Although the cavalry of the Qing army held back the hollow formation of the Ming infantry from afar, which made Wang Xinyu feel a headache, but in the confrontation, the Qing army general Guerjia felt a headache even more. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The long-range stragglers and the artillery arranged in the rear were the key to the fight against the Qing army's Eight Banners cavalry. Every time the Eight Banners cavalry got a little closer, it would be accurately shot by the rifled guns of the Ming army's stragglers, and it would also be bombarded by artillery, and dozens of people were killed every time they approached. If this harassment happens a few more times, I am afraid that a thousand cavalry will be lost.

In fact, the horsepower of the cavalry is not unlimited, even if it is one person and two horses, but a horse carrying a person can only gallop for two or three kilometers, and then it is necessary to change horses. After changing horses, after running another two or three kilometers, this horse was tired of running, and the other horse had not rested enough to pull up and gallop quickly. If they were all let go to run, there would only be cavalry of the Mongol Empire in their heyday, with three horses per person, or even five horses per person, and six horses in rotation, and the marching speed was 180 to 200 li a day.

The Eight Banners cavalry of the Qing army stationed in Wuchang could not do one person and two horses, after all, war horses are delicate animals, in the lack of forage, the climate is hot in the south of the Yangtze River, it is not an easy thing to raise a horse, raising a horse, the consumption of food and silver is far more than the cost of raising a soldier.

Jiangnan is no better than the grassland, and the grassland is not afraid of a lack of horses at all. In the south of the Yangtze River, there is also a special person to serve the war horses, and when the weather is hot, the horses must be bathed and showered; Not only did they have to drive the horses to the river to eat fresh grass, but they also had to deliberately cut the grass to dry it to make hay for the horses to eat, and in addition to this, they also had to feed the horses with food such as beans.

The cavalry of the Eight Banners of the Qing army slowly circled around the hollow array of the Ming infantry from afar, and the key was to dodge the shells that fell at any time, and every time they dodged the shells, the consumption of horsepower was very large. Moreover, the Qing army did not dare to approach the Ming army's formation, even if the Ming army showed flaws and had to charge from a distance, it would not only give the Ming army enough time to form a formation, but also consume the Qing army's own horsepower, and such a confrontation would not outweigh the losses.

The artillery roared on the battlefield outside the entire Wuchang city, and several other Ming troops broke through the defensive positions of the Qing army, killed in front of the trench, first threw a grenade, and then launched a fierce hand-to-hand combat with the Qing army, seizing the position of the Qing army.

Under the fierce offensive of the Ming army, the Qing army's defense line was constantly torn apart, and it was about to face the fate of collapse on the whole line. The front line of the Ming army was directly aimed at the large formation of the Eight Banners New Army in Tuhai, and the green battalions on the periphery retreated on the whole line, seeing that the Ming army was about to control the peripheral positions, and the heavy artillery could be pulled up to directly bombard the positions of the Eight Banners New Army.

A Qing army leader pointed to the red Ming army banner rising on the distant position: "My lord, our army is about to collapse on the whole front, if we don't fight, I'm afraid that Lord Tu's side will be in danger!" ”

Another Qing soldier said, "My lord, we must not act rashly!" The thieves and infantry are in formation, and if we use cavalry to attack Minggou's tight infantry formation, I'm afraid we will suffer a big loss! ”

Gualga pointed to the dust flying in the distance: "The cavalry of the thieves has won and is coming to us!" Our army's horsepower consumption is extremely high, if we are rushed to the front by the Ming dog cavalry, we will suffer a big loss! Instead of waiting for death, it is better to fight to the death, if we can annihilate the bright dog in front of us, we can also retreat into the defense line to resist the thief cavalry! ”

At this time, the dragoons of the Ming army had just annihilated a group of fleeing Qing cavalry, and found that the Ming infantry in the Chijia Village position was pinned down by the Qing cavalry, and the Ming dragoons were rushing in this direction.

The Qing army leader who was the first to speak pointed to the infantry formation of the Ming Army: "Minggou has no pikemen, only 3,000 self-generated firefighters, if we can rush to the front of the formation, our army can easily break through the enemy formation!" ”

Guerjia gritted his teeth: "The whole army is attacking!" Rush! ”

"Kill the barbarian!" Less than 1,000 cavalrymen of the Eight Banners all flew on their horses, whipped their horses, shouted in their mouths, brandished sabers and bows and arrows in their hands, and launched a fierce charge against the infantry hollow formation that seemed to be a thin Ming army.

"Skirmishers shoot freely!" The Ming army, who was in charge of commanding the stragglers, gave the general order.

The Eight Banners cavalry was still one hundred and fifty steps away from the Ming army's hollow array, and in the hollow array, more than 100 Ming army stragglers raised their rifled guns in their hands and aimed at the Eight Banners who galloped on horseback. The skirmishers pulled the trigger one after another, rifled guns spewed fire, and white smoke rose from the middle of the hollow array, and a row of bullets rained down on the Qing cavalry.

More than 100 rifled guns were fired, and the accurate and powerful bullets knocked off the horses of more than 30 Eight Banner cavalry, and a thick blood mist rose from the crowd of cavalry of the Qing army.

Twelve three-pounder guns that could fire rapidly, Peng Chun, and a row of solid shells smashed into the crowd of Qing troops, knocking down more than 40 horses in an instant. Although the bombardment of rifled guns and artillery caused the Qing cavalry to lose more than 70 people, the Qing cavalry of nearly 1,000 people did not retreat, but rushed to the Ming army's hollow array without hesitation.

Seeing that the Qing army had entered the effective firing range, the mortars and howitzers that had not fired shells at the Qing cavalry had opened fire, and the shells with fire drew arcs in the air, like a meteor rain of fire, smashing into the Qing cavalry and horses.

"Blossom Bomb!" Gualja's heart sank.

Those shells with fire are naturally flowering shells, because when the flowering shells are flying in the air, the burning fuse emits a bright light, and the shells drag a line of fire. Guerjia had also learned the power of flowering shells, and knew that once these shells fell into the herd, they would bring heavy losses to the Qing army.

"Boom" explosions rang out one after another, and the shells either fell to the ground and exploded, or turned into a fireball in midair. This is related to the cut of the fuse, some of which are cut short, and they explode in mid-air; In some cases, the fuse was relatively long, and after the shell landed, it rolled a few times before exploding. These flowering shells, which are designed to kill people, are filled with iron balls. The cannonballs exploded, and countless tiny lead bullets flew out like raindrops, hitting the charging Eight Banners horses head-on.

"Fifty steps left!" Guarda shouted.

The cavalry of the Eight Banners stretched out their bows and arrows, and with the help of the momentum of the war horses, they shot a row of light arrows on the horseback.

Rows of feathered arrows flew into the sky, pulled out an arc, and pierced the Ming army's hollow array. At the same time, a row of gunfire rang out on the periphery of the Ming army's hollow array, and the smoothbore gunners who had already held their breath opened fire one after another, and the bullets drilled into the crowd of Eight Banner cavalry fifty paces away, knocking down the Eight Banners soldiers from their horses.

The feather arrows shot by the Qing army also fell into the Ming army's formation at the same time, and most of the arrows were blocked by the armor on the Ming army's body, and only a few unlucky Ming soldiers were hit by arrows in their arms and legs, and some arrows fell from the human face door.