Late Ming Dynasty: Conquering the world starting from riding and cutting

The troops on the opposite side continue to advance!

When they were less than seventy steps away, another round of arrow rain baptized the attacking Qijiaying camp.

This time, not only in the first row, but also in the third row behind Ah Jin, there were people who fell to the ground after being hit by arrows. They were riding on horses and glanced at the handsome flag opposite from a distance. Ah Jin couldn't help but bite it. Gritting his teeth, it was less than seventy steps away.

In the past, we could open fire, but today, we must fight to decide the outcome.

Let’s try new tactics on you!

Li Yi, who was holding the line behind the last row of sword and shield soldiers, waved the sword in his hand and shouted repeatedly, "Brothers, gunners, hurry up! Follow the team!"

On the one hand, he motioned to his guards to help the gunners push the heavy artillery cart, hoping to provide strong artillery support to the brothers in the front row during the subsequent firefight. Six 12-pound cannons and ten 10-pound Franco machine guns The artillery closely followed the advancing speed of the troops.

Finally, we reached a distance of forty steps.

The archers of the Zheng Family Army lowered their arms. Their physical strength and willpower had been exhausted by the group of people in front of them. They couldn't believe that someone would charge head-on under the dense rain of arrows.

"Soldiers with swords and spears come forward!" Zheng Zhihu, who was standing in the middle of the army, gritted his molars and gave the order.

There was a series of strange screams, and the soldiers of the Zheng family armed with red tassel spears and iron swords rushed out from behind the archers and came to the front of the formation.

Prepare to use the three-meter long spear and four-foot-long knife in your hand to teach these crazy guys in front of you, who are almost breathless, and tell them that this is not how battles are fought!

Seeing the pikemen lined up with their spears in hand, ready to rush towards the opposite side, Zheng Zhihu breathed out a long secret. The march on the opposite side also brought great pressure to him. The mountain-like momentum almost made him suffocate. past!

This made him make a decision in his heart: This was definitely not a force that could be forged by salt merchants. There was a more terrifying existence behind them.

At this time, the distance between the two parties was less than forty steps!

"Prepare!"

The officers in each row of Qijiaying finally waited for this moment. They raised their arms and waved the recognition flags in their hands.

With the passing of the flag and password, the musketeers checked their weapons one last time to see if the gunpowder was properly loaded, whether the projectiles were properly tamped, whether the flints were in place, and whether the springs were strong enough. After completing these inspections, the musketeers Ping picked up the fire gun in his hand.

"First row, squat down!"

"Second column, step forward!"

Chen Hu issued the order to adjust the formation for the last time, and nearly a thousand musketeers formed a dense jungle of five muskets in this narrow hill.

Looking at the hundreds of firecrackers stretched out like branches on the opposite side, the spearmen of Zheng's army were slightly frightened. Soon after, the fear, violence, anger, arrogance and many other emotions in their hearts made them shout and howl. He rushed forward!

At a distance of about thirty steps, the facial features of a person could be distinguished clearly, and the musketeers could clearly see the distorted expressions of the long gunners of the Zheng family army who were trying to use their bravery to kill the enemy.

"Fire!"

"Fire!"

"Fire!"

The officers passed Chen Hu's orders loudly and excitedly. This tormenting state finally ended with this order.

The officers' long swords were directed towards the target, accompanied by bursts of deafening thunder. The spearmen who attacked from the opposite direction fell to the ground like rice fields in heavy rain, blown by the hot storm composed of metal projectiles.

A dense white smoke immediately rose above the long queue, which lingered for a long time.

The armored pikemen seemed to pause for a moment after being hit by the dense rain of bullets. They looked at the gunmen who were hitting flint on the opposite side in surprise, and then looked at them with a complex look on their faces. He gradually fell down in disbelief and doubt, and died without crying or making a sound.

Chen Hu was riding on his horse and saw this scene clearly:

Thick layers of spearmen rushed in with shouts. The three-meter long spears in their hands had sharp tips. Under the sunlight, the cold light shone and shocked the soul. The spears were as dense as a hemp forest and stood up like bamboo bushes in the mountains. The spearmen were holding their fates. The pounding movements made people feel swaying and a bit frightened.

The musketeers pulled the triggers, and the sparks from the flint ignited the primer in the fire door. Then the propellant in the blunderbuss tube was ignited. Thick smoke mixed with fire erupted from the mouth of the blunderbuss. There were more than 400 guns in each of the five columns. The gun's muzzle spurted out violently one after another, shooting out deadly projectiles one after another, and finally completed this exciting round of almost shouting volleys of fire guns.

Large sheets of thick white gunpowder smoke billowed above people's heads, and groups of Zheng's army spearmen holding red-tasseled guns were knocked to the ground without formation.

Less than forty steps away, Qijiaying's fire blunderbuss made of integrated steel pipes was almost unstoppable. Even those on the opposite side wearing iron armor and cotton-padded jackets could not withstand this huge force.

Even the huge impact of stray projectiles flying from the side is enough to cause internal injuries to a person's internal organs until death.

The gunshots fired from the firecrackers were still heard. The Zheng Jiajun soldiers in the back row were shot and fell to the ground. The lead bullets kept flipping and rolling in their bodies, tearing apart all the muscle obstacles on the way forward. These Zheng Jiajun soldiers who were shot did not Losing the arrogance and murderous intent just now, they just rolled on the ground one by one, howling in pain.

"Third column, step forward!"

Chen Hu wiped his eyes and tried to see more clearly. Yes, with the intensive gunshots, a large number of Zheng Jiajun soldiers were knocked to the ground. Even if they could be rescued later, it was impossible to remove those soldiers with the current medical methods. The best result of the lead bullets driven into the body was that they died here wrapped in horse leather.

"ha!"

The third column rushed to the front of the formation, almost pressing the forehead and chest of the Zheng Jiajun soldiers and pulled the trigger again. Then, the scene just now was staged again. Although it was not as dense as the gunshots just now, the shorter distance made up for it. One shortcoming.

While the musketeers in the third column were happily massacring the remaining spearmen of the Zheng Family Army, their comrades had already completed the actions of cleaning their muskets and reloading them. Next, he rushed to the front again. This time, people no longer have fear and uneasiness, but only the desire for military success.

"Fire!"

Another dense rain of bullets rushed towards Zheng's army.

After two rounds of volleys, among the spearmen of the Zheng family and the Zheng family army who rushed from the opposite side, almost no one could stand on the ground. Hundreds of corpses lay scattered in front of the battle. Blood gurgled out from the bodies that had been pierced by projectiles, rising into bursts of heat and moistening the winter earth.

"Sir! Our cannon has arrived!"

Li Yi and the artillery team officers rushed to Chen Hu's horse out of breath.

"Order the brothers in front to get out of the way and use cannonballs to tell them whether we are easy to mess with!" Chen Hu had no mercy for the enemy.

However, Zheng Zhihu and his people seemed unwilling to give Chen Hu this opportunity.

When he saw hundreds of previously invincible spearmen being knocked to the ground by two rounds of muskets, the battle-hardened Zheng Zhihu also felt two tremors, and cold sweat poured down his back!

He used all his strength to raise the clairvoyance in his hand, and was surprised to find that preparations were being made for the artillery bombardment on the opposite side. The musketeers who had just killed his elite soldiers were already guarding several huge artillery pieces. , obviously, he planned to use artillery to bombard his formation, and then kill him with muskets.

Without any time to think, Zheng Zhihu turned his horse's head, whipped his mount hard, and promptly told the soldiers around him, "Quick! Roll up my flag! Retreat!"

"Run away!"

"Failed!"

"If we don't run away, we'll all die here!"

Before the artillery team could complete the loading action, the Zheng's army on the opposite side was already in a state of collapse.

Zheng Zhihu took the lead, followed by his personal guards, rushing through the formation that had become chaotic and noisy, and rushed straight to the west.

"The adults have run away, let's run too!"

"Yes! The firearms on the other side are so powerful that we can't resist them at all!"

There were shouts of one kind or another from the crowd.

With such shouts, the gunners sent eight shells to Zheng's army in a timely manner. The distance between the two armies was less than a hundred steps, and the shells of the 10-pound cannon were enough to penetrate the entire formation, let alone the 12-pound cannon. !

Dozens of hot cannonballs passed through the formation of Zheng's army, smashing everything that tried to block them along the way. Behind their trajectory, there were countless broken limbs, broken bones, flesh and blood residue, and some that were already burning. Lost vehicles, flags, discarded armor and weapons.

Due to the dense formation and panic mentality of Zheng's army, the effect of this round of shelling was particularly obvious.

Several escaping Zheng Jiajun soldiers didn't dare to blink. Right in front of their eyes, a cannonball hit their team leader. The team leader's upper body flew out with the castration of the cannonball and was thrown to the ground. A few steps away, he was twisting and struggling on the ground, his legs still standing there for a while, and then he collapsed.

The culprit's cannonball, still full of meaning, bounced a few more times and hit a mounted guard not far away, including his body and his horse. The bullet hit near the horse's rear crotch and took away one of the guard's right legs. The blood of the horse and the blood of the horse were mixed together. The guard fell to the ground, screaming in pain, and tried hard to break free from the suppression of the horse's body, but it was too late. Amidst the whistling of the shells, the person who was shot was on the verge of death. Amidst the painful groans, the scene of broken limbs, and the continuous splashing of blood, his comrades made a choice.

"escape!"

"escape!"

The defeated soldiers were like a disorganized group of ants, confused.

Countless pairs of big feet trampled on the wounded soldiers who fell to the ground mercilessly. People discarded the swords and guns in their hands and the armor on their bodies, and ran wildly in the direction they came from, shouting, passing by the baggage and captured property. When the vehicles were carrying goods, many people swarmed up and grabbed the goods and baggage. They fought with each other with fists, feet, teeth, and all the weapons they had in their hands, just to snatch these property.

Those who were more flexible untied the horses from the baggage cart and planned to ride away. However, they were immediately pulled off the horses by the people next to them and snatched the horses away.

Zheng Jiajun's troops completely collapsed!

"The sword and shield soldiers attack! The musketeers stay to clean up the battlefield!"

Chen Hu looked at the opponent's fleeing formation with regret. It would be great if there were cavalry at this time. They could kill all the thousands of people on the opposite side.

Li Yi led the sword and shield soldiers who had been waiting impatiently for a long time. With a roar of a tiger, they went out to charge.

Although he was chasing and defeating the enemy, Li Yi was still very measured and carried out pursuit in small groups. Once he found that an officer was trying to restore his organization, organize a formation, carry out defense or block, counterattack and other actions, he immediately became became the focus of care for the pursuit troops.

Each team is only responsible for pursuing five miles forward. After five miles, it is replaced by another small team. The rest of the troops walk slowly in the team, forming always effective pressure on the retreating Zheng Army, but without causing their own Excessive physical exertion.

After chasing for ten miles, Li Yi ordered the team to return to camp.

At this moment, on the battlefield just now, when the brothers in the baggage team brought the steaming lunch, the preliminary results of cleaning the battlefield were also calculated.

In this battle, a total of 171 people from Chen Hu's troops were killed. Most of them were injured by arrows, muskets, and artillery during the encounter with the enemy. 107 people were injured, including 32 seriously injured. Zheng Jiajun was killed. More than 3,000 people were injured, more than 300 were injured, and more than 4,000 were captured, and probably more than 1,000 people were defeated.

However, most of these thousand people were forced into the nearby red shirt forest, and less than a hundred people successfully escaped with Zheng Zhihu.

More than 20 military flags of the Zheng Jiajun were captured. The weapons and weapons could not be counted for the time being. There was a lot of baggage and food. Li Yi, who was responsible for chasing the enemy, sent people to send new battle reports or captured them back from time to time. These numbers were constantly being refreshed.

Although the Zheng family army was not completely wiped out, such a result made people laugh from ear to ear, and it was considered a great victory.

However, just as everyone was cheering for victory in the first battle and toasting to drink, a very discordant voice came in from outside the tent.

"My lord, colleagues, if you cut the weeds without eradicating the roots, they will grow again with the spring breeze."

The person who spoke was Liu Renqing, the staff officer of Qijiaying.

"Why not go south in one fell swoop and capture all the Zheng family's territory? Wouldn't it be great if we could capture Zheng Zhihu alive!"

Hearing this, Chen Hu silently put down the wine glass he was holding and looked up at Liu Renqing. Liu Renqing did not shy away and looked up directly.

When their eyes met, what came out of the friction was not sparks, but mutual sympathy.

Since the establishment of the army, each battalion has been assigned a staff officer. At first, Chen Hu thought that this was the same as the supervisors in the army before, and was sent by the emperor to monitor the general.

However, after Liu Renqing came, he did not stay by Chen Hu's side every day and report his every word and deed. Instead, he stayed in the army all day long, preaching military regulations and concepts.

Today, what he said was astonishing, and when it came to his heart, how could he not be excited.

"Okay!" Chen Hu shouted loudly in the tent and laughed. "After we capture Zheng Zhihu and wipe out the Zheng family in the south, it won't be too late to go back and let the Lord hold a banquet for us to celebrate our success."

Immediately ordered the troops to prepare, leaving Li Yi with 500 troops to guard the prisoners, while the rest followed him directly to the Zheng family in the south. At the same time, he did not forget to send a letter back to Keelung to inform Qin Hao of the battle.

After one battle, Qin's destiny was restored!

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