Abatai did not expect that the Eastern Brigade would take the initiative to attack, but he thought that this was a good thing, which could allow the whole army to meet the battle more calmly, so he immediately gathered the cavalry that was going to attack the pontoon bridge, and the Battle of Qinghe has proved that in the face of the Eastern Brigade, no matter how big the strength advantage is, it is not too much.

And as long as the infantry in front of you is broken, then the pontoon bridge will definitely be destroyed.

Under the command of Yang Yandi, three infantry battalions were arranged into battalion columns, and three battalion columns were advanced, and the standard battalion column should be six companies arranged in three rows, so that in the face of cavalry impact, the front and rear were tightened, and the two companies in the middle rotated 90 degrees and advanced to the left and right flanks, so that a battalion hollow phalanx with a thickness of two rows could be formed immediately, which was the standard model of the infantry standing battalion of the Eastern Brigade.

It's just that Yang Yandi only has three infantry battalions under his command, and the infantry attack and defense need to let the chasers and other elite infantry put out a skirmish line, this time Yang Yandi not only drew out the three chasseur companies of the three battalions, but also drew out the grenadiers of the Ferreira battalion.

The four companies formed a skirmishment line, resulting in only fourteen infantry companies left in the infantry that could form a phalanx at the first time, so Yang Yandi simply disbanded the Ferreira battalion, which had the most drawn, and the four infantry companies were evenly divided into the remaining two battalions, so that the two battalions could have sufficient strength to form a battalion phalanx.

Therefore, when Yang Yandi led the army to attack from east to west, the front and perimeter were scattered lines, followed by two battalion columns.

Of the 400 stragglers who were drawn out by Yang Yandi, only 200 were hunters with rifled guns, and the remaining 200 were heavy arquebuses. In order to increase their firepower, the rifled hunters were responsible for the frontal attack, and the two companies of the Ferreira battalion were deployed to the left flank and rear, because the right flank was by the river and could be seen in full view.

The line infantry were 200 to 250 meters away from the stragglers, while the chasseurs were scattered and advanced, separated by several meters from each other, closing in on the Qing army.

Standing on the sand dunes, Abatai witnessed the attack of the soldiers of the Eastern Brigade, and found that the hunters were agile and fast, calling each other in harmony, using the terrain to advance, and Abatai also knew that the guns in their hands could hit four hundred paces away, so he ordered Shi Tingzhu to start shelling early.

It's just that the artillery bombardment was completely ineffective, the hunters were too scattered, and it was difficult to hit the attack of solid bullets, and the Furlong cannon used by the Han army flag did not have the ability to splash the shotgun so far.

In fact, even if there is, the effect is not great, in the face of skirmishers, the best way is to respond with skirmishers, the Qing army knows this tactic very well, in the past they will use archers who are good at shooting as skirmishers to harass the enemy, but whether it is the battlefield inside the pass or the battlefield outside the pass, it has been proved that archers can not shoot skirmishers.

After several rounds of shelling, finding that it had no effect, Shi Tingzhu had no choice but to order to stop firing, while Abatai sent a small force of cavalry to try to break through the skirmish line with cavalry. He knew that if a large pair of cavalry were sent, the skirmishers would be close to the phalanx behind, and his cavalry would simply rush up and fire at the line of infantry.

But the reality still made Abatai not satisfied, he sent more than a hundred cavalry three or five people in a team to attack, the infantry in the rear did not provide cover at all, the stragglers gathered in a group on their own, more than one or twenty people, less three or five people, back to back, forming a large and small phalanx circle.

It turned out that this kind of small formation was much more flexible than the hollow phalanx, the soldiers could cover each other, and they could report the situation, and each soldier could clearly hear the orders of the officers and non-commissioned officers in the formation, and then shoot according to the orders.

Most of the time it's three or five people shooting, so the fire is continuous.

The gap between the stragglers was very large, so as soon as the Qing cavalry entered, they fell into crossfire, and after a burst of random gunfire, the Qing cavalry scattered and fled, and the stragglers immediately dispersed to prevent them from being attacked by the Han flag artillery because of the gathering.

When encountering cavalry, they gather and shoot at the enemy in succession, and the enemy retreats and disperses. Although it looked a little chaotic, they all told the Qing army that these stragglers were elite.

In fact, the infantry that can take on the task of skirmishers is all elite.

After the First Battle of Qinghe, Li Zhaoji transferred some soldiers with a relatively high level of training from the new barracks to supplement the original four standing battalions and two reserve battalions, of course, the reserve battalion was also upgraded to a standing battalion, but the equipment of the hunters was not replaced in time.

The Chasseur unit also had losses, but it was not drawn from the boot camp, but from the main camp experienced veterans to join it, making the Chasseurs the most elite troops.

And only the elite can take on the task of skirmishing.

The skirmishers bent their waists, carried their guns, and observed the surroundings, marching quickly, while the officers shuttled through them, restraining the skirmishers with whistles and passwords, or asking for a surprise attack by the cavalry, or ordering to wait for the main force in the rear to follow, and the officers commanding the stragglers carefully observed the artillery positions of the Han army flag with binoculars, and ordered people to collect some solid shells fired by the Han army flag just now.

After observation and comparison, it was found that most of the artillery was the No. 3 Shenfei cannon, the Golden Dragon Cannon, the winning cannon, the Shenwei cannon and other light guns, mainly the breech-loaded Franc machine, and the weight of the gun was between 300 and 600 catties.

Because the Qing army obviously had heavier and longer-range artillery, why didn't it use it on the battlefield, if it was too heavy because of river crossing, transportation, etc., then why did Balai find five red-coated cannons?

It wasn't until the interrogation of the prisoners after the war that Yang Yandi learned that there was a problem with the Han military banner in transporting artillery, especially when crossing the Hunhe River.

This pontoon bridge was built by Abatai and his people, and it was very simple, and artillery of more than 1,000 pounds could not cross the river from the bridge. Therefore, the Han army could only bring medium and light artillery, and as for the red-coated cannons, they were transported by boat and wooden platoon. It was Duoduo's death order to transport the redcoat cannon to the battlefield, and in this matter, Abbatey and Shi Tingzhu did not dare to slack off, but after completing the transportation of the redcoat cannon, Abatai was no longer accommodating to other large Franc machines.

Even Abatai ordered people to collect more than 700 horses and mules of the Han Army Banner, the reason is very simple, the horses and mules of the Han Army Banner have been with the firearms unit for many years, and they are more suitable for dealing with the firearms troops.

After determining the type of artillery of the Qing army, Yang Yandi decisively changed the order and let the stragglers get closer, until they were close to a distance of 200 to 250 meters before shooting, which was the limit of the Qing army's artillery shotgun attack distance.

The cavalry retreated to prevent attack, while the Han army banner removed the planks from some of the baggage wagons, erected the wagons, and built shelter fortifications between the gun wagons, although Shi Tingzhu did not believe that there was a musket in the world that could shoot 400 paces accurately, but Abatai's oath still made him cautious.

It's just that the stragglers didn't give the Qing army a chance to shoot shotguns, they lined up in two loose layers, and each chose its own position.

The low-lying ground, scattered stones and logs, as well as large and small mounds have become fortifications that they can use, and in the selected location, first remove the backpack behind them, take out the sapper shovel and dig the foxhole on the spot, anyway, the Han army has no intention of leaving, they have plenty of time.

Two or three years ago, the battlefield was still a river, so the ground was dominated by sand, and even if the weather was cold and the ground was dry and hard, the dry sand was easy to excavate.

The foxholes of the hunters are generally half a meter deep, if there are conditions, they can't dig deeper, and the excavated soil is piled in front, which can ensure that most of the body of the soldiers can be protected when shooting, and if there are no conditions, the soldiers will choose to dig a hole in the ground, so that when loading bullets, the butt can be stuffed into the hole, so that it can be filled in a squatting posture and kneeling posture to reduce the projection area.

Because of the dry and hard sand, the foxholes were quickly constructed, and the officers immediately gave the order to shoot in formation, because the Han army flag had a cover, although these planks could not block the bullets fired from a distance of about 200 meters, but they blocked the view of the infantry.

But the hunters also keenly discovered the shortcomings of the Qing army's artillery, that is, the low chassis.

Unlike the six-pounder guns of the trading company, which were close to one meter and four in diameter, the Qing army's medium and light Franc machine guns generally used small gun trucks, and some wheels were only seventy or eighty centimeters in diameter, or even lower, which meant that the gun trucks could not block the artillery operating the artillery behind them, not to mention, when loading the artillery, the ammunition man, loader and other gunners had to stand up and work.

So, at a distance of about two hundred meters, accurate shooting began, and the commanders of each unit controlled their soldiers, and after the loading was completed, they did not rush to shoot, but aimed and waited. Because of the foxhole, all the soldiers can aim on their stomachs, and there are various tools as supports, so they can carry out the most accurate strikes.

Whenever the Qing artillery fired, the gunners had to straighten up and reload, while the hunters, who had already aimed at the gap, would fire three seconds after the muzzle fire. The distance of 200 meters is the best distance for rifled guns, far away is not accurate enough, and if it is close, it is easy to be attacked by shotguns fired by smoothbore guns or artillery.

The artillery of the Qing army was much more than what Yang Yandi and others observed, not only fifteen, a large number of artillery pieces were deployed, and began to attack the infantry, perhaps because they saw that the stragglers had found cover, so after a few rounds of shooting, the Qing army's various Franc machines began to reload the guns, this time, directly from shotguns to solid bullets, and began to aim at the line infantry farther away.

Yang Yandi was not polite, and directly ordered the two infantry phalanxes to shoot back with long-distance hanging shots, but the infantry were all lightly armed and did not carry much ammunition, so Yang Yandi had to control the loss of ammunition, so it only took five rounds to fight and the battalion-level salvo was over.

In fact, this part of the salvo was completely meaningless, the shooting of the hunters had already laid the victory, in just twenty minutes, the Qing army's artillery positions were covered with corpses, a large number of gunners fell on the artillery, and their bodies were hit by the Minne bullets fired by rifled guns with huge blood holes.

Shi Tingzhu fled in a hurry in the smoke of gunpowder, in the first round of shooting, he was knocked off the beautiful iron helmet on his head by a bullet, he was originally palpitating and hiding in the baggage car to dodge, and saw the soldiers around him being knocked to the ground one after another, there were wailing gunners everywhere, many people did not dare to reload after the shooting, lying on the ground to avoid the bullets.

"Quick, fire." Shi Tingzhu lay on the ground by himself, constantly shouting, at this time he suddenly felt a pain in his shoulder, he felt that someone grabbed his shoulder, dragged back, Shi Tingzhu struggled a few times, and there were a few more hands on the other shoulder.

Dragged all the way, Shi Tingzhu saw the Han army flag gunner who was constantly killed in front of him, and suddenly a few holes were punched in the baggage car that he was dodging, Shi Tingzhu stopped struggling, he couldn't help but be afraid, fortunately he was dragged away, otherwise he would die there, he raised his head and wanted to thank the person who dragged him out of the danger area, but saw a fierce and majestic face.

It was Abatai, who ordered someone to drag him here, and the purpose was naturally not to save him.

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