In Songshan, Luo Zhixue took An Yongduo and others to the hidden command post on the mountainside on the left side of the canyon, looking down at the Ming army outside the valley.

The Ming army that came was indeed as reported by the sentinel, at least thousands of people.

And it is easy to see that there are nearly three hundred soldiers in the formation.

The area of ​​well-trained soldiers and temporarily recruited young and strong county warriors is naturally very large, and you can basically tell them apart even if you just take a look at their queues from a distance.

There are nearly three hundred soldiers, which is a powerful enemy for the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp.

After all, there are veterans with rich combat experience in their Baoxiang camp. Even including those prisoners of war and old thieves, there are only about a hundred people.

It's just that the veterans in the Baoxiang camp are special. They are not ordinary infantrymen but mostly cavalrymen. Most of the prisoners of war and old thieves can also ride and shoot.

Three hundred soldiers, hundreds of county warriors, and hundreds of civilians, this is the enemy Luo Zhixue needs to face.

In addition to the enemy's considerable strength, Luo Zhixue also discovered that there were many firearms in the Ming army.

This is not a strange thing. The Ming army began to play with guns and artillery at the beginning of the founding of the country. It has been more than two hundred years ago, and the bird guns and red barbarian artillery have also been playing for decades.

Not to mention other places, Luyangguan City not far away has a lot of artillery on its head.

The second and third lumen Ming armies such as ordinary county warriors and guards may be equipped with fewer and worse firearms, but in some main field Ming armies, the proportion of firearms equipment is not small.

Huang Guangmao was under the command of Chen Zhibang, and the Ming army under Chen Zhibang was one of the main forces of the Republic of China in the Central Plains. It participated in the encirclement and suppression of the rebels many times and made great achievements.

It is very normal for the Ming army to be equipped with firearms.

However, Luo Zhixue was a little relieved that although the Ming army at the foot of the mountain was equipped with firearms, they obviously did not have large-caliber long-barreled artillery.

Although the distance was only a few hundred meters, Luo Zhixue still saw that the three artillery pieces launched by the Ming army at the foot of the mountain were very typical short-barreled shotguns, estimated to only weigh about a hundred kilograms.

What about the two 200-pound shotguns equipped in the rural camp?

In addition to these three hundred-jin short robes, the Ming army was also equipped with a batch of blunderbuss. There were not many of them, probably only a few dozen.

These musketeers were mixed with sword, shield, and spearmen to form a small formation of about ten people.

It doesn't mean that hundreds of people rushed directly in a dense formation, so that it seemed a bit scattered.

At this time, An Yongduo, who was beside Luo Zhixue, spoke: "It's the Yuanyang Formation!"

Luo Zhixue had also heard of the Yuanyang Formation in his previous life. After a brief meeting, he remembered that this thing was still the main formation of Qi Jiajun. It was said to be very useful for fighting Japanese pirates, but he didn't know much about it, so he immediately threw one to An Yongduo.

Inquiring look.

At this time, Anyongduo also remembered that his general was a scholar. Although he knew a lot, he didn't seem to know formations such as the Mandarin Duck Formation.

Without Luo Zhixue asking, An Yongduo explained: "This formation is good at small-scale fighting. It is more suitable in the water towns and mountains in the south of the Yangtze River."

Lin Dongsheng on the side showed a trace of ridicule at this time and said: "It seems that the Ming army on the opposite side regards us as ordinary thieves!"

How ordinary bandits fight, naturally they don't pay attention to any rules, and they also lack professional long-range firepower such as bows and arrows, artillery, muskets, etc. Naturally, they will die miserably against a coordinated formation like the Shangguan Army, not to mention the officers and soldiers.

There are also long-range firepower units such as archers, musketeers, and artillery.

However, Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp is different from ordinary bandits.

There are quite a few among them who can bend a bow and shoot an arrow. Every one of the hundreds of cavalry can bend a bow and shoot an arrow. There are also dozens of infantrymen who can shoot an arrow.

In addition they have two artillery pieces.

Speaking of long-range firepower, the Ming army at the foot of the mountain is not as good as them.

To deal with the long-range troops of the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Battalion, which are excellent, but the melee infantry is not good at resisting the rebels, the best way for the army is to pull out a few long-barreled artillery pieces, attack them with a burst of artillery fire, and then

Get a bunch of archers or musketeers to fight, and finally use armored infantry to rush up and fight.

When the time comes, the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp will either be passively beaten, or they will have no choice but to get on their horses and rush out to actively fight.

However, Huang Guangmao didn't know that the rebels on the opposite side were unusual.

Until now, Huang Guangmao still regards the rebels in Songshan as ordinary thieves and bandits.

And he has rich experience in dealing with ordinary thieves like this.

He estimated that his soldiers would line up, cover his own artillery as they approached, and then fire a few rounds of artillery. The bandits hiding behind the simple wooden wall were basically scared away. Even if there were still some bandits left who resisted, waiting for the county

Once you rush forward bravely, it's basically over.

As for letting his own soldiers get close to fight, he actually didn't want to do that.

It’s not that I can’t bear to part with it, but that it’s not necessary.

His soldiers are used to cover the artillery and plunder the formation. The main force of the charge will be the cannon fodder Xian Yong or even unarmed civilians. If the bandits on the opposite side can withstand this wave of attacks by the Xian Yong, then he will be dispatched.

Soldiers attack.

There's no need for it now.

How can I put it this way? Even if we have to send out soldiers, we still have to use cannon fodder to consume the physical energy of the thieves first. How can we just send out three hundred soldiers?

So what Luo Zhixue and the others saw was that after the soldiers of the Ming army listed one mandarin duck formation after another, they did not act rashly, but lined up on both sides.

The huge middle space was vacated, and soon a small group of Ming soldiers came forward pushing three artillery carts. Each of these three artillery carts was equipped with a bowl-mouth cannon of about 100 kilograms.

At the same time, dozens of archers came forward.

The county warriors of the brigade were following the gunners and archers.

Luo Zhixue, who was on the mountainside, continued to observe the movements of the Ming army. When he saw the artillery and archers of the Ming army coming out, he immediately said to Zhang Malin: "As soon as the enemy artillery enters the effective range, aim at them and fire."<

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These three enemy artillery pieces seem to be only about a hundred pounds of artillery, but they still pose a great threat to our own side. Once they are allowed to get close and fire, they will seriously threaten our own side.

Luo Zhixue decided to give priority to killing these three artillery pieces.

After Zhang Malin heard Luo Zhixue's order, he immediately said: "Yes!"

Then he turned around and headed towards the artillery position on the side.

Luo Zhixue chose to direct the battle on the mountainside on the left in order to better observe the entire battlefield from a high position.

Similarly, when the artillery team selected the artillery position, it also had high requirements for the firing range, and it was also deployed here and camouflaged.

Therefore, Luo Zhixue can direct the artillery troops to fight nearby.

After Zhang Malin turned around and left, he began to personally direct the artillery to prepare for combat.

At this time, the artillery has been loaded in advance, and the gunners are already ready. They will load it as soon as possible after starting to run, striving to launch the second round of bombardment in the shortest possible time.

Zhang Malin took aim personally and pointed the muzzle at an open space at the foot of the mountain. The overall distance was about 150 meters.

This distance is already the maximum effective range of the two 200-pound short robes under his hands. If it is further away, the coverage accuracy cannot be guaranteed, and even the lethality cannot be guaranteed.

Time passed bit by bit. After dilly-dallying for more than half an hour, the Ming army at the foot of the mountain finally began to advance on a large scale and gradually approached a distance of about 150 meters.

When the opponent entered a distance of 150 meters, Zhang Malin did not immediately order to fire, but said: "Wait a minute, wait until they get closer."

Although the opponent has entered his own effective firing range of about 150 meters, Zhang Malin saw that the opponent's artillery was relatively small, and it seemed to be a very old-fashioned bowl-mouth cannon. This thing needs to be fired at a very close distance.

Only by firing can you have better lethality.

Since the opponent's artillery would not pose any threat to his side for a while, Zhang Malin decided to wait until they continued to approach before firing.

After all, the two artillery pieces under his hands are light cannons, and they fire shotguns. The closer the opponent is, the greater the damage they will suffer.

The enemy had entered the effective range, but our own artillery did not fire, which was naturally discovered by Luo Zhixue.

He turned his head and looked at the artillery position, and saw that Zhang Malin was staring at the enemy intently and adjusting the firing angle of the artillery himself. It didn't look like he was frightened by the officers and soldiers and delayed the fighter plane.

He immediately withdrew his gaze.

He still maintains a certain degree of trust in Zhang Malin. He is not a person who panics or hesitates when things happen. Otherwise, Luo Zhixue would not have promoted him to the captain of the artillery team.

Sure enough, when the Ming army continued to advance to about 100 meters, Zhang Malin finally gave the order to fire: "Fire!"

As his order was issued, the two two-hundred-pound short robes under his hands roared!

Long!

Long!

The sound of two cannons immediately rose up in the valley, and spread far and wide, so that the forest several hills away was filled with birds.

Zhang Malin was in the smoke, shouting: "Quickly load.", trying to load as soon as possible to launch the second round of artillery bombardment.

Luo Zhixue, who was not far away, squinted his eyes and looked at the Ming army at the foot of the mountain.

In his sight, at least half of the about twenty Ming troops at the foot of the mountain who were pushing artillery carts or carrying shields to cover the gunners were already lying down.

Seeing this, Luo Zhixue couldn't help clenching his fists: "Well done!"

His painstaking efforts to build a secret artillery position were not in vain. There were many branches in the artillery position as a cover.

If you don't look carefully, it's actually hard to find two artillery pieces hiding in a branch.

If the Ming army had discovered that there were artillery here before, they would have foolishly come over there, and they would have chosen other methods long ago.
Chapter completed!