Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 304 Battle of Tianping Mountain (3)

Wu Sangui hesitated slightly in front of the battle line, undecided, wanting to charge head-on, but fearing too much damage. His general Hu Guozhu also advised him, "Your Majesty, no matter what, charge down first and see."

Wu Sangui looked at the thin formation in the center and felt uncomfortable. He had never fought with Zhou's army, but he did not think that the formation set up by Zhou's army was a useless show.

But since they were the vanguard, they couldn't just waste time like this. Wu Sangui gritted his teeth and waved his hand. As the attack horn sounded, the infantry launched a dense charge towards the two wings of Zhou's army.

Wu Sangui was still somewhat uneasy about the muskets and artillery array in front of him, so he sent his main force to the sides and used cavalry to try to go around the rear and seek an opportunity to fight.

As for the musketeers in the center, Wu Sangui dispatched his general Liu Sanchong to lead more than 3,000 infantrymen of his own army, holding heavy shields, to launch a tentative attack.

The sound of drums and trumpets is the language of war, a rich, deep sound that penetrates the clamor of the battlefield and strikes people's hearts.

Wu Sangui's two wing troops and Zhou's army deployed in Ningwu and Wusheng towns on both sides were the first to engage in battle. The two towns of Zhou's army had a strict formation, with shields like walls and spears like forests.

Wu Sangui's troops on both wings took the lead in launching an attack. The dull sound of spears hitting shields, or the crisp metallic sound of spears clashing with spears, made the soldiers of both armies roar, and the sounds of shouting and fighting suddenly rang out.

Wu Sangui watched the battle between the two wings. He was not surprised by the fighting power displayed by Zhou's army. Wu Sangui was still leisurely and said to Fang Guangchen beside him: "Meng's troops are quite good at fighting, but they are not beyond my expectations."

Fang Guangchen laughed when he heard this, and then said, "Since the bandits were able to take advantage of the situation and seize Jiangning, how could their troops be good-for-nothings?"

Wu Sangui laughed when he heard this. It is good to be able to fight. When the cranes and clams fight, the fisherman benefits. After looking at the two wings for a while, Wu Sangui turned his attention to the center.

In the center, Wu Sangui's general Liu Sanzhong looked at the black musket in front of him and felt a little panic for no reason. In Liu Sanzhong's impression, muskets were unreliable. Swords, spears and shields were the absolute weapons for fighting in battles, while the use of muskets was just to make a noise when a war started.

In the official army at the end of the Ming Dynasty, those old-style muskets were always fired outside the range due to panic every time when fighting. Indeed, they could only make a noise but had no effect on defeating the enemy. Moreover, due to the economic collapse of the Ming court, the quality of the muskets was also difficult to describe. Even the muskets seized by the Qing court were either thrown into the warehouse or recycled.

But Liu Sanzhong couldn't help but slow down his pace when he looked at the upright bodies of the musketeers opposite him. When Liu Sanzhong's troops rushed to the effective range of the artillery, the Zhou army's artillery began to fire.

Solid bullets left trails of blood along the Qing army's charge route, and after suffering the first round of artillery attack, Liu Sanzhong immediately ordered the entire army to advance.

Wu Sangui looked at the artillery and said to Fang Guangchen beside him, "The advantage of artillery is that it is used to attack cities and strongholds. Meng's bandits use it in field battles, which is inconvenient to transport. If they don't carry it with them, all the artillery and arrows will be lost. This is unwise."

The actual casualties caused by the artillery were not large, but it mainly hit the morale of the Qing army. When the artillery was used, no shield could stop it, and anyone who was touched would either die or be injured.

When Liu San rushed closer, the tiger squat cannon began to fire buckshot in the gaps between the Zhou army's musket arrays. After one round of attacks, there was almost no one standing within a hundred meters. In this era, when a shield hit a cannon, it seemed that holding a shield was just a tool for psychological comfort and was useless in front of a cannon.

Before Liu Sanchong's troops came into contact with the enemy, they suffered successive blows. The morale of Liu Sanchong's troops had dropped to the lowest level. When the Qing army barely rushed into the range of the Pulu Army's flintlock muskets, they were sniped by the musket team's barrage of bullets.

The thick smoke from the burning black gunpowder made the musketeers' vision in front of them hazy. However, since the Po Lu Army had experience fighting in thick fog during the battle to defeat Jin Shenghuan, these musketeers were neither anxious nor impatient. They believed that as long as they kept their formation in order and the barrage of bullets continued to flow, and they held on to the end, few people would be able to rush up.

After round after round of shooting, the Qing soldiers' counterattack against the Po Lu Army was extremely limited. Only a few arrows flew into the Po Lu Army's formation, causing some casualties.

The thick black smoke made it impossible for Wu Sangui, who was far behind, to see the battle situation clearly. However, Liu Sanchong, who was in the camp, understood the situation well.

Liu Sanzhong started out by being fired upon by the artillery, shotgun and musket fire of the Po Lu Army. Liu Sanzhong watched helplessly as the soldiers in front of him fell down in large numbers like wheat ears being cut by a sickle.

The bullets hit the Qing soldiers' bodies, their cotton armor was penetrated, their skin was torn, blood gushed out like fountains, and their wails of pain echoed over the battlefield.

A young Qing soldier was hit in the shoulder by a musket bullet. He lay on the ground, wailing helplessly and shouting in pain.

The projectiles of this era were still round, and their penetrating power was incomparable to that of later metal bullets, but in terms of damage, they were no weaker than later rifle bullets.

Because the bullets of today's muskets are not as strong as the metal bullets of later generations, under the impact of gunpowder and then the collision with armor, the bullets will shatter after entering the body, causing greater damage.

Under the bombardment of projectiles, Liu Sanzhong's 3,000 infantry suffered heavy casualties. Life seemed so fragile and so short at this moment. Liu Sanzhong was hit by three projectiles and lay on the ground, his life or death unknown. Although it was only more than thirty steps, such a short distance, the Qing army felt like it was a world away and could not cross it.

When the wind blew away the thick smoke, Wu Sangui stared at the scene in the center of the formation in amazement. Those lying in front of the formation were all wearing Qing army uniforms and armor. The dead were scattered all over the ground, and the wounded were wailing in pain. More than 3,000 men under Liu Sanchong's command fell in front of the line of fire of the Po Lu Army. All of them were killed or wounded, and only a few escaped. Even his general Liu Sanchong could not escape back.

What is the first-hand impact? This is the first-hand impact.

Wu Sangui's face turned pale. The infantry on both wings were still fighting, and the cavalry had just clashed with Huang Cheng's troops. In just a short while, more than 3,000 people were almost wiped out.

Wu Sangui almost gritted his teeth and ordered: "Sound the horn!"

He then reported to Duoduo in a hurry, saying that the Zhou army's artillery firepower was so strong that it was rarely seen in the world and that no one could defeat it with flesh and blood. He also requested that artillery and musketeers be dispatched urgently to meet the enemy.