I

The narrowest section of the river, about two miles long, naturally became the core of the struggle between the two sides.

A large number of peasants carried mud and stones on their backs, hid behind small shield vehicles, dumped the soil and rocks into the river, and pushed forward bit by bit.

The firecrackers cannot penetrate the shield chariots covered with cotton armor, leather, and iron sheets, so they can only choose to bombard them with artillery. After the shield chariot is smashed, and then a volley of firecrackers is fired, the peasants can be defeated across the river.

"Up again!"

Li Dingguo ordered a replacement of civilian husbands to step forward, and the fleeing civilian husbands were temporarily pulled back to rest.

Constant bombardment, constant salvo, constant rout, and constant advancement.

Fill the river with soil bit by bit!

In other sections of the river, we are still trying to build pontoon bridges, but it is almost impossible to complete the task. On the other side of each bridge point, only a small number of soldiers are stationed, and the pontoon bridge can be destroyed at a critical moment.

Especially the enemy of ten thousand people, the grenadiers are not enough, and the pikemen also come to guest.

Anyway, the ammunition stockpile is sufficient, and when the enemy pontoon bridge reaches the shore, immediately throw tens of thousands of enemies on the pontoon bridge. After a while of bombing, let the civilian husband go down the river to demolish the pontoon bridge, and our firecrackers provide fire cover.

In the end, all the nearby bamboo forests were cut down.

Thirty thousand people in Huoqiu County were conscripted to be husbands. Not only helped demolish the pontoon bridge, but also built earthen walls along the river bank in the area where Li Dingguo filled the river.

The earth walls on the banks were similar to river embankments. Even if Li Dingguo filled the river and led the army to rush over, Datong soldiers could still stand on the earth walls and attack the enemies killed on the other side from a high position.

If you keep it for a long time, you will lose it, and it is impossible to guard against it.

Another seven days later, Li Dingguo's cousin Ma Siliang led 6,000 cavalry and successfully crossed the river 30 miles away from the battle between the two sides. The terrain there is extremely complicated, and the Shi River divides into three tributaries, each of which is relatively narrow.

Due to the drought and low water, the shallowest tributary can only submerge the horse's back.

Ma Silian's 6,000 cavalry quietly crossed the main river overnight, and then crossed three tributaries.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

The Datong army stationed in that area quickly came to form a formation to shoot, Ma Siliang ignored it, lost more than 200 cavalry and horses, and fled away with the rest of the cavalry.

Nearly 6,000 enemy cavalry came to the rear villages and towns of the Datong Army, waiting for an opportunity to cooperate with the main battlefield to fight.

But this river network is too complicated. If they want to get close to the main battlefield, they have to cross a river canal again... It is an artificial canal built by the gentry of Ming Dynasty. It is not very wide, but it is about ten meters long. Moreover, there are a large number of wheat fields and some rice fields on both sides of the canal, which are not very conducive to the march of cavalry.

Under the command of Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong, there were only a thousand dragoons left, and they were sent to entangle Ma Silang's six thousand cavalry.

A large amount of wheat that was earing was trampled by the cavalry on both sides. Huoqiu County, which was supposed to have a good harvest, is destined to reduce its production this year, not only because of the stampede, but also because farmers cannot take good care of their crops after the outbreak of war.

The cavalry of both sides circled around there, and neither could eat the other.

Although Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong had few cavalry, they retreated in case of danger, and could call their own infantry for support at any time.

At this moment, Li Dingguo divided his troops across the river.

Ainengqi led 30,000 infantry and a large number of civilians, moved 20 miles upstream, and tried to cross the river under the cover of the cavalry who had crossed the river.

Zhang Tieniu rushed to intercept him, but if he wanted to occupy the riverside position, he had to drive away the opponent's cavalry first.

6500 regular soldiers and 1200 dragoons confronted 6000 enemy cavalry by the river.

The main battlefield is still filling the river, and the pontoon bridge is still being built further downstream. But in fact, Li Dingguo had already secretly led 10,000 elites to go around the upper reaches and break through with all his strength, leaving an empty camp on the other side of the river in the main battlefield.

A few days ago, when the cavalry did not succeed in smuggling, they mobilized too many troops of the Datong Army through repeated trials and wanderings. Several river courses for filling the river and building pontoon bridges are also restraining and mobilizing the troops of the Datong Army, and now they have finally deceived the main force of the Datong Army.

On the other side of the river, the sentry cavalry of the Datong Army sent from Gushi County were suddenly driven away by a large number of Li Dingguo's cavalry.

Although the sentry cavalry of the Datong Army didn't know what the situation was, they already realized that something was wrong. They fled several miles upstream, and quickly crossed the river in a small boat to light the beacon fire to report.

When Fei Ruhe saw the beacon fire, he immediately led his troops to support, and handed over the originally planned main battlefield to Huang Shun for defense.

...

Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong each led 600 dragoons, firing guns at Ma Silang's cavalry on the periphery.

One after another, more than two hundred of Ma Silang's cavalry were shot down. But Ma Siliang did not dare to retreat, and had to cover the troops crossing the river, repeatedly harassing and delaying Zhang Tieniu.

Under such circumstances, Zhang Tieniu could only keep marching forward. When he rushed to the upstream crossing point, the enemy had quickly built a pontoon bridge, and even tens of thousands of people successfully crossed the river.

Ainengqi first arranged the melee soldiers to protect the pontoon bridge, and the gunfire soldiers also quickly gathered across the river.

There were eight pontoon bridges in total, and Ainengqi's soldiers rushed to the opposite bank with all their strength. The two sides suddenly changed the main battlefield, and neither their artillery nor the grenadiers of the Datong Army were brought.

Finally, the battle begins.

Head-to-head, there is no tricks to speak of.

On Zhang Tieniu's side, 6,500 soldiers lined up, and 1,200 dragoons harassed the outside.

On Ainengqi's side, more than 10,000 soldiers lined up, more than 5,000 cavalry marched on the battlefield, and more troops were still crossing the river quickly.

Li Dingguo and Fei Ruhe rushed over with their reinforcements.

With a small ax stuck in Zhang Tieniu's waist, Zhang Tieniu drew out his waist knife and ordered: "Light the fire rope and speed up the formation!"

The whole army began to trot, ignoring the enemy cavalry at all.

Ma Siliang took the opportunity to lead the cavalry to charge, with dozens of steps left, the soldiers in the rear of the Datong Army quickly stopped and changed formation.

Two thousand Datong troops lined up in a formation of mandarin ducks, shields, wolves, and spears in full formation.

"Shhhhhh!"

The enemy cavalry began to throw arrows, and hundreds of people from the Datong Army were hit by arrows, but only a few actually fell, and most of the arrows were blocked by shields and cotton armor.

Ma Siliang didn't dare to charge directly, and led the cavalry to sweep past, trying to attack the 4,500 Datong troops further ahead.

Another 1,500 melee Datong troops lined up to cover the advance of 3,000 gunfire soldiers.

Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong also came with dragoons, just to scare and harass them, they kept their ammunition and did not shoot.

The troops under Zhang Tieniu's command were thus divided into three sections, and the firecrackers were completely unprotected by melee soldiers.

"kill!"

Ai Nengqi immediately seized the opportunity of the battle, and instead of lining up to protect the friendly troops across the river, he led tens of thousands of soldiers and rushed towards the 3,000 Datong firecrackers.

The Datong firecrackers stopped advancing and lined up in three rows, waiting for the enemy to rush over.

Under Ainengqi's command, there were more than 2,000 gunfire soldiers, and when they reached forty steps, they immediately lined up to fire the guns.

"Bang bang bang!"

A volley of firecrackers fired, and more than a dozen Datong firecrackers fell down.

The remaining 10,000 melee infantry rushed over the firecrackers. Because they were too fast, they could no longer maintain their formation. Anyway, 10,000 people rushed to 3,000 people, and there were still 3,000 firecrackers.

The Datong melee soldiers behind quickly ran to protect the friendly army.

Ma Siliang led the cavalry to distance himself, preparing to attack the formation of the Datong Army again. Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong kept harassing Ma Siliang.

Forty steps, thirty steps, twenty steps...

Twenty steps, about thirty meters.

The accuracy rate of the matchlock musket is very low, the misfire rate is close to 30%, and it cannot be fired at a distance. The opponent fired at forty steps, more than 2,000 people fired, and with the protection of cotton armor, only a dozen people from the Datong Army fell down.

Now twenty steps, the distance is directly halved, and the hit rate is geometrically increased.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

"Bang bang bang bang!"

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Three-stage shooting, the enemy's troops in front of them were directly penetrated by the muskets.

One trick, eat all over the world.

At least Ainengqi didn't encounter this kind of tactics, and he was stunned on the spot. Tens of thousands of soldiers were killed or injured in an instant, and half of them collapsed.

"Retract!"

After the Datong gunfire soldiers shot, they did not mount their bayonets, but ran back immediately to join the running melee soldiers.

Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong had already abandoned the enemy's cavalry and went around to the flank of the enemy's infantry. They didn't shoot all the time, and now they finally seized the opportunity to dismount collectively when they reached twenty paces, and fired a volley at the still-collapsed enemy army.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

These more than a thousand firecrackers were fired, and the enemy infantry was completely dispersed.

"Get on the horse and chase!"

Lu Xiangguan and Chen Tangong each led 600 dragon cavalry, got on their horses, drew their waist sabers, and slashed at the enemy's rout.

However, Ma Siliang's cavalry circled to the side of the Datong pawns. Just as he was about to continue to attack and harass, the main force of his infantry collapsed as soon as he re-arranged, and his speed was too fast to react.

At this moment, more than 4,000 enemy troops crossed the river and were gathering on the bank.

Seeing that the friendly army broke up and fled back, the more than 4,000 people who went ashore were also frightened and turned around and fled together.

The 1,200 dragoons finally turned into real cavalry, and they kept chasing and slashing with their waist knives. The enemy army they chased and killed was more than 8,000 people.

After Zhang Tieniu's main force regrouped, he immediately stood in formation on the river bank.

The firecrackers stood by the river and aimed at the pontoon bridge to shoot from a long distance. Melee soldiers protect the perimeter to prevent enemy cavalry from charging.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Because the shooting distance was too far, the enemy troops on the pontoon bridge were not hit much.

But their friendly infantry who had already crossed the river broke up, and they were still half-crossing. After being shot, they ran back along the pontoon bridge in fright.

The pontoon bridge was narrow and swaying, and a large number of enemy troops fell into the river amidst chaotic pushing.

There are several pontoon bridges in the distance. Although they were not shot, they ran back in fright, and a large number of soldiers were also squeezed into the river.

There were a lot of landlubbers in the north, and the number of drowned enemy troops far exceeded those killed by the Datong army.

At this time Li Dingguo finally came with 10,000 elites, while Fei Ruhe's reinforcements were still two miles away - there was no such thing as reinforcements anymore, Li Dingguo and Fei Ruhe were both here to watch the show.

However, what Fei Ruhe saw was a good show, while Li Dingguo witnessed a tragedy.

In fact, as long as Ainengqi's river-crossing troops can hold out on the bank for another half an hour, they will be able to protect the entire army and Li Dingguo's elite reinforcements can also cross the river.

But he only lasted ten minutes!

Ai Nengqi was shot in the arm and was caught by Lu Xiangsheng's cavalry. After he became a prisoner, he still felt confused. Why did his tens of thousands of troops charge and collapse?

In this battle of crossing the river, Li Dingguo lost more than 18,000 infantry.

Li Dingguo calculated everything, divided his troops to fill the river, build bridges, let the cavalry march back and forth to sneak across, successfully mobilized the troops of Fei Ruhe, Zhang Tieniu, and Huang Shun, and made the three of them dizzy. In the end, he succeeded in finding an opportunity to cross the river, but he was still hit by half-crossing.

It's not that there is a problem with the command. Li Dingguo's command ability can beat Fei Ruhe and other generals of the Datong Army.

Tactical crushing, military quality crushing!

(I begged for a monthly ticket shamelessly, and fell out of the top ten.)