The narrowest section of the river, about two miles long, naturally became the core of the battle between the two sides.
A large number of civilians carried earth and rocks on their backs, hid behind small shield vehicles, poured the earth and rocks into the river, and pushed forward bit by bit.
The fire cannon cannot penetrate the shield car covered with cotton armor, leather, and iron sheets, so the only choice is to bombard it with artillery. After the shield car is blown to pieces, and then fired with a salvo of fire cannons, the civilians can be defeated across the river.
"Top it again!"
Li Dingguo ordered a replacement team of civilians to come forward, and the fleeing civilians were temporarily pulled to the rear to rest.
In other sections of the river, attempts are still being made to build pontoon bridges, but it is almost impossible to complete the task. Only a small number of soldiers are stationed on the other side of each bridge building point to destroy the pontoon bridge at a critical moment.
Especially when there are tens of thousands of enemies, grenadiers are not enough, and pikemen also come as guest stars.
Anyway, we have enough ammunition. When the enemy's pontoon bridge reaches the shore, we will immediately throw thousands of enemies onto the pontoon bridge. After a burst of bombing, we will let the civilians go down to the river to demolish the pontoon bridge, and our artillery soldiers will provide fire cover.
In the end, all the nearby bamboo forests were cut down.
Thirty thousand people from Huoqiu County were recruited as migrant workers. Not only did they help demolish the pontoon bridge, they also built earthen walls along the river bank in the area where Li Dingguo filled the river.
Those earthen walls on the shore were similar to river embankments. Even if Li Dingguo filled up the river and led his army to rush over, Datong soldiers could still stand on the earthen wall for defense and attack the enemies coming from the other side from a high position.
If you defend it for a long time, you will lose it, and it will be impossible to defend against it.
Seven days later, Li Dingguo's cousin Ma Siliang led 6,000 cavalry and successfully crossed the river thirty miles away from the battle between the two sides. The terrain there was extremely complicated. The Shi River divided into three tributaries, each of which was relatively narrow.
Due to drought and low water, the shallowest tributary can only flood the back of a horse.
Ma Siliang's six thousand cavalry quietly crossed the main river overnight, and then crossed three tributaries.
"Bang bang bang bang!"
The Datong army stationed in that area quickly came to form a formation and shoot, but Ma Siliang ignored them. He lost more than 200 cavalry and war horses, and fled away with the remaining cavalry.
Nearly six thousand enemy cavalry came to the villages and towns behind the Datong Army, waiting for opportunities to cooperate with the main battlefield.
But this river network is too complicated. If they want to get close to the main battlefield, they have to cross a new river canal to fight... It is an artificial canal built by the gentry of the Ming Dynasty with funds raised. It is not very wide, but it is about ten meters. And the two sides of the canal
There are a lot of wheat fields and some rice fields, which are not very conducive for cavalry to move.
Lu Xiangguan, with only a thousand dragon cavalry left under Chen Tanggong, was sent to contend with Ma Siliang's 6,000 cavalry.
A large amount of heading wheat was trampled to pieces by cavalry from both sides. Huoqiu County, which was supposed to have a bumper harvest, is destined to have a reduced output this year, not only because of the trampling, but also because after the war broke out, farmers were unable to take care of the crops carefully.
The cavalry of both sides circled around that area, and neither one could defeat the other.
Although Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tanggong had few cavalry, they would retreat when in danger and could summon their own infantry for support at any time.
At this time, Li Dingguo divided his troops to cross the river.
Ainengqi led 30,000 infantry and a large number of civilians, moved 20 miles upstream, and tried to force a crossing under the cover of the cavalry that had already crossed the river.
Zhang Tieniu rushed over to intercept, but if he wanted to occupy the river bank position, he had to drive away the opponent's cavalry first.
6,500 regular soldiers and 1,200 dragoons faced off against 6,000 enemy cavalry by the river.
The river is still being filled on the main battlefield, and pontoon bridges are continuing to be built further downstream. But in fact, Li Dingguo has secretly led 10,000 elite troops to the upstream side to break through with all his strength. What remains on the other side of the river from the main battlefield is an empty camp.
A few days ago, when the cavalry failed to cross the river successfully, they mobilized too many troops of the Datong Army through repeated testing and wandering. Filling the river channels and building pontoon bridges in several river channels also hindered the mobilization of the Datong Army's forces. Now, the main force of the Datong Army has finally been given away.
Got it.
On the other side of the river, the Datong army sent out from Gushi County was suddenly driven away by Li Dingguo's large cavalry.
Although the Datong military sentry cavalry did not know what the situation was, they already realized that something was wrong. They fled several miles upstream and quickly crossed the river in a small boat to light up the smoke to report the news.
When Fei Ruhe saw the smoke, he immediately led his troops to support and handed over the original main battlefield to Huang Shun for defense.
…
Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tanggong each led 600 dragon cavalry and fired muskets at Ma Siliang's cavalry from the outside.
One after another, more than two hundred of Ma Siliang's cavalry were shot down. However, Ma Siliang did not dare to retreat. He had to cover the troops crossing the river and repeatedly harassed and delayed Zhang Tieniu.
Under this situation, Zhang Tieniu could only keep moving forward in formation. When he arrived at the upstream crossing point, the enemy had quickly built a pontoon bridge, and even tens of thousands of people had successfully crossed the river.
Ainengqi first asked the melee soldiers to form a formation to protect the pontoon, and the fire gun soldiers quickly crossed the river to assemble.
There were eight pontoon bridges in total, and Ainengqi's soldiers rushed to the other side with all their strength. The two sides suddenly changed the main battlefield, and neither of their artillery was brought, nor were the grenadiers of the Datong Army.
Finally, the battle began.
It's a head-to-head fight, and there's nothing fancy about it.
On Zhang Tieniu's side, 6,500 regular soldiers were deployed in formation, and 1,200 dragoons attacked from the outside.
On Ainengqi's side, more than 10,000 soldiers were in formation, more than 5,000 cavalry were roaming the battlefield, and more troops were crossing the river quickly.
Li Dingguo and Fei Ruhe came quickly with reinforcements.
Zhang Tieniu had a small ax stuck in his waist, pulled out his sword and ordered: "Light the match rope and speed up the formation and advance!"
The entire army began to trot, paying no attention to the local cavalry.
Ma Siliang took the opportunity to lead the cavalry to charge. With dozens of steps still left, the soldiers at the rear of the Datong Army quickly stopped and changed formations.
Two thousand Datong troops lined up in mandarin duck formation, with shields, wolves, spears, and spears ready to attack.
"Boohoo!"
The enemy cavalry began to fire arrows, and hundreds of Datong soldiers were hit by arrows, but only a few actually fell. Most of the arrows were blocked by shields and cotton armor.
Ma Siriang did not dare to charge directly into the formation, and led his cavalry to pass diagonally, trying to attack the 4,500 Datong troops further ahead.
Another 1,500 melee Datong troops formed a formation to cover the advance of 3,000 fire rifle soldiers.
Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong also came with their dragoons, but they only threatened and harassed them. They kept their ammunition and did not shoot.
The troops under Zhang Tieniu were divided into three parts, and the fire gun soldiers were completely unprotected by melee soldiers.
"kill!"
Ai Nengqi immediately seized the opportunity to fight, and instead of forming a formation to protect the friendly troops across the river, he led tens of thousands of soldiers and charged towards the 3,000 Datong fire gun soldiers.
The Datong fire gun soldiers stopped advancing and formed three rows, waiting for the enemy to rush over.
Ai Nengqi also had more than 2,000 gun soldiers under his command. When they reached the forty paces, they immediately lined up and fired their guns.
"Bang bang bang!"
A volley of fire cannons fired, and more than ten Datong fire cannon soldiers fell.
The remaining 10,000 melee infantry charged past the Fire Gun Soldiers. Because they were too fast, they could no longer maintain their formation. Anyway, 10,000 people charged against 3,000 Fire Gun Soldiers, and they were still 3,000 Fire Gun Soldiers. It didn't matter whether they were in formation or not. They rushed over.
You can kill them indiscriminately.
The Datong melee soldiers behind quickly ran to protect the friendly forces.
Ma Siriang led the cavalry to distance themselves, preparing to attack the Datong Army's formation again. Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong kept harassing Ma Siriang.
Forty steps, thirty steps, twenty steps...
Twenty steps, about thirty meters.
The accuracy of matchlock muskets is very low, and the misfire rate is close to 30. It is impossible to hit at a distance. The opponent fired at 40 steps, and more than 2,000 people fired. With the protection of cotton armor, only ten people of the Datong Army fell.
That's all.
Now at twenty steps, the distance is directly halved, and the hit rate is increased geometrically.
"Bang bang bang bang!"
"Bang bang bang bang!"
"Bang bang bang bang!"
In three stages of shooting, the enemy's troops in front of them were directly penetrated by the muskets.
A fresh trick that can be eaten all over the world.
At least Ai Nengqi did not encounter this kind of tactics. He was stunned on the spot. He lost tens of thousands of soldiers in an instant and half of them collapsed.
"Pullback!"
After the Datong fire gunners fired, they did not mount their bayonets, but immediately ran back to join up with the approaching melee soldiers.
Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong had already given up on the enemy cavalry and moved around the flanks of the enemy infantry. They had not fired, but now they finally got the chance. When they reached twenty steps, they dismounted collectively and fired a volley at the enemy who had not yet collapsed.
.
"Bang bang bang bang!"
These more than a thousand muskets were fired, and the enemy infantry was completely routed.
"Mount your horse and chase!"
Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tanggong each led 600 dragon cavalry, got on their horses, drew their sabers, and slashed at the enemy's broken troops.
Ma Siliang's cavalry, on the other hand, circled to the side of the synchronous soldiers. They were preparing to continue to attack and harass. As soon as they reorganized, the main force of their infantry collapsed, and they were too fast to react.
At this moment, more than 4,000 enemy troops crossed the river and were gathering in formation on the shore.
Seeing the friendly troops disintegrating and fleeing back, the more than 4,000 people who came ashore were so frightened that they turned and fled together.
The 1,200 dragoons finally became cavalry. They carried swords and kept chasing and slashing. They chased more than 8,000 enemy troops.
After Zhang Tieniu's main force regrouped, they immediately stood in formation on the river bank.
The fire gun soldiers stood near the river and aimed at the pontoon bridge to shoot from a long distance. The melee soldiers protected the perimeter to prevent enemy cavalry from attacking.
"Bang bang bang bang!"
Because the shooting distance was too far, not many enemy troops on the pontoon were hit.
However, their friendly infantry that had already crossed the river broke up, and they were still halfway across the river. After being shot at, they were so frightened that they ran back along the pontoon bridge.
The pontoon bridge was already narrow and rickety, and a large number of enemy troops fell into the river during the chaotic pushing and shoving.
There were several pontoon bridges in the distance. Although they were not shot at, they were still frightened and ran back. A large number of soldiers were also pushed into the river.
There were many landlubbers in the north, and the number of enemy soldiers drowned far exceeded those killed by the Datong army.
At this time, Li Dingguo finally arrived with 10,000 elite troops, but Fei Ruhe's reinforcements were still a mile away. There were no reinforcements. Li Dingguo and Fei Ruhe were both here to watch the show.
However, what Fei Ruhe saw was a good show, while Li Dingguo witnessed a tragedy.
In fact, as long as Ai Nengqi's river-crossing troops can persist on the shore for another half hour, they can protect the entire army from crossing the river, and Li Dingguo's elite reinforcements can also cross the river.
But he only lasted ten minutes!
Ai Nengqi was shot in the arm and was captured by Lu Xiangsheng's cavalry. After he became a prisoner, he was still confused. How could he collapse when his own army of tens of thousands was charging?
In this battle across the river, Li Dingguo lost more than 18,000 infantry.
Li Dingguo planned everything. He divided his troops to fill the river, built a bridge, and let the cavalry march back and forth to sneak across. He successfully mobilized the troops of Fei Ruhe, Zhang Tieniu, and Huang Shun, which confused the three of them. In the end, they looked for an opportunity to cross the river, but they were still halfway across.
And strike.
It wasn't that there was a problem with the command, but Li Dingguo's command ability was inferior to Fei Ruhe and other generals of the Datong Army.
Tactical crushing, military quality crushing!
I shamelessly asked for monthly tickets and fell out of the top ten.
