prosperous age

Chapter 229 Chapter 228
"Da da da"

Wei Guangde vaguely heard the sound of horseshoes in the distance. Although the Tartar cavalry could not be seen yet, it was clear that they had really come, and they were still accelerating.

All Wei Guangde could see were those Tartars who had been standing near the tents or Jumas and quickly dodged to the side.

When the No. 1 Tartar cavalry appeared in front of his eyes, Wei Guangde was still surprised for no reason, because he suddenly saw countless arrows flying from all directions in the direction of the Tartars, drawing a parabola in the air towards the front of the Ming army formation. slide.

The arrow density of the Tartar archers before was not so high, but this time it was a real volley, flying like a small dark cloud.

Wei Guangde didn't have time to say anything, so he could only wait for the result quietly. Whether the sword and shield hand in front could protect the bird gun hand behind him was very important.

Wei Guangde wasn't worried about the people in the car camp. The existence of their vans, even if they slipped through the net, would never let those cannons stop firing.

The rain of arrows plunged into the Ming army formation, although most of the arrows were blocked by shields, but Wei Guangde could still see the people in the front of the formation who were shot by the arrow rain from the Tartars turn their backs.

Fortunately, most of the gunners in the first few rows were protected by swords and shields, and the formation was not chaotic.

When a group of Tazi cavalry appeared in the sight of the Ming army, there was inevitably a little commotion in the front army.

Most of the Tazi cavalry rushed to the front with heavy weapons such as hammers and axes. Naturally, the target was to smash the shield array of the Ming army.

Wei Guangde understood it in his heart, and naturally the generals and soldiers of the Ming army in front also understood it.

He couldn't hear the order from the commander in front, Wei Guangde could only see the Ming army from behind the formation as if they were making a wave of people, the first row of swordsmen squatted down suddenly, and then the first row of guns rang out. .

"clap clap"

On the noisy battlefield, the unique sound of the blunderbuss was still transmitted, accompanied by the sound of "bang bang bang" from the Fran's cannon, making the battlefield even more noisy.

The first row of bird gunners did not turn around and retreat to the rear after hitting the bird guns in their hands, but squatted down on the spot, as if they were stabbing the muzzle.

The front line of the Ming army is very dense, obviously there is no room for them to move to the rear to reload ammunition.After the gunners in the first row squatted down, the gunners in the second row fired their guns quickly. As soon as they saw the green smoke in front of them, the third row followed.

"Bang bang bang" The Fran cannons equipped by the Ming army fired again at this time, and at the same time, there were bowl-mouth guns that had never had a chance to be used. After the Tartar cavalry rushed in, they also fired large and small shotguns into the Tartar cavalry group. .

There were only three rows of musketeers in the Ming army, and it was impossible to launch a second shot after all of them were shot, and the pikemen behind were blocked and couldn't get up.

Wei Guangde didn't expect the team commander in front of the Ming army to line up the team so densely, and he was a little speechless for a while.

Turning slightly sideways, it is actually possible to pass, but seeing those Tartars who have already rushed forward, Wei Guangde understands that they will do this.

Passing by will inevitably affect the preparations of the soldiers behind, and there is really no way to make a better response to the impact of the cavalry at close range, so they can only stand there.

Although many people were killed and injured by the Ming army's firearms, there was no continuous firepower attack after all. The Tazi cavalry rushed close to the Ming army's formation despite bearing the Ming army's attack and paying a heavy price.

According to Wei Guangde's visual observation, nearly a hundred people fell off their horses and fell on the charging road. Although the dense formation of Tartars in front was much scattered, cavalry continued to rush out from the tent behind, and at least 300 people had already come out.

Wei Guangde judged that this should be an attack launched by a cavalry of a thousand households.

Considering the Tartar cavalry rushing out from the rear battalion, the rest of the battalion should be almost empty.

However, the Tartar cavalry who followed up also encountered a lot of problems, because at this time, many corpses of people and horses had been lying on the road, and there were still startled horses running around or spinning around in place, and the injured people were there The miserable howling affected the speed of the cavalry rushing out from behind, and did not quickly make up for the gap in the front cavalry.

However, the tartars who survived or were slightly injured in front were still desperately urging their horses forward, and the distance from the Ming army formation was getting closer and closer.

Wei Guangde couldn't bear to look directly at it. He could imagine the tragic scene of the Tartar cavalry approaching and chopping down the Ming army formation with hammers and axes.

"bang bang bang"

It was another round of bombardment from Fran's machine guns, but these guns were obviously loaded with solid ammunition. If they were shot ammunition, the effect might be better.

Wei Guangde watched the continuous smoke from the van in front of him, and knew that the soldiers in the car camp were still struggling to replace the sub-cartridges for shooting, but they were not prepared enough at the beginning, maybe they did not prepare shotguns, but loaded solid ammunition.

From the situation where the Tartars fell off their horses, it can be seen that the place where the shells flew was a road of blood. The Tartars on the road either fell off the horses directly, or howled miserably while protecting their broken arms with their hands.

If there were more Francois machine guns, and more sub-cartridges equipped with shotguns, perhaps the soldiers in front could be saved.

Wei Guangde can only think so in his heart, but it is just thinking, he can't do anything at this time.

"Boom boom."

Vaguely, Wei Guangde heard the sound of bowstrings popping out. At this time, the Tartar cavalry was very close to the Ming army formation, and the Tartar army did not shoot a round of arrows like before.

The Tartars dare not shoot, but the Ming army can.

At this moment, the archers standing in the middle had had enough rest, and they shot the arrows in their hands continuously amidst the command of the team officer.

Although the archers of the Xuanfu army were not as famous as the archers of Datong, and their number was not large enough, at this moment, those hundreds of archers became the savior of the Ming army formation.

After a round of arrow rain, the Tartars who rushed to the front had turned into hedgehogs and fell off their horses one after another. After they fell, they exposed their companions behind them and became the targets of the Ming army's archers in the second round.

The Fran cannon continued to roar, and all the archers of the Ming army were still gritting their teeth and persevering, using their remaining strength to draw their bows and release arrows, preventing those Tartars who wanted to rush into the army formation.

At this time, some war horses that had lost their masters were still running forward, and they had already reached the front of the Ming army formation. The archers retracted their large shields and waved their long knives to chop at those war horses that they thought were extremely precious in the past.

Of course, they didn't swing their knives like in the storybook. The charging horses were cut in half with a single knife, but it also frightened the few war horses, turned around and ran away.

The startled horse didn't rush into the Ming army's formation, but the Tartars who followed behind couldn't quickly get close to the Ming army because of the relatively narrow passage and obstacles on the road.

This is an opportunity.

The team leader at the front allowed the archers to charge up and prepare, and at the same time let the blunderbussmen in the two rows behind start reloading. The blunderbussmen in the first row had already hit the thorns, and it was very troublesome to remove them unless they were changed. Formation to the back.

At this time, only the dozen or so Franc cannons were still roaring, aiming at the passages where the Tartars appeared.

However, Qianhu on the other side also seemed to see that the passage was too narrow, and it was not conducive for the cavalry to rush out and launch an attack formation.

Well, it can only be said that they thought too much about the attack at the beginning, thinking that as long as the Tartar cavalry appeared, the Ming army might collapse.

Unfortunately, they forgot that this was the largest military force of the Ming Dynasty that they had encountered in field battles for so many years. It had almost concentrated all the elites of the Xuanfu, and its resistance to pressure was naturally far higher than that of the Ming army they had encountered in the past.

After losing about [-] men, the Tartars resolutely stopped and continued to charge.

Seeing all this, Wei Guangde knew that no matter what the tartar's plan was, he knew that this opportunity should not be missed.

There are still more than 2000 Tartars in the barracks. If they are asked to regroup, move one out of the camp to copy other camps, or widen the passage, they can easily organize thousands of cavalry to charge. Imagine now It is unrealistic to defend those passages in this way.

"Attack, the Chinese army also presses up, not giving the Tartar horses any room to accelerate."

Wei Guangde turned his head and shouted at Tian Shiwei at this time, he knew that he was very lucky to be able to withstand the attack of the Tartars this time, and the Tartars underestimated their strength.

At this time, Tian Shiwei naturally had no other choice, and directly gave the order to attack the soldiers next to him.

"dong dong dong"

The dense sound of war drums sounded again in the Ming army's formation.

Soon, the team leaders in front knew the order from the commander in the rear, and they were going to attack with all their strength.

Although it is different from what was agreed before, the military order is always the military order, even if you don't understand it, you must resolutely implement it.

When the rhythm of the drum beats stabilized slightly, the Ming army formation had split into three sections, and the Ming army on the left and right wings began to develop to both sides with the drum beat.

After quickly pushing away obstacles such as the Juma blocking the way, he turned around and outflanked the Tartars.

The Ming army on Zhongjun Road also began to advance slowly, but unlike before, the bird gunners in the front row had retreated to the end at this time, and they were already pulling out the thorns inserted into the gun barrels.

The Ming army launched a counterattack immediately after being attacked by the cavalry, which was a bit beyond the expectation of the Tartar generals.

Looking at the Ming army encircling from the two wings, and the soldiers of the Ming army marching forward with drums, Wanhu of Mongolia knew what they were doing.

With a few cavalry, the speed of the horse can be easily raised, but now that the two armies are facing each other, it takes a certain distance to raise the speed of the horse.

The Ming army was squeezing their space, making it impossible for the cavalry they dispatched to complete the acceleration.

Cavalry without speed is actually far less powerful than infantry.

Mongolian Wanhu was a little regretful at this time. This time it was too big, and the loss of more than 300 people was a small matter. The Ming army attacked overnight, and the total number of Tartars killed was only 600 to [-]. However, the cavalry failed to attack. The blow was a bit too big for him, and he couldn't bear it.

How to do?
Now he needs to come up with a solution immediately, but for a while, he can't think of a good solution.

"Lord Wanhu, we can only retreat, otherwise it will be even worse if we are surrounded by the Ming army."

Seeing the current crisis, Qianhu next to him said that it would be impossible to continue like this, so he hurriedly said to him.

"Retreat one after another, let Sahatu reorganize the cavalry as soon as possible."

Mongolian Wanhu immediately ordered, no matter what, it is only right to retreat at this time, and space must be left for the war horse.

The Ming army continued to advance in the Tatar barracks, and the Tartars could only form a small archer phalanx with dozens of people to alternately cover and retreat to prevent the Ming army from pursuing quickly.

However, at this time, the Ming army did not plan to attack in an all-round way. They were still taking their time and moving forward in a tight formation.

For most of the soldiers of the Ming army, this battle was really a bit strange, but it was very cool, the Tartars had been suppressed and beaten by them all the time.

The gap in technical equipment was most vividly reflected in this battle.

Although it can be said that almost everyone in the Tartars is an archer, bows and arrows also have disadvantages, that is, they have a great impact on the body.

The Tartar Qianhu who resisted the Ming army before, most of the archers are now unable to shoot arrows.

When it was still dark in the early morning, they quickly shot a lot of arrows in order to prevent the Ming army from rushing into the barracks. At this time, most of them were also taken by Qianhu to ride their own horses and merged into the previous assault cavalry.

Although Qianhu, who came later as reinforcements, was still able to fight, he was obviously not an opponent of the Ming army at this time.

Soon, the three thousand households gathered in front of Wanhu to discuss what to do about it.

"My lord, retreat to the back camp. The barbarians of the Ming Dynasty keep approaching like this. Our cavalry can't show their combat power at all. The barracks we set up are also helping them."

"Yes, my lord, the Ming army used infantry to attack the camp, and now we have no geographical advantage."

Thousands of households chattered about their understanding of the current battle situation, and they all wanted to retreat as soon as possible to temporarily distance themselves from the Ming army.

There is another thing they didn't say, that is, the Ming army's numerical advantage is too obvious.

Now they have less than 3000 people here, and if the injuries are deducted and they cannot fight, there are only a little over 2000 people.

The loss of the Ming army is estimated to be similar to theirs, at least there are nearly [-] people, and the army formation is set up again, it is really impossible to fight.

The tribes below don't know the field advantage that the Tartars formed over the Ming army. Don't they, thousands of households, don't understand?

Raid.

They dared to attack the Ming army several times their own in the wild, not because of how powerful they were, but because they often took advantage of their maneuverability to appear suddenly in places that the Ming army did not expect, and mostly attacked the marching troops of the Ming army .

The rapid raids caused the Ming army to be overwhelmed by them before they could set up an army formation. This is the real reason why the prairie cavalry fought repeatedly against the Ming army.

Once the Ming army completed the formation of the army, there was only one way in front of them, and that was to withdraw.

Mengmeng Wanhu is not a procrastination person either, so he naturally understands and will not hesitate.

"Retreat to the back camp. If it doesn't work, give up here first, and let this barracks become Minggou's grave."

Hearing what his family Wanhu said, a slow but impatient Qianhu said in puzzlement, "My lord, what do you mean?"

"Get on the horses, let's go out of the back camp, and first defeat the cavalry troops of the Ming army and join the Great Khan."

Mongolian Wanhu looked at the big camp with a sneer on his lips, "Give it to them here. After we wipe out the Ming army cavalry outside, we will come over with Dahan to surround them and trap them to death, hehe."

When he said that, Qianhu also understood.

Your side is indeed at a disadvantage now, so first kill the Ming army cavalry outside, and then join the Great Khan's royal court guards to destroy the Ming army in front of you.

"Go ahead, move fast."

Wanhu urged.

"Yes, my lord."

"As ordered."

(End of this chapter)