Countless refugees broke through the Chinese military cordon in Sansanlipu, and dense crowds of people crossed the road and rushed towards Jinzhou.
While the brothers of the cavalry battalion were in a hurry, a barrage of cannon fire came from the direction of Pulandian Bay in the Bohai Sea to the west. A sail shadow appeared on the Bohai Sea. The patrolling cavalry battalion scouts came on horseback to Lu Xiaoyi. The report said: "Captain Lu, it's the navy fleet, they are coming,"
In Pulandian Bay on the Bohai Sea, more than 20 cruisers and gunboats of the Navy's First Fleet were docked on the coast. Hundreds of centipede boats were dropped and quickly rushed towards the beach.
Lu Xiaoyi, commander of the cavalry battalion of the Second Division, immediately stood on the beach and loudly ordered his soldiers: "Hurry up, hurry up, help the people get on the boats,"
A naval officer in a blue and white uniform came to the beach, with a stripe and three stars on his shoulders. The navy captain passed through the chaotic crowd of refugees and went straight to Lu Xiaoyi. He saluted with his left hand and chest: "My Majesty Lin Wu, Supervisor of the Third Squadron of the First Fleet, is here under the orders of the President and obeys the command of Commander Lu of the Second Division Cavalry Battalion,"
Lu Xiaoyi quickly returned the greeting: "Captain Lin, it's good that you are here. Please move the refugees quickly."
…
The commander of the cavalry brigade, Lu Xiaotian, was riding on a tall Andalusian horse. He stood on the roadside and watched his heavy cavalry battalion rushing northward with a sullen face.
Mai Yangtian, the supervisory officer of the cavalry brigade, was standing behind him in a red uniform. Several battalion-level officers were talking around him: "This is the first time. Let us cavalry be the vanguard and fight the first battle."
"I received the order from the president, but I haven't slept a wink all night. This is an opportunity for our Shandong thieves to get ahead,"
"Don't be wordy, what are you doing when you have nothing to do?" Lu Xiaotian said dissatisfied: "The troops have to speed up. The Eight Banners soldiers have moved south from Fuzhou, and the forwards have only reached Sanlipu in the past two days. We must be there Get there before tonight,"
All the officers saluted together and quickly dispersed back to their own units.
The heavy cavalry in the Chinese Army was once regarded as useless. The infantry has always been the center of the entire army, and the cavalry is only an auxiliary arm. In the Battle of the Capital two years ago, the Chinese Army's cavalry defeated the official army in a single charge in the Battle of the Eastern Suburbs. The left wing finally felt proud and proud. Then, in the Battle of Xiwu by the Canal, the cavalry attacked the official army car camp, but failed repeatedly. They had to rely on the support of the troops of the First Division to capture the car camp. Lu Xiaotian and other cavalrymen The officer felt that the cavalry had lost face in this battle and was very frustrated. Therefore, in the past two years, Lu Xiaotian and others stepped up their efforts in practicing cavalry tactics in Jeju Island, Liaonan and other places. With the support of Yin Feng, they equipped a cavalry with ten light cavalry cannons. The cavalry artillery battalion is also equipped with a Thunderbolt Rocket Artillery Cavalry Battalion. All cavalry are equipped with two horses. Everyone is issued a double-barreled flintlock pistol and a yellow phosphorus self-fire grenade. The cavalry brigade has 6,000 people. , has more than 15,000 horses, 5,000 of which are fine Arabian war horses, Andalusian war horses, and the rest are Hexi horses, Mongolian horses, etc. All war horses are horse breeders hired from Arabia, the West, and Mongolia The horses bred and raised are by no means comparable to the inferior horses of the Ming Dynasty that were only suitable for farm work. The technological gap between the Chinese and the Westerners in horse breeding and optimal breeding has been filled by Yin Feng's support.
Lu Xiaotian led his horse up a high slope on the roadside, and saw the German mercenary Rod Eberl, the deputy commander of the cavalry brigade, and the Dutch mercenary Andre, the commander of the heavy cavalry battalion. These two were members of the cavalry army. The only two Western officers were desperado mercenaries who didn't care about anything except fighting.
This Germanic man in his forties was captured by the Chinese army during the Spanish counterattack on Manila ten years ago. He later became a cavalry instructor at the Chinese Army Military Academy. He joined the army at the age of fifteen and fought for 20 years for various European princes and nobles. During the years of fighting, from Spain's suppression of the Dutch uprising to the war between Poland and Russia, he traveled almost all over Europe. In Taiwan, he found his true destination: training a heavy cavalry force in the far East.
He rushed over from the north in a hurry and said in hard Chinese: "Lieutenant Colonel Lu, the refugees are blocking the road and seriously hindering the march of my heavy cavalry. You must solve this problem."
Lu Xiaotian frowned: "I will handle this matter. You lead the troops down the road, march quickly through the fields, and then rest at Sanlipu."
"If the heavy cavalry troops leave the road and march now, they will lose their horsepower and they will not be able to go into battle immediately. I don't agree with this," Colonel Rod Eberl said without any politeness.
Lu Xiaotian nodded in embarrassment, thinking to himself: This Western instructor with a big nose has such a bullish temper. He refuses to accept the hard and soft and accepts death. He looked at the flow of refugees spreading to the horizon on the road, sighed and said: "I I'll lead the guards in front to clear the way for you. Don't worry, we won't encounter the enemy before dark today."
…
The guard led by Li Xiao encountered the advance guard of the Houjin Eight Banners Army and the Blue Banner Cavalry in Pulandian, including a total of 300 armored cavalry.
Li Xiao was taken aback: "These Jurchen barbarians came so fast," he turned around and said to his guard captain: "Go back to Sansanlipu immediately, and fire a signal rocket every mile along the way to warn the surrounding area. The army catches novices,"
Li Xiao ordered 100 members of his guard to stand in two rows on horseback on the dusty road, facing the Eight Banners cavalry from the north.
Li Xiao's guard captain gave a few instructions behind him, and several messengers with feathered helmets galloped south. The guard captain led his horse to Li Xiao's side and drew his saber.
Li Xiao frowned: "I ordered you to report the message,"
The guard captain replied: "Brother Li, my duty is to always be by your side,"
This guard captain has been Li Xiao's personal soldier for ten years. He has been Li Xiao's personal soldier since Li Xiao was a small member of the Ming army. The members of Li Xiao's guard are basically from Liaodong, and most of them follow him to cause trouble. An old brother who left Liaodong after the mutiny.
Li Xiao smiled and pointed forward: "Don't worry, it's just a few people and horses. We are not the cavalry of the official army now, but the cavalry of the Chinese army." As he said that, he pulled out two flintlock pistols from the saddle. , the 100 soldiers of the Guard also held guns in their hands.
The blue-banner outpost cavalry passed by the ruins of the original officer and soldier fort in Pulandian and saw a hundred black knights on the plain ahead. They did not stop at all and rushed over. The Eight Banners soldiers did not even notice this small group. The cavalry regarded these black cavalrymen riding fine Arabian war horses as the same as the Ming army's mounted infantry.
In the Battle of Sarhu in the thirty-seventh year of Wanli and the Battle of Liaoshen in the thirty-eighth year of Wanli, the Ming cavalry did not have a decent fight with the Eight Banners cavalry. At this time, the Ming cavalry was short of pay all year round. Lack of training, lack of maintenance of horses and weapons, they can only be regarded as mounted infantry when facing battle. They usually dismount to fight. The few elite Liaodong cavalry are general officers, deputy generals and other personal servants of the Ming army generals. Although they dare to fight and can fight, However, they often ran away with the generals and had little chance to fight a good battle. Therefore, the Eight Banners cavalry looked down on the Ming Dynasty cavalry from the bottom of their hearts. Now they compare the cavalry of the Chinese Army with the Ming Army's turmoil and set the Blue Banner Cavalry vanguard. The commander of the troops, Niu Lu'er Zhen (Chinese for Zuo Ling) Araqi, didn't even think about it and just led the team to charge over.
Li Xiao loudly ordered: "Start charging at a distance of 100 steps from the enemy, fire at a distance of ten steps, and then use your saber to kill them. Do you understand? Don't embarrass us Liaodong men."
His personal guards were loading their two flintlock muskets, and at the same time shouted: "I have the order,"
The flag with the blue flag was only 150 steps away from Li Xiao's guard.
Li Xiao adjusted his helmet, patted the plate armor on the front and back of his chest, and held the gun tightly.
When the two teams were 100 steps apart, Li Xiao rushed out first, followed by the soldiers of the deputy commander of the Chinese Army's Cavalry Brigade, forming a small triangular front formation.
Niuluzhen Araqi, who was wearing a blue flag, blinked under his helmet and was surprised to find that the Han cavalry in front of them actually charged towards them.
They were just surprised. The Eight Banners soldiers did not slow down at all and formed a dense formation and rushed straight towards the opponent.
Twenty steps apart, the knights in black raised their hands one after another. The next second, bursts of smoke rose from their hands, and there was a series of pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, bang, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, crack, one of one's cracks. , Niulu Erzhen Alaqi's eyes widened, and he felt himself flying into the air. He looked down and saw that his horse had been hit by the opponent's mysterious firearm and fell to the ground. Alaqi felt that he had been flying in the air for a long time. After a while, Araqi landed on his back. Before he could catch his breath, a pair of thick horse hooves stepped on his chest. His eyes went dark and he died.
Two hundred rounds of flintlock bullets were fired at a distance that was almost at the head, instantly knocking down more than 150 cavalrymen with blue flags.
After Li Xiao and his fellow guardsmen fired, they immediately drew their sabers and charged forward across the horse's head. They didn't need to make any unnecessary movements. They only needed to hold the sabers firmly and the momentum of the charge on horseback would complete the next step. For the job of beheading people, the cavalry team of more than 300 people with blue flags spread out in three rows and charged in a dense formation. The team was very thin. The first two rows were suddenly overturned by musket bullets, and the last row of cavalry with blue flags Before the cavalry had time to react, the sabers of the Chinese knights in black were already close to their necks.
In fact, the Eight Banners soldiers were too arrogant and underestimated the enemy. If they shot Li Xiao's guards with bows and arrows first, although the Chinese cavalry had excellent breastplates and helmets, it was inevitable that most of them would be injured. But Niu Lu, the vanguard cavalry with the blue flag, no one thought At this point, they all thought that a single charge could easily deal with the hundreds of people in front of them. As a result, the cavalry with the blue flag were broken through by the Chinese cavalry, and they suffered nearly 200 casualties in one round.
Li Xiao led his troops back on horseback, turned around and charged towards the Eight Banners soldiers who were in chaos.
However, the bravery and bravery of this group of blue flag cavalry was beyond Li Xiao's expectation. No one of the more than 150 blue flag cavalry who were still alive, whether they were fallen or on horseback, injured or uninjured, turned around and ran away. , howling one after another, rushed towards Li Xiao and others.
Next, Li Xiao and others had a chaotic fight with the Eight Banners soldiers. After Li Xiao and his men broke out of the Eight Banners soldiers' camp for the second time, he injured his right foot. There were only more than 80 people left around him, most of whom were also injured. .
On the opposite side, there are more than 100 cavalry with blue flags. Those who have lost their horses, those who are injured, etc. are all busy mounting their horses, and are forming their teams under the command of a Daizi to prepare for another battle. (Niu Lu Ezhen sets Daizi 2 person's deputy position)