This is a very serious and confusing choice! Many soldiers of the Ming Army had the idea of escape after seeing the new Tang Dynasty army launching a general attack outside the city.
Of course, the new army of the Tang Dynasty has not yet rushed to the city, the city has not been destroyed, and everyone has not suffered heavy casualties, so escaping is just a thought, and not many people have put it into action.
Seeing the attack of the Tang Dynasty's new army outside the city, not to mention ordinary Ming army soldiers were frightened. Even Zhu Zhihai was calm on the surface, but in fact he was very worried inside!
Especially the heavy armored infantry of the rebels outside the city, they are such obvious targets that anyone can see them on the battlefield at a glance!
These are heavy armored infantry. Once they are allowed to attack the city wall, it will take many lives to drive them off the city wall.
In siege warfare in this era, the power of heavy armored infantry was extremely powerful!
Once they are allowed to break into the crowd of defenders, and the terrain is small like the city wall and cannot allow large-scale troops to swarm up, then they will basically kill gods and Buddhas in order to drive them out of the city.
Head, it’s extremely difficult!
And the best way to stop them is to prevent them from climbing up the city wall!
But can they be stopped?
The puppet Tang thief army outside the city was coming fiercely, and it was not just the heavy armored infantry. In fact, judging from the entire front line, the first-line infantry of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty that launched the attack actually exceeded 8,000 people, and
More than 2,000 artillery and other auxiliary troops participated in the battle.
At this moment, the ones rushing to the front are the 7th Infantry Regiment and the 8th Infantry Regiment. At this time, these two infantry regiments have about 5,000 people. They have completely lost the tight formation they used when launching the attack.
They seemed a bit scattered, and when they rushed to a distance of only 70 or 80 meters from the city wall, they were met with intensive bows, arrows, and artillery counterattacks by the Ming army at the top of the city, which resulted in relatively large casualties.
Under the heavy casualties, these surrendered soldiers from the Ming Army a few days ago naturally did not have the courage to continue to charge forward. They had only become the New Army of the Tang Dynasty for only a few days, and they had not even had time to receive complete training from the New Army of the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, when fighting, I still maintain the same habits as before!
It is normal to retreat or even run away when suffering heavy casualties. This does not make any difference whether they work for the Zhu family dynasty or the Li family dynasty.
So when the casualties gradually increased, the Ming army's descending troops from these two infantry regiments finally couldn't bear the pressure on the battlefield, and then began to retreat!
However, at this time, the supervisory team composed of about 400 regular troops directly under the 7th Infantry Regiment and the 8th Infantry Regiment formed a tight formation behind them, and at the same time shouted: "Retreat without permission."
The one who killed me will be killed!”
Now is the most critical moment of the siege. The new army of the Tang Dynasty still needs them to contain the Ming army so as to cover the heavy armored sword and shield soldiers' climbing operations on the wall. How could they be allowed to retreat in one fell swoop!
The supervising team of more than 400 people, facing the retreating surrender troops in front, did not hesitate at all. Under the orders of the officers, they all raised their spears and knives, and began to bend their bows and shoot arrows!
This was the only way to stop the rout of nearly 5,000 people!
Subsequently, when the infantry queue of the first brigade also gradually moved forward and continued to shoot at the Ming army archers and gunners on the city top to provide cover for the attacking troops, these five thousand surrendered troops were once again under the command of the officers.
Under the command of the command team, and under the threat of the supervising team, these five thousand people were forced to launch the attack again, even if they were reluctant, and continued to charge towards the city wall a hundred meters away!
Because behind them is the tight formation of the First Brigade, and these surrendered troops have all fought against the regular army of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty. They know deeply that compared to the city wall in front, the regular army of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty behind them is more terrifying!
You say that they were scared out of their wits by the regular troops of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty. It is actually okay.
After watching the front line stabilize the 7th Infantry Regiment and the 8th Infantry Regiment and launch the offensive again, Li Xuan from the rear also breathed a sigh of relief.
Just now, he was really afraid that the Ming army of these two infantry regiments would surrender and be defeated. Then there would be a very embarrassing scene for him, that is, not many of his own soldiers would die at the hands of the Ming army, but instead
Die by your own hands.
Fortunately, although the situation was a little chaotic just now, and the two infantry regiments also suffered a small retreat, under the pressure of the frontline supervising team and the first brigade, they still returned to the offensive rhythm.
This is actually a good thing for our own army, as well as for the surrender of the Ming army in the 7th Infantry Regiment and the 8th Infantry Regiment itself!
Because if they had been defeated all the way just now, it would have greatly affected our follow-up actions. At the same time, I am afraid that not many of these defeated Ming troops would be able to survive in the hands of the supervising team and the first brigade.
Behind these two infantry regiments are the Supervisory Team and the First Brigade of more than 400 people, and these regular troops of the Tang Dynasty do not care about the life and death of these surrendered soldiers. If they dare to retreat, Hao Bainian on the front line will dare to give the order
Kill all the defeated soldiers!
On the contrary, if they rush forward and help them capture Lipingfu City, they still have a high chance of surviving.
No matter how powerful the Ming army on the city was, it was impossible for them to kill all the more than 5,000 people in just a few minutes!
And once they fail, the heavy armored infantry led by Cai Erhu can charge forward. Once the heavy armored infantry successfully board the city, then it will be time to launch a charge across the board. The main force of the siege will be the heavy armored infantry and the first brigade.
As for the 7th Infantry Regiment and the 8th Infantry Regiment, it's just a fight.
Li Xuan never expected that these five thousand Ming troops would be able to conquer the Ming army's city wall!
The five thousand surrendered troops on the front line and the first brigade continued to attack with great momentum. However, although the senior generals on both sides were also paying attention to them, more people's eyes were on the one who was slowly approaching the city wall on the battlefield.
Thousands of Tang Dynasty new army infantry!
Among the thousand infantrymen of the Tang Dynasty's new army, many types of soldiers were mixed. The ones at the front were the sword and shield bearers wearing thick armor, followed by a large number of unarmored sword and shield bearers on the left, right and rear. In addition, there were about two hundred soldiers carrying weapons on their backs.
Grenadiers with muskets and hundreds of archers!
In order to avoid irregular command and unfamiliarity between officers and soldiers, these units are basically drawn from various units and maintain the most basic team-level organization.
Three assault battalions were temporarily organized, each battalion had 200 heavy-armored sword and shield bearers and other auxiliary troops, with a total strength of about 500 people.
This kind of temporary assault camp was set up entirely for the purpose of conquering the city wall!
These three assault battalions did not move very fast when they entered the battlefield. On the contrary, they were still a little slow. This was to conserve their physical strength as much as possible!
But this slow progress ended when they were only a hundred meters away from the city wall. When they entered a hundred meters away, Cai Erhu shouted: "Kill, charge forward!"
The three assault battalions were tens of meters apart from each other and launched their final charge towards the city wall in front!
At the same time, Hao Bainian also personally commanded the musketry troops under the First Brigade to fire fiercely at any Ming army on the city who dared to attack back!
Even the battalion artillery was pushed up and shot at the top of the city. The effect of this kind of shooting was actually very low, but at this time, it was no longer concerned about the effect, so all available weapons were used.
, providing fire cover to the charging troops is the most important thing.
Nearly two thousand musketeers and archers suppressed fire on the city head, which also greatly reduced the pressure on the charging troops.
At this time, not only two infantry regiments composed of surrendered troops from the Ming Army launched a charge, but also three assault battalions were launching a charge!
Compared with the Ming army who surrendered, the Ming army obviously paid more attention to these regular Tang Dynasty new troops with a large number of heavy armor units. The artillery fired on the city top, the archers bending their bows and shooting arrows, most of them chose cannonballs.
Bows and arrows were thrown at the three assault battalions.
This will inevitably cause greater casualties to the three assault battalions. In order to cover these three assault battalions, the musketeers and battalion artillery troops under the first brigade have begun to fire intensively. The hundreds of bows and arrows they possess
The hand also took the initiative to move forward to a distance of 70 or 80 meters to cover the city head and shoot.
In this way, these three assault battalions were prevented from being immediately covered by the Ming army's arrows and artillery shells!
But even so, by the time the three assault battalions rushed under the city wall, they had already suffered more than a hundred casualties, and most of these casualties were unarmored light infantry!
Without the protection of armor, their ability to protect against the Ming army's bows and arrows and the shrapnel fired by bowl-mouth cannons was almost useless.
On the other hand, the heavy armored infantry who charged at the front suffered relatively few casualties. Only twenty or thirty people fell on the charge, because their armor effectively protected them unless they were hit by shrapnel fired by artillery.
Otherwise, the threat posed by simple bows and arrows to them is actually limited.
When they rushed under the city wall, the light-armored soldiers who followed them were lifted up by long ladders carried all the way, and then the iron hooks on the long ladders were used to build the city wall!
As soon as the first long ladder was placed, I saw an extremely tall heavy-armored sword and shield soldier biting the back of the sword, holding the shield above his head with one hand, then grabbing the long ladder with the other hand, and then climbed directly up.
climb!
As soon as he climbed up the long ladder, another heavy armored sword and shield soldier climbed up right after him!
The same scene also happened on the nearby city wall. The new army of the Tang Dynasty rushed to the city wall without wasting even a second. After arriving at the city wall, they immediately climbed up the city wall!
So now looking at it, this section of the city wall is only a few tens of meters long. There are almost dozens of long ladders set up on the top of the city. Dozens, hundreds of heavy armor, sword and shield soldiers of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty immediately moved towards the top of the city.