The artillery and muskets of the Chuang army were all captured from the Ming army, and the gunners and musketeers were all surrendered Ming troops. These people were originally veterans and losers, and they would fall down when the wind blew. It’s just that I always won battles with the Chuang Army in the past, and I could show off my power in battles with favorable winds. I had a little bit of courage to move forward, but I didn’t expect that I encountered a tough opponent here today. I and I haven’t entered the shooting range yet. , the enemy took the initiative and took action. Although they only killed a dozen soldiers and destroyed one cannon, they frightened the group of intruders and they did not dare to move forward.
However, they also knew that Li Zicheng's military discipline was very strict. If he retreated at this time, the supervising team behind him would never be merciful. Therefore, retreating now would mean death. They could only bite the bullet and continue to move forward.
However, the Merchant Army's artillery fire came one after another. As they advanced, they continued to hit the firearms troops of the Chuang Army. Although the gains from each attack were not large, they saw that their opponents had no power to fight back, so they just saw the Chuang Army. The uneasiness he felt when launching the artillery gradually disappeared. Zhou Shaohuan, who was watching the battle on the bell tower, finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that not all troops could use firearms effectively. He had been a little worried before. .
The current battle situation also made Li Zicheng frown. It seemed that he had overestimated the firearms force, so his confidence had also dropped significantly.
After enduring three or four rounds of artillery fire from the merchant army, the firearms unit of the intruder army lost almost fifty or sixty people, and two artillery pieces were destroyed. At this time, they were basically within 300 steps of the merchant army's position. It was the merchant army. The strike range of the No. 3 Folan cannon, and the artillery on the northern line has been deployed in place, so the Merchant Army's strike intensity has also been significantly increased. Sixteen artillery pieces are fired at once. The lethality is natural It was also enlarged a lot, and as the distance got closer, the hit rate also improved a lot. In the first round, sixteen artillery pieces were fired at the same time, destroying two of the invaders' artillery pieces. They also smashed the gunner and the gunman. Many of them were injured and killed. If the intruders advanced a further distance, the No. 2 Franco machine gun could switch to attacking with shotgun shells.
Facing the increasingly fierce attacks, the Chuang army did not dare to move forward, and at this distance, some artillery could almost hit them, so the Chuang army also stopped one after another, no matter what. Whether the range was sufficient or not, each artillery began to load shells and prepared to fire back. When the artillery stopped, the gunners naturally did not dare to move forward, because if they moved forward, they would not only encounter the opponent The artillery was full of holes, and it also became the target of its own artillery. They could only stop to reload and prepare to shoot.
The chaotic scene of the invading army also fully proves that it is not only the possession of artillery and blunderbuss that can become a firearms unit. The use of firearms also requires rigorous training and matching tactics.
After enduring another round of artillery strikes from the Merchant Army, most of the Chuang Army's artillery was finally filled with ammunition and could finally be fired to launch a counterattack against the Merchant Army.
"Boom-boom-boom-boom-" A series of shelling sounds finally sounded from the intruder's position, but the firecrackers raised their firecrackers one after another regardless of the situation, "Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang." "Bang" was a burst of random fire. More than thirty artillery pieces and two thousand firecrackers were fired at the same time, creating a huge momentum in a short time.
Li Zicheng, who was watching the battle from a distance, also frowned slightly at this time. It was finally his turn to use his artillery. This time, he could let the merchant army repay the taste of the artillery. But soon Li Zicheng realized that something was wrong and was shocked. was stunned.
After the artillery bombardment of the Chuang Army began, it was impossible to say that the merchant army was not nervous. Even the three highest officers, Zhou Shaohuan, Shang Dayong, and Huang Zhen, shrank in their hearts, thinking about what they would do to themselves after this round of bombardment. How much damage did one party cause? But he soon discovered that the fact was not as bad as he imagined. Most of the artillery shells fired by the Chuang army landed almost a hundred steps away from the Merchant Army's position, but only ten The remaining artillery shells fell within a distance of ten or twenty steps in front of the Merchant Army's position, but none of them hit the Merchant Army's position.
Although the artillery shell can still bounce forward on the ground based on inertia after it lands, the impact force has been greatly reduced. At this time, the benefits of trenches are revealed. The soldiers only need to push their heads and hide behind the homespun bag. It was basically fine. The shells either flew over their heads or hit the homespun bags. At most, they were shocked. Most of the remaining impact was absorbed by the homespun bags. Unless they happened to fall into the trenches. inside, otherwise it would be basically ineffective against the Merchant Army. As for the firecrackers, they are even less worth mentioning. They are more than 300 steps away. Unless they are rifles from the 19th century, there is no threat at all. Therefore, the Chuang Army This round of shelling only killed two soldiers of the Merchant Army, and more than that, it triggered a burst of laughter from the Merchant Army.
After seeing the huge contrast in the results of the artillery fire between the two sides, Zhou Shaohuan, Shang Dayong, and Huang Zhen were finally completely relieved. It seemed that the artillery of the intruders was indeed not in good shape and could not hit their own positions at all.
From the Merchant Army's position, earth-shattering artillery fire came again, as if to show the intruders how artillery should be used.
After the shells fell, there was another scream from the intruder's artillery array. Another artillery was hit by the shells, causing it to roll over several times and overwhelm two gunners.
Dong Liang gritted his teeth and retreated in his heart. He looked back and found that the supervising team was following him, only more than two hundred steps away. It turned out that Li Zicheng saw the artillery of the Merchant Army this time in the formation. They could only hit about 500 steps. It is estimated that some long-range artillery was not brought. Although I was still a little worried about whether the merchant army had a hand left, so I did not dare to go forward in person, but I still supported the supervising team. Go to the front and supervise the battle from a close distance.
Dong Liang's heart naturally felt cold. If he ran away at this time, he would probably be killed by the supervising team within a few steps. It seemed that he had no choice but to hold on. So he urged the gunners to reload their ammunition and fired at the gunners. I didn't bother to bother with it, because I definitely couldn't hit it.
At this moment, I saw a horse galloping from behind. The knight on horseback shouted loudly: "General Dong, King Chuang has an order. He ordered the artillery to advance another hundred steps and the gunmen to advance two hundred steps. You must not disobey it." .”
Dong Liang was stunned for a moment and was about to speak when he heard two loud bangs of "Boom - Boom -", followed by a series of screams. It turned out that the gunners of two artillery pieces wanted to fire the cannons harder. It was further away, so the amount of gunpowder loaded was also heavier. As a result, the gunpowder was overdosed, the barrel exploded, and the surrounding soldiers were affected. Fifty or sixty people were killed in one fell swoop. Many others were also injured.
The soldier who delivered the order was also frightened and said hurriedly: "General Dong, follow the order immediately!" After saying that, he quickly turned his horse's head and ran towards the return road. At this time, some soldiers couldn't stand it and did not care.
There was a supervisory team behind him, so he turned around and ran away.
Dong Liang knew the military law well and did not dare to escape easily. He just lay on the ground and tried his best to avoid the shelling of the merchant army. Then he looked back to observe the consequences of the fleeing soldiers before deciding his own plan.
However, the outcome of the escaping soldiers completely dispelled Dong Liang's illusions. As soon as they escaped to the supervising team, the soldiers of the supervising team were not polite and killed them on the spot. They cut off their heads and placed them in front of the formation as a warning.
Others. The supervising team killed more than 30 soldiers in one go. This really frightened the other soldiers who were escaping. Seeing that there was no hope of retreating, they could only stop one after another, and then turned around helplessly and returned to the artillery fire.
position.
But after such a delay, the merchant army launched four or five rounds of artillery fire in succession. Although the soldiers of the intruder army learned the lesson and lay down on the ground to avoid the artillery fire, the casualties were not large, but the artillery fire was
Unable to escape, several more were destroyed by the Merchant Army. From the beginning of the war to the present, nearly forty artillery pieces were destroyed by almost 15 or 16 artillery pieces by the Merchant Army. The casualties also exceeded 200.
At this time, Dong Liang had no other choice but to order the artillery to advance a hundred steps forward, then re-establish the artillery position and engage in firefights with the merchant army. At the same time, he ordered the gunmen to rush in front of the artillery and approach the merchant.
The soldiers took up positions and launched an attack on the merchant army.
At this point, the soldiers who invaded the army had no choice. Escape would be a dead end, and staying here would only lead to being beaten and unable to fight, which was still a dead end. It was better to move forward and fight with the merchant army within the range of their own artillery.
There might be a glimmer of hope in the exchange of fire. Therefore, they all obeyed Dong Liang's orders, pushed the artillery, carried the gunpowder boxes, and continued to move forward despite the attack of the merchant army's artillery fire.
The fire gunmen moved faster because they had less burden, and if they wanted to reach their firing range, they had to get within fifty steps of the Merchant Army's position, so the Chuang Army quickly separated the distance.
One in front and one behind, one fast and one slow, they are approaching the Merchant Army's position.
However, this poses a problem for the Merchant Army, because now the Chuang Army is divided into two, one in front and one in the back. So which part should the artillery target be? If you continue to attack the artillery, the fire in front will be missed.
If the gunman is close to the position, and if he attacks the gunman, the artillery will inevitably cause more damage to himself after it reaches a longer range. This is quite a dilemma.
But Zhou Shaohuan kept in mind the teachings of Zong Yi: when making decisions on the battlefield, you must be quick, never hesitate, and trust your own judgment. Therefore, he gave the order as expected, and the artillery continued to attack the Chuang army's artillery, waiting for the enemy to enter the second level.
Within a hundred steps, you can attack them with more lethal shotguns. Let the gunners get closer to the position and leave them to your own musketeers to deal with them. In other words: artillery versus artillery, muskets versus muskets.
Because after seeing the results of the artillery battle, Zhou Shaohuan firmly believed that the musketeers of the Merchant Army would also be able to defeat the musketeers of the Chuang Army.