The saddle-shaped mountain pass is located. Except for the hills on both sides, the mountain pass in the middle is relatively open and flat. There are two Fo Lang machines, two tiger squat guns, five nine-headed birds, and many cylindrical iron shells.

Thousands of enemies were lined up there.

There is a certain distance between each cannon, and in the middle are sections of temporary parapets. Behind the parapets are full of fully armed musketeers and grenadiers.

Of course, among these fully armed musketeers and grenadiers were also scattered a large number of new musketeers and grenadiers recruited by Yang Shen.

In this era, the use of firearms seems to be high-end and more complicated than bows and arrows, but in fact, the speed at which musketeers and grenadiers form combat effectiveness is much faster than training an archer.

In comparison, training a musketeer may be a little more difficult. After all, it needs to be loaded, tamped, aimed, and there is also the issue of accuracy.

Fortunately, after Yang Shen finished recruiting troops in Xuanfu, he obtained a batch of various types of shotguns and muskets commonly used in the border army from Yang Guozhu, the chief military officer of Xuanfu Town.

He also knew that Yang Zhen's future plan was to lead the Zhengdong advance battalion to use firearms as a whole, so he made some preparations in advance.

Although the number of these shotguns and muskets obtained from the Xuanfu army was not large, and they were all old matchlocks, three-eyed muskets, etc., it was better to have them than nothing.

From Xuanfu to Zhangjiakou, from Zhangjiakou to the grasslands outside the Great Wall, a journey of thousands of miles, during which they hid during the day and marched at night, many people became familiar with the few shotguns and firecrackers they carried with the army.

At this time, Yang Shen picked out those who performed well on the road and formed a rather large novice musketry team.

At this moment, these new musketeers had just taken their positions and each received a matchlock gun of their own. Their nervousness and excitement were palpable.

Each one of them was like a new recruit receiving his own rifle for the first time. He carefully tried it out, rubbed it repeatedly, and couldn't put it down.

Yang Shen, on the other hand, was busy shouting and arranging these novice musketeers in batches behind the defense line that Dunn had previously led.

As for the grenadier, the requirements are relatively low. As long as you have a lot of strength or a little courage, there won't be a big problem.

These brave new recruits under Yang Shen, all those who can follow him and march thousands of miles to this point, are the kind of men who lack neither strength nor courage.

After Yang Shen assigned the tasks, Ma Zhuang led 400 newly armed grenadiers and dispatched them to the grenadiers in charge of Li Lu and Pan Xi.

An old grenadier led four new grenadiers, forming a quick five-man combat team. Under some simple teachings from the old grenadier, the nervous novices followed suit and quickly became

Morale is high.

The enemy is approaching, the matches have been lit, and a new battle has begun.

The new battle was initiated by the Karaqin people, but this time, the offensive launched by the Karaqin cavalry became much more cautious.

The group of Karaqin knights walking in the front dismounted two to three hundred steps in front of the mountain pass. About two to three hundred people formed a dense arrow formation.

The Karaqin man in the front row held a scimitar in one hand and a round shield in the other. He crouched, hiding his body behind the shield, and moved forward slowly, turning his head from time to time to look at the top of the mountain on the left.

The Karaqin people behind them all held their bows and arrows, maintaining a dense formation with each other, and followed the sword and shield men in front of them to advance step by step.

Yang Zhen stood behind a temporary parapet built of earth and stone tree trunks at the mountain pass, holding an iron caller in one hand and a command flag with red background and black characters in the other, staring quietly at the mountain road ahead and the approaching people on the ridge in front of him on the left.

enemy.

Yang Zhen was not worried at all about the Karaqin archers who were marching slowly on the mountain road directly in front of the mountain pass in a dense arrow formation. As long as they entered the optimal shooting distance of their muskets, artillery, and flying generals, no matter how much

The men and horses came over and died in vain.

The problem that Yang Zhen was worried about was on the ridge in front of him on the left. There was a mixed team of Karaqin swordsmen, shieldmen, archers, and they were groping forward in a sparse area of ​​tall grass and shrubs on the ridge. They were about to touch it.

We arrived near the hilltop where the small group of musketeers led by Li Shouzhong was ambushing.

There is a saying that one learns from every adversity. The Haraqin cavalry was ambushed twice in succession. This time they gained a lot of savvy, made major adjustments to their tactics, and began to pay attention to coordination.

Yang Zhen was just thinking about the changes in the Karaqin people's offensive tactics when he heard a shout from the Karaqin people on the ridge in front of him on the left, and then launched an attack towards the mountain.

The Karaqin sentinel squad advancing along the ridge had apparently discovered Li Shouzhong's ambush and began to attack decisively.

After the Karaqin people on the ridge launched the attack first, the Karaqin arrow array on the mountain road suddenly let out a roar, and then quickly moved forward, rushing towards the mountain pass. The originally dense arrow array formation instantly

Became a little scattered.

They rushed forward about a few dozen steps, when another roar came out from the arrow formation, and then there was the sound of bowstrings, and the arrows shot into the air with their necks raised, crossing a beautiful path.

Parabolas landed dozens of steps in front of Yang Zhen's formation.

This is the Karaqin people's arrow formation testing the killing distance of the arrow rain.

Zhang Chen, Li Lu, Yang Shen, and Deng En, who were on the same line of defense as Yang Zhen, all turned their heads to look at Yang Zhen, seeming to be waiting or even urging Yang Zhen to give the order to fire.

Yang Zhen himself couldn't help but hold the whistle and flag in his hand tightly, resisting the urge to launch a counterattack in advance, but he still resisted, and just ordered the people hiding behind sections of simple parapet defense lines to lower their posture.

, hiding and waiting for the enemy.

For him, if he wants to counterattack, he must succeed with one strike. At present, the distance between the two sides is still far, and the enemy's arrows cannot be thrown to his own position, so his muskets, artillery, and flying generals may not be effective.

If it hits the enemy, it will not be able to exert its maximum effect.

Instead of wasting a wave of ammunition and having to reload the ammunition in a hurry, it is better to wait until the enemy enters the range where you can hit it with one hit, and then kill them in one fell swoop.

Yang Zhen gritted his teeth, endured it, and continued to observe.

Sure enough, after the Karaqin people's arrow array fired the first wave of arrows, another loud roar came from the arrow array, and the entire arrow array quickly moved into action, rushing forward dozens of steps, and then turned its back.

A second wave of arrows was fired.

What surprised Yang Zhen the most was that after the second wave of arrows was fired, the entire arrow formation did not stop, but continued to rush forward. While rushing forward, it continued to throw arrows on its back.

This strange sight surprised Yang Zhen for a moment. It turned out that Haraqin's cavalry archers could not only shoot bows and arrows at any time on their galloping horses, but also after dismounting from their horses, they could also shoot arrows at any time while running fast.

Draw a bow and shoot an arrow.

It seems that the Mongolian tribes outside the Great Wall have been able to dominate the grasslands for hundreds of years. Even today, they have sunk to the west and have lost their former momentum, but they still cannot be underestimated.

Yang Zhen saw the posture of the Karaqin people on the mountain road. He knew that the Karaqin people's general attack had begun, so he waved the command flag in his hand and blew the whistle in his mouth.

A shrill whistle sounded, and Yang Zhen's roar immediately spread: "Gunner! Grenadier! Fire! - Gunner! Grenadier! Fire!"

It was too late, but it was too soon. When Yang Zhen shouted the order, the second wave of arrows fired by the Karaqin people fell one after another. Some of them still landed on the uphill slope in front of the formation, and some of them had already hit the target with a clanking sound.

Yang Zhen and others were on the parapet.

The second wave of arrow rain did not cause much damage, but the third wave and the fourth wave arrived soon after, and most of them hit Yang Zhen's position.

Immediately, bursts of screams came, and many new musketeers who could not restrain their nervousness, holding muskets in their arms, wanted to stand up from behind the parapet to observe the enemy's situation. As soon as they stood up, they were hit by scattered arrows and squatted down screaming.

On the ground.

Some novice musketeers and novice grenadiers who were squatting behind the parapet, but some distance away from the parapet, were also hit by scattered arrows. They grimaced in pain and kept moaning.

Fortunately, this situation only lasted for a moment.

Following Yang Zhen's order, Dunn's gunners pressed against the parapet and fired each of the artillery pieces set up at the opening of the parapet.

The grenadiers under Li Lu also shouted, lit the flying generals in their hands, and threw them with all their strength.

The most important thing is that after Yang Zhen's order, the musketeers and grenadiers who had been ambushing the hills on the left and right sides of the mountain pass could no longer restrain their enthusiasm for killing the enemy.

The roar of artillery, the explosion of air generals, and the slightly monotonous and harsh sound of muskets suddenly became one.

The Karaqin arrow formation that was advancing rapidly on the mountain road towards the mountain pass had long ceased to be an arrow formation.

Their originally relatively dense formation dispersed in just an instant amidst the large quantities of lead bullets fired from the artillery and the roar of the air general's explosion.

The Karachin Sword shieldmen who were originally walking in front holding their shields were all killed or injured in the first wave of counterattack at the mountain pass position.

The buckler in their hands is, to put it bluntly, just a piece of harder wood.

The round shield made of hardwood boards was only covered with a layer of cowhide, and a few rivets that were very precious to the prairie people were nailed here and there.

Holding such a round shield, at a distance of a hundred paces, it may be able to block the arrows fired by the crossbow, but it cannot withstand the shot fired by the Folangji and the Tiger Crouching Cannon at all.
Chapter completed!