Ming Empire

Chapter 233 Jian Nu's Despicableness

During the meal, Cao Yue also told Huang Degong and others about some of his arrangements.

Cao Yue's current tactics are actually defensive, waiting for Jiannu to attack, this is not the way to take the initiative to attack.

Jiannu's cavalry is suitable for active attack, and the Ming army equipped with a large number of firearms, when the opponent is not equipped with these sharp weapons, defending the position will do more damage to the enemy.

Cao Yue knew that the Ming army he led could adopt the strategy of war of attrition and slowly attrition with Jiannu.But it is impossible for Jiannu to adopt the same method. After all, Jiannu is far from being able to compare with the Ming army in terms of logistics and military supplies.

The Ming army led by him relied on the prosperous south, and the boats on the canal and the chariots and horses on the shore could continuously transport food and various military supplies.The number of cavalry in the Ming army was not very large, accounting for only one-third of the total force, that is, about [-] horses.War horses consume a lot of forage every day. At this point, the supply required by the Ming army is much less than that of Jiannu.

There are at least hundreds of thousands of war horses built as slaves, and the fodder they need is an astronomical figure.

As hot weapons such as firearms gradually replace cold weapons such as bows and arrows, knives and guns, the role of war horses will gradually decrease, at least the era of dominating the battlefield will be gone forever.Before the emergence of large-scale mechanization, the role of horses was still quite large, but they were mainly used for transportation.At this point, Cao Yue thought farther than anyone else, so he didn't particularly care about the expansion of cavalry and the cultivation of war horses.

He is vigorously developing industry, hoping to lead the industrial revolution in the East, and have the opportunity to develop new gadgets such as steam engines. When trains and automobiles appear on this land, the role of war horses will further decline.

Cao Yue's main focus on logistics now is food and ammunition. These two points can ensure that he has nothing to worry about.

No matter how powerful Jiannu is in riding and shooting, and no matter how fierce the battle is, he doesn't even have a chance to show his fists in front of the guns.As long as there is enough ammunition, the soldiers don't have to worry about eating. Cao Yue believes that this battle is easy to fight.

Throughout the afternoon, Jiannu did not launch any more attacks, but Cao Yue knew that Dorgon would not give up easily and retreat. This ambitious man who actually controlled the power of the Qing Dynasty must be thinking after several failed attacks. The method of destroying the firearms of the Ming army.

What strategy will Dorgon adopt?Cao Yue is also thinking about it seriously.

Dorgon would definitely take the sneak attack at night, and Cao Yue already had countermeasures for it.In addition, it is very unfavorable to use rainy weather to launch attacks when shooting firearms. Cao Yue also expected this, and took the weather's influence factors into consideration when making firearms.Although it is impossible to completely eliminate the influence of weather, it can be greatly reduced.

In addition, Jiannu took advantage of the strength of his troops to adopt exhaustion tactics and consume the ammunition of the Ming army, so that the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty had no chance to have a good rest.Cao Yue has considered all these and has countermeasures.

What Cao Yue was most afraid of was the carelessness of the soldiers, who would relax their vigilance because of successive victories, giving Jiannu an opportunity to take advantage of.

In order to avoid such a situation from happening, he strictly ordered all ministries not to slack off in any way, and to maintain the highest vigilance no matter it is day or night.The layout of sentries must be reasonable and scientific, and the density of light and dark sentries must be so dense that not even a mouse can get in.

There are many traps to be set in front of the main position, so that Jiannu has no chance to take advantage of it.All the soldiers of the Special Guard Battalion who were directly assigned to the main army's operations were also dispatched to cause trouble for Jian Nu.In some places with dangerous terrain, there are also such pioneers buried, and they will immediately warn the police when they find the situation.Most of the Jiannu were only equipped with bows, arrows, knives and guns, and sometimes they had an advantage in numbers, but they couldn't help the Ming soldiers with powerful weapons such as muskets and explosives.

What Cao Yue thought of, Jiannu also adopted.

On the first night of the war, Jiannu really took advantage of the night to attack.But they didn't expect that the Ming army had already responded to this, with a bombardment as usual.The cannon fires ignited large fires in some places, and the bright flames produced by the explosion of the cannons illuminated the formation of the Jiannu attack.Despite the cover of the dark night, Jiannu's actions were more or less exposed to the eyes of the Ming soldiers.However, there was not much light on the Ming army's position, and it was difficult for Jiannu to figure out the strength and firepower configuration of the Ming army at night, and they were still the ones who suffered in the end.

But on the second day, Jiannu adopted another strategy that Cao Yue had never thought of.

Jiannu also tore off the mask of Manchu-Han affinity, and used a large number of Han people captured by them as human shields, and put them at the forefront of the attacking team. He wanted to take revenge and confuse the defending Ming soldiers.

Charge the people of the Han family to charge. If the Ming soldiers continue to shoot with muskets and artillery, the people will also be killed.

Seeing this situation through the binoculars, Cao Yue couldn't help feeling angry, as did the other generals watching the battle.The people of Huang Degong scolded Jiannu for being despicable and inhumane, but they didn't dare to make a decision easily, and they all waited for Cao Yue to make a decision.

Cao Yue looked at it with the binoculars for a while, and immediately made a decision. He raised the angle of fire, pointed the artillery at the Jiannu behind him, and spared the people in front and the Jiannu escorting the people.When the artillery is firing, find a way to encourage the people to flee and get out of Jiannu's control.

Although such an arrangement was made, Cao Yue knew that it would be difficult for these common people to escape from the battlefield and ascend to heaven.Even if the guns of the Ming soldiers did not kill them, the Jiannu who followed behind would kill them.No matter what, he would not let Jiannu rush to the front of the position, threatening the lives of the soldiers of the Guards, and ultimately lead to the defeat of the war.

Although the lives of thousands of common people are precious, compared with the victory of the war and the lives of tens of thousands of Ming soldiers, the weight is much lighter.

Cao Yue asked the soldiers to try not to shoot the people directly, just hoping not to put pressure and psychological burden on the soldiers.

Soon, hundreds of various artillery shelled Jiannu's attacking formation at different shooting angles and distances. Various shells, such as solid bullets and blooming bullets, carried clouds of black smoke, roaring towards Jiannu's Fly in the charge queue.And the soldiers of the Musketeer Battalion in the trenches also took their positions, ready to meet the Jiannu who rushed to the front of the position.

"Hellfire" has only one chance to be implemented. When the enemy and our armies are facing each other, it is difficult to have the opportunity to plant such a large number of explosives again, and it is impossible for the artillery to wipe out all the Jiannu. There will definitely be a large number of Jiannu. to the front of the position.To eliminate these Jian slaves, it is necessary to rely on the muskets in the hands of the soldiers.

The continuous bombardment of the artillery shrouded the entire battlefield in black smoke.Many people who were held hostage by Jiannu took this opportunity to break away from Jiannu's control and try to escape from the battlefield.But there were still a lot of people who didn't want to escape, and continued to rush forward under the escort of Jian Nu.

Soon, these people who were lucky enough not to be hit by the artillery entered the shooting range of the musket.

(End of this chapter)