At the foot of Nanshan Mountain.

Tens of thousands of Ming troops lined up in a long snake formation and launched an attack on the Eight Banners troops opposite them.

The Eight Banners soldiers were divided into three groups to respond.

The first group of elite infantry occupied the commanding heights of Nanshan Mountain and defended from a high position.

The other two elite cavalry units guarded the foot of the mountain on the east and west sides to prevent the Ming army from cutting off the way down the mountain for the defenders.

Once the road down the mountain was cut off, the defenders on the mountain would be unable to obtain supplies.

Food and fodder are relatively easy to deal with, as they can be stockpiled in large quantities in advance.

The most troublesome thing is water.

Nanshan is not high and has no water source.

Although there is a Xiaoling River on the north side of the mountain from which water can be drawn, the mountain road to the north is winding and the terrain is undulating, making it impossible for horse-drawn and ox-drawn carts carrying water to pass.

Transporting water by manpower alone is simply not enough to meet the water needs of a large army.

Wang Yongji rode on his horse and used his clairvoyance to observe for a while before looking north: "Send the order, attack!"

boom!

A tongue of red flame spurted out from the black muzzle of the central army cannon.

Crash! Woo!

As the central army's flag was waved, the horn sounded.

More than 10,000 Ming troops formed the first echelon and launched an attack on Nanshan.

When they were one mile away from Nanshan, the defenders on the mountain lit the fuse of the artillery.

Amidst the rumbling sound, dozens of large solid artillery shells hit the Ming army.

At that time.

Whether it is the Red Cannon or other artillery, they are strictly speaking smoothbore cannons.

The lethality of a smoothbore gun that fires solid bullets mainly depends on ricochets.

After the shell is fired, it will be bounced up when it comes into contact with the ground, continue to fly far away, and then fall to the ground again. This cycle will repeat several times until the shell's kinetic energy is exhausted or it encounters an obstacle and stops.

Also called skipping stones.

Skipping a cannonball is just like skipping a stone; the angle of contact cannot be too large.

Otherwise it will fall directly into the water/soil.

Therefore, this requires that the location where the artillery is mounted cannot be too high from the ground, otherwise the shells will hit the ground directly and will not bounce.

Secondly, the ground cannot be too soft.

The softer the ground, the more kinetic energy the shell absorbs when it hits the ground, and the fewer times it bounces.

This was the reason why Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in the early nineteenth century.

There were heavy rains at the time and the soil was soft.

The shells fired by the artillery that Napoleon relied on could not bounce, and their power was greatly reduced.

In addition, the roads were muddy and reinforcements could not arrive on time, leading to ultimate defeat.

Although it was not raining in Liaodong at this time, Jirgalang faced another problem: the angle of incidence.

If the artillery is placed on the top of a mountain, the angle of incidence will be too large, resulting in the shells being unable to ricochet.

If the artillery is deployed at the foot of the mountain, not only will the advantage of being high above will be lost, but the artillery will also be more vulnerable to attack.

Jirgalang had rich experience in leading troops in battle. His method was to place artillery positions at the foot of the mountain and below the mountainside.

Take into account both the shooting angle and the safety of the artillery.

boom!

Dozens of projectiles either hit the Ming army's formation or flew over their heads and landed behind them.

Soldiers hit by shells were either killed or wounded.

but...

The Ming army did not stop the attack, but continued to move forward despite suffering casualties.

Especially at times like this, we cannot give up halfway.

In order to avoid the Jiannu's artillery, the Ming army's infantry quickened their charge.

"kill!"

With every step they took, they shouted in unison to boost morale.

"Governor!" The lieutenant general of the Central Army put down his clairvoyance and reported to Wang Yongji, "We have discovered six Jiannu artillery camp positions."

"Send a small group of cavalry to harass, and the first echelon of infantry will continue the attack!"

"yes!"

Boom!

Several Ming cavalry units attacked from the flanks of the infantry.

The iron hooves of the war horses stepped on the dry soil, splashing up large amounts of dust.

More than a dozen cavalry units of about 200 horses rushed straight towards the Jiannu artillery camp position.

The location of the Jiannu artillery position was higher than the foot of the mountain and lower than the mountainside.

The characteristic of artillery is that it is expensive!

Especially the weight, which can range from hundreds of pounds to thousands of pounds.

It cannot be transported by manpower alone.

So at that time, both the Ming Army and the Eight Banners Army used horse-drawn carriages or ox-drawn carts to transport artillery.

Since vehicles were used, the road leading to the artillery camp must be able to accommodate cavalry.

"The Ming cavalry is coming, set up roadblocks quickly!" The Eight Banners artillery general shouted immediately as he looked at the approaching Ming cavalry.

Without his orders, the artillerymen had already set up a large number of chevaux de frise and deer horns along the way.

The Ming army would try to bypass the roadblocks if possible, and if they couldn't, they would use ropes with hooks to move the roadblocks away.

However, before they could get close to the artillery position, reinforcements from the Eight Banners arrived from afar.

The two sides first shot arrows at each other, and then started fighting at the foot of the mountain.

boom!

A second round of artillery fire rang out.

Due to the increase in the angle of incidence, the power of the shells is greatly reduced.

The casualties caused by this shelling were only half or even one-third of the previous one.

At this time, the Ming army had already attacked the foot of the mountain. They attacked the Eight Banners soldiers on the hillside with firearms and bows and arrows while climbing up the hillside.

The Eight Banners soldiers counterattacked from a high position.

"Order the artillery battalion to move forward and set up a position on the mound in front! And engage in direct bombardment of the Jiannu artillery battalion halfway up the mountain!" Wang Yongji gave the order after observing for a while.

"Gee, gee, gee!" The civilians in the artillery camp drove the livestock and pulled the vehicles equipped with artillery forward.

The baggage soldiers followed behind, driving wagons loaded with gunpowder and artillery shells, and moved forward together.

The Eight Banners Artillery had two choices.

One is to continue bombarding the Ming army attacking the mountain, and the other is to adjust the muzzle and bombard the Ming army's artillery.

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