For archers, if the enemy is still far away and only shoots at the enemy in long-range fire, as long as there are not too many casualties, then they can grit their teeth and continue to shoot arrows until they run out of energy.

But if you're facing an enemy in a charge, you're usually able to fire three arrows in a row, and you're basically done.

After firing three arrows, the enemy army had already rushed to within thirty paces, and if these archers continued to shoot arrows at this time, then what awaited them would definitely be a complete collapse of slaughter.

Therefore, at this time, most archers will abandon their bows and arrows and replace them with melee weapons such as swords, and begin to form close formations to participate in melee combat with other combat classes.

However, the archers who can do this are all elite archers in the cold weapon army, but these archers of the Ming army are obviously not linked to the elite.

It is also true that although the Ming army that crossed the river from No. 2 and No. 3 was their main force, these main forces were only guards and recruits.

The nearly 1,000 Ming troops who crossed the river from No. 3 were the guards who came from Linfu to reinforce Xingquan Mansion, and they had nothing to do with the elite for the guards in these inland areas.

Its actual combat effectiveness is not even as good as the three-month recruitment recruited by Song Zhiwen.

Dozens of people were killed and wounded, and they were faced with the charge of the heavy spearmen of the pseudo-Tang Thief Army, and they fled without any accidents.

In fact, even if they don't run away, it won't have much effect, even if they change to a waist knife to participate in hand-to-hand combat, but if they want to fight hand-to-hand with the spearmen of the pseudo-Tang Thief Army, it is almost impossible.

In the 16th century, the hoplites in full armor could still play a huge role, especially when the enemy was also a cold-armed unit, and these hoplites could almost become the core force on the battlefield.

Among hoplites, sword and shield soldiers are usually used for melee and siege, but in field battles, heavy spearmen are king!

Otherwise, the Spanish phalanx of this period, as well as a large number of modern armies, would not have used spearmen and musketeers to fight together.

The retreat of the Ming archers did not affect the formation of more Ming troops in the rear, and the generals of the Ming army who commanded the battle obviously expected that their archers would collapse, so they arranged for men to be in the rear of the archers in advance, and when the archers turned around and fled, they were guided to retreat from both sides of the Chinese army array, so as to avoid direct impact on their own Chinese army array.

The Chinese army array composed of up to seven or eight hundred people is the core used to block and even defeat the puppet Tang thief army.

But when these archers almost fled, what made the generals of the Ming army feel a little collapsed was that the spearmen of the pseudo-Tang thief army on the opposite side actually stopped at a distance of about fifty meters.

Their musketeers also stopped after advancing slightly further back than the spearmen.

For a while, the two sides seemed to have formed the same confrontation situation as before.

But this situation made the Ming army generals on the opposite side frown, although it was the first time he fought with these pseudo-Tang thieves, but in the past few months, the generals of Xingquan Mansion kept telling him how sharp the firearms of the pseudo-Tang thief army were, and said that the pseudo-Tang thief army relied on firearms to be sharp, and if he didn't take the initiative to step forward, the other party would shoot with firearms from afar.

The only way to win is to rush up and engage them in hand-to-hand combat.

But many generals of the Ming army also told him that the hand-to-hand combat ability of the puppet Tang thief army is also not bad, these puppet Tang thief army is equipped with a large number of spearmen, and even those musketeers will insert a knife in the muzzle of the gun to participate in hand-to-hand combat.

In this way, when fighting hand-to-hand, what you need to face is a dense forest of spears and guns.

Not to mention beating, just looking at it is enough to make people's scalp tingle.

On the other hand, the Ming army itself, most of the long-range firepower relies on bows and arrows, as for the handguns, that thing is too close, and it needs to be used at a distance of twenty or thirty meters.

Moreover, the power of the handcuffs equipped by the Ming army is too small, and the opponent's thick-armored units are not very effective.

As for the soldiers in hand-to-hand combat, the Ming army is still in the traditional era, and most of the soldiers are still equipped with waist knives, just simple light infantry.

It's basically a tragedy of being crushed by those heavily armed spearmen.

This is what others say a lot, and he pays attention to it.

But the more he took it, the more he knew the dangers of the day.

Especially when he saw that the puppet Tang thief musketeers on the opposite side were continuing to reload, he knew that the next round of musket salvos would arrive soon.

Can't wait any longer!

So, he decisively ordered the soldiers in the front row to attack, first test the reality of these pseudo-Tang thief troops on the opposite side, and if the casualties in the process of charging are not large, he ordered the whole army to charge.

He didn't believe it, his nearly 1,000 people couldn't beat this one, but there were only more than 200 people in front of him!

But not long after the soldiers in the front row moved, and before they could walk ten meters away, there were dense gunshots on the opposite side, and the soldiers in the front row who had just walked out fell down a full thirty or forty people.

And at this time, without his order, the time in the front row is to turn around and run away.

The guns of the puppet Tang thief army are so sharp, rushing up like this is sending them to death!

This battle can't be fought!

Seeing this scene, the generals of the Ming army who led the army were also decisive enough, and immediately ordered the whole army to retreat!

If you continue to fight in such a dark light, I don't know how many casualties will be killed, so wait for a moment and make plans after dawn!

Speaking of which, he is also helpless, he knows very well that if the soldiers under his command are all elite and do not retreat from the fight, they will definitely be able to win the battle if they rush forward at the beginning, after all, their own forces have a great advantage.

But are his soldiers elite?

Absolutely not, it's just a group of serf guards, and they can't be trained a few times a year, so it's good to let them pick up swords and guns and go into battle, and it's too reluctant to let them fight to the death.

Or, if he had a few cannons on hand, it would have changed dramatically, but he didn't.

The Ming army brought a lot of bowl-mouth cannons, but they were all made by Song Zhiwen himself, and some of them were assigned to the Lanjiang ferry to provide support for large-scale frontal crossings, while the remaining half was provided to the Ming army who crossed the river from the No. 2 ferry.

The Ming army that crossed the river from the No. 2 ferry was not a guard, but a recruit that Song Zhiwen personally trained for three months, and they were the main force in this river-crossing operation.

Speaking of which, the guards who crossed the river from the No. 3 ferry were just partial divisions to contain the puppet Tang thief army, and it was naturally impossible to get a sharp weapon like a bowl cannon.

The soldier's combat strength is not strong, his morale is low, and he has no sharp weapons to help him, if he does not want his soldiers to suffer heavy casualties, it is the wisest thing to do.

What's more, this retreat is not to turn around and cross the river back to the east bank of the Lanjiang River, they have already crossed the river, and it is okay to go from other places, as long as a large number of pseudo-Tang thief troops are contained, then the task will be completed.

The Ming army's initiative retreated quite quickly, Li Chunjing still wanted to pursue at first, but the physical strength of his own soldiers had been consumed a lot, and many spearmen were wearing thick armor, so there was no way to pursue too long, in addition, it was still night, and it was easy to have accidents if he pursued rashly.

In addition, Li Chunjing also knows his task, his task is not to annihilate these Ming troops, as long as these Ming troops are blocked and they are not allowed to approach the Lanjiang crossing, then most of the task has been completed.

Therefore, Li Chunjing soon stopped the pursuit, and only sent a small number of scouts to follow these Ming troops.

After the battle, when Li Chunjing and the others were still cleaning up the battlefield and counting the losses and achievements of the enemy and us, the heralds from the Lanjiang ferry also arrived here.

When he learned that there were already two teams of troops on the way to reinforcements, Li Chunjing was more confident, although the previous battle was fought in a hurry, and his side was also killed and wounded by their archers, but through this battle, he knew that these Ming troops on the opposite side were not very good.

With reinforcements of 200 people, he had absolute confidence to completely stop these Ming troops, or even annihilate them.

Compared with Li Chunjing's side full of confidence, Fang Xitong's side was much more worried, he received the order to take part of the road for half a day, the scout report in front of him showed that the army had all crossed the river, and the strength of the Ming army crossing the river was as high as 2,000 people.

It was more than half the thousand people he had expected.

What's more, they also found that these Ming troops were carrying a large number of bowl cannons and even some strange large shields and shield carts, and these large shields were the kind of large shields and shield carts that they found some time ago that the Ming army was prepared to use to resist muskets.

Although it is impossible to block the muskets of the Datang New Army at medium and close ranges even if these big shields and shield carts are strict, if they are broken through to within fifty or sixty meters by the Ming army without injury, then the deterrent power of the muskets will be greatly reduced, and then they will have to rely on the hand-to-hand combat of the two sides to determine the victory or defeat.

After learning the news of the scout's return, Fang Xitong knew very well that it was unlikely that his more than 200 people alone would be able to fight against the well-prepared more than 2,000 Ming troops.

He had to send the news back immediately while waiting for the reinforcements led by Hao Bonian to arrive.

It didn't take long for Hao Bonian, who was still on the road, to get the news, and he immediately said: "Immediately send fast horses back to the Lanjiang ferry and ask for reinforcements, well, and ask for reinforcements from grenadiers!" ”

As soon as Hao Bonian heard about the enemy's strength and armament, he immediately guessed that the Ming army that came this time must be the main force, and it was also the main force of the Ming army that was originally in the Lanjiang crossing.

This also shows that there are only some ordinary troops left in the Ming army that is still opposite the Lanjiang crossing.

At the same time, Hao Bonian also gave Fang Xitong an order, asking him to keep a proper distance from the Ming army and not to fight!

If Fang Xitong's more than 200 people rushed forward rashly, he was afraid that the more than 200 people would be eaten by the Ming army, and there would not even be any bones left.