Chapter 936 0931 [Mandarin duck formation fighting in the field]
Why did Zhu Kang only bring 3,000 soldiers?
Because this is neither a war to destroy the country nor a war of conquest, three thousand soldiers are more than enough.
Du Yingwu dispatched about 40,000 troops.
Eight thousand of them are the Annan Forbidden Army, which is the absolute main force.
The other 20,000 were ten soldiers, similar to the Xiang army of the Song Dynasty.
There are also more than 10,000 rural soldiers recruited temporarily, a ragtag group of people.
There were only so many troops left that Du Yingwu could mobilize. He suffered heavy losses in the battles in the past few years, especially the violent beating by Yang Zaixing, which caused Annan's military strength to decrease sharply.
Thang Long and northern prefectures and counties were plundered, and the finances were on the verge of collapse. The Annan court had no money to restore the army.
After Du Yingwu's coup, local rebellions broke out all over the place, which also severely consumed military personnel.
The border troops in the south did not dare to move, otherwise they would occupy the city and kill them in minutes.
Du Yingwu sent 5,000 troops to surprise the cities in the rear of the Ming army, and was temporarily unable to return to participate in the decisive battle.
He also wanted to leave troops to garrison the two cities on the front line, but he could only really use more than 30,000 troops.
On Zhu Kang's side, there were 3,000 Ming troops, 5,000 local soldiers, and dozens of Annan navy warships.
The navies of both sides fought first.
Take refuge in Zhu Kang's Annan Navy and fight against Du Yingwu's Annan Navy!
Although they were both Annan naval forces, the former was stationed on the Taiping River and could fight offshore. He even crossed the sea to attack Qinzhou in the Northern Song Dynasty.
The latter is a proper river navy, stationed in Thang Long Palace and the surrounding water systems.
The battle lasted for about an hour, and Zhu Kang's side achieved a small victory.
Han Jing observed carefully with a telescope and concluded: "The navy on both sides did not fight desperately. They should be unwilling to kill each other."
Annan official Chen Kai said: "The leader of the water army in Shenglong Prefecture is Li Changlu, Marquis of Baoning. He neither opposes Du Ze's regency, but does not fully support it. It is estimated that this person is waiting to see who wins.
I will help anyone if I can't help him, I just want to preserve my own strength."
Zhu Kang smiled and said: "It seems that the enemy troops are not united."
…
"Why don't the navy fight to the death?" Du Yingwu asked.
Li Changlu argued: "The pirate army has a large navy and it is difficult to win. The soldiers have tried their best."
Du Yingwu said with a cold face: "The navy army reorganized and cooperated with the horse infantry army to fight!"
It was impossible for Du Yingwu, who had carried out the coup less than a year ago, to completely control the army.
Especially the naval army is not in the same system as the infantry, and the general in charge of the army is still a marquis.
He didn't even dare to punish Li Changlu severely, and had to promise more benefits to win him over.
Zhu Kang's camp was located at the intersection of Taiping River and Longjiang River. The side facing the river was protected by the navy. No matter how many troops Du Yingwu had, he could not besiege on all sides and could only attack the west and south.
Du Yingwu has already transferred the troops stationed in Tiandefu City.
At this time, the main force of the 32,000 Annan army slowly advanced from the west, and 10,000 people were divided to circle to the south for a pincer attack.
Zhu Kang placed 3,000 elite soldiers in front and 5,000 rabble-rousers on the sides.
The battlefield is a large paddy field.
There are two crops a year in the Red River Plain. The first crop is sown at the turn of winter and spring, and the second crop is sown in summer.
At this moment, the rice has been harvested, but the new rice has not been planted yet.
The paddy fields have not completely dried up yet. They seem dry on the surface, but when you step on them, you will find mud that is ankle deep. The Red River Plain is harvested after the rainy season, and a lot of the water in the fields has not been drained. Naturally, the fields will become dry after two months of drying.
In this ghostly state.
Some farmland even has water!
Soldiers from both sides took off their shoes, rolled up their trouser legs, and moved forward with one foot deep and one foot shallow.
In addition to being easy to slip, it does not affect the movement very much. Soldiers who are familiar with this kind of farmland can even run in the mud.
Of course, that's a state without armor.
Zhu Kang's three thousand elites were all wearing armor at the moment, and they were medium-sized armors weighing about thirty kilograms. They were slightly affected when they moved.
"The enemy's army in the south is full of mobs, and they can't even raise their flags in order." After Du Yingwu observed carefully, he said to the messenger, "I ordered Liu Yu to attack fiercely in the south and defeat the enemy's flanking troops!"
Du Yingwu was indeed a qualified commander. Not long after Zhu Kang laid out his troops, he caught his weak point and took action immediately.
The battlefield on the side is too far away, and the flag order may be transmitted incorrectly, and a messenger will fly away along the field ridge.
The messenger was still running, and Zhu Kang's elite troops were already speeding forward.
There were even more than a hundred artillerymen, carrying cannons, shells and gunpowder, advancing on several field ridges.
Du Yingwu gave corresponding commands: "Li Yirong led his troops to fight, Long Kan, and Ding Congzhou led his troops to respond. Marquis Baoning, your navy will also kill them. The enemy camp is empty. Once the navy wins, they can directly attack the enemy."
The camp burned down the food and fodder. Even if the enemy camp cannot be burned down, as long as we persist here and wait for the mob on the enemy's flank to be defeated, we can take advantage of the situation and dispatch the entire army to attack from both sides!"
"As you command!"
Annan's army mobilized quickly, and it was definitely a strong force in a small country.
Du Yingwu later even established a military academy to firmly control the army by training officers, and significantly improved the combat effectiveness of the Annan army.
The elite Ming army advanced more than ten meters when Han Jing suddenly said: "Your Highness, advancing in muddy formation is too energy-consuming. It is better to let all the soldiers rush along the field ridge to kill."
"How can we fight if we form many long snakes?" Zhu Kang said in surprise.
Han Jing said: "You can fight. What we practice is the Yuanyang Formation!"
Zhu Kang felt that it was extremely outrageous, but considering that Han Jing had perfect scores in all subjects in the military academy and had participated in the Northern War many times, he actually agreed: "General Han has full power to make the decision."
Han Jing ordered the advance to be stopped, and called in mid-level officers to explain the combat methods in detail.
The middle-level officers returned to their teams and called the captains of the Yuanyang Team.
Soon, in Du Yingwu's shocked eyes, all three thousand Ming troops stepped onto the field ridge and turned into several long snakes and rushed over.
Of course we can march like this, but now the two armies are at war!
Du Yingwu was overjoyed: "Send the order and let Li Yirong, Long Kan, and Ding Congzhou line up to press forward. Li Hui and Ruan Xing will lead their troops to respond."
When the front armies of both sides were only a hundred steps apart, Han Jing gave the order to blow the bugle.
The soldiers of the Ming army who were running at the front jumped from the field ridge into the farmland and quickly formed an array. The following Ming army was still galloping along the field ridge, including the artillerymen carrying small cannons.
At this moment, it has entered the shooting range of the walking bow.
But except for generals with amazing arm strength, ordinary archers cannot shoot arrows from such a distance.
In the Tang Dynasty, archers were required to shoot in sixty steps, while in the Ming Dynasty, archers were required to hit the target in fifty steps. A distance of about seventy or eighty meters was required before the salvo could begin.
"Boom boom boom!"
The Ming army's artillery began to fire, and it was the siege artillery left on the shore (removed from the navy ship).
These artillery pieces were aimed at Du Yingwu's Chinese army, but many shells fell on the supporting troops between the front army and the Chinese army.
The Annan general named Li Hui was leading his troops to press forward. He was just supporting the troops and did not need to lead the charge, but suddenly he saw many dark shadows falling down.
"ah!"
One of the soldiers screamed. Li Hui turned around and found that the soldier's arm had been broken.
There were not many casualties, just twenty shells.
The shells were hard to bounce when they hit the mud, and some of them didn't even hit anyone. The Annan soldiers only died or injured eight people.
The Ming Dynasty elites who jumped into Tianzhong only arranged small groups of mandarin ducks, and the groups were not neatly arranged. To outsiders, this was not even a military formation, it looked disorganized and the formation was chaotic.
"Bang bang bang!"
But they've already fired.
The distance was far away, and there were not many fire rifle soldiers, and only a dozen or so enemy troops were hit.
The Annan front army that pressed forward numbered more than 6,000, and the casualties of more than ten people were negligible, and they did not even affect the overall morale.
But they can't run fast while marching through the mud. The Ming musketeers can reload their ammunition calmly before firing.
Du Yingwu did not dare to follow Han Jing's example and let his troops move closer to the field ridge before forming an array. He knew what his army looked like, and he would probably be defeated by the Ming army before they even formed an array.
Another twenty-odd Yuanyang squads jumped into the fields one after another when the two sides were eighty steps apart, forming formations and shooting at the enemy's front army.
The Ming troops arrayed behind them in Tianzhong, after loading their bombs, stepped forward through the mud to fight side by side.
When they were sixty steps apart, that is, about 90 meters, their respective crossbowmen began to shoot at each other.
Both sides of the war are elites equipped with armor. The effect of shooting arrows from such a long distance is negligible, and even if they hit, they will only be injured.
The Ming army soldiers who followed were still running forward on the field ridge!
The artillery did not stop until it was close to fifty steps.
They put down the cannon legs and arranged them on the field ridge, with the gun barrels facing the paddy fields on both sides diagonally, and began to load gunpowder and shotgun shells.
"Speed up!"
Annan's former army general Li Yirong led his troops to charge on the field ridge, but most of his soldiers were in the fields.
"Boom boom boom boom!"
Small cannons were placed on various field ridges, firing shotguns diagonally forward, and muskets and crossbows fired in succession in the fields.
Annan's front army, dozens of meters away, was instantly covered by crossfire.
Li Yirong was fine on the field ridge, but his army in the field collapsed.
These Annan Forbidden Forces are said to be elite, but when they were at their peak, they were killed by the northern troops of the Song Dynasty. Now they are no longer what they used to be, how strong their willpower can they still have?
"Send the order to Ruan Xing and immediately step forward to respond and suppress the retreat of the front army!" Du Yingwu ordered in a panic.
Li Yirong's army collapsed, but Ding Congzhou and Long Kan's troops on his flank suffered even less long-range firepower.
At the critical moment, Ding Congzhou drew his sword and shouted: "Come over with me!"
He ignored the large troops in the field and led a group of personal soldiers to fight out along the field ridge. He wanted to kill the Yuanyang squad on the field ridge and kill the artillerymen hiding behind the Yuanyang formation.
More and more Annan's former troops, unwilling to be targets in the fields, climbed up the field ridges and followed Ding Congzhou to charge.
There are five mandarin duck teams here, only half of them are left guarding the field ridge, and the other four and a half jump into the fields to help defend. There are only sixty of them, but hundreds of enemy troops are rushing towards them from the opposite side.
Ding Congzhou was afraid of being hit by a musket, so he ordered a dozen soldiers to rush in front of him.
These hundreds of people formed a long snake formation. After more than twenty people were shot and felled by arrows, they quickly rushed in front of the five mandarin duck teams.
Then, it was impossible to deploy quickly. Although there were hundreds of people, only the person at the front could engage in the battle.
The rest jumped into the fields indiscriminately, completely losing their organization, and could only fight on their own there.
Five mandarin duck teams, harvesting in an orderly manner, rushed forward and killed each one.
"boom!"
Ding Congzhou was shot. The bullet was fired from two meters away and hit him directly in the head.
The remaining soldiers under his command immediately collapsed and fled.
"Your Highness, the friendly forces have collapsed."
Zhu Kang turned around and looked around, only to see two miles away to the side and rear, where the 5,000 Annan friendly troops had been killed by Du Yingwu's troops and the whole army fled.
Zhu Kang urgently ordered: "We don't want the twenty cannons borrowed from the navy, and let the officials, doctors and gunners escape to the grain ship as soon as possible!"
Han Jing also learned of the situation and shouted wildly: "Fire another round of shotguns and charge the whole army!"
Han Jing was actually not in a hurry. Those miscellaneous friendly forces were already vulnerable and were just tools he used to disperse the enemy's forces.
He believed in the combat effectiveness of the Yuanyang Formation in paddy field terrain!
Even if the enemy has several times the strength, it will be difficult for them to fully engage in battle.
