The scouts of the Ming army still investigated the situation and types of troops stationed in various parts of the Manchu Qing Dynasty relatively clearly, otherwise they would not dare to easily put a division in the front position. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Moreover, Stilwell expected that Wu Sangui would not dare to attack with the whole army, and the cavalry would be able to take it by surprise if the eighty-mile distance came, and once the infantry slowed down the journey, the Fifth Division only needed to hold on for one day, and the reinforcements stationed in Chibi would be able to arrive.

The city wall of Yueyang is strong and not suitable for strong attack, but in the field, the Ming army's 40,000 all-firearms troops are not afraid of Yueyang's 150,000 troops, and the Ming Water Division is stationed in Chibi, and Huang Degong's troops can be dispatched at any time to Yueyang to support.

Once the fight is in a stalemate, Wu Sangui will definitely lose.

In the absence of reinforcements, the defenders of Yueyang, the probability of defeat is too high, as for sacrificing their own troops, disrupting the deployment of the Ming army, and fighting for opportunities for the Qing army to cross the river, Wu Sangui will not have such a high consciousness.

He is a general with no territory, and the soldiers under his command are all his hole cards, how can he easily play them?

This is also the main reason why Wu Sangui only sent cavalry to attack, the cavalry has strong mobility ability, even if it can't be defeated, it can safely retreat to Yueyang without heavy losses.

The Ming army went out of the dark post for ten miles, which made Wu Sangui's Guanning Iron Cavalry lose the opportunity, and the two sides returned to the same running line.

The three regiments of the front battalion of the Fifth Division quickly entered the blocking position, rejecting horses, trenches, tripping horses, trapping pits, Furlong machine guns, tiger squat artillery, and Shenji rockets...........

All weapons that could effectively block the cavalry charge were quickly transported to the front.

It didn't take long for a rumbling sound of horses' hooves to be heard in the distance, and as the cavalry got closer and closer, the ground began to tremble, although it was still not clear the exact number of enemy troops, but the enemy army knew that he was exposed, and he dared to continue to attack, presumably the main force should come.

In the front-line joint operations headquarters, a regiment commander looked at the torches in the distance that could not be seen at a glance (Wu Sangui knew that after being exposed, he lit the torches to illuminate them so that he could quickly find the Ming army camp), and couldn't help but sigh: "I'm obedient!" How many cavalry do you have to have, I heard that the entire Yueyang is less than 60,000 cavalry, so they won't all be sent over this time! ”

"What's the matter, Head Qiu is scared?" Division Commander Ji Dongming said with a smile.

"What am I afraid of, back then, with a big sword and spear, and Commander Guo joined forces, 3,000 men and horses attacked the Manchu Qing Dynasty of nearly 50,000 troops, and they were able to kill and injure tens of thousands of enemy troops. If he, Wu Sangui, has the courage, he will put the main direction of attack in my group, and his brothers are worried that they have no combat merits to pick up! The head of the regiment, Qiu Yuanshan, said with a nonchalant expression.

It seems that he is also a veteran who broke through from Yangzhou back then.

"That's right, we are now strong and strong, I'm afraid that this will do something! Just like Master Li said, we must despise the enemy strategically and attach importance to the enemy tactically. This time, Wu Sangui took the initiative to attack, and he has fallen behind in strategy, as long as we can withstand the first few waves of offensives, then Wu Sangui will definitely lose! Ji Dongming quoted Li Hongfei's words to cheer up his generals.

Well, Li Hongfei's wise sentence is also a plagiarized discourse of later generations, although it is only a dozen words, it has had a far-reaching impact on the new army formed by Nanming.

For example, this southern expedition is out of strategic considerations for the future, the Manchu Qing Dynasty after the southward and western expeditions, four consecutive years of uninterrupted campaigns, coupled with continuous conscription, the treasury has long been empty, this time in order to raise military salaries, even when the first entry into the customs, in order to stabilize the morale of the army, the promise of "never give more" has also become a dead letter.

Heavier taxes than the Ming Dynasty, so that the northern people are not happy, the common people are getting more and more fierce, the perennial war, but also make the Manchu soldiers tired, Li Hongfei took the initiative to fight this Western Expedition campaign, is to be the last straw that overwhelmed the camel.

The 300,000 Qing troops south of the Yangtze River, Li Hongfei was determined to win, and north of the Yangtze River, he tried to grind as much as he could, as long as the Manchu troops suffered heavy losses, in order to ensure the absolute superiority of the troops over the Southern Ming Dynasty, the Manchus would certainly recruit troops again.

In this way, soon the Manchu court will repeat the mistakes of the Ming Dynasty, and more importantly, the Manchu Qing Dynasty does not have the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, and the Central Plains have been under the rule of the Ming Dynasty for nearly three hundred years, and the common people will not be able to fall to the Manchus for a while.

The victory in the defense of Nanjing once again established the orthodox status of the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time made the Manchus begin to decline, as long as the Manchus were dragged for another year or two, the Manchus would undoubtedly be defeated.

Well, the strategic aspect is too far, and the eyes still turn back to the battle in front of us, infantry against cavalry.

Ji Dongming meant to withstand several waves of the opponent's offensive, and it was best to delay until dawn, so that the all-firearms troops could give full play to their advantages.

However, Wu Sangui was not stupid, he was not prepared to carry out refueling tactics at all, and as soon as he came up, he invested 30,000 cavalry and launched a general attack towards the frontal defense area of the Ming army's camp more than five miles wide.

Qiu Yuanshan didn't know if it was a crow's mouth, or if it was too lucky, Wu Sangui's 30,000 cavalry, there were 20,000, and they launched a charge towards their regimental position.

In fact, it was not Wu Sangui who bullied people, Qiu Yuanshan's regimental position was located in the middle of the entire camp, and the second and third regiments defending the left and right were covered by small mounds, which could somewhat slow down the speed of the cavalry.

There is only one regiment with flat terrain, which is very suitable for cavalry charges, and Wu Sangui does not attack Qiu Yuanshan's regiment, then it is really a brain disease.

"Damn, it's all on the side of labor and management, bullying the labor and management soldiers, isn't it, it's a big deal! Pass me the order: transfer the three battalions of the reserve, the regimental guard company, and all the soldiers who can hold weapons! After Qiu Yuanshan finished the order, he picked up the revolver on the table, and under the protection of the two guards, he went to the front line in person.

Wu Sangui did not play cards according to common sense, causing Qiu Yuanshan to dare not keep the reserves, and as soon as the two sides fought, they directly fought a decisive battle.

"The regiment commander said, it is a soldier who can hold a weapon, how useful can the kitchen knives and spoons of your cooking class be, or stay in the rear obediently, and wait for us to return triumphantly!"

All the remaining reserves of the regiment were rushing to the front line, including the cooking class, but a group of men with woks on their backs, kitchen knives and spatulas were still stopped by a young soldier who was traveling with them.

Although a regiment lacked combatants, there was no need for a group of men to go to the front, and in the eyes of these soldiers, how could they deal with cavalry without firearms?

Is it true to cut people with kitchen knives?

"Is the cooking squad a regiment of soldiers?" The old squad leader of the cooking class in the lead retorted.

"It's ....... But these kitchen knives and spoons are not weapons! The soldier retorted.

"Young man, look down on our cooking class? Believe it or not, I'll hit you with a spoon! "The old squad leader will beat people up if he disagrees.

"That, little brother, you just let us go to the front line, the people of our cooking class are perennial and have strong wrists to help throw grenades!" Another member of the cooking class tried his best to prove the advantages of their cooking class.

"By the way, which company does the little brother belong to, as long as we go to the battlefield and fight in the future, I will give you an extra spoonful."

A cook with a spoon, in order to go to war, has already begun to "bribe".

Maybe he was moved by this group of men, maybe he didn't have time to continue to hang out with these people, or maybe this soldier was really attracted by the temptation of adding more vegetables, the soldier thought about it and finally agreed: "It's okay to go to the front, but you must follow my command, don't act without permission!" ”

"Okay, okay, no problem."

"Young man, from now on, you are our commander, you can fight as you say!"

“...........”

After the cooks knew that they could go to the front, they slapped the soldier's ass.

This young soldier, who fled from the north and chose to be a soldier in order to make ends meet, has now been in the army for two years, if it weren't for his young age and illiterateness, he would have been in the army for two years, and now he would at least be a squad leader.

But it doesn't matter, now there are dozens of people in the cooking class following him, this is the treatment of a platoon commander, the first time he led dozens of soldiers, it instantly made this young soldier feel satisfied, and at the same time, unconsciously, a sense of responsibility rose in his heart.........

As a "new platoon commander", the young soldier began to perform the duties of the platoon commander, the first thing is to get weapons for the soldiers under his command, what kind of jokes, you can't really let a group of guys with kitchen knives go to the battlefield to kill the enemy.

After more than two months of war, it is impossible to say that there are no surplus firearms, but those firearms are left in the quartermaster team of the rear division, and the front-line battalion quartermaster team where the little soldier is located, only scrapped flintlock guns, as well as a large number of bullets and grenades.

"There is a strong Fran machine gun here, although there is no tripod, the rate of fire may be a little slow, but it can be used, come and carry it away with two hands and feet, and the rest of the people, one person carries a box of grenades, and when they go to the front line to listen to my orders, let you vote, you will vote." The little warrior commanded.

After rummaging through the entire munitions depot and finding only a half-worn Furlong gun, the little soldier heard the rumbling of the cannon in front of him and shouted that he could not stay any longer, and began to order everyone to rush to the front.

The front-line battle has entered a stalemate, especially a regiment of positions, Wu Sangui's cavalry, has broken through the areas of rejecting horses, stumbling horses, etc., and even in some places, the Guanning iron cavalry has broken through to 30 meters of the front of the position, and the continuous grenade explosions indicate that the forward position is already precarious.

"Artillery regiment, Shenji Rocket Battalion, give me all the strength to bombard a regiment of forward positions, the enemy cavalry will not retreat, and our artillery will not stop! In addition, let the five regiments stay behind, move to the position of the first regiment, and be ready to support the first regiment at any time. Ji Dongming gave orders at the command headquarters.

The garrison of the Fifth Division is close to the mountains and water, and the rear of the east is a high mountain, and when it is impossible to do anything, the whole army can retreat up the mountain and wait for reinforcements.

To the north was the Yangtze River, and it was impossible for Wu Sangui's cavalry to wade into the water.

To the west, the 5th Division had four regiments (1st, 2nd, 3rd and artillery)

The south side was used as a flank, and although the terrain was dangerous, a regiment (the 4th Regiment of the 5th Division) was placed on the south side to prevent the enemy from attacking from the flank.

So now the only reserve of the Fifth Division is the Fifth Regiment and the division's guard battalion.

Wu Sangui invested more than half of his troops at the beginning, and Ji Dongming could only take out reserves to fill the gap at any time.

The fire support of the artillery regiment and the Shenji rocket battalion saved the 1st Regiment's defense line that was about to collapse in time.

Although the Tiger Squat Cannon of the First Regiment is powerful, it is far inferior to the field artillery of the Army, even if this batch of rear-loading field guns still uses an arquebus ignition device, but after using the new flowering shell, its range and lethality are enough to make the Guanning Iron Cavalry terrified.

The maximum firing range of 1500 meters has surpassed all the rear-loading guns of the same era, and even more than the general medium-caliber front-loading Hongyi cannons (the Qing army's large-caliber Hongyi cannons have a maximum firing range of 1900 meters, and the front-loading coastal defense artillery of the Southern Ming Dynasty is only 2300 meters).

Moreover, the rear-loading artillery of the Ming army used a new type of flowering projectile with a trigger fuse, which expanded the effective killing range to a radius of 20 to 50 meters, and its effect was not much worse than that of scattered bullets.

Due to the night battle, everyone could not see the surrounding situation clearly, and many people subconsciously wanted to move in the direction of the light, so unconsciously, most of Wu Sangui's cavalry gathered together, and they did not disperse at all.

As a result, under the salvo of nearly 100 guns of the artillery regiment, nearly 800 cavalrymen died in the first round of shelling.

As soon as the shelling had passed, before the Guanning Iron Cavalry had time to catch its breath, a large wave of fire flew out of the camp of the Fifth Division again.

"Divine Rocket!"

One of the horsemen shouted in horror as he stared at the firelight that was about to fly towards him.

After more than a dozen actual combat tests, it is enough to prove that the Shenji rocket is the nemesis of the cavalry, especially in the dark night, not only the sound of the explosion can disturb the war horse, but the strong fire caused by the explosion can stimulate the eyes of the war horse and make it manic.

Even if the Qing army has been conducting various anti-interference training on the war horse over the years, it can only strengthen the horse's hearing, but it cannot make the horse's vision immune to strong light.

So when the Ming army "fired ten thousand arrows" at the same time, the war horses in the explosion area began to go crazy........

"Pass the order and kill the horse!" Wu Sangui said indifferently.

For the crazy war horses, the only solution for the Qing army is to kill these war horses when they are disrupting their positions.

"Lord Wang, the enemy's firearms are fierce, and the brothers can't attack it!" The adjutant general on the side complained.

The attack of 30,000 cavalry had only passed a quarter of an hour or so, and the losses had exceeded 4,000, but they were still unable to break through to the enemy's position, and some people had already begun to retreat.

"Send another 10,000 cavalry up, the Ming army's high-power firearms have a gap in firing, everyone must seize the opportunity to take advantage of the gap to attack, as long as you can tear a gap, then our army will be victorious." Wu Sangui again sent 10,000 cavalry and made a speech to boost morale.