Ming Taizi's Total War

Chapter 220 The Battle of Tongguan
The next day, there was a strong wind and sand on the ancient battlefield of Tongguan, and there were gusts of cold wind blowing from the northwest. Fortunately, the soldiers all wore sackcloth and armor, so they didn't feel cold.

On this day, the spies Li Zicheng sent out to see if the Ming army had arrived also came back with good news. Zhu Cihong and more than [-] Ming troops had entered the ancient battlefield of Tongguan, only a dozen miles away from the Qing army.

Although there was no contact beforehand, Li Zicheng believed that as long as he sent troops, no matter what the reason was, Zhu Cihong would definitely cooperate with him.

"Soldiers of the three armies, pass on my orders, go east out of Tongguan, and kill all the dogs." Li Zicheng stood on the tower of Tongguan, facing the tens of thousands of soldiers, horses and infantry of the Shun army.

Li Zicheng was worried. He had brought out all the combat-effective troops in Tongguan this time. If the losses were too heavy today, he would have to temporarily mobilize the hungry people to fight in the next battle.

And those hungry people, with no fighting power, yellow and emaciated, haggard, went to the ground to fight, just like the scarecrows in the field, expecting them to fight and kill the Qing army, it is better to expect the Qing army to trip over stones and die.

With the sound of thunderous drums resounding across the sky, one after another Shun army, led by the leading general, began to rush to the battlefield.

Because the distance was too short, when they set foot on the battlefield, the Shun army did not march in the formation of long snakes, but marched in the formation of flying geese, so as to avoid ambushes and surprise attacks by the Qing army.

Even though this is unlikely on the flat Tongguan battlefield, all Shun army generals are willing to trade time for safety for the sake of caution.

After walking for more than ten miles, the Shun army came to five miles away from the Qing army's camp. At that time, the Qing army also set up a formation two or three miles away from their camp, ready to meet the incoming Shun army.

But to this land, they are the enemy.

After entering the battlefield, the Shun Army dispatched more than [-] light and heavy cavalry to take the lead without saying a word, and let them attack the formation of the Qing army.

This is Li Zicheng's three-wall tactic. First let [-] cavalry rush up to lead the battle. The former will look back and the latter will kill them. Although the tactic is rough, it is enough for Li Zicheng who relies on numbers to win.

As for why the Three Walls tactic did not have [-] cavalry, but instead sent [-] cavalry, it was because the Shun army was overwhelmed and countless cavalry died on the battlefield in more than ten battles with the Qing army.

Only the 1 riders were obtained by Li Zicheng who cobbled together thousands of men and more than [-] horses from the Guanzhong area.

Since the number of cavalry was not enough, and the elite level of the soldiers was not enough, the Shun army did not pay much attention to the strict formation.

Among the [-] cavalry, there are light and heavy cavalry, walking on the front for several miles, roughly with armored cavalry in front and unarmored cavalry in the rear.

I saw them slowly urging their horses to attack the Qing army's line.

In order to preserve the stamina of the horses and cavalry, the cavalry only urged the horses under their crotch to charge when they were very close to the enemy. Before that, they had to go through a slow acceleration process.

But just when the cavalry were about to speed up, the Qing army's Hongyi cannon was fired.

The Qing army was able to enter the Central Plains, naturally there were two brushes. Since Zu Dashou came to the Qing Dynasty and established a firearms unit for the Qing army, the Qing army attached great importance to the manufacture and use of heavy artillery.

The Mitezhou people are a barbaric nation outside the Great Wall, and they don't know how to make and use siege machines. Even with the help of Han craftsmen, they have never experienced large-scale city attack and defense battles.

Therefore, the tactics and techniques of siege were very simple and naturally ineffective. Before having heavy artillery, even if tens of thousands of Qing troops swarmed forward, it would be difficult to capture the Han fortress.

But after the arrival of the Hongyi cannon, everything was different. The Hongyi cannon was like a can opener, which could help them easily break into the Han people's cities, rob their wealth, and plunder their population.

It can also attack the enemy from a long distance on the battlefield, and greatly damage the morale of the enemy before the two armies engage in battle.

Although the accuracy of the artillery was very poor at that time, and it was very difficult to manufacture and transport, but compared to the fragile human beings, the power is too great. As long as it touches a little bit, it will immediately smash the bones, and even the whole person. Turned into a blood mist.

So although artillery can't directly kill a large number of enemy troops, it can deal a huge blow to the morale of the enemy troops.

Let me ask, who wouldn't be afraid to see his comrades around him being splattered with blood by black iron bullets, and even turned into a fog of blood.

I saw one after another black shells hitting the formation of the Shunjun cavalry, and immediately plowed out bloody marks one after another in the formation.

However, these loyal cavalrymen were elites who had followed Li Zicheng for many years. How could they be frightened by the cannonballs? The horses under their crotches had already developed the ability to be immune to the violent sound and fire of firearms in battle after battle.

Soon, the cavalry of the Shun army rushed in front of the Qing army. They smashed the rejecting horse with their horses, broke the Qing army's spear with their huge kinetic energy, and crashed into the Qing army's formation.

Many unlucky Qing soldiers did not die under the enemy's swords, guns and halberds, but were crushed to death by war horses.

Although the impact of the cavalry of the Shun army was very violent, they broke through the defense of the Qing army at once and entered the formation of the Qing army.

But correspondingly, they also got stuck and were entangled by the Qing army infantry. The cavalry who had lost their speed could not rely on their horses to fight the enemy, but could only fight against the Qing army infantry with the weapons in their hands.

After killing for a while, the precious cavalry of the Shun army were being lost at a rapid rate. Li Zicheng, who was in the middle army, felt that this was not an option, so he sent orderers to ask all the cavalry to withdraw, pretending to retreat.

This was also Li Zicheng's usual tactic. When the cavalry pretended to be retreating to attract the enemy, he took advantage of the scattered formation of the enemy and ordered the infantry who had been waiting for a long time to go up.

This can often cause a major blow to the enemy. If it is an army with a weak will to fight, it will collapse immediately after being beaten by Li Zicheng.

Sure enough, after the Shun Army cavalry retreated, Duduo refused to miss this great opportunity to pursue the Shun Army and immediately ordered the front-line Qing troops to pursue it.

Most of the Qing troops on the front line were infantry, and the speed of pursuit was relatively slow. Fortunately, there were too many cavalry in the Shun Army, and there was not enough space on the battlefield, so the speed was relatively slow, so that the Qing army could keep on chasing.

But after chasing for a certain distance, the Qing army was dumbfounded. The Shunjun cavalry suddenly spread out to both sides, revealing the Shunjun infantry who were waiting in full battle.

Before the Qing army could react, seize the time to change formation, and the Shunjun infantry formed a battle formation and killed them. In an instant, the crowds of Shunjun infantry rushed over. How could these Qing troops who did not form a battle formation be able to resist.

(End of this chapter)