Dominate the Country

The Qing soldiers were getting closer and closer, and the Fu Han army was on high alert. The military police patrolled the positions and were not allowed to fire without reason without the order of the central army. Those who violated the order would be beheaded on the spot. Those who dared to be afraid of the enemy and disobey the military order would be severely punished immediately.

Not to mention the deterrence of the military police, many of the Fu Han soldiers in Jiangyan Town had many years of military experience and had fought many fierce battles with the Qing soldiers. They could even be said to have fought old battles. Now that most of the Qing army was approaching, they were not panicked, and most of them looked calm.

When they were close to 300 steps, a cannon suddenly sounded in the town.

At this time, the Qing army's positions also sounded the exciting war drums, countless shouts were heard, and the dense shield cars began to speed up, and there were countless flags behind them, rushing towards the Fu Han army's positions.

Miao Fuwei sat in the center, wearing thick steel armor and a stern face. He just listened attentively to the reports of the lookouts on the high platform, and hesitated to give orders. Countless Fu Han army officers and soldiers looked at the central army position.

When the dense shield carts rushed past two hundred steps, a rapid drum beat suddenly sounded in Jiangyan Town, followed by three cannon shots, and the sound of cannons spread throughout the entire Fu Han army line.

Guns and cannons on the Fu Han army's defense line roared, and a large amount of thick white smoke produced by the burning of black gunpowder filled the front of the entire defense line under the warm autumn sun.

"Pah pah pah..."

The sound of bullets and cannons hitting and breaking the shield carts was loud, and blood mist rose from time to time in the middle, accompanied by the painful howls of the injured. The oncoming Qing army shield carts were hit by guns and cannons, and many shield carts were instantly pierced.

With a loud bang, the shield of a shield cart suddenly exploded, and an iron bullet the size of an adult's fist directly knocked open the heads of two Ding Zhuang. The remaining force was not exhausted, and it hit the sandbag of the shield cart, directly blasting a bag of sand into pieces. Then the iron bullet bounced out diagonally, penetrated the chest of a Shandong trained warrior, and took him out with him.

The blood mist of broken flesh splattered, the brains splashed and the blood spurted, making the Ding Yongs on the left and right shield carts vomit.

These Ding Yongs were not soldiers of the Eight Banners. They were all cloth without armor and had no protection at all. The guns and cannons hit the shield, and the sharp thorns and fragments that flew out were as powerful as arrows, piercing countless Ding Zhuang pushing the cart and Shandong trained warriors behind them with wooden thorns and debris on their faces and bodies, and even hit their eyes and ears, bleeding profusely. After every cannon shot, almost everyone rolled on the ground, covering their heads and faces, howling in disbelief, or kneeling on the ground, trembling and convulsing in agony.

If there were armored Eight Banners soldiers behind such a "powerful" shield car, they would still have some resistance. Now, after the shield car only moved forward 20 or 30 steps, many of them collapsed on the ground and could not move. The baffles were made of logs. No matter how thick the baffles were, no matter how much lint and cotton were covered, they could not stop the bombardment of the cannons, right?

There were wailing and chaos in the "shield car formation".

There seemed to be a fire in front of the Fu Han Army formation, all of which were the residual flames of gunpowder sprayed from the muzzles of the guns and cannons, and there were large wisps of thick white smoke rising. Many Fu Han soldiers on the front line had covered their mouths and noses with wet cloth towels. The entire front line was shrouded in smoke, and the choking smell of gunpowder was blown directly to Miao Fuwei's nostrils by the wind.

Jiang Wei looked at the Qing army's position. A large number of shield carts over there became useless vehicles paralyzed on the road. The two teams of musketeers in their camp fired three rounds in total, and there were at least 600 musketeers on the entire front line, regardless of whether they were musketeers or flintlock soldiers. In addition, there were shotgun shells fired from the cannonballs, each of which contained hundreds of small iron balls. The thirty cannons hidden in the town of the Fu Han army fired two rounds of volleys, and there were also mortars firing shrapnel shells and tiger squat cannons firing large iron cannonballs. More than ten thousand bullets flew out and shot through the baffles of countless shield carts. "Puff puff puff..." In the dense sound like raindrops, the shield carts shattered, broken wood flew, and large amounts of blood mist were stirred up. The Qing army civilians and trained braves behind the shield carts fell to the ground like grass. For a moment, it was difficult to count how many people were killed or injured.

Many of the civilians and militiamen whose arms and legs were broken and whose stomachs were pierced by bullets and cannonballs had their internal organs smashed to pieces by iron bullets, but they were still alive. They covered their stomachs, looked at their smashed intestines, and howled inhumanly. The scene was extremely horrifying.

Miao Fuwei smiled, and he had achieved military merit. If the Qing army had continued to attack Jiangyan Town in this way, his mission this time would be a safe bet.

The Qing army had hundreds of shield carts, more than a hundred of which were well-made, but at least dozens were destroyed under the bombardment of Jiangyan Town's guns and cannons, and the rest were also repeatedly wounded. Moreover, the cannons of the Fu Han army were still firing fiercely, and one shotgun after another hit the Qing army's shield cart formation. Many Ding Yong had already wet their pants in fear, hiding under the paralyzed shield carts and dared not come out.

However, the Qing army's offensive was not over. Under the threat of the Qing army's swords and guns, the civilians who followed the army took advantage of the smoke covering the Fu Han army's front line and continued to push those relatively simple shield carts, screaming and rushing towards Jiangyan Town.

And for the first time, the Qing army pushed the Eight Banners soldiers onto the battlefield.

Those muskets that occasionally popped out from behind the shield carts were no longer old-fashioned bird guns, but new-style flintlocks, with shiny barrels, shorter than bird guns and larger calibers. Although this makes the accuracy of flintlocks theoretically inferior to bird guns, it is vain to discuss the shooting accuracy of any smoothbore gun beyond twenty feet.

These musketeers wearing lightning rods and cotton armor of later generations were divided into three layers, with a middle layer of archers and a layer of tiger-clothed rattan shield soldiers. Unlike the Shandong warriors who were purely cannon fodder before, the current Qing army is the elite of the army heading south.

Here in the Fu Han Army, a certain number of sword, spear and rattan shield soldiers appeared in the formation. They were lined up behind the musketeers. These cold weapon teams were divided into two parts, one was armored soldiers, and the other was non-main force. They did not have the neat iron armor and iron helmets of the main armored soldiers, but only wrapped their heads with red scarves, wore red coats like short coats, held shields, short axes and long spears, and were ready for battle.

Some Qing soldiers flashed out of the shield carts and fired, making a sound, but the Fu Han Army still ignored them. The Qing Army liked to pretend to lure the Fu Han Army to shoot. When the Eight Banners fought with the Ming Army, they loved to use this trick.

A sharp whistle sounded, and the Fu Han army's position was ablaze again, with large amounts of thick smoke gushing out and gunshots roaring. Some Qing army musketeers who had just dodged the shield car and had not had time to cover themselves had blood gushing out of their chests and fell backwards.

The distance was much closer, and the cannonballs fired brought the Qing army a dark cloud of death.

The iron bullets of the cannonballs were not wooden thorns and flying pieces. Once they were hit, the cotton armor worn by the Qing army would be useless. A large number of Eight Banners soldiers, archers, and tiger-clothed rattan shield soldiers fell down screaming.

Hundreds of muskets and dozens of cannons fired in unison, and the muzzles of the guns and cannons sprayed large amounts of gunpowder smoke forward.

In the dense smoke, the Eight Banners soldiers with lightning rods on their heads were seen running around in a mess. It was no different from the previous Shandong training of braves.

However, the drumbeats of the Qing army continued, and more and more artillery fell on the Fu Han army. Moreover, the rolling shield car formation was still approaching Jiangyan Town.

When the duel between the elite Qing army and the Fu Han army ten miles behind Jiangyan Town had just begun, the main battlefield in front of Jiangyan Town also entered a real high tide.

"General Hai, the enemy... is all the elite old camp of Chen Ni." A green camp military officer beside Hailancha put down the monocular telescope in his hand, his eyes widened, and his voice of shock became shrill.

"What does General Zheng see?" Chunshan, the deputy commander of the Cavalry Battalion, held up the telescope and only saw the bright light reflected by the armor on the opposite side. He couldn't see the reason, so he asked the man repeatedly. The latter was Zheng Guorui, the general of Huaiyang Town in northern Jiangsu, who fled with Li Shiyao in a panic after the Battle of Huai'an. He had fought with the Fu Han army several times.

"My lords, among Chen's army, 30% are in armor and 70% are in civilian clothing, except for his musket battalion. The rest of the army is in armor, and they are all old bandits from Henan and Hubei."

Hailancha's big flag was flying high, and behind him, there were full of Eight Banners cavalry. Judging from the armor and flags, there were Manchu, Mongolian and Han flags, and there were also five flags of soldiers, including the white-bordered flag, the red flag, the red-bordered flag, the blue flag, and the blue-bordered flag. These were the five flags under the eight flags. The cavalry soldiers of each flag rode steadily on their horses, their eyes flashing with cold light.

The group of generals protected in the center by the group of Eight Banners cavalry were the chief generals of the various divisions in the army under Hailancha. In front of the group of people stood the musket square composed of the Eight Banners New Army and the soldiers of the Firearm Battalion, and on the left and right were the bird gun soldiers of various divisions, and later were the archers and cold weapon soldiers such as swords, guns and rattan shields. Of course, there are also troops dressed in cute clothes, such as the tiger-clothed rattan shield soldiers.

The Fu Han army opposite the Qing army with flags flying, the battle flags are flying, and the flag bearers hold the camp flags high. The red flags are like the battle robes worn by the soldiers. From a distance, they look like burning flames.

Huang Jie is also looking at the opposite side with a telescope. He can even see the muzzles of the Qing army's positions being twisted. The specially selected lookouts with amazing eyesight have reported to him that the number of cannons facing the opposite position is no less than thirty. If estimated according to the normal combat arrangement, then there should be at least fifty cannons on the opposite side.

"Clouds follow dragons, winds follow tigers, fame and fortune are dust and soil."

"Looking at Shenzhou, the people are suffering, and thousands of miles of fertile land are all barren."

"Look at the world, all the barbarians, the imperfections of heaven are made up by ordinary people."

"Good men, leave their parents, just for the people, not the master..."

The Fu Han army sang the Red Scarf Army Song. It seems that because there are many Eight Banners soldiers on the opposite side, the soldiers sang louder and louder today. The sixteen camp flags were divided into three parts. Five musket camps were located in the first row, with cannons sandwiched between them; later there was a musket camp and three armored camps, and then cannons were arranged between the camps. The last two musket camps and five armored camps were held by Huang Jie, and cannons were arranged on the left and right. However, the main force of the artillery team was arranged in the front, and there were only twelve cannons in the third row.

The fields were full of paddy fields, and countless rice stalks fell into the paddy fields. There were some civilians in the villages around the battlefield, but now there is no one.

Under the sun, cannons and armor were mixed together. From a distance, it was a sea of ​​red people. Iron armor, swords, guns, muskets, and cannons, under the sun, showed cold light repeatedly, and gathered together to form a lake with rippling waves. The movements were like waves surging in waves.

From Hailancha onwards, all the generals of the Qing army took a breath of cold air. Even Chunshan, the deputy commander of the Cavalry Battalion who hated the Fu Han Army the most, opened his mouth wide, and then his face was full of ferocity and rage. Many people reflexively flashed two words in their minds: decisive battle.

This is a decisive battle. A contest between elites.

The old camp of the Fu Han army opposite is the elite, and the army around them is also the elite of the Qing army heading south. Mars is about to hit the earth.