Dragon Sea Empire

Tongzhou, the "East Gate of the Capital", is under the jurisdiction of Shuntian Governor under the jurisdiction of Governor Jiliao, and militarily under the jurisdiction of Tongzhou Left and Right Guards under the jurisdiction of Miyun Military Equipment.

At the end of September, an infantry team of the Chinese Army-Taiwanese pirates set off from Wuqing County and went straight to Tongzhou. The brigade commander of the first brigade of the first division was Zhao Tie's old partner, Huang Lue, the former battalion commander of the first battalion of the Hurricane Regiment. , he led the main force of the first brigade of 5000 people, plus sailors from three outposts as the vanguard, marched 60 miles in one day with only seven days and nights of dry food and ammunition, attacked and occupied Langfang, and then Marching to the northwest for one day, they walked 90 miles and approached the city of Tongzhou.

That night, thousands of officers and soldiers of Tongzhou Guard heard the sound of the guns and immediately collapsed.

Originally, the soldiers staying in Tongzhou were old, weak and remnant soldiers, and the troops that were slightly capable of fighting had been transferred to the capital; in addition, the sharp firearms and brave combat effectiveness of the Chinese army had passed through Tianjin Wei and surrounding counties and counties, and spread throughout the entire capital. In the Qu area, moreover, the officers and soldiers of the left and right guards in Tongzhou have been owed wages for six months. Therefore, the officers and soldiers of Tongzhou have no intention of fighting. When they heard the explosion of the Chinese army's grenade, they thought it was the legendary siege artillery. They were shocked. , Then it collapsed, most of them abandoned the city and left, and a small part surrendered to the Chinese army.

Huang Lue had enough strength to fight a good battle. For two consecutive days, he hurriedly marched to the city of Tongzhou. He only rested for two hours. He just sent people to touch the gate tower of the East City Gate and threw a few grenades, but the officers and soldiers immediately gathered together. collapsed.

The officers and soldiers opened the west gate and rushed all the way to the capital. The first brigade did not and could not completely encircle Tongzhou City, so it was too late to catch up with those officers and soldiers. He was not reconciled to public security. After dawn, he called his officers at all levels to discuss the next step.

"The second brigade will arrive tomorrow. Whether we will build a fortress here and hold on to it, and whether we will be able to shake the mountain and shake the tiger if we get Tongzhou City so easily, I'm afraid it's unknown," said a young division staff officer.

Huang Lue thought for a while and said: "General Manager Chen gave us an order to attack Tongzhou, threaten the capital, and force the imperial army to leave the capital to fight us. Since it is necessary to force, then we have to press harder and harder. I decided to go to the capital. March,"

The brigade commander of the second brigade of the first division is Yang Dacheng, the former deputy head of the first regiment. Compared with Huang Lue, he is more stable. When he led the team to Tongzhou at noon the next day, he heard that Huang Lue's troops had already set off like the capital. , Startled, Yang Dacheng sent an emergency notification to the old battalion on the Tianjin Weibei Line, and led the troops to follow the route of the Huanglue Brigade.

Bali Bridge, also known as Yongtong Bridge, is located on the Tonghui River. It is named because it is eight miles away from the west gate of the old city of Tongzhou. Bali Bridge is an important channel from Tongzhou to Beijing. The march was very careful, 11 light field guns and ten Thunderbolt rocket vehicles from the artillery battalion affiliated to the brigade headquarters were arranged in the center of the marching column, and the whole army advanced at a very slow speed.

About 1 mile away from the Bali Bridge, the outpost scouts came back and reported that there were officers and troops stationed at the bridgehead, and the banner belonged to Zhang Chengyin, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong.

The news that the Liaodong soldiers had entered the customs was known to the generals of the Chinese Army a few days ago, but the Liaodong soldiers marched so fast that they had already arrived in Tongzhou, east of the capital, and this was the first time they found out.

The garrison at Baliqiao is indeed Liaodong Governor Guo Guangfu as the chief food officer, and Liaodong Chief Military Officer Zhang Chengyin as the chief general of Liaodong King Qin’s army, and it is the cavalry unit of Liaodong Chief Military Officer Zhang Chengyin who arrived just the day before, led by the guerrilla Liang Rugui 3000 cavalry In addition, there is also a team of Liao guerrilla Zhang Shai and a hundred households Zhang Yuncheng's heavy battalion.

This is the vanguard of the Liaodong Army. The Liaodong Army's large force of more than 20000 people, led by the commander-in-chief Zhang Chengyin, deputy general Po Tingxiang, and general Pu Shifang, is still in Shanhaiguan.

The Tongzhou defenders who fled the night before were also on the other side of the Bali Bridge.

They still have more than 2000 people who were able to gather and line up in the field. This is the credit of the guerrilla Liang Rugui. He ordered directly, so several of the rout soldiers were beheaded on the spot, and more than 2000 rout soldiers in Tongzhou were stabilized by both hard and soft tactics.

While asking for help from the capital, he ordered the supply battalion to deploy a series of carts to the east of Bali Bridge to form a chariot formation; The main force spread out after the formation of vehicles.

Liang Rugui didn't understand the situation of the Chinese Army at all. He only knew that the opponent had a lot of firearms. He arranged the formation to deal with the firearms according to his own understanding: the baggage battalion was in front, the infantry and cavalry were in the rear, and each boxcar in the baggage battalion It is equipped with one large Frang machine gun, two small Frang machine guns, one bird gun and three quick guns, which are similar to the firearms in Qi Jiguang's car battalion establishment 50 years ago.

However, the total number of these firearms seems to be considerable, but when viewed across the entire defense line, they appear to be very weak and lack depth. The guerrilla Liang Rugui has fought in Liaodong for many years, and his experience in firearms combat comes from dealing with lack of firearms or basic Mongols and Jurchens without firearms.

The First Brigade of the First Regiment of the Chinese Army, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Huang Lue, unfolded its formation while marching, directly converting the team from a four-row marching formation to a three-row horizontal formation with sentinels as units. Liang Rugui on the van was surprised to find that under the morning sun, the Chinese Army team transformed into a horizontal team without stopping at all, and launched artillery vehicles in the team.

In the impression of guerrilla Liang Rugui, cannons are cumbersome things, and they are a heavy burden in field battles; they can only be transported on carts, and when they arrive on the battlefield, they have to be moved down with a lot of hands and feet, piled up with earthen cannon mounts, and placed To fix the cannon, the entire barrel must be erected when loading ammunition, and the field cannon of the Chinese Army in front of you is directly mounted on the wheels, pushed to the front and back of the formation, and the figure-of-eight pillars are deployed at the back of the cannon carriage, even if the cannon position is completed.

Any field gun of the Chinese Army, from the smallest 3-pound gun to the 12-pound flower howitzer, has a range, rate of fire, and accuracy that are much better than the Liaodong Army's Franc machine guns. After the battalion's field artillery fired, Liang Rugui immediately knew that his troops would be defeated.

The first batch of shells shattered several vans in the front, and the explosive shells blew up a cart into a torch. A shell passed over the array of vehicles and directly shot the Liaodong cavalry array into a bloody roadway. Ten thunderbolts The rocket car opened fire, and 20 Thunderbolt rockets per car, a total of 200 rockets exploded in the Liaodong Army formation and above the head.

The Tongzhou soldiers collapsed first, and the other soldiers in the supply battalion were at a loss, and some fired desperately. Although the Ming army's firearms were not accurate, the Chinese army still suffered a small number of casualties. Huang Lue believed that to avoid casualties, it is better to Needing to break the line of vehicles, he ordered the artillery to fire ten rounds in rapid succession, and the rocket car to fire two more rounds.

Liang Rugui began to regret: the Tongzhou soldiers should not have been left behind. These guys who lost their will to fight dragged down the entire Ming army position. After the first round of shelling by the Chinese army, he wanted the cavalry to pass through the chariot formation and launch an attack, but The scattered soldiers made the entire position in chaos, and the cavalry could not charge at all.

With the continuous shelling of the Chinese Army, the entire vehicle array gradually collapsed, and the weak firearm counterattack also stopped. Amidst the conch and the sound of drums, the infantry soldiers of the First Brigade of the Chinese Army began to advance neatly. When the chaotic vehicle array was still about 200 paces away, the field guns stopped firing, and the thunderbolt rockets continued to shoot at the rear positions of the Ming army.

There were sparse Ming army cavalry rushing out of the chariot formation that became a line of fire, and then being knocked down by the Chinese army infantry firing salvos. Such a sparse cavalry charge did not constitute a threat to the infantry line at all.

Liang Rugui was in despair; his cavalry was in disarray under artillery fire and thunderbolt rockets, while the enemy's neat infantry line had advanced to 100 paces away, and the whole line was flickering with fire and smoke from time to time And the bullets made the chaotic Ming army's position even more chaotic.

The fearless Liaodong cavalry charged at the infantry line of the Chinese Army, and the sporadic cavalry charge was stopped by the flintlock muskets of the Chinese Army without exception.

A bullet hit Liang Rugui's leader of the soldiers and killed him on horseback. Liang Rugui was taken aback: he was now behind the position, at least 200 steps away from the Chinese infantry, but the Chinese army The bullets of the firecrackers could still hit his own soldiers; in the battle experience he knew, he had never heard that the blunderbusses could hit people so far.

His will to fight also collapsed, he abandoned his soldiers desperately, turned around and fled the battlefield with hundreds of his own soldiers.

In the Battle of Bali Bridge in Tongzhou, more than 1000 people were killed in the heavy battalion and left-wing cavalry battalion of the Liaodong Army of the Ming Army.

When Yang Dacheng's second brigade arrived, Huang Lue's troops didn't bother to clean up the battlefield at all, leaving only one sentry team to guard the prisoners, and the rest of the brigade continued to advance towards the capital.

Yang Dacheng shook his head, and ordered the sailors and musketeers who came with his troops to stay and clean the battlefield and escort the prisoners. He was going to lead the troops to continue chasing Huang Lue's first brigade.

The head of the Sailor Marine Corps Ryukyu Fourth Sentinel was very dissatisfied, and shouted at Yang Dacheng: "Why do you let your infantry rush to the front to take the lead? Our sailor team is not an auxiliary force, and we can't always do these things for you to clean up the battlefield. live,"

Yang Dacheng frowned. Seeing that the whistle chief spoke with a Hainanese accent, he knew that they must be the Dan people brought by the ship owner from Yazhou. Since they were the first batch of Yin Feng's direct descendants, they were always a little bit of a little bit, so he said coldly : "I know that the sailors can fight. Now we need to fight regular battles to attack the capital. Can your sailors surpass us in array drills?