I

  Chapter 380 378【Strike halfway】

  The narrowest section of the river, about two miles long, naturally became the core of the struggle between the two sides.

  A large number of civilian men carried dirt and stones on their backs, hid behind small shield vehicles, dumped the soil and rocks into the river, and pushed forward bit by bit.

  The blunderbuss can't penetrate shield chariots covered with cotton armor, leather, and iron sheets, so they can only choose to bombard them with artillery. After the shield chariot is smashed, and then a volley of firecrackers is fired, the peasants can be defeated across the river.

   "Top again!"

  Li Dingguo ordered a replacement of civilian husbands to go forward, and the fleeing civilian husbands were temporarily pulled to the rear to rest.

  Continuous bombardment, continuous salvo, continuous rout, and continuous advancement.

   Fill the river with soil bit by bit!

   Other river sections are still trying to build pontoon bridges, but it is almost impossible to complete the task. On the other side of each bridge point, only a small number of soldiers are stationed, and the pontoon bridge can be destroyed at a critical moment.

  Especially for Ten Thousand Enemies, the grenadiers are not enough, and the pikemen also come to guest.

  Anyway, the ammunition stockpile is sufficient, and when the enemy pontoon bridge reaches the shore, immediately throw tens of thousands of enemies on the pontoon bridge. After a while of bombing, let the civilian husband go down the river to demolish the pontoon bridge, and our firecrackers provide fire cover.

  At the end of the fight, the nearby bamboo forests were all cut down.

  The people of Huoqiu County were recruited 30,000 people to be husbands. Not only helped demolish the pontoon bridge, but also built earthen walls along the river bank in the area where Li Dingguo filled the river.

  The earth walls on the banks are similar to river embankments. Even if Li Dingguo filled the river and led the army to rush over, the Datong soldiers could still stand on the earth walls and attack the enemies killed on the other side.

  If you defend for a long time, you will lose, and it is impossible to defend.

   Another seven days later, Ma Siliang, Li Dingguo's cousin, led 6,000 cavalry and successfully crossed the river 30 miles away from the battle between the two sides. The terrain there is extremely complicated, and the Shi River divides into three tributaries, each of which is relatively narrow.

  Due to drought and low water, the shallowest tributary can only submerge the back of a horse.

   Ma Silian's 6,000 cavalry quietly crossed the main river overnight, and then crossed three tributaries.

   "Bang bang bang bang!"

  The Datong army stationed in that area quickly came to form a formation to shoot, Ma Siliang ignored it, lost more than 200 cavalry and horses, and fled away with the rest of the cavalry.

   Nearly 6,000 enemy cavalry came to the rear villages and towns of the Datong Army, waiting for an opportunity to cooperate with the main battlefield to fight.

   But the river network is too complicated. If they want to get close to the main battlefield, they have to cross another river canal to kill them... It is an artificial canal built by the gentry of Ming Dynasty. It is not very wide, but it is about ten meters long. Moreover, there are a large number of wheat fields and some rice fields on both sides of the canal, which are not very conducive to the march of cavalry.

  Under the command of Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong, there were only a thousand dragoons left, and they were sent to entangle Ma Siliang's six thousand cavalry.

  A large amount of earing wheat was trampled by the cavalry on both sides. Huoqiu County, which was supposed to have a good harvest, is destined to reduce its production this year, not only because of the stampede, but also because farmers cannot take good care of their crops after the outbreak of war.

  The cavalry of both sides circled around there, and no one could eat the other.

  Although Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong have few cavalry, they will retreat when they are in danger, and they can call their own infantry for support at any time.

   At this moment, Li Dingguo divided his troops across the river.

   Ainengqi led 30,000 infantry and a large number of civilians, moved 20 miles upstream, and tried to cross the river under the cover of the cavalry who had crossed the river.

  Zhang Tieniu rushed to intercept, but if he wanted to occupy the river bank position, he had to drive away the opponent's cavalry first.

  6500 regular soldiers and 1200 dragoons confronted 6000 enemy cavalry by the river.

  The main battlefield is still filling the river, and the pontoon bridge is still being built further downstream. But in fact, Li Dingguo had already secretly led 10,000 elites to go around the upper reaches and break through with all his strength, leaving an empty camp on the other side of the river in the main battlefield.

  A few days ago, when the cavalry failed to smuggle, they tried to walk around repeatedly and mobilized too many troops of the Datong Army. Several river courses for filling the river and building pontoon bridges are also restraining and mobilizing the troops of the Datong Army, and now they have finally deceived the main force of the Datong Army.

  Across the river, the sentry cavalry of the Datong Army sent from Gushi County were suddenly driven away by a large number of cavalry from Li Dingguo.

  Although the sentry cavalry of the Datong Army didn't know what the situation was, they already realized that something was wrong. They fled a few miles upstream, and quickly crossed the river in a small boat to light the beacon fire.

  Fei Ruhe saw the beacon fire, and immediately led his troops to support, and handed over the originally planned main battlefield to Huang Shun for defense.

  …

   Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong each led 600 dragoons, firing guns at Ma Silang's cavalry on the periphery.

   One after another, Ma Siliang's cavalry was shot down by more than two hundred. But Ma Siliang did not dare to retreat, and had to cover the troops crossing the river, repeatedly harassing and delaying Zhang Tieniu.

  Under such circumstances, Zhang Tieniu could only keep marching forward. When he rushed to the upstream crossing point, the enemy had quickly built a pontoon bridge, and even tens of thousands of people successfully crossed the river.

   Ainengqi first arranged the melee soldiers to protect the pontoon bridge, and the gunfire soldiers also quickly gathered across the river.

   There are eight pontoon bridges in total, and the soldiers under Ainengqi rushed to the opposite bank with all their strength. The two sides suddenly changed the main battlefield, and neither their artillery nor the grenadiers of the Datong Army were brought.

  Finally, the battle begins.

   Head-to-head, no tricks to speak of.

   On Zhang Tieniu's side, 6,500 soldiers lined up, and 1,200 dragoons harassed the outside.

  Ainengqi's side, more than 10,000 soldiers lined up, more than 5,000 cavalry marched on the battlefield, and more troops were still crossing the river quickly.

  Li Dingguo and Fei Ruhe each rushed over with reinforcements.

   With a small ax stuck in his waist, Zhang Tie Niu drew out his waist knife and ordered: "Light the match, and speed up the formation!"

  The whole army began to trot, ignoring the enemy cavalry at all.

  Ma Siliang took the opportunity to lead the cavalry to charge, with dozens of steps left, the soldiers in the rear of the Datong Army quickly stopped and changed formation.

   Two thousand Datong troops lined up in a mandarin duck formation, with shields, wolf whisks, and spears in full formation.

   "Shhhhhh!"

  The enemy cavalry began to throw arrows, and hundreds of people from the Datong Army were hit by arrows, but only a few actually fell, and most of the arrows were blocked by shields and cotton armor.

  Ma Siliang didn't dare to charge directly, and led the cavalry to sweep past, trying to attack the 4500 Datong army further ahead.

   Another 1,500 melee Datong army lined up to cover the advance of 3,000 gunfire soldiers.

  Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong also brought the dragoons to kill, just to scare and harass them, they kept ammunition and did not shoot.

  The troops under Zhang Tieniu's command were divided into three sections, and the firecrackers were completely unprotected by melee soldiers.

"kill!"

  Ai Nengqi immediately seized the opportunity of the battle, and instead of lining up to protect the friendly troops across the river, he led tens of thousands of soldiers and rushed towards the 3,000 Datong firearms soldiers.

  The Datong firecrackers stopped advancing and lined up in three rows, waiting for the enemy to rush over.

  Ainengqi also had more than 2,000 gunfire soldiers under his command. When they reached forty steps, they immediately lined up and fired guns.

   "Bang bang bang!"

   A salvo of firecrackers was fired, and more than a dozen Datong firecrackers fell down.

  The remaining 10,000 melee infantry rushed over the firecrackers. Because they were too fast, they could no longer maintain their formation. Anyway, 10,000 people rushed to 3,000 people, and there were still 3,000 firecrackers.

  The Datong melee soldiers behind ran quickly to protect the friendly troops.

  Ma Siliang led the cavalry to distance himself, preparing to attack the formation of the Datong Army again. Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong kept harassing Ma Siliang.

  Forty steps, thirty steps, twenty steps...

   Twenty steps, about thirty meters.

  The accuracy rate of the matchlock musket is very low, the misfire rate is close to 30%, and it cannot be fired at a distance. The opponent fired at forty steps, more than 2,000 people fired, and with the protection of cotton armor, only a dozen people from the Datong Army fell down.

  Now twenty steps, the distance is directly halved, and the hit rate is geometrically increased.

   "Bang bang bang bang!"

   "Bang bang bang bang!"

   "Bang bang bang bang!"

  Three-stage shooting, the enemy's face-to-face troops were directly penetrated by muskets.

  One trick, you can eat it all over the world.

  At least Ainengqi didn't encounter this kind of tactics, and he was stunned on the spot. Tens of thousands of soldiers were killed or injured in an instant, and half of them collapsed.

   "Retract!"

  After the Datong firecrackers shot, they did not mount their bayonets, but ran back immediately to join the running melee soldiers.

  Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong had already abandoned the enemy cavalry and went around to the flank of the enemy infantry. They didn't shoot all the time, and now they finally seized the opportunity to dismount collectively when they reached twenty paces, and fired a volley at the still-collapsed enemy army.

   "Bang bang bang bang!"

   These more than a thousand firecrackers were fired, and the enemy infantry was completely dispersed.

   "Get on the horse and hunt down!"

  Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong each led six hundred dragon cavalry, got on their horses, drew their waist knives, and slashed at the enemy's rout.

  Ma Siliang's cavalry circled to the side of the Datong pawns. Just as he was about to continue to attack and harass, the main force of his infantry collapsed as soon as he re-arranged, and his speed was too fast to react.

  At this moment, the enemy has crossed the river with more than 4,000 people and is gathering on the bank.

  Seeing that the friendly army broke up and fled back, the more than 4,000 people who went ashore were also frightened and turned around and fled together.

  The 1,200 dragoons finally turned into real cavalry. They kept chasing and slashing with their waist knives, and they chased and killed more than 8,000 enemy troops.

  After Zhang Tieniu's main force regrouped, he immediately stood in formation on the river bank.

  The gunfire soldiers stood by the river and aimed at the pontoon bridge to shoot from a long distance. Melee soldiers protect the perimeter to prevent enemy cavalry from charging.

   "Bang bang bang bang!"

  Because the shooting distance was too far, not many enemy troops on the pontoon bridge were hit.

  But their friendly infantry who had already crossed the river broke up, and they were still in a state of half-crossing. After being shot, they ran back along the pontoon bridge in fright.

  The pontoon bridge was narrow and swaying, and a large number of enemy troops fell into the river amidst confusion and pushing.

   There are several pontoon bridges in the distance. Although they were not shot, they ran back in fright, and a large number of soldiers were also pushed into the river.

  There are many landlubbers in the north, and the number of drowned enemy troops far exceeds those killed by the Datong army.

  At this moment Li Dingguo finally came with 10,000 elites, while Fei Ruhe's reinforcements were still two miles away—there was no such thing as reinforcements, Li Dingguo and Fei Ruhe were both here to watch the show.

   However, what Fei Ruhe saw was a good show, while Li Dingguo witnessed a tragedy.

  Actually, as long as Ainengqi's river-crossing troops can hold on to the bank for another half an hour, they will be able to protect the entire army from crossing the river, and Li Dingguo's elite reinforcements will also be able to cross the river.

   But he only lasted ten minutes!

  Ai Nengqi was shot in the arm and was caught by Lu Xiangsheng's cavalry. After he became a prisoner, he still felt confused. Why did his tens of thousands of troops charge and collapse?

  In this battle of crossing the river, Li Dingguo lost more than 18,000 infantry.

  Li Dingguo calculated everything, divided his troops to fill the river, build bridges, let the cavalry march back and forth to sneak across, and successfully mobilized the troops of Fei Ruhe, Zhang Tieniu, and Huang Shun, making the three of them dizzy. In the end, he succeeded in finding an opportunity to cross the river, but he was still hit by half-crossing.

   It's not that there is a problem with the command. Li Dingguo's command ability can beat Fei Ruhe and other generals of the Datong Army.

  Tactical crushing, army quality crushing!

   (Begging for a monthly ticket shamelessly, fell out of the top ten.)

  (end of this chapter)