Some of the frightened war horses ran forward, while others ran backward.
The gaps between the chevaux de frise were already narrow, and under the charge of these war horses, other war horses were also affected and began to run around.
The charge in front was blocked, but the ones behind were still surging forward.
The Eight Banners Army's formation was in chaos.
The Ming army's bird-gun soldiers and archers hid behind the spearmen and shot indiscriminately.
Especially for the bird-gun soldiers, the distance between the two sides was too close.
They hardly had to aim deliberately, and every time they pulled the trigger, an enemy soldier was hit.
The archers' hard bows are also quite powerful.
When an arrow hits a person, even if the armor can block the damage, the arrowhead will be stuck in the armor and cannot fall off.
The Eight Banners soldiers who were shot soon turned into hedgehogs.
"Retreat, retreat quickly!" Seeing that the attack was blocked, Bolo immediately organized a retreat.
The cavalry came and went like the wind and soon retreated a hundred steps away.
"Damn it," Bolo spat vigorously, "My Eight Banners Cavalry of the Qing Dynasty was actually tricked by these bastards."
He thought he would win easily, but unexpectedly he lost, and lost miserably.
"Master Beizi, let's divide our forces!" The personal guard beside him advised: "The Ming army has dug a trench on the north and south sides respectively. The two trenches are about ten feet apart. Let's divide our forces into three groups! One group will attack the gap in the west, and the rest of the troops will go around the north and south sides of the trenches to shoot arrows at the Ming army to harass them."
"As long as the arrows are dense enough, they will be unable to raise their heads, and our army will be able to break through the gap in the west."
"Divide the troops?" Bolo stared at the warships on the sea for a while and shook his head vigorously: "Not good! The Ming army is hiding between the two trenches. If our army harasses outside the trenches, they will be bombarded by the Ming army on the sea."
"You are worrying too much, my Lord." A general rushed forward and said, "The Ming army's warships are still some distance away from the coast, and the accuracy of their artillery is limited. If the Ming army opens fire rashly, they may hurt their own people. So... I think the Ming army will not open fire."
"Fuck it," Bolo slapped the other man in the face, "You want me to bet that the Ming army dare not fire? Are you crazy or am I crazy?"
The general who was slapped in the face covered his face and begged for mercy: "I know I was wrong."
"Hmph!" Bolo snorted coldly and looked at the battlefield again.
The Ming army on the battlefield neither dug pits as they had done before nor retreated.
Instead, stay where you are and rest.
Seeing that time was getting later, Bolo couldn't bear it any longer.
The task given to him by Hauge was to open up a retreat route.
If we cannot open up a retreat route today, the news will spread to Ningyuan and cause instability in the military morale.
He stood up and waved his hand: "The heavy armored soldiers are in front, and the others are behind. Dismount and fight on foot."
"yes!"
The Eight Banners Army made a comeback.
The cavalry first used ropes to pull open a gap in the chevaux de frise, and the dismounted heavy armored soldiers passed through the gap and moved forward under the attack of the Ming army.
Others hid behind the heavy infantry and threw the chevaux de frise into the ditch as they passed by.
Arrows cannot cause damage to heavily armored infantry, and although muskets can cause damage, they cannot kill them with one shot.
After finally killing one of the heavy armored infantrymen, another one appeared behind him.
Under the cover of heavy infantry, the two armies met.
Both sides played with their lives on the line.
Chop, split, smash, swing——
He used all his strength, wishing he could hack and chop the other person to death...
The bodies began to pile up.
At first the Ming army was able to hold on, but soon they could no longer hold on due to exhaustion.
Before the Eight Banners soldiers arrived, they expended a lot of energy digging trenches.
It is not easy to persist until now.
"Retreat!" Zeng Ying ordered the front team.
He divided the two thousand men into three teams: front, middle and rear.
Each team has six or seven hundred people.
The first team threw grenades backwards while fleeing, not intending to hurt anyone, but hoping to slow down the enemy's pursuit.
This trick was very effective, and the Eight Banners soldiers were dizzy from the grenade.
By the time they recovered and planned to chase after them, the first group of Ming troops had already escaped ten steps away.
"Kill!" The Eight Banners soldiers followed behind and killed.
After taking two steps, the Eight Banners soldiers in front suddenly stopped.
The Eight Banners soldiers behind them didn't understand what was going on and continued to charge forward, shouting, "Anyone who retreats without permission will be killed!"
As he was shouting, the sound suddenly stopped.
Because they found that the fleeing Ming soldiers were lying on the ground.
Looking closely, I discovered that there were several medium-sized artillery pieces in front.
The dark muzzle was facing them, and the Ming soldier next to the cannon lit the fuse with a smile: "Goodbye!"
Boom boom boom.
Three cannons fired one after another.
In order to avoid accidentally injuring friendly forces, the Ming army did not use hundreds of bullets, but large solid bullets.
Three solid bullets were ejected from the muzzle and rushed towards the Eight Banners soldiers who were dismounting and fighting on foot.
The Eight Banners soldiers' formation was very dense.
Three shells directly hit the three heavily armored soldiers in the front row, and the huge kinetic energy penetrated their bodies directly.
The power of the shells remained undiminished and continued to penetrate backwards.
One, five, eight...
After piercing through nearly ten people, the shell lost its power and fell to the ground.
If the heavily armored soldiers in the front row had not blocked most of the damage, the number of people pierced would have been even greater.
(Solid bullets have very strong penetrating power, and according to records, they can penetrate more than a dozen rows of soldiers.)
The shells landed and a bloody mist rose.
"ah--"
The shrill screams made people's hair stand on end and their backs feel cold.
The surviving Eight Banners soldiers in the front row were so scared that they pissed their pants.
After witnessing this way of death, the courage and loyalty in their hearts instantly dropped to zero.
Without any communication or hesitation, the Eight Banners soldiers turned around and ran.
The soldiers in front were running backwards, while the soldiers behind were still rushing forward.
In the confrontation, the Eight Banners soldiers began to trample on each other.
"Kill!" The Ming army launched a counterattack.
After an unknown amount of time, the battle ended.
Blood dyed the soil deep red, and corpses lay scattered across the battlefield.
Bolo was in tears.
Not only did he fail to repel Zeng Ying, he also lost hundreds of soldiers.
I wanted to continue fighting, but it was getting late, so I had to retreat.
Although the Ming army won the battle, it suffered heavy losses.
"Sir," a general came to Zeng Ying, "Our army suffered heavy losses today, and we have spent half a day digging trenches. I am afraid we will not have the strength to fight tomorrow..."
Zeng Ying thought for a moment and said, "Let's go back to the boat and rest first, and we'll talk about it tomorrow."
Before nightfall, all fighting in Ningyuan and Tashan stopped.
The upper reaches of Ningyuan River.
Wu Sangui and Man Dahai fought to a draw.
The lower reaches of Ningyuan River.
Wang Yongji and Hauge withdrew their troops back to their camps.
The Ming army did not retreat to the south bank, but set up camp on the north bank, ready to advance the front line at any time.
Hauge could only retreat two miles as a buffer zone.
Zeng Ying of Tashan defeated Bolo, who had several times more troops.
Night falls.
Although Ningyuan City was still in Hauge's hands, the situation was precarious.
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