The Beiyang Army is accustomed to purposeful small-scale combat. Whether it is encounters or battles, they have never participated in a war of more than 10,000 people.

The French veterans were different. War was a chaotic gathering, marching, garrisoning, robbing after stationing, waiting for other lords to continue marching. Even if they were separated from the enemy by a small river, they might deal with each other, ranging from days to months. The war might end at this time, and they would take the stolen trophy home.

Battle is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for both sides to fight.

But sometimes the battle had to be fought for the lord. For example, in Wulong, Earl of Shir could not leave the bridge that was about to be completed and lead the army to leave with a large amount of supplies. The troops were quickly summoned according to the defense arrangements of the camp.

The sound of cannons in the northwest did not panic. When they marched to this place, everyone had plans in their minds, and they knew that they would be attacked by the Ming army.

Although each brigade had a small distance from plundering soldiers from the surrounding villages, troops with more than 4,000 troops were effectively gathered and drove the carriage into the middle of the camp. The spear and halberd were everywhere outside the camp and the musketeers were trying to attack.

But after a long time after the Flying Dragon Flag was planted on the Watch Tower, there was no movement nearby, just as the Ming army came here just to capture the sentry tower.

Earl Charles was a little sacred and secretly scolded the sentry that was quickly removed for being useless. He was killed without even the slightest news. He still didn't know the number of enemy troops. He could only judge from the firepower that there should be a large number of troops. I'm afraid that not only their sentry was useless - their intelligence also had problems.

After a while, another cannon sound came from the direction of another mail tower on the river bank in the north. This time, Earl Charles failed to see the dragon flag from the occupied mail tower. The dragon flag was tied to a towering tree, but he saw more than so little.

First, the collapsed sentry tower capsized the river full of fallen leaves. In the tower, a sentry struggled to wave his arms and lined up the fallen leaves to swim to the opposite bank. However, the river was too wide. Under the cover of the dead branches of the woods, a Ming soldier wearing a bowl and arbor, wearing blue cotton armor and black boots appeared on the river bank with their standard muskets and stood facing the river.

From his back, Earl Charles could see that he was loading a musket, moving very quickly and calmly.

He couldn't help but want the sentry to swim faster, and as long as he swims faster, the muskets will not be able to be accurately fired beyond a certain range.

But he was wrong.

When the Ming soldier wearing cotton armor raised his bird gun like a distant and silent movie, a ball of white smoke rose from the muzzle, the sentry in the river stiffened, as if he was trying to grab something, and he slowly sank into the water unwillingly.

Maybe it would be resurfaced soon, but at that time Count Charles was sure that he would no longer recognize him, because the cold river water was rising and falling, and French sentries in civilian costumes were constantly floating downstream.

There is also an outpost in the lowlands to the west, which is an abandoned village. The fields near the Cran River Basin are very fertile. Chen Jiujing's Spanish mercenary army visited this place two months ago, took away the food harvested in autumn and plundered all farmers. Marshal Matien last month the nobles in the west discussed and tried to move some people from their territory. Fortunately, planting will resume next year to ensure an increasingly large-scale food supply.

But the war came, and no one wanted to come here. The commander of Charles was stationed there with seven cavalrymen, twenty-six mixed teams with two-handed big swords, spears, halberds and musketeers.

Charles thought that if the Ming army was not large, he could transfer a large group of Swiss corps there, and neither side would be surrounded, so he hurried to that direction. There was no dangerous terrain or woods around it. The village was full of abandoned farmland, and the vision was very wide. The terrifying Ming army hidden in the forest could no longer hide it, revealing its true appearance here.

He saw about a hundred Ming troops who had bypassed the village and continued to go west along the deserted fields. In front, in the middle, behind the team, three ornate commanders rode their war horses and followed two pedestrian military musicians. The entire team was divided into ten squads, each with three officers with small flags in his helmets.

Everyone was wearing the same blue cotton armor and carrying a backpack. They held the bottom of the musket in their right hand and leaned against their shoulders. They followed with a uniform pace of walking. There were two soldiers in each team carrying a log tube on one side of the back. There were two horse riding teams special. Those half-equipped war horses with face-clad breastplates were hung with bulging cloth bags on both sides of the hips, and thick short-barrel iron cannons on them.

Another Ming army of the same size was approaching the village. Six squads spread out from the periphery with muskets, surrounded and deployed defenses, and only four squads entered the village from both sides of the street.

The Ming army musketeers stood in three rows on the main street to open the defense line. The soldiers behind took off the iron nails from the horse's back and were in front of them. Four people took two things from the horse's back, which were combined with a round iron shield, supported them on the ground with a small axe, and half-squatted to block the musketeers.

The French army garrison rushed out of the room beside the road, with big swordsmen in front, long halberds and spearmen in the back, and the two sides were very close. As long as they were close to the Ming army musketeers who lacked cold weapons, it was difficult to be their opponent.

But the Ming army fired, and in a large smoke of gunpowder, the mercenaries wielding the sword were first beaten to the opposite end. Even wearing special half armor, they could not protect them at this distance. Before the spearmen could reach a distance that could be stabbed, they injured a lot of them after a round of shooting. The people behind turned back and retreated to the house, but the bullets were very dense.

In Charles' eyes, this scene was not in line with common sense. The Ming army musketeers obviously shot, and the people behind were indeed loading medicine, but the spearman was still shot down through the smoke.

The garrison cavalry seized the opportunity well. Taking advantage of the short time when the Ming army's muskets stopped, several cavalrymen rode their horses and rushed towards them with guns... They were greeted by a cannon.

The war horses that rushed to the front were almost broken, and the horses behind seemed to be hit and stopped the chargers and stood up. Some riders were lifted off the horses, and those who were not lifted were busy controlling the horses, and the charge was physically stopped.

Immediately afterwards, the Beiyang infantry launched a counter-charge with bird guns, stabbing the riders under the horse and the soldiers who fell to the ground one by one. The riders who were riding on the horse were surrounded and stabbed violently. Only two riders who ran away from elsewhere were spared from running outside the village.

Earl Charles held the silk scarf tightly with his hand, his eyes wrinkled so much that he was about to close. He really didn't want to see it. The Ming army outside the village had already set up a musket array and stood there, just waiting for them to rush out.

As for the infantry and musketeers who failed to break through and returned to the house, they were even more lucky. They used muskets and steel crossbows to shoot outwards, and spears and halberds that could be used for defense. They seemed to be not broken through in a short time.

As soon as the count thought so, he saw several Ming soldiers lifting their bird guns and moving quickly along the wall. They didn't know what they were holding in their hands, and threw them into the window. In the scene of the roof thatch and dust dancing together, there were distant and dull sounds one after another.

The dragon flag was erected by the Ming army on the tallest tree in the village.
Chapter completed!