Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 202 Attacking Li Kuiqi
After watching the loading of a Weiyuan cannon, Lin Hai pointed the telescope at a Folan cannon team.

This team is loading the first musket. Like the Weiyuan gun, it still uses a large lead gun with a diameter slightly larger than the inner diameter of the muzzle. However, this gun was loaded with single bullets, and it did not use a flat-top feeder to slam the big lead bullets in like the Weiyuan artillery team.

The gunner of the Folang machine used an iron concave core to feed the bullet. He carefully pushed the projectile in slowly and stopped when the bullet penetrated an inch into the gun. Anyway, the barrel of the sub-gun is not very long. This is a loading method that can only be used with the breech-loading cannon with the structure of the sub-gun.

In this way, although the large lead bullet is still used, the projectile is not flattened during loading. It is still basically spherical, and the shot will be more accurate after exiting the chamber.

However, with this loading method, the lead bullet does not compact the gunpowder, which will waste some energy, but it is still much better than using a projectile that does not fit or using a wooden horse to hold its breath.

The Folang Machine Gun Team put the sub-gun into the belly of the mother gun and wedged it tightly, and then inserted an iron bolt at the tail of the mother gun. The gun jumped up due to the recoil.

The process of wedging the gun and inserting the iron bolt is very fast and can be done in about half a minute. Of course, reloading the Folan machine also requires the time of pulling up the iron bolt and disassembling the previous gun.

Calculated in this way, it would take more than a minute for a Folan machine with a pre-loaded gun to fire again. The rate of fire is only faster than that of a front-loaded gun, and is still slightly worse than that of a well-trained gunman.

After loading the first musket, the Folang machine gun team began to load the second musket. This time it was loaded with shotshells, and there was no large lead pin that closed the mouth, so it was more cumbersome to install.

The first step is to charge the powder, then close the wooden horse, and then slowly build up a layer of soil and a layer of lead. There is no large lead to close the top - after all, the Folang machine has poor air tightness. When loading cannons, you generally don't use the double-loading method like Gongsun Bullets, otherwise the power will be insufficient, not to mention that the length of the gun cannot hold so much ammunition.

"I thought this battle wouldn't start before noon, but it seems we don't have to wait that long." Lin Hai put down his binoculars and said to Wu Guoyi. He was somewhat thankful that he had ordered the War Department to go out to camp early.

Because Li Kuiqi's men had no formation at all. They moved forward in groups. Each group of pirates corresponded to a leader and his subordinates. The number of people varied, which basically reflected the size of the pirate ship that the leader was responsible for. .

"General, please recall the ambushing troops." Wu Guoyi reminded from the side, "Looking at the enemy's formation, even if Zheng Thief wants to retreat now, it is estimated that it will be difficult to command."

At this time, the three infantry bureaus deployed by Huiyou Company on the front line have also lined up. According to the pre-war arrangement, the first game was in the center, the third game was on the left wing, and the fourth game was on the right wing, with President Bai commanding from behind.

There was a vacancy in the last row of the three infantry bureaus, and they were all sent out to ambush troops. At this time, Lin Hai also felt deeply inconvenient to keep the troops away at night.

Lin Hai and Wu Guoyi have full confidence in the soldiers of the Army Department. They are more confident in the killer team's hand-to-hand combat capabilities than in their firepower.

According to combat regulations, the ambushing army must always keep a certain distance from the enemy after discovering that the enemy is attacking. In short, when the enemy advances, we retreat, when the enemy retreats, we advance, when the enemy stops, we stop. If you go directly back to the main force after polishing the flag, it will require military law.

In fact, this was also true for most Japanese pirates during the Jiajing period. After all, the number of real Japanese who had received military training was still too small. Many records in the Ming Dynasty show that they attacked in waves, and those at the front of each wave were elites.

After the War Department's end of the formation was completed, all 6,000 people on Li Kuiqi's side had finally crossed the moat and were lining up five miles away.

At this time, all the second round soldiers who were the reserve team had also left the camp. Lin Hai ordered one of the sentinels to line up facing the north, ready to deal with possible outflanks on the left wing of the formation.

To Lin Hai's surprise, this group of pirates lined up very quickly. The six thousand troops were lined up in less than two cups of tea, which was even greater than the Dutch army trained so hard by Nassau Morris. quick.

On the whole, this is a shallow horizontal line. There are 144 people in the front of the three infantry bureaus. The depth is only five rows, and the front is already as wide as possible.

In fact, these light artillery does not require five artillerymen at all. In an emergency, only one artilleryman can be used. Two of them are already very wealthy. The remaining third person only needs to be responsible for transporting muskets or ammunition.

The four whistles in each game are also lined up on the left and right, with the whistle leader coming forward. The four killer teams and one firearms team in each post are arranged front to back, with the firearms team in the front and the killer team in the back. Each killer team is lined up in an even formation with the captain in the middle.

The artillery bureau's mules must not stay on the battlefield. Once the two sides begin to exchange fire, these mules will definitely be frightened and rush back, which will disrupt the infantry formation in the rear.

After all, Zheng Zhilong's firearms equipment rate is relatively high, but the cold weapons are short-sighted weapons used by sailors. They are much weaker than the long spears and wild swords used by the backbone of the Japanese pirates, and there is no way they can be the opponent of the Yuanyang Formation.

The two muskets at the back were loaded with shotshells. After the three muskets were loaded, the two men in the team led three mules and began to retreat. The same was true for the Weiyuan artillery team. After loading, only three people were left in each artillery team on the position.

This is also the reason why they dare to put the newly established Artillery Bureau at the forefront instead of hiding in the formation. If it doesn't work, the Killer Team will take the lead.

Although Huiyou Company has a small number of troops, there is a camp in the rear and a sea on the right to protect the flank. The only weakness is on the left flank.

However, as Wu Guoyi said, the possibility of the enemy retreating is very small, and the distance between the two sides is not far. The position of the Chinese army is enough to see the enemy clearly, and it is meaningless for the ambushing army to be in the front.

"Recall the ambushes." Lin Hai immediately ordered. This group of ambushes were all sent out just before dawn to change shifts. At this time, they could still fill the last row of the formation.

As the Chinese army fired cannons and started fires, all levels of ambushes began to retreat. Xiao Zhou's group, which was closest to Tongshan City, had already retreated first in accordance with combat regulations.

The leading pirate team had already reached the place where Xiao Zhou and others were lying on the road. They had advanced almost a mile, but the last pirate team had not yet set off. A huge flag was erected in front of Tongshan City. .

Upon seeing this, Lin Hai said to Wu Guoyi: "It is Li Kuiqi who is going to fight. Look at the flag pole. It says "李" on it. I think Zheng's troops are still in the city."

Wu Guoyi heard this and replied: "Looking at the number of enemy troops leaving the city, it is indeed similar to the number of Li Kuiqi's troops that Huang San mentioned. But it is not clear whether the Zheng thief has left the city. These pirates like to play tricks."

At this time, Zheng Zhilong was sitting at the top of Tongshan City, holding a monocular and looking at the formation of Huiyou Company from a distance.

He had been defeated by Lin Hai several times, but excluding Zhang Daniu's two ships, this was the first time he had seen the opponent's army with his own eyes.

"Come here, go and invite Old Master Du over." Zheng Zhilong was now very superstitious about Du Ning and wanted to invite this old pervert over to see how strong Lin Hai's army was.

After giving instructions to his close aides standing aside, Zheng Zhilong said to Zheng Zhipeng beside him: "Brother, please open your eyes and take a good look to see how the man named Lin won. We must also learn from it when we return to Singang." He trains troops in his own way."

"Master, doesn't Li Kuiqi have any chance of winning?" Zheng Zhipeng whispered after hearing this. "Not even the slightest bit, I dare say." Zheng Zhilong shook his head gently, the expression on his face no one could understand.

Li Kuiqi, who was sentenced to death in advance by Zheng Zhilong, was very excited at this time. Before he left the city, he saw Lin Hai sending the army out of Muzha Camp. In his opinion, this was undoubtedly a suicide.

If there was still a trace of hesitation before the expedition, Li Kuiqi thought he was sure of victory at this time. After all, the Muzha Camp mentioned by Huang San still made him quite afraid.

This guy can't help but think about it. After this battle, he will completely establish a higher prestige than Zheng Zhilong, and then slowly replace him as the gang leader.

Lin Hai believed that Li Kuiqi's army had not been arranged at all. This was actually an injustice to him. They still had arrangements.

Li Kuiqi ranked the three leaders who took the initiative to follow him into battle. These three were either stupid, or like Huang San, Li Kuiqi pinched the sore spot, and they all accepted to be cannon fodder in the front. arrange.

Following closely behind were the bows of the small boats under Li Kuiqi. These leaders had a small number of men, basically a hundred men, and their combat power was not strong.

The teams that followed became larger and larger, and the personnel became more and more powerful. Walking at the back were the pirates on a giant ship worth 2,000 tons and two large ships worth 1,500 tons. The total number of pirates was about 1,500. These could probably be regarded as the direct line elite of Li Kuiqi's men.

This is the basic order of the pirates under Li Kuiqi. Those who can fight best can often get on the largest ship, those who are second best can only get on a slightly smaller ship, and so on.

In other words, Li Kuiqi changed the pirates' usual fighting method. It was no longer the elite charging at the front and the weak at the back acting as the atmosphere group, but the opposite.

The main reason for arranging troops in this way was to draw lessons from the defeat of Chen Zhongji, Zeng Wulao and others at the hands of Lin Hai.

Li Kuiqi learned in detail about the battle process from the remaining defeated generals in these two battles. Zeng Wulao personally charged forward. As a result, as soon as he died, his subordinates scattered like birds and beasts.

Chen Zhongji and Yang Tiansheng were luckier, but they deployed all their troops at once. As a result, they were induced by the chicken thief tactics to shoot in advance, and then charged at the opposite side. When they got close, they completely destroyed it with a volley of fire. .

In view of this, Li Kuiqi decided to disperse his troops, firstly to deal with the tactics of chicken thieves and retain firepower, and secondly to avoid the whole army being collapsed at once.

Of course, he also considered that the defeated army in front might scatter the troops behind, so he deliberately put the weak in front and the strong in the back. While offering a high head reward, he also stated that the rear team could kill the defeated troops in front. soldiers.

It is already the end of Ming Dynasty, and gunshots are not a rare thing. Pirates like Li Kuiqi, who were not too short of money, equipped every ship with firearms, so every bowman had a gunman in his team.

These gunners were basically arranged at the front of their respective teams, not only for the convenience of firing before approaching the enemy, but also for the first time to shoot the defeated troops in front.

All in all, Li Kuiqi planned to use the cannon fodder to consume the ammunition on the opposite side, and the elite troops would use this screen to approach the enemy, and finally rely on their numerical superiority to make the final decision.

He didn't know that what Lin Hai and Wu Guoyi were not afraid of the most was close combat. In terms of firepower, the gap between the two sides is actually not that big. To a certain extent, muskets can narrow the strength gap between elite soldiers and generals and rotten fish and shrimps. On the contrary, cruel close combat with cold weapons can better test the quality of an army.

"Commander, if our army has 300 fine cavalry at this time, we can just rush over and punch through the rebel army." Wu Guoyi took the opportunity to instill the importance of cavalry in Lin Hai.

"Why do we need three hundred elite cavalry?" Lin Hai laughed when he heard this, "With the loose formation of the bandit army, I will use the killer team to attack them with overwhelming force. Do you believe it or not?"

Wu Guoyi nodded and said: "My subordinates have no doubt about this."

At this time, the ambushes closest to the camp had retreated, and Lin Hai ordered people to guide them to the location of his unit.

As layers of ambushing troops retreated one after another, the enemy's vanguard was getting closer and closer. When Xiao Zhou led his group of soldiers to stand in the gap on the left side of the formation, the enemy's vanguard finally marched to A mile away from the artillery position.

"Follow up!" Jiang Yu ordered loudly, his voice almost breaking. This was his first time on the battlefield, and the time to prove himself had finally arrived.

Jiang Yu's soldiers first fired a cannon into the sky to remind the artillery bureau's sentry commanders to pay attention to the instructions. Then one of them raised the flag and waved it, and another lit it on fire.

When each sentry commander sees the flag corresponding to his own post, he will know that the order is issued to him. When he sees a fire, he can order the firing. In this way, each artillery team only needs to listen to the command of the sentry commander and does not have to pay attention to the distance at all times. Whether the 100-year-old President issued an order.

Jiang Yu's soldiers raised two flags one after another, and lit them on fire after each one. The Fo Lang machine sentry on the left side of the formation was commanded solely by the commander of the sentry, and all three guns were loaded with shotguns. The only task of this unit was to delay the enemy's outflanking, and there was no need to listen to the commander's orders.

"The first team, fire the cannon! The second team, fire the cannon! The third team, fire the cannon..."

The two Fo Lang machine sentry commanders on the left and right wings walked past the ten guns under their command and issued commands to the gun crew.

"Check the match rope! Check the match rope! Check the match rope..."

The captains of each team also ordered in turn that the first shot of wire, gunpowder, and projectiles had been loaded in advance, and the secondary musket had been wedged into the belly of the mother musket and the iron bolt inserted. Before launching, the only thing to do was to aim. His job was to examine the matchstick used to light the cord.

"Light the fire! Light the fire! Light the fire..."

After the subordinate artillery reported that the match rope was burning normally, the captain of each team personally held the musket tail rod to aim at the target, and then issued the ignition command.

Boom...boom...boom...

The twenty French aircraft in front of the left and right wings of the Army Department fired one after another, the sound of artillery came one after another, and the filled smoke formed two lines in front of the formation.

(End of this chapter)