On the eighth day of the April 19th, Shang Yi also received a war report from Cheng Jin in Fengyang, knowing that Huaiyuan had repelled the first attack of the Qing army. That night, Shang Yi also carefully read the battlefield summary written by Cheng Jin.

This is the requirement of Shang Yi against every major general under his command, because the tactics used by the Shang army are all other Chinese troops that surpass this era. Although Shang Yi knew that his development direction was correct, he needed to slowly explore the details of the battlefield and the situation of the whole body. The tactics of later generations cannot be obsessed here. Every battle is a rare experience. Therefore, every time after a battle, regardless of victory or defeat, Shang Yi must make a detailed summary, analyze the gains and losses and reasons, and show the shortcomings of his own on the battlefield. On the one hand, it is conducive to the improvement of the abilities of each general, which is representative, and typical battle examples will be passed on to all other troops as a reference for other troops.

Because this time the Merchant Army tried the main offensive tactics, Cheng Jin also discovered many problems from it: in addition to the individual fighting ability and the Manchu Eight Banners, first of all, when defending, the Merchant Army generally adopts a line-style horizontal array, but in the attack, it is very rigid and causes the power to be dispersed and affects the speed of the attack; secondly, in the attack, the effect of rifle shooting is far less than that of grenades, because it is filled with bullets in the attack, which is very dangerous. It has occurred several times because soldiers were killed by the Qing army when filling in bullets; if it is changed to a column attack formation in a company unit, do not load bullets in the attack, and use more grenades, the effect will be much better. In addition, Cheng Jin also suggested that if each position is equipped with a cavalry of about one battalion, the troops will speed up from defense to offense, thereby increasing the power of the attack.

After reading Cheng Jin's summary, Shang Yi had to admit that there is indeed a lot of way to go to completely transform his army into an army with modern combat capabilities, because this is a major tactical change. It cannot be solved by issuing a rifle and a few cannons to soldiers. Including Europe, now, they are still in the process of this tactical change. They are some details on the battlefield, which can only be discovered in battle and improved in time. However, this will also be at the expense of the soldiers' lives.

Therefore, Shang Yi considered it and discussed it carefully with Alisandra, and replied to Cheng Jin: First, unless the enemy is clearly defeated, it is absolutely forbidden to load bullets in hand-to-hand combat, and the main tactics are bayonet battles supplemented by grenades; second, to add cavalry suggestions to the battlefield, horses can be arranged in place; third, to Cheng Jin's thought of attacking the columns in companies is a good suggestion, but it is necessary to consider the cooperation between the columns, the distribution of troops within the columns, the soldiers fighting for bayonets, the soldiers covering, the soldiers throwing grenades, how to rotate between various troops, etc. Therefore, you can consider trying on the battlefield.

However, after defeating Ye Chen's army, Duoduo would definitely lead a large army to attack the Huaiyuan defense line. Considering that the Qing army's troops were too strong this time, Shang Yi asked Cheng to advance and must be very cautious about the attack. If he was not sure about it, it would be better not to launch an attack easily and would rather lose the opportunity for the fight. Because the main purpose of the Shang army is to buy time instead of completely defeating the Qing army.

Later, Shang Yi ordered that the remaining artillery battalion, an auxiliary battalion, and a cavalry battalion of the First Division be stationed on the Huaiyuan defense line to increase the advancing defensive forces.

At this time, on another front, half of Luo Yuanbin's division also firmly defended Wuhe County and defeated Kong Youde's attack twice.

The merchant army now has the 11th Regiment of the Fifth Division, the Cavalry Brigade, a reconnaissance battalion, and a foreign mercenary regiment of about 12,000 people, and there are more than 3,000 Ming troops. The only main generals left in Fengyang are Alisandra and Yang Wucheng, the brigade commander of the Cavalry Brigade. Therefore, Shang Yi will discuss with them the general military situation.

After understanding the current situation, Yang Wucheng said: "The two positions we established on the north bank of the Huai River have all stood firm. It seems that it will be no problem to block the Qing army's attack until Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo return to Jiangbei."

Alisandra was born into a military family and had a preference for war. This is because of this kind of battle against 200,000 troops. Not to mention that she had never seen it, even the entire European state is not common. In addition, the tactics of the merchant army are also biased towards the European army, so she is very enthusiastic. However, after listening to Yang Wucheng's words, she expressed opposition and said: "I don't think it's so optimistic. After all, the Qing army's troops are strong and the loss of 18,000 people is not a problem for them. Moreover, the Huaihe River defense line is too long and our troops are very limited. If I were the chief general of the Qing army, I would not attack our positions in Jiangbei, but would leave some of them to restrain their troops, and then find other places to cross the river, and establish positions on our south bank. With their troops, they can completely divide three to four river crossing points and attack more points."

Shang Yi nodded and said, "Yes, there is an obvious weakness in the current Huaihe defense line, so we must not be careless. Moreover, blindly passing defense is not a good thing. We should actively look for fighter opportunities, take the initiative, and take the initiative on the battlefield."

Yang Wucheng did not expect that at this time, Shang Yi wanted to find a fighter plane and took the initiative to attack, saying: "Now all the troops we can use are only about 10,000. There are 200,000 Qing troops on the other side, how can we take the initiative to go out?"

Shang Yi said: "We have half a division in Xuyi and more than 15,000 troops in Jiangbei. We have the advantage of water and the transportation of troops is fast, so we can form advantageous troops on local battlefields. Therefore, what we have to wait for now is an opportunity."

Yang Wucheng frowned, looked at the map, and said, "Do we really have such a chance?"

Alisandra smiled and said, "Of course there will be one. Although I don't know what the opportunity is, when I see his appearance, I know that he must have thought of some trick."

Shang Yi smiled faintly and said, "When the Qing army breaks through the Huaihe River defense line, it is the time when our fighter plane arrives."

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

Just as Shang Yi was considering how to take the initiative and take the initiative in the battlefield, Duoduo also led the army to Long Kangji and met the defeated Ye Chen.

After learning that Ye Chen was defeated in the attack, Duoduo was naturally very annoyed. If the leader was Ajige or Haoge, he would first scold Ye Chen, and then immediately lead the army and launch an attack on Huaiyuan. However, Duoduo's personality was mostly over gloomy rather than violent, which was quite similar to Dorgon. There must be some reason for Shang Yi to win the Qing army in a row. Although Duoduo used this to mock Haoge, he did not dare to underestimate Shang Yi. Now Ye Chen has also lost the battle, which is enough to show that Shang Yi is indeed a strong enemy. Therefore, after Duoduo met Ye Chen, he did not get angry, but asked him in detail about the process of the battle.

Seeing that Duoduo was not angry, Ye Chen felt a little more at ease and said, "Reporting to Prince Yu, the merchant army is completely different from other Ming troops. There are three powerful aspects: the first is the sharp firearms and the artillery and guns, which are not comparable to other Ming troops; the second is to not defend the city, but dig trenches outside the city as trenches and block soil as obstacles. Once our army retreats, we can immediately pursue the whole line; the third is that they are not just relying on the benefits of firearms, but even fighting in close combat, they are very brave and fearless of death. Although they are not as strong as the Manchu army, they are much stronger than the Han army and surrendered troops, and they are never seen by slaves."

After hearing this, Duoduo's face remained calm, but he was really surprised. It seemed that Huaiyuandao was really hard to fight. He asked again: "The merchant's arms are sharp, and I have heard many people talk about it, but what is the sharp method of Jingjing?"

Ye Chen said: "When the prince said, they used many artillery pieces. Just guarding Huaiyuan, there were no less than a hundred artillery pieces. Moreover, the range of artillery pieces was extremely long. When I fought with them, half of them could be fired."

Duoduo was very surprised and said, "Can they hit five hundred steps, are they using red cannons?"

Ye Chen shook his head and said, "Although it is very far away, Ju Nucai seems to be not like a red-clothed cannon, which is much smaller and much lighter than a red-clothed cannon. Moreover, they all use flowering bullets, which are extremely powerful and land three or four meters apart, so the soldiers will not be spared."

Duoduo nodded and said, "In other words, their small cannons can also hit as far as the red cannon."

Ye Chen said: "That's true, not only is the artillery powerful, but the muskets are also sharp. Not only is the range of other muskets, the firing rate is extremely fast, and the fighting is as dense as wind and rain. In addition, a short sword can be inserted into the musket, which can be used as a spear during close combat. In addition, the merchant army also has a firearm that explodes as soon as it is thrown, which is quite similar to the thunder. It doesn't need to ignite it. Just tear off a piece of paper and it will explode. Everyone has several of them. This kind of firearm can be far or near, which is very convenient. After close combat, they used this kind of firearm, which caused us great harm."

Duoduo was also a little shocked. In the past, when the Lu army fought with the Ming army, the most feared thing was that the Ming army used flowering bullets. Nurhaci was hit by shrapnel of the flowering bullets and died of serious injuries. Fortunately, the flowering bullets used in the Ming Dynasty were still in the most primitive stage, with not many quantity, not very good quality, and the explosion rate of landing did not exceed 50%, so it could not change the strength comparison of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

But if the general small cannons of the merchant army can reach the range of red-clothed cannons and use flowering bullets on a large scale, it would be a bit terrible. Therefore, Duoduo sneered for a moment and said, "Send troops tomorrow and attack Huaiyuan again."
Chapter completed!