Chapter 261: Marching into Gaoyou Mansion

Xu Yi had been hiding in the woods next to the canal south of Taizhou for a long time. Looking at the bustling scene on the city, he could not participate. He felt itchy. Finally, he was looking forward to the signal from the city.

"The whole team attacked, and the idea was to surround the Tartars, eliminate the enemy at a long range, and try not to get into hand-to-hand combat." Xu Yi ordered loudly.

"Yes!" A thousand energetic cavalry carried war horses and ran towards Taizhou City in the distance.

From a distance, smoke and dust rolled.

Oh no, the other party was ambushing the ambush outside the city! Wanzhetu originally wanted to withdraw from the firearms on the city and surrounded the other party with cavalry from afar. As long as the strategic attempt of the right prime minister of the province was reached, it was not safe even if he left the city, the other party actually had a cavalry unit!

Wanzhetu looked around him. There was only the last team of thousands of people. On the offensive position, the soldiers were retreating. They had been beaten into frightened birds by muskets, and the soldiers who had lost their organization had no combat power at all.

"Send five hundred men to intercept the opponent's cavalry and guard the way back for us." Wanzhetu said.

When they came, the army was now full of military strength, like beggars, soldiers retreating from the city, lucky enough to survive the artillery fire, and their bows and arrows were thrown away, and they all wanted to ride horses from the rear and quickly open the way.

When they attacked just now, they dismounted and became infantry. They went to attack and left the horse's back. Their combat effectiveness was reduced by half. They wanted to pull the horse back, but with the horse, they would easily run away.

Five hundred-man teams hurried forward, trying to intercept the speeding cavalry. They had already seen that in this plain area where there was no danger, if they were not intercepted and surrounded by the other party, they might all be buried here.

Wanzhetu is working hard to rectify the army. Once the defeated soldiers become defeated soldiers, they will have no combat effectiveness at all and have to be reorganized.

Xu Yi noticed the cavalry coming and ordered calmly: "Make two lines of scattered soldiers and prepare the Tianque gun."

After training for so long, although it is still impossible to shoot immediately, it is still possible to do some preparations before shooting immediately. They slowed down the horse speed, spread out, lined up in two rows, and took down the Tianque gun on their backs.

The other party was getting closer and closer, and Xu Yi ordered loudly: "Stop the horse and prepare to shoot."

The cavalry team stopped, and the soldiers rode on horseback, raised the Tianque guns, loaded the ammunition, and prepared to shoot.

Although the horseback is not as stable as the flat ground and the accuracy of shooting is also worse, after the fight, it will run away, which is convenient. Besides, one thousand Tianque guns are shooting at the same time, and the firepower is still very fierce. It is effective against the dense Tartar cavalry in front.

The Tatar cavalry also discovered something wrong. The cavalry in front stopped, held up muskets and aimed at them. Thinking of the corpses under the city wall, their horse speed also slowed down.

"Bang, bang bang." The sound of the musket sounded, and suddenly, countless Tartars fell off the horse's back. At this time, they had not yet reached the range of the bow and arrow, and they were only beaten and could not fight back.

It's really a bad thing. If they were fast, the shooting accuracy would be poor. Now, they were running slower and slower, which gave Xu Yi's soldiers time to aim and shoot. They methodically plucked the lever on the top, loaded ammunition, aimed, plucked the lever below, and shot, and everything was the same as training.

The war horse under his crotch has long been accustomed to the sound of this kind of musket, and only occasionally shakes his hooves.

After the end, the bald man looked back and his face turned pale. Most of the five hundred cavalrymen lay down under the firepower of the opponent's cavalry, with only dozens of cavalry left. They turned their horses and were running back. While running, they looked back from time to time, as if there were demons behind them.

There were a thousand muskets on the top of the city, which made tens of thousands of Tartars bloody, not to mention using a thousand muskets to deal with five hundred Tartar cavalry. Each person only had to shoot three or four times, and the five hundred cavalry were wiped out.

The Tartars are also humans, not gods. Today's battle has completely overturned their image. They did not carry out the bloody battle between two armies, swords and swords, at all. They were just charging forward, as if they were going to die, and were defeated by the enemy, but they could not kill each other. Some of them could no longer withstand this blow and their spirits were on the verge of collapse.

Escape, only by escaping can you have a way out.

They could not go under the city wall, and their way was blocked again, so they had to escape to both sides.

Tang He stood at the top of the city and wanted to curse his mother. Xu Yi still didn't understand his intentions. Why are you so concentrated? Hurry up and surrounded the Tartars and chased me over. The Tartars on both sides have begun to run away. The encirclement has not yet been formed. This time, the effect of complete annihilation has not been achieved.

"Two hundred men, come down with me." Tang He cursed, "This kid Xu Yi, I will teach you a lesson when I come back!"

"Mr. Tang, do you want to go down?" Li Huafu asked.

"Of course, now is the time to beat the Tartars." Tang He said and walked down.

In fact, Xu Yi also had his own difficulties. Although he had trained cavalry for half a year, it was still impossible to achieve the same cavalry as the Tartars. The Tartars escaped, but they were crazy. They could only blame Tang He for giving orders too late. If they were to be dispatched for a while earlier, they could still form a perfect encirclement.

The city gate was opened, the suspension bridge was lowered, and countless soldiers rushed out of the city.

Tang He rode a horse and rushed out the first time, but the ones behind him were infantry, which was not as fast as him.

Looking at the Tatars who had already gone away, Tang He shook his head helplessly. No matter how fast his legs were, he could not catch up with the four-legged horse. This place was not far from the Yangzhou border. Once the Tatars escaped back to the Yangzhou border, it would be difficult to catch up.

Suddenly, a musket sounded from the east gate, and Tang He rang out. There were still a small group of people in the east. These Tartars must not be allowed to slip away.

Xu Yi has already started to lead his team to chase the escaped Tartars. This battle only eliminated 500 Tartars. Compared with the corpses of Tartars on the ground outside, it is simply a witch, and Xu Yi is also very unwilling to accept it.

The battle outside the West City Wall has ended. At this moment, it has become a Shura hell. At the front are hundreds of trembling civilians. They can't believe that they have survived this bloody battlefield!

Behind the civilians were countless corpses. The infantry hit by muskets were still quite complete. The cavalry hit by muskets fell off the horse and had been trampled into meat paste by horses. The worst was the Tartars behind who were hit by scattered flowers. A marble the size of a broad bean could blow their heads into bloom, not to mention that there were so many marbles falling down at the same time. Their death was extremely terrifying. Some had brains, some had broken into several pieces, and there were broken bodies everywhere. The unowned war horses were crying beside the corpses, and the entire land was stained with blood.

Looking at the entire battlefield, there are tens of thousands of Tartars that are probably eliminated this time! Li Huafu was dumbfounded. He was glad that he had chosen the right lord. Zhang Shicheng was simply the nemesis of Tartars! Li Huafu resisted the feeling of vomiting and walked out of the city gate.

Now, all we need to do is to bury the body as soon as possible. It is hot summer now, and the body is prone to decay and cause plague. As the prefect of Taizhou, Li Huafu knows the importance of it.

The hundreds of civil servants in front can also promote Taizhou's policies to attract them to come. Although there are only a few hundred civil servants, they can lead thousands or even tens of thousands of people in their village to come. Especially when they survived this time, it was all due to the defenders. When they went back to add fuel to the fire, they were very appealing.

The battle in the east of the city was soon over, and the Tartars were divided into two parts. The Tartars in the east launched an attack due to detours. They did not know that Wanzhetu on this side had been defeated. After they were approached by the defenders, they shot violently. Few survived and were all destroyed under the city.

Xu Yi chased the Tartars and reached the Yangzhou border. The Tartars entered Shaobo Station, and he led his troops back. It was estimated that there were only a few hundred Tartars who fled to Shaobo Station.

One general succeeded and his bones were bleak. In this battle, Tang He had become the spokesperson for the devil in the eyes of the Tartars.

At this time, the main force led by Yu Que had gradually approached Gaoyou Mansion. Yu Que had always been cautious when he joined the army. He knew very well that Zhang Shicheng was not easy to deal with because Zhang Shicheng had a very powerful musket with a range far exceeding the bow and arrow, and his firepower was dense, causing heavy losses to the attacking troops.

Using your own strengths and attacking the opponent's weaknesses is the way to win. Along the way, Yu Que was thinking about what kind of tactics to use to offset the opponent's advantages.

There are also muskets in the court, but as far as I know, they cannot be compared with Zhang Shicheng's muskets, and they are not even as good as the muskets equipped by Zhu Yuanzhang's army. It is a bit unrealistic to use muskets to deal with muskets.

Among the long-range weapons, there are also catapults, but catapults are relatively bulky, inconvenient to carry, and poor accuracy, so they cannot suppress the opponent's musket.

When he was about to arrive at Gaoyou Mansion, Yu Que finally came up with a good idea: Since he could not resist the advantage of the opponent's musket, let the opponent down to the same level as himself and attack at night!

In the dark night, you can't see the other party ten steps away. Even if there is fire on the top of Gaoyou Mansion, you can't see the place fifty steps away. Fifty steps are enough to fully utilize the advantages of his bow and arrow. No matter how far Zhang Shicheng's musket is, it's useless. He can't aim and can only shoot randomly, and his lethality is definitely not high.

Once you step onto the city, it will be a close contact. Yu Que believes that as long as his tens of thousands of troops climb to the city and break through Gaoyou City, it will be easy!

Yu Que was indeed right. If you attack in the dark night, the shooting ability of the musketeers will be greatly reduced, and the bows and arrows can be completely shot on the top of the city. When you fall into hand-to-hand combat, the attack can be considered a success. Because the musketeers are not strong in hand-to-hand combat. Although they have bayonets and spearmen, once the enemy attacks the wall, the consequences will be very serious.

Siege is called the meat grinder in all battles, because during the battle at the city, it will ruthlessly devour the lives of soldiers on both sides. Zhang Yang achieved a "zero casualties" battle with his advanced weapons. However, once he is attacked on the city, the situation will turn sharply. The attacking party will be motivated by the morale of the attacking party. The defending party also wants to drive the other party down to the death, and his life will be ruthlessly harvested.

However, what Yu Que didn't expect was that Zhang Yang had prepared for it, and the night was no longer the night.

"Lord, Fei Ge from Taizhou passed a letter saying that all the Tartars who attacked Taizhou had been repelled and more than 10,000 people were eliminated." Luo Guanzhong said.

Taizhou started working so quickly? Tang He is really a war material. Zhang Yang turned his head from the map: "Guanzhong, our carrier pigeons can be put into use?"

"It's not entirely true, but Xinghua, salt fields, Taizhou, and the naval camp outside can already communicate with us. However, they cannot communicate with each other and can only transit through us." Luo Guanzhong said.

If Zhang Yang wants to achieve mutual communication between the two places, the number of passenger pigeons needed will increase by a factor of a magnitude. It is rare to be able to achieve interoperability with the central Gaoyou Mansion.

"Lord, Tartars have appeared in Taizhou. So, the Tartars are probably coming near us," said Shi Nai'an.

Gaoyou Prefecture and Taizhou are about the same distance from Yangzhou. Since the Tatars can go to Taizhou, they should also go to Gaoyou Prefecture.

Zhang Yang nodded. He had a premonition that the Tartars must have arrived, but for some reason, or in other words, some conspiracy did not appear.

"Guanzhong, what is the situation around him? Have you noticed it?" Zhang Yang asked. Luo Guanzhong was also responsible for inquiring about the surrounding war situation. He sent a roaming sentry around him and detecting the whereabouts of the Tartars.

"So far, only Taizhou has come into contact with the Tartars. Xinghua and the Salt Field are far away. At the speed of the Tartars, they may not come into contact tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. There are two tatars near our Gaoyou Mansion, and the north is one of the way. As General Bian defeated the Tartars on the water, the opponent was slow to move. It is expected to arrive at Gaoyou Mansion tomorrow. The team from Yangzhou in the south, led by the right prime minister of the province, Yu Que, has passed Jijiazhuang and is expected to arrive at Gaoyou Mansion tomorrow. It is very likely that we will be able to exchange fire with the Tartars tomorrow." Luo Guanzhong said.

Zhang Yang stared at the map and would arrive tomorrow, so it would be safe tonight? He had a strong premonition, the Tartars, with such a huge momentum this time, would never make the same mistake like the previous few times, and they must be plotting something.

Zhang Yang opened the window. Outside, the sun had already set, and the light moonlight shone into the window.

A crescent moon, like a small boat, hangs high in the sky.

"Lord, it's the crescent moon now. When it's fifteenth, the moon will be full." Shi Nai'an didn't know what Zhang Yang was thinking, and looked at the moon in a daze.

"The crescent moon," Zhang Yang said: "Then the moon will go down in the second half of the night, right?"

"Yes, lord, this is the moon phase. Today is the ninth day of the day, and the moon will rise. In the second half of the night, it will go down and then it will be dark." Shi Nai'an suddenly reacted: "Lord, what do you mean?" He thought of a possibility.

Zhang Yang nodded: "That's what it means. In the second half of the night, the night was dark, and the soldiers were sleeping soundly. Even the soldiers guarding the city, the power of our Tianque gun would be greatly reduced, and the soldiers would never be tired of cheating!"

Hearing Zhang Yang's explanation, Luo Guanzhong also reacted and immediately sweated. The lord's concerns made a lot of sense. If these Tartars did not choose to launch an attack during the day, but at night, in the second half of the night, they were unable to defend themselves, they would probably be attacked by the Tartars.

No one is a fool. After being hit by the Tianque gun so many times, the Tartars must have been considering countermeasures. During the day, it is a one-sided battle. The Tartars will not have the chance to attack. On the contrary, if they are at night, they will probably succeed, especially tonight, because according to the spies' reward, the Tartars will only arrive at Gaoyou Mansion tomorrow, and the soldiers still think it is safe now. If the other party continues to rush to the night, they can arrive in the second half of the night. In the second half of the night, all the soldiers have not yet entered the combat state, and night attacks will be a very effective means.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt that it was possible. No wonder the Tartars' march was so slow, just to paralyze the defenders. Luo Guanzhong said: "Lord, then let the soldiers go to the top of the city tonight."

"After getting on the top of the city, can our soldiers effectively stop the Tartars from being outside the range of the bow and arrow in the dark night?" Zhang Yang said.

"Yes, our advantage now is the range. At night, the range will be reduced. If the Tartars enter the range of the bow and arrow, it will cause us a lot of casualties." Shi Nai'an also said.

"It seems that I have to let my secret weapon come on the field." Zhang Yang said with heartache.

Secret weapon? The two were stunned. Since they followed Zhang Yang, they have seen many new things. Now, they have secret weapons again?

"Let the soldiers move the fireworks in the warehouse to the top of the city." Zhang Yang said.

The two of them suddenly realized that they couldn't see it at night, so it was very simple. Isn't it done to illuminate the night? How to illuminate the night? It is obviously unrealistic to use kerosene lamps, and it is too easy to use fireworks. The colorful fireworks are enough to illuminate the night sky.

Zhang Yang was very distressed. He didn't even want to use these fireworks when he got married. He prepared a few of them to prepare for the full moon wine of his children. Now, all of them are cheaper.

In order to make the fireworks look better, Jiao Yu also improved the internal components, added some luminous substances, and created more than a dozen new fireworks for Zhang Yang. After they exploded in the sky, it was enough to illuminate the ground as bright as in the daytime. As a gift to Zhang Yang's child, everyone regarded this child as the first dragon son. Of course, there was another reason. Jiao Yu, who likes firearms, also likes to make fireworks the most. Make a few first, and see how the elder brother reacted. If he was like that Mr. Zhu, he said that he was not doing his job properly, then restrain himself. If he didn't say it, he would continue to build it in the future. Now in this name, the elder brother should not scold him, right?
Chapter completed!