In order to enhance the impact of the shotgun, Hao Qing and others modified the shotgun overnight. They prepared a highly irritating liquid using chili peppers and other substances, and then boiled the iron sand in the liquid to make each grain of iron
There is a layer of medicine attached to the surface of the sand. When such iron sand is penetrated into the body, the pain caused is far worse than ordinary injuries. It is no wonder that the rebel horses are going crazy.
Knowing that the blow was coming from the opposite side, the frightened horses did not dare to rush forward at all. Instead, they chose to escape from left to right or even turn around to escape. These horses were in the first row of the charging queue. Once they ran away from left to right, they would just hit the back.
The horses that came up caused even greater chaos.
"Pull out the frightened horse, pull back the frightened horse!" Qian, the rebel cavalry leader, shouted crazily, "Keep charging, don't stop!"
He knew in his heart that if he stopped to reorganize his team when he was only a hundred steps away from the enemy, it would be tantamount to turning his troops into targets for the opponent to shoot at. The opponent had four hundred muskets, and a single salvo could at least kill them.
He had injured more than a hundred of his cavalry. If the other party fired a few more shots, his cavalry of a thousand men would be completely wiped out.
"Fire!" Xiong Minyang also knew that this was a critical moment, and only by firing continuously could he stop the opponent's charge.
"Bash, slam, slam!" The soldiers of the reconnaissance camp repeatedly loaded and fired with mechanical movements. With simple actions like shooting, the enemy rushed closer and closer, and their probability of hitting the target became higher and higher.
Thanks to Su Hao's investment regardless of cost, Xiong Minyang's musketeers have gone through hundreds of shooting trainings and will almost never miss when shooting at a large target consisting of a man and a horse within a hundred steps. Every round of gunfire passes.
, there was a scene of people tumbling on their backs in front of the position. The rebel cavalry became more and more frightened as they charged, while the horses under their crotches had already been frightened by the gunfire, and their running speed became slower and slower.
"Damn it, why don't we send archers to suppress the Ming army's firecrackers!" Only then did Yiyun remember that he also had long-range weapons. Before, he felt that cavalry charge alone was enough to break the formation, so he gave up this link
forgotten.
But it's too late to regret.
As the cavalry in the front row were knocked down one after another, the battlefield was filled with dead bodies of people and horses, as well as horses running around and soldiers who fell off their horses. The speed that the cavalry behind had finally accumulated was completely reduced.
Although the enemy is only a hundred steps away from us, they can't rush into the formation with any speed. Cavalry without speed is worse than infantry, not to mention there is a fire net in front of them that they can't rush through at all.
"withdraw!"
The helpless cavalry commander Qian reluctantly gave the order to retreat. The cavalrymen grabbed the reins of their horses with all their strength, turned their horses' heads, and fled towards the main formation.
"Trash!" Wei Yun watched helplessly as his cavalry retreated in defeat. He couldn't help but became furious. He walked towards the cavalry commander Qian. Before he could get in front of him, he saw his body soften and fall off his horse.
"What's going on?" Kuaiyun asked, pointing the riding whip in his hand at the Cavalry Commander Qian who fell on the ground.
"Reporting to the general, Mr. Li Qian died... he died... so what?" The soldier on the side came up to look at him and stammered in reply. He originally wanted to say that Mr. Li Qian had died for his country, but
As he spoke, he suddenly remembered that he was already a rebel. How could he say he had died for his country? But if he said he had died for something else, he didn't know, so he could only be vague.
"Dead?" Kuaiyun stepped forward and leaned over to take a look. He saw that the cavalry commander Qian had been shot several times, and the blood had stained his armor red. It was not easy for him to hold on to the command, and when he escaped back to his hometown
After the battle, he finally died of exhaustion due to excessive blood loss.
"General Yi. I can't blame Mr. Li Qian for this. The opponent's muskets are too powerful, and we can't charge forward at all. By withdrawing, we can save some strength." Saihan also came over and advised Yiyun.
. He had no friendship with Mr. Li Qian. Seeing the other party in such miserable condition, he felt more gloating about his misfortune. Finally, someone like him was defeated at the hands of the Kanyu camp, and he was not alone.
"Everyone, what should we do?" Kuaiyun looked up at the Ming army opposite, looked around and asked.
"The cavalry can't rush in front of them, but the infantry can't." Ma Zhengguo said, "Unless the enemy's number is several times larger and surrounded from all sides, making them focus on one thing and not the other, it will be difficult to break through the opponent's fire array."
"It seems that we can only withdraw our troops." Yi Yun gave the order to withdraw his troops with a gloomy face.
"Haha, Yiyun has given up." Zhang Lanfang was riding on a horse, using binoculars to watch the rebels retreating back to the camp one by one, closing the camp door tightly, and laughing excitedly.
"Okay, we have won a great victory, and we can return to the army." Xiong Minyang said. There were almost four to five hundred rebels who fell in front of the formation. This was an amazing victory.
Zhang Lanfang pointed to the front of the formation and said, "Brother Xiong, why don't you quickly let the sergeants cut off the heads to calculate the merit?"
"Behead?" Xiong Minyang was a little confused.
"Yes, after defeating the enemy, you have to cut off the thieves' heads to calculate the credit. This time, I killed four to five hundred people, all of which were my fault. If this credit is reported, I will be promoted to at least three levels."
Zhang Lanfang said with envy.
"I actually forgot about it." Xiong Minyang said, rubbing his head.
In fact, Deng Kui and the others had told everyone about the beheading calculation when they were training the survey camp, but they didn't have the opportunity to practice it, so they didn't take it to heart. Hearing Zhang Lanfang's reminder, Xiong Minyang remembered
After hearing this statement, he bowed his hands to Zhang Lanfang and said:
"Brother Zhang, this defeat of the enemy is the result of both our efforts. How can we blame the younger brother alone? Let's go and behead him together. When we return to the city, we will each count half of it. What does Brother Zhang think?"
Zhang Lanfang was overjoyed, but said politely: "Brother Xiong, what you said is wrong. Our troops are just here to observe the formation, how dare we covet your troops' merits?"
Xiong Min looked up and said: "If Brother Zhang hadn't been here to protect us, how could we dare to let go and fight the enemy? The enemy's cavalry just lost their courage. If they dare to charge in the end, this is only a hundred steps away, and our army will not be able to stop it.
If they live in their house, won't they have to have Brother Zhang come to help rescue them? Our family should get half of the credit, which is very fair."
"In this case, it's better for me to be respectful than to obey my orders. After I return to the city, my eldest brother will be the host and invite Brother Xiong to a banquet. You must not refuse." Zhang Lanfang said.
Xiong Min smiled and said, "If the wine is not delicious, then I won't accept it."
"No problem. I asked the shopkeeper who welcomed the guests to take out all the wine from the bottom of the box. Thirty years of Xinghua Village has lost one year, and I am not done with him!" Zhang Lanfang said.
After the discussion was completed, soldiers from both sides swarmed up and began to rummage through the corpses of the rebels on the ground. They cut off their heads and tied them around their waists, preparing to return to the city to claim their merits. Although some rebels were defeated, they were not dead yet. The Ming army killed them.
Pulling someone out from the pile of dead people and tying them up with ropes can also be counted as combat merit.
The rebels retreated to the camp and watched the Ming army cutting off the heads of their colleagues through the fence. They were all so angry that their eyes were split. Many generals ran to Kuaiyun and asked to leave the camp to fight with the Ming army.
Yiyun was so angry that he ordered his soldiers to whip away the officers who asked for battle. For a while, there were constant shouting and cursing in the camp, and morale dropped to the extreme.
After cutting off the heads, the Ming army collected the weapons of the dead rebels and returned to Pinglu City on horseback. Some of the rebel horses were frightened and did not run back to the camp. At this time, they were also captured by the Ming army.
He took it as a trophy. Xiong Minyang asked the musketeers to rear up to prevent the rebels from suddenly leaving the camp to pursue them. The group returned to Pinglu City singing triumphant songs.
After the Ming army completely retreated, Yiyun allowed the soldiers to go out of the stronghold to collect the headless corpses. They dug a hole nearby and buried them. Looking at the bloody corpses of their colleagues, the rebel soldiers felt sad one by one and could no longer regain their energy.
coming.
"Change it. This battle was so enjoyable. Our people were unscathed. Counting the heads that Mr. Zhang Qian and Mr. Xiong had taken back, there were already more than 400, not counting the injured thieves who ran back.
Inside." Xiao Ruxun held a banquet again, and when he talked about defeating the enemy, he couldn't help but get excited.
"Firearms will definitely change the rules on the battlefield. There is no doubt about this." Su Hao said, "Brother Xiao, after this battle, let's discuss how to improve firearms."
"I'm convinced, Xiao is completely convinced by the reformed firearms camp." Xiao Ruxun said, "However, didn't Dr. Chen say that the flintlock guns equipped by your reconnaissance camp are very expensive, brother, I
I’m afraid I can’t afford it.”
"Not only are the flintlock guns expensive, but the paper bullets are also made of silver. In today's battle, at least a thousand taels of silver were lost," Chen Dao added.
The paper bullets are filled with improved yellow gunpowder, and the paper used to make the bullets is also specially made and is expensive. However, Chen Dao said that he lost thousands of taels of silver bullets in this battle, which is a bit exaggerated.
The price is the settlement price between Su's factory and the Ministry of War, and the actual cost is far less than that.
In addition to the consumption of bullets, flintlock guns are not without consumption. Although they are made of excellent steel, the service life of each gun is still limited. Continuous shooting like today will cause great damage to the barrel.
After Xiong Minyang and others returned, Hao Qing and his craftsmen carefully inspected the guns in the hands of the soldiers and found that 30% of them had been seriously damaged, and some were completely unusable.
Fortunately, Su Hao took precautions and asked Lu Xiuer to transport a batch of new guns, which he took out just in time to add to the team. If the loss of these guns is also included, it would be more realistic to say that this battle cost thousands of taels of silver.
Already.
Of course, Su Hao would not correct Chen Dao's calculation. He smiled slightly and said to Xiao Ruxun: "Brother Xiao, compared to the lives of the sergeants, this money is nothing. If we had not used firearms today, we would have killed five enemies."
Hundreds, are you afraid that you will also lose hundreds of people? The pension for these hundreds of people is more than a thousand taels of silver."
"This is reasonable." Xiao Ruxun said, "Brother, I am convinced by this change of calculation. When this battle is over, I will raise money to equip the sergeants of Pinglu Station with firearms. From now on, the Tatars
When they come, I will also use the modified tactics, so that the Tatars will never come back."
"Let's discuss these matters later. Generals, do you plan to finish today's battle like this?" Xu Guangzu drank a few glasses of wine and asked Su Hao and Xiao Ruxun leisurely.
"What's Uncle Xu's advice?" Su Hao asked.
"Does Veteran Xu think this battle is not over yet?" Xiao Ruxun also asked.
Xu Guangzu said: "In today's battle, the enemy's power has been frustrated. We should take the opportunity to expand the results. When Yiyun comes to his senses and adjusts his deployment, our chance will be gone."
"But...it's getting late now." Su Hao looked at the sky outside and said to Xu Guangzu.
"I understand!" Xiao Ruxun slapped the table, "What Xu Bingbing means, is it..."
"Night attack!" Xu Guangzu said decisively. (To be continued...)