However, just as the Qing army launched a tentative attack, Cheng Jin had sent reinforcements to the positions on the Western Front. An artillery battalion and an auxiliary battalion quickly arranged positions behind the trenches and aimed the muzzles at the same time.
The Qing army's array. With the order of the commander, sixty medium and heavy artillery pieces were divided into three batches and fired in turn, and the shells were directly shot into the Qing army's array.
Because he had never fought with the merchant army, Ye Chen didn't know how far the heavy artillery of the merchant army could be. At this time, the main formation of the Qing army was less than 500 steps away from the merchant army's front, and almost all the artillery battalion's firepower covered.
The Qing army's shield chariot was immediately hit hard as soon as it was pushed out. Some shells were shot directly and some were shot in a curve, and huge explosions roared one after another.
Moreover, the Qing army's array originally used density stances, so the killing effect was very ideal. It was almost impossible to escape within two or three meters of the center of the landing of each shell. It was either dead or injured, and the Qing army was beaten.
They fell to the ground, cries and shouts were heard, and the whole formation began to chaotic.
Ye Chen was also shocked in the formation. He had just seen the merchant army deploying cannons on the position, but he didn't care, because in his impression, only the red cannon was outside such a long distance.
It was able to hit his own position, but the merchant army arranged it was obviously not red-clothed cannons. It was probably to strengthen firepower preparations, so I didn't care much. However, I didn't expect that the merchant army's artillery could not only shoot far, but also fire
What came out was not solid bullets, but flower bullets, which exploded as soon as they landed on the ground, so the lethality was much stronger than that of the red-clothed cannon.
However, there is no time for Ye Chen to think about it now, because the Qing army was in chaos, and many people began to retreat despite military discipline and orders. Moreover, three shells had fallen near Ye Chen's location and exploded near the location where he was.
, and was also hit by the iron sand and iron sheets shot out a few times. Fortunately, Ye Chen was only on the edge of the explosion range, and the iron sheets shot with no force. Ye Chen was wearing a triple thick armor,
He successfully protected his body, only one piece of iron penetrated the outermost iron armor, and the rest were ejected.
But no one can guarantee when a shell will fall to Ye Chen and explode. Therefore, although Ye Chen still wants to command and control the situation, he was pulled by several of his robbers and followers around him.
He pulled it back and retreated.
At this moment, the infantrymen of the Qi family army also jumped out of the trenches, carried the bayonet rifles, and launched the final charge towards the Qing army.
In previous battles, the merchant army generally asked the Qing army to attack with all their might, and waited until it caused a large amount of lethality to the Qing army with firearms before it started to launch a charge and counterattack, giving the Qing army the greatest damage. And this battle
In the middle, the previous tactics changed, and from the beginning, they directly bombarded the main formation of the Qing army with artillery, and then immediately launched a charge to quickly defeat the Qing army.
This is mainly because the Huaihe Front is not the main battlefield used by Shang Yi to deal with the Qing army, but only block the Qing army, drag the time, and wait for Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo to return to Jiangbei. It is not yet time for the decisive battle with the Qing army, so the current tactics
The goal is to repel the Qing army's attack, rather than annihilate the living forces of the Qing army. On the other hand, it is also Shang Yi's key skills to train the merchant army's hand-to-hand combat capabilities. In the last war, the merchant army could not always be
He hid in the trenches and relied on guns and cannons to defend himself and passively waited for the Qing army to attack. He must dare to take the initiative and dare to fight with the Qing army in hand-to-hand combat. The battlefield is the best opportunity to exercise.
After the soldiers of the Merchant Army launched a charge, the artillery gradually stopped firing. In fact, the Qing army still has more than 20,000 people, and the Eight Banners soldiers basically suffered no losses. Ye Chen also discovered this very keenly.
He immediately ordered the Qing army to turn back to fight against the merchant army.
Although Ye Chen could not control all the troops now, and his orders could only be passed to the teams around him, there were still one or two thousand people around him, and they were basically all the Eight Banners soldiers. Therefore, under the leadership of Ye Chen,
They all turned around and started a battle with the merchant army.
When the merchant army saw the enemy coming back, they immediately stopped chasing and raised their guns to shoot. However, the distance between the two sides was very close at this time, and the merchant army could not set up three consecutive shooting formations. It was basically only
It can shoot out the bullets filled in the barrel, and there is no time to refille them. Some soldiers do not shoot at all, but throw grenades. When close forces are connected, grenades are actually better than rifles
More useful.
Therefore, at the beginning of the Qing army's return to fight against the merchant army, he was immediately hit by the merchant army. The gunshots were heard, and the explosions of grenades continued to sound. The Qing soldiers who returned to fight were beaten down one after another.
The land was not stopped, and the losses were extremely heavy. Seven or eight hundred people were killed in an instant, and the counterattack was reduced by nearly half.
However, the Qing soldiers who died in the battle did not die in vain and won time for their other companions. The remaining Qing soldiers finally approached and launched hand-to-hand combat with the merchant army. The sound of gunfire and grenade explosions were immediately reduced, and replaced by "
Kill! Kill!" The roar of "Kill!" and the collision of gold and iron.
The Qing soldiers of the Manchu Eight Banners were indeed very strong in close combat. At this time, the Eight Banners were not the children of the Eight Banners who had become corrupt and degenerate more than two hundred years later. They were all elite soldiers who had been strictly selected. In terms of combat effectiveness alone, it is indeed
He is worthy of being the last strong man in the era of cold weapons. Because of the fact that the white armored soldiers are particularly powerful, and the triple thick armor worn by everyone makes it difficult for the merchant army to pierce through the triangular bayonets. He wants to kill a white armored soldier in hand-to-hand combat.
The merchant army also had to pay at least three or four soldiers. Therefore, although the Qing army was less than a thousand at this time, it could temporarily capture nearly three times more opponents than it.
However, the Merchant Army's hand-to-hand combat ability has also been strictly trained, and it is not as terrified as the other Ming army. Although it is different from the Qing army's soldiers who are proficient in various martial arts, the Merchant Army's soldiers practice only a few stabs and strikes
, blocking the movement, so although the total time of training is not as good as that of the Qing soldiers, it is not bad in just a few strokes. Moreover, although the soldiers of the merchant army only wear a vest-style breastplate, they can protect their bodies.
Most key areas have more flexible movements than the Qing army, and the number of people increases is far higher than the Qing army. Some soldiers can also give time to load bullets or use grenades, but they gradually occupy the wind.
If this continues, the Qing army will naturally be no opponent, but many other defeated and fled soldiers in the Qing army turned around and fought back one after another, and the Qing army was constantly replenishing, and soon, it increased again.
There are more than a thousand troops, but the merchant army actually only has these 2,500 people. Therefore, over time, the disadvantage is the merchant army.
Ye Chen, the chief general of the Qing army, also discovered this, so he felt a little relieved. It seemed that there was still a chance to win back this battle. He also commanded the Qing army to fight hard, and at the same time sent people to recruit more
The soldiers are back.
But at this moment, the Qing army's flank guns were heard, and there were also many explosions of grenades. When Ye Chen saw that another soldier from the merchant army came from the south, the number was 2,500 people.
About a hundred, in a neat array, approaching the Qing army, while taking turns to attack the Qing army with muskets and grenades. The Qing army was also caught off guard, and immediately suffered numerous casualties and injuries. The morale of the army that had just stabilized was suddenly in chaos.
Get up.
It turned out that Cheng Jin transferred the artillery battalion to reinforce the Western Front, preparing to directly bombard the Qing army's main formation, and also put all the three battalions of troops into the battlefield, attacking the Qing soldiers from the flanks, and the merchants on the front
The army also took advantage of the situation to launch a fierce attack on the Qing army. Under the attack from both sides of the merchant army, the Qing army finally defeated again, and this time there was no chance of turning the tables.
The merchant army had a total of six battalions to pursue the Qing army, shooting with rifles, assassinating with bayonets, and blasting with grenades. Some of them picked up the swords and guns thrown by the Qing army and chased each one without mercy.
The Qing soldiers who could catch up, but they kept chasing for more than 30 miles before they stopped. When they returned, the bodies of the Qing soldiers along the way were all covered with swords, guns and flags thrown down.
Ye Chen fled to Long Kangji, who was only thirty miles away from Mengcheng, before he took a breath and checked his troops. The loss of troops reached 7,000, and the Eight Banners soldiers actually killed more than 2,500 people.
The casualties of the full army were so high that it was very rare in the Qing army's battle. The main reason was that when the merchant army launched a charge, the people who turned around and fought were basically full-flag soldiers. As a result, after the defeat, the full army fell.
At the end, he became the target of the merchant army chasing and hiding, so he suffered such heavy losses. On the contrary, the main loss of those troops was that they suffered from the initial tentative attack, and after losing.
At this time, Ye Chen completely understood why Haoge, Abatai and others suffered great losses in the hands of the merchant army. In the past, the merchant army was able to defeat the Qing army repeatedly, which was definitely not a lucky chance, nor was it just a firearm.
Sharp, if you still look at the merchant army from this perspective, you will continue to suffer defeat. Therefore, Ye Chen was working hard at Long Kangji, and while delivering letters to Duoduo, asking him to quickly dispatch the army to come.
The losses of the Qing army naturally became the result of the merchant army. In the actual results, more than 1,800 prisoners were included, including about 300 Manchu prisoners, and more than 40 war horses.
The merchant army itself also died in battle, and was basically killed in battle during hand-to-hand combat with the Qing army. Cheng Jin could not admit that the Qing soldiers' individual combat capabilities and hand-to-hand combat levels were indeed very strong.
It is indeed not easy for the army to achieve such results in field battles with the Qing army.