The camp built on the mountain has been surrounded by Braha's army.
The soldiers of all ethnic groups who came to seek refuge were inevitably frightened and even panicked.
As the former hegemon of Central Asia, Bukhara has become extremely decayed, but it still retains its power at this time, and many ruled tribes dare not resist.
On the second day after the siege of the camp, Governor Mirza came to call for battle.
Liang Zhen observed it with a telescope for a moment, and immediately laughed: "It's this kind of army. Fortunately, we have few soldiers, and the enemy took the initiative to come to fight. Otherwise, it would be difficult to chase them if they were scared away."
Lei Zhiji was also observing the enemy troops and asked with a puzzled look on his face: "It has been more than a hundred years since the founding of Bukhara, but it has not learned how to fight on foot?"
Liu Qin didn't understand what they were talking about and asked, "Is there any loophole in the enemy's army?"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Liang Zhen and Lei Zhiji looked at each other and smiled.
Lei Zhiji explained: "The enemy has no real infantry at all, and they don't know how to form a large infantry formation. Their fire rifle soldiers, to be honest, are similar to our army's dragoons."
This is a puzzling thing. The empire that has dominated Central Asia for more than a hundred years does not know how to form an infantry formation.
It can be said that Bukhara's army is all cavalry.
Even infantry usually travel on horseback - only the regular army is discussed here, and the temporarily recruited tribal armed forces are not included.
At this moment, the enemy infantry came outside the camp and dismounted one after another and began to line up. To an outsider like Liu Qin, the formation seemed to be quite neat, but in Liang Zhen's eyes it was laughable.
Some people say that the Manchu troops were mounted infantry, but the Bukhara army in front of them was actually dismounted cavalry.
Moreover, although they were clearly equipped with a large number of muskets, they were not seen bringing artillery when they attacked the camp.
Lei Zhiji said: "It is a pity that our army is far away and did not bring chariots. Otherwise, if the chariot array was deployed, the enemy would not be able to get in."
"Not only tanks, but also not many artillery pieces." Liang Zhen said.
I didn't bring any artillery with a larger caliber. This time I brought all the squatting tiger cannons, because the squatting tiger cannons can be carried by two people.
Seeing that the Chinese army did not fight, Mirza finally ordered an attack.
However, Mirza did not use elite troops. After all, the Datong Army was famous and prestigious. He first used Uzbek tribal armed forces to find out the truth.
The Uzbek soldiers who were sent up were all from tribes further to the west and were relatively loyal to the King of Bukhara. They usually worked half-farming and half-herding, but now they were attacking the camp. They dismounted and moved forward, carrying scimitars on their waists and holding swords in their hands.
Bows and arrows, and some soldiers also had small shields on their arms.
On the Datong Army side, the camp of tens of thousands of people cannot be defended by only 3,500 Chinese soldiers.
Although the warriors from various tribes who came to seek refuge did not dare to fight in the field, they still had the courage to defend the camp. The two sides fired at each other across the wooden fence, causing casualties on each other, and the attacking side naturally suffered more casualties.
Mirza should be a veteran general. He asked the tribal soldiers to take turns attacking the camp. It seemed like a very stupid tactic to add fuel to the fire, but it was actually testing the defensive weakness of the camp.
Moreover, Mirza continued to mobilize troops, hoping to mobilize the defenders so as to find a breakthrough and launch a general attack.
But... the Datong Army has hot air balloons!
The four hot air balloons rose up, not to drop bombs, but to observe the entire battlefield from a high position.
The Datong Army's camp was originally built on the mountain, and the terrain was higher than the attacker's. With the use of hot-air balloons, the battlefield situation could be seen at a glance, and how the enemy deployed troops could be seen.
Mirza is located at a low place, and the camp is blocked by wooden fences. Many times we can only guess what is going on inside.
After fighting for a whole day, Mirza launched more than ten attacks, but Liang Zhen always easily resolved them.
As soon as any of Mirza's troops moved, Liang Zhen knew immediately and mobilized troops to defend in advance. Not only did it have the advantage of defending the camp, but it also often used more to attack fewer, and constantly accumulated partial victories.
Those tribal soldiers who came to seek refuge saw that Liang Zhen was commanding like a god. Although there were already casualties, their morale was getting higher and higher.
So far, the Datong Army has not moved and is always watching the battle as a reserve force.
Mirza's core elite did not move, because they were all heavy cavalry and musketeers, and he would not let these soldiers die in a tough battle.
After three consecutive days of fighting, Mirza's side suffered close to two thousand casualties, while the Datong Army's side only suffered more than three hundred casualties. They were all vassal troops of their respective armies. As long as their morale did not collapse, no matter how many casualties there were, it would not hurt.
On the fourth day, Mirza stopped fighting and chose to besiege the camp and surrounded the Datong army to death.
After all, the Datong Army came all the way and couldn't bring too much food. The tribes that came over couldn't have too much food. Even if they could plunder some along the way, they would be stuck in the camp for a month or two at most.
"The enemy generals are not fools. They have finally begun to besiege us," Lei Zhiji said. "This is the enemy's territory. The longer the siege is, the more troops there will be and we can continue to recruit soldiers. However, our military rations are getting less and less day by day.
Moreover, after being besieged for a long time, the morale of the tribal soldiers who come to seek refuge will also drop, and some may secretly defect to the enemy."
"Then let's fight." Liang Zhen said.
At this moment, a group of cavalry came from the southeast, numbering about 2,000 people.
But it was the Mingge tribe who rebelled, led by Mahmoor, who came to help the Datong Army fight. They had already rebelled, and they were the first to openly rebel. It was absolutely impossible to be forgiven, and they could only gamble.
With a handful, you might be able to survive from death.
"If you still dare to come, let's kill them together!"
Mirza was so angry that he sent out elite cavalry to kill the Mingge cavalry.
Upon seeing this, Makhmul immediately ordered to flee.
Although the Mingge tribe has two thousand cavalry, their equipment is terrible, and not many of them even wear leather armor. Such beggar-like light cavalry are suitable for flying kites, and they will run away if they can't win anyway.
"Leave the stronghold for a decisive battle!" Liang Zhen made a decisive decision.
When Mirza saw the Datong army's movements, he immediately ordered to recall the elite cavalry, leaving only three thousand light cavalry to continue chasing the Mingge cavalry.
Both sides have tens of thousands of troops, and there are particularly many nomadic cavalry. The entire battlefield stretches for nearly ten miles.
To be honest, I can't direct it.
Especially Liang Zhen, the tribal leader who came to seek refuge, could not understand the flag orders of the Datong Army, nor could he understand the military trumpets of the Datong Army. After being sent out, he could only fight on his own ability. Liang Zhen could not even think of being like an arm to those armies.
Use your fingers.
This war was particularly chaotic from the beginning.
The tribal cavalry faced off against the tribal cavalry, and they all wanted to preserve their strength. Looking around, they were all riding horses and shooting arrows at each other, and as the cavalry cruised, the battlefield area became larger and larger, and they were already more than ten miles apart - Mirza did not
The law commanded.
There seemed to be lively fighting everywhere, but there was never any close combat.
Just keep shooting arrows back and forth. If any tribe is at a slight disadvantage, they will immediately run to the edge of the battlefield, fearing that their tribe will suffer too heavy losses.
By the end of the fight, they were completely mixed up and turned into a big melee between tribes.
The generals on both sides ignored this and locked onto each other's elite main forces.
When the number of tribal troops on the central battlefield dwindled, Mirza finally began to dispatch his elite troops. Two thousand horse-mounted musketry infantry and five thousand light-armored horse archers rushed towards the 3,500 Datong army.
In front of the formation of the Datong Army, there are many horse-rejecting stakes, which were built by craftsmen from outside Andiyan City.
Mirza's order was to have the musketeers within shooting range dismount and shoot at the Datong Army. Five thousand horse archers also fired arrows at the Datong Army. After disrupting the formation of the Datong Army, the heavy cavalry was sent out to destroy the Datong Army.
"Tiger Crouching Cannon!"
More than twenty squatting tiger cannons were carried behind the horse-rejecting pile.
Due to the long journey, Liang Zhen did not bring any artillery shells, but only gravels obtained from Yingzhai Mountain.
A large amount of gravel is filled into the barrel of the gun. Such perfunctory ammunition has an effective range of less than one hundred meters. If the enemy is wearing cotton-iron composite armor, it will not be able to penetrate eighty or ninety meters, and it will only feel a lot of pain.
But this is enough, far beyond the range of muskets and horse bows.
About sixty or seventy meters away, the musketeers on the opposite side dismounted one after another. The horse archers continued to rush forward, and circled to both sides, intending to shoot at the Datong Army from the left and right.
"Boom boom boom!"
More than twenty squatting tiger cannons were fired, and gravel flew out all over the sky, hitting the musketeers who had just dismounted.
There were three to four hundred musketeers on the spot, and they were hit by stone bullets inexplicably.
Those who were hit in vital parts such as the head and neck fell down on the spot. Although some were hit, the stones may be relatively small. Those with minor injuries only felt pain, while those with serious injuries suffered fractures due to the stones.
At this time, you can see the morale. The morale of the Bukhara army is really not very high.
The artillery of the Datong Army was still reloading, but the Bukhara musketeers did not take the opportunity to rush forward, but collectively mounted their horses and began to retreat. Even in places that were not bombarded, the musketeers were retreating, as if they did not intend to fight the Chinese army.
If you can't even get enough military pay, why bother fighting?
The horse archers circled around the two wings, but before they could reach the range of their horse bows, the musketeers of the Datong Army began to fire a volley.
There was a burst of gunfire, and the horse archers retreated, leaving only more than a hundred corpses.
Mirza was angry at the soldiers' cowardice, but he did not punish him on the spot. Instead, he ordered two groups of tribal cavalry to be mobilized. He did not want his elite to fight in a bloody battle, and planned to use the tribal cavalry as cannon fodder while the Datong army was reloading ammunition.
Then he ordered the elite to seize the opportunity to rush and kill.
"Cavalry attacks!"
Liang Zhen suddenly dispatched his cavalry, sending out only 500 cavalry.
Instead of killing the Bukhara elite, they went to aid the tribal soldiers further away.
Seeing the Datong cavalry carefully passing the horse and running towards the battlefield on the left, Mirza was a little confused about the situation.
But he didn't bother to think too much. In Mirza's view, the biggest problem was the Datong Army, and the Chinese general was in the infantry formation. As long as the Chinese army was eliminated and the Chinese general was killed, no matter how many tribes were left to rebel,
He can be destroyed easily.
Cavalry battalion commander Lu Zhaoyun, leading five hundred Datong cavalry, accelerated immediately after passing the Juma stake belt.
The fight there has been reduced to a mess, and they are shooting indiscriminately. No tribe will be willing to fight hand to hand unless the opponent is shot to flight.
Lu Zhaoyun didn't care about this, he spotted an enemy army and immediately rushed over desperately. During the charge, more than ten Datong cavalry were shot off their horses by the enemy's bows and arrows, and more cavalry had arrows stuck in their armors.
In the blink of an eye, the Datong Knights rushed in, and the Uzbek tribe immediately ran away.
The nearby Tajik tribal cavalry immediately became more morale-driven when they saw this, and followed the Datong cavalry in pursuit.
Dozens of enemy cavalry were hacked to death along the way, and the pursued tribe turned and fled. However, Lu Zhaoyun moved forward in a straight line and rushed towards another group of enemies. After rushing that group of enemies to escape, the nearby Giljis cavalry also followed.
Not long after, more and more tribal cavalry followed Datong Xiaoqi.
The scattered tribal cavalry actually still want to fight. After all, they have rebelled. If they lose the war, they will definitely be settled by Governor Qiuhou. But they lack a backbone. Without a backbone, they must preserve their strength.
On the other hand, the tribal cavalry under Governor Mirza were usually exploited by the king. Their willingness to fight with the governor was their last act of loyalty to the king, and it was absolutely impossible for them to bleed for the king to the end.
Five hundred Datong knights, led by Lu Zhaoyun, continued to defeat enemy troops along the way, and were constantly joined by tribal cavalry.
At the end of the charge, only about 400 of the 500 brave cavalry were left, and nearly a hundred Chinese soldiers were buried here. But the tribal cavalry behind them had gathered in the tens of thousands, and with the Datong cavalry as arrows, no one dared to stop them along the way.
Mainly because of the previous big melee, all the tribes who followed Mirza to fight were scattered and unable to gather together for a while.
Mahmoor also took the Mingge cavalry and ran back to the battlefield in a circle. When he saw this, he couldn't help but admire: "What a brave warrior!"
The Bukhara light cavalry who were chasing Makhmul changed their faces drastically, and they were so frightened that they immediately fled towards Mirza.
The tribal cavalry behind Lu Zhaoyun gathered more and more, and finally rushed towards Mirza's main formation. More than 20,000 cavalry were killed in an overwhelming manner, and the heavy cavalry around Mirza were frightened.
As for the tribal cavalry who followed Mirza, most of them had fled.
"Mount bayonets, infantry attack!"
Liang Zhen personally led the infantry, inserted bayonets, crossed the horses, and marched towards the enemy in an orderly manner.
"Lord Governor, run away quickly, we have already lost!"
