stubborn thief

Chapter 351
Out of the nest.

The [-] troops collected from Xining City were divided into three armies and marched forward along the Huangshui River.

Chengyun took off his blue satin robe, put on a khaki military uniform and put on chain mail, and marched on his beloved little donkey with a heavy gun on his shoulder.

The real commander of this army is Wang Wenxiu, a battalion member of the infantry battalion, who leads the [-] infantry battalion as the central army, the left wing is the carrier's Liu Jiajun, and the right wing is the miscellaneous army led by the Nanshan Fort guard general Zhong Hu.

The left wing said it was the Liu family army, mainly because the two temporary chief executives under Liu Chengyun's command were the Heavenly Monkey Liu Jiusi and the Chuangtian Liu Guoneng, both surnamed Liu.

There are more than 2000 people under the three surname Liu, most of whom are Mongolian soldiers who were conscripted urgently. However, Liu Chengzong, who is extra cautious, will not use these people to fight even if he does not recruit soldiers.

What kind of political status a person has in the Marshal's Mansion does not depend on blood or race, but how the Marshal's Mansion knows him.

The people in the two counties of Haixi and Haibei are different from the original people under the rule of the Marshal's Mansion. The local Fanmen and Mongolians have all gone to Juerwan and other places under the marriage, work, and conscription. Raising cattle and sheep in the government earns more than in Haixi in the past.

The poor people may not have much culture, but the people are not stupid. The purpose of raising sheep in Haixi is to drink milk, sell sheep for lion tickets, and go to Juerwan to buy dried noodles, so why not go directly to Juerwan to raise sheep and drink marshal Milk, earn lion tickets to buy dried noodles?

The current Fanbing and Mongolian soldiers over there are all immigrants like the Han people. They are prisoners of war in the Southern Expedition and Northern Expedition War, and the Fanbing is the captive of the failed rebellion; most of the Mongolian soldiers are Chuoke Tutaiji's subordinates.

Those who surrendered were all under A Haidaiqing's men. These people were those who did not surrender and were defeated.

They lived the same life as the defeated people in the Mongolian tribe. They were discriminated against because of their status as prisoners of war, and they could not find mothers and aunts and had children.

Carrier calculated and calculated in Xining. The current military strength of the Marshal's Mansion in the rear is not enough to complete the two tasks of guarding Xining and supporting Liu Chengzong at the same time.

Even if the whole army goes out, Xining City needs at least [-] reliable soldiers to guard the warehouse under the leadership of Liu Xiangyu... It's not realistic to defend the city. There are fewer soldiers than battlements.

Therefore, Chengyun made a big wish to these prisoners of war and gave them the status of normal people. Then he recruited more than a thousand people, distributed them weapons, found some old ordnance that no one wanted from the warehouse, and armed them hastily and brought them to the battlefield.

The soldiers brought out by Liu Guo who broke through the sky, the more than 400 Haixi Army carrying stone cannons and mines on the left wing are all the best of the best.

Although the right wing is a motley crew, it is actually much more reliable than the left wing.

In terms of elite troops, there are [-] elite soldiers from the Zhonghu Division on the right wing, all from the Lion Army, as well as Bao Hu's [-] Banner Army and [-] soldiers from the Chen Shiwen Division.

In terms of military armor and equipment, Zhong Hu has a full line of Yongzhu cannons equipped with 60 people each, Chen Shiwen has Mongolian wrought iron cannons supervised by Chuoke Tutaiji, and Bao Hu is even more amazing. Master Hong Wu of the venue was dragged out.

On the dirt hill in Sanshilipu, He Yongji looked at this very strange army, frowned, and tried his best to suppress his mentality of wanting to attack.

Chengyun or Wang Wenxiu's army looks very aggressive.

The costumes of the left wing were scattered, some wore cloth face armor, some wore Mongolian leather armor, and there were thousands of people wearing leather jackets.

The right-wing costumes are okay, but it is very strange that the heavy armor of the Yuan Dynasty and the Hongwu artillery of the early Ming Dynasty appeared.

The Chinese army can be seen at a glance as a very elite army, but the problem is that the three army formations are all marching in large columns, with two rows of black shadows in between, most of them scattered cavalry.

What do you mean?
He Yongji didn't understand.

The three side-by-side long snake formations are for the march, but he can see the enemy, and the enemy must also see him. The two sides have already entered the line of sight, and they are only five or six miles away from each other. ?
Chieftain He was itching, he had 8000 local soldiers, the infantry pushed forward, and the cavalry rushed over from the flanks, rushed the two long snakes on the left and right wings, and broke up the order and the army formation. Even a god can't do it. Rely on Tuomeng to command these seven to eight thousand people.

It's a pity that Wang Chengen didn't let him do it, but the enemy's three-way column was still running very fast, so He Yongji could only order the soldiers to retreat in a column.

For a time, nearly 2 people formed a large column at the western end of the Hehuang Valley, marching eastward, and the mighty dust covered the sky and the sun.

Before the dust had settled in front, the dust behind had been lifted up by the donkey's hooves. While on the road, the horsemen were sent to gallop back and forth between the columns, conveying Wang Wenxiu's orders one by one.

Wang Wenxiu ordered the three armies to advance and not to retreat, and those who retreated would be beheaded.

Then he sent messengers specially to Chengyun to persuade him to hand over the team to Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi and go behind the Chinese army.

Cheng Yunxin persuaded me several times, a little contemptuous of people, I gave you the lead because I thought I could not win, not because I, Liu Chengyun, are greedy for life and afraid of death.

Second brother, I personally escorted the car to send shells to the front line in wars!
Chengyun waved his hand and told the messenger to go back and said, "I won't go, I'm on the left wing."

Not long after, Wang Wenxiu's messenger came again and said, "General Liu, General Wang said, since the general wants to stand with the soldiers, don't be rash. The left wing only needs to face the enemy for a moment. After victory, have a drink with the general."

Carrier nodded.

Stop for a moment?
What does Wang Wenxiu want to do?
Chengyun didn't ask, since he had already made up his mind to trust Wang Wenxiu, he didn't send anyone to question him, but just informed the soldiers, Shangtianhou and Chuangtatian, of the news.

However, even though the news had been conveyed, Wang Wenxiu still sent horsemen to raise flags in the front of the left wing, the middle of the right, and the rear of the right, respectively, to convey the order to advance.

The two armies walked farther and farther in the river valley, and Wang Wenxiu used the standard soldiers to control the marching speed of the three large columns, slowing down for a while and speeding up for a while, making the generals in the left wing formation miserable.

Originally, there was a problem with verbal communication. They were not walking, but riding mules and donkeys. Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi led the troops at a higher cost, and the troops walked in a mess.

On the contrary, Liu Chengyun, who was a mascot in the army, in the spirit of learning more, used his binoculars to see some tricks. He could see that Wang Wenxiu was always controlling the distance from the enemy in front.

But how far is this distance? He neither has as much command experience as Liu Shizi, nor has he studied in a training camp, so he doesn't know.

This made his heart beat directly. Wang Wenxiu, this guy, doesn't he want to directly form a column to attack the enemy army?
If a large column like theirs is targeted by a heavy artillery, twenty people will be crushed to death by a single shell.

But if you want a large column to attack the enemy, why do they bring so many guns?
Liu Chengyun couldn't understand it.

There are a lot of heavy guns and artillery in the infantry battalion.

Forty lion cannons were drawn alone, twelve were from the infantry, and 28 were almost scrapped by Liu Shizi in Bajiao City. They were left in Juerwan to wait for recasting, and Wang Wenxiu pulled them out.

There were a total of 36 guns in that batch, eight of which were bulged on the outside of the barrel, and Wang Wenxiu did not bring them.

But in fact, the inside of the 28 gun chambers has also expanded and deformed. If you fire a little slower, you can still fire two shots.

Now Wang Wenxiu leads thirty Baizong columns, and concentrates the lion cannons, carrying guns, and heavy guns in the front ten columns, and is still changing formations while marching. At the beginning, the infantry battalion was three rows of Baizong columns parallel, walking As we walked, it became two parallel columns of hundreds of generals, and the whole team stretched even longer.

In fact, Wang Wenxiu's army was very comfortable during the march. Although most of the soldiers wore armor, it was the donkeys who worked hard. The Hezhou soldiers in front were different. They didn't have so many donkeys and mules. many.

At this moment, through the dust raised by the marching army, a large whining horn sounded from the front, and Cheng Yun saw the enemies in front of him spreading from the middle to the sides.

Then he heard the faint but consistent sound of hoofbeats.

A cavalry trooper walked out from the middle of the river valley vacated by the native soldiers of Hezhou, and the native soldiers vacated the center, one after another turned around and arrived at the predetermined position in the process, just like unfolding an ancient scroll in the valley, from the middle to the Spread out slowly on both sides.

But those hundreds of cavalry did not stop, crossed the infantry line and continued to move forward, and then spread out in the valley, as if to drive away Wang Wenxiu's pond soldiers.

Wang Wenxiu gave orders to the left and right wings, ordering the army to continue to advance, and at the same time the cavalry attacked to drive away the enemy cavalry.

The cavalry of the Zhonghu Division on the right wing moved after hearing the order, and three hundred horsemen came out from the gap between the large columns. First, three hundred regiments were scattered in front of the formation, and then six regiments were formed, each holding a spear and holding a bow. Ride up to meet the enemy.

In contrast, the left wing looked like a demented old man with a blurred mind and legs. He waited for the enemy cavalry to run across the center of the battlefield before groups of horsemen ran out, and even Mongolian soldiers on mules ran out after them.

Chengyun sighed in his heart, the quality of this soldier, it seems that it is not easy to fight for a quarter of an hour.

He drove forward with his little donkey, approached Liu Guoneng and said, "Prefect Liu County, it will depend on you to stabilize the front line in a while."

After all, Liu Guoneng has trustworthy soldiers in his hands, and his waist is also stiff. He led the horse on the mule's back and smiled, "Don't worry, the three generals. My men will be at the front in a while, and scare them with stone cannons."

These stone artillery mines were originally prepared for Arslan, but no one attacked him, and they almost rotted in their hands.

Hearing Liu Chengyun's call this time, Liu Guoneng originally wanted to make some Muzha antlers in Haixi County and take them away in a small cart. Later, thinking that these things can be made in Xining City, he brought stone cannons and landmines with him.

I didn't expect to come here to fight in the field, and I happened to use the stone cannons. With the stone cannons, the enemy might not dare to rush forward. They are relatively less likely to be defeated by firing arrows and guns through the minefields.

Of course, this is only relative, because only the left wing has the possibility of being defeated by enemy archery, they are not regular troops.

As for the regular army, as long as the army formation is still there, and there are no super-range weapons, such as shooting arrows and blunderbusses, they will be pushed back to death, unless they are still falling behind in combat while being shot. Downwind, otherwise it is impossible to be easily defeated.

In any case, the vanguard cavalry of the two armies still collided on the center line of the battlefield, and a small-scale melee broke out. In the process, Wang Wenxiu's army was still speeding in columns.

Lintao General Soldier Wang Cheng'en arrived late, led the infantry to the battlefield after the horsemen, and was riding forward to listen to the chieftain He Yongji's face-to-face report on the enemy's situation. The distance is only three or four miles.

After listening to He Yongji's report, he learned that the enemy's left wing seemed to be weaker, and then contacted the enemy to advance in a large column. A plan to face the battle was formed in Wang Chengen's mind.

He immediately gave an order to the Biao Battalion, which was also marching in a long snake formation: "Don't move your head, and the brigade will change to the north."

The standard battalion in Lintao is also three thousand generals. The head means that the leading thousand headquarters does not move, and the two rear ones are formed on the right side of the head, combining the three thousand general columns together.

Since the enemy wanted to use columns to fight hand-to-hand in the fastest time, it was determined that his Lintao soldiers could not use large horizontal formations with small depth to fight against the columns, but even if they also used columns, they had to maintain an advantage in the horizontal direction.

It is still the old tradition of dividing troops into five sentries. Only when the width in the horizontal direction is larger than that of the opponent can the encirclement be completed faster and better.

But at this time Wang Chengen did not plan to encircle him head-on. Although he had contempt for Liu Chengzong during the Lanzhou discussion, Liu Shizi had defeated He Huchen head-on after all, and he had the ability to fight the general army head-on. This battle would not be easy.

So his plan is to encircle from the north, squeeze Wang Wenxiu and his right-wing troops under the mountain in the south, and He Yongji will lead the Hezhou soldiers to destroy the weakest left-wing first, and then rely on the double strength advantage of tens of thousands of people to deal with it. There are five or six thousand people left.

In a blink of an eye, the two armies were separated by a thousand steps, Wang Wenxiu still did not change his formation, and led three formations straight forward, which made the Lintao cavalry, who were fighting inextricably in the middle of the battlefield, dare not love to fight. And retreat.

Upon seeing this, Wang Chengen also issued an order to advance to the soldiers who had not yet completed the change of column.

This allowed his army to form three disjointed columns in sequence from south to north while marching.

On the left and right wings of these three columns, the Hezhou native soldiers spread out to fill the north and south of the valley, forming an ancient scroll that was unfolding to both sides in the form of a large array of spears.

As his main force advances, the right wing unfolds while moving slowly, and the left wing stays and unfolds, 1000 people form a huge crescent formation across the river valley, swinging forward.

Eight hundred steps away, the left wing of the Marshal’s Mansion was a little unstable. His army was still riding forward on donkeys and mules because of the military order. The soldiers were also full of panic. It's not that they want to ride donkeys into enemy lines.

Both Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi were full of doubts about this, especially Liu Guoneng: "Stop it, we have to let the soldiers get off their mounts and regroup, and if we move forward, we will rush to the front and be shot!"

He still had a fresh memory of the official army's artillery. If the official army's artillery hadn't broken his leg, he didn't know how many battles he had participated in until now, and he should be more or less a general.

Even if he is not a general of the Marshal's Mansion, he may be a general of the court, then Yang Yanchang is a general!
Chengyun's brows twitched on a white face, his heartbeat was swaying quickly, and finally a ruthless look flashed in his eyes, he raised his whip and said, "I don't understand military affairs, but if you give an order, you can't stop without an order, go forward!"

Wang Wenxiu of the Chinese army kept looking left and right as he advanced, clenched his fists tightly, and looked very flustered, until he saw that the left and right wings did not stop at this distance, he finally nodded and smiled: "Go pass the order, order the left and right wings to refuse Dismount the enemy at [-] paces, stabilize the front line, and leave the matter of breaking the formation to the Chinese army."

After all, he finally felt relieved and rode his horse into battle.

Then the soldiers of the Chinese army mobilized their donkeys and mules, and their speed suddenly increased. The left and right wings stopped when they were [-] paces away from the enemy.

After four hundred steps, the cavalry of the two armies slowly returned to the main formation, and their next mission was to find an opportunity to rush into the formation during the battle.

The border army of Lintao Town, marching in three thousand columns, also stopped at this distance, and the soldiers moved forward with the Fran cannon.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Wang Wenxiu advanced another fifty paces, and then ordered the soldiers to dismount from the donkeys and mules, and drove dozens of donkeys and mules to the front of the formation.

At this moment, the deployment of the official artillery was completed, and a series of Franc machine guns fired at the front of the large column.

Some shells hit the donkeys. The donkeys were frightened and ran around in front of the formation. Some shells landed in front of the formation, and a few shells landed in the formation. Not big, only knocked down a few people in the first two hundred teams.

The Francois cannons fired, reloaded, refired, and reloaded.

With rows of cannons firing rapidly, Wang Wenxiu's former army stepped on the corpses of donkeys and mules, and drove more donkeys and mules forward slowly. Fifty steps, fifty steps away, the officers and soldiers completed a round of rapid fire from the Francophone.

When the gunpowder smoke gradually cleared in front of the battle, Wang Chengen took two steps forward and frowned. He saw the blood of donkeys and mules spilling all over the valley. Like unrolling a picture scroll, the artillery carts were pushed to the sides in a phalanx.

Undoubtedly, the opponent also realized the problem of the width of the two columns, and Wang Chengen immediately ordered that the left side of the own army formation go left, the right side go right, and the middle column moves forward to form a reserve team, completing two hundred-man phalanxes depth.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, Wang Wenxiu, who was on the opposite side, saw the Lintao frontier army spread out, clenched their fists tightly on horseback, and let out a wild smile: "Haha, you really changed like this!"

The evolution of the official army is to spread out the rearmost formation obliquely towards the outermost edge. The closer the small formation is to the front of the large formation, the shorter the distance it will travel and the more stamina it will conserve; The arrival time is also later.

In Wang Wenxiu's army formation, the person at the front goes the farthest, and the last two small army formations only need to go straight forward to the front position. Overall, the time spent on each small square formation is almost the same, but On the whole, it is faster to complete the transformation.

Quickly three rounds of musket salvo.

The army formations unfolded rapidly one by one. The two centurions, which were the first to complete the transformation, were still in a hurry to pack up their artillery. Wang Wenxiu's last four hundred phalanxes had arrived in front of the formation, pushing four lion cannons and continued to advance under Wang Wenxiu's command. .

The four hundred regiments on the left and right followed like a shadow, slightly behind, also pushing forward with the lion cannon; followed by the ninth and tenth on both sides, the entire army formation has completed the formation, with the four hundred commanders in the middle as the front arrows , In the formation of flying geese, the assault continued.

At 250 steps, the Lintao Army, whose formation was not stable, became more and more tense. More than a dozen tiger squatting cannons in front of the formation were released, scattering stones and iron slag all over the sky; Blast a cannon to the front.

However, Wang Wenxiu, as the front arrow, had already reached the two hundred paces, placed the four lion cannons in front of the formation, and fired shells at the formation in front of the formation at the maximum flat shooting distance of the cannons.

But this is just the beginning, the two army formations closely following him also arrived at their positions, and they still fired a few shells in this direction, like flying geese flapping their wings one after another, blasting the shells into the enemy formation at a flat firing distance. .

Shells bombarded, fell, bounced, and fell again, running over one soldier after another.

As far as the phalanxes on the farthest edges of the north and south sides, before the official troops on the opposite side could line up, the two army formations fired a cannon first, and then launched a quick-step attack on the enemy.

The musketeers in the enemy line fired scattered shots in a panic, and scattered weak lead hit the soldiers' feet.

A few people were shot out and groaned, two people grabbed the shot and picked off the small lead cakes and continued to move forward, and three people struggled to get up after being knocked down, let them into the gaps in the army formation, and lost their combat effectiveness.

The others continued to move forward, step by step faster, and then stopped. Ten guns raised their guns and released huge lead shots at the enemy formation amidst the sound of military orders. At intervals of 150 steps, several gaps were opened in the phalanx of hundreds of people.

Then the guns were abandoned, and the gunners went into battle lightly. The army attacked again at a fast pace, and after another hundred steps, the opponent finally completed the formation change in a hurry. They also stopped, this time it was a row of heavy gunners.

boom!
A puff of gunpowder smoke rose in front of the formation, and it was still the same situation. A heavy gun was thrown on the ground, and the army continued to advance. The gunman drew his waist knife and leaned on his shoulder, and followed the team forward for another sixty steps.

Mr. Bai commanded to the front left with a waist knife, and the entire army formation suddenly turned to the left at a distance of eighty or ninety steps from the enemy's formation.

Another centurion was exposed twenty paces behind them. Their waist swordsmen had picked up their guns, their sword and shield hands had picked up their heavy guns, and they had finished loading ammunition. They were forming a double team of guns and heavy guns. , into a firing position.

Before their commander-in-chief gave the order to shoot, the army in front of them was already about to retreat because of fear of being shaken. Gunpowder smoke rang out amidst the salvo, and walls of people fell down. The hundred squadrons who finished shooting dropped all their firearms, and marched forward with four rows of archers, followed by swords and shields, spears again, and swordsmen at the end, shouting.

At the same time, the right-wing Zhonghu Department bombarded the native soldiers with a large number of gushing cannons, and then started a hand-to-hand combat.

And in the middle of the battlefield, Wang Wenxiu was in the middle of the flying geese formation. He looked around the battlefield situation and saw no enemy breakthrough in his line. A cruel smile appeared on his face: "Wang Zongbing, your set of things is out of date." !"

The deformed geese formed an assault as a whole. At this time, the Yanyue knife that was cut on their faces had been smashed, and they formed a brand new Yanyue knife instead, and took the head of the Lintao army!

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)