Chapter 306 The main force of the Ming army appears
For archers, if the enemy is still far away and they are just engaging in long-range firepower exchanges with the enemy, as long as there are not too many casualties, they can grit their teeth and continue shooting until their physical strength is exhausted.
But if you are facing a charging enemy, generally speaking, being able to fire three arrows in a row is basically enough to complete the task.
After shooting three arrows, the enemy army had almost rushed within thirty steps. If these archers continued to shoot arrows at this time, what was waiting for them would definitely be slaughtered and completely collapsed.
Therefore, at this time, most of the archers will abandon their bows and arrows and replace them with swords and other melee weapons, and begin to form tight formations to participate in melee combat with other combat units.
However, the archers who can do this are all elite archers in the cold weapon army. However, these Ming army archers obviously cannot be compared with the elite.
It is true that although the Ming army that crossed the river from No. 2 and No. 3 was their main force, these main forces were only guards and recruits.
The nearly a thousand Ming troops who crossed the river on No. 3 were the guards who came from Linfu to reinforce Xingquan Prefecture. The guards in these inland areas had nothing to do with the elite.
Its actual combat effectiveness is not even as good as the soldiers recruited by Song Zhiwen and trained for only three months.
Dozens of people were killed and injured, and faced with the charge of heavily armed spearmen from the puppet Tang rebel army, they escaped without any accident.
In fact, even if they don't escape, it won't be of much use. Even if they switch to waist knives and participate in hand-to-hand combat, it is almost impossible to fight with the spearmen of the Puppet Tang Thief Army in hand-to-hand combat.
In the wars of the sixteenth century, fully armored heavy infantry could still play a huge role, especially when the enemy was also a cold weapon force. These heavy infantry could almost become the core force on the battlefield.
Among heavy infantry, sword and shield soldiers are usually used for melee combat and city siege. However, in decisive battles in the field, heavy spearmen are king!
Otherwise, the Spanish Grand Phalanx and a large number of modern armies of this period would not have used spearmen and musketeers to fight together.
The retreat of the Ming army's archers did not affect the formation of more Ming troops in the rear to fight. The Ming army generals who commanded the battle obviously expected that their archers would collapse, so they arranged manpower behind the archers in advance.
, when the archers turn around and flee, guide them to retreat from both sides of the central array to avoid directly impacting your own central array.
The Chinese army array composed of up to seven to eight hundred people was the core used to stop and even defeat the puppet Tang rebel army.
But when these archers were almost able to escape, what made the generals of the Ming army feel a little overwhelmed was that the spearmen of the puppet Tang rebel army on the opposite side actually stopped at a distance of about fifty meters.
Their musketeers also stopped after advancing to a position slightly behind the spearmen.
For a time, the two sides seemed to be in the same confrontation situation as before.
But this situation made the Ming army general on the opposite side frown. Although it was his first time to fight against these pseudo-Tang rebels, in the past few months, the generals in Xingquan Mansion kept saying to him
It has been said that the firearms of the Puppet Tang Dynasty rebel army are so sharp, and it is also said that the Puppet Tang Dynasty rebel army relies on sharp firearms. If one's side does not take the initiative to step forward, the other party will shoot with firecrackers from a distance.
The only way to win is to rush up and fight them hand to hand.
However, many Ming army generals also told him that the hand-to-hand combat capabilities of the Pseudo-Tang rebels were not bad. These Pseudo-Tang rebels were equipped with a large number of spearmen. Even the musketeers would fight after they finished shooting.
A knife was inserted into the muzzle of the gun and he stepped forward to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
In this way, during hand-to-hand combat, all one's side has to face is a dense forest of spears and spears.
Not to mention the beating, the mere sight of it is enough to make one's scalp numb.
On the other hand, the Ming army itself relied mostly on bows and arrows for long-range firepower. As for handguns, those weapons were too close and needed to be at a distance of twenty or thirty meters to be effective. By then, the distance between the two sides would be too long, and there would be no chance for you to defeat them.
When the guns were fired, people rushed up with bayonets in hand.
Moreover, the handguns equipped by the Ming army were too weak, making them ineffective against the opponent's thick-armored units.
As for hand-to-hand combat soldiers, the Ming army still stayed in the traditional era. Most of the soldiers were still equipped with waist knives and were just simple light infantry.
This fight was basically a tragedy of being crushed by those heavily armed spearmen.
The more others talked about it, the more he began to pay attention to it.
But the more he paid attention to it, the more he knew the danger today.
Especially when he saw that the musketeers of the Puppet Tang Bandit Army on the opposite side were continuing to reload, he knew that the next round of musketry volleys would arrive soon.
Can't wait any longer!
So, he decisively ordered the soldiers in the front row to launch an attack. He would first test the strength of the pseudo-Tang rebels on the opposite side. If there were not many casualties during the charge, he would order the entire army to charge.
He didn't believe it. He had nearly a thousand people and couldn't defeat the two hundred or so people in front of him!
But not long after the soldiers in the front row moved, and before they had time to walk ten meters away, intensive gunshots rang out from the opposite side, and thirty or forty of the soldiers in the front row who had just walked out fell down.
But at this time, without him giving orders, the front row would just turn around and run away.
The muskets of the Puppet Tang thief army are so sharp. If you charge forward like this, you will die!
This battle cannot be fought!
Seeing this scene, the leading Ming army general was decisive enough and immediately ordered the entire army to retreat!
If we keep fighting like this in the dark, we don’t know how many casualties there will be. Let’s take it slow and wait until daybreak before making plans!
Speaking of which, he was helpless. He knew very well that if the soldiers under his command were all elite and refused to retreat, they would definitely win the fight if they rushed up from the beginning. After all, his own troops had a huge advantage.
But are his soldiers elite?
Absolutely not. They are just a group of serf guards. They don't train a few times throughout the year. It would be great to let them pick up swords and guns and go into battle. It would be too reluctant to let them fight to the death.
Or, if he had a few bowl-mouth cannons on hand, the situation would be greatly improved, but he didn't.
The Ming army brought a lot of bowl-mouth cannons, but they were all made by Song Zhiwen himself. Some of them were assigned to the Lanjiang Ferry to provide support for large-scale frontal crossings, while the remaining half was used to provide support for large-scale frontal crossings.
It was given to the Ming army who crossed the river from Ferry No. 2.
The Ming army that crossed the river from Ferry No. 2 were not guardsmen, but recruits who Song Zhiwen had personally trained for three months. They were the main force in this crossing of the river.
Speaking of which, these guards who crossed the river from Ferry No. 3 were just a partial force to contain the puppet Tang rebel army. Naturally, it was impossible to obtain such a weapon as a bowl-mouth cannon.
The soldiers are weak in combat effectiveness, have low morale, and have no sharp weapons to help them. If he does not want his soldiers to suffer heavy casualties, it is the wisest thing to retreat proactively.
What's more, this retreat is not about turning around and crossing the river back to the east bank of the Lanjiang River. They have already crossed the river. It is also possible to go from other places. As long as a large number of puppet Tang rebels are contained, the mission will be completed.
The Ming army retreated very quickly. Li Chunjing wanted to pursue him at first, but his soldiers had already exhausted a lot of physical strength, and many of the spearmen were wearing thick armor, so they couldn't go very far.
The pursuit was at a long distance, and it was still night time, so a rash pursuit could easily lead to accidents.
In addition, Li Chunjing also knew his mission. His mission was not to annihilate these Ming troops. As long as he stopped these Ming troops and prevented them from approaching the Lanjiang Ferry, then more than half of the mission would be completed.
Therefore, Li Chunjing quickly stopped his pursuit and only sent a small number of scouts to follow these Ming troops.
After the battle, while Li Chunjing and the others were still cleaning the battlefield and counting the losses and results of the enemy and ourselves, the messenger troops from Lanjiang Ferry also arrived here.
When he learned that two teams of troops were on the way for reinforcements, Li Chunjing became even more confident. Although the previous battle was fought in a hurry, twenty or thirty people on his own side were killed and wounded by their archers' arrows, but through this
However, he knew that the Ming troops on the opposite side were not very good.
With another two hundred reinforcements, he had absolute confidence that he could completely stop these Ming troops, or even annihilate them.
Compared to Li Chunjing who was full of confidence, Fang Xitong seemed much more worried. After he received the order and drove some troops for a long time, the scouts in front reported that all the troops had crossed the river.
Moreover, the number of Ming troops crossing the river was as high as 2,000.
It was half as many as the thousand people he had expected.
More importantly, they also discovered that these Ming troops carried a large number of bowl-mouthed cannons and even some strange large shields and shield vehicles, and these large shields were exactly the kind of Ming troops they discovered some time ago, prepared to resist musketry.
of large shields and shield chariots.
Although strictly speaking, these large shields and shield vehicles cannot block the muskets of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty at medium and short ranges, if the Ming army breaks through to within 50 or 60 meters without injury, the deterrence of the muskets will be greatly reduced.
, then the winner will have to be determined by physical combat between the two sides.
After learning the news of the scout's report, Fang Xitong knew very well that it was impossible for his more than 200 people to fight against the well-prepared Ming army of more than 2,000 people.
He must send the news back immediately while waiting for the arrival of reinforcements led by Hao Bainian.
Not long after, Hao Bainian, who was still on the road, also got the news. He immediately said: "Immediately send a fast horse back to the Lanjiang Ferry to ask for reinforcements, um, and also ask for the reinforcements of the grenadiers!"
As soon as Hao Bainian heard about the enemy's strength and armament, he immediately guessed that the Ming army coming this time must be the main force, and it was also the main Ming army that was at the Lanjiang ferry.
This also shows that there are only some ordinary troops left in the Ming army across the Lanjiang Ferry.
At the same time, Hao Bainian also sent an order to Fang Xitong, telling him to keep an appropriate distance from the Ming army and not to waste the fight!
If Fang Xitong's more than two hundred people rushed forward rashly, he was afraid that these two hundred people would be eaten by the Ming army without leaving any bones.