Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 936 0931 [Mandarin Duck Formation Fighting in the Field]

Why was Zhu Kang only allowed to bring 3,000 soldiers?
Because this was neither a war of annihilation nor a war of conquest, three thousand soldiers were more than enough.

Du Yingwu dispatched about 40,000 troops.

Among them, eight thousand were the Annan Imperial Guards, who were the absolute main force.

There are another 20,000 soldiers from ten routes, similar to the Song Dynasty's wing troops.

There are more than 10,000 of them are temporarily recruited militiamen, a complete mob.

Du Yingwu could only mobilize so many troops. The heavy losses in the wars in the past few years, especially the beating by Yang Zaixing, led to a sharp reduction in Annan's military strength.

Thang Long Prefecture and northern prefectures and counties were looted, and the finances were on the verge of collapse. The Annan court had no money to restore the army.

After Du Yingwu's coup, local rebellions broke out everywhere, which also seriously consumed the military force.

The border troops in the south did not dare to move, otherwise Champa would attack them at any moment.

Du Yingwu sent 5,000 soldiers to launch a surprise attack on the Ming army's rear city, and they could not return to participate in the decisive battle for the time being.

He also had to leave troops to garrison the two cities on the front line, and only had more than 30,000 soldiers that could actually be mobilized.

On Zhu Kang's side, there were three thousand Ming troops, five thousand local soldiers, and dozens of Annan navy warships.

The first two navies to engage in battle were the navy of both sides.

Join Zhu Kang's Annan Navy and fight against Du Yingwu's Annan Navy!
Although both were Annan naval forces, the former was stationed at the Taiping River and was capable of fighting near the coast. It also crossed the sea to attack the Northern Song Dynasty and headed towards Qinzhou.

The latter is a true inland navy, stationed in Thang Long Prefecture and surrounding water systems.

After fighting for about an hour, Zhu Kang's side achieved a small victory.

Han Jing carefully observed through the telescope and concluded: "Neither side's navy fought desperately, probably because they were unwilling to kill each other."

Annan official Chen Kai said: "The naval commander of Thang Long Prefecture is Li Changlu, the Marquis of Baoning. He is not against Du Zei's regent, but he does not fully support him either. I guess he is waiting and watching, and will help whoever wins, just thinking about preserving his own strength."

Zhu Kang smiled and said, "It seems that the enemy is not united."

……

"Why don't the navy fight to the death?" Du Yingwu asked.

Li Changlu defended himself, "The enemy navy has large ships, so it is really difficult to defeat them. The soldiers have done their best."

Du Yingwu said with a cold face: "The navy should reorganize and cooperate with the cavalry and infantry in the battle!"

It is impossible for Du Yingwu, who had just completed the coup less than a year ago, to completely control the military.

Especially the navy, which is not in the same system as the infantry, and the general in charge is a marquis.

He didn't even dare to punish Li Changlu severely, and had to promise him many benefits to win him over.

Zhu Kang's camp was located at the confluence of the Taiping River and the Long River, with the navy protecting the riverside. No matter how many troops Du Yingwu had, he could not attack from all sides, and could only attack from the west and south.

Du Yingwu has already transferred the troops stationed in Tiande Prefecture City.

At this time, the main force of the 32,000-strong Annan army was advancing slowly from the west, and 10,000 troops were sent to attack from the south.

Zhu Kang placed three thousand elite troops in the front and five thousand rabble on the side.

The battlefield was a large paddy field.

There are two crops a year in the Red River Plain. The first crop is sown at the turn of winter and spring, and the second crop is sown in summer.

At this moment, the rice has been harvested, but the new rice has not yet been planted.

The paddy fields have not completely dried up. They appear dry on the surface, but when you step on them you find ankle-deep mud - the Red River Plain is harvested after the rainy season, and much of the water in the fields has not been drained, so after two months of natural drying the fields have become this horrible state.

Some farmlands even have water!

Soldiers on both sides took off their shoes, rolled up their trouser legs, and moved forward with one foot deep and one foot shallow.

Apart from being easy to slip, it does not affect movement much. Soldiers who are familiar with this kind of farmland can even run in the mud.

Of course, that is when he is not wearing armor.

Zhu Kang's 3,000 elite soldiers were all wearing armor at this moment, and it was medium-sized armor weighing about 30 kilograms. When they were moving, they were slightly affected.

"The enemy troops in the south are a mob, and they can't even raise their flags in unison," Du Yingwu said to the messenger after careful observation, "Order Liu Yu to attack fiercely in the south and defeat the enemy's flank troops!"

Du Yingwu was indeed a qualified commander. Not long after Zhu Kang deployed his troops, he found his weakness and took action immediately.

The side battlefield was too far away, and the flag order might have been delivered incorrectly, so a messenger ran along the ridge of the field.

The messenger was still running, and Zhu Kang's elite troops were already speeding forward.

There were even more than a hundred artillerymen, carrying small cannons, shells and gunpowder, advancing forward on several ridges.

Du Yingwu gave the corresponding command: "Li Yirong leads his troops to fight, Long Kan and Ding Congzhou lead their troops to support. Marquis Baoning, your navy should also charge over. The enemy camp is empty, and once the navy wins, we can directly attack the enemy camp and burn the food and grass. Even if we can't burn down the enemy camp, as long as we hold on here and wait for the mob on the enemy's flank to collapse, we can take advantage of the situation and send out the entire army to attack from both sides!"

"As ordered!"

The Annan army was mobilized quickly, which would definitely be considered a strong force for a small country.

Du Yingwu even established a military academy later to train officers to firmly control the army and significantly improve the combat effectiveness of the Annan army.

The elite Ming army advanced more than ten meters, and Han Jing suddenly said, "Your Highness, it is too tiring to march in formation through the mud. It would be better to have all the soldiers charge along the ridges of the fields."

"Arrange into many long snakes? How can we fight then?" Zhu Kang asked in surprise.

Han Jing said: "We can fight. We practiced the Mandarin Duck Formation!"

Zhu Kang felt it was outrageous, but thinking about Han Jing's full marks in all subjects in the military academy and his participation in many wars in the north, he actually agreed and said, "General Han can make the full decision."

Han Jing ordered to stop advancing, called in middle-level officers, and explained the combat methods in detail.

The middle-level officers returned to their teams and called over the team leaders of the Mandarin Duck Team.

Soon, in front of Du Yingwu's shocked eyes, the 3,000 Ming soldiers all stepped onto the ridges of the fields and rushed forward like several long snakes.

Of course it is possible to march like this, but now the two armies are fighting! Du Yingwu was overjoyed: "Send an order, let Li Yirong, Long Kan, and Ding Congzhou form a battle line and press forward. Li Hui and Ruan Xing will lead their troops to support them."

The front armies of both sides were only a hundred steps apart before Han Jing ordered the bugle to be blown.

The Ming army soldiers running in the front jumped from the ridges into the fields and quickly formed a battle array. The following Ming army soldiers were still running along the ridges, including the artillerymen carrying small cannons.

At this moment, they have entered the range of the bow and arrow.

But except for warriors with amazing arm strength, ordinary archers would not shoot arrows so far.

In the Tang Dynasty, archers were required to shoot at a distance of 60 steps, and in the Ming Dynasty, archers were required to hit the target at 50 steps. This meant that archers could only start firing at a distance of 70 to 80 meters.

"Boom boom boom!"

The Ming army began firing artillery, and they were siege guns left on the shore (removed from naval ships).

These artillery pieces were aimed at Du Yingwu's central army, but many shells fell on the supporting troops between the front and central armies.

The Annan general named Li Hui was leading his troops forward. He was just supporting the troops and didn't have to lead the charge, but suddenly he saw many black shadows falling.

"what!"

A personal soldier screamed, Li Hui turned his head and found that the soldier's arm was broken.

There weren't many casualties, just twenty shells.

The shells had difficulty bouncing off the mud, and some did not even hit people. Only eight Annan soldiers were killed or wounded.

The elite Ming soldiers who jumped into the field only lined up in small groups, and the groups were not in a straight line. To outsiders, this was not even a military formation, but rather a mess with a chaotic formation.

"Bang bang bang!"

But they had already shot.

The distance was far and there were not many musketeers, so they only hit more than ten enemy soldiers.

The Annan front-line troops that came forward numbered more than 6,000, and the casualties of more than a dozen people were negligible and did not even affect the overall morale.

But they couldn't run fast in the mud, so the Ming musketeers could calmly reload and fire.

Du Yingwu did not dare to follow Han Jing's example and let his troops run closer on the ridge before forming a battle array. He knew what his own army was like and estimated that they would be defeated by the Ming army before they could even form a battle array.

Another twenty or so mandarin duck teams jumped into the field one after another, formed a battle array, and fired at the enemy's front army when the two sides were eighty steps apart.

The Ming troops lined up in the fields behind them, after reloading their ammunition, stepped forward through the mud and fought side by side.

When they were sixty steps apart, or about 90 meters, their archers began shooting at each other.

Both sides of the battle are elite soldiers fully equipped with armor. The effect of shooting arrows from such a long distance is negligible, and even if they hit the target, they will only be injured.

The subsequent Ming army soldiers were still running forward on the ridges of the fields!

The artillery did not stop until they were nearly fifty steps away.

They lowered the gun legs and placed them on the ridge of the field, with the gun barrels tilted towards the paddy fields on both sides, and began to load gunpowder and buckshot.

"Speed ​​up!"

Li Yirong, the vanguard general of Annan, led his personal soldiers to charge on the ridge of the field, but most of his soldiers were in the fields.

"Boom boom boom!"

Small cannons were placed on the ridges of the fields, firing shotgun shells diagonally forward, while in the fields muskets and bows and crossbows were firing in rotation.

The Annan frontline troops, dozens of meters away, were instantly covered by cross fire.

Li Yirong was fine on the ridge of the field, but the army in his field collapsed.

These Annan imperial troops were known as elite troops, but at the peak of their power, they were slaughtered by the northern troops of the Song Dynasty. Now they are no longer as strong as before, how strong willpower can they still have?
"Send a message to Ruan Xing to immediately step forward to provide support and suppress the army's retreat!" Du Yingwu gave the order in a panic.

Li Yirong's troops collapsed, but the troops under Ding Congzhou and Long Kan on his flank suffered less long-range firepower.

At the critical moment, Ding Congzhou drew his sword and shouted, "Follow me!"

He ignored the large army in the field and led a group of personal soldiers to charge along the ridge. He wanted to kill the Yuanyang team on the ridge and the artillery hiding behind the Yuanyang formation.

More and more Annan frontline troops, unwilling to be sitting ducks in the fields, climbed up the ridges and followed Ding Congzhou in the charge.

There were five mandarin duck teams here, only half of them stayed on the ridge, and the other four and a half jumped into the field to help defend. They only had sixty people, but there were hundreds of enemy troops rushing towards them.

Ding Congzhou was afraid of being hit by a musket, so he ordered a dozen of his personal soldiers to rush in front of him.

These hundreds of people formed a long snake formation. After more than twenty people fell down due to bullets and arrows, they quickly rushed to the front of the five mandarin duck teams.

Then, they were unable to deploy quickly. Although there were hundreds of people, only the one in the front could engage in the battle.

The rest jumped randomly into the fields, completely losing their organization, and could only fight on their own there.

The five mandarin duck teams harvested in an orderly manner, and anyone who rushed forward was killed.

"boom!"

Ding Congzhou was shot. The bullet was fired from two meters away and hit him directly on the forehead.

The remaining soldiers under his command immediately collapsed and fled.

"Your Highness, the friendly forces have been defeated."

Zhu Kang turned around and looked, only to see that two miles behind him, the five thousand friendly Annan troops had been killed and fled by Du Yingwu's troops.

Zhu Kang issued an urgent order: "The twenty guns borrowed from the navy are no longer needed. Let the officials, doctors and gunners flee to the grain transport ship!"

Han Jing also learned of the situation and shouted frantically: "Fire another round of shotgun shells, and charge the whole army!"

Han Jing was not actually in a hurry. Those miscellaneous friendly forces were vulnerable to begin with and were just tools he used to disperse the enemy's forces.

He believed in the combat effectiveness of the Mandarin Duck Formation in paddy field terrain!
Even if the enemy has several times the number of troops, it is difficult to put all of them into battle.

(End of this chapter)