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

Chapter 766 Whose Home Field 2
"Wang Hu is dead!?"

Zheng Biao jumped up in shock, staring at the bloody officers, his small triangular eyes were as big as copper bells, like an angry tiger.

An officer with a deep bone wound on his arm and a painful expression said in a trembling voice: "Yes! Those black leather firearms are very powerful, and they were carefully set up. Dozens of firecrackers fired at Lieutenant Wang at the same time. The deputy was shot twice, and it was over on the spot! Then those black skins swooped down from the canal dam, crashed into us and slashed and killed them, the attack was extremely fierce, and they couldn't resist it at all!"

Zheng Biao's eyes widened even wider, as if he wanted to swallow these defeated soldiers alive.He knew Wang Hu well. He was originally a cavalry commander in the frontier army, and he was experienced in many battles. Later, he fled to Fujian and joined the Zheng family.As his name suggests, this guy is indeed a tiger. His two broadswords dance like windmills. He can be said to be impermeable to splashing water. Dozens of big men can't get close to him. He is one of the best tiger generals under Zheng Biao's command.However, such a tiger general had his head cut off by the cavalry hunters of the new army of Heluo, and even half of the cavalry he brought over!This made Zheng Biao feel unbelievable, such a fierce man, if he said nothing, he would be gone?Are the cavalry of the Heluo New Army really so powerful?He took a deep breath and asked, "How many black cavalry are there?"

The remaining defeated soldiers looked at each other with some hesitation.There were only 50 Heluo New Army cavalrymen who ambushed them. They counted them very clearly, but they couldn't say this. If Zheng Biao knew that more than 400 of them could not defeat the opponent's 50 men, he would definitely go crazy.They said in unison: "Those black men must have numbered 2000 or so. The ambush was very hidden. Even before the brothers realized there was an ambush, they were already suffering heavy casualties!"

Zheng Biao was stunned: "One to two thousand people? This is not the Great Northern Plains, and they didn't bring much food and grass. How could there be so many cavalry? Are you reading it wrong?"

A chief said with a mournful face: "General, we can see clearly! Those black cavalry are a large, boundless mass. One or two thousand people is the most conservative estimate. In fact, they may be more than this number!"

Zheng Biao stared at these people suspiciously, apparently very suspicious of this statement.Although he is not a famous general, nor is he experienced in many battles, he does not have much experience in cavalry combat, but he still has a little military common sense. Unlike being able to provide enough supplies for a large number of cavalry, and the Heluo new army did not carry too much food and grass, and had a heinous sense of honor, never looting, how could it be possible to support so many cavalry!There must be something wrong here!

But those few people acted so emotionally, he watched for a long time and didn't see any flaws, so he could only say bitterly: "Go down first, keep your mouth shut, don't affect morale!"

As if they were receiving an amnesty, those few said yes repeatedly, and hurriedly retreated.

After the remnant soldiers retreated, Wang Bin wiped off the sweat from his forehead, and said to Zheng Biao: "The last general has no knowledge of people, and misused Wang Hu, a mediocre talent, which caused heavy losses to our army and hurt our spirit even more. , the general will relinquish his responsibility, please punish the general!"

Zheng Biao said: "It's none of your business! I know Wang Hu's ability. If he fights head-on, dozens of people can't get close to him. Those black skins are too despicable. They set up an ambush halfway and used firearms This fiasco is due to the conspiracy!" He said with some annoyance: "I really underestimated these black skins, I thought they had come from a long way, and they were exhausted, but I didn't expect them to send cavalry to follow them as soon as they arrived in Zhangzhou. Our army made a big fight, without any signs of exhaustion, I lost a general as soon as I made a move! The battle has not officially started yet, and the cavalry losses are so heavy, this battle is not easy to fight!"

Wang Bin was also beating drums in his heart: "Then...then will our army still attack at night tonight?"

Zheng Biao gritted his teeth and said, "Does that matter? They caused me to lose hundreds of cavalrymen. How can I swallow this breath! Besides, I heard that the gang of black skins are generally equipped with firecrackers, not long swordsmen." Spears, this is conducive to our army's night attack! Those firecrackers are not accurate at night, and they become fire sticks once fired. When our army rushes in front of them, they will only be slaughtered! "The more he talked, the more excited he became, as if he had seen his troops approaching the enemy camp in the boundless night, and those who chopped melons and vegetables killed those soldiers of the Heluo New Army who were too late to reload. Blood flowed like a river...

This poor kid definitely doesn't know how Zuo Liangyu and Tashiro Wanichi ended up, let alone what a pure firearms unit that can fire three to four bullets per minute means!If he knew a little bit, he wouldn't be so optimistic about this battle...

On the other side, Han Peng was listening to the reports of the squadron leaders of the Chasseurs.This is his habit. When he is on the battlefield, no matter how busy he is, he always takes time out every evening to communicate with the squadron leaders, listen to their reports, and never miss any details.This job could have been handed over to the staff, but his army did not have as much actual combat experience as Xue Siming's army, and those staff officers had yet to be honed, so he had to work hard on his own.

"Zheng's cavalry horses are thin, the sabers and spears used by the soldiers are of low quality, and their coordination is unfamiliar. At best, they can only serve to scare people!"

"Zheng's cavalry is also equipped with riding bows, but the bows are very soft and can only shoot 100 meters away at most, which is worse than the small horn bows we used before. Not to mention shooting through our armor, they even hit us 60 meters away. The linen uniforms of the army are impenetrable!"

"They can't be regarded as a group of real cavalry at all. Even our mounted infantry are much stronger than them. On horseback, we can beat eight of them alone, and one of us can beat five of them!"

"However, their fortifications are well repaired. I saw the city wall of Zhangzhou City. It is covered with a layer of bluestone. It is said that it is glued with glutinous rice and egg white. It can be called a copper wall and an iron wall. Our howitzers want to blow it down. Use one or two thousand rounds of shells. The towns around Zhangzhou don’t have such good fortifications, and they can even be said to be undefended.”

"The relationship between Zheng's army and the common people is very bad. Today we met the common people many times, and they took the initiative to tell us where Zheng's army is and let us fight them!"

Hearing the last item, Han Peng's eyes suddenly lit up, and he interrupted the squadron leaders: "Are you sure the relationship between Zheng's army and the common people is really that bad?"

Several squadron leaders nodded one after another: "Very bad! The common people said that Zheng's army often robbed them of their food and the chickens and ducks they had raised so hard, and sometimes even their cattle, and they would secretly lend usury in times of disaster. Once borrowed, the interest will keep rising, even if they sell their sons and daughters, they still can't pay it off!"

Han Peng smiled: "That's great. With this alone, our army will be invincible!"

Just as he was talking, Xu Gong walked in with Jiang Zheng. Jiang Zheng was covered in sweat and holding a pair of bloody armor in his arms. With a proud look on his face, he stepped forward and saluted: "Legion Commander, I'm back. !”

Han Peng pointed at the pair of armor: "Did you catch a big fish?"

Jiang Zheng smiled: "I met a large army of Zheng's cavalry in the black tea township. There were four to five hundred people. The leader was a lieutenant general. I killed more than 500 people and captured dozens of prisoners. .”

He said it with a relaxed face, but the captains of the cavalry squadron present couldn't help grinning, the opponent's strength is ten times his, right?He rushed forward and chopped off his lieutenant without saying a word!My mother, isn't this calf too fierce?He is purely a lunatic, and that lieutenant bumped into him, it was really bad luck for eight lifetimes.

Han Peng gave Jiang Zheng a thumbs up: "Good job, give our legion commander a face!"

Xu Gong saluted, and said: "Legion Commander, I interrogated the prisoner and got out a very interesting piece of information."

Everyone was interested: "What information?"

Xu Gong said: "Many prisoners confessed that the general stationed in Zhangzhou is Zheng Zhilong's adopted son Zheng Biao. This Zheng Biao has organized more than 6000 elite soldiers and is going to sneak over to rob the camp tonight!"

"Robbery camp?"

The generals present were stunned for a moment, and then burst into laughter. Even Han Peng, who had always been steady, laughed so hard that he burst into tears. It took him a long time to gasp and say: "Is that guy from "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms"? After seeing too much, do you really think that night battles are so easy to organize? I bet they made chaos before they even touched our military camp!"

This is absolutely the truth. In this era where transportation basically relies on legs, communication basically relies on mouth, and security basically relies on dogs, it would be absolutely nightmare-level difficulty to organize a large-scale night battle. Just imagine, even in broad daylight, an army When marching, you have to stop and regroup every ten or twenty meters, otherwise the army will immediately become chaotic and walk dozens of miles in the dark before launching a night attack... Does it make your spine shiver just thinking about it?You're lucky if you don't have to herd sheep halfway.Even elite troops would avoid night battles if they could. If they really wanted to engage in it, they would only have a few thousand or a few hundred men at most. It was extremely rare to dispatch tens of thousands of people at once to launch a night attack on the enemy.In this day of contact and testing, the Heluo New Army basically figured out Zheng Biao's quality. This man's IQ and command level were hovering near the average line. Such a No. 20 character actually wanted to organize a A large-scale night attack to eliminate the Heluo New Army in one fell swoop?
Xu Gong said seriously: "Although that is the case, we still have to guard against it!"

Han Peng said: "No need to be on guard. Since he likes to fight in the field so much, let's accompany him to a night battle! Fu Sheng!"

A short, thin general with an ordinary appearance and a simple and honest expression came out in response: "The last general is here!"

Han Peng said: "Tonight you bring 7000 people to stay in the camp. Remember the landmines and barbed wire fences, guard against death, and protect the ammunition supply! Although the possibility of those guys rushing into our camp to destroy the ammunition depot is very small, but We have to guard against it, we can't afford to lose this person!"

Fu Sheng Yingde simply said: "Understood!"

Han Peng said: "Xu Gong, you will act with me tonight, each with 500 people to set up an ambush in Hayden, and I will be responsible for attracting their attention after we meet the enemy. !"

Xu Gongying: "Understood!"

The Heluo New Army immediately moved into action. The engineers pulled the barbed wire around and planted landmines 50 meters outside the barbed wire.The engineers still hang a lot of empty cans on the barbed wire. As long as someone cuts the barbed wire, the cans will rattle, which will alarm the guarding troops. He even raised himself higher than himself, and arranged his every step very carefully, trying not to give the other party the opportunity to take advantage of the loopholes.

Han Peng and Xu Gong quietly left the camp with 5000 troops after nightfall and used the starlight to go straight to Haiden Town, the only road from Zhangzhou to Zhangpu, where they planned to teach Zheng Biao how to fight at night.

At this time, Zheng Biao's confidant general Wang Bin also led 6000 troops from Zhangzhou City quietly, heading straight for Zhangpu.

(End of this chapter)