Although Li Xuan believed that musketeers would eventually replace archers, spearmen, sword and shieldmen and other almost all cold weapon infantry units.
But he was also very clear that for the Tang Dynasty, it would be a long process for the musketeers to replace the cold-weapon infantry. The limitation here was not that the musketeers were insufficient, but because of the lack of musketeers for the Tang Dynasty.
For the dynasty, it was difficult to mass-produce muskets on a large scale.
In other words, Li Xuan has no way to equip all his troops with muskets!
In addition, there are some performance deficiencies of muskets that will also limit the muskets from fully replacing cold weapon infantry.
Because the muskets currently equipped by the Guards are still matchlock muskets, not the Suifa muskets that Li Xuan always wanted...
Although the matchlock guns of the Guards are not bad for this era, they are not only much stronger than the original handheld muskets of the Ming Army, but they are not far behind the muskets of the same era in the West.
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But this is still far from enough to support Li Xuan’s modern army plan!
In his memory, the musketeers of modern armies were able to form a sufficiently dense firepower with only three rows.
This is a huge tactical advantage that cannot be replaced by the matchlock gun!
It is a pity that the level of craftsmanship required to change from matchlock firing to suishi firing was still too high for the Tang Dynasty.
Because the springs used in flintlock guns require special spring steel, and spring steel was a veritable high technology for the sixteenth century.
Therefore, it was too difficult for the Tang Dynasty to obtain a flintlock gun, at least until it came up with spring steel, this flintlock gun would not be available.
Due to technical and production issues, it was impossible for Li Xuan to completely replace the cold weapon infantry in the Tang Dynasty king's division with muskets in a short period of time.
But this does not mean that Li Xuan will not continue to develop musket troops. Even if they are musket troops using matchlocks, the more the better!
If I had hundreds of musketeers, I'm afraid that in today's battle, I wouldn't have to rush in and fight with Butcher Chen. They could just shoot at them with a few rounds of gunfire. Maybe the opponent would collapse.
It's a pity that he didn't, so Butcher Chen and Cai Erhu had to continue charging into the battle wearing armor!
Standing at the back, Li Xuan could clearly see Butcher Chen and Cai Erhu, like tigers descending the mountain, rushing to the front of the Ming army with dozens of sword and shield fighters behind them, tearing apart their defenses, rushing in and fighting close to each other.
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Among them, more than 20 heavy-armored sword and shield bearers led by Chen Tufu were the backbone.
These more than 20 armored swordsmen and shieldmen, relying on the protective capabilities of their armor, were almost as if they were in an uninhabited land after entering the Ming army's array, and the surrounding Ming army was unable to resist at all.
Especially Butcher Chen, who was rushing at the front, was absolutely invincible. The butcher's knife shone with a cold light, intimidating everyone.
Not only Butcher Chen, but also most of the more than 20 armored bandits he led were unable to meet their opponents!
That's right, it's not that they can't defeat the enemy, but that they don't even have any opponents!
Because most of the time, when Butcher Chen and his men had just rushed over, the Ming army composed of county warriors and civilian husbands would turn around and run away for a long distance.
This caused Butcher Chen and others to chase the Ming army and chop them down, but they couldn't kill them.
After all, Butcher Chen and the others are all wearing heavy armor. Not only are they tired when they run, but they also cannot run fast. However, these county warriors and civilians in the Ming Army have nothing to carry, no weight, and even weapons are very weak.
It's a light pole, so it's very fast to run.
This scene made Li Xuan who was behind him speechless. These Ming soldiers were really shameless. If they didn't attack them all, they would not be able to catch up with Butcher Chen.
Compared with Butcher Chen, who was as tired as a dog but couldn't kill anyone alive, Cai Erhu who was behind was more lucky because the light-armored sword and shield men led by Cai Erhu followed behind Chen Butcher's heavy-armored sword and shield men.
Covering Butcher Chen's retreat and flanks, he could occasionally clear out some Ming soldiers who slipped through the trap or sneaked over from the flanks to take advantage.
Sixty or seventy sword and shield fighters entered the Ming army's formation from the flanks. Judging from the formations of both sides, Chen Butcher was about to kill the Ming army's flanks and completely collapse. But in fact, until now
, Butcher Chen and the others did not kill a few Ming soldiers at all.
Butcher Chen's sword and shield men looked fierce, but in fact they could not threaten the Ming army, at least in Wu Baihu's eyes, it was nothing.
What Wu Baihu is now more worried about is the over a hundred spearmen of the Puppet Tang bandit army on the opposite side.
Although their speed was not fast, they kept advancing with their spears. The pressure brought by the spears and the spears exceeded the pressure brought by the bullets of the muskets on the Ming army before, and even exceeded the pressure brought by Chen Butcher and Cai Erhu now.
The "massive killing" on the flanks put pressure on the Ming army.
Those sword and shield fighters seemed to be very powerful now, but Wu Baihu still had the confidence to have people stop them.
But once the opponent's more than a hundred spearmen get close, the regular guardsmen under his command will be fine, but the other county warriors and civilians will definitely collapse.
They cannot fight calmly in the face of a dense array of spears!
"Shoot arrows quickly and suppress them!" Wu Baihu shouted quickly, asking the archers behind to bend their bows and shoot arrows. However, time was urgent, and there were not many archers left in the Ming army, so Wu Baihu said
After finishing, only a dozen arrows were seen flying into the spear formation of the Huangzhushan bandits.
However, although two people were shot, it was nothing to the more than 100 spearmen of the Tang Dynasty King's army.
At this time, the spearmen of the Guards were less than fifteen meters away from the Ming army.
What does this fifteen meter mean? It means that the soldiers on both sides can clearly see each other's expressions.
Without waiting for any further orders from the generals of both sides, the two sides were soon in a complete melee.
Even Wu Baihu didn't have time to care about anything. Instead, he rushed forward with a long knife and fought in person.
He didn't know how long it took, but after finally waiting for him to cut down a spearman of a pseudo-Tang rebel army, he found that his soldiers were no longer around. He looked down and saw that the ground around him was almost covered with corpses and people making miserable sounds.
The wounded were screaming, and most of them were Ming soldiers.
Looking back slightly, I saw a large number of our own soldiers running towards the rear, and the ground was covered with weapons they had thrown away.
When he saw this, he knew that this battle was defeated, and it was completely defeated!