I want to be emperor

Chapter 237 Unexplainable defeat
In Shuilin Town, a large number of soldiers of the rural protection army and countless supplies are gathered here. On the simple temporary emergency dock, there are a large number of civilians carrying supplies to the ship every moment.

On the other side of Shuilin Town, on the landing beach that is about several thousand meters away, there are many ships leaning against the two temporary trestle bridges. Many soldiers and the boatmen who came with the boats are carrying the supplies off the boat, and then pass the two-wheeled carriage or Wheelbarrows, or simply picked up by soldiers directly to the shore.

A large number of materials were transported ashore through these two temporary trestle bridges, and then sorted and placed on the open space.

At the same time, there are also soldiers who have already landed to transfer these materials to the defensive positions built by combat troops further away.

Now the entire beachhead has expanded to a depth of about a thousand meters and a width of more than a thousand meters.

Right in front of and on both sides of the beach, there are parapets and other fortifications built by the soldiers of the Rural Protection Army on the spot, and a large number of artillery are also deployed.

A large amount of ammunition has been transported to the front line. At this time, Brigadier General Han Ziping also issued an order to launch an attack.

According to the plan, they will have to hold on to the beach for at least two days, waiting for the engineering troops to build a pontoon bridge and waiting for more friendly troops to cross the river.

But these two days are enough for the nearby Ming army to come over.

According to the information reported by the Intelligence Department, Wuchang City has dispatched emergency reinforcements of about [-] people in the morning, and the Ming troops in several other camps on the west side of Wuchang City have also gathered towards the landing beach one after another.

If the rural protection army does nothing, then by the evening, the Ming army gathered here will reach more than five or six thousand people. By tomorrow, it is estimated that there will be about 2 people.

And if we wait until tomorrow, the troops of the Township Protection Army who have successfully crossed the river and landed will be about [-] dead, and they will not carry too many artillery and ammunition.

Even if this is the case, the Township Protection Army has the confidence to hold the beachhead, but having confidence does not mean that it has to wait for the main force of the Ming Army to arrive.

They can completely attack the Ming army of about 500 people in front of them before more main forces of the Ming army arrive.

Anyway, the first batch of troops under Han Ziping's command to cross the river have all arrived. The commando and the [-]st Infantry Regiment, the [-]st Cavalry Post belonging to the [-]st Cavalry Brigade, and an artillery battalion belonging to the [-]st Artillery Regiment have successfully crossed the river. And ammunition is ready.

It's time to launch an attack, first defeat the two thousand five hundred Ming army in front of you, and lay favorable conditions for facing a large number of reinforcements from the Ming army tomorrow and even the day after tomorrow.

Following Han Ziping's order, the artillery belonging to the First Artillery Regiment began to roar!

Having already landed, and secretly maneuvering to the front line, ten two-and-a-half-pound field guns and two five-pound field guns fired one after another at a distance of more than 500 meters from the Ming army camp.

After the twelve field artillery fired, it immediately caused casualties and panic of the Ming army.

"These damned security thieves actually moved all the long cannons off the ship, and there are so many!"

"No, besides the two-pound small red cannon, there are even bigger red cannons, at least five catties!"

"How did these damn security thieves transport these one or two thousand catties of red barbarian guns across the river!"

"I can't hold it anymore, the artillery of the bandit army is too sharp, the soldiers can't stop it!"

"The bandit army's guns are so sharp that they cannot be stopped by humans!"

A group of Ming army generals looked at the fierce shelling of the rural protection army in front, and then looked at the battered distance horses, wooden walls and other fortifications that were hit by the bandit army's artillery, as well as the wounded soldiers who kept howling after being hit by their own side. They couldn't help showing panic.

The leading general gritted his teeth even more, his right hand holding the handle of the knife couldn't help shaking.

He is the general of the guard on Chu Nan's side, and he has never fought against the bandit army before, but he has heard that the guards' guns are sharp, and he has made some preparations for this.

But he found that the artillery of the bandit army was still far more sharp than he had expected before, and the camp he had carefully built could not stop the bandit army's fierce shelling at all.

Those seemingly thick wooden walls can't stop the shells at all, not even the temporary low walls, and some fortifications such as arrow towers and distance horses are even more useless.

He saw with his own eyes that a shell fired by the bandit army directly penetrated the thin low wall built by his side, and then smashed the arrow tower behind the low wall, directly causing the arrow tower several feet high to collapse. As a result, one archer fell and was either killed or injured.

And the cannonball fired by the thief army smashed the arrow tower and continued to move forward, sweeping through many tents along the way, and killing several unlucky people along the way.

This is at least a five-jin shell!
Nima, these bandit protection troops actually pulled the red barbarian cannons of one or two thousand catties to the front line.

Before meeting the Township Protection Army, he had never seen or even heard of those deadly Hongyi cannons that could be pulled out to play field battles.

When the field artillery fired, a group of six 300-jin mortars also moved forward, and finally stopped at the front line about [-] meters away from the Ming army camp and launched shelling.

As the flowering bombs fired by the [-]-jin mortar gun exploded one after another, the casualties of the Ming army in the camp became even more severe.

There was gunfire everywhere, and some tents were set ablaze by shelling.

There are dead and wounded everywhere, and the wounded and surviving soldiers are wailing.

This war far exceeded the expectations of a group of generals of the Ming army. They never expected that the war would continue like this.

Those bandit troops actually launched shelling at a distance of nearly two hundred feet, which was completely beyond the range of the Ming army's firepower counterattack.

"What should we do now?"

"It's not enough to just be beaten like this!"

"Shouldn't you rush out and fight them? Just rush up and destroy their artillery, then the follow-up fight will be much easier!"

"Rush out? How is it possible to rush over here? There are only so many casualties before the formation. If the formation rushes out, it will be a living target, and the death will be even worse!"

"I can't keep it anymore, my lord, quickly find a way, if it really doesn't work, let's retreat for a while!"

"It's all about avoiding the cannons of the bandit army. You can't just be beaten and have no way to fight back!"

A group of generals of the Ming army talked to each other, which made the leading general even more irritable.

After a while, seeing more and more casualties on his own side, the general finally couldn't help but ordered: "Retreat, let's retreat three hundred feet first."

Just like what the subordinates said, rushing out to fight back is suicide, and staying where you are is waiting for death.

There is only one way left for them, and that is to retreat!

Not to mention running away directly, at least withdraw from the shelling range of the bandit army.

After the general gave the order to retreat, many soldiers of the Ming army who were already terrified finally breathed a sigh of relief, and then began to retreat.

The situation on the side of the Ming army was also seen by Han Ziping. After seeing the signs of the Ming army retreating, he immediately said: "The commando is pressing forward, the first infantry battalion and the second infantry battalion are separated enough to have two wings to press up and provide cover."

"The two-and-a-half-pound field artillery stepped forward, and the infantry stepped forward to provide fire cover!"

"The cavalry post is ready to attack and chase the rout!"

After a series of orders were issued by Han Ziping, the various departments of the Township Protection Army began to act.

Soldiers from the left, middle and right three groups of the Township Protection Army began to line up, and the gunners of the two-and-a-half-pound field artillery and the two-hundred-pound light artillery also stepped forward, even at a faster speed, directly passing the infantry and walking in the forefront.

And behind it are several ammunition vehicles.

As for the two five-pound field cannons, there is no way to maneuver directly on the battlefield, but with the range of the five-pound field cannon, they can continue to bombard even if they don’t move their positions until the Ming army evacuates a thousand meters away. .

This is the advantage of large-caliber field guns.

When the two-and-a-half catty field artillery attacks the enemy 600 meters away, even if it hits, the lethality is seriously insufficient.

However, the five-pound field gun can maintain relatively good lethality at a distance of 800 meters, and can even cover large-scale cluster targets at a distance of about a kilometer.

Under the command of Han Ziping, the Xiangbao army pressed forward, which also caused the Ming army in the camp to panic even more.

The originally relatively orderly retreat turned into a mess, because no one wanted to be the one after the break...

Ever since, a large number of Ming soldiers began to retreat on their own regardless of orders.

This chaos caused the entire retreat of the Ming army to be chaotic. Many soldiers of the Ming army who were still standing firm and tried to counterattack with offensive artillery and muskets to buy time for retreat saw that the surrounding area belonged to The friendly troops behind all ran away first.

Immediately, one by one also dropped weapons such as attacking cannons, tiger squatting cannons, and muskets and ran away.

As a result, the leading generals of the Ming army watched helplessly as their more than 2000 troops retreated in an orderly manner for less than a quarter of an hour before falling into total chaos!
but……

At this time, the infantry of the Baozhe Army were more than 300 meters away from the nearest Ming army.

Neither side had even come within range of infantry fire, let alone infantry engaging each other.

Only the artillery unit of the [-]st Artillery Regiment of the Rural Protection Army was engaged in effective combat from beginning to end.

But just like that, his more than 2000 people collapsed.

This battle, the defeat is even more inexplicable!

----

The Ming army collapsed under the pressure of the artillery bombardment of the rural protection army and the advance of the infantry. Naturally, the rural protection army was impolite.

However, the fastest ones were not the so-called elite infantry, but the hundreds of cavalry from the First Cavalry Post of the First Cavalry Brigade.

After receiving the order to attack, the cavalry of more than a hundred cavalrymen of the Township Protection Army pierced directly from the left wing like a sharp sword.

These cavalry quickly crossed a distance of hundreds of meters, bypassed all the way from the left, and directly killed the Ming army's rout.

As a result, a group of Ming soldiers fleeing for their lives saw a group of cavalry appearing in front of them!
(End of this chapter)