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

Chapter 815 Red Eyes
The [-]-strong enemy that Han Kaihui estimated was useless. The lethality and shocking power of the East Road firearms were greater than expected, and the performance of the infantry was not much better than that of the hungry people the day before. More than anything.

After the defenders fired three times after hitting the low wall, they fell into a mess as expected.

The archers and firearms supporters were suppressed by the big rockets behind the low wall, unable to provide strong assistance. Seeing that the spearmen behind the low wall were showing a tendency to come out again, the leading brigade learned the lesson from the day before and decisively ordered to retreat. The thief's offensive ended somewhat anticlimactic.

But this was only the beginning of the fierce battle. The bandits had just retreated, and the defenders behind the low wall hadn't even had time to clean up the battlefield. , Another front rushed down the road while shouting orders, and continued to attack the defense line.

Then this wave of thieves had just retreated, and another wave of thieves came down. They kept advancing on the corpses of their comrades-in-arms, without giving the defenders a moment to breathe.

That day, the bandits attacked A-[-] with ten waves, and they didn't retreat back to the camp until the sun was about to set. There was already a river of blood in front of the low wall, and the stinging smell of blood was permeating the air.

The defenders behind the low wall also went from excited to crazy at the beginning, and finally fell into numbness at the end.The bandits' attacks didn't take long each time, but their frequency was high and their intensity was high. Often, the first wave would just go, and the second wave would come again.

In particular, the time interval between their attacks is too short, which makes people highly nervous, especially physically unable to bear it.On the other hand, the thieves on the opposite side only need to attack once, and then they won't be able to turn to them for a day. They have an absolute advantage in terms of strength, but this kind of terrain can't be adjusted.

The defenders guarding the first low wall spent the day in constant killing and fighting, reaching their physical and mental limits.

In the morning of the next day, Han Kaihui had to transfer the defenders on the low wall elsewhere on No. [-] Jia to change their defense.On the afternoon of the third day, Sun Chuanting also had to transfer the new troops from Jingou and Xiyuan to rotate with the defenders of Yuanwanggou.

In just a few days, the Shaanxi new army could no longer find new recruits. Every day, blood and madness were staged on this narrow plateau ditch, and the bandits launched at least ten waves of attacks every day. Their lives were constantly being consumed, especially in the On the side of the thieves, human life is even more contemptible in their eyes.

In the end, both sides were overwhelmed, and the casualties increased, but no matter how they fought, the defense line of Yuanwanggou still stood.

……

Five days later.

On the 16th day of May, [-]th year of Chongzhen, the No. [-] line of defense, in the afternoon.

There were corpses all over the slope, broken flags and equipment everywhere, and the scorching sun was exposed to the loess, making people feel uncomfortable all over.The air was filled with a strong smell of gunpowder smoke and blood, and there were bursts of disgusting smells under the fierce sunlight.

There was a loud "boom", and a tiger squatting gun made a thunderous roar. Amidst the sharp smoke and flames, more than a hundred iron pellets as thick as thumbs rushed out, and these bullets weighing five cents swept out, flying Pieces of blood mist are sandwiched in the dirt debris.

Amidst the shrill screams, more than a dozen infantrymen of the mountain patrol battalion ran back rolling and crawling, and some of them stayed on the ground and rolled. Without exception, blood holes appeared on their bodies, and the wounds were shocking. Rolling on the ground, making an indescribable sound of pain.

"Go forward!"

The old battalion soldiers in charge let out angry roars.

The pawns on the slope hesitated and crowded together. Before everyone could move, a dark muzzle appeared on the cliff of the three ladders at the intersection, and the sound of the muzzle bursting like beans was heard, and the cliff was filled with white mist. The pawns on the slope fell down in unison again.

The soldiers who were shot rolled to the ground, clutching their wounds, howling horribly.

"Suppress their firearms!"

The old battalion guarding the formation roared angrily, chopping down several archers who were trying to escape.

In the panic and hesitation, suddenly there was another scream from the crowd, but several round things were thrown out from the low wall.

"Enemy of all people!"

Amidst the screams of the crowd, these things landed on the slope, and there was a bang and a bang, thick puffs of smoke rose, and there were some shrill howls, and some pawns who couldn't escape were blown to pieces. .Not only this intersection, but also the raindrops of tens of thousands of enemies were thrown from various low walls, and there were loud noises.

The people who were bombed rolled on the ground, dripping with blood, screaming, struggling and crawling desperately.

The rest of the people could no longer restrain the fear in their hearts, howled and ran down the mountain.

"No retreat!"

An old battalion soldier in yellow padded armor wanted to stop the crowd from routing, when suddenly there was a bang of a blunderbuss, and a puff of blood sprayed from his chest, and he flew backwards, rolling down the slope, but was caught A chasseur of the Jingbian army hit behind the low wall.

With the sound of the blunderbuss, one after another the old battalion soldiers who wanted to stop were knocked down to the ground. The remaining old battalion soldiers dared not stop any more. Just when a gunman roared and rushed out from the low wall, the leader of the battalion took the opportunity to shout : "Retreat, all retreat..."

Immediately, the soldiers of the Patrol Battalion retreated like a tide, which also declared that their seventh attack on A-[-] today failed...

The patrolling battalion commander led the remnant soldiers up the slope in despondency, and there were soldiers of the patrolling battalion sitting on each platform, with a grass plant on top to block out the increasingly fierce sunlight.Some servants were walking around, bringing buckets of water.It is almost the middle of May, and in the Gregorian calendar of later generations, it will be as soon as June and July, approaching Fuxia.The temperature has been getting higher and higher, without grass plants to block the sun, and without drinking water to replenish water, who can stand for so long under the scorching sun?

However, in order to obtain drinking water from the grass plant, it also depends on the ability of each battalion in charge of the mill. To obtain grain and grass, the masters have to use all their skills.It is impossible for the old camp to provide everything to the foreign camp, and they have to fight for it themselves. In essence, the camp is a place where the weak prey on the strong.

The soldiers sat numbly under the grass factory, watching these rout soldiers come up, they just watched them silently, the cruel battle had wiped out all their passion.

On the platform close to the top of the plateau stood a large banner with a sitting flag, surrounded by some elite soldiers, Lao Hu and Kong San stood under the large banner, and a young man with a tough look beside him was the second. There are eight articles about people's relatives.

When the palmist came to Lao Hu, he hesitated to speak, with a bit ashamed expression: "Master Hu..."

Lao Hu waved his hand: "Don't say anything, take the brothers to rest."

Kong San handed over a jug with some salt in it, which can well supplement the salt lost by the human body. The palm brigade took it, Gulong Gulong drank half of the jug, and his spirits improved.

With a tired expression, he led the remnant soldiers to the top of the plateau, and the battalion commander set up a camp there, where the mountain patrol camp made fire and cooked food. the rest.

Some old battalion soldiers who supervised the battle also went up to the top of the plateau. When the sentry chief passed by, he gave Lao Hu and them a bitter look.

Seeing the dejected look of these old battalion soldiers, and the fact that their team has lost a lot of people, he couldn't help but gloat: "This time the old battalion suffered a lot of losses. I'm afraid there will be more than a dozen people dead?"

He saw that Kong San just looked down silently, peeked left and right, and said in a low voice, "How about it, are you still fighting?"

Kong San saw that the ditch below was filled with gunpowder smoke, and the sound of cannons and blunderbusses was everywhere, shouting and killing, he said in a deep voice, "Fight, prepare for the next wave!"

Old Hu sighed, and said, "When will this day be the end?"

The resoluteness of the Yuanwanggou defenders was beyond everyone's expectations. In fact, the number of troops guarding the ditch was not large in the opinion of everyone in the camp. The new army added almost 2 troops to the camp.But this time when they entered the camp to attack Tongguan, including the hungry people, the total force was 30, almost ten times that of the Ming army.Even with the defense of the forbidden ditch, the Ming army in Tongguan still has ten times more troops.

It's just that this kind of annoying terrain, vicious defense line, no amount of troops can be used, and the number of people is barely enough, which is the experience of the fiasco in the three days.So after that fiasco, Chuangying changed the battle plan, focusing on infantry, supplemented by hungry people, and adding some old battalions as supervisors.

The change in this plan is that the core of the battle is transferred to the 15 infantry from outside the battalion. The old battalion at the core cannot be moved.The terrain is treacherous, the defenders are resolute, and all kinds of sharp weapons are multiplied, so the battalions of each step fight very hard, especially the victory is so far away that it is frustrating.

Today is the second time that the Patrol Battalion participated in the battle. They also attacked No. [-] Jia two days ago, and once broke through the second line of defense and pushed to the front of the third low wall. At that time, it caused a great commotion. The generals all noticed his presence.

Of course, the result of the incident was that the mountain patrol battalion suffered heavy casualties, and the officers and soldiers in the special battalion and Lao Hu were exhausted, so it was somewhat easier to deal with it when it was his turn today.

But in fact, even if you fight hard, it is difficult to break into the defense lines on the opposite plateau slope. That day, the mountain patrol battalion broke into the second low wall at a huge cost, but then the defenders organized spearmen to counterattack and charge, and took back the lost stronghold. back.They fought repeatedly inside and outside the low wall. The bloody tug-of-war at that time still makes Lao Hu terrified when he thinks about it now.

What is particularly frightening are the new soldiers from Shaanxi, all of whom are fearless and extremely fierce.

In fact, they were not many in number, and the battalions now knew that the Ming army had divided up more than a dozen defensive areas in Yuanwanggou, each with about a thousand people, half of them were from the new army, and then there were three or five defensive lines of low walls.That is to say, the new army in each defensive position is no more than four to five hundred, five to six hundred, and even fewer are assigned to the low walls.

On the other hand, there are always four to five thousand, five to six thousand troops corresponding to each place, and even the hungry people can count as many as ten thousand.Even if the terrain is limited and it is impossible to swarm up, but every wave of thousands of people attack, there is a steady stream of wheel battles... All the battalions say that if the opposite side is only defended by the battalion, they have already fought the ditch, which is a pity.

The purpose of entering the camp is to fight for life and consumption with the opponent, to consume their strength, and to break their will.Now it seems that the expectations of all parties are far away. I don't know if the defenders have been consumed, but it is true that our side is constantly being consumed.

(End of this chapter)