The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 180

Zhang Yingmeng judged that the flames were at most less than one mile away from him. Even if the Ming army was extinguishing the torches to pretend, the distance would be within a sprint of a horse. Light up.

More importantly, Fan Shaozu has not been found yet, maybe the Ming army in front is Cao Hongzu's people, if they can capture a few prisoners, they may be able to find out the whereabouts of Fan Shaozu's troops.

He then ordered the deputy general to lead the cavalry to attack the enemy's artillery, and let the infantry spread out and move forward steadily.

When the Ming army's cannon fired for the third time, his five hundred cavalrymen rushed out howling, and reached the enemy's line by more than a hundred paces in an instant.

Zhang Yingmeng estimated that the cavalry would be able to charge into the Ming army's gunners after only one round of shells, and then the massacre would be one-sided.

However, what surprised him was that the Ming army's cannon roared again, but the shell fell into his infantry formation, and he didn't seem to notice that hundreds of cavalry were heading straight for them.

He felt something bad in his heart, and the next moment, a narrow and thin line made of flames suddenly shone in the night.

Zhang Yingmeng's eyelids twitched suddenly with the intensive roar of firecrackers that shook people's scalps numbly - he saw that the hundreds of cavalrymen of his own seemed to have hit an invisible wall, and the forward momentum stopped abruptly. Countless torches were scattered all over the place, beating weakly in the night.

How is this going? !Zhang Yingmeng suddenly felt that he was dreaming, there was no light from the matchlock in the night, where did the gunshot come from?

There was almost no pause, the sound of gunfire sounded again in the distance, and the dozens of riders who survived the first round of shooting fell silent immediately.

Three to four hundred of Zhang Yingmeng's infantry were killed by the shelling. They saw their own cavalry rushing up and thought that those terrible cannons would be dealt with later, so they all moved forward with the commander in a sigh of relief.

At this moment, hundreds of cavalrymen disappeared without a trace, and what kind of ghosts and monsters were hidden behind the dark night, Zhang Yingmeng's soldiers immediately stood in place in shock.

The loud noise of the artillery appeared again at the right time, and the howling iron ball flew into the Qing army formation. With a burst of mournful screams, some people began to turn around and run away.

Zhang Ying yelled desperately to stop, but it had the opposite effect. The more he shouted "No retreat", the more people ran back.

The cannons of the Ming army were merciless, and they were still pouring shells at a very high frequency.Zhang Yingmeng was in a dilemma, but in fact he was extremely afraid that an iron ball would fall on his head.

It wasn't until the soil stirred up by a shell hit him in the face that he didn't dare to hesitate any longer and ordered the whole army to retreat.

Marching and fighting, retreating is definitely a technical job, especially at night.

Under Zhang Yingmeng's sudden order, and with a large number of artillery harvesting lives behind him, the soldiers of the Qing army had already thrown away the things they had practiced in the past.

More than 3000 people were completely out of order. The strong ones only tried to overturn those who blocked the way to the ground and escaped for their own lives.

On the side of the Dragon Guards, Zhu Linmei saw that the Qing army retreated before they had much trouble, but she was worried that there was a fraud in it, so she only let two companies of hussars chase after the defeated army, and sent two companies of dragoons to flank them. back cover.

Unexpectedly, the captive army had no fighting spirit, and more than a hundred hussars chased after them. When the spring-wheeled short blunderbuss rang out, they were frightened and screamed like ghosts and wolves, and ran even more desperately.

It's just that Azig took away all the food and grass in the Boluo army, and the Qing army here in Yanping hasn't had enough food for a long time.Zhang Yingmeng's soldiers didn't run three miles away, most of them were exhausted and fell to the ground.

The hussars who were in charge of chasing the enemy didn't even bother to chop at the end—the Qing soldiers were all lying on the ground, and their sabers couldn't reach them.

When the infantry of the Dragon Guard Brigade arrived in line, they handed over the weapons of the captive army without any effort, and it took a lot of effort to gather the defeated soldiers who were lying on the ground together.

"Cao Hongzu?" Zhu Linmi looked at the Jianlu officers in front of him and asked, "Then where is Jiang Zhengxi's headquarters?"

Several people looked at each other dejectedly and shook their heads.

"My lord, so there is another group of Ming troops on the east side of the barracks." Zhang Jiayu cupped his hands and said, "Jiang Zongbing may be right there."

Gu Yanwu then asked suspiciously: "According to the confessions of these Jianlu, it was actually the Ming army who took the initiative to attack and rob the Qing army camp. Does Jiang Zongbing have any strategies to defeat the enemy?"

Zhu Linmi pondered for a moment, then nodded slowly, "If he can defeat the enemy, we will help from the side. If not, then we should support him."

He immediately ordered: "Headed, the infantry and cavalry of the Dragon Guards leave immediately, follow me to reinforce Jiang Zhengxi.

"Polu camp stay on guard, if there is an accident, respond at any time."

"Yes!" All the officers responded in unison.

……

"Lord Baihu, the captives are still chasing after you," a short and thin Ming soldier held a firecracker almost as tall as him, and said with a bitter face, "Why don't we surrender..."

"Fart!" Zhao Chuer gasped, "I still have [-] acres of fertile land in my house, eight wives and children, all of whom have been surrendered, how could Duan De'an let them go?" Duan De'an is another hundred households in his guard, and He has always had a grudge, and this time he sent some money, but did not go out with the army.

"but I……"

"Li Shitou, I can tell you that Tartars are very masculine, especially when you are so thin." Zhao Chuer threatened him in a deep voice, "Be careful, you were sold to the barren hills in the north to be used as a male concubine."

Zhao Chuer looked at the chasing soldiers after talking, but felt very bitter in his heart.

He is one of Cao Hongzu's subordinates, and he has always been a bit clever.The barracks was attacked tonight, and Cao Shoubei led his army to flee northward. He thought in his mind that Jianlu must be chasing the brigade. If he went with Master Cao, he might be killed by the pursuers.

So he took twenty or so of his men and took advantage of the chaos to flee southward secretly.Unexpectedly, not long after he ran, he encountered thousands of Jianlu attacking from the side.

In desperation, he had no choice but to run eastward in the direction of Jianlu's march. At this time, he was tired from being frightened and felt his calf twist, but the soldiers behind him still relentlessly pursued him.

In fact, behind him is Fan Shaozu's man.This team of Qing troops plundered food and grass, and was rushing back to the barracks excitedly, without even noticing that there were about twenty people in front of the team.

It's just that Zhao Chuer fled all the way to the east, which was in the same direction as theirs, so it seemed that they had been "hot pursuit".

After running for a while, Zhao Chuer's vision blurred suddenly, and he saw a lot of torches in the distance, and I don't know how many people were waiting in line.

"This, who is this..." Li Shitou was astonished.

When Erdengbu saw dozens of torches coming towards his defense line, he preconceived that it was the Ming army coming to attack, but he still sent someone forward to check the password for the sake of caution.

"Purple Qi is coming from the east!"

Zhao Chuer was stunned for a moment when he heard the hoarse roar in the distance, "Come on, what are you doing here?" Immediately after he realized it, he turned his head and ran away.

The Qing soldiers who asked for the password glanced at each other, turned their heads and shouted, "It's a surprise attack by the Southern barbarians!"

(End of this chapter)