Chapter 309: The Fall of Tibet
"Immediately open fire and bombard the opposing vanguard for me." Xue Yang stood on the top of the hill and let the artillery unit use artillery fire to suppress the charging momentum of the Tubo cavalry, and at the same time, the three ballista brigades attached to the rear of the infantry position also began to raise explosives into the sky one by one and throw them towards the opposite side. This means that their southern front troops still retained ballistas and explosive packs, but at this time, they effectively made up for the lack of artillery, and the first wave successfully curbed the pace of the Tibetan cavalry charge.
"Brothers, prepare." Li Yang's position is the forefront of the Tiance Army, at this moment all the soldiers of the Tiance Army are ready, the front-line trenches are full of soldiers of the Tiance Army with guns aimed at the front, and the rear is divided into three rows, and each row of soldiers has ammunition boxes placed next to them, ready to fill the bullets at any time.
The three-stage tactic is actually to line up and shoot, but in actual combat the division of labor and coordination is extremely detailed, someone is responsible for the end of the gun shooting, someone is responsible for filling ammunition, there must be no interval in the middle, otherwise there will be a problem with the density of ammunition delivery, which must rely on the number of people and the connection between each other before the problem of long filling time of breech guns is not solved.
Li Yang looked at the Tubo cavalry that was blown up by artillery and explosives packets, and still rushed forward reluctantly, couldn't help but shake his head, turned around and glanced at the guards around him, only to see a guard holding a clairvoyant mirror is constantly reporting the distance of the other party, when the last three hundred meters number was reported Li Yang roared, only to hear his position for a moment A fierce gunfire sounded, countless small white smoke began to come out one after another, and the bullets whistled towards the Tubo cavalry who broke through the explosion. Almost as soon as the gunfire rang out from here, countless cavalry on that side were knocked to the ground.
At this time, the soldiers in the first row of the Tiance Army directly handed the spears in their hands to the soldiers in the rear after shooting, and at the same time, the rifles filled in the hands of the soldiers in the rear were also handed over, so that the soldiers in the front row could continue to shoot, and the soldiers in the second row quickly handed them to the third row when they received the guns that had been discharged, and at the same time took the rifles in the hands of the soldiers in the third row. The soldiers in the third row quickly reload when they take the guns from the soldiers in the second row, and then repeat the cycle so that the soldiers in the first row are in firing condition at all times.
The continuous gunfire on Li Yang's side knocked the Tubo cavalry who broke through the artillery blockade to the ground, blocking the first wave of attacks, but the Tubo 100,000 army almost came towards the position of the Tiance army like a storm, and under this crowd attack, Li Yang's counterattack of 10,000 rifles quickly became precarious, even if the artillery tried their best to fire shells, it still could not close the gap in numbers. Moreover, after the initial chaos was over, the Tibetans gradually adapted to the scene of the war horses disturbed by the cannonballs, and began to gradually organize an effective response to the attack, and the gray-brown wave swept the huge smoke and dust, and the ground of the entire land seemed to be crushed.
"Let the second and third line positions immediately go into battle." Xue Yang stood on the top of the hill and let the Tiance army on the other two positions immediately enter the battle, only for a moment, the gunfire on the battlefield suddenly doubled, and with the support of the other two lines of positions, Li Yang's side stabilized the formation, and after the dense rain of bullets was projected, the Tubo cavalry that rushed before almost fell to the ground in rows, and the wounded war horses and soldiers became the biggest obstacle on the road to the charge at this moment, Once the speed of the cavalry charge was interrupted, the casualties would almost increase exponentially in the face of the continuous fire projection of the Tiance army.
However, at this time, Xue Yang had no intention of paying attention to how the commander of the Tubo cavalry on the opposite side should adjust his deployment next. In his eyes, his troops have exposed a lot of problems in field battles, although the three-stage combat method followed by the breech gun can ensure the density of firepower, but it greatly restrains his own strength, on average, each soldier needs more than two soldiers to assist when shooting, and his 70,000 troops are arranged on the position, in fact, less than half of them really participate in the front-line battle, even if they cooperate with the artillery attack, the situation is still unclear.
There was no such problem in the street battle in the last time in Lane Dong City, but once the real field battle was magnified by the number and class of troops that the opponent had superiority, it became a fatal problem. Xue Yang believed that if he commanded the cavalry to attack, he would be able to break through this firepower blockade very quickly, even at a huge cost. And once the cavalry breaks through to the side of the infantry, then the advantage of the musket is gone, and if you really want the infantry to use the rifle and cavalry knife in your hand to duel, I am afraid that my 70,000 people may not be able to please anything.
And this situation Xue Yang just thought about it for a short time, the Tubo cavalry on the opposite side also began to adjust the deployment, and after being stunned by the firepower of the Tiance army, the commander of the other side began to decisively divide his troops, and began to draw part of the army from the rear and began to detour back to the east of the Tiance army's position and began to launch an attack on the second front. The Tiance Army, which was already trying to contain the opponent's attack, had to send additional manpower into the battle in the face of this situation, so that the three-stage tactics could not be maintained completely, and the three platoons of soldiers were transferred out of one platoon to take charge of the new front. If it weren't for the fact that by this time many soldiers were already familiar with the weapons in their hands, the bullet filling speed would have been greatly enhanced, and the frontal battlefield would likely have been chiseled through by the opponent.
At this time, although the situation on the battlefield has improved greatly after the Tubo cavalry changed their tactics, but in a short period of time, with the support of artillery and explosives packs, the ferocious bullets of the Tiance army still firmly held the initiative on the battlefield, and the dense bullets firmly controlled the pace of the opponent's cavalry at a distance of about 300 meters, and the extended launch of the explosives package made the opponent's follow-up charging forces fall into chaos, and the momentum of the charge was far from reaching the extreme. But Xue Yang looked at the form of the battlefield on the top of the mountain, but his face became very solemn, if Chen Yu's side did not appear in time at this time, then it would definitely be a short battle. Xue Yang didn't want these soldiers in his hands who had been trained in actual combat to be consumed by the other party in white-knuckle combat.
It is said that Chen Yu has arrived near the battlefield at this time, and after arranging the interception line, he personally led a battalion to the back of the Tubo cavalry formation, but he thought differently from Xue Yang, he was ready to directly attack the position of the Chinese army of the Tubo army, so he delayed a lot of time. This delay point puts Xue Yang in danger of being broken through. However, from his point of view, if he can directly break through the opponent's Chinese army, it will inevitably greatly attract the opponent's main force to come back for reinforcements, so that he can directly turn the tables and make the offensive and defensive sides instantly change shape.
The 5,000 people on Chen Yu's side shot directly after approaching the opponent's Chinese army, quickly disrupting the Tubo rear army, and the rows of soldiers shot while marching to kill all the remaining men and horses of the rear army that were originally drawn to open up the second front, and successfully entered the crowd of the opponent.
"Charge in the front, reload in the rear, keep the fire on hold." Chen Yu roared angrily as he rushed forward, reminding his soldiers not to mess up the formation. And after approaching the position of the Chinese army, Chen Yu ordered the troops to immediately stop and defend on the spot, attracting the attention of the other party while enhancing the effect of the attack.
10,000 troops, 5,000 rifles at the same time projected projectiles instantly tore a hole in the Chinese army of the Tubo army, and with Chen Yu's movements, the lethality of these 5,000 people also reached the extreme in a short period of time, and the surrounding Tubo soldiers did not have time to react before they were taken away by the scorching bullets, because the distance was very close, those soldiers almost did not need to aim when shooting, and directly greeted the crowded places, each bullet could take away a life.
"The marksman shoots at my opponent's general." Chen Yu aimed the rifle of a guard next to him at a centurion in front of him, and directly knocked half of the opponent's head away with a single shot. His gunshot also caused the dozens of soldiers around him with good marksmanship to start to break away from the volley camp and start looking for those generals to aim and shoot their heads one by one. Although the accuracy of the breech gun is not very good, and the manufacturing process is not as sophisticated as that of later generations, in the eyes of these soldiers whose marksmanship is more prominent, they can still achieve accurate strikes after feeling the accuracy error, and experienced marksmen can even achieve a record of nine out of ten shots at a distance of 100 meters.
Chen Yu's method quickly worked, after the grassroots generals on the front line were constantly killed, these Tubo cavalry obviously lost their command, and the consequences of the commander's orders could not be conveyed to the low-level soldiers were rapidly amplified with the passage of time, and many soldiers fell into blind chaos after no follow-up orders came, and this chaos forced the Tubo commander to draw people from the front line to encircle and suppress Chen Yu.
And this meticulous change made Xue Yang, who had been paying attention to the entire battlefield situation from a high place, grasp it, and almost without thinking ordered the artillery to shoot beyond the distance to the limit, twenty artillery pieces roared again after a short adjustment of the firing range, and twenty projectiles roared out, exploding in the crowd with a scorching wave of air, almost completely emptying an area in an instant, this concentrated artillery fire made those Tubo cavalry who were just about to retreat almost collapse directly, After this earth-shattering explosion, many war horses began to run blindly and worse, which further aggravated the chaos on the scene. The biggest problem in the Cold Weapon Era was the ills brought about by Xue Yang's concentrated artillery attack, which put the formation of the Tubo people in danger of collapsing.
The method of the commander of the Tubo to draw troops from the front line did not work under Xue Yang's artillery attack, and even the troops that were supposed to continue to attack began to move towards the edge of chaos, and the more the number of Tubo cavalry who could not control the situation, the more chaotic it became, and at this time, a battalion of Chen Yu became an increasingly harmful tumor, continuing to devour the men and horses of the Chinese army in the rear, disrupting the overall deployment of the Chinese army, and this poisoning made the Tubo commander unable to deal with it at all.
On the other side of the battlefield, after surviving the most difficult period, the soldiers on the front line of the Tiance Army found that the number of Tubo cavalry charging in front of them was getting smaller and smaller, and the intensity of the charge was becoming more and more sparse. Sure enough, Xue Yang suddenly asked the guards around him to blow the horn of attack on the top of the mountain, calling for a counterattack on all fronts.
Since the war drum corps was eliminated, all units of the Tiance Army have begun to equip this newly developed horn, the use of copper metal to create a shape similar to the horn of the instrument to play the sound of high-pitched and loud, can be conveyed far in the sound of artillery fire, the new horn sound has made the Tiance army have rushed out of the trenches, many soldiers even pulled out of the bayonet and inserted it into the rifle.
At this time, the artillery and the ballistas on the front position were almost full of strength to project the most shells and explosives bags in the shortest possible time while the soldiers charged, almost in an instant, the battlefield that had just stopped was taken over by a violent explosion, and the explosives and shells exploded on the ground and brought up the boundless air waves and gravel became the most powerful lethal weapons on the battlefield at this moment, and the Tubo cavalry that was disrupted by the rhythm no longer had the intention of fighting at this moment, and the whole battlefield showed a rhythm of complete collapse. And those soldiers of the Tiance Army who charged on the front line shot with guns while rushing back, although the accuracy was not very good at this time, but the 70,000 people who were liberated at once had a rifle and the firepower that burst out in an instant became the last straw that crushed the Tubo cavalry at this most critical moment, and the projectiles fired by the 70,000 Tiance Army soldiers directly shrank the entire Tubo cavalry line inward by a distance of more than ten zhang, and the corpses of war horses and soldiers along the way almost submerged the ground.
"Woo" horn horn at this time abruptly sounded on the battlefield, the Tubo commander saw the Tiance army counterattack and began to prepare to retreat, this battle made him even scratch his head to be defeated, the opponent's new weapons and mutual cooperation made their hands of 100,000 troops were defeated without having time to spread out the formation. To be honest, it was extremely wretched, but the situation was stronger than people at this time, Xue Yang ordered the ballista troops in front to start following the infantry while counterattacking, maintaining the support of battlefield firepower.
At the same time, Chen Yu, who opened a circular formation, also began to move forward at this time, he was fighting vigorously, the 10,000-strong troops formed a circular formation in the rear of the opponent almost blocked the back road of the Tubo people, and the Tubo commander almost let the marksman be killed with a shot in the fierce battle, and the musket became a nightmare for all the Tubo people on Chen Yu's side, this kind of shadowless weapon is simply invincible, and the breech gun is inherently much better at defense than the offense, and the advantage that the short-distance cavalry cannot charge also gives Chen Yu an advantage. It can be said that if it weren't for the timely appearance of 10,000 people led by him, I am afraid that the casualties on Xue Yang's frontal battlefield today would have been heavy.
However, at this time, it may not be so easy for the Tubo people to prepare to retreat, not to mention the soldiers of the Tiance Army who chased from the rear, the interception defense line arranged by Chen Yu before was enough to block the way for most of the Tubo people to retreat. At this time, Li Shenfu, who was chasing the fastest, was already approaching Chen Yu's position, and this scene made Chen Yu decisively stop shooting, turn his head and begin to join the pursuing camp.
"The battle has finally been won." On the top of the hill in the distance, the artillery unit had stopped firing, and Xue Yang sighed silently as he looked at the devastation on the battlefield.