Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 308 Battle of Tianping Mountain (7)

Under the king's flag, Meng Jun held up a long-tube telescope and silently watched the Po Lu army reorganizing its formation in front of him.

Although the Qing army only launched a tentative cavalry charge, it also made Meng Jun realize the disadvantage of the firearms army. Just one cavalry charge caused more than a thousand casualties in the Po Lu army. If it were not for the garrison troops on both wings who fought to the death to defend them, the Po Lu army would probably have collapsed if the fighting had continued.

The greatest casualties of the Po Lu Army were caused by the cavalry's forced breakthrough of the linear formation. For the musketeers, the formation was their lifeline. Once the formation was broken, they would inevitably suffer an overwhelming massacre in close combat.

Meng Jun had naturally played the Total War series, and he certainly knew that in modern warfare, the best formation for using musketeers to restrain cavalry was the hollow square formation.

From the instinct of war horses, facing the dense bayonets in the hollow square formation, like a gun array, will scare the horses and disrupt the formation. The cavalry's winning formula is the high degree of unity between man and horse, plus the impact force formed by speed. Once the cavalry loses the advantage of speed, facing the continuous firepower of the musketeers, the cavalry can only passively take the beating.

For example, in the Battle of Waterloo in European history, the French cavalry's unstoppable charge could only circle in place when facing the hollow square formation of the British infantry, and was unable to defeat the British army at all.

The hollow square formation can protect the infantry on all sides from the threat of cavalry. The mobility of cavalry's best detour and going around the rear is useless. The first row of the square formation, composed of musketeers, crouches on the ground with their bayonets tilted upwards after the first round of firing. The second row does the same, but stands with their bayonets raised. Due to the height of the cavalry, the musketeers in the square formation can still fire without accidentally injuring the front-row soldiers.

But the most important condition for the hollow square is that the bayonet must be tough enough. Although Meng Jun knew the importance of weapons technology, he could not put forward any effective suggestions for the technological innovation of the bayonet and could only let the craftsmen experiment slowly.

From the beginning of the uprising to the present time when he has over 100,000 soldiers, it has only been four years. In addition, the situation is critical, with almost every month being spent on expeditions and every day being spent on battles. Meng Jun really does not have any extra time to invest in the innovation of weapons.

At this time, Lin Shiqi came running. Although it was the coldest time of the year, his forehead was still covered with sweat. Before the horse had even stopped, Lin Shiqi jumped off the horse and ran to Meng Jun, saying anxiously, "My lord, although the firepower of the Po Lu Army is strong, if the Qing army ignores casualties and forcibly breaks through, the Po Lu Army is full of firearms and is not good at close combat. Once they are attacked, not only will they suffer heavy casualties, but I'm afraid their front line will be shaken."

Meng Jun frowned upon hearing this, and then said, "The Po Lu army is in the front, and if we retreat, there may be something unexpected!"

Lin Shiqi immediately said: "The two towns will slowly push forward, the Po Lu army will slowly retreat, and the town army in the rear will move forward to fill the gap."

After thinking for a moment, Meng Jun said, "Then we should move Changlin Town forward first, and the Po Lu Army will slowly retreat."

The military order was quickly transmitted to the front line. The Changlin Town Army began to press forward, while the Po Lu Army began to slowly retreat.

…………

In the Qing army, Shen Yongzhong complained miserably to Duoduo: "Prince Yu, my troops suffered heavy losses. If they died in the fighting, it would be fine. We are not as skilled as others, but most of the casualties were caused by firearms."

Duoduo comforted Shen Yongzhong for a rare moment, saying, "Well, Lord Xushun has done his best. You should go and appease your subordinates and rally the troops first."

After Shen Yongzhong left, Bolo whispered to Duoduo, "Prince Yu, most of our artillery is deployed in the Wuchang area for river defense. There are only twelve red cannons accompanying the army. The Meng bandits have strong firepower. Why not withdraw some of the river defense artillery to defeat the bandits?"

Duoduo was a little hesitant when he heard this, and after a long while, he shook his head and said, "No, if the river defense artillery is insufficient, once the Zheng family's navy blocks the Wuchang waterway, the army's food supply will be cut off, and the consequences will be disastrous."

When Duoduo said this, he became furious and cursed, "I have never seen such a cruel person. He doesn't care about the father-son relationship at all." Duoduo became angrier and angrier as he spoke. He immediately ordered his men to return to Beijing and kill a few members of the Zheng family to vent his hatred.

At this time, Duoduo immediately noticed the change in the formation of the Zhou army on the opposite side. Duoduo's eyes lit up and he said in surprise: "Meng the thief is so arrogant that he dares to change the formation at this time."

Duoduo acted decisively and immediately led his troops to attack.

Meng Jun was behind the formation when he suddenly heard the sound of drums from the Qing army's formation. He raised his telescope and saw that Duoduo was attacking on all fronts. It seemed that Duoduo saw Meng Jun's change of formation and felt that there was an opportunity, so he planned to fight to the death.

The Qing army first launched the attack with its infantry, including 5,000 Green Camp soldiers, 20,000 infantry under Wu Sangui, 15,000 infantry of the Han Army Banner, and 10,000 bannermen soldiers, all of whom pressed forward.

Behind the infantry charge came 6,000 Mongolian cavalry, who patrolled the rear and provided support with mounted archery.

The Qing army's offensive was like a mountain torrent, with great momentum and grand scenes. Fifty thousand infantrymen attacked almost all along the line, rushing to the battlefield like a torrent. The sound of drums and horns was as loud as thunder. The sound of the Qing army's charging footsteps could shake the earth. The shouts of killing were like a tsunami. Even the Yangtze River in the distance seemed to be shaking.

The Qing army's offensive swept across the battlefield like a storm. Duoduo's attack was as fierce as a landslide. When the infantry began to charge, the Qing army's artillery also began to show its power.

In terms of technology, there was no essential difference between the artillery of the Qing army and the Zhou army, except for some differences in direction.

Compared with the Zhou army's artillery, the Qing army's artillery was heavier, had a longer range, and had stronger kinetic energy, but it was more inconvenient to transport, and the loading speed and muzzle cooling were slower. It can be said that the Qing court's artillery was inferior to the Zhou army's in all aspects except for its range and siege power.

At this time, the Qing court had not yet realized the importance of using cannons in field battles. According to Duoduo and other high-ranking officials of the Qing court, cannons were only used for sieges. Only the cowardly Han people would think of using cannons in field battles. However, after repeatedly hearing about Meng Jun showing off his power with cannons, Duoduo pulled up the cannons and arrived with the army.

As for the musket, Duoduo scoffed at it. After so many years in Liaodong, the musket was only slightly longer than the fire stick. As for the musket soldiers that Meng Jun spent a lot of money to hire, Duoduo could only say that the Meng bandits, who occupied the important financial area in the southeast, had too much money and grain to spend.

(I know I write slowly, so please don’t send me reminders, it’s too stressful.)