Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 85 I will take care of your wife and children! (Subscribe)
On the top of Chao County City, Lu Jin set up a high-powered monocular telescope and looked down at the entire battlefield from a high vantage point.

Kang Maocai's flank was standing on flat ground and could not see the situation behind the chariot line, but Lu Jin could see it clearly.

Before the two sides' infantry formations engaged in battle, only the scouts of both sides could be seen whistling back and forth. However, since Lu Jin had more cavalry, he did not suffer any loss.

It was not until the chariots approached within 200 meters that some signs of fighting began. Ding Zhongrui's first round of bow and crossbow shooting caused almost no casualties to the regiment. In the second round of bow and arrow shooting, the losses were not too great either, and even the regiment's formation was not disrupted.

Seeing that the carriage was approaching to within forty or fifty meters, our side threw two rounds of spears, and Ding Zhongrui's sword and shield players' line was immediately crippled, and the carriage was also pushed within thirty meters.

As long as we move forward another ten meters or so and break down the first layer in front, the phalanx of spears will be able to pour in directly through the breakthrough point.

However, at this moment, through the telescope, only hundreds of people stood out sparsely from Ding Zhongrui's side. They were too far away, and Lu Jin could not recognize what weapons they were holding.

It was not until a series of bang sounds were heard, followed by flames and white smoke, that Lu Jin realized that it was a musket. His heart immediately rose to his throat.

The end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty was the time when firearms began to appear on a large scale in wars.

On the battle front, a group of carts had already pressed to a distance of twenty meters. The javelin throwers drew short-handled throwing axes from their waists and threw them to the opposite side.

However, just as they appeared from behind the carriage, a series of explosions sounded from the opposite side, scaring everyone here and causing more than a dozen people to be injured or killed in an instant.

There are not even as many people hit by the flying axes thrown from this side.

Lu Jin's heart, which had risen to his throat, immediately settled back into his stomach.

"Tsk, what a piece of rubbish!"

He adjusted the telescope to the maximum magnification and looked carefully at the musketeers. Judging from their height ratios, the muskets in their hands were only as long as a forearm, about a little over a foot.

There is a cast iron pipe in front and a wooden stick inserted in the back. When firing, you need to clamp the wooden handle under your armpit, then hold the musket in one hand and use a fire starter with the other hand to light it.

As you can imagine, with this firing posture, you can't even aim, you can only point in a rough direction.

Moreover, since there was no fixed gunpowder and the distance was so close, there was no time to load a second round on the battlefield.

However, the stick inserted behind the matchlock gun can be used as a long-handled sledgehammer in close combat.

But that's all. When facing a phalanx of spears, you have to be able to swing your sledgehammer.

The troops on the other side were startled by the explosions of the enemy's muskets, and some of their soldiers were actually stunned.

When firearms first appeared on the battlefield, their effect of 'scare' was probably greater than their actual killing effect.

Seeing this, Lu Jin immediately frowned and shouted, "Beat the drums, speed up the attack, don't dawdle in front of the formation, what are you all standing there for?"

The next moment, the drumbeats of "dong dong dong" became more rapid, which was a signal to speed up the advance.

When the Shengwu Army on the front line heard the drumbeats, they suddenly came to their senses. It seemed that the muskets were not very useful except for being like firecrackers and being able to scare people. Didn’t they see that only a dozen people had fallen in front of them? If they were scattered across the entire front line, it might not be certain that anyone in front of them had been shot.

There were hundreds of muskets at a distance of 20 meters, but the hit rate was less than 20%. This was the matchlock gun from the late Yuan Dynasty.

After a round of musketry was fired, the enemy's chariots stopped for a moment, but as the drumbeats on the top of Chao County became more rapid, the chariot line moved forward again.

"It's less than twenty steps, and you're still pushing?!" Ding Zhongrui's scalp tingled.

And this time the distance was close enough, and the chariots were throwing axes and stones forward as they moved forward.

That’s right, because bows and arrows were scarce, each cart also carried two baskets of stones.

Don't underestimate throwing stones. Lu Jin remembers reading a paper published by Japan itself about the casualty statistics during the Warring States Period in Japan.

The statistical results of that paper are very interesting. In the era of the Warring States Period in Japan when cold and hot weapons coexisted, the weapon that caused the most casualties was the bow and arrow, followed by the musket, the third was long weapons such as spears and lances, and the fourth was stones. The samurai sword, which is highly praised, can only rank fifth, and its battlefield casualty rate is only in the single digits.

The waist knife is really just a secondary weapon, no matter what kind of knife you have, of course, the long-handled saber is another, that is a long weapon.
Outside Chao County, on the battle line, rocks rained down from behind the chariots, interspersed with a few flying axes, hitting the armored soldiers on Kang Maocai's right wing so hard that they had nowhere to hide and could only turn sideways to withstand the flying rocks.

As long as it doesn't hit your head or face, the stone is actually just that, except that it hurts a little.

But it can block the vision, and the opponent who is hit can only turn his head to dodge, and he dare not use his face to receive it anyway.

Taking advantage of this wave of flying stones, the cart finally pressed to a distance of ten meters in front of the enemy's formation. With a bang, the shield in front was pushed to the ground. The soldiers pushing the cart also pulled the two wheels off the axle. The cart disintegrated instantly into two boards and two wheels.

The chariot that was indestructible just now was turned into four large pieces lying flat on the ground, leaving the Yuan army on the opposite side stunned.

This thing actually draws on the structure of an 18th century field artillery carriage and can be flexibly disassembled!

The chariots in the front row fell down one after another, instantly revealing more than 300 archers in the back row. They fired a round of arrows at the armored soldiers on the opposite side, face to face, less than ten meters away.

The Yuan army on the opposite side were furious, this was too cruel!
Whoosh whoosh—

After only one round of arrows, the armored soldiers on the opposite side were directly shot to pieces. The casualties caused by the Holy Martial Army's close combat were not as great as those caused by the several rounds they had just fired.

More than 300 soldiers fell in the Yuan army line in an instant. It was impossible to miss the target with a close range of 10 meters, and as long as the target hit, it would definitely break the armor. "Kill! Make merit and share the land, follow me!"

"Pay attention to teamwork, don't fight alone!"

The chariot's mission had been accomplished. The archers and chariot crews endured the damage and finally delivered the spear phalanx to the front of the enemy, helping to break the enemy's outermost layer of armor.

Xu Yong, Zhu Shou, Zhang Wen, and Yu Tongyuan, the four of them led the large spear formation like a tiger out of a cage, and rushed into the opposite formation through the passage left by the carriage in front.

Kang Maocai's right wing of the Yuan army collapsed directly, let alone a spear fight. The Yuan soldiers on the front line wished their parents had given them two more legs. They turned around and ran away. What was the point of fighting for the Mongolian master?
"Zhang Wen, you go in front and I go behind!"

"Okay! Follow me and attack the rear of the front army!"

At the moment of breaking through Kang Maocai's right wing, Zhu Shou and Zhang Wen had their last exchange.

Zhu Shou led Yu Tongyuan into the main formation, and then outflanked Kang Maocai's rear formation to the north.

All the infantrymen with spears ran in panic. They formed combat teams of three or five people, followed by squad leaders or group leaders with small flags or cloth strips hanging on the barrels of their spears, and chased the retreating Yuan army.

After catching up, they started stabbing with their spears, and there was no way they could match their opponent.

Zhang Wen, along with Xu Yong, and two battalions of soldiers chased the fleeing soldiers and attacked Kang Maocai's front army from behind.

Kang Maocai's entire formation was torn apart from the right wing in an instant, like a pig being slaughtered. The two big hands on the left and right pulled a big hole in the chest, and each chased the fleeing soldiers to attack the front and rear formations.

Seeing this, Ye Sheng and Zheng Yong also led thousands of cavalrymen and rushed into the line torn open by the infantry. They ignored everything else and rushed straight towards Kang Maocai's central army banner!
The civilians in Kang Maocai's central army had never seen such a thing before. They had never even participated in a war. When they saw the soldiers on the periphery were defeated, they immediately rushed to the left wing in the east where there was no enemy yet. This time, they also defeated the left wing which had nothing to do.

The vanguard led by Li Jun was suddenly attacked by the fleeing soldiers of the friendly army from behind, and the vanguard line began to waver.

Zhang Desheng of the 3rd Regiment seized this opportunity, took the lead in breaking through the junction of the front army and the right wing, and chased the front army from the flank to the east. It only took a moment for the front army to be defeated head-on.

Seeing this, Yin Congdao and Jin Chaoxing, two men under Liao Yongan, also led their soldiers to launch a fierce attack. The vanguard led by Li Jun also collapsed and retreated to the northeast.

Wang Ruheng and Chen Hong, who were in charge of the rear army and the left wing, had no time to care about the overall battle formation at this time. The defeat was a foregone conclusion and there was no possibility of saving the front line. The two men rode on horses and faced the charge of the retreating civilians, and finally arrived under the banner of Kang Maocai's central army.

"Marshal, let's retreat quickly, it will be too late if we don't leave now!"

"Yes, Marshal, there are still some soldiers on the left wing and in the rear. If we withdraw now, we can gather some of the defeated soldiers back to the city!"

After a burst of shouting from the two, Kang Mao, who was in a state of disarray, finally came to his senses.

"Retreat? Where to retreat? We can't go back to the city!"

"Then where are we going?" Chen Hong asked puzzledly.

"Go to Hanshan! Set up camp in Hanshan first, then send cavalry to Heyang for help, and ask them to transfer troops from the other side of the river. If that doesn't work, we will go to Quanjiao or Chuzhou!" Kang Maocai frowned and immediately made arrangements.

Wang Ruheng couldn't figure it out, "Why? Can't we go back to Heyang?"

Kang Maocai shook his head and said, "I suspect that the other two regiments of Lu Jin are attacking Heyang. Maybe Heyang has already fallen. If we go back with the defeated troops, wouldn't it be like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth?"

"what?"

"This!" Wang Ruheng was shocked, "Are you serious, Marshal?"

"Don't hesitate any longer, the Red Scarf Bandits are coming. Retreat quickly and go to Hanshan first!"

Chen Hong was decisive. He turned his horse's head and ran away, saying as he ran, "I'm going to gather the fleeing soldiers in the rear army. Hurry up!"

"Damn you, you're the fastest when it comes to escaping." Wang Ruheng cursed and said to Kang Maocai, "Marshal, let's go too!"

However, at this moment, Zheng Yong rode his horse straight towards the center of the army, letting his horse run freely, drawing his bow and drawing his arrow, and shouting, "Where are the Yuan thieves running to!"

With a whoosh, before the two men could react, an arrow pierced through Wang Ruheng's back, and the arrowhead came out from his chest.

"Ru Heng!" Kang Maocai was shocked when he saw this.

Wang Ruheng spat out a mouthful of blood, and used all his remaining strength to swing the whip, lashing at Kang Maocai's mount, "Marshal, hurry up and take good care of my family!"

Kang Maocai sat on a horse and felt pain from being whipped. The horse immediately galloped away. Kang Maocai only had time to look back at Wang Ruheng and found that he had fallen off the horse. He could only say a few words in tears.

"Ruheng, I will take care of your wife and children!"

He then rode his horse to chase Chen Hong in the rear and joined forces with his soldiers.

"Stop, where are you running to!"

Zheng Yong was still chasing after him, he didn't want to let this great achievement get away.
(End of this chapter)