Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang

At least a dozen phalanxes of musketeers opened fire at the same time, and the entire Guards camp was suddenly filled with smoke.

Amidst the white smoke, the bugler calmly struck the gong in his hand, and the three platoons that had fired their guns retreated in an orderly manner to the last row to reload their ammunition.

The last three rows of soldiers stepped forward one by one and quickly found their positions based on their daily training.

The Guards have similar training almost every day, and the skilled ones can do it with their eyes closed.

In less than ten seconds, the three rows of soldiers had completed all preparations. The bugler blew the whistle in his hand, and the company's muskets opened fire again.

The Mongols who were at the forefront were the first to suffer a head-on blow. At such a close distance, the accuracy of the muskets was greatly improved, and the leather armor prepared by the Qing Dynasty for ordinary soldiers was not enough to resist.

In the first round of shooting alone, at least a thousand people were shot and fell to the ground.

Merlin bared his teeth. He had known that the Ming Dynasty's firearms were powerful, but he had never expected them to be so powerful.

However, once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back, and the large army cannot stop.

Merlin could already see the trenches about ten steps away from the Ming Dynasty's musket formation. As long as he crossed those trenches, he could rush into the enemy formation unhindered.

You must fight for your future.

"No retreat! Anyone who retreats will be killed!" Merlin killed a cowardly guy with one sword, and continued to rush forward while speaking to his subordinates around him.

After the second round of shooting, nearly a thousand more soldiers fell. The casualties of the 20,000-strong army reached 10% after only three rounds of volleys.

For an army, if its morale is not affected by casualties exceeding 10%, it can be considered a strong army.

If the casualties exceed 20%, but the combat effectiveness can still be guaranteed, it can be called elite.

The Mongols had the pride of being a nomadic people, especially when fighting against the Han people. After all, in their eyes, the Han people at that time were no different from sheep, except that the firearms in their hands were more powerful.

After killing dozens of cowardly guys who wanted to retreat, Merlin quickly stabilized the situation on his side. At the same time, the army finally rushed to a place not far from the trench, and Merlin finally saw the true appearance of the trench.

Although there are many records of trench-digging warfare in ancient times, under normal circumstances, neither side in a field battle would dig trenches.

The reason is very simple. In the absence of advanced tools, digging trenches requires huge physical strength and time, and the attacking party will have the initiative in the war.

Unless the defending side anticipates the opponent's plan, it will appear passive.

Such huge construction costs usually only appear in city defense battles, such as moats.

But the situation encountered by the Imperial Guards happened to perfectly meet this condition. Huang Taiji wanted to kill Zhang Shikang at all costs, and Zhang Shikang had only 30,000 people around him.

A general trench is about two steps wide and about the same depth as width, but the trench in front of the Guards phalanx is a little different. Although it is also two steps deep, it is only about one step wide.

When Huang Taiji just arrived near Guanshan, he ordered people to scout there. The trench was just one step wide and could be easily crossed by an ordinary strong man with a running start.

To be on the safe side, Huang Taiji also asked dozens of his personal guards to try it out, and all of them were able to pass through without exception.

So Huang Taiji gave up the idea of collecting beams from everywhere to build a single-plank bridge, as he thought that would greatly slow down the speed of the attack.

This is true under normal circumstances, but when it really came close, Merlin was a little dumbfounded.

The trench was indeed only about one step wide, but it was not flat. Both sides of the trench were filled with soil dumped during the excavation.

This almost deprived his men of the opportunity to run. Some tall ones were still able to jump over, but many of them, although they jumped over, lost their balance because their feet that landed first sank into the soft mud and eventually fell into the trench.

Fortunately, there were no traps such as bamboo swords in the trench, but even so, the soldiers who fell into the pit were all panicked. If one soldier fell in, at least two soldiers would be needed to help, and the remaining soldiers would not dare to try to cross the trench easily.

Most importantly, the emergence of trenches instantly slowed down the troops' charge.

Merlin was even a little glad that no cavalry was sent in this attack. It would not be so easy to stop the charging warhorses immediately, and it would probably cause considerable casualties.

But he soon felt that his congratulations were not worth it, because the Guards' musket phalanx did not stop for a moment.

Since only a few brave and tall soldiers crossed, the efficiency of most soldiers was extremely low due to the pushing and shoving.

The most outrageous thing is that there are two trenches in front of us!

Most of the soldiers who had just crossed over were quickly knocked down by muskets, and those who managed to rush to the front of the formation were stabbed to death by spearmen who rushed out from between the phalanxes.

There are too few people, and they cannot cause enough damage to the enemy formation.

Watching his subordinates falling like wheat being cut, Merlin, who was heartbroken, suddenly frowned.

"Pass on my military order. The front row will be given to the archers. The rest of you stop jumping and go around!"

The design of the two trenches was of course from Zhang Shikang. Sun Weifan originally planned to dig a trench two steps wide, as he believed that only in this way could he effectively prevent the enemy from crossing, but this plan was ultimately rejected by Zhang Shikang.

He believed that only by reducing the width of the trench and digging traps in the details of the trench could the role of the trench be maximized.

This is a question of popular psychology. It seems that people can get over it, and many people can indeed get over it, but in the end some people cannot due to physical or psychological reasons.

This would inevitably cause panic and delay, which would provide the Guards' musketeers' phalanx with more time to shoot.

Of course, Zhang Shikang, who was well versed in public psychology, also left a way for the enemy, which was to take a detour.

There are two strange trenches, one extending outward and the other extending inward, with the middle forming the shape of the word "two".

Not only the front, but the entire Guanshan temporary military camp was surrounded by trenches of this design, and the passable area in the middle of both sides was only about wide enough for three horses to walk together.

If the infantry wanted to rush to the front of the phalanx, they had to either cross it or go around it.

As this was the first time Zhang Shikang encountered an enemy with such a design, he was almost certain that the enemy would first choose to cross over, and only choose to go around after discovering that it was inefficient.

This is the time he wants.

After making this decision, Merlin quickly realized his mistake. During the detour, his subordinates were facing the enemy sideways, which made the shield less effective.

More soldiers fell on the way to the detour, and the casualties of the troops soon reached 20%, and morale plummeted.

The soldier who risked his life to rush to the front turned around and found that the people behind him had not caught up. He immediately cursed and stopped moving forward. Merlin in the back ordered his personal guards to kill the coward who hesitated.

But this time it had no effect at all. The soldiers who wanted to retreat even began to confront the supervision team. At this time, the musketeers of the Guards phalanx fired again.

Almost in an instant, Merlin's entire offensive line collapsed.

The soldiers shouted and fled backwards. They didn't want to stay in this place full of traps and being shot by muskets at any time, but they couldn't touch the enemy.

Merlin wanted to save the situation, but was pushed away by the frightened soldiers and accidentally fell into the trench.

The shooting did not stop, and the trenches continued to play a role as the Mongols retreated, and more soldiers fell into the trenches in panic.

The collective charge of 20,000 Mongolian troops lasted less than two quarters of an hour, and apart from the sporadic damage caused to the guards by archers, they achieved almost nothing.

In the two quarters of an hour from the attack to the retreat, at least 40% of the Mongols died.

The bloodiness was like a one-sided massacre, which is why later generations called this epoch-making war the Guanshan Meat Grinder.

On the high platform, Zhang Shikang put down the monocular telescope in his hand.

Because he found that Huang Taiji opposite him was also looking at him through a telescope.

Zhang Shikang put on a very arrogant pose, as if he was provoking, but also as if he was telling Huang Taiji.

I'm standing right in front of you, come and chop me!