Chapter 880: Victory belongs to the King of Tang Dynasty
Just now, Emperor Zhengde's envoy found Ada Khan and truthfully conveyed Emperor Zhengde's words.
But in fact, he did not need Zhengde's envoy to come. He had already received a report from his own reconnaissance cavalry, indicating that the situation of the army was very bad. If he did not attack, the Ming army would probably be finished first.
But attacking now would go against his usual thoughts!
The purpose of Anda Khan leading his army to go south was definitely not to help the Ming Dynasty fight against the Tang army. The biggest purpose was to take the opportunity to go south and try to repeat what happened when the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty went south.
In order to ensure that this goal can be achieved, he wanted to attack when the Ming and Tang armies were both hurt, and then sweep the Tang and Ming armies. As long as he could do it, he dared not say anything else. But in the northern region, the Tatars
The cavalry will be invincible.
He had previously sent Wanqi southward to assist the Ming army in containing and attracting the Tang army's strength for this reason. It was not because he wanted to completely cut off the Tang army's supply line and cause the Tang army's complete collapse as the Ming army expected.
It's a pity that the Wanqi he sent failed!
To be honest, from the words of the remnant soldiers who returned from the front line defeat, he could not understand the defeat in the Liangshanji Battle at all!
Because in his opinion, in the Battle of Liangshanji, Buzhigud did not make any mistakes in his tactical choices. Even if he was present at the time, he would still fight like this.
However, the expedition of thousands of cavalry to the south failed. Not only did they fail, but they also lost troops. The loss of four thousand cavalry made him heartbroken!
What's more important is that the Tatar cavalry who escaped, including Buzgud, have not yet figured out how the battle failed. They only said that the Tang army's guns and cannons were sharp, but what specific sharp methods were used?
, they couldn’t tell for a while.
As for how the confrontation between the cavalry on both sides failed, that is even more of a mystery!
Because after the defeat, Burgeud didn't know how his 6,000 cavalry failed to counteract the Tang army's less than 2,000 cavalry!
Buzhigude couldn't figure it out himself, and Anda Khan couldn't analyze it just from his words. In the end, like Buzhigude, he decided that the Tang army's guns were too sharp.
But even though the Tang army's guns were sharp, Ada Khan was still confident!
Therefore, what he is hesitating and worrying about now is not that he cannot defeat the Tang Army. As long as he is willing, he can lead the remaining 50,000 cavalry to fight. Even if he cannot directly defeat the Tang Army, he can at least contain the tens of thousands of Tang Army. In this way,
Once this happens, the pressure on the Ming army will be reduced, and they may even get a chance to counterattack.
What he really hesitated and worried about was that if he attacked now, the development of things would be out of his control. By then, whether it was the victory of the Tang army or the Ming army, it would not be the result he wanted.
However, if he does not attack now, it is estimated that the Ming army will not be able to hold on. When the Ming army is defeated, he will also be passive.
This is a dilemma!
Anda Khan hesitated for a long time, but finally gritted his teeth and chose to attack!
However, although he promised the Ming army envoys, before the attack, he summoned Buzgud and other Tatar generals, and then passed an order to them, that is, caution should be the priority in this battle.
It is enough to contain the Tang army appropriately, but it is absolutely not allowed to directly launch a large-scale attack!
In order to imitate the unauthorized actions of the subordinate tribes, he strictly ordered all troops to prohibit Shaanxi from attacking without authorization.
Without his personal order, not a single soldier was allowed to attack the Tang army!
This time, his idea was very simple, that is, to still contain part of the Tang army and reduce some of the pressure on the Ming army, but it was only to reduce the pressure on part of the Ming army. It was definitely not to replace the Ming army and become the main force in attacking the Tang army.
.
In this battle, Anda Khan wanted to see both the Tang and Ming armies suffer two hundred casualties!
The main force of the Tatar cavalry will never attack on a large scale until both of them are defeated.
Otherwise, it would easily turn into borrowing a knife to kill someone, and the person who borrowed the knife was the Ming army, the knife was the Tang army, and the people who were killed were the Tatars!
Anda Khan is not stupid, he knows exactly what he came to do in the south!
But no matter what, the Tatar cavalry was dispatched!
Because the situation on the Ming army's side was still critical, in order to prevent the Ming army from collapsing before they arrived, the Tatar cavalry directly rode on spare horses for a rapid march. Fifty thousand and one hundred thousand horses marched toward the court in a mighty manner.
Depart for Anping Town.
As soon as the Tatar cavalry moved out, the Tang Army's scout cavalry, who was monitoring the Tatars from a distance on the periphery, was already galloping on horseback, relaying the news of the Tatar cavalry's dispatch as soon as possible.
It was only a few kilometers away. Before the scout galloped away, Li Xuan arrived at the news just over ten minutes later!
After receiving the news, Li Xuan did not show any surprise or surprise. The arrival of the Tatar cavalry had already been expected by many generals of the Tang Dynasty, including Li Xuan.
The Guards and the 9th Infantry Division are prepared for them!
Li Xuan immediately gave the order: "Instruct the Guards and the Ninth Infantry Division to prepare for battle and prepare to attack the Tatar cavalry!"
As Li Xuan's order was issued, more than 10,000 Guardsmen slowly entered the battlefield in columns and formed up on the west side of the battlefield. The formation listed was that of gathering at Liangshan with the Fifth Infantry Division.
The formations used when facing the Tatar cavalry in the battle were similar, and they were all typical hollow square formations!
Because the Guards, like the Fifth Infantry Division, are all units equipped with flintlock rifles!
Moreover, the strength of the Guards was actually greater than that of the Fifth Infantry Division at the time.
When the Fifth Infantry Division faced off against the Tatar cavalry commanded by Buzhigud, it actually lacked an infantry regiment and only had two infantry regiments. However, Chen Keqiao at that time was an artillery unit and a musketeer in the baggage unit.
They also gathered together and formed a third temporary phalanx.
As for the Guards, all members are here now, three main infantry regiments, plus a baggage regiment that can be used as combat infantry, and the artillery regiment is also complete. The artillery regiment can all deploy transport troops, especially
The necessary artillery is required to form an infantry battalion of 1,000 men.
Therefore, there were about 14,000 Guards combat infantry fighting on the front line alone, forming four large square formations, and these four large square formations included three small square formations.
Each infantry battalion of the Guards has more people than the army's infantry battalion, reaching 7,000 people. Therefore, the infantry battalion square formation of the Guards is larger and the troops are more dense.
On the left side of the Guards, there are two infantry regiments of the 9th Infantry Division, as well as an auxiliary infantry regiment composed of baggage, artillery and other auxiliary forces. They have listed three large square formations, each large square formation
Inside, there are five more small square formations.
However, the phalanx of the 9th Infantry Division was still equipped with matchlocks and spears, so the phalanx they listed was a four-cornered phalanx, not a hollow phalanx.
Even if they face the same enemy, they have different equipment and use different tactics.
The 5th Infantry Division, the Guards, which uses fusiliers, has upgraded its tactics. When fighting in line, it uses three columns, and when fighting cavalry, it uses a hollow square formation.
The remaining army units still use the traditional six-column tactics when fighting in line, and use a four-corner square formation to fight cavalry.
But when facing cavalry, you must not underestimate this kind of square formation, because although the long-range lethality of the square formation is not as good as the hollow square formation, the presence of a large number of heavy armored spearmen makes the square formation resist the cavalry attack.
, and even more powerful.
The Guards and the 9th Infantry Division set up a standard formation to defend against cavalry on the west side of the battlefield. One square formation after another was a ring inside a ring, almost covering the entire west side of the battlefield.
, if the Tatar cavalry wants to rush over and intervene in the battle between the main force and the Ming army, then they must rush through the interception of the Guards and the 9th Infantry Division.
And can the Tatar cavalry charge over?
The Tatar cavalry are coming, and they are coming even faster than the Tang army expected!
Seeing tens of thousands of Tatar cavalry roaring towards them, even Li Xuan put aside the frontal battlefield and instead held a telescope and cast his sights to the west side of the battlefield, where the Tatar cavalry were.
He hardly needs to worry about the frontal battlefield now. The Sixth Infantry Division's breakthrough on the left wing is still continuing, and when the first artillery group is deployed forward, the Ming army's central army is also hit. In order to get rid of this, the Ming army
In this passive situation, not long ago, about 3,000 Beijing cavalry were dispatched to try to attack the first artillery group.
Naturally, the Tang Army had already expected this. The three infantry battalions of the Sixth Infantry Division, plus the artillery's own musketeers and spearmen, defended about a thousand people, forming two dense lines of defense.
The artillery of the First Artillery Group also gave up the bombardment of the Ming Army's center for the first time. Instead, they loaded shotguns and launched a fierce bombardment against the Ming Army's cavalry who charged in a dense formation!
The shelling of dozens of artillery pieces was just a little uncomfortable for the Ming army's central army, which numbered tens of thousands, but it was impossible to defeat them directly with shelling.
But facing the charge of three thousand Ming army cavalry, the power of these dozens of artillery pieces seemed quite huge!
Just the artillery bombardment endured by the Ming Army on the charge caused the Ming Army to lose at least hundreds of cavalry. Then when the Ming Army cavalry entered the infantry defense line, because the Ming Army cavalry was going to attack the artillery position on the hilltop,
The Tang Army infantry guarding the artillery positions intercepted them halfway up the mountain.
Under such circumstances, it would be very detrimental to the charge of the Ming army's cavalry!
At this time, the artillery position fired rapidly again. The artillery cooperated with each other and directly defeated the Ming cavalry. In the end, the Ming cavalry was forced to retreat.
As a result, the Tang Army almost had an absolute advantage on the frontal battlefield.
On the west side of the battlefield, Li Xuan was a little worried. After all, whether the Guards and the 9th Infantry Division could withstand the attack of the Tatar cavalry was actually unknown.
No matter how arrogant Li Xuan is, he will not think that his side can achieve a guaranteed victory in this situation.
However, Li Xuan did not expect the Guards and the 9th Infantry Division to be able to completely block it. All he wanted was for the Guards and the 9th Infantry Division to buy some time for the main force!
Now, the center and right wing of our own army have launched attacks one after another!
As long as the Guards and the Ninth Infantry Division buy a certain amount of time for the main force, then the victory in today's battle will definitely belong to the Tang Dynasty King Division!