The soldiers in the Shanxi camp were wearing tattered mandarin duck war jackets. Those jackets had been worn for who knows how many years. There were patches everywhere. In some places, there were no patches at all, just a hole, revealing the blackened cotton inside. And
The soldiers at the guard station didn't even have mandarin duck jackets on them. They were wearing tattered cotton-padded jackets sewn at home, shivering in the cold wind.
The officers who commanded these battalions were completely on the contrary, each with distinctive equipment. They hid behind the army with their servants, wore fine armor, rode tall horses, and had no idea how much free money they had eaten and how much blood they drank.
It is clear at a glance who is an officer and who is a soldier in the local army. The sophistication of the equipment on the body directly illustrates the status of its wearer.
The guards and camps in various parts of the Ming Dynasty were very corrupt. On the one hand, a large amount of military pay and materials were withheld during the transfer process. Coupled with the corruption of officers, the food, grass and military pay were so pitiful that the soldiers in the Ming Dynasty even went hungry. On the other hand,
The generals of these local armies are basically ruffians. They work as monks and clock the clock all day long, thinking only about how to squander money and how to send money to run for office. They have never thought about training the army.
To say that the morale of this army is low is to flatter them. Such an army is thrown together to fight, and there is no morale at all. As long as it encounters a slight setback, the entire army will probably be defeated.
The two armies confronted each other. Among the Shanxi soldiers and horses, a centennial man wearing fish scale armor and a bright red cloak came out on horseback and shouted loudly to Li Xing's team: "Tianjin military attache, listen, our Shanxi affairs are not yours to take care of."
.Don’t think that you can make the whole of Shanxi an enemy and quickly return to your place of origin.”
"Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah!"
However, before he could finish speaking, more than a dozen rifles fired at him. The officer who shouted had no idea about the range of a Mini rifle. He stood a hundred steps in front of the enemy division and shouted, and was immediately beaten to a pulp.
The officer who shouted had blood flying all over his body and fell down from his horse with a thud.
Li Xing's ten cannons were pushed out and began to fire at the local army on the opposite side.
"Boom! Boom!"
The explosive bullets shot straight towards the local army one mile away, smashing into pieces the bodies and flesh that were blocking them, and then fell to the ground and exploded with a "boom". In the huge roar, the iron pellets in the explosive bullets were like
It was like raindrops shooting at the surrounding local soldiers.
Only one round of artillery fire disrupted the local army.
The local army of 7,000 people was hit by such a fierce shelling and was temporarily out of formation. The soldiers in the front were trembling and frightened, and hid behind with bloodless faces. The soldiers in the back did not feel the power of the shells, so they continued to move forward and huddled together.
.
Then Li Xing's soldiers pressed forward with rifles.
Seeing the shining full-body armor on the soldiers of the Huben Army, the chaotic local soldiers were frightened.
How could the soldiers in Shanxi have the slightest idea of fighting against the Huben Army? No one's life was blown by the strong wind! Watching the trapping division approaching little by little, all military discipline and punishment were thrown out of the horizon by the soldiers.
Just hearing a bang, the entire local army's formation collapsed and fled in all directions.
Before Li Xing's riflemen started firing volleys, the battle had already been decided.
Li Xing's one hundred scout cavalry began to chase the officers with bright armor in the rebel army, knocking them down one by one. The armor that the Ming army officers spent a lot of money to equip themselves not only failed to protect them, but instead became
A reminder to these officers.
Li Xing rode on his horse and laughed heartily when he saw the local troops fleeing in embarrassment.
The pursuit gradually came to an end, and one hundred scout cavalry came back carrying the heads of Ming army officers. Li Xing suddenly saw three cavalry scouts rushing from the north in the distance.
"Second General! The Zhangjiakou garrison has escaped!"
Li Xing smiled and said: "Where did you escape?"
"I don't know. In short, all the defenders on the city wall of Zhangjiakou have fled. Eight Shanxi merchants have also fled out of the city. Apart from money and goods, there are almost no people left in Zhangjiakou!"
Li Zhi snorted coldly and cursed: "These little crumbs can run fast!"
With a wave of his hand, Li Xing said: "Go quickly and go to Zhangjiakou to grab money!"
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On the twentieth day of the first lunar month, Tianjin's military commander Zheng Kaicheng and Datong's general Wang Pu stood on horseback outside the majestic Datong City.
The city wall of Datong City was built in the fifth year of Hongwu by Xu Da, the founding hero of the Ming Dynasty. It is very majestic. The entire city is roughly square in shape, with a circumference of fifteen miles. It is based on huge strips of stone, and the inner core of the city wall is made of rammed earth.
Each brick weighs seventeen kilograms. The city wall is four feet and two feet high. It is very majestic. On the wall, there are stacks of bricks that are one foot and five feet long, two feet and four inches high, and one foot and five inches thick. The distance between the stacks is one foot.
Half, totaling 580 wall stacks.
Datong City has four gates and an urn city outside the city. A moat is built on the outside of the city wall, about one and a half feet deep and three feet wide, commonly known as a moat, with a suspension bridge on it.
On the north, east, and south sides of Datong City, there are small cities on each side, forming horns to protect the main city of Datong.
Datong City was originally the town of Datong Town, where the general army of Datong Town was stationed. In addition to Wang Pu's main barracks, there were 12,000 guards in the city, including three generals, which were called Datong Zuoying, Datong
The Right Camp and Datong Front Camp were members of the guerrillas and were called Fenwei Camp.
If Zheng Kaicheng led his troops to attack such a strong city, we don't know how long it would take. Zheng Kaicheng's 5,000 men and ten cannons may not be able to bring down the strong walls of Datong City.
But since Wang Pu, the commander-in-chief of Datong, has defected to Li Zhi, Datong City is no longer a problem.
Zheng Kaicheng was waiting for the gatekeepers in the city to open the door for the Polu Division, when he heard Wang Pu ask: "General Zheng, how is your ancestor Dashou defecting to the Duke of Jin now?"
Zheng Kaicheng cupped his hands and replied: "Zu Dashou is now serving as the commander of the cavalry regiment in the Selection Division."
Wang Pu asked with a smile: "Is Zu Dashou's cavalry regiment also equipped with cannons like General Zheng's troops?"
In Wang Pu's mind, the most terrifying thing about Li Zhi's troops was the cannon. The iron-core copper-bodied cannons had fierce firepower, coupled with explosive ammunition, which was more than a hundred years ahead of the cannons of this era. Did Li Zhi equip Zu Dashou's troops?
The cannon directly reflects Li Zhi's trust in Zu Dashou.
Zheng Kaicheng replied: "Zu Dashou's cavalry regiment also has cannons, six counterweight cannons and four field cannons, totaling ten cannons."
When Wang Pu heard Zheng Kaicheng's words, he pondered for a long time and asked with a smile: "If Wang Pu defected to the Duke of Jin, would he also be a regiment leader?"
Zheng Kaicheng smiled and said: "General Wang abandoned the dark side and surrendered Datong City decisively, which has made a great contribution. If he defected to the Duke of the country, a regiment commander would not be able to escape."
Wang Pu thought for a moment, then suddenly pointed to the east gate of Datong City in front of him and said with a smile: "The city is open."
Zheng Kaicheng turned around to look. Sure enough, the majestic east gate of Datong City gradually opened, and the suspension bridge on the city gate was lowered little by little. The suspension bridge landed on the bank of the moat with a bang, turning the wide moat into a thoroughfare.
Datong City is an important border town, where various Shanxi merchants have opened business houses and hoarded a large amount of goods and money. At this time, the city gate was opened, and the Shanxi merchants in Datong City were exposed to the Huben army without any resistance.
Zheng Kaicheng was overjoyed and shouted loudly: "The army has entered the city and raided Shanxi merchants' businesses. Do not harass the unrelated people!"
