stubborn thief

Chapter 388 The Most Serious Mistake

Amidst the roar of fire and iron, twelve heavy bronze cannons recoiled heavily in the gunpowder smoke, and twelve heavy iron bullets swept across the battlefield, smashed into the encircled formation, and crushed the Lele cart into powder.

Before Dorjitaiji could clearly see what happened on the front line, he saw Zaisang, the warlord in front of the formation, suddenly get short in the debris of vehicles flying in the sky, and then there was a heart-wrenching cry.

The chaos caused by shelling several times in the front line did not affect Dorjitaiji who hid in the south.

His face was calm, instead, he nodded slowly and counted something along with the sound of cannons in the distance. He raised his whip and wanted to say something to the left and right, but he didn't speak in the end.

I just nodded secretly in my heart: four times, the Han army shelled four times, three of which made the cannons fly like arrows, twelve times in succession.

In other words, after the twelve shells blasted into the formation, the front of the formation was safe for him during the interval between the artillery loading.

Dolzi discovered this pattern during the second cannon fire.

It's not difficult to discover this rule. The artillery of the Marshal's Mansion mainly focuses on burst fire, and salvos are not easily used unless they are disturbed.

This kind of practice code is because Liu Chengzong often gathers artillery in one place for use, which was not a big problem when light lion guns were installed in the past.

But when they replaced the cannon with a heavy cannon, dozens of catties of gunpowder were fired into the gun tube at the same time.

This habit also has Huang Shengxiao's personal touch. The interval between firing two cannons is called "falling time" by him, because several cannons fire cannonballs at the same time, and the cannons will hit the same target repeatedly, firing bursts with a slight interval. Can avoid the waste of firepower.

For Dorjitaiji, when he was shot by artillery for the first time, he fell into a state of shock. The sound of light and heavy artillery was mixed, not to mention the disturbance of six Hundred Tigers rushing rocket vehicles, and he could not calmly distinguish the sound of the artillery.

But after the rockets were fired and the small cannons were withdrawn, the sound of the twelve heavy cannons hitting the brain one after another like a sledgehammer sounded very clear.

But at that time, he was still not sure, and he didn't want to make fun of his own life, so he handed over the front warlord to his subordinate Zaisang, and led the guards to retreat to the back of the position to avoid shells.

But this time, the sound of the cannon was twelve rounds, which made him firm in his guess, so after the sound of the cannon ended, he resolutely advanced, and the generals couldn't stop him, galloping in front of the formation like a god descending from the earth.

When camels were killed and overturned by shells, and the wreckage of Lele carts was shattered, the fear of death under shelling hung over the ring like a cloud.

The panic-stricken shepherds climbed up from the frightened front line, but what they saw was six Jiyang knives with helmets, armor, riding gear and white horses, riding their horses in front of the line with the most brave posture in the world, using the most powerful The movement and firm voice tell everyone: keep going!
The Khan of Heshuote will definitely send troops to help, and drive away the cavalry of the Han army who are eyeing behind the formation. If they persist for a moment, they will definitely get the opportunity to retreat the whole army!
This is undoubtedly the most glorious moment on the battlefield.

No one had eyes on the back of their heads, not to mention the shepherds, even the princes and nobles who led the army in front of the battle suddenly saw Liu Taiji galloping in front of the battle, everyone's excited mood can be imagined.

Even the unlucky Zaisang, who was injured by a shell in the front of the battle, endured the pain and stood up holding his spear, shouting loudly to the left and right, ordering his troops to regroup.

Seeing that his excellent performance made the shepherds in the north look dejected, he felt a little more at ease. At the same time, he thought that the Han army was almost ready for the next shelling, so he rode his horse south, wanting to stay away from the front line.

At this moment, the car camp in the distance suddenly blew the horn, and Dolji on the horse suddenly felt a chill from his tailbone to Tianlinggai, and looked north in horror.

In the yellow sand flying all over the sky, there was a black shadow rushing at an extremely fast speed in the blur. They paused briefly in the ditch, and Dorzi finally saw it clearly. The black shadow was formed by groups of chariots. composition.

The chariot is not too wide, but it is very long. It is dragged by two horses, and there are three or four people in the chariot. When passing the trench, some soldiers jumped out of the chariot and placed planks on the trench channel filled with sandbags. , Then get on the car again and drive south.

At first, Dolji wondered, what is the use of such a two-horse four-wheeled cart on such a battlefield? Could it be that the Han army still planned to use chariots to break through the circular formation?
It is not uncommon to use vehicles to hit positions. In the Mongols' battles for the purpose of plundering, if they can surround the main force of the enemy and make sure that they will not be attacked by active forces in a short time after annihilating their troops, they will even gather horses to attack The enemy's formation came to destroy the pole and break the formation.

In the heart of Heshuote Liutaiji, this kind of chariot probably takes on this kind of mission.

He was even a little afraid that the Han army would rush over and detonate the car full of gunpowder... After all, Heshuote is next to Yarkand, and it is almost a place where gunpowder can't run out.

At this time, the shepherds in the north of the circle also saw the clues, put down their work one after another, and under the leadership of the princes and nobles, assembled behind the Lele chariot to prepare for the frontal impact of the chariot.

But at this moment, Dorzitaiji saw clearly that it seemed that none of the soldiers on the battlefield were holding long knives and spears, but all of them were holding muskets.

And the musket caliber does not look small.

Hundreds of chariots began to turn a hundred steps away from the circle, and the convoy turned slowly in the shape of a long snake formation. When the first chariot in the team turned sideways to the circle, the distance between the two sides had been shortened to fifty or sixty steps.

The Heshuote soldiers who formed the infantry behind the Lele chariot reacted quickly. Seeing the Han army's chariot turn around, the soldiers who had already opened their bows and raised their muskets no longer waited for the enemy to enter the most suitable range, and fired their guns one after another. bow.

All of a sudden, gunpowder and smoke burst out from the north of Heshuote Circle, and dozens of muskets of different lengths and models started shooting; chariot.

Zaisang, whose instep bones were broken, had no time to bandage the wound, so he could only observe the battlefield in front of the battle with his hand on his cart.

He saw that the scattered columns of chariots were difficult to hit by scattered muskets, so he shouted an order to let the troops use bows and arrows to shoot volleys.

In the blink of an eye, the two sides were fighting, and before Dorzi walked back into the formation from the outside of the circle, he looked back on his horseback at the rain of arrows shot by his side, but just taking a look made him widen his eyes and raise his legs Come and roll off your horse like a loach.

In the process of rolling, he did not forget to shout to the guard cavalry behind him: "Get off the horse, cannon!"

He could see clearly that the long shields with tiger or lion heads on the edge of those chariots protected the soldiers in the chariots tightly. There were three people in the chariots, with the rein-holding hand at the front and the two behind the shields. Only half of the head was exposed under the cover.

But there was a perforation on the side of the hideous car body, and a foot-long pipe was raised at the rear of the car. It didn't look like a thin and long gun, but more like a long-barreled cannon.

The next moment, the gunfire roared, and people were turned on their backs.

The projectiles released by the heavy guns drilled into the front of the formation with incomparable power, knocking down many soldiers amidst the flying sawdust.

The chariots came and went quickly, and the shepherds had no chance to draw their bows again. The chariot they had aimed at was already running halfway across the battlefield, and hundreds of bullets smashed the front line to pieces in a short time.

Even if it was a stray bullet that passed through the outside of the circle and traveled a hundred steps in the air, it still hit the horse's head and killed the horse.

Dolji, who buried his head in the sand, heard lead bullets passing over his head, horses neighing in pain, and endless muskets firing from behind him. When he raised his head slightly, the position in front of him was already a nightmare.

The movement of muskets is not as good as that of heavy artillery, but it is more vicious and poisonous. It sweeps across the front of the battle like a gust of wind, and the battle breaks out in an instant. The voice is endless.

The cavalry guards behind him couldn't react in time, and had already been shot down to the bottom. The guards who had escaped by chance crawled over, dragged him by the shoulders and dragged him into the formation. Suddenly, he froze with a pop.

Dorjitaiji looked over again, and the last guard was also hit by lead bullets, moaning and fell on his back, curled up and twitching continuously.

But these terrifying projectiles were only the first batch of attacks by the chariots. When the chariot convoy turned halfway and the head of the team had galloped to the northwest of the circle, the guns raised at the rear of the chariots to reveal the ruler-long pipes finally fired from the side.

Suddenly there was a loud noise, gunpowder smoke filled the rear of the car, and flames burst out from the smoke. Two and a half projectiles swept across the battlefield and pierced people's holes. Even a strong camel could only die in the face of lead bullets of this weight.

The Heshuotnan Battalion fell into a passive state. If Dorzitaiji saw a nomadic soldier fall when he was shooting with a heavy gun, then when the shooting with the gun came, it was a row of soldiers lying down one after another.

His act of riding a horse in front of the battle to boost morale pales in comparison to this powerful firearm attack.

A difficult choice was thrown on Dorjitaiji's shoulders: let the leader Zaisang launch an exciting charge, forcibly shorten the distance of the firearms, and pull the other two formations into the battlefield; or risk being attacked by the cavalry Risk of falling out of enemy range?
Just at this time, Dorjitaiji saw that Zaisang, who had been injured by a shell earlier on his feet, slowly put down the scimitar he was holding high, lowered his head and covered the side of his neck with the other, turned around and limped towards he comes.

Zaisang's face was full of disbelief, his covered neck was spurting blood, following his staggering pace, spraying as he walked, spraying lines of bright red blood on the scorching yellow sand.

Three steps away, he could even hear Zaisang's throat ripping out like a bellows.

In the end, the old general who had served him for many years with superb martial arts skills twitched his mouth helplessly, looked up at the sunset in the west as if dizzy, swayed, and finally couldn't support his armored body, and fell heavily backwards.

Zaisang likes to drink and is very strong. He will be thrown seven or eight times a year in wrestling, and he will fall off the horse several times after drinking. He has participated in seven major battles in his life, and has three scars on his body. There were fourteen arrow wounds, and he was still alive and kicking after being hit by shells on his feet.

But such a strong man died in an unexpected place.

It was not buckshot that killed him, but a severed hand that belonged to a soldier three rows ahead of him.

When the chariot fired a heavy bullet, it was supposed to be a stray bullet that missed, sweeping their heads and hitting the rear, but the soldier raised his arm and blocked the path of the lead bullet.

The lead bullet was smashed into pieces by the bones, and seven or eight small pieces of lead evenly hit the three soldiers in the two rows behind, while the severed hand flew and spun in the air, rubbing Zaisang's shoulder and falling to the sand, leaving the bones stubbled. Briefly and quickly across the right side of Zaisang's neck.

Just like that, this tough guy with a steel beard and a lifetime of urinating and defecating on Lord Yama's head is gone.

This broken hand solved the difficult choice in Dorjitaiji's heart, and he had no choice.

After taking a hundred rounds of heavy guns, the soldiers in the north of the circular formation were still indifferent in the riots, but after firing a hundred rounds of guns in turn, Dorzitaiji was unable to find any officers who were still standing in front of the formation .

Even if all the shepherds who only know how to herd sheep and shoot arrows panic, the army will not collapse, but once the officers start to act on their own, the Heavenly King and Lao Tzu will not be able to stop the army from starting to collapse.

Dorji realized later that the combat method of the Han army's chariots was the most commonly used ranger attack by the Mongols. Simply put, replacing the chariots and muskets with cavalry and bows and arrows was a horse-riding and galloping attack. The nomadic cavalry of the ring shock.

The only difference is that the musket is a weapon, so that the cavalry does not need to rush to the formation for more than ten steps before firing arrows and horses, and can maintain the huge lethality of breaking the formation at fifty or sixty steps away.

The panicked Liutaiji saw that the army was about to be defeated, and at this moment, he didn't care whether he would die in the stray bullets. He hurriedly got up and grabbed a soldier, and asked him to tell the two horizontal troops on the front line who were obviously killed in battle to retreat.

It was the worst mistake he made in this fight.

The gunshots obscured the orders of the officers, and the efficiency of receiving orders from the various horizontal formations on the front of the circular array that was directly impacted began to be out of balance, followed by the deaths and injuries of officers between the horizontal formations, further losing their ability to coordinate.

When Zaisang, the leader of the army, died, all the centurions completely lost their command. Some officers wanted to lead their subordinates to retreat and look for higher-ranking officers to take over their troops.

And at this moment, the two horizontal teams that had lost their hundred leaders received orders from Liu Taiji and began to retreat in an orderly manner, causing other distressed officers to...began to follow blindly.

Some people thought that the two horizontal teams started to flee, and they also led the team to escape in consideration of their own lives.

More officers who were still alive didn't know what happened. They just found that the friendly troops left the front line in large numbers in the midst of casualties and panic. They thought that something important must have happened, and then started to run.

The people on the front line did not have much panic during the retreat, because the casualties brought to them by the Han army were extremely limited from beginning to end, but the absence of panic does not mean that they will not flee.

The retreat is often disorderly, and each horizontal team finds that the friendly troops are also retreating during the retreat. A series of footsteps makes people more and more anxious, so that one walks faster than the other, and finally becomes a running competition of teams.

While Dorjitaiji was stunned, his solid ring formation formed a concave surface from north to south, and the various teams fled from him to the rear. Even the team that was standing firmly in the south thought that the friendly army had received some order and pushed back. Open the chariot blocking the road and run south.

The moment of the rout became a tacit agreement of thousands of troops. The officers of the tank team who were about to return to the camp from the west were also dumbfounded when they saw this scene, and they also chose to go their own way. Chase the enemy, and use the heavy guns for another round of fire.

And Ma Ke, who was in the direction of the enemy's rout, panicked when he saw this scene.

Even if he was prepared, he suddenly saw the enemy army galloping like a herd of wildebeest migrating on the African grasslands, which made his brain empty for a few seconds, and he looked around with a knife on his horse's back.

At this moment, what Marco thought in his mind was, should I charge from the enemy's left flank or from the enemy's right flank?
The result of this problem is not difficult for Marko. With most of the enemy army to the east, if he charges from the right flank of the defeated army, he will force the enemy army to flee eastward and join the enemy army to the east.

Of course, it is possible to achieve greater results, such as driving the defeated army to attack the enemy's formation, causing chaos in the enemy's army.

But under Ma Ke's self-assessment, he thought that this exceeded his own ability of five or six hundred horsemen, and he might be wiped out because of this... This is not his duty.

In the eyes of Dorjitaiji, who was forced to join the fleeing team, the more than 500 Han cavalry in front of him gave way with a whistle and moved to their left flank, which made him deeply relieved.

Obviously, the enemy cavalry were intimidated by their strong troops.

Liu Taiji, who was a little more relaxed, re-dispatched his troops while fleeing, trying to call the officers of each team to his side, and re-issued new orders.

The despondent princes and nobles moved quickly and gathered beside Taiji in a hurry.

While they were trying to find the next assembly area, Dolzi heard an exclamation: "Look over there!"

Amidst the mighty smoke and dust raised by the defeat, the cavalry of the Han army formed several front formations on their left flank, led by the lunatic with a big knife, and charged at them from the middle!
　good afternoon!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)