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

Chapter 709 Bombardment
Fierce fighting broke out suddenly. From si to noon, from [-] am to [-] noon, the bandits made countless advances and retreats against the Ming army formation. Attacked and was repulsed.
The front, right, and rear wings are the main attack points of the thieves. In these three directions, the thieves densely concentrated large-scale equipment such as shield carts, cymbal carts, wooden curtain carts, and pointed carts. Cao Bianjiao gathered all the cavalry, seized the opportunity of the bandit infantry gathering behind the hungry soldiers, and took the initiative to attack. Before they were caught off guard, they defeated groups of hungry people in advance and destroyed countless weapons.
The thieves then attached infantry and ants, and after each wave of hungry people, they followed the shield soldiers, archers and spearmen. Ming cavalry attacked the hungry people. In the scuffle with swords and shields, Cao Bianjiao lost a lot, and the cavalry retreated.
After that, the three-wing battle fell into a twist. Under the cover of the shield chariot and others, they were surrounded by hungry infantry layer upon layer. Although the blunderbuss did damage to them, they were less and less. More casualties.
The more three-wing hand-to-hand combat, the more frequent the spearmen and cavalry fought. Cao Bianjiao also adopted the tactic of the gunmen following the spearmen. Many, they are long-distance combat arms after all.
Cao Bianjiao's army fell into continuous downsizing. After he returned from Yongcheng, there were about 7000 people in his team. By this time, the casualties had reached [-]%, and the rest of the people also had countless injuries.
When Cao Bianjiao led the cavalry to fight, he was slashed by some bandit on his left arm. Although he had armor to defend himself, he still felt a burst of pain afterwards. Maybe the bone was cracked. There were many thick grass on his body. arrows.
Among the new army, the pikemen suffered particularly heavy losses, with casualties as high as [-]%. The only consolation is that there are more gunpowder.
When Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen went south, they received 30 rods of Donglu bird guns and [-] rounds of powerful medicine from Wang Dou. Although they continued to use them, there were still many left. Soldiers are equally helpless.
Near noon, the bandits pushed a row of trebuchets on the rear wing, and it could not be explained that there was a shower of stones facing the crowd in the scuffle ahead. Spearmen, sword and shield soldiers, hungry soldiers, etc. were also smashed into bloody piles of flesh.
In the end, these rock-throwing thieves were wiped out by the concerted efforts of both the enemy and us. They provoked public outrage. They were first cut to the ground by the thieves who turned back in front, and then they were trampled into a lump of flesh by the retreating crowd.
On the left wing, it is close to the river, and the river bank is a bit rough, and it is not easy to trek, but the dense, crazy hungry people are still scrambling to rush from the other side of the river. They were promised that this battle is over, Mingjin will not Those who retreated were all raised as infantry, and they were shot to death one by one in the river. There were layers of corpses in the river, and blood bubbles emerged from the bright red river water.
In the end, a large group of cavalry was dispatched from this wing, and many elite cavalry were selected by Chuangying, Gezuo, and Caoying. Even Luo Rucai's nephew, Wang Long, led [-] elite cavalry to fight. The platoon guns were beaten to death in the river, countless dead and injured horses fell down, and the bloody horses, stimulated by gunpowder smoke and loud noises, jumped and ran wildly all over the river...
"Can't you beat this?"
Looking at the battle ahead, Li Zicheng and the others on the high platform in the back all looked deathly. The tenacity of the Ming army was beyond their expectation. Falling down, but looking up, the big flag with the word Cao is still flying high in the cold wind.
It has been fighting for too long, and there are too many casualties on our side. Even if most of the dead are worthless hungry people, they are human beings, and they have fear. After the frenzy, they will be afraid and discouraged. When the army is more afraid of their own swords and guns, they will not be able to suppress the bullets and will flee in all directions.
He muttered in his mouth: "The imperial court's new army, the imperial court's new army... 70 horses, even 5000 of them can't deal with it?"
When he was muttering, Ma Shouying couldn't help but come up to him when he was old. As a person who is "multi-powerful" in the eyes of thieves and "repeatedly swindling and never relentless" in the eyes of the government, Ma Shouying has never seen such a person before him. Flesh battlefield.
Among the thieves, he is also considered a role. When Gao Yingxiang was there, he was regarded as the "conspirator". After Gao Yingxiang died, the exile camp fell into a low ebb. Kaifeng Mansion was also elected as the leader of the alliance and in charge of the plate.
In the peasant army, he has a high status, is more resourceful, and is used to fighting, but the situation in front of him makes him confused.
He has never fought this kind of battle before. He is good at tactics such as defeating the strong by the weak, luring the enemy deep, and surrendering openly and secretly. Zuo Liangyu is fierce and cunning, and he is even more cunning. The army went deep, surrounded by him, and almost attempted suicide.
But this hard-on-hard...
Ma Shouying couldn't help coming up to persuade him: "King Chuang, it's better not to fight, retreat."
"Yes, retreat."
The Zuojin King He Jin, the Changed King Liu Xiyao, and the Troubled Times King Lin Chenggong in Zuoge's Fifth Battalion were also chattering, only Ge Liyan He Yilong stared at a pair of bull's-eyes and remained silent, but he obviously didn't want to continue the fight. .
Luo Rucai pondered, while Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo were silent, wondering what they were thinking.
Li Zicheng looked again, fortunately, although Liu Zongmin and others had ugly faces, they still supported him, but obviously the dead and injured subordinates also made them feel cold.
"Donkey Ball, I'm leaving..."
He Yilong finally spoke, and waved his hand vigorously.
"Attack again!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Zicheng shouted coldly.
He said: "We can't leave. Today we leave, and in the future, there will be no room for us to leave!"
He pointed at the Ming army and shouted vigorously: "Just 70 new troops, let [-] of us flee, how many new troops are there in the imperial court? Chen Yongfu, Hu Dawei, Tang Tong, Yang Guozhu, Wang Pu, and finally There is Wang Dou!"
He said: "If we lose today, let's not talk about fighting Kaifeng. When we meet the new army in the future, the brothers will have to run away! The court is the court after all, and a lean camel is bigger than a horse. They will continue to practice, and they have recruited us many times. With a strong army in hand, there will be no such good things. If we don’t fight today, one day, we will not escape the moment when we will be hacked!"
He resolutely shouted: "Only by fighting, destroying Cao Bianjiao here today, and destroying their new army, my rebel army, will it become more and more popular!"
"Keep fighting!"
"Fight, send all the people up. If the front is dead, they will go up later. They are not overpowered, and there will always be times when they can't support them."
For this reason, all the generals in the camp had to support the coach, and they all spoke out in support of Li Zicheng.
Niu Jinxing caressed his long beard, and said slowly: "Husband Zhan, fight hard, then decline again, and exhaust three times! At the end of the crossbow, it is impossible to wear Lu Jin, and the Master is already exhausted. We only need to work harder. We will definitely be able to capture their army formation!"
Finally, after a fierce quarrel, the thieves calmed down and launched a crazier attack.
……
Cao Bianjiao is on the horse, the crowds are like a sea, and the attacks of the thieves are becoming more and more crazy. They use layers of shield vehicles and other equipment as cover, and they rush forward in waves with distorted expressions. Spears, knives, and sticks seem to be endless. Like arrows falling, there is also the sound of rockets firing.
The air above the army formation was full of rockets flying various trajectories, the screams of the rockets firing, and some thieves even threw fire cans, and the new army with fire howled and rushed forward to die with them.
On all sides of the army formation, there have been many breaches, and densely packed thieves are pouring in, and then the Ming army continues to gather troops and organize to block these breaches. There are already too many fallen corpses on all sides of the army formation, and there are still wounds. The victim screamed horribly when being trampled on.
The bandit has reached the final madness, and his own side has suffered nearly half of the casualties. He tried his best to look at the intruder. He is not a person who is willing to sit and wait for death. There were too many rogue cavalry and infantry, and he led the cavalry to charge a few times, but he couldn't charge up, and almost fell into their siege.
It's not that the officers and soldiers have never been surrounded by bandits before, but it is different from the past. There are too many bandits and horses this time. If they hadn't had tens of thousands of horsemen, they would have been surrounded by hundreds of thousands of hungry infantry. Cao Bianjiao also thought that he had broken through the encirclement earlier and go.
"boom!"
The right wing was broken again. Amidst the fanatical shouts, an unknown number of bandit soldiers poured in. The dense spears shone with a cold metal light on the Ming army in the formation.
There was an explosion of the three-eyed blunderbuss, thick white smoke and sharp flames spewed out, and more than 200 three-eyed blunderbussmen from the regular barracks rushed forward, raising their heads and shooting at the bandits in front of them, and their three-eyed bludgeons hit , each gun barrel is filled with three or four lead bullets, and the primers are all connected together with a lead wire. Hundreds of people fire three tubes together, and seven to eight hundred lead bullets burst out, and countless blood mist rises in front of them. The thieves with poor protection fell down a large area in unison.
Shooting at close range, the three-eyed bullets are quite powerful. The lead bullets crashed into their bodies, rolled randomly in the liver and intestines, and after making a mess, the pressure in the body made the blood of the wounded spurt out along with the wound. Out came blood arrows of different shapes, floating in everyone's eyes.
Countless howls at the top of their lungs, and the tumbling crowd piled up even higher in front of them, but the dense forest of spears still poured in behind them, and many of them seemed to still maintain the thunderous roar unique to the three-eyed blunderbuss, The close-range tinnitus state caused.
These brave three-eyed blunderbusses of the main barracks, after shooting the bullets, waved the three-eyed blunderbuss like a hammer, smashing the thieves in front of them to the ground one by one, blood and brains flying, but the three-eyed blunderbuss When fighting with cold weapons, it is inherently insufficient to face dense gun clusters, because there is too much space to deploy, and the spear only needs to thrust forward.
Many of these three-eyed musketeers who were originally cavalry were thrown to the ground by the dense spears in front of them, but at the cost of casualties, they bought time for the fighters from the killer team of the Fangzheng barracks to rush to the rear. , The brutal hand-to-hand combat began again.
Cao Bian Jiao Ce was on the horse, and suddenly took the bow in his hand, and a sharp arrow was hit.
"Whoosh!"
The arrow shot out, and a bandit who looked like a little leader clutched his throat, knelt down on the ground and struggled desperately.
The bowstring sounded, and Cao Bianjiao shot another arrow like lightning, and another thief whistle was always shot out by the arrow. As soon as he opened his mouth, the arrow shot straight in from the mouth.
Cao Bianjiao turned around abruptly, the arrow was so strong that before a thief could even scream, the sharp arrow shot into his forehead, leading him to fall backwards.
He shot left and right, and in a blink of an eye, he shot and killed many people.
Then Cao Bianjiao jumped off his horse, holding his horse spear, and rushed towards the thief, and the fewer guards around him followed closely.
He yelled loudly, shook his body vigorously, his body shook, and he swept away the thieves in front of him until they vomited blood. When Cao Bianjiao swept over, a bandit soldier wanted to fight hard with his spear, but With a flick of the lance, the lance shot hit him in the face, and he covered his face and howled bloody and bloody.
Cao Bianjiao turned his hand again, stretched the spear straight out, and with a "poof", it pierced viciously into the eye of a thief, and went straight out from the back of his head. Blood mixed with white brains sprayed out, and his hand shot again. Shaking, like a few plum blossoms, a few thieves struggled to cover their throats...
The air was filled with the smell of blood. Most of the firecrackers were fighting with their own waist knives. It was too late for them to form a blunderbuss array. The bandits entered the final madness. They seemed to keep opening, then being blocked, and then breaching again. blocked again.
After Yang Shaofan fired the three-eyed blunderbuss like a mace, he used the three-eyed blunderbuss as a mace. He already smashed the heads of countless thieves, and he was injured in many places, and he lost his gentle and calm appearance in the past. , The image is fierce.
His middle officer, Sun Yutian, was fighting not far away. Holding a Qinglong Yanyue knife, he shouted and fought, while laughing loudly: "It's a joy, it's a joy to raise a man's wife!"
He already had many scars on his body, but he was still fighting fiercely. Suddenly, a spear was thrown at him, and it came out through his body. Sun Yutian was stunned, and suddenly let out a roar. He aimed at the head of the thief who threw his spear, and chopped it off severely.
The blood rained into the sky, and the bandit soldier's head flew into the sky with a dazed and terrified expression.
Sun Yutian coughed blood and said with a smile: "Your mother's head, if you dare to throw Lao Tzu's spear, you will die first!"
He laughed, staggered, and fell dead laughing like that.
Seeing the death of the Chinese military officer, Yang Shaofan felt grief and anger at the same time. For some reason, a trace of fear was born in his heart. He was full of ambition, and he couldn't die now. He smashed it down, and the head of a thief in front of him was smashed to pieces on the spot...
Facing the fierce resistance from the officers and soldiers, the besieging gangsters slowly woke up from their madness. They hesitated, they were afraid. At this time, they realized how many people died in their own family, how many fellow villagers, how many brothers, how many comrades... People in the prefectures and counties eventually became meaningless corpses on the ground.
Everyone was terrified and hesitant. Many people started to retreat step by step. Their expressions were distorted, as if they didn't want to see the scene in front of them again. It would wake them up from their nightmare.
In the rear, everyone in the Liuying was stunned. Li Zicheng muttered to himself, not knowing what he was talking about. The sentences were messy and meaningless. Maybe he didn't understand what he was talking about.
Liu Zongmin exhaled heavily, stepped forward and said, "King Chuang..."
At this moment, the long-awaited news came in, and a burst of wild laughter burst out on the high platform.
……
"It seems that the thief is about to retreat."
While the soldiers cheered and shouted, Cao Bianjiao breathed a sigh of relief. Although the thieves were still surrounded closely, they obviously had no fighting spirit. After today's battle, they also had no fighting spirit. It seems that they will retreat soon .
However, deep in his heart, Cao Bianjiao always has a hidden worry that lingers.
Suddenly, the thieves on the right wing of the army burst into cheers. Cao Bianjiao looked at it in surprise, felt his hands and feet were cold for the first time, and his whole body trembled.
Looking at the surrounding soldiers, these fighters who were lucky enough to survive were all pale, and it seemed that the will to fight that supported them had all disappeared.
Wave after wave of blows, the arrival of the bandit artillery became the last straw that overwhelmed the camel's camel. Many soldiers who were fighting to the death against the bandit soldiers began to cry.
"Brother Ting'e, what should we do, what should we do?"
A fellow countryman cried to Tang Ting'e.
Tang Ting'e clenched his fist with blue veins exposed, he gritted his teeth and said: "There will be a way, Cao Shuai will definitely have a way."
Following the example of the anti-gun method during the Battle of Songshan, Cao Bianjiao urgently issued an order to use sacks of soil to cover the army formation. However, how could the small number of earth bags produced in a hurry cover the entire army formation?
Cao Bianjiao thought about taking the cannon, but behind the thieves cannon, there are layers of infantry and horse troops to protect him, and he has suffered heavy losses. How can he take the cannon?
All the officers were helpless as they watched the bandits set up one cannon one by one, counting them randomly, there were more than a hundred of them. Even if there were no Hongyi cannons among them, a hundred of Frangipani cannons were still a deadly threat .
Finally, the bandits fired, like thunderbolts, white mist rose from their artillery formation a mile away, and then countless shells of different sizes roared in, and the screams rang out again and again, even if their artillery hit rate was not high , but the number overwhelms everything, and the howling and galloping cannons, hitting the army formation, still stir up pieces of stumps, flesh and blood, luggage, fragments of armor and weapons, and also fly with the blood rain.
"what!"
The soldiers who had been hit by the cannons screamed at the top of their lungs, 70 thieves couldn't beat them, and the soldiers who had survived a hundred battles all had strong wills, but they couldn't stop the power of the cannonballs.
"boom!"
Cannonballs fired by a large Buddha Lang machine jumped in, several kilograms of cannonballs passed all the way, blood mist surged up, and fragmented weapons fluttered. Tang Yanfu suddenly fell to the ground amidst the jaw-dropping sound of bone fractures. He looked at himself, but the entire right leg was cut off by the shell, the pale bones were exposed, and some shreds of meat remained on it.
He cried out: "Brother Ting'e..."
Then the severe pain made him roll on the ground. Tang Yanji and several fellow countrymen rushed forward and pressed his wound tightly, but the blood gushed out like a fountain, and he couldn't hold it down no matter how hard he pressed it. Mei Heizi murmured: "How to do how to do?"
With tears in his eyes, Tang Tinge grabbed Tang Yanfu's collar and said, "Ah Fu, hold on, don't forget, you still have your mother."
Tang Yanfu cried: "Brother Ting'e, I can't do it anymore, if you go back alive, don't forget to take care of..."
At this moment, there was another bang, and the filth and internal organs fell on everyone, but it was a gunman beside him who was hit by a shell, as if hit by a high-speed car. The whole person is torn apart, the internal organs and intestines are scattered all over the place, only the head connected to the chest will be more complete.
Tang Ting'e yelled, threw a piece of intestines away from his body, and then desperately wiped off the dirt on Tang Yanfu's face, only to find that his eyes were wide open, and he was already dead.
"what!"
Tang Ting'e raised his head to the sky and screamed, his voice was extremely painful.
……
"Good good!"
Compared to the side of the Ming army, the side of the thieves is full of laughter. Li Zicheng and others have already stepped off the high platform, riding their horses just like that, watching not far behind the artillery, and seeing that the gunners who broke into the camp are basically surrendered before. The Ming army artillery kept firing at Cao Bianjiao's formation.
These Ming army gunners who surrendered usually eat and drink in the army, which is comparable to the treatment of the old battalion. Round after round.
They basically work in groups of three, one aiming at the fire, one bringing out the fired sub-gun, and one refilling the new sub-gun, and the cycle goes on and on. Of course, some French machines have iron buckles for holding your breath. , as long as you pay attention to the leakage of anger, the Flang machine gun is indeed much faster than the Hongyi cannon.
Seeing the smoke and dust covering the side of Cao Bianjiao's army, and the artillery shells whizzing past, everyone in the Liuying laughed. It was refreshing to see the officers and soldiers being bombarded. The depression and disputes earlier were completely swept away.
Ge and Zuo also changed their countenance at this time, Ge Li looked at He Yilong and laughed loudly: "Thanks to King Chuang's persistence, the rebels have this situation, Lao He, I am ashamed."
The old man returned to Ma Shouying and said: "King Chuang is capable of what others cannot, and has a firm mind. This leader is worthy of the name."
He Jin, King of Zuojin, Liu Xiyao, King of Changed Times, Lin Chenggong, King of Troubled Times, and others also agreed repeatedly.
Li Zicheng laughed loudly and said: "It is the concerted efforts of all the leaders that we have the joy at this time!"
Every time the Chuangjun fired artillery, the bandits cheered like a tide, and everyone came back again in high spirits. Looking over there, Li Dingguo sighed: "Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, in the end, we still have to rely on firearms."
Sun Kewang felt the same way, and said, "Yes, firearms. My brother always feels that this battle is becoming more and more different. In the future, we also need firecrackers and artillery."
Looking ahead, Li Zicheng was delighted, but he also breathed a sigh of relief. The previous layout was to paralyze Cao Bianjiao and others to the greatest extent. The artillery collected by the camp was concentrated in Haozhou, which was far away from the battlefield at this time.
In addition, the road was difficult to walk at this time, even the Frang cannon, which was much lighter than the Hongyi cannon, also moved slowly, and the battlefield changed all the way, so the Frang cannon moved even slower.
After all, where the road is difficult, human legs and horse legs can pass by calmly, but artillery can't do it. After all, you have to follow the official road, and crossing any road at will is a huge trouble. The form on the battlefield can't tolerate rebels Wait easily, if it weren't for the hard work these few days, which dragged Cao Bianjiao to the greatest extent, maybe they would have escaped from the encirclement.
For today's matter, I can be said to be painstaking and lonely. The artillery has been protected by heavy soldiers all the way. In order to prevent the royal courtiers who broke out from hijacking the artillery, [-] horsemen were gathered to deal with them. Fortunately, all this has ended, God's will, Still stand on my side.
……
"what sound?"
Wang Tingchen reined in the horse suddenly and listened carefully. Slowly, his face changed: "No, it's the sound of cannons, the cannons of thieves!"
He looked around the exhausted soldiers under his command fiercely, and shouted: "Cao Shuai is being bombarded by thieves, we must go to meet them immediately!"
On the [-]th, after breaking out of the encirclement, Wang Tingchen rushed to Xiayi on the same day, and then sent people to Kaifeng City to ask for help while consolidating the city.
Only Li Zhenzhen, the prefect of Guide Mansion, was very surprised when he learned of this, and he immediately agreed to the envoy of Wang Tingchen, willing to send troops to Ma Muji to meet him. No matter how far away, his subordinates would not dare to leave. It's hard to be the front of hundreds of thousands of bandits. How can they dare to go deep into the encirclement with some local guards?
However, it is quite rare to be able to achieve this level. Wang Tingchen finished arranging the affairs of Xiayi, worried about the safety of Cao Bianjiao, and his new army camp. Spy outside the camp, intending to find a good opportunity to meet the besieged army.
However, the intruder obviously also had plans. Their [-] soldiers and horses entangled him tightly, especially when [-] old battalions joined in the end, which was even more difficult. Although he led the army to attack everywhere, the results were always ineffective. In the fight, the casualties were more, especially the horses were severely damaged.
At this time, Li Guo, the nephew of the intruder, led the [-] soldiers and horses to spy on him several miles away. Although he was young, he was also very cunning. Discover.
What Wang Tingchen was most worried about was the possibility of thieves and artillery. He searched everywhere, but he couldn't find a trace or a chance to destroy it amidst Li Guo's entanglement.
At this time, his biggest worry still happened, and he was even more anxious.
Hearing Wang Tingchen's order, all the soldiers under his command agreed without hesitation. Only one general hesitated and persuaded: "Commander, you can't go. Cao Shuai is already in a tight siege. We can't help you in the past, and I'm afraid we will... "
Wang Tingchen was furious, and the horsewhip slapped on his body with a crackling sound, and the pro-general's face was also covered with a scar, which immediately turned red and blood oozes out, the pro-general just looked at him stubbornly.
Wang Tingchen's anger slowly subsided, and he sighed: "A certain brother and Cao Shuai are like brothers, as close as brothers, how can they see death and refuse to save them? I don't blame him for the brothers who don't go, and those who dare to go, follow me!"
He shouted loudly, whipped his horse quickly, and left first, the knights under his command followed closely, and the general who had been slapped also followed closely beside Wang Tingchen.
……
The whistling sound continued, and the shells of the Chuangjun came like a rainstorm, and the shots became more and more accurate.
boom!Another shell was fired at the side of Lieutenant General Sun in Zunhua Town, and several figures in front of him were flying with blood and flesh. A gunman staggered and fell to his feet, half of his shoulder was shot away. Dead, rolling beside Vice General Sun, bloody and wailing.
Deputy General Sun looked at all this helplessly, and he cried loudly: "...My soldiers, my soldiers..."
Cao Bianjiao's scalp was numb, and his mind went blank. He watched the thieves fire their cannons, and the soldiers who survived survived died miserably one by one, but he couldn't do anything about it. pain.
Seeing Vice General Sun's painful expression, Cao Bianjiao's face turned pale. Brother Wang handed over his new barracks to him, but it ended up like this. How could I explain to him?
With a heartbroken heart, he resolutely raised his horse spear and shouted: "Come on, go forward!"
At this moment, a long horn sounded from the bandits' position, and then all parties echoed, and then the sound of hooves rolled like thunder.
But the intruders gathered all the horsemen, and nearly [-] horsemen rushed towards the army formation like a tide, and after the horsemen, there were countless infantry, and then there were endless hungry people in the dark, the tide of people and horses, like a torrent, passed by earth.
In the blink of an eye, the bandits and horses flooded the Ming army's formation, and Cao Bianjiao's phalanx was no longer able to resist.
"Master, let's go!"
Some of his subordinates embraced Cao Bianjiao and got on his horse. In the crowd, Cao Bianjiao looked back. His subordinates either ran away desperately, or fought hard on the spot, and then died one by one. Suddenly a sentence came to his mind: "Compassion does not command soldiers!"
Knowing this ending, it would be good to leave the new army that day, and perhaps save more troops.
It's just, how difficult it is to want to give up the soldiers.
What does it mean to be merciful but not in charge of soldiers? It is so bloody and cruel.
I did nothing wrong, Cao Bianjiao said to himself.
Just looking back, two lines of blood and tears flowed down from his eyes.

(End of this chapter)