"Walk!"
Zeng Yong waved his hand, and the cavalrymen behind him immediately galloped forward.
Zhang Wenwu was not willing to be outdone and also urged his horse on.
A cavalry regiment of one thousand men split into left and right wings, formed neat formations and ran forward.
Less than a few minutes later, the Iron Harrier scouts, who were at least ten miles away from the city, quickly discovered them, and immediately various horns and whistles sounded.
A scout quickly reported to Li Yuanhao, and learned that only about a thousand Song cavalry were attacking. He did not take it seriously and simply sent out three thousand Iron Harrier heavy cavalry to intercept them, while his eyes were still on the city in the distance.
Because of his artillery advantage, Lanzhou City was obviously at a disadvantage at this time. Even the city walls were blown down. The defenders on it were frightened and the frequency of their counterattacks became much less frequent.
Zeng Yong and his men continued to advance. When they were about six miles away from the main Xixia army, three thousand Iron Harriers surrounded them.
"kill!"
They were all wearing heavy armor, holding scimitars in their hands, and making wolf-howling sounds from their mouths.
Neither side charged, but simply let the horses move forward slowly.
Because horses are good at short-distance explosive power, if they charge at the beginning, it will seriously waste horsepower, especially the Xixia heavy armored cavalry, which can only run a few hundred meters in a charge.
But what the Xixia people did not expect was that the enemy suddenly stopped and looked at them from afar when they were only 200 steps away from them.
Although they were a little confused, the Xixia people would not stop. They continued to move forward slowly.
As long as they reach a hundred steps, or about one hundred and forty meters, they will officially launch a charge, moving forward like a roaring iron army, crushing everything in front of them into powder.
"Raise your guns!"
Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu both shouted loudly.
Almost all the Song soldiers took off their muskets from behind.
"Reload!"
They continued to shout.
The soldiers methodically loaded Minié bullets into the gun chambers.
At this time, the Xixia people were still more than 200 meters away from them.
"Prepare!"
After waiting for ten seconds, the two commanders shouted again.
All the soldiers raised their guns.
"emission!"
"Bang bang bang bang bang bang!"
White smoke instantly came out of the barrel.
Countless tiny lead bullets, pushed by gunpowder and rifling, shot out of the barrel at an extremely fast speed, tearing through the void and shooting towards the enemy formation.
“Pah pah pah pah!”
A large number of bullets penetrated the Xixia people's armor, and immediately large numbers of Iron Harriers fell down.
"hiss!"
The surviving Iron Harriers gasped.
Because they didn't know what was happening, they only knew that the Song people raised an inexplicable long tube and pointed it at them.
After a series of "bang bang bang bang" sounds, the cavalrymen at the front of the team fell off their horses as if possessed. Most of the people on the ground did not die on the spot, but were still wailing in pain.
This made the rest of the Xixia cavalry hesitate, and each of them couldn't help but pull the reins, afraid to move forward.
Seeing that the soldiers in front were shrinking, a general in the rear cursed a few times in Tangut language and urged the soldiers to move forward again. As long as they reached a hundred steps, they could urge their horses to launch a fatal charge on the enemy!
But just over twenty seconds later, the deadly "bang bang bang bang" sounds came again, and a large number of soldiers fell in front of them. In just one encounter, they lost hundreds of people.
"ah!"
Finally, someone couldn't help but scream after seeing his teammate die inexplicably. Then he turned his horse around and ran away.
Now, like a domino effect, the remaining two thousand or so Iron Harriers fled to the rear.
"Chase!"
Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu shouted loudly.
Many Song cavalrymen immediately put away their guns and urged their horses to pursue forward.
Their equipment was as follows: they wore the autumn uniform of the Song army, and a ring-handled straight sword hung on the right side of their waist.
There was a small bag hanging on the left side of his waist, containing three grenades.
There were also two large cloth bags hanging on both sides of the horses, with many small cloth bags inside. Each bag contained a Minié bullet and a bag of gunpowder.
After each shooting, the soldiers had to spend at least twenty seconds to clean the powder magazine and reload the ammunition.
Therefore, the firing efficiency is still relatively low, only 2-3 rounds can be fired per minute, which is far slower than a small cannon.
But the small cannon requires four people to work together. One person installs the fuse, two people load the ammunition, and the last person lights the fuse to fire. The operation must be skilled to fire one shot every 6-7 seconds.
This is because the explosion rate of steel was relatively low in the black powder era, and the power of black powder was still not as strong as that of yellow powder, making it difficult to blow up steel cannons with higher structures and strength.
If it is a wrought iron cannon, someone has to cool the barrel with a wet brush and wait until the barrel is completely cooled before continuing to fire.
Moreover, 2-3 rounds per minute can only be used a few times in the early stage. Later on, you have to maintain a rate of 1 round per minute or even 1 round per 2 minutes, otherwise the barrel will explode.
Although the Song army's firearms were also made of steel and had a low burst rate, soldiers needed to complete the three steps of cleaning the powder box, loading gunpowder, and loading bullets by themselves, so the efficiency was naturally much slower than that of steel cannons.
Therefore, in terms of firing rate alone, muskets are still inferior to artillery. However, in terms of close-range individual combat capability, muskets are far superior to artillery.
The cavalry continued to advance in a mighty force.
Soon, the Xixia legions in the distance noticed that the Iron Harrier Army had been defeated, and scouts reported it to Li Yuanhao.
Li Yuanhao was so eager for quick success at this time that he did not stop to wait for the gun barrels to cool down after firing for 1-2 minutes in the initial stage, which caused several cannons to explode and made him annoyed.
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