Chapter 270: Three thousand tigers crossing the Lanjiang River
"Okay!" When he saw the Italian artillery shells accurately falling into the Ming army on the river beach, Xie Ziwei, the first officer of the artillery team, couldn't help but shout "ok".
This was the first time that the artillery team he led went into actual combat, and it was also the first artillery fire he commanded after switching from a musketeer to artillery.
For this reason, he had been under great pressure before, fearing that his first shot would not be accurate. Not to mention getting off to a good start, it would be good if he could not be laughed at by others.
Fortunately, the aim was quite good this time, and the first shot hit the Ming army crowd on the other side of the river.
Of course, we can't say they are lucky, because the Ming army is now crowded in the river beach, and there are people everywhere. As long as the aim is not too far or too close, this cannon can always hit the Ming army.
Xie Ziwei applauded himself, and Li Xuan nodded slightly when he saw the effect of the first shot!
Zeng Ziwen on the side said with a face full of joy: "General Xie's cannon is very good. The power of this cannon can destroy hundreds of feet of enemies and kill countless people!"
After saying this, he still felt that the praise was not enough, so he immediately continued: "With Italian artillery to assist in the battle, the puppet Ming thief army may not board the boat to cross the river, and there will be countless casualties. We, the Tang Dynasty, will win this battle!"
Li Xuan turned his head and glanced at Zeng Ziwen, feeling that this Zeng Ziwen was becoming more and more like Liu Bagou, bragging whenever he had nothing to do...
Although the shot just now was effective, it only killed seven or eight Ming troops at most. Although the Ming troops were relatively dense on the river beach, after all, they were not fighting in formation, so they would not be crowded. In addition,
The mud on the river beach is relatively soft. When a cannonball falls on these soft mud, its kinetic energy will be greatly absorbed, resulting in the inability to bounce too many times...
And what does the medicine ball rely on to kill? It relies on the cannonball to continuously bounce up and fall after falling to the ground, and in the process, it kills the enemy troops along the way.
If it is on hard ground and the enemy troops happen to be in a column, this kind of solid ball shell can wipe out an entire column of soldiers.
Of course, this situation generally only exists in theory and is unlikely to occur in actual combat.
The killing just now injured seven or eight Ming soldiers. At first glance, it seemed that the result was good, but in fact, the impact on today's battle was limited.
On the one hand, the Italian gun is a front-loading smoothbore gun, and its rate of fire is very low.
On the other hand, the artillery of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty was still too few, and it was unlikely to play a decisive role in such a war with thousands of participants.
But even so, this shot brought great confidence to the new army of the Tang Dynasty and effectively boosted morale.
As for the Ming army on the other side of the river, many people still don't know what happened. After all, there were two to three thousand soldiers on the river beach. How many people were killed would not be known to many people.
The few people who knew that their side had been shelled and suffered heavy casualties, apart from some of the soldiers involved, were the Ming army generals who were watching and commanding the battle on the top of the hill behind.
"The muskets of the Pseudo-Tang rebel army are really sharp, they can hit such a distance!" Among the crowd, the leader was a middle-aged general wearing scale armor.
"But they only have one big blunderbuss. Even if it can shoot farther, what's the use!" At that moment, someone said: "Our army has three thousand tigers and soldiers. It is easy to cross the Lanjiang River. How can it be hypocritical?
The Tang thief army and these ordinary thieves can resist it!"
"Yes, according to my opinion, we can cross the river in less than half an hour and capture Li Ni alive by then!"
"Master Song said that if he could capture Li Ni alive, he would personally report the victory to the imperial court for us!"
"Haha, after this battle, you may be able to take a step forward, Mr. Lin!"
Although a group of Ming army generals saw the artillery of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty on the other side of the river, they were not frightened and panicked.
These people are all high-ranking generals, and the last one is Deputy Qianhu. Naturally, they have seen and even used these big guns. They all brought two bowl-mouth cannons.
Although their bowl-mouth cannons can't hit as far as the artillery of the Puppet Tang rebels, it doesn't matter. When they cross the river, they can swing the two bowl-mouth cannons in front of the formation and kill the Puppet Tang rebels with one shot.
An army of thieves.
However, this was only the thought of the senior generals of the Ming Army, but for those who personally felt the sharp artillery of the puppet Tang thief army, their hearts collapsed!
One of the Ming army Xiaoqi watched his comrade beside him being hit by a cannonball, and then his whole body was broken at the waist. When he saw that the body of Paoze was broken into two parts, with only a little skin and flesh connected, his whole body collapsed.
At first he was vomiting, and then he was screaming as if he was demented. He dropped the knife in his hand while screaming, and then ran and jumped around in the open space.
He's crazy!
The first artillery fire fired by the New Army of the Tang Dynasty had a considerable impact and greatly boosted the morale of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty. However, the battle did not stop because the Ming army did not stop crossing the river.
On the contrary, they increased their speed. Under the urging of the officers, the soldiers climbed onto the extremely crude raft, and then started rowing with the same crude oars.
The simple rafts were crowded with as few as seven or eight people, and as many as more than ten people, so that many rafts actually almost sank into the water, but the Ming army obviously did not care whether they would get wet or not.
Wet clothes, as long as we can cross the river, who cares whether the ride is comfortable or whether the boat will capsize!
However, although the Ming troops boarded the boats one after another, the official crossing of the river by the Ming troops that Li Xuan was looking forward to has still not started. Obviously, these Ming troops did not intend to use any refueling tactics, but to play a wave of flow.
, wait for all available rafts to be filled with people, and then cross the river together.
"It seems they still have smart people!" Seeing this scene, Li Xuan frowned slightly. The situation in front of him was not a good situation for the new army of the Tang Dynasty. If too many Ming troops landed at the same time, then it would be a disaster.
It's not easy to fight.
After all, the number of musketeers and archers in the New Army of the Tang Dynasty is limited, which means that the bullets and arrows they can project per unit time are also limited.
With more than two hundred musketeers and less than a hundred archers, it would be difficult to intercept all three thousand Ming troops crossing the river.
But it’s just that it’s difficult, it doesn’t mean there’s no hope!
And now, what Li Xuan is striving for is this hope!
Another loud noise sounded on the fort, and Xie Ziwei's artillery fired its second shot!
But at this time, Li Xuan was no longer in the mood to pay attention to these artillery pieces, because at this time, most of the Ming army on the other side of the river had already boarded the rafts they had prepared for half a month, and then left the shore one after another.
Paddling towards the other side of the river.
Seeing this scene, he immediately said to the messenger beside him: "Beat the drums and fight, and don't let the puppet Ming rebels cross the river one by one!"