Chapter 375 374 Metal Storm

"Boom boom boom"

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

"Ah, ah, ah"

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

And this time the attack was not only from those Portuguese cannons, "bang bang bang bang."

Amid the roar of the team officer, more than 200 soldiers in the first row fired the bird guns in their hands, then turned around and walked back from one side. The second row of Ming soldiers stood in the first row, put down the bird guns held obliquely, aimed at the cavalry in front and pulled the trigger.

Groups of cavalry fell down in the sound of guns and cannons.

The 3,000-man assault formation had become fragmented after several attacks at this time. The remaining knights no longer had the courage to continue to rush forward. Even though the faces of the Ming soldiers had clearly appeared in front of them, what made them even more frightened were the black iron pipes.

No one knew whether the things ejected from it would hit them in the next moment, but in their eyes, it seemed that countless tubes were aiming at them.

They were timid.

Facing the continuous firearms attack of the Ming army, I don’t know who finally couldn’t bear the pressure and took the lead to turn the horse and run back.

“It’s safe to stay away from here.”

This is what the survivors thought in their hearts, and the instinct to survive quickly spread to everyone like a plague.

The Mongolian Wanhu behind the formation was also frightened by the firepower of the Ming army. He didn’t expect that the 3,000 Ming army on the opposite side was equipped with so many firearms, and the power of the intensive firing of the moving iron sticks was so great.

In his opinion, even the Ming army fort he had attacked didn’t seem to have so many firearms.

The 3,000-man team seemed to have lost 20% to 30% of its troops before it joined the battle. Fortunately, he didn’t send out his men and the Khan’s troops. At least he was close to the Ming army formation, but the next moment he changed his face.

The cavalry who had suffered several rounds of attacks actually ran back, and the previous losses were wasted.

At this time, the face of the Mongolian thousand households was very ugly, and they wanted to chop off the heads of these people.

This set a very bad precedent. If the attack continued and encountered setbacks, even the elite under his command would probably follow suit. Perhaps only the Royal Court Guard would persist.

However, that guard could not be easily put into the battlefield. The Ming army on the opposite side had already shown its strong combat power and could not be ignored.

"This is the person you brought, hum, trash."

The Mongolian thousand households just said viciously to Qiu Fu beside him.

In fact, Qiu Fu was also confused at this time. Whose subordinates were the Ming army in front of him, and how could there be so many firearms?

Firearms are not expensive, but it is very expensive to train a skilled firearms unit because it requires a lot of gunpowder.

And behind the Ming army formation, Liu Han was also stunned by the scene in front of him.

The Ming army infantry could repel the charging cavalry formation in the field. This was not a tortoise shell that huddled together to form a military formation, but a scattered combat formation.

The most important thing is that when the Ming army infantry formations meet the cavalry, they are often compressed together, which makes them the best targets for the enemy cavalry archers. They will surround the infantry and throw arrows into the formation, which is difficult to prevent.

But what is the situation in front of us? The troops are fully deployed and rely on the power of firearms to repel the cavalry's attack. Although the people who rushed up this time do not look like Mongolians, they are also a serious cavalry attack, and the forces of both sides are equal.

Liu Han unconsciously stretched out his hand to rub his chin, thinking about whether he should also get such a team to test the power?

As a general, who doesn't want to have a team of capable people in his hands? This is not only the foundation of his life, but also the capital for promotion.

Even if his official position is about to end, don't he still have sons and grandsons?

This method of training soldiers can be passed down from generation to generation as a family heirloom.

As for firearms, find the military preparation road to see if there are any left. Even if there are none, you can collect some of the firearms sent to the military fort.

But we can't collect too many. If the soldiers below don't have firearms, the war will be more difficult to fight. We still have to find the Ministry of War in the capital and the people in the Arsenal.

No wonder the court has made so many firearms in recent years. It seems that concentrated and large-scale use seems to be more powerful, but that group of people is more evil and wants a lot of silver.

However, based on what I saw today, it seems to be worth the price.

Liu Han's mind was racing at this time, and he was planning to organize a similar army to try it out when he returned.

Then, his eyes turned to those chariots again.

This thing is not bad. There is a shield in front, and firearms and ammunition can be placed on the car, as well as food and grass, which is better than conscripting civilians.

This Yu Dayou is really capable, and the things he made are really good.

At this time, Liu Han had forgotten the opinion he had about Yu Dayou yesterday, and now he has completely turned it around.

The Ming army's central army formation was now shrouded in thick gunpowder smoke. The pungent smell of smoke made many people feel uncomfortable, and coughs could be heard from the army from time to time.

In previous drills, there was no such high intensity of firing. The falconet almost used up two rounds of cartridges. The musketeer was lucky and only fired one round. In the second round, the first row of soldiers completed the shooting action, and the enemy on the opposite side ran out of the shooting range, leaving only corpses on the ground.

It seems that there are still wounded. Some people were lucky enough not to be trampled to death during the return of the cavalry, and they were still struggling to move their injured bodies.

Perhaps knowing that it would be difficult to get treatment even if he crawled back, the still moving body moved to one side of the battlefield, perhaps trying to crawl out of this battle area.

Although he could avoid the shooting of Ming army firearms, he had no confidence in avoiding the charge of cavalry. If he continued to lie here, he would only be trampled to pieces by the galloping war horses.

Yu Dayou was also shocked at this time. Although he had imagined such a scene of thousands of cannons firing countless times, it was not until this moment that he realized that it seemed completely different from what he imagined.

The power of the metal storm was finally demonstrated for the first time on the land of the East.

After repelling the first round of the Tartar attack, Yu Dayou did not immediately order the Ming army to continue advancing. He was waiting, waiting for the other side to attack for the second time.

The distance between the two sides was not far, but it still did not enter the maximum attack range of solid bullets.

The opposite Altan army finally took action. With the sound of the horn and the shaking of multiple flags, two teams of Tartar cavalry went out. They passed by the Banshengcheng cavalry who retreated in a hurry, and kept increasing the speed of the horses during the advance.

The relaxed expressions on the faces of the Tatar soldiers had disappeared. They had seen the power of the Ming army's firepower attack just now, but they could not turn back after the military order was issued, otherwise the consequences would be worse than being alive.

"Prepare solid bullets."

During the brief exchange of the Tatar attack sequence, the Ming army also returned to its pre-war preparations. The bird gunners naturally did not change, but the auxiliary soldiers of the Portuguese cannon were busy hooking out the originally loaded shotgun shells with a small hook and replacing them with solid bullets.

"Fire."

With the loud roar of the team officer.

"Boom boom boom"

A series of dense artillery sounds resounded on the grassland again.

The first cavalry of the Altan tribe was dispatched by two thousand households and two thousand cavalrymen. They rushed towards the Ming army's central army formation from the left and right sides.

The Ming army's response was exactly the same. The gunner slightly adjusted the muzzle of the Portuguese cannon and then fired the shells.

Just as the two thousand men of Altan's army met the artillery fire of the Ming army, the horn in the camp of Altan's army sounded again, and soon two thousand cavalrymen slowly stepped out of the army and began to accelerate.

In a short time, the Mongolian Wanhu had made his own decision.

The range of the Portuguese cannon was a little far, and it could not reach the Ming army even if it was thrown on horseback. Then they had to bear certain casualties and get closer to shoot them down with bows and arrows.

Bows and horses are the pride of the grassland people. Even if the Ming army showed signs of abandoning bows and arrows and using firearms, the grassland people still sneered at it.

The disadvantage of the original firearms, the slow loading, seems to be being changed by the new design, but this still will not change the grassland people's prejudice against firearms.

Just like before, after the sound of the Ming army's artillery, the Tatar cavalry in front kept falling off their horses, but no one of the comrades behind them stopped and continued to step on their bodies to move forward.

Under the bombardment of the Ming army's Portuguese cannons, the Tatar cavalry finally rushed to the distance where they could throw arrows. They sat up straight, raised their arms and shot the arrows in their hands at an angle of about 45 degrees, then immediately bent over the horse's back to prepare the second arrow, while the opposite side greeted them with dense shotguns and rows of lead bullets.

At a very long distance, and still on the bumpy horse's back, the hit rate is not to be said.

Fortunately, the Ming army was gathered together, as long as they shot over and into that range, there was a chance to cause killing effects. As for the shields on the chariots in front, they had almost no protective effect against the arrows swooping from the upper oblique.

As the cavalry of the Altan tribe rolled off their horses in groups, there were also unlucky people in the Ming army formation who were concentrated by arrows falling from the sky from time to time, and casualties inevitably occurred.

However, those soldiers who wailed and fell to the ground were soon stuffed with a thick wooden stick in their mouths and then dragged away.

"Boom, boom, bang, bang, bang"

The sound of gunfire continued in the Ming army. Although the army was shrouded in smoke again, the battle situation in front could still be seen clearly.

At this time, Liu Han had seen the cavalry behind him draw their swords. He knew that these cavalry were not only the weapons to protect these firearms, but also the power to maintain the army.

At this time, if someone ran back from the army, the cavalry in front of them would not hesitate to chop off his head.

Liu Han could already feel the smell of gunpowder in the air from his nostrils at this time, and he felt very uncomfortable.

He now regretted why he didn't bring a team of archers out.

He had seen that although the firearms of the three thousand people were sharp, they were still a little thin after all, especially when the Altan tribe sent four thousand households to rush in batches at a time, although the firepower seemed to be uninterrupted and continued to fire, it was still not fierce enough.

If there was a team of infantry archers after the bird gunners at this time, they could make up for the lack of firepower.

The foot bow is different from the horse bow. The horse bow is a short bow with a limited range. The Tartars rely on the speed of the horse and the projectile to shoot arrows into the Ming army.

The foot bow is longer and has more power, so it can shoot farther. The key is that the shooting speed is much faster than the rotating bird gun.

Of course, arm strength will limit the number of arrows that an archer can shoot in a battle, but at critical moments, bows and arrows are more reliable.

Through observation behind the formation, Liu Han still made this judgment in his heart at this time. He will also add a team of archers to his newly formed troops.

However, in front of him, Yu Dayou, who was behind the firearms officer of the central army, also frowned slightly at this time. There were not enough bird gunners. If they were doubled and there were 2,000 bird guns, perhaps the situation would be much better.

While thinking, he saw the sky in front of him darken in an instant from the corner of his eye. He waved the whip in his hand like a conditioned reflex, and then felt the whip touch something and passed by him sideways.

He looked back slightly, and it was an arrow with an arrowhead inserted diagonally into the ground, and the tail of the arrow was still trembling slightly in the air.

I don’t know how long it took, but the sound of gunfire and the shouting of people and horses that resounded through the prairie finally gradually disappeared.

The four thousand households and four thousand people of the elite cavalry of the Altan tribe collapsed after paying the price of more than a thousand deaths.

They could not rush into the Ming army’s formation. Once they got close, the dense shotguns would fly and hit their bodies. Countless warriors have used their corpses to prove that the front is a death zone.

A little further away, some Tatars were also hit by the iron bullets of the Ming army, but they only felt severe pain. Perhaps they had broken bones, but at least they could still sit on the horse and not fall off.

In such a scene, once they fell off the horse, they were almost dead.

Like the cavalrymen in Bansheng City before, they were afraid of death. They reined in their horses and turned around. Even if they used their backs to bear the impact of the Ming army's bullets, at least they would not fall off the horse. As long as they went back, they might still be saved.

A gust of wind blew, dispersing the gunpowder smoke covering the sky above the Ming army.

While the two armies were still in confrontation, the originally empty ground was already filled with corpses of people and horses.

"Let the gunner change three solid bullets."

Yu Dayou ordered the personal soldiers beside him, and his personal soldiers immediately went down to pass the order.

Now there are still six complete thousand-household teams in the Altan tribe, three of which should be the royal guards of Altan Khan, and their combat power should not be underestimated.

As for those defeated thousand households, even if they were reorganized, the soldiers who had lost their courage were just sheep who would panic when they encountered danger. As long as one person was timid and chose to retreat, he would become their leader and there was nothing to fear at all.

Wait a little longer.

Yu Dayou thought to himself.

They lost more than a hundred people, nearly a hundred of them were bird gunners, and only a dozen unlucky chariot auxiliary soldiers were injured by arrows.

In fact, the Portuguese gunners standing at the front of the Ming army were the safest in this battle. They hid behind the high shield wall and fired artillery.

The auxiliary soldiers were quickly added to the army formation, and the Ming army formation was complete again.

Although the auxiliary soldiers were less skilled, they needed to make up for the lack of numbers at this time, so they didn't care much.

But Yu Dayou soon discovered that the Tartar army formation seemed to be motionless this time.

After the defeated army retreated, there was no movement on the opposite side.

It's not that the Mongolian Wanhu didn't want to continue the attack, but he was in a dilemma now. The fighting power of this Ming army was a bit weird.