I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 332 Five Steps Shooting Enhanced Version

Ma Sheng suddenly said, "Could it be that Jiang Bin and his men, as well as the incompetent eunuchs, were frightened by the Mongolian Tartars and urged Your Majesty to withdraw the troops halfway? They left us here to die!"

When these words were spoken, the generals looked at each other, and they all felt that this was very likely the case.

Wang Xun scolded: "Shut up and don't disturb the morale of the army!"

Ma Sheng sneered: "Do you need me to disrupt the morale of the army? It's already in chaos. When the gunpowder and arrows are used up, they can only hold out for half a day at most. By then, the whole army will be defeated."

Wang Xun glared at Ma Sheng and said, "Do you dare to withdraw your troops?"

Ma Sheng was speechless.

"If you don't dare to withdraw, then hold on as long as you can!" Wang Xun continued, "I think the Northern Tartars are getting a little anxious today. They've started trying to charge the enemy, and they've suffered some casualties. Why are they so anxious? Is it because reinforcements are coming soon?"

The people present were thoughtful and had to admit that what Wang Xun said made sense.

With Wang Xun's comfort, everyone dispersed.

In fact, Dayan Khan had already assembled 6 cavalry, waiting to defeat the main force of the Datong army in one fell swoop at dawn the next day.

But when he got up the next morning, he was surprised to find that there was already heavy fog. It was already early winter, so it was normal to have fog here.

The fog is so thick that you can't even see a few steps ahead. How can we carry out military operations in such weather?
Dayan Khan was very unwilling to accept this, because the scouts had sent news that the Ming reinforcements were approaching the battlefield, and the heavy fog made him lose the opportunity to directly defeat the main force of Datong Town.
It was not until the morning that the fog dissipated slightly. By this time, the army led by Zhu Houzhao had already reached the edge of the battlefield.

Dayan Khan still wanted to try to defeat the main force of the Datong army that had been besieged for five days in one fell swoop, so he ordered his troops to launch a fierce attack.

But the more this happened, the more it proved that reinforcements were about to arrive. Encouraged by the generals of Datong Town, the morale of the soldiers actually began to rise.

"No premature shooting! We are running out of ammunition and arrows."

"Your Majesty has personally led the reinforcements to arrive. My men, hold out for another half a day!"

"."

Dayan Khan rode on a BMW horse, watching the battle quietly, indifferent and silent, and no one knew what he was thinking.
The fog was dispersing faster and faster, and a group of Mongolian cavalrymen who wanted to join the siege suddenly found that there was an extra cavalryman not far from them.
This cavalry is the one surrounding Zhu Houzhao.

This cavalry arrived at the battlefield before the new army, but was blocked by the fog. Zhu Houzhao was worried about the safety of the Datong army, so he sent this cavalry to rescue the Datong army first.
He Song, who led a cavalry, was a veteran who had been in Datong Town for many years, so he was very familiar with this kind of foggy weather. Zhu Houzhao did not dare to go on this foggy weather, but he ordered the cavalry to dismount and move forward, holding their own horses with one hand and the tail of the horse of their comrade in front with the other hand. This solved the problem of the cavalry being scattered in the fog, and it also saved horsepower. Moreover, the cavalry did not ride horses most of the time when they were marching.

As for how to identify the direction in the fog, the place where the sound of drums and horns continued to be heard was his destination, so he followed the sound and found this place.

Just as the two sides stared at each other, the Ming cavalry were the first to react. After a deafening roar and bright flames, many Mongolian cavalrymen on the opposite side fell down.
"Everyone get on the horse! Everyone get on the horse!" He Song ordered quickly.

Wang Dayong quickly climbed onto his horse, and then he quickly checked the flintlock pistol in his hand. His pistol did not fire just now, and he needed to find out the reason. The flint was newly replaced in the morning, and the shape and size were suitable, so there should be no problem. He opened the fire door and checked it, and found that the gunpowder in the fire door was knocked off. He quickly took out a pack of primer and poured some on the fire door, and then carefully buckled the fire door.
While doing all this, he bit the reins with his mouth and used his legs to control the old friend under him to keep up with the team. His old friend had gained a lot of weight in the past month and ran much more powerfully and faster than before.

At this time, the cavalry team of more than 5,000 people was divided into five teams and met the several thousand Mongolian cavalry rushing towards them.

As soon as Wang Dayong saw the opposite side, he knew what they were going to do. He used to be a scout and was very familiar with the Mongolian tactics. The Mongolians' armor was not as good as that of the Ming army, so they generally would not choose to engage in close combat with the Ming cavalry. Instead, they would use the Mongolians' specialty - horseback archery.

In order to ensure the lethality and hit rate of the horse bow, the Mongols would choose to shoot directly at close range. In the words of Xu Guangqi in history, this is called "five-step shooting".

"Five feet is a step", about 1.5 meters. Five steps means shooting straight at the enemy's face at a distance of less than 8 meters.

The ancients said, "When using a bow and arrow, it is easy to hit the target at close range, but difficult to hit the target at a distance. The closer the target, the stronger the force, while the farther the target, the weaker the force. Therefore, the arrows of the barbarians must be shot at close range so that they will hit the target by chance, and China will be able to resist."

Five-step shooting is actually the most traditional horse-riding archery.

Referring to existing horseback archery competitions, such as the FITE China International Horseback Archery Competition, the vertical distance between the archery target and the center line of the runway is 9 meters, which is a very good restoration of ancient traditional horseback archery.

The Five-Step Shooting Attack was also mastered by the Later Jin. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, after inducing the Ming army to fire their firearms, the Manchus would rush to the front of the Ming army five steps away and use Qing bows and heavy arrows to shoot at the five-step attack, which shook the Ming army's heavy armored infantry line.
Wang Dayong stared closely at a Mongolian cavalryman who was rushing towards him from a distance. The Mongolian cavalryman was also looking at him. As soon as Wang Dayong saw the movements of the Mongolian cavalryman's hands, he knew that his target was him. He wanted to close the distance and shoot at him from five steps away.
The two teams were getting closer and closer. Wang Dayong was in the team, holding the reins with one hand and holding a loaded flintlock pistol with the other.

The two teams had no intention of getting close to each other for battle, but instead passed each other. Wang Dayong kept estimating the distance in his mind. When he saw the Mongolian cavalryman opposite him preparing to raise his hand, he had already raised his flintlock pistol.

"Bang!" Wang Dayong only felt a huge recoil coming from his right hand, and a pungent white smoke enveloped him. This time his flintlock pistol fired normally.

He had long since adapted to this level of recoil, and his attention was now completely focused on the Mongolian cavalry on the opposite side.

The Mongolian cavalryman had an expression of disbelief on his face. His hands were weak and there was a bloody hole on his chest that was constantly gushing blood. The bow and arrow in his hand had fallen to the ground at some point.
Because the two sides were not even five steps away from each other, Wang Dayong did not follow martial ethics and opened fire directly at a distance of ten steps.
There were bursts of white smoke in the Ming cavalry, and people in the Mongolian cavalry kept falling down. Only a few arrows were shot out, which looked extremely desolate.
Wang Dayong looked at the Mongolian cavalry with disdain.
Five-step shooting?

I have an enhanced version of the five-step shooting technique here!

(End of this chapter)