Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 241 The Story of the Tianxiong Army Suppressing Bandits 3
Early the next morning, all the rogues crawled out of their dens or tattered tents.They didn't sleep well last night. Apart from the harassment from the Tianxiong army rangers, it was more because they learned that the officers and soldiers of the brigade were coming, and they were only two or three miles away. Who can sleep?They got up early, leaned on the fence and looked into the distance, wanting to see what happened.

Two miles away, the fiery red poplars were trembling in the morning wind, and pieces of red leaves fell from the trees and danced all over the sky.Under the poplar trees, more than 200 carts, wheelbarrows and some horses formed a line of defense. Behind this line of defense, officers and soldiers were forming a team and then drove out one by one.Walking in the back is a horizontal swordsman holding a sword and shield, in the middle is a moving steel jungle composed of pikemen, and in the front is a musketeer carrying a musket.Hundreds of cavalry spread out their wings to prevent the enemy from turning around from the two wings. If the enemy charged forward, they would not hesitate to go up and intercept it. The rain of bullets poured out by the gunmen is guaranteed to make the cavalry rushing into the battle unable to eat and walk around.

The rogue looked at all this in astonishment, isn't it, the fight is going to start early in the morning?You guys are too active, we haven't even had breakfast yet!

Lao Huihui and King Huntian roared in anger. As many leaders kicked and hit them, the bandits picked up the guy, randomly stuffed something into their mouths, and then drove out of the camp in a mess, preparing to fight.They still didn't know what kind of medicine the officers and soldiers were selling in the gourds, but since the officers and soldiers were already in a fighting posture, they could only accompany them.

Like Wuyangwei, the Tianxiong Army marched at a constant speed of 88 steps per minute, very rhythmic. The most terrifying thing was their silence. Thousands of people marched at the same time, and no one spoke, not even the horses. What filled the eardrums last time was the sound of their orderly and powerful footsteps, as well as the brisk and rhythmic drumbeats—thousands of people marched on the drumbeats of marching drums.When they got closer, the rogues were surprised to see that these officers and soldiers were like the red knights who had tormented them for several days and annoyed them enough. Whether they were infantry or cavalry, they were all wearing red jackets and The oval pointed steel helmet, on the steel helmet, the blood-red helmet tassel danced in the morning wind, like jumping blood-devouring elves one by one.Not only that, but all of them are wearing iron armor, looking around, it is simply a sea of ​​metal!All the leaders looked at each other in amazement, which army is this, and how can it have such excellent equipment?Could it be that Chongzhen transferred his Beijing camp over?Immediately afterwards, everyone immediately rejected this absurd idea. The three major battalions of the capital were indeed a formidable force in the early Ming Dynasty, but now they have long existed in name only. Even with so many soldiers, they can't do it!

If it wasn't the Beijing camp, what kind of army would it be?Guan Ningjun?The Guan Ning Army does not have such a luxurious lineup either!
Don't care if you don't have time to ask the other party what's their background, because the Tianxiong army's rangers have already opened the mighty warning curtain, pressing towards their wings, and driving out their scouts.In the battle of the scouts, the gap between the two sides was vividly reflected. As the three-foot-three-inch long compound bows were fired, the Huihui rangers wielding scimitars and wanting to fight with the scouts of the Tianxiong Army were miserable one after another. Cried and fell off the horse.These Huizi are brave and skilled in bow and horse, but the hussar battalion of the Tianxiong Army was formed by Sun Chengzong taking advantage of his position to select elite knights from the frontier army. These guys learned to ride horses before they learned to walk. Dealing with the nomads on horseback, the kung fu on horseback is only as good as them, and the equipment has an absolute advantage, which made the scouts of the peasant army suffer.Looking back at it all the time, I feel a little distressed. These cavalry are all elites of his direct lineage. It is up to them vertically and horizontally. Fortunately, the elite I have cultivated painstakingly let the other party be a rabbit. It is a joy to shoot one arrow at a time. It just doesn't make sense!
Heartbroken, heartbroken, this kind of almost one-sided scout battle must continue, otherwise, based on his understanding of Tianxiong army scouts, these red knights will run to the front of the rebel army in all likelihood, which is terrible. Very frustrating.Gritting his teeth, he dispatched another twenty cavalrymen to join in the sequence of driving out the enemy scouts, and at the same time shouted at the King of Heaven: "Liu Neng, can you hurry up, my men are almost dead!"

Huntian King was sweating profusely, he was as fast as possible, but except for a few of his subordinates who were from the frontier army and had a certain degree of tactical literacy, the rest of them were mobs. It's okay for a team to take two steps, but now they are facing the terrifying pressure of the Tianxiong Army, and it is too difficult to get them to form a team quickly and keep quiet. It was a mess, and some bad-tempered little bosses couldn't get enough of their anger. They swung their whips and whipped them one by one. The screams and screams of the whips continued one after another, adding to the chaos.

Lu Xiangsheng shook his head slightly after listening to the scout's report.Rogues are rogues, they are used to fighting if they can beat them, and running away if they can't beat them, let them line up to fight, they will never be opponents of the regular army, no, before they even fight, they will be in a mess!Now is a good time for the cavalry to charge. Facing the roaring cavalry, the disorganized infantry has always been slaughtered, but he gave up this tempting idea. Those returning cavalry are not weak in combat power. If the cavalry rushes forward, the loss may not be small. His cavalry is not easy to come by, and it is not easy to replace a few people and a few horses. They cannot be squandered like this; I also want to see how the Tianxiong Army is doing after a year of hard training, and how effective Wuyangwei's style of play is.Therefore, he raised his hand to let the hussar battalion, who were eager to fight, retreat the general, and ordered to slow down, firstly to let the Tianxiong army relax, and secondly, to give the rogues time to regroup.

Qian Yu, the commander of the Hussars Battalion, is from Ningxia. He is a typical Han-Mongolian mixed race. He was originally the leader of the Ningxia border army and was later transferred to the Tianxiong Army.Although he is of mixed Han-Mongol origin, he is more straightforward and brave than the Mongols. Lu Xiangsheng treated him well, treated him so well, and found him a gentle and virtuous wife. I am grateful in my heart, and I always want to repay Master Lu. Now that I see the fighter, I want to rush over to defeat all these tens of thousands of rogues, and show my face in front of Master Lu. The battle failed, and I returned to the formation. , a little dissatisfied and said: "The opposite side is a group of rabble. We can knock them down with a single charge. I really don't know why Master Lu refuses to let us charge!"

The cavalry shouted: "Yes, why don't you let us go? This is a good opportunity to make meritorious deeds!"

A childish voice rang out inappropriately: "Let you go, of course there is a chance to crush the bandits in one fell swoop, but the question is, how many people do you plan to lose? Two hundred? Or three hundred?"

Qian Yu glared at Qi Polu, and said angrily, "No one survives a war!"

Qi Polu said: "Of course, people will die in war, but we should try our best to minimize the number of deaths! The Central Plains is no better than the Nine Sides. It is not easy to obtain excellent war horses. These hundreds of people and more than 1000 horses are spent by Master Lu. The strength of the tiger is just accumulated, do you want to toss it to wipe it out in one battle?" The training was straightforward, but as for last night's proposal to lead the cavalry to attack the camp at night, and then was scolded bloody. The embarrassing incident was selectively forgotten by him.

Qian Yu snorted angrily, closed his mouth, and stopped complaining.

The Tianxiong Army relaxed their pressure on the rogues a little bit, and the rogues relaxed their minds a little and stepped up to form a team.After much difficulty, the queue was finally assembled, and at this time, the Tianxiong Army was only a hundred steps away from them.The cavalry on both sides began to retreat, not because they wanted to stand by and watch. The cavalry needed a certain distance to accelerate, and a mere hundred paces was definitely not enough. Now that the task of protecting the infantry's flanks from enemy cavalry has been completed, it is time to increase the distance and prepare for an attack. The field cavalry charged the cavalry.

Hun Tianwang and Lao Hui looked at the barely decent array, and breathed a sigh of relief, they were finally sorted out!Commanding this gang of mobs to form a formation is really more tiring than fighting for [-] rounds by yourself!Huntian King looked at the Tianxiong Army that was getting closer and closer, and was surprised to find that there were as many as [-] to [-] Musketeers in the Red Army, and they were lined up in three teams, with their muskets on their shoulders. There is a sword-like dagger on the barrel of the gun, which is more than a foot long, and it seems to be used to stab people.The pikemen seemed to be their main force. They lined up in five full rows, and the spear points were everywhere, awe-inspiring. Not a lot of fun!This large army made him feel flustered. These red-clothed troops were too strict and too quiet, giving people a terrible pressure, making them breathless!He touched the old man and asked, "Can you use cavalry to disrupt them first? If you don't disrupt them first, this battle will be very difficult!"

Old Huihui stared at the musketeer phalanx that was heading towards him without squinting and the even larger phalanx of pikemen behind him, and shook his head bitterly: "I can't move... this army of officers and soldiers is different from what we have encountered in the past. Any officer and soldier in the army is different, their discipline is too strict, even if there are several times more cavalry, they will not be able to rush!"

Huntian King's Adam's Apple moved, and a soft grunt came out of his throat.The fact that the cavalry couldn’t move forward meant that they could only use human lives to fill them up... He yelled fiercely: “So what if the discipline is strict? We have more than ten times more people than them. Can heap them to death!" The command flag waved: "Archers come out and shoot them to death!"

A group of archers held longbows of various standards and carried a bag of feathered arrows on their backs. They stepped out a little timidly, bent their bows and set their arrows, and aimed at the infantry phalanx of the Tianxiong Army approaching at an unchanging pace.

Qi Hu shouted: "Pull down the mask!"

All the soldiers wiped their helmets, and a steel mask was pulled down, completely covering their faces, with only two eye sockets exposed.

Qi Hu drank again: "Check the matchlock!"

The musketeer blew hard on the matchlock twice to make it louder.The match burns rather slowly and is soaked in tung oil, so it is not easy to extinguish unless it is raining, but it is better to be careful.

Qi Hu was quite satisfied that none of the matchlocks went out accidentally, and his training for them was quite effective.By this time the morning wind had died down, and the weather was satisfactory, dry, and with no wind to disturb the musketeers' reloading, and in such weather the musketeers could do their best.He glanced contemptuously at the rogue's messy array of arrows, and shook his head.The bows used by these archers are too complicated. There are step bows and riding bows made by the Ming army, horned bows commonly used by the Mongols, hunting bows, and some simply take a five-foot-long wooden stick with good elasticity. The two ends are thinned a bit, and then tied with hemp rope to make up the number. How much lethality can such a bow face the Tianxiong army who are all in armor?

Lu Xiangsheng wanted to see how the Qi family's army fought back then, so he handed over the command to him. Qi Hu was not polite, took a deep breath, drew out his long knife and pointed at the bandit's arrow array, and shouted: " Musketeers, advance! Do not fire before thirty paces!"

Thirty steps, that is basically face-to-face shooting. Their muskets can certainly cause heavy casualties to the bandits, but the rain of arrows poured over by the bandits will also kill them all over the place.The corner of Lu Xiangsheng's mouth twitched, wanting to say something, but thinking that he had already handed over the command to Qi Hu, he held back and said nothing.And the musketeer didn't hesitate for a second, silently obeyed Qi Hu's order, stepped on the beat of the drum and strode towards the arrows of the bandits!
(End of this chapter)