weaving

Chapter 517 When something goes wrong, there must be a demon

Zhang Nai led his team back when he saw King Chuang leading a brigade of bandits rushing towards him. Before he could speak, Li Shuangxi rushed to him and said, "The officers and troops are coming from the north, and Master Liu, the chief sentinel, has already arrived." Go face to face with them!"

Zhang Nai still had doubts on his face, and said, "Uncle Erhu is not at the north gate, why did the officers and soldiers come suddenly?"

Li Shuangxice immediately followed the brigade to march northward, and he also said with a puzzled look on his face: "We are also confused, this army of officers seems to have fallen from the sky, and suddenly stopped at the northwest corner of Kaifeng City. .”

He drove his horse and galloped, and said again: "We were watching the battle with King Chuang just now, and Master Liu, the chief sentry, sent his own soldiers to report that an army of officers was blocking between his department and Uncle Er Hu. It's strange."

At this moment, Liu Zongmin rode his horse to meet King Chuang, and said, "Brother Li, it's not easy!"

King Chuang rode on his oolong horse, still smiling, and said lightly, "Do you know which army is it?"

"The fighting style of this group of officers and soldiers is rare. They are like a turtle with a shrunken head. They just stop between us and the two tigers, but they don't fight."

At this time, Li Zicheng had already driven his horse to the front of the formation, and what appeared in front of him was an array of large carts, and some tens of meters in front of the formation lay the corpses of some bandit soldiers, which must have been left behind by the previous charge. .

"A car formation?"

Li Zicheng continued with a look of disdain: "Chen Qiyu, that old dog used to fight us in a chariot formation before. Although it is quite difficult to fight, it is inflexible."

But when he carefully inspected the opposing army formation, he was secretly startled.

I saw that the big carts on the opposite side were intertwined, and the gaps in the middle were filled with antlers, and there was no loophole. I looked to the left and right and found that the cart formation was more than two miles long.

He also had a serious expression on his face, and said, "Jiexuan, tell me what's going on."

Only then did Liu Zongmin tell the whole story.

It turned out that since the Chuang army attacked the city this morning, all the cavalry he led were in full formation. During this period, only some elite cavalry galloped around for a few miles to check, and the main direction was Luoyang and Zhongmouna.

The two thousand infantrymen gathered together and participated in the excavation of the city at Sishi. Originally, everything was going in a favorable direction for the Chuang army, but seeing that the excavation of the city had achieved some results.

But after noon, hundreds of cavalry officers and soldiers suddenly appeared covering a huge convoy, and they galloped from a distance to penetrate the gap between the two invading troops in the north and west of Kaifeng City.

As the billowing smoke and dust dissipated, an insurmountable mountain stretched before the eyes of the bandit soldiers. They were connected by a circle of carts and stretched for two miles.

The black muzzles of the cannons on the cart were aimed at the bandits, and during their first two not-so-violent charges, the cannons were surprisingly quiet.

The deadly flames were not sprayed from the muzzle, but only the rows of guns behind the car array repelled their charge. This is what made Liu Zongmin feel the slightest fear.

In the first charge organized by Liu Zongmin, there were only more than 500 thieves gathered temporarily. They were like newborn calves, roaring and rushing towards the car formation.

There was no movement at 150 steps, [-] steps, and even when they rushed into [-] steps, they didn't see any reaction from the chariot formation. Has rushed into the distance of eighty steps.

There was a burst of blunderbusses, and among the clouds of smoke rising, deadly blunderbuss bullets flew out one after another, and the more than 200 bandit soldiers rushing in the two rows in front immediately spattered blood on the spot.

The rest panicked at first, then turned around and ran for their lives.

Of the more than 500 thieves who attacked the chariot formation for the first time, less than a hundred escaped back to the main formation in the end. The distance between 120 and [-] steps in front of the chariot formation was full of bandit soldiers who had not been shot dead. There was a wailing sound from the bright red.

And Liu Zongmin organized a second charge. This time he mobilized 600 thieves, but he added more than [-] people from the old battalion to attack on the flanks.

According to his idea, the infantry thieves were still ordered to attack the officers behind the leading chariot formation after firing their guns, and then the horse thieves rushed out suddenly, using the moment when the officers and soldiers reloaded the ammunition, to try to see if they could break into the chariot formation.

However, he miscalculated again. The foot thief still left rows of corpses and wounded soldiers in front of the chariot formation as before, and the horse thief only rushed to within twenty steps of the chariot formation. Without touching the side of the car, they all fell in front of the car formation.

This time, more than 100 thieves came back from the battle, but less than 50 of the [-] horse thieves escaped. Among them, about [-] people abandoned their horses and only escaped by rolling and crawling.

…………

The chariot formation stretching across the northwest corner of Kaifeng City was made up of nearly [-] carts from Zhang Cheng's chariot battalion, and there were more than [-] officers and troops inside, most of them were gunfire soldiers.

In particular, the Yunzhou blunderbuss II style used by Zhang Cheng's fire blunderbuss can stably break through three layers of cotton armor within 120 steps, and can break through two layers of cotton armor within [-] steps. It can be effectively killed, as long as it hits, there is little hope of survival.

Today, the first round of volleys was started when the bandit soldiers entered the [-]th step, which is already very forbearing, the purpose is to frighten the bandits in the first battle, so that they don't dare to underestimate them.

However, the bandits were careless, they failed to stop immediately after the first salvo, and many bandits ran forward for more than ten steps before stopping, and then fled back desperately.

Therefore, Zhang Cheng's officers and soldiers in the chariot formation fired a full three rounds of salvo, leaving the corpses of more than [-] bandit soldiers in front of the chariot formation.

…………

Li Zicheng listened to Liu Zongmin's narration, his face became more solemn, he turned his head to Song Xiance and asked: "Military teacher, what do you think?"

Song Xiance was also quite surprised by the sudden appearance of the army formation in front of him. According to Liu Zongmin, the officers and soldiers in the formation were quite powerful, but they did not go out to fight.

In line with the principle that "if something goes wrong, there must be a demon", he faintly felt that something was wrong, only to see him thinking about it pretending to be calm, and then said: "The officers and soldiers suddenly appeared here, their combat power is quite strong, but If you don't fight, you must have other plans.

King Chuang, General Liu Tichun in the north of the city may be in danger, so don't ignore it! "

The expression on Li Zicheng's face remained unchanged. Since the Chongzhen uprising, he has been fighting for many years. He has experienced nearly a hundred battles, big and small, with many ups and downs. His heart is already as firm as iron. The time is critical, and it can no longer move him.

At this moment, no one knew the heavy and agitated mood of the commander who had been trained in the war, but seeing his calm expression, he immediately stood on the sand dune and stared at the formation of official and army vehicles opposite him.

The car array on the opposite side is well-organized and almost invulnerable. If their firearms are as sharp as Liu Zongmin said, they will definitely not be able to take them by force. Now they are only defending but not attacking. Just like what Song Xiance said, there must be some conspiracy.

After a while, he opened his mouth and said: "The army stopped attacking the city for the time being. Zhang Nai, Shuangxi, and Bai Wang each led a team and stood ready."

Li Zicheng turned his head to look at Liu Zongmin, and said, "Jiexuan, see if the cavalry can bypass the formation of vehicles and go to the north of the city to fetch Erhu and the others back."

(End of this chapter)