Chapter 135 Decisive Battle of Zhang Xianzhong - Part 1
With sparse volleys of guns, they were unable to suppress the cannon fodder of Zhang Xianzhong's front team that surged up like a tide. Lu Datou's battalion soon fell into hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, with swords drawing blood and guns entering flesh.
Two thousand strong veterans who came from Huangzhou dock workers have served the Shenshu people for three years. In these three years, it was Shen Tongzhi, Shen Futai, Shen Daotai, and Shen Futai who gave them a way to survive.
Allow their families to grow high-yielding crops that they have never seen before, and provide them with overseas fish fry breeding that has fewer fish bones and faster growth, so that they can be able to survive in this apocalyptic year with the conditions of a mere farmer or miner family.
During festivals and festivals, people eat meat.
At this moment, these soldiers were of course extremely brave, and they broke out into a united force that was absolutely impossible to see among the Ming army in other areas.
Among Zhang Xianzhong's troops, the general in charge of the 15,000 Huguang cannon fodder soldiers in the former army was Zhang Hualong, who was originally expected to become the commander-in-chief of the right army of the Daxi regime in two years' time.
Zhang Hualong has no strategic IQ, but he is also a strong general who runs the army strictly and enforces orders and prohibitions. With his encouragement and strict military laws, the 15,000 cannon fodder are now able to advance and retreat well and dare to do so.
charge--
It's not that these soldiers are really brave, but that the mob can count heads anyway. When they find that their own number is many times more than that of the enemy, they become more courageous. Until they encounter negative evidence, this kind of arrogance of bullying can continue.
Go down.
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Zhang Hualong originally thought that even if he was blocked by sporadic firearms, as long as his troops rushed forward, given that the officers and soldiers were always well-behaved and bloodless, they would definitely be able to overwhelm them quickly.
But the result was far beyond his expectation. The musketeers were rushed in front of them. They were not afraid at all. After firing, they continued to fight hand-to-hand with bayonets in their hands, and their positions were tight.
Even if there were crossbowmen from Zhang Xianzhong's army, they did not hesitate to cover up the fire by accidental damage, wounding and killing some musketeers, but there were also comrades in the back row who immediately took up their positions.
Lu Datou himself, who was in charge of the company's defense, and several of his subordinates, Mr. Qian, who was a dock worker, all wielded the long-handled battle ax used by the Turtle Dove Gunman, opening and closing it, like a mad tiger, slashing in a whirlwind.
Ordinary soldiers were impressed by the bravery of officers at all levels and shared the same hatred for the enemy. Every thrust penetrated their arms with strength, from legs to waist, from shoulders to elbows, and they burst out with all their strength. You can tell at a glance
The bayonet skills I practiced over the past two years were not in vain.
"Pfft! Crack! Crack!" The bayonet with the blood groove suddenly penetrated into the flesh, and then was pulled out with a sore sound. The sound effect that is easy to hear in the movie was repeated in reality at this moment.
In the midst of the bloody battle, many junior officers also screamed crazily and unconsciously:
"Damn northern dog! You must die! Brothers, avenge the people who were massacred in Changsha! Don't let go of any of the dogs that serve as dogs for Zhang Gou!"
"Beasts! Bastards! Why are you here to harm us! Brothers, our fellow villagers are watching us! We can't let these bastards harm Huguang!"
Of course they were yelling indiscriminately, and there was no idea of "regional discrimination". They also had no culture, and they just simply felt:
"Even if there are many disasters in the north and you can't survive, then why do you come to the south to massacre the city and harm poor people like us who can still survive? It's not us who are the cause of the failure! We are in Shenfu.
You can live well under Taiwan's benevolent politics, why should you be held hostage to no peace?"
Those with a little more flexible thinking will further their hatred: Even if there is oppression and resistance wherever there is, why can't you rebel and separatist rule on the spot! Why do these damned thieves want to 'float' and cause trouble everywhere! Refund ten thousand yuan
Step, even if you want to be exiled, the grievances have their heads and the debtors have their owners. Do you think that Chongzhen, the dog emperor, is not good enough, so he should flee to Beijing! The excessive taxes levied in Shaanxi and Henan are all spent by the Beijing court!
With this idea in mind, the officers and soldiers became more and more courageous in fighting for the lead. Even if some soldiers were seriously injured, had their hands and feet broken, and were no longer able to assassinate, they would seize the opportunity to bite the opponent with their teeth. Once they bite the opponent, they would not let go until death.
It gave a great shock to the front of Zhang Xianzhong's army.
This is just a simple emotion of defending one's hometown. Especially the recent massacres by Zhang Xianzhong have really inspired many local Huguang soldiers in the Shen family's army to share the same hatred.
Although Chen Shuren had almost no soldiers from Changsha Prefecture and Changde Prefecture under his command, the places where the cities were massacred were not very closely related to the soldiers under his command. At most, they could only be regarded as "the same province but different prefectures".
But everyone can make associations, and the Shen family army also has ideological education work, so whether it is the Huangzhou soldiers or the Wuchang soldiers, it is easy to think that "if Zhang Xianzhong's troops are really harmed by Zhang Xianzhong's troops repeatedly wandering around Huguang, sooner or later their hometown will also be destroyed"
The city will be massacred."
Because Zhang Xianzhong knew that he could not gain a foothold in Huguang, he completely gave up on the people's support and just wanted to rob more property and start his own business elsewhere. This mentality and style has obviously caused a backlash and aroused the local soldiers.
of hatred.
The dock workers under Lu Datou's hatred for Zhang Xianzhong's army was only slightly less than their hatred for the Tatars.
It can only be said that once any force reaches the stage of doomsday madness and begins to massacre the city, even people of the same race may arouse deep hatred.
The soldiers in Lu Datou Camp were shouting for a fierce battle, which soon caused the Huguang cannon fodder troops on the opposite side to have inevitable doubts about their lives. Although during the war, few people would listen to what the enemy was cursing, but the curses
If you fight for a long time, it will still get into your ears more or less.
These new auxiliary army cannon fodder are obviously young men caught locally in Huguang. The older ones are from Xiangyang Prefecture and Yunyang Prefecture. The latest batch are from Changde Prefecture, Yuezhou Prefecture, and Changsha Prefecture. The two groups basically account for half each.
.
Hearing the officers and soldiers on the opposite side baring their teeth and grinning with ferocious assassination expressions, and insulting them as if they were Shaanxi and Henan people, they couldn't help but waver:
Do these officers and soldiers really think that they are protecting Huguang? To prevent the villagers from being robbed and killed by outsiders? Then what are we doing? Is life really easy under Shen Gouguan? These people are really working for Shen Gouguan
?
These ideas are indeed a bit too complicated. On the bloody battlefield, ordinary soldiers do not have time to go through all the above issues.
Moreover, most of these soldiers were from poor backgrounds and could not see things far away, so they had never seen the "benevolent government" in Wuchang Prefecture, Huangzhou Prefecture and other places. They made assumptions based on their original life experience in poor places like Yunyang.
Believe it or not, it is inevitable.
But no matter what, if one or two such thoughts occasionally ran through his mind, Zhang Hualong's cannon fodder army's performance became even worse when he was distracted. Although it had a local numerical advantage of six or seven times, it still had
It was impossible to break through the Shen family's army's defense line for the time being.
The Shen family's army relied on antlers to resist horses and picket fences to maintain their front line with half a stick of incense and one stick of incense. Although the casualties were increasing, their fighting spirit never dropped.
…
After Lu Datou struggled to hold on for about a stick of incense, his pressure finally relaxed a little, because the first batch of reinforcements from the Shen family army had arrived on the battlefield and immediately entered the most intense position of the battle.
The general of the reinforcements was Jiang Shoude, a person from Taiyuan Prefecture, who was also rescued from Liaodong by Zhang Mingzhen and Zheng Chenggong before. He was originally a subordinate of Li Fuming, the commander-in-chief of Shanxi Province, and was a guerrilla official.
This time the Chenshu people divided their forces to besiege the city. Each camp on each side of the city needed to be guarded by a general or a guerrilla-level general, with several battalions under its jurisdiction.
Jiang Shoude was responsible for the guerrillas in the north of the city. He had two battalions under his control. The one in the western section was Lu Datou's battalion.
After the bloody battle just started, Jiang Shoude immediately noticed that the pressure on the eastern battalion was much less, so he personally took the personal guards and a thousand troops transferred from the eastern battalion to Lu Datou in the western section to provide support.
As someone who had fought for several years in Liaodong and saved his life by licking blood from his sword, Jiang Shoude was naturally grateful to Shen Futai and Bo Yuntian for sending a fleet of ships to transport food to rescue them from desperate situations, and he was eager to repay his kindness.
Grace, life-saving grace.
The general who came with him, Zhu Wenzhen, was a cavalry general and was very familiar with Guan Ning's cavalry. He was well versed in cavalry and archery tactics. He was entrusted by the Chenshu people with the important task of cavalry unit commander. Now he has served several times.
Second achievement.
Jiang Shoude saw this and was very envious. He also wanted to kill the enemy and perform meritorious service. Unfortunately, his old brothers were mainly infantry troops and could not perform quick reaction tasks on the battlefield, so they always performed mediocrely.
As troops who had retreated from the Liaodong battlefield, Shen Shuren's "army weaponization transformation" was not their turn at the beginning. Now, there are 50,000 to 60,000 direct troops under Shen Shuren, and the total number of new muskets is only 6,000 to 7,000.
Arms, plus the original bird guns and Lumi guns, the size of the firearms army is less than 10,000 people.
Therefore, at least 80% of the troops in the army still need to use cold weapons to fight. These Liaodong soldiers are all spearmen, and the sword and shield soldiers mainly carry the line. They really don't have much chance to shine.
But today, as Zhang Xianzhong took advantage of the "lack of ammunition" of the army and took the initiative to attack, Jiang Shoude finally got an opportunity for bloody close combat.
Of course he couldn't let it go. As soon as he arrived on the battlefield, he led his troops with high morale and attacked directly on the flank of Zhang Hualong's cannon fodder army, entangled them together.
"Brothers, let these thieves see how capable our nine-border elites are at killing Tatars!"
Jiang Shoude's soldiers and horses were all from the north, mainly from Shanxi, so the morale of "defending their hometown and protecting their fellow villagers" was completely out of the question. They were also fighting as foreign troops.
But as the nine-sided elites who have been fighting for many years, their nerves in facing bloody battles are definitely not comparable to those of the Ming army in the mainland.
Regardless of Zhang Xianzhong's massacre in the mainland since his rebellion in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, this was only based on the troops that had been transferred to Liaodong by Hong Chengchou from the Nine Sides since the thirteenth year of Chongzhen and remained in the Central Plains for Yang Sichang.
, are not that elite.
If the elites from the Nine Sides were transferred back, Zhang Xianzhong would have been beaten like he was in the 11th year of Chongzhen's reign, and would have had to beg for surrender from Xiong Wencan!
When these troops were in Songshan, they still fought back and forth with Huang Taiji. At one time, Cao Bianjiao's cavalry almost broke into Huang Taiji's flag formation. If the cohesion was stronger, all the troops would work together as one and not be wasted by food shortages.
Even if morale is lost, there is still a slight chance for a comeback.
At first, Zhang Hualong saw that the number of reinforcements sent by Jiang Shoude was not large, so he didn't take it seriously. As soon as the opponent entered the battle, he immediately felt great pressure:
How dare these reinforcements dare? There are only more than a thousand people. Instead of staying in the back row as a reserve to fill positions at any time, they directly attack the flanks of our front army?
"Hurry up and fire the arrows! The crossbowmen throw them with all their strength! Don't be afraid of accidentally injuring your own people! Shoot these lunatics to death!" Zhang Hualong's voice was sharp with fear, and he yelled wildly to fire the arrows, regardless of the fact that the front row was already intertwined with each other, fighting together.
It is entirely possible to accidentally injure more of your own people by firing arrows.
In just a few minutes, he has already seen clearly that the support army coming is definitely not easy to deal with! If it can cover one for one, or even two for one without any difference, it will definitely be profitable!
After all, the cannon fodder of the new Huguang annexed army is worthless, but the elites of the Nine Sides are dead one by one.
Zhang Hualong's back row crossbowmen also began to turn around wildly and shoot at the official army reinforcements after receiving the order. However, the official army was not to be outdone. Although there were only more than a thousand people, they still resisted with close combat from the front row, and with crossbows from the back row.
Counter-shooting.
There was a huge difference in the thickness of the military formations between the two sides. Because Jiang Shoude had fewer people, the formation was stretched into a few thin lines. When covered by the rain of arrows with high projectile trajectories, the hit rate was much lower.
Zhang Hualong's military formation on the opposite side was dozens of lines thick, so the army's crossbowmen did not need to consider the distance when they fired, they just needed to cover it casually.
In such a sticky battle situation, the crossbow regained its advantage of projectile. Compared with the musket, which can only aim straight and lose its kinetic energy once it is ejected, the crossbow can at least have its own melee soldiers in the front row to fully carry the line.
In this case, continue remote continuous output.
Moreover, as the elite of the Nine Sides, they originally had a high rate of wearing armor. When they withdrew from Liaodong, several percent of the army had iron-clad cotton armor. After arriving in Huguang, Chen Shuren slightly prepared and upgraded their equipment.
When faced with ordinary bows and arrows, they are even less afraid.
These soldiers who came back from Liaodong all wore armor underneath and a bright red burqa outside. They were also the unified military uniforms of the Shen family army, all uniform.
At first glance, it was not easy to see that the armor was pierced inside, but the people looked bulky. However, after fighting for a while, many people had seven or eight arrows stuck in their bodies. In fact, none of them penetrated the inner armor, but they were only embedded in the hood.
On the robe.
But because of the bright red color of the burqa, it was difficult to see whether there was any bleeding, so the condition was very scary. The newly attached soldiers on the opposite side were inexperienced, so they thought these soldiers were monsters who had no sense of pain and were not afraid of death. After being hit like that
There were many arrows and he shouted for a fierce battle.
However, the cannon fodder of the new auxiliary army did not have iron-clad cotton armor. Only the elites of Zhang Xianzhong's old battalion had certain equipment. Under the indiscriminate coverage of bows and crossbows, Zhang Hualong's troops suffered significantly higher casualties after a while, and their morale gradually declined.
It only took more than 3,000 officers and soldiers to block the entrance, but Zhang Hualong's 15,000 cannon fodder troops were unable to advance. As time went by, morale finally reversed.
Seeing that the situation was not good, Zhang Hualong quickly flew to the rear army to ask Zhang Xianzhong for instructions, and asked the king for permission to invest the Shaanxi and Yu Lao Battalion reserve teams as soon as possible. They could not just rely on the cannon fodder troops to fight.
Zhang Xianzhong's face was livid. After observing for a while, he became decisive, so he ordered another warrior under his command, Ma Weixing, to lead some brothers from the old camp in Henan and lead a fresh reserve force to attack.
Historically, this Ma Weixing was able to become one of the five military commanders in the Daxi regime two years later, and his military skills were quite satisfactory. Historically, Zhang Hualong was the commander-in-chief of the right army, and Ma Weixing was the commander-in-chief of the left army.
After receiving the order, he immediately rushed forward with Henan Laoying.