Southern Ming Rebel Army

The two armies continued to advance, and were about to enter the firing range of the cannons of both sides. At this time, the shield soldiers in the front row of the Zhou army slowly stopped and began to reorganize their slightly chaotic formation, trying to make the whole team more orderly.

In contrast, the situation on the Qing side was somewhat inconsistent. Zhang Guoliang's troops of the Han army flag chose to stop and adjust their formation, but the troops led by Gao Jinku and Yang Wulie continued to move forward.

The soldiers under Gao Yang's command saw that the friendly troops beside them had stopped, but they had not received any orders to stop advancing. They could not help but feel a little hesitant, not knowing whether to move forward or wait. At this time, the officer of the second unit noticed this situation, and he quickly ordered the soldiers to stop and wait for the friendly troops in the middle to catch up.

The Qing army's battle line had obvious concave parts on both sides, which looked similar to the "品" formation set up by Zhou army.

The cannons of both sides fired bullets at the same time, and the sharp sound of the cannons rang out, rushing out like lightning, and plowed bloody gullies in the enemy's army. Blood gushed out from the wounds of the soldiers, splattering all around, forming a shocking bloody picture. Life became so fragile and insignificant at this moment.

However, in such a huge army, these wounds seemed insignificant, and the cannons on Mount Qixia were still bombarding the Qing army's artillery positions. The Qing army's artillery was suppressed and had almost no power to fight back. After barely firing four rounds of shells, they moved to the rear under Lekedehun's order and got out of the Zhou army's artillery range.

After the small artillery in front of the two armies opened fire, the fire gun battalion that Meng Jun had high hopes for finally opened fire in front of Changlin Town. Two thousand people formed three arrays and started the first round of shooting.

The first row finished shooting and retreated, the second row moved forward, finished shooting and retreated again. When the third row moved forward, because of the thick black gunpowder smoke, the musketeers in the third row could no longer see the target on the opposite side and could only fire blindly straight ahead. Although the flintlock rifle had more advantages than the matchlock rifle, it still had a big flaw, that is the misfire rate. Almost 20% of the musketeers failed to successfully fire their muskets.

When the third row finished shooting, only about 40% of the musketeers in the first row had completed loading, and the formation was a little disorganized. Although they had conducted many training sessions, the actual combat was still different from the training.

In order to take turns shooting, they had to keep the queue neat and orderly. Soon, the first row had finished loading, raised their guns, aimed, and fired. But at this time, a scream was heard, and a soldier's musket exploded. His hair and clothes were all burned. It turned out that the soldier did not fire the gunpowder, and filled it with gunpowder in a nervous state, which caused the explosion.

Accidents are inevitable on the battlefield. After three rounds of shooting and a gust of wind, the results of the battle in front were revealed.

There were corpses of Qing soldiers lying in front of them. There were as many as seven or eight hundred Qing soldiers lying on the ground. They had suffered such a heavy loss before the battle even started. Zhang Guoliang urgently ordered the army to push forward. Seeing that the Qing army was getting closer and closer, the Fire Gun Battalion barely fired another round of bullets and then retreated under the cover of the shield soldiers.

Meng Jun stood on the high platform, with a panoramic view of the battlefield below. He watched the damage done by the fire guns, which caused more damage than bows and arrows.

Meng Jun knew very well that if they could successfully block the natural barrier of the Yangtze River, rely on the strong financial and material resources of the South, and develop firearms on a large scale, then they would definitely be able to fight the elite cavalry of the Qing army on the vast northern plains.

As the musketeers retreated in an orderly manner, they finally entered the range of the bows and arrows. Countless soldiers with longbows on their backs quickly stepped forward, densely arranged in rows and rows, with arrows on the bows, the arrowheads flashing a chilling cold light, waiting for the order to fire all the arrows.

Following the officer's order, countless arrows from both sides flew towards the other side's army like locusts. The arrows intertwined in the air, forming a dense rain of arrows with a sharp whistling sound. In an instant, soldiers from both sides were shot and fell to the ground from time to time, and their blood dyed the land red.

In terms of shooting speed alone, bows and arrows are much faster than muskets. Archers on both sides continued to shoot arrows, and the shield soldiers in the front row fearlessly raised their shields and rushed towards each other. Behind the shields were spearmen, and both sides stabbed each other frantically. The spears pierced the shields with a "crackling" sound. Some soldiers were pierced by the spear heads that drilled out of the gaps, and they collapsed to the ground with screams. Some shield soldiers in the formation were knocked down, and they rushed into the formation and fought each other.

The battlefield was filled with shouts and sounds of metal colliding, like a symphony from hell. The entire battlefield was plunged into a cruel and bloody fight, with the enemy and ours indistinguishable. Blood was splattered everywhere, broken arms and limbs were everywhere, and the shadow of death loomed over everyone.

Yu Youtian can be considered a veteran in the Zhou army. He had joined the army since Meng Jun occupied Suzhou, but it is more appropriate to call him a veteran now. After all, he has been promoted to the position of Qianzong in Ningwu Town and has become a mid-level general in the army.

At this moment, he was in the front row, but he was unscathed, as if the arrows flying everywhere were deliberately avoiding him. Yu Youtian looked at the anxious scene in front of him and couldn't help but said anxiously: "Damn, why is this Tartar's shield like a turtle shell!"

At this time, the guard beside him made a suggestion. The guard looked a little thin, and looked a bit like Li Erdi. He said, "Master Qianzong, I have a plan. We can send some people to squat on the ground and focus on the feet of these Green Camp soldiers. As long as their feet are exposed above the shield, we will hit them. As long as we can make a few enemy soldiers fall, we can take the opportunity to rush over and break the turtle shell!"

After listening to this, Yu Youtian thought about it, nodded and said, "Well, it's okay to try." So he immediately selected some agile soldiers and acted according to the strategy of the guards.

Inadvertently, a soldier's foot was exposed a little from the shield, and was immediately discovered by the soldier squatting on the ground. The soldier poked the soldier's foot with his spear, and the soldier holding the shield screamed and fell to the ground, holding his foot and wailing. The shield also fell to the ground. Seeing this, the other Qing soldiers were in a panic, and some tried to hold up the shield.

Seeing the opportunity, Yu Youtian shouted, "Charge in!" For a moment, shouts of killing were heard everywhere. In this small formation here, the Zhou army had the upper hand.

When Lekedehun saw that Meng Jun had a high platform, he also ordered people to build a simple high platform. Although it was smaller than Meng Jun's, it was enough. Lekedehun stood on the high place, looking at the scene of fighting like ants below, without caring. With hundreds of thousands of people fighting on both sides, how could the outcome be decided so quickly? His eyes were on the artillery positions on Mount Qixia. The artillery deployed by the Zhou army on this mountain made Lekedehun feel uneasy.

Following an order, Babutai led 380 bannermen and more than 12,000 remnants of the Shun army toward Qixia Mountain.

Meng Jun also saw the movements of the Qing army, and ordered Bai Yongfu's Guwu Town to begin moving slowly.