This place is called Wulong, and it is one of the few places on the banks of the Kelan River where the terrain on both sides of the river is very flat.

Stationed here was a French mercenary brigade of 4,000 men, with a total strength of nearly 5,000, and the flat terrain helped them to cross the river after building a bridge and quickly reach the opposite bank, joining up with the French legions on the east bank, taking advantage of the knights on the flat terrain, and encircling the retreating Ming army.

Most of them consisted of Swiss, Germans of the Holy Roman Empire, and two brigades from France itself, one Swiss mercenary and one German mercenary.

Times have changed, and everyone is moving with the times.

The Swiss Brigade was a mountain infantry unit consisting of muskets, spears, and halberds; The German Brigade was a field infantry unit that also consisted of muskets, spears, and two-handed broadswords.

Among the latter, the two-handed great swordsman was called Dubler Samurai, Dubler means double salary, and the base establishment was four hundred, which was generally translated as a company in later generations, in fact, the word was closer to the meaning of small flag in the German of this era, indicating that so many people could have one flag.

Each banner consisted of a hundred Tubler swordsmen, spearmen, halberders, and musketeers, and was created against the Swiss legions employed by the Holy Roman Empire against the Kingdom of France.

At that time, the Swiss used two-handed broadswords, so they also used two-handed broadswords; The Swiss wear cut-out suits, so they also wear cut-out suits. But then the Swiss were limited by cost and replaced the two-handed greatsword with a halberd, and they were still using the two-handed greatsword and creating a more contemporary two-handed greatsword.

The spear was a foot longer, the sword an inch longer, and then the spear grew to its current size, and the two-handed broadsword would be stabbed into a sieve no matter what.

In the end, due to poor finances, the Tubre warriors, who had left the empire to find their own way out, became the main force of the Kingdom of France, and were active on the battlefield against the great-grandson of the founder, Philip II.

This has to mention the French military thinking of mercenaries, they believe that one mercenary is equal to three people: the French ** team has one more person, the enemy ** team has one less person, and one Frenchman can be put back into production.

The commander of the camp was Charles, Count of France, nicknamed the Warrior, and all the Swiss and German commanders were under his command, and his mission was to bring the troops to the city of Vélières to the east as soon as possible, but he was distressed by the attack on the supply troops.

The Ming army, which was no more than 100 men, attacked the supply team for some reason, destroyed clothing and food, and pushed shells, armor, and weapons into the river.

Muskets, armor, food, these consumables are better said, they are just things to repair and replace, not to mention only the part that has been destroyed, if the war is short, maybe not needed at all, and if it lasts for a long time, they will have the opportunity to let another batch be transported later.

The biggest headache for the Earl of Charles was that the Ming army blew up a cart of gunpowder that he was responsible for transporting.

The Gunpowder Preparation Office in Paris was eager to brush the bishop's bald hair again, so that he could make up 900 pounds of gunpowder by buckling the rope in addition to the needs of the naval battle.

Those troublemakers didn't know that more than 900 catties of gunpowder were the great results of how many times good men and women prayed in the church!

But this great achievement was lit by the Ming army on the bank of the Crane River, and a big flower was released.

"Tell the commander of the mercenaries that to cross the river, I need to take out all the gunpowder and blow up this bridge, the nearest bridge is far from here, unless the Ming army is marching faster than us, they will be deeply surrounded, once they are found."

The Count of Charles said to his servants: "With less than two thousand troops, they will have no way to escape, and it is time to gather the troops." ”

It took only four days for the French to build a bridge over the Crane River that could accommodate the passage of troops and carts, a feat that the count considered unparalleled.

Although some soldiers suffer from frostbite from the river water in winter, and many more suffer from snotty noses during field combat during the season, this is a price to bear.

The construction of the bridge was in its final stages, and this morning, the two cars whose axles had broken due to the rapid march had been repaired, and everything seemed to be in order, and by late evening his entire army would be on the other side within an hour.

This is very lucky.

If it drags on for a few more days, this army of nearly 5,000 men will be scattered into a dozen small units scattered around to collect and replenish; If it drags on for two more days, it will become more than 30 squads to go to villages farther away to requisition to make up for food consumption; If the requisition is delayed for another three days, a legion of modern form will degenerate into dozens or even hundreds of medieval detachments, which will go deep into the villages to plunder.

Collecting, requisitioning, and plundering are the three inevitable steps of the army fighting a war against the locality in this era, and in many cases even parallel.

Anyway, if you don't grab the enemy, you will rob it, so it's better to grab it yourself and destroy the enemy first.

People always have to eat.

But Xia Er didn't know that on the nameless low hill not far from the north and west, a group of sentries left there had been targeted by the Ming army who were carrying a bird gun to the top of the mountain, and Xu Jin of the hundred households dropped the only rotten cross bow in his hand in his hand, and waved his subordinate general flag Ma Bole led two teams of small flags to raise a tiger squat cannon and quickly advanced under the cover of the bird gun team to nail the lead.

The enemy soldiers in the earth-made watchtower on the nameless hill had spotted them and screamed in horror, and the infantry under the tower raised their spears, the archers on the tower lit the fire rope, and a steel crossbow was placed on the low wall and shot at them, the distance between the two sides was so close that they could almost run a few steps into the range of the white-knuckle battle.

The tail end of the barrel is cast and welded with the bird gun of the world's Taiping four characters to be fired with a row of guns, and the flag army nailed under the tiger palm cannon nail with a wooden mallet was shot by a crossbow arrow, and the body was knocked back half a step, and the face showed a confused look in an instant, and the next moment on the front half a step and then dropped the wooden mallet, and the half-squatting flag army behind its side has ignited the tiger squat cannon.

There was a loud bang, the smoke of gunpowder was filled, and the scattered shots of the laser pierced through and nailed to the watchtower.

Fifteen Beiyang flag soldiers, with an average weight of more than 130 pounds, raised their guns and charged the crumbling French watchtower with a three-talent formation under the leadership of the small flag officer.

Xu Baihu, who was holding a knife in one hand and a bird gun in the other, sighed from his nose, looked at the chaotic French camp under the low hill, and shook his head.

The French in the camp apparently heard the sound of the artillery, and shouted in a disorderly manner through the camp, and some people looked around with flags, and finally all eyes were fixed on their low hill, and they raised their hands in horror.

Xu Jin stood upright, watching the little flag officer holding the flag climb up the sentry tower: "These things are very good, but the movement is too big." ”