The chariot played an important role in the Later Jin and later Manchu Qing Dynasty's entry into the Central Plains, and was a secret weapon against the Ming army's firearms. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

However, after the Manchu Dynasty replaced the Ming Dynasty, the rulers, in order to make the "country forever", for reasons of secrecy, erased as much as possible from the historical books the chariots that had left traces in the Ming and Qing wars, and always advocated that riding and shooting was "the foundation of Manchuria and the priority of the banner people", and the Qianlong Emperor even claimed to insist on riding and shooting for decades. In the process of compiling and revising the "History of the Ming Dynasty" and other historical books, the Qing army was described as an army that relied on heavy cavalry and elite infantry to fight, and it was only by relying on "skillful archers and horses" and "brave and fearless of death" that it achieved a comprehensive victory over the Ming army.

In the famous Battle of the Hunhe River, the Houjin army relied on the chariot to approach the Ming army, shoot at the Ming army at close range, and then defeat the Ming army in hand-to-hand combat. Prior to this, the Eight Banners Army's long-range archery, cavalry assault and cavalry attacks on the Ming army had failed to defeat this Ming army. Therefore, because of the pivotal position of the chariot, Nurhachi even set a military order of "if there is no chariot in the face of the enemy, do not go to battle", and some generals were even punished for not carrying chariots in battle.

However, in the Huang Taiji period, because the combat effectiveness of the Ming army declined sharply, there were only a handful of troops that could rely on firearms and the Houjin army to carry it head-on, and most of the time, the Ming army could be defeated only by bows and arrows and charges, and the military order of "if you have no chariot in case of the enemy, do not go to war" was slowly forgotten.

Abatai had been in the army longer than his younger brothers, and when he followed Nurhachi to the north and south, he witnessed the great role of the chariot. The cart made of thick wooden planks covered with cowhide and iron sheet composite "small bricks and stones do not move, large bricks and stones roll down, and firewood is not burned", has a strong defensive power, in the absence of artillery, the cart is enough to resist the shot of birds, cover the army to advance to a closer distance, and defeat the opponent with bows and arrows. Although the hurried cart has no cowhide and iron sheet, and its protection is reduced, it is not to be underestimated when it is covered with a quilt splashed with water and stacked with sandbags.

After the preparations were made, the offensive began.

The sound of desolate conches sounded, and the dense carts were pushed out, moving to the opposite side in the "rumbling" sound of wooden wheels rolling, followed by lightly armored or unarmored foot archers, followed by armored cavalry, maneuvering their horses to move slowly forward in broken steps, and at the back were heavy infantry.

Huang Hansheng stared at these cars, although it was the first time he saw them, but at a glance, he knew that they were made to block muskets. He hesitated for a moment, and ordered the commander of the artillery battalion to be called.

The commander of the artillery battalion of the 1st Regiment was none other than the former Guangdong firearms battalion garrison Zuo Wuwei. After he was captured in the Battle of Bosuke, he chose to join the escort team at that time, relying on excellent artillery skills, coupled with the guidance of Portuguese instructors such as Wu Duowang, he quickly stood out, and made many achievements in previous wars, and rose all the way up to become the commander of the artillery battalion.

Huang Hansheng pointed to the countless carts on the opposite side and asked: "Tartar has changed his tricks, you are an expert in making artillery, tell me, how to fight, can guns deal with this thing?" ”

Zuo Wuwei raised the binoculars, took a closer look, and replied: "Commander, this thing may be able to block the musket, but the cannon can't stop it in any way." Not to mention a 10-pound gun, even a 6-pound cannon can be smashed with two guns. However, our 10-pound heavy guns are distributed in the four corners of the phalanx, and the firepower is not concentrated enough, and the 6-pound guns can only be hung and fired in the formation, and the effect is not as good as the solid bullets - you have to be mentally prepared, these things can't all be knocked out, and the Tartars are likely to take the opportunity to get closer, and then they will rely on the rifles and bayonets of the infantry brothers......"

Huang Hansheng replied with a serious expression: "The soldiers will block the water and cover the earth, so why not let them get close, just fight!" Go back to your job. ”

Zuo Wuwei saluted and turned back to his command position.

In the second group formation, Xia Nan also saw Tartar's actions in the telescope, and frowned: "Abatai is experienced, and his brain is not stupid, so he immediately thought of this method, it seems that Han Sheng is going to be tested." ”

Lin Weiye raised his binoculars and looked at these cars, and was amazed: "This is the Ming Dynasty version of the 'bulletproof car'?" It seems that the Tartars are not the legendary barbarians, and they still have a bit of brains. ”

Xia Nan snorted: "You look down on them, this is not the invention of the Tartar, it is said that this is the inspiration of the wild boar skin from the Ming army chariot camp." Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayou and other famous generals developed a car battalion of 'ring the car for the battalion, and the gun shelled the enemy', which was used to deal with the Mongols, and then it was copied by the Tatar cottage. ”

Wei Lianheng on the side said: "It's a pity that in order to prevent the impact of the cavalry, a hollow phalanx must be arranged, and the 10-pound cannons can't all be arranged in the front, otherwise the two-wheeled cannons will go down, no matter how many cars you have, they will be bombarded into slag." ”

"There's no way, the infantry can't grasp the initiative on the battlefield in the face of cavalry, so they can only be in a passive position." Xia Nan said regretfully, "If only we could pull out a few thousand cavalry, we can form a containment of the Tartar cavalry and protect the flanks at the same time, we can not have so many scruples, just put it in a horizontal formation, and bombard the damn one!" ”

On this side, the Joan navy was complaining about the limitations of the infantry, and on the other side, Abatai was troubled by the tightness of the opponent's infantry formation and the strength of the firepower.

Because the combat effectiveness of the Ming army in Guannai is declining, the Houjin army has not used a chariot for a while, and Abatai was forced out of this "ancestoral" secret weapon, which was also forced to be helpless. If a cavalry charge with a bow and arrow could directly settle the battle, why would he bother?

However, the opponent's seemingly distant and distant character formation has a fatal flaw. Abatai looked at the three huge phalanxes, and there was a hint of cunning in his eyes, whether he could defeat the opponent or not depends on this attack.

After a large number of carts slowly advanced for a mile, under the scolding of Niu Lu Zhangjing, they began to accelerate, and the coatings behind the carts had blue tendons on their foreheads, shouting the number and working together to push the carts to trot forward. The cavalry in the rear also slowly picked up speed and warmed up in preparation for the next all-out sprint. The sound of rolling wheels and horses' hooves mingled, like a muffled thunder in the sky, slowly approaching the position of the first regiment.

The gunners of the artillery battalion have already entered combat condition. The charge of the two thousand cavalry just now was just a warm-up, and this round of attack was the real test. Zuo Wuwei and the officers of the artillery battalion made rounds to check whether the various artillery groups were ready to fire as required, and from time to time the voices of officers rang out.

"The first two rounds of solid shells were fired, and each artillery group checked whether the ammunition type was correct."

"The enemy enters two hundred paces to fire shotguns, pay attention to replacing the shells in time."

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