The Ottomans had reinforcements again, from about 40,000 cavalry at the beginning to 60,000 cavalry now, an increase of one-half of the troops, which made Ding Yi's brows furrow tightly. Because large-caliber howitzers are not capable of firing for a long time, and no matter how sufficient the ammunition is, it is not to the point that it can be squandered at any time, when attacking 30,000 cavalry on one side, it is difficult to rely on eight heavy guns.

"Back to the front line. The communication squad will follow me, and the two of you will stay and follow the command of the ninth junior high school. Ding Yi looked at the hundreds of elated soldiers, and beckoned them to come closer, "How is it?" Earned a fortune, right? In war, there will always be merit and wealth, but I hope that you will not only fight for this. ”

His words made those military remnants bow their heads a little ashamedly.

Ding Yi did not continue to beat them, but said to them: "Now, listen, I am not in the name of the King of Jinghai of the Ming Dynasty, nor in the name of the Roman Emperor, but in the name of my Ding Yi, I will recruit you, I need you, take the sword and gun for me; I need you to fight for Huaxia! ”

"I am willing to die for His Majesty!" The remnants of the army shouted in unison.

"No, not for me. I hope that as soon as the big cannibals see the Chinese people, they will put away the disrespect on their faces; I hope that when Westerners mention the Chinese, they will sigh at the bravery and civilization of our generation; I ≡ hope that our compatriots, walking in any civilized country, any king and official, will not dare to insult him because of his Chinese racial identity! ”

"This is the purpose of my war, and I hope that you will obey the call for this purpose!"

And this made hundreds of soldiers raise their heads and say: "I am willing to die!" ”

They are not Liu Ji, and they can't say any flowery words, but they are just in front of Ding Yi. That kind of small-peasant cunning is so squeezed that it can't be in the soul. Let them in this moment, at least in this moment. It is noble and pure.

Ding Yi and they also left Qian Chujiu, maybe they will never encounter another battle, because if there is no accident, according to Ding Yi's arrangement, the supplementary fleet with the Mediterranean Fleet as the escort should come to Smyrna in the next few days. Although most of the ships that replenished the fleet were converted from large and small ships, there were also two or four guns on one side on the deck.

Even if the escort ships of the Mediterranean Fleet leave. Dozens of supply ships plus those two destroyers would be another 200 galleys from the Ottomans, and it would not be too much of a problem.

But this is the battlefield, and this is not the repertoire directed by Ding Yi.

So, perhaps, because of the sea breeze, the supply fleet could not arrive on time; Perhaps the Ottoman fleet, before the arrival of the supplementary fleet, would organize ships to attack the port in an attempt to land. Then these military remnants. Will die here. Not maybe, not possibly.

Ding Yi knew very well that they would die here.

If a hypothetical scenario had arisen, all four squads of soldiers might have survived. But these hundreds of troops are afraid that there is not even a single person alive. Because they are not trained in the right subjects, they will make many mistakes that would normally seem insignificant. But in war, it would be easy for them to lose their lives.

"But I don't have a choice, we have to get through this battle." Ding Yi said calmly to Liu Ji. He didn't feel guilty. Because of this consequence, he truthfully sued those military remnants.

The Ottomans really made another charge before dusk, and it should be said that this time the charge was divided into several waves.

At first, they sent about 2,000 horsemen from the western position, and at about the same time from the eastern position, four or five thousand cavalry rushed into formation. And the cavalry of the western position, not far from the point where the howitzer shells fell, began to make a detour; The cavalry from the east was approaching.

Wen Fatzi ordered that after the 4.5-inch large-caliber howitzer bombarded the cavalry group on the east side, Ding Yi, who was driven back to the front line, sent a herald to stop it immediately. Because as soon as the cannon is fired, the smoke of gunpowder fills the air, and it is more difficult to receive a signal from the cannon balloon, so it is still necessary to manually transmit orders.

Of course, under the bombardment of eight large-caliber howitzers, the four or five thousand horsemen who were loosely drawn in formation still paid nearly two-thirds of the casualties

"That's not right." Ding Yi said to Wen Fatzi, "There is no need to pay attention to this kind of small cavalry charge, less than 10,000 people......"

Immediately, the signal corps came over to report: "Sir, on the western position, tens of thousands of cavalry are sweeping in!" ”

"Order the artillery platoon to fire freely." Ding Yi was not shocked or anything.

The Ottoman Chen soldiers are here to fight, is it possible to expect to put out troops and horses to scare Ding Yi?

However, this time, the 10,000-horse charge was still halfway through, and it took a detour.

"The Ottomans are testing the gap between the shots of our howitzers." Ding Yi put down the binoculars and said to Wen Fatzi, "Don't be led by the enemy, for the purpose of effectively killing and injuring the enemy's living force." ”

Soon it was dusk, and dozens of Ottoman scouts were wandering around the battlefield, but Wen Fatzi personally led a company of cavalry, put on a cuirass and went out, and directly knocked him down with a riding rifle, and the rest fled in a hurry. When the fat man returned to the position, it was already starting to get dark.

This day's war can be regarded as a temporary curtain call.

Ding Yi watched Wen Fatzi enter the command post and motioned for him to sit down, but said to Liu Ji: "On the side of the Zhengjun, you should go and do your work." Starting tomorrow, they may need to go up if necessary. ”

Because no matter how elite the first and second battalions are, they are also human beings, and it is impossible to rely on the fighting spirit of courage and sleep endlessly.

Therefore, rotation is necessary, and it is necessary for the 1,000 regular army to start replacing the soldiers of the first battalion and the second battalion, so that they can keep them full of energy and good condition, and this is not a battle that can be solved in a day or two.

"Disciple, let's go. Is it that tonight, the regular army will go up to take up the duty and replace the soldiers of the first and second battalions and have a good rest? Liu Ji has begun to integrate into the war, Ding Yi said that it will start tomorrow, but he is worried about whether the soldiers of the first and second battalions will be able to maintain their full energy tomorrow, so he will start to take over the defense tonight.

"Don't be in a hurry, we'll talk about it tomorrow night. You should tell the regular army that only the best two companies can be selected to take over the defense. Ding Yi thought about it, but still insisted on his original opinion. Because Ding himself likes to engage in special operations and steal camps, he is very worried, whether the defense line will stop tonight, and whether the Ottoman army will come to steal the camp?

Therefore, he felt that it was more reassuring for the first and second battalions to carry out the defense.

And today, the fat man who made two meritorious contributions was severely reprimanded by Ding Yi.

"Cavalry battalions, don't make special cuirassiers! We started with strip pointed bullets, and the enemy will learn as well. Ding Yi instructed the fat man to say, "Once you face a strip-shaped pointed bullet, the cuirass is of little significance." The original intention of establishing a cavalry battalion was not to form a heavy cavalry, which was only popular in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, right? In the Song Dynasty, the abducted horse appeared for a while, and then the obviously bulky heavy horse, although powerful, but the adaptability to the battlefield was too poor. ”

Wen Fat Man smiled innocently, nodded and wrote down the essentials of what Ding Yi said, it was precisely because he was a hard probe that he knew that these things that Ding Yi said were all true. And after thinking for a while, Fat Man Wen asked a question: "Young master, I thought that even when the enemy also used pointed bullets, if the battle situation was stalemate, the cuirassiers could still be put into the battlefield as a reserve for a breakthrough. ”

"Don't even think about it!" Ding Yi immediately rejected Wen Fatzi's statement, although he knew very well that in history, Napoleon used the cuirassiers as a reserve to put into the battlefield, and often used this to turn the tide of the war, "Don't learn from Zhao Fu, you can't let go of that cavalry complex." The progress of our firearms has already crossed the era of round lead bullets and smoothbore front loading guns, and the idea of cavalry assault should not be considered unless the squad is fighting. ”

"If the battle is deadlocked, if the enemy also uses pointed bullets as you said, then it will not be possible to fight a large-scale white-knives battle, right? Why not use shells to solve the problem? Carrying shells of the same weight is much stronger than carrying cuirasses. ”

"The cavalry had to take advantage of their speed, armed with rifles, sabers, and armed mortars at a distance to deal with the enemy, then grenadiers, then mounted rifles, grenades, and finally sabers. If it comes time to use a saber duel, the weight of the cuirass, I prefer to switch to two revolvers. ”

Wen Fat Man was in a hurry to scratch his cheeks and scratch his head, he couldn't think of any way to refute Ding Yi's words, but: "But we need a kind of heavily armored soldier to stand up to the front, especially when charging!" ”

"The best armor is artillery, destroying a qiē artillery." On this issue, Ding Yi is very stubborn and has no intention of compromising at all, "Of course, if the diesel engine is developed in a few decades, we can make a tank to meet your requirements; If you really like heavy armor, then you can keep it and use it when you need street fighting, and at the moment, if we face an enemy with cold weapons, the cuirass does still have a certain meaning. ”

Ding Yi thought for a while, and said to Wen Fatzi: "When the enemy still uses cold weapons, I can allow you to use the cavalry as cuirassiers." But you have to understand that this is a sunset class that will be eliminated by history, so don't instill too much about the concept of heavy armor combat to the soldiers of the cavalry battalion, understand? ”

"Yes, young master."

Ding Yi exhaled lightly and said to the fat man: "Choose one to discharge, you can't just let the Ottomans sleep peacefully at night, right?" "The old business of special operations, Ding Yi doesn't plan to lose it. Even if it is unlikely that he will lead the team out in person now, at least drawing up a battle plan can still make him a little happy.

The soldiers who can enter the guard regiment are all elites, and there were originally two special brigades based on them, and for jungle operations and mountain operations, in this era, it is considered a very in-depth study. So even if the terrain here is different, after the acclimatization training, you can still be up to the task.

But when Ding Yi finished dinner, he was about to take a rest and then get up in the middle of the night to patrol the camp, when he suddenly heard the faint sound of gunfire on the side of the first and second camps, and then after a while, he saw Cao Jixiang running over: "Young master, catch a few tongues." (To be continued......)