A large group of people under the city were retreating to the west like a tide. The retreating troops looked very confused. The expressions of the people around Zhang Ning were excited. They obviously won the first battle. Zhu Yong lost because he did not understand his opponent. This was a battle.
This was a war different from previous ones, otherwise no general would have allowed the infantry to rush into the musket formation; being caught off guard would probably be the case.
However, Zhu Yong was only defeated by 2,000 men; but he had a total of 6,000 men and horses. Even if the defeated troops are currently crumbling, some of them will escape with some casualties, and the rest can be reorganized in the rear camp.
Get up. It's far from time to decide the winner.
Just as Zhang Ning thought before, you can't win just by defending.
"Order to fire at Zhu Yongjun's camp in the distance!" At this time, Zhang Ning gave the order decisively.
Matchlock guns and mortars are both things that Zhu Yongjun does not understand, and the first strike has the best effect. Previously, Zhou Mengxiong suggested using artillery to catch Zhu Yong off guard at the beginning, giving Zhu Yong a powerful start and damaging their morale, but Zhang Ning did not
Accept. Now he realized that the opportunity was coming: the broken troops that were surging westward would be able to gradually organize themselves when they reached the camp of Zhu Yong's Chinese army; but if the broken troops returned to the camp and found that the Chinese army was also bombarded by artillery, then they would
It is not that easy to restore order and combat effectiveness. It is very likely that the Chinese army camp that was bombarded will be affected by the collapse of the army and collapse accordingly; rather than the other way around.
Attack means attacking the enemy, not just trying to be defeated by the attack. Zhang Ning has to use the only cards in his hand to attack; even if he is weak, he cannot win if he only thinks about defense. And there is obviously no peace in this war.
Options.
An artillery piece that had been loaded and prepared made a loud "bang". The sound of the cannon was simply shaking the mountains. Its huge sound was beyond the comparison of the matchlock guns under the city. Zhang Ning could clearly feel the city wall trembling.
The chair under him also made a "rattling" sound on the brick floor. He saw that the bricks on the wall stacks were shaken off and fell off the city. The recoil of the artillery was a bit surprising. No one thought about it before the war.
As a precaution, if eleven artillery fire on the city wall of the small city would damage the city wall. The generals who had been fighting for a long time could not help but lose their countenance at this time. On the contrary, Zhang Ning, who was known as a scholar, sat there without changing his expression.
There was a scream in the air, which made people feel the force of the shell tearing through the air. As expected, the huge explosive shell failed to hit any target, so the artillery crews began to busyly readjust the angle.
The pace of war in this era was actually relatively slow. The defeated troops below retreated to their own central army, and the return route of one mile still took a while. However, correspondingly, the response of the army and weapons was not fast, just like Zhang Ning's artillery.
, it has already been loaded, but if you want to hit the target with more artillery, you still need a process of adjustment and testing; before the war, no one knows where Zhu Yong's army will line up.
Therefore, Zhang Ning cannot be slow when making judgments and decisions. He must make judgments in advance. If he wants to achieve the purpose of bombarding the army camp when the broken troops approach the camp, he can only start taking action in advance, and the tactics themselves also require a
Process. If you wait until the defeated troops have entered the camp before making the decision to bombard, you will have to watch the fighter planes be lost.
Fighter opportunities are fleeting. As a side with a weak force, Zhang Ning's tactical error tolerance is too low. As long as there is one mistake, the whole game will be lost; just like the infantry battle under the city just now, if the Suzaku Army makes a mistake, the weak camp will be
The army was trampled down and completely defeated or even wiped out. Zhu Yong's conditions were much better. He made a mistake once with the infantry assault musket formation, but he still had a chance, because one mistake was not enough to destroy the entire army.
Zhang Ning told himself that he must make the most correct decision at every minute and every moment, and that he only has one chance.
There are many processes and steps in a battle, and each step cannot be wrong. According to mathematics, the accuracy of each step is a residual rule, so Zhang Ning realized from the beginning that his winning rate was very low.
Therefore, he must maintain his best condition anytime and anywhere, keep his mind clear and his emotions stable, and he must not ignore anything in a large amount of complex information.
The roar of the artillery started again, and he still sat firmly on the chair. He said to himself silently: I slept well last night. I am in good physical condition, relaxed and in a good mood. I am not too happy, but
Nor will I be sad; I have a clear mind and quick thinking...
At this moment, smoke rose from the crowd in the army camp with an explosion, and a shell successfully hit their formation.
In fact, the explosive bombs fired by mortars are completely different from the modern grenade hitting the crowd and blowing people into pieces. The explosive bombs are hollow projectiles made by craftsmen who hollowed out and strengthened stones or cast iron.
The gunpowder is black powder, and a long reed tube is used to hold the fuze. After it is fired, the fuze detonates the internal gunpowder and explodes, and then the exploded shell fragments injure people. The power of the black powder sealed explosion is really limited, and the number of fragments is not large.
The soldiers in the army are protected by armor. Even if they fall into the crowd, not many people can be killed. Zhang Ning has no choice. He only has a mortar with a very low shell speed. Otherwise, it is better to use a long-barreled artillery to shoot solid bullets in the field.
.
However, the psychological shock effect achieved by the explosive bombs in the crowd was far more meaningful than the actual killings. In the distance, the officers and soldiers were seen panicking, and there was chaos in the queue near the explosion of the shells.
After a while, the defeated troops were close to the official camp. The second loading of the mortars on the wall of the Suzaku Army was finally completed, and the angle was also tested. Suddenly the group of artillery roared, and the eleven mortars fired a round.
volley.
After the thunder, the artillery shells screamed in the air, and most of them fell into Zhu Yong's camp. The mud, stone, soil and smoke flying up from the explosion seemed to swallow up the entire military formation. The crowd of officers and soldiers began to faintly turbulent and chaotic.
At this time, if a fast and mobile cavalry suddenly rushes in from the rear wing, it can be imagined that it is very easy to break the formation. But Zhang Ning has almost no cavalry and more than 400 horses, but it does not mean that he has a force that can fight in a group.
cavalry.
Seeing this scene, Zhou Mengxiong couldn't help but said: "Your Highness is brilliant, I am convinced. In this situation, it will probably take some time for Zhu Yong to attack again."
"We still need to carry out a truly effective offensive strike." Zhang Ning said calmly. The role of firearms is only to dismantle the attack of the army, but the damage is only superficial. If it only achieves such a result, it is of little significance.
There was no hesitation on Zhang Ning's face, but it took him a while before he spoke, revealing his inner balance. He said: "Order Wei Bin to lead the left sentry and the right sentry as the main force to attack forward!"
Zhou Mengxiong, who had expressed his admiration just now, also hurriedly reminded: "Our army is weak, so the attack will lose the barrier and may be surrounded. Even if the army camp is in chaos at this time... there is still a cavalry with no head, and we have to guard against it.
Your Highness, please think twice!”
After hearing this, Zhang Ning organized his thoughts again: Regardless of strength, since this battle is going to be fought in Gaodu County, the purpose is clearly to defeat Zhu Yong's army; if you don't try to win, but just protect yourself, then why fight?
This battle? Besides not completely defeating Zhu Yong's army, can this battle be over? If we want to win, the officers and troops are in chaos, and nearly half of the infantry has just been defeated from the front. This is the best opportunity to attack; now if
If you don't try to attack and defeat it, how can you win in the future?
Our thinking cannot be limited to risks. We cannot just think that if we attack, we will be attacked by cavalry, and we may be completely defeated... because we are destined to have such a big risk from the beginning. If we don't experience the risk, we can only sit back and wait for death.
Maybe there is no right answer for some choices, and when you have no choice but to choose anything, you will be wrong. Then you can only choose an option that seems to have a chance.
He tried hard to maintain a stable emotional tone, called a guard, pulled out a token from the shelf, and handed it over with the sword in his hand: "Go down to Commander Wei and pass on my order. Then you can lead the main force to attack.
If the attack goes well, do not rush forward lightly, aiming to defeat the main force of Zhu Yong's army one mile away; if the official cavalry appears, a four-circle formation should be deployed to fight. There is no need to force the above goals, and you can retreat to the city according to the opportunity."
The guard listened attentively and repeated it again. After getting Zhang Ning's nod, he asked someone to lower the hanging basket and went to the city to deliver the order.
Zhou Mengxiong fell silent upon seeing this. He once again understood that his identity was just a "consultant" and had no power to influence the decision-making of the Suzaku Army.
There were about a thousand people in the Suzaku Army under the city, and the main force was concentrated there. Wei Bin made some arrangements and arranged all the troops into four square formations, which were also shaped like the word "Tian" like the official infantry, and then ran.
Advancing westward along the river. Thousands of men and horses, fancy formation tricks are not used, unless the formation is to maintain order. Fortunately, the Suzaku Army usually has a lot of formation training content, and there is no problem with events such as running in unison, and
It won't disrupt the team and is still useful for short-distance dashes.
Almost all of Zhang Ning's troops were involved in the attack below. The men and horses were not very spectacular, and it was obvious at a glance, but he was using all his strength.
The attack distance was one mile away, and the armor-clad soldiers advanced at a trot. The time it took was about one stick of incense (about five minutes, three sticks of incense is one moment), which was neither short nor long.
Zhu Yong, who was in the army camp, couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the troops on the other side of the city actually advancing head-on.
Cannonballs still fell into the formation and exploded from time to time. His team was a bit confused. The group of broken troops in front of the formation and on the flanks were even more of a drag at this time. Most of the soldiers couldn't find their generals and were in a mess. They didn't know what to do.
Some took off their armor and jumped into the river to escape on the spot. Just now, some generals suggested retreating a mile to reorganize to avoid being under the threat of artillery. However, the rebels actually attacked at this time. If they try to retreat now, they will easily be defeated.
, the retreat turned into a rout.
"Are the thieves going to attack us?" Zhu Yong blurted out a sentence full of surprise.
The general looked ahead from a distance and echoed seriously: "They seem to have such a plan."
"Send someone to order Feng Youxian's cavalry to attack immediately!" Zhu Yong said without hesitation.