Ming Empire

Chapter 63
In less than half an hour, the loss of more than two-thirds of his men and horses was a result that Geng Zhongming never dreamed of. He sat on the horse in a daze, watching everything that happened on the battlefield in disbelief, and even forgot In order to make the follow-up troops stop attacking.

The four rounds of attack ended in a one-sided massacre. Geng Zhongming still had the last 2000 guards around him. These were the most elite troops around Geng Zhongming, but the big traitor who had come to his senses no longer dared to order these [-] troops to attack the Ming army. position.

At this moment, the five hundred Jurchen cavalry and one thousand Mongols in the back of the palace turned their horses and fled.

"Pass down the king's order to terminate the attack on Datong, and retreat in the direction of Baideng!" Geng Zhongming finally understood that the entire army was almost wiped out.He was also quite decisive, and immediately issued an order to retreat.

After the order was issued, Geng Zhongming took another look at the battlefield where there were heavy casualties and rivers of blood, whipped his horsewhip, and led his remaining troops to retreat to the north.The remaining Jiannu scrambled to escape, for fear of falling behind the others.

At this time, under Cao Yue's order, Zhao Tai's [-] cavalry army and other guarding generals began to chase the fled Jiannu remnants from several directions.

The cavalry led by Zhao Tai is also the elite of the Datong Army. They are all composed of sergeants or hunters with combat experience. Just now they witnessed the soldiers of the first battalion defeating the menacing Jiannu cavalry with muskets. Under the premise of casualties, the slave army was severely damaged.Stimulated by such brilliant victories, all the cavalry led by Zhao Tai seemed to have been beaten with chicken blood.

Just now they were bystanders, but when the Jiannu fled, they immediately turned into hunters chasing their prey, their ferocious nature was fully revealed, completely ignoring the severe cold weather, and there might be Jiannu ambush not far away, scrambling to flee towards the rout Jiannu chased and killed the past.

Seeing the cavalry led by Zhao Tai and the cavalry led by other generals chasing the remnants of Jiannu, while the other infantry began to clean up the battlefield, destroying or capturing the remaining Jiannu, Cao Yue couldn't help feeling very relieved.

He did not expect that a seemingly extremely dangerous war would be won so easily.

"Everyone, let's go back to Xingyuan and have a cup of hot tea, and wait for the good news from the generals!" Cao Yue put down his binoculars, smiled and said to Zhang An, the supervisor of Datong Town, and Wei Daben, the magistrate of Datong, who looked surprised beside him: "In this battle, our Ming army has won an overwhelming victory. If the pursuing soldiers put aside their scruples and bravely kill the enemy, then this Jiannu will definitely be wiped out."

For the first time, Zhang An and Wei Daben, who saw the tremendous power of musket shooting in sections, had not fully recovered from the shock. They took the binoculars presented by Cao Yue and watched the bloody battlefield several times again, and the gunpowder smoke The Ming cavalry who were chasing away seemed to be dreaming.

"Cao Zongbing, we really won this battle?" Zhang An wiped the sweat that appeared on his forehead at some point, and said in a tone of complete disbelief: "Jiannu is so vulnerable, It is a miracle that my Ming soldiers...have no casualties."

Wei Daben also had sweat on his forehead, all because of nervousness, he was a little calmer than Zhang An, and he also figured out a little way about Cao Yue's tactics.The soldiers fired in sections. The first group of soldiers who had finished shooting stepped back to clean up their guns and reloaded ammunition, and then the second group of soldiers stepped forward to shoot.

Intensive musket shooting is very lethal to the cavalry who are rushing to kill. As long as the density of each round of shooting is sufficient, no matter how many soldiers and horses rush to kill, they can be shot to death.He couldn't help sighing: "Cao Zongbing is really good at using soldiers like a god. He has formulated such a perfect strategy and brought the power of muskets to the limit. This government really admires him. No wonder, Cao Zongbing led more than a thousand troops. Break through Shengjing, block Jiannu's counterattack, retreat completely, and return to Songshan." Wei Daben said, took two steps back, and bowed respectfully to Cao Yue: "Thank you, General Cao, for blocking Jiannu's attack , so that the people of Datong can escape a difficult situation!"

Cao Yue hurriedly brought a salute, and said with a smile: "Master Zhifu, you are being polite. It is our sacred duty as soldiers to protect our home and defend our country against foreign captives. We do not need to thank you. I only hope that this battle can deter Jiannu , so that they dare not easily invade the territory of Ming Dynasty again. I also hope that the victory of this battle can stimulate the morale of the soldiers of Ming Dynasty, so that they will no longer be afraid to fight when facing the attack of Jiannu."

"What Cao Zongbing said is true!" Zhang An, who was excited by today's battle, looked at Cao Yue with reverence and sincerely praised: "If all the generals of the Ming Dynasty are like Cao Zongbing, if the Ming army They are all like the Datong army, so why worry about building slaves and not killing thieves!"

"What Zhang Gonggong said is," Wei Daben immediately echoed: "Cao Zongbing and his son are all famous generals in the world, and your cousin Cao Bianjiao, Mr. Cao is also a tiger general. The generals, that Jiannu will never have a chance to offend our Daming Rivers and Mountains, and the thieves of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong will be put down soon."

"The two adults are absurd." Cao Yue smiled and made a gesture of invitation, indicating that the two would go to Xingyuan to talk with him, "Cao is just a passionate person, and he always follows the example of Huo Xing Yao back then. Killing the enemy and protecting the country is nothing more than shedding blood for the peace of the world. Well, we won’t flatter each other in the cold wind anymore, let’s go inside and have a sip of hot tea and wait for the good news!”

"Please, Mr. Cao!" Zhang An and Wei Daben respected Cao Yue and let Cao Yue go ahead.

Cao Yue was polite, so he had no choice but to go into the courtyard first, followed by Wei Daben and Zhang An.

After entering the room and sitting down by the stove, Wei Daben also asked Cao Yue curiously how he came up with such a tactic to let the soldiers shoot in groups.

Cao Yue also talked about it briefly, and said that he thought of it by accident. It was used for the first time in the Battle of Songshan, and the effect was good, so he further studied it.As long as the firearms and ammunition are sufficient, the quality of the firearms is guaranteed, and the quality of the sergeants is excellent, no matter how fierce the cavalry is, they will not be able to defeat the Ming army equipped with a large number of firearms. This is Cao Yue's very heroic declaration.

The head-to-head confrontation between cold weapons and the Japanese army on the battlefield was originally completely asymmetrical, and this was a very firm point of Cao Yue.Of course, this point has also been verified countless times in the history of war.The Manchu Qing stole the land of China, and when they fought against foreign armies, they were defeated by dozens of times their troops. These are the best historical proofs.

Firearms have a long range, high precision, and cause great harm to people, but in this era, not many people can realize these, and firearms have not received enough attention.

Cao Yue hopes that his appearance can completely change everything!
After listening to Cao Yue's explanation, Zhang An and Wei Daben looked half-understood, but they looked at Cao Yue with new admiration.The tiger father has no dogs, so there is no way to compare it to Cao Yue. Both Zhang An and Wei Daben think that Cao Yue is a different person. He is very smart and has a brain...

(End of this chapter)