stubborn thief

Chapter 391
In the corner of the car formation, blood was shining into the sky.

Gunfire intersected with arrow rain, and [-] elite Heshuo soldiers in solid armor surrounded more than [-] surviving Chahar warriors, rushing to the corner of the army formation like a pack of wolves.

A horse riding a prancing horse crashes into the formation, using the body of the horse or even the cavalry to break the long pole, followed by the dismounted infantry pulling the chariot, breaking sandbags, rushing into the position with short soldiers to fight, and shooting arrows one after another with the infantry separated by the chariot formation .

When the crimson frontier armor collided with the icy chain mail, the front line composed of a hundred artillerymen from the Marshal's Palace resounded with the sound of gold and stone.

Even though Liu Chengzong's order made Yang Qi aware of the enemy's attack for a moment in advance, this moment still made Yang Qi, who had been through many battles, put his heart in his throat.

In his long military career, he has experienced more dangerous situations than this, but at that time he led a regular infantry. Now he has only these 120 artillerymen without artillery, but he has to deal with hundreds of dismounted armed men. Armored riding close combat!

In the Ming army sequence, if the ability of archers to engage in hand-to-hand combat belongs to the ceiling of ordinary soldiers; then the melee ability of musketeers and artillerymen is the floor tiles in the army.

Any hand-to-hand contact with the enemy is basically material that will collapse at the touch of a finger.

This has little to do with the quality of soldiers and training regulations, but only with the type of arms, because they will be artificially selected to look like this during at least two stages of their military career.

First of all, at the beginning of recruitment, any general will teach students in accordance with their aptitude, using bows and arrows strong and powerful, and muskets weak and weak to ensure the lethality of the shooter.

After a long period of time when the army’s food and wages are not enough, it will be distributed twice or even three times. The rules are still the same. Those who can use a strong bow will still use a strong bow, and those who cannot use a strong bow will change their firearms.

So when Yang Qi saw hundreds of cavalry rushing towards him from the gunpowder, he already accepted the reality that the line was broken through in front of him and died unexpectedly.

There was nothing he could change in this fight.

He was only sent by the Generalissimo to accompany the artillery. Although he had a high rank, he was not a military leader with actual duties. Even if he gave orders, the commander in charge of the frontline troops did not need to listen.

In fact, it is just a staff officer who relies on military experience to help low-level officers on the front line understand the orders of the Chinese army.

He couldn't provide the fighting power that a general should have even when he went into battle. The full-time general had at least a dozen or even dozens of well-equipped guards around him, who could fill the gap as an elite squad. He didn't have guards, so he was at best A senior soldier.

And in the middle of the battle, he has nowhere to escape. His family members are still in Xining City, and they retreated to the camp of the Chinese army without authorization. Liu Shizi will definitely chop him up.

At the beginning of the war, these pros and cons had been weighed in Yang Qi's mind, and in the end there were only four words to describe his mood: resign to fate.

But when the two sides fought in the first day of junior high school, the expression of Yang Qi, who was preparing to supervise the battle with his sword in hand, gradually changed... At first, it was the same as he had imagined.

When the enemy army rushed into the gap, dozens of long poles were broken by the horses, and the hundred artillerymen in front of the formation were immediately overturned by the spears. chaos.

The front line then fell into a melee.

But Yang Qi's expected collapse did not happen. On the contrary, the artillerymen were much calmer than him.

Although the front line was retreating, the disrupted formation was reorganized and layered in the melee of successive defeats.

The soldiers fighting on their own first looked for officers with small flags on their helmets during the fight. Yang Qi knew that those people were Shichang, Yongchang, and Huochang, but he never thought those people were officers.

It was just the property that Liu Chengzong left to the army when he was a giant bandit in northern Shaanxi in his early years. In fact, it was no different from ordinary soldiers, and even the cooks got mixed in.

But the soldiers relied on them and spontaneously formed more than 20 teams of two, three, or even four or five people. People might not be under each other before, but at this moment they spontaneously completed the reorganization of the army's grassroots subordinate system.

A few brave warriors stopped retreating with one or two soldiers around them, and tried to stabilize the front line, but the enemy surged into the tide, engulfing a few bloody brave men in a blink of an eye, and the front line continued to advance.

But the courageous commanders risked their lives to fight in vain. The fire chief and commander had already completed the organization behind him, laying out a second, more solid front.

The most important thing is that there was a management team named Sun Sanliu who took over from the fallen president and led a few team members holding drums and blowing horns and eight chiefs carrying guns on their shoulders to retreat to Yang Qi. Filling in progress.

It wasn't until this time that Yang Qi realized that although Liu Chengzong's car battalion was only temporarily built and its combat effectiveness was far inferior to that of the Ming army's standard car battalion, the artillerymen of the Marshal's Mansion seemed to be particularly proficient in close combat.

The high fighting spirit of the grassroots soldiers gave him reassurance. As long as there is no collapse at the first touch, this battle will still be fought.

Excited, Yang Qi looked around the battlefield. It didn't matter if he didn't look at it. When he saw that the friendly troops on the left and right flanks near the artillery positions had sent two teams to support him, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up in fright, and he opened his hands and shouted loudly: " Everyone go back to the formation, don't support!"

Yang Qi knew that the artillery position was very dangerous. Even if these hundreds of soldiers tried their best, they might not be able to keep the surging enemy army out of the formation.

If he is not careful, the enemy army will break into the formation from the southeast corner of the car camp, which is directly related to his wealth and life.

But even so, the defenders lined up on both sides could not come to support, because the width of the artillery position is not large, even if the enemy invades, there will only be more than a hundred people fighting at the same time.

As long as it can withstand this gap, even if a corner is cut off, it will still not affect the entire vehicle formation.

Breaking the formation is the process of tearing the gap, since it is a process, it will not stop, only the result of success or failure.

If the southeast corner is breached, the gap will expand to the defense lines on the east and south sides. Enemy soldiers who cannot fill in the front line will expand the width of the front line, and the pressure will spread to both sides.

One hole is easy to mend, but there are holes everywhere...but it can't be mended.

Therefore, Yang Qi knew very well that at this time, he could only wait for the reinforcements from the Chinese army sent by Liu Chengzong behind him, and he must not draw soldiers from both sides.

But the reinforcements, the troops in the chariot battalion are stretched thin, and they are facing enemies from three sides. I am afraid that the commander of the Chinese army may not have the strength to send reinforcements to the artillery positions.

Life and death are at stake, and whether they can break the game still depends on the cavalry outside.

As soon as he thought about reinforcements, a messenger came running from the rear. Yang Qi was full of expectations, but unexpectedly the messenger came to convey to him a reminder to be careful of the enemy rushing through the smoke.

What kind of bullshit timeliness is this!

"Although Yang Qi is a defeated general, he can still understand military music. By the time you run over, we'll all be dead!"

After saying this, Yang Qi pressed his battle sword and said to the messenger: "Let the commander-in-chief send me ten guards. The battle situation is not favorable, and Yang can also step up. Hurry up!"

As soon as the words fell, Yang Qi inadvertently turned his head to look in the direction of the commander's tent, and saw white smoke rising there, which reminded him of the night when he was besieged, Liu Chengzong let out those ghost cries and howls outside the army formation.

He thought to himself, what's the matter, the Grand Marshal still needs to ask a wizard to do a magic trick before fighting to the death?

The first messenger had just got on his horse, and the No. 2 messenger had already arrived. He got off his horse and handed over a bundle of rockets. He clasped his fists and said, "General Yang, the handsome man asked you how long the artillery can last; Just fire the rockets and retreat one after another, the handsome man's guards can fight for a moment."

Yang Qi nodded and said: "Please report to the commander, Mr. Bai is dead, and Sun Sanliu, the management team, led his troops to fend off the enemy. He should be able to hold on for a while, and let the commander pay more attention to the east and south sides... Yan, what's going on? "

"Don't worry too much, General, the handsome man made the fire."

Liu Shizi set up dozens of big pots in front of the handsome tent, stewing meat and sauce soup.

Once one side can't hold on, his guards will fight in cotton-padded clothes, [-] catties of chain mail, and [-] catties of cloth armor. Temporary downsizing.

You can't do without some salty soup.

Liu Chengzong didn't pay too much attention to the artillery position in the southeast corner, because the southeast and southeast sides of the army formation were in critical condition. Although they were still in the shooting stage, the surrounding Heshuote army would send cavalry to attack for a while from time to time, which made him dare not take it lightly.

Anyone with a discerning eye could tell that those cavalry were just taking advantage of the gap in firepower to make a fake charge, but no one can guarantee that the next time it will be a fake charge, maybe it will be a real collision.

More important was the Heshuote cavalry detour to the south.

The thing that worried Liu Chengzu the most happened. It was indeed the surprise soldiers sent by General Oirat. They had no intention of rushing into the formation. They stopped at the south of the formation two miles away, like an eagle ready to go.

Wei Qian'er, who was stationed outside the western front, wanted to lead his cavalry to expel them, but was called back by Liu Chengzong with a banner.

Rather than letting Wei Qian'er drive them away, Liu Chengzong wanted to bear the risk and keep a hole card in his hand.

In case Wei Qian'er drove the enemy cavalry away and encountered an unexpected situation, Liu Chengzong would have nothing in his hands.

Therefore, the battle was in full swing on the battlefield. On the west and south sides, there was a Hanmeng cavalry stationed to watch the show, staring at each other motionless from two to three miles away.

As the cavalry under their vests went deeper, the follow-up [-]-man team of shepherds also crashed into the southeast of Liu Chengzong's car camp.

It's just that this time they are advancing in a large column. After the forward catches up with the elite soldiers, the follow-up troops spread out directly to the two sides, threatening not only the artillery positions, but also wrapping the east side of the south formation and the south side of the east formation, trying to widen the gap .

But it was difficult for their elite vanguards to go deeper into the position, because the artillery raised their guns and finished loading, but there were terrifying gunshots from time to time in the gap twenty steps wide, which made the Heshuote vanguard elites in heavy armor full of panic. .

The management team named Sun Sanliu played the gun very insidiously.

This artillery centurion was equipped with ten guns. After the initial melee, only eight long guns retreated to the formation to reload. The loaded guns were fired on people's shoulders at first, but Sun Sanliu It was found that the effect was not good.

Originally, this crowded situation and the short distance should be the most suitable battlefield for raising guns, but these Heshuo special soldiers are all wearing mail armor and four-mirror armor, and it is difficult to raise a gun to knock down four or five people with one shot. The record is that one shot can only bring down one person, and at most it can injure the person behind.

Sun Sanliu was very dissatisfied with the results of this battle, so he decided to beat people.

Although the three thin rows of artillery were in danger of being breached at any time, the depth of the three rows of soldiers was not as deep as that of carrying guns. When the guns were raised and placed on the ground, the gunners lay down behind the formation, just enough to reach from the rear to the front of the formation.

Batu Er Darhan, who was sent to the front of the battle by the National Teacher Khan, suffered a bone in the head. Under the protection of Bo Zhou, he was beaten a little dazed, so he withdrew about ten steps from the front line. Next, watch soldiers break into enemy lines.

Originally, the situation on the battlefield had already made him happy, but this time he broke through the formation and entered the center of the enemy army.

But at this time, there were two bangs, one left and one right, before the formation, which shattered his dream.

There was a loud bang, gunpowder smoke floated up from the ground, and as soon as the gun was released, Darhan didn't feel anything else, only that his subordinates who were rushing into the battle suddenly became thinner.

The biggest problem is that although they dismounted to fight on foot, they were all wearing cavalry armor, which made their legs and feet not well protected when fighting on foot.

The same is true for the soldiers of the Marshal's Mansion, because there are differences in the shape of the armor and the cloth armor.

Infantry heavy armor is usually made in the shape of a burqa that reaches to the feet, and the upper and lower parts are integrated.

Cavalry heavy armor should be divided into upper and lower pieces. The armor skirt is separated from the front and back, and the length should not exceed three inches above the knee.

Because the cavalry squatted on the horseback with their knees bent, their armor skirts were too long to stumble their feet, and the armor under their ribs was fully installed. In the riding state, they would push their armpits up and rub their hips below, so it was not easy to be short.

This is why cavalry armor has crotch protectors, armpit protectors, waist protectors, hanging legs and other accessories.

The Heshuo special heavy cavalry has crotch guards, armpit guards, and waist guards, but they don't have hanging legs. Their armor itself doesn't consider too much about dismounting and fighting on foot.

As a result, the eight guns sprayed out a small fan, sweeping the attacking soldiers three times, and a dozen or so people either knelt on the ground or rolled all over the ground with their legs hugged.

Then the artillerymen of the Han army who were pressed up held their spears and goose feather knives to poke here and there, and if they couldn't poke, they put on the pumpkin hammer, avoided the large deck of the four-mirror armor, and came to the place protected by the chain armor. After a few strokes, A is fine, and the person is gone.

Before the elite soldiers who were suddenly attacked could react, the battle line was pushed back a few steps, and the people behind rushed to press on again, but there were two more gunshots from under their feet.

Liu Chengzong in the rear didn't know Sun Sanliu's tactics, but he could see that the front line of the southeast artillery position suddenly jumped forward by two sections.

This made him feel very relieved. If the problem in the southeast is not serious, then the only problem is the wandering cavalry. Right now, the stragglers in the western formation have been wiped out, and there are still two sides of his army formation that are useless.

"Tell Huang Shengxiao, don't move the heavy artillery, let's use an opening in the south to attract that cavalry to attack."

Liu Shizi put on his armor while talking, and the guards beside him packed up the armor together. He glanced to the east and said: "They should be tired. They have killed and wounded the enemy for a while, so they can sleep well at night."

When the order was conveyed to the south, Huang Shengxiao understood it immediately. The four hundred generals on the left flank of the south horizontal formation were fighting with the herders attacking the artillery position.

Even so, Huang Shengxiao dispatched three teams from the right wing to support Sun Sanliu in the artillery position.

As soon as his men moved, the situation changed immediately. The cavalry wandering outside became restless. Only because they were still threatened by Wei Qian'er, they reluctantly stayed where they were and camped.

At this moment, they saw Wei Qian'er's horse team running northward in a hurry.

After a brief hesitation, the [-]-scale cavalry left [-] cavalry as a reserve team, and the rest of the army rushed to the south of the chariot camp to support the siege on the entire battlefield.

The surprise soldiers left by Guoshi Khan on the outside line are gone.

What greeted them was Huang Shengxiao's twelve heavy artillery that fired thousands of projectiles at a distance of a hundred steps, plowing out dense cracks on the fan surface of the Gobi battlefield.

At the same time, Wei Qian'er and Zuo Guangxian's more than [-] riders circled the formation from west to north, forming nearly a hundred assault front formations, and rushed towards the enemy troops who were besieging the chariot formation in the north like a pack of wolves.

Under the leadership of He Huchen and Han Shiyou, more than a thousand defenders on the west side of the chariot formation also got on their horses, broke out from the army formation, detoured south, and attacked the enemy's flank in the south.

Offensive and defensive posture is easy.

Liu Chengzong stood in the formation neatly clad in double-layer armor. The high-pitched suona and the bang of war drums sounded from behind him at the same time, and the chained army formation on all sides collapsed from the west, like a red python entrenched in the Gobi. Yu Ji's enemy army opened its bloody mouth like a snake swallowing an elephant.

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)