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Chapter 686 Fatal Flaw
The squads of soldiers composed of different numbers quickly merged together, basically forming a circle, and spread outward at a similar speed. Occasionally they would advance or lag behind, but they would soon level out again.

The formation seems thin, but it is well-organized. Any resistance encountered along the way will be aimed at by dozens of guns. Although the speed is not fast, it is stable, which fundamentally eliminates the possibility of accidents.

"Push the reserve troops to the first line of defense and blow the horn to retreat!" Looking at the scene in front of him, Hong Tao did not find any fault. Instead, he felt a little bored and gave the order to withdraw the troops.

At this time, the circular battle line had only been pushed to 200 meters outside the first trench, and the enemy showed no signs of counterattack. A medium-scale battle of several thousand against several thousand, both fierce and boring, lasted less than half an hour before it died down.

The battle was fierce because of the heavy casualties. Thousands of people and horses fell in the open space of several hundred meters between the Ming army camp and the enemy's main position. To kill so many people in such a short period of time is not necessarily possible in a battle of tens of thousands against tens of thousands.

It is boring because the scene is really unremarkable. There is no face-to-face confrontation between heavy-armed troops, no surprise attack to turn the tide of battle, and even the large-scale covering projectiles from archers are not visible.

From the beginning to the end, one side ran forward, fell to the ground, and then turned around and ran back. The other side huddled in the ditch, stood up and fired, squatted down, stood up and fired again, and squatted down again. It was a cycle that was extremely boring.

"Su Nang Taiji, withdraw your troops. The Zhang family will not let you suffer too much loss. I still have more than 7,000 border troops. We can divide them equally between the two families." But it was such a boring battle that completely shattered Zhang Bingzhong's expectations.

I heard before that the emperor personally led an army of 30,000 to 80,000 and almost wiped out the elite Jurchens. Most of the border generals, including myself, did not deny that the emperor had a talent for leading troops and that the army was strong, but they all felt that it was too exaggerated.

The actual situation was probably 30,000 to 30,000 or even less, and it was not certain whether the Mongols took advantage of the opportunity to pull the trigger. Otherwise, why did they give up Jinzhou after they had obtained it? It was obviously a pre-arranged plan.

Now I finally believe that the army is really powerful. Not to mention the fire guns of the border troops, even if the Shenji Battalion is pulled over, they still can't get close. The rain of bullets is almost continuous, far and accurate. In this situation, no matter how brave the soldiers are, it will be useless. After all, people are made of flesh and blood, and they will be pierced by lead bullets.

"...What do you two think?" Su Nang Taiji was in a worse mood. He wanted to take advantage of the opportunity and completely remove the thorn in his eye. Unexpectedly, he bit into the iron bean, not only did he not eat the meat, but also knocked out his front teeth.

At present, seven or eight out of ten of the most powerful heavy cavalry were gone. What else could they do if they didn't leave? Not only did they have to leave, but they had to leave far away. Once Bu Shitu found out, they would not be able to leave even if they wanted to.

"..." Ombuchu's face became even uglier. This time, he sent troops to cooperate with Sunang Taiji, which was equivalent to stabbing his face with the Kharchin Taiji Bai Hong. Now even whether he could return to the east smoothly was a problem. Chahar's Lindan Khan was indeed powerful, but distant water could not quench immediate thirst, so he had no time to think about other things.

"General Zhang, why weren't the muskets of the Ming border troops so sharp?" On the contrary, Jinang'e Linchen of the Ordos tribe, whose interests were farthest away, was the calmest. At this moment, he still wanted to figure out why this Ming army was different from the others.

"They are the emperor's imperial guards, with only about 30,000 men. Since the day they were established, their weapons and supplies have not been under the jurisdiction of the imperial court. It is said that all the soldiers use muskets, and each man has more than one. Why they can shoot so far and so accurately is unknown to outsiders."

Zhang Bingzhong couldn't go back anyway, and he would have to live in the Mongolian territory for a long time. When faced with the question of a Mongolian noble, he had to explain patiently even if he didn't want to answer. "...Do you know the biggest disadvantage of the fire gun? Is there any way to control it?" E Linchen thought for a while and asked another question.

"It's slow to reload and can only fire once within a hundred steps. It has a short range and can't penetrate armor beyond thirty steps. Its accuracy is poor... If we want to completely control it, it's beyond human control and depends on God. The musket relies on the explosion of gunpowder to fire the projectile, and gunpowder is afraid of water. If it's raining dew from heaven, the musket is no better than a stick."

Zhang Bingzhong didn't even have to think about these basic military knowledge, he just spoke them out. But as he spoke, he felt something was wrong, the shortcomings of the fire gun seemed to have disappeared in the army, leaving only one inherent defect that no one seemed to be able to make up for.

"Hehehe... That's right, it's going to rain tonight. Since the Han emperor has not counterattacked, we might as well wait until tomorrow morning to make a decision."

Hearing this, E Linchen grinned. The Mongols were no strangers to firearms, and there were blacksmiths in the Ordos tribe who could make them. If the Ming army's firearms had nothing special about them, and were just fast, far and fierce, there should be a way to crack them.

"...Are you sure it will rain?" Zhang Bingzhong looked up at the sunny sky and didn't believe it even 30%.

"Go find some shepherds, older ones!" Su Nang and Ombuchu seemed to believe it 50%. To make sure it was correct, they immediately ordered their men to find experts in the tribe to confirm it.

Shepherds on the Mongolian Plateau are climate experts, and the older they are, the more accurate their predictions are. However, people are shaped by the local climate and soil, and some are good at mountainous areas, while others are good at grasslands and Gobi. After a collective discussion by more than a dozen shepherds, the final conclusion reached was consistent with that of E'linchen, that there is a high probability of rainfall after nightfall.

"Everyone go back and regroup your troops. When the rain starts to fall, charge in together and leave no one alive!"

Su Nang Taiji finally mustered up his courage and decided to try again. He was too lazy to ask the Ming emperor whether to catch him or not. He felt bad for losing so many tribal warriors no matter how much compensation the Ming court offered.

"Grand Taiji, it is best to use infantry as the main force for night attacks. Horses are too big a target and are easily discovered, and are also more likely to be hit by muskets." Zhang Bingzhong had no intention of letting Emperor Jingyang live, so he was pleased to hear this.

But he had different opinions on the tactics of night surprise attack. He carefully watched the daytime attack from a distance and saw that the army was all huddled in the ditch and shooting. The cavalry had no good way to deal with them. Even if they rushed forward, they would still be shot at from the back.

If that's the case, it would be better to switch to infantry. As long as they can rely on their numerical advantage to get close at all costs, and with the cover of night, they will surely be able to offset some of the power of the muskets.

"…First send 2,000 men to dismount and launch a surprise attack on foot, and then send another 2,000 cavalrymen to follow up as reinforcements at any time!" Su Nang thought about it and felt that it made sense, but it would take some time to get used to this thing, and the cavalry still could not be completely abandoned.

(End of this chapter)