The combat effectiveness of the Xixia cavalry is indeed stronger than that of the Qing army. If the opponent had been the Eight Banners soldiers, they would have been defeated by such fierce artillery fire. However, the brave and timid Xue troops did not become frightened because of the sacrifice of their comrades, but instead became even more excited.
Their fighting spirit was aroused, and the iron stream of cavalry quickly rushed towards the two wings of Hui'an Fort where there was no support from artillery and infantry.
There are only a few poplar trees growing sparsely around Hui'an Fort for more than ten miles. They are all flat land suitable for cavalry to use their mobility, but they are also suitable for artillery to use firepower. In the past, the Xixia Army also encountered similar terrain during offensive wars.
In this situation, facing the enemy's trebuchet and city defense crossbow, they can avoid the opponent's attack as long as they use their speed advantage to maneuver, because it is very troublesome to change the direction of the trebuchet, and the city defense crossbow is even more troublesome to install. The shooting angle is very small, which is completely
Can't shoot 360 degrees freely.
The Xixia cavalry decisively and wisely chose to outflank, but their actions all fell into the eyes of the artillery observers on the airship. Orders were conveyed through flags, and the artillery positions immediately became busy.
Upper body, move the cannon's mount, turn it 90 degrees on the spot, adjust the angle of the muzzle, and fire again.
After the Xixia army suddenly changed direction, the bombardment stopped abruptly. The cavalry were no longer suppressed by the artillery fire, and their suppressed anger burst out. They moved forward bravely one by one, almost standing on their horses and galloping, eager to rush into Hui'an Fort immediately.
Camp, chop off the heads of these despicable and cowardly Han people.
But only a moment later, the bombardment started again, and the impact point happened to be in the direction of the cavalry. Dozens of horses were blown away by one shell, even if thousands of cavalrymen encountered such an unprecedented bombardment.
There was no way, the whole earth was trembling, the dry desert was soaked with the blood of Mongolian athletes, but they still rushed forward. The red shirt soldiers on the flank defense line of Hui'an Fort watched helplessly as these Mongolian cavalry, who were looking forward to death, emerged from the sky full of gunpowder smoke and yellow sand.
When they rushed out, some had broken arms, some were covered in blood, and some even had their heads missing. They still maintained their charging posture, holding their horses tightly and charging forward. These remaining warriors could not get close to the defense line.
He was killed and wounded by grenades fired from a wire crossbow bed when he was far away.
The defense system of the Red Shirt Army is very strict. The longest range is the five-inch heavy artillery, followed by the sixteen-pound and eight-pound sober field artillery. The mountain artillery is responsible for medium-range fire suppression, and the close-range area-killing firepower is the wire crossbow projectile.
Hand grenades and infantry rocket launchers, the point-killing firepower is infantry gunfire and thirty-two-barreled flywheel platoon guns, in addition to the air support firepower not included.
The Xixia army was all stubborn and would never retract its machete if it couldn't cut off the enemy's head. Therefore, despite the fierce artillery fire, rushing forward was equivalent to going directly to see Changshengtian. They continued to attack. Gu Lunmu saw
In this situation, messengers were hurriedly dispatched to order the troops to retreat. The airship of the Red Shirt Army saw many messengers with command flags on their backs running out of the small sand dune, and passed the coordinates to the artillery, who then separated.
The two heavy cannons raised their angle to the highest point, and the two shells hit them directly.
Gu Lunmu, who has experienced hundreds of battles, has a natural vigilance. When he heard a strange whistle in the air, he was keenly aware of the approaching danger. He immediately threw himself to the ground, and two shells exploded on the ground with huge explosions.
The crater was filled with bullets, and any standing people or horses were torn into a shower of blood by shrapnel. Only Gu Lunmu was spared.
Gu Lunmu stood up from the ground in a daze. His eyes were full of little stars. He shook off the dust on his body and looked around. His soldiers were all blown away. The cavalry of other troops who had witnessed all this in the distance rushed over.
Rescued the head of ten thousand households and quickly retreated away from the fire range of the Han people.
No matter how the Xixia cavalry maneuvers, they can't escape the bombardment of heavy artillery, because the airships in the sky are always paying attention to their movements. Under the clear sky, the cavalry brigade mainly moves like a billow of smoke and dust. It is impossible not to expose the target.
The Xixia cavalry rushed several times but returned without success. At this time, Gu Lunmu's order to withdraw also came, so all the troops dropped their flags and armor and retreated in a hurry.
A battle ended so hastily. There were only a few arrows sparsely inserted into the walls of Hui'an Fort, and the cavalrymen who risked their lives to shoot arrows were all dead. Their bodies were all covered with bullet holes. There was a mess in the distance, everywhere.
There were dead bodies, and there were huge craters with green smoke rising out of them. The Xixia army did not know how many people died, while only a few people in the Ming army were slightly wounded by arrows.
The people who returned to the headquarters were shocked. The giant cannon had been hidden in the carriage of the mechanical mule so that they could not see it. No one expected that the Ming army had such a powerful weapon. In fact, even most of the red shirts did not know about it.
As for the power of the giant cannon, they were just told by their superiors that they had a powerful weapon. However, these young men had long been accustomed to this kind of unilateral massacre, so they didn't take it seriously at all.
The command flag was fluttering on the command tower. The Hui tribe members had at least undergone some military coordination training and knew that this was an order to pursue. However, the order was not given to them but to other cavalry units.
Huo Lingyao became anxious on the spot, not because they were not allowed to pursue, but because the pursuit hit the Xixia army at this time. What the Mongols are best at is pretending to be running away to attract the enemy to pursue them, and then turn around and shoot arrows to kill and injure them.
And to defeat the enemy, although the Red Shirt Army is very good at positional warfare, it is not good at mobile warfare. Even if the cavalry is equipped with advanced repeating guns, it is in vain, because the quantity and quality of the Ming Army's cavalry are much worse than those of the Xixia Army.
It can't break through the Iron Curtain of heavy artillery, but it's still fun to take down thousands of cavalry in the sports station.
Just as Huo Lingyao was about to gallop towards the command tower and tell Liu Ziguang to take back the order, she suddenly heard a piercing whistle. They were all familiar with the sound. It was the whistle of a mechanical mule, and saw streams of white steam spurting out from under the vehicle.
The red iron wheel and black crankshaft began to rotate. It turned out that they were the chasing cavalry.
The mechanical mule is not only a transportation vehicle, but also a combat vehicle. After removing the trailer at the back, it is a steam armored vehicle. This kind of vehicle itself is very heavy. If the soil in the Ningxia wasteland is not as hard as iron, it is replaced by the Jiangnan water network area.
I'm afraid it will get stuck in the quagmire before it can drive out of the two-mile road. The mechanical mule is equipped with an eight-inch infantry cannon and a rocket launcher, as well as a wire bed crossbow for projecting grenades. It is murderous and majestic. It rumbles out and sets off a puff of smoke and dust. It is magnificent and shocking.
It's so breathtaking that even the athletes who returned to the club couldn't help but secretly marvel: This is the real iron cavalry.
The boiler on the steam chariot had already begun to light a fire. When the order was given to attack, the driver pulled the damper, and the locomotive slowly began to move, and then moved faster and faster. The stoker, with his tendons exposed, shoveled into the furnace with a big shovel.
Charcoal, the driver held the joystick to control the vehicle's direction of travel to avoid craters on the ground, the gunners loaded the eight-pound cannon with shotgun shells in the iron turret on the roof, and dozens of mechanical mules broke into the desert like ten tigers.
The Xixia Army really wanted to draw the Ming Army's cavalry to gather together and annihilate them. In fact, their tactical goal had been achieved, but what they chased after them was not an ordinary cavalry, but a hard nut that could not be chewed, a real iron cavalry.
The Xixia army ran on horseback and turned around to shoot arrows. However, the arrows fell on the smooth body of the vehicle and could only slide down in vain, unable to cause any damage. Although the speed of the steam locomotive was not as fast as the war horse, it was better because it did not need to rest and could continue all the time.
Keep a constant speed, so it didn't take long for the Xixia army to catch up. Seeing the huge chariot, some of the cavalry dispersed in a hurry, and some rushed over with their horses. Those who dispersed stretched their bows and arrows in an attempt to kill them.
The people in the chariot, and the cavalry who rushed over were even more arrogant, and even used maces and sabers to smash the chariot.
The armored vehicles were rampaging and driving crazily on the desert salt-alkali land. Some Xixia infantrymen had no time to dodge and were rolled under the wheels and crushed into pulp. Other cavalrymen slashed at the armored vehicles with their swords, except for cutting out some in insignificant places.
There was nothing to achieve outside the gap. They became red-eyed and jumped onto the chariot regardless of their own safety. However, the mechanical mules had been modified before the expedition. The outside was smooth and there was nothing to climb. These brave knights could control the most dangerous vehicles.
The ferocious wild horse had no way to deal with the coal-burning iron horse. As soon as it climbed up, it slipped down and was crushed to pieces. Those who were lucky enough to climb up were also beaten into sieves by fire blunderbuss.
However, the elite Qixue army also caused some damage to the armored chariot. Some people with superb archery skills shot arrows into the chariot's firing port from a long distance, killing and wounding the shirtless red-shirted soldiers inside.
, but these people didn't get a good end either, they were immediately blasted into rubbish by the rapidly rotating turrets.
The Xixia army was completely dispersed. If they even gathered their troops, they would be bombarded by heavy artillery and armored vehicles. The red shirt army drove them thirty miles away before giving up. Gu Lunmuting led his men to run wildly.
After receiving the report, he sighed: "This battle is lost."
The subordinate said unwillingly: "Master Wanhu, let's gather together and there are still tens of thousands of people available. How can we say we have lost?"
Gu Lunmu said: "The Han people just occupied the water source and stopped pursuing it. It can be seen that this is their purpose. Although our army has not been destroyed and has some morale, how can we fight if we lose the water source? We are just thirsty."
It will make us thirsty to death. Alas, the Han people are so cunning with their troops, so the other three groups must have been defeated."
Gu Lunmu had divided three lines of cavalry in advance to carry out large-scale maneuvers in order to outflank the back roads and cut off the Han people's food routes. However, Liu Ziguang's food routes were not so easy to cut. They were all armored to the teeth.
The steam car, with a hot air balloon above its head, was detecting the enemy's situation dozens of miles away. At first, the Xixia army pounced on it unscrupulously. After being beaten hard, they learned to be honest and wanted to take advantage of the night to make a sneak attack, but when they arrived
At night, armored vehicles formed a circle to defend themselves on the spot, and hot air balloons continuously fired flares to illuminate the night, making their actions undetectable.
The grain road was blocked for several days, and even though it failed to accomplish even an inch, it cost a lot of lives. Wasn't it true that the people on this road were defeated?
As for the other two groups, they didn't get any good results. Originally, their mission was to hunt down the Ming army who slipped through the net after the victory in the Hui'anbao battle. But before they could hunt them down, they themselves became the targets of the hunt. Dozens of them were killed.
The bombing team composed of powered parafoils dropped countless drop-shaped bombs on their heads, which made them red-eyed. But there was no way. There was no place to hide in the vast desert. They could only lose in the face of the bombing.
They don't even dare to walk together, they have to break into pieces and run for their lives separately, otherwise they will be discovered by strange birds in the sky, and they will be smashed down by another wave of iron lumps. Who can bear this thing?
This battle was later written into the history of war, and was called a representative battle in which mechanized cavalry replaced traditional cavalry. It was this large-scale use of armored steam chariots that announced the official withdrawal of traditional cavalry from the stage of history.