The dense fog quickly dissipated, the weather became clearer, and on the plains and fields of the villages north of Fengyang City, Sun Hu's "Jinwu Battalion", Zhang Hong's "Wufen Battalion", and Xue Laoer's Tianwei Zhong Military Camp gathered together, and more than 10,000 soldiers and horses had already set up a formation to meet the battle.

Considering that the Qing army was in a hurry to cross the river and must not have carried artillery, Zhou Shixian asked the three battalions of soldiers and horses to form a very thick and tight military formation.

The first of the ranks were three rows of musketeers, and in front of them were thirty Tiger squat cannons and ten four-pounder guns, and these forty light guns would provide the necessary fire support for the musketeers behind them. The range and density of fire of the Tiger and Four-pounder guns were very powerful in close combat, especially the four-pounder guns, which, with the operation of a skilled gunner, had a very high rate of fire, even surpassing the arquebus.

In front of the artillery, there are soldiers holding shields as cover, in order to defend against the Qing army's arrow attacks from a distance, behind each pier of artillery, there are several gunners who perform their own duties, the main gunner holds an ignition fork stick in his hand, and two gunners are specially responsible for loading and cleaning the gun chamber and adjusting the gun position.

Now all units of the Ming army have used the new gunpowder produced after the workshop innovated the gunpowder formula under the guidance of Tang Ruowang and Zhou Shixian, and the power and effective range of firearms have been greatly improved.

There were more than 1,500 cavalry on the left and right flanks of the army formation, which was not only to cover the army formation when it was defending, but also to serve as the main force for the attack at critical times.

In the middle of the two wings, behind the musketeers are the archers, pikemen, and sword and shield men of the "Tianwei Central Military Camp", who have spread out more than a dozen small phalanxes in the center of the military formation, which belong to the core combat power of the military formation.

In addition, there are hundreds of reserve cavalry and odd troops in the rear of the Chinese army's military formation, which can replenish the military formation at critical times, and can also bypass the front of the military formation and launch a surprise attack on the Qing army from the flank.

This formation is not original to Zhou Shixian, but the generals of the Ming border army on the basis of Qi Jiguang's art of war, if the soldiers have the corresponding combat effectiveness, the firearms are reliable, and the two are cooperative, to deal with the Manchu cavalry, it is absolutely not a problem.

It's just that, except that there is nothing wrong with the military formation, it seems that other places are not guaranteed by the generals of the Ming Dynasty, which also makes this offensive and defensive military formation almost lost.

After Xue Laoer, Wu Xingye, Sun Hu and others deployed the military formation, they were all waiting anxiously.

The cavalry sent by Wu Xingye had been driven back by the Qing army, and several Manchurian cavalry chased after them, but before they could get close to the military formation, they were immediately intercepted by the cavalry sent by Wu Xingye.

Xue Lao Er looked up at the bank of the Huai River in the north, and under the gradually clear sky, several teams of cavalry from the two armies were still fighting fiercely. However, the cavalry of both armies was very strong, and after leaving a few corpses in the wilderness, they both retreated at the same time.

Xue Lao Er didn't want to expose his strength too early, but Nikan, who led the troops, was worried that he would scare the enemy away - if this Ming army hid in the city, the battle would not be easy to fight.

He despised the Ming troops on the opposite side, in his opinion, these people were just like the Shun army in Tongguan, they were just empty shelves, and as long as they touched it, they would fall.

"Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, take your family and attack!" Nikan waved his hand, and a slight shock was instantly heard in the formation of tens of thousands of Qing troops who had just completed the assembly on the bank of the river.

A black line began to emerge from the bank of the river, appeared on the horizon in front of Xue Laoer's eyes, and gradually grew taller, the flag swayed, the military horn sounded, and the muffled thunderous sound came from far and near, which was completely the posture of a strong army.

At this time, the Qing army was still very strong, whether it was the Eight Banners Soldiers, the Shun Wang Han Army, the combat effectiveness was very strong, and even a part of the Green Camp Army, after eating and drinking, was also very strong.

"Ying Qi!"

Seeing this, Xue Lao Er immediately gave an order, and in the Ming army's military array, all departments were from top to bottom, and the standard-bearers began to raise the flag, and the Ming army's strict array suddenly flew with flags, and the momentum was magnificent.

Soon, with a loud military horn sounding, in the Ming army's military array, more than 10,000 soldiers stood up with a "boom", Zhou Shixian was on the top of the Fengyang City Tower, looking at the military formation that had suddenly been raised, and his heart was suddenly full of confidence.

Orders from Xue Laoer, Wu Xingye, and Sun Hu were passed down layer by layer along with the banners, and the officers and men of the various units in the military formation immediately began to check their equipment for the last time, especially the artillery and musketeers, under the technical level of this era, their weapons were very cumbersome to use, and it was easy to have problems.

As the Qing army gradually approached, the horses' hooves hit the ground like raindrops, and thousands of Qing troops poured in like a tide, making a thunderous roar and aggressive momentum.

The Qing army finally stopped about two hundred paces in front of Xue Changfu's army formation, Nikan, Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming and a group of Qing army generals were all looking at the Ming army formation in front of them, and they always felt that something was a little strange.

These are all veterans of the battlefield who have experienced a hundred battles, and they have seen many military formations, but such a strict military formation is rarely seen. It stands to reason that the Ming army can't form such a military formation.

However, the successive victories since entering the customs still made these Qing generals disdain the Ming army in the south, especially after they noticed that the Ming army was equipped with a large number of firearms.

After all, they still understand what kind of virtue the firearms of the Ming army are and how much they kill and injure their own people. The more equipment there is, the worse the close combat ability of this unit. It is estimated that the minister of the court and the central government came up with a bad idea, relying on firearms to deal with cavalry.

Moreover, let those thousands of green battalion soldiers, the Han army rush up first, if it can be defeated in one fell swoop, it is good, it is not good, and it also attracts most of the firepower of the Ming army, and then the Manchurian cavalry will go out again, and the Ming musketeers who have fired a round of salvo will inevitably be in chaos, and those so-called muskets and artillery will inevitably lose their effect.

Nikan doesn't know how many times I've seen such a scene.

Over the past few decades, countless facts have proved that if a real fight breaks out, the so-called musket formation will not be able to withstand the repeated onslaught of cavalry.

Moreover, they also noticed that although the Ming army had its back to the village, it did not seem to have built any fortifications except for the shields in front of the army, and there were neither trenches, horses, nor breastworks. It can be seen that the main general who led the troops should be a layman, but he was dealing with the real Manchurian cavalry, and he was so careless.

Thinking of this, Nikan couldn't help but sneer, it seemed that victory was in sight, he no longer hesitated, and immediately ordered his cavalry to start attacking, and the green battalion soldiers held their shields and marched forward in a phalanx.

At the same time, the two Niulu cavalry on both flanks of the Manchu army also received the order and immediately rushed forward, their task was to harass and cover the charge of the green battalion soldiers.

The rumbling sound of horses' hooves sounded again in front of the two armies, and the two groups of Qing cavalry began to slow down and stop about a hundred paces away from the Ming army's line. Seeing that the Ming army on the opposite side was still silent, these two were even more arrogant, and there was a strange howl in the ranks, and the arrogance was extremely arrogant.

Subsequently, this group of Eight Banners began to slowly enter a distance of about sixty or seventy paces, and then in groups of three or five, they galloped sideways in front of the military formation, and used their riding bows on horseback to throw at the opposite Ming army formation.

This is an extremely common style of fighting between the two armies, and the cavalry attack is to deter and provoke the enemy, and to lure the firearms in the enemy's formation, and then take advantage of the gap in the reload to launch a fierce attack.

However, such an attack is basically ineffective for the well-equipped, tightly formed military formation, more than 500 light arrows slashed through the air, towards the area where the Ming army formation is located, the archery skills of the Manchu Eight Banners are very exquisite, but in the fully armed Ming army formation, it has almost no effect, except for a few screams, there is only the clanging sound of arrows hitting the iron armor.

This is the problem of whether the equipment is well-equipped, the big war of this era, if there is no armor, then no matter how high the morale, it is useless, it is the most conventional light arrow throwing in this round, I don't know how many people will be killed and wounded, where can there be any melee hand-to-hand combat ability?

At the same time, in the face of the Qing army's attack, Xue Lao Er was not passively beaten, in front of the military formation, at the gap in the shield, hundreds of Ming archers immediately launched a counterattack, the power of the foot bow was much greater than that of the riding bow, dense armor-piercing arrows flew out, more than a dozen Qing army war horses fell in the whistling sound of arrows, and even the arrows of the Ming army directly hit the legs of the horses without armor cover.

More than a dozen war horses that had fallen from the arrow struggled to stumble on the ground with four hooves, neighing in pain, and black blood continued to flow from under them. The remaining Manchu cavalry saw that the situation was not good, and hurriedly retreated.

Seeing this, Nikan only felt a little incredible, but at this time, more than 6,000 green battalion soldiers, the Han army had directly advanced in the form of a phalanx to a position about one hundred and fifty steps away from the Ming army's phalanx.

Their formation was also very conventional, with a dense array of shieldmen in the first row and a close-range force of crossbowmen, pikemen, and sword and shield bearers in the back. There were also some green battalion soldiers armed with firearms, who were the first to rush to the flanks seventy or eighty paces away and shoot provocatively.

However, in the face of these Qing army cannon fodder advancing forward with the beat of the drum, Xue Lao Er did not order the army to make any reaction, and the entire Ming army formation seemed to be completely unaware of the danger and quiet.

However, when the Qing army advanced to about 100 steps away from the military formation, the banner of the word "Qin" shook, and the sound of war drums and military trumpets sounded instantly, and thirty tiger squat cannons and ten four-pounder cannons appeared from behind the shields at the same time, and the gunners who were waiting for them immediately ignited and fired.

"Boom! Rumble! Boom ....."

In front of the Ming army, a dense explosion immediately broke out, the fire flickered violently, and the white smoke quickly rose and spread, forming a wall of smoke.

Hundreds of lead bullets of about the same size scrambled out of the muzzle of the cannon, and then smashed heavily into the shield in front of the Qing army. The power of these lead bullets was amazing, and it was extremely easy to break through the shields of the Qing army, and the originally strict shield formation quickly fell with a terrible wail.