The smoke from the battlefield spread into the sky, making it impossible for the returning geese to escape.

If you could use the eyes of wild geese, you would see an extremely shocking scene - countless cavalrymen, wrapped in smoke and dust, rushed towards the nine-square square from all directions!

The cavalrymen in red tassels and blue armor waved their empty three-barreled guns like long-handled iron hammers and shouted, trying to disrupt and break up the thin battle formation of the local soldiers.

However, this hollow formation is currently the best solution for infantry to deal with cavalry.

On the surface, the denser the population, the more likely it is to resist the impact of cavalry, just like the Spanish phalanx. But in fact, this is not the case.

First, only the first three rows of musketeers could deal damage. Starting from the fourth row, a large number of soldiers in the inner layer of the square were blocked by the people in front and could not join the battle at all.

Moreover, the huge kinetic energy of the cavalry accelerating for several hundred meters can knock five infantrymen in a dense formation away, and at the same time make the five infantrymen around them unstable. It is equivalent to one cavalryman crashing into them, which can make ten infantrymen lose their combat capability.

A dense phalanx completely absorbs the damage from the cavalry. On the contrary, a loose and hollow formation receives less damage.

So intuition is sometimes inaccurate, but mathematics never lies.

A good formation should allow as many soldiers as possible to fight effectively, so that the overall damage can be higher. For ranged soldiers, there must be a longer battle line, so that as few soldiers as possible can face the collision of a single cavalry.

Thus, the hollow square formation with three rows of battle lines came into being.

The musketeers changed from occupying the area of ​​the phalanx to occupying the perimeter of the phalanx. This revolutionary progress increased the firepower of the phalanx threefold.

Moreover, whether it is the number of people in a company or a platoon, or the distance between battalion formations, the optimal solution is obtained after rigorous calculation and practical testing.

Combined with the excellent performance of the Wanli rifle, it completely sounded the death knell for the cavalry, once the king of the battlefield, to exit the stage of history!

But no king will willingly give up his throne. Even if it is destined to end, he still has to fight for his dignity and give himself a decent farewell performance...

~~

Despite the unprecedentedly fierce firepower attack, the cavalry of the Shenshu Camp continued to advance like moths to a flame.

Seeing that the battle situation at the front was tense, Yin Bingheng resolutely threw all his reserve troops into the battlefield.

Under the efficient killing of the soldiers from the government, the number of cavalry of the government army was increasing every moment, as if they could be resurrected from the dead.

The entire large square formation was outflanked and surrounded by the government troops, especially the camp square formations on the two wings, which were under tremendous pressure.

The reckless cavalry used their flesh and blood to flatten the barbed wire between the battalions and surrounded the three battalions in the northeast corner of the nine-square grid.

Seeing the terrifying number of cavalrymen coming in overwhelming numbers, the militiamen, who were inspired by speeches and war drums in the morning, were now afraid again. Many people's hands began to tremble, and their movements of loading bullets became distorted. They couldn't get the damn cleaning rod into the barrel...

Even the members of the security detachment began to get nervous.

Fortunately, the Internal Security Brigade was at the forefront. Their fighting power, fighting will and sense of honor were so high that they completely surpassed the enemy and all the armies of the time!

"Guards!" The third battalion commander, with the first-class combat hero medal on his chest, raised his command sword high!

"Fight to the death!" The internal guards shouted in unison, like thunder, which lifted the spirits of the shaken militiamen.

Enemies kept rushing within 30 meters, but the military musicians continued to beat the drums steadily! The internal security soldiers continued to reload quickly and methodically, aiming their guns steadily without wavering. They fired at a jaw-dropping speed.

What use were the few cavalrymen who rushed in front of them? The bayonets of the internal guards’ rifles thrust out at the same time, and the horses were no match for the men…

With a strong backbone, the soldiers behind him also stabilized, continued to shoot, and finally got through the difficult period. Once the critical point was passed, the pressure was quickly relieved.

In fact, the cavalry rushing into the "alley" between the camps was a dead end, because they would be attacked from both sides. So although it looked scary, in fact, they were all killed very quickly.

When the cavalrymen at the back realized that no matter how hard their comrades in front charged, it was useless, and the piles of dead men and horses on their side had even seriously blocked the advance of the following horses, they finally collapsed.

It was not known who was the first to turn their horses around and flee, but then the trend spread like an avalanche. The government cavalry behind them no longer had the courage to fight, and they quickly withdrew from the battlefield, abandoning the infantry of the Five Army Battalions behind them.

The cavalrymen who were in the front were immediately left alone, and they turned their horses around and fled in panic, looking back from time to time, fearing that they would be shot by the terrible muskets of the soldiers.

However, the company commanders at the front issued an order to stop firing, check equipment, and transport the wounded...

The purpose of this battle was to end the war with war. Right now, the one-mile radius circle outside the formation was already a river of blood, densely packed with the bodies of fallen soldiers and horses.

Enough blood has been shed, there is no need to attack the deserters.

Soon, the casualties were summarized to Zheng Yiluan.

"Four of our soldiers were killed, eighteen were seriously injured, and sixty were slightly injured." The detachment's chief of staff reported.

"Hurry up and treat them." Zheng Yiluan frowned slightly. To be honest, the fighting spirit of the three battalions was beyond his imagination. He thought that after a few rounds of volleys, the army would be defeated. He didn't expect that they could force the soldiers to use bayonets to solve the problem.

Most of these seriously injured soldiers were injured by the cavalry's three-barreled muskets or by their horses during close combat...

"I'm still a little too arrogant..." He couldn't help but feel secretly annoyed.

In fact, the internal security forces were also equipped with the "hand-cranked revolving cannon" that had shown great power in Siam. Although due to serious air leakage, the range was less than 200 meters, but the world's martial arts can only be defeated by speed, and the extremely high firing rate allowed it to create a barrage of bullets and block the battlefield.

Unfortunately, the Internal Security Detachment went north to catch wild boar skins, so they didn't need this kind of close combat artillery? Later, their mission was to defend Tangshan City. They dug trenches and pulled barbed wire, so they didn't need this kind of killing weapon that could be called a "logistical nightmare".

Moreover, the hand-cranked rotary cannon is complex in design, with many parts, and without detailed drawings, it is difficult for the Tangshan Farm Implement Factory to imitate it.

Zheng Yiluan originally thought that there would be no need for the rotary cannon, and there would be no casualties...

Shaking his head, putting away his inappropriate emotions, he gave the order in a deep voice: "Order the 1st Battalion, the 3rd Battalion, and the Artillery Battalion to stay behind, and the rest of the troops to advance!"

~~

"Da, da da... da da da..." The loud military bugle sounded.

Upon hearing this, the soldiers from various battalions who were resting and sorting their equipment immediately stood up and lined up again.

After the battalion commanders conveyed the commander's orders, except for the two battalions that had just suffered excessive losses and the bulky artillery battalion, the remaining seven battalions marched in formation to the beat of the drums.

Seven hollow square formations lined up in a row, walked across the battlefield strewn with corpses, and crushed towards the five infantry camps on the opposite side, giving off a full sense of oppression.

The officers and soldiers of the Fifth Army Battalion witnessed the entire process of their own soldiers killing the cavalry. They were so frightened that they had no courage to stand before this group of terrifying killers.

The two sides were still a mile apart when the infantrymen turned around and fled. The officers could not stop them and had to flee as well.

The Shenji Camp at the rear lost the protection of the Five Army Camps and even their deputy general, so they naturally escaped with peace of mind.

Then a spectacular scene appeared on the Jingdong Plain.

The soldiers of the seven battalions kept marching in formation and in step, and they chased the officers and soldiers of the Beijing battalion, which had ten times their strength. They threw away their weapons and armor, and fled in panic, wishing that their parents had not given them two more legs.

Yin Bingheng, the commander-in-chief of the Beijing Camp, who was watching the battle from the rear, felt as if the sky was falling.

He thought that the battle might not go well and that he might fail, but he never expected that he would be defeated so quickly and so completely!

Less than an hour had passed since the first shot was fired, and his 100,000-strong army had already been defeated.

The experienced general naturally understood that there was no such thing as running away from a battlefield. Once a large number of soldiers started to desert, even gods could not save them.

What is even more despairing is that this time he had the advantage of time, place and people, and besieged the enemy with ten times more elite troops, but still lost so miserably.

"There is no hope at all..." The old admiral burst into tears, his lips trembled, and suddenly he became so angry that he vomited blood.

He only had time to say "retreat quickly" before he fainted.

~~

Seven thousand young men broke into the government army camp and pursued them all the way to the Chaobai River.

Tens of thousands of defeated soldiers fled to the Chaobai River first.

At this time, the river surface had thawed, and on the river that was more than 300 meters wide, there was only a floating bridge connected by small boats and wooden boards.

In order to compete for who would be the first to reach the bridge, officers and soldiers from each battalion fought each other, scrambling for the position and cursing at each other.

Just when their brains were about to be blown out, there was a sudden flash of light in front of everyone's eyes, and with a deafening explosion, the floating bridge was blown into the sky.

The fleeing soldiers on the bridge were also sent into the sky at the same time, and the broken limbs and bodies that fell down along with the broken wood chips instantly dyed the surface of the river red.

The fleeing soldiers were stunned for a long time before they were suddenly awakened by the approaching drumbeats. Some impulsively jumped into the water to escape, but the river water was swift and cold, mixed with large and small ice blocks, and almost no one could swim to the other side. Their hands and feet were paralyzed by the cold and they were washed away by the river...

More defeated soldiers cried out in despair, turned around, knelt down, kowtowed and begged for mercy.

At this time, the soldiers began to shout through loudspeakers.

"Those who surrender will be spared death! Those who surrender will not be killed!"

"The soldiers treated the prisoners well, without beating or scolding them, and even provided them with food..."

The defeated soldiers, as if they had been pardoned, scrambled to lay down their weapons, take off their armor, kneel down and raise their hands in surrender.

Really, why didn't you tell us earlier? It made us run...

The Battle of Sanhe, which determined the fate of the Ming royal family, came to an end.

In this battle, 100,000 officers and soldiers from the three battalions of the ace troops directly under the Wanli Emperor were wiped out in one battle.

Among them, 4,100 officers and soldiers were killed, and 57,000 were injured or surrendered or captured, including Yin Bingheng, the commander-in-chief of the Beijing Camp.

Another 33,000 people were lost, and only more than 5,000 escaped back to the capital. All equipment, baggage, mules and horses were lost...