Chapter 1700 Renzijuan encounter (continued)

 “Keep the formation, slow down, don’t panic.” Zhang Dingyuan observed the left wing with the light of the torch while giving the order.

The number of cavalry that appeared was not large, only twenty or thirty, and the damage it caused was not large, only three or five people were injured, but the impact on the morale of the army was not small. For now, Zhang Dingyuan also The team can only continue to advance in formation, and certain casualties are bound to occur. This is the price that has to be paid.

The entire team moves forward in a mountain-shaped position. The protruding part and both wings are spear teams, while the center army is the fire gun team. The hawk-beak gun army is at the end. The hawk-beak gun auxiliary holds a gun frame and a shield and is responsible for covering the enemy. Protect the heavy eagle-billed gun soldiers.

Just a small number of cavalry is not enough to pose a big threat to the team, but if it exceeds a hundred or even hundreds of cavalry, then Zhang Dingyuan has to formally threaten. In this kind of darkness, if hundreds of cavalry can easily use their mobility The ability to launch attacks from any angle with the bow and arrow projectile ability would cause huge threats and even losses to the improvised team, and it would be difficult for one's side without cavalry to make corresponding countermeasures.

To deal with this kind of ranger, if the opponent does not attack directly, if you want to repel the opponent, you must either use cavalry against cavalry, or you can only set a trap to trap the opponent, but neither of these seems to be possible for your own side.

On the contrary, we cannot speed up the march at this time. Many of these are new soldiers. Marching in the dark is already a bit panicked when faced with harassment. If we speed up the march, it will only make the formation disjointed and give opportunities to the enemy cavalry dormant in the dark. Even if they are slow, A few can stabilize the formation. Even if the casualties are larger, if the formation is not chaotic, it will not bring much opportunity to the opponent.

Zhang Dingyuan expected that the number of the opponent's cavalry would not be very large. If the enemy had really crossed the river on a large scale, there would be no need to delay his march with this harassment method. Instead, he should take advantage of the situation and let him go over in one fell swoop to defeat and annihilate him. The opponent's disregard for this All the harassment can only show that the other party lacks confidence.

Wanting to understand this, Zhang Dingyuan became more determined and his pace became more steady.

Just five hundred steps northwest of Zhang Dingyuan, in the wilderness, Hong Tingxiang was also observing the current situation with a heavy face.

He never expected that the imperial army would arrive so quickly, which was far beyond their imagination.

According to the feedback from the previous scouts, from Longhutai, Hongqiao, Gonghua City, to Qinghedian, although there are Ji Town garrison on this line, there are only a few hundred people, one thousand households, and even fewer There are only more than a hundred people, such as Hongqiao, which is not a concern at all, but who would have thought that in such a short time, a large army would enter Gonghua City, and also take advantage of the opportunity to march north, directly threatening the control of the Yuhe Stone Bridge.

As a pioneer officer, Hong Tingxiang certainly knew the importance of the Yuhe Stone Bridge. Now that the Yuhe River is full of water, the army can only cross the Yuhe River through the stone bridge. Once the Yuhe Stone Bridge is controlled by the imperial army, the army will have no way to cross eastward. .

Hong Tingxiang didn't think that a mere thousand men or less than an army could block the Yuhe Stone Bridge, but he saw that the other party actually had a large number of gunmen, which still aroused his vigilance.

Once they control the stone bridge and use firecrackers to block the bridge, it will definitely cause huge casualties to their own side. What he can do now is to harass the opponent as much as possible, delay the opponent's advance speed, and allow the army that has already entered the Red Bridge to Come quickly.

It's a pity that the outpost cavalry in his hands only has more than a hundred cavalry, and they are also scattered. One is patrolling at the bridgehead, and the other has already marched to the east. He only has a mere forty cavalry, which is not enough to stop the people in front of him. an army.

It is unknown where this army came from. It stands to reason that the main force of You Shigong's army in Ji Town is still in Shunyi, and no matter how fast it is, it cannot be faster than our own army. However, this army of thousands of people did appear in Shunyi. He arrived at Gong Huacheng and caught himself off guard.

Judging from the flags and robes and armor, this army is more like a Beijing camp, but Prime Minister Hong Ting can't believe it.

 When did those veteran soldiers from the Beijing Camp dare to go out of the city to fight? The Santun camp was beaten to a pulp by a group of Mongolians in the first battle, which made the border troops laugh their heads off. Now that the Jing camp has just begun to be rebuilt, do these people still dare to go out to fight, and are they not afraid of mutiny and collapse immediately?

But the scene in front of him was real, and the marching formation looked quite decent. It was completely different from the previous impression of the Beijing camp, which surprised Hong Tingxiang.

Hong Tingxiang has arranged for the sentry horse to quickly return to the Red Bridge to report the news, hoping that the army will speed up and come over.

But before that, Prime Minister Hong Ting must do his best to delay this army from advancing towards Shiqiao.

"What should we do?" the deputy next to him asked hesitantly: "We harassed them twice and caused some losses to them, but their marching formation was not greatly affected. If this continues, they will occupy the bridgehead in half an hour at most. , we only have less than fifty people at the bridge, and we can’t resist it at all.”

"Move the group of people from the east over. We will go around the back and attack them from behind." Hong Tingxiang gritted his teeth.

He knew that this was also an adventure. The group from the east could only be transferred with more than 80 riders, which was still too few. The opponent had at least 800 people. If there were 300 or 400 riders, Hong Tingxiang would be sure to completely defeat them. This still somewhat unfamiliar and clumsy army was completely defeated.

"From the back? I'm afraid it's too late." The deputy hesitated and said, "And these few people..."

"Whether it's too late or not enough, we have to do this, otherwise this group of people will rush to the bridge in one fell swoop. Have you noticed that except for the peripheral spearmen, almost all of them are fire gun soldiers. They will be attacked by this group of people." If we form a formation at the bridge, if our people want to cross the bridge, they will have to charge with guns and fire, and we don’t know how many people will die!"

Hong Tingxiang gritted his teeth and his deputy looked a little ugly, but he had to admit that this was reality.

Who knows where this large-scale firecrackers came from? Even among the Jizhen soldiers, such large-scale fire-gun soldiers are rare, and there are almost no sword and shield soldiers. The only spearmen are fire-gun soldiers. An army configured in this way is extremely rare.

It was less than time for two cups of tea, and the team to the east had already arrived. The eighty-odd riders quickly disappeared into the darkness.

Zhang Dingyuan was sweating profusely all over, and the temperature on the autumn night had dropped to close to frost. In addition to the exercise caused by the march, he was more nervous. This was the first time he led a team to attack, and it was also a night march. Being blocked like this, he tried his best to keep his eyes open and look around, and at the same time he pricked up his ears, trying to hear any changes in the surroundings.

But this was obviously in vain. All kinds of noisy sounds overwhelmed him, and in the end he could only let it go. The scoldings of the officers, the complaints of the soldiers, the neighing of mules and horses, and the collision and footsteps of various instruments The sound of trampling combined into an indescribable serenade.

 The enemy's rangers disappeared, which made Zhang Dingyuan very nervous.

If the Xuanfu Army was so easy to dispatch, it wouldn't be called the Xuanfu Army.

In Liaodong, Zhang Dingyuan knew that the nine-sided elite was just a rough term. The only ones that could truly be called elite were Liaodong Town, Ji Town, Xuanfu Town, and Datong Town. There was also a three-sided Yulin Town that was not satisfactory, and the elite among the elite was only Datong, Xuanfu, Liaodong, and even Jizhen are slightly less popular.

Xuanfu Army has always been ranked in the top two in importance. Only Datong Town can stabilize one of them. Liaodong Town only began to gradually rise after the 30th year of Yuanxi. Before, it was far from being comparable to Datong Xuanfu Army.

"Notify Zhou Zhanpeng that the enemy's cavalry has disappeared and may harass the rear. We will slow down appropriately and prepare them for battle." Zhang Dingyuan thought for a while and then said: "Order Wang Xian's spearmen on the right wing to extend back. To prevent the enemy from sneaking into the rear, Jiao De's troops on the left wing controlled the speed and took over Wang Xian's troops to defend the right wing. We continued marching and let Zhou Zhanpeng decide the marching rhythm on his own..."

After a series of orders were issued, the entire marching formation suddenly slowed down, and Zhou Zhanpeng immediately became nervous after receiving the notice. The cavalry night attack was the biggest threat to heavy firecrackers like them. Although they were protected by the shields of the auxiliary soldiers, But how useful is this protection when it comes time to actually rush in? At most, it can only resist some arrows. Once it breaks through, it will be a tiger among the sheep.

 Fortunately, Wang Xian's spearmen also turned quickly and surrounded them in a semi-arc. Although the defense line was a little thinner, they finally had a layer of cover.

"The sound of horse hooves?!" When he heard the sound of horse hooves from behind, Zhou Zhanpeng felt that he had made the right bet. Since the main force had continued to march towards the stone bridge, there was only one or two miles of land anyway, and even grinding could still reach it. It's better to stop and assemble the whole team now. This attack will not disturb the enemy too much, so let's take a gamble.

The auxiliary soldiers have inserted their shields at the front end and raised the gun frame as a support. The soldiers have set up the eagle-billed musket. The spearmen on both sides moved closer to the middle, forming an inverted Ω shape to protect the eagle-billed musket.

Hong Tingxiang did not expect the enemy to react so quickly, and what surprised him even more was that the enemy dared to suddenly stop and change formations during the night march, which was completely unexpected to him.

But at this time, he had no time to think too much. More than eighty cavalry finally gathered together. Under the light of torches, it could be seen that this group of enemy troops numbered about three to four hundred people. They actually separated from another main force. Maybe this was a chance?

As the horses galloped, Hong Tingxiang's eyes were like a torch, looking straight ahead. His slightly undulating body looked so strong. The enemy's spear team's protection object was not in place yet, and there was a huge gap in the middle. Fire gun soldiers?

 He saw a shield stand set up on a stand. What shape was it?

Hong Tingxiang was a little surprised, but in his astonishment, the dozens of brackets in his eyes suddenly bloomed with dark red sparks. It wasn't until a sharp pain pierced his armor and entered his chest that there was a loud bang in his ears.

 (End of this chapter)