It's just that now is not the time to think about the mountain battles within the army.

Under Madahar's command, fifteen artillery pieces and fifteen rocket artillery guns fired at the somewhat dense formation.

The purpose of the array in the era of cold weapons is completely different from that of the array in the era of hot weapons, the array of the cold weapon era requires the soldiers to line up as densely as possible in order to obtain local superiority in troops, while in the era of hot weapons, it requires soldiers to spread out as much as possible in the array to reduce the threat of death caused by artillery or bullets.

Therefore, soldiers in the cold weapon era often stick to each other side by side, while soldiers in the hot weapon era sometimes have to leave a gap of more than two meters between the two when fighting in array, especially when attacking the fort.

In any case, the Qing army, which was lined up in a dense square of 3,000 people, was the best target for the artillery.

In this era, there was a relatively mature flowering projectile technology, and the British army used flowering bullets many times in the Opium War, causing huge casualties to the Qing army.

However, there are still many problems with the flowering shell technology of this era, that is, the dud rate is too high, even hitting about 50 percent, that is, it is good to have one successful explosion in two shells.

In addition, there is also the problem that the firing range of flowering shells is much less than that of solid shells, and the maximum firing range of ordinary military artillery is 1,900 meters, and the effective firing range is 1,200 meters, but the effective firing range of flowering shells is only three or four hundred meters.

Because of this, the British army is sometimes reluctant to use flowering bullets, and Li Xian's weapons are about the same level as the British army, so naturally they don't like to use flowering bullets very much.

However, Li Xian also has a substitute for flowering shells, that is, chain bombs and rocket artillery.

At this time, the artillery under the command of Ma Daha fired all chain bullets, and after falling into the Qing army, the iron chain unfolded, cutting the wooden planks of the foremost wooden carts like pieces of paper, which was not enough, and continued to break into the Qing army's array and destroy several columns of enemies.

As for the rocket shells fired by rocket artillery, they can explode after they land, in fact, they can be regarded as flowering shells, which fall from mid-air to the center of the array, and then inflict huge casualties on the Qing army.

The rate of firing of rocket artillery is six rounds per minute, the rate of firing of artillery is 1.5 to 2 rounds per minute, and 15 artillery pieces and 15 rocket launchers are fired into the Qing army at the front in just two minutes.

At first, the Qing army still relied on military discipline to maintain, trying to advance at least to the trenches with artillery, and then find a way to retreat or something.

According to the reward proposed by the six princes and the generals, the first group of 3,000 people did not need to directly occupy the Niulangang position, as long as they could get close to the first trench, it was best to inflict certain casualties on the defenders, it would be regarded as a success, and they would be rewarded with two taels of silver, and the officers among them could be added by one rank.

However, this kind of high reward that originally made the Qing army's blood boil, and the actual blow of artillery fire was not enough, and the 3,000-man square team set off from the position 3,000 meters away, and finally touched 500 meters away from the trench, and then lost more than 40% of the soldiers under the blow of artillery fire, and then collapsed directly, and everyone turned around and fled to their base camp.

A few of them were frightened, they didn't know how to run to both sides, and ran directly to the main formation where they were lined up, but they were stopped by the law enforcement team in charge of military discipline, and a few who were unlucky were directly clicked.

To tell the truth, these 3,000 people can break through to about 500 meters or Wang Xiaoming and Ma Daha deliberately connived, after all, the closer the distance, the higher the artillery hit rate, otherwise it is difficult to say whether they can break through with you within 1,000 meters.

After this battle, there was a burst of cheers from the side of the defenders of Niulangang, and their morale was greatly boosted, if the team of the six princes could only make these few moves, then it would be just a few more rounds of artillery bombardment, and even the infantry would not have to use it, and they would be able to win this battle.

On the other side, the face of the sixth prince sank.

The sixth prince had been exposed to the artillery attacks of Li Xian's side, and somewhat expected that the first battle would be frustrated, but he didn't expect that this setback would be so disastrous, and the three thousand people who had even touched the edge of the enemy's position in the past were directly defeated.

Moreover, if it weren't for the fact that these 3,000 people were frightened and turned around and fled back, if they continued to advance according to the previous plan, I am afraid that the whole army would be annihilated.

"Who is the commander on the other side?" the Sixth Prince asked the people beside him.

"The commander of this bullpen post should be called Wang Xiaoming, who was originally a hunter in Leizhou, and later entered Li Xian's command and was appreciated, and has been the regiment commander, and now he is the most trusted officer under Li Xian, and he can be regarded as his right-hand man. Immediately, a staff member stepped forward and wanted to provide information to the six princes.

"Damn!" the sixth prince said, but he didn't know whether he was saying that this Li Xian should be damned, or Wang Xiaoming should be damned.

The six princes have grown up in countless praises since they were children, whether they are their own guards, eunuchs, white-haired court ministers, and even the great emperors, they all praise the six princes for their genius and the most among all princes.

Even the four princes who competed for the throne only dared to boast that they were superior in filial piety, but did not dare to claim that they were more capable and better in strategy.

However, when he went to the battlefield at this time, he encountered a position where there should be only 2,000 people stationed, and the six princes actually found themselves helpless, the enemy only launched dozens of artillery, and he couldn't even get in front of him, how could he fight.

Without a clue, the six princes could only follow the teachings of the military book, maintaining a calm expression on the surface, as if everything was under their control, including the current losses, and then continued to send people forward to test the depth of the position in front of them.

So, after that, two more groups of soldiers were sent to the front to attack, each time on the scale of three thousand, and then they were defeated halfway through, which was much more unbearable than the three thousand men in the first batch.

The six princes suffered a crushing defeat on their side, and they were so defeated that they had no results at all, so they could only sacrifice the secret treasure, that is, to ask the British army to take action.

By the time the British army attacked, the scene was very different.

After all, the British army is a strong army in the world, not only strong in combat, but also much more flexible on the battlefield, always adjusting specific tactics according to the actual situation on the battlefield, and never always marching in a long queue with standard goose steps as beginners think.

Under the command of the officers, more than 20 guns were pushed to the front of the formation, and then slowly advanced, and when they reached a distance between 1,200 meters and 1,900 meters, they stopped and began to bombard the batteries of the Sanyuanli coalition army.

As for the infantry, they did not form a standard formation, but sent out many battlefields, scattered in front of the artillery positions, running or crawling forward as they saw fit, and minimizing casualties caused by dense artillery.

The British army originally had a skirmisher formation, usually with regular soldiers lined up in front of the formation, under the command of the officer, and the stragglers scattered in front of the array, either lying down, sitting, or standing, that is, approaching and shooting the enemy in the way they thought was most appropriate.