At the same time that the bloody battle under the city of Taiyuan was intensifying, Kublai Khan, the Great Khan of Mongolia, was riding a horse and standing on a high place to watch a very valuable battle!

The reason why this small battle is extremely valuable is not because Guo Kan or the tens of thousands of Han refugees in Liujia Town are of any value. The life and death of Guo Kan and the life and death of tens of thousands of Han refugees are not in Kublai Khan's heart, nor even in Chen Dexing's heart.

But the first confrontation between the infantry in plate armor and the Mongol cavalry was very interesting!

Although the Mongol cavalry in the 13th century was powerful in Europe and Asia, its tactics were only improved and upgraded on the basis of traditional tactical tactics such as mounted archery, infantry shooting, horse charging and hand-to-hand combat. Its basis is still "shooting", "rushing" and "fighting". The three male skills of the Mongols, archery, horseback riding, and wrestling, are about the basis of Mongolian military force, and of course, the upward channel of Mongolian society. Therefore, most of the Mongol cavalry in the 13th century were still proficient in archery, horseback riding and wrestling.

Brother Tou first sacrificed the tactics of dismounting and foot shooting. Four Mongol thousand-man teams were ordered to dismount, and one of them, armed with shields and scimitars, formed three horizontal formations, slowly approaching from the left, center, and right directions. Behind the three shields were a thousand Mongols with a bow.

Guo Kan also held a telescope and had been observing the movements of the Mongols, and saw that they had dispatched a team of four thousand people at a time, so he hurriedly put down the binoculars and shouted loudly: "Straight lady thief, the Mongolian Tartars are coming, give me more energy, and those with armor are all put on, ready to fight!" ”

As mentioned earlier, Guo Kan's soldiers are all professional soldiers who have fought old battles. Even if tens of thousands of Mongols were found (Kublai Khan's main force was not fully displayed in front of Guo Kan). There is nothing to be alarmed about. The myth of the invincibility of the Mongols in cavalry seemed to them to be a joke. Armed with a spear. The infantry that formed a strong formation was not something that the cavalry could break down at all. And the steel armor on them. Again, it is not something that the Mongols' bows and arrows can shoot through!

"The first and second battalions of spearmen, the first battalion of sword and shield soldiers, and the first battalion of archers are out! The rest of the men retreated to the earthen enclosure, and let the artillery company push the cannon up for me to erect on the earthen enclosure, but don't fire the cannon, wait for the Mongolian Tartar cavalry to come up and bombard! ”

Guo Kan fastened a steel helmet to his head, and at the same time gave orders in a stack.

Two battalions of steel-clad spearmen formed six columns of gunmen on his orders, and one battalion of archers followed in three columns. The first battalion of sword and shield soldiers was deployed on both sides and in the rear of the large array in company units. And Guo Kan himself took two drummers. Two trumpeters, two standard-bearers, and four guardsmen, stood behind the archers, and in front of a company of sword and shield soldiers.

The use of small drums to play rhythm to unify the pace of soldiers was historically invented by the Swiss, and in this time and space, of course, it is a small innovation of Chen Dexing. It was not very eye-catching, but Guo Kan saw the value at a glance by the old Yu army position, and unceremoniously asked for two drummers from the Northern Ming Army and two trumpeters with two heralds.

"Beat the drums, move forward!" Guo Kan saw that the step formation was at a standstill. Without hesitation, he drew his big horizontal knife and pointed forward, and gave a loud order to move forward. However, the infantry formation of more than 1,000 people, under the watchful eye of thousands of Mongolian iron horsemen, swaggered straight towards the Mongolian archers and sword and shield soldiers who were in the middle of the road!

……

"How so!?"

Kublai Khan, who was on a high slope, saw this scene. Immediately, he was shocked, and his face was inexplicable. However, the infantry formation of more than a thousand people swaggered under the gaze of the Mongol cavalry, which was several times their size, attacked!

These infantrymen are also bold, aren't they? Could it be that when the iron horsemen of the Great Mongolia are transparent?

"Here's your chance!"

The head brother who commanded the battle on the front line applauded even more. Decades of experience have taught him that the infantry cavalry has always had to defend in formation. There is absolutely no reason for the infantry to take the initiative.

"Ming rebellion is self-defeating! Let the thousand households long iron brother lead the horse team to attack quickly! ”

Don't miss the opportunity!

The thieves' foot soldiers attacked blindly, and there were no horses to cover them on the left and right. As long as there are cavalry taking advantage of the opportunity, the thief army will definitely collapse, and these more than 1,000 pairs of good armor are the trophies of his brother.

"Immortal Heaven bless the Mongols! Warriors of the Great Mongolia, rush with me! ”

Brother Tie is Brother Tou's confidant, and he has followed him to fight Goryeo and gained a lot of benefits in Goryeo. At this time, another meat-eating errand has fallen, where will it be delayed?

Thousands of horses rushed to charge, feeling the slight vibration of the ground, Guo Kan, who was commanding on the battlefield, sneered, with cannons and steel armor, it is no longer cavalry that is big on the battlefield!

"Hollow phalanx!"

Under Guo Kan's order, the Qianer infantry, who was advancing, immediately began to change formation. The phalanx became a hollow phalanx about fifty or sixty paces long on all sides, and the periphery was a mixture of spears and swords and shields—two of the four sides of the hollow phalanx were composed of a company of spears and a company of swords and shields, and the remaining two sides were two companies of spears. There was also an extra sword and shield company that shrank inside the hollow phalanx to cover the archers and Guo Kan.

Of course, this hollow phalanx alone could not have been matched by the Mongol warriors of the 13th century. They were different from the European infantry of the 18th and 19th centuries, they were all masters of archery on horses, and no one would rush into the phalanx.

However, Guo Kan had already prepared, and 6 3-inch bronze cannons were pushed up, and the barrels of the cannons just stretched out of the earthen fence - that is, the curved breastwork. All aimed at the galloping Mongolian thousand-man team.

With a roar, six three-inch shells were sprayed by the thrust of gunpowder, and they slammed into the Mongol horse team with a speed visible to the naked eye. Suddenly, there was the sound of people shouting horses, neighing horses, and heavy objects falling to the ground. In fact, the power of the six solid bullets was limited, and the charging formation of the Mongolian horse team was far less tight than the wall charge of the later Europeans. So not many warriors were swept off their horses by shells either. But the loud roar of the cannon fire made the Mongol mounts panic, and the horses that had lost control of zhì desperately ran into each other, neighing incessantly, and the charging horses were thrown into chaos.

"Spread out!"

Brother Tie's reaction was fast enough, and he immediately dispersed his subordinates without waiting for the second wave of shells to come over. After scattering, of course, it was not to die down, but to shoot feather arrows around the hollow phalanx where Guo Kan was. And the 600 archers under Guo Kan's command also fought back with their foot bows.

The feathered arrows of both sides are fired intensively, but the effect is diametrically opposed!

The archers of the Northern Ming Army shot steel armor-piercing arrows! The arrows are not made of iron, but are made of medium-carbon steel, which is not only extremely hard, but also has a smaller and sharper part than ordinary feathered arrows. This design was specially designed to break the armor of the Mongol cavalry with leather armor and chain mail, and it also had a very good effect on the willow leaf armor of the Tixue army - the small sharp arrows could easily pierce the leather armor, and then lightly pierce through the gap in the chain mail. It can be described as an arrow into the flesh!

The warriors on horseback fell to the ground like dumplings.

And the Feather Arrows of the Mongols shot at the Ming army wearing plate armor, which was nothing more than a few sparks, and then the cluster of arrows was bounced away, and there was no harm at all. These armorers had plate armor on their bodies, steel armor armor on their arms, and although their faces were not covered, they could use the brim of their steel helmets to cover the feathered arrows from the sky as long as they lowered their heads.

The whole thing is an invulnerable steel can!

"Get the horses out of the way!"

Brother Tou's face was about to drip. The cavalry of the Mongol warriors turned out to be useless in front of the steel armor of the Han Chinese!

You can't play mounted archery, you don't need to try foot shooting, and it seems that you can't use a bow and arrow to deal with "steel cans". Get...... Melee!

"Let the warriors form a formation and fight with the Great Khan's scimitar!" Brother Tou said loudly, "Three thousand-person teams together!" ”

Three to one! It's supposed to work, right?

"Form a formation, set up a phalanx, quickly!" When Guo Kan saw the Mongolian horse team scattering and retreating, he immediately ordered the formation to be adjusted and changed back to the original phalanx.

"Hurry up! Hurry up, hurry up! ”

Under Guo Kan's loud urging, the drums of the march were tight. The "canned soldiers" who swung back into the phalanx also moved faster and faster, and finally changed from walking to running, the spears in the front two rows were all flattened, and the whole phalanx slammed into a newly formed Mongolian infantry phalanx as if it were a forest of moving spears......

"Immortal Heaven Bless the Mongols......"

"Kill the Tartars! Go to Heaven! ”

The shouts on both sides sounded at the same time, and then the spears of the Ming army and the round shields of the Mongols collided fiercely!

The Mongol round shield was made of leather strips or wicker, and the shield was also inlaid with iron in the middle, which was extremely strong, comparable to the rattan used by the Ming saber and shield bearers, and even stronger.

However, these sturdy round shields met the hard, sharp steel spear heads. There was a terrible popping sound, and I don't know how many shields were pierced by the spears that were moving at high speed. Some of the spears still have the strength to spare, and even the warriors behind the shields are poked in pair!

The ferocity of the Mongols is also rare, and many warriors who have been pierced by spears have grabbed the barrel of their guns when they are dying, and glared at their opponents in steel armor with blood-red eyes. There were also some Mongols who were very skilled, using their shields to block the tip of their guns, and then slammed straight into the opponent's formation, wielding broadswords and slashing at the barrels of their guns.

And the Ming army had only one reaction, which was to cover their heads and continue to attack! The soldier whose spear was cut off or pierced in the body and could not be pulled out simply threw away his spear, drew his large horizontal knife, and did not swing it but went straight forward. The entire phalanx, nearly nine hundred "steel cans", formed a mobile indestructible steel castle!

In another time and space in Europe, it was the abundance of plate armor in the 15th and 16th centuries that made the era of bow and arrow dominance on the battlefield forever gone - instead of bows and arrows, arquebuses with a shorter range but great armor-piercing power.

Similarly, infantry wearing improvised plate armor and wielding spears, swords, shields, and halberds minimized the role of European knights on the battlefield.

And in Asia in this time and space, a military revolution that will profoundly change the battlefield situation has taken place under the nose of Kublai Khan, the Great Khan of Mongolia! (To be continued......)