Chapter 235: Killing Yakub Beg in Battle

Chapter 235: Killing Yakub Beg in Battle

Chapter 235: Killing Yakub Beg in Battle

Yakub Beg's army had more than 20,000 soldiers, and their military camps stretched for 20 miles.

The Gansu Army also had more than 16,000 troops. Fearing a life-threatening surprise attack from the Gansu Army behind him, Yakub Beg did not dare to divide his troops to besiege the city.

He sent 5,000 men and Bai Yanhu's 3,000 men to guard against harassment from the Gansu cavalry, while he led his men to focus on attacking the north gate of Korla.

Shao Quanzhong led the team and the artillerymen immediately unloaded the field guns from the camels, set up artillery positions, and the hot air balloons also rose.

Dong Fuxiang had been paying close attention to the siege of Yakub Beg in the distance. Seeing that the defense of Korla was already in danger, he decided to give up harassment by the cavalry and strongly support the defenders at the cost of the charge.

The harassment before this had always been carried out using the traditional cavalry half-arc rotation method, which was called "wheel suspension". The cavalry rushed to the range with carbines and immediately fired, then circled back, loaded bullets and lined up, and attacked back and forth, forming a wheel shape.

Now we have to fight to the death. We have begun to prepare to charge against the wall of bullets and fight with sabers.

The cavalry would have to pay a heavy price for charging the infantry with rapid-fire rifles. Fortunately, Bai Yanhu's troops, who were left behind by the enemy, were using Russian-made muzzle-loading rifles with a relatively slow firing rate, which was still tolerable.

Seeing Shao Quanzhong leading troops to support, especially the artillery observation balloon rising, Dong Fuxiang immediately knew that the situation had changed. He stopped his desperate plan and rode quickly to join Shao Quanzhong.

After whispering with Shao Quanzhong and Song Laosan for a while, Dong Fuxiang returned to his team. Without changing the battle plan, he waved his saber and shouted, "Charge!"

The three vanguard battalions rushed towards Bai Yanhu's rearguard troops in a dense formation.

Yakub Beg used Bai Yanhu's troops as cannon fodder. When these die-hard bandits from northern Xinjiang saw that the Gansu cavalry had changed their tactics from harassment to charge, they fired a row of shots and then turned around and retreated to the west.

Muzzle-loading rifles have a slow firing rate, and the bandits are poorly trained, so they can't even fire three rounds a minute. They have to fight against the cavalry under harassment, and if the enemy cavalry comes hard, they have to use the Kokand Taijun with breech-loading rifles to deal with them.

The 5,000 Kokand rear troops were on full alert. Seeing that the Gansu cavalry was about to enter the effective firing range, they were preparing to teach these foolish cavalry who dared to charge into the breech-loading musket team a lesson, when they suddenly heard a chorus of cannon fire and 240 artillery shells were fired straight into the team.

Logically, the first target of the artillery attack should have been the enemy artillery, but the enemy artillery was moving forward to suppress the firepower on the top of Korla city, which was beyond the effective range of the light four-pound field gun.

Fortunately, I can't hit you, and you can't hit me. The first target of the Huai Army's new field artillery became the rear army of the Kokand people.

New soldiers are afraid of cannons, while veterans are afraid of quick rifles. Being hit by a cannonball depends on probability, and being hit is bad luck, while quick rifles are aimed and fired at specific targets.

The Kokand soldiers were all veterans, and they didn't take the enemy's artillery seriously. They just started calling their own artillery to come over and fire at the enemy's artillery, and stop firing at the city walls.

Very few enemy soldiers were directly hit by the shells, and most of the shells hit the ground directly.

The Kokand soldiers expected that the ricocheting of the shells would kill some people, which was normal casualties on the battlefield.

"Boom! Boom!"

Unexpectedly, this time the shells were not iron balls or shotgun shells, but strange new types of shrapnel shells.

The detonator in the shell hit the ground and exploded, detonating the TNT, immediately causing an earth-shattering explosion.

The battlefield was filled with smoke and flying shrapnel, and each shell cleared out a large area of ​​the enemy.

TNT explosives made their battlefield debut, appearing on the battlefield forty years ahead of schedule.

The unsophisticated Kokand people had never seen anything like this before and were immediately stunned.

The field artillery brigade continued to bombard the dense enemy infantry at a rate of two rounds per minute. After the emergence of rapid-fire guns, the artillery, which had already given up the main attack firepower, was rejuvenated.

The three cavalry battalions of the Gansu Army did not attack the stunned quick-gun infantry of the Kokand people, but chased Bai Yanhu's retreating troops. The three Gansu Army infantry battalions shouted in unison and began a bayonet charge.

Seeing that the Kokand rear army was about to collapse and be wiped out by the Gansu Army's infantry, the Huai Army's field artillery brigade had begun extended firing and was about to hit Yakub Beg's central army.

Yakub Beg remained calm and said, "Come here, let the artillery fire back at the enemy's artillery positions, and the cavalry will charge their artillery at all costs..."

Yakub Beg was calm, but his soldiers were not. Seeing the enemy's extremely fierce artillery shells falling near them, they felt the destructive power was too great and could not bear it. They fled towards their hometown in the west, exposing Yakub Beg.

Yakub Beg was lucky enough not to be hit by the artillery. Seeing that the situation was not good, he wanted to retreat with his personal soldiers. It seemed that Korla could not be taken, so I returned to Kuche to reorganize the troops.

A large cloud of dust suddenly rose from the east. It was the sound of cavalry hooves moving in large numbers. The rumbling of the hooves made the ground tremble slightly. Which part of the team was this? Yakub Beg and Shao Quanzhong were both surprised.

Knowing that he had no reinforcements, Yakub Beg turned around and prepared to escape.

The team from the east came very quickly, and soon the smoke and dust cleared, and a cavalry team that was very inconsistent with the battlefield in front of them appeared in everyone's sight.

This team had no uniforms and their clothes were ragged, but the horses they rode were all strong and vigorous.

Most of the soldiers had scimitars on their waists, bows and arrows on their backs, and two muskets on their horses.

These riders were lying on the horse's back, with their legs clamped around the horse's belly, their bodies hanging on the saddle but not sitting firmly, their hands holding their muskets, their legs controlling the horses, man and horse becoming one, their riding skills having reached the pinnacle.

The one charging in the front was an even more exaggerated elite force of only 200 men. The horses they rode were exceptionally strong, wearing black armor, and had five-meter-long lances hanging from their backs.

This bloody team rushed out from the dust of the northwest desert, making Shao Quanzhong feel dazed, as if he was dreaming back to the era of Genghis Khan.

The team held a large flag with "I don't recognize any Mongolian characters" written on it, but there was a picture of a cute fat tiger.

Shao Quanzhong understood that it was the Torghut cavalry in the city who took a detour through the side gate and rushed out from the east gate.

The city's defense was in danger, and it seemed that the reinforcements from the Gansu Army were just harassment. The city itself sent out cavalry, trying to charge at all costs and disrupt Yakub Beg's attack on the north gate.

They didn't know that Dong Fuxiang had actually been watching them all the time. If Shao Quanzhong hadn't come, he would have been ready to make a desperate charge to help the friendly forces.

The Mongolian cavalry had good ideas, but——

What era is it now? What's the point of wearing armor? Can it withstand rapid gunfire?

If this kind of cavalry equipped in the Middle Ages appeared on the battlefield of modern warfare, they would usually be slaughtered.

The Torghut people had not communicated with their friendly forces, but when they rushed over and saw that Yakub Beg was retreating, the strong man in the lead immediately swung his saber and two hundred heavy cavalrymen rushed straight towards Yakub Beg.

The Gansu cavalry did not even think of attacking Yakub Beg's main camp, so they could not catch up at all.

But the riding skills of these Mongolian cavalrymen were unparalleled in the world, and now their charge had already pushed their speed to the limit, and the distance between them and Yakub Beg was getting closer and closer.

Yakub Beg turned his horse around and tried to run away, but was restrained by the fleeing soldiers in front of him.

At a distance of one hundred meters, two hundred heavy cavalrymen controlled their horses with their legs, raised their muskets together, and with a "bang", white smoke filled the air as they fired a volley.

The fired musket was hung on the saddle, and another spare musket was immediately picked up, and "bang" another round of volleys was fired on horseback.

Then he took off the bow and arrow behind him, pulled the bow to its full length, and shot two hundred sharp arrows straight at Yakub Beg's guards.

After firing two shots and one arrow, the heavy cavalry saw that they were only thirty steps away from the enemy, so they all picked up their lances and held them under their ribs.

Not to mention, Yakub Beg's light infantry had no armor, but with two rounds of shooting and one round of bows and arrows, they killed quite a few people.

The galloping horses passed the distance of thirty steps in a few seconds, and the heavy cavalrymen's lances had just been lowered to the ground when they pierced the enemy's flesh.

Five or six of Yakub Beg's loyal guards stood in front of Yakub Beg and were pierced like a candied haws stick.

The leading Mongolian general had a broad face and narrow eyes, a shaved forehead, dense braids at the back of his head, and a horizontally developed body, looking extremely similar to Fat Tiger on the flag. What a fierce general he was.

He stabbed the enemy with his lance, and immediately abandoned it, drew his scimitar, and suddenly jumped up from his horse. Relying on the speed of his horse, he passed over the stabbed dead Yakub Beg's personal soldiers and landed beside Yakub Beg.

After landing, he rolled forward to reduce the impact, raised his left hand, grabbed Yakub Beg's beard, and with a swipe of his right hand, Yakub Beg's head was in his hand.

The Mongolian warrior laughed loudly and shouted, his voice shaking the whole field. The ears of the audience within a 200-meter radius were buzzing. "Naramu Salahei, the leader of the Torghut tribe, killed Yakub Beg in the battle formation!"

(End of this chapter)