Although Li Zicheng did not dare to underestimate Shang Yi after hearing that Tian Jianxiu and Liu Zongmin had said many unique tactics of the merchant army, he still had not seen it with his own eyes, so this attack was actually a trial. Anyway, this was
Thousands of troops are all handymen, and it would not be a pity if they all died. At the same time, a thousand supervising troops were arranged to supervise the battle.
After the order was issued, the 10,000 intruders left the army's formation and approached the Merchant Army's position. Although the 10,000 troops dispatched were brought by Li Zicheng from Xiangyang and had not yet fought against the Merchant Army, but now
Everyone knew that both Tian Jianxiu and Liu Zongmin were defeated by the Merchant Army. Moreover, after joining forces with Tian Jianxiu and Liu Zongmin, they also heard many rumors from their soldiers about how ferocious the Merchant Army's firearms were.
Although people in this era did not know much about firearms, generally speaking, they had an instinctive fear, and in the process of legends, it was invisibly amplified a lot, so it became more and more popular. Chuangjun
Among them, the guards and the elite troops of the fifth battalion often fought with the Ming army and had seen the Ming army use firearms, so they were better off. Only these handymen were used as cannon fodder in battles, so although they did not fight,
But I have become timid. Now I just bite the bullet and move forward.
Sure enough, after walking only a hundred steps, the artillery in the Merchant Army's formation began to fire, taking the lead in attacking the intruders.
Although Shang Yi used a high-power telescope to find Li Zicheng's position, only four Hongyi cannons could reach Li Zicheng at a distance of a thousand steps. And even though the cannons were equipped with crosshairs, at this distance, they could not even see
It's not clear, so there can't be any precise strikes. Moreover, after the shells hit a thousand steps away, the power was also much worse. Therefore, Shang Yi also temporarily gave up the idea of attacking the Chuang army's main formation, and instead
When the soldiers of the invading army reached a distance of about 800 steps, four Hongyi cannons and three No. 1 Fran machine guns opened fire together, and the first round of bombardment of the day began.
Although seven artillery shells are not many, wars in this era are basically based on dense formations. Therefore, each cannon fired into the array of the intruders can knock down several soldiers in a row. And the soldier who was shot
They were all beaten to a bloody head, with their muscles and bones broken. There were a lot of screams for a while.
However, the lethality of the artillery shells is secondary, and the greater one is the psychological pressure. It can hit more than 800 steps, which is a very scary distance in this era. Li Zicheng saw him in the formation.
Only then did he fully believe that the Merchant Army's artillery had indeed fired too far. At the same time, he was secretly glad that he had listened to Tian Jianxiu's instructions and stopped far away. Otherwise, those who were being bombarded now would have been those of the army.
The generals of the Chuang army who followed him into the battle were also shocked.
Although the attacking Chuang army was also scared, firstly, it was because at this distance, the lethality of the artillery was still very limited. Secondly, behind them, there was a supervising team supervising the battle. If they were not ordered to withdraw, they would
His life could not be saved either, so he could only bite the bullet and continue to move forward.
However, as the distance between the Chuang army and the Merchant Army gradually shortened, more and more artillery joined in the bombardment, and the shells gradually became denser, and the blow to the Chuang army became greater and greater. Along the road
There are many soldiers who were killed by gunfire or seriously injured and unable to move. And the closer to the front, the more soldiers there are.
It takes about ten minutes to cover a distance of nearly a thousand steps. During this period, the Folan cannon can be fired more than ten times and the Hongyi cannon can be fired five or six times. Although at this time,
We were already far away from the main formation of the intruders, and the portraits were all as thin as ants, but from a more macro perspective, we could see a few gaps appearing from time to time in the dense array of intruders.
After that, they immediately joined Long and came up. Under the continuous artillery attacks by the merchant army, the intruder army paid the price of more than a thousand casualties.
But when they reached this distance, the Hongyi cannon and the No. 1 and 2 Folan cannons were all in the blind spot, but the No. 3 Folang cannon and the Tiger cannon began to show their power. They were all replaced with shotguns, and each one
The cannons were able to kill a large number of people, and the attack on the intruders continued unabated. Moreover, at this time, they also entered the shooting range of the firecrackers. After the volley of gunfire, the soldiers of the intruders fell down in rows.
Although they were too far away, the sound of gunfire and artillery was not so deafening, and we could hear the heart-rending screams of the soldiers after being shot, but we could not see the bloody
The scene, but every general who watched the battle knew that although everyone knew that the men and horses sent up were to die, but such a way of death still made people feel a little unacceptable. Because now my own
The men and horses could only be brutally slaughtered by the enemy without any ability to resist and fight back.
At this time, the attacking army finally could not withstand the fierce firepower of the merchant army. Although they knew that there was a supervising team behind them to supervise the battle, they still retreated. Fortunately, Li Zicheng also saw the situation clearly at this time and did not stop him.
They withdrew the war supervising team and asked all the invaders to withdraw. The soldiers of the Merchant Army rushed out of the trenches, chased and fired for a while, and then all retreated.
In fact, the entire battle lasted less than half an hour. When the attacking troops returned to the formation, less than 5,000 of the 10,000 troops were left. Li Zicheng could not help but be secretly surprised. Such a loss was indeed astonishing.
.Although we have not yet seen the hand-to-hand combat capabilities of the merchant army, in such a battle, there is actually not much difference between the elite troops and ordinary handymen. Because they cannot approach the merchant army's position, no matter how elite the troops are, they have no place to use them.
.
Although Li Zicheng also prepared a firearms unit, preparing to use firearms to make firearms against the Merchant Army. However, the artillery used by the Chuang Army were basically small Folan cannons and Tiger Cannons. Compared with the Merchant Army, the range was
It was too far off, and sending them there would end in vain. Therefore, Li Zicheng did not order his firearms troops to go into battle, but ordered the troops to be withdrawn back to the camp to discuss how to deal with this Ming army.
Shang Yi was a little surprised to see Li Zicheng withdrew his troops like this. It seemed that Li Zicheng was much stronger than Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu and others. When he saw that the situation was not good, he immediately withdrew his troops and did not just fight hard. He couldn't.
I underestimated him. Don't drive away Li Zicheng when the time comes. It would be bad if you suffer a big loss again. Now that you don't have much, you can't withstand the big trouble.
After returning to the camp, Li Zicheng immediately summoned his generals to discuss how to deal with the merchant army.
But all the generals also felt it was a headache. The Merchant Army was obviously different from other Ming armies, because they all used long-distance attacks, and the firepower was so fierce that they could not withstand it. Therefore, the Chuang Army relied on its large number and strong combat effectiveness.
It can't be used. If we just rely on manpower to pile up, we still don't know how many people will be filled in. Moreover, now that the merchant army has a wall to defend, relying on people to pile up may not be effective.
All the generals were helpless for a moment. Even Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance and others bowed their heads in silence, as if they were helpless. At this moment, Li Zicheng even had the idea of retreating. If he couldn't fight, just run away. This was also what Li Zicheng did. The routines used by bandits in the past seem to be picked up again now.
At this time, Li Yan stood up and said: "King Chuang, in my opinion, the merchant army is not completely helpless."
After hearing this, Li Zicheng felt refreshed and said, "Mr. Li, do you have any good ideas?"
Li Yan said: "In fact, although the Ming army has many troops, only the merchant army can fight. I heard that it is not just the merchant army stationed in Guangzhou, but I have never seen other troops fighting in conjunction with the merchant army. It can be seen that The Ming army is all fighting on its own, and other armies are vulnerable, so we can only use all our strength against the merchant army, and we don't need to consider other troops."
Li Zicheng nodded. It was an old problem that the various departments of the Ming army could not unite to fight. Many generals in the Chuang army knew about it. But even the Shang army was unable to do anything about it, so Li Zicheng again Said: "Then what do you think, sir, how to deal with the merchant army?"
Li Yan said: "King Chuang, generals, have you noticed that although the merchant army defeated our army many times, except for the capture of Guangzhou at the beginning, it never captured a city again. There were two times where it was clear that it could be done without blowing smoke. With his own strength, Xinyang's opportunity was taken away, but the merchant army all gave up. Moreover, when the merchant army fought against our army, they all prepared their positions in advance, arranged artillery and firecrackers, and then waited for us to attack, although they also had There are units such as cavalry and pikemen, but they never took the initiative to attack us. They only waited for our army to be driven back with artillery and musketry before launching a pursuit."
After hearing what he said, the generals also thought about it carefully and found that this was indeed the case. Although they all vaguely felt that they had some ideas, they could not tell what the body was, so they all waited. Li Yan continued.
Li Yan then added: "Judging from these points, although the Merchant Army has sharp firearms and strong combat effectiveness, it still has at least two problems. First, it has insufficient troops and cannot divide its forces to defend the city, so it cannot attack the city. Land plundering. It can be seen that the total number of the merchant army is not large. In my estimation, it should be no more than 10,000 people. Second, the main offensive capability is insufficient and it relies heavily on the position. There must be sufficient preparation time before the war. If We can make arrangements and preparations based on these two points, and it is not completely impossible to defeat the merchant army."
Li Zicheng took a deep breath and laughed loudly: "Mr. Li, you are really my Zhuge Liang. Okay, I have a plan to deal with the Shang army. Shang Yi, this time I will completely defeat you."