Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 84: Fire the guns! (Subscribe)
Boom!Boom!Boom!Boom!
Accompanied by the earth-shaking sound of several big drums on the city wall, Zhu Shou led a regiment of four combat battalions and began to flank Kang Maocai under the cover of carriages.

Liao Yongan also led the main force of the Third Regiment, pushing the cart straight towards Kang Maocai's front army.

During the movement of the large formation, the two regiments separated, and the junction revealed a weak flank. This stage of changing formation and attacking was extremely vulnerable to attack, so Ye Sheng and Zheng Yong's two cavalry battalions were responsible for covering the infantry's change of formation.

At present, Lu Jin has very few cavalrymen, and they can only undertake miscellaneous tasks for the infantry. Once the infantry has completely broken through the enemy's formation, the cavalry can also do part-time work to pursue the enemy's fleeing soldiers.

After the main force of the formation left the city gate, Liao Yongjian also led a battalion of soldiers out of the city and blocked the north gate suspension bridge. One purpose was to prevent the enemy from attacking the city, and the other was to occupy key points. Even if the main force of their own side was defeated, as long as the city gate was still in their hands, the army could withdraw safely.

Of course, this is just a precaution. Kang Maocai is now overwhelmed and cannot spare any troops to launch a surprise attack on the city gate.

On a big tree beside an official road not far from the battlefield, Chang Yuchun and Lan Rong were hiding in the tree canopy, eating melons and watching the show on the edge.

Looking at the carriages of Lu Jin's side in front, covering the infantry's attack, Chang Yuchun seemed to be thinking about something. And that strange carriage seemed to have grown a pair of wings, with the arrow-shielding curtains on both sides fluttering as it moved.

The chariots were divided into two rows, with the front and back rows arranged alternately. The back chariot followed behind the junction of the two front rows, so that the infantry behind could be covered tightly, and there was also cavalry cover on both sides.

All of these actions are aimed at getting the main force of the infantry close enough to engage the enemy.

Kang Maocai was of course not idle either. He sent out the cavalry general Lu Changyi to lead the cavalry to try to harass the chariot formation, but it was almost useless.

Kang Maocai's subordinates were mainly infantry and navy. His main task was to defend the river. He did not have many cavalry. He dispatched 500 cavalrymen to fight Zhao Pusheng last time, and this time he only managed to gather cavalrymen with all his strength.

They couldn't even match Lu Jin in numbers. Ye Sheng and Zheng Yong each had 850 cavalrymen, protecting a regiment of infantry respectively. Even if Lu Changyi broke through the cavalry patrols patrolling the periphery of the Shengwu Army, what were waiting for them were two rows of thick chariots with archers behind them. They were not left to take the beating. It would be a miracle if Kang Maocai's cavalry could rush over.

"Brother Yuchun, why aren't the Yuan army moving? Is that Huaixi envoy just setting up his formation and waiting to be attacked?
"Look at Marshal Lu's soldiers. They are so imposing. They dare to attack without much armor. They are really amazing. No wonder they have captured several cities!"

Lan Rong looked in the direction of the battlefield and asked Chang Yuchun beside him.

Chang Yuchun thought for a while before speaking.

"Just now, Marshal Lu seemed to have killed someone in front of the battle line. He probably captured an important figure of the government army, and then the morale of both sides changed.

"Now it is Marshal Lu's soldiers who are actively seeking a fight, and the morale of the Yuan army is low. It is impossible for them to attack. They can only defend where they are, and they can hold out for a while.

"And you said that Marshal Lu didn't have much armor. He's very smart. It's because they don't have enough armor that they came up with this big shield cart with arrow-blocking curtains. As long as we can send the spearmen to the front of the enemy, I think we'll basically win the battle.

“As for why the Yuan army set up their formation and waited to be attacked, it is probably because the Yuan army commander got kicked in the head by a donkey. He actually put a group of civilians in the middle of the formation. How can they attack? If the four armies advance from front to back, left to right, can the civilians in the middle keep up?

"The civilians are used to transport supplies and at most to guard the camp or city. How can you attack with a group of civilians in the large formation?"

Lan Rong said, "Didn't you just say that the morale of the Yuan army was low? Maybe they didn't even think about attacking?

"Moreover, the Yuan army came from afar and didn't even have a solid camp. If he didn't put the civilians in the formation, but put them outside the formation and was defeated by Marshal Lu, and then he chased the civilians to attack the Yuan army's formation, wouldn't the end be even worse?"

Chang Yuchun was stunned when he heard this, then nodded and said, "That's right, we only see the battle in front of us, and we don't know what happened outside the field. The commanders of both sides should have some tricks up their sleeves.

"Marshal Lu sent more than 10,000 people to hide on Jilong Mountain outside Heyang City. That location is a key one. They can come from Jilong Mountain and attack the main force of the Yuan army from behind. They can also wait until the battle here is over and then hide on the road to ambush the defeated soldiers, or simply ignore this side and attack Heyang City directly.

“Ten thousand troops are placed there, and you can use them however you want.

"General Lu has a trick up his sleeve. There's no guarantee that the Yuan army hasn't ambushed someone somewhere. Maybe the man who was killed in front of the battle line just now was a trick used by the Yuan army commander.

"Now the Yuan army's tricks have been broken, and Marshal Lu's tricks have not been discovered yet. If I were the commander of the Yuan army, I would have to think about how to preserve my strength, otherwise it would be a problem whether I could escape alive."

Lan Rong looked at him in surprise, "Brother Yuchun, you figured out their tricks so quickly?"

Chang Yuchun shook his head seriously, then smiled and said, "I'm not their commander-in-chief. Who knows what they did outside the battlefield? We only knew about the ambush at Jilong Mountain after we saw it.

"See? This is the commander-in-chief. The officers only need to defeat the enemy, but the commander-in-chief has to consider the overall situation, which means there are many things to take into account. It is not that easy to command thousands of troops.

"It seems that this coach Lu is really capable. He has already won a game outside the court. It depends on how he plays in the head-on match."

Lan Rong pointed to the battlefield and exclaimed, "Look, a battle is about to start in the west."

Upon hearing this, Chang Yuchun looked over and saw that on the west side of the battlefield, Zhu Shou led a group to quickly turn around and then attacked the right wing of Kang Maocai's formation.

The First Regiment is Lu Jin's personal army and has been stationed in Luzhou City. They usually train under Lu Jin's nose. Putting aside other things, they are definitely the best in terms of formation.

This battlefield turn showed the results of the training. Although it could not be said to be very orderly, at least the organization of each department was not chaotic and everything was still in order.

For this expedition, Lu Jin also specially allocated all the paper armor from the Luzhou arsenal, which were all he had accumulated during this period, and distributed them to the regiment for use. There were as many as 2,000 sets. Together with the regiment's original armor, the regiment's armor coverage rate basically reached 70%.

Paper armor is too fragile and is almost a disposable product. People will not use it until just before a battle. It is made of multiple layers of thick paper stacked into the shape of armor plates and then strung together with ropes. It can indeed protect against arrows, but it is afraid of rain and will be destroyed once it gets wet.

The front row of chariots of the regiment had reached 150 meters in front of the right wing of Kang Maocai's formation. The person in charge of commanding the right wing was Ding Zhongrui, who was no novice on the battlefield. When he was in Hubei before, he followed Kang Maocai to suppress the rebel army.

After being transferred to Heyang, before Lu Jin traveled through time, he had suppressed the Chaohu navy, and the two sides were considered old rivals.

Seeing that the enemy was within the range of bows and crossbows, Ding Zhongrui immediately ordered the messenger to blow the horn. The next moment, hundreds of crossbowmen emerged from the gaps between the sword and shield soldiers in the front row, raised their bows and crossbows, and fired a round at the chariot in front.

The squad leader of the Shengwu Army standing on the chariot saw the enemy crossbowmen approaching through the observation hole and immediately shouted to the infantry behind him, "Raise your shields quickly to prevent arrows!"

Upon hearing this, the spearmen all put up a round bamboo hat. This thing must be useful, at least it is better than nothing.

However, they did not wait for the rain of arrows to fall from the sky because the enemy was shooting horizontally.

The range of a crossbow is much longer than that of a bow and arrow. At a distance of 150 meters, if armor-piercing arrows are used, it is enough to penetrate iron armor. However, it is completely useless now.

The large composite shield in front of the chariot was made of a layer of thick wood and a layer of thick bamboo, with mud in the middle. The total thickness was eight centimeters. Even if some crossbow arrows could penetrate the shield, they would only get stuck on it and not penetrate it.

Some crossbow arrows did penetrate the arrow shield beside the cart, but the two rows of carts arranged in a staggered manner still blocked all the arrows. The infantry pushing the carts were all behind the large shield in the middle, so it was impossible for anyone to be injured.

Dadadada, round after round of crossbow arrows hit the carriage, making bursts of muffled sounds, and soon the front of the carriage was shot into a hedgehog, but it still could not stop the carriage from moving forward.

Ding Zhongrui's forehead began to sweat. In the past, when he suppressed the peasant army who had no idea what formation was and only had hoes as weapons, such long-range strikes with bows and crossbows would have been enough to destroy the enemy after two rounds of shooting. However, now he could not cause any damage to the enemy.

The chariot had approached to within 80 meters, and the crossbowmen had fired more than three rounds on average.

With a clang of gong, the crossbowmen retreated behind the sword and shield soldiers. Then another horn sounded, and Ding Zhongrui shouted.

"Bow and arrow lob shot!"

Immediately, more than two hundred archers, together with the crossbowmen from before, shot arrows towards the chariot.

"Raise your shield! Guard against arrows, guard against arrows quickly!"

A line of chariots was still advancing steadily despite taking damage.

The sound of arrows whizzing through the air could be heard, and soon some screams were heard from the infantry formation behind the carriage.

It was discovered earlier that the chariot was too solid and could not be penetrated by frontal shots, so Ding Zhongrui ordered archers to shoot from the lob. However, projectiles were not so easy to shoot either. The key was that it was impossible to aim accurately and one could only aim in a general direction.

Moreover, due to the problem of arrow trajectory, the front-row infantry close to the chariot were not in any trouble, but more infantry in the back row were shot.

However, due to the long distance and the fact that the arrow was projectile, it no longer had much power when it fell.

The regiment was equipped with a large amount of paper armor, and each spearman had a hat to cover his head. Unless they were really unlucky, they would basically not be seriously injured.

"Don't panic, the enemy can't shoot many arrows!"

"Keep your head down to prevent arrows from hitting you. Cover your head and face. Follow the front row. Don't run around. The more arrows you run around, the more you'll get hit by arrows!"

"Anyone who flees from the battlefield will be beheaded! Anyone who disrupts the morale of the army will be beheaded! Anyone who does not retreat will be beheaded!"

Zhu Shou followed behind the first row of carriages, controlling the speed of the entire regiment. Behind him, several battalion commanders, Zhang Wen, Yu Tongyuan, and Xu Yong, were also shouting loudly to control their soldiers.

On the battlefield, one level pressed forward against another, and the platoon leaders shouted at the soldiers to charge forward under the hail of arrows.

In fact, it took no more than half a minute, and the spear infantry phalanx only suffered more than 40 minor injuries and 6 serious injuries, but the front row of chariots had already advanced to 50 meters inside the enemy line, and the Shengwu Army finally began to counterattack.

The archers on Ding Zhongrui's side only shot three or four rounds before the enemy's chariots pressed forward. He couldn't see how many people were hit in the back, but it was true that the enemy was still advancing.

At the same time, he was also surprised. How could this be fought? Could it be that the opponent just pushed the cart straight in? He had never seen such a fighting style before.

Zhu Shou took a look at the observation port of the carriage, determined the distance, and immediately gave the order.

"Attention all crews, throw your weapons!"

With a horn sound, all the chariot lines stopped at a distance of forty to fifty meters from the enemy. Then the arrow-proof curtains on both sides were removed. One by one, the armored soldiers picked up javelins, assumed an Olympic Games stance, bent their bodies to gather strength, and suddenly threw the javelins out.

Whoosh whoosh—

In the first round, hundreds of spears flew over. These spears had only a very small iron tip and were made entirely of hardwood. They had very high penetrating power and could not even be blocked by the opponent's shield at a distance of forty or fifty meters.

After only one round of attack, the enemy's sword and shield line was devastated. Some Yuan army sword and shield players were even nailed to the ground with their shields by spears. Some armored spearmen behind the sword and shield players were not spared either. No matter how armored they were, their defense would be broken if they were hit by spears.

Whoosh whoosh—

Another round of javelins flew out, but the carriage was still moving forward slowly, and had already reached a distance of more than 20 meters.

This style of fighting scared the Yuan army so much that they almost pissed themselves. They had never seen people fighting so closely and throwing things at each other.

Fortunately, Ding Zhongrui had a trump card, otherwise he would not even be prepared to stay on this line of defense.

"Quickly fire the muskets, light them, quickly light them!"

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(End of this chapter)