This super showdown outside Anping Town involved more than 200,000 soldiers. When the battle broke out, both sides clearly knew the fact that the Ming army could not stop the Tang army's attack!
On the Tang Army side, Li Xuan and a large number of senior generals knew very well that this was not because they were arrogant, but because of their confidence in their own strength.
In this battle, except for the slightly smaller number of troops, the Tang Army had an almost absolute advantage in all other aspects. Even in terms of military strength, the gap was very small. The gap between the main forces of the two sides was only two at most.
Just ten thousand people.
One hundred thousand versus 120,000, this gap is not big, even between the Ming army and the Tang army, it is still very small!
In previous battles, the Tang Army had never had a strength advantage. It was very common to fight one against two, or even three against four.
In the Battle of Yangzhou, facing the 100,000 Ming Army with complete city defenses, the Tang Army was able to defeat the Ming Army with only 60,000 troops and won the Battle of Yangzhou.
But now, the Ming army's strength advantage is only a pitiful 10,000 or 20,000 men, far from the double or even three or four times strength advantage of the past.
Even to a certain extent, in this battle, the Ming army did not have a military advantage at all, but was at a military disadvantage.
With such a huge gap between the two sides, it is not that it is completely impossible for the Ming army to win, but the chance is very slim, so slim that the Ming army itself has lost confidence.
Emperor Zhengde closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he ordered 20,000 people from the Chinese Army to be sent to the right wing to support him!
The current right-wing troops were facing a fierce attack by the Tang Dynasty Army of 20,000 people and were almost defeated. Although it had not yet completely collapsed, if reinforcements were not carried out, I am afraid that it would not be far away from complete collapse.
"When will the Tatar cavalry arrive?" Emperor Zhengde asked. Although his expression was calm, there was already a hint of urgency.
"The Tatars are still ten miles away!" a trusted general next to him immediately replied.
Hearing this, Emperor Zhengde frowned slightly!
In this battle, he was also very clear that his more than 100,000 infantrymen could not stop the Tang army's attack. What he could do was to delay as much time as possible, and hold back the puppet Tang thief army so that the Tatars could
The Tatar cavalry creates opportunities to charge!
Yes, this battle was not fought by the Ming army alone, but also by the Tatars!
The Tatar cavalry, led by Anda Khan, had already appeared ten miles away, but they did not continue to enter the battlefield immediately, but stopped. Even Emperor Zhengde could guess the Tatars
The Tatars must have wanted to make both the Ming and Tang armies suffer, and then come back to take advantage.
but!!
At this time, Zhengde said to a trusted general beside him: "Go there in person and tell the Tatars that the mutual defeat they want is no longer possible. If they don't come over, our army will be completely defeated.
, they will need to face the puppet Tang bandits alone!"
Hearing Zhengde's words, this confidant was also shocked. He did not expect that Emperor Zhengde would say such pessimistic words. Even he could see that today's battle was very dangerous for the Ming army and they wanted to win.
There is almost no hope, but it should be possible to maintain the situation barely.
After all, their Ming army has a main force of 120,000, and there are more than 30,000 young and strong civilians, for a total of more than 150,000.
However, according to Emperor Zhengde, they didn't even have a chance to lose both sides with the puppet Tang rebels!
"Your Majesty..." This man wanted to say something else, but Emperor Zhengde waved his hand: "What are you waiting for?"
The man immediately said: "My lord, I obey the order!"
Immediately, this man got on his horse and galloped, and took the people himself to the Tatar cavalry camp to find Anda Khan!
Li Xuan naturally didn't know what Emperor Zhengde was doing. Although he could see Emperor Zhengde's side through the telescope, he could only see a figure, just like Emperor Zhengde looked at him, but he wanted to
It is absolutely impossible to know what Emperor Zhengde did.
However, when Emperor Zhengde asked the Tatars to send troops, Li Xuan was already prepared to guard against the Tatar cavalry!
The scout cavalry has already reported that the Tatar cavalry is five kilometers away. For the cavalry, these five kilometers, even if it is a large-scale operation, will only take half an hour at most. After all, this is not a slow march.
, but a formal combat operation.
If the Tatars wanted to, they could quickly rush to the battlefield on their spare horses and then put on their war horses to join the battle.
So even though the attack had already begun, Li Xuan still had a strategic reserve in his hands, including the 9th Infantry Division, the Guards, and two assault battalions.
The total strength of this reserve force exceeds 30,000!
They are used to deal with the Tatar cavalry!
And when the time comes, the mission of this strategic reserve is not to defeat the Tatar cavalry. They only need to stop the Tatar cavalry so that they will be wary and unable to support the Ming army. That will be enough!
The actual number of troops participating in the duel with the Ming army was less than 70,000!
This was also the reason why Li Xuan did not launch an all-out attack immediately, but only launched an attack on the left wing. To put it nicely, it was due to caution, but to put it badly, it was due to insufficient troops.
However, the left wing troops with the 6th Infantry Division as the core still killed the Ming army's right wing and were completely defeated.
The left wing of the Tang Army faced the right wing of the Ming Army, and ended with a great victory for the left wing of the Tang Army.
Of course, for today's decisive battle, the failure of the Ming army's right wing does not mean the defeat of the entire front. This is a decisive battle involving a total of more than 200,000 people. It is impossible to directly defeat the defeat of a single army.
Determining victory or defeat.
The attack of the Tang Army is still continuing. The Tang Army's left wing, led by the 6th Infantry Division, has more than 20,000 men. They are continuing to expand their advantage. They have defeated the Ming Army's formations one after another. Although the Ming Army's right wing tried to rebuild the defense line and got the center.
After the reinforcements of 20,000 troops, it was still difficult to resist.
Seeing that the left wing had achieved a breakthrough, Lieutenant General Lei Wan suggested on the spot that the heavy artillery troops should be deployed forward, directly to the hills behind the 6th Infantry Division, and then use the advantage of being in a commanding position to cover the enemy's center with artillery fire.
position.
Li Xuan nodded and approved the suggestion!
In fact, although Li Xuan was the one who issued the order in today's battle, it was not him who actually directed the battle, but the staff team headed by Lieutenant General Lei Wan.
At this moment, behind Li Xuan, a team of dozens of senior combat staff members were constantly analyzing the situation on the battlefield, making different adjustments, and summarizing them to Li Xuan.
All Li Xuan has to do is give orders!
Otherwise, with Li Xuan's own military talent, it would actually be difficult for him to command such a large-scale battle.
After all, the battlefield is changing rapidly, and there are many various tactical adjustments. It is definitely not just for Li Xuan to issue an order, charge the whole army, and then rush forward all at once. If you rush forward recklessly like this, you are likely to be killed.
The Ming army counterattacked.
A large number of artillery pieces, especially the 24-pound howitzers, began to be quickly deployed forward. The artillery units that had been prepared long ago were dragged by horses and pushed by the artillerymen in the rear. They carried not only the artillery itself, but also
Ammunition truck loaded with artillery shells.
The artillery troops moved very quickly. In order to assist the artillery troops in establishing new artillery positions, the engineering troops also stepped forward under artillery fire, assisted the artillery troops in moving the artillery up the hill, and then built the artillery positions.
During this process, the draft horses, which usually need to be carefully cared for, were driven ruthlessly. In order to let the horses unleash their greater potential, the artillerymen pulled up the artillery and whipped the draft horses continuously until these heavy artillery were used.
By the time we moved up a few hills, many of the draft horses were already foaming at the mouth from exhaustion.
But at this critical moment, no one cares about this anymore!
It takes a thousand days to raise an army, but it takes a while to use it. The same is true for military horses!
The treatment of military horses was even better than that of soldiers. The Tang Army paid such a high price to raise these military horses in order to use them on the battlefield.
After more than fifty artillery pieces, half of which were 24-pound howitzers, were deployed, the artillerymen, although already very tired, still started loading and preparing for bombardment.
At this time, the person commanding the forward artillery was Major General Chen Tufu!
After Chen Tufu switched to artillery, he has been active on the front line and frequently held various senior artillery positions. Today, Chen Tufu's position is the commander of the First Artillery Group.
This first artillery group was naturally set up specifically for this battle, and Chen Tufu's official position was very interesting. He was actually the commander of the newly established 12th Infantry Division!
This is also the final career path for many artillery generals. After reaching a certain level in the artillery force, they will be directly transferred to the senior commander of the infantry unit. The commander of the artillery regiment will be transferred to deputy division commander, chief of staff, etc.
There are many examples of group leaders.
The Twelfth Infantry Division was temporarily established before Li Xuan went north. It was part of the Tang Army's new round of military expansion plan in the summer of the sixth year of Xuanping, but the framework had not yet been established. Li Xuan was
I personally marched north.
And Li Xuan simply brought this man up and asked him to command the First Artillery Group, part of the artillery unit.
"Fire the gun, fuck him!" Butcher Chen roared loudly, looking very high-spirited!
When Butcher Chen commanded dozens of artillery pieces and fired the shells into the Ming army's center several hundred meters away, the Ming army's center was also shaken!
Emperor Zhengde looked at the continuous falling artillery shells arrayed in front of his Chinese army, and then looked at the counterattack of his own artillery units. He felt both angry and helpless in his heart!
The artillery of our own Chinese army is also counterattacking, but the effect of the counterattack is not much!
It's not pleasant to be passively beaten all the time like this. If it goes on for a long time, my central army may follow in the footsteps of the right wing.
He immediately said to the people beside him: "Let the Beijing cavalry dispatch to attack the artillery position on the left wing of the puppet Tang Dynasty. We must capture their artillery position!
After saying that, he turned his attention to the west, which is the direction where the Tatars are, but the Tatars have not come yet!
At the same time, five kilometers away to the west, countless cavalry gathered together. At a glance, it was impossible to see their heads. And at the front of these cavalry, Anda Khan showed hesitation!