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

The people from the Fire Gun Battalion, and even the surrounding spearmen and swordsmen, all laughed when they heard this.

As the commander-in-chief of the Beijing Camp, Zhang Shikang did not shy away from the word "run away". Fortunately, the soldiers around him had long been accustomed to it.

A truly strong army will fight hard when it needs to fight, and run hard when it needs to run. These are all tactics. Zhang Shikang has said this in front of everyone more than once.

At this time, several teams of horse-drawn carriages came from the rear, each carrying several large boxes.

Zhang Shikang ordered his men to unload the boxes and place them between each small square formation. As soon as he finished, he heard Sun Weifan's shout:

"The Jiannu are charging, get ready to meet them!"

The ground seemed to be shaking, which was the sound of the collective charge of the Jiannu's two thousand heavy cavalry and three thousand light cavalry.

Although the Beijing Camp also had cavalry, the Ming Dynasty was extremely poor. Even if Chongzhen pawned his underwear, he could not afford to raise 2,000 sets of heavy armor for the Beijing Camp, not to mention vests that were as expensive as heavy armor.

The heavy cavalry were armed almost to the teeth, with only two fierce eyes showing above their visors, and those eyes were filled with brutality and arrogance.

Nurhaci and Huang Taiji conquered almost the entire prairie with the help of heavy armored infantry. Now, except for the two tribes of Khalkha and Tumed, all the Mongols are subject to the Qing Dynasty.

Before this, there were very few armies in this land that could fight against the Jiannu heavy cavalry. Perhaps there had been some, but they were all trampled under their feet.

The flying dust on the battlefield blurred the vision, but the ground was shaking. Everyone knew that it was a group of wild beasts rushing towards them, and many people even held their breath.

"Keep calm!" Zhang Shikang also took a deep breath and shouted.

"Admiral, let's go to the rear." Wen Bangguo advised in a low voice.

In addition to Zhang Shikang's three hundred personal soldiers, there were also a thousand sword and shield men behind him who were specifically responsible for Zhang Shikang's safety.

"No rush, it's almost time, everyone raise your guns!" Zhang Shikang ordered the musketeers.

The cavalry charged very quickly. Following Zhang Shikang's military order, the musketeers in the ten phalanxes immediately took up their positions.

Seeing that the enemy was within range, the commander decisively ordered to open fire, and the musket formation was immediately filled with rumbling gunfire and billowing smoke.

Zhang Shikang's eyes widened as he stared at the Jiannu who were in the front like an eagle.

"Damn! The results are not good. Don't waste time. Look at me!"

After a round of volleys, Zhang Shikang saw with his own eyes that many Jiannu soldiers were hit by bullets, but they did not fall off their horses. Only about five or six unlucky ones were hit by the gaps in the armor of their horses, causing their horses to lose balance and fall off. It was clear that the Rumi gun was not very effective against heavy cavalry.

He decisively ordered his subordinates to stop shooting, and at the same time asked his three hundred personal soldiers to prepare for shooting.

Not only did these 300 personal soldiers perform excellently in the firearms battalion, but most importantly, they used the newly imitated turtledove-foot gun that Mao Yuanyi had successfully made.

This type of gun is more than a foot longer than the Rumi gun, at about 1.8 meters. It is not only long but also heavy. The entire Rumi gun weighs only six or seven pounds, while the Banjiujiao gun weighs more than twenty pounds.

Because of its large size, it naturally uses more gunpowder. The Rumi gun is loaded with four qian of gunpowder and the bullet weighs three qian, and its effective range is only one hundred steps. The Banjiu foot gun is loaded with one or two thirteen qian of gunpowder and the bullet weighs one or two six qian.

Naturally, the range of the gun was incomparable to that of the Rumi gun, reaching a terrifying 200 steps, which is equivalent to 300 meters in modern length units. In this era, it was definitely considered a heavy matchlock gun.

The turtledove-foot gun has another advantage. Since it contains a lot of gunpowder, it can be loaded with up to four lead bullets at a time. Although the effective range and accuracy will be reduced, the firepower can be four times that of usual.

Seeing the Jiannu heavy cavalry getting closer and closer, Zhang Shikang decisively gave the order to his soldiers to open fire.

Boom boom——

Boom boom boom——

Compared with the Rumi gun, the sound of the Banjiu-foot gun was much louder, and it was comparable to the sound of the Ming Dynasty's small tiger squat cannon. Zhang Shikang's ears began to tinnitus.

But he didn't care. He looked through the thick black smoke and saw dozens of Jiannu heavy cavalrymen at the front falling off their horses, with blood spurting out.

Zhang Shikang felt relieved. If the banjo-foot gun couldn't break through the heavy armor defense, even if the Suifa rifle was developed, it would be of no use. He really didn't know how to deal with the enemy's heavy armor in the future.

Fortunately, the effect was quite good. Zhang Shikang even saw an enemy general with his eyes wide open, as if he was surprised that their heavy armor could not withstand the muskets.

"Quick! Open these boxes and throw the caltrops at the enemy!"

As Zhang Shikang spoke, he kicked open the box nearest to him, revealing that the box was filled with caltrops made from melted pig iron.

This caltrop has four protruding iron spikes, each of which is about two inches long. The four spikes point to one side, so that no matter how it is thrown on the ground, there will always be one iron spike pointing straight up, while the other three spikes provide stable support.

When the musketeers saw so many caltrops, their eyes widened. When they saw the admiral grab two handfuls and throw them at the enemy formation, they followed suit and threw them in front of the Jiannu heavy cavalry that were charging in front.

In just a few moments, the six large boxes of caltrops were all thrown within a few dozen meters in front of the phalanx of musketeers.

"What are you waiting for? Run!" After Zhang Shikang said this, he ran to the back of the army.

Wang Jingduo reacted the fastest. He called his subordinates and ran away. Five thousand musketeers evacuated the battlefield where a firefight was about to take place in just a few breaths, so that Wen Bangguo's one thousand sword and shield soldiers could only follow behind and eat dirt.

After the musketeers retreated, the spearmen and heavy shieldmen on both wings quickly filled the gap. The heavy shieldmen were in the front, supporting the heavy shields with their shoulders, followed by three rows of spearmen.

Heavy shields and long spears are the best lineup for resisting cavalry attacks in field battles. The spears in the hands of these spearmen are more than ten feet long and have sharp blades on the spear heads. They place the spears on top of the heavy shields, and the front end of the defense line immediately becomes a hedgehog.

Behind the spears and shields are the traditional combat forces of the Beijing Camp Infantry Camp, the spearmen and the sword teams. Sun Weifan, wearing armor and riding on a warhorse, holding a sword in his hand, anxiously waiting for the arrival of hand-to-hand combat.

Before the Jiannu heavy cavalry could rush to the spear and shield defense line, they encountered caltrops. Although the war horses had horseshoes at this time, the horseshoes could only protect the surrounding areas of the horseshoe but could not protect the center of the hoof.

As soon as they rushed to the place covered with caltrops, some of the war horses were hit. At least dozens of war horses lost their balance and fell to the ground due to the severe pain in their feet.

Under the fierce charge, the war horses suddenly fell to the ground, causing the heavy cavalry on the horses to be thrown out by the huge inertia, and some were tripped by the stirrups and fell to the ground.

However, the heavy cavalry could not be stopped easily. The fallen heavy cavalry and horses were soon trampled by the Jiannu people rushing from behind. For a while, the battle was in chaos with people and horses falling.

But even so, the Jiannu did not seem to panic. The caltrops only slowed down their charge speed. The archers behind the heavy cavalry even took advantage of this gap to start shooting arrows at the soldiers of the Beijing camp.

The heavy cavalry in the front row quickly adjusted their status and rushed towards the Beijing camp again.

A moment later, the Jiannu's heavy cavalry finally collided with the spearmen and shieldmen of the Beijing camp.

The fight began.

……