Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 38
The cavalry of the left army took advantage of the geographical advantage to occupy the small slope, and rushed down suddenly at an extremely fast speed.

Zuo Menggeng originally wanted to take advantage of this advantage to get a powerful impact from the cavalry to defeat the cavalry of the Zhongyi Battalion who were attacking head-on, but who would have thought that Wang Yan would not compete with him at all, and just bypassed him.

The cavalry of the Left Army rushed down from a high place, unable to slow down at all. After passing between the two cavalry led by Wang Yan and Li Taizhen, they ran into the Zhongyi Battalion infantry who were catching up. Dozens of riders fell down.

Qianhu, a cavalry soldier from the left army, rushed to the front, but he was lucky enough to survive the first round of gunfire, but he was also shocked by this sudden change, breaking out in a cold sweat.

At this time, the first row of bird commanders in the Zhongyi Battalion had retreated, and the second row of bird commanders stepped forward with their guns raised.

Looking at the burning and sparkling matchlock, Qianhu, a cavalry soldier of the left army, suddenly became terrified. At this moment, he had only two options left, either to brave the bombardment of volleys of guns and rush over to defeat the infantry in front of him, or to hurry up. Turn around, turn the horse's head, and bypass the infantry.

Both options have certain risks.

A direct attack, in case the infantry of the Zhongyi Battalion could not be defeated, but was entangled instead, then when he wanted to regroup to rescue the Chinese army, Zuo Menggeng might have been defeated by Wang Yan's cavalry.

If you choose to turn, then during the turn, the entire cavalry will be placed horizontally in front of the infantry's fire line, allowing them to bombard. If there are heavy casualties, the remaining cavalry will also be unable to fight against Wang Yan's cavalry of the Loyalty Battalion.

Indecisiveness leads to disaster.

The cavalry of the left army rushed down the high slope at an extremely fast speed, the thousand households hesitated for a while, the cavalry of the left army wanted to turn around again, but it was too late.

Seeing this, Qianhu, the cavalryman, regretted it for a while, so he gritted his teeth and rushed towards the infantry.

"Bang~ bang~ bang~"

The sound of the fire rang again, and the cavalry Qianhu lost the good luck last time, and was immediately beaten into a sieve.The second round of guns killed dozens of left army cavalry.

The second team retreats, the third team goes up!
"Bang~ bang~ bang~"

Another barrage of bullets came head-on, and dozens of cavalry were taken away again.

The Zuo Army had lost two or three hundred cavalry before they could engage the Zhongyi Battalion.

After paying nearly [-]% of the casualties, they finally rushed to the infantry of the Zhongyi Battalion, but what greeted them was not victory, but sharp spears.

Under Wang Wei's command, the infantry of the Loyalty Battalion formed a circle, and the spearmen squatted holding their spears.

In the far west, many years later, a great emperor lost tens of thousands of light cavalry under this formation, which resulted in the failure of a key battle, and was finally kicked off the throne and exiled on a deserted island. superior.

If the cavalry of the left army were heavy cavalry with both men and horses wearing solid armor, they would definitely smash Wang Wei's infantry into pieces. It's a pity that they are all lightly armored, unable to break through the forest of spears at all, and the swords in their hands cannot reach the soldiers in the formation. The infantry immediately became a living target for Bird Commander.

Qianhu was killed, and the remaining cavalry could not break through the infantry.

Amidst the continuous sound of the command, dozens of lives were taken away in an instant, and the remaining cavalry on the left collapsed immediately. They hurriedly withdrew from the attack. Amidst the sound of gunshots, they dropped nearly a hundred corpses again and retreated to the hill.

Zuo Menggeng on the hillside looked at the cavalry rushing down the mountain, and they folded in half in a short while, his face was already pale with fright.

At this time, Wang Yan's cavalry had rushed down the mountain, and Zuo Menggeng's personal guards were mostly sword and shield fighters, and there were not many archers and commanders to suppress them.

Fortunately, the cavalry couldn't climb the hill, and when they collided with the Zuo Army's infantry, they lost the ability to attack. But Wang Yan's superiority in numbers was there, and Zuo Menggeng's five hundred personal guards couldn't hold on for long.

The cavalry with high hopes was defeated, and the infantry of the Zhongyi Battalion will soon climb up the mountain. Zuo Menggeng no longer cared about causing chaos to the army, and hastily ordered the Chinese army to return for help.

With the sound of war drums and horns, the attacking left army froze for a moment, and the [-] elite who had not joined for a long time retreated slowly, running back to kill the hill.

The morale of the left army couldn't help but let out. Seeing the battle behind them, they began to worry in their hearts, but the handsome flag was still there, and the golden sound had not yet sounded, so the soldiers of the left army had to continue to attack the city.

It's just that compared with the previous offensive, at this time, it is obvious that the vigor just now has been lost. The Zuo army, which was about to enter the gap, was slowly pushed out by the Ming army.

The distance between Xiaoshan and Chizhou was only a mile and a half, and the spearmen of the left army who returned to the reinforcements could kill under the hill in half a quarter of an hour. Seeing this, Wang Yan felt a little anxious.

"Whoever kills the left thief will be rewarded with a thousand taels of silver!" Wang Yan roared when he went up the mountain to fight on horseback, and got off his horse to fight with the left army.

Seeing him like this, the cavalrymen of the Zhongyi Battalion also abandoned their horses one after another, and rushed forward with swords and guns.

"Brothers, hold on, don't retreat, reinforcements will be here soon!" Zuo Menggeng also knew that as long as he did not fall in command and persisted until the rear army returned to help, he would still have a chance to regroup today and break through Chizhou, but if he couldn't hold on , then a big defeat is inevitable, maybe life will stay here.

At this time, the cavalry from the defeated left army and Wang Wei's infantry also joined the battle group one after another. On the hill, the left army and the Zhongyi battalion were intertwined, and the formation was completely disrupted, forming a melee.

But the goals of the two armies are the same, they both want to attack Shuaiqi, but one is to cut off Shuaiqi, and the other is to support Zuo Menggeng.

On the entire hill, in the middle are Zuo Junshuaiqi and Zuo Menggeng's five hundred personal guards, on the outer layer are a thousand cavalry from the Loyalty Battalion who dismounted and fought on foot, and on the outer layer is the Zuo Army who came back to support after the defeat The cavalry, and Wang Wei's infantry at the outermost, and a little further away, there is the rear army of the left army who is desperately rushing back.

The army surrounded by circles on the hill looked extremely chaotic, but both Wang Yan and Zuo Menggeng knew the key to the battle situation very clearly.

If Wang Yan could take down the commander-in-chief flag on the top of the mountain before the rear army of the left army arrived, the Ming army would win, otherwise the left army would regain the initiative.

"Liu Shun! Follow me to kill him!"

Wang Yan knew very well that if he could not attack and kill him, not only would his surprise attack fail completely, but even the Loyalty Camp might be completely collapsed on the top of the mountain.

In such a situation, Wang Yan would never allow it, so he wielded his saber and frantically slashed in the direction of Shuai Qi.

At this time, Zuo Menggeng's face was already covered with cold sweat. He was surrounded by personal guards, watching Wang Yan who kept pushing in, he felt extremely nervous.

Zuo Menggeng was terrified by Wang Yan's frenzied slashing. With fifty steps, forty steps, and thirty steps, the Loyalty Battalion, relying on local advantages, kept approaching him, slowly approaching the limit he could bear.Looking at Wang Yan who was rushing forward, covered in blood, Zuo Menggeng pointed at him in fear and said, "Shoot him!"

Hearing this, the guards at the side quickly bent their bows and set up arrows, and shot at Wang Yan with a "swoosh".

At this time, Wang Yan had already killed within [-] steps of Zuo Menggeng. He slashed and killed the left army in front of him frantically. As noted.

The severe pain made his body stagnate, and he almost fell to the ground. After realizing that he was attacked by a secret arrow, Wang Yan couldn't help being furious. He looked twenty steps away, and the left army archer was nodding an arrow again. Then he projected the saber in his hand.

"Ah~" The left army archer had no time to shoot the second arrow, and was cut off half of his head by the saber thrown by Wang Yan.

Blood splattered, gray brains burst out, and Zuo Menggeng next to him was splattered all over the face. He couldn't hold on, and his spirit immediately collapsed. Looking at Wang Yan whose face was covered with blood in the distance, it was as if he had seen him. Like a demon crawling out of hell.

When Zuo Menggeng panicked, he retreated unconsciously.

As soon as he retreated, the guards around him panicked. The Zuo Jun who was still resisting looked back and saw that Zuo Menggeng was no longer under the handsome flag, and the already unsupportable line of defense suddenly collapsed.

Zuo Menggeng originally just took a few small steps back in fear, but in the end it turned into a collective retreat of the Zuo army.

Liu Shun took advantage of this opportunity to rush under the commander-in-chief's flag first, and cut off the flagpole with a single blow, causing the Ruoda Zuojun commander-in-chief's flag to fall to the ground.

Seeing this, Zuo Menggeng could only let out a long sigh, and rushed down the mountain with his personal guards.

As the Zuojun Commander's Flag was cut down, the Zhongyi Battalion on the mountain immediately let out earth-shattering cheers.

Ever since Wang Yan led the Zhongyi Battalion out from behind the southern hill, Huang Degong has been holding a binoculars to watch the battle of the Zhongyi Battalion. Now seeing the flag of the Commander-in-Chief of the Left Army fall, he was overjoyed and shouted anxiously: " Zuo Menggeng is dead, the Zuo thief is defeated!"

The Ming army on the side heard it, and quickly shouted: "The left thief is defeated! The left thief is defeated!"

The left army who was attacking the city suddenly heard the voices coming from the front and back at the same time, and felt terrified in their hearts. They couldn't help but look back at the top of the mountain.

How could Huang Degong miss such an opportunity? Immediately, he held up his sword and chased after him: "Boys, it's time to make meritorious deeds! Follow me and kill the left thief!"

The army was defeated like a mountain, and the rear army of the left army, who was about to rush down the mountain, saw the commander's flag fall, and the sound of chasing and killing by the Chizhou Ming army came from behind, the general immediately abandoned the loyalty camp and fled around the mountain.

The left army under the city also retreated westward like a tide, the west gate of Chizhou opened wide, and the Chizhou Ming army in the city took advantage of the situation to cover up and kill.

Wang Yan also regrouped the cavalry of the Zhongyi Battalion, let go of the relatively complete formation of the left army and the middle army, and killed the left army who had just retreated from the city. Where the horses passed, they left corpses of the rebels.

The 20 left troops came like a tide, and then receded like a tide. The mountains and plains were full of left troops, and the left troops were everywhere. Wang Yan led the cavalry to charge left and right, and chased them to the west of Chizhou City, thirty miles away, and chased Zuo Menggeng Fleeing by boat, he stopped.

In this battle, 20 of the [-] elite soldiers of the left army were killed, [-] were captured, and nearly half of them were lost.

The crisis in the west was temporarily lifted, but the Qing army from the north came more violently. At the time of the Chizhou battle, the Duoduo army had already approached Sizhou and rushed to the north of the river.

(End of this chapter)