national surname chiming

Chapter 60
"Your Majesty Tongzhi is really ingenious, so he lured Liu Xiyao to send cavalry to attack and intercept them in Huangqiankou Town first. With only this few troops, we just give them a chance to kill their vanguard and dampen their spirit."

Zuo Zixiong stood on the tallest guard tower in Huangjiakou Town. Taking advantage of the twilight of the morning light and the guidance of the sentry, he used his binoculars to look towards the river beach in the northwest, and finally found the stream brought by Liu Xiong. Thieves Vanguard.

Zuo Zixiong couldn't help secretly praising him, the sixth child didn't squat in vain these two days, he finally got someone.It looks like a telescope made by Lang Ji, and it is really easy to use.

After putting down the binoculars, he immediately ordered: "Let the soldiers line up and get ready. Those who should be on the wall should be on the wall, and those who should be blocked. But no noise is allowed. After they are in place, they all lie down and obey orders. "

A considerable part of the troops he brought were the elite servants of the Shen family, and some were veterans from previous training regiments. Their fighting qualities and morale and discipline were relatively reliable.

About 2000 troops were touched, and they quickly took their positions according to the instructions.

As for the pure recruits, most of them were left in Qizhou County to defend the city, and they would not be sent out to fight in the field all at once.

This time he came with Zuo Zixiong, and there were a few old subordinates he brought, all of whom were at the general level.

There is also a captain named Shen Lian who used to go to sea with the Shen family, and now he is also serving as a middle-level officer, he can be regarded as the supervisor of the army.He is relatively low-key, as long as Zuo Zixiong doesn't do anything to offend his young master, he won't talk too much, and he will completely obey Zuo Zixiong's command.

In the end, it was the Spanish coach Pizarro who served as a tactical staff officer.

Shen Shuren considered that he might have to use a formation of spears and muskets to fight against the enemy cavalry, so he specially sent Pizarro to give practical advice.In order not to study Zuo Zixiong, who was born in the mandarin duck formation, some details could not be noticed in actual combat.

But the command of the 2000 people undoubtedly belonged entirely to Zuo Zixiong, in case the government went out of its way.

At this moment, watching Zuo Zixiong quickly mobilize the troops in place, Pizarro couldn't help suggesting: "The enemy looks no less than us, so showing weakness like this will encourage the enemy to attack instead.

There is no city wall in this town, and the wooden fence can only block the north and south sides, and the east side is completely open.I'm not afraid of fierce battles. Our Spaniards' large phalanx can block cavalry charges in field battles, let alone only use the defensive side now.

I just think, if Master Tongzhi had planned to fight the enemy in this town from the very beginning, why didn't he send more troops?If there are 4000 people, against the enemy around [-], there will be a better chance of winning, and the results of the battle will be expanded. "

Zuo Zixiong raised his hand, signaling him not to talk too much, and pay attention to military law: "Mr. Pizarro, your duty is just to ensure that there are no tactical mistakes when I execute the musket and spear phalanx, other things are not your consideration.

Master Tongzhi has his own overall considerations.The key to our army's success in luring the enemy here this time is that Liu Xiyao took it upon himself. At the beginning, he insisted on sending spies to mix in with our recruits, but later it became like this by adapting to it.

If the vast majority of the main force is deployed in Huangjiakou Town, the defense of Qizhou County will be empty, just in case there is a mistake.Secondly, it is also easy for Liu Xiyao to be vigilant, realizing that he was caught in the trick from the beginning, rather than "just being ineffective in the process of executing the plan".

What we have to do is to know how many troops the Lord has given us, and use the troops at hand to fight every battle well!Besides, the enemy army just looks like a lot of momentum, in fact, it cannot be all cavalry - I have seen some donkey riders just now, and I guess they are just looking for some mounts to make up for the journey. "

Hearing this, Pizarro couldn't help shrugging his shoulders in a Western style:

"You Orientals just like to play tricks and tricks. The enemy has been tricked. How can you make them unable to react and realize that they have been tricked after being beaten? This is a fantasy. Well, who told you You are the boss, I will see how long Shen Tongzhi can lie to Liu Xiyao after this battle is over."

……

Zuo Zixiong commanded [-] soldiers to quickly set up their formation. Liu Xiong on the opposite side was also proud of his horseshoe, and he didn't realize how difficult the hard bone in front of him was.

Yesterday evening, his father received a report from a fast-horse spies who traveled [-] miles a day, saying that they had discovered the Shen family's reinforcement convoy [-] miles downstream of the Qishui River, and then he dispatched troops quickly.

Because this section of the Yangtze River is going upstream, the river is relatively narrow and the current is relatively fast, so it is not bad for the boats coming from the downstream to sail [-] miles away in half a day.

Calculating the time, I hurried all night, probably in time to block the fleet at Qishuikou.

At this moment, he looked at the sails and shadows in the town, and it seemed that there were indeed many big boats parked by the river, and his heart was even more excited, because he finally caught the fat.

With his eagerness, he was still rational. Using the military knowledge he had learned from his father for many years, he observed the terrain of the town and quickly selected the direction of attack.

Huangzhou has poor mountains and bad waters, strong folk customs, and now it is in chaos, so it is not surprising that any small town has an earthen fence.

As an important port town, Huangjiakou Town has a long soil fence along the north bank of Qishui River, and some weak points have sharp wooden piles buried in the soil fence to strengthen the defense.

If you don't want to attack the wall, then you can only choose the gaps on both sides of the wall to attack——

At the most northwest corner of the town, near the bank of the Yangtze River, there is a gap of less than ten steps.Because of the ups and downs of the Yangtze River, the original rammed earth was soaked and collapsed, and the wooden piles could not be tied.

However, this gap does not seem to be easy to attack. Firstly, it is too narrow to deploy troops. Secondly, the mud is very soft due to the erosion of the river. Surviving the target will also cause the rear army to squeeze in and trample on each other.

After excluding this option, the best point of attack is only a big gap at the easternmost end of Tuweizi——

The Yangtze River runs approximately north-south in this section, and the Qi River is almost perpendicular to the Yangtze River, flowing into the Yangtze River from east to west.The gap on the east side of the town is the direction of the Qishui River.

The town has no financial and material resources to build a water gate tower across the river like a city, and there are many roads on both sides of the Qishui River, so there are no defensive facilities in that direction.

"It's decided. Let's go straight into the town along the banks of the Qishui River and the road beside the river! Take all the arms and supplies of the Shen family!" After observing, Liu Xiong muttered to himself and prepared to give an order.

A confidant by his side, a bandit named "Yidou Valley", couldn't help persuading him:

"Young Master, Your Majesty asked us to find out the real situation first. If the enemy army is strong, we can surround it without attacking, and wait for the main force of your Majesty's infantry to arrive. Although it seems that the town is unprepared, we should test it out first.

I heard that the Shen family is very rich in Suzhou, with hundreds of ships, and there are many desperadoes at sea.Even if there is no official army here to respond, the enemy's ordnance fleet will still be escorted by sailors on board, and these people should not be underestimated. "

Liu Xiong was very dissatisfied after hearing this.This "Yidou Valley" was originally the head of a family of small thieves, but later he couldn't get along, and was recruited by his father, "Wang Zhengshi". Because he was a bit capable in commanding cavalry raids, he was sent to help this time.

What Liu Xiyao actually wanted was to find an old Jianghu to guard his son, to help him gild his son and control the army by the way.But Liu Xiong is young and energetic, and he doesn't feel that he needs this kind of uncle's staff to tell him what to do.

He pointed with his horsewhip: "The best time for a sneak attack is the dawn of Buddha. If it is too early, it is inevitable that we will not be able to distinguish the enemy from the chaos. If it is too late, the enemy will be ready. If we try it out first, how can there be such a suddenness in the sneak attack?"
And even if the Shen family is also the master of killing and stealing goods, these water ducks landed, and they are not the fish of our fierce and naughty sons in the northwest!Immediately the whole army turned to the east of the town, concentrated along the gap on the Qishui bank, and killed from the upper reaches!With a high view, it can be like a broken bamboo! "

"Yidou Valley" had no choice but to do so, leading the cavalry in the army to detour first.

And Liu Xiong took the "horse infantry" who rode pack horses and donkeys, and followed Yidougu as the second echelon——

For a king of thieves like Liu Xiyao, the total number of elite veterans in the old battalion would not exceed five or six thousand, and the number of cavalry would be barely 1000.At least half of the 2000 people gathered this time did not have horses, and could only use ordinary passenger horses or pack animals to drive and march, and they had to dismount when it came time to fight.

Liu Xiong's movement was as small as possible, but as the sky gradually brightened, the people in the town still reacted.On the north bank of the Qishui River and the streets at the east entrance of the town, official troops began to appear in formation one after another.

"The Shen family is really alert!" Liu Xiong couldn't help being a little annoyed when he saw the formation of the officers and soldiers at first glance, his detour was still exposed, and he lost the best opportunity for fighting.

However, when he observed carefully, his mood improved a bit. It turned out that he saw that these officers and soldiers were not wearing the uniforms of the regular army of the Ming army. People on the boat wear it.

"These people should be the servants and sailors of the Shen family, right? Sure enough, they are escorting the ordnance fleet! They are not the regular army! Hurry up, the opportunity is not lost, the whole army charges!"

After thinking of this, Liu Xiong, who was overjoyed, urged desperately, and the cavalry under Yidougu had no choice but to launch a desperate charge.

……

"The bandit cavalry rushed up first! The spearmen stayed scattered! The bird gunners divided into three teams and stepped forward one by one according to the order!"

Zuo Zixiong's face was livid, and he had already rushed to the only gap at the east end of the town to personally supervise the battle.

It's not that he likes to use the "three-stage strike" or "stacking method" musket tactics, but that he has no choice but to adapt to local conditions at this moment.

The gap at the east end of the town is still not very wide in front. There are only a few dozen steps of muddy land on the north bank of Qishui River, plus a few streets entering and leaving the town, and some vacant spaces after the town entrance vendors have been withdrawn. That's two hundred steps.

He has a thousand firearms under his command, even if he wants to put some of them on other wall sections to monitor the enemy's rear, at least seven or eight hundred guns can be left on the front.

To squeeze more than 700 guns into the front of the two-hundred-step-wide battlefield, one or two rows would definitely not be able to squeeze in, so they could only naturally use the three-stage stacking gun to fire.

In the distance, the cavalry of Yidou Valley finally rushed to about 120 steps in front of the formation.

Zuo Zixiong gave an order, and the 240 turtledove guns in the first row fired first.

"Bang bang bang——" the loud noise was several times more powerful than an ordinary musket volley, even Yidougu was shocked even after he had seen the world.

"Why did the officers and soldiers open fire from such a distance? The sound of the firecrackers is so loud!" Yidougu couldn't react at all.

He can't be blamed for this. What he heard before were all old-fashioned firearms from the northern army, and they only cost four dollars a shot.Of course, I couldn't adapt to this kind of large-caliber heavy gun with more than one or two charges.

(End of this chapter)