The advantages and disadvantages of early firearms were too obvious. They had to be used in conjunction with cold weapons in order to unleash their full potential. It was the early 17th century. The western world's weapon technology was developing rapidly, and firearms were in the process of being perfected. The Dutch from the west had also brought with them the latest tactics in Europe.
Compared to cannons, which required high-quality gunners and commanders, matchlocks were much simpler. However, due to the limited number of matchlocks, the Kennu had learned from the Dutch was the old-fashioned Spanish square formation. They built a thick, omnidirectional spear formation and placed gunners at the four corners of the formation. They used muskets for long-range shooting and spears for close-range combat.
When Tan Feng realized that his cannons could not hit the enemy at close range, he was flustered and exasperated. He opened the southwest gate and mobilized a few infantry square formations to charge out. In his opinion, it was just a matter of more casualties. He would definitely be able to defeat the enemy with his superior numbers. However, Tianyou's army was not lacking in manpower.
"Idiot." Seeing that the enemy had opened the gate, Gao Daniu saw it clearly through his binoculars. He turned his head to the back and asked, "Are our cannons in position?"
The brigade staff officer shook his head. "Not yet. I think it will take another ten minutes or so. It will take time to set up the cannons."
"Then let's not wait for them." Gao Daniu felt that the few infantry battalions he had brought with him were more than enough to defeat the enemy. "Everyone, stand up and prepare for battle."
Whoosh … The soldiers who were resting immediately stood up. Everyone checked their equipment and started to reload under the officer's orders. Gao Daniu himself was no longer at the front line. He returned to his commanding position at the rear and ordered his cavalry battalion to prepare for a roundabout route. At the same time, he placed two platoons of cavalry cannons on both sides of the formation.
After everything was in place, Gao Daniu's troops, who were behind the slope, quickly saw a large number of enemy troops advancing slowly. The enemy had a large number of soldiers. The densely packed spears were raised high, and there were people everywhere. At first glance, it looked like they had turned out in full force. Gao Daniu rode on his Arabian horse. He grabbed the binoculars and mocked, "They actually don't have any cavalry. How bold."
Tan Feng, who was' proficient 'in the art of war, learned from the Dutch that as long as his spear formation was sturdy enough, he would not have to fear the cavalry. Because the formation of the Spanish phalanx was omnidirectional, there were rows of spears on all four sides. When the spear was put down, it was like a hedgehog, not afraid of any close combat.
Furthermore, when the cavalry got close, they would also be bombarded by the muskets. Even if the cavalry was wearing armor, the muskets would still be able to penetrate it. Therefore, the Spanish phalanx was not afraid of cavalry attacks. There were no cavalry cannons or battalion cannons in Europe, and the Dutch could not teach them, so they were naturally not afraid.
When Gao Daniu's cavalry platoon saw that the enemy didn't have any cavalry that could attack quickly, they laughed merrily. What they were most afraid of the most was encountering cavalry that could move quickly on the open battlefield. That was truly an existence that was like a natural enemy. The leader of the cavalry artillery platoon even stopped his men from firing immediately. Instead, he shouted with ambition, "Let those idiots come up a little more, I want to fight one more round."
The mobility of the omnidirectional Spanish phalanx was rather poor. A thick formation that needed to move a few hundred meters was like a tortoise. Tan Feng personally led the team, gritting his teeth as he followed behind a phalanx. When he walked to the dirt slope that affected the firing of the cannons, he secretly cursed in his heart. Why did this dirt slope make him so embarrassed? But when he climbed the dirt slope, he at least had the psychological advantage of being on a higher ground …
"This' Revolutionary Army 'is so famous, but it doesn't look like much." Tan Feng looked down at the opponent about two hundred steps away from him and found that the opposite formation was very thin. The horizontal rows were very wide, and there were not many people in the column. It felt like as long as they put in a little more effort, they could defeat them in one charge.
"Blow the horn, motivate the soldiers." Tan Feng also rode on a horse and commanded the army. He raised his hand and shouted to the shaman priest beside him, "Let them sacrifice themselves for the Khan." So the shaman priest ran out holding a big cross …
Zhou Qingfeng sat on the wall of Shanhai Pass and had been treating the ongoing battle with an extremely serious attitude. After all, the enemy was tens of thousands of people. And behind this group of traitors was Mangurtai's army, so it was even more necessary to get rid of it as soon as possible.
But when he saw many shaman priests wearing robes and holding crosses in Tan Feng's team, his first reaction was to check if there was a problem with his binoculars. When he was sure that there was no problem with him and it was the enemy …
"What the hell is going on? When did the Female Immortal do this? Why did the cross appear? " Zhou Qingfeng felt his mind was in a mess. He really wanted to go up and ask the opponent immediately, "Where did you come from? Did you come to the wrong place? "
The shaman priests shouted the holy name of Nurhachi and prayed to be strengthened by His Majesty the Pope. The Pope made of wild boar skin reacted quickly. Rays of light lit up in Tan Feng's formation. For a moment, it was bright and dazzling. Thousands of brainwashed soldiers of the God's Blessing Army suddenly became courageous and fearless. They followed the order and strode forward.
This gave Gao Daniu and his subordinates a fright. He was in command of the reorganized First Brigade of the National Defense Army, which was the first unit that Zhou Qingfeng started. There were many veterans and sergeants in this brigade who had fought in many battles. Their combat power was definitely the strongest — but no one had ever seen such a situation.
The enemy seemed to be very strong!
"What are you waiting for? Open fire! " Seeing that the enemy's morale was high and that they were moving faster, Gao Daniu felt a kind of fear that he hadn't felt for a long time. He was afraid that his firepower could not compete with the enemy's advantage in numbers. The only thing he could rely on now was the advantage of his weapon — the flintlock could shoot 200 meters without a problem, but the enemy was already 150 meters away.
Even the cavalry and artillery platoons on the flanks were shocked. They looked at the enemy as if they were heavenly soldiers and generals. The platoon commander commanding the cavalry artillery was so scared that he almost shivered. This time, he really couldn't care less about letting the enemy advance any further. He immediately shouted, "Open fire!"
The light cavalry artillery was the first to open fire. The two flanks crossed to form a cross to cover the area. Due to the short distance, the small-caliber bullets charged into the God's Blessing Army's square formation almost at the same time as they shot out of the barrel. They knocked down seven or eight people in one go.
Following that, the flintlock gunners who were in formation also fired a volley of shots. Bang, bang, bang! The sound of gunfire was continuous. The front row immediately turned and retreated after firing. The back row didn't move forward. Instead, they aimed their guns and retreated after firing again. Volley after volley of gunfire rang out, but the formation kept retreating, widening the distance between them and the God's Blessing Army.
The effective range of a matchlock gun was much shorter than a flintlock gun. It was about 80 meters. The moment Tan Feng gave the order to move forward, he realized that the enemy had been frightened by his move to boost the enemy's morale and opened fire. He laughed out loud because firing from a distance was the problem of the Ming Army in the past. Under Tessie's guidance, they had to close the distance in order to unleash their firepower.
This was an iron-clad rule that Tan Feng had memorized in his little notebook. He believed that he had put a lot of effort into learning it, and today was the day where he was putting what he had learned into practice. According to Instructor Tessie, the enemy would not cause too much damage if they fired from a distance. They had to overcome their fear with tenacious will and bravely close the distance to the enemy. While the enemy was reloading, they would strike hard …
Strike hard!
The cavalry artillery platoon on both flanks was the first wave of attacks.
The specialty of the cavalry artillery platoon was to deal as much damage as possible within three minutes. When the barrel was too hot to fire anymore, they would immediately retreat. For this reason, once they started firing, they would not stop. As a result, the cannonballs kept raining down on them. Just now, when the 'God's Blessing' soldier was in high spirits, it was so frightening that the brothers in the artillery platoon squeezed out their greatest potential.
Fire, reset, reload, fire again, and so on and so forth.
Hot cannonballs whizzed through the air and all of them hit the God's Blessing Army's formation. The sound of the cannonballs could be heard throughout the battlefield. Tan Feng looked to his left and right and found that the enemy had set up several cannons on both flanks. Seeing that the cannons were not big, he thought they were small toys like the Crouching Tiger Cannons of the Ming Army. However …
Once the cannons opened fire, the soldiers in their formation were like a forest that had been cut down. Their heads fell one after another. A large God's Blessing Army's phalanx had around 1,000 soldiers. After being hit by the cannonballs, one corner of the phalanx was blown away. The scene was like an open-air slaughterhouse.
Dozens of cannonballs flew over within three minutes. The casualties caused by the cannonballs were extremely tragic. Faced with the dense formation of long spears, the power of the cannonballs was maximized. In one breath, more than 200 soldiers were killed or injured. The ground was covered in red and white severed limbs. All sorts of organs were scattered everywhere. The smell of blood filled the air.
Tan Feng was at the back of his formation and could not see the situation at the scene of the cannonball. However, the phalanx soldiers on both flanks were dumbfounded. Their morale was extremely high, and their minds were filled with thoughts of charging forward and fighting for their lives. However, when the cannonballs rained down on them, they were stunned on the spot. They stood there in a daze, as though the life and death in front of them had nothing to do with them.
The cavalry cannons were not the only ones firing. The seemingly thin rows of flintlocks in front of them were also firing. They were also frightened by the scene of the boar-skinned pope rousing the morale of his believers. Hence, they could only vent the fear in their hearts with violent firepower. 'If you f * cking dare to scare me, I'll beat you to death!'
The slight losses that Tan Feng had imagined did not exist. When the opposite gunshots rang out, the first row in front of his phalanx immediately lost a third of his men. Moreover, the gunshots rang out every ten seconds or so. Each time, the outer layer of the God's Blessing Army's phalanx would be peeled off.
Tan Feng was riding his horse at the back of the phalanx. The whistling stray bullets swept past him like flying locusts. The powerful bullets brought with them a gust of air. Every shot signified the approach of death. He just watched as gunshots rang out from the enemy's phalanx and white smoke rose. Then, his own phalanx was constantly being weakened.
"Charge!"
The tragic deaths made Tan Feng shudder. It was as though he had woken up from a nightmare. He urged his subordinates to run. His mind was a mess, but he knew that something must have gone wrong on the battlefield. The only way to remedy the situation now was to charge decisively. Shortening the distance between them and the enemy was the only way to get out of this predicament.
"Charge, charge!" Tan Feng rode his horse back and forth on the battlefield. He tried to order the guerrillas under him, the Thousand Commanders, and the other officers to organize an attack. However, the rumbling cannons and volleys of gunfire startled his horse so much that it kept jumping around. It seemed like it wanted to throw him off and run away quickly.
After a round of violent firepower, the cavalry cannon platoon had long since slipped away. The flintlock phalanx was also shrouded in white smoke. They could not see the other side clearly. The torrential firepower had to stop. Gao Daniu did not hear any movement from the enemy on the opposite side. He quickly ordered his troops to turn back and retreat 50 meters.
When the smoke gradually dissipated, the phalanx of the Blessed Heaven's Army, which had been hit by the bullets, had not collapsed. Thousands of people were still in the same place, standing in front of piles of corpses. There was no movement at all. They were still in a densely packed formation. They were truly as immovable as a mountain.
Gao Daniu exclaimed in his heart, "How can these guys be so strong? Even a volley of guns and cannons can't move them. Are they made of iron? What should I do? I might be in big trouble today! "
The soldiers of the first brigade of the National Defense Army stared with their eyes wide open. They felt that the opponent's mental strength was too strong. Their training emphasized facing bullets head-on and not fearing death. It seemed that their opponents were of such quality. They were so strong that they could not be defeated.
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