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

Chapter 335 The First Round of Testing

The emperor naturally sat in the central army and then divided it into four armies: front, back, left and right. The front, left, right and central armies were all new armies, each with 10,000 people, and the rear army was the Datong Army with 22,000 people.

The five thousand cavalry were divided into left and right wings and moved on both sides of the central army according to circumstances.

Civilian laborers, non-combatants and the wounded were also near the center of the army.

Wang Xun, the general of Datong Town, was very dissatisfied with the deployment of more than 20,000 Datong soldiers to the rear army, but he still endured it.

The wagons carrying baggage were placed in front of the formation and connected with iron chains in the middle. If the Mongolian soldiers wanted to charge, they had to dismount and remove the chains first, while the Ming army could untie the chains and charge out at any time.

Dayan Khan stood on a hillside and witnessed the huge turtle formation. He had no desire to attack at all, and the enemy's army was well-disciplined and it was obvious that they would be difficult to deal with.

How can the light cavalry succeed in attacking such a tight formation?
However, having the advantage in military strength but retreating without firing a single arrow was not his style and would also affect his prestige.

The civilians in the central army of the Ming army had already built a high platform in the middle army. Zhu Houzhao stood on the platform. He was wearing a set of plate armor, which was specially sent by Zhu Houxun. It was a special version of plate armor. He had a sword on his waist, which was the Bloodthirster Sword forged by Zhu Houxun himself. Zhu Houzhao looked at the Mongolian cavalry in front of the formation and wondered what he was thinking.
Jiang Bin had already been patrolling everywhere with the pacification soldiers. On the carriages on both sides of the command platform were the flags of the central army, and trumpets and drums were under the command platform. Jiang Jiangong led a group of staff officers to Zhu Houzhao, and Zhang Yong led five central army soldiers, each holding a long sign, ready to block arrows for Zhu Houzhao at any time.

At this time, there was a slight vibration from the railing of the platform, and a muffled thunder-like sound gradually came from afar, and a black line began to appear on the horizon.

Zhu Houzhao withdrew his thoughts, and the fire in his eyes began to burn. He took a deep breath and said to Jiang Jiangong: "All troops, stand up!"

"The commander of the central army is calling for the Boluo."

A low Boluo sounded, and with a bang, 40,000 new army soldiers stood up in unison, as if the original formation had suddenly grown taller.

"Tiger!" All the new troops shouted in unison, and a huge wave of sound resounded throughout the wilderness. Only the Datong border troops in the rear were startled by the sudden shouting. The mounts of several Mongolian cavalrymen in front of the formation were also frightened and turned their heads and ran backwards.

"The entire army is ready for battle. Check your equipment." After the signal was passed down layer by layer, each team began to check their own equipment. The musketeers of the firearms team had already loaded their ammunition. At this time, they wrapped the fuse around their hands. The captain lit them one by one and then clamped them on the dragon head.

The musketeers in the first row all stepped forward and stood behind the shield wall made of wooden boards. The musketeers had the best view. They felt the vibrations coming from under their feet and stood straight looking into the distance.

The Mongolian army was like a black tide that flooded the land. The sound of hundreds of thousands of horses' hooves trampling the ground was like the rolling thunder in the sky. The white mist from the horses merged into one, giving people a thrilling feeling. The Mongols came from all directions and stopped 200 steps in front of the Ming army. They began to line up calmly. Both sides looked at each other and weighed each other's weight.

As the trumpets sounded, after a while, rumbling sounds came from both wings, and more than 300 Khorchin Mongolian cavalrymen rushed out from each side, rushing towards the opposite side. After advancing 100 steps, there was still no reaction from the opposite side. The cavalrymen slowly accelerated and continued to advance. Just after running 60 steps, none of the Ming army's front-row muskets fired. The leading Mongolian cavalry showed some strange looks. In the past, the Ming army he had seen would fire guns and cannons from a long distance, which was very lively. But when they rushed to them, they had no ammunition. This Ming army was indeed different.

The Mongolian cavalrymen came within fifty steps and galloped horizontally in front of them. Several of them moved back and forth in groups thirty steps away from the front. The Mongolians who grew up on horseback were skilled in shooting arrows diagonally with their horse bows. The arrows flew high up due to the speed of the horses. Hundreds of light arrows drew a parabola in the air and fell towards the new army's formation.

There was a sound of arrows hitting armor, mixed with one or two screams. The frontal defense of the plate armor is very strong, but there will be gaps in the armor. The gaps in the plate armor are on the sides, and the Mongolian arrows are not all shot from the front, so some unlucky people were hit, but the damage of the light arrows was not very high.

The Mongolian cavalry was not having a good time either. There were several archers at intervals behind the Ming army's shield wall, shooting at the cavalry running in front of the formation. Arrows flew back and forth in the battle formation, and horses fell to the ground from time to time. The power of infantry bows was far greater than that of cavalry bows. Although the Mongolian cavalry moved at high speed, there were always unlucky ones.

The Mongolian cavalry's light arrows were basically ineffective against the new army's armor.

Zhu Houxuan had paid special attention to the issue of arrow protection when designing the equipment for the new army. The helmets all had brims and everyone had a face guard. Although they could not withstand heavy arrows shot from five steps away, they could still protect against light arrows.

Dayan Khan in the formation carefully observed the new army's every move. He felt that the Ming army opposite was even more unfamiliar, because in the previous attack, no one in the new army tried to dodge the arrows. They all stood there motionless, like wooden stakes, and their formation was not scattered at all.

You must know that it is human instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm, but the Ming army on the opposite side actually suppressed this instinct.

What Dayan Khan didn't know was that the new army had faced even more intense rains of arrows during training at Xiaozhan. Everyone had been numbed by this kind of training, and coupled with their good armor, they were not moved at all.

After the unfavorable exchange of fire, the Mongolian cavalry's fighting spirit became much lower. They retreated further and further, and soon they had retreated to more than fifty steps away.

A horn sounded from the Mongolian center army, and the Khorchin cavalry was finally freed and hurriedly ran back to the two wings. The Ming army archers also quieted down.

Only a few Khorchin Mongolian soldiers who were shot were left in the middle of the battlefield. The seriously wounded were howling on the ground, and the lightly wounded used their hands and feet to desperately escape back to their own lines. A Mongolian horse was shot by three arrows, and after struggling on the ground for a few times, it stood up, took two laborious steps, knelt on its front legs and crawled on the ground, whining under the gaze of tens of thousands of people.

Dayan Khan looked at the horse with a gloomy expression. This round of probing did not reveal the strength of the Ming army on the opposite side, and the losses on his side were even greater. Now he knew that the Ming army on the opposite side was not simple.

On the Ming army side, several civilians carried a stretcher and quickly walked into the army formation, carrying the person who was shot by the arrow to the center of the army. Several people in white clothes immediately surrounded him, quickly took off the injured person's armor, let the injured person bite a hardwood stick, and then controlled the injured person's limbs, easily pulled out the arrow, and then cleaned the wound with alcohol, and then sewed it up and applied medicine.
One of the injured was treated quickly, although he was sweating profusely from the pain.
The vacancies left by the injured were quickly filled by the reserve team.
After the first round of trials, the new army's formation remained intact and its morale remained high.
(End of this chapter)