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

Chapter 415 Change of formation
It is just a few miles away, and it only takes a few minutes for a war horse to run at high speed. On the battlefield, this amount of time passes in the blink of an eye.

In the blink of an eye, the distance between the two sides was getting closer and closer, and they were about to rush in front of each other.

At this time, the Mongols on the opposite side were even more panicked, and they scattered in an instant like a group of frightened lambs. Countless Mongols on horseback did not have the courage to meet the enemy head-on, and turned their horses around and fled without looking back.

Seeing this, Intetabunang was so happy that his mouth was crooked. This mob was frightened and could not stand a single blow. He would just rush into the enemy's formation and cut them off. Then he would win the battle. He had never encountered such an easy battle. This old guy Bu Shitu was not worthy of his reputation. With such fighting power, he dared to compete with the Khan? It was simply a fantasy.

"Kill! Kill!"

Waving his sword with great excitement, Inttabunang seemed to have felt the surge of blood splashing from chopping off the enemy's head. Not only him, but also the other Mongolian cavalrymen, all of them firmly believed that they would win this battle, and that it was so easy to win, which was simply a blessing from the Eternal Heaven.

But at this moment, as a large number of the enemy's outer Mongolian cavalry broke away from the main camp and fled in all directions, the invisible core that was originally surrounded inside suddenly appeared.

They thought there should be large herds of cattle, sheep and herdsmen inside, but the moment the other side unfolded its troops, the cavalrymen who were excitedly driving their horses to charge suddenly widened their eyes in disbelief, especially Intertabunang. He stared at everything in front of him in amazement, his brain instantly went idle, and he was simply dumbfounded.

After the outer cavalry separated, what appeared inside was not panicked herdsmen and herds of cattle and sheep, but a battle formation ready for battle.

A strange array of chariots were arranged in an orderly manner, facing the charging cavalry directly. Behind the chariots, there were many iron pipes of different sizes. Intertabunang recognized what these iron pipes were at a glance. They turned out to be cannons.

In addition to these, there are also infantrymen wearing leather armor. These infantrymen are extremely elite at first glance, holding a variety of weapons in their hands. Some of the weapons have strange shapes, and it is unclear what they are used for.

In addition, there were hundreds of soldiers armed with muskets and thousands of Mongolian warriors holding bows, standing firmly in several places on the battle formation. These people did not say a word and stood there quietly, as if they had been waiting for their arrival. Although their number was not large, at a glance, one could not help but feel a fierce murderous aura.

"Not good!" Intertabunang's reaction was quick. He realized something was wrong in an instant. The battle formation that suddenly appeared was obviously arranged in advance. Although these soldiers were only infantry, they looked extremely elite. Moreover, their battle formation was completely different from that of the Mongols. It seemed more like the tactics of the Ming army in the south.

But the problem was that Intertabunang had never seen such a Ming army before, and in his impression, although the Ming army was difficult to defeat, they mainly focused on defense when fighting against the Mongols, and there were rarely any frontal battles in the field. However, this army was fighting his cavalry in a grand formation, which was really unimaginable.

The Mongolian cavalry was invincible in field battles. The Ming army had fought the Mongols for so many years, but it was rare to see the Ming army directly confront the cavalry in field battles. But now such an army appeared and deployed its troops, and even hid in this way from the beginning. The cavalry that just fled in all directions was probably not really fleeing, but luring their attack. Could it be that the other side thought that they could stop his cavalry charge with a military formation composed of several thousand infantry?

Intertabunang was a veteran fighter, and although he was shocked by the sudden appearance of the army, it was too late to adjust his tactics. The battlefield changed in an instant, and it was too late to stop the charge or change the direction of attack. Moreover, although he was surprised, Intertabunang was still confident in himself. He felt that even if he fell into the enemy's trap, it didn't matter. With the nearly 30,000 elite cavalry in his hands, he could still defeat the enemy. As long as he rushed into the battle formation and eliminated these infantry, he could still win this battle cleanly.

"Kill! Kill them!"

Several thoughts flashed through Intertabunang's mind, and Intertabunang made up his mind in an instant. He decided to continue the charge, defeat the army in front in one fell swoop, and then chase and kill the enemies everywhere and completely wipe out this army.

At this moment, the army formation in the front suddenly moved. With an order, the Portuguese cannons and tiger squat cannons that had been prepared long ago began to fire.

The moment the cannon was ignited, a series of cannon fire suddenly rang out, one cannon after another spewed out hot flames, and the cannon shells flew out from the muzzles with powerful kinetic energy, shooting towards the cavalry rushing towards the front.

When the artillery started firing, Intertabunang's cavalry was charging. As the distance between the two sides shortened, some cavalrymen began to draw their bows and shoot arrows.

The Mongols were unrivaled in horse and archery. All Mongolian cavalrymen could draw bows and shoot on speeding war horses. However, the power of their bows was not very strong, and their accuracy was also much poorer when running at high speeds. Their current horse and archery was just overhead shooting, which did not have much lethality and was more of a harassment.

The opposing battle formation paid no attention to the incoming arrows. On the one hand, the distance between the two sides had not reached the effective range. On the other hand, even a lob shot would have limited power. Moreover, there were chariots between the battle formation and the cavalry to block and cover them. In addition, they were wearing leather armor and helmets. Unless they were too unlucky, the falling arrows would not pose any threat at all.

Compared to these scattered feather arrows, the artillery of the side that was ready for battle was much more powerful. Whether it was the Portuguese or the Tiger Crouching Cannon, although they could not match the long range and power of the Red Barbarian Cannon, they still exceeded the range of bows and arrows in frontal combat on the grassland, not to mention the lethality.

As the artillery fired instantly, the cavalrymen who were in the front fell down in a row. Some of them were directly hit by the artillery shells and lost their lives instantly. Some were injured by the fast-moving artillery shells, either missing an arm or a leg. Some were lucky enough not to be injured, but their mounts were hit. The horses wailed and overturned the cavalrymen on their backs, or they fell to the ground with the cavalrymen. Before the fallen cavalrymen could break free, they were trampled by their companions' horses that rushed up from behind, and they died with a few screams.

"Go! Go!"

Intertabunang's eyes turned red. In the blink of an eye, dozens of his riders fell. So many people were lost before the two sides officially came into contact, which made Intertabunang furious.

At this time, the firing speed of the enemy's artillery had obviously slowed down. The tiger cannon was fine, but the reloading speed of the Portuguese cannon was still time-consuming no matter how fast it was. As the frequency decreased, the damage to our side was reduced a lot.

If he didn't seize the opportunity now, all the years of fighting would have been in vain. He shouted and commanded his cavalry to continue charging. He must charge in and kill these bastards to relieve his hatred.

But unexpectedly, when they were only thirty steps away from the car formation, an accident happened again.

The cavalrymen who were rushing in the front suddenly tumbled to the ground with their horses. Most of those who fell down only let out a cry of surprise, and their bones were broken. Many of them did not die for a while, but shouted in pain on the ground, and the fallen horses also had broken legs and feet, and kept wailing.

Because of the cavalry's high-speed charge, more than a hundred cavalrymen fell one after another in a short period of time. Only then did Intertabunang realize that something was wrong. After taking a closer look, he couldn't help cursing.

The people on the opposite side were too vicious. They actually set up means to target the cavalry in front of the chariot formation. These means looked simple. They were nothing more than digging pits slightly larger than horse hooves in the grass. These pits were not deep, only three or four inches. The range of the pits was not large either. The length covered the entire battle formation, and the width was only about ten steps.

But even so, these pits caused great trouble to the war horses. When a war horse galloped at high speed stepped on one of them, the leg would be broken instantly. As the leg was broken, the war horse would immediately lose control and fall over. The cavalrymen riding on the horses naturally could not sit still and would fall off the horses.

These horse pits were too far to be noticed, and the grass on the grassland made the pits invisible without careful observation. In addition, how could the cavalrymen who were charging at high speed pay attention to them? At one time, the horses and cavalrymen fell one after another, causing Intertabunang to suffer heavy losses.

The cavalrymen at the back saw the tragic scene in front and subconsciously slowed down their horses. Some even turned their horses' heads in an attempt to bypass the front and charge from the side.

As the speed of Intertabunang's cavalry charge suddenly slowed down, coupled with the subconscious reactions of each team, the originally neat charge formation instantly became chaotic.

Seeing this, Inteta Bunang thought to himself that something was wrong. When he was about to command his troops to make adjustments, the military formation in front of him suddenly changed.

Like an open folding fan, the originally neat military formation began to stretch from the middle to the left and right, while the chariot formation in the front also moved forward as the formation changed.

The artillery continued to fire, and teams of infantrymen from behind the chariots passed through the gaps between the chariots and rushed out directly. They used all kinds of strange weapons in their hands to attack the oncoming Mongolian cavalry in the formation. At this time, the Mongolian cavalrymen in front either fell off their horses or slowed down. They were in a panic and fought hand to hand, but they were restrained by the tacitly coordinated infantrymen as soon as they met, and cavalrymen were constantly stabbed off their horses.

"Divide the troops to the left and right! Charge from the side! Quick! Quick!" Within a few breaths, Intertabunang watched helplessly as his cavalry was slaughtered by the infantry like chopping melons and vegetables. In a blink of an eye, he lost hundreds of people. This made Intertabunang so angry that his lungs were about to explode.

He shouted loudly, intending to change the formation, and his cavalry was indeed the elite of Lin Danhan, and they changed the formation quickly. In a blink of an eye, two teams of thousands of cavalry came out from the left and right, intending to change direction and attack from the side. At this time, the opposing army was not idle either. The artillery on both sides began to bombard fiercely, and at the same time, the musketeers and archers who had been waiting for a long time also began to fire at the approaching cavalry.

"Don't be afraid! Charge forward! Their muskets can only fire a few rounds!"

When the sound of musket fire rang out, the cavalry fell down instantly. The charging cavalry were suddenly terrified and subconsciously slowed down their speed. Some cavalry even drew their bows and shot back without caring about the distance and accuracy, as if this approach would give them a sense of security.

Faced with such a situation, Intertabunang continued to cheer himself up and urged the cavalry to charge quickly. In his opinion, no matter how good the enemy was at fighting, they only relied on the power of firearms and these inferior little tricks.

As long as his troops can rush in, victory will still be his. At that time, he must let the other side know that no one in the world can stop Lin Danhan's cavalry. Who is the real master on this grassland!

(End of this chapter)