Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 267 Calculation
Zheng Zhilong stood far away on the top of the city wall, unable to see the fight between the Huiyou Company's cavalry and Zheng's marines. All he could see was the speed at which the flames were advancing.

"Someone, come here, sternly order Chief Wang to speed up!" Zheng Zhilong was getting a little anxious and called a personal soldier out of the city to pass on the order.

In fact, he didn't need to send orders, Wang Mengxiong outside the city gradually figured out the tactics of the opposing cavalry. The number of these cavalry was not large, and they were not enough to cause much damage to the Marines. Their purpose was only to delay their advance.

After figuring this out, Wang Mengxiong sent out messengers, strictly ordering his men to speed up the march and not to pay attention to the cavalry who were hiding in the dark and shooting from a distance.

This made it easier for the scouts of the Huiyou Company to fight. Instead of firing one shot and running away as before, they fired four shots before retreating and reloading.

However, most cavalry squads did not dare to approach the enemy. The accuracy of pistol shooting was not very good, and the accuracy of horseback shooting was even worse. So even if they fired four shots in a round of harassment, they would not kill many people.

Only Nine Fingers, after firing his gun, suddenly drew out his saber and rushed towards the flank of the pirates' marching formation.

As the leader of the cavalry patrol of the Vanguard Bureau, Jiuzhi personally led the first team of the cavalry patrol into action. The soldiers did not need the command of gongs and drums in skirmishing, but just followed the officers' instructions and fought wherever they were directed.

When Jiuzhi charged, the First Team had no choice but to follow. Otherwise, if Shangguan was captured, they would also be subject to military law.

When marching, they were all in columns. Nine Fingers rushed over from the flank, and the queue in front of them was very thin. As a result, this attack really broke through the queue on the opposite side. The pirates avoided it, and the first team killed six or seven people with sabers when rushing over.

However, after breaking through the queue, a large group of musketeers on the pirate side stopped to shoot. This wave killed one person on the spot, and the horses of three others were hit, and they died after running for some distance.

The riders on the horses were thrown to the ground by their horses, which were running and jumping wildly after being shot, and eventually two died and one was seriously injured.

"Son of a bitch! I'm going to charge again!" Jiuzhi was a little excited and wanted to avenge his dead brother.

"Captain, we can't charge anymore. If we charge again, our entire team will be wiped out." Captain Chen of the First Team was almost crying. This captain was too reckless. He must never follow the First Team again in the future.

Jiuzhi nodded silently. He knew that he was a little impulsive this time. The flanks of the column were not as fragile as the horizontal column. If the opponent had not expected his attack at the beginning, the whole team might have been killed this time.

However, this attack slowed down the march of Wang Mengxiong's troops. The pirates couldn't figure out whether the cavalry of the Vanguard Bureau would turn their horses around after firing their guns, or continue to charge forward, so they stopped and started shooting again.

By the time Wang Mengxiong finally led his troops to the south side of Huiyou Company's artillery position, the Second Bureau and the First Bureau of the Army Department had already formed a small three-talent formation to engage the enemy in a horizontal formation, and even the bureau's Weiyuan cannon and Portuguese cannon had been deployed in place.

Now the Zheng army became the passive party. Wang Mengxiong saw that the number of people on the opposite side was small, so he left a small half of his troops to guard the rear, and the remaining half directly launched an attack on the Army Department in a column.

The French army at the end of the linear tactics era debated for a long time about whether the infantry should use columns (phalanxes) or horizontal formations (line formations) when attacking. Generally speaking, columns are good for mobility, while horizontal formations are good for combat. How to choose the specific attack formation is a science.

Depending on the terrain and other factors, sometimes a column charge is better, sometimes a horizontal charge is better, and sometimes it is more appropriate to approach the enemy in a column and then deploy into a horizontal formation to engage in battle.

Of course, the last method undoubtedly requires a lot of formation change training to support it. The European army in the era of linear tactics was almost unable to complete it until the French army in the war. Wang Mengxiong's troops were naturally unable to complete this difficult action. He could not choose to change into a horizontal formation outside the range of the Army Department, because the opponent had already set up a formation and could launch an attack at any time.

He made the most correct choice in the current scenario and directly launched an attack in column. Another advantage of the column is that the flanks are safer than the horizontal formation, which is also very important when the opponent has cavalry.

At the same time, he also considered the problem of the retreat under the threat of cavalry. It can be said that Wang Mengxiong's military qualities were quite good.

The Marines under his command were indeed the elite troops of the Zheng army who were well-paid. They launched a resolute column charge despite the firepower of the Army Department. There was even a large lead bullet that ricocheted and created a bloody alley, but the pirates still did not disperse.

After all, the firepower of that era was not strong enough, and the two armies soon engaged in hand-to-hand combat. This was the first time that the Army Department's killer team appeared in a battle.

The weapons and equipment of both sides were similar. They were both flower teams based on the Mandarin Duck Formation. The Zheng army had a certain advantage in terms of manpower, but its overall quality was still somewhat inferior, and the battle was difficult to determine for a while.

Wang Mengxiong was secretly surprised. He thought that this Marine Corps he had trained personally was the strongest army he had ever seen in his life. He did not expect that they could not win even though they had the advantage in manpower. He could not help but give a higher evaluation of Lin Hai's troops.

He knew that Lin Hai had more than just this many troops and reinforcements could arrive at any time. For a moment, he was tempted to retreat and regretted agreeing to Zheng Zhilong's plan to attack outside the city at night.

But the situation at this point had become one of being on the edge of a tiger, and if they retreated they would be immediately defeated, and then these one thousand men would become prey to the enemy cavalry.

Wang Mengxiong could only desperately urge his men to attack in order to break the situation as soon as possible...

However, at this time, a raging fire suddenly broke out in Xiamen. The fire was very loud from the beginning, and it was obvious that tinder had been piled up in advance.

Wang Mengxiong was stunned for a moment, then he realized that Zheng Zhilong was about to abandon the city and flee.

What night attack, what decisive battle, what a small victory to boost morale, they're all fucking pretenses, this guy had already made up his mind to run away.

If I guessed correctly, the gates of Xiamen City should have been opened at this time, and the pirates in the city were fleeing in all directions. Zheng Zhilong himself might have been outside the city.

The reason why he went to such lengths instead of fleeing after leading his troops out of the city was that he was afraid of being caught by his subordinates and taken to seek credit. At this time, except for a few close confidants around Zheng Zhilong, no one might know where he was.

As for why they set the fire, it was obvious that this was to attract Lin Hai's troops and Tongan soldiers to occupy Xiamen City so that they could escape more smoothly.

This was also the purpose of sending Wang Mengxiong to lead the Marines out of the city to fight, in order to attract as many enemy troops as possible.

Wang Mengxiong quickly figured it all out, and Zheng Zhilong's words seemed to ring in his ears again: "When it comes to scheming, you are still not as good as me."

(End of this chapter)