Late Ming Dynasty: Special Forces in 1645

Just as the Restoration Army's cavalry was about to enter within a hundred meters, the musketeers had already lit the match strings on their muskets.

Meanwhile, the drones above the musketeers descended further, and finally someone heard the sound of the drone rotors.

One by one, some soldiers in Zheng's army looked up at the sky and saw a strange "big bird" circling above their heads, making a strange "whooshing" sound.

Observer Yan Huidong was intently maneuvering the drone, observing the optimal grenade dropping position and calculating the impact point of each grenade to ensure maximum lethality.

The drone was carrying eight grenades, all of which were powerful defensive grenades, each weighing 550 grams and with an effective kill radius of over 10 meters!

Seizing the opportunity, Yan Huidong threw down six grenades.

The musketeers ignored the noise from the drones overhead. Their rigorous training had taught them to be single-minded, and at that moment, all they could see were the charging cavalry and the moment of excitement or tension as they waited for the right moment to fire.

As the cavalry entered within a hundred paces, the musketeers also raised their muskets.

Just then, the six grenades dropped by the drone landed, and because the timing was perfect, the grenades exploded as soon as they hit the ground!

The explosions of six grenades rang out one after another, like thunderclaps rising from the ground!

The flash and the loud bang alone can cause people outside the grenade's kill radius to faint briefly.

The grenade explosion released thousands of steel balls, which raged through the musketeers' ranks!

Six grenades instantly rendered hundreds of musketeers incapable of fighting, and countless others were wounded.

The cavalry of the Restoration Army reined in their horses and stopped when they were fifty meters away, and then dismounted one after another!

They were clad in fine armor, wielding spears and carrying broadswords! They were all veterans who had experienced the Battle of Jiujiang. At this time, they were not cavalry, but mounted infantry!

Mounted infantry, also known as cavalry, have an even more prestigious title in the West: dragoons!

Li Chengming knew that it was impossible to train cavalry in a short time, but he could train them to charge on horseback and fight on dismount in a short period of time.

Sometimes, cavalry infantry can be just as effective as cavalry.

For example, the famous Manchu cavalry could not match the Mongol cavalry in terms of archery skills, but the Manchu heavy cavalry and infantry were unparalleled in combat power. With their heavy cavalry and infantry, they could easily withstand the charge of the Mongol light cavalry and then cooperate with the Manchu cavalry to achieve a counterattack!

When facing the Ming army's infantry formation, the Qing army could rely on its heavily armored cavalry to tear a gap in the formation, allowing the cavalry behind to quickly break through and breach the Ming army's infantry formation!

Li Chengming referenced the tactics of cavalry and infantry in history. The difference was that when facing musketeers, he could not simply use cavalry and infantry to deal with them. Instead, he first used drones to drop bombs to disrupt their formation, and then sent cavalry and infantry to charge and kill them!

One hundred armored cavalrymen charged into the musketeers' position and slaughtered them while they were in disarray.

The cavalry and infantry unit was led by Feng Erlei, the battalion commander of the First Battalion.

Feng Erlei was not the tallest or strongest in the Restoration Army; on the contrary, he was not particularly noticeable among them.

But he was recognized as the bravest in the Restoration Army, and he fought without regard for his life!

It's not just reckless courage; this kid also has strong leadership skills. He's not the only one who's brave; he can lead his men to be brave with him.

That's why Li Chengming approached him and asked him to lead the cavalry and infantry to charge into the enemy lines!

Feng Erlei led his cavalry and infantry like wolves entering a tiger's den, cutting down anyone they saw.

At this time, Zheng's musketeers had no other infantry cover and could only passively dodge the swords and spears of the cavalry and infantry. They wanted to raise their muskets to fire, but the accuracy of the matchlock muskets was insufficient, and the bullets they fired were more likely to hit their own teammates.

In an instant, the musketeer ranks were filled with cries of agony.

After all, there were 500 musketeers. Even if grenades killed or wounded over a hundred, the cavalry and infantry couldn't kill them all in one go. The Zheng army infantry behind them reacted quickly and began to press forward.

Seeing that the musketeers were about to fire into the infantry formation, Feng Erlei panicked and was about to rush forward to engage them in close combat, but was stopped by his two subordinates: "Battalion Commander, let's retreat! The enemy infantry are pressing forward; if we don't retreat now, we won't be able to get back!"

"No!" Feng Erlei broke free from his men and roared, "Commander Li ordered us to kill more musketeers, but we haven't killed enough!"

"Battalion Commander!" His subordinate cried out anxiously, "Commander Li ordered us all to return! What will happen to our warhorses if we don't go back?"

His subordinate's words brought Feng Erlei to his senses. He knew how precious these warhorses were. To put it bluntly, these hundred warhorses might be more important than a hundred soldiers!

If the warhorse that was brought here were to die or be lost, that would be a grave sin.

Having grasped this crucial point, Feng Erlei immediately ordered, "Retreat! We all need to retreat now!"

Just as Feng Erlei was leading his men in retreat, a series of loud gunshots rang out from the direction of the Restoration Army.

After every gunshot, a musketeer would fall.

For assault team members, at a distance of over 200 meters, with ample time to fire, they have a hit rate of over 60% even with their eyes closed.

If you keep your eyes open, then hitting the bullseye every time is no joke!

Musketeers also handled guns, and although the sounds were very different, they could still tell that it was the sound of a gunshot. But what the musketeers couldn't understand was that there were such accurate muskets in the world.

With each gunshot, a musketeer fell. The already unsettled musketeer was terrified by this horrific sight, and some even dropped their muskets and ran towards the infantry.

Zheng Jun's infantry faced the Xingfu Army and saw the musketeers falling one by one, from the front to the back, without missing a single one.

The scene was even more bizarre; they hadn't even seen where the gunshot had come from.

The infantry behind the musketeers dared not step forward, trembling with fear at the bizarre scene.

Fortunately, it seemed that the Restoration Army only killed musketeers. After all the musketeers who had not yet escaped were killed, the terrifying gunfire stopped!

Before the Restoration Army entered the fray, Li Chengming summarized the firing round: "134 shots were fired, 131 enemy soldiers killed!"

Grenades killed or wounded over a hundred musketeers, infantry and cavalry killed or wounded nearly two hundred, and assault troops killed 131 with their rifles!

It doesn't matter if the few remaining musketeers escape into the infantry ranks; the musketeers are no longer a threat!

Next, Li Chengming aimed his gun at the artillerymen who were loading ammunition into the Hongyi cannons. Although the distance was much greater this time, it made little difference to Li Chengming; he could still take out an artilleryman with one shot.

Li Chengming alone suppressed the loading soldiers of the Hongyi cannons so much that they dared not raise their heads. Anyone who touched the Hongyi cannons would die!

The only remaining threat to the Restoration Army was the enemy's archers!

As the two armies drew closer, Zheng's two hundred archers drew their bows and began to fire.

Just then, two grenades mounted on the drone were dropped into the archers' formation.

With the deafening explosion of the two grenades, dozens of archers were instantly killed or wounded!

The psychological impact of this explosion was even greater; these archers had just witnessed firsthand how a 500-man musketeer unit was destroyed.

For a moment, the formation of Zheng's archers was thrown into chaos.

The archers of the Restoration Army rushed out from the infantry formation, quickly advancing dozens of meters before stopping.

Regardless of formation, they stopped drawing their bows and fired at the Zheng army archers, not caring about accuracy, as long as they could release the arrows quickly, they considered it a success!

The Restoration Army had 530 archers in this company, or rather, they were more like soldiers who could draw their bows than archers.

There were a total of 530 people, each of whom quickly shot eight arrows.

Their main tactic is to use numbers to bully the few!

Although the arrows were not accurate, so many arrows created a "rain of arrows" under Zheng's archers' formation!

This "rain of arrows" also caught the panicked Zheng army archers off guard, who were hit by the arrows before they could hide behind their shields.

In an instant, every archer in Zheng's army was wounded. Although the injuries were not serious, the psychological impact was enormous, and they all hid in the infantry formation.

Perhaps what they feared wasn't anything in particular, but rather the gunshots that had just claimed the lives of the musketeers!