Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 252: Enjoyable
Chariots can not only hinder cavalry, but also block the Mongolian horse archers. What's more, there are sword and shield soldiers in the team. These sword and shield soldiers are responsible for covering their attacking comrades.

Apart from these, the greatest function of the wolf-whip is not only as an offensive weapon, but also as a defensive weapon. Those seemingly messy spikes and branches made of fine iron can also block feather arrows. It is extremely difficult for ordinary arrows to break through the defense of the wolf-whip, not to mention that the Mongolian bows and arrows are not very powerful. When they are shot, the soldiers only need to use the wolf-whip to block and shake them, and the feather arrows will not be able to penetrate. Even if there are some that slip through the net, they will have no power when they get close.

In addition, Zhu Shenzhui's men were all wearing armor, although they were all light leather armor, they were not harmed by ordinary arrows. As long as they didn't happen to hit the vital parts, it would be difficult for the weak arrows to penetrate the leather armor. It might seem serious if they were directly hit on the leather armor, but in fact, they didn't hurt at all.

The Mongols frantically took out their bows and shot, but after two rounds they found that it had no effect at all. At this time, Lao Jin commanded the team to change their formation, with the Mandarin Duck Formation as the core, and the three teams in a group became the Three Talents Formation, which was deployed from both sides and immediately formed a counter-encirclement of the Mongols.

Yes, you read that right, it’s a counter-encirclement.

It's funny to say that this ferocious Mongolian cavalry numbered nearly 400 people. They were hit head-on by Zhu Shenzhui's Portuguese guns, and coupled with the continuous attacks from the bird guns, they have suffered nearly 100 casualties.

The remaining 300 riders were huddled together. The ones at the back wanted to charge forward, but the ones in front couldn't run at all because their horses suddenly stopped. In addition, some Mongols took bows to counterattack but it was ineffective. They panicked and didn't know what to do. These Mongols were pushing and shoving each other and it was a mess. Even if the leader shouted loudly to reorganize the team, it was of no avail.

At this time, Zhu Shenzhui began to change his formation and actively engaged the enemy in close combat. The Mongolian cavalry immediately lost their cavalry advantage and sat on their horses spinning in place. Ninety percent of their abilities were gone in an instant.

Not only that, three teams used the Sancai formation to carry out counter-encirclement, and half of the remaining team operated the Portuguese cannons to continue bombarding the areas where there were many Mongols, while the others used bird guns to shoot at the Mongols continuously. Although the loading of bird guns was relatively slow, Zhu Shenzui's side had a small number of bird guns, with only seven or eight including Zhu Shenzui himself, but even so, every time a gunshot was heard, the Mongols would let out a scream, and then a Mongol could be seen falling off his horse.

In close combat, the effect of the Mandarin Duck Formation was brought to full play. Long weapons such as wolf-whips, hammers, and spears made the Mongols suffer.

Especially the wolf-whip, which was three meters long and had a large area. Not only could people but even horses not dodge it. The sharp spikes made of fine iron were extremely sharp. With just one poke and one sweep, the Mongolian cavalry could not sit still on their horses and were knocked off their horses in a blink of an eye.

The Mongols were easier to deal with without their war horses. The short sabers could not reach the enemy, but the halberds and spears would poke a bloody hole in the Mongols' bodies. No matter how the Mongols waved their weapons and screamed, they could not be stopped.

The mystery of the Mandarin Duck Formation lies in this. When fighting against the enemy, the Mandarin Duck Formation is never one-on-one, but rather a coordinated use of the formation and the characteristics of the weapons in hand to form a local situation of outnumbering the enemy.

The wolf-whip is used to control the situation first, and the hammer is used to clear the obstacles on the left and right of the target. The spear then becomes the main killing weapon, and there are not just one spear, but at least two at a time, one on the left and one on the right, or one up and one down. Even if you have three heads and six arms, you cannot dodge them.

In addition, there are sword and shield soldiers watching closely from the side. Even if you are injured in the first few moves but lucky enough not to die, the sword and shield soldiers will take advantage of the situation to finish you off, and in no time at all, they can take down their opponents with no effort, and then the whole team will attack the next opponent.

At the beginning, the soldiers on Zhu Shenzui's side were still a little restrained. Although they had already become very proficient in training, today was their first time on the battlefield.

When the war broke out, most of the soldiers still had timid looks on their faces. After all, the Mongolian cavalry was famous all over the world, and the number of Mongols was far greater than their own. The two sides were fighting face to face. They had no confidence at all that their infantry could win the battle when their number was several times smaller than that of the enemy.

However, under the calm command of Lao Jin, and with the encouragement and personal examples set by captains such as Wang Jinwu and Li You, these new recruits finally mustered up the courage to face the enemy head-on.

But even so, the skills learned in training were not even half utilized on the battlefield, and there were many mistakes caused by panic. If it weren't for the fierce fire of Zhu Shenzhu's Portuguese, and the flexible response of several captains, the formation of their side might have been disrupted before they could stop the Mongolian cavalry.

After they stabilized their position and began to fight back, the terrified soldiers suddenly found that those seemingly ferocious Mongols were not that difficult to deal with. After a few fights, they actually had the upper hand. Those Mongols had no power to fight back. They cried and howled under their weapons, fought desperately but to no avail, and finally fell down with hatred.

One…two…three….

As the Mongols killed more and more people, the fear in the soldiers' hearts gradually disappeared, and was replaced by immense excitement.

Stimulated by adrenaline, they were no longer afraid, but extremely excited. As the commander issued one order after another, the conditioned reflex of long-term training drove them to kill the enemy more and more skillfully. In less than an incense stick of time, nearly half of the 300 Mongolian cavalry fell down like mowing grass, and even their leader died on the spot with hatred. The remaining Mongolians were terrified. Everything that happened before their eyes simply overturned their imagination. How could they care about continuing to attack? They began to turn their horses around and try to break through and escape. "Lao Ma! Lao Hu! Take the brothers and go! We must stop them! Don't let any of them go!" Zhu Shenzhui, who was standing at the highest point, watched carefully. At this time, he knew that he would win this battle. However, he had no intention of letting these Mongolians go. Zhu Shenzhui decisively turned around and yelled to the back.

Ma Shizhou and others who had just escaped from the two wings to the rear of the battle line were stunned by the scene on the battlefield. No one expected that these Mongolian cavalrymen who had chased them like stray dogs could not even last three rounds in Zhu Shenzhui's hands, and were beaten to a pulp in the blink of an eye.

When Zhu Shenzhui's shout rang out, they came to their senses, took a look at the situation where they had the upper hand, and without hesitation, they called on everyone to ride their horses to the left and right and outflank the Mongolian cavalry who were trying to escape...

Soon after Zhu Shenzui's cavalry set out, the encounter was quickly over. It took only half an hour from the moment the Portuguese opened fire to the moment they completely won the battle.

The nearly four hundred Mongolian cavalrymen who had been showing off their might not long ago have now been completely wiped out, and most of them fell in a pool of blood. Some were killed by artillery fire and their bodies were torn into pieces, some were killed by bird guns in a very miserable way, and more were stabbed and hacked to death one by one in close combat. Those who were lucky enough to survive were seriously injured and lay on the ground wailing for mercy.

There were also a few who escaped quickly. Although they managed to escape the counter-encirclement of the Mandarin Duck Formation, they did not expect that the cavalry on Zhu Shenzui's side began to counterattack. In front of the cavalry that had already increased its speed, how could these Mongols who had just started running escape? What's more, the balance of power between the two sides had completely changed. Facing pursuers that were several times or even dozens of times their number, the few Mongols had no choice but to surrender on the spot, or they would be chopped off their horses.

This battle was won with great pleasure, and even Zhu Shenzhu was extremely surprised by the result. He originally thought that it would be great if he could stop the enemy, cause trouble to the opponent, and force the opponent's cavalry to withdraw, but he didn't expect that it would turn out to be an annihilation battle.

Relying on his own less than sixty people and Ma Shizhou's defeated soldiers, he directly annihilated nearly four hundred enemy cavalrymen. Moreover, after the battle, except for a few injured, no one on his side died. Such a brilliant record simply amazed him.

At this time, Zhu Shenzhui finally understood why Qi's army was so famous, why Qi's army had never been defeated since its establishment, why it could defeat the enemy with a small force and dominate the world, and why it was so famous.

In the Battle of Hunhe River that year, the 3,000-strong Qi Family Army and the remnants of the White Rod Army faced more than 20,000 elite Eight Banners troops, yet they managed to inflict a brilliant defeat with more than 10,000 casualties on the Eight Banners.

If it weren't for the huge advantage in artillery of the Ming army that had defected to the Later Jin and Jiannu, Qi's army might not have been defeated, and the Later Jin and Jiannu would probably have been defeated and fled.

Moreover, Zhu Shenzhu knew that the Qi Family Army in the Battle of Hunhe was not the real main force of the Qi Family Army, because the real Qi Family Army had disappeared in the so-called "rioting over military pay". This Qi Family Army was formed later, and its combat effectiveness was not comparable to that of the original elite Qi Family Army. At best, it was just a reserve force.

But even so, the combat effectiveness of this army is still so strong. If the Qi family army that swept the world back then was still there, what would the result be? When Zhu Shenzhui saw the new army that had experienced the first war and had changed in both appearance and spirit, he felt extremely expectant and proud.

This step I took was the right one. If I hadn't brought Lao Jin and others from Yiwu and spent a lot of effort to train this team, how could I have achieved what I have today?
Although there are still few people in this new army, he has already vaguely seen the shadow of Qi's army in today's battle. After completing this grassland training and returning to Ming Dynasty, he will use these people as the backbone to expand the military strength. As long as financial resources permit, he will have an extremely powerful army in his hands in a few years.

With his heart surging, Zhu Shenzhui calmed down a little. The encounter was over, but the matter was not over yet. Let alone cleaning up the battlefield, Zhu Shenzhui still didn't understand what exactly happened in this battle.

All of our people were sent to the tribe before, so why were they chased by these Mongolian cavalry? What happened?

Just as Zhu Shenzhu was about to call Ma Shizhou and others over to ask them in detail, a familiar voice suddenly sounded behind him.

Zhu Shenzhui turned around suddenly, and when he saw the face of the person who called him clearly, he was stunned and could not believe his eyes.

"Tana!? You... why are you here? Where's the child? Where's Tenger? Where is Tenger? What happened?"

(End of this chapter)