open sea

Chapter 728

In the early morning of the next day, the rising sun had not had time to emit its own heat, and the air was tinged with a rare tropical coolness, and the fog in the mountains and forests in the middle of the night finally seemed to dissipate.

Shao Tingda stretched his hips and stretched out his general's belly, breathing in the fresh air greedily. A cave not far away was emitting heavy steam smoke. The soldiers came forward with a wooden bowl in their hands and said, "Master Tiger, snake soup."

The soup was boiled in the cave by soldiers last night when there was fog in the mountains, and it was reheated in the morning. If it wasn't for the fog, no one would dare to light a fire to cook.

They were too close to the Western Army, so close that they didn't need binoculars and could see the smoke rising from the Herrera Legion's garrison just by looking from a distance.

Shao Tingda took the soup bowl, looked at the snake meat and chicken in the soup, took a sip with satisfaction, and said: "Last night, the scouts reported that the Westerners sent two teams to the Taniguchi to the west, and they should have found me, um... …It’s really fresh, and the big chicken here tastes good in soup.”

It can be foreseen that in the future, the Ming army will live a splendid life in this post, and the products will be very rich. Half of the seven-day military rations they brought with them have not been eaten up to now, and it is basically impossible to encounter a disaster year.

The cost of the garrison here is [-]% lower than that in Nanyang. Of course, this is the case of not fighting the aborigines. If the war with the aborigines in Peru is like Spain, the cost will be ten times higher.

When the war is over, he will find some relatives from his hometown to set up a chicken farm. Although the big chickens here can fly, they have more meat and longer feathers... No, in the future, there will be six guards around Mexico, each All households must raise chickens!

"Time is running out, why don't they do it?"

Mang Zong felt wise to quickly move his army to the southwest of Herrera's garrison. Taking this opportunity, their army passed through the dangerous area in one day. The scouts saw.

The situation is different now.

They have passed through the dangerous area. Although the artillery is placed on the other side of the mountain and lacks support, the cavalry of Heiyunlong has reached the southeast of Herrera. Although his station is only six or seven miles away from the Western Army, this area is very small. deceptive.

They were surrounded by mountains to the west and mountains to the south. Just as Herrera suspected, even if Shao Tinda switched positions with Herrera, he would think of the enemy army in the valley to the west instead of looking at the mountains here.

"Chief soldier, the major general found the enemy's movement on the mountain, please go up!"

Before the soup was finished, Shao Tingda quickly swallowed the meat of the soup base, handed the wooden bowl to the soldiers and walked quickly up the mountain.

Because of the terrain, although they don't need to climb too high, their own camp is higher than Herrera's garrison on the plain. The craftsmen of the Ming army built a simple watchtower on the mountain, and the sick children led the scouts on the mountain. Monitor the movements of the Western Army.

When Shao Tingda boarded the watchtower, the sun had already begun to heat up. Although the cotton military uniform was breathable, the first-instance armor was still very dry.

"Father, nearly a thousand of them scattered out of the camp and headed west."

Shao Tingda took out the agarwood binoculars and looked in the direction pointed by the sick seedling. He could only see the empty official road to the west of the camp, and the place to the west was blocked by dense jungle, so he couldn't see the enemy's movements clearly. .

"At this time, we still divide the troops. Now we have a greater advantage. They should be looking for us. The road to the west cannot go. If their army moves, we will go south of the camp."

Shao Tingda was still pointing out the strategy on the watchtower, when suddenly he saw smoke and dust rising from the west army camp in the distance, the north gate was opened, and a troop formed a square formation outside the camp, advancing forward through the plain and grassland beside the river bank.

The phalanx consisted of two to 300 people, square and square, with solid spearmen in the middle holding high heavy spears, and several layers of musketeers outside the spearmen could not see clearly because of the distance, but he could clearly see the four corners of the phalanx. The four small phalanxes seemed to be composed of musketeers.

There was a gap in the middle of each formation, and several teams of more than a dozen musketeers walked towards the woodland to the west, covering the two wings of the formation with heavy cavalry. Stand alone in a row——Shao ​​Tingda has played against Westerners many times, and this is the first time he has seen a representative Spanish phalanx.

Intimidating.

The most fundamental reason is that Shao Tingda didn't have a cannon in his hand, and his cannon was left on the other side of the mountain because it was difficult to cross the mountain. This made him beat his fist on the guardrail of the watchtower angrily, saying: "This kind of army formation, it is difficult to attack from behind. It's hard to get results, you need artillery!"

He only needed ten cannons, even if it was only a two-pound cannon. He could shoot through a phalanx with two vertical jumps, but he didn't have any cannons.

Without artillery, this kind of army formation can deal with enemies from all directions. Even if the cavalry attack from the back, it may not be effective. They can only fight in a regular confrontation... But Shao Tingda can't afford it, he only has such a small number of people.

The sick man also frowned, and asked, "Where's the tiger crouching?"

"Tiger crouching is no good, they are all wearing breastplates, at worst they also have cotton armor, hey!" Shao Tingda turned his head: "How many rockets do we have?"

"140 small flag arrows from the old system, 48 arrows from the general flag system; a six-linked launcher for the newly-made Shenwei mechanism arrows, and [-] rockets."

The so-called old-made small-flag arrows and general-flag arrows are rockets with arrow shafts that were installed in a single wooden barrel in the past, and the new Shenwei mechanism arrows are rockets with tail spins and no shafts after improvements by Zhao Shizhen and Chen Mu.

The new system has a longer range, and the power of the new rocket is similar to that of the old general flag arrow.

Shao Tingda turned his worries into joy: "That's okay, they stand so close together, some will fight."

Immediately following Shao Tingda, he found a problem: "Did they not stay in the camp? We can only see horses, why can't we see people?"

"Someone, my boy just saw a man who looked like a merchant passing by, but he didn't see anyone with a weapon."

Shao Tingda nodded slowly, and said: "I'm afraid we'll have to fight this battle. Old Hei's cavalry is probably useless against this hedgehog formation. No matter how many native troops there are, it will be difficult to win against this thing. Send an order to the soldiers We are going to break out of the camp, let's go to the south of their camp first."

"These flag bearers stay on the mountain. You go to command the hundreds of households. I am here to watch the enemy's movement. Everything is under my command of the flag. Don't go into battle blindly. You have to wait for the enemy's cavalry on both wings to dispatch before attacking the camp."

"If they are lucky and they are fighting not far from the camp, they can spread divine arrows on the wall of the camp, and shoot them at the enemy's phalanx after the infantry approaches, killing and wounding the enemy, and the gunpowder will disrupt their square inch."

Seeing that the sick young man clasped his fists in response, Shao Tingda took a deep breath, raised his hand and patted him heavily on the shoulder, and told him: "Don't let go of the gun too early, the enemy army is standing very densely, and they are protected by armor. It is necessary to be the first to win!"

With a relaxed smile on the sick man's face, he said, "Father, don't worry, the child knows!"

(End of this chapter)