Compared with Fang Dongquan's hesitation, Huang Xueren, another man in a similar situation to him, is much wiser. Huang Xueren, who serves as the deputy commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade, has officially given Li Xuan a few days ago.
I am already old and cannot bear the heavy responsibility of deputy brigade commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade. I request to be transferred back to Xingquan Mansion to live leisurely so that I can always serve His Majesty.
This means that he hopes Lin Xuan can find him a free position in the Privy Council.
But the deeper meaning is, Your Majesty, I have wisely resigned from the main force to make way for the students of the Royal Academy. Can you give me a high-ranking and dignified position?
Li Xuan was very pleased with Huang Xueren's knowledge. He had already sent a decree to recall Huang Xueren, who was leading the army in northern Guizhou. Although he was returning to report on his duties in name, Li Xuan would arrange a meeting for him if nothing else happened.
He will also be promoted to Army Major General in addition to his leisure duties in the Privy Council, and will even receive a knighthood, giving him a decent and wealthy arrangement.
As long as Huang Xueren and Fang Dongquan are willing to voluntarily give up their military power, Li Xuan is still willing to treat these two veteran generals who have been with the dragon for a long time and made great contributions in the early Tang Dynasty!
However, Fang Dongquan didn't know Huang Xueren's arrangement yet, but even if he knew it, he would not completely give up military power like Huang Xueren did. He still wanted to continue to lead troops, even if it was a garrison force!
Compared with these two people, Wang Shanxu, who is also a veteran, is much better. He leads the troops honestly and has been quite low-key recently, but he has firmly secured his position as the commander of the Fourth Infantry Regiment. Under Fang Xi
He led the Fourth Infantry Regiment to fight in central Guizhou and has almost reached the provincial capital of Guiyang.
Li Xuan is also satisfied with Wang Shanxu's recent performance and plans to continue to observe Wang Shanxu. In the short term, Wang Shanxu cannot expect to be promoted to the brigade commander of the main infantry brigade, but if Wang Shanxu's state continues, a main force in the future
The commander of the infantry brigade cannot run away.
Almost each of these generals in the early Tang Dynasty made different choices, and their future prospects will naturally be different as well.
However, whether these veterans can keep up with the expansion of the Tang Dynasty actually has no influence on the development of the Tang Dynasty.
The younger generation of officers trained by Li Xuan has now become the core officer group of the Tang Army. The younger generation of generals represented by Hao Bainian, Fang Xitong, and Li Chunjing have actually replaced the earlier Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren, and Wang Shanxu.
effect.
The middle and lower-level officers are all from the martial arts school. The students of the imperial school, especially the students of the imperial school, almost control most of the important positions of the main force, and this whether it is to improve the combat effectiveness of the Tang Army or to
It is extremely important for Li Xuan to control military power.
Nowadays, these officers are in front of the Ming army's camp, continuing to form their troops to keep the troops in peak condition so that they can launch an attack at any time!
When will they launch an attack? Naturally, it will be when the Ming army on the opposite side cannot withstand the bombardment of the Tang Army and makes changes.
When the time comes, whether these Ming armies are defeated, retreat, or take the initiative to attack, it will be the moment when these Datang Army infantry units launch the final general attack!
Now, all they have to do is wait!
Thick and neat infantry squares were arrayed one after another outside the Ming army camp, which put the Ming army inside the camp under great pressure.
And this pressure, in turn, will cause them to suffer huge casualties!
Why, because the puppet Tang rebels are outside the camp, and the Ming army camp's walls and other defenses have already been damaged in many places after being intensively bombarded, and some places have been razed to the ground.
flat ground.
In this case, it means that the puppet Tang thief army on the opposite side may rush in at any time!
In order to prevent the puppet Tang rebels from rushing in, these Ming troops had to form a tight square formation to prepare for a fight at any time!
However, the Ming army continued to maintain a dense infantry phalanx, which provided Chen Tufu's Second Artillery Battalion with the best artillery target.
When he saw that many of the walls of the Ming army's camp had been damaged, and that many of the Ming army's artillery positions that were scheduled to hit had also suffered heavy blows from his own side, at this time, Butcher Chen began to order the artillery troops to start shifting targets!
The artillery troops' shells began to cross the village wall, and then bombarded the depth of the camp, where the Ming army's dense infantry phalanx formed!
At a distance of more than 300 meters to less than 400 meters, the eleven heavy artillery pieces of the Second Artillery Battalion of the Datang Army could not say where to hit, but they were still able to roughly hit the target.
Especially when the target is still a very obvious dense infantry phalanx!
As the Second Artillery Battalion began to bombard the Ming Army's infantry square, the Ming Army's casualties instantly increased.
Solid ball artillery shells streaked across the sky, then fell into the Ming army's array, and then plowed out canals of blood!
Screams kept coming one after another!
The ordinary soldiers of the Ming Army were screaming, and the middle and low-level officers of the Ming Army were also panicked. They looked around from time to time, trying to get orders from the top. Whether it was to launch an active attack or retreat, it was easier than now.
It's much better to be beaten than to fight. If this continues, morale will drop rapidly, and the collapse of the army will be inevitable.
And the senior generals of the Ming army, who were regarded as the pillars of the middle and low-level officers, are also in trouble now, and they don't know what choice to make!
"The pseudo-Tang thieves have sharp weapons and their reputation is well-deserved. No wonder even Zhu Zhihai was defeated by Liping!"
"Yes, their artillery hits too far. The two sides are more than 200 steps apart and they can inflict such great damage on us. Look at their heavy artillery. It weighs a thousand kilograms!"
"This kind of artillery is more powerful than the Folang machine cannon I saw in the Navy before!"
"The thieves have sharp weapons. It's not okay to continue like this. If you just get beaten and don't fight back, you will be finished sooner or later!"
"What should we do now? How about we just rush out and fight them! Our main force is not damaged now, so rushing out to fight now may not mean we have no chance of winning!"
"Rush out to fight with them? Are you kidding me? Have you forgotten how Rong County's three thousand soldiers were completely wiped out, and how our forward of five hundred soldiers was defeated two days ago?"
"Yes, we must not rush out. If we rush out now, we are seeking death!"
"But what should we do if we don't rush out? Will we stand here and get beaten all the time?"
"Let me see, it's not feasible for a large group of people to rush out, but we can let the archers step forward a hundred steps and then shoot arrows at their infantry phalanx. In this case, the enemy's infantry phalanx will also suffer heavy casualties?"
"Rush out and shoot arrows. How far? If it's far away, the muskets of the puppet Tang rebels can hit farther than our bows and arrows. And didn't you see that their bowl-mouth cannons are placed a hundred steps away?
We are waiting for our archers to rush forward, and the puppet Tang rebel army also has many archers. If we shoot against them from a distance, our archers will definitely suffer heavy casualties!
If we charge close, we can certainly kill and injure the bandit army, but how can we get there if their spearmen phalanx charges up? These archers will not be slaughtered by then!"
"Then we will send melee soldiers to cover the archers!"
"Nonsense, in this case, wouldn't it be a counterattack by the whole army? Are you sure that we can take advantage of the hand-to-hand combat between the whole army?"
"This won't work, that won't work either, so what should we do? We can't keep putting it off!"
These senior generals of the Ming army looked at each other and said something to each other, but no one could come up with a way to improve the current crisis.
Wei Yan, who was above, looked at the group of generals under his command who were obviously at a loss and even scared out of their wits. He felt angry and helpless at the same time.
He could also see what his generals saw. At the same time, although he was not proficient in military affairs, he could also know from the discussions of his generals that the situation at hand was very, very bad for his side.
And the most important thing is that our own side has no way to fight back against the attack of the puppet Tang rebel army!
No, there is a way to fight back, that is to rush out and fight to the death. But looking at the attitude of these generals, if I force them to rush out, I am afraid that the whole army will be defeated before they rush out.
They had been frightened by the field combat capabilities of the Puppet Tang rebel army, and now they didn't even have the courage to fight to the death!
Could it be that the pseudo-Tang bandits on the opposite side are really that powerful? Are they really as invincible as those who came from Guizhou said?
Wei Yan once again looked at the puppet Tang rebels outside!
In sight, the infantry phalanx in the front row of the Pseudo-Tang rebel army is still very close, and the hand-to-hand combat soldiers in the front row are almost all wearing heavy armor.
It’s no less than eight hundred!
Don't think that for the nearly 10,000 people in the puppet Tang bandit army, only 800 hand-to-hand combat soldiers wearing heavy armor are very few. In fact, this is already a lot.
This can be seen by comparing the troops under Wei Yan's own command. There are 8,000 people under Wei Yan's command, and those wearing heavy armor are basically officers and some of the personal soldiers of senior generals. Even if all are counted, at most
Just two to three hundred people.
Moreover, there is a cavalry force of more than 200 people on the side of the Puppet Tang thief army, watching eagerly from the side!
However, the eight thousand Ming army under Wei Yan did not have professional cavalry. At most, there were only dozens of generals riding horses!
Putting aside whether our own infantry can defeat the infantry of the Puppet Tang Thief Army, if the infantry engages in fierce hand-to-hand combat with the Puppet Tang Thief Army's infantry, the two hundred or so Puppet Tang Thief Army cavalry will go around to the side and charge back.