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More than ten miles southeast of Xinghua City, the shore of the victorious lake.

It is the season of high autumn and cool, looking from afar, the eyes are full of shining water marks, the breeze is blowing, and it is slightly rippling.

A trace of mist left in the early morning quickly faded in the sun, and the water surface of the Victory Lake, which was dozens of miles wide, seemed to have been clarified, green so innocent, like a clean and flawless emerald.

Today's weather is very good, the blue sky does not see a trace of clouds, there seems to be no bird on the lake, far away where the water and sky meet, the lake and the blue sky are connected, it is really like a huge blue crystal, a flawless gem.

……

"Batch iron armor, carry a long knife. Fighting with the son, the road is long......"

"Fight with the enemy, die and live together. Fighting with the son, the heart is not slacking off......"

"Step on the swallow and chase the beard. Fighting with the son, singing fearlessly......"

Suddenly there was a high pitch of singing in the distance, accompanied by a rhythmic drum beat, and a narrow black line appeared on the western horizon, and then, and then, little by little, approached the Lake of Victory. As I got closer, the singing became clearer and clearer.

"You don't see it, the Han Dynasty, the weak crown is a captive, please ...... long"

"You don't see, Ban Dingyuan, the peerless light cavalry urges the battle cloud ......"

"A man should be in serious danger, how can he let Ruguan miss this life......"

"The situation is that the country is in danger, and the feather competition stops......"

By the time the army advancing from the west approached Lake Victory, the song in their mouths had been replaced by another one.

The horn sounded lowly, and the pace of the army slowed slowly, and the cavalry on either side turned over and sat on horseback. This was a much smaller group than the Qing soldiers who were camped by the lake. Now they marched to the position of about eight miles in front of the Qing barracks, this absolutely safe place. Then, with the low sound of the horn, the troops came to an abrupt halt. Only the cavalry of the brigade turned over and began to expand their cruising range outward.

"Bang bang ......" Two cannon shots rang out over the Qing army camp opposite. Two small black balls erupted from the barrel of the cannon and fell about two miles away from the vanguard of the Fu Han army, and then the cannon rolled out a hundred and ten meters away on the flat lakeside land.

"Governor, do you see the range of the Qing army's artillery......" Huang Jie's eyes looked at the Qing army camp by the lake, and breathed fire. In the first battle of Taizhou, although the 3rd Brigade finally held on to the main force to move north, the Qing army really retreated and left, but it also paid a very heavy price.

And the root cause of the heavy price paid by the 3rd Brigade is not the Qing troops, but the artillery that is now firing shells. Their range is not limited to three miles, but also their effective range to maintain accuracy. And the frequency of firing has also increased a lot, which is much stronger than the artillery used by the Qing army in the past.

A few days ago, Chen Ming divided the main force into two routes, crossed the Yangtze River to the north, and he personally led the cavalry battalion, tank battalion, the right battalion of the guard, the musket battalion, and the artillery battalion to sweep the line from Yangzhou to Gaoyouzhou, and as a result, the horse team of the Eight Banners immediately retreated to Xinghua, and then the Qing army in Taizhou also retreated to Xinghua, plus the Qing army reinforcements from Dongtai to Xinghua, the three sides were combined into one, stationed on the shore of the victory lake in the east of Xinghua City, and directly abandoned Xinghua City.

The three Qing armies converged, with a total strength of more than 10,000 people, and all of them were the most daring troops in the Qing army in northern Jiangsu. And what about the Fu Han army led by Chen Mingqin? The cavalry battalion and the right battalion of the guards are all large battalions with a large supernumerary, and the two divisions alone have a small 2,000 men and horses, a tank battalion of more than 600 people, two musket battalions, two armored battalions, plus an artillery battalion, and the total strength of the battalion is also more than 5,000.

"A high-pitched and powerful military song is conducive to the army's morale." Chen Ming 'saw' that the morale of the troops had increased, although it had not increased much, but when facing a battle, it was already very good that the morale of the current team could not fall. Half of them fought one more battle of Changzhou than the rest of the main force. And you must know that the performance of the Qing army on the opposite side is not bad, and a battle of Taizhou has made the entire Third Brigade disgraced, although the strength of the Third Brigade applied to Taizhou is only a small part.

The morale of the Qing army on the opposite side is not weak, and as far as Chen Ming 'seems', the morale of the Qing army on the other side is not lower than the current Fu Han army. This was an elite duel, and the battle of Taizhou greatly boosted the morale of the Qing army on the opposite side, and their morale soared a lot.

"The morale of the Qing army is good. How many cannons are there in their hands, have you ever found out? "These high-performance cannons must have given the Qing army great encouragement and confidence, otherwise the Qing army would not dare to face the elite of the Fu Han army led by Chen Ming with twice as many troops.

"The Qing army is very well guarded. The Scout infiltrated several times, but hit a wall. Huang Jie's voice was low for three minutes. After being beaten by the Qing soldiers in Taizhou, it was impossible to find out how many high-quality cannons the opponent had, which made the entire Third Brigade unable to raise its head. However, the captured Qing prisoners of war sold the origin of these cannons to the Manchus, which were sold to the Manchus by the Portuguese in Macao, and the Portuguese also organized a group of gunners to serve as instructors to train artillery for the Qing army. It's just that the specific number of cannons, those low-level soldiers who charged into battle don't know.

Chen Ming frowned when he heard this, and he could kill a mosquito. It seems that the Fu Han army is going to settle accounts with the Portuguese. But the top priority now is that the Fu Han army must first eat the Qing army in front of them, and Chen Ming must let the Manchu Qing understand one thing: don't think that with the Portuguese artillery, you can compete with the Fu Han army. It would be naïve to think like that.

The five-catty cannon may not be as powerful as the Portuguese twelve-catty cannon, and the Portuguese still have flowering shells, but in terms of the number of cannons, the Portuguese can use all their strength to eat, and they can't compare with the Fuhan army.

The artillery battalion that Chen Ming brought to Desheng Lake had a full forty five-pound guns and twenty three-pound guns, and Chen Ming did not believe that the Portugal on the other side could bring sixty cannons to the Manchus in one go. Think about it, a twelve-pound shell is nearly 600 grams per kilogram, while the European pound is only a little more than 450 grams per pound, which is 16 pounds. Is this a naval gun, an army gun, or a coastal defense artillery? Whether it was naval artillery, army artillery or shore defense artillery, Chen Ming felt that it was impossible for Portugal to provide as many as fifty or sixty guns to the Manchus at one time. Maybe there are only a dozen or so of them.

", their elite!"

At this moment, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army is still Cai Yi, the deputy commander of the firearms battalion, and there are also a full 1,000 firearms battalion flag soldiers in the Qing army camp by the lake.

However, the Eight Banners Spearmen of the Training Department under the old military system could not be compared with the musket battalion of the Fuhan Army, which was tested in terms of combat effectiveness and will to fight. Just looking at the military posture and military columns on both sides, the Fu Han army is one level above the Qing army, even if the two sides are still wearing old-fashioned military uniforms.

"God, is this the main force of the Chinese rebels? Very well-organized military columns, and their soldiers looked very energetic. Captain Blanco was very surprised, he raised the monocular in his hand and looked at the Fuhan army column on the opposite side over and over again, and said to Fernandez beside him with a solemn face: "Second Lieutenant, we are in trouble today." As long as the rebels on the opposite side can show combat effectiveness that matches their military posture and military appearance, we will be in big trouble today. ”

"Do you want to pray for God's blessing?" Fernandez didn't look as nervous as Blanco. He was very curious about the Fu Han army, but he didn't think that the Fu Han army's combat effectiveness was so much stronger than that of the Qing army. "Mr. Captain, there are 10,000 Qing soldiers. They also built camps and built artillery positions, and they numbered twice as many rebels on the opposite side. And although the rebels on the other side are very energetic, they have too few musketeers......"

Blanco's solemn expression still did not change at all, and he said in a dry and cold voice: "Let's pray for God's blessing." I don't want to fall into the wrong hands of the army on the other side. They're probably going to put us to death, right? Ling Chi was executed! Because we made them pay a lot of casualties in Taizhou. ”

Chen Ming didn't see Blanco and Fernandez, two western faces who were very different from the East. He raised his binoculars and saw only four cannons with thick muzzles from the two camps at the forefront of the Qing army.

"Let the artillery build artillery positions directly in front of and south of the Qing barracks. The musket battalion and the cavalry battalion are guarded, and if the Eight Banners of the Qing Army dare to rush out...... I will leave them all as much as possible. ”

Chen Ming simply gave the military order, and the soldiers were already sitting cross-legged on the ground, drinking water, eating dry food, and singing the military song again. Huang Jie always followed him, and Chen Ming also hoped that his application of the cannon could affect him more deeply and give him more impressions.

As a person whose soul comes from the 21st century, the biggest difference between Chen Ming and the Eastern and Western soldiers of this era when he fought was the absolute importance he attached to artillery. In the internal artillery textbooks of the Fu Han Army, Chen Ming wrote about the application of artillery on the battlefield: Build all war plans on artillery shells. Concentrating artillery fire on a certain point - this was the secret of his victory.

In fact, Napoleon, the little man who will be born in Ajaccio, Corsica, next year, did just that. He regarded the strategy of the enemy generals as a fortress and attacked them head-on. He attacked the enemy's weak points with flowering shells, challenged, and relieved the siege, also thanks to artillery fire. Good at using artillery power. Capture the phalanx, smash the wings, break through the front, destroy and disperse the dense ranks, then everything is the use of artillery, around the artillery, fight, fight, fight non-stop, and hand over the most difficult work on the battlefield to the shells whenever possible. Napoleon's use of artillery, combined with his military genius, made this modest grassroots youth the premier military commander in modern Western history. Under his baton, the French galloped across the country for one or two decades, invincible, and forged the last glory in the history books of the Gallic rooster nation.

The Fu Han army had far more artillery than the Qing army - Chen Ming was adamant about this. Then set up a few more artillery positions that can cross each other, which will be more conducive to the artillery of the Fu Han Army to win the victory in the artillery battle.

The battle on the Lake of Victory is a head-to-head duel on the plains. Since more than 10,000 Qing troops dared to set up camp by the lake and wait for Chen Ming's killing, they were not afraid of the Fu Han army led by Chen Ming, and Cai Yi and Wang Pu would not watch the Fu Han army comfortably set up their artillery positions outside the camp.

"Kill-" The majestic sound of drums and the low sound of horns.

When the Qing army poured out from the various camps, and when the Eight Banners and horse teams gathered on the battlefield, the war broke out completely.

The cannons on both sides made a deafening rumbling sound, and in this rumbling cannon, Chen Ming was a little surprised to see that the faces of the soldiers were showing happy expressions. The combination of the roaring cannons and the dazzling sunlight seemed to produce a pleasant pleasure that inspired the soldiers to arrive.

The battle lines on both sides were very long, the Qing army was because they had sufficient troops, and Chen Ming was worried that his elite would be cut by the artillery on the opposite side, so he preferred to make the battle line more slender.

The Portuguese sixteen-pounder guns had a long range, and the farthest shells reached the right battalion of the guards. It was estimated to be more than five miles long. Moreover, the Portuguese fired shells and flowering shells, and in the city of Taizhou, they used flowering shells to fiercely bully the defenders of the 3rd Brigade. After the war, the city of Taizhou was full of ruins, which also had a lot to do with the hot bombs and flowering bombs fired by the Portuguese into the city, which ignited the houses many times.

In the smoke of gunpowder, neat rows of Fu Han musketeers marched forward with guns, and in front of them were stragglers and snipers, and their faces were blackened by the smoke of gunpowder blowing on the battlefield. On the opposite side of the Qing army array, groups of flintlock or arquebus spearmen were also on standby.

The smoke of the muskets seemed to be attracted by the jewel-like Lake of Victory, and the smoke from the guns fired on both sides was blown by the wind to the surface of the Lake of Victory.

The smoke of the artillery billowed and was blown away by the wind, and then it was connected again.

The soldiers on both sides were getting closer and closer, and they could see the glow of bayonets and waist knives in the smoke of gunfire, and groups of infantry and artillery with ammunition trucks were moving in.

Cai Yi climbed the high platform erected in the Qing army camp in order to carefully observe what was happening on the battlefield, but no matter how much he concentrated, he couldn't understand it at all, and he couldn't analyze what was happening on the battlefield now. I don't know who people are constantly moving forward in that smoke-filled place, and I don't know if those troops are constantly surging 'forward and backward'. Who are they? Whether it was in the form of the order he gave or not, Cai Yi couldn't figure it out. However, the high-pitched shouts of killing on the battlefield not only did not bring him any sense of discouragement or timidity, but on the contrary, increased his perseverance and energy.

On the battlefield, the dense smoke of gunpowder gave the horses on both sides the most favorable cover, and the Qing horse teams did not resist the temptation, and they attacked with their whole army, regardless of the fact that they swept towards the battlefield.

The cavalry battalion of the Fu Han army certainly did not frighten to fight. The horsemen on both sides were all kicking their horses in the belly, and the horses neighed, wagging their tails and straightening their necks, the pain making them run faster.

Cai Yi couldn't see how the mixed team of the Xiao Cavalry Battalion and the Guanwai Horse Team fought bravely, because he couldn't see anything clearly, and everything was shrouded in smoke. I could only vaguely see the Eight Banners horsemen wearing cotton armor and the cavalry of the Fu Han Army wearing iron armor tightly strangled together.

"Order the No. 3 artillery position to bombard the southwest direction of the Qing army."

"David Chen."

"The end will be."

"Lead the right battalion of the guards, take advantage of the artillery bombardment, and give me a fierce attack on the Qing army camp from the southwest!"

Chen Ming categorically ordered that his safety would naturally be protected by the guards belonging to the attendant room, and at worst, he could hide in the artillery position. "Leave my safety alone. As long as you can penetrate the Qing army camp, I will be impregnable here! ”

"Why is the No. 3 artillery position moving so slowly? Turn the muzzle and blast me to the southwest. It's Southwest, Southwest, Southwest! Like a gambler who gambled everything on the table, Chen Ming's temper was irrepressibly angry and roared. He didn't know why the morale of the Qing army in the southwest suddenly fell, but this was the best fighter since the start of the war. (To be continued.) )