Seeing that although the soldiers of the 1st Infantry Battalion in front began to be confused, they gathered together and launched an attack. Things went much better than Zhou Shanbao expected.
Originally, he thought that at the beginning of the landing, chaos would continue for a long time, and the troops might even be afraid of the enemy due to intensive bow and arrow fire from the Ming army. This is why he disembarked with the supervising team so early and landed.
s reason.
Because he originally wanted to assist the officers of the 1st Infantry Battalion in organizing the formation and organizing the attack.
But now, he knew that his war supervising team might not be of use anymore.
After the First Infantry Battalion landed, it quickly formed five small square formations, large and small. The square formations were large and small, and the troop configuration was not the standard equal proportion of musketeers and spearmen, but different.
There was even a small phalanx of more than eighty people, all composed of musketeers, with no spearmen to provide them with cover.
But this is not important, because this battlefield is quite large to begin with, only two to three hundred meters wide.
With so many people crowded on this river beach, it is not easy to organize a complete attack under the enemy's bows and arrows. We cannot expect to maintain the complete formation and troop deployment of a frontal decisive battle.
Following the landing of the 1st Infantry Battalion were the grenadiers and archers!
As the 1st Infantry Battalion advanced the battle line, the more than 100 archers of the Archer Team were unable to attack the deep Ming army array because of the distance.
As for the Ming troops who were closer, they were already entangled with the First Infantry Battalion. If they fired a few waves of arrows, the probability of killing themselves would definitely be higher than the probability of shooting the Ming troops.
As for why the Second Infantry Battalion and the First Mixed Battalion were not allowed to be the second batch of landing troops, or rush up at the same time, this is because the landing site is too small. If more than a thousand people are crammed in in a short period of time, it will be very difficult.
causing greater chaos.
What's more, what the Tang Dynasty's new army needed most at this time was not hand-to-hand combat troops, but archers who could attack the Ming army's subsequent deep forces, and grenadiers who could forcibly break through the Ming army's defense lines.
Although the 2nd Infantry Battalion and the 1st Mixed Battalion were considered the main force, they were not suitable to undertake the tasks at the beginning of the landing.
After the first infantry battalion withstood the first wave of counterattacks by the Ming army, the new army of the Tang Dynasty urgently needed to kill a large number of Ming troops in a short time to completely destroy their defense line, instead of more people crowding on the river beach and blindly
go forward.
After the archers and grenadiers also landed on the river beach, Hao Bainian, who was always paying attention to the occupation on the bow, also showed a hopeful look.
To be honest, today's landing battle is not the fighting method that the New Army of the Tang Dynasty is good at. What the New Army of the Tang Dynasty is good at is frontal field combat, and they fight in an upright manner.
This kind of landing operation was chaotic, the venue was not large enough, and the troops could not deploy in a timely and effective manner, which greatly restricted the combat capabilities of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty.
For example, the muskets of the landing troops are of little use in today's battle!
After landing, the distance between you and the Ming army is only a few dozen meters. If you have to use muskets to shoot at the archers of the Ming army, it is an act of seeking death. If you shoot one shot, they can shoot four or five arrows, let alone the Ming army.
The archers still hid behind the low wall and shot arrows, while the musketeers of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty could only line up and shoot on the empty river beach.
This is simply a target for the Ming army!
This is why Hao Bainian asked archers to land immediately following the First Infantry Battalion, because bows and arrows can be ejected and can hit the Ming army archers behind the low wall and cover the First Infantry Battalion in frontal combat.
As for the musketeers, there was no such effect. Many of them even soaked the gunpowder and match ropes when they landed, so that the muskets in their hands could only be used as spears.
This is why after the First Infantry Battalion landed, it did not use the tactics of musket fire, but directly rushed forward to fight hand-to-hand.
At this critical juncture, no fighting method is as effective as rushing in for a hand-to-hand fight!
After the archers landed, they didn't even have time to line up. They quickly followed the orders of each platoon leader and ran forward to within the effective shooting range, and then began to bend their bows and shoot arrows. Although this resulted in the arrows being fired without forming a rain of arrows, which seemed insufficient.
Shocking, but the effect is not bad.
More than a hundred archers started shooting arrows, which was more than the number of archers of the Ming army on the opposite side. Waves of arrows were shot out, immediately causing a large number of casualties to the Ming army.
Originally, these Ming troops relied on low walls and other defensive fortifications. Even if the First Infantry Battalion rushed up and fought with them, their actual casualties were still not large.
But now that the Tang army's archers started shooting arrows, their casualties immediately began to increase rapidly.
However, this was not enough, because the grenadiers of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty also came up, and they were the middle force in this landing operation.
Although the grenadier force is small, only a hundred people, but once they are allowed to throw grenades within thirty meters, the power is indescribable.
Not to mention the Ming army, even semi-modern troops such as the First Infantry Battalion of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty, which specialized in line combat, could not withstand the explosion of a hundred grenades at the same time.
And now, the grenadiers of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty have begun to form a formation, and then marched forward with neat steps!
Eighty meters, fifty meters, thirty meters. When they marched to about 25 meters away from the Ming army's low wall, following the order of the grenadier team officer, these grenadiers all marched together
After throwing out the grenade in his hand, more than a hundred black grenades suddenly appeared in the sky and fell into the Ming army behind the low wall a few seconds later.
Suddenly, firelight and gunpowder smoke set off in the Ming army array, and dense explosions were connected in series, as if they were shaking the entire blockbuster.
Such a big movement even stunned the soldiers of the first infantry battalion on the front line!
But they were just stunned, while the Ming army that had withstood the violent explosion had suffered a large number of casualties!
At this time, the Ming soldiers finally couldn't bear it anymore, and they didn't know who started it. Soon they turned around and ran away.
Seeing the Ming soldiers turning around and running away, the Grenadier officer stopped and asked his soldiers to throw out a second round of grenades. These grenades were very precious.
They only brought a total of less than 800 grenades for this battle, and their main battle has not yet begun. They have to set aside enough grenades for the decisive battle with the Ming army, otherwise, they will all use them up now.
Grenades, these grenadiers can only become ordinary musketeers.
Although the grenadiers stopped dropping bombs, other troops of the Tang Army did not stop their actions. When the grenadiers stopped dropping bombs, the team officers and deputy team officers of each square formation of the First Infantry Battalion were already in unison.
Shout out the slogan of charge!
Firing volleys, throwing bombs and then launching a charge to completely establish the victory. This is the valuable experience gained by the New Army of the Tang Dynasty from several battles with the Ming Army, and every time they do this, they often gain victory.
This time, they are no exception!
The first infantry and the musketeers and spearmen used various methods to climb over the low wall, and then directly launched a charge, chasing the collapsed Ming army.
When the battle reached this point, Hao Bainian in the rear knew that the battle across the river had been won.
However, crossing the river is only the first mission goal of his main force. He also needs to lead the troops to break through the subsequent Ming army's defenses, then fight to the rear of the Ming army at Lanjiang Ferry, and launch an attack on the Ming army at Lanjiang Ferry.
, Annihilate the Ming army at Lanjiang Ferry
Only then can he complete this combat mission.
So he said calmly: "Let the follow-up troops speed up the landing. In half an hour, I will lead the entire army to raid the east bank of Lanjiang Ferry."
Subsequent landings included the Second Infantry Battalion, the First Mixed Battalion, the Sword and Shield Corps, the Baggage Corps and other troops. In addition, the young men accompanying the army also had to cross the river together.
As for the cleaning of the battlefield, there was no need to clean it at all. Hao Bainian didn't even bother to capture prisoners this time. He confiscated the weapons of the surrendered Ming army, tied them up, and casually asked the baggage team to send some people to guard them and act as the main force.
The army cannot allocate a large number of manpower to guard the prisoners.
Half an hour later, Song Zhiwen couldn't wait to lead the entire army on the road again, but this time the number of the entire army was more than a hundred fewer than before crossing the river.
During the process of crossing the river, about eighty people were killed or injured, and dozens more were left behind to guard the prisoners and clean the battlefield. At the same time, they were also responsible for supporting the young men and a large amount of baggage that would later cross the river!
However, compared to their losses, the Ming army suffered greater losses. The defenders, which numbered almost 500 people, were almost completely defeated, with more than 200 casualties. Most of them were hunted down when the Ming army collapsed.
of.
More than 100 people were captured, and the remaining 100 people escaped to unknown places.
Therefore, from a military perspective, the Ming army defenders at Ferry No. 3 were completely wiped out.
There was no time to wait for the follow-up baggage and young men, so Hao Bainian headed south as soon as he organized his troops.
His target was exactly the east bank of Lanjiang Ferry.
At the same time, Song Zhiwen had just received a report from the defenders at Ferry No. 3!
There were more than 1,000 or even 2,000 pseudo-Tang rebels at Ferry No. 3?
How can this be?
He knew very well that there were only four to five thousand people in the puppet Tang bandit army. There were more than two thousand people at the No. 2 Ferry, there were also three thousand people at the Lanjiang Ferry, and there were three to five hundred people at the No. 3 Ferry.
He would believe it, but he didn't really believe it when there was a 2,000-strong pseudo-Tang rebel army.
This time, he obviously miscalculated because he didn't know that the more than 2,000 people in military uniforms at Ferry 2 were just ordinary villagers.
Although he was still very confused in his heart, his reason told him that the side of Ferry No. 3 was probably going to be doomed, and the pseudo-Tang rebel army that appeared at Ferry No. 3 was most likely their main force.
what to do?
Are we going to send troops to Ferry 3 for reinforcements now?
But is it too late now? How many people are suitable to send?
For a moment, Song Zhiwen was silent, unable to make a decision!