The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

The sentry's shrill cry did not wake up most of the people. After all, this was a military camp of more than 3,000 people. As long as everyone made a little more friction when walking or spoke a few more words, his voice would be enough to drown out.

It wasn't until the shrill bugle sounded, until the shaking of the earth could no longer be concealed, and even the curtain door of the military tent began to shake, that the soldiers woke up as if from a dream.

But as Otto had predicted earlier, the proportion of officers in Tianming's army was too low. He saw in Mingren's books that the smallest establishment of the Ming army was a five-man team, and the number of officers commanding each level was less than two. , five, and the flat command structure of Tianming means that one officer has to command a dozen units, and the lowest sergeant even has to directly command twenty or thirty soldiers, making it difficult to gather and respond in a hurry.

But Otto was just a young master of the Apokalis family being escorted by the infantry regiment preparing to support the front line. He did not have any military position. Of course, even if he wanted to take care of it, it was too late now.

His first reaction was to tightly hold the bag containing the small wooden box and jog to the nearest village wall.

About a hundred yards outside the village wall was the river they followed during the day's march. The previous group of soldiers who were fetching water threw down their buckets one by one and fled towards the camp as hard as they could. More than ten Ming soldiers on horseback were not far behind. For a while, the soldiers inside the stronghold did not dare to open the camp door, and could only let the soldiers outside curse and bang against the camp door.

There was a stalemate like this for about a minute. Akito's cavalry got impatient and rushed forward. They first fired a wave of feather arrows, and then used the ropes hanging on the saddles to trap a few unlucky ones who survived the arrow feathers. He grabbed the horse's belly and dragged these people away.

Otto stood on the wall and watched all this happen without changing his expression. He knew that this was just an appetizer.

The ground shook at the level just now, like thousands of horses galloping together, and Mingren would never have only a dozen riders.

And by this time, he also had some understanding——

In a letter sent to him, Kallen once evaluated the Ming army’s combat methods from a soldier’s perspective:

"The Ming people's fighting method is very different from ours. They rely heavily on scouts on horseback. These people can often sneak into the rear of the battle line when we least expect it, so our troop movements are clear to them. Most of them In this case, you can only be beaten passively.

"These scouts can penetrate dozens of miles behind our front line, guide the direction of the cavalry they insert, harass our supply lines, and even reinforcements, so that the reinforcements of two regiments have been reduced by more than half before they reach the front line. We have to reduce it to a group.”

Otto understood that the Ming Cavalry that appeared yesterday evening were the "scouts" that Kallen called. They first found the location of the Destiny troops, and then attacked the 3,000-person team with more than forty cavalry. It was not brainless. It was a reckless act, but to test the combat effectiveness of this destiny reinforcement.

Obviously, their reconnaissance achieved satisfactory results. Now they brought a large group of Ming people's cavalry and marched here in just one night.

However, Otto was not too panicked yet. He had to thank now. All the soldiers had to thank that damn Captain Mark Hughes. He used an unprecedented tough attitude last night to force the soldiers to work until midnight, just to lay down the foundation. With this thin wooden wall, it was obvious that he had already anticipated this possibility.

As long as there is this simple wall, the cavalry who are not good at attacking fortresses will have nothing to do with them. With the food and water in the camp, they should be able to survive for a day or two. And a large number of Ming army cavalry gathered behind the Tianming Front, and They will definitely be noticed, they just need to hold on in the camp until reinforcements arrive.

After nodding firmly and patting the small wooden box in his backpack to confirm that it was intact, Otto strode towards the east wall, where he saw the flag of Captain Mark Hughes.

The camp of 3,000 people was not large at all. It was hard to say whether it had a circumference of one kilo (about 1,500 meters). Otto ran quickly along the wall of the camp and found Mark Hugh in only two minutes. Captain Si.

"Master Otto?"

Seeing that this noble young master did not huddle in his tent, but ran to the most dangerous front line, with an unusually calm expression, Mark Hughes widened his one eye in disbelief——

Is this still the young master who is known for his weakness and incompetence?

But at this moment, he couldn't care about so much. When he saw Otto nodding to him, he instinctively nodded in response, and then he unconsciously put his right hand to his chest and bowed in salute.

Otto stood beside him silently, looked outside the village wall, and quickly frowned.

About a thousand yards outside the village wall, groups of Ming cavalry could be vaguely seen galloping back and forth with battle flags held high. They were probably dragging tree branches behind the horses. Large amounts of dust were thrown up during the galloping, coupled with the rising sun. The little light that was about to emerge turned the entire sky into burnt yellow.

"what are they doing?"

Otto asked curiously.

"The same is true on the east, north, and west."

Mark Hughes glanced at him. If it were in the past, he would definitely not bother to explain, but after having been in contact with Otto for a while, he felt that this guy was not as annoying as other members of the Apokalis family. Sometimes, his Her behavior is more like that of Kaslana, but Kaslana's informality has a hint of Apokalis's reserve.

"They are blocking the view of the battlefield, making it impossible for us to judge their troop strength and direction of attack. I heard that this was also the most commonly used method of warfare by the Mongol people more than two hundred years ago."

"Then...what are they waiting for? Why don't they launch an attack now?"

"They were waiting for the sunrise."

Mark Hughes glanced at the scorched sky, as if he had seen through all Akito's arrangements.

"The sunrise on the grassland is particularly dazzling. If I were Akito's commander, I would not fail to take into account such a good assist from the sun."

Otto suddenly realized that no wonder Mark Hughes rushed to the east wall at the first time.

For the Ming people, the attack directions that can be chosen are generally the southeast, northwest and northwest. The southern wall is only a hundred yards away from the river, leaving almost no space for formations. The Ming people's commanders are not fools and will not crowd the cavalry on the river beach. .

Even after the previous cavalry team left, Otto never saw Mingren's flag in the south again - surrounded by three and missing one, Otto knew this word.

In the other three directions, if you attack from the west, you will have to face the dazzling rising sun. If you attack from the north, it will be normal. If you attack from the east, the ones who will be blinded by the rising sun are the troops of destiny.

"The arquebus company went up to the wall, and the spearman company pulled down the military tents and formed a square formation directly in the camp! Let the first, second, and third companies all come to my side and form a formation directly behind the wall! Quickly! !”

Mark Hughes responded quickly. With many years of combat experience, he was convinced that the Ming army was about to launch an attack from the east. He made a prompt decision and equipped the three spearmen with the highest breastplate equipment rate and the longest service time. The company moved in this direction.

But... he also knew very well the speed at which these people formed the formation. In such a panic, the formation would take more or less time, and besides, all the tents would have to be knocked down first.

Fortunately, the wall should buy enough time for the infantry.

Mark Hughes patted the wooden walls with satisfaction. The wood that made up these walls was not thick. After all, it was a temporary product. The diameter was about the same as an apple, but it was enough to protect the match rope from Akito's arrows. The shooter.

Seeing the matchlock company standing on the wall first, Otto and Mark Hughes let out a long sigh of relief. The Ming army's cavalry came from afar, so they probably couldn't carry artillery, and there wouldn't be too many of them. Otherwise, there would be no need to cover the battlefield at all, and the whole army could just swarm forward.

As long as the wall and the matchlock company can hold on for an hour, even half an hour, it will be enough!

Otto glanced to his side. The matchlock gunner had already lit the match and loaded the first round of ammunition with trembling hands and feet.

Although they were extremely nervous, some people still couldn't help but yawned, and then the entire company became sleepy and yawned all day long. If you calculate it carefully, it has not even been five hours since the camp was set up... I thought Here, Otto couldn't help but yawned.

They also have four snake cannons, which are arranged at the four corners of the camp. The four corners protrude outward like the most ordinary bastion. However, because they are products of rush work, the protruding distance has not experienced as careful design as the bastion. Calculated, but better than nothing.

And Tianming's artillery became the first unit to open fire in this battle.

Although the nearest artillery was more than a hundred yards away from Otto, the sudden loud noise still startled him. The entire wall suddenly shook, as if it would fall apart in the next moment.

Then two black balls drew arcs visible to the naked eye in mid-air. One hit the flat ground five hundred yards away, and the other hit a similar distance away. Then the two black balls used inertia to hit the ground again. It bounced up and smashed heavily into the smoke and dust raised by the Ming army's cavalry.

Otto did not hear the whines of the men and horses. Thinking of the loose formation of the Ming army's cavalry, it was indeed too difficult to hit them with such density of firepower.

About ten minutes later, a second round of artillery fire was fired, missing the target as before.

And at this moment, on the horizon blurred by yellow smoke in the east, a dazzling light tore through everything without warning and shined straight in.

"coming soon!"

Mark Hughes shouted excitedly.

Facts have proved that all his tactical predictions were correct. In just a few breaths after sunrise, hundreds of Ming cavalry troops rushed out of the smoke in an extremely loose formation.

"They want to attack the camp on horseback?"

Otto was stunned, and quickly crossed out this option from his mind, because as the Ming cavalry rushed within five hundred yards, he gradually saw the difference between these cavalry and the previous Ming cavalry——

Each of them rode a horse and led a smaller horse beside them. The things carried by the horses could not be seen clearly, but it was easy to tell that they were siege tools.

The two snake cannons were still slowly dissipating heat and loading, and the Ming army approached within two hundred yards of the village wall without any hindrance.

The matchlock gunners on the wall fired a burst of free fire, but not to mention the rising sun that made it almost blinding. Under normal circumstances, the matchlock gunners who were accustomed to firing at a distance of two spears fired at hundreds of yards. There is no accuracy at all in the distance.

The Ming army cavalry quickly dismounted, and all movements were as fast as in a drill. They worked in groups of three or four, and it took only half a minute to unload the things on the packhorse. At this time, the matchlock gunners had not yet completed a round. While reloading, the battlefield fell into a brief silence.

As for what they unloaded…

Otto took half a step back imperceptibly, making sure that he could jump off the wall and escape immediately. The sound of the wooden board "squeaking" was particularly harsh. Mark Hughes turned his head stiffly and said nothing after seeing Otto's movements.

"Ten breech-mounted eagle cannons (1), more than twenty... what are these!"

The rear-mounted eagle cannon is fixed on a four-legged curved gun mount, which can be directly removed from the horse and can be loaded and used directly.

What's even stranger is another type of light artillery (2), which is an iron barrel as long as a person's arm, with several iron hoops added. It doesn't even have a gun mount. The Ming army directly used a small log to pad the gun body. Next, the shooting angle (3) is adjusted.

When the matchlock gunner fired the second round of meaningless shots, more than thirty artillery pieces of the Ming army had all been loaded. The gunner retreated, and under the command, he used the match rope to ignite the quick-burning fuse at the rear of the gun in unison. …

In an instant, the cannonballs surged, and the smoke gathered into a thick "sea of ​​clouds."

The raindrops woven from hundreds of shotgun shells arrived first, sending sawdust flying across the wall. At the same time, the queue of arquebusiers also suddenly thinned out.

The living people cannot be called "lucky ones", because in the next moment, more than thirty goose egg-sized cannons hit that end of the wall almost simultaneously.

The thin wall collapsed instantly, revealing the first row of spearmen who had just lined up behind the wall. The violent vibration also caused many gunmen to lose their footing and fall backwards. One unlucky guy even had his body pierced directly on the spear.

Otto was lucky, but his butt hurt a little from the fall.

He quickly climbed up, held his backpack in front of him, and fumbled around in a panic. After confirming that the wooden box was okay, he gradually relaxed his worries.

Then, he silently took a step back - obviously, the wall was no longer safe, and he, Otto Apokalis, could not die here, he should not die here.

But when he turned around while swallowing furiously, he met the eyes of countless soldiers.

"Gulu..."

Otto used so much force that he almost broke his Adam's apple. The soldiers whose faces were covered in sweat and black mud just stared at him, with no anger, no curiosity, and no fear in their eyes. The soldiers in the first column had barely formed a horizontal line, and the queues on the 19th floor behind were still crowded together. The sergeant should have cursed the names of the soldiers loudly to form a line, but when he turned around, everyone stopped moving, just Stare at him quietly.

The queue of soldiers was quite dense, but this density was only relative to the Ming army. There was still a little more than half a yard between each of them. Otto didn't even need to turn sideways, just walked straight like this, and he could pass by them. walked through the gaps.

But he thought about it and slowly turned back. According to his mind, of course he wanted to escape, there was no doubt about it.

He, Otto, is a person who is extremely afraid of death, not to mention that if the thing he is carrying is captured by the Ming army, it will be a disaster for Destiny and Kallen.

But he did not leave, because he calmed down at the most critical moment. He knew that as the young master of the Apokalis family, although these soldiers may not like him, his escape from the battle was completely detrimental to these soldiers whose morale was already low. It's adding insult to injury. And if he stood here, it would actually boost morale a little.

Of course, the most important thing is that now he has no place to escape. Instead of running out of the camp and being captured by the Ming army, he might as well stay here and think about a solution.

But he no longer dared to go up the wall, and he could not retreat. He could only stand awkwardly between the soldiers and the wall with his attendants.

But with the wall blocking him, he couldn't see the situation on the battlefield at all. He could only stand where he was and rely on sounds and other things to make a rough judgment——

The Ming army's artillery sounded again, and now the wall not far away on the left was blown down again. Otto had already seen the calves of many arquebusiers trembling crazily.

At the same time, on the right side, in the direction of the gap made by the Ming army's first round of artillery, there was the rumble of horse hooves.

"The Ming cavalry is about to attack!"

Only the first column of spearmen in the direction of the gap has completed the formation. They have no other choice but to flatten their spears and let the shimmering spear points protrude diagonally from the gap, hoping that the horses will The fear of adversity was forced to stop.

But Mingren's cavalry was obviously very experienced in attacking infantry arrays. First, a dense rain of arrows poured in from the gap. The soldiers waved their spears and tried to deflect the arrows. The success rate was naturally not high, but the soldiers in the first row were more protected. Well, there was chain mail under the chest plate, so not many people fell to the ground.

But then, with a series of explosions, Otto's whole body jumped. At a distance of thirty yards, the cheap mass-produced chest plate armor could not block the shooting of Akito's three-eyed gun (4) , most of the soldiers in the first column fell down in the blink of an eye, and even a dozen of the extended spears were broken by the fine rain of bullets.

Are you about to rush in?

Otto stared at the narrow gap with wide eyes. He heard uneven breathing sounds coming from behind him, and he knew that he was not the only one doing this at this time.

But they were all disappointed. There were still horses in front of the camp. The Ming cavalry was not that stupid.

In a daze, Otto felt that the sound of horse hooves was getting closer to him, and a picture suddenly appeared in his mind - when approaching the gap, the Ming cavalry made a half-turn just like the cavalry of destiny, but their charging speed was several times faster. The latter, so much so that it traced a crescent-like trajectory.

Just like they had captured prisoners before, they used the ropes hanging next to the saddles to tie up the Ju horses in front of the gap, and pulled them away to clear the way for their comrades to charge. Then, they ran along the wall, pulling the Ju horses along the way. Also swept away, maybe even now separated from him Otto by a thin wall!

etc!

Otto's eyes widened suddenly. He looked up at Captain Mark Hughes who was standing motionless on the wall. Just as he was about to shout something, he heard the crisp sound of a bowstring.

Then, Mark Hughes's body slowly fell backwards and fell in front of Otto.

His face was covered with arrows, like a hedgehog.

Otto's upper and lower lips opened and closed slightly, and his legs suddenly became so weak that he almost fell to the ground.

The next moment, he really sat down on the ground, but not because of pure fear, but...

"boom!"

The wall in front of him was broken into countless pieces. If his legs hadn't been weak and he fell, the soldier behind him would have had his face covered with wooden thorns and his body was cut in two by lead bullets as big as goose eggs.

Looking up again, I saw hundreds of Ming cavalry rushing towards the gap in a loose manner. The arquebusier's shooting only caused a few people to fall off their horses. In the final impact stage, the Mingqi formation gradually became tight and neat, like a wall.

Then, Otto saw those Mingqi leveling their three-eyed guns.

"run!"

At this moment, he did not hesitate and ran backwards, rolling and crawling. The sound of gunshots sounded behind him, which merged with the screams of the soldiers. After that, there was the collision of iron and flesh.

Otto ran like crazy, and soon he discovered that he was not the only one running backwards. The soldiers around him, the soldiers in front of him, and the soldiers behind him all threw away their heavy spears, and even ran faster than He's still fast.

The line of the Destiny Army collapsed inexplicably after the death of Mark Hughes. The soldiers were running around in the military camp. The Ming Army's cavalry still followed them unhurriedly, deliberately driving them away to attack the other three military formations. , if anyone tried to gather and resist again, Mingqi would charge in with long knives and iron rods, scattering them in a wave.

Otto and his attendants were also dragged around by the sea of ​​people. Fortunately, he had a relatively clear target - the south. He knew that there were no Ming troops outside the southern wall of the village. He knew that there was a fast-flowing river outside the southern wall. He I know that this is the Ming army's tactic of surrounding three and missing one, but only there is a glimmer of hope!

But there were crowds everywhere, and they couldn't find the door to the south wall. Fortunately, Otto's sharp eyesight saw a few veterans in cotton armor walking furtively in the opposite direction, and he immediately followed them. After walking several steps, he realized that these people were going to the southeast corner of the camp.

The east side was the first area to be broken through, and the southeast corner was naturally affected. However, the Ming army's cavalry seemed to have only a few hundred cavalry, so naturally they could not spread out and advance. So there was a gap there, and neither the Ming army nor the Tianming army noticed it. gap.

Otto quickly quickened his pace and followed him. Several veterans seemed not to recognize him, or they might have recognized him, but in this case, there was no difference between the lives of a noble and a soldier.

They helped each other cross the southeast corner of the village wall, and then ran towards the river - the river was not wide, but the current was a bit fast. As long as they could swim across, the Ming cavalry might not be able to catch up!

But the rumble of horse hoofs broke all illusions. After several bowstrings rang, several veterans fell down in response. Otto was not hit by the arrow because his attendants knocked him down in time to block the fatal arrow.

But this is of no use.

Otto crawled out from the body of the attendant, stumbled and ran two more steps. When he turned around, he realized that ten or so Mingqi were following him quickly, with a long knife pointing at him, obviously trying to kill him. Play a game of cat and mouse.

"Ah……"

Otto grabbed the wooden box through his backpack. As long as he opened it and crushed the contents inside, the thousands of people fighting fiercely here would become dead soldiers in an instant.

But he hesitated.

He can speak the Chinese language, and now he has revealed his identity to the Ming army. Even if he becomes a prisoner, he will definitely survive, but he will lose his dignity.

But what is dignity? For Kallen, these are not important at all, and he will definitely be sent to the Ming Army camp on the front line. If the thing is opened there...

Just when he was about to raise his hands unceremoniously, a few golden feathers seemed to be floating down in front of his eyes. He saw the eyes of the knights gradually become confused and empty, and then they actually rode away.

"what is that?"

Otto had no time to savor the joy of escaping from death. He turned around and was about to step into the river, but his vision went dark and he felt his body fall into the water.

…………

"Meow……"

"Meow?"

"Meow meow meow!"

"Uh... ugh!"

Otto felt a heavy weight on his chest and abdomen, and he vomited a bunch of river water in his mouth. This also made him feel "alive" again.

He lowered his head and saw a cat that was almost fat as a ball standing on his chest, stepping on him with its front paws.

"Uh...this is..."

When he woke up, the cat spontaneously jumped off his body so that he could sit up.

Otto's first reaction was naturally to check the backpack. Fortunately, the wooden box was specially made by him. Although it was a little waterlogged, it was not a big problem - in other words, he was still alive, which meant that there was nothing wrong with the contents inside.

He looked at the river water behind him again. He should have floated downstream along the river. There was no doubt about it, but the problem was that the river had completely turned red at this time, and a large number of headless corpses were floating down the river like driftwood. Down.

The Ming army cut off their heads to record merit - he suddenly thought of this, then threw his body forward and vomited violently.

"Meow?"

The fat cat tilted its head and glanced disdainfully at its mouth.

When Otto finally felt more comfortable, he realized that the cat had been standing beside him obediently and had not left.

"Huh? Are you a house cat?"

Otto saw the bow on its neck, which was not something wild cats could have. Of course, the size also explained everything.

The cat smiled slightly and suddenly opened its mouth towards him.

But it didn't mean to bite. A golden light suddenly appeared in its throat, and then the cat's throat swelled and spit a golden cube into Otto's hand.

"This...is this?"

There was a little bit of warmth left on the golden cube, but not a trace of mucus from the cat's stomach, as if the cat didn't really exist in the world.

Uh... That's right. A normal cat would die long ago with such a thing stuffed in its belly, right?

Otto finally realized that this cat was not simple, but when he moved his eyes away from the golden cube, he discovered...

There was no cat in front of him, and there were no cat tracks on the black mud in front of him.

Only the golden cube in his hand is a real thing.

(1) Rear-mounted eagle cannon: that is, the Franco machine. To be precise, the wolf machine gun that appears in the article is a horse-mounted wolf machine gun, accompanied by cavalry. The cannon is carried on a horse and mule. When used, the pack frame is used as an artillery support. The standard ammunition is one hundred.

(2) This type of artillery originated from the combination of the Ming army's prisoner-killing cannon and the Zhuzhu cannon. The following weights and dimensions are in Ming Dynasty units.

The Yongzhu Cannon is one foot seven inches long, eight inches in circumference, its caliber is estimated to be six centimeters, and it weighs forty-five kilograms. The diameter of the artillery is 8, and the ammunition used is one pound and two taels to press one large iron bullet, forty one-two-weight iron bullets, and ten one-two-weight lead bullets. The common large and small ammunition weighs four pounds and four ounces, and the charge is eighty ounces.

The prisoner-killing cannon (Ye Gong type) weighed more than eighty kilograms (95 kilograms now), with twelve taels of powder and six taels of lead.

The artillery here is equivalent to the charge of the anti-Japanese cannon mixed with the shells of the gushing cannon, so it appears that the artillery in the following text fired both solid bullets and shotgun shells. This was common in Eastern and Western artillery at that time.

In addition, can this ultra-light artillery attack simple camps? Let me put it this way, in the Battle of Bozhou, the Ming army used cannons to destroy the barbarians. There are many types of cannons to destroy the barbarians. Considering the Pingbo era, there is no doubt that it was Ye Gong who destroyed the barbarians (one of the red barbarian cannons is the red barbarian cannon). The barbarian type destroys the captives).

(3) This seemingly simple pitch angle adjustment is actually to enhance the maneuverability of light artillery. Anyway, the artillery at that time also used nailed wooden wedges to adjust the shooting angle. The difference was not big. For details, see the Qing Army's Pingding Daxia and Zhuo Scroll of the Battle of the Blackwater.

(4) The artifact spectrum believes that the three-eyed gun can shoot at fifty paces against unarmored targets and thirty paces at heavily armored targets.