Chapter 374 373 Fire

On the vast prairie, two distinct groups of men and horses formed formations against each other. Although the formations were still being adjusted, the true military appearance of our army had been completely exposed to the eyes of the Ming army.

"It's a little troublesome. There are at least 3,000 people in this Tatar team who are the bodyguards of Anda Khan. The remaining few thousand people should be elites from some ten thousand households. Our intelligence is wrong."

Liu Han said to Yu Dayou with a tense face at this time. In fact, he also wanted to say that it was best not to fight this battle. He took advantage of the fact that the opponent was not ready and ran back immediately. For four miles, most of the Ming army should be able to Running back to the military fort.

According to the previous information obtained by the Ming army, it was speculated that they were temporary recruits of ten thousand households. Such a team was slightly insufficient compared with the ordinary Ming army. That is to say, the numerical advantage made Liu Han slightly worried.

But now, what appeared in front of him were temporarily recruited herdsmen. The stern expressions of the Tatar soldiers across the way showed that they were professional soldiers on the grassland, and they had to gain the upper hand against his most elite soldiers. This battle How else to fight?

"Elite? Haha. You will only know who is the elite after beating them."

Yu Dayou is still confident in the soldiers he has trained. There are more than a hundred French cannons and a thousand blunderbuss. Such firepower was unimaginable in Zhejiang before.

Although the Jiangnan soldiers used Western firearms early, they did not have the opportunity to carry out such large-scale centralized use of firearms.

There is nothing that can be done about it. When Japanese pirates attack, they often use a few boats with more than a hundred people to go together. It seems that the Japanese pirates are used to not concentrating their troops to plunder. They only assemble their troops when they attack county towns and other fortresses. The reason for this Often there is no main force of the Ming army around.

In Yu Dayou's opinion, the soldiers he accepted were really not afraid of fighting the Japanese pirates, but they never had such an opportunity.

The only time, that is, in the battle of Cengang, the Japanese pirates unexpectedly gathered a large group to fight to the death with them. Of course, the final result was to be wiped out.

As for the Japanese pirates who broke out, Yu Dayou used to be surprised at first, but after so many things happened, he understood. It is no wonder that Hu Zongxian wanted to step in and take command.

Thinking about it, Yu Dayou didn't feel worried at all at this time, but became more and more excited.

When he was in the capital, Lu Bing was the most determined person to be skeptical of firearms. Although Jin Yiwei was also equipped with a large number of firearms, he didn't think much of them.

Yu Dayou was very interested in firearms and supported large-scale deployment, but he was not as courageous as Wei Guangde, who actually wanted to form an independent army with a large number of Fran cannons and blunderbuss.

Well, Yu Dayou didn't dare to think of such courage. He still needed weapons such as swords, shields and spears to guard against enemies getting close.

Today, we can try what the boy said that intensive firepower delivery is the only way to destroy the enemy on the opposite side. As long as there is enough firepower to strike, no matter whether the opponent is made of copper, iron or whatever, there is only one way to collapse.

Although Wei Guangde also said that the current gunshots are still a bit inferior, but quantity makes up for quality.

Thousands of cannons were fired, and Yu Dayou felt afraid that no matter where the Ming army was in this era, they would not be able to find more powerful firepower than this unit.

After the formation of the Ming army was completed, Yu Dayou waved his hand and began to press forward slowly, regardless of the fact that the other side seemed to be adjusting its formation.

The soldiers in the front row started to push the wheelbarrow forward, and four rows of gunmen followed in formation, followed by hundreds of cavalry behind them.

This is the entire central column of the Ming army. The cavalry on both wings are slightly separated from each other and are not closely aligned with the central column.

They needed to leave some distance to facilitate acceleration during the cavalry charge.

Although the Tatars were a little surprised to see that the Ming army did not follow the normal routine and waited for their side to complete their arrangements before attacking, they were quickly relieved.

The rest was just some fine-tuning. He didn't think that the remaining little adjustment would affect the combat effectiveness at all. He just leaned forward and used the things inherited by the Mongols to defeat the Ming army first with long-distance projectiles.

What the Ming army laid out in front of them was a long military formation. If it weren't for the cavalry on both sides, two thousand people could just go up and surround the Ming army and shoot arrows and kill them all.

Don't look at those chariots in front of the Ming army, they are only one side after all.

At this time, in the eyes of thousands of households in Anda tribe, the three thousand Ming army led by Yu Dayou was not as powerful as the cavalry on both wings of him.

Indeed, the Mongols once fought from east to west and have already summed up many fighting skills. This is also the main reason why their ancestors were able to advance all the way to the Danube River Basin.

"Lord Wanhu, charge directly at the center of the Ming Army."

At this time, a short general with a face that clearly did not look like a Mongolian rode his horse to the side of the Mongolian households and whispered.

"Chief Qiu, I have this intention as well. I wonder if your subordinates can take on this responsibility?"

Mongolian Wanhu said to the guy who should be Han.

"That's exactly what I meant."

The person who spoke was Qiu Fu. He, Zhao Quan, and Li Zixin were all named chiefs by Anda Khan, which recognized the Han people they led as a tribe on the grassland.

Their contribution was naturally behind this attack on the Ming Dynasty, so this time he took the three thousand cavalry that Bansheng City could piece together and followed Anda Khan to attack the Ming Dynasty.

After receiving the news of the attack from Bansheng City, Qiu Fu immediately asked to see Ada Khan and obtained a troop of troops from the Great Khan to come to Datong. He vowed to completely eliminate the Ming army who dared to leave the border. .

Qiu Fu knew very well that if he could not completely wipe out the idea of ​​going out of the border from the heads of the generals of the Ming army, then if the generals of the nine borders ran to the prairie for no reason in the future, the consequences would be very serious.

At the same time, knowing that his old nest was destroyed, Qiu Fu naturally wanted to retaliate.

"As long as your troops break into the center of the Ming army, I will lead the two wings to attack the flanks of the Ming army and prevent them from disturbing you to eliminate those Ming people."

The Mongolian Wanhu said to Qiu Fu with a smile.

To be honest, Wanhu actually looked down on this Han Chinese, including his subordinates.

He was obviously a Han Chinese, but he was thinking about going south to attack the Ming all day long.

In fact, as far as Wanhu knew, although Altan Khan seemed to value the people in Bansheng City, he was actually always on guard against them.

These people were ambitious people. They should not be really attracted by Altan Khan's brilliance, but came because of their own ambitions.

What they wanted was nothing more than to use their Mongolian powerful military force to consume the power of the Ming country so that they would have the opportunity to rebel.

If they really followed their wishes, the Khan would mobilize all the troops of the country to attack the Ming Dynasty in the south. When they finally won, they were afraid that these people would rebel and fight with the Mongols to the death, and finally compete for the so-called Central Plains.

In the words left by the ancestors of the Mongols, the Central Plains was a rich land with milk flowing in the rivers, gold and silver and iron pots everywhere, and tea leaves growing on the trees.

All the Mongols hoped that the Khan could lead them south and return to that land, but

while the Mongolian Wanhu was still thinking about it, the distance between the two armies continued to narrow as the Ming army continued to advance.

"Is this to limit our cavalry charge?"

The Mongolian Wanhu couldn't help thinking, "It seems that the camp is too close to the military fort in front."

For the Mongols, when fighting, they must leave enough distance between them and the opponent to ensure that the war horses have space to accelerate.

What the Ming people are doing now is obviously to compress this distance so that their war horses can't run.

If they can't speed up, the impact will naturally be reduced exponentially.

Cunning Ming people.

At this time, a cavalry unit in the middle of the Altan army began to move. As the battle flags were waved forward, the cavalry began to slowly step out of the army. As they continued to move forward, their speed began to slowly accelerate.

"Let the Ming people fight for a while."

The Mongolian Wanhu couldn't help but think in his heart, you want to use us Mongolians, why don't we want to use you.

The Han people who gathered in Bansheng City on their own initiative to farm there, the Mongolians were not happy at first, but who told the Mongolians that they were not good at working.

Altan Khan stopped the tribesmen from wanting to do something bad to the Han people, and instead exchanged cattle and sheep for food with them.

Well, everyone didn't understand at first, thinking that if they could solve the problem with a knife, why waste cattle and sheep.

But after a long time, everyone knew it, especially after these special Han people came, now Bansheng City will send a lot of food to the Khan every year, and also built a palace for the Khan in the city, and these tribal bigwigs also have houses in the words.

As the cavalry continued to accelerate, the thunderous sound of horse hooves sounded, interrupting the thoughts of the Mongolian Wanhu. He decided to wait until he won this battle before talking about other things.

He stopped thinking about random things and began to observe the battle in front of him carefully. He also had to command his subordinates to destroy the Ming army in front of him.

"Aim."

At this time, seeing thousands of cavalrymen from the Tartar army, the chariots lined up in a row stopped.

Following the order of the team officer, the soldiers who were pushing the chariots ran to their respective positions, and braziers appeared behind the chariots.

The gunners took out the Portuguese cannon cartridges from the frame and put them into the barrels, and inserted the plugs to fix the cartridges. In the braziers behind them, one end of the fire tongs had been burned red, and the air was filled with a pungent smell of coal.

On both sides behind the chariots, a thousand bird gunners lined up in four neat rows, with ammunition already loaded in the barrels. At this moment, the barrels were all raised diagonally upwards, waiting for the order to shoot.

Because the gunners needed to fire from the front, the Ming army's bird gunners were arranged to leave the chariots. Each chariot was the boundary of a queue, so that the bird gunners could fire according to the command without worrying about accidentally injuring the gunners in front.

The gunners could also fire with peace of mind without worrying about being shot by their own people.

The Portuguese cannon can fire solid bullets and shotguns. Because they were entering the grassland, most of the shells brought by the Ming army this time were shotguns.

Of course, the result of this is that the Portuguese cannon's range, which was not far, will be greatly reduced.

According to Yu Dayou's test in Datong, the effective range of the Portuguese cannon using shotguns is not far from that of the bird gun.

Therefore, before this battle, Yu Dayou made careful preparations, that is, the first three guns used solid bullets, the last three cartridges were all shotguns, and the newly loaded cartridges were all shotguns.

Seeing the cavalry on the opposite side rushing towards them and about to enter the effective range of the Portuguese cannon, Yu Dayou gave the order to fire without hesitation.

A red flag began to wave continuously, and the artillery commander immediately gave the order to fire after seeing the military order.

"Boom boom boom"

The dense sound of artillery exploded in front of the Ming army column, and more than a hundred guns and dust rose into the air. Almost instantly, the dense cavalry column on the opposite side responded, and dozens of cavalrymen who were rushing in front fell off their horses.

Solid bullets flew into the Tartar army. It was unclear how much damage the first round of artillery fire caused, but the one who fell off the horse in front could still be seen.

No one cheered. The plug was pulled out. The gunner reached out to take out the cartridge case and quickly replaced it with a new one. His companion immediately re-inserted the plug.

"Boom boom boom"

Another series of cannon fire, hundreds of stone bullets were fired at the rushing enemy. The gunner still did not look at the effect of this shooting. They still mechanically replaced the empty cartridge case, replaced it with a new one, and fired again, just like a machine.

In order to let these gunners practice such abilities, Yu Dayou didn't know how many wooden sticks he broke.

In the Ming army, corporal punishment was commonplace. If they didn't practice well, they would be beaten and starved. Although it seemed cruel, it was the most effective means. Just like now, after these soldiers touched the cannon, they only knew how to fire mechanically.

As for the replaced gunpowder barrels, their companions behind them cleaned them and reloaded the ammunition.

After three rounds of solid bullets were fired, the remaining ones were shotguns.

Because they were all small-sized falconets with a small caliber, each cartridge only contained a dozen small iron bullets wrapped in coarse paper, and the same was true for gunpowder.

These were all proposed by Wei Guangde.

In fact, such fixed equipment was common in later generations. The cannons of that era were all like this. This was a necessary skill for time travelers, and Wei Guangde naturally knew it.

However, such an idea was actually first proposed in the imperial prison of the capital of the Ming Dynasty. If it was recorded in the history books, I don’t know how future generations would evaluate it.

And Yu Dayou forced the Tartars to retreat in the battle of Niuxinbao, gained the trust of Li Wenjin, the governor of Datong, and received more support. When he was training the standard camp, he would naturally use this method proposed by Wei Guangde.

Yu Dayou is a practical man, or it can be said that the firearms of this era are really not complicated.

Perhaps few people can explain the theory clearly, but everyone knows how to use it.

Yu Dayou only needed to think about Wei Guangde's proposal in his mind to know that it could be practical, and the effect was surprisingly good during the training in Datong.

Fixed equipment can partially offset the time spent by the gunners to accumulate experience. The rest is to practice and train the firing into an instinctive reaction.

The three rounds of fierce artillery fire of the Ming army were very short, almost completed in a few breaths, and the Tatar army formation rushing across had been riddled with holes by hundreds of stone bullets.

Hundreds of people fell off their horses, making the remaining cavalry feel fearful.

"Boom boom boom"

With the start of the fourth round of shotgun shooting, the lethality of the Ming army's artillery was fully revealed at this time.

"Ah"

Continuous screams came from the cavalry ranks, and cavalrymen and war horses kept lying on the ground wailing.