I want to be emperor

Chapter 448 This is not a charge but suicide
More than 40 cannons of the Chu Army opened fire one after another. It is naturally impossible to carry out any overly precise shelling at such a long distance. However, there are too many cavalry in the Ming Army, and the overall target is also very large, so it is only necessary to cover the shelling to obtain effective damage.

In fact, if the cavalry of the Ming army hadn't used the undulating low mountains to block the shooting range of the Chu army's artillery, they would have received the shelling of the Chu army's nine-jin field artillery more than 1000 meters away.

If it hadn't been for them to enter 800 meters before the first wave of shelling by the Chu army came.

However, even the shelling 800 meters away still made the Ming cavalry on the opposite side feel tremendous pressure.

These Ming army cavalry had just turned over a low slope when they were bombarded by the Chu army, and many cavalry were immediately killed by solid shells.

The leading Ming army cavalry general looked behind him, but he didn't make any changes. Instead, he let the cavalry under his command stabilize and continue to move forward at a fast pace.

He couldn't even make the horse speed up and rush over quickly.

Because the formation needs to be maintained!
Be it ancient warfare or line warfare, maintaining formation is a very important basic tactical requirement.

One of the important purposes of maintaining formation is to let the brave go up with the timid soldiers...

Sun Tzu's Art of War says: The brave must not advance alone, and the cowardly must not retreat alone.

This is why the Chu army put so much emphasis on the formation, even going through extremely strict military laws to maintain the formation.

The Ming army cavalry general on the opposite side wanted to continue to maintain the formation, so he only let the cavalry continue to move forward at a fast pace...

Continuing to use quick steps is not only related to maintaining the formation requirements, but also related to maintaining the physical fitness of the horse.

The physical strength of the war horses is limited, and at the same time, quite a few of these Ming army cavalry are still wearing armor. Even if the armor they wear is not super-heavy armor, the armor and weapons weigh dozens of catties.

The horses of the cavalry of the Ming army are basically Mongolian horses, and the shoulder height is generally only about 1.2 meters. It is quite difficult to run with a fully armed cavalry. Before running to the front of the enemy's formation, the war horse had to get tired and lie down.

This kind of dwarf Mongolian horse is not suitable for use as a war horse according to the military concept after the nineteenth century.

It is not suitable to use horses even as unarmored light cavalry, let alone as armored heavy cavalry.

It's too short.

In the modern cavalry of various countries after the 1.5th century, the horses used by armored heavy cavalry generally have a shoulder height of more than 1.4 meters, and even the horses used by light cavalry without armor are generally more than [-] meters five.

Not to mention Europe, even if the Fuso people engaged in cavalry after the Meiji Restoration, the horses introduced and bred were generally more than 1.5 meters high at the shoulder, and most of their cavalry were not as tall as the shoulders of horses.

Of course, these are the requirements of the cavalry of some countries in later generations for war horses, and these war horses are all military horses bred through crossbreeding without exception. The weight-bearing capacity, explosive power and even endurance are maintained at a relatively good balance.

However, in the contemporary 1.4th century, no horse could meet the requirements of the cavalry of later generations... Even the Arabian horse, which is the most suitable for military horses in the contemporary era, generally has a shoulder height of only about 1.5 meters [-], and only a very few outstanding ones can Reach more than [-] meters.

At this time, everyone is still using native horse breeds. For example, cavalry in Central Asia and West Asia use Arabian horses, while East Asia mostly uses Mongolian horses.

Regardless of whether it is the Mongolian cavalry, the cavalry of the Ming army, or the cavalry of the Chu army, they all use typical Mongolian horses, with at most a small amount of horses from the Northwest region.

Riding a warhorse like this, and wearing armor... that's good to run, and you expect them to start sprinting at full speed from hundreds of meters away... This is pure bullshit.

Let's walk fast now. To be honest, it is the choice made by the Ming cavalry on the opposite side in desperation. After all, the Chu army's artillery fire is too powerful, so we can't walk slowly all the way to 500 meters and then walk quickly Walk.

The casualty pressure to bear that way is too great.

After all, the artillery fire faced by the Ming army was much more ferocious, forcing them to start walking at a brisk pace 800 meters away.

When the first wave of cavalry of the Ming army continued to advance at a brisk pace, the artillerymen of the Chu army continued to fire step by step.

Numerous solid shells fell into the formation of Ming army cavalry one after another, which inevitably caused a large number of casualties of Ming army cavalry.

However, even if the cavalry of the Ming army on the opposite side is not an elite cavalry like Guan Ning cavalry, they are elite cavalry in the frontier army, so their ability to withstand artillery fire is relatively large. about.

If this was replaced by ordinary inland cavalry, it would have collapsed long ago.

However, when these Ming army cavalry paid a lot of casualties and reached a distance of about 400 meters, they found that the Chu army's flank troops on the opposite side had already formed a formation and waited for it.

It's just that there seems to be a loophole in this formation!

At this time, there were six huge infantry phalanxes in front of the Ming cavalry generals. These hollow infantry phalanxes seemed to be very thin.

At the same time, there is a large air strike between these hollow infantry phalanxes!
This allowed the generals of the Ming army cavalry to see the hope of breaking through these Chu army infantry phalanxes, no matter how bad they were, they could directly rush through the air strikes, and then attack the artillery positions behind the Chu army.

Therefore, the leading Ming cavalry general ordered to speed up.

Even if this distance is accelerated, it will cause confusion in the formation and consume the horse's physical energy early, but now they can't take care of these.

The Chu army's artillery attack was too fierce, and they had already paid at least two hundred casualties for just such a distance.

If they continued to walk at such a fast pace, they probably would have killed or injured centaurs before they started charging.

It's time to play a fart!

Besides, the cavalry of the Chu bandits had already appeared on the edge of the battlefield, if it was delayed for a few more minutes, the opponent's cavalry would probably come to kill them.

The first wave of cavalry of the Ming army with limited time, didn't care about too many things, and directly charged more than 300 meters away!

Under the gallop of thousands of horses, it seems that the whole earth is shaking!
In the three infantry squares of the First Infantry Regiment under the First Division on the front line, many soldiers had trembling legs and weak hands.

In one of the hollow phalanxes, Lieutenant Colonel Wen Junfeng rode on a horse, squinting his eyes at the Ming cavalry who continued to accelerate and rushed forward.

At the same time, he continued to order: "Get ready for the impact!"

The officers under him also maintained their formation on the front line, and at the same time let the soldiers load their ammunition!
120 meters!

A captain at the front yelled, "Aim!"

After the enemy cavalry entered 80 meters, he decisively ordered: "Fire!"

As soon as the order was given, dozens of gunmen opened fire at the infantry post where he was, followed by a second row of musketeers!
And another infantry post on his side also continued to fire.

The sound of gunshots continued to ring out in the multiple phalanxes of the Chu army, and the smoke began to fill the air!
Amidst the gunpowder smoke, some musketeers in the front row squatted directly on the ground, their musketeers with bayonets already attached to the ground rested on the ground, and stabbed obliquely ahead, acting as short spears.

This is the basic tactic of the hollow phalanx when dealing with cavalry attacks. Some musketeers use muskets as short spearmen, and some musketeers fire.

The musket with a bayonet can prevent the cavalry on the opposite side from rushing in directly, while the musketeers in the back row continue to fire and kill the enemy cavalry.

This is what the current Chu army musketeers do.

Of course, after the Ming army cavalry on the opposite side rushed to this distance, many Ming army cavalry directly bent their bows and shot arrows on the galloping horses. The arrows fell into the infantry phalanx of the Chu army and were killed to a certain extent.

However, even if soldiers in the front row of the Chu army were killed or injured, the musketeers in the back row would quickly step forward to fill their positions to avoid vacancies in the formation.

When the distance between the two sides is shortened, the competition between the two sides is the ability to output firepower and withstand casualties.

Obviously, the number of cavalry of the Ming army on the opposite side was insufficient, and the number of bows and arrows shot was also limited. Although it caused some deaths and injuries to the infantry of the Chu army, it still could not shake the infantry phalanx of the Chu army.

The most important thing is that these Ming army cavalrymen did not know how to face the bayonet forest of the Chu army infantry phalanx, and they did not have the courage to charge directly. They could only go around the space between the phalanxes deliberately left by the Chu army infantry...

Then... the flanking musketeers between the two phalanxes of the Chu army will open fire at the cavalry entering the air raid...

The casualty rate of these Ming cavalrymen suddenly increased...

After rushing in, they didn't run very far, and found that there was another infantry phalanx of the Chu army blocking the way...so they could only continue to turn and detour...

Going around, some Ming army cavalry looked up and saw that there were not many comrades left...

Looking back, the ground is full of casualties of our own cavalry and screaming horses!
Looking forward, it is still the infantry phalanx of the Chu thief...

The Chu thief's bullets kept hitting them from all directions, causing them continuous damage.

Some people were scared and wanted to escape, but they didn't know where to flee. They could only circle around in the Chu army's phalanx, and were finally hit by bullets and fell down.

The desperate Ming army turned their horses and rushed directly towards the infantry formation of the Chu army.

There is no doubt that this is a suicide charge. Although it can kill a few soldiers of the Chu army, but at the same time, he himself will be beaten into a hedgehog by the bayonet forest...

At the same time, Hong Chengchou, who was watching the battle from the rear, staggered, and then fell limply on the ground... He muttered: "This is impossible... Impossible..."

Even in the Chu army's rear highland headquarters, Li Chengtong couldn't help but open his mouth half-opened when he watched the scene of more than 1000 cavalrymen of the Ming army attacking the infantry phalanx, but he didn't say a word for a long time .

On the contrary, the adjutant beside him murmured in a shocked tone: "This is a charge, this is obviously suicide..."

(End of this chapter)