Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 240 War begins

Wu Yuanzhong felt a sweetness in his throat and almost spit out a mouthful of blood. He swallowed the blood that was about to reach his throat. The Meng thief had no martial ethics. He launched a direct cavalry attack before the battle formation was complete.

The front row of Jin troops were broken through, and before the archers in the back row could fire a few arrows, they were horrified to find that the cavalry had knocked away the Jin army spearmen and rushed in front of the archers.

Liu Kun shouted loudly and charged into the enemy formation, slashing left and right with his long sword. The Jin army archers were killed and scattered in panic, falling to the ground screaming.

Huang Cheng's cavalry disrupted the formation of the Jin army's vanguard. The three thousand cavalrymen were like a powerful arrow, breaking through the front formation and passing directly through the formation. The wilderness was full of Jin army soldiers who were thrown into disarray by the cavalry.

Jin Shengheng was furious and urgently ordered his general Lu Xingzu to lead more than 5,000 elite soldiers to stabilize the front line and surround and kill the cavalry that broke out of the formation.

Huang Cheng's face was pale at this time. A stray arrow pierced his waist from the side. Huang Cheng saw that the Jin army had already dispatched its elite troops and the cavalry had exhausted their horsepower, so he waved his hand and ordered the cavalry to return.

The cavalry reorganized themselves slightly and turned back to charge into the enemy formation again. The soldiers in the vanguard of the Jin army, who had not yet gathered, were dispersed again. The cavalry broke through the formation again. At this time, almost all the cavalry were covered in blood, and some soldiers couldn't help but let out a hearty roar.

When the cavalry broke through the enemy line and returned, Meng Jun's troops were already ready for battle array. The 6,000 Kulu army formed five arrays, holding self-made muskets and stationed in the center, followed by a group of more than 2,000 archers, and Gao Yi's heavy armored troops were deployed behind them. There were five battalions of the Service Army, three on the left wing and two on the right wing. Qian Biao's Wuning Town troops were divided into two sides as reserve. The total army had 38,000 people, with neat arrays, fluttering flags, and a murderous aura.

Lin Shiqi had also led his troops out of the city. When he saw Meng Jun's entire army lined up, ready to fight Jin Shengheng in the field, he made a prompt decision and had his entire army leave the city, abandoning Nanling City, and line up in a foot battle formation in the southeast direction. Twenty-six thousand men formed a huge infantry formation and slowly pressed towards the battlefield.

Lu Xingzu led his elite troops to the front line and killed the soldiers who were running around. Wu Yuanzhong also ordered his subordinates to gather the defeated soldiers and reorganize the front line.

When the battle line was slightly restored, Wu Yuanzhong felt like crying but had no tears. The loss of soldiers and generals was secondary. He only saw that all his soldiers looked uneasy. How could he fight with such low morale?

The battlefield with nearly 300,000 troops from both armies was extremely large, stretching for dozens of miles. Jin Shengheng personally climbed to a high place and looked at the Zhou army. Although the vanguard was broken through and lost face, it was okay because we had more people and soldiers.

Jin Shengheng looked from afar and saw that Meng Jun's troops were not armored soldiers. Instead, they were unarmored and had no sharp blades. They only had a musket. At this time, the deputy general beside him said to Jin Shengheng: "General, the enemy's troops in the middle are unarmored. You may choose sharp soldiers to break through the formation!"

Jin Shengheng shook his head slowly and said, "Meng is also a veteran of many battles, how could he be so foolish? These fire gun soldiers may have some tricks. Let's send people to charge the formation first to consume their medicine and energy, and then send our elite troops to defeat them in one battle."

Then Jin Shengheng waved his hand, drums beat, and attack horns sounded. Tens of thousands of Jin army infantrymen charged towards the Zhou army formation.

On Meng Jun's side, low trumpets sounded and war drums rumbled. When the Jin army entered the artillery range, thirty-two cannons fired at the same time. The shells flew out from the artillery rapidly, and the rumbling sound seemed to shatter people's ears.

With the sound of "swish", solid bullets flew over the heads of the Zhou army's formation, leaving trails of blood in the Jin army's charging array. The densely packed crowd allowed the artillery to exert great power. The tragic battlefield made these conscripted soldiers panic, and the supervisory team behind them shouted angrily, driving these vanguard cannon fodder to move on.

Going a little further, the small cannons in front of the formation began to show their power again. Round after round of shotgun shells made the Jin army's vanguard scream in pain. When these soldiers rushed to the front of the Po Lu army with distorted faces and mad roars, the musketeers that Meng Jun had high hopes for finally showed their power at that moment.

Six thousand muskets were firing in rotation. The Jin army came up in waves and fell down in waves. After several rounds of continuous musket shooting, the musketeers' vision was blurred in the thick black gunpowder smoke. Wu Yuanzhong didn't know what the battle situation was like in the front, so he just kept driving the cannon fodder forward.

On the battlefield, the smoke filled the air like a thick fog, blocking the view and making the originally clear battle line blurry. The musketeers in front of them kept firing, the sound of gunfire was deafening, and the smoke rose up, blurring the view.

The archers behind the musketeers were unable to accurately determine the enemy's position as the smoke continued to rise in front of them. So, the archers began to tentatively shoot arrows forward. The arrows penetrated the smoke, drew arcs, and landed in an unknown area.

At the same time, on both wings of the battlefield, the battle between the Xiaoming Army and the Jin Army had entered a white-hot stage. Although the Xiaoming Army was formed by surrendered soldiers, after a period of reorganization and training, their combat effectiveness was significantly higher than the ragtag army that Jin Shengheng had put together temporarily.

The sound of metal colliding, the roars of soldiers, and the screams of the wounded were intertwined together. The two wings were still fighting with cold weapons, while in the center, the Klu Army had not lost a single person and was still shooting in an orderly manner until a sudden gust of wind blew away the thick smoke. Wu Yuanzhong stared at the battlefield in front of him with his eyes wide open. It was an extremely tragic scene, with corpses piled up layer by layer and the wounded wailing in pain, wriggling their bodies, trying to escape from this endless purgatory.

Meng Jun was excited. His homemade musket had indeed worked. This musket would only be shocking when it was used on a large scale. If the musket could be developed into a breech-loading rifle, it would be really unstoppable. Meng Jun only took a cursory look and saw that there were no less than three thousand corpses at the front of the Po Lu Army. The Jin army on the two wings was slightly better, but the Jin army in the middle had been frightened to the point of mental collapse and fled backwards howling.

"My lord, the morale of the enemy army has plummeted. Should we send cavalry to charge?" Yu An looked at the battlefield and said to Meng Jun excitedly.

"The time has not come yet!" Meng Jun shook his head. The cavalry had just charged for a while and were recovering their horsepower. Moreover, only a small part of them had collapsed at this time. His own cavalry was scarce in number and should be used at the critical moment. It was a pity that it was difficult to form cavalry. However, Jin Shengheng had even fewer cavalry. Except for scouts and messengers, there were almost no organized cavalry.

Meng Jun continued to look at the battlefield, only to see the defeated soldiers retreating to Wu Yuanzhong's formation. Wu Yuanzhong was so frightened that he immediately ordered the supervisory team to shoot a rain of arrows and ordered the defeated soldiers not to charge. The defeated soldiers saw that those who retreated would die, but they did not dare to charge at the death-like firearms. Some of the defeated soldiers even laughed loudly, while most of them squatted on the ground, crying because of the casualties.

The morale of Wu Yuanzhong's troops plummeted, and he could only order his men to gather the defeated soldiers. Seeing the commander's drum beating to urge the troops to charge forward, Wu Yuanzhong could only wave his hand, rotate the infantry, and charge forward again. When the fierce fighting was in full swing, Lin Shiqi's troops finally arrived at the battlefield. They formed an array with a huge force, and formed a pincer attack with the large array where Meng Jun was. Although their numbers were smaller than the Jin army, they were tactically in a pincer attack and attacked the Jin army together.