The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 71
Ke Yongsheng watched with satisfaction that his subordinates quickly assembled the phalanx, and he sat on the horse with a commanding expression.

In fact, he didn't seem so relaxed in his heart.

He originally thought that the Ming army would panic when they encountered an ambush from the rear. Even if they didn't flee immediately, at least the situation would be chaotic for a while.

However, the Ming army's performance was far beyond his expectations, and the battle formation was turned in an instant without any panic, which showed the high level of training and strong discipline of this army.

This made him no longer dare to show contempt for the Ming army in front of him.

Soon, his subordinate Li Shiyuan came galloping, and said loudly: "Report to the general, the pawns have been lined up!"

Hearing this, Ke Yongsheng was determined. His formation was practiced according to the latest soldier's drill code of the Helan people.This code of practice belongs to the high-level military secrets of the Helan people. He also got it by chance and spent a thousand taels of silver to bribe a Helan officer from Dongfan.

However, this strategy is definitely worth the money. As long as the phalanx is formed, it will be difficult to shake it without tens of thousands of enemy troops.In particular, he also replaced the long spear in Helan Caodian with Qi Jiguang's wolf whisk, which has a better effect of defending against the enemy.Dozens of wolves were pointing obliquely forward, and it was extremely difficult for both infantry and cavalry to push away the dense branches on the gun shafts and approach his gunner.

At this time, the phalanx has been formed, so just wait for the cannons to be ready, no matter how elite the Ming army is in front of them, they will be defeated after a few rows of cannons.

However, the smile on his face did not disappear, and he heard a terrifying roar of artillery.

In an instant, the neat and dense horizontal formation of the Qing army seemed to have been deducted a few pieces, and the shrill screams resounded throughout the entire formation.Fragments of dozens of corpses were thrown out of the queue by the huge impact, flying seven or eight feet away, and falling everywhere.

There were even a few iron balls with undiminished potential, flying past the soldiers who were hoisting the artillery behind the side of the phalanx, so frightened that they were stunned, and the rope dragging the barrel in their hands almost lost.

Ke Yongsheng's eyelids jumped. The shelling just now obviously came from the direction of the Ming army.He was sure that the Ming army was still marching, how could their cannons start firing so quickly? !

He turned his head to look at the artillery positions of the Qing army in the distance, and saw that many cannon bodies had just been hoisted to the highest point, and someone below was directing them to move the cannon bodies to the wooden frame placed aside.

After that, the gun body must be pushed to the top of the gun mount, then slowly lowered and fixed, and the gun muzzle angle can be adjusted to aim before firing.

This process will take at least half an hour or so.

Could it be that the Ming army discovered their ambush at the beginning, so they had prepared their cannons long ago?Ke Yongsheng tried hard to find a reasonable explanation, but he had personally inspected the riverbed of Luxi countless times. There were dense reed poles and curved river channels, and it was impossible to see the army ambushed inside from any angle.

What exactly is this for?
Without allowing him to think too much, the artillery of the Ming army rang out again, and ghosts and wolves were howling in the Morris phalanx.

Although the two shellings only caused about [-] casualties, every Qing soldier was shocked by the astonishing momentum of the artillery on the opposite side, and his scalp was numb, and his heart inevitably felt timid.Besides, no matter how courageous a person is, how can he maintain a high morale when he sees a row of big living people beside him being smashed to pieces by the whistling iron ball, with blood flying all over the place.

Ke Yongsheng gritted his teeth, knowing that if this kind of shelling happened a few more times, his infantry would probably collapse, and the battle would be unnecessary.

The only chance right now is to let the infantry phalanx approach the Ming army quickly. One is to try to reduce the distance to the minimum range of the artillery, and the other is that when the infantry on both sides are very close, the artillery cannot continue to fire in order to avoid accidental injury.

As long as I buy half a quarter of an hour, when my cannon is ready, I can use the advantage of numbers to save the battle!Thinking of this, Ke Yongsheng immediately sent an order to Li Shiyuan, "Advance the infantry, and fight the enemy quickly!"

Then he said to Zhao Ju: "Lead the cavalry to attack the artillery of the Ming army, risking your life to delay their bombardment!"

"Follow the order!"

However, before the Qing army's phalanx was activated, Ke Yongsheng saw the Ming army's infantry line rushing towards him.

He was extremely puzzled by the dense but thin formation of the Ming army, which lacked the cover of melee arms.He himself had tried it himself, and the distance between gunners in the phalanx must not be less than three feet, otherwise accidents would easily occur.

With the formation of the Ming army, how would they use their guns in a fight later?

In addition, it is reasonable for the Ming army, who started firing artillery first, to adopt a solid defensive approach at this time, so that they can fire a few more shots when the Qing army approaches.

But the Ming army gave up the advantage of taking the initiative to fight, which... Ke Yongsheng couldn't understand.

Soon the cavalry units of the Qing army circled around the artillery positions of the Dragon Guards from both sides. Ke Yongsheng always liked firearms, so the cavalry did not exceed three hundred.But if it's just to interfere with the artillery firing, these people are barely enough.

Chen Xiongfei soon spotted the Qing cavalry approaching quickly.

Just at this time, the distance between the infantry on both sides is already very close, and it is easy to cause accidental injury with direct cannon fire.

He then ordered that only the mortars be left to support the infantry, and that all the six-pounders be replaced with shotguns, and that the three-pounders attack the incoming cavalry at the highest rate of fire.

At the same time, the hussars who were responsible for covering the artillery also moved. The artillery is a valuable asset of the Dragon Guards and cannot tolerate any loss.

Zhao Ju led the cavalry into scattered formations and rushed towards the artillery positions on the two wings of the Ming army, but was shot by three-pounders when they were still far away.

When the cavalry charged forward at high speed, the relative speed between them and the shells was extremely high, and even a three-pound gun could easily penetrate three or four people.

By the time they got close to about [-] paces from the cannon, they had already lost two adults.

The six-pound guns of the Dragon Guards roared at this moment, and sixty small iron balls weighing one or two burst out from the muzzles of each gun.Several artillery pieces cooperated to form a huge storm of iron balls.

Zhao Ju's men and horses immediately seemed to have hit an invisible iron wall, and nearly a hundred cavalry in the front row stopped abruptly from the high-speed forward state strangely.Some, together with the horse, flipped several times in the air on the spot.Some fell to the ground and only stopped after several feet.Some had their upper bodies shattered, while their lower bodies were still on horseback and rushed forward aimlessly.

Zhao Ju received the order to die, he didn't care about the loss, and led the remnant cavalry to continue to rush into the artillery position of the Ming army with blood-red eyes.With less than fifty steps left, it was too late for the Ming army to fire any more artillery. He had to kill these artillerymen to restore the decline!

But a strange scene appeared. The artillerymen of the Ming army jumped onto the horses that had been prepared and retreated neatly to the rear.The artillery of the Dragon Guards has now all realized cavalry artillery, and everyone is equipped with mounts.

Zhao raised more than a hundred cavalry soldiers to the artillery position, seeing the hundreds of artillerymen fleeing in the dust, and looking at the pile of cannons that could not be cut or moved, he suddenly looked confused.

Behind them, the hussars of the Dragon Guards had completed their formation, and the short guns were loaded with ammunition and tightened, waiting for the order to charge.

　Thanks to the weather organic phosphorus, book friend 20171215035921932, Lin Zhishan Fantasia for generously rewarding me. The recent update is not timely enough, and I am very touched by your support. My cold is more than half healed.Really thank you so much!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)