When the first step of the Yongying Corps in Yuyao County transferred two companies to support the frontal battlefield, the cavalry of the Taiping Army moved decisively!

In front of the battle, Dong Yanghong brandished a heavy saber and shouted: "Brothers, rush!" ”

Immediately, he galloped out first, and behind him, countless cavalry also urged the war horses under their crotches to rush forward one after another. Where to chase novels, go fast, and go fast

More than nine hundred, nearly a thousand cavalry charged, and their momentum far exceeded the momentum of the thousands of infantry just now.

"The cavalry of the thieves is coming!" Wang Luyun, who was standing beside Lin Zhe, was already trembling a little when he spoke.

Even Lin Zhe's face became suspicious, and at this time, Hunter William on the side said: "General, let's go up!" ”

Lin Zhe glanced at Hunter William, the blonde and blue-eyed Englishman showed a resolute face at this time, and he nodded immediately!

Immediately, Hunter William rode down, and soon arrived at the first march, and immediately said in Chinese with some voices: "All of them!" ”

For this Hunter William who ran up to command the troops, although Shi Langyi on the side was dissatisfied, he also knew that this was Lin Zhe's approval, so he immediately shouted: "All of them!" ”

At this time, Hunter William had already crossed the array directly on horseback: "The first company and the second company immediately formed a hollow phalanx!" ”

The first and second companies in his mouth were the two companies that had advanced to support the frontal battle of the Second Infantry Regiment, and these two companies had already advanced about fifty meters in order to support the frontal battle line, forming an oblique horizontal formation, and at this time the enemy cavalry launched an attack, and it was no longer enough time to withdraw them, so Hunter William immediately decided to order these two companies to immediately form a hollow phalanx specifically for cavalry.

Hollow phalanx, this formation is the best magic weapon used by modern infantry to deal with cavalry, because the war horse is afraid of sharp bayonet nature, so when the war horse rushes to the front of the formation, it is often not controlled by the cavalry, directly from both sides, and will not directly impact the infantry phalanx.

Following the orders of Hunter William, the soldiers of the 1st and 2nd companies ran quickly and formed a hollow phalanx, in which the infantry facing the west still opened fire on the enemy infantry in the frontal range.

At the same time, Hunter Wilhelm's command knife continued to swing in front of the other four companies of the First Infantry Corps: "Bayonet!" ”

"Reload!" As Hunter Wilhelm's orders were handed down one after another, the infantry of the 1st Infantry Corps began to make various preparations, loading their bayonets and loading their ammunition.

At this time, the distance of the enemy cavalry is getting closer and closer, at first it was only more than a thousand meters away and slowly advancing, followed by a trot, with a slow trot, the speed of the war horse was also slowly raised, when they reached a distance of about five hundred meters, Dong Yanghong, who knew the range of the Taiping army's musket, had already ordered the cavalry under his command to start sprinting with all their might.

And at this time, Hunter William, who was riding back to the formation, also gave the order in time: "Aim! ”

"Fire!"

As the order to open fire was given, the four companies that were slightly behind the formation pulled the trigger in unison, and before that, in the hollow phalanx formed by the first and second companies, the soldiers facing the east had already fired in advance!

"Shoot with all your might!" After the volley, Hunter Wilhelm gave the order again, and at this time, the soldiers of the 1st Battalion were nervously reloading.

In the face of the charge of the thousand cavalry, many soldiers were extremely nervous, and many of them were on a business trip when loading, but after several wars, the soldiers of the First Infantry Regiment were naturally much stronger than the Second Infantry Regiment and the Baggage Regiment in terms of training and discipline.

Now this scene, if it is replaced by the Second Infantry Regiment, in the face of the charge of the thousand cavalry, it is estimated that it will collapse after the first round of salvo, and it will continue to reload and shoot there.

As bursts of guns went out, the Taiping cavalry on the opposite side inevitably fell in large numbers!

And Lin Chengting, who was watching the battle from a distance, watched his cavalry go down in pieces when he first launched the charge, and his face changed instantly.

You must know that those who fell were the most elite cavalry troops under his command!

In this era, the cost of forming a cavalry unit is much higher than the cost of forming an infantry unit, and there is not only a gap in money and materials, but also a gap in personnel.

In addition to the nomadic people who can recruit many qualified cavalry at any time, it is quite difficult for other ordinary farming peoples to train a qualified cavalryman, training a musketeer for a few months at most, but as for cavalry, it takes a lot of time to make a peasant who cannot ride a horse a well-trained modern cavalryman, not months, but years.

Why did China lack cavalry in the southern regime since ancient times? Of course, this was due to the lack of horses, but even more important was the lack of qualified cavalry!

Or rather, simply both.

These cavalry under Lin Chengting's hands have been slowly accumulated in the past few years, although the formation time is still short, and many people are still on the top of the mounted infantry, but it is undeniable that they are already a mature cavalry unit.

You must know that the current Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is a typical southern regime, and there are not many horses and cavalry in their ruling area, and most of the horses that are only captured or collected from the people.

And there are not too many sources of qualified cavalry, which are basically converted from infantry!

Strictly speaking, the nearly 1,000 cavalry under Lin Chengting belonged to the mounted infantry, which was less professional than the personal guards under Lin Zhe.

You can just look at the equipment and charge of Lin Chengting's cavalry, the equipment is messy, there are muskets, swords, spears, and some messy weapons, and the charge is also messy.

Although the personal guards under Lin Zhe said that the cavalry was not good, they recruited some people with a foundation in horsemanship, and they were trained in strict accordance with the British cavalry, not only training ordinary muskets and sabers, but also training heavy cavalry such as long-lance charge.

Let's not talk about how strong the actual combat effectiveness is, after all, the number of pro-guard troops is small, there are only more than 50 cavalry in total, and they have not gone through many hard battles, so it is difficult to say how strong the actual combat strength is.

But the formation of the column charge must be much better than the chaotic Taiping army on the opposite side.

Let's not mention the advantages and disadvantages of the cavalry between each other, but the nearly 1,000 cavalry of the Taiping Army is a veritable backbone force under Lin Chengting's command, and it is unceremonious to say that the more than 4,000 infantry will die if they die, it is no big deal, and it will not take a month to go back, he will be able to pull out another infantry force with a number of no less than 4,000.

However, as for the cavalry, if the losses are too large today, even if they only lose a few hundred people, it will be a great blow to Lin Chengting.

The Taiping Army, like all feudal troops, has soldiers, in other words, these are all his Lin Chengting's cavalry, and he will feel distressed for a long time if he dies.

So when he saw that his cavalry had just launched a charge and fell in pieces, he didn't care about any strategy, and immediately said to the herald around him: "Let the cavalry withdraw immediately!" ”

What are you kidding, if you continue to rush like this, even if you win the Yuyao County Yong Battalion, your own cavalry will not have to be killed or wounded.

Seeing that the cavalry of the Taiping Army who had just launched a charge on the opposite side turned his head and turned back, the tension in Lin Zhe's heart was dispersed, just now he was worried that the cavalry of the thief army was going to play a decisive charge, although he was very confident in his own firepower, but it was difficult to say whether he could block the impact of the enemy's nearly 1,000 cavalry.

If it can't be stopped, wouldn't it be terrible, but now the enemy's cavalry has taken the initiative to retreat.

Since the cavalry of the Taiping Army has retreated, it is impossible for the infantry unit responsible for attracting firepower to continue to rush like this, anyway, Lin Chengting can be regarded as seeing that the Yongying camp in Yuyao County opposite is a hard bone, not easy to gnaw, and it is estimated that his more than 4,000 infantry will not take advantage of it.

So he also very simply ordered the infantry to retreat first.

At 9:40 a.m., as the Taiping army took the initiative to retreat, the first round of battle between the two sides came to an end, at this time the Taiping army had already retreated back to the original camp one after another, and the Yongying camp in Yuyao County was still strong because the enemy army was still strong, and in order to avoid being ambushed or the like, it did not take the initiative to pursue.

Therefore, the battle between the two sides was temporarily stopped, and at this time, there were many corpses and wounded in front of the Yongying position in Yuyao County.

It is said to clean up the battlefield, but in fact, it is to seize some materials left by the Taiping army, and the other is to mend the seriously wounded who were abandoned by the Taiping army.

As for the captives, not one!

This is not to say that Lin Zhe was ruthless and did not leave prisoners, but because the Yongying camp in Yuyao County was engaged in defensive battles in the first battle just now, and there was no chance to accept prisoners at all, in addition, although the Taiping army could not take away the corpses and seriously wounded when they retreated, those lightly wounded could still be taken away.

As for those seriously injured, they can't be saved anyway, so they just make up for it!

It didn't take long for Lin Zhe to get the results from the mouths of several officers!

"Our army lost six killed and sixteen wounded!" The casualty figure was still reported by Bi Yutong, the general manager of the battalion office, although he could not lead the army to fight, but the paperwork could still be done: "These casualties are caused by enemy artillery!" ”

"In addition, our army killed a total of 160 enemy soldiers, captured eight horses, one artillery piece, and hundreds of swords and guns!"

Listening to this still exaggerated casualty ratio, Lin Zhe didn't want to make the same fuss as the previous times, although the small battle just now didn't last long, but from beginning to end, the Taiping army was hit by his own unilateral firepower, and it is not an exaggeration to say that some of them were slaughtered.

From the moment the Taiping army entered the battlefield at a distance of 1,500 meters, the Taiping army began to be continuously shelled by the 12-pounder artillery of the Yongying in Yuyao County, and then the enemy's infantry and cavalry launched attacks one after another, and they were successively shelled by the small-caliber artillery of the 1st Artillery Company of the Yongying in Yuyao County and a large number of Mini rifle salvos.

Although the time of their attack was very short, it can be said that they only retreated after a slight temptation, but they still paid a lot of casualties.

According to Lin Zhe's estimates, the Taiping army on the opposite side of this battle suffered at least 300 casualties! xh118