Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 607 Night Attack
It's not too far from Daying at Weihekou to Jinghai County.

After receiving the emergency report, Hong Chengchou immediately led the 2 Banners Mongolia to rush to rescue Jinghai County, and then asked Kong Youde to lead the 2 Banners Han Army to follow up.

Until now, Hong Chengchou still does not believe that the Ming army will desperately attack Beijing by land.

But even so, the Ming army cannot easily cross the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, at least the red cannons cannot be allowed to cross the river.

Towards evening, the 2 Eight Banners of Mongolia entered the vicinity of Jinghai County, and Yebushougeng, who opened the way ahead, broke out an outpost battle with the scout cavalry of the Ming army.

Although the scale of the skirmish was small, it was even more brutal.

When the light is good during the day, the Ming army's flintlock guns have a clear advantage.

But after dark, the flintlock guns of the Ming army are not as easy to use as the bow and arrow scimitars of the Eight Banners Mongolia, because the bow and arrow are more concealed and the reaction speed is much faster.

In small-scale skirmishes, it is difficult to get a second chance if you miss a hit.

In the close combat of cavalry, the machete is also more useful than the bayonet.

Therefore, the scout cavalry of the Ming army quickly began to shrink, giving up control.

The Eight Banners Mongol Ye Bu Shou spread out in all directions, and quickly controlled the area of ​​Jinghai for tens of miles, even enveloping the entire camp of the Ming Army from all sides.

After Ye Bushou gained control of the battlefield, Hong Chengchou was able to spy on the reality of the Ming army at close range.

At this time, Hong Chengchou and several servants were standing on a small mound tens of meters high, condescendingly spying on the camp of the Ming army.

Under the night, the southeastern suburbs of Jinghai County were full of campfires of the Ming army.

With the help of the campfire, one can vaguely see the tents of the Ming army. There are tens of thousands of them, with a radius of seven or eight miles. In the camp, mules, horses and cannons can also be vaguely seen.

Hong Da said: "Master, Minggou is really arrogant!"

Hong Er also said: "That's right, not only did they not dig trenches, arrange antlers, they didn't even set up fences, these Ming dogs are really not afraid of us Qing soldiers launching night raids?"

Hong Chengchou couldn't help but his heart skipped a beat, Night attack?

At that moment, Hong Chengchou asked General Hong to call Bart to the top of the hill.

Bart is the capital of the Eight Banners Mongolia, and he is extremely brave.

"Bart, how far can your Eight Banners Mongolian Yebushou reach the outskirts of the Ming army's camp?"

"I haven't tried this before." Bart scratched his leather helmet and said again, "However, five hundred steps should be no problem. If you get any closer, it will alarm the Ming army's ambush army."

"If cavalry are sent out to attack at night, can they break into the camp of the Ming army?"

"If the Ming army didn't have an ambush, then there must be no problem, but if there is an ambush, it's hard to say."

Hong Chengchou frowned, and asked: "Did the Ming army set up an ambush? Shouldn't you be clear about the Eight Banners Mongolia's night refusal? Can you not know?"

Bart was a little unhappy immediately, aren't you embarrassing others?

"My lord, unless we go into the camp of the Ming army, how will we know about it? It's the tent of the Ming army. Is the Ming dog sleeping inside, or is it loaded with live ammunition waiting for us to attack at night? How will the outside know?"

Hong Chengchou hesitated for a long time, finally decided to try again, and immediately ordered: "Bart, the Ministry ordered you to immediately send a cavalry to launch a night attack. Attention, you must not make a sound before approaching the camp of the Ming army. After the camp, priority was given to destroying the supplies of the Ming army, especially the red cannons and gunpowder."

If the Ming army was unprepared, a Jiala cavalry would be enough to get things done.

If the Ming army is prepared, it can bear the loss of a Jiala.

"Hey!" Bart knelt down on one knee and hit a thousand.

……

Hong Chengchou was thinking about a night attack, and Xu Yingwei was also planning a night attack.

Xu Yingwei is talking to Chongzhen about the night attack plan to the map.

"My lord, the air force has already scouted clearly during the day."

"There are a total of eight layers of gun platforms on both sides of the canal, inside and outside, and four layers on each side of the east and west banks."

"To ensure the safety of the logistics channel, at least one gap with a width of more than [-] steps needs to be opened, and at least one infantry brigade should be stationed in the gap."

Chongzhen nodded in approval.

The canal defense line must be the focus.

It is only natural to strengthen the remaining troops.

So you need to keep an infantry brigade.

"The defense line built by Jiannu, the distance between two adjacent towers is mostly about [-] steps, so at least [-] defensive towers need to be captured tonight."

Chongzhen asked: "Is the ice in this section of the canal safe?"

Whether the ice surface of this section of the canal is safe or not will directly affect the attack on the West Bank Guntai.

Xu Yingwei said: "We have sent scouts to investigate, but we may not be able to find out clearly. After all, there are Jiannu's blunderbusses on both sides of the canal, and there are Lianyong garrisons inside each blunderbuss. It's hard work, and it's almost impossible to dig through the ice layer to see if there is any gunpowder buried inside without alarming Lian Yong."

"Then we can only adapt to the situation at that time." Chongzhen nodded and asked again, "Has the North Korean army made arrangements?"

"My lord, the Korean army has already been arranged." Xu Yingwei said, "I selected [-] Korean troops and formed [-] death squads, each of which is in charge of a gun platform."

Well, it is said to be death squads, but it is actually specialized in mines and crossbows.

In fact, as soon as they arrived at the canal in the afternoon, the Ming army launched a tentative attack on Jiannu's blunderbuss defense line, and found a fatal defensive loophole in Jiannu.

That is Lian Yong, who is in charge of guarding the gun platform of the canal, and his equipment is poor.

Not to mention flintlock guns, the number of matchlock guns is very small, and there is not even a tiger squat gun.

Most of the equipment for training bravery is long spears and short bows. The long spears usually only have wrought iron spearheads, and the short bows are also temporarily made of old mulberry wood, and cotton armor may not be able to shoot through them.

However, there are quite a lot of caltrops, crossbows and mines in the trenches around the gun platform.

In addition, there are many utensils such as ten thousand enemies, gray bottles, and golden juice in the Jiannu gun platform.

In order to reduce the pressure of logistics support, the Ming army has achieved a high degree of standardization of weapons and equipment, such as caltrops, crossbows, and gray bottles, have all been eliminated, and even the vans have been eliminated.

Because it was discovered during the war game that the van has become a negative asset.

The protection that can be given to the infantry of the Ming army is very limited, but there are many restrictions.

Realizing that the van had become a burden, Chongzhen abolished it without hesitation.

All in all, the Ming army has completely eliminated primitive defensive weapons such as gray bottles, golden juice, and ten thousand enemies, but Jiannu has done the opposite, relying more on these primitive defensive weapons.

An undeniable fact is that these primitive defensive weapons are really useful in defensive warfare.

Even though the Ming army was equipped with much more advanced firearms, they would still suffer damage from these primitive defensive weapons in the fortified battle. At this time, the servant army was needed to act as cannon fodder.

Of the 2 Korean troops who followed Zhu Cijiong to Liaodong, 2 remained in Liaodong, and the remaining [-] were transferred to the Beizhi battlefield by Chongzhen to serve as cannon fodder.

This was also determined beforehand.

If you encounter tough bones, let the servants go up.

……

Li Yucheng was quietly waiting for the bugle to sound.

For the upcoming attack, Li Yucheng had high hopes, because he had heard from Xu Wuniu and the others when he was in Liaodong last time that if he performed well in this Northern Expedition, he would have the opportunity to enter the Imperial College without taking the exam.

Even the North Korean army had a chance. Thinking of this, Li Yucheng was full of hope.

Li Yucheng felt that he just lacked an opportunity. If there was a suitable opportunity, he would have the opportunity to become a famous general like Gao Xianzhi. Yes, he could become Gao Xianzhi of Daming.

Picking up the clay wine jar, Li Yucheng took a big gulp.

Drinking sparkling Mingjiu in the cold weather, I only feel the body is icy cold, one word, cool!

While drinking wine, he chewed pork jerky, which was rewarded by the Ming Emperor. The North Korean soldiers participating in tonight's night attack each had a can of Mingjiu and half a catty of pork shoulder.

After eating and drinking enough, Li Yucheng began to check his weapons and equipment again.

The weapons and equipment of the Korean army are somewhat uneven. There are flintlock guns, but more matchlock guns, and even bows and spears. However, considering that the night attack tonight is mainly close combat, the Ming army gave each Each North Korean army was issued an extra short gun, and each had four hand grenades.

It was an improved five-pound grenade, not the original ten-pound grenade.

Li Yucheng liked the short blunderbuss he was given very much. It was exquisite in shape, like a handicraft, and its lethality was not bad. It was enough to pierce through chain mail or cotton armor within [-] steps.

Make sure there is nothing wrong with the firing mechanism,
Li Yucheng began to check the bullet bag again.

The bullet bags of the Ming army have also developed to the second generation.

The first-generation bullet bags were made of sackcloth, and small holes were sewn into the cloth belt, and then the paper shell fixed ammunition was stuffed in, and one round was loaded in each small hole.

This kind of bullet bag was actually made by Chongzhen based on the bullet bags of later generations.

There is no problem with this kind of bullet bag used to hold metal bullets, but when it is used to hold paper shells, there is often the problem that the paper shells are flattened and difficult to take out.

So soon improvements were made to the pouches.

Today's bullet bags are real bullet bags.

They are four cowhide boxes crossed on the chest through two leather straps.

Each kraft box can hold fifty rounds of paper shell fixed ammunition, adding up to two hundred rounds, which is a base number.

In addition to the four kraft boxes for the paper-shell fixed ammunition, there is also a calfskin box for the priming packs, which is a total of two hundred priming packs.

Li Yucheng counted them one by one.

Just after counting, a horn sounded outside the tent.

"The horn is sounding!" The North Korean soldiers who were resting on the ground in the tent started up one after another.

"Don't move!" The next moment, the Ming army's voice sounded from outside the tent, "The time to attack has not yet come, you just eat and drink your food, and I will notify you when the time comes."

Li Yucheng immediately sat back and listened attentively.

Intensive gunshots could only be heard from the northwest corner of the camp.

It sounds like the Ming army is firing guns. What's going on?

[Kneeling for a monthly pass]

(End of this chapter)