Because the distance between the two sides was very close at this time, the cavalry of the Merchant Army rushed their horses at full speed from the beginning, and they did not form an arrow-shaped attack queue. They advanced across the board. And the hundreds of light soldiers rushing in the front row The cavalrymen all raised their muskets, some with one hand and some with both hands. They opened fire on the Qing troops rushing towards them.
The Qing army never expected that the enemy could actually shoot at the war horse without any preparation. Of course, it was useless even if they were prepared, because the distance between the two sides was only more than thirty steps, and they could not dodge at all. Therefore, they rushed in More than a hundred Qing cavalrymen in the front row also fell off their horses. At the same time, more than thirty warhorses also screamed and fell to the ground after being shot. However, there were also more than a hundred cavalrymen in the Qing army who shot their own bows and arrows. In the merchant formation, , at the same time, more than 40 cavalrymen fell off their horses and died.
After a short sprint, there were some casualties on both sides, and the cavalry teams finally came into contact. At this time, the advantage of the merchant army's heavy armored cavalry was revealed. Facing the spears thrust by the enemy, they did not make any parry at all. Moreover, he relied on the strong plate armor he was wearing to block it, and at the same time, he thrust out the spear in his hand and stabbed away the enemies standing in front of him one by one.
The Qing cavalry who fought with them were either pierced by spears. Some of them stabbed their opponents, but they were unable to penetrate the opponent's thick armor. Instead, they were pushed back by the collision force of the opponent's impact and were hit hard. Flying out, the three platoons of heavy armored cavalry were divided into three lines, just like three sharp arrows inserted into a piece of soft cheese, they tore apart the Qing Army's cavalry ranks at once.
On both sides of the heavy armored cavalry, although the merchant army's light cavalry did not have as strong an impact as the heavy armored cavalry, their performance was not inferior at all. Each cavalryman was equipped with two short guns, and all they shot from the beginning were just A small number, but the vast majority, of the cavalry were holding a spear in one hand and a musket in the other. When the two sides came into contact, they fired their bows left and right. Because the distance was too close, the hit rate was extremely high. The gunshots continued to sound, and the Qing cavalry fell off their horses one after another. .
The cavalry of the Qing army was originally small in number. When they started attacking, they were beaten by the infantry of the merchant army. Their momentum was reduced by 10%. However, they finally got close to the enemy's cavalry, but found that their opponent's combat effectiveness was not at all. He was not weaker than himself, and he had never seen this type of fighting method using muskets in cavalry battles before, so his fighting spirit was weakened a bit. In the end, after a round of hedging, he was also beaten by the merchant army's cavalry. They were in disarray and utterly defeated.
But after the two sides passed each other, the Qing army's cavalry discovered that the opponent's infantry had also rushed behind the cavalry. This tactic was often used by the Qing army and the Ming army in the past, because the cavalry One charge can basically disrupt the Ming army's formation, and then the infantry can follow closely to expand the victory. At the same time, the cavalry can continue to charge forward, and the enemy can be completely defeated in one fell swoop.
Of course, this tactic is also based on the strong impact of their own cavalry, and now that the merchant army is also using this tactic, it also shows that they have full confidence in their cavalry.
Following the cavalry, an infantry regiment of the First Division and a foreign mercenary regiment, totaling about 5,000 people, followed the cavalry. Another infantry regiment was ordered by Cheng Jin to outflank the Qing army from both wings of the battlefield, with the intention of defeating the Qing army in one fell swoop.
After penetrating the Merchant Army's cavalry, the distance between the Qing Army's cavalry and the Merchant Army's infantry was only a dozen steps. However, during the short gap between the cavalry battles between the two sides, the infantry had already reloaded their ammunition. First, they faced
The charging Qing cavalry fired volleys of rifles in turn. The Qing cavalry that had just suffered heavy losses suffered another heavy blow, and suddenly another large row fell.
After shooting, the infantry of the Merchant Army also raised their rifles and rushed towards the remaining cavalry of the Qing Army, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.
At this time, it was also the turn of the foreign mercenary group to show off their skills, especially the Germanic mercenary team. Although there were only more than a hundred people, each of them was tall, broad-shouldered, and wore heavy armor. They used double-edged axes.
For heavy weapons such as maces, several still use flails, which look like
A group of little giants. Although the Qing army were all cavalry, the short Mongolian horses were just a bigger donkey to them who were used to seeing the big Andalusian horses. They didn't take it seriously at all and almost always faced them.
The cavalry of the Qing army rushed forward, then swung their weapons, whether they were men or horses, and struck violently.
Many Qing soldiers were beaten off their horses, and some even had their men and horses knocked down. Such a fierce and unreasonable fighting style also horrified the Qing cavalry. Others
Although the soldiers were not as fierce as the Germans, they made up for it by gathering strength and cooperation.
Due to their individual shortcomings, they often work in groups of three or four to use frontal attraction and side attack tactics to deal with the Qing cavalry, which is also very effective. In addition, they can sometimes attack with muskets and grenades, so they can also kill the Qing army.
The men and horses continued to fall to the ground and died, and soon corpses were scattered all over the field.
Unlike the infantry of the Merchant Army, which was very handy, the infantry of the Qing Army was obviously unable to withstand the cavalry attack of the Merchant Army. Firstly, this was because the infantry of the Qing Army rarely had the opportunity to fight cavalry and lacked experience in this area.
This is also due to the fact that merchants
The cavalry of the army is really too tough. Not only the heavy armored cavalry and the infantry can't stop it, but also the ordinary light cavalry is not easy to deal with. Under the huge pressure brought by the high-speed impact of the war horses, they dare to stand up and fight.
There are not many Qing soldiers.
There are also many cavalrymen in the merchant army who have unfired muskets. Now the Qing army is somewhat allergic to muskets. When they hear the sound of muskets, they will instinctively shrink back and retreat, which is even more pity.
What's annoying is that some cavalrymen have clearly fired the bombs, but they are holding an empty weapon.
The gun was intimidating. It fired it at the Qing soldiers while shouting "bang bang", which actually frightened many Qing soldiers. Of course, the spear or saber in their other hand was not idle either.
Often when the Qing soldiers were startled, they stabbed and slashed violently, immediately killing the Qing soldiers' infantry into chaos.
At the same time, the troops on the left and right flanks of the Merchant Army had also followed. Under the attack from three sides by the Merchant Army, the entire Qing Army collapsed. When Bai Yintu saw that the battle was not going well, he quickly ordered a retreat. Fortunately, the Qing Army was in Yiyi.
We fought in front of Zhencheng, with the county seat behind us, so we finally managed to retreat smoothly.
In the city, the Qing army was severely defeated in this battle. Nearly 4,000 troops were disbanded, including nearly 5,000 cavalry who went out to fight. Less than 2,000 people fled back to the city. Now they are stationed in Yizhen County.
There were only over 8,000 Qing soldiers, and Bai Yintu was so frightened that he locked the four gates of Yizhen County and beat him to death so that he would not come out.
However, the merchant army also lost more than 1,200 people in this battle, of which nearly 600 cavalry were killed. However, this time it was rare for the merchant army to engage in a real field battle with the Qing army. The victory of this battle also shows that Even if the two sides really started fighting now, the Merchant Army would not be at a disadvantage. In addition, they captured nearly a thousand people from the Qin Army and captured more than 800 war horses.
Then Cheng Jin also immediately ordered an artillery position to be set up outside Yizhen County. He gathered more than 200 artillery pieces from the entire division and launched a fierce bombardment against the city wall of Yizhen County. As if for free, he fired three thousand guns in one go. Multiple cannonballs of various types were fired, only causing sand and rocks to fly and dust and smoke billowing from the Yizhen city wall.
Poor Yizhen is just a small inland county. Most of the city walls are made of adobe. It can withstand such a ferocious firepower bombardment by the merchant army. As a result, it only took one day for the city walls to be beaten to pieces. , collapsed into dozens of gaps. At the same time, hundreds of Qing troops stationed on the city wall were killed, which made the already insufficient Qing army even worse. Later, the Qing soldiers simply stopped defending the city and were all trapped in the city. The entire Yizhen County almost seemed to be undefended.
Bai Yintu spent his days in the county town like years. He was so anxious that he couldn't help but curse Hong Chengchou in his heart. It was because he listened to his words and thought that the merchant army had no position, so he went out to fight against the merchant army, but he was defeated and returned. Not only did they lose troops and dismantle generals, but they also demoralized the entire army. If I had known this, I wouldn't have gone to war. At least there would be more people defending the city. Now I can't defeat it, and I can't defend it. What should I do? The only hope is that Duduo's reinforcements or Gong Adai from Chuzhou rush to Yizhen, otherwise he may end up here.
In fact, Cheng Jin launched a ferocious bombardment of Yizhen County at the beginning. On the one hand, he wanted to blow open the city wall and prepare for the next step to conquer the county. On the other hand, he also wanted to put huge psychological pressure on the defenders, so that they would not dare to take it easy. When he went to war, he only dared to hide in Yizhen City. Because at this time, Cheng Jin had already received the report that the reinforcements sent by Duduo had approached Yizhen County, so Cheng Jin also decided to attack the reinforcements of the Qing army first, and then Then attack Yizhen County.
Cheng Jin also immediately recruited group-level generals and arranged a plan to attack the Qing reinforcements. It was finally decided that the reinforcement battle would be commanded by Alexandra, with the cavalry brigade as the main force and the foreign mercenary group as the supplement. At the same time, Cheng Jin also allocated Give them a regiment of troops to supplement. The purpose of the operation is not to destroy the Qing army, but to repel the Qing army and buy time to attack Yizhen.
The foreign mercenary regiment and the foreign heavy armored cavalry were actually directly under the command of Alexandra. In the series of battles against the southern invasion of the Qing Army, the foreign mercenary regiment also made many military exploits, especially with its powerful Her ability in hand-to-hand combat has also won the respect of other troops in the Merchant Army, and Alexandra has also been recognized by the entire army. In addition, everyone in the Merchant Army now knows that she has been regarded as Shang Yi's public lover. All the ladies have accepted her, and all that is left is the wedding, so all the troops can accept her command.
On the other hand, in the Battle of Yizhen, although the cavalry brigade lost nearly 10% of its troops, it still served as the main offensive task and successfully completed it. It made great achievements and finally vindicated the name of the king of land warfare in this era. From then on No one in the Merchant Army dared to underestimate themselves and could stand up straight. Therefore, the morale of the cavalry brigade was extremely high at this time. After receiving the mission of reinforcements, the soldiers were extremely excited and started to rub their hands. The commander decided that this battle must be another battle to demonstrate the majesty of the cavalry brigade.