Due to the shortage of troops, the first and second regiments of the 1st and 3rd Division of the Song Army were held outside the east gate of the Song Army. The 3rd regiment strengthened the 1st division, which was the main attacker. However, from past experience, if the Yuan army breaks through, they can only attack from the city gate, and their troops cannot be deployed. Although the two regiments have fewer troops, they can still be competent. Moreover, after accepting the blocking mission, the 3rd regiments also urgently built fortifications outside the city.

Since Zhao Bing formed the new army and replaced the firearms, he has made building fortifications a must-training project, which is a skill that every infantry soldier must master. Out of confidentiality, the order to siege the city was issued last night and only went to the battlefield this morning. The time was very tight, so it was impossible to build a complete defense system, but simple fortifications were also built in a short period of time.

The entire fortification consists of three lines of defense. The first is a line of defense composed of 50 steps from the moat, that is, outside the effective range of the bow and arrow, a defense line is built with a combination of fountain corners and horse resistance; a second line of defense is built fifty steps behind the first line of defense, trenches with a depth of five feet each were dug, and a fort was built; the third line of defense is similar to the two lines of defense, and the two lines of defense are connected by traffic trenches, forming a semi-arc line of defense with a depth of 200 steps.

Although the entire defense line was not strict in Zhao Bing's opinion, it was reasonable in layout and firepower configuration, but there was still a problem. However, he soon saw the reason. According to the fighting method of this era, the two armies were in line, and it was obvious that the carriages and horses took action. This time, the Yuan army broke out from the city, and the usual fighting method was not applicable.

In ancient times, a large city wall usually had to open one gate and two small gates on each wall. Some also had several secret gates to kill enemies who attacked the city. However, the main function of the city gate was to resist the enemy, so the city gate would not be opened very much, and small city gates could not pass even by horses. Yangzhou City is considered a state city, but the main city gate could only be two riders in parallel, and the small gate could only pass by alone.

The Yuan army broke through this time with heavy cavalry, so they could only use columns to exit the city gate. Besides, the width of the suspension bridge on the moat was not allowed. Moreover, the two armies were too close to each other and could not be arranged at all. Therefore, as soon as they left the city gate and crossed the suspension bridge, they faced the enemy directly. Even the sea of ​​fire in front of them had to bite the bullet. As most of the artillery were transferred to the North City to assist in the attack, the troops responsible for the blocking were only battalions and small cannons, which had weak firepower. In addition, the enemy changed the previous horizontal formation and attacked with columns, and the killing surface of the muskets became narrower, and the distance between the two sides was close. Although it caused some casualties to the Yuan army, it was still not stopped, allowing them to break through the first line of defense.

Zhao Bing also knew that another important reason was that the enemy attacked the vanguard's heavy armored cavalry, all wearing iron armor, which reduced the lethality of the musket and was difficult to cause fatal damage to the horses. Some people must say that everyone is familiar with the "Going out of the Frontier" by the poet Du Fu, but who doesn't know that there is a description of "Take the bow to pull the strong, use arrows to use long. Shoot the horses first, and capture the thief first."

I think that even the bow and arrow can cause damage to war horses. Can't muskets be much more powerful? Or is this rare poem describing battlefield scenes true? To be honest, Zhao Bing also questioned this like many people in his previous life. At least there were no scenes of shooting horses in the film and television dramas. Some people said that the director was eliminated due to cost factors. But some people said that "shooting people first" was actually a rumor. The ancients did not shoot horses in wars, and even listed one, two, three reasons.

Some people think that the power of the bow and crossbow used in modern society is not inferior to that of ancient times. Although there are many restrictions on use in China, it is much more relaxed abroad and can be used for hunting. There was a video shooting of hunting deer with bows and arrows, and it was a very small deer. It was pierced with an arrow, but the prey died immediately. The hunter chased for hundreds of meters before seeing the deer's corpse. In Northern Europe, Russia, and Canada, there are many huge mooses that are close to hatchback cars. Of course, you can shoot these big guys with arrows. You can stop shooting such big guys on the spot? It is not safe to change to a large shotgun and shoot single-headed bullets. You should wash and sleep for crossbows.

So, did the ancients shoot horses when they were fighting? According to what Zhao Bing saw on the battlefield after he came to this world, the answer was shooting! But it was very difficult to fall into a rain of arrows and a large wave of horses fell to the ground. First, the horse ran very fast and was difficult to hit; second, the horse had strong vitality. Even if he was really injured after being hit by the arrow, he could still take the knight forward and rush far away, leaving the knight with sufficient reaction time. Third, it was easy to protect the horse. People walked upright and were very sensitive to the protective area of ​​armor. When horses walked four feet, it was easy to cover their whole body in armor.

If the purpose is to defend against arrows, the war horses can effectively defend against arrows with insufficient kinetic energy. Take a step back and even if the war horses don’t penetrate anything, the threat of arrows to the war horses is limited. If you don’t believe it, please refer to the Salu Zi of the Six Horses of Zhaoling. It has seven or eight arrows in its body, and some of the arrows are fatal, but it can still carry Emperor Taizong of Tang to charge and fall to the ground until it ends.

Therefore, if the ancient archers hope to "shoot a horse first" to block the attack of the knights, these archers would have suffered heavy casualties. But it is not said that cavalry is invincible. It is not impossible to fight a knight with a bow and arrow on the front battlefield. It depends on whether your tools are suitable. Specifically, whether you have a cluster of alien arrows for horse shooting. Therefore, although the saying "shoot a man first" on the battlefield also has its own specific background and situation. If you blindly use a proverb to apply all situations, it is obviously unreasonable.

Similarly, although the power of a musket is greater than that of a bow and arrow, it can cause fatal damage to a man and horse after piercing through iron armor, it also has the disadvantage of slow firing speed and low accuracy, and it cannot be much different from the power of modern bullet-launched drugs. Zhao Bing also knew that muskets did not become the ultimate weapon to restrain cavalry at the beginning of war, and it was not until the continuous weapons such as Maxim heavy machine gun were used on the battlefield.

Therefore, Zhao Bing knew the disadvantages when he was fully equipped with the army, but at this time he could not "invent" the continuous weapons due to materials and technology. However, the main enemy he faced was the Mongolian and Yuan army, which was famous for their cavalry. In order to make up for the shortcomings of insufficient firepower, he could only use artillery as a supplement. For this reason, he did not spare any effort to develop artillery. Not only were the army, division, brigade, regiment, and battalions equipped with various light and heavy artillery types, but several independent artillery brigades were also formed.

However, the artillery of the third division was strengthened to the first division that sieges. As long as the artillery and battalion artillery and mortars were both light artillery, they were much smaller than the power of medium artillery. In addition, the enemy used columns to rush forward and arranged scattered artillery to be unable to gather fire on the enemy. They were caught off guard by the enemy, allowing them to break through the first line of defense.

"Jin Nan, you immediately lead the team to establish another line of defense after the defense line!" After seeing the situation, Zhao Bing immediately ordered Jin Nan, the commander of the protective army's logistics regiment who came with him to reinforce.

"Your Majesty... Yes!" Jin Nan hesitated for a moment. He thought that the most important thing at the moment was to block the gap and strengthen the defense line? But the little emperor asked them to rebuild the defense line later. This made him very puzzled and blushed. He thought that his majesty was worried that the combat effectiveness of their baggage regiment was not good, so he let them hide behind the formation, but he hesitated and left.

"Tan Fei, the commander of the Third Division, Guan Hong, gathered all artillery to bombard the moats and cut off the enemy's breakthrough; ordered the entire army to retreat to the third line of defense and stick to the baggage regiment to re-establish the defense line!" Zhao Bing then said to Tan Fei beside him.

"Yes!" Tan Fei also had doubts about the orders of the little emperor, but he conveyed them without hesitation.

"The cavalry regiment obeys the orders and follow me to attack!" Zhao Bing gave two orders in a row, pulled out the saber from the edge of the bridge and pointed forward and said loudly.

"Your Majesty..." Tan Fei was shocked when he heard the order, but he had only time to shout, and saw the little emperor pounding his heels and his war horses rushed out. He hurriedly called the guard camp to follow him, and the cavalry pointed by the imperial flag adjusted its formation and killed him towards the enemy cavalry breaking through.

Of course, Zhao Bing knew what consequences would arise once the enemy broke through the city. He distributed troops like this not to give way to the enemy, nor did he have no confidence in the combat effectiveness of the guardian baggage regiment. Instead, he understood that the two armies were only a hundred steps apart, and the enemy cavalry was very fast, and they rushed to the front of the position within a dozen breaths. The musketeers could only fight for one round at most and had to fight against the cavalry. When the troops were equal, the one who suffered the loss was definitely his own side. If the troops were adjusted, there would inevitably be gaps in other positions. How could the subsequent enemy cavalry give up this opportunity and take advantage of the situation, leading to the collapse of the entire defense line.

The enemy broke out after the line of defense lost, but they lacked cavalry, so they could only watch the enemy cavalry go away. Therefore, Zhao Bing first considered how to prevent the enemy from breaking through. Now the enemy has broken through the first line of defense and approached the second line of defense. He knew that even if he fought to the death and made great sacrifices, it would be difficult to defend the second line of defense. It would be better to give up the second line of defense, strengthen in-depth defense, and open up the distance to rebuild the defense line behind.
Chapter completed!