The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 322 Zhai Shisi's Recruit
Seeing this, Zhai Shixu hurriedly issued orders to beat the drums and raise the flags. The generals at all levels in the army heard the sound of the drums faltering, and restrained their subordinates to form formations one after another.

However, most of Zhai Shixu's troops were newly recruited soldiers who had been recruited for less than two months, and this time they were all on the battlefield for the first time.For a while, some people looked at the enemy in surprise, some hurriedly followed the order, but couldn't find their position for a long time, and some were still digging with their heads down, turning a deaf ear to all orders.

It wasn't until Tang Jiabin's men stopped a mile and a half away, and took their stance leisurely, that Zhai Shisi's side barely formed a defensive formation, but the swordsmen and spearmen were still crowded together, and the gunners were also busy blowing. matchlock.

On the contrary, the cavalry team mainly composed of rebels was slightly better. Although the clothes were chaotic and the weapons were different, they were already in neat formation and were already ready for battle.

Tang Jiabin rode his horse and stood on a high place. Seeing the situation of the enemy army on the opposite side, he couldn't help showing a smug smile at the corner of his mouth.

Most of the soldiers he brought had gone through the Wubikui Rebellion, and even those who joined the army during the She'an Rebellion had at least gone through more than ten battles.

He also carefully looked at the terrain near Zhai Shisi's line of defense. On the south side was a small river twenty feet wide, but the terrain was high in the north and low in the south, high in the west and low in the east.

Although Tang Jiabin was born as a poor scholar, he was appreciated by Sha Dingzhou and promoted to a general in the army, but his military talent is extraordinary.

He groaned for a while, and summoned several generals beside him to order: "Zhao Caixiong, you lead [-] saber shields, and increase the blunderbuss and bird bludgeoners to cover the front. You don't need to destroy the enemy, but only attract the enemy's attention." That's it."

"Subordinates obey orders!"

"Pan Shigui, take a thousand cleavers and archers, and quickly go around to the enemy's north side. Wait for me to attack the enemy's left flank and drive them into the river!"

"Subordinates obey orders!"

Tang Jiabin turned to a short officer and said: "Pu Yongzhou, you lead the cavalry and lie aside first, wait for the enemy to be in chaos, and then attack from the center, get out of the formation, and gather on the west side to block the attack." The enemy fled."

Pu Yongzhou said "obey the order", he was also secretly surprised, hearing General Tang's meaning, but he was not in a hurry to go west, but wanted to wipe out the enemy before giving up.

In fact, Tang Jiabin wanted to return to Yunnan as soon as possible, but if he didn't completely wipe out the blocking Ming army, they would inevitably follow behind him all the time.This place is still thousands of miles away from Yunnan. If the whereabouts of the army cannot be concealed, it is inevitable that they will not be blocked by the imperial court again.

After a while, several wizards dressed in red and black long coats, wide-brimmed hats with horns on their heads, and hideous masks came out of Tang Jiabin's army.

These people chanted mantras loudly to the beat of the drums and danced their hands and feet at the same time, which attracted Zhai Shixu's soldiers to stare and watch curiously.At the same time, under the leadership of Pan Shigui, more than a thousand black-clothed soldiers quietly left the formation and moved to the north side of Zhai Shisi.

Zhai Shixu's subordinates were watching the "hustle and bustle" with fascination, when they suddenly saw dozens of empty-handed soldiers rushing out from the side of those wizards, and stood still one hundred and fifty steps in front of the formation of the two armies.

The same number of enemy soldiers came forward carrying something like a giant hammer, and put the "hammer handle" on the shoulders of those empty-handed soldiers.At the same time, thousands of soldiers with single swords and oval rattan shields followed up and stood on both sides.

When Zhai Shixu saw those "giant hammers" on his shoulders, he seemed to think of something.But before he could make an order, he heard a series of loud noises in front of the formation, and the long handles of those "giant hammers" shot out fire and thick smoke. They were actually dozens of oversized bird guns!

Immediately, several Ming soldiers were overturned by the huge lead bullets.The projectile weighed nearly twenty coins and was extremely powerful, some of them pierced through three people in a row before they were exhausted.

These are the "big blunderbusses" cast by Yunnan craftsmen to overcome the difficulty of transporting cannons in the mountainous areas of Yunnan. They are one and a half tall and weigh more than thirty catties.

Because it is too bulky to be carried by one person, it must be mounted on another person's shoulder to fire it. However, thanks to the huge caliber, the range and power are quite amazing, and it can be used as a miniature artillery.

Later, the guns that the people of the Qing Dynasty were proud of were almost the same as these novelty big guns, except that the forging technology was more advanced, but they were used by the Manchus until the Sino-Japanese War.

The recruits in Zhai Shixu's army were startled immediately, and someone shouted in shock: "It's a cannon!" It took a long time for the officers on the side to suppress the frightened shout.

In fact, the shooting accuracy of this kind of big blunderbuss is extremely poor, and it can't cause much casualties at a distance of a hundred paces. After that, another round of shooting only hit one person.

But Zhai Shixu's originally untidy formation immediately became more chaotic after being frightened by this, and some people wanted to retreat.

On the other hand, Tang Jiabin's troops were extremely sophisticated, and then the sword and shield hand and the blunderbuss stepped forward to stand still.The sword and shield hand held Teng Dun in front of his body for cover, while the musket hand aimed forward to prevent the enemy from charging suddenly.

And those who operated the big guns slowly loaded the ammunition behind them, pushed to the front row again, set up the big guns, aimed and fired.

Until now, Zhai Shishi’s side, Jiao Lian, was the first to react, and shouted: "What are you doing just stupidly?! Where's the cannon? Fire me!"

The gunners of the Ming army just woke up like a dream, and hurriedly fiddled with more than a dozen tiger squat cannons in front of the formation.Although these cannons are "miniature", they are still more powerful than the "extra large bird guns" on the opposite side.

But just as they adjusted the muzzle and were ready to ignite, a row of lead bullets weighing [-] cents from the opposite side struck again, and five gunners fell in response.

The rest looked at each other in horror, and they all remembered what the officer said during the drill that when the enemy is getting close, the gunners should withdraw into the central army.

They are all novices with zero experience, and they don't know how far they are considered "near", plus the fear of death, so they turned around and rushed into the group, even those tiger crouching guns were left in front of the formation and forgot to bring them .

Although Zhao Caixiong received Tang Jiabin's military order and was only responsible for stabilizing the frontal Ming army, he did not expect the enemy to be so vulnerable.He also wanted to make meritorious service, and urged his troops to continue to move forward and storm the enemy's formation.

Immediately, nearly 400 Yunnan troops jumped over the ditch that was only calf deep, and more than [-] gunners first put a round of guns on the faces of Zhai Shixu's army.

This time the distance was very close, and the four hundred bird guns shot down sixty or seventy Ming troops in an instant, and Zhai Shixu's battle formation shrank back suddenly.

Immediately afterwards, Zhao Caixiong's [-]-knife shield hand rushed forward, swung the knife and slashed.The spearmen in the front row of the Ming army swung their weapons clumsily to fight back, but their skills were too poor, and many people were knocked to the ground immediately.

Although Jiao Lian repeatedly shouted, "Hold it! Fight back!" But these recruits were helpless, and they couldn't help retreating under the flash of the enemy's sharp blade.

(End of this chapter)