The two armies are clearly divided, one in the south and the other in the north.
The Ming army's position on the south side formed a dense formation with two large army formations of 3,000 people.
The marshal's army on the north side used 3,000 infantry and cavalry to slowly press forward in a large horizontal column, and spread out the 2,000 cavalry on the left and right flanks to surround them, compressing and surrounding the Ming army with superior strength on a small battlefield spanning four miles.
On the northeast side of the battlefield outside the encirclement, the four cavalry brigades belonging to the Zhenjun soldiers and the Mao Hulu soldiers had been fighting and retreating under the attack of the cavalry. They were driven out of the battlefield and rushed wildly in a panic.
He was surrounded by more and more marshal's troops and horses, and was not allowed to escape.
Yang Zhengfang was disgusted by Zhang Tianlin.
Inside the large army formation, the Zhenjun soldiers and the Maohulu soldiers united into two camps, protected by Juma Zha and Zhenma pit. Although it seemed from the situation that they were a little too cowardly, they were completely put under attack.
It's a tough position, but actually the situation is still supportable.
After all, the two battalions, which are good at fighting in the mountains, are equipped with a large number of spears, muskets and heavy armored infantry. And because the Miao soldiers' equipment is largely inherited from their ancestors, they use ancient heavy armor, which is particularly heavy.
Zhang Tianlin's cavalry is equipped with electric muskets donated by Bai Guangen, which are Franchise-type breech-loading rifles. The six-foot-long musket tube ensures range and power. At the same time, it carries six sub-guns with it and has considerable firepower.
Persistent.
This kind of lightning gun is actually not suitable for use by horse soldiers, because it is a musket developed by Zhao Shizhen on the basis of the Lumi gun and the Fran machine.
The characteristic of the Rumi gun is that it is long, so it is accurate and cruel, and can maintain considerable lethality at long distances; the advantage of the Fran machine is that it has a rear-mounted shape, can reload and shoot faster, and has strong firepower sustainability.
The electric gun maintains the advantages of these two firearms very well. It is six feet long. If the matching gun blade is inserted, it can even be used as a seven-foot short gun.
But it is also very heavy as it is long, and it is difficult to maintain balance just by holding it on horseback. However, Zhao Shizhen removed the medicine pool and equipped the musket with the fire door and matchlock firing mechanism that were commonly used in muskets in this era.
Insert the medicine twist to avoid the worry of the medicine being blown by the wind, bumps and scattering.
Therefore, for cavalry who are skilled in bow and horse, galloping with a long gun on horseback is actually sharper and more accurate than a strong bow at a distance of a hundred paces.
This kind of weapon should have given Zhang Tianlin's cavalry an unmatched advantage in the duel stage. Not only did they have a longer range and higher damage than the crossbows of the infantry, but they were also more powerful than the commonly installed five-foot bird cannons.
threaten.
It's just that it's a bit embarrassing for mountain heavy infantry like Zhenjun soldiers who wear ancient heavy armor. First of all, they can't enter the shooting range of bird cannons and accompanying mountain cannons. Secondly, outside the range of bird cannons, the lethality of electric cannons is also limited.
Very limited.
And with that limited lethality, let alone breaking through the earthen walls built by the trenches dug by the suppressing soldiers, even if they were hit, it would be no different from scratching an itch in front of the ancient heavy armor worn by the suppressing soldiers.
Therefore, the cavalry surrounded on three sides fired with muskets, the muskets and small cannons carried by the suppressing soldiers also fired one after another, the strong bows of the Mao soldiers and the large crossbows of the Miao soldiers fired at the same time, and the sky was full of guns, cannons, and arrows.
, the roaring sound is endless, and it can only be used for fun.
What really made Yang Zhengfang feel uncomfortable was the fact that they were driven out of the 400-horse team from the battlefield.
At the beginning of the battle between the two sides, in order to avoid being surrounded by the enemy's Tangma troops, the reinforcements on the south bank of the Wei River tried their best to cross the river to provide support and buy the formation infantry time to lay out the iron caltrops at the Juma Fence. Yang Zhengfang assembled the 400 horse troops under his command and ordered
They rushed towards Zhang Tianlin's galloping 2,000-horse army without hesitation.
Although his horsemen are few, each of them is very elite. This is determined by the organizational form of the Zhenjun soldiers and Mao Gourd soldiers.
The Mao Gourd Soldiers are a light-armored army that specializes in skirmishing in small groups. Its organizational form is similar to that of a landlord's regiment. The horse soldiers in the army are almost all small leaders named Jiao Nao, and their personal qualities are excellent.
The cavalry of the Zhenyu soldiers were mostly composed of veterans of the Eastern Miao Dynasty who had surrendered during the She'an Rebellion. They had a reputation in the southwest for being accustomed to horse fighting.
This was also the reason why Yang Zhengfang dared to send four hundred of them to stop the two thousand enemy cavalry.
But this confidence was shattered as soon as the horse army engaged in battle.
The Dong Miao veterans who were accustomed to using their horses to attack infantry in the southwestern mountains were obviously not as experienced as the Marshal's cavalry in cavalry combat, not to mention that they were also inferior to Zhang Tianlin's cavalry in terms of quantity and organization.
Each of Zhang Tianlin's cavalry teams formed a small square formation with forty or fifty cavalry under his command. They lured the enemy cavalry from the front and turned back to ride and shoot. They chased and fired from behind the enemy's cavalry. At the same time, they also deployed lances from all directions to the flanks.
A galloping thrust.
After the Dong Miao cavalry was delayed by a flanking attack, the cavalry behind them rushed forward, drew out their Yanling sabers, and slashed with their sabers. Then a melee ensued, and they relied on their strength advantage in the chaos to knock them off their horses one by one with bones.
The small number of Ming cavalry that barely escaped was easily driven to the outskirts of the battlefield by the marshal's cavalry, where they were treated as onlookers.
Yang Zhengfang felt extremely aggrieved.
The better Zhang Tianlin's cavalry performed, the more aggrieved he felt.
If Zu Kuan hadn't led his troops to collect food, how could his seven thousand infantry have ended up like this?
But soon Yang Zhengfang felt no longer aggrieved, because Zhang Tianlin's Chinese army headquarters was getting closer and closer. When the two sides were 400 steps apart from the north to the south, the outer formation of the suppression troops began to waver.
During the commotion, the messenger cavalry stationed at the position rushed back to the Chinese army and reported to Yang Zhengfang: "Commander Yang, the enemy is coming up with heavy artillery!"
It's not actually a heavy artillery piece.
Zhang Tianlin left the baggage during the battle in Gansu. After the battle, the junior officers were all horse soldiers, and few were able to use artillery. Later, they formed a large camp and joined the Ming army's descending troops, but there were not enough artillery.
The main firepower weapons provided to him by the Marshal's Mansion were a large number of rockets, so it was the weakest battalion in terms of artillery configuration, with only three thousand-pound cannons and ten lion cannons. Zhang Tianlin simply did not distribute these cannons to each hundred corps.
The General Manager of the Chinese Army is directly responsible for the use, transportation, maintenance and management of baggage vehicles.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! This kind of artillery equipment, regardless of north or south, is quite different from a standard battalion of the Ming army.
At least every thousand commanders or general commanders of the Ming army had Fran machine guns, and the small guns could sink as many as one for a squad of fifty people.
But the Suppression Soldiers are different. They have always used small cannons. After all, in mountainous operations, there is no need to consider cannons exceeding 200 kilograms.
So much so that even the 200-jin lion cannon, let alone the Hongyi-style thousand-jin field cannon of the Marshal's Mansion, can maintain sufficient deterrence against the suppressing soldiers.
Three thousand-pound artillery carts were dragged by Hexi horses to the front line of the battlefield. The brass muzzles were fired in the direction of the Ming army's formation. Impatience began to spread among the formation of the suppressing soldiers.
In a very short period of time, Yang Zhengfang had just climbed onto the mountain in the military formation. He just glanced towards the north and saw the flash of light from the muzzle and heard the deafening sound of the cannon.
Boom boom boom!
Three cannon shots sounded almost at the same time, and three seven-pound iron balls pulled out a black line in the air with a sharp whistling sound, crossing a distance of 400 steps in the blink of an eye.
This distance is very close to the optimal firing range of the thousand-pound cannon, and there is no difficulty in shooting. You only need to place a small plate on the muzzle, and if you aim it correctly, the shells will fall into the array accurately.
Three artillery shells, one fired in a parabola more than ten steps in front of the formation, bounced over the ditch again, crashed into the earth wall piled up in front of the army formation, and knocked away most of the half-man-high earth wall; the other two shells flew away
The cannonballs fell into the formation, and one hit the head of the horse pulling the cart. The horse had no time to neigh before it was smashed into its neck.
The last cannonball rolled accurately into the dense crowd, tearing through the heavy armor like a piece of paper, causing a shower of blood in an instant, and ricocheting three times to create a path of blood.
This thing was not a small-caliber musket like a blunderbuss or an electric blunderbuss. Even Yang Zhengfang was heartbroken. Whether the cannons could hit or not, it basically determined that it was only a matter of time before they would lose.
But Yang Zhengfang cannot accept failure.
Because there was the Wei River behind them, the pontoon bridge built by the small boats could not allow the defeated soldiers to flee. The consequence of being defeated was that they would be driven into the river by the enemy's cavalry and drowned.
Unless... Guan Ningjun can come back within two hours.
In fact, this time is superfluous. The Guan Ning Army led by Zu Kuan is very close to the battlefield at this time. Xingping and Xianyang are only a dozen miles away from their battlefields. The Liao soldiers who are eating in the village can even hear this.
The sound of cannons was like hearing thunder rolling in the sky.
It was a helpless move for the soldiers to separate and plunder. Zu Kuan knew the importance. Even when he was in the eastern suburbs of Xingping County, he always sent Tang soldiers to pay attention to the situation on the eastern battlefield. He even had more information than Yang Zhengfang who was fighting head-on.
.
At the same time that Zhang Tianlin's artillery fired, Zu Kuan's Tang soldiers and cavalry had already run west to Maweiyi, and exchanged fire with Liu Chengzong's Tang soldiers from the north using three-eyed muskets.
To the south, some soldiers from Tang took off their armor and swam across the Wei River by dragging their horses' tails. They rushed to the camp on the south bank of the Wei River and asked Lieutenant General Lei Shisheng to lead his army to move west and cross the river from Xingping County to join him.
Because he had discovered that Liu Chengzong's troops were heading south. If the soldiers and horses still on the south bank of the Wei River crossed the river from Yang Zhengfang's side, they would probably be surrounded.
After walking for more than ten miles, at least under the cover of Liao soldiers' Tangqi, they could cross the river safely.
However, when he heard the sound of cannons, Zu Kuan could not keep calm. He was secretly shocked and said in his heart: "The thieves actually have cannons!"
He didn't understand Liu Chengzong's marshal army at all.
This Liao army followed him to fight in Shandong, Henan, and Huguang. Among the enemy forces they encountered, Li Jiucheng's Shandong rebels were considered formidable enemies. The rest of the peasant army were light soldiers who relied on fast horses and mules to come and go like the wind. In this regard, the Liao soldiers were not
Fear any enemy.
Especially when Zu Kuan came here and heard that his opponent was Liu Chengzong, he was so happy that he almost turned into Zu Dale.
Then who is Liu Chengzong? The notorious fool!
What do you mean by Hanhan? All his men are Mongolians!
Zu Kuan thought that his opponent was the Mongolian Tatars running around on the ground.
This is also the reason why Zu Kuan dared to go to the nearby countryside to collect food before the battle. He first had to let the soldiers put food on horseback that could last seven or eight days before he could catch the Mongols in the ensuing pursuit and fight.
.
Even if you ask him to give you three thousand to twenty thousand, you can definitely make him run away in sweat.
But by now, no matter how neurotic Zu Kuan is, he has realized that things are different from what he imagined.
Liu Chengzong's Tang soldiers were serious Northwest Frontier Army Tang soldiers. The army that faced off against the Zhenyu Army on the north bank of the Wei River also used serious Northwest Frontier Army tactics, and even carried out large-caliber long-barreled cannons. This was obviously already true.
beyond the capabilities of the Mongols.
At this moment, Zu Kuan was also a little panicked.
Realizing that he had to change his tactics and run back to cooperate with Yang Zhengfang to resist Liu Chengzong, Zu Kuan immediately gathered his headquarters and sent Tangqi to run east along the river bank, ordering him to inform the more than a thousand Liao soldiers who were rushing to plunder Xianyang about the advance.
Then he ordered the troops to shrink and push everyone in the direction of Liu Chengzong.
That is the south of Maoling.
At the same time, on Liu Chengzong's side, he realized that Zu Kuan actually dared to use Tangqi to scatter around, even throwing it in his face, even in the midst of his busy schedule of looting. What he could do was not just compress Tangqi.
Soldiers.
He even transferred County Boduoerji from Qianzhou to participate in the expedition, under the banner of Qianzong Tuba, and ordered him to lead a thousand Heshuo special cavalry to the western suburbs of Xingping County to guard against the fleeing Zu Kuan tribe from the west.
Both sides took the battlefield on the north bank of the Wei River as the center and radiated their troops to the surrounding battlefields. Tangqi who encountered each other charged and shot at each other on the plains, squeezing and fighting for safe space for their own troops, and at the same time passing on the enemy's intelligence.
Report to the Chinese army quickly.
During this process, Yang Zhengfang's Zhenyu Army stood in the military formation on the north bank of the Wei River and suffered seven rounds of artillery shells.
To be honest, Zhang Tianlin couldn't stand it anymore.
He deliberately made the artillery fire intervals longer so that the enemy would think they were not that elite, thus attracting the enemy to take the initiative to attack.
If the enemy's field artillery moves to another location and there is half a moment between two rounds of firing, it is likely that at the beginning of the third round of bombardment, he will send troops to line up and attack the artillery position. Even if he cannot capture the artillery, he will have to
Forcing the artillery to move.
As for the cavalry surrounding them, they actually just look scary. After all, who would charge into a hedgehog formation with precious cavalry?
However, Yang Zhengfang had to endure seven rounds of artillery fire. It was not until the eighth round that he was ready to fire, when a trumpet sound suddenly sounded in the military formation, and the neatly dressed heavy infantrymen formed a group and marched
He crossed the earthen barrier with steady steps and launched an attack on the artillery position 400 steps away.
Yang Zhengfang is not a coward, he is also waiting for the opportunity.
From the moment the first thousand-pound cannon was fired on the battlefield, Yang Zhengfang was counting the time and calculating Zu Kuan's decision after hearing the sound of the cannon. If it was only a dozen miles away in Xingping or Xianyang, then he could indeed be the first to do so.
Launch a counterattack.
But he would rather be later.
Because launching a counterattack also meant that they would engage in close combat with the enemy. When Zu Kuan's support arrived a moment later, the casualties would be far greater than standing under the protection of the earthen ramparts and receiving artillery fire.
After the seventh round of artillery fire, Yang Zhengfang was convinced that the Liao soldiers of Zu Kuan's tribe scattered on the east and west sides should have received the order and were ready to rush to support. He then gave the order, ordering the sergeants to launch an assault on the artillery position and at the same time, be prepared.
Cavalrymen wandering on the east and west wings.
But he never dreamed that when he saw his army finally moving, Zhang Tianlin, who was standing on the saddle on the opposite side of the battlefield and looking at the battlefield, clapped her hands vigorously, her face flushed with excitement: "Send my order to the general, and let the thousand-jin cannon fire again."
We retreated north at the turn, and the ten lion cannons were loaded with powder and prepared to fire a salvo."
"The cavalry on the left are preparing to attack, and the right wing is outflanking the enemy's rear. Eat all these 7,000 people. No one can escape!" If you like Naughty Thief, please collect it: (www.sodu777.net) Naughty Thief Search and Read Novel Network updates at full speed