Chapter 341: Night attack under the cover of the Quilt Army
When Dai Senbao saw hundreds more people running up behind the Beihai Navy, he knew that the remaining 2,500 people could only serve as food. In desperation, he could only withdraw the cavalry to the west of the first trench.
side, and at the same time send someone to report the situation to Mingliang and wait for next instructions.
The White Flag Protector Commander Shuo Yunbao and the Protector Commander Wan Ting who were sent out to harass were also beaten and fled away. Although these two groups caused some trouble to the Northern Navy with the cover of dense forests, the dense rain of machine gun bullets did not stop them.
It is not necessary to hit a person to cause damage; bullets hitting trees, wood chips and ricochet damage caused by stones are sometimes more terrible than bullets directly hitting the human body.
In the Ningguta camp, Mingliang received battle reports from the front one after another: "Commander! The bandits only number five to six thousand, and the ones who rely on them are firing fiercely with muskets to consolidate the buddies. No matter how they attack, they will not retreat until they die.
"
After discussing with the left and right, Mingliang decided to adjust the deployment and ordered Dai Senbao's troops to move to the north bank of Hualan River northwest of the camp for defense, while Shuo Yunbao and Wan Ting's troops returned to the villages south of the camp for defense.
The five thousand cavalrymen who returned to the west side of the first trench on the north bank of the Hualan River formed a huge camp with a radius of three kilometers. They were waiting for an opportunity. Once there was a disconnect between the various units of the Northern Navy's march, it would be the best time for them to attack.
In the second trench on the east side of the Qing army camp, tens of thousands of Qing troops armed with muskets were waiting. Except for the more than a thousand Qing camp musketeers from Ili who used flintlock muskets, most of the other Qing troops were
The army still uses matchlock guns.
Later generations often say that the emperor of the Qing Dynasty used the most advanced muskets in the world for hunting, but did not equip the Manchu and Han soldiers.
But is this really the case? Many people confuse standard weapons with handicrafts.
The standard shotguns of the early Qing Dynasty army were indeed inherited from the Ming army, but after Kangxi and Yongzheng conquered Junggar, the standard muskets of the Qing army were mainly imitations of Junggar's "Zambala muskets", that is, Huihui guns, which vary in size.
The big one is the "return gun" mounted on a saddle-shaped base, and the small one is the "return gun".
The source of the muskets of the various tribes in Junggar Vitra, after repeated emphasis on some early opinions, made people mistakenly think that they all came from Russian support. Historically, when Tsarist Russia expanded into the interior of Asia in the 16th and 17th centuries, it was based on its own interests.
It is strictly prohibited to export firearms to Kazakhstan, Vitara, and Khalkha Mongolian tribes. In 1620 and 1694, a ban was even issued twice to prohibit the export of firearms to Mongolia.
Tsarist Russia's flintlock muskets were only allowed to be exported as gifts, and the quantity was very small. Of course, sporadic smuggling also existed, but the scale was not large. When fighting Kangxi, the number of Junggar firearms troops was as high as 8,000 to 12,000. Smuggling alone would definitely not be able to
Form such a huge musketeer army.
In fact, the largest source of muskets for Junggar at that time was the Muslim countries in Central Asia, and the source was the Ottoman Empire. Don’t look down on matchlocks. The Ottomans relied on this lightweight "Zambala musket" suitable for cavalry tactics to fight against Tsarist Russia.
Four "Russian-Turkish Wars" were fought.
According to the content of Yue Zhongqi’s memorial during the Yongzheng period, it is known that the Qing army’s imitation of the “Huibu Taohua Gun” has an effective range of 270 steps (83~96 meters) and a maximum range of 500~600 steps (150~185 meters); while the flintlock gun of the same period
The effective range of the gun is only 100 yards - 91 meters. (Don't use the range of the flintlock gun used in shooting competitions to argue, it is completely different from the large-scale standard equipment.)
During the reign of Emperor Yongzheng, the Xi'an General Office of the Manchu Qing Dynasty produced a total of 4,800 guns. By the 51st year of Qianlong's reign, the inventory of "Zambala Fire Guns" in the Military Academy was as high as 10,000 guns.
Considering that the misfire rate of flintlock guns in the 18th century was significantly higher than that of matchlocks, if you were the emperor, which one would you choose?
There were three lines of trench defense deployed by the Qing army in the Ningguta Camp. In order to prevent the soldiers from expending a lot of energy when moving, Mingliang set the distance between each trench to two hundred steps.
It's still too far away.
In the afternoon, after learning that the Northern Navy was stationed in a village ten miles southwest of Ningguta, Mingliang decided to launch a night attack.
The Eight Banners troops are not the green camp in the pass. Relying on good food and a lot of meat, the Eight Banners troops have no night blindness at all. If it were replaced by the miserable green camp, everyone would be blind at night.
The Qing army also worked hard for this night attack. A certain Yin Zan came up with an idea that "dazzled" the generals, and Mingliang actually thought it was very creative.
The idea is to form a "quilt army" of two thousand people...
Wet two quilts with water, then apply a thick layer of black and gray mud, dry them with fire, and nail a wooden frame support behind the quilts, and four soldiers will lift them forward. Yin Zanhua believes that
This can not only defend against the North Korean navy's guns to a certain extent, but also shield the sneak attack troops.
The commander gave an order, and the bank of the Hulha River at dusk soon became very noisy. A large group of peasants drove cars, carried burdens, and brought quilts one after another.
In the Yaksa warship on the river, the sailors who were having dinner heard the commotion and ran to the deck to watch the Western view. They thought to themselves that the enemy was at hand, how could these guys still be in the mood to wash their quilts? It was too much.
Heartless!
After watching for a while, the sailors discovered that the peasants had thrown the quilts into the river to soak up the water, then fished them out and spread them on the bank, and then started to splash river mud on them one by one at night.
All the sailors looked at each other in confusion and even forgot to eat dinner.
The troops who attacked at night were still led by Shuo Yunbao, the commander of the Baiqi Protectorate, and Wan Ting, the commander of the escort army. In addition to the two thousand quilt troops, another three thousand people were transferred to them to form a night force of five thousand people.
Attack troops.
Ming Ming's intention was that once the sneak attack force started, the five thousand cavalry troops on the north bank of the Hualan River would take advantage of the situation to attack in order to deal a major blow to the Northern Navy.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Success or failure depends on this! The sneak attack is successful, everything will be easy to say tomorrow; if it fails... Damn! You can't fail!
The Qing army was all experienced in carrying out night sneak attacks. They attacked Jinchuan, Burma, and Junggar. The sneak attack tactics were tried and tested many times. The time to launch the attack was set at the end of Chou and the beginning of Yin on the next day, which was when the night guard was the most relaxed.
At that time, he buried a pot to make rice, ate and drank, and inspected the weapons. Mingliang also offered a reward to the sneak attack troops. For every Bei navy killed, he was rewarded with fifty taels of silver; for a repeating musket, he was rewarded with eighty taels of silver.
; If you can capture that kind of musket that fires suddenly, there will be a reward of two hundred taels of silver.
He estimated that the number of people killed by the Beihai Navy this time was only seven or eight thousand. Even if they were all killed, the reward would only be 400,000 yuan per head. Including weapons seized, the total would only be 3 to 5 million. It was really a bargain.
At the beginning of the attack, a night attack force of 5,000 men was quietly dispatched; Dai Senbao's cavalry force also bound their horses and entered the starting position with medals in their mouths to wait.
Two thousand cotton troops walked in front carrying 500 muddy cotton camouflage, and behind them were 1,500 musketeers, 1,000 archers, and artillerymen carrying return artillery and two generals' artillery.
When entering the battlefield to launch a surprise attack, the archers had to crouch forward while the musketeers stood and followed.
When advancing, there are gaps between each row of quilts for shooting muskets and bows; if viewed from the front, in the dark night, the quilts at the front of each row will completely block the people behind them.
Reality.
During this period, the military discipline of the Eight Banners troops was very good. No one spoke except for the sound of footsteps while the troops were marching.
When they were still two miles away from the Beijun station, they stopped to rest. After waiting for the forward battalion sentry in charge of reconnaissance to report back, they learned that the sentries outside the village were still moving, and all the Beijun in the village had fallen asleep.
Shuo Yunbao, the commander of the guard army, was overjoyed when he heard this. He let the soldiers rest where they were for a stick of incense, and then ordered each team to move forward.
At this time, no one in the Qing army noticed that in the dark night sky, several palm-sized drones were flying over their heads towards the village...
At the starting position of the Qing army's cavalry on the north bank of the Hualan River, many horses' ears stood up and their heads shook uneasily.
Dai Senbao, who was in the tent, heard the movement outside, and his opponent Goshiha asked: "What's going on? Go and have a look."
Nagoshha went out for a while and came back to report: "Sir, there seems to be a swarm of wasps in the sky outside, buzzing non-stop."
"Hornet?" Dai Senbao and several generals walked out of the tent and looked up at the sky.
On a dark moon night, nothing could be seen in the sky except stars. Suddenly, a military general pointed to a place in the sky and said: "Sir, look!"
Everyone stared intently at where the general's finger was, and finally saw a very faint red dot flashing about ten feet above their head.
What is this?! Dai Senbao and the generals were shocked. After burning the incense, they saw that the red dot seemed to have risen a lot, becoming more obscure and difficult to distinguish, and then floated away to the southeast.
"Evil magic? Monster?" When everyone returned to the tent, the expressions on their faces were all surprise and astonishment...
At the second quarter of Yinchu, the "quilt army" of the Qing soldiers finally arrived one mile outside the Beihai Navy station, and the village in the distance was still silent. At this time, the quilt columns had dispersed in a fan shape.
Come and start to surround the village.
Just when the Qing army was still 300 meters away from the village, suddenly, a muffled "bang" sound suddenly came from the village. After a moment, there was a bright light in the sky, and the entire wilderness was illuminated like daylight.
The Qing army was attacked for thousands of nights, with no escape.
"Thieves have witchcraft!"
"It's over!"
Dai Senbao's whole body seemed to be frozen, and he was stunned on the spot.
At this time, shrill whistles began to sound, and the Beihai Navy, which had been waiting for a long time, finally showed its fangs.
"Fire!"
Suddenly gunfire broke out, and the originally peaceful village instantly turned into a volcano; dense rain of bullets sprayed out from the north, west, and south directions of the entire village. The first to be knocked down were the so-called "quilt troops."
"You must get closer! Otherwise, everyone will become a target! Brothers, kill!"
The first person to react was the guard commander Wan Ting. He raised his sword and shouted. Some of the musketeers who had come back to their senses did not care about anything and pulled the trigger at the Beihai Navy 300 meters away. Those
The Qing army, armed with bows and arrows, took advantage of the smoke and bent over and ran forward desperately.
Get closer! Get closer and you can shoot them to death!
"Boom! Boom!..."
Balls of flames exploded in the ranks of the Qing troops, and the Northern Navy's mortars opened fire.
"Boom! Boom!" Two more flares rose into the sky, and thousands of Qing soldiers ran like headless flies in the wilderness. Wherever there were the most people, the most people fell.
Amidst the hail of bullets, the Qing army's muskets continued to fire. After shooting, they bent forward, rushed out for more than ten steps, and then stood up and started charging the matchlocks. Although some people kept falling, others were still moving forward.
Shoot and move forward.
The shotgun soldiers of the Qing army were almost like walking powder barrels. When many of them were hit by random gunshots or shells, a large ball of flame suddenly rose up and turned into a human-shaped torch.
Gradually, the surviving Qing troops were suppressed by the rain of bullets and lay on the ground without daring to move. Those Qing troops who dared to get up and shoot were all beaten to a pulp.
Shuo Yunbao lay on the ground and cursed: "Why isn't that bastard Dai Senbao coming?"
The crawling Wan Ting dragged his severely painful injured leg to hide in a bomb crater. While tearing off the bandage, he shouted to those around him: "Keep rushing, don't stop!"
In the direction of the Hualan River, the Qing army's five thousand cavalrymen knew that a firefight was taking place there when they saw flashes of light and roaring gunfire in the distant sky.
Dai Senbao was hesitating whether to dispatch, when Goshiha sent by Mingliang arrived with a token and ordered him to dispatch support quickly.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Everyone! Mount up!"
The rumble of horse hooves began to sound, tens of thousands of horse hooves galloping across the field, and the earth rolled across like muffled thunder.
The Beihai Navy, who was guarding the bunker, knew that the biggest test was coming. If they could not repel these cavalry, they would fall into close combat.
The tactics of the Qing cavalry were still "oblique attack and horizontal attack", but the bows and arrows were replaced by muskets. When they arrived from the northwest of the village, the Northern Navy's artillery target had become them.
"Woo~~"
The dull Conch sound sounded, and the Qing cavalry divided into ten waves with 500 people in a wave, intending to break through the Northern Navy's defense line with this layered wave-like attack method.
The forwards raised their matchlocks on their horses and fired while pushing forward, while those who had fired sat on the galloping horses to load their muskets. These were skills they had long mastered.
"Get ready~ listen to my command~"
"beat!"
When the second regiment guarding the north side of the village raised their muskets to fire as the Qing cavalry passed by the village, ten light machine guns opened fire one after another. The rain of bullets mixed with tracer bullets was like a red whip, killing those who were galloping from the front of the formation.
The Qing army dismounted their horses.
At the same time, the artillery troops of the Qing army who were desperately trying to catch up from the rear rushed to a position 200 meters away from the village despite artillery fire and rain of bullets. Seven or eight second-level artillery and returning artillery hurriedly aimed at several bunkers, and then
Fired.
"Boom! Boom!..."
"Be careful! Get down!" Hundreds of bullets the size of broad beans passed through several positions of the Northern Navy like a strong wind, and then several screams were heard.
The Qing artillerymen tried to reload and fire again, but as the illumination flares lit up, a dense rain of bullets hit them, causing immediate casualties and making it impossible to organize an artillery bombardment.
The machine guns on the North Navy position continued to fire, from easy bursts at the beginning to continuous shooting. The barrels of the first few machine guns that fired had begun to turn red.
Although the Beihai Navy's shooting caused huge damage, it failed to stop the Qing cavalry's advance; they seemed to stand up from the ashes, and the dense rain of bullets was not enough to knock them down, and they even came so close to the bunker at one point
There are thirty meters away.
The crazy shooting of machine guns forced the Qing army's cavalry to continue marching rapidly southward. They kept shouting wildly on horseback and continued to fire in vain until they advanced around the left wing of the Northern Navy. At this time, the machine guns in the southwest also
The shooting target was changed to these cavalry, and the shouts and screams of the survivors gradually fell silent amidst the continuous strafing.
Finally, the Qing cavalry could no longer bear the huge casualties and began to turn around and retreat. As the cavalry retreated, the Qing troops lying on the field unable to move began to collapse. They cleverly turned around and ran with the cavalry, while others
Lying on the ground crying for father and mother; some even grabbed the mud-covered quilt and covered themselves in an attempt to muddle through.
Several flares rose again in the sky, whistles shrilled in the Beihai Navy position, and killing sounds rang out. The troops of the two regiments rushed out of the bunker and began to pursue the fleeing Qing army.
The smoke filled the air and the lights and shadows changed. Wan Ting, the military commander whose leg was injured by shrapnel, saw several Northern Marines rushing towards him and shouted: "Your Majesty, I am loyal!" After saying this, he immediately raised his sword.
commit suicide.
Several hundred meters away, Dai Senbao, who had a big hole in his cheek and was unconscious, was being carried by several broken soldiers and was escaping westward.
As the light from the flares on the battlefield gradually dimmed, the fish-belly white streak in the eastern sky became clearer and clearer.