stubborn thief

Chapter 390 Offense and Defense
boom! boom! boom!
The continuous sound of cannons sounded from the southeast corner of the car formation, and the sky filled with gunpowder smoke enveloped the battle line. The projectiles that pierced the air were sprayed at the galloping cavalry, and beat the first three centurions to their knees. Only corpses and trails of blood were left.

Khan, the national teacher in front of Heshuote's troops, whipped his horse and watched the corpses of Chahar's surrendered army not far away as bait strewn across the field. The artillery positions of the Han army were shrouded in gunpowder smoke, expressionless.

This is just a very inconspicuous scene on the battlefield. On the east and north sides of the chariot camp, the dark Mongolian infantry brigade slowly pressed against the chariot camp with shields, and the distance between the battle lines was shortened between two hundred and one hundred paces.

From time to time, a team of horses would rush forward. If the Han archers had no time to reload and shoot, they would rush forward and shoot a few arrows;

It's just that other places are feints. The target of Guoshi Khan's formation is the southeast corner of the chariot formation, where the artillery positions of the Han army are located.

He waved his left hand without saying a word, and the orderly behind him held up the oared Mongolian trombone, blowing a thick voice that resounded across the battlefield.

The second [-]-horse Chahar surrendered army was urged by Prince Heshuote to fight. After promising to be a free man after the war, the people once again crossed the trench filled with corpses and pressed towards the southeast corner of the camp.

Guoshi Khan had limited knowledge of artillery. He didn't even know that scattered bullets and solid iron bullets could be fired through the same gun, but this did not prevent a Mongolian marshal from using his rich battlefield experience to make correct judgments.

After realizing that the Han army has two kinds of artillery, one is the artillery that can blast solid iron bullets two miles away, and it is arranged in the south of the car formation.

The other can release a piece of projectile at about [-] paces, killing a large number of dense soldiers, most of which are arranged in the southeast corner of the car formation.

Borjijin Turubaihu has his own threat assessment for these two types of artillery.

Although the damage of the two types of artillery to the army is very different, Guoshi Khan still made the same judgment as the six sons who were defeated in the Nanying camp, that is, the threat of solid bullets to the army is far greater than that of the gun that can kill and injure more people at one time. The scatter is bigger.

The conclusions are the same, but the reasons are different.

Dorzitaiji saw that solid bullets could kill him at a super long range.

And Guo Shihan was born in Wanli ten years ago, and now he is 51 years old. In his limited life, he commanded the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains and enjoyed glory after many battles. Even if he was unlucky enough to be killed by a flying iron ball, he would die without regret.

What he was afraid of was not death, but the solid iron bullets of heavy artillery, which had a particularly serious impact on morale, and could obscure the command and create chaos.

The battlefield is changing rapidly, a few solid shells may not kill a few people, but when the command of the army loses coordination, the power of the solid shells will rise in a straight line with the assistance of other troops.

For example, in a [-]-man squadron in a horizontal formation, the officer's left or right side was hit intensively by solid bullets, and the entire horizontal formation was broken into two pieces. Hundreds of soldiers on one side lost their command in a short period of time.

When the central army gives an order to change formation or move, and the other side receives the order to start changing formation, the entire army will be out of line and chaotic, making commanding more difficult, and the enemy seizes the opportunity to cover up and kill.

This kind of power is definitely not comparable to a few small cannons that can kill and injure 200 people.

This fear of heavy artillery made Guoshi Khan choose an offensive strategy of fast attack and slow attack.

Fast is a breakthrough, slow is the mobilization of enemy forces.

Before the heavy artillery was mobilized from the south, the elite troops were quickly concentrated to try to break through the weak points of the chariot formation, and drew the Han army into close combat with close combat.

The weakest part of the vehicle array is the artillery position where sixteen Lion Cannons are concentrated in the southeast.

There are gaps in the sandbags of vehicles that act as obstacles, and it is difficult for infantry using swords and spears to deploy in the artillery interval. Attacking that direction can not only reduce the threat of artillery for breakthroughs on both sides, but also rush into the army formation at a minimum cost.

The only difficulty is... the attacking soldiers face the tragic casualties of attacking the artillery positions head-on.

This is also the difficult choice that all generals must make in this era of advanced firearms: whether to choose and project the enemy whose power is far superior to his own to shoot each other until he loses, or to pull the enemy to the same level as himself at the cost of some casualties superior.

In fact, this question tests not the benevolence of the generals, but their ability to control the army and the soldiers' desire to win.

Coincidentally, on this issue, Guoshi Khan was invincible from the very beginning, because he had casualties in his hands that would not affect the morale of Heshuote's main force.

When the second batch of surrendered troops were sent to the battlefield, they were scattered and fled again by a salvo. Guoshi Khan put down the cracked binoculars in his hand and breathed a sigh of relief.

Because the second batch of [-] descendants took [-] more steps forward.

He raised his left hand, and an orderly rushed forward quickly, and he heard him say: "Tell Darhan in front of the battle, the enemy's artillery reload time is [-] breaths, and prepare to charge the battle."

Darhan is a title from Rouran, which was still used by the Turks as the military post of commander of soldiers and horses. It became a widely used honorary title in the Mongolian era.

Up to now, Darhan has been divided into several levels, as a reward title for military exploits, similar to the Ming Dynasty's Captain General and other honorary officers, those who have made minor achievements will be promoted to Batuer Darhan, and those who have made outstanding achievements will be promoted to Weijing Darhan, What is more important is Guyin Darhan, and the first contributor is Wei Darhan.

Many names of Mongolian nobles recorded in the Ming Dynasty were simply replaced by titles, such as Batuer and Weizheng.

The Darhan mentioned by Guoshi Khan is the officer who leads the elite soldiers in front of the battle.

In order to break through in one fell swoop, he prepared two strategies and [-] soldiers.

Among them, 900 were soldiers from Chahar and [-] Heshuote soldiers. These people formed five offensive echelons and a reserve brigade of [-] people.

The combat plan is to attack the artillery positions with two batches of Chahar troops, the first batch to check the enemy's firepower, and the second batch to check the firing interval.

It was the third time that preparations for the attack were really launched. The last [-] surrendered soldiers were used as infantry elites to cover the cannons, and to cover the subsequent [-] Heshuo special infantry fighters from rushing into the position.

Once these people open the gap, they only need to hold the front line for a moment, and the thousand-man brigade following behind will rush into the position, break through the formation from the corner, and change the entire battlefield situation.

In the end, a reserve brigade of [-] herders was left behind, which was used in the second set of strategies of Guoshi Khan-driving and descending troops to rush into the enemy's formation and consume the enemy's physical strength, which is the ancestral method of the Mongolian army.

However, this method of tactics has a small flaw, that is, there is a possibility of defection on the battlefield in order to surrender troops, especially charging artillery positions with cannons, which increases the possibility of this happening.

The reserve team is responsible for this. Once the surrendered troops turn against them, they will use three times as many troops to deal with the surrendered troops. This is not a risk in Guoshi Khan's plan, but an opportunity.

If the troops turn back and the enemy does not move, there will be no loss to him; if the enemy sends troops to cover up and kill, it will just fall into the arms of the National Teacher Khan.

The only thing he was afraid of was the chariot formation. After the chariot formation sent troops south and west, there were only 6000 to [-] people left. The Han army who rushed out did not have the cover of the chariot formation. Even if they exchanged two for one in the field battle, he still had an absolute advantage.

At the tragic price of draining the last drop of blood from Chahar's soldiers, in exchange for Qinghai with lush water and grass, it is worth it.

In the car camp with banners and flags flying, Liu Chengzong looked to the south with a telescope for a short while, his mind was filled with the sound of vigorous guns and cannons.

Liu Shizi was trying his best to restrain the influence of the sound of fighting on the battlefield, and focused his attention on the roundabout cavalry sent to the south by the Heshuote Chinese Army.

It's hard to stay calm at this juncture.

The number of troops in the chariot camp was even smaller than Guoshi Khan imagined. He only had an army in the early [-]s.

Moreover, because there were too many mules and horses, there was no place to hide the livestock in the flat Gobi, and the battle was encountered in a hurry. His chariot formation was wide on all sides, and the support force that could be used as a reserve team was only [-] guards.

So what he is most afraid of is that Guoshi Khan will launch an all-out attack.

This meant that once the enemy attacked with dead soldiers on both sides of the northeast, and the chariot formation fell into hand-to-hand combat, he could support it for a moment at most in a regular battle, and even if he abandoned the chariot formation, he could only last for half an hour.

The support time has nothing to do with the elite level of his soldiers, the quality of equipment, and the quality of tactics. There is no replaceable reserve force, and no matter how strong a soldier is, his physical strength can only last so long.

Therefore, the key to the victory of this battle is the reinforcements, not the Chinese army.

The reinforcements were the [-] cavalry led by Wei Qian'er and Zuo Guangxian. They wiped out hundreds of enemy troops rushing to the west, and then freed up their hands to attack the north, which could break the siege of the Chinese army.

That's why Liu Chengzong's attention was focused on the detoured cavalry outside the range in the south.

In his eyes, the army that was slowly pressing on the northeast of Heshuote was the right soldier in the midst of a surprise victory.

And if the cavalry who were turning around came to charge, whether it was to the south or the west, it meant that they were also soldiers.

Relying on the formation of vehicles, only the west and south sides can withstand them, and there is still one side of soldiers that can support other places when the worst happens.

As long as the soldiers are divided into two teams to fight alternately and have time to recover, everything will be fine for Liu Chengzong. The time for the army to hold on will not be doubled. He can carry it until tomorrow, until Yang Yao leads the cavalry to turn the situation around .

If it hangs far away from the range of the southwestern sides, like Mako did to the southern battalion, putting pressure on the tank formations on the outside, so that the west and south sides cannot withdraw and rotate the soldiers on the east and north sides, they will be extra. of Raiders.

That would be Liu Chengzong's catastrophe, and a perfect kidnapping horse tactic was formed.

At this moment, an artillery officer in the southeast corner of the army formation bypassed the military drums and hurriedly ran to the central army, and reported eagerly: "Commander, the artillery is stuck by the enemy and cannot support the east and north. Both sides!"

Liu Shizi froze for a moment, wondering if this was farting.

Historically, it was only the artillery that suppressed others from running away. How could the artillery be stuck by the enemy?
Seeing his unbelievable expression, the commanding officer quickly turned back and pointed to the front line and explained: "They keep sending troops to attack the artillery array, and there are already two teams!"

Liu Chengzong looked to the southeast suspiciously, looked past the lion artillery team supervised by Yang Qi, and looked at where the barrel was pointing.

The first thing he saw were the hundreds of corpses outside the artillery position. At a glance, there were at least a hundred of them. Among them were war horses that could not get up, their necks raised and hissing mournfully, and wounded soldiers wrapped in robes. Crawl to the edge for life.

Across the squirming red land, three or four hundred shepherds wearing leather robes and weapons were being supervised by several officers, holding high flags and rushing towards the artillery position.

Before he had time to doubt the enemy's behavior, in a further place, the reflection of the setting sun hit the viewing tube, and a group of armored cavalry completed the assembly. Move forward steadily.

At this moment, the front of the formation roared, and sixteen lion cannons blasted at the enemy one after another. The smoke and dust from the gunpowder blocked his vision. At the moment when the gunpowder smoke rose, he seemed to see the enemy's armored cavalry attacking.

This scene made his hair stand on end, as if time slowed down for an instant, and all the clamor and shouts on the battlefield disappeared from his ears, leaving only his dilated pupils staring straight at the artillery positions, which were looser than other places.

The next moment everything came back, the drums shouted to kill, and the muskets roared into his ears. Liu Chengzong turned his head and screamed at the flag drummer with a ferocious face: "Defend the southeast! Guards come with me!"

The rumbling war drum suddenly stopped, and the drumstick finally fell heavily on the drum surface, making a shocking sound. The entire Chinese army commander was stunned for a moment, and the standard bearers raised the flag and sent orders to run. The soldiers who reacted suddenly changed the tone of the general music .

Before the messenger came over, Yang Qi, who had been through battles for a long time, heard the change of the military music, and frowned for no reason and looked at the Chinese army.

It's not that Marshal Guyuan was quick to react and instinctively thought that he hadn't given the order, so why did the military music start bragging about it?

In the next moment, intelligence came back to his mind, and he realized that he changed his family. The highest commander of this army is Liu Chengzong.

But defending the southeast, Yang Qi chewed on this direction, and the southeast seemed to be right in front of his eyes.

Yang Qi may not be a very good general, but he is indeed a general who obeys orders.

Even though he smelled the pungent gunpowder smoke and looked at the vast expanse of whiteness in front of him, he did not doubt the order given by the flag, but pulled out the heavy sword at his waist with a full face of doubt, and ordered in a firm tone: "Block the gap, form an formation and prepare!" Budou!"

The other side covered by gunpowder smoke.

A few nomadic cavalry with horse poles crossed the ditch and drove dozens of poor horses to the left and right flanks to block the guns. Among them were three hundred elite cavalry led by the three pioneers Darhan. The blood-stained sandy land was flying straight into the gunpowder.

On the southeast sides of the car battalion formation, the hundreds of supervisors who were in charge of the battle found the cavalry rushing, and ordered the soldiers to turn their guns and shoot.

In the rows of gunpowder smoke, the gunners just took aim when the galloping cavalry had passed through their shooting range. Even if a few lead pellets fell into the cavalry by chance, most of them would hit the ownerless and inferior horses on the outside, with little effect.

In the artillery position, the artillery had just blocked the gap with artillery carts and sandbags, and a row of infantry was mobilizing behind them, and a gust of head-on wind dispersed the remaining gunpowder smoke in the air.

Those who greeted them were ferocious armored cavalry who hastily reined in their horses more than ten steps away. Some people had already dismounted, patted the horse's buttocks and drove the mounts behind them, turned around and drew their bows to shoot.

Hand-to-hand combat is inevitable.

Some people were dismounting their horses, carrying their bucklers and drawing their waist knives, rushing towards the chariot, trying to open the gap for the follow-up troops.

There were also some fast-charging cavalry who didn't expect that the gap was blocked. Before they could react, they jumped into the formation with spears and horses led by Darhan, and slammed into the forest of spears and spears.

The chariot was knocked away by the wounded horse, the bronze lion cannon fell to the ground, the iron and steel collided in the formation, and the short blades clashed.

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)