Zhu Shuren can certainly understand this sentence, but his generals may not understand it.
Therefore, after the successful attack on the middle road to lure the enemy and the successful sneak attack on the east road, the top generals of the two Ming armies were all even more excited and asked Zhu Shuren to send heavy troops to attack and capture the final Pizhou City, completely destroying Kong Youde's men.
Destroy it!
However, Zhu Shuren felt that the main strategic goal at hand had been achieved, and since it was approaching the depths of winter, the priority should be to reduce troop losses, and there was no need to launch another forceful attack on the enemy who was destined to run out of ammunition and reinforcements.
"Everyone, if Kong Youde is currently stationed in Xuzhou, then Gu will definitely ask you to continue your efforts and break the city as soon as possible. Because Xuzhou is an important place in the four provinces of the Central Plains, and it is rich in resources and people, with both population and money.
But now Xuzhou has been captured by our army, and it is firmly in our hands. Mandahai's first counterattack attempt was also defeated and repelled by our army! We can take advantage of the last two months of winter to conquer the surrounding areas of Xuzhou.
The fence is firmly tied, and if jackals or wild dogs dare to attack, it's a good time to bleed them!
This small county in Pizhou originally had only slight military value, but almost no economic value, and there were no people worth saving in the city. In addition, when our army raided before, General Li Fuming came very quickly, first breaking through several counties along the river in Huaibei, and then
Head north along the Surabaya River to Suqian.
Pizhou was not originally a place where Kong Youde's troops stationed heavy troops all year round, and there was not much food and grass stored in the city. When he learned that Xuzhou might be threatened, he temporarily dispatched heavy troops to Pizhou to block the road and prevent General Li from advancing along the Surabaya River.
Yes, but we don't want to be surrounded by our army's Haeju landing.
In this case, Pizhou's original military rations will support an army of 30,000, but they will definitely starve to death within two or three months! In this case, will Shandong Hegui and Bo's Qing army be saved?
If we come to the rescue, it is freezing cold in the middle of winter, and taking the initiative to attack in the field will be extremely detrimental to the Qing army and cause heavy losses. Our army is just waiting for work. If we do not rescue, it will further severely damage the morale of the Tatars and Han people in the north!
Through the siege of Pizhou in the past few months, we must tell all the remaining northern Han people not to sacrifice their lives for the Tatars! Otherwise, even if they are old traitors who have followed them for fifteen or twenty years, the Tatars will not be able to do anything when the crisis comes.
Will come to the rescue!
Our army can save the lives of more soldiers, confront the Tatars who waste money and food, bleed the Tatars all winter, and finally annihilate the 30,000 thieves in Pizhou City in vain, isn't it good!"
Zhu Shuren's superior advice finally allowed Cao Bianjiao, Huang Degong and Li Fuming, who were eager to fight, to recognize this problem clearly.
The coldest time of the year is not conducive to long-distance attacks. The Ming army's large-scale offensive in Longwu for three years has basically ended at this point.
Although the Tatars would occasionally take advantage of the midwinter to attack, the Tatars even liked the fact that the Yellow and Huaihe rivers froze in the midwinter, allowing their horses to gallop directly across the rivers, which even made up for the weakness of their naval forces.
But this advantage is obviously only valid for northerners. The current main force of the Ming Dynasty is mainly southerners, and the combat method is mainly southern style. It also relies heavily on the navy. Any logistics supply river is cut off and frozen, or at least it is frozen.
If the water level drops and can no longer support shipping, it will have adverse effects.
Under such a situation, the Ming army really had no plans to launch a large-scale offensive in the next two months at the end of the year, so it just wanted to let the Qing army bleed.
In view of the fact that Zhu Shuren's prestige in the Ming army is already as high as the sky, since he has set this tone, of course the generals will not object. Everyone knows that they must be relaxed and strictly implemented.
However, what Zhu Shuren did not expect was that just a few days after he issued the above instructions to the Central Route Army and the East Route Army, a huge victory was reported from the West Route battlefield that he had been neglecting.
good news.
"Your Majesty! Urgent report from Ruyang, Caizhou! Governor Zhang has a great victory over Azige! The Qing army on the west route has also been defeated!"
The messenger came east along the Huaihe River from Xinyang Prefecture, traveling hundreds of miles a day to deliver the good news. When Zhu Shuren received it, they were all surprised.
"What? My cousin was able to directly repel Azig with only the power of the Henan army and part of the Huguang army? I originally planned to let Azig wear out for a while, but after the soldiers were tired, I decided to do something
The great detour around Wei to rescue Zhao forced them to retreat, and then they took advantage of the victory to pursue them!"
Zhu Shuren was shocked and incomprehensible. While unfolding the military report, he murmured, "How did you win?"
At that time, Zhu Shuren was surrounded by several generals who were attending regular military meetings, and they were all curious and eager to know as soon as possible.
The messenger didn't know much about the details, and he didn't dare to read the victory report in advance, so he only had a rough idea. He quickly explained in general that it turned out that Zhu Shuren assigned the rifle sniper team to Zhang Huangyan's route and established it on the battlefield.
The unexpected success caused the Qing army on the west route to retreat at an accelerated pace.
…
The timeline goes back more than half a month to the Huaixi battlefield of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in early November, where Zhang Huangyan and Azig faced off in Xinyang, Ruyang, Shangcai and other places.
The Ming army was actually very familiar with this battlefield, because in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, when Zhu Shuren himself was still the governor of Huguang, he fought a decisive battle with Li Zicheng here.
In the end, Li Zicheng's 200,000 peasant army was wiped out, and Li Zicheng was blinded in one eye with a musketeer team, turning Li Zicheng into a one-eyed dragon just like historical inertia.
Only five years later, the Ming army's commander on this battlefield had changed from Zhu Shuren to Zhang Huangyan, and the combat power, scale, and weapons of the combat troops had also been comprehensively upgraded.
Therefore, there is not much to say about the early stages of this war of attrition, because the progress is not much different from the Zhu-Li War five years ago.
The only change is that the encirclement of Azige is deeper, and more elite cavalry can maneuver through it, completely blocking the Ming army's road across Tongbai Mountain to supply Xinyang and other places.
Zhang Huangyan, on the other hand, can rely on modern fortifications that are much stronger than those used by Zhu Shuren to defend the city, and wait for reinforcements at a lower consumption rate of defense resources, slowly consuming Azige's attack power.
After several years of construction during the truce period of the Ming army, several local core cities such as Xinyang and Shangcai have been fully fortified, and the reserves of firearms and ammunition are also very sufficient, so naturally they can sit back and relax.
After two months of siege at Azig, I gradually became exhausted and paralyzed. I no longer expected to break through quickly, I just wanted to wait for the city's supplies to be exhausted.
So after entering November, as the weather became colder and the roads became more and more difficult to travel, the Qing army had to continue the blockade, which cost more in manpower.
Although there would be no casualties, the cavalry often braved the winter snow to patrol, which also hurt morale. The Ming army did not try to secretly cross Tongbai Mountain to deliver supplies to Xinyang and other cities. In this way, the more useless the Qing army did, the more soldiers
Their complaints became more severe.
Azig also knew the situation and had to moderately reduce the intensity of blockade patrols as the weather got worse. He figured that as long as nothing happened, it would be fine.
Zhang Huangyan always stayed in the fortified city and remained motionless, which made Azig increasingly anxious and underestimating the enemy, and he gradually turned a blind eye to other hidden dangers.
…
Zhang Huangyan in Xinyang City seemed to have done nothing and maintained his position for two or three months, but he actually had hidden strength.
During the previous two-and-a-half-year truce period, the Ming Army had a number of scientific research and development results for new equipment and new weapons. The rifled sniper rifle was one of the inventions with the highest hopes.
Before the war started, Zhu Shuren gave his cousin a lot of support. The entire army only had 700 or 800 finished rifled guns at that time. He gave Zhang Huangyan, the Henan Army and the Huguang Army alone a total of nearly 300 guns. Zhu Shuren's own elite troops
, only five hundred rods were left.
Moreover, Zhu Shuren was always very low-key about the use of this new weapon on the frontal battlefield. At first, he planned to use that thing to snipe Abatai to death.
But Abatai was more cautious at the time, and he was seriously ill before his death, and he did not like to quarrel with the Ming army before the battle, so the Ming army never got the chance to make a sneak attack.
In this case, Zhu Shuren's request for the sniper team was to wait for the field battle to start in full swing, and then to mix it with the fire cover of ordinary smoothbore riflemen to open fire. In this way, the guns and cannons on the battlefield were firing, and no one could
If you don’t know who fired a certain bullet, you won’t suspect that the Ming army has “new equipment with an accurate range that far exceeds the original old weapons.”
The price of such use was that the Ming army never had the opportunity to kill the Qing prince, Baylor, in a super-long-distance sneak attack before the war on the Fengyang battlefield, but it also kept the existence of this weapon secret for another month or two.
.
Moreover, precisely because Zhu Shuren kept a low profile, it caused the Qing army to become even more paralyzed, and it was even less likely that the Ming army would have new weapons.
Zhu Shuren was so cautious, so Zhang Huangyan naturally kept suppressing the performance of this new weapon. It was obvious that he could snipe enemies three hundred steps away when defending the city, but he did not allow the soldiers to fire, and only allowed the enemy to approach the city wall two hundred steps away.
Then shoot inside. This not only hides the strength, but also kills the enemy more efficiently.
All of this created conditions for Zhang Huangyan.
…
On the seventh day of November, the opportunity Zhang Huangyan had been waiting for finally came.
Around those two days, perhaps it was because the original siege troops of the Qing army had been on alert for too long and were exhausted and needed to change their defenses. At the same time, God helped the Ming Dynasty, and the first heavy snowfall fell in Xinyang Prefecture that year.
Under the heavy snowfall, all roads through Tongbai Mountain were completely blocked, and they would have to wait until the snow melted before they could be reopened. As the Qing army was outside the city, the cold protection conditions were definitely not as good as those in the city, so the soldiers became more and more nervous.
If you are slack, ask to change defenses in advance and return to the rear city to camp and rest.
Azig had to personally inspect the siege camps in Xincai, Ruyang, Xinyang and other counties to cheer up the soldiers, and promised to change defenses on time, provide more food and wine, and suppress the trespassers.
In order to facilitate the suppression, Azig's own camp also advanced to Zhenyang County, which is between these three counties.
Zhenyang County is not an important military area, and is relatively remote and poor. However, because of this, the Ming army could not leave heavy troops to defend every county before, so it was abandoned early and was attacked by the Qing army.
This place happens to be not far north of Xinyang, only a few dozen miles away, but it is located in Huaibei, relatively safe, and isolated by the Huaihe River barrier. It snows in the winter, and Azige, as a prince, does not want to camp in the wild, so he moved here
The closest to the battlefield was the county town that had been captured by the Qing army.
During the defense changes in the past few days, the Qing army south of Xinyang City also had some gaps.
Originally, this gap didn't matter - because the road to the south from Xinyang was blocked mainly to prevent the Ming army south of Tongbai Mountain from crossing the Xinyang Valley to come to Xinyang for reinforcements, or to prevent the Xinyang defenders from breaking through the mountains from the south.
Now that the heavy snow has begun to close the mountains, there is no road in the south of the city, so what does it matter if we can't encircle it temporarily?
The only drawback is that it may cause the Ming army to leave the city at this time, and then instead of going south over Tongbai Mountain, they will make a half circle and go north to sneak attack the besieging Qing army on other battlefields.
But this kind of thing is considered suicide in the eyes of the Qing army. They are eager for the Ming army to go out of the city to fight in the field. What should they be wary of?
"These past few days seem to be a good time. The Qing troops are very lax, especially those in the south near Tongbai Mountain. Because of heavy snow and road closures, they are not having a good time. They don't want to stand still in the snow, so many of them are too lazy to evacuate.
Our army also took the opportunity to send harassing troops out of the city to capture some prisoners. They asked Azig whether he had personally inspected various siege camps recently to boost morale. The Qing army's cavalry also dispersed to suppress them.
General Zhu, I'll look at you later. I have maintained and hid all 300 rifled guns in the army until now. In addition to the 2,000 breech-loading double-barrel lances and 1,000 revolvers originally in the army,
All will be allocated to you.
Then gather most of the horses in the army and select 6,000 in good condition. You only select 3,000 cavalry. One man and two horses will charge. See if you can kill a few high-level generals of the Qing army in a sneak attack, or at least attack and rob a few places in the camp.
Enemy troops in the rear.
Anyway, don’t be obsessed with fighting. You have a speed advantage. Even if you are discovered, you won’t be caught up so easily. If you can’t fight hard, just hide quickly. Maybe the Qing army will underestimate the enemy and give you a chance.”
Zhu Wenzhen, who lost half of his hand in Liaodong, had been fighting with the musketeers under Zhu Shuren for four or five years. When he returned from Tashan and Bijia Mountain, he was trusted and used by Zhu Shuren.
So when it comes to large-scale cavalry regiment operations, he may not be as good as Cao Bianjiao and Huang Degong. But for two to three thousand elite musket cavalry, he can definitely command them like an arm.
What's more, the Battle of Xinyang has lasted for two or three months. Other troops are fighting hard every day, but his cavalry troops have been resting. Governor Zhang has not lacked their meat and meals, and their treatment is no worse than those of Paoze who fight on the city wall every day.
It takes a thousand days to raise an army but only a moment. Now of course I have to work hard to go out for a walk.
"Don't worry, Lord Governor! The general will do his best, not only to make great achievements, but also to bring the brothers back as intact as possible!"
After that, he ordered more than 2,000 of the most elite old musketeers and cavalrymen, as well as 800 temporarily recruited elite riflemen, and brought 6,000 war horses, all of them attacked with one man and two horses.
Some people may be surprised: shouldn't it be a pure cavalry unit that comes and goes like the wind? Why are there 800 elite riflemen?
This is about a new set of tactics that Zhu Shuren and Zhang Huangyan worked out for new weapons during the past three years of truce and farming.
As we all know, whether it is the traditional mounted archer, the spray cavalry who comes and goes like the wind on horseback, or the pistol cavalry, they are all pursuing keen observation and fast firing response.
After all, there is no way to pursue shooting accuracy while riding on a bumpy horseback. As long as you see the enemy entering the effective range, it is most important to fire first before the enemy.
Therefore, these arms rarely train to aim and shoot. On the battlefield, they only "shoot by feeling". They don't even have the habit of bringing the gun to their eyes, taking aim and then firing.
Such soldiers are obviously not suitable for using rifled sniper rifles.
After Zhu Shuren and Zhang Huangyan discussed this problem before the war, the solution they proposed was: Stop pursuing comprehensiveness of arms. Since the cavalry is not good at marksmanship, just let the infantry shoot. If you still want to pursue the mobility of this special infantry,
Speed, then let them "enter the battlefield on horseback, then line up as infantry, aim and fire."
To put it bluntly, these rifle snipers are a group of "mounted infantry". The horses are only used to travel and enter the battlefield. When fighting, they still dismount and fight like infantry.
In fact, for a long period of time in the 18th century, Western "dragon cavalry" also used this tactic, and the horses were only used for traveling.
Zhu Wenzhen led such a combined force of 3,000 people. On a snowy night, taking advantage of the gap between the Qing army's defense changes in the south of Xinyang City, he quietly opened the door and left the city, bypassing the powerful enemies on the front line, and started a harassment battle deep behind the enemy lines.
Along the way, Zhu Wenzhen not surprisingly intercepted and killed several groups of Qing army scouts, and roughly figured out the Qing army's deployment. This was also due to the fact that the Qing army had not encountered the Ming army's counterattack for a long time, and the scouts were not alert enough.
high,
In addition, the Ming army's telescopes and observation equipment were more advanced. The soldiers also underwent scientific nutritional conditioning and selected soldiers with particularly strong night vision to serve as scouts, which naturally gave them an advantage in night reconnaissance battles.
I learned that the Qing army had siege camps in Xinyang and the three counties directly north and northeast of Xinyang, and that Azige himself was stationed in Zhenyang County in the middle.
After careful calculation, Zhu Wenzhen decided to divide his troops and select a Qing army siege camp closest to Zhenyang County for a sneak attack. If he was unlucky, he would just kill hundreds of his Tatar soldiers, burn some of the baggage ordnance, and then hurry up
Leap away.
If you are lucky, you can lure the Qing army to pursue them out of the camp, or even make the situation a bit quieter, and lure the Qing army in Zhenyang County to come out of the city for reinforcements. That way you don't have to deal with those camps and city turtle shells.
Zhu Wenzhen's operation was really effective. In other words, this was because the Ming army had been waiting for opportunities and cautiously seeking battles for several months, and finally had enough character.
Opportunities only come to those who are prepared. For those who are unprepared, even if God tells you that there will always be an opportunity in the next few months, you may not be able to catch it.
Zhu Wenzhen's first sneak attack was a Qing army's ferry camp on the Huaihe River located dozens of miles north of Xinyang City. Originally, it was not easy for the Zhu Shuren to successfully attack, but it happened to be snowy in the past few days, and the local Huaihe River was upstream.
, the water dries up in winter and is completely frozen after a sudden drop in temperature.
The Qing army's Dukou stronghold on the north bank of the Huaihe River originally had fortifications facing the shore, because there was no need to be careful on the side facing the Huaihe River, and no one could kill directly from the river.
Now that the river was frozen, the cavalry wrapped their horses' hooves in straw ropes to prevent them from slipping, and rushed across the ice in the dark. The Qing army was unprepared and was immediately robbed and miserably trapped.
Thousands of soldiers were directly killed in the chaos, and they did not even have time to get up. More soldiers fled and collapsed. The key is that the reserves of materials left by the Qing army at the dock and ferry were also burned.
Zhu Wenzhen made a big fuss. After hijacking the camp and killing the scattered defenders, he set fire to as big a place as possible. The fire here could be seen dozens of miles away.
When the troops in the Xinyang siege camp saw that the Huaihe River crossing from the north was burned, they hurriedly sent troops to return for reinforcements. Azige in Zhenyang County was also disturbed in his sleep.
Azig is also a brave and courageous person. He has been feeling aggrieved for several months. His subordinates were accidentally stolen by the Ming army. How can he bear it? He immediately whipped a few subordinates who were slightly responsible with a horsewhip, and then asked for preparations.
Ma, personally lead the army to pursue and suppress this Ming army that does not know whether to live or die.
His subordinates tried to persuade him, but Azig believed that the elite cavalry with red flags he personally led had extraordinary combat power, so there was no need to avoid the battle.
He also insulted the persuaders: "What do you cowards know! Our army stayed in Xinyang, Xincai, Ruyang and other places to besiege the city. The Han army's banners and green camp infantry were mainly Han soldiers and there were fewer cavalry. When encountering such people who do not know how to die, they
How can they catch up with the enemy attack?
Our two red flag elites have been recharging their strength for a long time, if we don’t take this opportunity to pull them out to annihilate the enemy, how will we wait?”
What Azig said is not unreasonable, because most of the infantry was used in previous sieges. The cavalry was not used during the siege, so they could only rest in the rear, be responsible for supervision, and deploy to the second line to control the situation.
leak.
Now the Ming army is attacking with light cavalry. If the red flag is not raised at this time, when will it be replaced?
Azige rushed out with fate and went straight to Minggang Ferry in the north of Xinyang, a ferry village on the north bank of the Huaihe River. Sure enough, he ran into Zhu Wenzhen's three thousand cavalry on the way.
Because it takes time to attack and burn the stronghold, when the two armies met, the whole night had passed long ago, and it was already the morning of the next day.
The Ming army did not fight fiercely all the time. After burning the water village and the dock, they rested for a few hours to regain their energy. They also took the supplies left by the Qing army in the dock camp and picked out meat and vegetables.
After eating and drinking a lot, they regained their morale and waited for reinforcements from the Qing army.
Azig was furious when he saw that the Ming cavalry was so arrogant and did not run away even after the attack. He was still waiting for Qing reinforcements to arrive not far from the scene of the attack:
"This group of southern barbarians only has five or six thousand people at most. There may be one person with two horses, and the number will be even smaller. How dare such a small force be so arrogant? Do you regard me as an elite with a red flag as nothing? Wait a moment
Rest, let the soldiers regain their strength, and prepare to charge!"
Although Azig's words were harsh, he was not out of his mind. He had rushed here in a hurry, but he had been suffering from frustration for the past few months and wanted to find a happy fight.
But when he rushed to the scene, he saw that the Ming army was not in a hurry to escape, but was waiting for work. He also calmed down, knowing that he could not let the Ming army take advantage of physical strength, and should let his troops rest before launching a general attack.
Anyway, the purpose of marching in a hurry is to fear that the enemy will run away. Since the enemies have not run away, why is he in a hurry?
The red flags surrounded them in a half-moon shape, but when they were still about ten miles away from the Ming army, they stopped and reorganized to rest. If the Ming army counterattacked, they would have time to react.
As a result, not long after the red flag stopped, the Ming army on the opposite side moved. Of course, this was not a random movement, but Zhu Wenzhen had carefully observed the Qing cavalry formation with high-power binoculars and found the Azige flag.
"You actually want to rest and recover from the physical exertion of running for dozens of miles? What a God-given opportunity! The whole army is moving slowly towards Azig's location, and 800 cavalry riflemen are leading the way! Act as planned!"
After seeing that the Ming army's cavalry also moved, the Qing army felt as if they were facing a formidable enemy. However, after waiting for a while and seeing that only a few hundred Ming army cavalry were out, the Qing army stopped moving suspiciously.
I'm afraid this is the Ming army's plan to tire out the enemy.
What can such a small number of people do? Isn't it because they want to mobilize tens of thousands of Qing cavalry with the strength of these few hundred people, so that the horsepower and energy of tens of thousands of Qing cavalry are consumed?
The Qing army will soon pay the price for this slowness.
The general of the "Dragon Cavalry" sent by Zhu Wenzhen was named Li Yu. He also withdrew from the battlefields of Tashan and Bijiashan with Zhu Wenzhen.
It's just that Li Yu was a guard of the North Korean Gun Battalion who deserted the secret and turned to the bright side at that time. He was the concubine of the North Korean soldier Cao Li Shibai. He pretended to be his brother Li Yue and went to the Qing Dynasty as a hostage. Later, he took advantage of Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Mingzhen's battle at Bijia Mountain to fake his death.
Surrender to the Ming Dynasty and get rid of it.
There is a saying that in the late Ming Dynasty, due to the strict ban on civilian firearms in the country, the accuracy of the cannon soldiers at that time was really not as good as that of the North Korean cannon battalions. This is also supported by historical data.
In the early years, North Korea needed to guard against the Tatars. In addition, North Korea rarely changed dynasties and was not afraid of rebellion by military generals with different surnames and mud-legged soldiers, so it allowed people to hunt with blunderbuss.
With the guarantee of long-term training, there are also many veteran hunters who have been hunting with bird guns for more than ten years, and there are many bird gun players with good marksmanship. It’s just that the other arms of North Korea are really rubbish, so they were replaced by Japanese soldiers in the Ming and Qing armies.
The army is relatively vulnerable.
Zhu Shuren is not a narrow-minded person. For useful people who are willing to take refuge in him, even if they are foreigners, he will use them if they can.
So after the sniper rifle unit appeared, he also selected several hundred people with good marksmanship from the North Korean musket camp that brought back more than a thousand people when Li Yu surrendered, and intensively trained them.
In fact, the North Korean cannon battalion was dragged back and forth to fight in the Ming Dynasty, and now there are only seven or eight hundred people left alive. The North Korean veterans are already dying one by one, and they will not go out of their way to replenish them.
When Zhu Shuren was looking for troops to expand the army, he also recruited Han people. Koreans were only in stock, and the more they were used, the fewer they were.
Even so, Zhu Shuren has also set an unwritten rule. Now the first batch of rifle sniper soldiers, Koreans can only account for a small half. In the future, as weapons production expands, the number of Koreans must be controlled to less than 30%, and gradually reduce. In the future,
In peacetime, when resources are abundant, we can slowly train Han sharpshooters.
When it comes to battlefield use, the Han generals will also secretly defend themselves. For example, this time they sent 800 dragoons, only 300 rifle snipers, and 500 more with new Wuchang-made muskets and bayonets.
The sniper's musket is not convenient for mounting a bayonet, so he has no close combat capability. There is no fear that they will not obey the command of the battle supervisor.
…
With the help of the telescope, Li Yu had long locked Azig's flag formation and was approaching slowly, lest Azig would be alert in advance. When the two armies were 500 steps apart, Li Yu further slowed down.
, making a gesture of slowing down and stopping at any time, which made the Qing generals on the opposite side increasingly confused.
What the hell is going on?
Azig was also puzzled. Seeing that the two Ming cavalry units were far apart, and that the small force in front was miles away from the thousands of troops and horses behind them, he finally decided to test it out and ordered a few
Cavalry generals under his command:
"Zhuo Butai and Sha Erhu, you bring two Jia La, attack from the left and right, and eat the enemy's thousands of cavalry first! But if they pretend to be defeated and escape to lure the enemy, and try to join the main force, don't pursue them deeply! Beware of any dangers.
Fraud!"
"I will obey the order of the prince!" Zhuo Butai and Sha'er Hujun roared in agreement, and turned around to activate their cavalry to attack.
However, just when Azig gave the order, Li Yu on the opposite side was already ready. At this time, the two sides were still more than 400 steps apart. It is no wonder that Azig was not on guard.
Li Yu's 300 rifled snipers were already stationed in three columns, crouching in the front row. They were told to take aim at Azig in advance and then fire in batches as ordered.
Shooting in batches is also to avoid wasting energy. If the bullets fired at Azig are blocked by the guards, if they fire together, more bullets may be blocked before the guard who was shot has time to fall down.
A slight interval of three to five seconds is the best shooting interval, and it will not allow the Qing army to react and immediately protect Azig.
"There are five breaths between each row. Fire when ordered! The first row fires!"
Li Yu himself was taking aim with his rifled gun, and asked the adjutant next to him to shout the command, and then they fired together.
"Bang bang bang!"
The Qing army formation on the opposite side was slightly startled, but fortunately they were used to seeing muskets. It was just that the original muskets did not have such a long range, and they did not expect to be able to attack from such a distance. When I saw the Ming army cavalry dismounting in formation, I thought it was something else.
What a trick to lure the enemy.
However, just a few seconds later, there was a commotion in the middle of the Qing army. Countless people crowded with each other, and more than ten horsemen fell off their horses, or various wailings were heard.
No time was wasted in the sniper operation. Within a few seconds, all three hundred rifled rifles were shot empty.
"Uh ah -" Azig howled miserably, his face full of disbelief, and he covered his chest and abdomen with his hands, but blood still gurgled uncontrollably from under the fine double armor.
Three hundred sniper bullets instantly killed the Qing guards and more than ten generals around Azig, and several others were injured. Calculating the probability, it would take more than a dozen bullets to kill one of them. This was a sharpshooter who had been trained for a long time.
It's hard not to lament that this weapon's first actual combat is still too inexperienced after all.
But compared with the original old-fashioned weapons, this accuracy and range have exceeded the imagination of the Qing army.
Moreover, everyone is aiming at Azig. The closer a person is to Azig, the more bullets they may get. For example, the two people who were just listening to the generals, Jia La Er Zhen Zhuo Butai and Sha Er Hu,
He was shot three times and twice respectively.
As for Azig, who was the most cared for, he could be regarded as a capable person who worked extra hard. The number of bullets he received was exactly as many as those of the two subordinates who followed the order combined, and he was hit by five shots.
Unfortunately, there were no direct headshots or hits to the heart, so Azig might be able to hold on for a moment and a half before dying due to organ failure or crazy blood loss. He couldn't die on the spot within a few seconds.
But this is definitely a fatal injury, there is no doubt about it.
"Azig has been hit! God bless the Ming Dynasty! Enough is enough! All troops mount up, don't be reluctant to fight! Meet Zhu Junmen quickly!"
After Li Yu confirmed the results of the battle through the telescope, of course he would not wait for the Qing army to retaliate, and directly mounted the army and ran away in a flash of smoke.
The main force of the Qing army that is left in chaos should be left to Zhu Wenzhen to take care of it. If you can get a vote, get a vote. If you can't get it, don't be reluctant to fight. Just look for another fighter opportunity.
Azig is dead, are you still worried that the Qing army in Huaixi will not be in chaos?
——
PS: I can’t help it. Yesterday it was 4,500 words, and today it is 8,000 words.
It’s not that I don’t want to break it down evenly into 6,000 words per day, but the fact is that I still have to focus on plot advancement when dividing chapters. I always have to finish a small plot every day, and push the main line a little bit.
So, there are pros and cons, so be it. I will go to the out-of-chapter training class to further my studies in the future.