Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 346: The Eastern Expedition to Punish Yuan and Save the People (Part )
The Prince's Qiexue cavalry led by Yesu was the real elite of the Yuan army. Every cavalryman wore iron armor, was equipped with bows and swords, and their horses were of better quality than those of the Shengwu Army. Therefore, although Zheng Yong had paid the price of nearly a hundred casualties from yesterday to now, he had not been able to cause much damage to Yesu until this counterattack.

Earlier, Zheng had launched a surprise attack with his left-handed musket, killing nearly 400 Yuan soldiers on the spot. Then Zhang Huzi attacked from the right side, and when the Yuan army was unable to effectively counterattack, he launched a wave of "line shooting" at close range, causing more than 600 casualties to the Yuan army. These two attacks alone caused the loss of 1,000 of Yesu's 3,000 cavalrymen.

However, this was not the end. Just as the Yuan army was turning around and reorganizing their troops in a panic, Qi Xiang led a battalion of lancers and attacked from behind Yesu and his men.

If the two armies collide head-on with the lancers and the wall charge, it would naturally be tragic. However, in reality, according to a cavalry book written by a French cavalry general, in a hundred cavalry clashes, there may not be a single time when the two sides can collide head-on. In most cases, one side will be the first to be unable to withstand the pressure and turn around and flee, and then the stronger side will chase the weaker side.

Qi Xiang's surprise attack on Yesu was even simpler. The Yuan cavalry had just suffered two rounds of musket attacks and were still in shock. Qi Xiang and his men attacked from behind the Yuan army, and the Yuan army had no time to turn around and fight. So this time it was not a cavalry confrontation, but a one-sided pursuit.

Seeing Qi Xiang rushing towards them with great momentum, the Yuan army did not even think of turning around to fight and started to flee. The Yuan army on both wings of the cavalry formation turned to the sides to get out of Qi Xiang's attack route, while those Yuan army caught in the middle could not turn around because of the obstruction of friendly forces on both sides and could only urge their horses to flee forward.

But it was too late to speed up and escape now. The third battalion led by Qi Xiang had already sped up and charged fiercely, chasing the Yuan army from behind. They shot and killed one by one and soon broke through the Yuan army's cavalry formation and escaped. This sneak attack from behind caused more than 700 casualties to the Yuan army.

In the blink of an eye, in less than a quarter of an hour, the Yuan cavalry, which had previously numbered three thousand, now only had about thirteen thousand left.

Yesu himself was also caught in the middle, but his mount was too powerful and could accelerate very quickly in short distances, allowing him to run to the left wing before Qi Xiang caught up with him and successfully escape.

However, Yesu, who successfully escaped, did not feel any joy of escaping death, because Qi Xiang's third battalion had just rushed over when Zheng Yong and Zhang Huzi's two battalions had already finished loading their muskets again and rushed towards them from both wings.

The Yuan army was immediately shocked. The enemy's three battalions were attacking in turns. Did they want to keep them all here?

Seeing that the enemy had already set up an ambush and more than half of his own troops had been killed, Yesu no longer dared to continue fighting with Zheng Yong and immediately shouted, "Retreat, retreat quickly! The enemy army has an ambush!"

The remaining Yuan army was speechless after hearing this. Damn it, you need to tell us that the enemy has an ambush. Can't we see it? However, with Yesu's order, they could finally escape with peace of mind. They immediately galloped on their horses and went around to the northwest, wanting to go back to find their own infantry formation first.

However, Zheng Yong and his men had finally gained the upper hand, and the casualties in this battle were close to two hundred. How could they let them go so easily without letting the Yuan army bleed more? They immediately divided their troops into three groups to encircle the two wings of the Yuan army. Qi Xiang, who had already rushed to the front, also led the soldiers of the third battalion to put away their lances, took out bows and muskets, and ran to the front to intercept them in advance.

Bang bang bang bang bang——clang clang clang——

Behind and on the flanks of the Yuan army, the sound of musket explosions and bowstrings vibrating filled the air. More and more Yuan cavalrymen were shot and fell off their horses, then trampled into pieces by the pursuing Shengwu Army soldiers in the rear.

Yesu was running in the crowd, but the number of soldiers around him was getting fewer and fewer. When he looked back, he saw that Zheng Yong and a dozen people had caught up to him forty or fifty meters behind him. They were leaning forward and drawing their bows to shoot arrows at him. Yesu was frightened and quickly sped up and lowered his head to avoid him.

With a whoosh sound of an arrow cutting through the air, the arrow shot by Zheng Yong narrowly passed through Yesu's back and hit a Yuan soldier in front of him, but the distance was too far and the Yuan soldier was wearing iron armor, so the man was not shot down.

When Zheng Yong missed his arrow, he chased forward and found that Yesu had increased his speed and distanced himself. In a blink of an eye, the distance was over 100 meters and was still increasing.

Zheng Yong slapped his thigh in anger and cursed in his heart, "Damn it, Yesu's horse is such a cheater."

So he immediately shouted, "Don't be stingy with the horses. If the horses die, I'll replace them with new ones. Capture the enemy general and don't hurt the horse. I'll give him credit for it!"

Upon hearing this, the surrounding Shengwu Army soldiers immediately spurred their horses to speed up and fired arrows at Yesu. Although they did not hit Yesu, they killed many of his personal soldiers.

Zhang Huzi saw that Qi Xiang had already formed his troops in front and was about to intercept the fleeing Yuan army head-on, so he immediately led a platoon of dozens of cavalrymen to secretly bypass from the right side. Just as Qi Xiang was outflanked from the front, causing the Yuan army to slow down and take a detour, Zhang Huzi finally caught up with Yesu.

This guy stood on the stirrups, leaned forward, raised his bow and arrow, but he didn't shoot. He had used up all his flat-head chisel armor-piercing arrows, and only had a few four-sided arrows left, which couldn't penetrate the armor at all. So he kept waiting for the best opportunity.

Yesu was wearing a Tibetan-style fine-leaf armor. He did not have the iron arms of the Shengwu Army. On his shoulders were two pieces of armor-woven shoulder pads, which fluttered up and down with the shaking of the horse as he rode on the horse. Zhang Huzi followed the rhythm of Yesu's shoulder pads, and when the shoulder pads just fell, he immediately released the arrow with a clang.

At a distance of forty meters, when the arrow flew past, the shoulder-length horse was floating up and down again, and the four-sided arrow penetrated into Yesu's right armpit, causing him to scream in pain and fall off his horse on the spot.

"Good shot! Chase him!"

With Qi Xiang's three battalions intercepting in front, more than two hundred cavalrymen were outflanked and surrounded by the three battalions of the Shengwu Army. In the end, only more than three hundred of the three thousand Yuan army's Qiexue cavalrymen escaped, and the surrounded Yuan army of more than two hundred was strangled to death or surrender, and finally only more than fifty prisoners were captured.

Qi Xiang also rushed over and asked, "Commander, the enemy has more than 300 cavalrymen running away. Should we chase them?"

Zheng Yong immediately said, "Don't chase them anymore. We are here to lure the enemy, so we have to let some of them go so they can report back, but we can't just ignore them.

"Well, Qi Xiang, you lead the third battalion to continue the pursuit. We don't need to chase too far, just drive the enemy away. Zhang Huzi, you lead the second battalion to collect the scattered horses of the enemy. The first battalion will stay where it is, guarding the prisoners and taking care of the wounded."

"Yes!" The three of them immediately took orders and acted separately.

After this ambush, only 300 remnants of the 3,000 vanguard cavalry of the Yuan army escaped. The leader of the Yuan army, Yesu, the eldest son of Yuan Taiwei Yuekuchar, was shot and captured. The arrow did not take his life, but pierced his collarbone from the armpit. The arrow came out from the front and did not hurt any vital parts, but his right arm was completely disabled.

On the other hand, Zheng Yong's Second Cavalry Regiment suffered more than fifty deaths or serious injuries, and nearly two hundred minor injuries. However, these sacrifices were worth it as they could achieve such a great victory. In this battle alone, they captured more than two thousand four hundred war horses, which were generally better than their own horses. They also captured more than two thousand six hundred sets of armor. It was definitely an unquestionable victory.

Even the majestic BMW that Yesu was riding was seized by Zheng Yong, who couldn't help but ride on it as soon as he caught the horse.

Zhang Huzi said with envy, "Such a good horse will definitely not be left to us when we bring it back. What a pity."

Zheng Yong said immediately, "I also know that I can't keep it. Such a BMW must be handed over to the Marshal first, so I just ride it for fun, hahahaha."

Zhang Huzi heard this and immediately said, "I shot down that enemy general. You must let me ride this divine horse before I hand it over."

"Okay, okay, I'll let you ride it tomorrow."

Zheng Yong and his men were naturally happy to seize the supplies lightly and slowly retreat with the wounded and the bodies of the fallen soldiers, but it was different on the Yuan army's side.

More than 300 remnants fled back to the infantry division. The deputy general of the Yuan army, Tutemür, was shocked and asked the only remaining centurion, "How did you lose?"

The centurion said angrily, "The scouts were wrong. The enemy army did not have more than a thousand cavalry, but three thousand. They set up an ambush in front of us, using a thousand cavalry to lure us to chase, and then suddenly another two thousand cavalry appeared and attacked us in turns. Even General Yesu was captured by them."

Tu Temur was stunned and still puzzled, "Even if the enemy army had ambushes, you still have 3,000 cavalry. Those are 3,000 Qiexue cavalry. 3,000 against 3,000, and you still can't defeat the Red Turban bandits? Well, even if you can't defeat them, you can always retreat, right? Why did you lose so badly that even your commander was captured?"

The centurion had to explain again, "Each of the enemy cavalry is equipped with a special kind of musket, which is only a foot long and can be fired with one hand without an open flame. It can penetrate armor within ten steps. The enemy cavalry shoots with bows on the left and muskets on the right. They can gallop and shoot from both sides. Our army was caught off guard and was attacked from the right side. One round of muskets killed hundreds of us. When the enemy's ambush troops were all out, the muskets fired several rounds and half of our troops were killed. How could we stop the enemy cavalry from killing us?"

Tu Temur was speechless after hearing this. As a Mongolian general, it was impossible for him not to understand cavalry tactics. He could imagine how abnormal it would be for a group of cavalrymen who could "shoot with both hands". Not only was his side completely unprepared, but they were also ambushed by the enemy. This defeat was not unfair.

But the problem now is that Yesu was captured by the enemy army. How can he fight this battle? His own cavalry was almost completely destroyed, and the enemy still had at least 3,000 elite cavalry waiting in front, who knew when they would show up and attack him. He only had 300 cavalry and 10,000 infantry left. If Zheng Yong really came to attack him, he could stop him, but the problem was that he couldn't catch up without cavalry. He couldn't destroy Zheng Yong's cavalry, so he could only passively defend.

Who would have thought that the Yuan army would also encounter the problem of insufficient mobility of the Song army's infantry?
Tu Temur hesitated for a while, then said, "Turn around, withdraw the defense of Shuyang Yicheng first, and then send someone to report to the prime minister and ask for the next instructions."

"Yes!"

As a result, the Yuan army's detachment in Huaibei stopped and turned to Shuyang. Zheng Yong's mission was to lure the enemy, but the ambush was so fierce that it frightened the Yuan army and they dared not to advance further. Zhu Liangzu's plan of luring the enemy deep into the territory and attacking them halfway across the river was temporarily ruined.

But it doesn’t matter. As long as the Yuan army doesn’t dare to come, their mission of defending Huainan will be accomplished, but the way of accomplishing it is different.

At the same time, Tuotuo finally broke through Zhima Li's Huaihe River defense line and successfully built three pontoon bridges. The main force of the Yuan army had 160,000 troops, not counting the civilians and the 10,000 troops in Shuyang, and claimed to have 400,000 troops. Now they have all crossed the river and are at the gates of Xuzhou.

Just looking at the Xuzhou city that had been transformed beyond all recognition, the Yuan army generals who followed Tuotuo all took a deep breath. It seemed that the battle of Xuzhou would be difficult to fight.
Just as Tuotuo in the north was marching towards Xuzhou, Yu Que and his men on the Susong front of Anqing Road in the south finally filled up the moat of Leichi Fort and launched an attack on the bastion inside.

The bastion's defense line actually has only three layers in total. After filling up the moat, they can attack the outermost sloping dike, but the sloping dike is also within the artillery attack range of the 12 enemy towers. There is also a circle of trenches behind the dike, with tunnels for hiding soldiers inside. When the enemy attacks the dike, the defenders can suddenly emerge from the trenches and attack the enemy with muskets and grenades. If there are too many people, they can use the cannons from the towers to bombard the enemy. If there are too few people, they can't even beat the musketeers in the trenches.

Only after breaking through the outermost sloping dikes and trenches of the first circle can they launch an attack on the six triangular turrets in the middle that are independent of the main city. There are also artillery and musketeers defending here, and as long as these auxiliary turrets in the middle are hit, they will also encounter fire attacks from the main city turrets.

The attackers can launch an attack on the six artillery batteries in the main city only after they have captured the auxiliary artillery batteries. It is not so easy to reach the core area of ​​the bastion. As long as there is ammunition in the bastion, only one or two thousand soldiers are needed to stop tens of thousands of enemy troops.

During the Age of Discovery, European devils built bastions all over the world, relying on these bastions to hold off the repeated attacks from indigenous peoples in various places, which is how they occupied so many colonies.

The Yuan army, which was seeing the bastion for the first time, could not come up with a way to break it so quickly.

On the day the moat was filled, Jiangxi Pingzhang Xingji immediately ordered the Huangmei garrison commander Xiang Ying to launch a tentative attack in order to find out the ins and outs of the bastion.

However, this disgusting man-made terrain was full of sharp slopes. Although it was not steep, in Aslan's words, one could charge up on horseback. But the terrain was too fragmented, and it was impossible to deploy too many troops at once. Five hundred people were already a lot.

Xiang Ying was forced into a corner and had to personally lead 500 soldiers to attack the outer dike. The defending commander, Miao Yi, had already sent seven or eight companies of musketeers to the trenches behind the dike to participate in the defense.

Just as Xiang Ying and his Yuan army soldiers rushed forward roaring, the three artillery batteries on the left, center and right opposite opened fire almost at the same time. There were 18 guns in total on the three batteries, each with six guns, which were divided into three groups and fired in turns, making the fighting continuous.

With a series of booming artillery fire, the five hundred Yuan army soldiers who rushed up the slope were instantly beaten to pieces. Because of the gathering effect of the slope, the attackers could only take a few routes, and the artillery firing range on the enemy platform had been designed long ago, so each cannon could exert its maximum effectiveness. Even if it was firing solid bullets, it could achieve an outrageous record of killing more than thirty people with one shot. It was because the enemy troops were standing so densely and attacking along a designed trajectory.

If you don't die, who will? !
The 18 guns on the three sharp-angled enemy towers only fired one shell each to repel the Yuan army's attack. After a round of artillery fire, of the Yuan army soldiers who rushed onto the outer embankment, only about of them were left, still standing there shivering.

Upon seeing this, the captain of the seventh company who was hiding in the trench behind the sloping dike blew a bamboo whistle, and the musketeers of the seventh company in the trench immediately jumped onto the sloping dike and fired a round of musketry at the more than 30 remnants of the army from above.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang——

After a round of gunfire, not a single Yuan army soldier was left of the 500 soldiers who launched the first attack. They were all killed on the sloping embankment just south of Lei Chi Fort. Even the Huangmei defender Xiang Ying died in the first round of artillery fire. His body was beaten to pieces and not even a complete corpse was left.

The Yuan army behind them couldn't help but tremble in fear when they saw the broken corpses covering the slope. This was too tragic, and they were defeated so quickly.

Xingji, Yu Que, Aslan, Yang Tongguan and others all frowned deeply. They expected that there must be trenches or ambushes behind the dike, but if five hundred soldiers rushed up, they would have to fight in the formation for a while, causing some casualties to the enemy.

But now, with 500 soldiers dead, they hadn't even reached the edge of the first trench behind the dike. The enemy soldiers just fired muskets from three artillery positions and completely defeated their offensive. In the end, some defenders even came out of the trench to fire more shots, leaving them no one alive.
Looking at the three artillery batteries in front of us and then looking at the remaining nine artillery batteries, it is conceivable that no matter which direction the attack is from, they will definitely suffer the same fate.

Xingji pondered for a while before asking, "Perhaps there were too many people standing too close together, so they were hit by so many enemy muskets. If we deploy fewer troops at a time, would the damage be reduced?"

Yang Tongguan immediately shook his head and said, "It's useless. The enemy army has hidden musketeers in the trenches behind the dike. There are at least several hundred of them. If we go too few, even if we can rush into the first trench, we can't defeat the defenders in the trench. If we go too many, we will have to face the big muskets on the pointed turrets. We can't attack this fort."

Xingji frowned and asked Yu Que, "What do you think, Councillor?"

Yu Que thought for a moment before saying, "Xiang Ying told me before that the enemy army has built such fortresses in the valleys west of Wangjiang and Taihu Lake. If we can't take down this one, then we won't be able to take down other fortresses either.

"The roads leading to Anqing have been completely blocked by the enemy troops using the Fire Gun Fort. Now there are only two ways to go."

"What road?" Aslan and Xingji asked immediately.

Yu Que then said, "Either we attack this fortress regardless of the cost. The fire guns are slow to reload, so as long as we attack in turns regardless of casualties, the enemy's fire guns will definitely not be able to reload in time, and we will always be able to rush in.

"Either we send troops to surround the fort without attacking it, and guard it while the main force attacks Susong City. There is no such fort in Susong City. As long as the soldiers fight for their lives, we can always conquer it, right?
"If we can capture Susong City, we don't have to attack this fort."

Everyone fell silent upon hearing this.

Xingji also sighed, "Firearms are most afraid of rain, but it's a pity that it's already winter now, and even if it rains, it will be snow at most, which will not have much impact on firearms. If we want to wait for rain, we have to wait until the beginning of next spring, or even the next summer. How can the army stay in front of the fort for half a year?"

No one else expected it to rain. They could only say that the period from autumn to the beginning of spring was very suitable for firearms troops to fight, and less rain did have many benefits.

Yang Tongguan was afraid that Yu Que would let his Miao army continue to fight to the death in front of this bastion, so he immediately said, "Master Pingzhang, please make a decision. If we attack Susong, my Miao army is willing to be the vanguard. If we attack this fort in front of us, I will not let my soldiers die."

Yu Que glanced at him and didn't argue, so he also said, "Then let's attack Susong."

So the Yuan army in the south also turned around and sent only 3,000 soldiers to guard Lei Chi Fort, and the main force turned to attack Susong. However, Miao Youzhen of the navy and Miao Yi of Lei Chi Fort would not let them go easily.

You can choose not to fight Leichibao if you don't want to? Since you don't want to fight, I will fight back.
At the same time, when the Yuan troops on both the north and south sides were being blocked by the defenders and unable to advance, Lu Jin's letter of proclamation had already been sent by the intelligence station to the eight routes in eastern Zhejiang.

(End of this chapter)