The deafening sound of artillery rang out, and the Qing army's attack on Hutou Village began. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Originally, there was a Ming cavalry of more than 1,000 people hovering near Hutou Village, but after seeing the overwhelming Qing cavalry in the north, they retreated to the south of Hutou Mountain first. As a result, most of the Qing cavalry that had been covering the Zhenghongqi and Anqing Town infantry on both flanks also returned to the cavalry formation to the west, leaving only a small number of Qing infantry who were still covering the attack on Hutou Village on the two wings.

This part of the Qing army attacking Hutou Mountain obviously did not have the concept of infantry and artillery coordination, and before the attack, five large general guns were used to fire three rounds at Hutou Mountain, but due to the low accuracy, the killing effect was not good. But they didn't seem to care too much, and after the artillery was fired, the more than 3,000 foot soldiers divided into two formations, front and rear, and advanced under the guidance of their respective banners. In front of them were covered by dozens of shield carts pushed by the army officers.

While the Qing army was advancing, countless bright helmets with red tassels appeared from the ruins in front of Hutou Village, and two nine-pounder cannons and one six-pounder cannon showed their muzzles.

The sound of horses' hooves came from the west, and Jueshan turned his head to look, only to see that the tidal wave of his own cavalry was heading south through Zhoujialong, and they would bypass the west side of Hutou Mountain and directly attack the left flank of Huguang Town. If there is a choice, Jueshan would prefer to join the cavalry team to command the battle, the kind of pleasure of galloping on a horse and killing the Ming army on their backs, he has not felt it for a long time.

Two loud noises in front of him drew Jueseon's attention back to Hutou Village. White smoke rose from the village, and two nine-pounder cannons began to fire, and the red-hot iron bullets rushed into the advancing Qing army at a speed visible to the naked eye, like an iron plough breaking through the soft ground, leaving two defective ditches.

Jueshan's eyelids jumped when he saw it, and if he continued like this, when the shield car was almost destroyed, he would have to rely on the armor soldiers to rush with his life. He didn't care much about the life or death of those green battalion soldiers, but he didn't want to see the sons in the banner lose too much. It was not easy to enter the customs and occupy the flowers and rivers of the Han people, and it was not worth dying here before they had time to enjoy a few days of happiness. As soon as he thought of this, Jueshan's disgust for Engetu became even stronger, if he had seized Hutou Village before dawn, where would there be so many things now.

The attacking Zhenghongqi and the Green Battalion infantry continued to advance, and the small number of casualties did not break their courage, but aroused their ferocity. Previously, when Tan Tai led the army to sweep through the prefectures and counties of northern Jiangxi, he captured a lot, so he also offered a generous reward before this battle. Future, Silver Reward...... These real benefits are enough stimulation for these Qing soldiers at the bottom to stimulate their ferocity.

The drums in the queue quickened the pace, and the advancing Qing soldiers walked faster and faster, and Jueshan's vision was full of undulating helmets.

The Hongyi cannon of Huguang Town in Hutou Village has always been fired at a fixed speed, from more than one mile to one hundred and fifty paces. The shield carts hit by the shells were all shattered, and the flying sawdust swept the crowds of miscellaneous servants to the ground, and the shield cart array began to become mutilated.

After paying continuous casualties, more than 3,000 Qing soldiers approached dozens of steps in front of Hutou Village and began to attack in the sound of passionate drums. The ferocity in their hearts exploded completely, and the howl of madness resounded throughout the land.

After the Hongyi cannon in the village was fired, the other four large Francophone machines were loaded with scattered bullets, focusing on the area without the cover of the shield car, and countless lead bullets were sprinkled like a torrential rain on the dense crowd. After each shot, the front row of the Qing soldiers fell down in one piece, but it still failed to stop the crowd from continuing to surge.

Garrisoned in Hutou Village were the troops directly under the 1,000th Brigade of the Huashan Battalion and the First Division, totaling more than 700 people, and the three Hongyi artillery directly under the Huashan Battalion Headquarters were strengthened. The commander is Li Zhengchun, the commander of the 1,000th Corps, and he is also an old man who has followed Pang Yue since the time of Huang Degong. Although the Huashan Battalion was only converted into a combat battalion in February this year, and it can be regarded as the youngest of the various combat battalions in Huguang Town, the hundreds of officers and men from Li Zhengchun and below are extremely eager to fight.

"Fuck! Rushing to reincarnate? Then Lao Tzu will fulfill you! Li Zhengchun looked at the surging crowd in front of the village, and his face showed a trace of hideousness.

When the charging Qing army came thirty paces away from the village, several pieces of cloth on the rammed earth wall defense line at the entrance of the village were torn apart, revealing four tiger squat cannons. This kind of small cannon, each bureau in Huguang Town is equipped with one, which can provide timely and effective fire support for the infantry, and it is even more powerful when used for close shooting. After four loud bangs, the Qing army front was once again punched out of several gaps.

However, after suffering heavy casualties, the charging Qing army finally advanced to the edge of the village under the cover of the remnants of the shield vehicles. The Huashan battalion killer team, which was waiting for the battle, immediately stepped forward to start a melee battle with it, and the big swords and spears on the rammed earth wall came and went, blood rained everywhere, and the casualties on both sides began to surge. More than 200 musketeers of the 1st Division and 100 detachments under the direct jurisdiction of the 1000 Corps occupied the favorable terrain at the entrance of the village early and condescendingly opened fire on the Qing troops behind the battle line.

The shouts of killing in the ruins in front of the village shook the sky. After a fierce battle, the Qing army rushed into the village by virtue of its numerical superiority. The first division used firecrackers to suppress fire from high places, and at the same time made each killer team form a small three-talent formation that was convenient for close combat to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Qing army. The combination of hot and cold weapons shows skillful techniques and tactics. More than 700 officers and men of the Huashan Battalion were resolute and waged a bloody battle to the death against an enemy four or five times their size.

……

After the fierce battle at Hutou Village began, the vanguard of the Qing cavalry on the West Road had also bypassed the southwest corner of Hutou Mountain to the south of the mountain, drove away the Ming army's rangers, and appeared in the northwest direction of the First Brigade. This vanguard force was the cavalry of the Zhenghongqi, with a total of more than 1,500 people, under the command of the Zhenghongqi Mongolian Melzhangjing Engetu. They will spy on and harass the left flank of Huguang Town before the Western Road Offensive is fully launched.

When the banner of the vanguard cavalry of the Qing army appeared in the field of vision, Liu Renjun, the chief general of the left wing of Huguang Town and the commander of the First Brigade, immediately ordered the first and second two thousand brigades of the first cavalry battalion to meet them. The 1st and 2,000 corps of the 1st Cavalry Battalion are all veterans of the Flying Tiger Battalion, with a total of more than 2,400 people. The 3,000th Corps was mainly adapted from the surviving cavalry of Jin Shenghuan's Nanchang battalion, with a smaller number, less than 800 people, and was personally commanded by Wang Deren, who was left at the brigade headquarters as a reserve by Liu Renjun at this time.

The empty battlefield was like thunder, and tens of thousands of horses' hooves on both sides stepped towards the earth together, until the earth shook the mountains. The 1st, 2nd, and 2nd Brigades of the 1st Cavalry Battalion launched an intensive charge against the Qing Army's Red Banner Cavalry on the opposite side in a wave of three cavalry bureaus and a total of six waves in front and back.

Under the leadership of Engetu, the Red Banner cavalry fought hard with the Huguang Town cavalry, and their frontal impact combined with the guerrillas, constantly attacking and harassing the Huguang Town cavalry formation from both flanks. However, the Huguang Town cavalry formation always spread out the front with three cavalry bureaus as the width, and each cavalry bureau adopted three column tactics. The Red Banner cavalry needed to maintain their own formation during the run, and could not avoid head-on engagement, but their tactics were really difficult to confront the wall charge tactics of Huguang Town head-on, and they were beaten by the dense Huguang Town cavalry. After only two waves of impact, the cavalry of the Zhenghong Banner suffered heavy casualties, and the formation was completely broken.

Engetu was shocked. Although the Qing army of the Southern Expedition had many cavalry battles with Huguang Town before, he had always been kept as a reserve by Tan Tai, and did not participate in those cavalry battles, but he learned from the mouths of others that the cavalry in Huguang Town was very difficult to fight.

But now I have seen it with my own eyes.

Frightened, Engetu hurriedly commanded the rangers to attack the Huguang Town cavalry formation from both flanks with cavalry bows. The dense light arrows also caused some casualties to the Huguang Town cavalry, but the Huguang Town cavalry formation did not entangle with these rangers, and always maintained a state of running forward, only part of the cavalry on both flanks returned fire with short guns and hand crossbows on their horses.

After the first two waves of attacks, the next few followed. After a complete round of assault, the Red Banner cavalry had been beaten into a big mess, and the corpses lay all the way on the battlefield, and many wounded war horses that had lost their owners fell to the ground struggling and neighing.

At this time, the Huguang Town cavalry, which had completed a round of assault, had already come to the west side of the battlefield and was re-arraying under the command of the military horn. If it were to do it again, Engetu couldn't have imagined the consequences. But he failed to capture Hutou Village before dawn, which had already left a bad impression on Tan Tai, and if he encountered the Ming cavalry at this time, he didn't dare to guarantee that Tan Tai would still have such a good temper.

Just when Engetu was in a dilemma, the sound of conch horns in the direction of Hutou Mountain was earth-shattering, accompanied by the earth-shattering shout, the tide of cavalry rushed in, and the right flank offensive of the Qing army was officially launched.

......

The black-pressed cavalry of the Qing army bypassed Hutou Mountain, and the earth-shattering sound of hooves resounded through the battlefield. When Engetu gathered the cavalry of his headquarters and returned to the main formation, this cavalry group had nearly 9,000 people, and the huge lineup soon appeared in the field of vision of the officers and soldiers of the First Brigade south of Hutou Mountain.

Behind the southern slope of Hutou Mountain is a quadrangular hollow phalanx formed by the 1st Thousand Corps of the Broken Military Camp, and the second line is a quadrilateral spear phalanx arranged by the 2000th Corps, which is roughly arranged in a zigzag shape with the hollow phalanx of the first line. Facing the surging cavalry crowd in the distance, the officers and soldiers were all in full swing and looked very determined.

At the Central Military Headquarters in Huguang Town, Pang Yue was observing the battle situation in the direction of Liufang Mountain and Nanshan Village, and a large number of Qing cavalry were galloping back and forth around the phalanx of the Third Brigade, and the battle situation was still in a state of stalemate.

"Great marshal, the right-wing offensive of the Tartars has been fully launched." Zhang Yunli said, "The two thousand corps of the broken military camp have been arranged in two lines south of Hutou Mountain, and they are ready to fight. The 1st Cavalry Battalion had completed its formation on the west side of the battlefield and was ready to go into battle again. The rest of the Ministries remain in their original defensive positions. ”