For the new army of the Tang Dynasty, the consumption of ammunition is actually not a big problem!
Although materials in the Tang Dynasty were in short supply, Li Xuan had almost turned the entire Zhengtai County upside down in the past few months, and all the gold, silver, soft goods and other valuable items he had plundered were replaced with various strategic materials.
Among them, sulfur, saltpeter and other items were the key acquisition targets. For this reason, they did not hesitate to raise prices, attracting businessmen like Old Man Sun to transport these materials at the risk of being caught by the Ming army and having their families confiscated and exterminated in order to earn high profits.
This kind of acquisition of various materials regardless of the cost also allowed the New Army of the Tang Dynasty to obtain ammunition, although it was still not much, but it was definitely enough to fight a large-scale battle.
And these ammunition are basically hoarded at the Lanjiang Ferry!
Therefore, Song Zhiwen wanted to use the young and strong cannon fodder to consume the ammunition of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty. I have to say that this idea is very beautiful, but the reality is very cruel. Even if they send all six or seven thousand people, they will not be able to consume all the ammunition.
Tang Xinjun's ammunition.
But having enough ammunition does not mean that the new army of the Tang Dynasty will be out of trouble!
The trouble is the continued casualties!
Although the New Army of the Tang Dynasty had not been idle here for several months, they had built a large number of fortifications, and the defensive capabilities of these fortifications were also quite good. As long as the soldiers hid behind the parapets and stayed close to them, as long as they were not too unlucky, they generally would not
They would be hit by the bows and arrows thrown by the Ming army. As for the direct shot fired by the Ming army's bowl-mouth cannon, there was no threat.
But the soldiers of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty could not always hide behind the breastworks. When the cannon fodder of the Ming Army rushed up, they had to stand up and fight!
In order to shoot better, they have to expose at least the height above the shoulders to fire, which is tantamount to exposing their bodies.
At this time, even if the Ming army's archers and bowl-mouth cannons had a low hit rate, they were outnumbered. Thousands of archers and more than 20 bowl-mouth cannons were shooting at the parapet, which was only a few hundred meters long.
, the density of firepower is still quite large.
In this way, as the fighting lasted, the casualties of Datang's new army gradually increased.
More importantly, however, the troops staying at the Lanjiang Ferry are not elite troops such as the First Infantry Battalion and the First Mixed Battalion. The Second Infantry Battalion and the Third Infantry Battalion can only be regarded as recruits, and the garrison battalion is even more important.
If the Ming army captured troops and the casualty rate was high, their morale would inevitably drop.
At around eight o'clock in the morning, Li Xuan even moved all the supplies and battalions to the front line to participate in defensive operations. It can be seen that today's battle is still very stressful for the Tang Dynasty's new army at Lanjiang Ferry.
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The Ming army's cannons and archers must be dealt with, otherwise even if the battle is won, one's own casualties will be too great.
For this reason, Li Xuan once again ordered the artillery team to exert its due power and find a way to deal with the Ming army's artillery as soon as possible.
But now Xie Ziwei is quite helpless!
In order to suppress or even destroy the Ming army's bowl-mouth cannons placed on the penetrations, Xie Ziwei's artillery was always firing at the ships on the river.
According to common sense, the distance between the two sides is only fifty meters. If they hit each other with shotguns and a well-aimed shot, they can wipe out a Ming army artillery group.
But the Ming army was not stupid. Although their bowl-mouth cannons were placed on the bow of the ship, they also imitated the New Army of the Tang Dynasty and built a small fort to withstand direct fire.
It is actually not accurate to say that it is a fort. They just piled a lot of thick planks and sandbags on the bow of the ship, leaving only a shooting hole in the middle.
These defenses are not that strong, but they are enough to withstand shotguns and bullets.
This is just like the Ming Army's own bowl-mouth cannons that cannot threaten the artillery positions of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty that are protected by forts. The artillery of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty is also unable to threaten the Ming Army's bowl-mouth cannons.
This made Xie Ziwei quite helpless!
At this time, Butcher Chen walked up to Xie Ziwei and said, "How about we use solid bullets to knock out their artillery first?"
Hearing this, Xie Ziwei also began to think deeply. When the enemy rushed to a close range of tens of meters, he used shotguns. This was the basic artillery combat skill that Xie Ziwei learned from Li Xuan.
At a distance of tens of meters, the shotgun has a large coverage area, and one shot can kill many enemy troops.
But this time, it obviously didn't work. The Ming army was smart and piled up defensive sandbags and thick wooden boards in front of the bowl-mouth cannon.
Immediately Xie Ziwei turned around and asked a gunner behind him: "Can a solid bullet accurately hit the target at this distance?"
The gunner didn't hesitate at all, and immediately said: "If you fire a few more shots, you will definitely be able to hit!"
This is only a few dozen meters away, not hundreds of meters. Even with the primitive artillery equipped by the New Army of the Tang Dynasty, its hit rate is quite impressive.
Xie Ziwei immediately said: "Change to solid bullets and destroy their artillery positions first!"
When Xie Ziwei was about to use solid ammunition to attack the Ming army's bow gun position, Li Xuan on the other side also asked the musketeers and archers to shift their targets to the Ming army archers on the ship.
These Ming archers are just as annoying as their artillery!
As for the cannon fodder of the Ming army who are still advancing on the river beach, let's not deal with it with the musketeers and archers. So what if we let them rush over? There are still countless spearmen from the new army of the Tang Dynasty waiting for them. No matter what, it won't work.
, and the grenades of the Grenadiers.
It is almost impossible to break through one's own parapet defensive position with the help of these cannon fodders who are mostly dead and wounded, have no morale at all, and are forced to launch an attack.
When Li Xuan changed his tactics, he shifted the main target from the cannon fodder Ming army on the river beach to the Ming army archers still on the boat.
Suddenly the situation on the battlefield changed!
Each intensive round of gunfire would result in the death and injury of numerous Ming army archers. However, these musketeers only exposed their positions above the shoulders during the aiming and shooting stages, and immediately retracted their bodies to reload after firing.
This also effectively avoided the Ming army's counterattack!
Seeing this scene, Song Zhiwen also frowned slightly. This cannon fodder tactic doesn't seem to work!
The firearms of these pseudo-Tang rebels are still so sharp, and there is no sign of ammunition being exhausted.
Also, I have been fighting here for so long. Calculating the time, the main force crossing the river from the other two ferries should have arrived. Why haven't they arrived yet?
Could it be that something unexpected happened to the main force detouring from these two places?
If this is the case, then the situation is not good. He, Song Zhiwen, never thought that relying on these guard soldiers and young men could tear through the beach defense of the puppet Tang rebel army. What he expected was to attack from both sides
The main force crossing the river attacked the puppet Tang rebel army from behind.
Especially the main force crossing the river from Ferry No. 2 had high hopes placed on him.
But whatever they were afraid of came, and it didn't take long for someone to report that another army of puppet Tang rebels had arrived from the south.
The puppet Tang rebel army? They still came from that side. Isn't this the side where our main force crossed the river?
These pseudo-Tang traitor armies were not wiped out by our own main force of recruiting troops, but instead came here?
At this time, Song Zhiwen had a very bad guess: Could it be that...could it be that the main force of recruiting soldiers crossing the river on the south side was gone?
Thinking of this, he couldn't stand still for a moment and murmured: "It's over, everything is over!"