Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 298: Battle of Xiaomaoshan (End)
After firing ten rapid rounds, each gun began to clean the barrel with a special brush with a twisted iron hook. By reaching into the muzzle and digging, some unburned residual powder bags and rags could be brought out.

After cleaning up the debris, scrub the barrel with a felt brush dipped in water. Do not wipe it dry. Allow the water stains inside to evaporate naturally, which can quickly cool down the cannon. Other members of the artillery crew are also taking this opportunity to restore their strength.

At the same time, on the Yuan army side, since it was the first time they faced a sudden artillery attack, the Yuan army from top to bottom, from the main generals to the soldiers, lacked understanding of the performance and tactical patterns of this new weapon, and lacked experience in dealing with artillery, which led to their serious misjudgment.

During the first round of test firing, Yue Lu and Chen Zhaoxian were in the center of the army. They only heard a burst of artillery fire but could not see the tragic situation on the front line. From their perspective, they could only see some commotion in the front, but it was quickly suppressed by the officers and the formation continued to advance, which gave them an illusion.

Oh, this thing does have a long range, but its power seems to be just so-so.

Indeed, the power of using a smoothbore cannon to fire solid bullets is not very good. A solid iron ball can only hit a few people. But their mistake was that they misjudged the number of artillery pieces of the Shengwu Army and their concentrated use of them. The most critical thing was the firing rate of the artillery pieces.

Yuelutemur and Chen Zhaoxian were still subconsciously applying their understanding of the Yuan army's bowl-mouthed gun to Lu Jin's artillery, thinking that it was just a bowl-mouthed gun with a longer range. After all, people cannot imagine something they have never seen before.

What was the Yuan army's bowl-mouthed gun? It was a mortar with no airtightness at all, with a high trajectory, mostly used in naval battles, to project projectiles and smash the decks of enemy ships from top to bottom.

This thing is used in land field battles. It cannot be said to be completely useless, but its effect is also very limited.

So based on the wrong understanding, Yue Lu gave the order to continue the advance.

But then, when that round of ten rapid shots was fired, even if he wanted to regret it, he had no chance.

There were 96 cannons, plus the first round of test firing, with each cannon firing 11 rounds, and a total of 1056 shells were fired in a short period of time. Even if each shell only hit a single-digit number of enemy troops, thousands of shells were enough to knock down several thousand people.

Moreover, the burning of black powder will release a large amount of white smoke. If thousands of cannons are fired in a short period of time, the sprayed smoke will be like a thick fog.

In addition, it was autumn and the wind was blowing from the west. The Shengwu Army's formation was located upwind, while the Yuan Army was located downwind. As a result, all the thick smoke drifted to the Yuan Army's side, causing the Yuan Army's front formation to be completely covered by smoke and the vision of the central army behind was also limited.

The soldiers in the front line could not see the situation on both sides. They only knew that they were being beaten badly. Yue Lu and Chen Zhaoxian in the central army could not see the tragic situation in front of them either. They could only hear the continuous sound of artillery fire. However, they had no intuitive concept of the killing effect of the artillery fire and just kept beating drums to advance.

After this round of ten rapid shots, there was no more gun smoke coming out of the Shengwu Army's front line. The smoke covering the Yuan Army was blown behind the central army by the wind. As the entire Yuan Army formation moved forward, Yue Lu saw a field of dead bodies left in the open space between the front and central armies.
Seven or eight thousand mutilated corpses were lying on the ground in all directions, and there were many wounded soldiers who were not yet dead screaming there. The scene was truly one of corpses everywhere and blood flowing like a river.

The front army's formation was already in ruins at this time. The original formation of 25,000 people was reduced to more than 17,000 people. The remaining soldiers were timid and dared not move forward.

The soldiers in the central army who saw this scene all gasped. Chen Zhaoxian opened his mouth in surprise. Yue Lu saw the scene of corpses everywhere and felt dizzy. His eyes went dark and his blood pressure soared. He almost fell off his horse.

This old man, who is almost 70 years old and has been struggling with his serious illness until now, is finally unable to bear it.
"grown ups!"

"grown ups!"

Fortunately, the guards on both sides were quick to support Yue Lu. Chen Zhaoxian also hurried over and asked, "Sir Pingzhang, do you want to retreat to Wuxiang Mountain to set up camp, regroup, and then make plans?"

"Cough, cough, cough—"

Upon hearing this, Yue Lu seemed to have a last burst of energy. His face turned unusually red. He grabbed Chen Zhaoxian's wrist and coughed violently for a while. Then he stared at Chen Zhaoxian and said in a weak but firm voice.

"We can't retreat! If we retreat now, our morale will collapse and we will have no chance of defeating the bandits.

"Move 5,000 men from each of the left and right central armies. The central and rear armies should press forward in turn. Speed ​​up and charge forward to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the bandits. If we can't wipe them out in this battle, they will become a serious problem in the future. Even if half of them die today, we must not let the bandits escape alive! Puff, cough cough cough cough——"

Chen Zhaoxian was immediately embarrassed when he heard this, "But the morale of the front troops has been lost, I'm afraid they dare not continue to move forward."

Yue Lu opened his cloudy eyes, stretched out his hand and grabbed a soldier on his left hand side. "Let Shu Lun lead my soldiers to supervise the battle. Those who are afraid of the enemy and don't move forward will be killed!"

"But."

"Go quickly! Cough cough cough cough--" Yue Lu coughed violently and coughed up a mouthful of blood. Even so, he waved his hand to urge Chen Zhaoxian to go and mobilize troops quickly.

Yue Lu was being watched by his personal soldiers, and Chen Zhaoxian had no choice. He couldn't just run away at this time, so he could only bite the bullet and give orders for Yue Lu. Although Chen Zhaoxian was the Marshal of the Jiqing Road Volunteer Army promoted by Yue Lu, in the eyes of Yue Lu's personal soldiers, he was still just a humble Han Chinese, and those Mongolian personal soldiers would not tolerate him.

However, just when he was about to leave, Yue Lu called him again.

"Move the cavalry to harass the flanks and cover the advance of the main army."

"Yes."

Looking at the cold eyes of several Mongolian soldiers around Yue Lu, Chen Zhaoxian had no choice but to agree.

He himself was gritting his teeth in hatred, not only because he could not kill Lu Jin to avenge his father, but also because he hated Yue Lu's indifference towards him. When he used him before, he was very caring towards him, treating him like his own son or nephew, but now it was his turn to be sent to die, and the old thief Yue Lu was not at all vague.

These are all the soldiers Chen Zhaoxian transferred from Jiqing Road!
They are not your soldiers, so you wouldn't feel bad about sending them away, right?
With a bang, the cannon sounded and the officers of the Yuan army looked towards the central army. They saw the signal flags of the central army waving. The left and right wings quickly dispatched 5,000 men each to move towards the front army. The central army also sent 5,000 men to reinforce the front army. Yue Lu's personal officer Shu Lun also brought 2,000 men forward to supervise the battle.

The front army formation, which had been reduced to more than 17,000 people just now, was replenished to more than 30,000 people, which was more than the initial number.

Boom boom boom boom————

The drums urging the troops to march forward sounded again, but some soldiers in the front army had already been frightened by the artillery fire. Not only did they shrink back, some even turned around and ran away in fear, and were then shot to death on the spot by the Mongolian soldiers who were supervising the battle.

"Those who fear the enemy and do not move forward will be killed!"

As the supervision team walked along the way, they saw some wounded soldiers who were hit by artillery shells and were lying there howling in pain. They also ruthlessly executed them with their swords.

"Those who disturb the morale of the army will die!"

After killing hundreds of people in a row, the other wounded soldiers were so frightened that they gritted their teeth and held on, not daring to utter a single scream.

The remaining soldiers in the front line were also pushed from behind to continue moving forward. The officers in the front line were helpless when looking at this situation. Today they would either die at the hands of the supervision team or die in front of the enemy. They could only comfort themselves and the soldiers.

"Don't be afraid, everyone. The enemy's artillery has stopped. Keep moving forward. There will be rewards for killing the enemy. Charge forward!"

"Yes, the enemy troops are out of ammunition. Go ahead! There will be a huge reward for capturing their muskets! Kill them!"

Listening to the encouragement of those officers, the Yuan army line finally continued to move forward timidly. After walking 20 or 30 steps forward, they found that the Shengwu Army line did not fire any more artillery, so they began to move forward boldly.
On the hillside of Xiaomao Mountain, the people who were watching the battle were already dumbfounded. They were several miles away from the battlefield, and two rounds of artillery fire had already been fired over there, but they had just heard the sound of artillery fire here.

Looking at the white mist spewing out from the Shengwu Army's front line and the continuous artillery sound like thunder, they then saw that the Yuan Army's front formation was becoming thinner and thinner.

At first they didn't feel anything, but as time went on and the bombardment continued, the strength of the Yuan army's front line suddenly decreased sharply. In a blink of an eye, they became sparse and disorganized at a speed visible to the naked eye. As the Yuan army's front moved forward, a large number of corpses were left behind them.

Liu Liu and Qiu Chuyi were both stunned. Liu Liu muttered in a daze, "What is that thing that Hongjin is using? Could it be that Marshal Lu has invited the Dragon King to make thunder and puff out clouds and mist?"

The middle-aged Confucian scholar Chen Mao grabbed a branch, leaned forward and looked at the battlefield below the mountain. He swallowed his saliva involuntarily, and waited until this round of shelling stopped before he spoke to Mr. Shen beside him.

"I now believe that he is the descendant of Gongshu. According to legend, Gongshu Ban was well versed in military strategy and helped the King of Chu build hooks and repellents, train naval forces, and pacify the Baiyue. He also helped the State of Chu attack the State of Song and built siege rams. He was especially good at making military equipment.

"Although I don't know what the Luzhou Red Scarf used, if there is anyone in this world who can really make such a weapon, it must be the descendant of Gongshu!"

Mr. Shen frowned and said, "So they should have won this battle, right?"

Chen Mao shook his head. "It's hard to say now. After all, the government troops have more people. Look, they are mobilizing troops again. But if the weapons of Hongjin can continue to be used, then this battle will be won without a doubt!"

Sure enough, just as they were talking, white smoke and flames began to spew out from the Shengwu Army's line at the foot of the mountain again.

On the central watchtower of the Shengwu Army, Lu Jin used a telescope to see the movements of the two wings of the Yuan army, as well as the execution of the wounded by the supervision team and the internal strife between the soldiers in the front army. He immediately realized that the enemy's morale had collapsed, and now they were just using power and pressure to force the soldiers to move forward.

It seems that Yue Lu and Chen Zhaoxian still want to increase the stakes, thinking that they can fill the distance of 900 meters with numbers, but they are overthinking it.

Some soldiers in the front of the Yuan army were either trying to comfort themselves or really believed the officers' lies, shouting that the enemy had run out of ammunition while marching forward. However, each gun in his artillery battalion had an ammunition cart with 40 to 50 rounds of ammunition. With the rapid firing just now, he could still fire at least two or three rounds.

So he immediately gave Yang Huan another order: the target was nine hundred meters away, the enemy's large formation, ten rapid shots, and another round!
After receiving the order, Yang Huan immediately issued firing information and instructions to each company.

"Field artillery company, target 900 meters, firing angle 3 degrees, No. 1 charge, solid bullets loaded, 10 rounds rapid fire, ready!"

"Heavy artillery company, target 900 meters, firing angle 2 degrees, No. 1 charge, solid bullets loaded, 10 rounds rapid fire, ready!"

"Light artillery company, target 900 meters, firing angle 5 degrees, charge No. 1, grenades loaded, 10 rounds of rapid fire, ready!"

"Ten rapid fire shots, ready!"

"Hello, field artillery company!"

"Heavy artillery company, good job!"

"Light artillery company, good job!"

"fire!"

Boom boom boom boom boom————

Now the distance between the two sides is only 900 meters, which is finally within the range of the light howitzer.

This type of gun has a caliber of 120 mm, but the barrel caliber and thickness are shortened, and the weight of the gun is forcibly reduced to more than 14 kilograms at the expense of range. Even if the largest charge is loaded and the ballistic trajectory is high, it can only fire a 1200-jin solid iron bullet to meters, or a blooming grenade to meters.

Just now, because the distance was too far, the 32 light howitzers in the middle could only watch, but now they can finally fire together.

Boom boom boom boom boom————

This round of artillery attack was obviously more fierce than the previous one. 128 cannons fired at the same time, and the firepower density was almost one-third more than the previous round.

Among them, 32 guns fired shrapnel grenades, which exploded violently when they fell into the enemy camp. There were also 96 guns firing solid bullets, which were fired at a low angle and flat on the distance. The probability of the shells bouncing increased greatly. An eight-jin shell could generally bounce three times, and a 23-jin shell had a chance of bouncing twice, which greatly enhanced the lethality of the shells.

On the Yuan army side, when the soldiers of the front army shouted that the enemy army had no artillery shells and began to charge forward bravely, deafening thunder came from the front line of the Shengwu Army again, which was undoubtedly a ruthless mockery of their self-deception and broke the defense of those soldiers whose morale was on the verge of collapse.

In just one round of volleys, hundreds of iron balls rushed into the Yuan army's formation. The distance of 900 meters allowed the shells to retain more kinetic energy than in the first round of shooting, and the power was even greater. They could often penetrate four or five directly before bouncing off the ground again.

Dong dong dong dong dong dong——

The Yuan army's war drums were still beating loudly, but the front line could hardly move forward even a little bit. The Shengwu Army had 128 cannons, and each round of bombardment could knock down thousands of people. With such horrific killing power, no matter how stubborn the Yuan army was, they could not withstand the artillery shells and continue to charge.

The two wings of the Yuan army's front line had moved forward more than a hundred meters, but the front line in the middle was bombarded with grenades, directly blowing up a large number of people. The people behind wanted to move forward but had no way to do so unless they stepped over the people in front. But even if they did, bombs would still fly over their heads continuously. The front line of the Yuan army in the middle had come to a complete stop.

Some Yuan army soldiers turned around and fled backwards. Even though there were Mongolian supervisors, they did not hesitate. Facing the swords and arrows of the supervisors was better than facing the terrifying artillery shells.

Some of them who could not escape simply lay down where they were and luckily managed to save their lives. The shells had no obstructions and flew directly over their heads and into the crowd of supervisors. Bombs have no eyes and naturally cannot choose targets. They will explode wherever they block the flight path of the shells.

Boom boom boom boom——

The supervisory team in the back row of the Yuan army's front line finally tasted the pain of being bombed. No matter whether you are Mongolian or Han, all are equal under the muzzle of the cannon. The 2,000-man supervisory team was soon thrown into chaos. Seeing this, many soldiers in the front ran back immediately without the supervisory team's obstruction. The front line of the Yuan army finally collapsed, and the middle section collapsed first, breaking the entire formation directly into two.

At both ends of the front line, the situation was a bit strange. The soldiers in the front row found that they would be hit by artillery shells if they stood up, so they immediately lay on the ground to avoid the bombardment. However, if they lay still, they would be stepped on by the people behind them. So they began to crawl forward on the ground to avoid being stepped on by the people behind them.
Lu Jin glanced through the telescope and saw this bizarre scene. At both ends of the Yuan army's front line, several thousand soldiers each were lying on the ground and crawling forward. Without their obstruction, the flying shells immediately hit the people in the back row, causing the back row to also collapse.

In the middle section of the formation, everyone was running backwards or crawling to the sides.

Seeing such a scene, what else can be said? Lu Jin immediately drew his sword and shouted, "Stop the shelling, and charge!"

The war drums that had been silent for a long time finally sounded on the Shengwu Army's front. When tens of thousands of people heard the drumbeats and the flags of the central army, their morale was immediately boosted.

Yang Jing immediately sent several messengers to run behind each cannon to deliver orders one by one to make sure they didn't miss the message.

"Stop shelling, artillery, clear the way!"

"Stop shelling, artillery, clear the way!"

Upon hearing the order, each artillery company that had already loaded their guns fired their shells, while those that had not yet loaded their guns stopped immediately.

At the light howitzer in the middle, they fired shrapnel grenades. It was not easy to stop this thing. The iron shell shell was embedded in a round wooden support, and the fuse was hidden in the groove on the side of the wooden support. Once the fuse was ignited, it had to be loaded and fired quickly, otherwise it would explode around you.

Even if they wanted to stop, they had to fire the lit shell in their hands first, so the cannon fire in the middle was the last to stop.

At the Imperial Guards' Musket Battalion behind the artillery array, Li Wang, Qin Rong, Guo Xing, and Zheng Yulin, the battalion officers, also shouted, "Everyone, attach your bayonets! Charge!"

"According to the company and platoon, do not fall behind, do not run away, and maintain the power of the volley!"

Then each of them led their own battalion to attack from the pre-divided positions and killed the Yuan army that had already collapsed in front of them.

Yang Jing and Yu Tonghai who were further behind were not to be outdone, and they also rushed over from the left and right with their melee spearmen.

"Surrender without killing!"

"Come on!"

"Drive out the Tartars and restore China!"

The soldiers of the Shengwu Army were like wild horses that had broken free from their reins, and they immediately set off a wave of red and yellow on the battlefield. The soldiers wearing red and yellow armor chased the fleeing Yuan army all the way to the east.

Ye Sheng also seized the opportunity and dispatched two battalions to go to the southeast and northeast respectively to intercept the fleeing Yuan army.

Bian Yuanheng took the lead and led a group of imperial cavalry to charge towards the Yuan army's central army flag.

Lu Jin stayed where he was with the seven chariot camps and most of the artillery camps. He stood on the watchtower and watched the red and yellow tides gradually submerge the Yuan army, feeling bored.

"I have prepared eight battalions of muskets for you, but they haven't been deployed yet. How come you couldn't even withstand two rounds of bombardment?"

I wonder if Yuelu Timur would be so angry that he would vomit blood if he knew Lu Jin was thinking this. Well, this old thief Yuelu had already coughed up blood just now, and now he has fainted. He didn't even see the final collapse of the Yuan army. What a pity.

Chen Zhaoxian was well prepared. He just advised Yue Lu to withdraw his troops, but Yue Lu didn't listen. The front army had no morale at that time and was on the verge of collapse. You still forced them to move forward. There was no way they could be defeated.

He had already made plans to escape. He did not flee even when the Yuan army was defeated in the front line. It was not until the artillery fire of the opposite Shengwu Army stopped, the war drums beat, and a large number of armored soldiers shouted and rushed out of the formation that he finally ran away with his personal soldiers.

It's a pity that someone had already been eyeing him. Bian Yuanheng led more than 800 imperial cavalry guards and ignored everyone else. He just kept chasing after Chen Zhaoxian's small group of people. Both sides chased them out of the rear of the Yuan army and were still in hot pursuit.

On the hillside of Xiaomao Mountain, Shen Yuanwai and Chen Mao looked at each other and said in unison, "The government troops are finished. Jiangnan is about to change."

Liu Liu watched the Yuan army being pushed back by the Shengwu Army and shouted excitedly, "I want to go down the mountain to join the army and share the land!"

Unexpectedly, this time everyone around stopped acting, and several young men shouted, "Let's go together."

"Let's go together!"

(End of this chapter)