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

Chapter 705 Drowning
At the same time, Cao Bianjiao was still thinking about what was going on with Wang Tingchen, and he should be in Xiayi.
The infantry generally marched thirty to fifty miles a day. Of course, this was a regular march. If they marched in a hurry or forcibly marched, they could travel more than a hundred miles a day. For ten days in a row, after reaching the goal, they continued to attack the city for thirteen days.
The army at the end of the Ming Dynasty, of course, cannot be compared with the army at the beginning of the Song Dynasty. In Cao Bianjiao's situation, it is normal to march five or ten miles a day under the attack of a group of enemies. With this speed, it is already extraordinary, because it is a new army. for the sake.
But the cavalry is different. An ordinary march of a hundred miles is normal, and a rapid march can reach two hundred miles. The cavalry of the Liao Army ran two hundred miles a day for six consecutive days. Zhou and the Song army fought.
Of course Wang Tingchen marched in a hurry and should arrive in Xiayi soon, but there should be a slight delay to fortify Xiayi, rest the fortifications, get in touch with Guide and other places, and ask for help from Kaifeng and other places.
Thinking again, will there be other reinforcements coming?
……
On the second day, August 15th, [-]th year of Chongzhen, this is the fasting day in many places. Cao Bianjiao went to bed early and went to camp last night to make a fuss. Clothes and lying down, still sleeping soundly.
His camp was also brightly lit, and the soldiers took turns guarding the camp to prevent thieves from attacking the camp, but nothing happened.
It can be seen that after resting last night and eating a large piece of horse meat, the soldiers are much more energetic, and it is really important to recharge their energy.
At breakfast, there were still large chunks of horse meat, and the aroma permeated the air. The officers and soldiers ate happily, but at the same time, the Liuying side was annoyed, and all they ate were their horses.
The fire soldiers were still busy, cutting a piece of cooked horse meat into small pieces, and asked each soldier to carry some, so that when he was hungry, he could have a bite and replenish his strength at any time. Even if he died, he could also be a full ghost .
In the middle of the day, the two sides of Xiangshui suddenly quieted down, and the disturbing two sides no longer entangled each other, but the tense atmosphere before the battle made people feel that the air was about to freeze, and both sides had already left the camp and made their own arrangements.
At the end of Mao's time, Cao Bianjiao's army marched along the edge of Xiangshui. He had already transformed into a large square formation.
The area from Yongcheng to Xiayi is too flat, even the wheat fields are endless, without any cover and protection, it is very favorable for cavalry to attack, riding against each other in the wilderness, forming camps on all sides, and marching slowly in a large square formation is inevitable. It seems that the thieves have also arrived at a large group of infantry.
However, Cao Bianjiao still walked along the edge of the Xiangshui. Although the river was low and shallow, it was still not easy to trek ashore in some areas along the river, and marching close to the shore could also cover the left wing a little.
The rogues didn't make any big movements at first, only when the Ming army marched, a large number of cavalry soldiers advanced along the left bank to monitor. Among them, some large flags seemed to be some rogue generals below, silently observing the characteristics of their own army formation.
But at the beginning of Chen Shi, they also started to move, one by one pawns waded across the water, and went ashore from the upstream and downstream of Xiangshui, especially their downstream, which was black and dense, layer upon layer like locusts.
Cao Bianjiao saw that the sound water became extremely turbid, and continued to stop for a while. It can be seen that although the upstream is not as good as the downstream, there are still a lot of people.
He held up the binoculars and looked at it. It seems that the bandit's plan is to attack his rear flank and hold him tightly. At the same time, the front and right wings will also attack. Only the left wing next to the river is full of bandits on the other side, as if watching. But if there is an advantage to take advantage of, they will also launch a thunderous attack.
At the same time, more and more cavalrymen crossed the river, spying on the three sides of the army formation from a distance. In order to prevent the cavalry from approaching the rear flank, Cao changed the cavalry of the Jiaozheng barracks, and separated nearly a thousand cavalry. The rest lived in the middle and supported at any time. all sides.
But he knew that this calm would not last long, and the outbreak of battle was just around the corner.
"Cao Bianjiao is indeed a famous general!"
On the left bank of the Xiangshui, Li Zicheng stared intently at his army. He watched countless footsteps riding across the river. Slowly but obviously, they gradually included the army formation of the Ming army. The sound of heavy footsteps and the sound of drums , converging into a suffocating and boiling feeling.
However, the Ming army formation he was concerned about did not appear the sparse formation that Liu Zongmin and others said, but the traditional square camp in front of him. Obviously, Cao Bianjiao has adopted a response, and the military formation is heavily guarded. It is obvious that it is not easy to break the formation. .
He silently calculated how many people would die if he wanted to break through this army formation. Looking back, everyone around him was also in a daze. Hearing Li Zicheng's words, Li Guo seemed to be thinking. Li Zicheng asked, "Jin'er, what are you thinking about?" ?”
Li Guodao: "King Chuang, I was thinking, although attacking with infantry battalions can consume Xiaocao's strength and gunpowder, but purely intercepting them with infantry battalions, only relying on the strength in front of us, I'm afraid they won't be able to stop them."
At this time, there were more than 5 infantry in the floating camp, but more than 2 were under the command of the fifth battalion of Ge and Zuo. Not to mention the combat power, coordination among the various families was a problem. With the chaotic organization of the floating camp at this time, when the formation After the infantry was defeated, it was obviously very difficult for the infantry elsewhere to rescue.
Although about 3 hungry people arrived last night, it is obviously not enough. If all the remaining infantry and hungry soldiers gather, it may take two or three days. Especially for those hungry people, most of them come from the direction of Yongcheng Ge, Zuobuying, and Luo Rucai escorted them.
They walked very slowly, because they escorted a large number of people and had to dig trenches along the border from Yongcheng to Haozhou. Therefore, although the army fought and stopped all the way, they chased after them, but they still couldn't keep up quickly.
The artillery deployed by the camp in the direction of Haozhou does not know when it will arrive, so it is constantly adding fuel, even if infantry and hungry soldiers from all over the place continue to arrive, it is really hard to say whether Cao Bianjiao can be stopped.
In fact, he didn't say some words in his heart, but Li Zicheng knew it well. Although the three families of Chuangying, Gezuo, and Cao Ying were united, they always fought tough and vicious battles, and the other two families always took advantage of it. suspected.
As far as this battle is concerned, before all the hungry people gathered, the main attacking infantry must be the trespassers, which made many trespassers angry.
Li Zicheng's desire to order unity in his heart is even stronger, but on his face he said with a smile: "It doesn't matter, our [-] horse troops are deployed above Xiangshui in this battle to prevent the Ming army from rushing forward, as well as Wang Tingchen and others. Nearly [-] cavalry and cavalry are combined. Every time the infantry is defeated, the cavalry can step forward to drag, and then the infantry will gather again and attack again. Cao Bianjiao is reluctant to leave [-] new troops. He is destined to destroy this riverside .”
Liu Zongmin and others all laughed. To be honest, they didn't understand Cao Bianjiao's approach. If they were them, they would have left the infantry and ran away. That's millions.
Niu Jinxing looked at the marching Ming army, with a relieved and complicated expression on his face, and finally said: "This is the end of the unjust army."
……
In the middle of the day, the Ming army marched to a place called Dinglouzhuang. At this time, the bandits were getting closer. Except for many horse thieves watching on the left bank, the rest of the three sides were less than two miles away, especially on the rear wing of the army formation. The stock thieves came on horseback, making a posture of attacking.
The Ming army had to stop and prepare to fight.
At this time, the situation on the battlefield was Gezuo's infantry camp in front of it, with about [-] infantry and [-] hungry people. At the rear of the army, there were about [-] infantry who broke into the camp and [-] hungry people.
In addition, about [-] cavalry soldiers from each family also gathered in groups in the front, right, and rear, and gathered behind the infantry to supervise the battle. At the same time, when the infantry was defeated, they stepped forward to entangle the Ming army. , gathered on the left bank of Xiangshui, and watched closely.
The vast sea of ​​people seems to submerge this area, and the army formation in the crowd is like a rock in the waves, which will be swallowed by the waves at any time.
As if they wanted to show off in front of the camp, Gezuo's men attacked first.
The first thing they drove was the [-] hungry people.
These hungry people, all in ragged clothes, yellow and emaciated, but in order to eat a bite, voluntarily or involuntarily, acted as cannon fodder for combat.
Their expressions were frenzied, and they held all kinds of weapons. Many of them just held sticks. They were divided into three waves, with three or 4000 people attacking in each wave. After the sound of war drums, they immediately shouted frantically and rushed towards the Ming army formation. go.
Many people took off their shirts more frantically, held weapons in each hand, or kitchen knives or axes, and roared desperately, hoping to arouse the little physical strength and give themselves courage.
They rushed within a hundred steps of the army like a tide, but their madness was shattered after a violent volley.
Although it is a phalanx, Cao Bianjiao draws or subtracts from each side, and flexibly arranges the firepower of the troops according to the battle situation. Facing the side of Gezuo, there are nearly 250 guns, divided into three layers, with more than 200 on each layer. The volley of firearms made more than [-] hungry people roll to the ground, and then howled in pain.
In a blink of an eye, the courage of the first wave of more than 3000 hungry people disappeared. They fled back crying, and hundreds of horses were chased out of the army immediately, which aggravated their panic.
The gunmen of the Ming army did not move. After firing at the front, they quickly handed over the empty guns, and then took over the gunpowder-filled guns, and passed them all the way to the end. The gunmen in the last row reloaded quickly and deftly. There is a sound of clearing the chest and filling the sub-drug...
Li Zicheng and others on the other side of the Xiangshui were shocked when they heard the deafening sound of firing guns. The firearms of the Ming army were so fierce that they could only feel it when they were there.
They rode on their horses and looked at the hungry people on Gezuo's side. The first wave collapsed after receiving only one volley. The second wave and the third wave were not much better. The bravest wave was the third wave. He was able to block two volleys of guns before escaping.
Seeing the roaring sound like thunder, the dazzling and fierce flames shot out by the platoon of guns, even from a distance, makes people feel frightened.
Li Zicheng sighed: "This is the East Road firearm."
Although he also captured a lot of firearms from the Ming army, most of them were three-eyed blunderbusses, even if they contained bird blunderbusses, many of them were unusable.
In particular, there is no fire door device inside, and the weather is windy, and the fire is often misfired. After fighting Wang Dou, although he also thought about setting up a firearms camp, his technical strength was always insufficient.

(End of this chapter)