At four o'clock in the afternoon, Hong Chengchou reorganized his team and began to prepare for a breakthrough. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info At this time, a large number of Jianqi scouts had appeared near his camp, and Hong Chengchou knew that his every move at this time was already under Jianyan's nose. Under normal conditions, he should have sent an army to force the scouts back. But at this time, the elite troops in his hands who were used to break through could not waste their physical strength on such a thing as expelling the scouts. And what about the other troops around him? A few days ago, although the combat effectiveness of these troops was also limited, it was not difficult to force back the scout cavalry of Jianzhi. It's just that now, the morale on his side is low, and the desire to fight and the will to fight of those ordinary soldiers are also very suspicious. Hong Chengchou suspected that if they were allowed to go out to fight with Jianxuan, even if they were to fight with those scouts who did not have heavy armor and generally did not fight hand-to-hand with the Ming army, they would be easily defeated by others.

"Forget it, just let them make a fuss there." Hong Chengchou shook his head and thought, "Now I can't care about so much." Then he waved his hand and said to Cao Bianjiao and the others: "Let's go!" ”

The door of the barracks slowly opened, and the first to leave the camp were Wang Tingchen and his army. Wang Tingchen led a big black horse, and several family members also led the horses and hugged beside him, (this is not the time to consume horsepower, if you ride a horse now, the horse is tired, and when it is time to escape, it will not be able to run far) More soldiers are holding swords and shields to follow.

Wang Tingchen waved his hand, and these sword and shield soldiers were driven by some family members to divide to both sides, guarding the two flanks of the camp gate, and then archers and musketeers stood behind the sword and shield soldiers with bows and muskets.

At this time, the scouts gradually moved closer, most of these scouts were Mongols, and they did not have the armor of the soldiers of the Eight Banners, at most it was just a light leather armor. Moreover, their equipment and horses were not actually suitable for charging into battle (in fact, due to the limitations of the horse's weight-bearing capacity, there were no real shock cavalry units in the whole of East Asia). Therefore, these cavalry could not pose much threat to the Ming army who came out of the camp.

The Mongol cavalry gathered together, and then suddenly rushed from a distance with a wild shout. Wang Tingchen knew that these Mongol cavalry had just come to throw light arrows and harass them. So he waved his hand and let the musketeers and archers come forward. Many people who did not know much about warfare in later generations would think that mounted archery seemed to be a very, very powerful way of fighting, and Genghis Khan relied on nuclear-powered Mongolian horses and Mongolian sniper bows to fight almost the whole world. In reality, however, mounted archery is just a means of harassment. The cavalry rode on horses, and it was difficult to use the strength of the waist and abdomen when opening the bow, and they could only rely on the strength of their hands almost completely, plus they had to control the horse, so they could not use strong bows, and all the archers used soft bows with limited power, and the Mongolian cavalry was no exception. The range and power of a light arrow thrown by a soft bow are very limited, so do not penetrate the opponent's armor, and even the opponent's wool felt can block such an arrow as long as it is thicker. In addition, the horses ran very bumpy, and the riders did not install a two-way stabilization system on their arms, so the accuracy of archery can be said to be a mess. Accurate shooting is not possible at all, only approximate projectiles. Therefore, the point of mounted archery is never to rely on it to kill the enemy, but only to harass, reduce the opponent's organization, and let the opponent show flaws. If the opponent is well organized enough, there is nothing to be afraid of riding and shooting. Because the bows in the hands of the foot archers have a longer range, more power, and higher accuracy. As long as the foot archers can be effectively protected, there is no need to worry about those archers suddenly throwing away their soft bows and drawing their scimitars to rush up, then the exchange ratio between them will often be very different. Just like the crusaders led by Richard the Lionheart in the Battle of Assuf, they used crossbows and the legendary English longbow to teach Saladin's archers.

Of course, the premise of all this is that those guys on the opposite side of the archers must be well-trained and have high morale. Today, however, neither of these factors exists.

The Mongols began to speed closer, and were about to come within range of the musketeers and archers. "Bang!" I don't know who fired the first shot out of nervousness, and then the musketeers crackled and fired all the muskets in their hands.

At such a distance, the shooting of muskets naturally had little effect. However, the musketeers were given the right to stand behind the sword and shield men for the time being. Although soon, the royal courtiers' family members will force them to load their bullets and go back to the front.

The Mongol cavalry did not take the opportunity to rush up, and their kind of scout cavalry actually did not have the ability to charge into battle at all. So after the musketeers' guns rang out, they turned a corner and distanced themselves from the Ming army again.

When the musketeers were in position again, they launched another feint, and the Ming musketeers, encouraged by the results of the last time they "scared away" the Mongol cavalry, fired more than a hundred paces from the Mongols, and naturally missed anything.

In this way, the musketeers crackled and fought lively, and soon their front was filled with thick smoke, and their muskets were too hot to continue firing.

And the smoke from the constant firing also made it impossible for the archers to see what was ahead. At this time, the shouting of the Mongolian cavalry came from the front, and the panicked Ming soldiers shot indiscriminately with their rifles and even with three-eyed guns to the side of the smoke. Then some light arrows were thrown from the smoke of gunpowder, these arrows were shot inaccurately, and there was almost no power at all, but they caused chaos in the Ming army, if those Mongolian scouts really rushed over at this time, maybe they could directly cause the rout of this part of the Ming army. However, the Mongols' vision was also obscured by the thick fog of the battlefield, and they could not see anything clearly.

At this time, Cao Bianjiao's team also left the barracks, and he personally took the lead with his family. And a little behind him is Hong Chengchou with the standard camp.

After completing a few projectiles, the Mongols retreated. And the troops under the royal courtiers, who were responsible for protecting the flanks, were still shooting blindly with muskets there.

Cao Bianjiao's family led on horseback, and the rest of the team followed, and the remaining Ming army began to advance along the official road to the southeast. And the royal courtiers reluctantly suppressed the chaos on both wings. Keep these of your soldiers up to the band.

After walking a short distance, the team began to leave the official road - and further ahead was the Houzhai captured by the Manchus. The Houzhai itself had a good defense, and when it was conquered by Jianxuan, Wang Pu ran too fast, and all the artillery and everything was lost to the Manchus. Hong Chengchou didn't think that his army could gnaw on the back village occupied by Jianyan and had a lot of artillery.

Of course, if you don't go on the official road, it will be difficult to carry a lot of baggage, especially cannons. Sure enough, before he could go far, Hong Chengchou got a report that two cannon wheels were stuck in the soil and couldn't pull them out. Hong Chengchou knew that he didn't have the capital to delay time at this time, so he ordered: "Then leave them first." ”

Fortunately, they didn't go far before the long trench dug by Jianxin appeared in front of them.

After more than a night of excavation, the trench was already more than a zhang wide, but the depth was not too deep, only a little more than one person. If there were no defenders, it would not be difficult to cross this trench. Even if there were defenders, it would be much easier to deal with such a trench that had not been dug deep and had not been planted with bamboo nails. The earth that had been dug up in the trench was not removed, but was piled up on the other side of the trench to form a low wall. However, it can be seen that this earthen wall has not had time to be tamped. This also meant that it was impossible for the Jangs to shoot from the cannon mount on a low wall.

However, Hong Chengchou's chances of victory were still not great, because the number of defenders on the opposite side was not smaller than on their side, and there was still a big banner of Huang Taiji on the opposite side.

After fighting with Jianxin for a long time, our Ming border army was also obviously affected by Jianxuan in terms of offensive methods. Hong Chengchou's attack also used a lot of shield vehicles. Even the shape of the shield carts on both sides is quite similar. If there is any difference, it is because the Manchus had relatively few artillery guns, and even fewer muskets. Therefore, the shield carts of the Ming army were relatively lighter, and of course, the defensive effect was also worse. However, it is no problem to block the bed crossbow commonly used by the griff, and of course, the light and heavy arrows fired by the bow and arrow are not a problem.

A few days ago, when Hong Chengchou was still on the offensive, the Ming army prepared a lot of shield vehicles, and now it has saved a lot of preparation time.

As soon as Hong Chengchou set off, Huang Taiji got the information, so he immediately led the army and blocked here.

"Your Majesty, Hong Chengchou's movements are still faster, he wants to slow down, and we can set up cannons here." Huang Taiji's elder brother Abatai pointed to the Ming military road opposite.

"Hong Chengchou is actually quite good." Now that the victory is in hand, Huang Taiji is also willing to give a relatively good evaluation to the commander of the Ming army opposite, "He naturally knows that the longer it drags on, the more difficult it will be for him to break through." Abatai, we don't have a cannon here, do you think we can hold it? ”

"Your Majesty, when Lao Khan was in the time, where did we have cannons? We Manchurians are not Nikans who would not dare to fight without firearms. Not to mention that we have more people at our disposal, even if there are fewer people, they are not our opponents. ”

At this time, the shield carts of the Ming army were slowly approaching the trench. They stopped beside the trench, and then someone came out from behind the shield cart and fired their bows and arrows at the Qing troops on the earthen wall, while some auxiliaries carried some long logs out from behind the shield cart.