Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 422 Scattered Star Array

The Qing army fought against the Ming army, and they were used to seeing firearms. Not only the cavalry on horseback, but even the horses sitting down were not afraid of the sound of artillery.

The old soldiers of the Eight Banners who have been in battle for a long time can tell what kind of shells the Western Army fired by listening to the sound of the cannons. If this kind of solid iron bullets are smashed into a dense infantry, they may be able to hit a series, but with To deal with cavalry, the power appears to be smaller.

At this time, the Qing army received several shots, and then began to move to the two sides. In front of the western army, the brigade of swordsmen, and the infantry holding the big guns more than one foot long, looked relaxed, because they could see that , Qingqi didn't come towards them, and didn't intend to go straight to the front.

At this time, the soldiers of the Western Army at the waist of the formation began to look serious, while in the inner circle, there were a large number of crossbowmen, bird guns, and infantry archers, who had already drawn their arrows and were waiting for the enemy to come.The ground was trembling, as if the snow on the Qinling Mountains in the distance would be shaken down. The iron hooves of the Eight Banners cavalry trampled on the ground, and the cavalry galloped along with the horses. Countless figures rose and fell like huge waves, rushing towards the west army. Head on.

After the artillery, in the Western Army formation, the second appearance was not the bird gun or the step bow, but a team of more than 2000 crossbowmen.

Crossbows, a weapon, were developed in the Song Dynasty. The god-arm crossbow could shoot [-] steps, and the crossbow bed could shoot [-] steps. However, in the Ming Dynasty, the crossbow technology was completely degraded, and it was far from being comparable to that of the Song Dynasty.

Although the firearms of the Ming Dynasty were good, but before there was no rifling, all the firearms fired were ricochets, which were basically inaccurate. Later, Western platoon guns killed them. A big reason was that the hit rate of muskets was too low, but now crossbows shoot far And accurate.

The configuration of anger in the Western Army was far inferior to that of the Ming Army, but after Zhang Xianzhong occupied Sichuan, he fought against the local chieftain, but got a batch of bows and crossbows from the chieftain, so he equipped a group of crossbowmen.

In the formation of the Western Army, thousands of crossbowmen stepped on the rods at the same time, bent over to pull up the strings of the crossbows, the crossbow machine creaked, and the generals of the Western Army shouted one after another in the formation, "Arms crossbow. " Hearing the order, the crossbowmen raised their crossbows flat and aimed at the attacking Qing cavalry. Their half-closed eyes shot out fierce light. "Fang~" The commanding flag waved in the formation, and the crossbowmen lightly pulled the trigger, and the sharp crossbow arrows in the arrow slots roared out immediately, forming a black rain of arrows and shooting at the enemy cavalry.

The momentum of thousands of arrows firing together was like a gust of wind, and the Eight Banners soldiers rushing to the front fell in response to the strings. The horse stumbled, threw off the knight, and hit the ground heavily, rolling and wailing. Those who can be found everywhere.

The sudden appearance of the crossbowmen made the cavalry a little panicked, but since the old slaves raised their troops, the Eight Banners cavalry had gone through more than a hundred battles, how could they be easily stopped by mere crossbow arrows.

At this time, Qingqi was still charging, and these obstacles would not affect their charge in the slightest. With the rumble of hooves, Qingqi rapidly narrowed the distance between the two armies.In the Qing camp, Hauge witnessed what he just saw, and felt a pain in his heart. He used to fight with the Ming army and the Shun army. They used cannons to shoot at a distance, and used bird guns, bows and arrows at a distance. Although the artillery is amazing, it can really cause The powerful lethality is only a [-]-step shotgun, and the main damage caused by the bird gun and bow and arrow is almost at this distance.

The arm-stretching crossbow used by the Western Army was not as good as the [-] paces of the Song Dynasty god arm bow, but it also answered [-] to [-] paces. This made Hauge squint his eyes, but he quickly calmed down. Although the shooting range is long, it only takes three shots against the enemy, and the shooting speed is far inferior to that of bows and arrows.

However, it is no longer possible for the Qing soldiers to go around the formation to harass. The lethality of the cavalry bow is mainly within the range of one hundred steps, while the crossbowmen of the Western Army can kill and wound the enemy at two hundred steps. That would be a living target.

"Hmph~ Besides firearms and crossbows, what other abilities do the Han people have?" Hauge snorted coldly on the high platform, "I want to see what other tricks the western thief can do!"

"Arms crossbows~" The officer's shout sounded again.

After shooting an arrow, the crossbowmen immediately stepped on the rod again, bent over and pulled the string, and their movements were uniform.

"Ignite the blunderbuss~" This is when the Qing cavalry has rushed to 150 steps and entered the effective killing range of the blunderbuss. One of the few gunmen of the Western Army picked up the blunderbuss and shot at the Qing army who was running.

Although Zhang Wenxiu's army is not good looking, and the soldiers wear all kinds of armor and colors, but in the face of thousands of Qing cavalry swarming in, the formation can be done without panic, without chaos, and they are loyal to their duties. Uniformity and quick response are enough to be called an elite division.

The winter in Hanzhong is very cold. Unlike the Qing army in Huguang and Fujian who wore single armor and became light cavalry, the Qing soldiers in Hanzhong generally wore very thick clothes. Most of them wore two layers of cotton armor, which was between light cavalry and heavy cavalry.

At this time, the blunderbuss and crossbow arrows came intertwined, and Qingqi fell off the horse again, which made them tremble with fear, but years of combat experience told them that three arrows against an enemy was already close to hand-to-hand combat, so they tried their best to tell themselves not to be afraid.

Bayan leaned on his horse, yelling at the Qing soldiers to continue to charge forward, while thinking, although the crossbow arrows have strong penetrating power, and the firecrackers can't destroy the two layers of cotton armor, the crossbow arrows can be easily torn apart, but look at the west. The army's rate of fire can only shoot one round at most. They have now reached within 150 steps, and they can completely stop for another round. As long as they reach [-] steps, they can ride back and shoot back. When they reach [-] steps, they will start Prepare to massacre the Western Army.

The Qing cavalry followed one after another, the western army stretched their crossbows and the birds continued to shoot and kill, and I don’t know how many eight banners fell to the ground. When the largest number of Western army infantry archers began to throw arrows, it formed an impenetrable arrow wall .

After all the weapons of the Western Army were used in turn, the Eight Banners soldiers finally took up the cavalry bow with a pitifully short range to fight back.

At this time, the cavalry of the Qing army no longer dared to look at how many corpses were left behind. They had no time to take care of it, because the formation of the Western Army was right in front of them. Disturb the formation of the Western Army.

In the Qing army camp, the corners of Hauge's mouth twitched as he stood on the high platform directing the battle. He stared wide-eyed at the corpses of the Eight Banners scattered along the way, showing a look of shock.

From then on, he no longer regarded the Western Army as rogues, but as an elite and powerful enemy.

Finally, two groups of Eight Banners soldiers collided with the large formation of the Western Army, and the oval waist was immediately dented by the Eight Banners soldiers.

Seeing this, Hauge smiled with satisfaction. As long as Zhang Wenxiu can be cut in half, the Eight Banners soldiers who died on the way to attack before will be worth the death.

At this time, Zhang Wenxiu in the Western Army formation saw the Eight Banners entering the formation, narrowed his eyes, and waved calmly: "Change formation!"

In the formation of the Western Army, the flags were waved immediately, Hauge's expression changed immediately, the Western Army did not appear in chaos as imagined, and the entire oval formation, as if to cooperate with the Eight Banners soldiers, took the initiative to line up and divided into two ellipses .

The Eight Banners cavalry instinctively passed through the gap between the two circular formations, while the spearmen in the Western Army poked down on the horse when they saw the enemy's horse, and the archers fired cold arrows from time to time.

Meng Qiaofang, who was standing on the high platform with Hauge, still had some knowledge, and said in surprise, "This seems to be a scattered star formation that imitates Yue Fei." : "Order, withdraw!"

But at this moment, the Qing general who was in charge of observing the battlefield quickly said in surprise: "My lord, the western troops from the south and west are rushing towards the camp at a high speed."

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(End of this chapter)