The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 266: Mist Kill
The rumbling sound of field artillery penetrated the fog and echoed across the plains of western Liaoning.

The blazing rocket tail flame swept across the crowd and burned the entire sky.

Near noon, the thick fog around Ningyuan had not yet dissipated.

The September sun shone across the land, shrouding the icy plains in a thick mist. The white smoke from the burning gunpowder mixed with the mist, adding a touch of mystery to the tragic battlefield.

The artillery group was stationed on a slope five miles east of Ningyuan City and was continuously bombarding the enemy in the fog.

Various types of firearms from Kaiyuan appeared one after another, from four-pound field guns to twelve-pound red cannons, from the Divine Fire Flying Crow to the Lafa mines.

The sounds of various explosions mixed together, as if it were a gunfire exhibition.

According to the order of General Ping Liaohou, the artillery group must carry out a saturation attack on the designated area.

“We need to leave a deep impression on Liaozhen and Xuanfuzhen.”

These are Liu Zhaosun’s original words to the two artillery regiment commanders.

Han Zhenyi, deputy commander of the Kaiyuan Artillery Regiment, looked at the flying artillery fire in the sky, and watched the dense iron balls penetrate the fog and fly towards the target a mile away, with a satisfied smile on his face.

With every bombardment, screams and the neighing of war horses could be heard in the fog.

Han Zhenyi vented all the resentment that had been pent up for many days into the artillery fire.

In order to conceal the strength of the Kaiyuan army, Ping Liaohou did not deploy all the field artillery to the Ningyuan battlefield. Therefore, the artillery has been passively attacked under the city these days and suffered heavy casualties.

Now, the situation is finally changing.

"Pharaoh!"

Han Zhenyi looked at Wang Changzhi's blurry figure in the distance and shouted loudly.

Because of long hours of operating artillery, artillerymen developed occupational diseases such as deafness and tinnitus early on.

Han Zhenyi is seriously ill.

“Old Wang!!”

Old Wang was waving a command flag, directing a team of musketeers to advance.

Before the ambush began, Deng Changxiong transferred two hundred musketeers from the Second Army to assist the artillery in guarding the artillery group.

The Second Guards Regiment had just been equipped with new flintlock muskets before setting out on the expedition. It was the first of the six Guards corps to be equipped with them. The entire army was paying close attention to this, and the artillery regiment was no exception.

The previously installed plug-type bayonets had shortcomings such as loose connection and obstruction of shooting, so many soldiers were reluctant to use them.

Mao Yuanyi and Lei Jiangtou led thousands of craftsmen in the workshop and after more than half a year of experimentation, they finally found a better solution.

They used a sleeve to fix the bayonet to the outside of the gun barrel. The improved bayonet was more sturdy and reliable, and its combat effectiveness was greatly improved.

The bayonet is one foot and seven inches long, combined with the three feet and five inches of the flintlock, the total length of the bayonet exceeds that of most weapons, and it is not inferior to close combat thrusts.

Fifty paces to the flank of the artillery, two hundred flintlock bayonets formed a thin phalanx of infantry, their bayonets pointed obliquely into the fog.

Han Zhenyi felt that this was a unnecessary move. He didn't believe that anyone could survive under the close-range bombardment of 460 artillery pieces.

Not to mention Liaozhen, even the Guards might not be able to hold on.

Han Zhenyi even felt a little sympathy for Zu Dashou and his three thousand servants.

Sympathy is sympathy, but the agreed-upon battle must be completed even if it hurts.

"Captain Han, the six-pound field gun has fired five rounds. Do you still want to fight?"

Han Zhenyi shouted loudly to the panting messenger in front of him:
"Fight! Why not? Why did Marquis Ping Liao send you here? Hit me hard! Saturation bombardment! As long as the barrel isn't blown, keep fighting!"

The messenger agreed, and when he heard the word "explosion", a trace of fear appeared in his eyes.

Han Zhenyi was just about to say something to comfort him when Wang Changzhi retreated from the front.

There was blood on his body.

"Captain Wang, what's wrong?"

"It's okay. A few confused Zujia servants just ran into the bayonets and were stabbed to death by us."

Han Zhenyi nodded. He wasn't interested in close combat. He stared at the still roaring field artillery around him and asked his old partner.

"Old Wang, how many times have you fought?"

Wang Changzhi shouted loudly in Han Zhenyi's ear:
"Thirty-five hundred rockets, too many to count!"

Han Zhenyi was so happy when he heard this number:
"Wow, three thousand five hundred, that's a lot! In just half an hour, we've crippled thousands of the enemy troops. And the combat troops haven't even started yet!"

"It seems that we will have to rely on artillery to fight wars in the future! Artillery is king."

Wang Changzhi had no time to look into the future as there were more difficult things at hand.

He put his ear close to his old partner's and shouted in a voice that almost broke his eardrum:
"Old Han! We have to hurry up and launch the rockets at the back. Don't dawdle. The Liao people and foreigners will be coming soon. They want revenge on Liao Town!"

~~~~~
The sudden heavy fog was beyond Liu Zhaosun's expectations.

Just like the musketeer who sniped him from the city wall last night.

In his world, accidents always come unexpectedly.

The explosion of muskets interrupted Ping Liaohou's appreciation of classical music, pulling him back from the beautiful fantasy of mountains and flowing water to the cruel and bloody reality.

Liu Zhaosun was very calm.

Whether it is a sudden fog or a surprise attack of muskets, all the time travelers can do is go with the flow.

Since so many people in Ningyuan City wanted him to die, he had no choice but to fulfill everyone's wish.

to die.

Someone died in the tent last night, but it wasn't Liu Zhaosun who died, but one of his guards.

He was a new recruit who had just been selected from the cavalry battalion. He was only one year younger than Liu Zhaosun and had a face full of acne.

The moment the musket sounded, the guard subconsciously stood in front of Ping Liaohou and blocked a lead bullet for him.

The lead bullet entered the guard's back and exited his chest.

A hole the size of a bowl.

The viscera and intestines were all over the floor.

The guard died instantly.

In fact, Liu Zhaosun went to listen to the flute just to restrain the murderous aura in his body.

After the Battle of Ningyuan broke out, thousands of people were killed and wounded on both sides every day. Liu Zhaosun felt that he was becoming a butcher - although this was the only way for a king.

However, the flute sound stopped abruptly, and the guard died with his eyes open.

It turns out that the flute sound was fake, but death was real.

In that case, summon death.

So, today we have the strategy of luring the snake out of its hole.

"After the bombardment ends, let the Liao people and foreigners move freely. The Liao town has oppressed them for so many years, and it's time to pay them back."

"Wang Zengbin led the cavalry battalion to encircle the enemy from both wings, cutting off You Shiwei's retreat and defeating and killing the Xuanfu garrison. I don't like killing, but this time I'm killing a chicken to scare the monkeys, letting the other border troops know what the consequences are of being an enemy of Kaiyuan!"

Liu Zhaosun looked at the world that was gradually spinning out of control, waved the central army flag vigorously, and spoke murderously to the messenger.

~~~~~
Zu Dashou rode on the horse, stumbling and running under the protection of a group of servants.

The earth-shaking sound of Kaiyuan Army's artillery came from far away, orange-red flames passed over their heads, and the surroundings were like hell.

The war horses were frightened by the intensive artillery fire, and they kicked their hooves and galloped away neighing.

A servant was thrown off his horse, with the saddle hanging on his left foot and his head on the ground. He let out a howl that was not like a human voice and quickly disappeared in a white mist.

Zu Dashou stared blankly at the chaotic scene in front of him. Before he could even sigh, another flame passed over his head, and a sharp whistling explosion soon came from not far away.

Ten steps away from Zu Dashou, several fireballs suddenly rushed out of the fog. They were several servants of the Zu family who were set on fire by tung oil.

"Liu Zhaosun, why do you treat Liaozhen like this?"

Zu Dashou rode on his horse in a daze, letting the servant lead him forward. He was filled with remorse and regretted taking the servant out of the city.

I knew the Kaiyuan army would ambush me, but I didn't expect their artillery fire to be so fierce.

The French cannons carried by Liaozhen had no power to fight back against the Kaiyuan army's artillery.

Half an hour after being ambushed, the Liaozhen artillerymen didn't even know where the enemy artillery was.

Zu Dashou was like a headless fly, bumping around in the fog.

He, his younger brother Zu Dabi, and his brother-in-law Wu Xiang had already run away and were left with only the head servant Wang Rong and more than two hundred other servants.

The fog was filled with wounded soldiers. Very few of them were directly hit by artillery shells, and many were slightly injured by flying rocks. They screamed and fled in all directions, causing their servants to run around with them.

The screams around him made Zu Dashou upset.

Wang Rong walked closely in the front, swinging his sword to chop down the soldiers who were blocking the way and running around, while clearing the way for Zu Dashou and shouting loudly to gather the servants who had run away.

"General! We're not far from the city wall, only five or six miles at most. Once the fog clears, we can get there in no time!"

The head servant has followed Zu Dashou for many years and showed his loyalty to his master at critical moments.

"When we get back to Ningyuan, we'll kill Wang Zaijin and those eunuchs. At worst, we can escape to Shanhaiguan! These foreign troops are trying to occupy our territory. What idiots!"

Zu Dashou hung his head and didn't listen to Wang Rong. He pricked up his ears and asked the servants around him in confusion:
"The gunfire has stopped."

With a whoosh, a servant next to Wang Rong was shot through the neck by a heavy arrow. He held the arrow feather that had penetrated his neck with his hand and fell off his horse limply.

Then, heavy arrows like raindrops whizzed through the fog from the side and hit the surrounding servants.

Zu Dashou quickly raised his iron arm to block. He picked up an arrow from the ground. It was a spinach leaf-shaped armor-piercing spike with a three-inch arrowhead.

"It's the Jiannu's heavy arrows!"

"Liu Zhaosun's Jianzhou minions are coming! Kill them all!"

Zu Dashou roared, and all the servants immediately dismounted and looked around with wide eyes.

The archer shot two waves of heavy arrows in the direction where the heavy arrows came from.

A scream was heard in the fog.

In the last round of attack, Zu Dashou lost six servants. These servants were all elite soldiers of Liaozhen. Their combat power was comparable to that of Bayala of Jiannu. They were the military foundation of the Zu family's foothold in western Liaoning.

The servants took off their round shields from their horses, picked up their javelins and three-barreled guns, placed their swords and short crossbows on their shields and knife racks, and looked around vigilantly.

A black shadow suddenly appeared about ten steps ahead. Zu Dashou raised his three-barreled gun and shot at the opposite side without aiming. At the same time, the black shadow moved his right hand. Zu Dashou had fought with the Later Jin for many years and knew that it was the action of throwing an iron bone flower, so he quickly dodged to the side.

"Kill all the Tatars!"

For a moment, the vibration of bowstrings and the explosion of muskets merged into one. Within a distance of just a dozen steps, both sides shot at each other, and screams were heard all around.

The number of Jiannu soldiers on the opposite side was less than that of the Zu family's servants, and they were soon at a disadvantage.

The heavy arrows shot by the Jiannu were getting fewer and fewer, and the last flying axe was thrown and hit a servant directly in the face.

Several servants around rushed forward, following the sound, and chopped the Tartar who threw the axe ten steps away into meat paste.

(End of this chapter)