The sun gradually turned to the west, the Yumai mountains at the eastern foot of Dabie Mountain in the distance were undulating, and in the northwest direction, the Fengle River headed towards the vast Chaohu Lake, and the flat field in the middle was the battlefield where thousands of troops forgot to die.

Most of the officers of the 182nd Brigade, from the brigade commander Zhang Yanshi to the low-ranking officers Ding Zongwang and Xiong Yuanzhong, knew that the Qing army was about to launch a general offensive, but they had no reinforcements, and everything they could did was done.

With a crisp gong, the hundreds of Eight Banners soldiers responsible for harassment turned their horses and retreated, and the main force of the Qing army suddenly launched a general attack.

The iron rider stands out, and the thunder is thunderous.

Two thousand cavalry charged together, and the whole world trembled under the roaring iron hooves, and the momentum was so great that they could dominate the fate of all things in the world, although Zhang Yanshi had been in battle many times, his face couldn't help but change color slightly, but Ding Zongwang and other officers from the Dashun Army were no strangers to this kind of scene...... Li Zicheng was also good at using cavalry back then, and fought with the Qing army on the northern plains, unlike Zhang Yanshi who stayed in the south after joining the Chu army, every time the Chu army fought with the Qing army, Wang Kefan would try his best to eliminate the cavalry advantage of the Eight Banners, and the Qing army rarely had this opportunity for large-scale cavalry charge.

As soon as the two thousand Eight Banner soldiers came up, it was still the tactic of horses walking the day, rushing to the front of the Chu army and suddenly splitting into two, sweeping to the two wings one hundred and fifty paces away, turning the horse's head, stopping and slowly forming several teams.

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"The Tartar is getting off his horse." Ding Zongwang's company has now been transferred to the flank, and there is no combat mission for the time being, and the officers and men of the company are watching the battle intently. Very nervous.

"Yes, it's going to be real this time." Xiong Yuanzhong's face was solemn. His right hand subconsciously clenched the hilt of the knife, but he didn't feel anything in the sweat. Only those who have fought with the Eight Banners know this. When they really win a decisive battle, they often choose to dismount and fight on foot, and the infantry and cavalry cooperate to charge the formation, and once they are launched, they will not retreat, and they must break through the enemy's formation.

Before the two of them could finish speaking, the Eight Banners soldiers on the opposite side really began to dismount and line up.

(Due to the small size of the Mongol horse, the high cost of heavy armor and horse armor, and the poor mobility, the Tatars in northern China played light cavalry for a thousand years, from the Mongol Yuan to the Liaojin to the Manchu Qing.) Generally, you can't play heavy cavalry, only Jin Wushu has played a "kidnapping horse" and "Tiefutu", but it was broken by Yue Fei's horse-kicking death squad...... The Eight Banners also belong to the light cavalry, and the war horses have no horse armor, and it is very unwise to attack the infantry formation that is waiting for the battle head-on, so the Eight Banners will dismount when they need to charge the formation, forming a strong heavy infantry as an impact arrow, but please note that in addition to these heavy infantry charging into battle. The other Eight Banners do not dismount, they play with infantry and cavalry, and if the artillery can keep up, the infantry, cavalry, and artillery are also very proficient in playing with each other. ）

"The Eight Banners are all infantry on horseback." Wang Kefan once said this sentence. Suddenly flashed through Zhang Yanshi's mind.

Excluding casualties, the 182nd Brigade now has about 1,000 soldiers, 400 auxiliaries and other non-combatants. The Qing army had a clear superiority in strength, and after a whole day of continuous harassment and attack. The soldiers of the Chu army were already very tired, and the Qing army launched a general attack at this time. The timing was also very accurate. The survival of the 182nd Brigade depends on whether it can withstand this attack and whether it can withstand the heavy infantry of the Qing army who have just dismounted and lined up.

The 2,000 Qing army was divided into two divisions, one left and one right to form a two-sided flank attack on the 182nd Brigade, and half of the Qing army dismounted in each division, that is, two Qing heavy infantry, each with 500 people. In addition to the cotton armor, they put on a layer of iron cuirass inside, protecting the torso of the upper body, not afraid of ordinary knives and guns, the leading few Qing generals are more than 1.8 meters of strong men, all wearing heavy armor, showing off their might, is the vanguard of the Qing army.

Zhang Yanshi waved the flag, and the few three-pounder guns and tiger squat guns were moved to the two wings and aimed at the heavy infantry of the Qing army.

The heavy infantry of the Qing army had not yet completed the formation, and the conch horn suddenly sounded again, and a thousand Eight Banner cavalry launched a charge again, and the five hundred and eight banner soldiers who had just turned back and retreated were monitoring the movements of the Chu army from a distance.

The distance of one hundred and fifty paces, not far or close, is just enough for the Eight Banners to lift the horses quickly, without wasting horsepower. Seeing the black cavalry rapidly approaching him like a tide, the nerves of the Chu soldiers tensed up sharply again, and with the officer's order, the musketeers raised their guns together, and only waited for the Eight Banners to rush into the firing range before firing together.

Rush in!

But something is not right.

Rushing to within sixty paces, the Eight Banners cavalry has suddenly been divided into two teams, the front team is still the harassment tactics of horse walking, while harassing the Chu army with a riding bow, while quickly sweeping to the two wings, the rear team jumped off the war horse, stepped forward ten steps, and shot a rain of arrows towards the Chu army formation with a bow and arrows...... They used infantry bows and heavy arrows, and their lethality and accuracy were significantly improved, except for the musketeers and pikemen of the Chu army, the focus of the attack was obviously on the artillery of the Chu army.

The rain of arrows in the sky came repeatedly, the musket team of the Chu army shot back, the white smoke dispersed on the battlefield, the sound of people shouting horses and guns filled the ears, the battle quickly entered the white heat, the soldiers of the Eight Banners were all skilled in bows and horses, one arrow was shot and then another arrow, after the musketeers of the Chu army finished a round of guns, they could not withstand the pressure and were forced to retreat to the rear...... The musketeers were too slow to reload, unlike the archers who raised their hands, the musketeers in the rear of the Chu army were blocked by pikemen and sword and axe men, and could not provide fire support, although the archers could shoot, the lethality was far inferior to the direct fire of the Eight Banners.

Under the banner of the 182nd Brigade, Zhang Yanshi was watching the battle expressionlessly, the soldiers of the Chu army continued to fall one after another, and many officers were restless, but he ignored it and did not react...... Being pressed by the Eight Banners to shoot arrows like this, the Chu army was indeed very passive, Zhang Yanshi, as the commander of the first brigade, should have immediately made tactical adjustments and strived to reverse the passive shape, but he didn't move, because he saw very clearly that the heavy infantry phalanx in the rear of the Eight Banners had been lined up and began to move forward.

Endure! The word forbearance has a knife in his heart, and Zhang Yanshi is now forbearing. The 182nd Brigade is a new brigade with a lack of ability in all aspects, if it changes formation at this time to deal with the archers of the Qing army. After being rushed up by the heavy infantry of the Qing army, it was too late to restore the defensive formation. It is likely to reveal a fatal flaw.

The rear of the Qing army, under the banner of the general. On the war horse, Niman, the chief general of the Qing army, frowned slightly...... In the face of the rain of arrows from the Eight Banners, the soldiers of the Chu Army were shot down dozens of people in a blink of an eye, but they still stood there and resisted, neither changing the formation to counterattack, nor showing signs of loosening the formation, this tenacity and ruthlessness alone far exceeded that of other Ming officers and soldiers, and it seemed that the opponent of the 182nd Brigade was much more difficult than imagined.

The tactical coordination of this Qing army was very skillful. The archers in front dismounted and shot arrows, and the heavy infantry behind took the opportunity to start, and after the archers shot more than a dozen arrows in a row, as the body decreased, the rate of fire and accuracy also began to decline...... They were clad in heavy armor and could not run quickly, in order to maintain the tightness of their formation. could only walk forward quickly, and the Eight Banners cavalry, which was wandering around, came back again, and galloped towards the Chu army formation, firing bows and arrows to harass constantly. Covering the slow-moving heavy infantry in the middle, those Qing archers also gathered together and kept shooting arrows at the artillery of the Chu army.

The Qing army's heavy infantry seemed to be slow but fast. In the blink of an eye, it entered the firing range, and the archers of the Chu army began to shoot together with the musketeers. The sound of the guns was like bursting beans, and the arrows were like locusts across the sky. Under the overwhelming rain of arrows and bullets, the Qing army's heavy infantry was constantly hit, but the thick armor protected them, and their bodies shook twice, and then continued to advance.

Unstoppable!

Seeing the unstoppable appearance of the Qing army's heavy infantry, Ding Zongwang and Xiong Yuanzhong, the officers who participated in the Battle of Ningzhen, suddenly missed the mountains very much, as well as the strong fortifications on the mountains, the solid and reliable breastwork, and the deep trenches in front of the breastwork...... If they were transferred to the mountains of Ningzhen, they would not be afraid of how fierce the heavy infantry of the Qing army was, but unfortunately, in this kind of field battle in the plain area, the 182nd Brigade did not have time to set up camp and build strong fortifications, only laid a thin thorn antler, dug some of the simplest defensive facilities, and now, the Qing army's heavy infantry was about to rush to the antlers.

"Bang!"

In front of the Chu army's formation, with a dull cannon sound, the muzzle of a three-pounder cannon spewed out red flames, although it was frantically suppressed by the Qing army archers, there was still a Chu army's artillery to withstand the pressure and fired, and the solid cannonball whistled into the Qing army's formation, which immediately caused a series of exclamations and screams, and under a few bounces, it stopped after knocking down six or seven Qing army heavy armored infantry, leaving a bloody mess behind.

"Good! Alas, it's a pity! Ding Zongwang was happy and very regretful, the shells of the three-pounder cannon were too small, and the lethality was limited, if it was replaced by a six-pounder gun, although the shell would only double in size, the lethality would increase several times, and if it was an eight-pounder cannon and a twelve-pounder cannon, this cannon would be able to penetrate the formation of the Qing army.

Seeing that the artillery of the Chu army was so tenacious, the archers of the Qing army were even more crazy, and the archers shot out the iron arrows of wolf teeth that could break the armor together, and shot the few Chu artillery to the ground.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! ”

In a series of artillery fires, dense white gunpowder smoke rose in front of the formation, and several three-pounder guns and tiger squat guns opened fire one after another, knocking down dozens of Qing heavy infantry and completing their tasks. After being hit head-on, the front line of the Qing army's heavy infantry was obviously much thinner, and the speed of advance became sluggish for the first time, and even the most ferocious Eight Banner soldiers would feel a deep awe of the power of the cannon when they saw the stumps and broken arms of their companions all over the ground.

But this slowness was only for a moment, under the encouragement of several Qing army generals, the Eight Banners quickly came to their senses and accelerated the speed of the charge, the artillery of the Chu army has been fired, and it is too late to load, now is a good opportunity to break the formation!

On the two flanks of the Chu army's military array, each with hundreds of Qing heavy infantry, finally crashed heavily into the Chu army's military formation.

The spear array is almost indestructible against the infantry with only light armor, such as the rabble like the Song River bandits, and against the light cavalry without horse armor, it is also a full exchange ratio, but against the heavy infantry wearing heavy armor, the effect is greatly reduced. The cotton armor is lined with an iron guard, which has a good protective ability in itself, plus a layer of real iron armor, most parts will not break the armor after being pierced by the spear, and the group of Eight Banners soldiers who rushed to the front are all tall and strong soldiers, several spears pierced at the same time but only slightly on one side, and most of the strength was removed, and the head of the spear slashed over their armor, bringing out a spark and a piercing scraping sound, but the Eight Banners were almost unscathed, slammed forward, and then waved it with a backhand, and cut off the wooden barrel of the spear.

The sword and shield soldiers have a strong shield to protect themselves, and the steel knife can flexibly cut the limbs of the Eight Banners, but the situation is better, and they are still struggling to support in the face of the fierce attack of the heavy infantry of the Qing army. In this way, the sword and shield battalion supported the four corners of the Chu army's formation, but the spear battalion in the middle was constantly retreating, and the Chu army's phalanx was like a flattened pillow, which was obviously deformed.

In the gap between the pikemen, the musketeers of the Chu army continued to fire, supporting the companions in front, as the distance approached to within twenty steps, the armor of the Qing army's heavy infantry could no longer block the lead bullets of the birds, and the musketeers now had the highest efficiency in killing the enemy, but they could not directly confront the Qing army's heavy infantry, nor could they shoot over the heads of the pikemen and sword and shield soldiers, basically free fire, and the power and hit rate were greatly reduced.

Next to the brigade flag of the 182nd Brigade, the war drums were beating so much that they almost smashed the drum surface, and Zhang Yanshi stared at the battlefield shape, occasionally giving an order to adjust the deployment, but it was all very cautious and small-scale adjustments, so as not to mess up the formation and expose obvious flaws.

In the rear of the Qing army, the corners of the main general Niman's mouth were slightly upturned, revealing a comfortable look of victory. Chu Jun's reaction was what he expected, if he was replaced by Zhang Yanshi, I am afraid that there would be no other way but to hold on now...... You must know that in the field battle of forming a formation, only the front line is really in contact with the battle, and the other soldiers have to maintain their own formation, in other words, there are fewer hands-on battles, and more people watch the enemy plundering the formation in the back, once the chain reaction caused by the chaotic formation, the entire formation will collapse, and the battle will be defeated, the surrounding of the Chu army is under the control of the Qing cavalry, and it may be attacked at any time in all directions, Zhang Yanshi obviously saw that the front was tight, and it was not easy to send troops to support.

(In the cold weapon war, sometimes it is really not possible to win with a large number of people, once an avalanche of tens of thousands of troops occurs, it is possible to be killed by hundreds of people, Wu Sangui dared to rush to save his father with more than 20 family members, which is also a similar example.) (To be continued......) R1292