PFC Chapter 86 Dogs Fighting Dogs 1 Mouth Hair
Chapter 86 Dogs Fighting Dogs 1 Mouth Hair
Chapter 87 Dogs Fighting, a Mouthful of Fur
Chapter 086 The Jurchen cavalry, who were pursuing Hamutai, did not pay much attention to the appearance of the Ming army, because their vision was now clear and they could see clearly that the Ming army in front of them was mainly infantry and seemed to have just been on the march. In particular, this Ming army was not wearing armor.
Wearing armor and marching in formation is almost impossible in a real marching formation. The reason is very simple: try walking dozens of miles wearing light armor weighing nearly 20 pounds or medium armor weighing 30 or 40 pounds.
They might not exhaust you to death, but they could wear you down. More importantly, this Ming army carried a large number of sleds, at least three or four hundred large sleds, which clearly indicated that it was a supply convoy.
Although the Jurchen cavalry chasing ahead were also exhausted, they knew that timing was crucial. Once the Ming army had completed its formation or its entire army was fully armored, it would be difficult to annihilate this Ming army.
Sometimes, experience can really be a killer. These Jurchens never considered that the Shahe New Army was not the Ming army they had ever encountered before. To be precise, it was a completely new type of army for the Ming Dynasty.
The soldiers of the Shahe New Army, apart from a small number of elite guards, were not equipped with armor, nor with cold weapons such as spears and shields; they were an all-firearms force.
Because the Shahe New Army had no experience in actual combat, they were very flustered when they saw the Jurchen cavalry charging towards them from all directions. They almost instantly forgot all the tactical maneuvers they had practiced. Fortunately, Chen Ying had put the armored vehicles, or rather, the armored sleds, at the front in advance.
The flustered soldiers of the Shahe New Army watched as the Jurchen cavalry drew ever closer, shouting, "The Jurchens are here! Prepare for battle!"
While loading bullets into the flintlock muskets, the firearms they were equipped with, although still flintlock muskets, were no longer ordinary firearms but could be considered cannons. According to the definition of later generations, this was a cannon, and in terms of caliber, it belonged to one-inch caliber, which is 31.5 millimeters.
This caliber is actually the same as the eleven-shot continuous thunder cannon that Chen Ying built in Yongcheng. The only slight difference between this type of cannon and the continuous thunder cannon is that the barrel of this type of cannon is not fifteen times the diameter, and the barrel length is only three feet, about 91.5 centimeters, and it uses fixed-fill paper-shell granular gunpowder.
Perhaps Chen Ying suffered from a fear of insufficient firepower; what would be considered a light artillery piece in the hands of other Ming soldiers was merely a fire control unit in the Shahe New Army. Of course, due to its large caliber, large propellant charge, and better airtightness, the gunpowder exploded and burned completely, resulting in a longer range and greater power for the lead bullets.
Just as the Jurchen cavalry entered within 150 paces, the firemen of the Shahe New Army opened fire simultaneously, and gunfire erupted instantly.
"Bang bang bang—"
Hearing the gunfire and seeing the flashes from the muskets, the attacking Jurchen cavalry sneered inwardly. They were all a bunch of weaklings; at such a distance, they were just wasting bullets and doing absolutely nothing.
It's a real shame that smoothbore muskets were not capable of accurately hitting targets because the burning speed of powdered black powder was too slow, the lead bullet decayed very quickly, and the lead bullet fell very fast. So, beyond a distance of three thousand paces, smoothbore muskets had almost no accuracy.
However, the key issue is that the firearms and artillery of Chen Yingmo's Shahe New Army all use granular black powder, which explodes quickly. The lead bullets have an even faster muzzle velocity, so the lead bullets fall more slowly. Even at a distance of over 150 paces, they still have astonishing destructive power.
"Pfft, pfft—"
A 31.5mm lead bullet, carrying powerful kinetic energy, easily tore the armor of the Jurchen cavalry to shreds and ripped their bodies apart. This caliber of gun was incredibly powerful; if it hit the arm, the arm would break in two; if it hit the torso, a small hole about an inch would appear. The lead bullet would tumble inside the body, forming a hole the size of a fist.
Even the most resilient warhorses would instantly lose their lives if hit. These Jurchen cavalrymen were utterly devastated. Did you really have to do this?
We only have a little over a thousand people, less than four Niru, yet you bombarded us with more than three thousand cannons.
Is there no justice left?
Of the more than 1,000 Jurchen cavalrymen, 200 to 300 were hit in the first round of shooting. Of course, the hit rate was frighteningly low; about 9 out of 100 bullets missed.
The problem is that there are now more than 3,000 mortars firing at the same time. These mortars do not care whether they hit the target or not, and continue to load ammunition and continue to fire.
After the initial panic, the artillery gradually calmed down and opened fire one after another. The shells from the three-inch repeating thunder cannons seemed to be raining down on the Jurchen cavalry as if they were free. The musketeers and artillerymen used almost all their strength.
They were well aware that if the Jurchens charged forward, they would most likely be in trouble. Therefore, their attack was massive and earth-shattering.
Fifty three-inch cannons, with a total of five hundred and fifty shells, and more than three thousand one-inch caliber muskets, instantly filled the battlefield with smoke and fire, making it almost impossible to see anything.
Chen Ying was also temporarily deafened by the explosion and could not hear any sound. The problem was that after the Shahe New Army's artillery had fired three rounds, 1,650 shells had been thrown, and the gunners were even more furious, having fired eight rounds, which meant that more than 20,000 bullets had also been fired.
"Stop! Stop!"
Chen Ying angrily shouted, "Stop the hell out of here! What the hell are you fighting for, to desecrate a corpse?"
The soldiers of the Shahe New Army dared not raise their heads, for now, as the cold wind dispersed the smoke of battle, they could see clearly that the vanguard of the Jurchen cavalry, numbering only a little over a thousand, had been completely defeated, both men and horses, with almost no survivors.
Forget about complete heads, they probably couldn't even piece together complete corpses. Many bodies had been blasted into tiny fragments. The worst off were the Jurchen cavalry who charged the fastest. They were closer and had a higher hit rate, and almost all of them were killed by cannon fire. Some were even blown to pieces. Forget about collecting their bodies, you'd probably have to use a shovel to scoop them up.
"You spendthrift brats!"
Chen Ying pointed at the generals beside him, including Commander Zhou Bin, Wang Gui, Commander Liu Guang, and Zhao Ming, and cursed, "Don't you know how powerful your weapons are? Even a bull would fall instantly after being shot. And you, with a mere thousand or so men, fired over 1,600 shells and more than 20,000 lead bullets. Do you know how much silver I spent?"
"You bunch of bastards, don't you know that in our Ming Dynasty, military merit is calculated based on the number of heads taken? You've blown up all the corpses and haven't even gotten a single head. Are you doing this on purpose? Are you deliberately trying to bankrupt me?"
Chen Ying's composure was starting to crumble, especially with the three-inch cannonballs. These cannonballs were very expensive, and there were over 1,600 of them, which meant more than 10,000 taels of silver had been spent. Then there were the bullets, which would cost another 30,000 to 40,000 taels of silver. In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Chen Ying had lost 40,000 to 50,000 taels of silver.
Although he was rich, the problem was that there were too many places to spend money and too many people to support. How could he afford such waste? The key issue was that it was completely cost-effective. The more than 1,000 Jurchen battle merits yielded no results. If he was lucky, he might be able to find a dozen or so heads. If he was unlucky, he probably wouldn't even have a dozen heads left.
Zhou Bin and Wang Gui also looked embarrassed. They knew very well that it wasn't that these soldiers wanted to bankrupt Chen Ying. It was mainly because it was the soldiers' first time in actual combat. When they saw the Jurchens charging up, they panicked and acted out of control as a conditioned reflex.
"My lord, please forgive me, I know I was wrong!"
Zhou Bin bowed and said, "Your Excellency is right. I dare not do it again—"
"Hmph, if you dare to offend me again, I'll dismiss you from your post and make you wash the army's stinky socks for a whole month!"
Zhou Bin broke out in a cold sweat, thinking to himself, "If I really have to wash smelly socks for a month, that's terrible!"
"Yes, sir, this humble general—"
Zhou Bin pointed to the snowflakes dancing on the ground and said, "My lord, the Jurchen army is rapidly approaching!"
"Hmph, I'll settle the score with you later!"
Chen Ying said irritably, "I'll let it slide this time, but if he disobeys orders again, I'll punish him by making him clean toilets for a month!"
Chen Ying didn't bother to teach these good-for-nothings a lesson. He picked up his binoculars and looked into the distance. On the horizon, flags appeared one after another. Then, thousands of cavalrymen rapidly enlarged and charged toward them.
After accidentally producing glass while firing cement on Dalu Island, Chen Ying tried every means to obtain binoculars. After much effort, he finally managed to make three pairs. He kept one for himself, gave one to Zhou Bin, and gave the last pair to the Tianqi Emperor.
Zhou Bin also took out his binoculars and stared at the cavalry surging in from afar, his expression solemn: "It's the Bordered Red Banner, at least three or four thousand men, no, there's also the Plain Red Banner, and the Bordered Blue Banner—this is the main force of the Jurchens—"
Chen Ying waved his hand and said, "Meng Gun, come here. Did you defile Nurhaci's daughter? Or did you throw his son into a well? They sent tens of thousands of people to attack you—"
Meng Gun then recounted to Chen Ying what they had done during this period. Chen Ying was dumbfounded. The Jurchens had actually killed thousands of Solon troops. You must know that if the Yehe tribe of the Haixi Jurchens was the backbone of the Jurchens, the Solon tribe was their vanguard. With tens of thousands of Solon troops, they lost two-thirds of their elite forces in the Ming-Qing war, with at least 60,000 to 70,000 dead and wounded, becoming cannon fodder on the Jurchens' list of achievements.
If Yuan Chonghuan's killing of Mao Wenlong can be considered as destroying the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty, then Daishan's move completely crushed the Solon tribe, capturing thousands of young people alone, which was practically uprooting the Solon tribe.
Great, this is truly a dog-eat-dog fight, a real mess.
However, Chen Ying immediately began to think that the Solon tribe had been severely damaged, which did not seem like a good thing. The Solon tribe lived near Lake Baikal, and after surrendering to the Jurchens, they fought across almost the entire 13 million square kilometers of territory, from Liaodong to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, from the southeast coast to the Junggar, their fighting figures could be seen everywhere.
However, the Sauron Death Squad was the Jurchens' trump card. With a shield and a tiger-thorn spear, they charged to the death, fighting to the bitter end. Without this elite force, what would the Jurchens have left?
Chen Ying turned to Meng Gun and said, "Meng Gun is giving you a task. Send someone to contact the leader of the Solon tribe and tell him that I can help him take revenge. If he allies with me, I will give him a thousand suits of armor!"
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