The 50,000-man God's Blessing Army encampment filled up the narrow area north of Shanhai Pass. The encampment was surrounded by mud walls for several kilometers. Gao Hongzhong had only brought 16 long-barreled cannons for this attack, but a dozen cannons were not enough to take care of such a long line of defense. The entire position had to be defended by a large number of people.
During the few days that Gao Hongzhong had set up camp, Gao Daniu, who was stationed at Shanhai Pass, had been keeping an eye on him. Although the God's Blessing Army had received training from Officer Tessie, only the low-ranking soldiers had received the training. The high-ranking officers had not received much training. It was like a strong-limbed but simple-minded giant. Gao Hongzhong himself was the brain of this' giant. ' This' brain 'did not make any progress.
After the God's Blessing Army set up camp, they opened fire randomly under Gao Hongzhong's command. This was the typical fighting style of the Ming Army. Firearms were not used to kill people, but to scare people. After a few days of continuous fighting, Gao Daniu already knew the cannons in the encampment like the back of his hand.
"There are so many enemies." Gao Daniu led the attack. What he saw through the binoculars was an endless enemy encampment. Flags were fluttering inside the encampment. Each flag represented a general who was above the rank of a thousand.
Building a camp was a skill. For example, Zhou Qingfeng had reorganized the National Defense Army to train officers. They had to learn how to build fortifications. For example, the purpose of a fort was to not leave any blind spots for fire. This involved knowledge of geometry. Because the terrain was complex and ever-changing, it was impossible to build a fort perfectly like a textbook. In order to adapt to the terrain, the officers had to have enough knowledge to perform well.
The soldiers of the God's Blessing Army on the opposite side had been trained well by Tessie's method. The officers who set up camp had obviously learned some advanced western concepts of building camps. When the God's Blessing Army built their camp, Gao Daniu had turned pale with fright. This was because the camp on the opposite side was similar to a fort. They relied on a dozen protruding cannons to form a crossfire. Together with the firearms, they could perfectly resist the attack of the Revolutionary Army.
"Where did these bastards learn this? Fortunately, they didn't learn it well. "
Gao Daniu was repeatedly trained by Zhou Qingfeng, and it was only after he came out of the Blessed Enclave that he had the opportunity to learn. He was still young, but he deliberately kept a beard on his chin and kept the stubble to make him look more mature and steady. Through constant reconnaissance and mapping, he soon discovered that the structure of the camp on the other side was completely dogmatic. In order to conform to the doctrine, they completely disregarded the ups and downs of the terrain.
"Everyone move to the left. Artillery, take the high ground on the west side and set up camp." Gao Daniu and his staff spent two or three days to come up with a plan of attack. They soon found that they could use the terrain to find the blind spots of the enemy's firepower. To put it bluntly, they were bullying the enemy for being uncultured and only following the rules.
Tan Feng was in charge of defending the west of the Tianyou Army. He was a general of the Ming Army who had once served under Zhou Qingfeng. He had also surrendered to the Jin Kingdom after a series of defeats. After repeated setbacks, he became much more realistic and followed a large group of former Ming Army generals. As for those things in the past, he no longer thought about them.
Hwang Tae-gil had not only appointed people like Gao Hongzhong but also promoted low-level generals like Tan Feng to the Han Army Banner. Tan Feng had some ability. He had married a Jurchen minister's daughter and been promoted all the way to the position of General. He had also been trained by a group of Taisi Dutchmen with high noses and deep eyes.
People like Gao Hongzhong would rather kneel to a new master than learn new things. Young people like Tan Feng, on the other hand, had a stronger thirst for knowledge. However, during the training, both sides had to rely on translators to communicate. Sometimes, what they learned was like a chicken talking to a duck. In addition, Tan Feng was half illiterate. So the training effect …
"This Taisi method of building is really amazing." Tan Feng was very confident in the camp that he had built himself. He was pleasantly surprised when he first saw the idea of the redoubt. This method of building crossfire to block the enemy's attack route was ingenious beyond compare. It was like a divine skill.
The Ming Army had always used formations. Tan Feng regarded the construction of the redoubt as a secret skill of the country. It was a magic weapon that could defeat the enemy on the battlefield. He believed that he had spent a lot of effort to learn it and he had succeeded in learning it. This was a rare opportunity for him to use it, so he put in even more effort to demonstrate it. Building a line of defense in the winter, he was the one who exhausted the most soldiers.
"Let's let the 'Revolutionary Army' attack. Let's see who is stronger between me and that Zhou Qingfeng." Tan Feng was not convinced. The sullen feeling of being driven away by Zhou Qingfeng had persisted to this day. He felt that now that he had the artillery and learned the Taisi method, he was naturally more powerful. When Gao Daniu led a brigade of soldiers out of the city to fight, he was very excited.
At this moment, the Tian You army's camp was bombarded by more than 300 rockets. Most of the areas on the east side of the camp near the sea were on fire and shrouded in thick smoke. However, the camp on the west side where Tan Feng was located was not affected much. He could not do anything about the situation on the east side. His eyes were only focused on Gao Daniu's troops. Seeing that Gao Daniu's troops had turned to the west, he jumped onto a battery to personally operate the cannon.
"Aim and shoot." Tan Feng was stronger than the general of the Ming Army. Now that he was in the Tian You army, he was considered a top figure. If he could win a few more battles, he would definitely be promoted.
This battery was also built according to the Taisi method. The height of the cannon was increased by filling in the soil and a parapet wall was built to protect the cannon. More than a dozen cannoneers had eaten so much that they were very strong. They fired with great effort. Since the General had come personally, the cannoneers naturally had to perform well.
The main cannoneer measured the angle of the muzzle with the gun gauge and adjusted the barrel and carriage to make the muzzle reach the best position. Then, they loaded the propellant and stuffed the shell that weighed more than ten kilograms into the barrel. Finally, the order was shouted, "Open fire." With a bang, the cannon suddenly recoiled. More than a dozen cannoneers hurriedly pushed the cannon back to the gun position.
The whole process took five to six minutes.
"Godspeed, godspeed!" Tan Feng stood on the battery and rubbed his hands. He kept praising the cannoneers for their competence. This earth-shattering cannon made him feel very excited every time. This was a cannon that surpassed the top spells. It was extremely powerful.
Then, where was this cannon shot?
It was also Tan Feng's first time commanding this kind of cannon battle. He was really excited. He stood on the battery and looked out. He wanted to know how many people this cannon shot killed. However, other than the Revolutionary Army's phalanx that was still in formation in the distance, he didn't know where the cannon shot went. After a careful search, he didn't see any movement. He could only turn around and shout, "Another shot."
In such a short time, the cannon that weighed more than two tons had not been reset. More than a dozen sturdy cannoneers were working hard to push the big wheel of the gun carriage, but it was really not easy to get it to accurately enter the gun position. They used all their strength, and it took them a while to get the cannon muzzle to aim at the advancing team about a kilometer away.
Cleaning the barrel, re-aiming, and reloading took several minutes. For the first time, Tan Feng felt that this cannon shot was a bit slow. Because after such a long time, the opposite team seemed to have walked into a depression, and their position was actually out of the scope of the cannon. "Ignore it, let's try it."
Boom, another cannon shot out. This time, Tan Feng paid special attention to the trajectory of the projectile. He saw the projectile flew a long distance with a whoosh, but it flew over the top of the enemy's troops. He immediately scolded, "Lower the muzzle, it's too high."
It was reset again, followed by some messing around. During this period, every minute and second made Tan Feng feel like he was sitting on pins and needles. He hated that he couldn't command the cannon as easily as spitting saliva, and that he could shoot non-stop in one breath. Finally, he waited for the cannon to be loaded and fired again, but this time, the shell made a beautiful ricochet on the ground. It bounced a few hundred meters and stopped on the ground.
"I asked you to lower the muzzle, not to let you shoot the mud. Adjust it higher. "Tan Feng was already very impatient.
This time, after shooting again, the main gunner said in frustration after aiming, "Sir, the group of soldiers outside has already passed our shooting range, we can't hit them."
The role of the fort was to eliminate the blind spots of the fire, to ensure that if one cannon couldn't hit, the other cannons could still hit. Although the camp built by Tan Feng was not a fort, the positions of the several gun turrets were arranged according to the fort. Now that he poked his head out of the gun turret, he found that the 'Revolutionary Army's' infantry had indeed run to a more western position, and the gun turret he was at could no longer hit.
"What the hell." Tan Feng anxiously ran to another gun turret and ordered to fire. But when he arrived at the gun turret, he found that the situation was even worse. There was a 'huge' soil slope between the two turrets. At first glance, it was only two or three meters high and looked inconspicuous, but it firmly blocked the firing range of the cannons. The 'Revolutionary Army's' troops were approaching from the depression behind the soil slope …
"That's strange! Why can't I hit them? " Tan Feng felt that his arrangement was not wrong. He even put down the Tessie's secret book that he carried with him, which contained the notes he made when he was studying the fort. After pondering for a long time, he still felt that he was not wrong, but why couldn't he hit them?
The more anxious Tan Feng was, the more he urged the gunner to fire. He ran back and forth between several gun turrets, and when he stood higher, he could even see that the enemy was slightly repairing behind the soil slope that he had ignored. The enemy was so close, but the few cannons still couldn't overcome the small soil slope — if Instructor Tessie was here, he would definitely say that 'field investigation of the battlefield is very important'.
"How could this be?"
It was a perfect crossfire, but they still couldn't hit them. The more anxious Tan Feng was, the angrier he became. The angrier he was, the more anxious he became. Even when the gunner said that the cannons were too hot to fire, he still couldn't find a way to solve the situation.
What should he do?
Tan Feng's forehead was full of sweat. After thinking for a long time, he could only give up the idea of using the cannons. He gritted his teeth and ordered, "The enemy is less than a mile away from me. Bring a few big formations over, we will push them over."
The Kennu now had a lot of firearms in their hands. Whether it was the craftsmen from the Ming Dynasty or the Dutch who used secret shipping routes to transport them, Tan Feng had a few long spear formations that were equipped with guns. He was also very attentive to the training of the formation. He felt that the formation that he commanded was fierce, sharp, and invincible. Since the cannons were useless, he would use guns and spears to launch an assault.
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
