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Chapter 684 Heavy Cavalry

"I dare not deceive Your Majesty. There are already such talents among the warriors of the Imperial Horse Administration. I think there are also many good fighters among the Marine Guards and the Army. Your Majesty is busy with government affairs, so naturally he cannot practice every day like them. He just practices..."

Wang Chengen stepped on the wheel, trying to avoid the emperor's sight, and curled his lips heavily. But what he said was completely inconsistent with his expression. He neither lied nor gave the emperor a reasonable excuse for his inaccurate shooting.

"It is of course important to practice more, but that is for mortals. I am the emperor and cannot be compared with you. Can you believe that I can hit the target every time without exercising every day?" The more he didn't believe it, the more Hong Tao wanted to brag.

He had already thought about it. When he returned, he would ask the craftsmen in the Time Workshop to make the telescope smaller and install it on the rifle. With the help of the sniper scope, he would be able to greatly improve his hit rate, and becoming a sharpshooter would no longer be a luxury.

With the current technology and testing methods, it is difficult to accurately align the scope with the gun's crosshairs, but it can be overcome through trial and error by craftsmen. Mass production is definitely not realistic, but if we start with the gun and focus on one or two sets, the results are still relatively optimistic.

"Of course I believe it. As long as His Majesty wants, there is nothing in the world that cannot be done. Oh, I missed it. Not only can I do it, but I should be proficient in everything!"

When the boasting reached a certain level, Wang Chengen dared not belittle it anymore. Although he still did not believe that the emperor could improve his shooting skills in the short term, he did not dare to say it out loud. He could only praise the emperor more with the attitude of believing it is better than not believing it.

"Hehe, you are getting more and more boring. At least you should be tough for once. It won't hurt to make a bet. Don't worry about those Han people. They are nothing more than border troops. Use whatever means you have. What can they do to me?"

Seeing Wang Chengen convinced, Hong Tao lost interest in bragging. Appropriate arguments can help with thinking, but people around him are increasingly avoiding it, and the fun is getting less and less.

As for the Han people wearing Ming army armor appearing in the Mongolian army, it is not surprising. If they did not appear, it would be disappointing. It would be better if they all came, so that they could be caught in one fell swoop.

After lunch, the battlefield was still quiet. Both sides seemed tired of fighting and no one wanted to take the initiative to attack. After consulting their superiors and obtaining approval, the soldiers in the three trenches were rotated in batches, allowing the soldiers who had experienced large-scale battles to rest in the back.

"Here they come!" Hong Tao half-lay on the roof of the van and took a short nap. Even though the sun was a bit scorching, it had little effect on his sun-damaged skin. The clock soon reached two o'clock. Hong Tao had woken up and was looking south with a telescope to find the traces of Sun Chengzong's troops. Suddenly, he shouted and stood up.

"Four miles to the south, there are more than 3,000 infantrymen and a few cavalrymen... Your Majesty, they seem to be wearing Ming army armor and have no flags."

A moment later, the lookout on the top of the mast also began to howl. It was not because he saw closer than Hong Tao, but because he was observing the details. However, his voice became softer and trembling.

"Don't look at me, both of you. Go and talk to the captains and centurions face to face. The next thing we're going to face is likely to be the Ming army. Let them aim and shoot, and beat them to death. It would be best if we could kill them all without leaving a single one alive!"

Could the army officers and soldiers know that the enemy was the Ming army? Hong Tao thought there was no need to hide it. The idea that they couldn't kill their comrades was just a figment of the imagination of later generations who had read too many novels and had their brains damaged.

The number of casualties and cruelty of most civil wars in history are much higher than those of foreign wars. Fighting one's own people against one's own people should be considered one of the talents of the Han people. There is no need to mobilize at all. Of course, there are civil wars among all ethnic groups around the world, but the Han people fight the most frequently and vigorously, almost without stopping. When the dynasty changes, they can directly wipe out more than half of the population. It is very addictive.

"Your Majesty, the Mongols are also going to fight to the death!" Du Wenhuan seemed to have become a little numb and no longer felt that the emperor's orders were too strange. But he was more concerned about the three directions of northwest, east and west rather than the south.

"Those wearing red tassels on their heads are the main force of the Mongols?" Hong Tao looked through the telescope and agreed with Du Wenhuan's statement. The Mongols used lightly armored cavalry or no armor at all in the previous two times, but now it is indeed different.

In front of the Mongolian cavalry in the northwest and east directions, teams of cavalry wearing chain mail and metal helmets appeared in unison. Without touching, one could clearly feel their heaviness and pressure just by looking at them.

"They are heavy cavalry, which the border troops call Red Tassel Tartars. There are only a small number of them in each large tribe, and they only show up in decisive battles with the enemy. I have never seen them near the border, but judging by the number, there are no less than four or five hundred on each side, which can be considered a desperate attack."

Du Wenhuan, who was born as the deputy general of Ningxia, knew much more about the Mongolian army than the Jurchens. Even if he had never seen it with his own eyes, he could guess it almost exactly. Looking at the layers of red tassels swaying in the wind, he squinted his eyes and clenched his fists, as if he was a little nervous.

"The heavier the cavalry, the faster they will die in front of the muskets. Inform all the centurions to load their cannons and be ready to fire at any time."

Seeing Du Wenhuan's expression, Hong Tao wanted to give him some advice, telling him that future wars would no longer be about who had more cavalry or stronger armor. But then he thought it was a bit cruel to say so, so he should prepare for the worst and let reality tell the whole story.

The first to launch the attack were not the Mongolian heavy cavalry, but the Ming border troops in the south. They formed small square formations with infantry, with half-man-high shields in the front row and long spears like a forest behind them, blocking the archers at the back and pressing forward slowly.

Just as the infantry approached more than 300 meters away, the Mongolian heavy cavalry on the other three sides also moved, and the horses took small steps and stepped on the ground in different rhythms. After running a hundred meters, the rhythm accelerated and gradually mixed together, making a dull rumbling sound, shaking the edge of the trench to keep falling soil.

The charge of the heavy cavalry was indeed very imposing, and the army officers and soldiers did feel the strong pressure. Officers including Du Wenhuan and Ding Shun all had solemn expressions and clenched their fists.

On the contrary, the soldiers were relatively more relaxed. They all huddled in the trenches and could only hear sounds but not see sights. They were equivalent to thousands of blind people, and no matter how powerful the pressure was, it was useless.

"Don't open fire until you are 150 meters away!" However, what the officers feared most was not the enemy, but their own emperor. This order was second only to throwing down their guns and engaging in hand-to-hand combat.

In terms of distance, they could only fire two rounds against the charging cavalry, and then the first trench would be breached, and they would have to take out their pistols and prepare for close combat.

However, due to years of training and habitual fear of military regulations, the officers did not hesitate and all chose to carry out the order unconditionally. Some stood behind the three lines of defense, while others stood in the trenches, biting their lips hard to suppress their fear and calculating the distance between the two sides.

(End of this chapter)