stubborn thief

North bank of Weihe River.

The two armies are clearly divided, one in the south and the other in the north.

The Ming army position on the south side formed a dense formation with two large army formations of 3000 people.

The marshal's army on the north side used [-] infantry and cavalry to slowly press forward in a large horizontal formation, and spread out the [-] cavalry on the left and right flanks to surround them, compressing and surrounding the Ming army with superior strength on a small battlefield spanning four miles.

On the northeast side of the battlefield outside the encirclement, the four cavalry brigades belonging to the Zhenjun soldiers and Mao Hulu soldiers had been fighting and retreating under the attack of the cavalry. They were driven out of the battlefield and rushed in a panic. Being surrounded by more and more marshal's troops and horses, he was not allowed to escape.

Yang Zhengfang was disgusted by Zhang Tianlin.

Inside the large army formation, the Zhenjun soldiers and Maohulu soldiers united into two camps, protected by Juma Zha and Zhenma pit. Although it seemed from the situation that they were a little too cowardly, they were completely placed under the influence of the enemy. He was in a position of being beaten, but in fact the situation was still supportable.

After all, the two battalions, which are good at fighting in the mountains, are equipped with a large number of spears, muskets and heavy armored infantry. And because the Miao soldiers' equipment is largely inherited from their ancestors, they use ancient heavy armor, which is particularly heavy.

Zhang Tianlin's cavalry is equipped with electric muskets donated by Bai Guangen, which are Franch-type breech-loading rifles. The six-foot-long musket tube ensures range and power. At the same time, carrying six sub-guns also has considerable firepower. Persistent.

This kind of lightning gun is actually not suitable for use by horse soldiers, because it is a musket developed by Zhao Shizhen on the basis of the Lumi gun and the Fran machine.

The characteristic of the Rumi gun is that it is long, so it is accurate and cruel, and can maintain considerable lethality at long distances; the advantage of the Fran machine is that it has a rear-mounted shape, can reload and shoot faster, and has strong firepower sustainability.

The electric gun maintains the advantages of these two firearms very well. It is six feet long. If the matching gun blade is inserted, it can even be used as a seven-foot short gun.

But it is also very heavy as it is long, and it is difficult to maintain balance just by holding it on horseback. However, Zhao Shizhen removed the medicine pool and used the firing mechanism of the fire door and match rope that were commonly used in muskets in this era. Inserting the medicine twist avoids the worry of the medicine being blown away by wind and bumps.

Therefore, for cavalry who are skilled in bow and horse, galloping with a long gun on horseback is actually sharper and more accurate than a strong bow at a distance of a hundred paces.

This kind of weapon should have given Zhang Tianlin's cavalry an unrivaled advantage in the duel stage. Not only did they have a longer range and higher damage than infantry-fired crossbows, but they were also more powerful than the commonly installed five-foot bird cannons. threaten.

It's just that it's a bit embarrassing for mountain heavy infantry like the Zhenjun soldiers who wear ancient heavy armor. First of all, they can't enter the range of bird cannons and accompanying mountain cannons. Secondly, outside the range of bird cannons, the lethality of electric cannons is also limited. Very limited.

And with that limited lethality, let alone breaking through the earthen walls built by the trenches dug by the suppressing soldiers, even if they were hit, it would be no different from scratching an itch in front of the ancient heavy armor worn by the suppressing soldiers.

Therefore, the cavalry surrounded on three sides fired with muskets. The muskets and small cannons carried by the suppressing soldiers also fired one after another. The strong bows of the Mao soldiers and the large crossbows of the Miao soldiers fired at the same time. The sky was full of guns, cannons and arrows. , the roaring sound is endless, and it can only be used for fun.

What really made Yang Zhengfang feel uncomfortable was the fact that they were driven out of the [-]-horse team from the battlefield.

At the beginning of the battle between the two sides, in order to avoid being surrounded by the enemy's Tangma troops, to try to cross the river for reinforcements from the south bank of the Wei River, and to buy time for the formation of infantry to spread iron caltrops on the Juma Fence, Yang Zhengfang assembled the [-] horse troops under his command and ordered They rushed towards Zhang Tianlin's galloping two thousand horse army without hesitation.

Although his horsemen are few, each of them is very elite. This is determined by the organizational form of the Zhenjun soldiers and Mao Gourd soldiers.

The Mao Gourd Soldiers are a light-armored army that specializes in skirmishing in small groups. Their organizational form is similar to that of a landlord's regiment. The horse soldiers in the army are almost all small leaders named Jiao Nao, with excellent personal qualities.

The cavalry of the Zhenyu soldiers were mostly composed of veterans of the Eastern Miao Dynasty who had surrendered during the She'an Rebellion. They had a reputation in the southwest for being accustomed to horse fighting.

This was also the reason why Yang Zhengfang dared to send them to stop the [-] enemy cavalry with [-] people.

But this confidence was shattered as soon as the Ma army fought.

The Dong Miao veterans who were accustomed to using their horses to attack infantry in the southwestern mountains were obviously not as experienced as the Marshal's Cavalry in cavalry combat, not to mention that they were also inferior to Zhang Tianlin's cavalry in terms of quantity and organization.

Zhang Tianlin's cavalry troops formed a small square formation with forty or fifty cavalry under his command. They lured the enemy's cavalry from the front to turn around and shoot, chased and fired from behind the enemy's cavalry, and at the same time, they deployed lances from all directions to the flanks. A galloping thrust.

After the Dong Miao cavalry was delayed by a flanking attack, the cavalry behind them rushed forward, drew out their Yanling sabers, and slashed with their swords. A melee ensued, and they relied on their strength advantage in the chaos to knock them off their horses one by one with Guduo.

The few Ming cavalry that barely escaped were easily driven to the outskirts of the battlefield by the marshal's cavalry, where they became onlookers.

Yang Zhengfang felt extremely aggrieved.

The better Zhang Tianlin's horse team performed, the more aggrieved he felt.

If Zu Kuan hadn't led his troops to collect food, how could his seven thousand infantry have ended up like this!
But soon Yang Zhengfang felt no longer aggrieved, because Zhang Tianlin's Chinese army headquarters was getting closer and closer. When the two sides were [-] steps apart from the north to the south, the outer formation of the suppression troops began to waver.

During the commotion, the messenger cavalry stationed at the position rushed back to the Chinese army and reported to Yang Zhengfang: "Commander Yang, the enemy is coming up with heavy artillery!"

Actually it's not a heavy artillery.

Zhang Tianlin left the baggage during the battle in Gansu. After the battle, the junior officers were all horse soldiers, and few were able to use artillery. Later, they formed a large battalion and joined the Ming army's descending troops, but there were not enough artillery.

The main firepower weapons provided to him by the Marshal's Mansion were a large number of rockets. Therefore, the battalion was the weakest in terms of artillery configuration. It only had three thousand-pound cannons and ten lion cannons. Zhang Tianlin simply did not distribute these cannons to each hundred brigades. The General Manager of the Chinese Army is directly responsible for the use, transportation, maintenance and management of baggage vehicles.

This kind of artillery equipment, regardless of north or south, is quite different from a standard battalion of the Ming army.

At least a thousand commanders or general commanders in the Ming army have Franco machine generals and cannons, and one of the small cannons can sink a squad of 50 people.

But the Suppression Soldiers are different. They have always used small cannons. After all, in mountainous operations, there is no need to consider cannons exceeding [-] kilograms.

So much so that, let alone the Hongyi style thousand-jin field cannon of the Marshal's Mansion, even the two-hundred-jin lion cannon can maintain enough deterrence against the suppressing soldiers.

Three thousand-jin artillery carts were dragged by Hexi horses to the front line of the battlefield. The brass muzzles were fired in the direction of the Ming army's formation, and impatience began to spread among the formation of the suppressing soldiers.

In a very short period of time, Yang Zhengfang had just climbed onto the mountain in the military formation. He just glanced towards the north and saw the flash of light from the muzzle and heard the deafening sound of the cannon.

Boom boom boom!
Three cannon shots sounded almost at the same time, and three seven-pound iron balls pulled out a black line in the air with a sharp whistling sound, crossing a distance of [-] steps in the blink of an eye.

This distance is very close to the optimal range of the thousand-pound cannon, and there is no difficulty in shooting. You only need to put a small plate on the muzzle, and if you aim it, the shell can accurately fall into the array.Three artillery shells, one fired in a parabola more than ten steps in front of the formation, bounced over the ditch again, crashed into the earth wall piled up in front of the army formation, and knocked away most of the half-man-high earth wall; the other two shells flew away The cannonballs fell into the formation, and one hit the head of the horse pulling the cart. The horse had no time to neigh before it was hit into the neck.

The last cannonball rolled accurately into the dense crowd, tearing through the heavy armor like a piece of paper, causing a shower of blood in an instant, and ricocheting three times to create a path of blood.

This thing is not a small-caliber musket like a blunderbuss or an electric blunderbuss. Even Yang Zhengfang is heartbroken. If there are cannons or no cannons, it basically determines that it is only a matter of time before they lose.

But Yang Zhengfang cannot accept failure.

Because there was the Wei River behind them, the pontoon bridge built by the small boat could not allow the defeated soldiers to flee. The consequence of being defeated was that they would be driven into the river by the enemy's cavalry and drowned.

Unless... Guan Ningjun can come back within two hours.

In fact, this time is superfluous. The Guan Ning Army led by Zu Kuan is very close to the battlefield at this time. Xingping and Xianyang are only a dozen miles away from their battlefields. The Liao soldiers who are eating in the village can even hear this The sound of cannons was like hearing thunder rolling in the sky.

It was a helpless move for the soldiers to separate and plunder. Zu Kuan knew the importance. Even when he was in the eastern suburbs of Xingping County, he always sent Tang soldiers to pay attention to the situation on the eastern battlefield. He even had more information than Yang Zhengfang who was fighting head-on. .

At the same time that Zhang Tianlin's artillery fired, Zu Kuan's Tang soldiers and cavalry had already run west to Maweiyi, and exchanged fire with Liu Chengzong's Tang soldiers from the north using three-eyed muskets.

To the south, some Tang soldiers took off their armor and swam across the Wei River by dragging their horses' tails, rushing to the camp on the south bank of the Wei River. They asked Lieutenant General Lei Shisheng to lead his army to move west, cross the river from Xingping County, and join him.

Because he had discovered that Liu Chengzong's troops were heading south. If the soldiers and horses still on the south bank of the Wei River crossed the river from Yang Zhengfang's side, they would probably be surrounded. After walking for more than ten miles, at least under the cover of Liao soldiers' Tangqi, they could cross the river safely.

However, when he heard the sound of cannons at this time, Zu Kuan could not keep calm, and he was secretly shocked: "The thieves actually have cannons!"

He didn't understand Liu Chengzong's marshal army at all.

This Liao army followed him to fight in Shandong, Henan, and Huguang. The only enemy they encountered was Li Jiucheng's Shandong rebels. The rest of the peasant army were light soldiers who relied on fast horses and mules to come and go like the wind. In this regard, the Liao soldiers were not Fear any enemy.

Especially when Zu Kuan came here and heard that his opponent was Liu Chengzong, he was so happy that he almost turned into Zu Dale.

So who is Liu Chengzong?The notorious fool!
What is Hanhan?All his men are Mongolians!

Zu Kuan thought that his opponent was the Mongolian Tatars running around.

This is also the reason why Zu Kuan dared to go to the nearby countryside to collect food before the battle. He first had to let the soldiers put food on horseback that could last for seven or eight days before he could catch and kill the Mongols in the ensuing pursuit and fight. .

Even if he were to give him three thousand to twenty thousand, he would definitely be able to make the fool run away in sweat.

But by now, no matter how crazy Zu Kuan was, he had already realized that things were different from what he imagined.

Liu Chengzong's Tang soldiers were serious Northwest Frontier Army Tang soldiers. The army that faced off against the Zhenyu Army on the north bank of the Wei River also used serious Northwest Frontier Army tactics, and even carried out large-caliber long-barreled cannons. This was obviously already beyond the capabilities of the Mongols.

At this moment, Zu Kuan was also a little panicked.

Realizing that he had to change his tactics and run back to cooperate with Yang Zhengfang to resist Liu Chengzong, Zu Kuan immediately gathered his headquarters and sent Tangqi to run east along the river bank, ordering him to inform the more than a thousand Liao soldiers who were rushing to plunder Xianyang about the advance.

Then he ordered the soldiers to shrink and push everyone in the direction of Liu Chengzong.

That is the south of Maoling.

At the same time, on Liu Chengzong's side, he realized that Zu Kuan actually dared to use Tangqi to scatter around and even threw it in his face even in the midst of his busy schedule of looting. What he could do was not only compress Tangqi. Soldiers.

He even transferred County Boduoerji from Qianzhou to join the expedition under the banner of Qianzong Tuba, and ordered him to lead a thousand Heshuo special cavalry to the western suburbs of Xingping County to guard against the fleeing Zu Kuan tribe from the west.

Both sides took the battlefield on the north bank of the Wei River as the center and radiated their troops to the battlefields in all directions. Tangqi who encountered each other charged and shot at each other on the plains, squeezing and fighting for safe space for their own troops, and at the same time passing on the enemy's intelligence. Report to the Chinese army quickly.

During this process, Yang Zhengfang's Zhenyu Army stood in the military formation on the north bank of the Wei River and suffered seven rounds of artillery shells.

To be honest, Zhang Tianlin couldn't stand it anymore.

He deliberately made the artillery fire intervals longer so that the enemy would think they were not that elite, thereby attracting the enemy to take the initiative to attack.

If the enemy's field artillery moves to another location and there is half a moment between two rounds of firing, it is likely that at the beginning of the third round of bombardment, he will send troops to attack the artillery position. Even if he cannot capture the artillery, he will have to Forcing the artillery to move.

As for the cavalry surrounding them, they actually just look scary. After all, who would charge into a hedgehog formation with precious cavalry?

However, Yang Zhengfang had to endure seven rounds of artillery fire. It was not until the eighth round that he was ready to fire, when a trumpet sound suddenly sounded in the military formation, and the neatly dressed heavy infantrymen formed a group and marched With steady steps, they crossed the earthen barrier and launched an attack on the artillery position [-] steps away.

Yang Zhengfang is not a coward, he is also waiting for the opportunity.

From the moment the first thousand-pound cannon was fired on the battlefield, Yang Zhengfang was calculating the time and calculating Zu Kuan's decision after hearing the sound of the cannon. If it was only a dozen miles away in Xingping or Xianyang, then he could indeed be the first to do so. Launch a counterattack.

But he would rather be later.

Because launching a counterattack also meant that they would engage in close combat with the enemy. When Zu Kuan's support arrived a moment later, the casualties would be far greater than standing under the protection of the earth barrier and receiving artillery fire.

When the seventh round of artillery fire was fired, Yang Zhengfang was convinced that the Liao soldiers of Zu Kuan's tribe scattered on the east and west sides should have received the order and were ready to rush to support. Only then did he give the order, ordering the sergeants to launch an assault on the artillery position and at the same time, take precautions. Cavalry wandering on the east and west wings.

But he never dreamed that when he saw his army finally moving, Zhang Tianlin, who was standing on the saddle on the opposite side of the battlefield and looking out at the battlefield, clapped her hands vigorously, her face flushed with excitement: "Send my order to the general, and fire another round of thousand-jin cannons." Just retreat north, and the ten lion cannons are loaded with powder and ready to fire a salvo."

"The cavalry on the left are ready to attack, and the right wing is outflanking the enemy's rear. Eat all 7000 people. No one can escape!" (End of Chapter)