The stragglers' salaries, as well as their food standards, were among the highest in the Model Army, almost twice as high as those of the first platoon. The reason why they pay so much is not for nothing. Because the combat mission they have to perform is more dangerous than that of the average array infantry, that is, to walk in front of the array infantry, use the guns in their hands, suppress the opponent's artillery, and strike at the opponent's array.

The skirmishers were armed with front-loading rifled guns that used Mini rounds, which had an effective range even longer than the effective range of a cannon firing shotguns. This allowed the Skirmishers to use their guns to preemptively take out the gunners out of the cannon's shotgun range.

Of course, this job is not easy to do, otherwise they would not be able to get such a high military salary. First of all, the range of the guns in their hands is actually very limited compared to the shotguns fired by cannons, which requires them to have good marksmanship. Secondly, they cannot form formations, which makes them very vulnerable to cavalry. As soon as enemy cavalry appears, they must immediately turn around and run back, seeking protection from their infantry or cavalry.

However, the distance between the infantry array and the skirmishers was not small, as the infantry arrays were often outside the effective range of solid shells fired by the enemy's artillery. The Mini rifle has a range that exceeds that of a cannon's shotgun, but it is far inferior to the solid cannonballs fired by a cannon, and that part of the distance is, for a balladeer, the distance between life and death. In addition, after suffering several losses, the Qing army also began to use stragglers. Although the marksmanship of the Qing army's skirmishers was far from being comparable to that of the model army, their hand-to-hand combat skills were generally good, especially in melee battles without formation.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the stragglers began to approach the earthen wall of the Qing army. Behind them, the line infantry, also accompanied by a melodious march, began to move forward under the cover of a large platoon of shield wagons. Just as the Qing army copied the small cannons and muskets of the model army, the model army also copied the shield vehicles commonly used by the Qing army. It's just that because the shield car of the model army has rubber wheels, it is more labor-saving to push, so the wooden planks in front of the shield car are also thicker and stronger.

"It seems that those cannons are really wooden cannons. If these cannons are real, the shield line infantry should now be in their range, and it is time for them to open fire. These wooden cannons ...... Most of them can't fire solid shells, they can only use shotguns. If that's the case, then their setup is really a problem. Zheng Sen said.

"They hide the real cannon behind, and the range of the shotgun from the wooden cannon is much smaller than that of the normal cannon, and they will be overwhelmed by the stragglers." Gu Jiang has been in the army for a long time, and he can also see a lot of things.

The skirmishers were approaching about three hundred paces from the first earthen wall. At this distance, rifled guns are already relatively accurate at striking smaller targets. Straggler Cheng Yong half-knelt down, put the rifle in his hand on his shoulder, and pointed the muzzle at a small cannon, where several Qing soldiers were standing behind the cannon, and one of them was wearing a full suit of silver armor, which was far away, and he couldn't see it clearly, probably a Zhang Jing or something.

Cheng Yong flipped up the ruler on the gun and took a closer look. That Zhang Jing didn't react, and kept sticking his head out and looking.

"This guy probably doesn't know how far our guns can go, does he? He didn't even notice that I was looking at him. Cheng Yong thought so, holding his breath, and then gently pulled the bolt.

"Bang!" A bullet shot out of Cheng Yong's gun. Cheng Yong's eyes widened and stared at the other side. The target at a distance of 300 steps looks like a small dot, and sometimes it is difficult to see clearly whether it is shot or not. Cheng Yong only saw that the guy in the silver armor disappeared behind the earthen wall all of a sudden, and he didn't know if he was hit or hiding. However, he did not have time to continue to observe the results, but stood up, pulled out his medicine bag, and began to reload his rifle with a new round.

Cheng Yong couldn't see whether he had hit the guy in silver armor or not, but farther away, with the help of large binoculars, Zheng Sen could clearly see the results of the stragglers' shooting. He saw a silver-armored Zhang Jing, who was standing up straight, saying something to a few guys who only showed half of their heads, and suddenly his body shook violently, as if he had been struck by lightning, and then fell headlong.

Zheng Sen turned the telescope and saw that under the attack of stragglers and artillery, the Qing army was constantly shot and fell, and it was obvious that the casualties of the Qing army were quite heavy.

"Jianshen hasn't fired a cannon yet, but they're really calm." Zheng Sen said with admiration, "If this is our Ming army, I'm afraid that the cannons and muskets have already been red at this time, right?" It's not for nothing that Jian Yan can do harm for so long......"

As soon as the words fell, I saw a large area of gunpowder smoke rising from the first row of earthen walls of the Qing army, and after a long while, a faint sound of artillery came.

"What kind of cannon is this? It's so far away, it doesn't seem like you hit anything, right? Shizi, you just praised Jianxuan for his composure, but they also started fighting. Haha......" Gu Jiang laughed, "It seems that today's Jianxuan is actually not much different from those armies of my Daming." ”

Zheng Sen couldn't help but smile and said: "It seems that Jianxuan's morale is not very good now, and his ability to fight has regressed a lot." ”

Of course, the Qing army's premature artillery could not hit anything, and after a volley, the entire forward position of the Qing army was covered by thick gunsmoke. Under such circumstances, it is easy for troops with low morale to fall into unnecessary panic because they cannot see the enemy, and then they will shoot indiscriminately.

The Qing army's arrangement on the first earthen wall was indeed the same as Zheng Sen speculated, which was just some wooden cannons. Wood cannons are more dangerous than brass cannons and iron cannons. Because even if it is the same kind of wood, they are not necessarily the same toughness, and many times, two wooden cannons look almost identical, and they are loaded with the same amount of gunpowder, but one may shoot without any problems, but the other will explode directly. Some can still be used with five or six shots, and some will explode with the first and second guns. In short, the probability of a wood cannon being blown up is much higher than that of a copper or iron cannon. And the cannon, even if it is a wooden cannon, once it is blown up, the surrounding gunners are basically not spared. Therefore, the Qing army was simply reluctant to use properly trained gunners to play such dangerous things. Actually, these wooden cannons are being used today. Basically, it's just some coats with flags raised. They haven't been trained at all, and it's normal for this to happen.

The Qing army continued to fire frantically, and Zheng Sen was very happy to see that in the smoke that covered the Manchu front, from time to time there was a much larger fire than when ordinary shots were fired. Obviously, some of the wooden cannons of the Qing army unsurprisingly exploded.