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

Chapter 701

In Shen Shizhong (about [-]:[-] p.m.), across the river, in a place called Zhujiagou, Cao Bianjiao led the army from Yutian Town, and soldiers from the new army camp in Zunhua Town, and fought against [-] horse thieves including Liu Zongmin.
The terrain on the other side of Caomiaozhuang is dry and flat, which is conducive to the large-scale attack of the cavalry. However, because there is the Xianghe River on the left and the Qiulong River, a tributary that has just been crossed on the right, the cavalry cannot make large-scale detours in this area, and the two sides can basically only confront each other. Hard battle.
Not long after Cao Bianjiao marched in formation, desolate horns sounded from the Liuying camp. The first wave of about 1 cavalry soldiers, led by the breakthrough general Yuan Zongdi, marched slowly and slowly accelerated. In the end, there was a flood rushing like a broken embankment.
The Ming army continued to move forward, until the distance between the two sides was only one mile, and then stopped after a collective shout of "mighty" after a horn.
Cao Bianjiao ordered to prepare for battle. The small formations were lined up neatly one after another in the drums, and they stood in the plains. Finally, the cymbals were thrown and the drums stopped. They were separated by more than 100 steps in each formation, and each formation was arranged on four sides, guarded by spearmen and firecrackers. , The officers and flag drummers live in the middle, and the position of the Chinese army is occupied by the cavalry to protect the Chinese army and the luggage.
Cao Bianjiao rode his horse and stood on a slightly protruding slope, holding the binoculars in his hand, looking out quietly, the thieves and horses had already come all over the field, it seemed that they were intruders, most of their horsemen wore felt hats, and the leather and Zuowu battalions had more Wrapped in a red scarf.
He looked at the front, although not as good as Donglu, but the thieves' charge is not small, with more than [-] people, boundless, and the infantry with more than [-] people are powerful, not to mention the horsemen, they are scattered even more. Open, resulting in greater power and influence.
Cao Bianjiao heard that everyone around him was breathing heavily, and he was actually a little nervous.
After all, this kind of concave-convex formation has not been tested in large-scale actual combat. Moreover, in the face of battle, many of the initiative is in the hands of the commanders of the small formations.
But when the battle started, it was meaningless to think about it. The speed of the horse soldiers was very fast. Even if the bandits' horses were not as good as Dongnu's, it didn't take long to rush to the front of the formation.
It seems that in the blink of an eye, the black horse's head rushed to the front of the formation, and then poured into the small formations. The sound of gunfire was loud one after another, and the battle began instantly...
The tide of cavalry flooded the Ming army's position. As a general who followed Li Zicheng for many years, Yuan Zongdi was full of courage and courage, and he was very calm in combat. He won Li Zicheng's trust. , was named "Mianhou", and served as the coach when Chongzhen attacked Luoyang in 14 years.
Before the battle, he also carefully thought about Cao Bianjiao's sparse formation. He guessed that Cao Bianjiao's intention was to use the power of his own firearms, and at the same time change the inconvenience of moving in a dense formation because the large square formation was too bulky.
Indeed, this kind of sparse formation is much more flexible, forcing one's own side to fight a big battle to delay their march. However, Yuan Zongdi does not think that this kind of sparse formation is without flaws. It is easy to be defeated individually.
Tanma informed the situation very early on that the small formations of the Ming army had only one force, and half of them were pikemen and firecrackers. In such a small formation, there were only one hundred firecrackers, and they were divided into four sides, with only 25 people on one side.
Each side is divided into layers, even if it is only divided into three layers, one side can fire no more than eight blunderbusses at a time, among other things, if hundreds or even thousands of people are gathered, there is no reason why they cannot break through for a short burst. .
Of course, the Ming army also seems to be aware of this problem. Some small formations around them are not just one general, but basically two generals. Even so, they only have fifty guns on each side, and they are divided into layers. The number of bird guns that can be fired on each side is no more than fifteen or six shots.
Yuan Zongdi felt that as long as his own side gnawed at Cao Bianjiao's small formations with superior forces, they could swallow them up. Cao Bianjiao's sparse formations were not impossible to break through.
It just came later, giving Yuan Zong an unforgettable memory for the first time.
……
The [-]-horse army led by Yuan Zongdi was also divided into several echelons. This is the basic cavalry tactic. One wave after another, the tide is endless, putting a strong pressure on the infantry. Ride at the end.
His attack was also facing the side of the rebels' position, and both sides could be called the front.
After all, like the large square formation, Cao Bianjiao's sparse formation has no front and rear, left and right wings, as long as the enemy cavalry attack, any side is frontal, and it is a large square formation. Even if it is composed of many small formations, the essence is it's the same.
Yuan Zongdi's plan was to let his subordinates bear the power of firearms, charge straight at the small formations, and break through each formation one by one. His intuition told him that if he got caught between Cao Bianjiao's sparse formations, the situation would not be very good.
It's just that the idea is very good, but the fact is beyond his control. Yuan Zongdi was surprised to find that the cavalry soldiers in front of him rushed directly into the middle of the formation as soon as they charged.
Only then did he wake up to find out, when did the layout of the small formation of the Ming army change a bit?
There are still three or four tiers of pikemen on each side, and the front tier of pikemen remains the same, but two tiers of pikemen who were originally in the rear ran to the front of the pikemen, squatted on the ground, and put the long spears in their hands. Standing up like a hedgehog, the horses that rushed into the camp dared not approach in fright.
After all, most of their horses are not fierce horses. Horses are instinctively afraid of bright and sharp things. Except for a few fierce war horses, the rest of the horses do not wait for the knights to control them.
Such a change caused a flood of rushing cavalry to rush into the various formations, and then they were divided into pieces by the small formations, their power was gone, and then, it was the beginning of their nightmare.
Those who greeted these rushing riders were fierce volleys from the Ming army. Most of them shot fiercely at the side of the entering men and horses.
Unaware of the concave-convex formation, the cavalrymen still poured in instinctively and unconsciously.
As they entered the formation, small formations opened fire one after another, and the sound of platooning guns followed one after another. The violent gunpowder smoke from each firecracker quickly covered each square formation, and then quickly enveloped the entire formation. , full of pungent smoke.
In the dense gunpowder smoke, the people around them were shot and fell off their horses one by one, and the Chuangqi who had entered finally woke up. Many of them screamed in horror. The experience they had never had made them panic. For the first time, they felt that there was no one on the battlefield. The place is safe.
They felt that in this Ming army's position, there was no difference between the front and the rear at all, and there seemed to be bullets coming from the front, the rear, the left, and the right, which made them at a loss as to what to do.
Facing the bullets being shot from all directions, many people ran around like headless chickens, trying to find a safe place for themselves, or desperately controlling the equally frightened horses in their crotches, trying not to fall to the ground.
Many battalion leaders also found in a panic that they could not find their soldiers. As soon as they rushed into the formation, they instinctively ran along the gap. , It was really chaotic, and many sentry teams lost their organization.
Liu Zongmin ordered the attacking troops to take the lead, the former will look back, and the latter will kill them. Now many sentry teams have lost their organization, so there is no need to talk about it.
In addition, the Ming army's firecrackers kept coming, and the bursts of gunfire also exacerbated the chaos of the army.
Between the formations, many trespassers shouted unconsciously, there was a lot of noise, and trespassers were constantly knocked down mercilessly to the ground. The lead bullets with strong kinetic energy shot into their bodies and rolled in them. It brought them great pain, and even the frightened horses were soaked in blood, jumping and rushing wildly.
Unknowingly, more and more Chuangqi fell down, and many people died with incomparable horror and panic in their expressions.
The blood flowing out of their corpses quickly softened the dry and hard ground, and the blood flowed everywhere, and finally seemed to merge into rivers, and the gunpowder smoke mixed with the strange smell of blood, floating everywhere...
"No!"
After Yuan Zongdi entered the formation, what he saw was this kind of chaotic and miserable scene. Seeing the cavalry soldiers collected by the rebel army fell one after another, and the brave knights scurrying around like headless chickens, he couldn't help screaming.
In an instant, that kind of resentment, frustration, and despondency surged into his heart, and all kinds of thoughts made Yuan Zongdi's face turn red, his body on the horse trembled even more, his chest felt oppressed, and finally, he looked ferocious, and uttered incomparable resentment from his mouth roared: "Why is this?"
……
"it is good!"
Cao Bianjiao's tight heart finally let go, and the concave-convex formation was really sharp against the cavalry.
He looked at the formation, although there were countless riders circling around the small formations, and his own central army had surrounded quite a few of them, but their camps were chaotic, and they had no experience in dealing with such formations, they were just scurrying around meaninglessly. , is no threat to one's own side.
Looking at your own army formation again, although gunpowder smoke obscured your sight, you can know that all formations are firing guns leisurely, and every time they fire guns, many thieves and horses fall over, and their shouts turn into wailing. It's dense, and it's rare to miss it.
Of course, it was not that Cao Bianjiao did not fail to see that some brave riders intended to control their horses to charge into the formation, but the two rows of spearmen squatting in front of each formation mostly frightened the approaching horses, and then the gunmen took the opportunity to fire their guns.
In each of their small formations, there were two rows of spearmen squatting on the ground on each side, facing the rushing cavalry in front, and trying to raise their spears to scare off the horses of the thieves.
The gunmen in the back, the first row was responsible for shooting, and the last few rows were responsible for loading fixed-loaded paper tube ammunition, using the firearm delivery tactics of Shenjiying.
In fact, the decision to use this tactic was made after Cao Bianjiao discussed with the generals at the bank of the Qiulong River.
When the concave-convex formation was first used, the cavalry frequently harassed it. Some of their harassing cavalry soldiers rushed into the formation, and then some horses rushed straight to the small formations. The horses were afraid of sharp things, but they did not know the power of firearms, so they gave The formations posed a threat.
Cao Bianjiao was worried about this. What to do if the rogues concentrated their forces to attack the various formations. After all, the small formations were too small in number and the firepower was too weak. They only had a few blunderbusses each time, so they might not be able to stop the rogue onslaught.
It was the personal general Yang Shaofan who made a suggestion. In addition to increasing the number of people in some formations, the gunmen should be placed in front of the gunmen, just like swords and shields covering the pikemen. Long spears can still give thieves horses great power.
Sure enough, this proposal is feasible.

(End of this chapter)