Ping An Biography

The main force of the official army was stationed in the northeast of Ruichang City, leaning against the Yangtze River, so as to monitor the movements of the Suzaku Army in Ruichang City.Because it is adjacent to the Yangtze River in the north and the waters of Chihu Lake in the south, the terrain in the south of Chihu Lake is complex, so the Suzaku Army can bypass the official garrison and threaten the Yangtze River Ferry and Jiujiang City.The situation has much room for maneuver, and the land between the northwestern bank of Chihu Lake and the Yangtze River will be the only channel to reshape the pattern, and it is also the destined battlefield.

On the first day of February in the third year of Xuande, the main force of the Yongding camp left the city and soon pushed into the Shenji camp, and the two armies confronted each other.In a contest without any strategies or tricks, on a not-so-large battlefield, whoever has the strongest force will win.

Prior to this, Zhu Heng sent envoys twice to ask for help from the King of Han's army, asking the two armies to form an alliance temporarily and jointly attack the Shenji Camp.But several days passed, and there was no movement at all from the King of Han's army. It seemed that they could not be counted on.

Due to the low terrain in the central part, Zhang Ning placed the central army on the left flank, next to the heavy artillery position, and there were two or three field heavy artillery left, all of which were thrown into the battlefield.The formation of the army is arranged in a word, with the rest of the Third Army, the left post of the First Army, and the Feng cavalry regiment on the left; the entire Second Army in the center; the middle post and right post of the First Army on the right.

Today's weather is fine, the spring is bright, and the wind from the rivers and lakes is a bit humid, but the actual measurement does not affect the discharge of gunpowder.The air is clear and the visibility is very high. The Shenji Battalion is clearly visible at a glance. The Shenji Battalion also does not seem to have any more mysterious formations such as the Eight Diagrams Formation. The formations are square and square.The Shenji Battalion is equipped with a lot of artillery carried by carriages, but there is no organized cavalry, and it is full of people and no horses at a glance. [

Zhang Ning sat in a wheelchair and observed the situation on the battlefield for a long time. After the preparations of the various armies were completed, a group of generals rode to the central army one after another, and met for the last small discussion before the battle.

After roughly repeating the tactics again, Zhang Ning finally couldn't help but said: "It's up to people to plan and make things happen. Everyone should do their part to fight together. As long as you go all out, you will have nothing to regret in the future. I hope you will encourage each other. "

All the generals raised their hands to salute, and said something one after another, but because everyone said something different, their voices became chaotic.Zhang Ning waved his hand, and everyone returned to the army.Not long after, the flag of the Chinese army was raised amidst a burst of music, and all the troops paid attention to it, and the signal for the battle was in place.

In terms of victory or defeat, many people will definitely die on this day. Zhang Ning has personally witnessed the mass death caused by his own rebellion several times. The Tao can only go to the dark, and there is no way to turn back.The only good thing is that in this world, as long as the position reaches a certain height, there are no rules to judge a person's sins, only the difference between victory and defeat.

Seeing that all the troops were almost ready, Zhang Ning ordered the whole army to advance regardless of what happened to the officers and troops on the opposite side.He was not willing to wait, so he took the initiative to attack.

Three long horn horns sounded on the ground, and the counted men and horses started to move, and the front line slowly began to move.Looking at the officers and soldiers two miles away, they are still motionless, waiting for the opponent's attack... Zhang Ning has studied the tactics of the Shenji Battalion. This army is fighting with other troops of the Beijing Battalion on the Mongolian grassland. Wait for the opponent to charge, then use firearms to drive back the enemy soldiers, and then counterattack; an army often has a habit of inertia, so it is estimated that Shenjiying is also planning this time.

Nearly [-] people spread out one word at a time, advancing in a horizontal line, and the speed was very slow.It took a long time for the officers and soldiers to respond, and they sent scattered rangers to attack the formation. A small amount of bloodshed opened the prelude to the killing, but the sporadic rangers naturally had little effect on the overall situation.

Behind them, a small group of men estimated distances with crude range finders, but they were obviously inaccurate.Zhang Ning just sat down and observed visually. He had a lot of battle experience in this kind of camp battle, and he could roughly estimate the distance with his eyes.Throughout the entry process, the officers and soldiers did little, they just waited passively.

After a long time, I suddenly saw flames flickering in the distance, and after a short while, I heard the sound of cannons.Cannons were fired on the officer camp. Zhang Ning looked up at the sky, and seemed to be able to see the trajectory of the cannons, but it was a little far away and it was not very real.On the contrary, a few birds startled in a grove farther away and saw it.

Then more flames flashed, and the smoke in the air increased, gradually destroying the clear air.Some cannons fell into the queue of the crowd, and mud and debris were seen flying up, which looked like small explosions from a distance, but they were just debris caused by air waves, and solid objects could not explode.The roar of the artillery was mixed with the shouts of the people, and the ground gradually became more lively.

Zhang Ning turned his head and said, "Order the whole army to stop later."

Zhu Heng agreed, and then sent out messengers and asked the drummer to prepare to blow the trumpet.The cooperation between the two is still tacit. Zhang Ning feels that Zhu Heng is only a civil servant after all, and his decision-making in battle may not be brilliant, but it is indeed rare to be a staff officer.In the past, Zhang Ning sometimes made vague decisions when he was nervous, but Zhu Heng could always check for omissions and fill in vacancies and give accurate orders.

The distance between the two armies was about one mile, and the northern part of the official army (the left wing of the Suzaku Army) began to advance head-on.Sure enough, the Shenji Battalion couldn't sit back and wait for the attack like they fought against Mongolia, because they knew that the artillery of the "rebels" was not a vegetarian. , Isn't it just being shelled there for nothing?

Seeing this, Zhang Ning said loudly to Zhu Heng: "Two orders. After the whole army stops, the left-wing infantry should move forward to fight, and ask the general to implement the tactics we agreed on. The distance is too far, affecting command efficiency."

The three armies of the Suzaku Army stopped advancing one after another, and all units were adjusted to parallel fronts.The artillery on the left has transported the artillery to the predetermined high ground and is unloading and setting up the artillery array.And the infantry of the Shenji Battalion in front is forming a formation and gradually advancing.After a while, a group of infantry in front of the left wing of the Suzaku Army also attacked head-on, and the two armies' fighting would start from the north as predicted.

The sound of the cannon was intermittent, all the artillery on the opposite side was firing, and there were constant casualties in the Suzaku army.Zhang Ning's ears were buzzing, but he had already experienced such a scene, and his mind was not disturbed.The situation in front of him made him guess the opponent's intentions, and he was also clearing his mind.As a decision-maker on the battlefield, it is natural to adapt to changing circumstances, but before the battle, you have your own set of ideas, a series of tactical ideas on how to win, otherwise you will fight randomly... No matter how the situation changes, as long as the final The development is carried out along its own line of thought, and most of the battles will be won.

The Shenji Battalion took the lead in attacking from the left flank, and after a little thought, it became clear that their target was the heavy artillery position, and their intention was to defeat the opponent head-on with the infantry as last time, and then destroy the artillery of the Suzaku Army, so as to establish a firepower advantage from the beginning.

At this time, the two armies on the left wing were two to three hundred steps apart.The generals on the artillery array sent someone to report that the artillery had been set up, that it had been loaded and that it was ready to shoot for the first time.Without hesitation, Zhang Ning immediately ordered a salvo of heavy artillery.

Several small triangular flags on the cannon array were lowered together, and suddenly there was an earth-shattering loud noise, "Boom..." The ground was trembling, it was not a description at all, it was indeed moving.Zhang Ning looked down and saw that his hand on the armrest of the wheelchair was trembling with the wood.The cannon fired so fast that he hadn't thought of covering his ears. For a moment, his ears seemed to be temporarily deaf, and even the noisy human voices disappeared. [

The cast iron solids flying at low altitude quickly poured into the crowd of officers and soldiers, and many iron balls could be seen jumping continuously on the ground with the naked eye, and iron lumps weighing six to seven kilograms could not stop even if they hit the human body during high-speed flight , easily penetrate four or five rows of deep linear square arrays.The forwards of the attacking army suffered heavy casualties, more than 20 heavy artillery gunpowder explosions formed a large amount of smoke, and visibility was reduced; but the screams from a distance made Zhang Ning seem to see stumps, arms, and heads cracked Blood donation scene.

The infantry of the Suzaku Army, which is responsible for the left-wing attack, is the left sentry of the First Army. There are about 800 officers and soldiers in the whole sentry, forming a long linear formation of four rows, spreading out for firepower coverage.

After a round of field artillery salvos, not only were the vanguards of the officers and soldiers killed and injured, but the camp was torn apart and caused chaos... Unfortunately, the infantry of the Suzaku Army could not take the opportunity to quickly attack them in time; Zhang Ning also wanted to shoot before the two armies fought. Boom, but in that case, the distance between the enemy and us is too close, and with the accuracy of artillery, I am afraid that even our own people will be bombed together.

The two armies approached within a hundred paces, and the officer army on the opposite side barely restored the fighting order after rectification, and a row of heavy arquebus guns were set up.Unexpectedly, at this moment, the soldiers of the Suzaku Army suddenly raised their round shields one after another.

This was one of Zhang Ning's tactics, and he knew it very well, regardless of the large caliber of the officers and soldiers' muskets, they still fired round lead, and the barrels naturally had no rifling.The rotating lead loses a lot of kinetic energy during the distance of one hundred steps, and it may be able to break through the thin armor of the Suzaku army, but it is difficult to break the shield; using the shield as a musket is still useful in this case, and it can be greatly reduced. Casualties of the first salvo.What's more, the hit rate of the musket is low, and the officers and soldiers have to start shooting at a hundred paces, the lead is more likely to drift, and the hit rate is lower.

So Zhang Ning really doesn't think it is a clever way to increase the caliber of the matchlock gun. If that is the case, everyone's arms race in the future will be better than the caliber of the musket.

"Crackling" gunshot, Zhang Ning hurriedly waited and watched the battlefield to confirm his idea.The sound of lead hitting the shield was as clear as hailstones hitting the roof. Some soldiers of the Suzaku army in the front row fell down, causing slight casualties, but the proportion did not seem to be large.

There was a burst of shouting on the battlefield, and the morale of the Suzaku army was very high for a while, the shield can block lead at a long distance, what a simple problem.People's sense of fear can also be reduced because of a shield. After all, there is no need to see a whole row of black holes pointing at themselves, and they have more confidence in protection. The psychological effect is not small... It is the same as the role of bayonets in later generations. , In fact, the bayonet is rarely used.