knowing that this is the battle between the two armies, who wins can not only hit the morale of the other party, but also get a first victory, let's talk about it easily, but these two teams are fighting desperately there with red eyes, and the horse teams of both sides are more than 1,000 people.

More than 2,000 horses and horses fought in a circle in the center of the battlefield, shouting to kill the heavens, and the soldiers on both sides who were gradually approaching couldn't help but cheer loudly for their light horses.

Huazhou's light cavalry is higher than the Ming army in terms of personal force, and after killing the opponent in front of him, he doesn't pay attention to the one-on-one chivalrous spirit on the battlefield, and immediately goes to help his companions, and gradually, it becomes three to two, two to one, and three to one.

The advantages of the Huazhou army are becoming more and more obvious, the leader of the Ming army's light cavalry is obviously a person who understands the times, watching his men being cut off one by one, many Huazhou troops are desperately rushing towards their side, to get the credit of a pre-battle general, this Ming army officer will let them be happy,

Immediately turned the horse's head and ran back towards the formation, and the other Ming army light horses, all who could run, followed the horse and ran.

Victory, beheading can add half a merit, Huazhou's military merit system, although it is not so fancy to the first level, but in order to motivate his subordinates before the battle, this rule was also set, Huazhou's light cavalry saw the "military merit" in front of him and ran away, there was willingness, just like Liu Shisan's behavior of chasing Li Liang that day, it was directly chased and killed.

They thought to themselves that the enemy would run to the front of the formation and kill him, and when the time came to turn the horse's head, the opponent's large array would be slow and unable to catch up with them at all.

War is a contest in all aspects, Huazhou's military horses are better than Liaozhen's horses in terms of quality and maintenance, for no other reason, Huazhou is rich and the system is rigorous, the breeding of military horses is extremely strict, and the guards rely on the crotch of the horse and the knife in the palm are also dedicated to breeding.

Therefore, although the light cavalry of the Ming army fled in front, they were quickly overtaken, and the cavalry that fell behind was killed one by one with short spears and long knives in the back.

Huazhou's light cavalry is already red-eyed, every year in the grassland and northern Xinjiang to those tribes to fight grass valleys, it is easy to stimulate people's bloodthirsty character, Huazhou light cavalry shouted, the knife and gun in the hand did not listen, blood splashed, at this time it was already very close to the Ming army's array.

The soldiers at the forefront saw such a fierce appearance of the other party, they were a little frightened, the enemy they have faced for so many years is nothing more than a seriously degraded Mongolian horse bandits, those horse bandits are dressed in tatters, they only dare to harass small-scale villages and towns, and when they meet a large number of Ming troops, they are desperate to flee.

But look at these soldiers in front of them, they are all wearing leather armor half inlaid with iron leaves, the horses are almost the same color, the swords and guns in their hands are shining, and the advance and retreat are extremely well-organized, which is too far from the armed forces of the displaced people outside the pass as they think, this is an army.

The two wings of the Huazhou light cavalry have been gradually deployed, ready to make dumplings of prey in front of the opponent's big array, and all of them will be annihilated here, winning great success.

But at this time, suddenly there were a few muffled thunderous sounds, and the ground was trembling, this is the sound of cannons, Huazhou's light cavalry, subconsciously looking at the formation, in their hearts, artillery is a thing, only Huazhou has, turned their heads to look at the soldiers of Huazhou's formation, but saw the retreat banner of the formation dancing wildly.

Before they could react, dozens of horses in the light cavalry team of Huazhou neighed miserably and fell to the side, and some horses suddenly knelt on the ground, and a few lead bullets fell in the middle of the team, although the formation of the cavalry was already very scattered at this time.

But the damage is still huge, some Huazhou cavalry was directly cut off half of the body by the cannonball, even the people and horses were killed there, the cannonball had no eyes, and a few people were affected by the light cavalry of the Ming army, but the most injured was the light cavalry of Huazhou, which panicked and retreated one after another.

Hurriedly stopped the horse, did not dare to move forward, the Huazhou army was in charge of the sound of the gold, urging the light cavalry to retreat as soon as possible, before turning around and running, the Ming army's formation was rumbling a few loud sounds, the cannonballs flew over with a whistling, and more than a dozen horsemen were blown away.

At this moment, no one dared to continue to delay here, the remaining more than 700 light cavalry in Huazhou rushed towards the formation, 1,100 light cavalry in Huazhou, 1,300 light cavalry in the Ming army, if not counting the shelling, Huazhou casualties were less than 300, but the Ming army actually cut down more than 700 people.

Huazhou is a complete advantage, but the final shelling is indeed the momentum of the Liaozhen soldiers to pull back, looking at the Huazhou light cavalry that ran back to the formation, the momentum of the Ming army soared, as if they had won a big victory, cheering and shouting in unison, the momentum was greatly invigorated.

Jiang Feng, who was riding in front of the formation, smiled and said to Liu Twelve on the side:

"Thirty red-coated cannons, and hundreds of other large and small artillery, Liaozhen has also accumulated some things over the years."

The Ming army has always valued the power of firearms, so there are many firearms of all kinds, but the artisan household camp system of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the government-run workshop committee, is really a bad government, like slave-like craftsmen have no enthusiasm to work at all, and the things they create are not of any quality.

It is said that fifteen people process a gun a day, but this gun will explode when it is fought, and the artillery is even more so, the gun chamber is rough, and the charge is not fixed at all, if you are not careful, it will explode. The hundreds of artillery pieces of the Liao Zhen soldiers belong to this type of weapon.

It's ridiculous to say, many of the weapons craftsmen in Huazhou are from the Ming Dynasty's artisan battalion, but the same people, the things produced are not a thing at all, although Huazhou's weapons manufacturing is participated by Dutch and Western craftsmen, but Huazhou craftsmen and technicians are completely in the main force, and many times they don't even need Jiang Feng to put forward any concepts, these people will take the initiative to improve and innovate.

And the quality of the weapons is extremely sophisticated, the quality of the weapons, will not even be flowed into the barracks at all, why is the difference so big, Huazhou gave the craftsmen enough remuneration, enough respect, so that they really become a member of the ruling class, so that their enthusiasm and enthusiasm for labor completely burst out.

In fact, the Ming army understands the quality of its firearms, of course, so the Ming army's firearms really rely on the red-coated cannons, which are European cannons purchased by the Ming Dynasty through Portuguese and Spanish merchants in Macao and Nanyang, and the quality of these cannons is indeed very good, and the power is also huge.

It was immediately regarded as a treasure by the Ming army, that is, the Liaozhen family had some inventory, and it was exchanged for the poor border towns on the three sides of Datong and Shaanxi, and even the tiger squat cannon was regarded as a treasure.

Jiang Feng was in the center of the formation, the leader of those light cavalry was depressed, he could have won the first victory, but he didn't expect to be beaten back by the Ming army's artillery, lost morale, suffered heavy losses, not only blamed himself in his heart, but also thought that he was afraid that he would be punished, and got off his horse in frustration and fear, and knelt on the ground.

Seeing the appearance of this subordinate, Jiang Feng laughed, lowered his head and said:

"Tian Guangsan is right! When I was in the Taal River Valley, you were still a guard by my side. ”

Tian Guangxian on the ground heard that the coach's tone was not scolding, and his heart relaxed, and he heard Jiang Feng continue:

"It's obvious that we've won, don't make this look like a loser, raise your head!"