"Hold steady and wait until the enemy is close before firing."

A Portuguese officer shouted an order, and several mercenaries who could speak Chinese were in Tong Yizhen's team, helping to direct their bows and guns.

Soon, the artillery fire of the Ming army on the opposite bank also began to return fire.

Fausto immediately judged from the sound of the cannon that it should be about eight to nine pound cannons, probably six or seven guns.

No wonder these guys seemed so confident, he muttered in his heart, it turned out that they were equipped with so many cannons. But then he snorted coldly: "But what's the use of a cannonball that can only hit an earthen rampart?" ”

In order to defend this narrow stretch of water on the Pearl River, he had the earth ramparts piled up nearly eight feet thick, and with the power of eight to nine pounders, it was impossible to blast them apart in a day or two.

However, the firepower on his side could cover the enemy ships rushing on the river without any obstruction, and the battle could be ended in two or three hours at most.

He turned again and ordered his adjutant, "Send a signal, let the gunboats lying in ambush on either side prepare to attack, and it is better not to let an enemy army ashore." ”

"Yes, sir!"

……

Just over ten minutes before the Ming army on the east bank began to force the crossing of the Pearl River, in a bush on the west bank, Zhang Jiayu finally saw the hour and minute hands turn to the position where he was waiting.

He folded his pocket watch and put it in his breast pocket, waved to the herald, "Let's go." ”

"Yes!"

His order was quickly passed on, and then, more than 900 Dragon Guard soldiers quietly set off in unison, quickly attacking Tong Yizhen's defensive line.

After they had walked one or two hundred paces, the boats crossing the river on the opposite bank began to be launched, and after a while, they finally heard the sound of artillery from the Cantonese position.

This kind of extremely accurate military operation at the same time is probably the first time in the Ming Dynasty, you know, in this era, the difference of an hour before and after the war is almost negligible.

I think that during the Battle of Sarhu, it was because several Ming armies failed to reach the position at the same time that they gave Jianyu a chance to break through. At that time, if they also provided their officers with standard pocket watches like the Dragon Guard, supplemented by appropriate tactical arrangements, and attacked from multiple sides at the same time, they would have relied on numbers alone, and Nurhachi would never be the opponent of the Ming army.

Ten miles is less than twenty minutes for the all-mule and horse-driven Dragon Guard.

The light of the Portuguese cannon clearly marked his location, and Zhang Jiayu estimated that the distance was almost there, and immediately said to the herald: "Implement the A-word plan." ”

"Yes!"

……

Fausto was satisfied to see through the cracks in the smoke of gunpowder that all kinds of boats and boats in the middle of the Pearl River had sunk to the bottom one after another, and a large number of gunboats on both wings had gradually formed an encirclement trend, and it seemed that it was really difficult for the enemy to have a single soldier on the west bank.

But he always felt as if something was missing, what was it?

He was contemplating when he heard a few gunshots faintly behind him.

What the? Could it be that the soldiers of the baggage battalion went off? He frowned and turned his head to look, only to see a Cantonese cavalry running over in a panic, shouting hoarsely: "Sneak attack!" There are enemy troops sneaking up on the flank! ”

How can it be?! Fausto was shocked when he heard this, all the 4,000 Ming troops were on the other side of the river, and he had been keeping an eye on it at all costs in the past few days, where did the enemy get his troops to sneak attack?

He instructed his adjutant to bring the summoned cavalry to him, and asked sharply, "How many enemy troops are there in the sneak attack?" ”

The cavalryman listened to the interpreter's inquiry, and hurriedly said: "The sky is a little dark, I can't see clearly, there seem to be hundreds of people." ”

"Under what banner?"

"They only have a blue background, and they don't see the font size. Oh, by the way, these people are dressed all sorts of things, but they have a lot of firecrackers. ”

Fausto bowed his head and pondered, there is no unified military uniform, and the banner is chaotic, could it be that it is a chaotic people?

He turned to look at the Ming army's river-crossing fleet in the river, which had been surrounded by gunboats, and it seemed that it should only be a matter of time before it was all annihilated, so he ordered the adjutant, "Nunez, order our people, turn around and form a formation, and clean up these blind chaos." ”

He also remembered that in order to resist the Ming army's beach, almost all his mercenaries were fighting with arquebuses, and it would take a lot of time for the spearmen to change weapons.

He said to Nunez again: "Let General Tong set aside eight hundred sword shieldmen and spearmen to cover our men on both sides." ”

"Yes sir!"

As soon as the herald turned to leave, Fausto suddenly heard several loud thunderous noises from behind his line, and his face turned a little black—it was clearly a cannon of about six pounds, how could a rioter have such a thing.

He didn't care to figure out who these people were, but it wasn't a good thing that there was a group of enemy troops armed with cannons behind him.

His earthen ramparts were used to defend the Ming army from crossing the river, and there was only a row of wooden frames on the west side for the gunners' combat power, and it was defenseless against the artillery bombardment behind him.

A few shells accurately smashed into the crowd of Cantonese troops huddled behind the earthen ramparts, and a ghost crying wolf howl was immediately heard in the entire fortification.

Fortunately, the Portuguese mercenaries were experienced, and they could still be calm in the face of sudden shelling, and by the time the sneak attack Ming army opened fire for the second time, they had barely formed a five-row musket phalanx.

The Cantonese army, which was just covering for them, was so frightened that they lay on the ground, and it took a long time to gather two or three hundred people.

A shell whizzed from the west and hit a twelve-pounder gun still firing into the river. Bento turned his head slowly in fright, watching his loader slap in the chest with the blasted cannon body and internal organs gushing out of his back, but the dim light of the early morning made him only see the flickering fire in the distance.

He immediately raised his throat and shouted: "Infantry, where are the infantry?" Cover us! ”

His voice reminded Fausto that if the enemy was allowed to shell like this, his position would soon collapse, and there was no need to wait for Tong Yizhen's soldiers, who had little combat strength anyway.

Regardless of whether they were rebels or whatever, they were all Orientals, and as long as their musketeers rushed over and fired a few rounds of guns, they should be able to break them up.

Thinking of this, he immediately said to Nunez: "Surprise the enemy's artillery!" Fast! ”

"Yes, sir!"

Immediately drums and bagpipes sounded, and the Portuguese mercenaries marched to the west with muskets in hand. Seeing this, the Cantonese troops on both sides who were responsible for covering them had no choice but to follow hard.

When the back of the mercenary phalanx was already a little blurred, suddenly a sentry boat came from the center of the river desperately rocking its oars, and when the boat leaned against the shore, several sailors quickly jumped off the boat and ran towards the position of the Cantonese army, waving and shouting.

Fausto frowned and looked at the interpreter on the side, "Song, what did they say?" ”

They said...... There was no one in those boats on the river...... It's all military sacks......

Fausto's head buzzed, no wonder he felt that something was missing, and he remembered - voice! The "enemy soldiers" who fell into the water on the Pearl River did not let out a scream.