Standing on the towering nest car, you can have a panoramic view of the entire battlefield.
I saw four hollow square formations of the Ming army attacking at the same time from the northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest, attacking the Jiannu main formation several miles away.
Because the Jiannu troops were defeated in the middle,
So it looked like they were chasing Jiannu's defeated troops.
After a day and night of fierce fighting, the Ming army suffered considerable casualties.
Each of the four infantry brigades that went out had only about 3,000 men left.
The infantry of about 3,000 people in four lines formed four hollow squares with a side length of about 60 paces. When they stepped forward, they encountered the corpse of a slave lying on the ground or the wreckage of a sidecar or a carriage.
The formation is slightly chaotic, but it will soon be restored to integrity once the obstacles are bypassed.
This is the advantage of infantry over sidecars and carriages.
The use of sidecars and carriages in formation can certainly provide strong protection for the musketeers, but it also limits the maneuverability of the entire man-vehicle phalanx, and can generally only be used on plain terrain.
However, the infantry is minimally affected by the terrain.
Except for mountainous areas where dense forest terrain will be affected, in most other terrains, even when encountering rugged and irregular hilly terrain, the infantry can still maintain an intact formation.
For example, at this moment, the four hollow square formations of the Ming Army that were attacking always kept their formation intact.
Soon, the four hollow phalanxes of the Ming Army that were attacking encountered the first wave of resistance from the Jiannu. The more than two thousand Zhennu who had been fleeing just now suddenly stopped and got into formation in a very short period of time.
Jiannu arranged a three-section line formation, with about five to six hundred people in front of each of the four Ming army formations.
The first group of slaves had already raised their flintlock guns under the command of the officer.
Facing the black muzzle of Jiannu's guns, the soldiers in the front row and the soldiers of the Ming army showed no fear.
Under the guidance of trumpets and drums, the soldiers of the Ming army slowly advanced in uniform steps. Soon, the two sides were less than a hundred steps apart.
…
Gu Yanwu raised his right hand high and walked on the right side of the hollow square array.
Behind Gu Yanwu were a trumpeter and a drummer. The trumpeter and the trumpeter were closely watching Gu Yanwu's gestures while blowing the suona or beating the war drum on his waist.
The Ming army officers and soldiers in the phalanx marched forward while listening attentively to the sound of bugles and drums.
The sound of trumpets and the sound of drums do not stop, so they must move forward without stopping. Even if there is an abyss ahead, even if there is a mountain of swords and a sea of fire, they still have to bravely rush in.
The march of the Ming army looked unpleasant, but it was actually not slow.
In the blink of an eye, the distance between the two sides was less than fifty steps.
"Bah, bah, bah..." Jiannu on the opposite side took the lead in firing.
The smoke filled the air, and a row of lead shot over like a storm.
Dozens of Ming soldiers walking in the first row fell in an instant.
But soon, an equal number of Ming troops moved from the second row to the first row.
A few seconds later, the second row of Jiannu took over and opened fire. Dozens more Ming soldiers fell to the ground in response.
After Jiannu fired three rounds of volleys, the Ming army had more than a hundred casualties, but Gu Yanwu raised his right arm from beginning to end and did not give an order to fire.
By the time Jiannu fired three volleys, the distance between the two sides was less than thirty steps.
Gu Yanwu finally lowered his gun and pointed the muzzle at the formation of Jiannu infantry in front.
Seeing Gu Yanwu's gesture, the drummer continued to beat the war drum, while the trumpeter's trumpet changed.
Upon hearing the sound of the bugle, the Ming soldiers in the front row lowered their flintlock rifles in unison, and continued to move forward, aiming the muzzles of their flintlock rifles at the Jiannu array in front.
The next moment, Gu Yanwu took the lead and pulled the trigger of his gun.
Gu Yanwu's gunfire was an order, and the Ming soldiers in the front row pulled the triggers of their rifles in unison.
Accompanied by the banging gunfire, a dense rain of bullets immediately hit the Jiannu array.
With just one volley, almost all the newly replaced row of Jiannu musketeers on the opposite side fell to the ground. Only a few dozen of the more than two hundred Jiannuo musketeers were still standing.
The Ming army did not hesitate to withstand three waves of volleys from Jiannu and paid a heavy price of killing and injuring hundreds of people, in order to cause greater damage to Jiannu at a closer distance.
I have to say, this effect is really good.
A wave of volleys hit the first row of slaves and suffered heavy losses.
The remaining dozens of Jiannuton looked at each other for a while.
The slaves in the second and third rows behind were loading ammunition, and they were stunned on the spot when they saw this.
Then before Jiannu could recover, the second row of Ming soldiers had already rushed into the first row. They immediately took aim with their guns and pulled the trigger. Another row of dense bullets rained down on Jiannu.
In the blink of an eye, more than half of the Jiannu in the second row fell.
Then the third row of Ming troops came up again and fired guns at Jiannu again.
After three waves of volleys, there were very few of the more than 600 slaves left in the three rows opposite.
However, the Ming army did not stop, but continued to advance unswervingly.
Soon, the hollow phalanx of the Ming army arrived in front of the Jiannu formation. Hundreds of seriously wounded Jiannu soldiers pulled out their sabers from their waists and tried to resist, but it was in vain.
】
With one stab of a bayonet, hundreds of Jiannu wounded soldiers were stabbed into sieves.
The sound of trumpets and drums was endless, and the Ming army continued to advance with bloody bayonets in hand.
The same scene was also staged in front of the Ming army formations in other three directions.
This wave of blockade organized by Jiannu hastily failed to stop the Ming army for long.
However, the sacrifice of more than two thousand slaves was not without cost. At least it bought a certain amount of time for the subsequent slaves and the slave artillery.
…
Dorgon's heart was bleeding.
In just a few moments, more than two thousand Eight Banners soldiers died on the battlefield.
So far, all the 10,000 Eight Banners warriors brought to Liaodong have been killed or injured.
If we can win this battle, we may be able to save six or seven thousand Eight Banners warriors, but if we lose this battle, then these ten thousand Eight Banners warriors will really be lost.
The Ming army will never let these wounded soldiers go.
After all, a Jurchen head is worth fifty taels of silver.
Thinking of this, Dorgon's eyes turned black for a while, and tens of thousands of Eight Banners warriors were killed in one battle. For the Jurchens with a total population of only 300,000, this was definitely a traumatic experience.
Therefore, this battle must be won, and the injured Eight Banners warriors must be rescued no matter what.
Dorgon turned his attention to the Green Camp, and his hope of turning defeat into victory rested on the Green Camp's artillery. As long as the Green Camp's 1,000 cannons could play their due role, the situation was still solvable.
…
Xu Yingwei has also seen the Jiannu artillery.
Gao Qiqian, who was standing nearby, also saw it and immediately reminded Xu Yingwei: "Xu is advising you to look quickly. The Jiannu infantry behind has formed a hollow square formation, and their artillery is also setting up artillery."
"Yes, I saw it." Xu Yingwei was unmoved.
In fact, there is no other way. If you are a cavalry, you can also attack quickly.
But who allowed them to be infantry? Who allowed Jiannu cavalry to exist on the periphery of the battlefield?
Therefore, at this time, the Ming army could only maintain a complete hollow square formation to advance. Once it gave up the formation and launched a free-style charge, although it could avoid being killed by the Jiannu artillery, it would definitely be defeated by the Jiannu cavalry. On the plains
Above, the infantry, which has lost the protection of its formation, faces the cavalry, and will only end up being massacred.
The only good thing is that the artillery's rate of fire is not very fast.
Seeing that Xu Yingwei was indifferent, Gao Qiqian became a little anxious.
"Xu Gijian, we can't just do nothing, right?"
"Eunuch Gao, don't worry. Since Youzhen dares to order the attack, he is sure to win." Zheng Sen said, "Let's just wait and admire Youzhen's masterpiece."
Gao Qiqian was still worried: "Is the Air Force really unable to attack?"
"There's really nothing we can do about it." Zheng Sen turned his eyes to the northwest and faced the biting cold wind and said, "With such a strong wind, once the flying car reaches high altitude, it will soon be blown away by the strong wind and disappear."
…
His eyes returned to the battlefield ahead.
The desperate resistance of more than two thousand Eight Banners Manchus bought time for the Eight Banners Han Army to regroup and reorganize, and also gave the Green Battalion's artillery time to react.
When the Ming army's four hollow phalanxes defeated the Eight Banners in Manchuria and continued to advance, the more than 12,000 Eight Banners Han troops who had fled back had already formed a huge hollow phalanx.
At the same time, the Green Battalion's artillery also began to set up cannons on both sides of the hollow phalanx.
In addition, the Eight Banners Mongolian and Horqin Mongolian cavalry also circled back from both sides.
"Commander Gu, the Jiannu cavalry has come around from behind." The scout cavalry wandering behind them rushed back to report.
"Got it, the scout team will withdraw into the hollow square formation immediately!" Gu Yanwu ordered the scout cavalry to withdraw into the square formation, and then ordered to the 1st Infantry Brigade, "Everyone is here, keep moving forward!"
Gu Yanwu decided to ignore the Mongolian cavalry and attack when he had the guts.
Amidst the sound of trumpets and drums, the soldiers of the 1st Infantry Brigade continued to move forward.
At this time, soldiers from the other three infantry brigades gradually caught up.
Therefore, the entire formation of the Ming army also changed, from the original four independent hollow square formations to a pincer-shaped offensive of two hollow square formations.
At this time, looking down from the sky,
The two sets of hollow square arrays are like the pair of claws of a crab.
One left and one right, they cut towards the Jiannu main formation several miles away.
However, the huge hollow square formation composed of more than 12,000 Eight Banners and Han troops was right in the middle of the Ming army and Jiannu's main formation, so it gave the impression that the Ming army wanted to flank the Eight Banners and Han troops.
On the left and right sides of the Eight Banners Han Army are the artillery positions of the Green Camp.
Gu Yanwu looked intently, and saw that nearly 400 camel guns and 600 squatting tiger guns were nervously constructing artillery positions on both sides of the huge hollow phalanx of Jiannu. The construction was about to be completed.
Gu Yanwu saw it in his eyes and was anxious in his heart, but there was nothing he could do.
In order to keep the formation intact and avoid chaos, the Ming army's formation could only move so fast.
Therefore, it is impossible to completely escape the Jiannu artillery fire. You have to be hit by at least one row of artillery fire.
The only good news is that the iron bullets of the Jiannu Camel Cannon can only hit a single line and have limited damage. Although the Crouching Tiger Cannon can kill a whole area, it is not as maneuverable as the Camel Cannon and is easy to hide.