Once the battle formation is broken, the combat effectiveness of the infantry will not be able to compete with the cavalry, and the result will be a scene of wolves driving sheep on the steppe. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Ming armies are famous all over the world for their armies, but what is really the core is the infantry battle array, the heavy infantry of the mandarin duck array and the spear formation and the light infantry of the firearms unit, fighting in a dignified array on the battlefield. Cavalry, which is only an auxiliary, constitutes an intelligence shield before the war to prevent the enemy from interfering, and the infantry launches a pursuit after defeating the enemy army to expand the results of the battle.

This method of warfare is the inevitable result of the fact that the cavalry of the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Ming armies has always been at a disadvantage. If you want to win on the battlefield, it is the most basic to play to your strengths and avoid weaknesses, Chen Wenzi wants to try to give full play to the power of the infantry battle formation, but Zilharang wants to try to destroy the battle formation, scatter more Ming troops to individuals, become a rout, and thus roll the snowball.

Through the telescope, Chen Wen could clearly see the structure of the shield cart - two wheels side by side, a trolley three people wide, the horizontal board of the cart was very short, and a wooden sign stood on it, which looked very heavy, and it was not a pure wooden structure.

"The card is very thick, a layer of cowhide, a layer of iron, the small masonry does not move, the big masonry rolls down, and the firewood is not burned."

Fan Jingwen, the scholar of the Ministry of Scholars of Dongge University, who was martyred in Beijing during the Jiashen period, wrote the "Complete Book of War Defense" in this way, recording the structure of this chariot that was widely used by the Qing army in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.

Chen Wen could vaguely see that the shield on the shield car was a duplex structure, thinking of the news that there had been a large-scale cowhide trade in Jiangbei in the past few months sent by the Nanjing Station of the Military Intelligence Department and the news that the blacksmiths of these prefectures had gathered in Nanjing after Jierharang arrived in Nanjing, it was self-evident what kind of defensive power this shield car was.

"There are still such retro tactics!"

Shield chariots covered the advance of the infantry, and this tactic was often used by both the Later Jin and Qing armies in the early Qing Dynasty during the era of Nurhachi and Huang Taiji. The reason is very simple, using a shield car to reduce the lethality of the Ming army's firearms, a shield car of this structure, there is no way to take it at all, and even the tiger squat cannon is also helpless. And "the slave used a brand car to push and cover more than 20 people" was definitely of great benefit to the Qing army.

However, while this tactic reduces casualties, it also means that the strategic movement of the army cannot be too fast.

Fortunately at first, the Qing army either fought the Dongjiang Army in Liaodong and Liaonan, bullied Lin Dan Khan in Liaobei, or went to Liaoxi to sweep the Guanning Army, all of which fought around the one-third of an acre in Liaodong. But after entering the customs, this tactic immediately couldn't keep up with the fast pace of the Qing army's cavalry attack and the Ming army's descent from the wind, so it was no longer used - anyway, there was a great reputation accumulated by the Eight Banners Army for decades, and a large number of traitor troops were used as cannon fodder, so they didn't need these things.

The Qing army's shield cart was not slow, and the three Qing troops behind pushed a heavier two-wheeled cart, at least it did not slow down the overall movement of the infantry.

Chen Wen was looking at these shield carts, and even more so the Ming army on the battlefield. The battle formation of the Qing army slowly advanced, and it had to stop for a moment every time it walked a distance. This is a matter of course, as the battle line is too long, which reduces the possibility of the formation breaking during the march, and prevents some of it from being too protruding.

At this moment, this distance is not something that the artillery of the Ming army can hit, and the Ming army naturally did not fire rashly, and the other arms are fine, and the officers of the artillery are constantly measuring the distance between each other. After all, they are the class that the Ming army has the farthest attack range, and they will be the first to deal a blow to these shield vehicles.

The Qing army advanced slowly, and the air on the battlefield became more and more depressed, and when it reached the distance of Lixu, the Qing army carried out a special round of formation, and soon entered the range of the Ming army's artillery.

"Front-loading, ready."

The longest-range artillery of the Ming army is naturally the Hongyi artillery, but this kind of artillery is now difficult to keep up with the strategic maneuver speed of the Ming army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so Chen Wen simply equipped each division with a large caliber Hongyi cannon to cooperate with the mortar artillery for siege operations.

In addition to the large-caliber Hongyi cannon and mortar cannon, the Franc machine gun, the rear-loading gun of this kind of sub-mother gun has a limited range, but it is better than the amazing rate of fire, and it has always been a necessary artillery for the Ming army in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Zhejiang. But it was also the problem of firing range, and Chen Wen added between the two the establishment of front-loading guns that the Ming and Qing armies customarily called Xi to make up for the gap in firepower at this distance.

The Ming army did not fire at the distance of Rich, which was very incomprehensible to the Qing army, but as the distance continued to close, the depression in the air was accompanied by the order to open the cannon, and it was released in an instant.

"Front-loading guns, fire!"

Each battalion has eight front-loading guns, Chen Wen brought four divisions and two mounted infantry battalions this time, the cavalry artillery of the mounted infantry battalion is not large, and it is still behind the battle, and although the Jinhua Division, which is a reserve, is still behind the battle, the artillery is already on standby in front of the battle.

The order was issued, and the 128 forward-loading guns lined up in front of the formation opened fire in turn according to the division, and the shells flew into the sky one after another, and then fell along the parabolic trajectory, and instantly bombarded the battle formation of the Qing army.

The cannonballs whistled, and the human reaction was not enough to dodge, because this was still the first cannonball, many of the shells did not hit the crowd of the Qing army at all, but stirred up patches of dirt in front of the battle.

The dirt flew and crackled on the shield cart, and it couldn't hinder the shield cart's advancement in the slightest. And those shells that bombarded into the battle array, although they were accompanied by people on their backs, and the blockers were invincible, but they were even more helpless to these shield carts.

However, those shield carts that were directly named by the cannonballs could not withstand this huge energy like the flesh and blood of the Qing army. The thick wooden planks wrapped in cowhide and iron could not block the attack of the cannonballs, and the shield cart was destroyed, even the Qing troops pushing the cart behind were not spared, either by the cannonballs, or by the splashing of wood and iron, and even the Qing troops behind who were covered by the shield carts were no exception.

In an instant, the shield car array of the Qing army was punched out of more than a dozen openings, but the openings were quickly blocked by the shield vehicles behind. Zilharang has been preparing for several months, and he has exhausted the strength of Jiangnan and Jiangbei, and it is absolutely impossible to destroy the shield car formation at one time.

After firing, the front-loading gun did not wait for the order, and immediately entered a series of steps such as resetting, debrassing, loading, and aiming.

Due to the varying reload speeds, there were only thirty-two guns per division, and it was a waste of time to wait until the last one was finished reloading and then firing a salvo in turn. After years of rigorous training, the gunpowder used in training alone was more than that used by many veteran gunners of the Qing army for more than ten years, and the firing speed of the Ming artillery was amazingly fast, and soon the Qing army's shield car array once again made one opening after another.

The speed at which the wounds of the shield chariot array healed far exceeded the imagination of the Ming army, which showed how well prepared Zilharang was. Soon, as the vanguard, the shield car array entered the range of the Ming army's Furlong machine guns, but this time the Ming army was not in a hurry, and still let those front-loading guns continue to punch holes in the shield car array.

Progressing to this point, the situation is still within the expectations of Zilharang, this was the case in Liaodong back then, the group of poor ghosts of the Dongjiang Army and Lin Dan Khan, who only had cavalry shooting left, did not mention it, and the car and artillery battalion of the Guanning Army in Liaoxi could not compare to the artillery hit rate of the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Ming Army, but he was not unprepared before, and he could still afford such a level of loss.

"Lord Wang, at this distance, the Zhejiang bandits' Franc cannon hasn't fired yet, I'm afraid it's not good."

Guan Xiaozhong said dejected words as always, and the Manchurian officers and personal soldiers around Zilharang all looked at him angrily, but Zilharang frowned, not that these words were not good, but that this was indeed a contrary advice!

Just as Guan Zhongzhong said, the Qing army continued to advance for a while, and was even about to enter the range of the turtledove's foot gun, when the Ming army's 128 Franc machine guns suddenly fired, instantly releasing the long-accumulated anger on the body of the Qing army's shield car array.

At this distance, even if the Franc cannon is poorly airtight, its power is enough to destroy the shield car, and then cause damage to the Qing army behind the shield car.

After a volley, the Qing army's shield cart formation became full of holes, and it was not at all as simple as making a dozen or dozens of negligible small openings in the huge battle formation as when the front-loading guns fired freely from a long distance.

After the first cannon was finished, the gloved Ming gunners took out the hot guns, and at the same time, the other gunners loaded the new guns, and after loading, they didn't even do aim, facing the direction of the Qing army's battle formation, and the next round of shooting began again.

Round after round of shells rained down on the Qing army's battle formation, which soon halted the advance of the shield car formation. This level of artillery firing has exceeded the limit of replenishing the shield car array while advancing, and it is impossible for the Qing army to enter the hand-to-hand combat stage with a broken battle formation, so it must stop and regroup the queue, but the artillery bombardment of the Ming army is still unrelenting, and it is barely over until the few sub-guns are completely shot.

The sporadic front-loading guns continued to fire, but the shield cars used by the Qing army to replenish could no longer guarantee the integrity of the shield car array. Zilharang swallowed his saliva, when they were in Liaodong, as long as they casually seduced, the car and artillery battalion of the Guanning Army was eager to run out all the shells and bullets. Now this Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Ming army is far more difficult than he imagined, and the psychological quality of these artillery soldiers alone is no longer comparable to those scrap wood opponents they have encountered before.

"Keep going."

Since the shield car array has already replenished the dissatisfied queue, the Qing army simply marched forward with such a broken shield car array. Time is of the essence, and when the artillery is cooled down and then rushes up, even if the Qing army enters the stage of hand-to-hand combat with the artillery bombardment, it will not take long to be defeated by the Ming army.

The Qing army continued to advance, and Chen Wenzema looked from a distance on the mound under the general's banner, and seemed to have smelled Zilharang's intentions.

"This Zilharang's head is really iron."

Shaking his head, Chen Wen ordered the artillery crews in front of him to retreat to the hollow phalanx in their respective rears, and even the musketeers only left the turtledove's foot guns, and the shooters of the Lu Mi guns all withdrew to the formation.

The shield cart array was getting closer and closer, and it had already entered the range of the turtledove's foot gun, and the Ming army's shooting began, and the bullets that were far denser than the cannonballs crackled on the shield cart.

Most of the bullets were able to penetrate the shield car's baffle, making one small hole after another in it. But even so, the damage of the bullets that had exhausted the kinetic energy to the Qing army behind the shield car became extremely limited. Only in the direction of the Qing army's battle formation, which was no longer protected by shield vehicles, the bullets of the turtledove's foot guns raged in this piece of mutilation, knocking down those Qing troops who could not resist such heavy arquebus fire even if their shields were desperately protected.

The Ming army's casualties began to weaken, and the Qing army's morale, which had been declining during this period of passive beating, began to recover rapidly, and the speed of march became faster and faster, encouraged by the officers' constant repetition of those high rewards.

The turtledove's foot gun did not have a good killing effect on the Qing army behind the shield car, and then as the Qing army entered the range of the tiger squat cannon, these weapons that had almost killed Chen Wen in Siming Mountain were even more helpless to take the shield car of the Qing army.

After a series of deflections, the direction of the development of the battle began to gradually return to what Zilharang had expected, although the price paid was far greater than he imagined, but since he was able to return to the established track, then the next development will probably be the same as when he was in Liaodong.

After a round of almost useless shooting, in the rain of arrows thrown by the infantry archers behind the Qing army's formation, the Ming army's firearms team and the artillery crews of the tiger squat artillery retreated into the hollow phalanx.

Next, the hollow phalanx in the front row of the Ming army quickly decomposed into a phalanx with the sentry as the unit, with the pikemen outside and the firearms team in the center, putting on a posture to deal with hand-to-hand combat.

This was somewhat unexpected by the Qing army, but it did not prevent the Qing army from performing its next tactics. As the battle formation of the Qing army and the phalanx in the front row of the Ming army got closer and closer, the cavalry in the direction of the Qing army's reserve in the distance dispatched in a large scale and rushed towards the two wings of the Ming army. At this time, the Qing army infantry archers behind the shield cart also gathered behind and on both sides of the shield cart, and even the area without the protection of the shield cart also poured out a large number of infantry archers in front of the battle.

Massive cavalry were still galloping on their horses, and the horses' hooves roared like rolling thunder, from far to near. With an order, the Qing army's foot archers drew their bows and arrows, and shot a rain of arrows in the direction of the Ming army's phalanx in the form of direct shooting from the side and throwing from behind, pouring down on the Ming army's phalanx like a torrential rain.