Zhu Hao has been occupying Fang County for five days, and he is busy cleaning up the affairs of the city and eliminating the influence of the peasant army, when suddenly a sentry came to report, saying that a large group of thieves had been found not far outside the city.

Putting down the official business in his hand, Zhu Hao came to the city, and through the binoculars, he saw a large group of peasant troops in the distance who were rapidly approaching, and one of the leading generals was outstanding, it was Li Dingguo!

This time, Li Dingguo heard through the spies in ambush in the city that the new army stationed in the county seat only had a regiment of more than 2,000 troops, which was not much, and he planned to make a surprise attack, so he led the main force of 5,000 to suddenly kill from the nearby mountains, wanting to take advantage of the fact that the surrounding new army had not returned to conquer the county seat, even if he could not go down with a drum, he could put pressure on Zhu Hao.

Li Dingguo's abacus was very good, and his tactics were also very clever, but it was a pity that what he encountered was not an ordinary Ming army, but a new army equipped with firearms, and he was doomed to return in vain.

Zhu Hao left all the artillery battalions in Fang County in the city this time, there were 60 guns, and there were so many artillery guards in the small county town, not to mention only 5,000 people, even 50,000 people would not want to attack the city.

Seeing that the peasant army outside the city was busy arraying and preparing to attack the wooden ladder, Zhu Hao said to the generals beside him: "What do you think of this peasant army? ”

"The array is neat, the discipline is strict, the morale is high, and it is indeed a team that should not be underestimated." Xu Guochong praised.

"Yes, Li Dingguo is not only good at fighting, but also very good at leading troops." Zhang Huangyan also sincerely appreciated the enemy.

"It's really not easy to train these farmers like this, even if Ben Shuai is difficult to do better under the same conditions, since this Li Dingguo has thrown himself into the net, then I am bound to win." Zhu Hao also sighed.

Just when everyone was talking, there was a sudden whining horn sound in the rebel army on the opposite side, and the rebel army began to attack the city!

The scale of the county seat of Fangxian County is not large, and it seems a little crowded to attack a city wall with 5,000 people at the same time, but under the command of Li Dingguo, although it is not crowded, the peasant army began to concentrate a large number of troops to storm a little, trying to break through a gap, which is exactly what Zhu Hao wanted.

"Order the first squadron of the artillery battalion to prepare to fire, and give Li Dingguo a dismount first!" Zhu Hao gave the order.

"Four hundred meters away, No. 1 field artillery, fire!"

A huge explosion sounded, and a squadron with a scale of twenty artillery pieces, twenty iron bullets with a sharp sound of breaking the air drilled into the peasant army's charging formation, instantly setting off a bloody storm!

The first round of shelling took the lives of hundreds of people, and the rest of the peasant army was also a little panicked to varying degrees, but there was no chaos, and Li Dingguo did not expect the artillery fire of the Ming army to be so fierce, and he couldn't help but regret it a little, but after all, he had the talent of a famous general, and after being shocked by the time, he immediately waved the order flag to change formation.

The peasant army, which had retreated a little later, immediately changed its formation of dense charges that broke through a little bit, and changed to a short horizontal depth and launched an all-out attack on the vast city wall.

Seeing that the peasant army under the city reacted quickly and had strong combat qualities, Zhu Hao secretly sighed that this Li Dingguo was really good at leading troops!

"Field Gun No. 2 is attacking at a distance, waiting for the enemy to come into musket range."

The remaining forty guns were pushed out and the shelling continued, this time for a longer period of time, firing six rounds until the peasant army came into musket range.

Although the effect of the artillery bombardment was average, the continuous shelling only annihilated less than 1,000 peasant troops, but it also made Li Dingguo angry, these 5,000 troops are the descendants of the troops they rely on to fight, and they spent countless efforts to build, even in the entire Zhang Xianzhong sequence, it is also the strongest combat effectiveness, and now he has lost more than 1,000 people at once, but he has not yet attacked the city, how can he not be heartbroken.

"The artillery of the Ming army has lost its best opportunity, and the brothers can break through the city and catch the enemy generals by rushing over!" Li Dingguo, who has a lot of experience, saw that the artillery of the new army was useless, and immediately ordered.

The whining horn sounded rapidly, and the peasant army threatened by the de-armed artillery was greatly demoralized, and they all ran towards the city wall that seemed to be touched.

Although Li Dingguo is powerful, but after all, he is not a god, he made a fatal mistake, after getting rid of the threat of artillery, he did not decisively change the formation, concentrated on attacking a little, but still used a word formation, which was in Zhu Hao's arms, originally the infantry of the new army was a horizontal gun formation, with a horizontal cold weapon formation against a new horizontal army formation full of new muskets, the result can be imagined.

Zhu Hao was not afraid of Li Dingguo, so he had already lined up his troops along the city wall, Li Dingguo didn't notice this, but what he didn't expect was the power of the new army musket team!

"Within a hundred and fifty meters, the musketeers fired." Xu Guochong on the side immediately gave an order.

"Wait a minute, wait for the enemy to enter within 100 meters before firing, this is not a field battle, there are city walls, what are you afraid of!" Zhu Hao stopped.

Xu Guochong suddenly realized that defending the city is not a field battle, the closer the enemy is to shoot, the better the shooting effect, anyway, there is a city wall separating it, just shoot.

"A hundred meters away, fire!"

There was a crackling, the gunfire was loud, and the peasant army that rushed to the front suddenly fell a large piece, and the first round of shooting was surprisingly good, and the peasant army suffered seven or eight out of ten casualties at once!

Before Li Dingguo could react, there were several rounds of platoons, and five or six platoons of peasant troops in a row were almost annihilated by the entire platoon. It's a one-sided massacre!

All battles have inertia, and mediocre generals who lack the ability to adapt are likely to make more stupid decisions in unfavorable situations and lead to the destruction of the entire team, while good generals can adapt to improvisation, react quickly, and reduce losses.

Li Dingguo, who was obviously the commander of the latter type, immediately came to his senses and ordered the whole army to disrupt the formation and retreat.

Rao was ordered by Li Dingguo in a timely manner, but there was still a distance of 50 meters between 100 and 150 meters, which was still enough for two or three rounds of musket fire, until the peasant army withdrew from the range of the new army, and lost several hundred more men.

Xu Guochong and Zhang Huangyan looked at Zhu Hao's sinister smile on the side, and secretly sighed that this handsome man is really exhaustive! Li Dingguo is really unlucky!

The peasant army that withdrew from the battle still had lingering palpitations, and although Li Dingguo's military discipline was serious, he would have a sense of powerlessness and fear in the face of a one-sided massacre.

Li Dingguo counted the casualties, and lost nearly half of the two sieges, and now there are only 26,700 soldiers left who can fight! The huge losses made him not only gasp, he didn't dare to despise the new army, but he didn't expect that he still didn't pay enough attention to it!

Li Dingguo glanced at the more than 400 musketeers behind him, and hesitated whether to send them on the field, using muskets against muskets may be the best solution, but how to pass the distance of these hundreds of meters of artillery fire?

"Is the leader in front of Li Dingguo? My handsome family has something to say, can I have an interview? Just as Li Dingguo hesitated, a shouting voice suddenly came out of the opposite city wall, and the distance was too far to be heard clearly.

Immediately, a soldier with good ears came to report, saying that the other party's commander-in-chief had invited the major general for an interview.

"Oh? What does this Zhu Hao want to do? Li Dingguo was puzzled, and there was a shouting voice from the other side, roughly asking him if he dared to come forward to talk.

At this time, someone came to report, saying that the city gate was wide open, and the other party would come out with a guard, and did not see other enemy soldiers, Li Dingguo was also a man of extraordinary courage, not to be outdone, and also took an entourage to shoot the horse, and the two sides stood at a distance of less than 100 meters.

Zhu Hao looked at Li Dingguo and liked it more and more, this person not only looks like a famous general, but what is even more rare is that there is an awe-inspiring righteousness on his body, which means that this person has a public heart.

Li Dingguo was also looking at Zhu Hao, this person was not very tall and burly, but he was a little handsome, a standard scholar, but the smile on the corner of his mouth gave people the feeling of a spring breeze, and at the same time, there was a faint domineering spirit on his body, as well as a heart-wrenching bearing.

He was not a few years older than himself, but he had defeated the rebels several times in a row, and he had never heard of this person before, and Li Dingguo also respected such an opponent.

"I don't know what Zhu Dashuai has to say when he comes to me?" Li Dingguo retracted his gaze and said.

"Brother Hongyuan, how are you doing? This handsome idiot is a few years older, so he considers himself a brother. Zhu Hao smiled.

What's going on with this person, it's not a foreign thing at all, Li Dingguo thought to himself, but it's inconvenient to be angry, it seems that we are not literate.

"I'm ashamed, Zhu Dashuai and I belong to different camps, I don't know what advice I was called here today."

"Hongyuan, although you and I have not met, we have been fascinated by you for a long time as a brother, with your brother's talent, why are you willing to serve the thief?" Zhu Hao didn't pay attention to the other party's attitude.

"Hmph, since the incident of my righteous army, hanging the people and cutting down the crime, in order to overthrow the corrupt court and save the people from fire and water, I think Zhu Dashuai is quite talented, such as repenting and joining the righteous army, Dingguo will definitely recommend the marshal in front of the king of my family!" Li Dingguo ridiculed him.

"Hehe, Hongyuan is so sharp, alas, what you said is not that you can't consider it." Zhu Hao smiled. Seeing that Li Dingguo was stunned, he continued: "But Zhang Xianzhong is an oldest, just a dirt bun, I can't look down on it, it's still you who value your brother." ”

"The eight kings are heroic, have the ability to help the world and help the needy, and the country can be described as a drop in the ocean compared to it, please don't talk about it." Li Dingguo said solemnly.

"I'm just telling the truth, Zhang Xianzhong is jealous of meritocracy, short-sighted, brutal, not a big thing at all, Sun Kewang has a small belly and chicken intestines, and he is mediocre! I know that Hongyuan's brother is above these two people regardless of his talent and morality, and An can be willing to live under others for a long time? If you assist the court with the great talent of the king, you will have a great merit! Zhu Hao began to flicker again.

"Shut up! I respect you for a point, but you are so rude and slander the king of my family, please go back! Li Dingguo said a little annoyed.

Zhu Hao was secretly funny, why couldn't Li Dingguo see through this clumsy counter-plot? This man's political IQ is really bad.

"Hongyuan, don't worry, let me ask you, why did you join the rebel army?" Zhu Hao is colorful.

"To save the peoples, of course."

"How to save the people, just by you fighting, killing, and scurrying back and forth?"

"This ......" Li Dingguo scratched his head, a little dazed.

"I will tell you, to save the people, first of all, to give the people a stable life, so that the people will no longer live in war. If it is said that the war will be stopped by war, then in all fairness, can Zhang Xianzhong and Sun Kewang's virtue be better than you? Not necessarily, right? You are a smart person, what you have done since Zhang Xianzhong's uprising is like saving the people from fire and water? ”

"This ......," Li Dingguo's face turned red but he was speechless. Zhu Hao said that it was indeed the truth, with his understanding of his father-in-law, he had no ambition at all, although he rebelled against the imperial court, it was actually just for pleasure, not to save Li Min, he had argued with him about this matter, but he was disgusted.

"Hongyuan, didn't you think that our army would have artillery when you came to attack the county seat in advance? Why sacrifice your own men? To tell the truth, the peripheral troops of our new army have already returned to help, the infantry of the second regiment will arrive in half an hour, and the cavalry is still more than ten miles away, and it will be too late if you don't leave, but if the elder brother still wants to make a desperate attempt to attack the county seat, he will give up his life to accompany the gentleman for his brother. Zhu Hao said with a smile.

Li Dingguo, who was thinking about it, was suddenly startled when he heard this, looked up and saw that Zhu Hao had already patted his horse back, and secretly shouted that it was not good, if the new army returned to help, he would die and have no place to be buried, so he hurriedly ordered a retreat.

Hula was in a hurry, and the remaining peasant army withdrew in an instant, leaving only corpses all over the ground.