stubborn thief

Chapter 387
To the south of the car camp, the Oirat army formation that was suddenly bombarded by shells was smashed to pieces, and the huge defense line of thousands of paces, like a spider web torn apart by a violent storm, was torn apart almost instantly.

The two cavalry teams that rushed to stop them also broke their halberds in front of the trench, and were covered by rockets in the fear of being torn apart by the shells, and hurriedly beat their horses to retreat.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the cavalry led by Marko rushed to the ditch, threw the sandbags carried by the mules into the ditch, and filled several narrow passages in an instant.

Rockets sprayed into the sky, artillery shells roared beside him, and he raised his gun to push huge lead pellets across the battlefield and cast them into the distance. Marco's frontier soldiers in red cotton armor crossed the trenches and regrouped to fight against the ten times the enemy. assault.

The guard on the left wing of Oirat is Dorji Taiji of the Heshuo Special Department. He is the sixth son of the national teacher Khan.

As early as when Liu Chengzong's formation was billowing with smoke and dust, Dorjitaiji realized that the Han army might be about to break through.

However, due to his misjudgment, the [-] Oirat Army in the south of the car camp could not form a complete line of defense at this time. Their defense in the southwest direction was tighter, and there was a big gap in the south direction.

Dorjitaiji's previous judgment was that the Han army would retreat to the west where there was no encirclement.

All Oirat leaders, including Guoshi Khan, judged this way, and this is their tactic.

From east to west, the Han army's chariot camp was surrounded by the Queyue formation, forcing it to retreat westward, and then pursued it during the withdrawal of the camp.

Everyone knows that the car camp will have a counterattack force, but no one thinks that the car camp's counterattack force will come from the south... They think that the car camp came from the south, and they asked them to stop it on the way to retreat north .

Therefore, the Oirat leaders believed that the Han army would retreat to the north and west.

Unexpectedly, the direction of the Han army's assault would be the south, and they also used a large number of artillery to suppress and shoot before charging.

Suddenly encountered artillery bombardment, dozens of large and small shells and five or six hundred rockets hit the formation in a short period of time, which immediately caused the entire camp to become chaotic, and the demoralized Oirat soldiers could not organize an effective interception. .

Dorjitaiji was so angry that his teeth were itchy, but there was nothing he could do. In order to prevent the camp from causing the enemy cavalry to disperse, he quickly ordered the soldiers to gather and arrange the camel city and car city.

He could see it most clearly in the formation. Rockets and artillery were not accurate at all in this windy and sandy environment, let alone killed a few people.

But in this situation where few people were killed, the artillery was the biggest cause of the army's collapse-the soldiers were terrified, and the officers did not dare to gather their subordinates together.

The soldiers are scattered, how can they stop the enemy's attack?
Dorjitaiji had just thought of so many things, and was in a panic when he saw a group of soldiers and horses rushing out of the Han army camp, filling the trench and galloping quickly. Push the guard up to stop the enemy.

His cavalry guards are only a few hundred people, but they are all Heshuote's masters in terms of skills and equipment, and they are almost impeccable.

These more than a hundred cavalry are different from other cavalry wearing leather armor in the Heshuo Special Department. They all wear mail armor and four-mirror armor from the trade. The mounts also wear mail armor as their chest and beast fur. Hatchets, bows and firearms, preferential treatment and support, are Dorjitaiji's heart and soul.

The guard cavalry was ordered to quickly complete the assembly, and under the leadership of a Darhan, they whistled and galloped away to meet the cavalry formation of the Han army six times their own.

Dorzitaiji gritted his teeth and gave such an order. He knew very well in his heart that the guards he had trained with a lot of money might not be able to come back.

He took a deep look at the back of the guards who had no hesitation, turned his head and shouted to the troops: "End the formation, form the formation!"

Thousands of chaotic Heshuo special troops in the southern camp hurriedly gathered to the southwest, formed a simple circular formation with camels and Lele carts, and dispatched troops to defend the periphery with muskets, bows and arrows.

It wasn't until the formation first appeared that Dorzitaiji could finally feel a little sense of security around the thousands of troops, but when he looked up to the north, the brief confrontation on the battlefield made his heart rise in his throat again.

The guard cavalry only had a hundred or so cavalry. In order to give thousands of troops time to form formation, they could only spread out two rows of horizontal formations, facing the six cone formations lined up by Marco, and charged close to suicide.

With the ignited match in their hands, they galloped their horses and shot at a distance of a hundred steps. They drew their bows at an extremely fast speed and released three or even two arrows. The distance between the two armies was only thirty or fifty steps.

Only a very small number of people can draw out their muskets and get close to them and shoot a blunderbuss. In an instant, spears and muskets alternate, gunshots and roars fly together, knocking out a crowd of people on the battlefield.

Marko's six cone formations, after penetrating the horizontal formation of the Heshuo special guard cavalry, still galloped forward unabated.

And behind them, a few cavalry guards who were lucky enough not to fall off their horses slowed down and looked around, their faces were dull after the disaster, and they approached each other slowly.

A roar came from nowhere, and several cavalrymen of the Han army who had been knocked off their horses drew bows and arrows, or charged with spears, and some even snatched the ownerless horse, and the two sides fought again.

Ma Ke had no time to care about the sergeant who had fallen behind him. He held up his long knife to hold down the pace of the charging troops while galloping, and re-stabilized the pace at a small step.

Facing the hastily assembled circle a hundred paces away, he led the team to move a little to the east, but he didn't dare to cross it directly, because the Oirat camp gathered in the east was also billowing with smoke and dust, making the gap look like a large sheet of paper. network.

But he didn't know that Huang Shengxiao, who was on the south side of the car formation, was looking at his back and clenched his fists to death.

Seeing the formation of the enemy army, it was a good time for the artillery to show off, but Marko led six cavalry teams and got stuck in the middle, making him undecided.

As the successor of Cao Yao in the artillery of the Marshal's Mansion, Huang Shengxiao is used to fighting with cavalry generals such as Yang Yao and Zhang Tianlin.

On a small battlefield where heavy artillery can cover a few miles, the training battalion of the Marshal's Mansion has a basis for coordinated operations under the long-term coordinated training in Juerwan.

If it was Yang Yao's training horse battalion that rushed ahead, they would keep an appropriate distance from the enemy, and Huang Shengxiao would let the twelve heavy cannonballs blast the enemy from above their heads without saying a word, and then the cavalry would shoot at the enemy under the artillery shells. Launch a shock while attacking the enemy.

But now it was replaced by Ma Ke, who had never cooperated before, and most of the Ming army surrendered under his command. The distance between them was wrong, and Huang Shengxiao could not order the bombardment.

Huang Shengxiao found that it was useless to be anxious. Ma Ke's soldiers moved faster and slower for a while, and finally moved a little to the east, which made him make up his mind and stopped coordinating.

Anyway, they don't have that ability, so instead of taking the risk of cooperating, it's better to let Ma Ke get out of the shooting range, and just use 32 lion cannons with a maximum range of [-] paces, and release them all.

He simply shouted to someone: "Go, let Ma Ke retreat to the east for me, is the cavalry standing there wanting to be shot?"

The distance between the two sides was only [-] paces, and the messenger cavalry quickly caught up to convey Huang Shengxiao's order. Only then did Ma Ke realize that there were artillerymen behind him, and after looking back, he led the team to avoid to the east, and counted the casualties of his subordinates by the way.

The 44 light and heavy artillery in the rear fired again, and the shells in the gunpowder smoke obviously shot at two angles.

The light cannon was almost adjusted to the highest angle, hitting the shells into the air like a goddess scattering flowers, and falling down in the formation according to its weight.

However, light artillery is better than nothing at this distance. The weight of the shell is there. If you are lucky, you can kill or injure an enemy. If you are unlucky, you can only smash a small hole in the hard Gobi Desert.

In contrast, the flat shots of twelve heavy artillery shined brilliantly, heavy cast iron balls smashed through the gunpowder smoke and smashed into the enemy's formation, tall and strong camels flew with flesh and blood, and the protective Lele carts were shattered.

These costs saved most of the Heshuot soldiers from being hit by shells, but there was still a shell that passed through the gap between the Lele vehicle and the large cattle, and accurately hit the head of the Mongolian column that was being mobilized.

The captain is a Heshuo Special Snake Jin who is armed to the teeth. This word comes from the Chinese word Sheren, which is a prince and a close person.

He was wearing a heavy leather armor, and the big fur cap was unloaded to the back of his neck, revealing a Kazakh-style helmet with a visor and a high gun on top of his head.

Facing the threat of a seven-pound iron ball, the bow and horse martial arts honed on the grassland since childhood are of no avail, and the armor made of steel and fur is also meaningless.

The steel bowl exploded into a cloud of red and white blood. The soldiers behind the column only had time to yell uncontrollably.

Rolling and jumping broke the three legs belonging to the two people, continued to grind a bloody path in the column, and finally smashed a cloud of sand on the sand dunes in front of Dorji Taiji, which confused Taiji's eyes.

The nobles in the ministry rushed to Dorjitaiji's side to ask for his health, and people saw that he was unscathed except for being squinted by the sand, so they gave advice one after another.

Some volunteered to rush forward to seize the artillery as they did when fighting the Russian expedition.

Some suggested that Taiji retreat to the range of the artillery, and most people hoped that Dorji Taiji would propose to the National Division Khan that the army retreat to two miles away to trap the enemy.

For a while, there was a mess of tongues, which was very annoying.

Dorzitaiji didn't follow any of these suggestions. He just grabbed the seven-pound iron bullet that rolled down to his feet, feeling lingering fear.

In fact, he calculated very clearly, two rounds of artillery bombardment before and after, more than a hundred shells fell into the formation, the casualties were very small, adding up to less than twenty people died.

But the casualties of less than [-] people have brought the morale of the army to the extreme.

The purpose of combat is not to kill, but to win; killing, deterring, confusing, frightening and even fighting itself are only means to achieve this purpose.

For Dorzitaiji, this large-caliber, long-range artillery brought him a fear of death that he had never had before.

In the eyes of nobles who give orders, war has always been a matter of low risk and high returns. As the national teacher Khan, Dorzitaiji valued his son second only to his eldest son, and he was such a nobleman.

He has the best armor and the sharpest weapons in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. He has hundreds of horses of his own, a guard composed of hundreds of good soldiers armed to the teeth, and thousands of well-trained nomadic soldiers who obey orders.

As long as he doesn't show off his power and lead his troops into battle, countless heroes are willing to fight and die for him. What kind of battle can kill him?

To put it bluntly, before the blood of these thousands of soldiers dries up, he can fight to the last moment as he pleases.

But this iron bullet rolled down to the feet shattered this common sense of war. The deterrent power of weapons lies in the range, and artillery is the best in this deterrent power.

It's not like a man's blood splashing five steps in a rage, and it's not like a lead bullet weighing a few cents, which can pierce a horse in thirty steps; this big iron bullet weighing seven catties means that everyone is equal within two miles, Up and down is either dead or disabled.

Dorjitaiji's hand holding the iron ball was trembling slightly.

He is not the only one who is afraid.

To the north of the chariot camp, the nobles leading the army had taken the opportunity to rush towards the chariot camp, but were blocked by ditches of different depths.

General He Shuote's strategy to deal with the trenches is to drive a small amount of livestock to fill the trenches, which is the fastest way to fill trenches when there are no pockets and branches.

Compared with the horses and mules restrained in groups in Liu Chengzong's formation, the cost is not too high.

But they had just driven the livestock to fill in the gaps, and before the cavalry filed in, hundreds of guns fired in unison in front of the formation, and the lead pellets in the smoke formed a dense barrage of bullets, destroying everything within range. break through.

The enemy army in the northern camp immediately retreated the same way, while the army in the eastern camp did not try at all, and retreated eastward under the order of Guoshi Khan.

It was like an order for the Dongying army to retreat out of the range of the artillery. The Heshuote princes in the southern camp were all erupting, each urging Dorji Taiji to retreat.

But Dorjitaiji didn't dare... because of the covetous Ma Ke.

Huang Shengxiao slammed a volley of artillery, opening a window in Ma Ke's mind, and smashing out an imaginary map of the battlefield.

The battlefield no longer only includes yourself and the enemy in front of you, but also includes the support of the friendly forces behind you and the enemy.

And in this imaginary picture, Ma Ke found that his more than [-] cavalry were not only charged with the important mission of communicating with Feng Lu's department to the south, but also could play a more crucial role in a short period of time-for example, preventing the people in front of him from An enemy ten times his size retreated out of artillery range.

His five hundred or so riders were like a wedge, moving on the east side of Dorjitaiji's circle, slowly going south through the gap between the east and south battalions, and moving to the southeast of the circle.

Dorjitaiji did not dare to pull out the camp, for fear that the army would be attacked by Mako when it moved, so it could only move the Lele car and accompanying livestock to the north to cover the shells.

Liu Chengzong, who was standing on the sandbags in the Chinese Army Camp, saw the movement of the Ma Ke Department, and then saw that the Dorjitaiji camp was not moving. He immediately saw the fighter plane, and immediately ordered: "Scatter the lion cannons, adjust eight gates each to the north and east, and the rest Sixteen gates are placed in the southeast corner."

"Heavy artillery will continue to bombard me, let Huang Shengxiao lead a hundred gun carts, ready to go out and fight for a while."

At this time, in the siege on three sides, the east and north sides have gradually withdrawn from the range of artillery fire.

Only in the southern circle, because of the threat of Mako on the side, Dorzitaiji did not dare to pull out the camp and retreat, and their siege formation was out of touch.

Standing on the sandbag, Liu Chengzong looked at Ma Ke with a telescope in one hand, clenched his fist tightly with the other hand, and muttered in his mouth, "Ma Ke listens to the order, go behind him, go behind him..."

Ma Ke seemed to have heard the order from King Biang, and he really led his troops to circle southward along the east side of the Dorjitaiji ring array, approaching the south, and did not leave, looking at the army array eagerly.

This action made Liu Chengzong very excited, he jumped down from the sandbag mountain, threw the binoculars to the guards, and shouted: "Yang Qi!"

Yang Qi was startled by the sudden shout, and he heard Liu Chengzong's urgent order: "Sixteen lion cannons are for you, go out to the trench at the southeast corner, the enemy army from the east camp advances westward, and Sanzi flanks him for [-] paces; The enemy troops in the eastern camp went southwest to support, and they also used Sanzi to flank him for [-] paces."

After all, Liu Chengzong showed a smile on his face, but his eyes were fierce: "Let Huang Shengxiao lead the gun cart, go south and go west, beat him for half a circle around the camp, and shoot him!"

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)