However, when the Red Lotus Sect retreated to the Huai River, they found that the pontoon bridge erected on the river had already been destroyed, and only a small remnant of the bank and the materials that had been pushed on the bank had not yet been transported, and four steel steamers appeared on the river, and they set up machine guns and fired fiercely at the shore.

The soldiers of the Red Lotus Sect who fled to the Huai River suffered heavy casualties immediately, although the soldiers in the front row wanted to retreat, but they were blocked by the soldiers in the back, and they couldn't retreat at all in a hurry, and as a result, they fell on the bank of the river in rows, and blood stained the river.

At this moment, the People's Army also came from behind the Red Lotus Sect Army, left and right sides, and the Red Lotus Sect Army fell into a total encirclement, unable to retreat, and could only surrender to the People's Army.

In this battle, the People's Army annihilated more than 3,000 Red Lotus Sect troops, captured more than 16,000 people, and captured a large amount of supplies. However, there are a lot of troubles after the victory, and the handling of more than 16,000 prisoners is a huge problem, although the People's Army has now taken control of Lu'an Prefecture and has drawn a large number of people from the resettlement camp to assist in management, it still takes a lot of thought to contain 16,000 prisoners. The pontoon bridge erected by the People's Army was of course much stronger than that built by the Red Lotus Sect, so in the end, the People's Army stayed in Huoqiu County for 10 days, sent all the prisoners to Lu'an Prefecture to be imprisoned, and at the same time erected 2 pontoon bridges and a simple wharf on the Huai River, so that the army crossed the Huai River and went north along the Yingshui River to Yingzhou.

The four warships were responsible for carrying food supplies and marching with the army along Yingshui. Although these 4 warships are not large, each ship can also carry 20-25 tons of supplies, and the 4 warships can carry a total of 80-90 tons of supplies, although it is not much, but the scale of this people's army is not large, so it is completely sufficient.

However, as soon as the People's Army crossed the Huai River, it met the brigade of the Red Lotus Sect. It turned out that although the fleet of the People's Army destroyed the pontoon bridge built by the Red Lotus Sect army, but some of the materials and troops had crossed the Huai River, so after the pontoon bridge was destroyed, this part of the army withdrew to Yingzhou with supplies, and at this time, the Red Lotus Sect army was defeated in Huoqiu County, and the news that the 20,000 army was almost wiped out also reached Yingzhou.

And the Red Lotus Sect's high-level in Yingzhou was also quite shocked, because after two battles, the Red Lotus Sect army had lost nearly 30,000 troops, although it was not broken, now the Red Lotus Sect's army is still more than 100,000, but the losses are still huge, and the People's Army is only more than 3,000 people, such a huge disparity in military strength, and the loss is so miserable, because it is the leader of this attack on Lu'an Prefecture basically all killed, of course, it makes the Red Lotus Sect high-level in Yingzhou shudder, and the defeated army that retreated to Yingzhou also tried their best to exaggerate the strength of the People's Army in the army, and the firepower was fierce, which had a huge impact on the military spirit of the Red Lotus Sect, although the Red Lotus Sect high-level found out, tried his best to stop the spread of the rumors, and killed more than 200 defeated soldiers, but at this time the rumors have spread, and it is not possible to stop it by killing a few people, the soldiers don't say it on the surface, but they are still very active in private, and the high-level of the Red Lotus Sect can't kill all the soldiers, so as long as it doesn't go too far, it can only be ignored with one eye open and one eye closed.

But now the People's Army has approached the Huai River, and the soldiers are not much different from the city, it can be said that it is a critical time for survival, so after the high-level of the Red Lotus Sect discussed, it was decided to concentrate the army and fight a decisive battle with the People's Army, of course, because the leaders of this attack on Lu'an Prefecture were basically all killed, at this time, the high-level of the Red Lotus Sect did not quite believe that the combat effectiveness of the People's Army would really be strong to this point, after all, the number of the Red Lotus Sect Army was more than ten times that of the People's Army, and only listening to the soldiers' statements, there was always some half-belief.

However, the result of the battle will not be wrong, there may be another reason for this, so the high-level of the Red Lotus Sect did not dare to be careless, and finally concentrated more than 80,000 troops, the main army, and the firepower troops were all dispatched, and two elders were specially sent to lead the team to escort the formation. It can be said that it concentrates the strongest combat power of the Red Lotus Sect Army.

Seeing that the Red Lotus Sect sent a large army to fight, of course Luo Yue would not be afraid, not to mention that he had now converged with the reinforcements, that is, there were no reinforcements, just the two battalions he led, and he would not care about the Red Lotus Sect's army, and after this battle, he could completely hit the morale of the Red Lotus Sect army, and I am afraid that he would not dare to fight a field battle with the People's Army in the future, so his plan to encircle and annihilate the Red Lotus Sect army in Yingzhou Mansion could be basically realized.

So Luo Yue ordered to arrange a position on the bank of the Huai River, back to the water, and prepare for a decisive battle with the Red Lotus Sect army.

Although the two elders of the Red Lotus Sect Army do not understand military affairs, they have also watched the [Romance of the Three Kingdoms] and know that the backwater formation is a major offense of the soldiers, so they are also very relieved, it seems that the People's Army is not enough, probably just with the sharpness of firearms, the last defeat, I am afraid that the few people who led the army are too incompetent, not how strong the People's Army is, this time they will defeat the People's Army and reverse the increasingly low morale of the Red Lotus Army.

After all, there are more than 80,000 people in the Red Lotus Army, and the military quality is also very poor, basically there is no formal training, and the two elders who lead the army do not have the experience of commanding so many troops, and they are busy arranging the altar and law field to ask God to tell the heavens, and they have no time to sort out the team, of course, even if they are asked to sort it out, they may not be able to sort it out, so it has been dismantled for a long time, and it is still a mess, and the position has not been arranged at all, and because of the improper deployment of the team, there have been several cases of crowding and pushing。

Originally, Luo Yue still planned to use the tactics of the last time, first based on the position defense, resist the attack of the Red Lotus Sect Army, and then attack from both flanks, detour around the flanks of the Red Lotus Sect Army, and wait for the opportunity to eliminate the command center of the Red Lotus Sect Army in one fell swoop.

But seeing that the Red Lotus Sect army had lined up for a long time, but the result had not been lined up, and it was still chaotic, Luo Yue also decided to change his tactics and take the initiative to go out, after all, the Red Lotus Sect army in front of him almost gave the opportunity with both hands, if he didn't accept it, wouldn't he be too sorry for the kindness of the Red Lotus Sect Army.

So Luo Yue ordered Jiang Haidong to lead the two battalions of the headquarters to break through from the center and launch an attack on the Red Lotus Sect army.

At this time, the positions of the two sides were about 3,000 meters apart, so after the People's Army launched an attack, it would take a certain amount of time to reach the range of the rifle, but Luo Yue was not idle, but concentrated all the 12 100 mortars and 36 80 mortars of the current army to launch an artillery bombardment on the position of the Red Lotus Sect.

The Red Lotus Sect really didn't expect that the People's Army would still be able to hit itself when the positions of the two sides were about 3,000 meters apart, because they didn't see any artillery in the People's Army. As a result, the shells fell into the formation of the Red Lotus Sect army, only to blow up the sand and gravel and mud to the sky, people turned over on their backs, and suffered heavy casualties, originally the Red Lotus Sect army had arranged several altars, but all of them were buried in the artillery fire, and the Red Lotus Sect army was originally in chaos, at this time people were even more panicked, some people forward, some people retreated, crowded and pushed each other, some people were pushed to the ground, and they were suddenly trampled by countless feet and legs.

After more than 10 rounds of artillery bombardment, Luo Yue ordered half of the artillery unit to advance 500 meters, and then set up artillery positions to open fire, so as to ensure the extension of firepower.

Seeing this, the two elders who led the army were also frightened, the cannonballs did not fall near them, but they were also affected to some extent, and their bodies and faces were scratched by the flying sand and gravel A few wounds, although they both showed their magical powers of not being afraid of guns and bullets in front of the sect, but both of them knew in their hearts that it was just a trick to play a trick, and they were just flesh and blood, where they could bear the bombardment of artillery, so they also hurriedly ordered to retreat.

But seeing that the altar of the gods was destroyed by artillery, and his companions were blown to pieces by artillery, even the two elders who had usually displayed great magical powers were so frightened that they retreated, and the ordinary soldiers of the Red Lotus Sect Army could still hold on, and the rumors that the People's Army was strong and had sharp firepower suddenly became extremely true. As a result, the soldiers also retreated.

However, the array of 80,000 troops is quite large, and the soldiers in the back did not hit the **, of course they will not retreat, and some soldiers are arranging the formation, and as a result, the army in front of them is defeated like this, and the teams in front and behind collide with each other, which is already a messy army, and it is even more chaotic at this time.

Of course, there are also a small number of soldiers who do the opposite, raise their swords and guns, and launch an attack on the advancing People's Army, these people are all loyal believers in the Red Lotus Sect, and they are also convinced of the so-called magic power of the Red Lotus Sect, although they have also seen a large number of companions killed, but because their hearts are not sincere, so the magic is not effective, and everyone believes that they are sincere, of course, they can get the protection of the gods, invulnerable, bullets and fire, so at this time they chose to attack the People's Army, hoping to save the situation。

It's just that although these people have been completely brainwashed by the Red Lotus Sect, the guns and bullets of the People's Army are not vegetarian, although they are moving forward, the firepower of the People's Army is not intensive, so most of them still fall under the guns of the People's Army, and only a very few people rushed through the rain of bullets and killed the front of the People's Army, but they were also stabbed to death by the soldiers of the People's Army with bayonets.

Although his troops had not yet advanced to the firing range at this time, the Red Lotus Sect army had already been bombarded by artillery, so Jiang Haidong, who was personally in command of the team, ordered the troops to advance quickly and engage the Red Lotus Sect army as soon as possible.

And Luo Yue, who was in command in the position, also saw the situation on the battlefield clearly, and he didn't expect that this battle would go more smoothly than the previous battle, of course, at this time, he should immediately launch a full-scale attack, and completely defeat the Red Lotus Sect army in one fell swoop without giving the Red Lotus Sect army a chance to breathe. So Luo Yue ordered the other two battalions in the position to attack from both flanks to form a full-scale offensive against the Red Lotus Sect army.