Tong, Tong, Tong...... The dull sound was endless, and the Tianwei cannon fired cannonballs one after another, arcing, and falling into the ranks of the Qing army.

The iron cannonball smashed on the head of a Qing soldier, instantly smashing this guy to the ground, and the crowd behind stepped on his body without hesitation, just as an ordinary cannon. It's just that many Qing soldiers wondered what the curve of this cannon shot was wrong, and with such a little force, it couldn't form a ricochet kill, so what could it be used for.

This question was quickly answered, and with a bang, a Qing soldier's world realm was light, only to feel that he was soaring into the air, and there was a leg with messy and charred flesh and bones, passing in front of his eyes.

In the ranks of the Qing army, blazing fireworks burst into clusters, shrapnel flew horizontally, and each group swallowed up the people around them, and the screams rang out.

"Blossom Bomb!"

Seeing that the attacking team had not yet reached the range of its own artillery, it was bombarded by enemy artillery, and Ma Xiong, who commanded in the rear, and many old soldiers almost exclaimed at the same time.

At the front of the battle array are the three more scattered phalanxes of the Ming army platoon, with more than 2,000 people, arranged in a zigzag shape. Behind were more phalanxes, staggered, with rangers running in the gaps between the phalanxes. Ma Xiong could see it, and he knew in his heart that the soldiers in the current three phalanxes were well-organized, and they must be the elite of the Ming army.

As Kong Youde's old department, a branch of the Dongjiang system, Ma Xiong is still somewhat confident in his troops, not only fighting in the east and west, but also has a lot of firearms. Needless to say, there are a lot of shotguns, and even the green battalion is not ready to equip with a lot of redcoat cannons and furlong machine guns.

But as soon as the two sides exchanged fire, Ma Xiong realized that the Ming army was well equipped, especially the elite of the Ming army at the front. What made him feel a little relieved was that his own artillery also sounded, and it began to fire artillery from a distance of almost a mile, which was the three-fold array that the Qing army was accustomed to.

Rumble. Boom, boom...... The Ming army continued to bombard the enemy position with Tianwei cannons, and as the Qing army approached, the six-pounder cannon also began to roar.

Smoke rose and the cannon rang like thunder, making it look dull and heavy. Iron bullets roared into the air. Pull out a curved trajectory with little curvature, and smash into the ranks of both enemies and enemies, taking away lives one by one.

The aftermath of the cannon sound was still scratching in the sky, and another sound was churning, the sound of wheels and footsteps, forming a background sound like waves, pushing out a force, a force that those Qing soldiers had never experienced.

Drums, whistles. Adjusting the forward speed of the Ming army's hollow phalanx, in front of it is a shield cart with the tip of a spear stretched outward.

The distance is getting closer and closer, the Qing army is adjusting, the Ming army is also adjusting, the gap due to the dead and wounded is gradually filled, and the two waves will soon collide violently, colliding with gorgeous and cruel flesh and blood.

Two hundred steps, one hundred and fifty steps. A hundred steps, Ma Xiong's fists clenched tightly. Staring at the battle formation with wide eyes. It should be the range of the bow and arrow, then the shotgun, and then the hand-to-hand combat, with the gun and the knife at the same time......

Suddenly, a horn sounded in the battle formation of the Ming army, and the shield carts in the front row immediately stopped. Then the front bezel was violently knocked down, and as soon as the muzzle of the black hole appeared, there was a roar and fire. Hundreds of shotguns burst out of their chambers, mercilessly churning at the flesh and blood on the other side.

After two rounds of heavy fire, the third shell was loaded. The shield cart started again and moved forward, and five musketeers stood side by side between the cars, adopting the backward reloading method, and the five platoons took turns to step forward, shooting while mercilessly stabbing the fallen Qing soldiers with bayonets. Thirty meters away, the shield cart stopped, and two more rounds of extremely fast reload shots made the queue of the Qing army even more chaotic.

The muskets rang out, the battlefield was filled with gunsmoke, and his vision was blocked, and Ma Xiong couldn't see the situation clearly, but his heart ached. The enemy accompanied the infantry with Franco's cannons, inflicting heavy casualties on his own troops. Moreover, this gunshot, this gunsmoke......

Neat white smoke erupted from the front of the Ming army, and just fifty or sixty paces away, a line of scarlet blood neatly bloomed in the ranks of the Qing army's musketeers.

With the sharp whistle, round after round, the Ming musketeers, who had already crossed the shield car, continued to roll forward in rows, and the flintlock guns hit fast and far, and the advantage in performance quickly suppressed the shotguns of the Qing army.

Through the chaotic smoke of gunpowder, Huang Shidao could even see that the enemy army had begun to retreat, and the musket fire, which was still dense, had become sparse. Several comrades had already been replaced by him, which meant that several robes were killed or wounded.

"Zhang Zhong fell, I don't know how injured Lu Dao was, or died." The thought flashed in Huang Shidao's mind, but it did not affect his pace of progress. The unstoppable footsteps of the officers and the brothers who replaced him seemed to bind his whole body, and he could not stop, but could only repeat the loading, forwarding, and shooting......

Ma Xiongyang's hand fell weakly in mid-air, and finally did not give the order to "the horse team to bet". That was his most elite of the rear, he couldn't bet on his old capital, the defeat was a foregone conclusion, and the horse team could only increase the enemy's casualties, but could not reverse the defeat.

It was too fast, and the enemy's muskets were like a dense rainstorm, puffs of white smoke, and rows of lead bullets, which was not the effect of a three-stage or four-stage shot, but the power of the guns themselves. Shotguns, which are themselves regarded as sharp weapons, are completely suppressed in front of the enemy's muskets, both in terms of rate of fire and range.

The gunfire seemed to be a little sparse, the smoke of gunpowder dissipated slightly, and a row of Ming troops with bayonets rushed out, followed by a row of figures.

"Rush, kill!"

A continuous, shrill whistle sounded, overshadowing the hoarse shouts of the junior officers, and the Ming musketeers stopped firing and began the first white-knuckle charge on the battle formation.

The Qing army had already begun to rout, and the dense rain of muskets and the non-stop musket fire broke the shotgunners, as well as the fighting spirit of the other Qing troops.

Although the Qing army led by Ma Xiong had already been transferred, and although Ma Xiong did not have the heart to fight to the death, it was also the first time that the Ming army adopted a new method of warfare in the field and won purely by firepower.

Facts have proved that with the same strength and fighting spirit, all troops equipped with flintlock pistols and bayonets have a great advantage over the Qing army. If we add to this the factor of artillery fire, the advantage is even more obvious. Of course, if it is against the cavalry of the upper group, whether to resist with a chariot formation or keep the spearmen is still a question of uncertainty.

In the first battle of Simingzhou, the Qing army lost more than 3,000 horses, and under the pursuit of more than 20,000 Ming troops led by Ma Bao, the king of Ruyang, they could not stand, and retreated to Nanning, wanting to rely on Jiancheng to defend.

On the one hand, Ma Xiong strengthened the city's defenses, and on the other hand, he asked the governor of Liangguang and the king of Pingnan, Shang Kexi, for reinforcements. But before the reinforcements arrived, the Ming army took advantage of the victory to attack and was already under the city. 20,000 against 7,000, and a big offensive and defensive battle has kicked off again.

………………

The waves beat rhythmically against the side of the ship, turning into a splash and returning to the sea. Holding a telescope, Jameson stood on the rocking boat, looking out at the island.

The island is not very large, but it has high mountains, forests, soft white sandy beaches, and you can see French people directing laborers to build buildings with European characteristics.

Gallic rooster, Frenchman, Jameson cursed secretly, put down the binoculars, and no longer looked at the uncomfortable sight to him, but secretly jealous of the benefits obtained by the French, and regretted that the British did not strike earlier and got into contact with the Ming Empire.

The French not only got one of the largest islands in the Cham Island, but also got the west side of Guangang Bay with the Ming army. Da Nang consists of three ports, the largest of which is still in Nam Nguyen, while the west side of Kwun Nang Bay and both sides of the estuary became a port of call shared by the Ming army and the French.

James also knew that the French had some privileges in both the ports of Saigon and Haiphong, which meant that in the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea, the French had a very secure shipping route with several relay points to anchor.

It was nothing more than craftsmen, machines, flintlock muskets, artillery, and joining forces with the Ming army to suppress Nam Nguyen. With its maritime strength and industrial capabilities, Britain can only do better than the French, not worse than the French, but only a little later. James was angry in his heart, but he was not sure what the outcome of this trip was, and he didn't know what the regent prince of the Ming Empire was who he wanted to meet.

As for the Nanming regime, Britain, which was gradually encroaching on India, did not care. It was nothing that the Tatars occupied that ancient country, as long as commerce was unimpeded, what did it matter who the ruler of that continent was. However, the Qing court's coastal relocation completely interrupted Chinese mainland's foreign trade and trade exchanges, and tea, silk, porcelain, raw silk, etc., these best-selling Western goods suddenly cut off their sources, catching many countries off guard and trying to reopen trade routes.

Historically, the Dutch sent a fleet to help the Qing army, defeated Zheng Jing, and captured Jin and Xia. One reason is that he is angry about losing Taiwan and wants to take revenge on the Zheng family; Another reason is to use this to resume trade with China.

The purpose of James' trip was naturally clear, to establish good relations with the Nanming regime, the only one in Chinese mainland that had access to overseas and the only one to maintain commerce with the outside world, and to ensure that British merchants could obtain the goods they needed.

The reason for this is also very simple, because of the agreements reached with Zhu Yongxing and their help, the French have been greatly taken care of when the trade of other countries has been hit. This, of course, will attract the attention and blush of others, including the British.

The French colonists had just begun to expand in Asia, and they also established the East India Company to compete commercially with the old colonial powers such as Britain and the Netherlands. The relocation of the coastal borders carried out by the Qing court had the opportunity to develop rapidly because of their good cooperation with the Southern Ming regime. This was certainly not what the British wanted, because in India France increasingly became a challenger to British interests.

The ship swayed, and James's mind was churning, and he kept thinking about what conditions he had to come up with in order to impress the Prince Regent and achieve the desired effect. (To be continued......)