The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 408 The Horrible "Zhejiang Army"

Ma Degong thought for a while, and could only agree with Tian Xiong's statement - this was the Zhejiang Army's attempt to embolden itself, after all, the Fujianese had defeated Boluo and Azig.

He then nodded slightly, "Or the Ming army from Ningbo and Taizhou came to help defend."

The general Wan Xiuhe on the side was puzzled again: "My lord, these Ming troops are really weird. They don't enter the city to stand firm, but to form an array outside the city to fight."

Tian Xiong laughed and said: "It must be that Zhang Mingzhen knew that his troops were weak and was worried about being besieged in the city, so he Chen Bing outside the city, so that he could flee to Ningbo immediately when he saw the situation was wrong."

Wan Xiuhe also laughed, "This saves us a lot of time. It seems that we can spend the night in the city tonight."

"It must be so, haha..."

After Ma Degong and the Chinese army rushed to the line between Jianhu and Lingjiang, he looked around and saw the Ming army gathered on the north bank of Lingjiang, waiting in front of him.

He turned to Tian Xiong and said: "This place is very narrow, but it is not conducive to the deployment of our army.

"Decree, the green battalion is divided into three formations, each with 6000 soldiers, to attack the enemy's defense line with wheels. When the southern army is exhausted, I will use my elite inlaid with yellow flags to defeat them in one fell swoop!"

"Subordinates obey orders!"

……

"I worked so hard to get this forward position." Geng Tianrui shouted to his opponent at the forefront of the Qing army's battle formation, "Everyone look behind. Zhang Jin and Lu Ruicai are all hoping that we will be known. If the army blocks it, they can go up and grab the victory!"

"Damn, we must never fulfill their wish!" He pointed to the officers of Qian Zong beside him. Lu's followed behind to eat dirt!
"When I accumulate meritorious service and get promoted to an official position, the benefits will be indispensable to you!"

What he said bluntly made his officers gear up.The strongest main force of the Zhejiang Army was killed by them in Qingshanling, and they heard that most of the Ming troops in front of them were local braves brought by Zhang Mingzhen for emergency.

If he could rush into Shaoxing first with all his might, he would be the first to plunder the valuables in the city.

As the low-pitched horns whimpered from the direction of the central army, without Geng Tianrui's orders, his men and horses immediately pressed aggressively towards the defense line of the Dragon Guards nearly three miles away.

These 3000 Qing soldiers led the way with eight thousand-jin red barbarian guns, followed by more than [-] swordsmen and spearmen, and nearly [-] bow and gunmen were at the end of the battle.However, the land near Jianhu Lake was wet and soft, and the battlefield was narrow, which was not conducive to the cavalry galloping. Therefore, the cavalry had to dismount and act as infantry, guarding both sides of the battle formation.

When he was still a mile and a half away from the Ming army, Geng Tianrui ordered the gunners in front of the formation to fire.

In fact, this distance has exceeded the range of his cannon, but according to his past experience in fighting the Ming army, as long as his cannon fires, the Ming army will immediately panic.At this time, he approached quickly again, firing volleys of guns and cannons in the middle, and assaulting on both wings of infantry and cavalry, and almost never missed.

There was a continuous roar, and eight heavy iron balls slammed into the Ming army's infantry line more than a hundred steps ahead, and some of the avalanched soil fell on the soldiers of the Dragon Guards.

But they turned a blind eye to this, and still stood upright, only some recruits became short of breath, but desperately gritted their teeth and stared straight ahead.Without the command of the commander, even if the shell falls on the head, they will never move halfway. This is the iron-like discipline that only a modern army can have!

Geng Tianrui was greatly surprised when he saw that the enemy's formation had not moved at all, but the arrow was already on the string, so he could only order to continue advancing according to the previous tactics.

After walking a little less than half a mile, the gunners under his command stopped again, and were about to aim and fire, when they suddenly heard loud thunderous noises from the two wings of the Ming army's battle formation.

More than 20 rounds of six-pound shells plunged into the battle formation of the captive army, and hundreds of Qing soldiers were instantly torn to pieces by the huge impact before they even had time to snort.A large number of broken limbs, arms and armor were thrown everywhere, and many bow and gunners in the rear team were covered in flesh and blood.

There is no doubt about the shooting level of the Dragon Guard artillery, the firepower is accurate and concentrated.Under the cross-fire from both sides, Geng Tianrui's battle formation showed a huge "V" made of blood.

These Qing soldiers had never seen such a terrifying concentrated fire bombardment, especially the soldiers in the front team. They only heard the sound of clicking in their ears, and turned their heads to see that the people beside them had disappeared.Although only a hundred or so people died, this huge psychological shock made the calves of other soldiers of the Qing army twist, and the momentum of the shock immediately slowed down.

Geng Tianrui's heart skipped a beat, he didn't expect the Ming army's cannons to be so fierce.

He gritted his teeth tightly, let the men and horses of his troops scattered into fish scales, and urged to step up the beating of the drums, and strictly ordered the officers under him to take the lead.I only hope that the soldiers can rush up to fight the Ming army before their courage is exhausted. Otherwise, after a few more rounds of artillery, the morale of their troops will collapse, and they will be scattered without the enemy fighting.

But then the Dragon Guard artillery immediately shattered his delusion with powerful firepower.For every twenty or thirty steps forward by Geng Tianrui's troops, the artillery of the Dragon Guards could complete a salvo.

Although the ranks of captive troops were scattered, and each shelling could only kill 70 to [-] people, but not everyone had the courage to charge forward against the deafening roar of cannons and thick gunpowder smoke.

After a while, except for Geng Tianrui's personal soldiers and another 800 people under Qian Zong who approached the Dragon Guards about a hundred paces away, all of them turned around and fled to the Qing army's main formation.

Seeing that the Ming army was right in front of him, Geng Tianrui finally breathed a sigh of relief - when he rushed into the enemy line, he could kill at least a hundred people, and then he could go back to make meritorious service to Ma De.

However, he immediately heard the Ming army shouting in unison, "Aim!"

Careless... The people on the opposite side are definitely not the Zhejiang Army!Ma Degong put away his binoculars, his face was ashen, Geng Tianrui's six thousand troops were blown away by cannons before they could reach the enemy, which shows the strength of these Ming troops.

But he knew that he had to capture Shaoxing City as soon as possible to survive, otherwise his troops would have been trapped to death by the Ming army before Zheng Zhilong reopened the Qiantang Waterway.

The enemy soldiers are no more than four or five thousand, and I will kill you if I pile them up!He felt ruthless in his heart, and said in a deep voice: "Send the order, Zhang Jin and Lu Ruicai's troops will immediately attack the enemy's formation, and if Geng Tianrui's troops retreat, immediately cut them off!"

Tian Xiong's heart tightened, just now Geng Tianrui's troops did not actually die in battle, at least nearly 4000 people turned around and fled to the Chinese army, according to the commander-in-chief's intention, these people were all killed as an example? !

When he was thinking about it, he listened to Ma Degong and said again: "Tian Xiong, I command you to lead the yellow-flagged infantry in the rear to supervise the battle. Anyone who is timid and fails to fight will be killed!"

(End of this chapter)