Southern Ming Rebel Army

Outside Suzhou city, the sky is clear and the gentle breeze slowly caresses all things in the world. The rippling blue waves of Yangcheng Lake are a great place for talented men and beautiful women to play. However, at this moment, the tranquility of the beautiful scenery is broken by a solemn atmosphere nearby.

The next morning, after a hearty meal, the Meng army on the west side of Yangcheng Lake walked out of the camp one after another and lined up outside the camp. Regardless of the combat strength of the Meng army, their formation was neat and tidy, giving the appearance of a mighty and majestic army.

The main forces of the three towns were deployed in the front, with 20,000 auxiliary troops in the back. The 30,000 town troops were deployed in clear formations, front and back, left and right, with spears standing in rows and flags fluttering.

The center of Meng's army was Changlin Town led by Meng Jun, the left wing was Ningwu Town led by Lin Shiqi, and the right wing was the newly built Kewu Town. Meng Bizhi's two thousand heavily armored soldiers were deployed on the rear wing of the center army. After a brief discussion with everyone last night, the terrain here restrained the Qing army's cavalry, and the Meng army's tactics were very simple. The three towns would stick to it and disrupt the Qing army's line, and the two thousand heavily armored soldiers would stick to it and directly attack the Qing army's central flag. Tactics that were too complicated could not be executed by soldiers at all. As long as the heavily armored soldiers broke through the Qing army's center line, the battle would naturally be won.

"Listen, as soon as the drum sounds, you must follow the bugle call and march. Don't squeeze, understand? Also, you must remember that you can only move forward, not backward. If you run back, you will be beheaded by the Supervisory Team. If you die at the hands of the Supervisory Team, you will have no money left." Yu Youtian was sweating all over his head at this moment. He kept wiping the sweat with his hands, and at the same time, he warned his soldiers. After Yu Youtian finished speaking, he kept tiptoeing to look forward. There were crowds of people in the front row, and he could not see anything. Yu Youtian kept praying in his heart.

"Great and merciful Guanyin Bodhisattva, bless me, peace and safety, smooth sailing, and help me turn misfortune into good fortune" Yu Youtian kept muttering. At this time, Li Erdi came over and said nervously

"Boss Yu, let's really fight this time!"

"Go away, the formation is ready, do you think we should really fight?" Yu Youtian replied unhappily when his prayer was interrupted, while Li Erdi felt embarrassed and touched his nose, dodged to the side, and clenched his spear tightly.

Bai Yongfu, who was standing opposite, was staring blankly at Meng Jun and said in disbelief, "These bandits are really smart!"

All the generals of the Qing army looked solemn. War was not a game. No matter what kind of enemy they faced, there was no 100% chance of winning. The high-ranking Qing army leaders, who had originally held a disdainful attitude towards Meng Jun and others, changed their views at this moment. The enemy had a neat formation, clear flags, and seemed to be in high spirits.

The formation of Bai Yongfu's Green Camp soldiers was not as neat as that of the bandits on the opposite side. The Qing army also had its elite troops lined up in the front row. As for some of the Green Camp soldiers in the back, they were old and weak and were simply used by Bai Yongfu to make up the numbers. The main force was his own cavalry and servants, and the last trump card was Funi's 1,500 Eight Banners cavalry.

Wu Shunchang whispered to Bai Yongfu, "Marshal, this doesn't look like a good fight."

Bai Yongfu rolled his eyes at Wu Shunchang and said, "It's hard to fight, but we have to fight. Messenger, pull up the big cannon and fire a few rounds. I want to see if the formation of these bandits is in disarray."

The horn sounded under the Qing army's flag, and the Qing army began to prepare for the attack. The war began!

Gao Yi, who was standing beside him, saw the Qing army's movements and said anxiously, "Governor, the Qing army has started to move, with artillery!"

Meng Jun had a serious expression. He had expected the Qing army to have artillery. The two armies were not far apart, and the artillery was slow to load. Three rounds at most was enough. He had to charge forward even if he had to fight to the death.

"Pass the order, beat the drum, attack," Meng Jun shouted loudly.

"Beat the drums, attack..." The messenger shouted Meng Jun's orders loudly, and several messenger cavalrymen ran to the left and right wings to convey the orders.

"Boom... Boom... Boom... Boom..." The sound of drums rumbled through heaven and earth, and everyone's heart was lifted up. Lin Shiqi and Han Xiong on the two wings heard the drums and immediately ordered an attack.

"Kill...kill...kill!" the soldiers of Meng's army shouted in unison. The sound was so loud that the horse under Bai Yongfu's belly became agitated.

At this time, the Qing army also heard the drumbeats from the opposite side. A team of artillerymen were busy assembling gun carriages and digging gun pits. The recoil of the artillery was too great, so gun pits had to be dug. This was to prevent the artillery from retreating too much due to excessive recoil, thus wasting time to readjust the gun position.

"Hurry up, hurry up..." The Qing army's artillery officer kept urging. He saw that the opposite side had started the attack and there was no time to delay any further.

Bai Yongfu stood under the banner and looked at Meng Jun. He couldn't help but look back at his own artillery team and cursed, "What are the artillery team doing? Why aren't they firing yet? You're useless!"

At this time, the front row of the Meng army was about two hundred steps away from the Qing army's line, and the artillery in front of the Qing army had been loaded.

Gao Yi's Adam's apple moved. "General, the Qing army is about to fire. Should we let the soldiers charge?"

Meng Jun shook his head and said, "We can't charge. If we charge, the formation will be disrupted. We can only withstand these three rounds of artillery fire."

As soon as Meng Jun finished speaking, the Qing army's artillery began to roar. Meng Jun looked up and saw bursts of white smoke rising in front of the Qing army's formation, covering all the artillery formations, followed by deafening cannon fire.

Ten cannons fired at the same time. The sound was so loud that Meng Jun's heart trembled. Although the accuracy of the cannons was a bit low, half of the shells still hit Meng Jun's ranks.

I saw a cannonball hit into Meng's army, hitting two people immediately. A cloud of blood mist immediately rose up, and the cannonball ricocheted after hitting the ground, hitting several archers behind the formation.

Some soldiers who were hit but not yet dead were lying on the ground, screaming miserably. The sound made their comrades beside them tremble with fear, but no one stopped at the urging of the drumbeats, but their pace became faster and faster.

Yu Youtian's face turned pale as he listened to the sound of artillery fire and screams in the distance. He secretly felt lucky that he was transferred from Changlin Town to Ningwu Town, otherwise he would be the one being hit by the artillery fire.

Bai Yongfu looked at the bloody mess of Meng's army smashed by the artillery, but there was no smile on his face. Instead, he looked solemn. The battle line was too wide, and these cannons could only fire in one direction and could not cover the entire battlefield.

After firing a shot, the Qing army's gunners immediately cleaned the barrel with a wet cloth wrapped in a ball, then filled it with gunpowder and loaded the shell. The gunners pressed the shell with an iron rod and then adjusted the position.

"Boom boom boom" the second round of shooting arrived as expected. This time the distance was closer and the damage was greater. The morale of the soldiers in Changlin Town in the middle had begun to become unstable.

Although not many soldiers of Changlin Town were killed in the artillery fire, with only more than 200 casualties after two rounds of artillery fire, the morale was hit too hard by just being beaten without being able to fight back.

Meng Jun's face was grim. Without cannons, he could only passively take the beating. However, at this moment, the three towns were only more than 70 steps away from the enemy. The battle was just around the corner. Looking at the somewhat depressed soldiers in front of him, Meng Jun gritted his teeth and said to the messenger, "Beat the drums, charge!"