There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 144 All-round crushing

The Han army's line tactics taught Eldengbao a lesson. It turned out that artillery and muskets could cooperate with each other in this way to maximize the firepower density.

The Qing army had no ability to resist. The surviving gunners either dropped their artillery and fled, or lay on the ground, or simply used the artillery as cover.

Not long after, the Qing army's artillery was completely silenced, and only the Han army's artillery and muskets were left on the battlefield, which were continuously bombarding the Qing army's artillery positions.

Although many of the Qing army's bird-gun soldiers were still alive, they were unable to advance and shoot due to the dense firepower of the Han army, and would be suppressed if they did.

"Pass the order, all troops charge!"

"Archers, release! Release!"

Eldengbao had no choice. The artillery and bird guns were destroyed by the rebels. Without the support of firearms, he could only forcibly order the infantry phalanx of the central army to withstand the rebels' fire suppression and engage in head-on battle with the rebels' vanguard.

This was actually the last move the Qing army could think of, because the Qing army always had an absolute advantage in terms of manpower, almost twice that of the Han army.

What’s the point of being good at firearms?
A battle involving a large army of tens of thousands of people must ultimately be fought head-on. Winning it fairly and honorably is the normal course of action on the battlefield.

The ratio of archers in the Qing army was higher than that of firearms, and border provinces were often good at using firearms, while inland provinces were good at using bows and arrows.

It just so happened that the army led by Eldengbao was mainly composed of the Green Camp in the mainland and the Eight Banners in the capital, and a large proportion of them were archers.

Although most of these Qing army archers came from the local Green Camp and their archery and horsemanship skills were questionable, they had fought on the battlefield in western Hunan for a year and were definitely better than the rebels who had little combat experience. Among them were also the elite Eight Banners of the capital who specialized in bows, horsemanship and cold weapons.

Eldengbao's idea was simple: if firearms couldn't defeat the rebels, could bows, horses, and cavalry be defeated?
Firearms can be mastered by taking shortcuts, because they require special skills, but it is different with archery and cavalry. There are no shortcuts. To master them, one can only rely on personal talent and bravery, as well as years of training with money and food, and hard work.

The rebels had only been in rebellion for a year. No matter how hard they trained, they could never match the archery and horsemanship of the Qing army. Even if the local Green Camp's training was poor, they had been training for many years, so their foundation was better than the rebels'.

Including the previous confrontation between the two sides' scouts, the cavalry on their side seemed to be no match for the rebel cavalry, but even the Green Camp cavalry could see in the battle that the rebel cavalry's riding skills were quite poor, and they looked more like mounted infantry than them.

The reason why they are so powerful is purely due to their advantage in weapons and armor. If they really show down the cavalry, the rebel cavalry will be completely defeated.

"Shhhhhh!"

The Qing army's archers approached and shot arrows at the Han army's position in one smooth motion!
The Han army's evening lookouts discovered the Qing army's archers at the first moment, but it was too late to notify the front army.

Arrows rained down from the sky, raining down on the Han army's front phalanx. Stab-proof clothing wasn't even vulnerable to sword wounds, so it could certainly block arrows, but that required the arrows to be aimed at the Han soldiers' chests. The rain of arrows falling from the sky was highly unpredictable. Arrows that landed on the Su-stab clothing were naturally deflected, but those that landed on the face or head weren't so lucky.

Even if it landed on the limbs or torso, it could make a Han soldier lose his combat effectiveness on the spot.

In order to implement line tactics, the Han army's musketeers and artillery positions were as dense as those of the Qing army. When the Qing army's archers joined the battlefield, they immediately caused considerable casualties to the Han army's positions.

The Han soldiers had no proper armor and relied entirely on stab-proof suits and bulletproof vests. The only part they could protect was the chest, which was the most vulnerable part. The head and limbs had almost no protection.

Now, facing the Qing army archers, there will inevitably be casualties, and the casualties will not be small, because the Qing army archers have too many troops and the firing rate of bows and arrows is much faster than that of muskets and artillery.

"Crossbowmen, all forward!"

Behind and on both wings of the musketeers, crossbowmen had been prepared. They marched forward in unison with their crossbows in hand, and the steel arrows on their crossbows were loaded and ready to be fired.

These crossbow arrows currently come from the mall, but in order to save costs, Nie Yu only purchases the arrowheads and not the materials for the arrows.

When the new steel furnace is able to enter mass production, the crossbow arrows will be able to be produced by themselves, without having to rely entirely on supplies from the mall.

"aim!"

"Fire arrows!"

"Shhhhhh!"

The Han army's crossbows fired arrows directly. Hundreds of crossbow arrows formed a rain of arrows, which flew down at a speed faster than the Qing army's archers. In just a moment, a large number of the Qing army's archers who rushed forward were shot down. The leather armor on their bodies was like paper, completely unable to stop the attack.

Behind the Qing army, Eldengbao, who was watching the battle and receiving the order, was horrified. He couldn't remember how many times he had been horrified.

Where do these traitors come from?
Not only are their firearms powerful and sharp, far superior to those of the imperial army, but now they have such sharp and organized archers and crossbowmen.

Before, when Eldengbao heard the military report sent back by the cavalry, he was somewhat dismissive of the rebels' so-called bows and crossbows. Even Mingliang, who made the evaluation, felt that these bows and crossbows were just external objects and were definitely not as good as those of properly trained archers.

But the truth is, how can a crossbow mechanism be so powerful? The key is that the firing rate is fast and the hit rate is also frighteningly high.

In the eyes of Eldengbao, Mingliang and Delentang, even without a telescope, they could see that the speed at which their own archers shot arrows could not keep up with the speed at which the rebels shot arrows, and even the archers fell down in rows.

This was not the end. Seeing that the Qing army archers were suppressed, the gunners on the Han army began to replace their artillery shells with solid shells and aimed their guns at the Qing army's archer phalanx.

"Boom boom boom!"

A round of shelling, all fired by heavy artillery.

Several solid artillery shells flew out, and there was no need to worry about the hit rate, because the Qing army archers were standing in a very dense phalanx. If the artillery shells were heavy enough, they could hit the Qing army archers' phalanx, and then plow the Qing army archers into a trail of blood and mud like an old ox plowing the field.

The heavy artillery fired at the rear of the Qing army's archers' position, and the Han army's light mortars also changed their positions and used shotgun shells to bombard the front row of Qing army archers.

The shrapnel fired from hundreds of mortars completely submerged the positions of the Qing army's front-line archers.

The archers were already struggling to deal with the Han army's guns, and now they had to face the Han army's artillery's scattered shells. Many Qing archers in the front row didn't even have time to dodge before they were hit head-on by a cannonball or shot into a sieve of flesh and blood by mortar shells.

Less than half an hour after the Qing army archers joined the battle, more than half of the archers in the front row had been killed or wounded.

Because they died so quickly, the surviving Qing archers had no time to react and continued to blindly follow the crowd in firing arrows.

"Bang bang bang!"

The Han army's musketeers faced the arrows from the archers, but they did not collapse. Instead, they continued to fire and try to fight back.

In order to avoid heavy casualties caused by the hail of arrows, the Han army simply dispersed all the musketeers and fired freely at the Qing army's phalanx in small groups of muskets.

The Han soldiers' muskets were scattered, and the Qing archers lost their targets. They could not shoot arrows at the artillery positions because the artillery positions were too scattered and too far away from them.

The crossbows of the Han soldiers could hit their targets, but their arrows were shot much faster and more accurately than theirs. Not only were they powerful, but they also did not get tired.

Crush in all aspects!

Eldengbao also realized the problem, but it was too late. The archers had already engaged in battle with the rebels. Any order to retreat or change formation could lead to the defeat of the army.

"Delentai!"

"The general is here!"

"I order you to lead your Baturu Guard Cavalry, along with the Eight Banners and Green Camp cavalry from all provinces, to attack the rebels' left and right flanks and defeat them!"

"Yes!"

The Qing cavalry finally moved.

Eldengbao was not a person who was indecisive. Seeing that firearms and bows and arrows were unable to achieve success, he decided to go all out and send all his cavalry to crush the rebel army with thundering force.

(End of this chapter)