The dust was flying in the distance. In the blink of an eye, it was already a cloud that covered the sky and sun. It quickly approached, and a deafening rumble came from the ears.
This is true.
Zhao Xi went to see this team of cavalry again...except for the leading rows, which were relatively tall horses, the rest were almost like donkeys...these were short-footed horses, and many of them were of this type in Guangnan.
Just a few rows ahead...
"There are wild horses in the front row, which should be transported by sea ships. The Great Xia cavalry also has wild horses..."
Di Qing likes horses, and there is no one in the Western Army who doesn't like horses. But His Highness, the Crown Prince, seems to pay more attention to people's footsteps and does not value cavalry very much.
It's not that Zhao Xi doesn't value it, but he adapts to local conditions. Given the situation of the country, if he wants to train cavalry that can dominate the world... let alone his father-in-law, he will sternly refuse.
I have no choice but to choose footwork. Everyone knows that humans cannot compete with horses, but there is nothing we can do about it.
When it comes to cavalry versus infantry, infantry has inherent flaws in mobility. Even pony cavalry cannot compete with infantry.
The escort battalion is not enough, even using gun barrels with bayonets to form a horse-repelling formation will not work.
Zhao Xi never thought about confronting the cavalry. His philosophy has always been to effectively attack the enemy while ensuring safety, and it is best to destroy the enemy on the way to attack.
For example, now, there are more than 10,000 soldiers. Except for a few naturally powerful soldiers in the guard camp, they have been taking turns carrying tigers and squatting with cannons. The entire team does not have large-scale attack equipment.
That is, each person carries a varying number of bamboo gunpowder bombs.
The effective range of manganese steel muskets is only twenty or thirty meters, which is the distance of a cavalry charge. Even if it is a round fire, it may be damaged.
Zhao Xi couldn't bear to leave. The guard camp was not only precious to him, but also to the country.
Therefore, when Zhao Xi arrived at the ambush site, he called his soldiers to find tree trunks as thick as an arm, and connected the two trees with rattan to make a simple launching device.
The fuse time of the gunpowder bomb has been determined. It only takes a few tests to basically grasp the launch timing.
The ambush prepared by Zhao Xi was still based on surprise.
"Cut in the middle, focus on taking care of the rear team, and reduce its combat effectiveness as the first priority!"
The ambush here gave the impression to the reinforcements that...Langsong had fallen. Therefore, even if the front team was spared, once the battle started, the front team would not consider supporting Langsong, but would retreat towards Guangyuan.
When the first gunpowder bomb flew down the mountainside, followed by another explosion of gunpowder bombs, what was the front and rear ranks? The entire cavalry team was in chaos.
It wasn't the cavalry who wanted to cause chaos, it was the horses, and the pony had never heard the sound of gunpowder shells.
This is not the rounds of musket fire in Quy Nhon Pu. Even in panic, people can still find danger and avoid it. This is a horse. The horse is frightened. It has no ability to judge and can only run around...
The entire cavalry team was in chaos. The horses were not controlled by the knights at all, and they were just galloping wildly.
Alas, the real surprise was not the ambush, but the effect of the gunpowder bombs on the horses... Once the gunpowder bombs became widely known, I am afraid that this effect will be reduced or even disappear.
Zhao Xi even regretted using this bamboo gunpowder bullet against Annan. If he had used it against Daxia and Daliao...
"Shuai Di, how is the communication between Annan and Daxia and Liao?"
"Your Highness is worried that the gunpowder bomb will be known to him?"
"Shuai Di, to be honest, Annan is nothing to worry about because the country is suffering from scabies. The country's biggest enemies are Liao and Xia."
"If the gunpowder bullets are known to them, the effectiveness of their use will be reduced, especially the effect on cavalry. If so, Xi and Zirong will make a mistake this time by taking action before the battle."
"Your Highness is overly worried. Even if Liao Xia knew that there was no formula for making gunpowder ammunition, he would not be able to conduct targeted training for the cavalry and horses."
I hope it's really what Di Qing said! Zhao Xi doesn't have any hope.
In terms of purification technology, no one can do it better than me. If it is a pure gunpowder bomb... Not to mention Zeng Gongliang's "Martial Classics General Essentials" is all over the streets, but Taoist Tianlei is also
Didn't it just show up.
Achieving such an effect of gunpowder bombs is probably almost impossible, if it is targeted training...
Forget it, don’t think about it anymore, let’s wait and see. Let’s consider how to fight this battle first.
How else can we fight? The opponent is already in chaos. The five thousand horses are all frightened, and then they are running around without direction, kicking and jumping from time to time... Anyway, it is a chaos.
In fact, unless the gunpowder bullet hits a person or a horse and is not hit, the actual damage caused by the small shock wave is not great.
Especially in this situation, compared to the damage caused by five thousand frightened horses, the gunpowder bombs are really negligible.
The knight insisted on controlling the horse, but the horse wanted to run freely, so at this moment, the knight and the horse lost their cooperation... and became more and more chaotic.
When they saw knights being knocked off their horses one after another, the soldiers were reluctant to fire any more gunpowder bombs.
At this time, we can see the difference between the escort battalion and the Western Army.
The guard camp can only obey. As long as Zhao Xi does not order to stop, the attack should continue. As for the horses, that is not what they should consider.
"Vice General Yang, why did you stop attacking?"
"Your Highness, that is a war horse..."
"Since we know it is a war horse, how can we not understand the cavalry's ability to control the war horse? Once the firing of gunpowder shells decreases, are you sure that the cavalry cannot control the war horse and escape?"
If the cavalry flees because the horses are running wild and the soldiers cannot take care of it, then there is nothing we can do about it. If it is because we reduce the intensity of the attack so that the Annan cavalry can slow down and organize the team to break out, then it is unjustifiable!
Yang Wenguang took a regretful look, and then looked at Di Qing who was doing the same...he went to supervise the battle again.
The purpose of his running over was to ask His Highness the Crown Prince to order the attack to stop and for the soldiers to charge. It would be best to collect some war horses.
Unexpectedly, before he opened his mouth, he was scolded by His Highness and had to urge the soldiers to continue firing gunpowder bombs.
"Order each city to dispatch soldiers and gather the scattered horses..."
The battle situation is decided. Although Zhao Xi has asked to focus on the rear team, it is still impossible to keep all 5,000 cavalry here.
The so-called casualties, those actually killed by gunpowder bombs, were not half of those trampled by war horses.
In fact, only a few rounds of gunpowder bombs were fired. Zhao Xi counted silently, and with a combination of fast hands, he could only shoot out two or three gunpowder bombs at most.
This is because the gunpowder bombs have been tied to the wooden sticks made into arrow shafts earlier. Just like this, bending the tree trunk, adjusting the direction, and calculating the fuse time to launch are all very time-consuming.
Even at this speed, it is almost enough for two cavalrymen in this team.
If in later generations, the grenade was operated like this, it was considered an indiscriminate and full-coverage bombing, and there would be absolutely no possibility of survival.