In the evening, more than 40 miles southeast of Boping. Snowflakes were falling from the sky, and the land was vast. Yang Guangdi was still wearing a Zaobao uniform outside the Mianjia. He did not wear an eight-petal helmet, but wore a captured rabbit hat.
Leather hat, the Ranger regulations do not stipulate when to wear a helmet, but after the confrontation with the bandits in Gucheng and the experience of King Qin
, many new routines were formed among the Rangers.
Whenever covert operations are needed, the Rangers will take off their helmets to avoid obvious reflections and expose the target. They will also take off their helmets when disguised as government officials. As for what kind of hat to use instead, everyone will show their unique skills. Before, the Rangers did not have the North
Action experience: most of the hats he brought with him were not warm enough to keep out the cold. The ones he wore now were mainly obtained from confiscated items. Yang Guangdi’s reaction was faster than anyone else’s. Qin Jiuze picked up this rabbit skin hat for him in the martial arts field.
, it feels much warmer after wearing it.
But this hat had no brim, and snowflakes accumulated on Yang Guangdi's eyelashes. As his eyes blinked, the snowflakes fell a little. Yang Guangdi reached out and rubbed it, and his vision suddenly became much better.
He slowly scanned the fields to the west. Snowflakes were accumulating, gradually covering up the traces of the cavalry passing by. There were outlines of villages on the horizon, and some figures were walking in the fields.
Those figures were nearby people. The Anqing cavalry was frightened when they passed by. Many people fled from the village. Now that the cavalry has gone away, these people returned to the village when they saw that there was no danger. There were eight rangers around, and today they led
The leader of the team is the flag commander. When their flag team retreated from Wei County, there were still 27 people. Now there are only nine people left who can fight. They can't even form a squad, so there is no need to choose a new captain.
, directly serve as the general manager.
But even so, they still have the largest number of all the Rangers' flag teams. Some flag teams are no longer enough for one team, so the task of finishing the team is given to them.
In a normal march, this kind of task would not be done by the rangers, but could be completed by the suppressing soldiers. The main tasks were to collect the stragglers, check whether there was any lost equipment on the road, and punish them after returning to camp.
However, when in a threatening zone, the rear of the team is more dangerous than the outpost, especially if there are enemies chasing behind. Once entangled by the enemy, they may be separated from the team. Only rangers can undertake this task.
Yang Guangdi handed a handful of black beans to his mount, and Huo Huo's tongue licked his hand, making it warm and moist. Yang Guangdi patted Huo Huo's mane and took out another handful of black beans.
Huo Huo couldn't wait to lick it up again. Yang Guangdi turned his head and looked at it. The fat on his body had been almost used up.
Since the team left Tongchengyi yesterday morning, they have marched two hundred miles and fought twice in the middle. Both men and horses are very tired and are in urgent need of rest.
So tonight's camp is very important. The location Chen Rulie chose is in a village twenty miles southwest of Sansanlipu. There is no road in this direction, so Jiannu's ambush soldiers will not go too deep.
Both people and horses need to rest and replenish their physical strength before completing tomorrow's attack. A safe campsite is very important. The location here is relatively remote, but Jiannu is not far away. The raid on Boping went smoothly in the morning, and the fourth round was launched first.
To distract Jiannu's attention on the east side of Boping, Chen Rulie led the fifth and sixth rounds, choosing positions to defend the Qing army.
The defenses were weak and one camp was destroyed, allowing at least hundreds of people to escape and many livestock to escape.
When they left, only a small number of Qing troops were chasing them. Chen Rulie got rid of the pursuit with a counterattack. The snow was heavy today, which was very beneficial for the Anqing cavalry to hide their whereabouts. Until now, they have not been caught up by the subsequent Qing troops.
But everyone knows that the Qing army must be tracking, otherwise they will not be able to defend such a wide area. The Qing army behind them is not far away, and the greatest danger is still before dark. After traveling eastward from the scheduled rendezvous point, Anqing
The cavalry headed south instead, changing direction several times along the way to prevent the trajectory from being too clear and making it difficult for enemies who might be tracking them to judge. The cavalry would not wait until after dark.
Then went straight to the destination.
The cavalry brigade is currently in a village in the south, where Chen Rulie rests his horses and replenishes the horses with beans and water. It is five miles away from the rangers.
Yang Guang first asked while feeding the fire, "Will the Tatars on the post road send their vests out to arrest people, and they happen to meet us?"
Mr. Qi looked at the sky and said, "It's time to turn around when the vest comes out."
Yang Guang made a sound, patted Huo Huo's neck, and suddenly found that Huo Huo's ears were deflecting backwards. Then he found that the ears of other horses were turning, mostly deflecting backwards, indicating that they felt nervous.
Yang Guangdi turned to look at Qin Jiuze and found that both Qin Jiuze and Mandal were observing the horses around them.
Then Qin Jiuze turned to the west and said to Mr. Qi, "Someone is coming here."
Mr. Qi raised his telescope and looked again, but could see nothing unusual in the lens.
Mandar lay on the ground, and no one moved. After a while, Mandar stood up and shook his head, "I can't hear you."
Qin Jiuze stared at the west with narrowed eyes and said in a very sure tone, "Those people must have seen something while they were running."
Everyone stopped. Yang Guangdi checked the equipment on his belt with his hands. While scanning the horizon to the west, he did see the few figures walking towards the village change their direction.
Mr. Qi handed over the telescope. Qin Jiuze took it and held it in front of his eyes, slowly moving his eyes.
It was sunset at this time, and there was still light on the western horizon. Yang Guangdi observed carefully, but found nothing unusual.
Just listen to Qin Jiuze say, "Two people riding horses."
Mr. Qi took back the telescope, followed Qin Jiuze's fingers to examine it carefully, and finally saw two looming figures in the twilight.
Their direction was backlit, and the two men were walking on another parallel path. Their figures were hidden in the dark outline of the village. It was difficult to spot them unless you paid special attention.
But even so, the flag general could not be sure whether these two people were enemies or common people. This area was far away from the official road and it was not a wealthy area. The Qing troops from Boping and Chiping had not been there before, so there were many people living nearby.
Qin Jiuze touched the arrow insert and said, "It must be a Tatar, following the imprint."
Mr. Qi looked at the camera carefully. The two people were indeed walking along the road. They paused occasionally, probably to check for traces on the ground.
Behind the two people, several more figures on horseback appeared.
"Tatar, visually confirm five people."
As soon as Mr. Qi's words came out, the surrounding rangers mounted their horses.
Yang Guangdi cursed in a low voice and rolled over on the back of the fire. After marching for two consecutive days and fighting twice in the middle, both man and horse were very tired and looked forward to having a rest at night. The appearance of Jiannu at this time was really disappointing.
Frustrated. Several rangers in the rear took out their cavalry bows. Qin Jiuze and Mandarer had their own cavalry bows. In the Ming Dynasty, the Jiubian cavalry generally used Kaiyuan bows, which are a type of recurve compound bows. In order to facilitate their use on horses, they are more suitable for infantry combat.
Use wider limbs
It is shorter and has less power than an infantry bow, so it is often called a soft bow. There is no tradition of cavalry in the Anqing area, and there are even fewer cavalry bows. In the defense battle of Tongcheng, only two cavalry bows were captured, which is basically the same.
Because most of the army is infantry, mainly using infantry and bows, the battle at Beixiaguan was won due to
, obtained more than ten Kaiyuan bows used by the frontier army, but still could not equip a large number of cavalry. The cavalry bows obtained from Zhang Guowei were Nanjing and Yangzhou styles. This style is easy to glue and is not as useful as the Kaiyuan bows used by the frontier army. Rogue bandits
The cavalry army has a large number of mounted bows. After the two battles of Chuzhou and Susong, the Anqing camp captured a lot of Kaiyuan bows. There is no shortage of equipment. Basically, everyone can have a mounted bow, but it is still capable of achieving actual mounted archery.
It's a minority, traveling continuously
Only half of the cavalry were actually equipped. Yang Guangdi ranked last in the flag team in the cavalry bow assessment and was not equipped with a cavalry bow. The infantry bow was left at Tongchengyi. After the musket was broken, he had to pick one up at the martial arts field.
The riding bow is temporarily used.
"Visually confirmed seven people."
After that, Mr. Qi handed the telescope to Qin Jiuze. When Qin Jiuze took it, the two Jiannu in front of the lens had stopped and were looking this way, and they should have spotted the Rangers.
General Qi asked Qin Jiuze, "Old Qin, how do you fight these Tatars?"
Qin Jiuze looked around. The nearest village was two miles away, and it was not in the direction of Jiannu's advance. The surrounding area was flat and there was no other terrain to hide.
Qin Jiuze watched carefully for a moment, "The two groups engaged in battle, dispersed the thieves and cavalry, and then attacked together until dark."
Mr. Qi didn't waste any time and immediately called his name. Yang Guangdi was still in Qin Jiuze's group, and Mandal was in Mr. Qi's group.
Jiannu's sentries came to greet the rangers. Yang Guangdi squinted his eyes to observe and finally confirmed that there were only seven enemies. There was no time to plan carefully. Commander Qi made a gesture and headed northwest to Jiannu. Qin Jiuze pinched the horse's belly.
, led the four people to move southwest of Jiannu, the nine rangers were divided into two teams, and ran towards the outside of Jiannu's wings respectively.
.
There is a lot of abandoned land nearby, which is very strong for horses' hooves to step on, but some of the land has been plowed. It is getting dark now and it is difficult to distinguish after it is covered with snow.
Yang Guangdi followed Qin Jiuze, his speed gradually increasing. Qin Jiuze's back was sitting on the horse. He controlled the horse's reins with one hand with his right hand, and held the Kaiyuan Bow with his left hand, holding a long arrow between his fingers.
The Jiannu in front were also divided into two groups. Four Jiannu were approaching here. Qin Jiuze turned to the south to increase the distance between him and Jiannu. The wind was wrapped with snowflakes and came towards him, hitting his cheeks with a faint pain.
Only then did Yang Guangdi remember that he had forgotten to change his helmet. Qin Jiuze in front of him had already changed into his eight-petal helmet. Yang Guangdi didn't have time to get the helmet, so he wiped his eyes with his right hand.
Taking control of the reins, he drew the Kaiyuan Bow with his left hand and prepared the arrows like Qin Jiuze.
Jiannu caught up to them at seventy paces, and their figures gradually became clearer. They were galloping in the snowy field, and their horses' hooves raised flakes of snow.
Yang Guangdi's first reaction was that the Qing army's mounts were better, both in size and speed, than those of the Anqing camp. They ran with great power. This was the first time that he clearly felt the difference between the horses.
The fire was obviously frightened by the opponent's horse. Before Yang Guangdi could take control, it continued to deflect south in an attempt to avoid it. Yang Guangdi quickly pulled the horse's head.
Qin Jiuze in front suddenly turned his horse's head to the right. His mount turned a corner and charged towards the Qing army. Yang Guangdi's heart beat wildly. In the twilight, four gray-black figures of the Qing army came towards him in the distance.
With forty steps left, Qin Jiuze turned to the right again, stood up on the pedals, raised the Kaiyuan Bow in his left hand, pulled the string with his right hand and shot. The first arrow was shot, Qin Jiuze took the arrow from the arrow insertion with his right hand, and shot first
Go close to the bow
The first step was to string and draw the bow skillfully.
Yang Guangdi couldn't see the arrow clearly. He threw away the horse's rein with his right hand and pulled the bow string forward. He felt the rise and fall of the fire. When his back reached the highest point, his thumb suddenly released.
The bowstrings of the Qing army on the opposite side also vibrated, and there was a roar of wind, and a black shadow flew past his ears. Yang Guangdi's scalp was numb, and he had no time to shoot the second arrow, so he subconsciously lowered his head. There was a tragic sound behind him.
There was a cry, and then there was the sound of someone falling. Yang Guangdi didn't care to look, and passed by the Qing army ten steps away. Qin Jiuze shot the second arrow, and the four Qing soldiers on the opposite side all shot the second arrow. Yang Guangdi
Feeling like a fire
After moving for a moment, I looked back and saw an arrow nock stuck in the side of the horse's butt.
The two sides passed each other. Qin Jiuze did not draw back his bow, but used the bow tip to slap the horse's buttocks. The horse immediately accelerated and rushed forward. This was the first time Yang Guang saw Qin Jiuze whip his horse hard. These horses are very smart horses.
Most of the time, there is no need to really whip. You just need to flash the riding crop to speed up. Now Qin Jiuze whips hard, that is
Increase the horse speed to the maximum, and use the little time gained to use all the rangers to attack the three Qing army sentry horses on the other side first, forming an advantage of using more to attack the fewer.
Yang Guangdi didn't think much. Even though Huo Huo was already injured, he still jerked his horse's butt towards the other side. The four Qing soldiers were left behind. In the dim twilight, the blurry figures of three Qing soldiers appeared.
Two hundred steps ahead, Yang Guangdi hung the riding bow around his neck, holding the reins with his left hand, and whipped out his sword with his right hand. The fire accelerated with all his strength, and the rabbit skin hat on his head fell off while shaking.
Guangdi braved the cold wind blowing on his face and rushed towards the three Qing soldiers.