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

Chapter 337 Retreat

Garu, who encountered a strong enemy for the first time, listened to the hoarse howls around him, his hands trembled slightly, and he couldn't help but feel the urge to urinate. After the man in front of him fell to the ground, Garu faced the low wall. He had never thought that the musket would be so powerful. He was now afraid to stand there stupidly, afraid that white smoke and flames would suddenly emerge from behind the wall, because he could not see the bullets at all. A strong fear of the unknown struck his heart.

He looked at the centurion who fell in front of him at a loss, not knowing whether he should rescue the centurion. However, seeing that the centurion's injuries seemed to no longer require treatment, Garu was considering whether he should directly help the centurion end his pain.

Nearly 200 Mongols fell in this round. This hit rate was far lower than the training results of the new army, but it still shocked the entire Mongolian army. They were no longer well-organized and calm as at the beginning. A centurion shouted loudly behind him, asking the soldiers to shoot quickly. Garu retracted his gaze, drove away all the distracting thoughts in his mind, and suppressed the tension in his heart. Just as he was about to draw his bow, another round of volleys of gunfire came from behind the breastwork opposite.

More screams were heard from the Mongolian line. There was a loud bang in front of Garu and an archer's breastplate was pierced by a lead bullet. He trembled as if he had been electrocuted and fell straight to the ground, motionless, with blood gushing out from his body.

When the second round of arrows was shot, screams were heard from the opposite side, and it was obvious that they had also suffered losses. When he had shot ten arrows, the opposite side launched two more rounds of shooting. He was still lucky not to be hit, but the Mongolian archers suffered heavy losses in the four rounds of volleys, and more than 700 people were killed or injured.

The Mongolian archers also shot more than 30,000 light arrows. The ground in front of the Ming army was covered with feather arrows. Even the wooden shield wall was full of arrows, like a hedgehog.

The bows and arrows shot at a very high frequency, and the Mongols were all experienced archers, so it only took about a minute to shoot ten arrows.

When the arrows they shot were empty, they came to their senses. When they came to their senses, they were shocked by the hellish scene around them. The miserable situation of their fellow tribesmen made them pale.

At this time, the Ming army's bird guns were also loaded, and there was another round of neat volleys. This round of volleys did not cause much damage to the archers, because many archers were already lying on the ground or turned around and ran away.

The phalanx of archers collapsed instantly after coming to their senses. Garu was no exception. He followed suit and lay tightly on the ground, sticking his butt out and crawling away from the Ming army formation.

Only then did he discover that the Mongolian cavalry who were originally in the infantry and archer phalanx had already run away, and there were many corpses of Mongolian cavalry on the ground. It seemed that they were caught in the crossfire of the Ming army's volleys.

Zhu Houzhao stood on the high platform and looked at the struggling wounded soldiers falling on the Mongolian front. He felt more relaxed than at the beginning. The Mongolian bows and arrows were nothing special. These light arrows were basically ineffective against plate armor. The melee soldiers in the front row were protected by shields and did not suffer any losses. The musketeers were also protected by the shield wall. But after all, so many light arrows were shot in, and twenty or thirty unlucky guys were injured, but most of them would not be fatal.

Such an exchange of shooting was unbearable for the Mongols, whose manpower was far inferior to that of the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, if the new army did not have muskets and artillery, they could only use bows and arrows to shoot at the Mongols from a distance. Judging from the armor-wearing rate of both sides, it is estimated that an afternoon of shooting would barely cause hundreds of casualties, and the number of casualties would most likely be in the double digits.

This is probably the reason why the history books say that after an army of 100,000 fought for a whole day, 16 Mongolian soldiers were killed and 52 Ming soldiers were killed.

If you are wearing a full set of armor on the battlefield, the lethality of bows and arrows is not great except for direct shooting at close range, which is smaller than many people imagine.

There is an old saying: Three arrows are not as good as one chop, three chop are not as good as one stab, three stabs are not as good as one heavy hammer.

This is why the private possession of armor was strictly prohibited in ancient times. It is also why so many brave generals in ancient times were still alive and kicking after being shot into hedgehogs. It was because armor could block most of the damage.

But things are different with the bird gun, especially the bird gun whose caliber was specially increased by Zhu Houxun. Although its accuracy is not high, it is cumbersome to use and takes a long time to load, its power is really unmatched.

Being hit by one bullet is much more terrifying than being hit by a heavy hammer. The two sides' shooting is completely unequal, with heavy casualties on one side and few on the other. There is no way to fight.

Dayan Khan was so tired of watching in the battle that it was under his command that these more than 4,000 archers lined up and walked into the shooting range of the Ming army's musketeers and were shot in a row.

The fighting had not lasted long this morning when the Mongolian army suffered seven to eight hundred casualties, and the morale of the entire Mongolian army was hit.

Don't underestimate these seven or eight hundred casualties, which is nearly one percent of the total number of Mongolian troops. Moreover, the ancient army's tolerance to casualties was relatively low. Add to that the casualties caused by the pistol cavalry, there were three thousand casualties.

What is more troublesome are the wounded. One wounded soldier needs one or two people to take care of him. If the wounded are abandoned, it will affect morale even more.

At this time, Dayan Khan really wanted to retreat. There was no way to fight. The appearance of the powerful bird gun directly deprived the Mongols of their long-range advantage.

The Ming army on the opposite side was not in disarray at all after being hit by more than 30,000 light arrows, which really shocked him.

However, they could not just retreat like that, so in the afternoon they ordered a larger number of archers to attack from all sides and continue the harassment. The Turks tried to charge the formation, but failed again.

The arrows shot by the Mongolian army failed to kill a single Ming soldier for a long time, while the Ming army's neat volleys of guns repelled the cavalry. When faced with harassment from archers, they fired their bird guns freely, which was a lottery, bringing great psychological pressure and many casualties to the harassing Mongolian archers.

After fighting for another afternoon, the Ming army remained unmoved, but the Mongols suffered more than 200 casualties.

Seeing the sun setting, Dayan Khan made up his mind to withdraw early the next morning.

Zhu Houzhao, who was standing on the high platform, also vaguely sensed the Mongols' intentions. "The Tartars dare not attack. What if they run away?"

Jiang Bin said with a smile: "If the Tartars withdraw, we will have won this battle. After all, we have killed thousands of Tartars and recovered countless wealth and people."

"This general personally led the army to fight, just to take back these things? To kill these Mongols?" Zhu Houzhao was very dissatisfied.

Jiang Bin was shocked and didn't dare to say anything more.

Zhu Houzhao stood by the railing, looking at the dark masses of Mongolian cavalry around him. He quickly made a decision in his mind. He suddenly said to Jiang Jiangong:

"Raise the Emperor's banner!"

(End of this chapter)