Chapter 84 Ambush (3)

After arranging the military formation and being in the center of the formation to command the battle, Ye Mingsheng felt more confident. He had observed that these Japanese pirates charging before him were very different from ordinary Japanese pirates!
Because East Island lacks iron ore, not to mention armor, even an iron weapon is very valuable. Only samurai can wear iron swords. Many East Island ronin still fight with bamboo spears.

Although the Japanese pirates charging towards them were in a chaotic formation and scattered in a line, they were all equipped with iron weapons, and a considerable number of them were wearing iron armor. It was obvious that they were definitely an elite force among the ranks of the Japanese pirates!
Ye Mingsheng didn't have time to think too much, as the Japanese pirates outside the gate had already rushed within a hundred steps of the military camp.

Seeing this, Ye Mingsheng decisively ordered:
"put!"

After receiving Ye Mingsheng's order, the musketeers and archers standing in the first row of the army lit their weapons, drew their bows and drew their arrows, and launched an attack from a distance.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Accompanied by the sound of gunfire and crossbows breaking through the wind, the Japanese pirates who rushed forward and shouted the most frantically were in bad luck. Some were hit in the head, their heads burst open on the spot, and they died.
Others were only hit in the abdomen and would not die immediately. They rolled back and forth on the ground, howling like wolves, blocking the way of those coming from behind.

In a short period of time, the Japanese pirates lost more than 20 people, and the charging formation fell into chaos. However, at this time, dozens of foot soldiers armed with muskets also appeared among the Japanese pirates. The appearance of this group of people immediately boosted the morale of the Japanese pirates who had just suffered from the firearms attack of the Great Zhou army, and they all shouted.

"Iron cannon!"

"Iron Cannon"

Hearing the word "iron cannon", Ye Tie, who was carefully guarding Ye Mingsheng, immediately became nervous and whispered to Ye Mingsheng:

"Master! These people are the Japanese pirates' iron cannon team, let's retreat..."

Upon hearing this, Ye Mingsheng also noticed those foot soldiers holding muskets. According to his observation, the muskets in the hands of the Japanese pirates were called arquebuses.

But this was actually just bragging to give themselves courage because the Japanese pirates at the time lacked large-caliber artillery.

The so-called iron cannon mentioned by the Japanese pirates was nothing more than a matchlock gun similar to the bird gun of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Although its range was longer than that of the tiger squat cannon, its lethality was far inferior to the "large sprayer" tiger squat cannon that fired shotgun shells and was equipped by the Great Zhou Dynasty's imperial guards.

Seeing the appearance of the opponent's iron cannon team, Ye Mingsheng silently calculated the distance and was shocked in his heart, realizing that he was now only about 150 steps away from the opponent's iron cannon team, which should be within the opponent's effective attack range.

Although it was a bit dangerous, Ye Mingsheng hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth, with a resolute expression and no retreat. He still stood there, commanding his swordsmen holding shields to cover the musketeers and crossbowmen to return to the rear of the army. The Japanese pirates who were charging were more than twice his number. If he wanted to repel them, the only thing he could rely on was the high morale of his subordinates.

At this time, as the main general, if I retreat for the sake of safety, it will inevitably be a severe blow to the morale of my subordinates.

By then, the army's morale would be low and they would be unable to hold out under the attack of the Japanese pirates that were twice their size. Therefore, they would have to take the risk of being hit by cannons. Ye Mingsheng could not retreat and could only stay here and fight to the death with the enemy!
Seeing that Ye Mingsheng turned a blind eye to his suggestion and refused to retreat, Ye Tie, who was anxious, had no good solution. He could only take Ye Dong and Ye Kui, each holding an iron shield, to protect Ye Mingsheng behind the shield. The remaining two people, Ye Ju and Ye Changling, guarded Ye Mingsheng on both sides.

As Ye Mingsheng's personal soldiers, Ye Tie and others had already prepared themselves to become "meat shields" and sacrifice their lives to protect their commander...
As soon as the "shield wall" formed by the three of them was formed, the Japanese pirates' iron cannon team pulled the trigger, and dozens of lead bullets flew into Ye Mingsheng's army at a rapid speed.

Several people in the army were knocked to the ground immediately, but because the soldiers of the imperial guards were all wearing armor, at least they had cotton armor to protect their bodies.

Therefore, under the protection of armor, the casualties on Ye Mingsheng's side were relatively small. Only a few people were hit in vital parts and died on the spot. The gaps left by the dead in the army were quickly filled by the soldiers behind, and the formation remained intact and compact.

After both sides completed a round of long-range fire strikes, the Japanese pirates who were charging forward finally reached the front of the army. Seeing this, Ye Mingsheng waved his sword and shouted loudly: "The formation should be pressed forward slowly, and the swordsmen and axemen should surround them from both wings!"

"kill!"

Facing the Imperial Guards, the Red Tide Army, which had a compact formation and coordinated well with each other, and whose individual soldiers were strong, had been trying to create a breakthrough in the formation at the cost of casualties, rush into the formation, and give full play to their numerical advantage and the advantages of individual combat capabilities.

However, their several attempts were suppressed by the tenacious imperial guards. Not only did they fail to achieve the desired effect, but they also suffered a lot of casualties.

Looking at the battle situation at the army formation, Aritomo Takeshita and Daiji Nakamura, who were standing in the distance, had very ugly faces. Among them, Aritomo Takeshita, who had sneaked into Ye Mingsheng's camp under the alias "Zheng Lexi", had the ugliest face, as if he had just eaten shit...

The plan implemented by Nakamura Daiji to contain the bandits and defeat them one by one was proposed by Takeshita Aritomo. Therefore, Takeshita Aritomo cannot escape the blame for Chi Chaojun's current predicament!
At first, Takeshita Aritomo's plan went smoothly. As he hoped, Ye Mingsheng sent 500 people to support Chen Yannian.

But what happened next was beyond Takeshita Aritomo's expectations. They sent dozens of samurai ronin disguised as farmers to sneak into Ye Mingsheng's military camp, but they were unable to send out the agreed signal.

Nakamura Daiji, who discovered this, immediately realized that there was something wrong with the ronin who were disguised as ordinary people.

Therefore, he made a prompt decision and launched a forced attack on Ye Mingsheng's military camp without waiting for the signal!
For Nakamura Daiji, even without the cooperation of the ronin who sneaked into the military camp, the number and strength of the 500 Red Tide Army under his command were twice that of the imperial guards in the military camp at this time. No matter how you look at it, he should be able to easily capture the opponent's military camp!
(End of this chapter)