stubborn thief

No one could see the frontline more clearly than Zu Dalue, who was lying on the river embankment.

He watched as Gao Yingdeng's four-pronged horse-led infantry quickly formed a square formation, and then used horses and chariots as bunkers on three sides of the formation to orderly discharge the musketeers.

At that time, he had already gotten up from the ground, high-fived his servants and summoned his horses, intending to notify more than a thousand Liaodong cavalry under his command to launch an assault from the east side of the musket phalanx to support Zu Kuan.

But before the servant leading the horse could reach the river embankment, the next moment the swarming cavalry rushed to the edge of the phalanx, and artillery guns were fired one after another.

Zu Dale raised his hands and did a high-five push-up, then lay down again.

Just a face-to-face meeting. The gang of thieves and musketeers actually fired a hail of bullets that was denser than the artillery team, directly flattening the cavalry team.

In just three rounds of gunfire, half of Zu Kuan's cavalry was disabled, and there were injured horses running around everywhere.

The Zu family's army got along day and night, and saw the remaining cavalrymen of Zu Kuan's maimed cavalry being driven across the battlefield by the Marshal's cavalry. The servants around Zu Dale were shaking him, asking eagerly whether to send troops to help, but Zu Dale... couldn't hear them.

At the moment when the smoke from the three rounds of gunfire was about to clear, Zu Dale, who was still seven or eight miles away from the fighting battlefield, felt that he was deaf.

He couldn't hear the distant sounds of fighting, and the pictures in front of him were all frozen, and his mind was completely empty. His whole figure seemed to have turned into a heart, and only the deafening heartbeat boomed in all his perceptions.

He couldn't hear anything.

By the time Zu Dale came to his senses, he was already standing on the land on the south bank of the Wei River.

He was so shocked that he had no idea how he got here. Only the wet clothes under his armor and the heavy iron boots soaked in river water reminded him that he seemed to be in a bit of a hurry to cross the river.

He didn't even understand that he was seven or eight miles away from the battlefield, and those rebels would not hurt him at all, but he could be frightened into this kind of behavior.

Even though everyone has reached the other side, Zu Dale still cannot get over the panic of the rest of his life.

Not to mention that Zu Dale had never seen it before, he had never even thought that there was any enemy in the world who could kill hundreds of Liao soldiers in just a few moments in any war, battle, or battle. hurt.

In this state of shock, it was not until his servants reported the results of counting the soldiers that Zu Dale's mood calmed down a little.

Hehe, there are only a few less of the 440 cavalry under his command.

But they also picked up two hundred more cavalry.

It was the Dong Miao cavalry who had been driven out of the battlefield earlier under Yang Zhengfang's banner.

After they were out of danger, they lay down on the north side of the river embankment to observe the battlefield, looking for opportunities to return to the team.

At that time, Zu Dale was already lying down on the south side of the river embankment. Therefore, although there were more than 1000 friendly cavalry on the side, the panicked Dong Miao cavalry had no idea that friendly troops were on the side.

It wasn't until Zu Dale did push-ups on the river embankment and then ran away with his battalion that the Dong Miao cavalry discovered that the Liaodong Army was actually beside them, and they ran across the river in pursuit.

Even because they were chasing so closely, the Liaodong Army thought they were the cavalry of the Marshal's Mansion, so they crossed the river and picked up their three-eyed guns to fight.

The Dong Miao cavalry couldn't explain it to them, so they had a fight by the river.

However, they were in a hurry to run but were unwilling to take action. They only fought with casualties on both sides, and then the Dong Miao cavalry withdrew first.

But after they withdrew, they really didn't dare to stay in Hebei. The cavalry brigade that had been driven out of the battlefield picked a corner of the Mao Gourd Soldier to reconnect and gather with Zu Dale.

The fighting in the north is still going on, but Zu Dale has made up his mind that he will never cross the river to the north bank of the Weihe River again.

He was even unwilling to fight Liu Chengzong now. The heavy firepower of Gao Yingdeng's battalion shocked him too much. Zu Kuan's actions also caused too many casualties to the Zu family army... He couldn't afford to lose.

He had made up his mind that no matter what happened to the north, he would never cross the Wei River unless Liu Chengzong was defeated.

He stood on the south bank to collect the defeated soldiers. He wanted to replenish the battalion. No matter whose soldiers he picked up, they were his.

"Let's arrange it like this first and pack up the camp on the spot. As for how to fight the battle later... let's wait until that Lu Manzi comes over!"

Zu Dalue arranged things in an orderly manner in Henan, but the Liaodong cavalry on the north bank of the Weihe River was much more uncomfortable.

Zu Kuan's tribe, which consisted of more than [-] cavalry, suffered huge casualties in the short time it entered the shooting range of Gao Yingdeng's tribe.

One of the four generals was killed and one wounded; six of the seventeen cavalry captains were killed on the spot, and five others fell from their mounts; the 35 cavalry officers were killed because they were in the middle of the battle. The cavalry on the front line was at the forefront, and a total of 22 people died.

Only five hundred generals were able to escape with the cavalry in an organized manner because they were at the rear of the formation.

But their horses had long since run out of energy. They came over from the south bank of the Wei River in one day and ran back and forth for more than ten miles from the river bank to Xingping County.

Originally, when the Liao soldiers were attacking the military formation, their horses were disabled and they could only rush forward at a fast pace. But now, not only the Liao soldiers on the horses were scared, but the horses underneath them were also scared. They were not afraid at all. Following the rider's instructions, I ran as fast as I could until I was foaming at the mouth.

Less than two miles away, six Liao soldiers were driven forward by more than [-] cavalrymen led by Tang Tong. The Tang cavalry with three-eyed muskets and the guards holding muskets were chasing and beating them.

In order to burn their own horse meat, these hungry ghosts fired wildly at the Liao soldiers' mounts. In a short time, they turned six Liaodong cavalry brigades into six infantry brigades. They surrounded them and kicked them in circles.

The situation faced by the Huguang Army in the west, which was crossing the river, was even worse. They could not clearly see the situation on the central battlefield.

Lei Shisheng listened to Zu Kuan's words and walked five or six miles west from Henan before building a pontoon bridge and starting to cross the river.

As a result, as soon as his vanguard troops crossed the river, Zu Kuan had already discovered the fighter plane and launched a charge from Sophora Forest. Not long after the charge, a cavalry team came back from the direction Zu Kuan had passed.

Lei Shisheng was standing on the pontoon bridge in the middle of the Wei River at that time. He really thought that Zu Kuan was driven back from the battlefield by the marshal's army.

After all, where could the enemy army come so quickly?
Still in the same direction as Zu Kuan, my brother is crossing the river!Didn’t your Zu Kuan stop me?
I definitely need some support from my brothers!

Therefore, it could not be the enemy, it could only be that Zu Kuan was driven back.

The Huguang Army who had crossed the river didn't even have the intention of taking precautions, so they crossed the Weihe River one after another on the small pontoon bridge.

Of course, they can't be said to be completely defenseless. They gave way to 'Zu Kuan' and then indeed arranged some defenses.

Guns and small cannons were set up, but they were not aimed at 'Zu Kuan', but were prepared to defend against the non-existent pursuers behind 'Zu Kuan'.Zhao Zhirui, who was hit by a gallop, was dumbfounded when he saw the Ming army crossing the river behaving like sleepwalking.

Zhao Zhirui used to be a general in Suzhou. Since he was defeated by Liu Chengzong, he fled to Liangzhou and spent every day thinking about how to kill Liu Shishi. Until Liangzhou ran out of food, he pinched his nose and followed Liu Chengzong.

Because he beat up Zhang Tianlin, Zhang Tianlin asked him to be his lieutenant. What he saw every day was the sinister nature of people's hearts.

I'll give you a good job as a lieutenant, but you'll get ten fucking guards to watch me go to the latrine. I'm afraid I'll be blown up to the sky when I poop!
In this working environment of keeping an eye on the slow defense, General Zhao was so mentally stressed that he had nightmares all day long, so much so that when he went to the battlefield to lead the troops, he did not work well. He wandered around the flanks of the Zhenyun Army, feeling very conflicted in his heart.

On the one hand, he did not want his army to be defeated in the battle. After all, this was a big battlefield where both sides invested more than 3 troops. Once defeated and entered the pursuit stage, Liu Chengzong might not be able to save his life, let alone his own intervention. Lieutenant general.

But on the other hand, he didn't want Liu Chengzong to win comfortably, especially not because of his own contribution.

So he simply worked without exerting any effort, found an opportunity to leave the central battlefield, and ran all the way to the Ming army crossing the river. As long as he stopped them on the river bank, the mission was completed.

However, the brothers from Huguang suddenly made him feel the warm hospitality of meeting again after a long absence.

Zhao Zhirui's original idea was to have the cavalry surround the enemy and fire cannons a hundred steps away, just like what he did in the east.

But when he saw how enthusiastic Lei Shisheng was, he specifically asked the soldiers to make way from the middle of the military formation, and even set up muskets and artillery without aiming at them. This kind of preparation to welcome him directly made General Zhao's brain freeze.

What do you mean?

Zhao Zhirui simply changed his tactics, waved his sword and asked his subordinates to put their muskets on their shoulders, drew out the Guduo Jingua Yanling Saber, and rushed in through the passage vacated by the Huguang Army. In the shortest possible time, he knocked down the Huguang Army who was crossing the river. They fell into pieces and came out through the formation.

When he gathered the cavalry in the west of Huguang Army and returned to fight again, the two thousand people who crossed the river with a thunderous sound had already scattered in all directions and fell out of formation.

The Huguang army on the other side of the river had not had time to cross the river, so they gave up crossing the river in panic, fearing that Zhao Zhirui would rush over along the pontoon bridge, lose their armor and baggage, and flee eastward.

This group of people was quickly picked up by Zu Dale, who had been waiting for a long time a few miles away, and the whole Huguang camp was lost.

After such a battle, Zhao Zhirui, who was showing off his power on the north bank of the Wei River, lost all the resentment in his heart that he only wanted to do his job but could not do anything. Instead, he felt that following the crowd in Liangzhou and surrendering to Liu Chengzong was a blessing in disguise.

It would be strange to win a battle with these confused coalition forces!
When Liu Chengzong led the Chinese army to the central battlefield, good news came from all directions. In his eyes, the overall situation of the battle was completely decided.

Only Zhang Tianlin was reporting: "Commander, the two battalions of infantry led by the enemy general are still resisting."

Liu Shizi actually felt that they couldn't be said to be resisting, but more like passively fighting back.

Your dismounted cavalrymen, Zhang Tianlin, went up to fight with others, and they formed a formation to fight you. There was no one to fight on the other three sides, and the soldiers just stood there, like old mice that saw a cat, unable to move.

Liu Chengzong was puzzled by the postures of the Zhenyi and Maohulu battalions, because looking at the formations, it looked more like these people took the initiative to rush out from the trenches and earthen fortresses to fight.

But how could an army that took the initiative to attack fight like this... The Great Khan said he couldn't understand it, but he was greatly shocked.

But compared to Zu Kuan's fate, Yang Zhengfang's luck was actually much better.

When Liu Chengzong rushed to the front line of the battlefield, soldiers under Gao Yingdeng's bid had already found Zu Kuan. This was a ruthless man who had climbed to the highest official position in the Ming army from a commoner. Liu Shizi originally wanted to surrender.

But this unlucky guy was shot seven times, both his men and his horse. He was lying on the battlefield with more air coming out and less air coming in. He kept coughing up blood. The military medical officers from the four battalions shook their heads.

Because Zu Kuan had no external injuries on his body, only one of the seven lead pellets was a one-two-five-cent heavy bullet belonging to a heavy gun. The heavy bullet hit Zu Kuan's horse on the head, killing the horse directly.

The remaining six were all loaded with three-coin bird bullets. Zu Kuan's armor was very good, made of cotton on the outside and iron on the inside. Even the six lead pellets could not break through his cotton armor.

The most serious injuries on his body were that his left leg was crushed by the war horse and three of his ribs were broken by the deformed armor piece.

This kind of internal injury, not to mention the inability of military doctors to treat in a battlefield environment, even in the rear where there is sufficient medicine, whether a person can survive has nothing to do with the doctor, it all depends on the horoscope.

However, Zu Chengyong, a guerrilla general under Zu Kuan, was lucky. When he fired the gun, there was President Bai in front of him. When he saw President Bai fell from his horse and the horse stood up, he jumped off his horse and hid behind the horse's corpse to save his life. .

It wasn't until after the war that Gao Yingdeng's soldiers pulled him out of the battlefield. He was completely unscathed and surrendered on the spot.

In front of the banner-hunting Tiger and Ben army camp, Liu Chengzong, who was sitting on horseback, raised his whip and pointed at the Zhenjun army formation and said: "They don't have much fighting spirit anymore. Let your people retreat a hundred steps and send someone to try to surrender them." .”

Yang Zhengfang was in a very embarrassing position on the battlefield:
Hit, but can't hit.

Run, can't run.

He almost went crazy, regretting for the first time that he led his troops too quickly.

Why are you walking so fast?We are obviously seven thousand mountain infantry, but we rushed to the plains to get hammered.

At this moment, he was thinking about his way out and had no willpower to continue resisting the Marshal's army.

"Retreat a hundred steps?"

Zhang Tianlin looked troubled: "Commander, do you think it would be easier to blow them up with rockets first and then recruit them to surrender? What if the infantry retreats and they run away?"

Liu Chengzong looked at the Zhenyuan Army standing on the battlefield, then at Zhang Tianlin, and understood what this guy was thinking in an instant.

He's not afraid that people won't surrender, he just wants to blow people up.

Liu Shishi smiled and said: "You think the camp in the north was built in vain, right?"

Zhang Tianlin was immediately told what was on her mind. She grinned sheepishly and said to herself that the commander-in-chief understands me!
Liu Chengzong pointed at him angrily, then he held his riding whip and pointed to the east and west, saying: "There are horsemen from your camp in the west. Is that led by Zhao Zhirui? Further to Xingping County, there are a thousand cavalrymen from the Heshuo Special Camp. Waiting for the enemy troops to flee over there."

"Don't worry about the east side. Zuo Guang from Huben Camp has already led a thousand riders over. He just reported that there are so many gunfire here that all the people in Xianyang came to the plateau to watch the excitement hand in hand. It was like a crowd of spectators!"

"Go and recruit us to surrender. If you don't want to surrender, the camp you built can be used. We can rest there tonight."

After saying that, Liu Shizi stretched out his hand, opened his fingers and grasped it fiercely: "In three days at the latest, we will go north to take down the [-] Ming troops and shock the world, and then come back to fight Xi'an City. This battle... is enough It will enable our army to gain an advantage in Guanzhong and make the scholars of the entire dynasty live in trouble!" (End of this chapter)