Chapter 744: The battle begins

If it were purely a four-car like Tianjin Wei, the marching rate would be one-third faster than now. The side van was too slow compared to this four-car.

The side van also has four-wheeled cars. The van board is one-third longer than the body of the carriage. The horses pulling the carriage and the horses in the carriage behind are blocked by the van board.

There are holes on the wing board, including the Flang machine cannon, tiger squat cannon, bird guns and crossbows, and there are even holes that allow the spear to pierce outwards. During wartime, the carts are connected to each other, and the wing board is a wooden wall fortification. When the enemy attacks the wing board, they will be hit by various long-range firepower at different distances.

Even if you climb in front of you, you will be killed and assassinated by cold weapons. When the side van is marching, you can be regarded as a large cart for transporting food and fodder. When camping, it will be much easier because the shielding of the large cart is an excellent fortification.

There are many advantages of side vans, but the disadvantages are also obvious. The power is not strong and it is too bulky. The limitation of the hard shaft is that the livestock pulling the cart can only be arranged horizontally, not vertically, because the width of the road and the large carts is limited, and there cannot be too many horses in a horizontal row.

Generally, there are only two horses, but the side van is loaded heavily. The dragging of two horses is not enough, and it also requires soldiers to push them, which greatly affects the degree.

Walking out of the mountain pass, in order to guard against the Tartar cavalry brigade being spying on the side, the Ming army also prepared according to the formation of preparations. Each car was connected in front and back to ensure that there was no big gap. The soldiers got on the big car to control the weapons, which made the degree slower.

The four-horse cart of the Huwei Army did not have such problems. It had enough animal strength and the horses were selected and strong horses, and the overall level was much faster than that of Jizhen.

As the main general, Wang Tong must lead the direct troops to walk in the middle according to the rules, but the Huwei Army's team is obviously much faster than the troops in Jizhen. If the middle is inconsistent, it will mess up the formation.

Now that the enemy is watching the side, the army formation cannot be relaxed at all. The factors of chaos must naturally be eliminated. It is easy to get out of touch in the front team, but it is easy to adjust a lot in the back team.

But after all, the level is different. Jizhen’s military team is a three-day test and a five-day school, which means that the military team is inspected for three days and five days, and rewards and punishments are determined based on the results of the assessment.

The Qi family's military law is strict, so this assessment system naturally allows the soldiers below to train carefully, but it is inevitable that they will be lazy when they are well trained. The Huwei Army trains constantly every day and cannot be lazy even if they want to.

With such differences over the years, the styles of the two sides have become very different. When the infantry of the Huwei Army marched, the queues were neaterated than the officers and soldiers of Ji Town, and the steps were faster than those of Ji Town. The infantry and chariots were higher than those of Ji Town, but the horse team could be consistent.

There are many things you can see from the spirit of the marching. After the marching these days, Jizhen's views on the Huwei Army have greatly improved. However, some people think that since it is an imperial guard, their ability must be more proficient than ordinary soldiers and horses, which is also ordinary.

"Iled, the Ming army's formation is strict, and there are only flaws behind this array in four directions, cutting off the four-wheeled carriage convoy behind and the side van convoy in front."

The man called Illed was the commander who had previously said, "Are you just let it go?" He listened to Hairigu's speech there, and he listened intently. Hairigu said in detail.

"If it can be cut off, if the side van comes to rescue, we can take advantage of the opportunity to enter and mess up his formation. If we don't come to rescue, you can drive away the rear part of the convoy that stormed the front. At least we can also weaken part of the Ming army's strength, go."

Illed bowed and obeyed the order immediately, then shook the reins and headed towards his own team. Soon, he saw a part of the Tartar array dancing with flags and shouting loudly. The brigade of cavalry had already left the line and headed straight to the Ming army's array.

Both the enemy and us were observing each other. The Ming army could see clearly whether there was any movement on the Tartar cavalry array, let alone the lookout tower on the high place.

Mongolia and the Ming Dynasty have been fighting for so many years, and they are very clear about each other's military orders and the form of military orders. Seeing more than a dozen square military flags shaking over there, they have already made preparations here.

A sharp copper whistle suddenly sounded in the Ming army brigade, and the groom's shout immediately sounded at the next moment, and the side van formation immediately stopped.

There were so many large chariots and people in the side van formation, and together with the order, the chariot formation stopped, with its head and tail neat, and the formation was still well maintained. The part of the Huwei Army behind was a little messy, but the reaction was still very fast and was soon arranged. However, the small mess fell into the eyes of the Tartar cavalry, which further proved their judgment.

"Brother, such a small group of people came to deliver vegetables, and they were eliminated during the journey. Why do you have to fight so much?"

"Don't call it casually during wartime, and call it according to the name in the army."

Wang Tong scolded Li Hutou with a stern expression. Li Hutou looked stern and bowed quickly. Wang Tong spoke again:

"There are only five thousand cavalry on the Tartars, and our cavalry is no less than this number. Why do the Tartars dare to send thousands of cavalry to attack? This is because our army's combat power is far inferior to that of him, so they are unscrupulous. With this mentality, I am afraid that not only the Tartars think so, but also some of the officers and soldiers of our army think so. Since they don't know the strength, then stop and fight and show everyone the truth."

The order was naturally issued. Ma Sanbiao led a team of more than 1,000 people to gather on the side of the array. The Huwei Army's team had more than 600 people, and Wang Tong's personal guards were gathered, which was nearly 1,000 people.

This time, only part of Wang Tong's personal guards came, and the remaining less than 1,000 people were short of the cavalry in Datong Town. Needless to say, these were all those who worked as horse thieves on the grassland.

"Master, it's too unsafe to fight against the Tartar cavalry on the grassland. As long as we are under the protection of the chariot camp, he will attack and let the Tartars run wild, we will have time to move."

Yang Jin from Jizhen immediately passed the message. Wang Tong also understood this tactic. On the grassland, the Tartar cavalry often used tactics of deceiving the enemy such as fraudulent defeat to lure the battle team away, causing the enemy to be confused during the running, and then suddenly kill back, or attracting the enemy to the encirclement.

Therefore, Qi Jiguang's tactics of side vans have a very strict discipline, which is that the cavalry's pursuit must be carried out after the firepower of side vans kills the enemy. In other words, the cavalry in Jizhen generally attacks backwards.

"Didn't the Tartars come to lure the enemy? They will send thousands of cavalry to attack our army's formation. If we let them act, our army will stay in the formation to defend, which will hurt morale. This battle will be used to strengthen the army's power."

Wang Tong gave a very simple reply, and the two sides had already begun to confront each other.

The Thousand-man team led by Illard was not reckless. When he saw the Ming cavalry waiting there, Illard did not swagger and let the team slow down and stop the whole team to rest.

The distance between the two sides was only 150 steps. Outside the range of the bow and arrow, Illed also achieved this position step by step by step with his military achievements. He always kept his team in the backlight position. In other words, the movements of the Ming army opposite were always to face the light of the sunset.

If you are directly shining or flashing with your eyes, you won’t be too careful when you observe and have limited movements. This advantage is not great, but on the battlefield, you must seize the advantage that you can grasp every point.

The Ming army had almost fifty cavalry teams, and then each five teams formed a large formation. The Ming cavalry that fought had four large formations, and the styling was still neat. If they concentrated their efforts to break through the two in the middle, the ones on the other side could not be maintained. While the commander Illed was observing, he was shook his eyes by some light on the opposite side. He narrowed down, looked at the flash, and suddenly became excited.

"Young people, kill these Ming dogs and strip them of armor. Only the warriors on the grassland deserve this armor."

Not only him, but also the cavalry behind Illed also noticed the equipment of the Ming cavalry opposite. In the Ming army, most of the people in the front of the Ming army were wearing armor. This armor was not the common cotton armor and chain mail, but a kind of integrated one, as if it was a flattened copper basin placed on the chest. Such armor, with a little military knowledge, would know what effect it would have on the defense of swords, guns, bows and arrows.

Listening to Ellard shouting there, the officers and soldiers behind him were screaming in excitement.

Apart from this distance, Ma Sanbiao could clearly hear the shouts from the opposite side, and he could understand Mongolian words. When he heard this, he couldn't help but curse in a low voice:

"I have killed hundreds of people like this on the grassland and even stripped my grandfather of his armor. I have to strip them of skin."

Ma Sanbiao put on his face armor and placed the spear in his hand flat. As soon as he did this, the first row of Huwei cavalry all placed the spear in his hand flat.

The three horses drove the horses, which was a signal. The cavalry began to move forward. More than a hundred cavalry in armor moved forward together. The armor reflected cold light. The Tartar array opposite seemed to feel this momentum and suddenly became quiet. Perhaps I didn't expect that the Ming cavalry could finish the entire team so quickly and start moving. After a very brief shock, the Tartar cavalry also began to move.

The horns were heard, and the Tartar cavalry rushed up from the front with a strange cry. The originally quiet battlefield suddenly became loud and loud, with the sound of horse hooves and roars filling their ears.
Chapter completed!