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Chapter 894 Breaking the Formation
"..." Huang Taiji's face froze, and the muscles on his cheeks twitched slightly. As the saying goes, don't hit someone in the face. Although there was no contempt or ridicule in Ding Shun's tone, it still seemed like salt was rubbed into the wound.

However, the changing situation on the battlefield did not allow him to think too much. Not only did the army form a strange horizontal formation, but they also took the initiative to launch an attack.

After a loud blast of the trumpet, the centurions became the protagonists. They held the whistle in their mouths, moved forward sideways, and did not look at the enemy at all, but stared at their own soldiers, blowing the whistle rhythmically.

The soldiers held their guns with both hands, the muzzles facing upwards, and moved forward in small steps following the whistle. If any individual soldier was too fast or too slow, the nearby sergeants and squad leaders would remind them in time and urge them to adjust their pace.

From Huang Taiji's perspective, this line of soldiers, which stretched for more than a mile, was moving at almost the same pace on the endless flat Gobi Desert. Although they still couldn't form a straight line, the difference was not too big, just like the waves moving forward in unison on the beach.

The strange thing was that the column at the back did not move, but stood still, as if the battle had nothing to do with them. However, the artillerymen at the back were very busy, some of them were using pickaxes and shovels to dig the gun positions, and some were unloading wooden boxes from the carriages and moving them to the gun positions.

There were also several officers directing the signalmen and the lookouts on the hot air balloon to wave small flags to each other. Even without understanding the flag language, one could guess that they were communicating the shooting distance.

"Bang bala bang... bang bala bang... tick-tick-tick-tick..."

As the Ming Army moved forward, the Yarkand Khanate army finally couldn't help it. Accompanied by drums and trumpets, they also began warming up before the charge, driving their horses forward in small steps.

"Chief of Staff Ding, is there really no need to remind His Majesty that the enemy is going to attack the center?" As the leader of the Eight Banners Army, Huang Taiji saw the attack intention from the way the Yarkand cavalry advanced at a glance, and could not help but question Ding Shun again.

In fact, it was too late to change the formation at this time. The opponent's commander was really not in vain. He had seen the weaknesses of the Ming Army in a short period of time, and without hesitation formed a vertical charge formation, deploying 80% of his troops at one time.

The riders manipulated their horses to move forward in small steps to warm up, and formed four columns at random. The most elite heavy cavalry lined up in the front, the tribal cavalry followed behind, and the light cavalry deployed on the left and right to protect the two wings. Only the musketeers and a small number of tribal cavalry stayed where they were.

"Your Majesty likes this kind of all-in bet. If their commander is lucky enough to survive, he should be treated preferentially. Commander Huang, you can give orders to the commander over there and be ready to outflank the enemy's center at any time!"

Ding Shun patted the neck of the horse that was a little restless under him, ignored Huang Taiji's reminder, and instead gave the opposite order.

"...Raise the flag and blow the horn!" Huang Taiji hesitated and waved his hand helplessly.

After receiving the order from the commander-in-chief, the flag bearers of the Eight Banners Army erected their flags one by one in the devices on the sides of their horses. When the Eight Banners Army on the other side saw this, they also raised their flags in response.

The command system of the Eight Banners Army was completely different from that of the Ming Army. Although they also used flags, they did not use flag language. Instead, several flag bearers held up flags and followed the general. The soldiers under the command of this general followed the flags, and the soldiers would follow wherever the flags went.

Why were the Eight Banners soldiers so brave in the early days? Because they were led by officers to charge, not just for show, but for real. If the officers were like this, the soldiers would naturally not back down.

But this method of fighting also has its disadvantages, that is, once you encounter a tough opponent, the casualty rate of officers will be very high, and it is a life-and-death fighting method. "Huh..." In addition to the people, the war horses also felt the breath of battle and began to stomp and shake their heads, somewhat impatient.

“Bang bala bang… bang bala bang… eh… hum…”

The two armies kept getting closer, and when they were about 300 meters apart, the rhythm of the war drums of the Yarkand Khanate suddenly accelerated. The cavalrymen immediately whipped their horses and made strange shouts from their throats. The four columns were like sharp claws, rushing towards the thin enemy with a roar.

"Boom... Boom boom boom..." After a few breaths, the first to respond was not the infantry column taking small steps, but the artillery position in the rear.

More than twenty field guns roared one after another, with flames and smoke spurting out from the muzzles for a long distance. The huge recoil pushed the gun carriage backwards until it hit a pile of soft earth and stopped.

The artillerymen trotted forward, the front pulled the rope, the back pushed the carriage, and returned the artillery carriage to its original position as quickly as possible. At the same time, someone pulled the breech block, someone handed over the warhead, and someone brought the ammunition bag. The series of actions were orderly and quick.

When the breech block was closed, the gunner in charge of aiming began to shout commands, and the artillerymen adjusted the angle of the gun carriage according to the command. Everything was ready, the gunner raised his right hand, and the four artillerymen saw this and squatted on both sides with their ears covered.

With a loud bang, the artillery carriage retreated again, and the artillerymen jumped up again and pulled and dragged it back to its position. As for the effect of the artillery fire, they didn't care at all, and couldn't see it, they just mechanically repeated the same action.

The real artillery commander was not at the artillery position, but standing on the roof of a nearby van with a telescope aimed at the hot air balloon. The lookout in the basket also served as an artillery observer and would report the effects of the artillery fire through flag signals. The artillery commander would adjust the firing parameters of the artillery at any time based on these data.

"Can artillery fire so fast?"

Huang Taiji knew that the Ming army's artillery was very powerful and he had suffered a lot of losses, but they were all in positional attack and defense battles. He really didn't think it could play a big role in field battles, especially when there was a lack of defensive fortifications.

That thing is too bulky and has a too low firing frequency. It's very effective for defense in fortifications and is also good for attacking city walls, but when facing high-speed charging cavalry, it generally only fires one or two rounds before becoming a decoration.

But the performance of the Ming army's artillery at this time shocked him greatly. The firing frequency was several times faster than he had expected. The Yarkand cavalry started charging from more than 300 meters away, and when they reached 200 meters, they were hit by three rounds of artillery fire.

The two columns in the middle should be the main targets. Horses were constantly hit, and then a cloud of blood mist exploded while they were running at high speed, with limbs scattering everywhere.

Even though the Yarkand cavalry behaved very bravely and whipped their horses to speed up even as they watched their comrades in front of them being beaten into pieces, their flesh could not withstand the iron balls after all, and soon most of the heavy cavalry in the front of the column were lost. The four columns became two long and two short, with an obvious dent in the middle.

(End of this chapter)