A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 262 The Prospects Are Not Optimistic
After Hu Dawei asked Hu Zichen to ask for help, Lu Xiangsheng sent General Qian Yang Guodong to support him, and brought two teams of bird gunners, one team for Lumi gunners and one team for self-generated gunners. More than 200 soldiers.

At this time, there were more than 2000 fire blunderbusses in the Dubiao Camp, half of them were bird blunderbussmen, and the rest were Lumi blunderbussmen and self-generated blunderbussmen.Both Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei asked Lu Xiangsheng for help urgently. Although Lu Xiangsheng's military headquarters still had nearly [-] people in the Xuanfu General Zhang Yan, the firearms in Zhang Yan's army were not as good as those of the two generals.Lu Xiangsheng had no choice but to split the firecrackers under his command into two to support Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei respectively.After the arrival of these gunfire soldiers, the situation on the two wings was favorably reversed.

The blunderbusses of the supervisory battalion also have an automatic opening and closing fire door device on the gunpowder pool, so they can fight in cold windy weather.Moreover, the shooting range of these bird guns is the same as that of the Shunxiang army guns, and although the armor-piercing ability is slightly inferior, they are still excellent, and there is absolutely no danger of bombing.

The blunderbussmen of the Supervising Standard Battalion were also trained rigorously, spending a lot of gunpowder and projectiles to shoot live ammunition on weekdays. In terms of combat effectiveness, they were much stronger than the blunderbussmen of the Two Wings Main Barracks.In fact, there were more than a thousand gunmen in the Supervisory Biao Battalion, but when the troops were divided, most of them were snatched by Chen Xinjia.

In addition to the bird gunners, the Lumi gunmen supported by Lu Xiangsheng on the two wings are also quite powerful. The Lumi gunmen they use are also unique, and they can fight in cold winds.Although the Lumi gun has a heavy body, it has outstanding armor-piercing ability. The effective range can reach 150 steps, and its accuracy is very high, almost comparable to the rifles of later generations.

As for the Lumi gun, Wang Dou spent a lot of effort back then, only wanting to come up with a few guns to use as sniper rifles, but they have been widely used in many armies of the Ming Dynasty.As early as the Tianqi period, the Ministry of Industry at that time distributed [-] Lumi guns to Shanhaiguan in one go. Except for a few Lumi guns that were unqualified, most of the rest were excellent.

This is a terrifying number, which proves that Daming has a strong ability to mass-produce high-quality artillery and firecrackers.Just like all kinds of Buddha wolf machine guns, the Qing Dynasty was unable to master this kind of high technology until the Westernization Movement, but in the military forts of the Ming Dynasty, it was just a very common firearm.

In Wang Dou's view, Ming did not lose in the advanced weapons and equipment, and there were more political factors in various aspects.Moreover, the warlordization of various towns in the late Ming Dynasty, coupled with poor logistics and corruption, greatly affected the promotion of various advanced firearms.

Firearms soldiers need systematic and rigorous training, and all aspects of support are complex issues.As for the cold weapon hands, they can just bring in some strong men and distribute them with knives, guns and sticks, and then they can fight, and they can boast to the outside world that they have tens of thousands of powerful soldiers, occupying an important position in the eyes of the court, why not do it?
……

In addition to supporting some of the bird gunners and Lumi gunners on the two wings, Lu Xiangsheng also has a team of self-generated gunners.The self-generated guns are flintlock guns, and there is no problem in fighting in the cold wind. With the emergency support of the supervising camp fire gunners, the Qing soldiers on the two wings encountered great resistance when they marched towards the third low-wall ditch. .

There were more than 400 gunfire soldiers from the Supervising Battalion on the two wings, and they kept aiming at the auxiliary soldiers who flashed out to fill the trenches behind the wooden shields of the Qing soldiers, and knocked them down one by one.Yang Guozhu and the archers from Hu Dawei's main barracks also desperately assisted in shooting.At this time, the Qing soldiers on the two wings had already approached fifty steps in front of the earthen wall. Their archers posed a great threat to the Ming army behind the earthen wall.

Towards evening, the Qing army withdrew. In Wangdou's line of defense, the Qing army filled two trenches and pushed them to a distance of fifty steps in front of the earth wall.On the Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei defense lines on the two wings, they filled in three trenches and pushed them to a distance of forty steps in front of the earth wall.

After Ming Jin withdrew his troops, the Qing army retreated like a tide.When they retreated, they brought back the bodies of their casualties, so that Xuan Dajun didn't know how many of them were killed or wounded.When they retreated, the rough wooden shields were left between the low walls and ditches.

It seems that they are not afraid of the Ming army dragging away those wooden shields and destroying them. Presumably, there are more or less such rough wooden shields in their camp.

After the battle was cleaned up and all the wooden shields left by the Qing army were dragged back for firewood, Wang Dou, Lu Xiangsheng, Yang Guozhu, Hu Dawei and others urgently discussed military affairs.

No one could think of a good way to deal with the tactics of the Qing army. The artillery had to strictly guard the passage and could not move rashly.Xuan Da's army still had a terrain advantage. Every step forward by the Qing army required greater casualties than the Ming army. It depended on who had the stronger will to fight and was able to withstand the bloodshed and casualties in their own army.

That night, Lu Xiangsheng, Wang Dou and others also interrogated those captured Qing soldiers, but they couldn't get any useful information.

Chongzhen 11 December [-]th.

Waking up early in the morning, the Qing army came flooding in again. Using excellent chariots as cover, they braved the artillery fire of the Xuanda army and approached the low wall trenches, and they pushed out densely packed wooden shields again.

The few trenches they filled yesterday were flat and hard, and extremely difficult to dig. In order to maintain the strength of the sergeant, Lu Xiangsheng gave up.Along the filled trenches, many rough wooden shields of the Qing army worked together to lift over the low walls and approached the unfilled low wall trenches.

The flames of war were ignited between these low walls and trenches, and there were many Qing soldiers storming the front line of the Shunxiang Army. Their armors were of different colors, and they seemed to be archer auxiliary soldiers from the Eight Banners Manchuria or the Eight Banners Mongolian Banners.

They used wooden shields to shoot arrows at the gunmen of the Shun Township Army behind the earthen wall to cover the filling of the trenches by the followers.After a group of people were exhausted from shooting, they were replaced by another group. It seemed that the waves of archers would not be cut off.

These dense and good archers posed a great threat to the Shunxiang army, the key is that they are too numerous.Not to mention the lightly armored archers in the Qing army who are good at shooting are the auxiliary soldiers in their banners. Although they have not been qualified to wear armor, they have also practiced bow and horse since childhood, and their combat ability is not bad.

In the face of the Qing army's dense archers, Wang Dou had put Han Zhong and Wen Fangliang, two thousand firearms soldiers, on board.Only the battalion supply team was left, Gao Xun, a general, cavalry, and more than [-] people including Yebuxuan as the reserve team.

From morning to afternoon, the Qing army's fierce offensive continued. They were so numerous that they could constantly change their troops to rest and eat, and then changed to other waves of people to attack.Moreover, when the archers were shooting, the heavy armor soldiers of each banner guarded both sides of each wooden shield, preventing the Ming army from rushing out of the passage and raiding the archers between the low walls.

The waves of fierce and continuous offensives of the Qing army surprised Wang Dou. He has a large reserve team in the army, and he can constantly replace the tired soldiers to rest.Their fierce offensive can't shake their army's determination to fight, so I don't know if the defenders on the two wings can bear this huge pressure.

In the afternoon, the Qing troops who attacked the Shunxiang Army's defense line head-on finally filled in another trench, and pushed layers of wooden shields closer to forty steps in front of the earth wall.

Compared with the bows and arrows of the Ming army, the bows of the Manchus and Mongols are weaker, but the seven fights have an effective range of [-] steps, and only when they reach [-] steps can they have obvious lethality on the target.To break the opponent's armor, leather armor, cotton armor, iron armor, etc., it takes about thirty or forty steps closer.However, the arrowheads of their arrows are extremely long, shaped like a chisel, and the arrowheads have been soaked in horse manure, so it is difficult to take them out after being injected, and the poison spreads, and they are easy to lose their lives.

As this distance approached, the threat of the Qing army's bows and arrows to the Shunxiang army's musketeers increased greatly. Their arrows were ruthless and accurate, and waves of sharp arrows rained down.Many gunners of the Shun Township Army shot arrows one after another.Although their firearms were fierce, they were far inferior to the bows and arrows of the Qing army in terms of firing rate and accuracy.

The gunners of the Shunxiang army now have eight-petal caps and iron pointed helmets, and they also have breastplates with chain mail inside. Even if some people are hit by arrows, most of them can't break through the armor.Even if the armor is shot through, the arrow does not penetrate deeply into the flesh.For these sergeants, Wang Dou still ordered to help them down to rest and treat them.

The Qing soldiers rained violent arrows continuously, and there were too many archers.The gunners of the Shun Township Army behind the earth wall had to lie down even lower. After firing a gun, they quickly lowered their heads and tiptoed back to reload.

The Shun Township Army already had a lot of experience in avoiding bows and arrows. Half of them still had iron masks. However, some soldiers were unable to dodge the roaring rain of arrows. Some people without masks were shot in the face, and some The man's helmet was shot through.

Even so, the Shunxiang army's firecrackers behind the earthen wall continued to fire, and their deafening sound of firecrackers seemed to have never stopped.

Looking from the side of the Qing soldiers, the dense gunpowder smoke in front of the earthen wall was dense, and even the howling cold wind could not blow them away, which also affected the sight of the Qing soldiers' archers.Violent flames burst out of the gunpowder smoke, and the debris of the wooden shield on the Qing soldiers' side flew up.

Including the two supply troops, Han Zhong and Wen Fangliang's two thousand firecrackers with nearly a thousand soldiers continued to attack the Qing soldiers in front of the earth wall.From time to time, Qing army archers and auxiliary soldiers who filled the trenches were hit and rolled to the ground, and the casualties on both sides continued to expand.

As if feeling the fierce blunderbuss fire from the Shun Township Army, the advance of the Qing soldiers attacking the front line of defense slowed down, but they kept on raining arrows, and those followers kept throwing mud to fill the trenches, making the earth-walled Shun Township The army dare not take it lightly.

The frontal battle was stalemate.Looking at the fierce battle in front of him, Wang Dou looked calm on the outside, but in fact he was secretly anxious.The battle seems to be going downhill. From yesterday afternoon to this afternoon, and now, the casualties of the gunners in our army have reached more than 200 people.

And since yesterday afternoon, although the Qing army also suffered constant casualties, most of the dead were slave cannon fodder such as Aha and Baoyi who filled the trenches from various banners.Their heavy armored soldiers, and even the archers in the iron cotton armor in each banner suffered little casualties. If they continue to fight like this, the prospects are not optimistic.

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Old White Bull:
Well, resume updating today.My throat has been sore for the past few days, probably from smoking too much.In the past, I smoked a pack of cigarettes for three days, and gradually increased to one pack of cigarettes a day, and finally three or four packs of cigarettes a day.Alas, I smoke more and more, and my throat hurts every once in a while.It seems that I should smoke less and try to return to the previous one pack of cigarettes a day.

In the past few days, some book friends are worried that the follow-up chapters will not be easy to write. So far, everything is under control.This book is still written in strict accordance with the prior outline plan, so don't worry.There are also comments about Duchen Lu. It seems that Chinese people are willing to plan and use strategies. In fact, in the face of the strength of the duel, no strategy can be used.Just like the First World War, except for the two sides pushing hard for shopping, no conspiracy and tricks will come in handy.

There is another chapter tonight.

(End of this chapter)