Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 309 Battle of Tianping Mountain (8)

The fact that the decisive battle between the two forces could begin shows that both sides are confident of victory and believe that they have a chance of winning. If one side has no chance of winning, the decisive battle cannot be fought. No matter whether it is the Qing court or Meng Jun, as long as one side wants to defend to the death and wants to attack the other side's lair, it will not be achieved overnight.

On the battlefield.

Duoduo looked at the rumbling red cannon behind him. If it fell into the Zhou army formation, it would definitely cause a trail of blood. Duoduo couldn't help but say to Bolo beside him: "If it weren't inconvenient to transport, the cannon would really be a powerful weapon in this battle formation."

Bolo nodded and said, "The Meng bandit's fire gun is also quite sharp. We can report it to the court and ask the regent to summon craftsmen to make a large number of fire guns. The fire guns of the previous Ming Dynasty were of poor quality and the soldiers of the Ming army were unwilling to use them. If they can be forged strictly, it may change the situation of the war."

Upon hearing this, Duoduo did not comment and continued to look at the battlefield ahead.

After the Qing troops entered the pass, when it came to battle, the Green Camp was usually first, followed by the Han Army Flag, then the Mongolian Cavalry, and finally the Eight Manchu Banners made the final decision.

However, the battlefield was too large at this time, and Sui Duoduo's Green Camp soldiers had only more than 10,000 people, and nearly half of them were killed in the previous charge. Therefore, the main force fighting in the front was still the Eight Banners soldiers and Wu Sangui's infantry.

Wu Sangui felt a pang of pain in his heart when he looked at his own densely packed infantry in front of him. He had thought well that they were just here to do some idle work, but in the end they were being used as the main force. Now, Wu Sangui had no choice but to bite the bullet and order his subordinates to charge.

Meng Jun looked at the battlefield ahead nervously. In the center of the battlefield, the details of the fighting were like bloody paintings, vivid and cruel.

The Po Lu Army in front had just retreated and the Changlin Town Army had barely formed a battle array when the Qing Army led by Wu Sangui rushed over.

The spears of the Qing army's infantry collided violently with the Zhou army's shield formation. Occasionally, a spear would pierce into the gap between the shields, accompanied by the soldiers' roars and painful wails. The spears of both sides stabbed at each other. Regardless of friend or foe, the fall of every soldier meant the end of his life.

The endless shouts and screams in front of him made Yu Youtian stand on tiptoe to look. The soldiers beside him raised their shields nervously, fearing that stray arrows would hit their own camp commander.

The Ningwu Zhenjun where Yu Youtian was located faced a direct opponent, the Han Army Banner. During this period, banner status was considered a noble origin, enough to attract many surrendered soldiers who sold themselves for fame and fortune. Joining the banner meant becoming a first-class citizen in the new dynasty, with a bright future ahead of them.

The Eight Banners system of the Qing Dynasty was equivalent to an artificially created class, that is, the Bannermen. However, at this time, the popularity of the Bannermen had slightly declined, because the Qing Dynasty had been unable to unify the country, and with the loss of Jiangnan, their treatment had inevitably declined.

Yu Youtian impatiently pushed away the shield that blocked his view. The Han army flags in front of the formation looked a little messy due to the charge, and the artillery formation behind his own back was also firing continuously, causing the Han army flags to be out of alignment.

Yu Youtian was anxious from behind, and hurried forward, shouting as he walked: "Hold on, hold on, use your shoulders to hold the shield, stab me with the spear, the archers haven't eaten yet! Shoot these bastards to death for me!!"

After walking a few steps, a dull and loud cannon sounded in the distance. It was a red cannon of the Qing army. Perhaps because the muzzle was lowered a little, the solid bullet fell straight into the charging Han army's flag formation, and then bounced up and hit where Yu Youtian was.

"Damn it..." Yu Youtian's hands and feet were shaking, and his words trembled. This large bullet weighing more than ten pounds flew past him. If it was a little off, he would probably have died on the spot.

When viewed from a distance, this projectile seems to have a very slow flight trajectory, but when you actually experience it yourself, you realize that it is impossible to avoid it, because the soldiers on the battlefield are fully focused on the enemy ahead.

Wherever the bullet went, it mercilessly harvested all the limbs it encountered, including the head, arms, thighs and chest, scattering large amounts of blood along the way. Coupled with the distorted and horrified faces of the dead and wounded, and the desperate and painful wails after losing limbs, the scene was truly tragic.

Hearing the sound of vomiting beside him, Yu Youtian turned his head. It was his personal soldier who was covering his mouth with a pale face. Looking at the gaze Yu Youtian gave him, the personal soldier hurriedly suppressed the urge to vomit again.

Yu Youtian smelled the bloody smell coming from all around, swallowed his saliva, and cursed in a low voice: "Squeamish!"

Then Yu Youtian shouted again: "Hold the line, fill the gap, and the archers shoot upwards." After shouting, he whispered to the guards beside him: "Go and bring some people to pull the wounded back. Don't let the wounded wailing, go quickly."

In the Qing army formation, Duoduo happened to see the cannonball fall into the Han army flag formation. He snorted coldly and said to Geshaha beside him: "Go tell those idiots in the cannon formation to raise the muzzle higher and hit their own people. Tell them that if it happens again, just put their heads into the muzzle and shoot them out."

Although the Qing army's red cannon was powerful, there were only twelve of them after all. On a battlefield that stretched for dozens of miles, it was not a key weapon that could determine victory or defeat. The Zhou army's artillery formation was different. It had nearly sixty cannons, almost five times that of the Qing army. Meng Jun divided the artillery formation in half, half of which supported the battlefields of various parties, and the other half was used to bombard the Han army flag opposite Ningwu Town.

Amid the roar of artillery fire, the shrapnel bombs from Xia Wanchun's experimental base were tested on the battlefield for the first time. Thirty shrapnel bombs fell at the same time in a round. The sound of the explosions was like thunder, emitting bursts of smoke, which smashed the broken limbs of the Han army soldiers everywhere.

Tang Erhe stood in front of the artillery position, holding up a telescope and looking at the densely packed formations of Qing troops in the distance, who were blown to pieces by the shrapnel shells. He breathed in the smell of gunpowder with satisfaction.

As a small artillery soldier who had joined Meng Jun since the Battle of Yangcheng Lake and now became an artillery general, Tang Erhe felt very good. The artillery battalion was much better than the infantry battalion in the front. It seemed that the artillery was also at the forefront, but they were not fighting hand-to-hand combat. As long as the artillery mission was completed within the range, it would be fine. If the enemy got close, it would not be the artillery's business, but the sword and shield soldiers and spearmen's business.

Shen Yongzhong's subordinate, a deputy general named Cao, was nearly killed by the cannon behind the formation, just one meter away. It was his good luck that the shrapnel shell was a dud and only killed two of his personal soldiers.

Deputy General Cao was both afraid and angry, and shouted, "Damn it, damn it, it almost crushed me to death, come on, anyone who dares to retreat will be killed immediately, and their family members will be expelled from the country."

At this point, if moving forward means death, then retreating is also death. Even if you hesitate, if the sharp-eyed Mongolian supervisors behind you see you, you will be shot to death with a single arrow.

Even if they avoided the eyes and ears of the supervision team, the Eight Banners Cavalry were also ready to make a move behind them. As long as there was an opportunity, they would pounce fiercely.