Chapter 2613 Gui Zi Juan’s life-and-death battle is inevitable (1)
As the flags and troops of various ministries continued to appear and entered the Changyongbao-Wujingying-Hupiyi area, the war between the Zhou Army and the Jianzhou Army finally evolved into a situation where both sides could no longer retreat.
Nurhaci stood on the high ground on the side of Wujing Camp, holding up the telescope captured from the Shenyang Battle and carefully observing the Zhou army a few miles ahead that was gathering to launch an attack.
I have to say that the situation of the Zhou army has changed a lot compared to three or five years ago. The size of the spear soldiers and sword and shield soldiers has been greatly reduced, and they have completely become auxiliary arms, while the fire gun soldiers have become a well-deserved infantry force. Help.
This can be seen from every formation. In the center, on both wings, it is a linear offensive. Appropriate sword, shield and spear soldiers are sandwiched in it. The artillery team is hidden behind it. Other cavalry are used as shocks on both sides. The formation or the reserve team to cover and intercept has become the standard configuration of the Zhou army in combat.
But even the Jianzhou Army knew this standard configuration, but it was somewhat powerless to defeat or crack it.
The equipment of the Jianzhou Army has basically not changed significantly. Although we know that the widespread use of firearms has greatly weakened the elite advantage of the Jianzhou Armored Soldiers, our own side does not have a good way to deal with it.
In fact, after the capture of Shenyang, Tieling and Anle Prefecture, there were actually more than 100,000 Han people in the Jianzhou controlled area. In addition, Li Yongfang and the Han army bannermen who were bribed to rebel by Li Yongfang also had 10,000 to 20,000 people. In theory, there would be 100,000 more Han people. It is no longer a problem to form a decent firecrackers or even an artillery team.
But what is regrettable is that Li Yongfang's troops came too early. At that time, the firearms replacement in Liaodong had not yet been fully launched, so Li Yongfang's troops only had less than a thousand fire blunderbuss. On the contrary, Jin Yuhe, the Shi brothers and others who came over later came to serve. The number of fire cannon soldiers is even greater, with more than three thousand fire cannons.
But the problem is that one of the biggest problems with Zhou Jun's fire blunderbuss is that it relies heavily on logistical support, special gunpowder, blunderbuss and related parts. Moreover, once it is trained, the loss is very large, and a huge repair team is needed to replace the parts at any time. Even the entire firecracker.
Although these teams have rebelled, the logistics support has always been in the military town and has not come over.
Without various guarantees, especially the guarantee of special gunpowder, these muskets have become useless.
According to the requirements of Da Zhou, training must be continuous. However, the gunpowder they brought with them when they rebelled was limited. If they continue to maintain the intensity of training they had with Da Zhou, they will probably be exhausted within a few months. All.
Jianzhou can actually develop and produce some gunpowder, but it cannot compare with Dazhou in terms of power and impurity residues.
After trying Jianzhou's self-produced gunpowder, many muskets either blocked the explosion chamber, were difficult to clean and were scrapped, or the shooting accuracy and distance were greatly reduced, including the inability to achieve the original standardized consistency on the projectiles. This greatly limits the performance of these fire rifle soldiers, and may even become useless.
This is also Nurhaci’s biggest worry.
Seeing that thousands of gunpowders are in hand, they cannot be put to great use. For small-scale operations, you can also try to use them intensively, but for large-scale use, it is impossible to solve the problem of gunpowder and parts. impossible.
To solve these two problems, the Zhou Dynasty has been strictly guarded for a long time and cannot buy them at all. It can only be solved through North Korea and Japan and the Western Yi people. But if consumption continues like this, how can this possibility still exist? ?
This is why Nurhaci tried every means to seek a war to break the deadlock and seek the most critical factor for a few years of development. Once he returns to the original Jurchen territory of Jianzhou, he will have no means to improve and increase the scale of firearm use. This is an opportunity and a possibility.
Fortunately, the combat effectiveness and fighting will of the Jianzhou Army's armored soldiers are still enough to withstand a fierce battle, and the well-trained armored cavalry had an obvious advantage over the Zhou Army's cavalry before. However, the forged steel cavalry began to be widely used by the Zhou Army's cavalry. The Zhanma Dao has greatly weakened this advantage. Nurhachi is worried that if this continues, this advantage may quickly turn into a disadvantage. This is also a trend that worries him.
Nurhaci took a deep breath. He wanted to take a look at the situation between the two sides in this battle.
Although the numbers of the two groups are not too large, our own side is the Zhenglan Banner of Laositang in ancient times, with more than 2,000 people, including more than 1,000 armored soldiers, and more than 400 armored cavalry swimming on the sides and rear. Choose an opportunity to attack.
But Nurhaci knew that this was only theoretically true. In a real fight, there were too many variables. Even he was not optimistic that the fourth man would be able to defeat the opponent smoothly in this situation.
With the sound of golden drums and the movement of flags, both sides began to approach and were ready for battle.
The fourth Zhenglan Banner is still standard equipment, and the archers have already begun to prepare. However, the well-trained archers are still a consumable item that cannot withstand wear and tear for the Jianzhou Army. Once they enter a face-to-face encounter, In battle, one's own archers can certainly cause huge damage to the opponent, but one's own side also has to face the attack of the opponent's muskets and concentrated fire, which will turn into a war of attrition.
The key is who can withstand the exchange of fire and complete the breakthrough, and whether the reinforcements can arrive in time to join the battle and give the opponent a fatal blow.
Nurhaci believed that the commander of the other side was observing the battle from a high position like himself, and had already issued an order to mobilize the reserve team to prepare for the battle.
So in fact, this kind of battle doesn’t have many tricks. What you can see, what you can think of, and what you can do, the other party can also see, think of, and do. In the end, it may evolve into something bigger. A large-scale duel, or just choose the right time to end it, waiting for another fight.
Amfeyancourt is already anxiously arranging the reserves to start moving eastward, preparing to launch a sharp attack from the left wing to completely penetrate the opponent's right wing. It is best to force the opponent's formation to collapse and then be defeated.
But Nurhachi believes that the other party is also responding.
Either it's the same as Amfeyangu's arrangement, which is to attack from the flank and see who can defeat whom first, and compete with the sharpness and thickness of their spears and shields, or they can simply come in the opposite direction and use reinforcement reserves to fight against them. Reinforce the reserve team and fight another arduous and fierce battle.
In this kind of battle involving dozens of troops and more than 100,000 people, any idea of using a surprise attack or defeating the enemy in one fell swoop is wishful thinking, unless you can suddenly commit an overwhelming army to join the battle. When you are paying close attention to the battle situation, where did you suddenly attract a new army of at least 10,000 to 20,000 people to join the battlefield?
As expected by Nurhachi, the opponent also chose to attack from their right wing. In other words, both sides chose the same tactical move and wanted to hit an uppercut from the opponent's flank to see if they could break through the opponent's formation first. Line of defense.
Looking at the changing formations of the troops coming up in darkness from the left, Tang Gugu also quickly issued an order, directing his subordinates holding round shields and spears to line up to meet the enemy.
The archers held their breath, silently calculating the path and angle. Along with the sentry officers' miserable roars, the sky was filled with arrows, which were thrown diagonally and shot out.
At the same time, the Gan Ning army, which also relied on the formation to advance, also raised its own body armor shield. This wedge-shaped shield, which is a mixture of wooden boards and iron sheets, is much lighter in weight, and can be folded through the mortise and tenon in the middle. There is also a convenient hook on the back, which can be hung diagonally around the waist so as not to affect the pace while walking.
At the first moment, they brought in the composite armor shield and covered their bodies according to the angle of the arrow throw. Of course, it is impossible for everyone to cover their bodies well. There will always be unlucky people who will encounter misfortune, but with At the same time, the heavy fire cannons had already been set up, and the first round of shooting had already begun when the archers of the Jianzhou Army fired the first wave of arrows.
The sky full of gunpowder smoke could not stop the arrows from falling, just like the leather shields of the Jiangzhou Army on the opposite side could not stop the huge impact of the heavy gun projectiles. Some people added iron leaf armor and it was just as useless. Driven by the power of gunpowder at such a distance, everything was meaningless.
The projectiles fiercely tore through the armor, muscles and internal organs of the Jianzhou soldiers, and even broke through the muscles behind them and penetrated into the bodies behind them, causing secondary damage. The huge lethality of the eagle-billed gun was undoubtedly demonstrated at this time.
With the first, second and even third round of firecrackers and bows and arrows firing, the soldiers of Ganning Town began to change their formations.
Their three rounds of concentrated fire gave the artillery team behind them time to arrange their artillery array. As they moved out of the way, the wide, trumpet-shaped surface provided a good field of vision and a striking surface for the concentrated bombardment of the Crouching Tiger Artillery.
There was another burst of sharp copper whistles and roars. The eighteen squatting tiger cannons were arranged in a three-four-five-six pattern, occasionally branching out and bursting out in full force. The time difference in between was almost negligible, and this round of cannons The shot almost directly destroyed the front of the Jianzhou Infantry Army who had just had time to run and charge.
More than 180 people fell to the ground wailing and exhausted during this round of shelling, with blood flowing all over the field and broken limbs flying everywhere. Although the number of people seemed to be acceptable for a charge launched by thousands of people, but The blow to morale is irreversible.
(End of this chapter)