Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 27 The Battle of Northern Burma

Even Bai Mingxiu didn't expect that thousands of Wu troops retreated under the attack of a few cannons.The Napoleon cannon, with its relatively accurate impact and excellent howitzer effect, is a masterpiece of the front-mounted cannon era.Compared with the Hongyi cannon, which is basically difficult to use in field battles, the Napoleon cannon is much better.

The Qing army saw that the bodies of soldiers on its side were blown up every few moments, and a large part of the front line was wiped out, and their mentality collapsed all of a sudden.At this time, the Qing army had no way to fight against such pressure. They were forced to fight, or because of the benefits they could plunder.But in case of serious danger, they are absolutely unreliable.

Wu Sangui was a little troublesome with the cannons of the Ming army, and wanted to withdraw his troops before making plans, but Aixing refused.

"King Pingxi, the hypocritical rebellious party only has a few cannons to scare you like this? They have less than [-] soldiers and horses, and we are five or six times their number. If you are scared away like this, then The whole world will laugh at you!" Ai Xing said to Wu Sangui with a bad face, and his identity as a bannerman also put a lot of pressure on Wu Sangui.

Wu Sangui has never gained the full trust of the Qing court, and many times he has to bow his head and endure the calm for a while.If he doesn't work hard in this war, or doesn't appear to be so active, the Manchus will have deeper doubts about him.

At this time, his good son-in-law Xia Guoxiang suggested: "Father-in-law, although the artillery of the Ming army is strong, they are not many in number. If our army presses up from multiple sides, with one effort, we will surely be able to break through the defense line of the Ming army and attack Huanglong directly."

Wu Sangui thought for a while and had no other choice, so he nodded in agreement.

This battle made Wu Sangui very uncomfortable from the very beginning.It stands to reason that under the circumstances of disparity in military strength, the Ming army should retreat, but the Ming army just stood here fighting him like a stunned young man.Judging from the current situation, the Ming army's lineup is quite neat, and it has always guarded its position without wavering, which makes Wu Sangui unable to figure it out.

"Give way to the central army and attack from the left and right."

Sure enough, the Qing army moved. This time, the Qing army directly ignored the powerful central army, but chose to attack the Ming army's formation from left and right.The Ming army set up square formations one by one, and the formations were neat.

The Qing army's attack was not completely disorganized. Although they did not have a long infantry phalanx like the Ming army, they also had a certain formation.

In the front are the bird gunners, with the archers behind them, and the cavalry covering the rear or on both wings.The Qing army would also carry small, easy-to-carry cannons, such as double-cell cannons to enhance their firepower.It can be said that the Qing army's tactics still focused on taking advantage of the power of firearms, but they were less neat and flexible.

Seeing the actions of the Qing army, Bai Mingxiu had already expected it.Li Dingguo also followed the previous strategy and ordered: "The artillery turns its muzzle to meet the invading enemy from the left wing, and the guard company moves from the front to the right wing."

The artillery preparation speed of the Ming Dynasty's Restoration Army was extremely fast, which also benefited from the formation arrangement and the relatively light setup of the Napoleon cannon.

The Qing army attacking the left flank of the Ming army was again baptized by the artillery of the Fuguo Army, causing heavy casualties.But this time, some of the Qing army successfully entered the range of the line infantry of the Ming army.

The line infantry of the National Restoration Army, who were firing three rows, fired in unison at the command of the officer. The three rows of musket bullets were crackling along with the smoke, and the first row rushed over like a barrage of bullets. The Qing army was beaten to the ground.

The Qing army's blunderbusses, whose lines were not evenly aligned, had no ability to shoot against the dense bullets of the Ming Fuguo Army's line of infantry. Only occasionally some blunderbussmen were able to fire a single shot, and then they couldn't do it at all. Stable reload, only escape backwards.

The weak and weak shooting of the Qing army could not shake the high morale of the Ming Dynasty line infantry. Occasionally, several line infantrymen were hit by the Qing army's bullets and fell, and their comrades behind them would immediately take over. The most dangerous line infantry One row was always filled with large lines of infantrymen who raised their guns and fired!

People vividly called the infantry tactics of this period "queuing up to shoot", which couldn't be more vivid.This kind of battle is actually about people on both sides shooting each other with rifles. The people at the front need great courage. While they kill the enemy, they are almost guaranteed to die themselves.

But only in this way can the front-loading muskets such as arquebuses and flintlock guns maintain the densest firepower in order to achieve the most advantageous results.

The artillery of the Ming army was still rumbling, and the attack of tens of thousands of Qing troops was beaten by only 18 artillery pieces and more than 1000 musketeers, causing heavy losses.

On the right wing of the Ming army, the massacre took place.

There are about 2 Qing troops attacking on this side, and they were photographed like this in a dark manner.However, when the M2 Browning heavy aircraft of the Ming army guard company were arranged to fire crossfire, it was still the same as dealing with the Burmese army, forming a hell-like death penalty zone.

The Qing army kept rushing forward, and at a distance of several hundred meters, the barrage of heavy machine guns directly beat them into pieces of meat. Maybe some places could not be taken care of by the firepower, but soon other soldiers operating the M1 moved towards Watch these soldiers shoot.On the right flank, Bai Mingxiu also arranged a line of infantry and archers, but basically no Qing army could enter their range.It's not that they couldn't rush forward, but they were so frightened by such a terrible massacre that they hugged their heads and ran around.

Behind the Qing army, Wu Sangui and Ai Xing'a were dumbfounded.

They watched helplessly as a large number of Qing troops were shot down by the Ming army. Wu Sangui was almost blind. That was the military capital he had finally accumulated, which was his biggest reliance on guarding one side of the Yunnan-Guizhou separatist regime. But now it was like cutting leeks. Killed all the same.Ai Xing'a was even more timid. He couldn't understand why the Ming army suddenly seemed like a new army. No matter the left or right wings, they were all killed by the Ming army.

Wu Sangui was completely awake, he finally understood why the Ming army dared to come to Larong to confront the Qing army, because Li Dingguo was not afraid at all!
"Ming Jin withdraws troops, Ming Jin withdraws troops!" Wu Sangui shouted, wanting to end this senseless battle.

But Bai Mingxiu didn't want it to end like this.

"Rangers prepare, charge!" Bai Mingxiu ordered.

Li Dingguo went into battle in person, leading more than 3000 cavalry to attack like tigers out of the gate.The Qing army on the right had already been beaten by the Ming army and began to break up, and was rushed by Li Dingguo's cavalry, and even fled in all directions.

"Line infantry, advance!" Bai Mingxiu gave the second order.

The line infantry who had been guarding the position began to march forward in neat steps. Along with them, there were spearmen and archers who cooperated with them. The courage to continue fighting was driven around like ducks by thousands of Ming troops.

Wu Sangui looked at the well-organized and high-spirited Ming army, and knew that today was going to be troublesome, so his Chinese troops stopped hanging around and turned their horses around to retreat.

"Retreat! Retreat back to Mubang!"

When Bai Mingxiu saw that Wu Sangui and Ai Xing'a's Chinese army was about to retreat, he smiled and said to the flag bearers beside him: "Show the flag, the Fan army and chieftains can move."

The vassal army composed of more than 2 Burmese, as well as the chieftain soldiers and horses from all walks of life who took refuge in Nanming, were divided into four groups and drove elephants. Long before the battle started, Bai Mingxiu had been mobilized around the battlefield. When the Qing army finally When they were defeated, Bai Mingxiu ordered the troops who could only fight with the wind to move out.

When Wu Sangui saw that the road ahead was blocked by dozens of elephants and thousands of soldiers and horses, he already knew that what awaited him today would be the end of the road.

(End of this chapter)