Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 410 Barrage
"Raise the gun!"

Facing the overwhelming cavalry of the Qing army, the first battalion officer of the Ming army shouted loudly with all his strength, and the soldiers around him blew their horns with puffed cheeks.

The short and sharp sound of horns pierced through the muffled thunder of horses trampling the ground like a thousand battle drums beating together, which lifted the spirits of many pale musketeers. After that, they turned down the firecrackers one after another, and [-] dark holes pointed forward.

Thousands of horseshoes struck alternately, and a large cloud of dust and smoke rose up, and the thick ground also trembled slightly.

The cavalry of the Qing army on horseback holds the rein in one hand and the saber in the other, and their upper body shrinks behind the horse's head to reduce the risk of being directly hit by the blunderbuss.

"shoot!"

The battalion officer standing on the rightmost side of the front row yelled with a red face, and slashed down with his raised right hand, and the short and high-pitched horn sounded again.

There was a sound of crackling beans being drowned in the thunderous hoofbeats. The six hundred firecrackers in the half-kneeling position in the front row fired first, and a large white smoke slowly rose.

Immediately afterwards, the bowed gunners in the second row also fired their guns, and then the gunners in the first two rows who had finished shooting quickly bent down and moved to both sides, preparing to retreat to the second row of gunners. Behind the back, the cleaning and loading of the firecrackers was completed again.

After all the gunners in the third row finished shooting, they also sprinted to the sides with their waists down. Ten steps later, the second row had already set up a three-stage shooting posture, and they only waited for the soldiers in front to get out of the way to shoot immediately.

At this time, the range of [-] to [-] steps in front of the Ming army has become like hell.

In the first round of shooting by the gunmen of the Ming army, in addition to dozens of guns that misfired, more than [-] lead bullets knocked over [-] Qing cavalrymen to the ground, and the horses and corpses of the Qing army were scattered all over the place , A large stream of blood soaked the ground, making the whole area as muddy as if it had been drenched by rain.

The cavalry of the Qing army rushing from behind had to either raise the reins and ride their horses across, or control the reins to one side to avoid the obstacles in front, which made the charging momentum of the entire cavalry brigade disappear without a trace.

Taking advantage of this short gap, the gunners of the first team quickly retreated to the back of the second team.

The gunners snuffed out the matchlock held by the faucet one after another, took out the gunpowder remaining in the gun chamber with their sticks, took out the fixed paper shell medicine bag and bit it open with their teeth, sprinkled a little in the fire starter pool, and then put The gunpowder bag and the lead were stuffed into the mouth of the gun, and pressed to the bottom with a stick, and finally took out a small copper bottle wrapped in thick cotton cloth from the satchel on his waist, unplugged it, and blew the smoldering fire inside with his mouth. After using the fire medium, ignite the fire rope, put away the bottle and clamp the fire rope with the faucet, and the second launch is ready.

Just when the gunners were concentrating on doing a series of actions, the three rows of gunners in the second team had finished shooting, and the gunners in the first team began to form a team under the orders of the Shangguan. After dozens of breaths, the shooting square formed again. Then, under the urging of the horn, he raised the gun and pointed it forward.

Time passed bit by bit, but the sharp horn sound did not sound, and the entire battlefield suddenly became abnormally quiet, only the sound of horseshoes that gradually faded away brought a glimmer of life to the silent battlefield.

A weak southerly wind blew by, and the gunpowder smoke in front of the musketeers quickly dissipated, and what came into view were war horses everywhere and the corpses of the Qing army.

Looking around, the archers and infantry of the Qing army on both sides have already withdrawn to the main formation, hundreds of Qing army cavalry have already galloped back from both sides, and dozens of Qing army soldiers who crawled out from the corpses of their horses are struggling heading north.

The Ming army's two rounds of fire nets consisting of more than [-] lead bullets caused more than [-] deaths and injuries of the Qing army.

The deaths and injuries of the more than [-] people, apart from being directly hit by gun bullets, were mostly caused by the horses being shot and fell off the horses, being trampled to death by the charging horses behind, or breaking their necks after falling off the horses.

Zhou Yuji did not order Sword and Shield to search the battlefield and harvest heads.

In such a tragic scene, even if there are still many Qing soldiers who were injured and survived, it is already a bit of a burden.It is better to save their lives temporarily and let the Qing army search them back. This will also affect and blow the morale of the Qing army.

Abate had a blank look on his face.

Sitting on the horse all the time, he saw all the scene that happened just now.

In the ninth year of Chongzhen, he had followed Azig to encounter a similar scene in Changping.

In his impression, without the cover of cannons, the gunners of the Ming army alone would not be so terrifying.

As long as they can withstand the continuous shooting of firecrackers, when the Ming army has no time to change ammunition, the gunners can only be massacred by Eight Banners soldiers.

But the short and tragic battle just now completely shattered his thoughts.

The formation of the Ming army is more advanced than the row-by-row rotation shooting in the past. Under the continuous output of firepower, no life can survive.

Unless it is filled with human life.

However, the limited strength of the Eight Banners itself is very difficult to fight the Ming army at the expense of their lives, even if one is exchanged for ten, it is not worth it.

The Ming Dynasty had a population of hundreds of millions, and no matter how many casualties there were, countless soldiers could be recruited to fight. However, the entire Jianzhou had a population of only about 200 million, and there were only less than 8 Eight Banners soldiers capable of recruiting and fighting, which can be said to be one death. If there is one less, effective supplementation cannot be obtained in a short period of time.

The combat effectiveness and fighting will of the surrendered Mongols and the Han Army Banners could not be compared with the Eight Banners soldiers.

The battle just now is proof.

Although there were heavy casualties, the Ming army's musketeers had already been fired. If the remaining cavalry were more courageous and took advantage of this rare opportunity to drive their horses to charge, wouldn't those Ming musketeers be lambs waiting to be slaughtered?

As long as they fight together with the Ming people, and the pawns on their side take advantage of the situation, how many of these thousands of Ming people will survive?

But that group of damned Mongolian cavalrymen were so frightened by Mingren's firecrackers that they ran away at the critical moment!

"Zou Yubeile, what should I do next? Not only are the cannons powerful, but the firecrackers are also so powerful! My subordinates have lost more than a thousand in two battles! This is not going to work!"

Geri Leng, who rushed over after counting the battle damage, was heartbroken like a knife.

Suffering such a huge battle damage in a short period of time is simply unacceptable and unacceptable for him.

The proud Mongolian warriors didn't even have the chance to swing their knives in front of the enemy. This is not fighting, it is clearly sending them to death.

"Okay! Ben Baylor is thinking hard about how to break the Ming army's gun array! Come on! Send five hundred coats to clean up the battlefield, and bring them back, whether they are alive or corpses! The dead horses are also dragged back and rewarded to those slaves Let's have a meat meal!"

After seeing that the gunners of the Ming army had sat down to rest, Abatai suppressed the idea of ​​whipping Gerilan, and diverted the topic to other places.

In the next step, there are many places to rely on Meng Baqi, and he cannot be punished because of his disrespectful tone, although this was absolutely impossible before.

The battlefield must be cleaned up. These obstacles have seriously affected the cavalry's sprint. Besides, helping the Mongolian cavalry to collect the corpses is also a good way to win the hearts of the troops.

"Report! Go around Yubeile! Prince Cheng ordered the servants to pass the order! Three thousand cavalry were called to listen!"

At this moment, there was a sound of horseshoes in the distance from far to near, and a Qing army with two red pennant flags stuck behind his back galloped towards Abatai's banner from a distance. When he was about a step away, he reined in his horse, turned over and jumped off, walked a few steps to Abata's horse, saluted thousands of times, and then reported loudly.

"Three thousand cavalry? What happened to Prince Cheng? Why did you transfer so many horses?"

After hearing this, Abate, who had been through many battles, knew that Yuetuo was also in trouble, so he asked.

He lost more than 1000 cavalry in two defeats. If he was transferred by three thousand, it would be a bit difficult to block the attack of the Wanming Army on the opposite side.

"Returning to Yu Beile, our army and the Ming army are blocked! The rest of the slaves don't know!"

The Qing army who came to deliver the letter replied respectfully.

"What other orders does Prince Cheng have?"

Abate asked.

Based on his understanding of Yuetuo, he knew that the always calm Yuetuo would not make such a rash decision, and there should be other arrangements.

"When we go back to Baylor, King Zhishun is on his way with 3000 troops from the Han Army Banner!"

Abatai was overjoyed when he heard the words, and just about to speak, suddenly, there was another rush of horseshoes in the distance, and a Qing army sentry came galloping on a horse.

"Report to Lord Baylor! A large group of Ming troops are rushing towards us from the west! There are no less than [-] people!"

　Thanks to the little yellow people who are attacking by book friends for their rewards.Yesterday I uploaded 2600 words with Writer Assistant, but only 2019 words were displayed, and I don’t know where the 600 words went, it’s a bit of a trap.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)