Chapter 161: Battle on the South Bank of the Floating River

After the cavalry of the Northern Army rushed up, the situation did not improve.

Although it is said that the total number of cavalry of the northern army is superior to that of the southern army, this advantage is not obvious. After all, during the Hongwu period, because of the victory of Monan Liaodong, horses were not a rare thing for the Ming Dynasty.

This also led to a surge in the number of cavalry.

Although it is said that the direction of Beijing is a key cavalry deployment area, it does not mean that there is no cavalry in other parts of the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that when it comes to this battlefield, it's different.

The cavalry of the Northern Army was many.

But it has to be dispersed to many battlefields, because cavalry is no longer the dominant force in the war. But it's not that the cavalry is useless. No, cavalry is still useful in this day and age.

In particular, after the line formation was proposed, the thin front could give full play to the firepower advantage with the greatest strength. But at the same time, it was too thin in the face of cavalry. The power of the cavalry charge is no longer useful in the face of dense infantry formations and the blessing of firearms. But in the face of line formation, it is not useless.

And the most important weapon against cavalry is still cavalry.

Therefore, every army needs to be equipped with cavalry, and Ye Shen still has a certain amount of strategic mobile forces in his hands, preferably cavalry.

In this case, the first army has more than 10,000 cavalry, which is already quite good. But the Southern Army is different.

Fu Youde regarded Sheng Yong as a winner. Naturally, if you can strengthen Sheng Yong, you will strengthen Sheng Yong. One-third of Sheng Yong's troops are cavalry, and there are nearly 50,000 cavalry, which is an important strategic force wherever it is placed.

So, even if the cavalry of the Northern Army came up. It's also useless.

Because the cavalry of the northern army did not dare to break away from the infantry formation and fight with the cavalry of the southern army.

Without him, compared to the Northern Army, the generation gap between the infantry and the Southern Army has been opened. Not so with the cavalry. There is no substantial difference between the two sides.

The combat effectiveness of the cavalry is basically equal.

What the other party has, he also has, and what he doesn't have. Neither did the other party. All belong to the melee of the old-fashioned cavalry.

In this case, the numerical advantage is even more important.

Still, the appearance of cavalry was beneficial.

That is, the cavalry and the infantry converged, so that the enemy did not dare to approach the infantry formation, so that the speed of the infantry immediately accelerated. But even then, it takes about an hour or so to enter the battlefield.

This more than an hour was a test of the former army.

In this period of more than an hour, even under the harassment of the cavalry, the battalions were moving closer to each other, forming a complete large phalanx, in which they were all composed of small phalanxes, and there were as many as a dozen small phalanxes in total, which could correspond to the enemy in all directions.

At this time, Sheng Yong's department had already arrived at the battlefield.

In fact, the reason why Sheng Yong is so slow is not for anything else. It's for the cannons.

There are more than fifty light cannons, all of which are trophies obtained in the last war, and are excellent products produced by the Beijing Iron Works, if it were not for these cannons, it would be more difficult to reach the battlefield with the cannons of the Taiping Iron Works, because the cannons of the Taiping Iron Works are even more difficult to move, and he is too heavy.

Seeing this, Sheng Yong immediately asked the cannon to prepare, after the preparation of a pillar of incense.

The first roar of the cannon began.

A cannonball went out, directly in the infantry phalanx, creating a bloody alley, because the hollow phalanx, this bloody alley, in fact, only killed six people. But the shock of the roar of the cannon, the helplessness of surrendering one's life to heaven.

The morale of the Northern Army was greatly shocked.

There was some commotion for a while.

Although these people are not recruits, they have never seen this kind of situation of standing up straight and being beaten passively.

Naturally, I can't eat it accurately.

What's even more terrifying is that the opponent's cannon is not one. It's a lot of doors. Dozens of cannons are simply unthinkable if they face a phalanx.

"Boom." It was also a cannon shot. is in the phalanx,

A cannon was pushed out and counterattacked.

It's just that this counterattack is not very effective.

The reason is very simple, the accuracy of the cannon is not good in these years, it is impossible to aim at the cannon, and it is naturally accurate to use it to hit the infantry phalanx, but it is still a lot worse to concoct the cannon.

It's just that this cannon is not without effect. This role is nothing else. It's courage.

Don't underestimate this role.

It is unlikely that the cannon will be a result, and this rule was also derived from the Napoleonic era. At the same time, many generals said that using artillery to fight artillery is not as good as using artillery to fight the phalanx. Unless a last resort, concocting a cannon is considered as a last resort, which is the worst option.

But these things, the generals know, the soldiers don't know.

For the soldiers, being beaten passively is the most demoralizing. In the face of the enemy's attack on oneself, one can only wait for death, and this situation is too unsettling. It's so demoralizing. But if you kill each other, I die, and you die.

In this case, morale can be maintained.

Therefore, such a counterattack is not so much to attack the opponent's artillery, but to boost their morale so that the soldiers can hold on.

Seeing this, Sheng Yong immediately ordered to choose a death squad, holding a gunpowder bag, to blow up this gun position.

Because the artillery is in the phalanx, it can't be fired at the right time. After all, it's too close, the shooting range is not enough, and if you want to hit the enemy, you must first kill a platoon of yourself. Artillery could be fired only if the artillery was transferred outside the phalanx.

As a result, the artillery was left without the protection of the phalanx.

Although the cavalry wanted to rush through, they had to face all kinds of difficulties. Say a lot of shooting, but it's not impossible.

There will be brave men under the great reward. So immediately someone rushed out. With a powder bag, he rushed to the side of the phalanx; It was quickly knocked to the ground by the firebolt. He was killed by men beating horses. Although there is a second person, a third person.

As mentioned earlier, smoothbore guns rely on intensive shooting to hit people. That is, for a single target, the effect is not very good. So by the third one, it seemed that luck had run out.

There was a loud bang. The gunpowder around the artillery exploded.

Knock the cannon to the ground.

For a while, this loud bang resounded throughout the battlefield.

Just when Sheng Yong was about to launch a general attack. but listened to the rumbling of the drums. He looked at it from a distance, and it turned out that the middle and rear armies of the First Army had arrived.

The front army immediately began to retreat.

The reason why I didn't retreat before was not because I didn't want to. But don't dare. Without him, the army was ambushed and surrounded by the enemy. Under such circumstances, the morale of the military from top to bottom was uneasy.

And the retreat pays the most attention to this.

In this case, a retreat will become a rout if it is not good.

This is no longer the case. Reinforcements from behind have already arrived. Everyone has a backbone. Retreat in this case. Only then is it possible, so that everyone will not panic and be chaotic.

It's just that at this time, Sheng Yong also ordered to fire. One artillery cannon bombarded the infantry formation, and the infantry of all walks was ready to move.

Wu Li also made a decision. That is, the cavalry immediately stepped forward and stormed the enemy's artillery positions.

It's not an easy thing to do.

First of all, the enemy has a cavalry advantage.

If you want to storm the enemy's artillery positions, you must first face the enemy's cavalry. It's not easy.

Of course, cavalry, unlike infantry, did not have a strong position to speak of, and it was not impossible to rush through.

Secondly, Sheng Yong's protection of artillery is quite in place.

It's not the same as the former army. The front army was due to a sudden situation, and there was not even a decent phalanx. Not to mention the placement of artillery positions. There was no reservation at all, and this was easily suppressed.

But how could Sheng Yong not consider this.

So, in front of the artillery positions, there was a dense infantry defense.

What was the fate of the cavalry storming the infantry phalanx?

It's not just the cavalry of the Southern Army that attacks the infantry of the Northern Army, but it's the same when it turns over

。

It's almost a dead mission. It is to use more than 10,000 cavalry to exchange the front army from being eaten. But even if it's a death mission, it has to be done.

The pros and cons behind it are not for the military to think about it.

As a result, the cavalry of the Northern Army could only immediately move south, broke through the blockage of the cavalry of the Southern Army, and launched an assault on the artillery phalanx of the Southern Army.

The infantry of the Southern Army immediately stepped forward, and layers of firearms were erected, and in the face of the incoming cavalry, they did not hesitate to open fire.