In times of crisis, a voice came to his ears.

"Meng Shuai, the enemy is in chaos!"

Meng Xiao was awakened by this sound, and struggled to look up, and found that the enemy troops surrounding him had indeed become a little chaotic.

Especially in the rear, many enemies are trying to turn around, and Meng Xiao has so much combat experience that he immediately understood that there were reinforcements to support him on the periphery.

He quickly gave the order to break through to the rear.

Driven by the desire to survive, Meng Xiao burst out with great potential and ordered the team to turn around and break through to the rear, and the other soldiers showed tenacious perseverance like him.

It didn't take long for the soldiers rushing in front to open the gap, and the whole army rushed out of the gap like a torrent, and Meng Xiao rushed at the rear.

At this time, he could already see the situation outside, and sure enough, there was a group of his own soldiers attacking the Zhou army, some of which were his light cavalry, led by Jin Yuanwu.

The main force was an infantry, and Meng Xiao quickly saw the origin of the infantry - the front of the First Army.

To his surprise, among the enemies that Xu Qian and the others fought, in addition to the troops holding the Wang Ziqi, there were also the troops of the Zhao Ziqi.

Could it be that Zhao Kuangyin is also here? He vaguely understood something in his heart.

Now is not the time to think too much, Meng Xiao led the remnants of the army to move closer to the front of Xu and the Jin Yuanwu department, and the three armies merged together and slowly retreated.

However, the pursuit on the opposite side was very fierce, and in order to prevent the rout of the troops, Meng Xiao did not dare to withdraw too quickly.

At this point, he was almost at the end of his crossbow, but he had to hold on. After thinking about it, he made a decision to let Xu Qian retreat first, and after he and Jin Yuan were arbitrary, after all, Xu was an infantry in front, and if he broke off, he would not be able to escape the pursuit of the cavalry.

He drove his horse close to Xu Qian's side and said loudly: "You retreat first, and I will break the back." ”

"No, hold on a little longer, I'll have another arrangement." Xu Qian replied calmly.

Seeing his expression, Meng Xiao didn't say anything more, and returned to his unit to continue commanding the battle.

……

Zhou Jun's side.

Seeing that Wu Jun was in this situation, and still did not form a rout and escape, Zhao Kuangyin frowned: "I didn't expect them to be so tenacious. ”

Wang Xianqi said in a deep voice: "The strength of the Wu army that fought with me is probably not much worse than that of the Khitans, although I won just now, but the losses are extremely heavy. ”

Zhao Pu shook his head secretly, Wang Xianqi was too arrogant, in Zhao Pu's opinion, if it wasn't for Zhao Kuangyin leading the cavalry to raid from the rear, Wang Xianqi might not be able to win.

In this battle, Zhao Kuangyin personally took 3,000 light horsemen to take a detour on the path in the scout of Mengxiao, and then waited patiently.

When the two armies fought, he accurately grasped the opportunity, attacked from the flank, took the Wu army camp, and then attacked from the rear of the enemy.

Wang Xin's 5,000 reserves were easily defeated by Zhao Kuangyin, and then, Zhao Kuangyin and his own right wing troops flanked Ye Shouxiong's left wing cavalry, Ye Shouxiong's 5,000 light cavalry was wiped out, and only a dozen people broke through and fled.

Jin Yuanwu, who was on the right flank, saw that the situation was wrong and took the initiative to retreat, because of his retreat, the Zhou army immediately surrounded Mengxiao's troops.

However, it didn't take long for Jin Yuan's military troops to go and return, and the number of them became much larger, and this Wu army took the initiative to storm the encirclement in an attempt to rescue the Mengxiao army.

And the Mengxiao Department also showed strong combat effectiveness, not only did they hold on after being surrounded, but they were able to quickly seize the opportunity and escape from the encirclement after seeing the chaos of the Zhou army.

This was the first time that the Zhou army had encountered such a difficult army after going south, and through this battle, Zhao Pu couldn't help but glance at Wu Jungao a few times.

Focusing on the battle line, Zhao Pu gradually felt a little strange.

It stands to reason that the enemy should let the infantry break and the cavalry retreat. Why did the infantry retreat with the cavalry? If this continues, the only thing that awaits them is the result of the total annihilation.

"Dashuai, I feel like they have some plans." He voiced his doubts.

Zhao Kuangyin's heart moved, and said, "Could it be that they want to take advantage of the shallow river ahead?" ”

Wang Xianqi said coldly: "It's beautiful to think, our army is chasing so closely, they cross the river, we can cross the river, they don't want to escape." ”

"Commander, how wide is the river, can the bow and arrow reach the other bank?" Zhao Pu asked.

"Are you worried that the other side has left archers on the other side?"

Zhao Pu nodded.

Zhao Kuangyin said with a smile: "Don't worry, although the river is not very wide, the power of the bow and arrow from the opposite bank is greatly reduced, and the effect is not great." ”

Zhao Pu nodded and stopped talking.

"Dashuai, I want to join the battle, those Wu people killed so many of my brothers, I want to avenge them." Wang Xianqi asked for battle.

"No, how many times have I told you, when the battle is deadlocked, you can take the lead, but when the battle situation is decided, it is more important to command in the rear, otherwise it is likely to be defeated by the other party." Zhao Kuangyin reprimanded.

Wang Xianqi bowed his head and was silent.

As the battle progressed, the Wu army left a trail of corpses on the way back, and soon a river appeared ahead.

Zhao Kuangyin's eyes became sharp, this is the only place where there may be variables.

He followed the group, gradually approaching the river, ready to respond at any moment. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, he had a feeling of uneasiness, and his right eyelid kept jumping.

At this moment, a rumbling sound sounded, and the sound even drowned out the sound of fighting on the battlefield.

Zhao Kuangyin reacted very quickly, and immediately looked at the source of the sound, only to see a strange black shadow flashing from the corner of his eye.

A mixture of soldiers' wails and horses' neighing sounded on his side.

When he turned his head to look over, not far away, a soldier fell to the ground and wailed, his entire thigh was gone!

Next to him was a horse with a palm-sized round bloody hole, and blood was constantly oozing from the wound.

Despite the countless battles he had experienced, Zhao Kuangyin gasped when he saw the strange wounds on the soldiers and horses.

The wails weren't just from one man and one horse!

Zhao Kuangyin's gaze continued to move back, and in a straight line behind the soldier who lost his thigh, it could be said that the man was on his back and turned over, full of injured people and horses.

It was as if they had all been bitten by wild beasts, and the wounds were unbearable to look at.

Zhao Kuangyin felt at a loss, what happened and where did the attack come from?

Wang Xianqi and Zhao Pu next to him were also stunned, the two looked in another direction, and the scene they saw was almost the same as Zhao Kuangyin, with the same severed arm and stump, wailing.

……

Time goes back a bit.

When Meng Xiao led the army to Chizhou, Xu Qian led his troops into Jinling to garrison, and he also ordered Fu Lei to lead his troops to stand by in Xuanzhou.

Since Xu Qian entered Jinling, he has been sending people to contact Meng Xiao's army in order to keep abreast of the latest situation ahead.

When he learned that Meng Xiao would fight a decisive battle with the Zhou army in Tongling, he thought about it for a long time and finally decided to lead the army in the direction of Tongling, and at the same time issued a military order to Xuanzhou.

Not only that, but when he left Jinling, he also brought three artillery squads with him.

Since Lu Yuan developed artillery, he specially trained a group of artillery to operate artillery.

For this reason, he wrote a guide to the use of artillery, and the requirements for becoming an artillery soldier are not high, as long as you can memorize all the content, you are qualified to become an artilleryman.

Artillery is listed as a high-level soldier, and it is easy to get credit without fighting on the front line, and it is the most popular choice of students after graduating from Bailu Academy and North District Academy.

Although ordinary soldiers are also qualified to transfer to artillery after meritorious service, in terms of endorsement ability, where can they compare with the students of the academy, so most of the first batch of artillery squads are students of Bailu Academy and North District Academy.

Each column of artillery was equipped with five artillerymen, one of whom was in command; One person was responsible for setting off the powder bag and the solid iron ball; One person is responsible for cleaning the debris inside the cannon; One person is responsible for adjusting the angle; One person is responsible for shooting.

Xu Qian took the three artillery squads to the shallow river and ordered them to prepare for artillery bombardment on the riverbank, and if the enemy pursued them, they would aim their artillery at the enemy's senior generals.

At that time, some artillerymen did not understand how to distinguish high-ranking generals, and Xu Qian replied like this.

"Listen, just look at the helmet, the gold helmet is the highest, followed by the silver helmet, the white helmet and the bronze helmet, as long as you can kill a gold helmet or silver helmet, you will have made a great achievement!"

After leaving behind the artillery squad and 500 infantry, Xu Qian led his troops across the river.

The artillerymen began to look for high ground to set up artillery.

These academy students, who were on the battlefield for the first time, were extremely greedy for life and afraid of death, and in order to prevent the opponent's bow and crossbow from firing, they also piled two rows of stones next to the artillery to use as cover.

When Cheng Zhiyuan, the captain of the first artillery squad, saw a large number of troops approaching this side, he suppressed the panic in his heart, developed his proud eyes to the extreme, and tried to find the golden helmet.

It turned out that he really found one.

The other two artillery squads soon spotted the Golden Helmet, and the Golden Helmet kept moving closer to the riverbank. They had been preparing for the bombardment for a long time, and as soon as the golden helmet entered the range of the shelling, he did not hesitate to light the fuse and shoot.

The huge amount of gas from the explosion of gunpowder pushed the solid iron ball out, and shot at the enemy with a loud whistling sound.

It's a pity that in the first round of shelling, the artillery squad missed one by one, and none of the shells hit the golden helmet.

The members of the artillery squad quickly began to prepare for the second shelling.

In the first artillery squad, one member of the team cleaned the chamber of the gun with a wooden pole wrapped in white cloth, and the other strongest team member stuffed the gunpowder bag and solid iron ball into the barrel. The angle was adjusted, and a skinny monkey-like player excitedly inserted the lead and ignited.

Boom –

This time, the first squad's guns were the first to fire, but unfortunately they hit a bronze helmet a few steps away from the golden helmet.

(PS: Thank you for the recent book friends!) ）