Taiping Inn

The results of the second round of artillery fire were better than the first round, killing more than 200 cavalrymen. Read

After the two rounds of artillery fire, it was the fire gun soldiers who were divided into three sections to shoot.

With the sound of the whistle, countless flames flashed in the camp, and then large groups of thick white smoke rose. Most of the camp seemed to be shrouded in smoke, and the choking smell of gunpowder was everywhere.

I don’t know how many lead bullets and lead balls were shot out, finer than raindrops. In an instant, the cavalry who continued to charge seemed to encounter an invisible wall and fell directly from the horse.

The fire gun soldiers were divided into three layers. The outermost layer fired the fire guns first, then retreated, and then the second and third layers continued to fire. When the second and third layers fired, the first layer loaded the bullets and gunpowder, and the three layers took turns to fire without any pause.

The cavalry did not dare to charge hard, and began to circle around the chariot formation and shoot arrows, waiting for an opportunity to charge.

A whistling rain of arrows came over, and several gunners who were not covered by chariots were shot with arrows and immediately fell backwards with screams. Some of the musketeers were covered by chariots, with only half of their upper bodies exposed, and they were also hit in the face by sharp arrows, and fell to the ground with screams.

People were constantly shot, but the musketeers still came forward in rows, maintaining three-stage shooting.

Some cavalry rushed closer, their iron hooves broke through the caltrops on the ground, broke through the barricades, swept past, and threw a large number of javelins, flying axes, iron bones and other projectile weapons.

Casualties began to appear in the chariot camp, and several cannons had been silenced. If the musketeers were in chaos and could not continue to suppress them, the cavalry would be able to charge immediately, but the chariot camp in Liaodong was never in chaos. The close-range muskets fired and hit the cavalry's horses and men. No matter how many layers of armor they wore, they would be shot and fall off their horses.

Jing Xiu also prepared a reserve force of 800 people. If any of the defense lines could not hold up, they could provide support at any time to replace the musketeers who were killed or injured by arrows.

In the shooting of bows and arrows and muskets, one side had a chariot as a barrier, and the other side was sitting on a horse, which was a large target. The musket was mainly used to load powder and bullets, which did not take much effort. As long as there was enough ammunition, it could be fired continuously. However, bows and arrows had extremely high requirements for arm strength, and it was destined to be difficult to shoot arrows continuously. After a long time, it was self-evident who would win and who would lose. There were cavalrymen who kept falling off their horses, and the rest of the cavalrymen became increasingly powerless.

Then, with the order of the sentry officer, a large amount of thick smoke rose again, and thirty small cannons fired again. After a rain of iron, at least dozens of cavalrymen were shot into sieves, and unlike those who died from swords, guns and arrows, their flesh and blood were blurred, which was very shocking and hit morale.

The rain of arrows became less and less frequent, and another team of gunners brought out more than ten thunder guns, the sound of the guns was as dense as a storm, and the power was even more amazing.

At this time, these Wei cavalrymen were both afraid and cowardly. They had heard about how powerful the Liaodong border army was, but they didn't expect it to be so powerful. They couldn't break through the Liaodong chariot camp at all.

In fact, this is the victory of the brave when they meet on a narrow road. If the gunners in the chariot camp are afraid of the charging cavalry, or are suppressed by bows and arrows and cannot maintain continuous three-stage shooting, the cavalry can immediately rush into the chariot camp and form a massacre. But if the gunners in the chariot camp are calm and collected, they can use the advantage of firepower to keep the enemy out of the door. On the contrary, if the cavalry cannot charge into the battle formation in one breath, they will fall into a situation of being massacred.

In the final analysis, the key to victory or defeat lies in people. The same craftsmanship and the same firearms are completely different in the hands of the Liaodong army and the Wei official army.

Facing the continuous three-stage musket shooting of the Liaodong chariot camp, the performance of the Wei cavalry was not as good as that of the Golden Horde cavalry. After a short stalemate, they were even unable to rush into the chariot camp to engage in hand-to-hand combat. Someone shouted and turned the horses' heads, and then began to retreat in an all-round way. A large number of cavalry turned their horses' heads and ran back.

However, during the escape, the Liaodong chariot camp continued to fire, causing many cavalry to die on the road of defeat.

In this way, the Wei cavalry had lost more than a thousand people.

At this time, the Liaodong cavalry, who had been waiting on both wings of the chariot camp, finally moved.

Although Jing Xiu only brought 1,500 cavalry this time, which was not enough to confront Xu Zaiyuan's cavalry on the front battlefield, it was more than enough to chase and kill thousands of disorganized fleeing soldiers.

After seeing this scene through the "Thousand-mile View" in his hand, Xu Zaiyuan turned pale and knew that this battle was completely defeated.

There was silence around him, no one dared to speak, the atmosphere was oppressive, and there was unspeakable fear.

Xu Zaiyuan murmured: "Only talking about war on paper, only talking about war on paper, it is destined to be such a great defeat, is it really the end of my Wei Dynasty?"

However, Xu Zaiyuan quickly came to his senses and ordered the remaining soldiers to be on guard to prevent the defeated soldiers from breaking up their own formation. If their own formation was in chaos, it would be a landslide, and more than a thousand elite cavalrymen could completely kill their more than ten thousand troops.

In this way, the defeated soldiers could only flee in all directions to avoid being caught in a situation of being attacked from both sides.

Although these defeated soldiers did not die on the spot, most of them became bandits after fleeing, and then were slowly cleared by the Liaodong army. Only some of them were able to return to their team, and naturally they were counted as casualties. Many times, hundreds of thousands of troops were wiped out, and most of them either fled or surrendered, not all died in battle.

Xu Zaiyuan was also secretly glad that this time he encountered the Liaodong vanguard army, which had less than 10,000 soldiers and was not strong enough to swallow him up in one bite. However, he could not defend Lu County at all. Once the main force of Liaodong arrived, he would be surrounded and encircled in an instant.

At this time, a guerrilla tumbled into the big tent, his face full of panic, and he knelt on the ground to report: "Report, report to the commander-in-chief, from the northeast, a cavalry is coming towards our army, about 5,000 people, all wearing black armor, they should be the elite cavalry of Liaodong."

Xu Zaiyuan was shocked. He was in a great defeat at this time, and the morale of the army was unsettled. If another large army came and attacked him in the middle, wouldn't his tens of thousands of soldiers and horses be completely destroyed here?

The leader of this army was named Han Huo. He was born in the Han family, a prominent family in Liaodong. He had some friendship with Han Yaoyue, but the two were not close and had little contact on weekdays. Moreover, he was not a disciple of Wangqing Sect, but a disciple of Bu Tian Sect. Therefore, after Han Yaoyue's death, he was not implicated, but became a lieutenant general in the Liaodong army.

This time, he followed Qin Qing's order and led 5,000 cavalry, regardless of the loss of horsepower, to urgently support Jingxiu, and just intercepted Xu Zaiyuan.

These five thousand cavalrymen were not the kind of "dragoons" that were out of place, but orthodox cavalrymen, or what the world called the Liaodong Iron Cavalry. They were mainly equipped with long spears and sabers, but were equipped with firearms such as three-barreled guns, and could really charge head-on with the Golden Horde Cavalry without losing the upper hand.

Not long after, Xu Zaiyuan heard the thunderous sound of hooves with his own ears.

He closed his eyes involuntarily, knowing that his army would never survive today. He also knew that even if he escaped back to the imperial capital, those ruthless Confucianists would not let him go. He could not help but be determined to die in the chaos, and he could get the reputation of dying in battle, which was better than others accusing him of a crime.

The five thousand cavalrymen approached quickly, and there was no essential difference from the Wei cavalrymen, and they began to accelerate continuously.

The leader, Han Huo, drew out his waist knife, raised it high, and led the way.

There was no shouting and screaming when the Golden Horde cavalry charged, and the Liaodong cavalry was unusually quiet, with only the sound of drawing swords and horse hooves.

Jingxiu also led his entire army to attack and advance.

The army under Xu Zaiyuan was completely defeated.

May 15, the ninth year of Tianbao.

The news from Lu County was sent back to the imperial capital.

The 30,000-man army was completely destroyed, and Xu Zaiyuan, the governor of Youyan, died in battle.

This time, Emperor Tianbao was not angry, but extremely sad. He issued an edict to posthumously confer the title of Prince of a County on Xu Zaiyuan, and posthumously named him Zhongxiang. He also set up a tomb for Xu Zaiyuan in the capital for people to worship.

There was even more crying in the imperial capital, not only because there were many sons of nobles in Xu Zaiyuan's army, but also because the future was bleak.

In total, there were three armies to support the king, and one of them was completely wiped out.

Can the imperial capital still be defended?

Under this situation, the Liaodong army marched straight in. In addition to capturing Lu County, it also captured Pinggu, Wuqing and other places. The defenders in various places fled. The imperial capital was shocked. The cabinet had to urgently urge the governors of Qinzhong and Jingchu to lead the army to defend the king, and urgently summoned the troops of Jizhen to defend.

Liaodong was relatively calm. Jingxiu only reported the results of the battle to Qin Qing, and did not solemnly report the great victory.

In this battle, the Liaodong army suffered more than 800 casualties, killed more than 4,000 enemies, captured more than 10,000 people, and more than 10,000 defeated soldiers fled. One governor, one general, one deputy general, four lieutenant generals, and eight guerrillas and above were killed. Those who surrendered and were captured totaled one general, two deputy generals, and six lieutenant generals and above. There were more than 20 other civil servants and painters accompanying the army. Many of these painters were from noble families. Jingxiu asked how to deal with these people.

Qin Qing replied to Jing Xiu that there was no need to take them to the camp, and ordered Jing Xiu to deal with them at his discretion.

The key to this battle was to occupy Lu County and control the Grand Canal. Even if the Governor of Jingchu cut off part of the grain transport and could not go directly to Jiangnan, food and grass could be transported from Qizhou through the canal.

Because Qin Qing strictly ordered the army not to harass the people along the way, before this, food and grass had to be transported from Youzhou, and the ammunition needed for firearms had to be transported from Liaodong, which put great logistical pressure on the Liaodong army.

Since ancient times, when marching and fighting, once the battle line was extended, it was inevitable that the support would be insufficient, because the baggage troops transporting food and grass also had to consume food and grass themselves. If the battle line was too long, there would be an embarrassing situation where the transported food was not enough for the baggage soldiers to chew. Compared with land transportation, the grain transport at least saved the consumption of horses and required fewer people, which greatly alleviated the logistical pressure of the Liaodong army.

At the same time, Qin Xiang's army met with the army of the governor of Jingchu, and the two sides fought fiercely in Zhengding County, Zhending Prefecture.

Although Qin Xiang was only a small army, because of crossing the sea, he did not carry horses and artillery, but he received a large number of firearms and horses from the imperial army in Qizhou. Although he was not as strong as the main army led by Qin Qing, he was much stronger than the imperial army. In one battle, the governor of Jingchu was defeated and had to retreat to the city of Zhending Prefecture.

In this way, only one of the three armies was left.