readx; The officers and soldiers must defend the grass chain ridge to prevent the thieves from entering the southern plains of Tongguan; The thieves wanted to break through the Caolian Ridge and enter the Guanzhong area, which was suitable for cavalry combat. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThere was no way back for either side, so a fierce battle for Grass Chain Ridge finally started in full swing.

On the thief's side, although Gao Yingxiang was seriously injured, he also knew that there was no room for loss in this battle, so he still insisted on commanding the battle on the front line. First of all, he adopted the tactics of all-out attack, which simply means launching an attack from the front of Caolian Ridge and from the east and west ridges at the same time, in an attempt to take advantage of the absolute superiority in strength and drive the officers and troops down the ridge with a single onslaught.

However, the terrain here in Caolian Ridge is very special. This ridge is east-west, and most of the places are walled with thousands of feet, and it is impossible to climb at all, only a winding mountain road leads to a saddle-shaped mountain pass in the ridge, from which the ridge is crossed. The frontal attack of the thieves can only be launched from the mountain road. However, it is this mountain pass occupied by the official army, which is condescending and occupies the best geographical position. It is impossible to take the pass without heavy casualties.

Of course, Gao Yingxiang also thought of this, but since he had decided to rush across the ridge at all costs, he no longer thought about the life or death of his subordinates. This time, it was still the senior general Liu Zhe who directly commanded the main attack, and he also learned the lesson of yesterday's artillery bombardment by the officers and soldiers, and did not charge in a dense formation, but let his men go into battle lightly armed with only bows and arrows, and the distance was as wide as possible, and the cat advanced quickly with his waist down. As long as he finds a place to hide, such as rocks and trees, the thief will not run forward, but use these things as cover to release arrows at the official position, and the thief behind will continue to attack.

I have to say that Liu Zhe did use his brains, but the terrain is really too unfavorable for the thieves. Caolianling is the main peak of the eastern section of the Qinling Mountains, the mountain is extremely steep, the mountain road is relatively gentle, there is a slope of more than thirty or forty degrees, and the inclination of some difficult places is even more than sixty or seventy degrees. Not to mention that there are people blocking it above, even if it is for people to climb at will, it takes a lot of effort.

In addition, in order to reduce casualties, the thieves used a more cautious attack method, which caused the advance speed to be very slow. If the weapons and equipment of the two sides are evenly matched, it doesn't matter if you are slow; The problem was that the weapons of the officers and soldiers were mainly rapid-fire cannons and bird guns, while the thieves only had bows and arrows, which made them suffer a big loss.

Because the bird guns of the official army are all new-style bird guns made by the Qinwangzhuang Military Factory, more than half of them are flintlock pistols, and the firing range is generally more than 80 steps. If the bow and arrow are fired by a well-trained archer, the range can also reach 80 paces. But firstly, the combat effectiveness of the thieves is too far from that of the Manchu Eight Banners and the Mongol cavalry, who are good at riding and shooting, and secondly, they are shooting from the back, let alone eighty steps, and it is already good to be able to shoot fifty steps. In this way, the officers and troops have a huge advantage in range.

Of course, the officers and the military will make good use of this advantage. They had already sealed off the not wide mountain road with a row of large iron shields, and the first column of eight bird-gunners lined up with ammunition and aimed far at the approaching thieves. As soon as a rogue comes into range and exposes his body to the muzzle of the gun, the bird-gunners immediately fire a volley, and immediately after the shot, they retreat and reload, and the eight bird-gunners in the second column, who have already been prepared, immediately fill their positions.

In fact, under such a narrow mountain road, the bird gunners don't use much aim, just shoot in the general direction. As long as a thief dared to come within eighty paces, rows of lead bullets swept through rhythmically. The thieves either cowered behind the rocks, or they could only eat their guns, and they couldn't attack them even a single step. As for the arrows they fired indiscriminately, they fell to the ground when they were still far away from the positions of the officers and troops, and they did not pose any threat to the officers and troops at all.

However, some of the thieves were lucky enough to get seventy paces from the official position, hiding behind boulders. Liu Zhe below saw the inspiration, so he asked these people to show their heads and then quickly retracted, tricking the officers and soldiers into firing.

Not to mention, this trick really has some effect. Whether it is a bird gun or a Lu Mi gun, after all, it is not a real sniper rifle, except for a very small number of sharpshooters, it is indeed very difficult to accurately hit the head of a fleeting thief in an instant, seventy steps away. The officers and soldiers released more than a dozen rows of bird guns in a row, but not a single thief was hit.

In fact, this situation is still that the officials and soldiers are suppressing the thieves, but the thieves are very Ah Q spirit, as long as the officials and soldiers can't hit them with empty guns, they already feel a sense of accomplishment. Gao Yingxiang, who was supervising the battle below, was also quite excited, and reluctantly smiled with the huge pain in his shoulder: "See, the enemy army is also capable of this!" When they run out of ammunition, it's time for our army to win! ”

In fact, Gao Yingxiang didn't know that just in the mountain pass, Sun Chuanting deployed 2,000 infantry under the command of Yong, and these 2,000 people were all birds. In order to ensure the supply of ammunition for these 2,000 infantry, from the time of setting up an ambush in Caolianling, until now, the transport team transporting ammunition from Qinwangzhuang to here has not stopped. Not to mention that there are eight people in a platoon, and only eight lead bullets are fired each time, that is, two thousand guns are fired at once, and the ammunition is enough to fight for several days, and it is pure wishful thinking for the thieves to exhaust the ammunition of the officers and soldiers.

Of course, in order to ensure the success of the ambush, as early as three days before Gao Yingxiang's army operated, the reconnaissance battalion under Xie Yong had already carried out "clearance" in the Qinling Mountains and the southern plains of Tongguan. The reason why Gao Yingxiang got the erroneous information that "Sun Chuanting went to save Xi'an" was that the soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion deliberately let him go after discovering the thief spies so that he could see the movement of the army. After the thieves and spies returned to report the news, the area was completely blocked, and the baggage force composed of engineers began to move.

However, Xie Yong's subordinates are well-trained, and they will not waste ammunition in vain. Soon, more than a dozen soldiers with shields rushed out of the official army and went straight to the hiding place of the thieves. The thieves thought they were coming to fight them in close combat, so they hurriedly took the opportunity to fire their bows and arrows. However, the officers and soldiers had iron shields to protect themselves, and bow and arrow shooting naturally had no effect.

When they approached about thirty paces from the thief, the soldiers suddenly stopped, pulled the grenade from their bodies, drew the fuse, and threw their brains behind the rocks where the thieves were hiding. The thief realized that people didn't want to fight with him, but now it's too late. Dozens of grenades drew a parabola and landed behind the rocks with unmistakable accuracy, exploding with an instant.

When the smoke cleared, the thieves could no longer be aq: they were all reduced to bloody corpses. And the dozen or so soldiers swaggered back to the positions of the officers and soldiers, and did not forget to shout in unison defiantly: "Gao Yingxiang, too rampant, the rabble dare to be king; Since you can't do enough to find death, guns and grenades despite the taste! ”

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