When Xiao Ruxun reached the top of the eastern wall, Zhao Hu, Chen Xie, and Wang Hui, the three great chiliocosms were already on the eastern wall, inspecting the battle situation. Seeing that Xiao Ruxun had arrived, they hurriedly went up to greet her.
Xiao Ruxun waved his hand, "When did the rebel army attack at night? Who was the one who led the attack? "
Zhao Hu stepped forward, "General, it was I. At a quarter to nine, I led the guards to patrol the eastern wall and was about to leave the eastern wall to patrol the southern wall when the rebel army suddenly launched a night attack. They used their crossbows to kill 15 of our soldiers and then used their flying claws to scale the walls. Our army followed your orders and waited for the enemy to scale the walls before suddenly lighting fire torches and firing arrows to break their courage. After that, we quickly killed the rebel army that had scaled the walls. After that, we used our crossbows to shoot arrows down the walls. Unfortunately, the light was too dim and the crossbowmen were unable to aim properly. I don't know how many of the rebel army managed to escape. The other three walls were not attacked, but we also fired arrows and lit torches to intimidate the enemy."
Xiao Ruxun walked forward and inspected the dozens of rebel soldiers that had been killed by Zhao Hu. He then nodded his head, "Deputy General Zhao led the troops well. The soldiers of the eastern wall killed the enemy valiantly. Record this merit!"
Zhao Hu and the rest of the soldiers expressed their gratitude.
Xiao Ruxun then looked at the 15 dead soldiers and sighed, "These 15 dead soldiers have died in battle. Give them more compensation and give them a proper burial!"
All the generals obeyed.
"Our army had just defeated the rebel army a few days ago and it will take some time for them to escape. It will take at least two days for the main force to attack. Without three to five days, the main force of the rebel army will not be able to reach the walls again. Now that it has only been two days, it is clear that the rebel army has come by day and night. They want to take advantage of the fact that our army is fatigued and careless. They want to take advantage of our victory to attack at night and take over Ping Lu City at the lowest cost.
It is highly likely that Wei Zhitai's army has already begun their counterattack, and that Bi Bai has no choice but to mobilize his elite forces to resist, and won't be able to divide his forces to tangle with us in Ping Lu City. Now that our army has repelled their night attack, it will greatly intimidate the rebel army, forcing them to divide their forces to fight. At least, they will have the initiative, and they won't have to face attacks from two armies. Since that's the case, Ping Lu City will definitely contain part of the rebel army, and reduce the pressure on Wei Zhitai's counterattack. If we can hold on until Wei Zhitai's counterattack succeeds and reinforcements arrive, this general and all of you will be greatly rewarded! "
When the generals and soldiers heard this, their confidence and morale were greatly boosted.
Zhao Hu had been following the Xiao clan for a long time. Seeing Xiao Ruxun maturing day by day, he was actually able to describe the dangerous situation of fighting alone as a great opportunity. Not only did it not lower the morale of the soldiers, but it also boosted the morale of the soldiers.
General, you have grown!
Xiao Ruxun patrolled the top of the city wall again. When he was done, he left the top of the wall. As he did so, he instructed the three generals beside him, "I estimate that in a day or two, the main force of the rebel army will arrive at Ping Lu City and begin their attack. At that time, they should first persuade us to surrender and then surround us without attacking to intimidate us. Our army will delay as long as possible, and if we do not have to fight, we will not fight. The longer we delay here, the greater the pressure on the rebel army. If necessary, we can deceive the rebel army with a plan to surrender. Only when we have no choice but to fight can we go all out. This is very important to our army."
This was not the first time that Xiao Ruxun's divine foresight had appeared. In the past, Xiao Ruxun had also accurately predicted the movements of the enemy several times and achieved military merits. Thus, the three generals who followed him trusted Xiao Ruxun's words very much and expressed that they would definitely follow his orders.
Around the second half of the night, Xiao Ruxun dragged his exhausted body back to his residence. After comforting the worried Yang Caiyun, he fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning, on the seventh day of the third month, Xiao Ruxun tidied himself up as usual and first went to understand the situation of last night's attack.
After daybreak, according to the detailed statistics, twenty-one rebel soldiers were killed on the city wall and fifty-six rebel soldiers were shot to death below the city wall. A total of seventy-seven rebel soldiers were killed. The remaining rebel soldiers were nowhere to be found. Looking around, they found nothing. However, what was slightly frightening was that they actually found two medium-sized scaling ladders under the eastern wall. It looked like they had been assembled on the spot using special methods …
After understanding the situation, Xiao Ruxun ordered the defense of the city to continue as before riding to the barracks to reorganize and train the artillery soldiers. The three sections of the attack method from yesterday still needed to be practiced diligently. As for the fifty auxiliary soldiers, they mainly practiced loading ammunition to increase their proficiency. Once the battle started, the ammunition in the 478 muskets was first loaded and could be fired after lighting the match. The 178 muskets in the hands of the fifty auxiliary soldiers could also be used as logistics. At the very beginning, they would form a continuous attack that would greatly injure and intimidate the enemy.
With the medical conditions of the rebel soldiers, being hit by lead bullets would basically mean certain death. If they did not want to die, the only way out was to amputate their limbs. This was also considering that the bullets did not hit the vital parts of the body. If they did, it would be comfortable to die on the spot.
As he observed the artillery soldiers training the three sections of the attack method, Xiao Ruxun reminded Wang Hui: "If the enemy army comes later, they must first persuade them to surrender. If they cannot persuade them to surrender, then they will use the army to attack the city. Therefore, we have at most three days for you to train your troops. Within three days, you must train these three hundred artillery soldiers and bring them to the top of the city wall to engage the enemy. In my plan, after this battle, I will continue to expand the number of people in the artillery team. My final idea is to combine the artillery team with the sword and shield soldiers to fight against the cavalry in the wilderness."
Wang Hui said in surprise: "Since the invention of firearms, regardless of whether it is Emperor Mu's southern expedition or Emperor Cheng's northern expedition, they have always used firearms as support. Moreover, although Emperor Cheng's northern expedition was a great victory, he had a large number of cavalry as his main force. In a battle in the wilderness, only cavalry can fight against cavalry. The general has mentioned this more than once!"
Of course Xiao Ruxun knew this, but the power of firearms is definitely not limited to this!
"Things are different now. In the past, when Emperor Taizu, Emperor Cheng and Emperor Mu went on his southern expedition, the firearms they used were all barrel shaped firearms. They were fired directly from the fire door. Aiming, firing and loading required the cooperation of several people. Unlike the muskets we are using now, which can be done by one person. Since we can change from muskets to muskets, perhaps in the future, muskets will continue to grow in strength. Even now, three hundred artillery soldiers are not enough to be feared. What about three thousand? What about thirty thousand? "
Xiao Ruxun's words made Wang Hui extremely surprised. In any case, Wang Hui would never have thought that Xiao Ruxun, who used to be full of disdain when firearms were mentioned, would suddenly become a supporter of firearms. In the past, when they were defending and conquering, Xiao Ruxun repeatedly emphasized that they should not rely on the power of firearms. He strictly required the army to complete tactical training according to the regulations and use swords, swords, bows and horses as the foundation. However, this time, he uncharacteristically began to support the use of firearms and even expanded the scale of the use of firearms. He even proposed to use firearms to fight against cavalry.
The generals of the Nine Regions did not believe in firearms. Aside from cannons that were commonly used, they basically did not use muskets and other individual firearms. Not only was it troublesome to use them, their firing speed was also slow. There were very few generals like Xiao Ruxun who specialized in teaching soldiers how to use firearms. Everyone believed that it was too troublesome, and the results they obtained were very few. That was why the Nine Regions still mainly used bows, horses, sabers, and swords, while cannons served as support. There was basically no army with muskets in the army.
"But general, I will say something out of line. No matter how many artillery soldiers there are and how fast they can fire, if they run into rain and cannot be used, they will still be in a hopeless situation. Besides, their firing range is also very limited. With such a short distance, when the cavalry charges forward, they can instantly reach them with their sabers. The artillery soldiers are practically unable to defend themselves and fight against the Mongolian cavaliers on plains!"
Wang Hui's expression was very anxious, as if he saw a child who had gone astray and was in a hurry to correct him.
"That is why, Zi Heng, I suggested that we should use saber and shield soldiers, spear soldiers, and artillery soldiers to form a formation. In the past, no one should have thought of using infantry formations to fight with artillery soldiers. This is different from crossbows. When we fight in the wild, there is a limited number of crossbows, and there is also a limited number of arrows. It is also very difficult to train a crossbowman. If we run into a large group of cavaliers, even if the crossbowmen work together with the formation, they can only protect themselves, but the artillery soldiers are different.
"Regardless of whether it is gunpowder, lead, or matchlocks, the cost to create them is very low. One artillery soldier has two gunpowder cans and three hundred lead bullets, and that is enough for them to fight for four hours. Besides, it is easy to train artillery soldiers. As long as you have a gun, you will soon be able to form a skilled artillery squad, and the number of artillery soldiers will also be considerable. Once you become familiar with the three-stage rotation attack method, you will be able to support yourself with the infantry formation and protect the artillery soldiers within the formation.
If we run into the Mongolian cavalry in the wild, the cavalry will definitely not dare to face the charging formation head-on. They can only slow down and fight with the formation, or use the archers to fight with us. At that time, we only need to protect the artillery soldiers with the Impregnable Defense Formation and let the artillery soldiers shoot at the cavalry from within the formation. In a situation where the distance is so close, the enemy's cavalry will definitely be heavily injured by the artillery soldiers, and the Mongolian cavalry will not be able to do anything to our Impregnable Defense Formation. As time goes on, the cavalry will suffer heavy losses. Will they retreat? "
Wang Hui frowned and fell into deep thought, but he could not find any basis to refute. Indeed, as long as the infantrymen formed a tight formation and formed a hedgehog formation with their spears, no cavalry would dare to charge head-on and die. The current Mongolians were not like the Jins in the past. They did not have enough iron to deal with the Iron Stupa, and they would definitely split up and slow down to fight with the formation on horseback or go around the encirclement. However, at that time, they would have to face the artillery soldiers who had enough ammunition to aim and shoot at them. This was different from the archers. An archer could only carry a small number of arrows, and they might not even be able to hit their targets. If the situation was urgent, they could use up all the arrows they carried.
And the most important thing was that lead bullets could really leave a great psychological trauma on the enemy, and they were also extremely disgusting bullets. There were statistics that said that if a person was hit by a lead bullet at a distance of 100 meters, 90% of those who were hit in the head would die, 20% of their limbs would die, and the rest would be amputated. 100% of those who were hit in the left chest near the heart would die, 70% of those who were hit in the right chest would die, and 70% of those who were hit in the abdomen would die.
So, if a person was hit by a lead bullet, even the lightest injury would have to be amputated. In this era, it was the same as being crippled. As long as a cavalier was hit once, he would be crippled, and to the nomads, it was fatal. It was the same as dying. The amount of resources needed to train a cavalier was enough to train five artillery soldiers. The value of a cavalier was the sum of the value of five artillery soldiers. Even if four artillery soldiers were to fight, as long as they could kill one cavalier, it would still be worth it.
Why would they not do such a profitable business?
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