The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 316 Showdown

When Zhong Mingyuan returned to the central army, he saw Ding Kuichu approaching him surrounded by guards, he hurriedly bowed to the side of the road, "I have seen Lord Dutang."

Ding Kuichu looked at his dusty appearance, and looked up at the nearby terrain, he couldn't help snorting coldly: "Shizhi is really cautious, and you want to inquire about the enemy's situation in such a flat land?"

Zhong Mingyuan could only bow his head and say, "Yes."

Ding Kuichu ignored him, and turned to ask Chen Kedao: "Is there any news from the scouts sent to Wuzhou recently?"

"Going back to the governor's hall, no one has returned yet." Chen Ke hurriedly added, "I think Wuzhou has been completely besieged, and the enemy's patrols are very strict. The subordinates have already sent more people to go."

In fact, Zhu Linmi had already ordered people to block all the roads around Cangwu, anyone could only go north for the time being and was not allowed to go back south, his scouting horses were all gathered around Cangwu in a hurry.

Ding Kuichu was anxious again when he heard the words "besieged to the ground", and ordered Chen Ke to urge the army to advance faster.

"Look!"

Before Chen Ke could leave, Ding Kuichu's bodyguard suddenly pointed to the west and shouted.A group of people hurriedly turned their heads to look around, and saw thick smoke billowing from the poplar forest in the distance, and after a while, they could already see flames bursting out.

Ding Kuichu pulled Zhong Mingyuan past him, and said sharply, "Did you explore that forest just now?"

"The subordinates have looked carefully, and there is nothing unusual in the forest!"

But he didn't know that although the low bushes in the forest could not hide people, there were a lot of linen and straw ropes soaked in kerosene and sulfur, which could not be seen from a little distance.

Just now, only a dozen or so people ran through the forest with torches to light these things.The weather was hot at this time, and the bushes themselves were extremely flammable, so the forest was on fire in a short time.

Soon, the flame-breathing bushes ignited the surrounding poplar trees, and the flames became more intense.

No matter how dull Ding Kuichu was, how could he still not know that someone had set the fire?In other words, there must be an enemy ambush nearby.

He hurriedly circled his mount, ordered the whole army to stop advancing, and formed a formation to meet the enemy on the spot.

But before he saw the flat terrain here, he kept ordering a quick march. His men and horses didn't care about the formation under the urging of the officer.More than 4000 horses have already dragged the team into a sparse hash that is more than five miles long according to their different footsteps.

At this time, when they heard that the battle was about to end, the front team hurriedly searched for the Chinese army, and the Chinese army rushed to contact the rear team, but when they looked up, they found that they were still several miles away.For a while, some officers at the bottom ordered to retreat and join the brigade, and some ordered to form defensive formations on the spot, and the scene suddenly became chaotic.

At this moment, there was another dense sound of army drums from the east and north sides, and the neat drum beats made Ding Kuichu's troops feel panicked.They stopped their movements involuntarily, looked around, and saw a group of men and horses in dark green military uniforms suddenly appearing in front of them, neatly forming a long snake formation, blocking the way more than two miles wide.

Then the same long snake formation appeared on the gentle slope on the east side, condescendingly watching the army down the slope.

Ding Kuichu's scouts found him among the rebellious army after a lot of effort, and hurriedly reported loudly: "Report! Enemy ambushes were found on the east and north sides, and about 5000 people were found."

"No more than 5000 people?" Ding Kuichu was stunned when he heard the words, and hurriedly stood on his horse and looked into the distance. Just as he saw the line of Dragon Guards less than a mile away, the frightened look on his face faded. .

"I just said how can I ambush in such a spacious terrain. The enemy army actually formed a thin long snake formation, trying to block our army's way?"

He straightened his clothes, calmly pointed forward with his horsewhip, and ordered Chen Ke loudly: "Let you lead the vanguard battalion to rush through the enemy camp on the north side and clear the way for the army."

"Subordinates obey orders!"

Ding Kuichu looked around again and saw that the soldiers were all huddled together in a mess. He frowned and ordered Zhong Mingyuan, "Lead all your troops and add two thousand swords and shields to line up on the east slope. Beware of the enemy taking advantage of the chaos. Rob my army."

"Your subordinate obeys the order!" Zhong Mingyuan just took two steps, then turned around and returned, hesitantly said, "Dutang, King Chen's main force is only 5000 people, and there are only [-] soldiers in the ambush right now. Could it be...they gave up Wuzhou to come?" this?"

"That's the right place to compete!" Ding Kuichu roared impatiently, "What are you doing here? Quickly deploy defenses to the east side!"

Zhong Mingyuan originally wanted to say, "The enemy army must be deceitful, we should gather our formations and guard against it, waiting for the cannons to arrive." But in the end he just opened his mouth and walked away.

On the other side, Chen Ke held a flag and ordered the forward battalion to line up.The Vanguard Battalion is the most well-equipped elite unit under Ding Kuichu. Almost everyone is equipped with full-body cotton armor, which has always been Ding's reliance in tough battles.

It's just that under the chaos of people and horses at this time, it took Chen Ke a long time to gather 700 people.

He glanced at the line of Dragon Guards not far away, thinking that as long as these troops concentrated on attacking the enemy, it would be enough to break through this thin formation.

So he raised his saber high and shouted loudly: "Every enemy killed will be rewarded with ten taels of silver! Follow me!"

……

Looking at Ding Kuichu's messy army in the binoculars, Zhang Jiayu couldn't help shaking his head slightly in his heart. He was only less than a mile away from the enemy, and it was a good opportunity to shoot and kill the enemy, but he didn't know why His Royal Highness the Assistant Prince only let the artillery battalion stand by.

Suddenly, he saw a group of brightly armored men and horses rushing out of the enemy formation, rushing straight towards the defense line of the Dragon Guards. He hurriedly turned around and said to Zhu Linming, "My lord, there are enemy troops..."

Zhu Linmei nodded, put away the binoculars, and had already seen the enemy army rushing over.

He glanced behind him again, and there was still no one on the flat wasteland, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart, Zhu Youlang, this kid, fell off the chain at a critical moment.No wonder the Yongli Dynasty in history, sitting on a general like Li Dingguo, still failed to save the Ming Dynasty from defeat.

Then he turned his head and said to Zhang Jiayu: "Implement according to the plan in word B."

"Yes!"

The gunners of the Dragon Guards stared closely at the approaching enemy army. At this time, the distance was less than [-] paces, but there was still no command flag to fire.

The ammunition had been loaded a long time ago, and the hand holding the tinder stick was full of sweat.

180 steps!

140 steps!

One hundred steps!

They could already vaguely see the appearance of the Gui army. Suddenly, the drums sounded behind them, and the management team on the side of each cannon raised the command flag at the same time, and shouted, "Let go!"

At the same time, in the infantry line formation, all the infantry and two hundred hunters who were blocking the enemy, followed the command issued by the commander, and shouted in unison, "Let go!"

In an instant, more than 300 hunting rifles, [-] flintlocks, and [-] field guns on both wings exploded with loud noises.

The dense rain of lead bullets immediately slammed into the forward battalion led by Chen Ke head-on.

There is no doubt about the shooting accuracy of the Type II Jaeger, almost more than [-]% of the miniature bullets hit the target.Although most of the flintlock shots missed, at least sixty or seventy enemy soldiers were killed.

(End of this chapter)