Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 366

With the slow opening of the gate of the Ming army camp, a thousand Ming soldiers dressed in red cotton armor, wearing hat-shaped wide-brimmed helmets with red tassels on their heads, and wearing iron mesh boots lined up in three rows. They lined up from the camp, and then turned left and right under the guidance of their respective superiors, and soon formed two neat square formations in front of the wide and flat camp.

During the whole process, not a single soldier made a noise, and everyone completed their positions in silence according to the habit formed after countless drills.

After the two phalanxes were lined up, the generals, officers and soldiers remained silent, only dozens of flags of various colors fluttering in the wind under the warm winter sun.

"Damn it! This Ming army is not an easy enemy to deal with! Doesn't it all show how corrupt the army is? But most of them have muskets in their hands!"

Fan, who was standing on a gentle slope by the side of the road and observing the movement of the Ming army camp with a telescope.Deckard cursed under his breath as he watched.

"Mr. Colonel, are we going to implement the tactics we have formulated? Judging from the military appearance, this Ming army is really not easy to deal with!"

Combat staff officer Fan Toff put away the binoculars and asked solemnly.

After observing the situation on the other side, the two majors turned their eyes to Fan in unison following Fan Toff's inquiry.Deckard's face.

"Gentlemen, we are obviously a bit careless this time! We only brought 800 people in total, and we have already lost 16 people this afternoon! And the other party does have a full 1000 people, and the rest seems to be used as a reserve team. I don’t know exactly how much! It turns out that we only heard that most of the Ming army used spears and bows. Unexpectedly, this Ming army was equipped with a large number of muskets. This is a big trouble! Gentlemen, do you have any good suggestions? me?"

Fan.Deckard handed the binoculars to the guards around him, and said in a slightly heavy tone as he walked down the gentle slope.

"Mr. Colonel, I think we should fight according to the plan! The enemy may just be bluffing. How can we test their quality without a firefight? We are soldiers, and we cannot shrink back just because the opponent is strong!"

Major Fan.Feng Traar said in a firm tone.

"I support the major's opinion! Mr. Colonel, we should not be afraid of the enemy!"

Another Major Fan.Lovedett also voiced his opinion.

"Very good! Our goal this time is to defeat the Ming army, wipe out the settlements, and safeguard our Dutch interests in Taiwan! The winner of this battle will definitely be our Dutch army! Now I declare, let's start according to the battle plan!"

After confirming that there were no landmines on the road ahead, the Dutch army assembled and marched towards the Ming army phalanx. The three-pounder field guns with two wooden wheels were installed under the six gun barrel carts, and their respective gunners and loaders The hand drags and pushes and follows behind, and the wooden wheel cart loaded with ammunition is for the aborigines to be responsible for pulling.

"The red-haired ghost came with a cannon! The body of this cannon looks much longer than our Francophone! Wang San, you go and send orders to Hu Lianzi to gather the horse team and prepare to attack the red-haired ghost's cannon team!" !"

Standing on the watchtower, Wu Qun observed the movement of the Dutch army with binoculars. When he spotted the field gun with a long barrel pushed by the Dutch army's rear, he immediately realized a huge potential threat, so he decisively issued an order .

More than half of the [-] war horses originally brought from the mainland had died in the past two years due to unacceptable conditions, and only about [-] horses survived.Those cavalry who had no horses had no choice but to change to gunners.

Hu Yong, the sentinel of the cavalry team, also regarded the remaining war horses as treasures after weeping in distress.Except for Wu Qun who had war horses, Sun Rengui and Chen Dashuan's requests for borrowing horses were resolutely rejected.

Originally, Wu Qun planned to let Hu Yong charge the opponent's pawns when the two sides were in a stalemate, but he immediately changed his original decision after seeing the cannon.

He knew how powerful the cannon was. Although he didn't know the power of the artillery on the other side, the long barrel of the field gun made him feel faintly uneasy.

Under the continuous instructions issued by officers at all levels, the Dutch army began to line up two miles away from the Ming army, and the six artillery pieces stayed three miles away and began to move to the two sides, preparing to establish artillery positions. One thousand aborigines It is sitting or standing in a place far away from the battle to watch the excitement.

The Dutch army adopted a formation commonly used in European battlefields: a phalanx of spears consisting of 250 men in the middle, a phalanx of arquebuses of 250 men on the left and right sides, and a team of 50 heavy musketeers in the middle. The right side listens to the order to step forward at any time.

In the two 500-man phalanxes of the Ming army, there are 50 gunners in six rows of [-] people in the middle, and [-] spearmen on each side are responsible for protection.

This formation was also decided by Wu Qun and the others after conducting countless drills with the soldiers. Most of the original two hundred archers were changed to gunners.

No way, in Taiwan's humid and rainy climate, the longbow is already difficult to maintain and use, so I had to give it up temporarily.

The reason for giving up the sword and shield hand is because they know that the opponent uses firearms, and the shield can no longer provide any shielding effect, and going out will only increase the number of casualties.

"attack!"

With Fan.At Deckard's order, the trumpeter Didi Da Da sounded the bugle.

After the bugle sounded, the phalanx of the Dutch army began to move forward neatly. The two majors were in charge of commanding at both ends of the musket phalanx, while the two phalanxes of the Ming army stayed put and waited for the Dutch army to move forward. attack.

"Raise the gun!"

Chen Dashuan, who was standing at the farthest corner of the phalanx on the right side, gave the order and took the lead in raising the fire blunderbuss whose matchlock had already been ignited. The drummer next to him then beat the snare drum hanging on his waist and abdomen. After a burst of sound, The gunmen in the first three rows of the two phalanxes raised their guns one after another, while the spearmen stood still with their spears in both hands.

The gunners of the Ming army used a three-stage strike formation: the first row kneeled and half-kneeled when shooting, the second row bent forward, and the third row stood upright to aim; The first row fired the guns and squatted down to load, followed by the third row squatting after shooting; the next three rows repeated the actions of the front row, but did not adopt the half-squatting and forward-bending postures.

The phalanx of the Dutch army stopped when it moved to a distance of about a hundred steps from the Ming army.

After a whistle sounded, ten people in a row of fifty heavy muskets in a row of five and a row of ten filed out and lined up from left to right when they reached about twenty steps in front of the square.

Following the command of the leading officer, the heavy musketeers set up a bracket with a fork in their left hand, put the musket on the fork in their right hand, and bent over to aim at the Ming army in the phalanx on the left.

The soldiers in the front row of the Ming army phalanx on the left saw ten black muzzles aimed at themselves from eighty steps away, and they felt a burst of panic in their hearts, and everyone's heartbeat suddenly accelerated.

Some soldiers had dry mouths and pale faces, while others were sweating down their foreheads. The firecrackers held by some soldiers also shook, but none of them dared to make any noise.

"shooting!"

After a cry that sounded very strange to the Ming army, ten heavy muskets fired almost at the same time. With a burst of explosion, a large cloud of white smoke rose up, completely covering this small area.

After the ten heavy musketeers finished fighting, they put away their brackets. They did not look at their own results, but quickly evacuated to both sides in a team of five, while the other team of musketeers had already come out in a file, and soon stood on the ground. At the position of the musketeer just now.

With the sound of screams, two Ming soldiers in the second row fell to the ground and couldn't get up. One soldier was shot in the head and died on the spot, and the other soldier was shot in the shoulder. He squatted down clutching his wound, and under the tremendous pain, the soldier quickly fell to the ground.

Several bunt young men quickly ran to the front along the gap between the gunners, and dragged the two wounded soldiers back to the rear. The two soldiers in the back row stepped forward and filled the space left by the two of them. .

At the same time as all this was completed, the second row of the Dutch army had finished forming, and then the second round of musket fire fired again. Once again, one soldier in the front row of the Ming army was shot and fell to the ground, and the rest of the soldiers in the front row were already in chaos. signs.

Seeing that the Dutch gunners calmly retreated to the back to reload ammunition again, the third Dutch army had already moved forward, but the range of the firearms on their side could not pose any threat to the French. would lead to a disorganized situation.
"Fifteen steps forward!"

Liu Shiquan, the sentry officer leading the team on the left, ordered decisively.

With the rhythmic sound of the army drums, the Ming army on the left square put away their guns and started to move forward. The soldiers in the front row involuntarily quickened their pace in fear, and the soldiers in the back row couldn't keep up for a while. The entire formation suddenly seemed a little chaotic.

　All the bosses who read books, give a full order, it seems that there will be no food. . . . .

　　
　
(End of this chapter)