If I fail to overcome the tribulation, I can only return to the Ming Dynasty and become a prince.

Chapter 165 Monkey riding a dog
Earlier, before the battle started, Fan Zhong was still a little nervous when he looked at the Japanese army that appeared in front of him.

After all, this was his first time leading an army alone, and he also encountered an enemy army while marching in the wild. It would be an absolute lie to say that he was not nervous.

Fortunately, the Japanese on the opposite side seemed to be marching, and neither side was ready to fight. Therefore, after the sentries discovered the existence of the other side, both armies stopped in unison and began to equip the soldiers with armor, prepare weapons, and conduct pre-battle preparations. Preparation.

Unlike what most people know, ancient marching soldiers did not march wearing armor weighing more than ten kilograms or even dozens of kilograms.

Because in battles in the cold weapon age, a soldier's physical strength is a key factor in determining the outcome of a war. If a large amount of physical strength is consumed for a long time without effective recovery, even the most elite soldiers will fall into fatigue and weakness, and their combat effectiveness will decline.

A qualified general will definitely give priority to ensuring the physical strength of his main combat troops. In addition to letting them eat well and have a good rest, the most important point is to prevent them from consuming additional physical strength in non-combat situations.

And marching is the most physically demanding thing for an army besides fighting.

In order to ensure that the soldiers have enough physical strength to support the battle during the battle, naturally the main combat troops will not be asked to wear iron armor weighing more than ten kilograms or even dozens of kilograms during the march.

That's not marching, it's cross-country with heavy loads.

Therefore, the combat effectiveness of an army on the march is at its weakest. This is not only because the team is not in combat formation, but also because the soldiers are not wearing armor or picking up weapons.

Because of this, the army's sentries and scouts are very important, because they need to detect all the situations around the army, avoid being ambushed and sneak attacked by the enemy, and they must go up to meet the enemy as soon as the enemy attacks and delay the attack. Give the army time to put on armor and prepare for battle.

The Ming army's scouting horses and sentries used the traditional night cavalry, which were elite light cavalry selected from the army.

The Japanese use ninjas, of course, traditional ninjas who can neither breathe fire nor do clone techniques.

The collision between the two did not cause any splash. After all, the most fundamental mission of the two is to discover the enemy's situation and report back, not to fight bravely with the other party or to wipe out many enemies.

Regardless of whether it is Ye Bushou or a ninja, the first time they encounter an enemy is to pursue a one-hit kill, leave after the fight, and never entangle.

Therefore, in the first round of collision between the two sides, although both sides suffered some casualties, there was no fierce fighting.

It wasn't until the armies of both sides had confirmed the other's existence and began to set up their formations to prepare for battle that the battle became intense.

However, when the two armies set up their positions and Fan Zhong was about to give the order to start a battle, several Japanese warriors rode horses with helmets and armor on and rushed to the Ming army's formation. They announced their homes loudly and began to invite the battle.

This was quite normal in the Japanese state. Until the end of the Warring States Period more than 200 years later, the so-called "Yi Qi Dao" was still popular among them, which was a fighting general that was also popular in China.

Of course, when it was popular in China, this thing was still called Zhishi. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the nobles of the two parties used chariots to fight against each other.

This is an act that demonstrates bravery and also boosts morale.

After all, the general of our family went out to invite a battle and successfully killed the opponent's general with one shot. Then he cut off his head and came back shouting "I want so-and-so". This is still very encouraging, and it can also damage the enemy's morale.

But this thing was not very popular in China during the Qin and Han Dynasties.In other words, for China, which had 10,000+ or ​​hundreds of thousands of troops at war at that time, the increase in the scale of the war caused this kind of one-on-one battle between generals to gradually lose its meaning and its role became dispensable, so it gradually became irrelevant. People do this.

In today's Ming Dynasty, if you still want to see this kind of scene, you can only go to teahouses and restaurants to listen to storytelling scripts.

So in the face of several Japanese generals who came to call for battle, Fan Zhong just asked someone to bring a musket, loaded the bullets and then raised the gun to shoot.

"Bang!" Although the hit rate of the flintlock gun was not too high, Fan Zhong's shot still accurately hit one of the Japanese generals. The shot shattered his helmet and caused him to fall off his horse. Come down.

Throwing the musket to the soldiers beside him, Fan Zhong casually spat: "Quack."

And this shot also made the Japanese army, which had been noisy because their own generals went to call for formation, suddenly fell silent. They had never seen such a situation where generals were singled out and suddenly attacked with hidden weapons.

After all, the Japanese in this era were relatively simple. Even things like the moon-shaped head had to be learned by Mongolians shaving their bald gourds. Moreover, the hair was pulled out one by one instead of shaving. You will know what the Japanese in this era were like. The level of Tie Hanhan is too high.

Therefore, at this time, they still attach great importance to the fact that military generals challenge each other in front of the battle, and consider it a very honorable matter.

However, now the Ming army does not care about honor at all, which makes many Japanese warriors who consider themselves loyal and brave and value honor become angry and clamor to teach the Ming army a lesson.

Although the Japanese daimyo wanted to be more cautious, the morale of the army had reached this point and it was impossible to stop it. So seeing that the army was indeed ready to attack, the leading Japanese daimyo ordered an attack.

Seeing a group of Japanese warriors less than 1.5 meters tall, riding horses with a shoulder height less than 1.2 meters and charging towards them, the Ming soldiers only felt the absurdity, rather than the tension of facing a cavalry charge.

After all, the cavalry they had faced were Mongolian cavalry. The charging formation of thousands of Mongolian cavalry was far beyond what this monkey-riding dog-like cavalry could compare to.

Especially the Japanese cavalry that rushed over only numbered 2000.

"Prepare the artillery! Fire!" Even without Fan Zhong giving an order, the Qingyu Guard's artillerymen were already ready to meet the enemy.

What they used this time was not a small-caliber thing like the Crouching Tiger Cannon, but a bowl-thick, front-loading smoothbore cannon that fired solid projectiles.

Although this thing is only a light infantry cannon at best and not even a siege weapon, for the Japanese who have never seen firearms at all, this is already a dimensionality reduction strike.

Under the artillery fire, although the cavalry did charge bravely, the horses, which had never seen artillery before, were completely panicked and had no way to continue fighting.

Not only the war horses, but also the morale of the recruited peasant soldiers collapsed. They even thought that the Ming army was using weapons from the gods, and they were so frightened that they knelt on the ground and prayed continuously.

Although driven by the warriors, they finally launched a charge towards the Ming army, but all this could bring was to make the land more fertile next year, nourished by blood.

　Regarding height, the Japanese themselves conducted research based on the actual armor preserved from the Warring States Period. Oda Nobunaga, Uesugi Kenshin, and Takeda Shingen were all only between 1.4 and 1.5 meters tall.
　　In addition, Japanese horses look tall, but they are all modern improvements, while ponies are produced in Japan.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)