Ming Empire

Chapter 98 The Showdown Begins

Another day dawned.

The dawn in spring is very beautiful, the green beads are crisp, the birds are singing and the flowers are fragrant, full of vitality.But the beauty of spring does not belong to this land. On the battlefield of the 10,000+ army Chen Bing, vitality has been safely replaced by killing intent. Except that the grass is still green and the flowers are still blooming with the original beauty, it brings The happy and melodious little bird had already been frightened to nowhere.

The more than [-] peasant volunteers led by Li Yan and the more than [-] Datong new army commanded by Cao Yue have already lined up on this selected battlefield, preparing for a life-and-death confrontation, and there is a chill everywhere.

"Cao Yue has another way of governing the army. These recruits who have just been recruited have such a formation. No wonder he has the confidence to go out of the city and fight us decisively." After the formation of the officers and soldiers in Sanli, Li Yan took a deep breath. The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty in front of him were neat and orderly, giving people a completely different feeling from the officers and soldiers they had fought against before. This made Li Yan, who had the upper hand , and even more dare not be careless, "It seems that the last time I defeated Jiannu and wiped out most of Geng Zhongming's troops was not due to luck."

A layman watching the excitement, an insider watching the doorway, Li Yan, who has always been known for his strict military management, can roughly estimate the combat effectiveness of this army at the first glance of the opponent's formation.Although he was very prejudiced against Cao Yue, he still had to admire a young man who could train a team of tens of thousands to look like this in just half a year.

Reminiscing about the attacks he encountered from time to time during this period made Li Yan feel fear again, knowing that today's battle must be difficult to fight.

After observing the situation for a while, Li Yan immediately issued an order, ordering all generals to be cautious when going into battle, and they must not ignore their opponents just because they have an advantage in strength.

Li Yan hoped that with the [-] elite cavalry under his command, he could win the first battle against Cao Yue, overwhelm Cao Yue in momentum, and restore the severely suppressed morale.

He believes that as long as he wins the first battle, the subsequent battles will be easy. Even if he can't break through the city of Datong, he can come back victorious.

Like Li Yan, Cao Yue also led a group of soldiers to a higher hillside to check the formation of the peasant army led by Li Yan.

Compared with Li Yan, Cao Yue can see the opponent's formation more clearly because he has a telescope in his hand.

After carefully checking the situation with a telescope for a while, Cao Yue calmly ordered that the whole army move forward.

Cao Yue's frontal formation was still the same as the last time he went out of the city to meet Jiannu. The 1000 musketeers of the first battalion were arranged in five teams, with 1 people in each team.This time Cao Yue pulled all the [-] cavalry of the Datong Army out of the city, and the two wings of the Musketeers were equipped with [-] cavalry, led by the deputy commanders Zhao Tai and Zhao Liang respectively.Behind the cavalry and pikemen came the rest of the infantry.

Before the war, Cao Yue issued a death order, ordering the cavalry led by Zhao Tai and Zhao Liang, as well as the pikemen and infantry, to protect the safety of the pikemen at all costs. Never let the opponent's troops rush into the formation of the Musketeers.

The generals in the army, including Zhao Tai, Zhao Liang, Cao Jie and other main military officers, all knew how much Cao Yue valued the Musketeer Battalion, and they were stunned by the huge power of the Musketeers when they confronted Jiannu last time. Therefore, they can fully understand why Cao Yue gave such an order.The cavalry and infantry generals, including Zhao Tai and Zhao Liang, also issued military orders that they would not retreat at any time, and would definitely ensure the safety of the Musketeer Battalion, even if they were all killed in battle.

Following Cao Yue's order, all the troops slowly began to move.The cavalry on both sides guarded the Musketeer Battalion advancing on foot, followed by the Pikemen and other infantry, and the cavalry only moved slowly, at the same speed as the Musketeer Battalion on foot.

"Brother, the official army is attacking!" Li Qing, Li Yan's younger brother, saw the official army approaching slowly, and immediately ran to Li Yan to report the situation, and asked to fight: "Big brother, let the younger brother go out first, the younger brother will definitely fight!" It will disrupt the ranks of the officers and soldiers. Haha, Cao Yue can see that he has never commanded a battle. How can he deploy troops like this, let the infantry charge in the middle, and the cavalry guard on both sides!"

In Li Qing's eyes, the active attacking side always takes the lead with cavalry with a fast impact speed, and a team or several teams of cavalry with hundreds or thousands of people will launch an impact on the enemy's formation. In the camp, the enemy's formation is disrupted or even defeated, and the aura emanating from the charge has enough deterrent power. The army with weak combat power may turn away in fright when the enemy charges and kills. .This kind of thing often happens in the confrontation between the Ming army and Jiannu. Hundreds or even dozens of Jiannu cavalry attack may disrupt the formation of tens of thousands of Ming troops. Many Ming troops did not wait for Jiannu When he rushed over, he had already lost his position and fled without fighting.

Cao Yue took the initiative to attack, but instead of ordering the cavalry to attack quickly, he let the cavalry escort the infantry and push forward slowly, which almost made Li Qingle laugh out loud.Isn't such a slow-moving attack formation just sending them over and hitting the target?Before the opponent rushes to the front of the formation, the side with the superior number can severely damage the opponent in the front of the formation.

At this time, Li Qing was so excited that he didn't know how to describe it. He felt that the opportunity to defeat the army and capture Cao Yue alive was in front of him. arms.

But Li Yan couldn't be happy at all. He didn't agree with what Li Qing said, that Cao Yue's tactics were naive, and he would soon become a target for his own side.Cao Yue dared to deploy his troops in such a way, and dared to use cavalry to escort the infantry to attack, he must have his own reasons.

It's just that the real details of how Cao Yue broke through Shengjing, how he resisted Jiannu's counterattack, and how he eliminated Geng Zhongming's troops in the city of Datong last time, the real details have not been spread, and Li Yan has no way to get the most real information He didn't understand that Cao Yue was preparing to use the gun battalion's stronger and farther attack ability than bows and arrows.

One thing Li Yan knew was that the Ming army was equipped with a large number of muskets, and the range of muskets was farther than that of bows and arrows. While ordering the generals to prepare for the battle, he also repeatedly reminded them to beware of the attacks of the Ming army's firearms.

With the Ming army approaching like this, Li Yan had no other choice but to launch an attack before the Ming army made any further moves.

Li Qing's request for a battle was satisfied, and Li Yan ordered him to lead the army to the battle first after the Ming army was hit.

Before he could figure out the purpose of the Ming army, Li Yan was not going to attack hastily. At most, he just sent a small number of troops to harass the Ming army's flanks.

But just when Li Yan changed the arrangement urgently, the troops commanded by Cao Yue had slowly advanced to the point where they were only about one mile away from the peasant army. stand up.

The Ming army was still advancing slowly without any change. Li Yan couldn't bear it any longer. He knew how much pressure the officers and troops would put on his men and horses, so he immediately ordered the cavalry to attack across the board. The infantry followed up, wanting to take advantage of their superiority in strength to defeat the obviously inferior army.

And just as the cavalry of the Peasant Army began to prepare to attack, the slowly advancing Daming official army stopped advancing immediately, and the musketeers of the first team were ready to shoot.

"Get ready, shoot!" Following Cao Jie's order, a deafening sound resounded in the formation of the Ming army, and thick gunpowder smoke also floated from the formation.

(End of this chapter)