The first thing Prince Gong encountered on his way to Langfang was scattered broken soldiers. Their eyes were dull and they just ran northward mechanically.
Since the horses were gone, they ran forward with their legs. Some wounded soldiers continued to move while holding on to a wooden stick.
Yi Xin called a personal guard to find out what was going on. He had a hunch that something big had happened.
Yi Xin's bodyguard walked up to a rushing soldier and stopped him, but the soldier seemed not to notice and continued to move forward.
He didn't stop until he bumped into this relative.
The soldier was so frightened that he trembled, as if he had just woken up from a big dream.
"What's going on? Who are you fighting with in the south?" the guard asked.
"Yes...it's the Huaihai Navy. They are all ghosts. All 10,000 people will be dead in just a short time. Wuwuwu..." The deserter broke down and cried loudly.
Yi? When he heard it was Huai Haijun, his heart immediately trembled and he thought: "It's over now..."
He didn't even think about escaping to the capital. If Huai Haijun rebelled, escaping back to the capital wouldn't be of much use. Yi, who had always been timid, rarely showed strength this time.
After all, he is also a descendant of the Aisin Gioro family. In the face of such a big thing as endangering the rule of the Aisin Gioro family, Yi Xin can still distinguish the importance.
"Let's go find Huai Haijun!" Yi? paused and said to the guards around him. The guards had no choice but to follow Prince Gong and speed up south.
The battle on the south bank of the Long River was really hearty. In the past, when the Huaihai Navy fought against the Taiping Army, they still retained more or less strength. This time, Dong Shuheng allowed the soldiers to let go of the fight.
This time, all the troops heading north were specially equipped with Type 53 rifles, as well as mortars, cannons and howitzers manufactured by Huaihai Ordnance Industry.
The reason why this battle could be fought like this is that the northern plains are particularly suitable for decisive battles of large corps. The infantry can easily deploy and the firepower of artillery can also be used.
Especially for cannons, when shooting at long distances on such plains, artillerymen can accurately grasp the shooting point by using telescopes.
Secondly, the enemy we faced this time was the most stubborn force in the Qing army, and it was also the main force of the Qing army in field battles. It was very representative.
Dong Shuheng had always wanted to find an opportunity to fight the Qing army and show off his muscles to the Qing court, so that there would always be unscrupulous villains who would come to trouble him. With the virtue of the Qing court, he scared them all at once. Can manage for a long time.
Shengbao is now famous among the Qing army for his ability in fighting. Defeating Shengbao can satisfy Dong Shuheng's desired effect.
In the end, Shengbao's army was defeated just enough to once again level the balance of strength between the Qing army and Lin Fengxiang's Northern Expeditionary Army.
Now Dong Shuheng didn't want the Qing government to wipe out the Northern Expeditionary Army at once, nor did he want the Northern Expeditionary Army to really capture the city of Beijing. Neither situation met the strategic needs of the Huaihai Navy.
The group attack of tens of thousands of cavalry was quite shocking.
Some soldiers in the infantry line had their hands shaking.
Not every soldier of the Huaihai Navy has experienced large-scale battles, some have participated in small-scale bandit suppression, and some soldiers are even on the battlefield for the first time.
Although they were scared, at least they still had their guns in their hands. No one thought about escaping. The rifles in their hands, the encouragement from their comrades and grassroots officers all gave them a sense of security and courage.
Dong Shuheng looked at the motionless infantry formation and felt very satisfied.
His greatest achievement after coming to this era is to form such an army in the shortest time. Only with them, strangers, can he feel at ease here. Only with them can Dong Shuheng be able to let go and change the world.
"Boom, boom, boom..." Fifteen hundred meters away, the sound of cannons came to mind, and bursts of explosions erupted in the cavalry array. The Qing army's horses were overturned, and the soldiers were lifted into the air by the shock wave.
The sound of cannons and the neighing of war horses are intertwined. This is the symphony on the battlefield and the war song in the hearts of the soldiers.
One thousand meters away, howitzers also joined the symphony of war. A deeper sound appeared on the battlefield.
In order to ensure the accuracy of shooting, the Huaihai Navy had moved the Qing army on the opposite side closer before attacking. According to the Huaihai Navy's cannon, it could hit them twice as far as the range.
Dong Shuheng was also worried that shooting from such a distance would scare Shengbao away, and that when they got close, they would be in an awkward situation.
"Charge, rush through the range of the artillery, rush into their infantry array, victory belongs to us!" Shengbao yelled at the surrounding cavalry. He regretted not bringing the artillery, and he should have brought his own artillery.
When rushing back to Langfang, Shengbao, for the sake of speed, left all the artillery to the infantry defending Tongzhou, and came out with only the cavalry.
Huai Haijun's artillery gave him a great impact. In previous battles, both they and the bandits used old-fashioned solid bullets. However, Huai Haijun used more lethal explosive bombs.
Solid bullets will only make a slight muffled sound when they hit the ground. But explosive bombs are different. They will explode violently after hitting the ground, and the explosion sound is very loud. Even a trained war horse,
They will also be stimulated by such sounds and become panicked.
The most important thing is that the Huai Navy's artillery fire continued one after another, as if their cannons did not need to be reloaded. Sheng Bao knew that the Huai Navy must have a lot of artillery.
He couldn't imagine how terrifying the rate of fire of a breech-loaded cannon would be. In Shengbao's concept, artillery should be like a muzzle-loading cannon, and each shot would have to go through cumbersome loading steps.
"By bringing so many artillery pieces to the north, the Huai Navy must have evil intentions." Shengbao thought in his heart.
He still believed in his heart that artillery bombardment could not defeat the impact of his cavalry, especially the cavalry attacking in large groups.
When the cavalry under his command approaches the infantry line, the infantry will be frightened into pieces and flee.
The battlefield was filled with smoke, and Shengbao could not even accurately judge the casualties of his men.
He just kept encouraging the soldiers around him to charge again and again, pushing the horses as fast as possible.
Six years later in history, the Qing cavalry, led by Seng Gelinqin, also carried out a similar desperate attack at Bali Bridge. Although it was defeated, it was an honor.
However, Shengbao could not win the praise of the world from this battle. He would only become a stepping stone for the Huai Navy to become famous.
He started the war for his own selfish reasons, and maybe in the end, even the Qing court might not let him go.
…
When the cavalry rushed to 500 meters, the explosion of artillery shells became more intensive, and the mortars assigned to infantry support operations began to show their power. The power of mortar shells was not much less than that of howitzers.
When used together, coupled with its astonishing rate of fire, it quickly formed a barrage and an insurmountable death zone in front of Huai Haijun's array.
This line was like a meat grinder, devouring the lives of all the people and horses passing by.
The huge casualties made Shengbao's men almost collapse. Some of the cavalrymen were so shocked that they were stunned, and now they realized that all their comrades around them had disappeared.
Escape is the instinct hidden in the hearts of all soldiers. It's just that different armies and different soldiers have different abilities to suppress this instinct. The expression is the fighting will of this unit.
Only then did Shengbao understand why the Huai Navy dared to arrange such an infantry line array.
After rushing here, Shengbao had only three to four thousand soldiers who were still charging. He was hesitant whether to continue advancing.
If the personal guards hadn't tried their best to stop him, Shengbao would have rushed forward and probably would have died in the explosion.
However, there is no turning back. Now it is too late to turn back. He has lost so many soldiers and horses. What will be left for him when he returns to the capital will be endless humiliation and countless impeachments.
If not, he might end up being exiled from the army and his family would be demoted as slaves.
Thinking of this, Shengbao gritted his teeth, waved his sword, and continued to urge his cavalry to charge forward.
After rushing to about 300 meters, the artillery fire was very sparse, and only a few mortars and grenade launchers were still firing.
But now that they have entered the range of the rifle, the Type 53 rifle has not been tested in actual combat. It is just a good time to test it with the Qing army.
"Fire!" With a whistle, the commanders of each company issued the order to fire.
"Bang bang bang..." intensive gunshots rang out, and the soldiers in the array all had tinnitus.
The cavalry formation, which was already very sparse, fell down as if being harvested. No horse could run within 100 meters of the infantry line.
There were two more rapid whistles.
"Stop shooting!" After hearing the order, the soldiers stopped. A gust of wind blew away the smoke, and the soldiers realized that there were no enemies left standing in front of them.
"The smoke of black powder is still too great! It will be great when smokeless gunpowder can be produced." Dong Shuheng sighed.
"President, what is the smokeless gunpowder you just mentioned? Is it any different from the gunpowder we use now?" Wang Xiao, the deputy division commander on the side, asked puzzledly. The soldier's intuition told him that the smokeless gunpowder Dong Shuheng was talking about was
A good thing for war.
"The explosive power of smokeless gunpowder is much greater than the black powder we use now. It can increase the range of projectiles, improve the straightness of ballistics and shooting accuracy. It has no residue after burning and only produces a small amount of smoke. It is an ideal propellant for guns and cannons."
"It's a pity that we can't make it now?" Dong Shuheng said regretfully.
"Can anyone create it?" Wang Xiao asked again.
"Probably not!" Dong Shuheng secretly asked Prince Adalbert last time if he had heard of anyone in Europe who had invented smokeless gunpowder. Unfortunately, Prince Adalbert had not heard of such a thing either.
In fact, European chemists have discovered digestive fiber, but this kind of thing is extremely unstable and cannot be put into practical use. Therefore, only a small number of chemists know about this kind of thing, and the outside world basically does not know the existence of this kind of thing.
…
Under the hostage of his personal guards, Shengbao fled the battlefield. Only more than 900 people fled with him. Three cavalry companies of the Huaihai Navy followed closely behind them.
From time to time, he aimed his carbine at the back of the Qing army running at the end, and shot him off his horse with one shot.
Shengbao's eyes were blood red. He was like a gambler who lost his bet and lost his mind.
Several personal guards tightly surrounded him and fled towards Tongzhou, not even entering the nearby Langfang City.