About 600 steps away from the two sides, more than a hundred Ming army scout cavalry led by Zhu Cijiong began to fire. At an average rate of fire of about four seconds, they could fire about 15 shots.
Because a cavalry charge takes 60 seconds to cover 600 steps.
However, in actual combat, there is no need to fire as many as 15 shots.
Although Gao Liqiang led the elite cavalry from the rear camp of the Dashun Army and had a relatively firm will to fight, when the Ming army's scout cavalry fired six rows of guns, they still collapsed without any suspense.
Nothing else, it was really because the marksmanship of the Ming army's scout cavalry was so accurate.
Except for the fact that the three rows of guns at first were not particularly accurate due to the long distance,
The three rows of guns at the back almost fired every shot, knocking down more than a hundred riders every time.
After six rounds of volleys, the Dashun cavalry that attacked had suffered more than 400 casualties, and the formation was in chaos.
What made Gao Ligong feel even more desperate was that there were still more than 300 steps between them and the Ming army's scout cavalry. If they continued to rush forward, they would only end up with an even more ugly death.
As a result, Gao Ligong decisively ordered the retreat.
Then on the way back, they received another six volleys of fire and lost nearly 400 more cavalry.
When Gao Ligong fled back to Gao Yigong, nine hundred of the three thousand cavalry were gone, and 30% of them were lost.
"Second brother, what are you doing?" Gao Yigong's face was as dark as Bao Gong, "Three thousand elite cavalry faced an Ming army with more than a hundred cavalry. Not to mention they couldn't kill the opponent, but they also beat the shit out of them?
That's all, but you actually lost nearly a thousand cavalry? How did you lead the troops and fight the battle? Why didn't you die?"
In a hurry, Gao Yigong did not save any face for Gao Ligong.
The battle did not go well, and Gao Ligong had no face to defend himself. He could only complain: "Brother, I really can't beat you. These more than a hundred scout cavalrymen of the Ming Army are too brutal. Their blunderbuss can hit far and accurately, and they can almost bite each other."
Meat!"
"What about coaxing ghosts?" Gao Yigong didn't believe it, "It's not like I've never seen Ming Gou's bird cannon before, doesn't it look like a bear? The range is only thirty steps. If it exceeds thirty steps, it won't be able to hit ghosts!
"
Gao Yigong's understanding of Ming military firearms was still limited to the firearms produced by Chongzhen 17 years ago.
"No." Gao Ligong waved his hands repeatedly and said, "The cannons used by the Ming army across from us are really evil. They can hit us from five to six hundred steps away. If you don't believe it, brother, you can ask other brothers."
Gao Yigong actually found the Dashun cavalry who had escaped. After questioning, he found that Gao Ligong had not lied. The Ming army cavalry's muskets could actually kill the Dashun cavalry at a distance of 600 steps.
"Brother, you must believe it now, we really can't defeat you."
Gao Ligong said with a grimace: "Ming Gou's blunderbuss is too sharp. This battle is really impossible."
Gao Yigong's brows furrowed. This was a tricky situation, because the performance of the firearms on both sides was so different that they were not on the same level at all. How could we fight this battle?
Can't fight!
…
Others who expressed the same sigh were Ma Chongxi, general of Zuo Guoyi and Zhang Neng, general of right Guoyi of the rear camp.
Ma Chongxi and Zhang Neng led an army from Daomaguan and Tumenguan to Beizhi almost at the same time, and immediately launched an attack on Baoding and Zhending Fucheng.
Except for a few county towns in Gyeonggi Province, most of the other county towns in Beizhi have been abandoned.
However, prefectural cities like Baoding and Zhending still have a small number of residents and are also garrisoned by Ming army troops. Moreover, the Ming army in each prefectural city has at least one infantry regiment.
Of course, it is not a full regiment, because there is a shortage of officers and non-commissioned officers.
However, these town soldiers are all from the New Army and have received the most rigorous military training. Moreover, city defense is relatively simple, and experienced veterans can assume the most basic command.
So the result was that Ma Chongxi and Zhang Neng attacked many times but failed.
Not only was there no progress, but a lot of people were lost in vain, and it turned out to be useless.
After several tests with no results, Ma Chongxi and Zhang Neng decisively led their troops to bypass Baoding and Zhending Fucheng, and turned north toward the capital, preparing to meet Gao Yigong first.
…
The one making the best progress was Li Yan's 30,000 cavalry.
After Li Yan's cavalry left Huangyuguan, they marched day and night, passing through Shunde Prefecture and Guangping Prefecture to reach Linqing Prefecture. As long as Linqing Prefecture was captured, the Grand Canal would be cut off by the Dashun Army.
Gao Yigong, Li Yan, Ma Zhongxi and Zhang Neng were the soldiers who set off on the same day as agreed upon.
So when Gao Yigong reached outside Beijing, Li Yan had already reached Linqing Prefecture.
Unlike the setbacks suffered by Gao Yigong and the other three, Li Yan's troops successfully captured Linqing Prefecture.
However, what Li Yan's men captured was only an abandoned and empty city. Not to mention people, not even a wild dog could be found.
The reason is actually very simple.
Because during the previous confrontation between the Jiannu and Ming armies, this area of Linqing Prefecture belonged to the front line.
Therefore, most of the population in this area was first moved away by the Ming Dynasty, and the rest were taken captive to Beijing or Gyeonggi by Jiannu, so this area between Beizhi, Shandong and Nanzhi became a white land. 摚
As a result, Li Yan's troops faced a serious difficulty - they were about to run out of food!
"Brother, the situation is not good." Li Nian reported with a dark face, "We have searched the nearby Qinghe County, Wucheng County, Xiajin County, Gaotang Prefecture and even Dongchang Fucheng Liaocheng, and they are all empty cities like Linqing.
"
"What, it's all an empty city?" Li Mou exclaimed, "How is this possible?"
"How is it impossible? That's the fact." Li Nian said, "These counties, prefectures, and even prefectures have been abandoned. There are no people at all, and there is no food to collect."
"What can we do?" Li Mou frowned, "The remaining food and grass are only enough for half a month."
Li Nian pondered for a moment and said: "Brother, this area was originally a battle zone between the Jiannu and the Ming army. The local people either died in the war or have fled elsewhere. It is impossible to levy food and grass here, otherwise we
Go north, or go south to Xuzhou, Du Yinxi has been farming in Xuzhou for many years, there should be food and grass there."
"But there is a Ming army in Xuzhou who is stationed in Nanzhi, with a total of 150,000 battle-hardened soldiers."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Li Yan said quietly: "In addition, the Ming army also built a large number of fortifications between Xia Town, Xuzhou and Chuizhou. Even Dorgon personally led the
We can't take down hundreds of thousands of slave-building troops, let alone our 30,000 cavalry."
Li Nian was speechless, because what Li Yan said was true, and Nanzhi's suppression of Taiwan was not a secret.
In fact, the intelligence work of the Dashun Army is still good, and they know a lot of information about the Ming Army.
Li Mou said: "If you can't go south to Xuzhou, then go north to Beijing. Minggou has built a lot of cannon fortifications in Xuzhou. Beijing shouldn't also build a lot of cannons, right?"
"Beijing does not have a gun platform, but it has 180,000 new troops."
Li Yan said: "And these 180,000 new troops are equipped with the sharpest firearms of the Ming army."
After a pause, Li Yan said again: "In the Battle of Baliqiao, the 180,000 new troops wiped out the 700,000 Jiannu army. Do you think our 30,000 cavalry can defeat it?"
"Gah?" Li Mou was speechless.
After a long while, Li Mou said with a dark face: "We can't win in Xuzhou, let alone Beijing. We might as well go back to the Hetao while we still have half a month's rations, otherwise we will starve to death in Shandong."
"I won't starve to death." Li Yan smiled and continued, "Isn't Du Yinxi farming in Xuzhou? And the main crops are sweet potatoes. If I remember correctly, sweet potatoes can also be dug in June, although they are small.
point."
"Going to dig sweet potatoes in Xuzhou?" Li Mou said in astonishment, "But we can't defeat the Xuzhou soldiers."
"Who said there was going to be a war?" Li Yan shook his head and said, "We only dig sweet potatoes, not a war."
The purpose of coming this time was not to fight the Ming army, but just to cut off the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
"Understood." Li Nian finally came to his senses and said with a smile, "What the elder brother means is to use the speed advantage of our cavalry to go to Xuzhou to harvest sweet potatoes, and then return to Linqingzhou after harvesting the sweet potatoes."
…
When Li Yan led his army to Xuzhou to harvest sweet potatoes, Gao Yigong suffered another defeat.
After realizing that the blunderbuss equipped by the Ming army's scout cavalry were extremely sharp, Gao Bian changed his tactics decisively and sent eight thousand cavalry troops at the same time to outflank the Ming army's scout cavalry from eight directions.
Because the Dashun Army's cavalry took a long detour, the Ming Army's scout cavalry could not detect it in time.
However, what made Gao Yigong furious was that after the Ming army's scout cavalry discovered that they were surrounded, they just made a tactical move and broke the eight-sided encirclement of Dashun cavalry.
What kind of tactical move? They just retreated to the vicinity of that monster.
Gao Yigong became angry and launched a frontal attack on the monster.
As a result, they suffered another disastrous defeat, and this time they lost more cavalry.
Three battles were fought in three days, and the number of casualties exceeded nine thousand, not to mention losing all three battles.
Seeing that a large piece of the cavalry formation was missing, Gao Yigong was heartbroken. How did this battle go? He obviously didn't exert much force, but in the end he lost three men and cavalry in a daze.
Fortunately, Zhang Neng, Ma Chongxi and others arrived in Gyeonggi.
After the three groups of men and horses joined together, the main cavalry force in the rear camp returned to about 40,000 cavalry.
But after the three groups of people gathered together, there were extremely serious differences of opinion among the several generals about what to do next.
Gao Ligong firmly advocated retreating: "Brother, we really can't defeat the Ming army, not even the cavalry. We'd better retreat to Shanxi quickly and take advantage of Shanxi's terrain advantages to hold on for a long time."
However, Ma Chongxi and Zhang Neng firmly opposed retreat and believed that Beijing should be surrounded.
"It is the Holy Father's decree to send troops to the north and surround Beijing. How can we resist the decree?"
"What's more, the Ming troops in Beizhi are all infantry, and we are cavalry. If we can't win, we won't lose. If that's the case, why should we be afraid of them?"
Gao Ligong, Ma Chongxi and Zhang Neng had serious disagreements.
Gao Yigong was also indecisive, not knowing what to do?
After hesitating for a long time, Gao Yigong decided to ask Li Yan first.
Having worked with him in northern Shaanxi and Hetao, Gao Yigong is extremely convinced of Li Yan's vision. Since it's hard to make a decision, just listen to Li Yan.
