The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 198 Cavalry Battle
Thousands of small red flags fluttered across the Liaodong plains.

Countless dancing flames gathered from all directions of Hetuala to the west gate, forming a vast red sea.

The deep and powerful sound of the conch horn rang out over the plains. A red sea composed of two red flag cavalry crossed the west gate moat, submerged the burning shield carts, and swept towards the Kaiyuan artillery position with an unstoppable momentum.

At the same time, two miles away, the 500 cavalrymen who had just gathered rushed to the rescue and rushed towards the waist of the two red flag cavalry formations.

The artillery on both sides stopped firing at the same time in tacit understanding.

The focus of the battlefield returned to the cavalry.

"Brother Yang, there are probably more than 3,000 Tartar cavalrymen. We can't stop them with 600 people."

"If you're scared, just jump into the river."

The archer next to him was bored. Seeing that Yang Tong stopped talking, he picked up the arrowhead from the quiver and began to polish it repeatedly on the pebbles.

Yang Tong didn't even raise his head as he was busy loading ammunition into his flintlock rifle.

He moved with great skill, and in a blink of an eye he had assembled a flintlock and placed it on the ground.

Three flintlock rifles were neatly placed on the ground at the foot of the breastwork.

The owner of the flintlock was hit by sawdust from the last round of artillery fire.

Three of Yang Tong's brothers died in Hetuala under the Tartar artillery fire.

The three men followed Yang Tong for a long time, from Hunhe River to Qufu, and survived several battles. Unexpectedly, they were killed by wood chips behind the shield cart in the end.

This strange fate on the battlefield is hard to describe.

But now is not the time to be sentimental. The shelling has stopped and the enemy attack will soon come.

All around him were new recruits from the 5,000th headquarters, all unfamiliar faces, no one he knew.

At the front of the crescent position stood the flintlock soldiers and archers, a total of more than 280 of them, distributed behind the breastwork, forming a thin line of defense.

Because the 5000th Headquarters expanded too quickly, it did not have time to train enough flintlock soldiers until the war broke out.

Fortunately, there are some hunters and combat soldiers among the new recruits. They knew archery before joining the Kaiyuan Army. There are more than 500 archers in the 5000 headquarters.

After the river split open, about two hundred people made it ashore alive, and together with the reinforcements of the flintlock soldiers, there were less than three hundred people in total.

In other words, in the crescent-shaped position, apart from the four hidden artillery pieces, there are only more than 200 people who can carry out long-range output.

Compared with the three or four thousand archers under the two red flags on the opposite side, the two hundred or so people behind the breastwork are really insignificant. It is no exaggeration to say that they are like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

Even a small mantis would be determined to die in a critical moment, let alone these howling soldiers under Liu Zhaosun's command?
The Kaiyuan Army's honor of being invincible in every battle requires them to defend it, even at the cost of their lives.

On the top of the earthen slope, a huge Kirin battle flag, 13 feet wide, fluttered fiercely in the cold wind.

Liu Zhaosun did not strictly stipulate the patterns of the military flags of each thousand headquarters. For the sake of uniformity, all military flags must have a red background and a roaring black dragon in the lower right corner.

In addition, the theme pattern of the battle flag can be freely selected by each headquarters.

The battle flag of the 1,000th headquarters is a dragon, while the flags of the 2,000th and 3,000th headquarters are tiger and Taotie respectively.

The battle flag of the 4000th headquarters has the most unique design. It is a huge black skull with a goose feather knife, which looks like the flag of Pirates of the Caribbean.

The battle flag of the 5000th headquarters was painted with a huge black unicorn with bared fangs and claws, looking very imposing.

Yang Tong is now in front of the left side of the Black Kirin, with archers on both sides of him.

The nearest musketeer was about a dozen steps away. He seemed to have been transferred from the 1,000th headquarters, and he didn't recognize him.

Behind him was a row of spearmen, and behind the spearmen were halberd-wielders and sword-and-shield-wielders.

The young faces around were filled with tension and excitement after surviving the disaster.

This was the first time that the 5,000 new recruits from the headquarters had a head-on confrontation with the Jiannu. They had previously fought against the Wenxiang Sect in Shandong, but that was a battle where they followed the veterans and had the upper hand.

This time, the new recruits will face off against the Jiannu army, which is ten times larger than their own.

For them, this was a severe test, or to be more precise, purgatory.

The new recruits have just finished building fortifications and are exhausted, so they are now taking the time to rest and recuperate.

Before the Jiannu reached the breastwork, these spearmen and halberd-wielding soldiers were useless. Their numbers were so small, barely three hundred or so, that they couldn't possibly charge out of the trenches and form up at the front of the position; that would only lead to their demise. Yang Tong glanced back at the new recruits and gasped.

A bamboo whistle in front caught Yang Tong's attention. A hundred steps in front of the trench, the remaining Yebushou formed the first line of defense of the Half Moon position.

The 32 surviving Night Riders of the 5000th Headquarters were lined up in the front. They were well-equipped. In addition to lances and swords, each of them was also equipped with flintlock pistols and stone mines.

There were a total of eighty Yebushou in the 5,000th headquarters, but only these thirty-two were still alive after crossing the river.

The Kaiyuan Army's Night Squadron is composed of elite veterans from each battalion. They usually only perform reconnaissance and scout duties, and will never participate in such a grand battle.

However, now that the Jiannu army is approaching and their headquarters is on the verge of destruction, the veterans feel that there is no need to conduct any further reconnaissance and simply decide to fight the Tartars.

With Zhu He's tacit consent, these night guards spontaneously formed a line of defense - although this line of defense was almost useless.

The rumbling sound of horse hooves resounded through the heaven and earth. The breastwork where Yang Tong was lying began to tremble, and dust fell from the cobblestones.

The vast red sea consisting of 3,500 cavalrymen under two red flags quickly rushed to a position 300 steps in front of the trench.

Yang Tong, who was hiding behind the breastwork, seemed to be able to hear the warhorse's manic breathing.

There were a few white lights in the red cavalry wave. They were the elite Bayara cavalry wearing white armor.

These Bayaras are the elite among the two red flags. They are all sturdy, holding long axes and heavy swords, wearing two layers of iron armor, and are well-equipped, making them particularly eye-catching in the crowd.

Yang Tong immediately raised his flintlock rifle and aimed at a jumping white dot three hundred steps in front of him. The barrel of the gun moved slightly with the galloping Bayala.

The thirty-two Night Warriors in front of the trench, under the gaze of thousands of people on both sides, raised their flintlock pistols and aimed at the two Red Flag cavalry formations that were a hundred times larger than their own, fighting the enemy at the end like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

The archer on Yang Tong's left opened his mouth wide and stared blankly ahead.

The sound of horse hooves grew louder and louder, like thunder exploding in the clear sky, three hundred steps, two hundred steps.

Ye Bushou could already see the excited expressions on the faces of the Jiannu cavalrymen opposite him.

When they were only a hundred steps away from the 5,000th headquarters, Ye Bushou, the sound of vibrating bowstrings suddenly came from the rapidly approaching two Red Flag cavalry formations. The buzzing sound was like a swarm of bees passing over their heads, attracting the new recruits behind the breastwork to look up and forward.

"Archers and archers, fire freely. The rest of you lie in wait! Sword and shield soldiers, raise your shields!"

The flag captain shouted loudly, scolding the new recruits who were not afraid of death.

The new recruits were indescribably shocked when they saw the scene of thousands of cavalry charging in a dense formation for the first time.

There was chaos behind the breastwork. Archers lowered their heads to avoid after shooting arrows, and sword and shield soldiers raised their long shields to block the front.

Yang Tong aimed at the Bayala who was charging in front, muttering something to himself, and suddenly pulled the trigger. A puff of white smoke rose from the flintlock, and Yang Tong immediately retreated behind the breastwork.

The moment he lowered his head, he caught a glimpse of the ferocious Bayala falling off his horse. His fine white armor was submerged in the rolling iron hooves and turned into a wisp of dust.

Yang Tong leaned against the breastwork, took out the charcoal pencil he carried with him, and added a horizontal line on a white pebble under the breastwork.

There are already three lines on the stone.

This was the third Jiannu he killed today.

He took off the cleaning rod and began to load ammunition silently, waiting for the rain of arrows from the opposite side.

Fortunately, the target of the Jiannu's attack was not Yang Tong who was behind the breastwork.

More than three thousand light arrows rose into the air at the same time. With the inertia of the horses' previous running, the arrow feathers quickly climbed into the air, bursting out with amazing kinetic energy. A moment later, a dense rain of arrows poured down from the sky and hit the Kaiyuan army Yebushou who were blocking their way.

The pistols in Ye Bushou's hands fired one after another, and in the thin white smoke, the captain shouted loudly.

"Raise your shield! Switch to your sword! Charge!"

His orders were drowned in a hail of arrows.

The light arrows landed on the round shields, making a tinkling sound. The horses, without armor, were immediately shot into hedgehogs, and the Ye Bushu fell to the ground one after another.

Two red flags and three thousand elite cavalrymen roared past.

Ye Bushou was like sand crashing into the sea tide. After knocking down the front row of the Houjin cavalry, he was immediately hit by the flying iron bones and flying axes. The iron cavalry trampled their corpses, and everything returned to calm.

(End of this chapter)