It’s actually not that far from Weihekou Daying to Jinghai County.
After receiving the emergency report, Hong Chengchou immediately led 28,000 Mongolian banners to rush to the rescue of Jinghai County, and then asked Kong Youde to lead 20,000 Han troops to follow up.
Until now, Hong Chengchou still did not believe that the Ming army would attack Beijing by land at all costs.
But even so, the Ming army could not easily cross the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, at least not the red cannons.
Towards evening, 20,000 Mongolian bannermen entered the vicinity of Jinghai County. Ye Bushou Geng, who was leading the way, had an outpost battle with the Ming army's scout cavalry.
Although the scale of the outpost battle is smaller, it is more cruel.
When the light is good during the day, the Ming army's flintlock guns have a clear advantage.
But after dark, the Ming army's flintlock guns were not as useful as the Eight Banners Mongolian bows and scimitars, because the bows and arrows were more concealed and the reaction speed was much faster.
In a small-scale outpost battle, it is difficult to get a second chance if you miss a hit.
In close combat with cavalry, the scimitar is also more useful than the bayonet.
Therefore, the Ming army's scout cavalry quickly began to shrink and give up control.
The Eight Banners of Mongolia spread out in all directions, and soon controlled an area of dozens of miles around Jinghai, and even surrounded the entire Ming army camp from all sides.
After Ye Bushou gained control of the battlefield, Hong Chengchou was able to spy on the reality of the Ming army at close range.
At this time, Hong Chengchou and several servants were standing astride their horses on a small mound dozens of meters high, peering down at the Ming army's camp.
Under night cover, the southeastern suburbs of Jinghai County were dotted with Ming army campfires.
Through the campfire, one could vaguely see the tents of the Ming army, which numbered tens of thousands and were seven or eight miles in diameter. In the camp, one could vaguely see the mules, horses and cannons placed together.
Hong Da said: "Master, Ming Gou is really arrogant!"
Hong Er also said: "That's right. Not only did they not dig trenches or place antlers, they didn't even erect fences. Are these bright dogs really not afraid of our Qing soldiers launching night attacks?"
Hong Chengchou couldn't help but think, night attack?
At that moment, Hong Chengchou asked Hong Da to call Bart to the top of the hill.
Bart is a commander of the Eight Banners of Mongolia and is extremely brave.
"Bart, how far can your Eight Banner Mongolian Ye Bushou reach the outskirts of the Ming army's camp?"
"I have never tried this." Bart scratched his leather helmet and said, "However, five hundred steps should be no problem. If it is any closer, it will alert the Ming army's ambushing troops."
"If the cavalry is dispatched for a night attack, can they break into the Ming army's camp?"
"If the Ming army didn't have an ambush, there would definitely be no problem, but if there was an ambush, it's hard to say."
Hong Chengchou frowned and asked: "Did the Ming army set up an ambush? Shouldn't you know full well that the Eight Banners of Mongolia will not stop at night? How can you still not know?"
Bart was a little unhappy immediately. Aren't you making things difficult for me?
"Master Bu Tang, how can we know about this unless we go into the Ming army's camp to spy? It's the Ming army's tent. Is the Ming dog sleeping inside, or is it loaded with ammunition and waiting for our night attack? How can the outside world know?"
Hong Chengchou hesitated for a long time, and finally decided to give it a try, and immediately ordered: "Bart, I ordered you to immediately send a group of cavalry to launch a night attack. Pay attention, the people have titles, their hoofs are wrapped in cloth, and they must not make a sound before approaching the Ming army camp. Break in
After the camp, priority will be given to destroying the Ming army’s supplies, especially the red cannons and gunpowder.”
If the Ming army was unprepared, one cavalry would be enough to accomplish the task.
If the Ming army was prepared, it could bear the loss of one Jia La.
"嗻!" Bart knelt on one knee and hit a thousand.
…
Hong Chengchou was thinking of a night attack, and Xu Yingwei was also planning a night attack.
Xu Yingwei was telling Chongzhen about the night attack plan while looking at the map.
"Your Majesty, the air force has already conducted reconnaissance during the day."
"There are eight cannons inside and outside on both sides of the canal, four on each side of the canal."
"To ensure the security of the logistics channel, it is necessary to open at least a gap with a width of more than 2,000 steps, and then leave at least one infantry brigade stationed in the gap."
Chongzhen nodded in approval.
The canal defense line is definitely the focus.
It is natural to strengthen the remaining troops.
So we need to keep an infantry brigade.
"In the gun tower defense line built by Jian Nu, the distance between two adjacent gun towers is mostly about two hundred steps, so we need to capture at least eighty defensive gun towers tonight."
Chongzhen asked: "Is the ice surface of this section of the canal safe?"
Whether the ice surface of this section of the canal is safe or not will directly affect the attack on the gun platform on the west bank.
Xu Yingwei said: "We have sent scouts to find out, but they may not be able to find out clearly. After all, there are gun towers on both sides of the canal, and there are Lian Yong garrisoned inside each gun tower. Our scouts can't even get in
It’s hard work, it’s almost impossible to cut through the ice to see if there is any gunpowder buried inside without disturbing Lian Yong.”
"Then we can only adapt to circumstances when the time comes." Chongzhen nodded and asked, "Has the North Korean army made arrangements?"
"Back to the Holy Father, the Korean army has been arranged." Xu Yingwei said, "I selected 8,000 Korean troops and organized them into 80 heroic death squads. Each death squad is responsible for a gun platform."
Well, they are called death squads, but they are actually specialized in mines and crossbows.
In fact, when they arrived at the canal in the afternoon, the Ming army launched a tentative attack on Jiannu's cannon defense line, and discovered a fatal flaw in Jiannu's defense.
That was Lian Yong, who was responsible for guarding the gun platform on the canal. His equipment was very poor.
Not to mention flintlock guns, the number of matchlock guns was very small, and there was not a single tiger squat cannon.
The vast majority of bravery training equipment is spears and short bows. Spears usually only have wrought iron spearheads, short bows are also improvised from old mulberry wood, and cotton armor may not be able to penetrate them.
However, there are a lot of iron caltrops, crossbows and mines in the trenches outside the gun platform.
Also, there are thousands of enemies in the Jiannu gun platform, and there are many utensils such as gray bottles and gold juice.
In order to reduce the pressure on logistics support, the Ming army has achieved a high degree of standardization of weapons and equipment, such as caltrops, crossbows and gray bottles, and even sidecars have been eliminated.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Because during the war game, it was discovered that sidecars have become negative assets.
The protection that can be provided to the Ming army's infantry is very limited, but there are many restrictions.
Realizing that the sidecars had become a burden, Chongzhen abolished them without hesitation.
All in all, the Ming army had completely eliminated primitive defensive weapons such as gray bottles, golden juice, and ten thousand enemies, but Jiannu did the opposite and relied more heavily on these primitive defensive weapons.
An undeniable fact is that these primitive defensive weapons are indeed very useful in defensive warfare.
Even if the Ming army is equipped with much more advanced firearms, they will still suffer damage from these primitive defensive weapons in tough battles. At this time, the servant army will be needed to act as cannon fodder.
Of the 40,000 Korean troops who had followed Zhu Cijiong to Liaodong, 20,000 remained in Liaodong, and the remaining 20,000 had been transferred to the Beizhi battlefield by Chongzhen to serve as cannon fodder.
This has also been determined before.
If you encounter a tough nut, let your servants come forward.
…
Li Yucheng was quietly waiting for the bugle to sound.
Li Yucheng had high hopes for the upcoming attack, because when he was in Liaodong last time, he heard from Xu Wuniu and others that those who performed well in the Northern Expedition would have the opportunity to enter the Imperial College without taking the exam.
Even the North Korean army still had a chance. Thinking of this, Li Yucheng was filled with hope.
Li Yucheng felt that he just lacked an opportunity. If there was a suitable opportunity, he would have a chance to become a famous general like Gao Xianzhi. Yes, he could become Gao Xianzhi of the Ming Dynasty.
Li Yucheng picked up the pottery wine jar and took a big gulp.
On a cold day, I drank a lot of sparkling sake and felt the coldness in my body. In one word, it was refreshing!
While drinking wine, they munched on pork breasts. This was a reward from the Ming Emperor. Each of the Korean troops participating in tonight's night attack had a can of Mingjiu and half a pound of pork breasts.
After eating and drinking, Li Yucheng began to check his weapons and equipment again.
The weapons and equipment of the Korean army are somewhat uneven. Some have flintlock guns, but more are matchlocks, and some even use bows, arrows and spears. However, considering that tonight's night attack is mainly close combat, the Ming army gave everyone
Each North Korean soldier was issued an extra short blunderbuss, and in addition each man had four hand grenades.
It's an improved five-pound grenade, not the original ten-pound grenade.
Li Yucheng liked the short muskets that were distributed very much. They were exquisite in shape, like handicrafts, and their lethality was not bad. They could penetrate chainmail or cotton armor within twenty steps.
Make sure there is nothing wrong with the firing mechanism,
Li Yucheng started checking the bullet bag again.
The Ming army's bullet bag has also developed to the second generation.
The first-generation bullet bags were made of linen. Small holes were sewed on the cloth tape, and paper-cased fixed-loading bullets were inserted into them. One round was placed in each small hole.
This kind of bullet bag was actually made by Chongzhen based on the bullet bags of later generations.
There is no problem with this type of bullet bag used to hold metal-cased fixed-loading ammunition, but when used to hold paper-cased fixed-loading ammunition, the problem often occurs that the paper-cased bullets are flattened and difficult to remove.
So improvements were quickly made to the bullet bag.
Today's bullet bags are real bullet bags.
They are four cowhide boxes, slung cross-body on the chest through two leather straps.
Each cowhide box can hold fifty rounds of paper-cased fixed-load ammunition, which adds up to two hundred rounds, which is a base number.
In addition to four cowhide boxes containing paper-cased fixed-load ammunition, there is also a calfskin box used to hold primer packets, a total of two hundred primer packets.
Li Yu checked them one by one in Chengdu.
Just after the count was completed, a horn suddenly sounded outside the tent.
"The horn is sounding!" The Korean soldiers who were sitting on the ground and resting in the tent started up one after another.
"Don't move!" The next moment, the Ming army's voice sounded outside the tent, "The time to attack has not come yet, you just eat and drink your food, I will notify you when the time is up."
Li Yucheng immediately sat back and listened.
Only intensive gunfire could be heard from the northwest corner of the camp.
It sounds like the Ming army is firing guns. What's going on?
