In fact, as soon as Zuo Mengeng led his army out of Xianning, Shang Yi received the news. Because after learning that Zhang Xianzhong raided Zuo Liangyu's camp, he also estimated that Zuo Liangyu would not let it go, so he sent scouts long ago.
, to detect the movements of the left army.
This is not to say that Shang Yi expected that Zuo Liangyu would come to fight, but that only by understanding Zuo Jun's movements can he provide a basis for his next move. In Shang Yi's view, Zuo Liangyu could either choose to retreat to Jiujiang and ignore
On the battlefield here, they will either attack Daye and seize the money and food they deceived from Zhang Xianzhong. Because now the merchant army has defeated Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in a row, and their reputation has spread. Zuo Liangyu will not know that he even Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong
Zhang Xianzhong didn't dare to fight, so he might not dare to fight with him.
But what happened was unexpected. Zuo Liangyu actually sent troops to attack the camp of the Merchant Army. Only then did Shang Yi understand that the deterrence of the Merchant Army was mainly aimed at the two peasant armies, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, and against the two peasant armies, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.
As for the various Ming armies, because they have never fought against the Merchant Army, they don't have much fear. I'm afraid they are more dissatisfied. Now Zuo Liangyu is a typical example.
Since this is the case, Shang Yi also decided to operate on Zuo Liangyu, the most arrogant among the Ming armies, and give him a severe show of his strength. At the same time, he also killed the chicken to show the monkey, so that other Ming armies would also understand.
The Merchant Army is not someone to be trifled with. Whoever dares to stumble, hold back, or even stab the Merchant Army in the future must weigh how much he weighs and whether he can withstand the Merchant Army's revenge.
Therefore, Shang Yi immediately ordered the entire army to prepare to fight the Zuo army. The encounter between the Fuluo team and the Zuo army was actually just an accident.
The merchant army's camp was actually laid out in a position pattern. Basically, wooden fences were rarely used as walls. Instead, a trench was dug around the camp, homespun bags and vehicles were used as the camp wall, and rectangular wood was used as a shield at the entrance.
Several lookout vehicles will be placed on each side of the village wall to observe the situation, and only some wooden fences will be used in some local places. It is also very simple to arrange in this way. It only takes half a day at most to set up the camp and evacuate.
It is easier to just pour out the sand from the bag and fill the trench. At the same time, if there is an enemy attack, the soldiers only need to jump into the trench, put the artillery behind, and they can organize themselves immediately.
Line of defense.
Therefore, when the patrol discovered the Zuo Army, the Merchant Army was actually fully prepared for battle.
The Zuo Army had never fought against the Merchant Army, and had never seen the Merchant Army fight. They had no idea how powerful the Merchant Army was. At the same time, Zuo Liangyu's arrogant character also infected the entire army, so he ordered the attack after Zuo Mengeng.
After giving the order, everyone showed off their power, waved their weapons, and approached the merchant army's camp.
When they got closer, Zuo Jun discovered that the camp layout of the Merchant Army was completely different from what he usually saw. There was no wooden fence, so they used a few homespun bags to serve as camp walls, and there were only four or five people.
A foot high, this is too ridiculous, how can anyone arrange a camp like this? When the three generals Zuo Menggeng, Jin Shenghuan, and Lu Guangzu saw it, they were completely relieved. Such a camp can still block their own attack.
At the same time, the soldiers of the left army also began to trot and charge towards the merchant army's position.
But at this moment, a series of shelling sounds of "Boom - Boom - Boom - Boom -" were heard, shaking the world.
In the left army's formation, there were more than a dozen gaps, a large number of soldiers fell, and at the same time, there was a burst of screams like ghosts crying and wolves howling.
It turned out that because the Shang Army wanted to pursue the Western Army, they went into battle lightly and left all the Hongyi artillery in Daye County. All the artillery that accompanied the army were small and medium-sized artillery, and the largest one was the No. 1 Fo Lang machine gun. And Shang Yi wanted to give the Zuo Army a
After receiving a harsh lesson, they were too lazy to use solid bullets to carry out long-range strikes against them, so they ordered the artillery to use shotgun shells, and they had to put the left army within 200 steps before they could start firing.
As a result, twenty artillery pieces opened fire at the same time, all using shotgun shells. One shot was a sweeping sweep, and the left army's attack was a dense charge. Therefore, in the first round, it dealt a heavy blow to the left army, with at least one thousand casualties.
More than one person.
The soldiers of the Zuo Army had seen this formation before, and chaos immediately broke out. Some people began to run backwards, while the three generals Zuo Mengeng, Jin Shenghuan, and Li Guoying desperately urged the soldiers to continue rushing forward. But most of them
All soldiers know that the interval between artillery firings is very long, so they all use this interval to advance desperately, hoping to enter the blind spot where the artillery fires.
However, the soldiers of the Zuo Army did not expect that the musketeers of the Merchant Army were waiting for them.
There are currently about 4,000 musketeers in Shang Yi's army. In fact, Shang Yi only dispatched 3,000 musketeers, and another thousand to guard other positions. Of the 3,000 musketeers dispatched, 2,000 were
In the trench, according to the three-stage continuous shooting method, more than 600 musketeers will shoot at one time. After the first round of volley shooting, the soldiers of the left army immediately fell down a large row. Although the musket shooting
It was not as earth-shattering as the artillery, but the victory was that the rate of fire was extremely fast, almost without interruption, one after another, continuously, and the left army continued to fall to the ground.
At the same time that the muskets started firing, the merchant army's second round of shelling began. And now that the left army was closer, the lethality of the artillery fire was naturally greater. Therefore, after this round of shelling, only the left army was hit.
There were screams in the military formation, and the soldiers fell down in rows and pieces like harvested crops.
However, after this round of shelling, the artillery of the Merchant Army also entered its own blind spot, so they all stopped firing. The remaining one thousand musketeers and twelve tiger cannons began to close in
On the camp wall, a strike was launched against the left army. This time, the shooting changed from a single row to a double row, and twelve squatting tiger cannons were added. Although the artillery stopped firing, the firepower did not weaken at all.
On the contrary, because the interval between launches is short, it is even more violent.
In fact, Zhou Shaohuan's new tactic of placing the tiger pedal cannon in the musket array was highly praised by Shang Yi, who praised him for his willingness to use his brain and find a way. At the same time, he also ordered the promotion of Zhou Shaohuan's new tactic in the army.
The Tiger Cannon actually belongs to the mortar category. It has low power and a short range. It is basically not very useful when placed in an artillery battalion. However, it has the advantages of being light and easy to move and having a fast reloading rate. If
Put together with muskets and used at close range, it is a very large supplement to the muskets. At that time, Qi Jiguang assembled a large number of tiger pedal cannons in the Qi family army, reaching a ratio of three tiger pedal cannons for every five hundred people. And mainly
It is used in field battles.
In fact, in the armies of later generations, mortars were mostly used with combat troops in field battles or on forward positions. Although Shang Yi understood this truth, he did not pay attention to it. In the artillery, because the performance of the Crouching Tiger Cannon in several battles was very average, Shang Yi even planned not to build a Crouching Tiger Cannon in the future. In the end, it was Zhou Shaohuan who first discovered the best way to use the Crouching Tiger Cannon.
Therefore, Shang Yi couldn't help but sigh that the Chinese are indeed the smartest race in the world. As long as they are given a little guidance, someone will soon follow the right path and discover more new things.
The Merchant Army's new tactics were a complete nightmare for the Zuo Army. When the Zuo Army's large group advanced to a place that was still sixty or seventy steps away from the Merchant Army's position, they suffered countless casualties. , blood flowed into channels.
In fact, the left army's fighting will is very average. It is not much stronger than Zhang Xianzhong's Western Army. It is still under Li Zicheng's Breaking Army. It dares to attack the Merchant Army. It is entirely because they did not know how powerful the Merchant Army was before. They are just ignorant. Fearless. Now the two sides have just fought. After only ten minutes of fighting, the Left Army has already suffered more than 5,000 casualties. And other Left Army soldiers also know that the Merchant Army is really not easy to mess with, and they dare to fight again. They continued to rush forward, turning their heads and running away.
The three generals Zuo Mengeng, Jin Shenghuan, and Li Guoying were all stunned. They couldn't believe that the facts before them were true. Jin Shenghuan and Li Guoying were both Zuo Liangyu's old subordinates. They followed Zuo Liangyu in the east and west, which was a great experience. He has fought hundreds of battles. Although Zuo Mengeng is not yet thirty years old, he has nearly ten years of fighting experience and has seen many battles. However, in previous battles, he has never seen such a powerful and terrifying opponent. He has mastered artillery and guns so well that he is no match for him at all. He simply loses without any temper at all.
Seeing the soldiers retreating one after another, the three of them did not push the soldiers back to continue the attack, because they all knew that if they continued to attack, they would only die in vain and would be of no use at all, so they all turned around and followed the defeated army. Retreat together.
If it were normal times, it would be fine if the Zuo army was driven back. But since Shang Yi had decided to attack Zuo Liangyu as a model to deter other Ming armies, naturally he could not let it go easily. Pass them. Anyway, the battle was fought with experience and many soldiers of the Zuo army were killed. It didn’t matter how many people were killed, but Zuo Liangyu was always beaten until he became submissive. Therefore, he immediately ordered the entire army to pursue him and continue to expand the results. .
So the musketeers jumped out of the trenches one after another, holding muskets with bayonets in hand, chasing the rear of the left army and killing them. The cavalry battalion divided into two groups and surrounded them from the left and right sides, waving their sabers. , constantly chasing the left army from both wings.
At this time, the left army had already been frightened by the fierce firepower of the merchant army. Although the merchant army had all fought out of the trench, they still dared to turn around and fight with the merchant army again, so everyone threw their guns and spears. He threw away his armor and scrambled for his life, fearing that he would be caught up by the merchant army if he was too late. He was killed by the merchant army, leaving corpses all over the field and blood staining the ground.