The news flew into Beijing, Chongzhen was furious, and directly kicked over the table, he knew very well that the treasury at this time could not make ends meet, it was already very difficult, Yangzhou is an important tax place for the country, and this place was taken away, and the Ming Dynasty would no longer have the national strength to pay for the only military expenses. [No pop-ups. Moreover, Yangzhou is very close to Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou, once Fan Ju hits there, the entire Jiangnan will shake, and there will be no more peaceful land in the world.

Therefore, Chongzhen urgently ordered the provinces south of the Yangtze River to be on strict alert, and the important towns along the Yangtze River were strong and mobilized troops to prevent the peasant army from attacking. At the same time, he ordered the governor of Shandong, Su Dai, to send troops quickly, and to unify the soldiers and horses of Nanzhili, and immediately recapture Yangzhou.

The area around Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty was also directly under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, so it was called Nanzhili. There is no governor. Therefore, Shandong, which is the closest to it, will send troops to relieve the siege.

Chongzhen knew that the men and horses in the south had not fought for a long time, and their combat effectiveness was already very poor, but Shandong was not, and for many years it had been transporting grain and grass for Jinzhou, Ningyuan and other places, and the source of soldiers had to be prevented from attacking by pirates in the territory, so the soldiers were still strictly trained.

Su Dai received the holy decree and did not dare to slack off, so he hurriedly mobilized heavy troops and hurried to Xuzhou, where he would go straight to Yangzhou with the men and horses.

This strategy of the official army has been expected by Fan Ju, he knows very well that if he leads people to occupy Yangzhou, the court will be furious, and then he will inevitably send heavy troops to encircle and suppress. Therefore, Fan Ju ordered that after collecting enough money, cloth, grain and grass in the city, he left Yangzhou and led the whole army to meet the Su Dynasty.

Fan Ju had already discussed with the generals of the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo, and took advantage of the high morale at this time to defeat the men and horses led by Su Dai in one go, and then took the opportunity to advance into Shandong.

In fact, Fan Ju's eyes were set on Shandong very early.

He was a native of Wei during the Warring States Period, and after the Qin, he put forward the strategy of "distant friendship and close attack", and finally made the Qin State step by step, and finally unified the world, at that time, the Qin State was at war with a number of bordering countries, but not to offend the Qi State, on the one hand, because the Qi State and the Qin State did not border, and on the other hand, the Qi State was also a big country, and there were many talents, so it was not appropriate to turn the face.

Fan Ju knows very well that the State of Qi has the benefits of the Salt Sea, the land in the territory is fertile, the people are strong, and the earliest Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons are the Duke of Qi Huan. Therefore, Fan Ju attaches great importance to Qi State. After his resurrection, he was no exception, and his wishful thinking was to establish another country in Shandong, so that he would not border the Qin people in Guanzhong, and he would be much more relieved.

Therefore, at this time, when he heard that Su Dai was leading the troops, he was very happy, thinking that the opportunity had finally come, and Su Dai was urgent because of the holy decree, and he must have traveled under the stars and nights, and the men and horses must be very tired of running, and he could wait for his work and finish his work in one battle.

As long as the men and horses of Shandong are defeated and they advance into the territory of Shandong, the momentum will be like a bamboo, and the occupation of the entire territory of Shandong is just around the corner.

He told everyone about this plan, and Lao Huihui and the others were also very excited, they didn't have a specific strategy, they always looked at the opportunity, and they would fight wherever they were empty, and they couldn't think of establishing a base at all, so after listening to Fan Ju's words, they all agreed in unison.

On the one hand, Fan Ju sent a horse to investigate the military situation of Su Dai, and on the other hand, he divided the men and horses into two roads, he and Lao Huihui, Ge Liyan all the way, Ziyi and He Jin and others all the way, forming a big iron tong form, outflanking the officials and soldiers.

However, it was said that Su Dai led 50,000 horses, rushed to Xuzhou day and night, and met the reinforcements there, with a total of nearly 100,000 horses, because the holy decree made it clear that Su Dai could command the whole army, so he became the commander of these 100,000 horses.

Su Daijiu was in Shandong, and he didn't know much about the peasant army, because the peasant army had never reached Shandong, so he thought that the peasant army was just a group of rabble, and with the elite division of his subordinates, he defeated the 5th battalion of Gezuo. Therefore, he was arrogant and abnormal, let his men and horses be the front, and approached the Yangzhou boundary with murderous spirit.

The two sides encountered each other in the territory of Xuyi, and after their respective horses were reported, they began to set up camp and prepare to fight. The next day, Fan Ju took Ziyi as the vanguard, led 10,000 iron cavalry, 20,000 infantry, frontal assault, Lao Huihui for the left army, He Yilong for the right army, a total of 100,000 people in the three-way army, and the front assault was selected elite soldiers, experienced in a hundred battles, and was extremely brave.

The official army also discharged the formation, and Su Dai himself led the central army, so that his left deputy general Chai Lin was on the left, and the right deputy general Xiao Huang was on the right, also 100,000 horses.

Su Dai made up his mind to succeed in the first battle today, because his men and horses came all the way, the logistics were poor, and the food and grass were insufficient, so it was advantageous to fight quickly, and Fan Ju's whole army rushed up, which was exactly what he wanted.

There was no superfluous scene, after the two sides finished arraying, Ziyi took the lead in launching a surprise attack, he let all the 10,000 iron cavalry go into battle, this is also the most elite men and horses of the fifth battalion of the left of the revolution, people wear iron armor, the horses are also covered with armor leaves, each cavalry has an iron gun in his hand, such equipment, even the Guanning iron cavalry is not easy to win.

Ziyi gave an order, and 10,000 iron horsemen began to charge. At first, they lined up in a neat formation, like an iron mountain, pressing against the officers and soldiers, and then after rushing over a certain distance, the horses began to exert their strength, and the line gradually dispersed, and finally turned into stragglers all over the mountains, rushing over like a flash flood.

Su Dai ordered the arrows to be released, and the arrows in the official army were fired in unison, shooting into the peasant army, but there was not much lethality, and the iron armor of the 10,000 iron horsemen blocked most of the arrows, and there were not many people who fell off their horses.

When the peasant army was about to pounce in front of him, Su Dai withdrew his archers and bombarded them with fire guns again, wounding some of the peasant cavalry again, and then he ordered the official cavalry in the formation to meet him and start a melee with the peasant army, so as not to let the other party rush up and disrupt his own camp.

The cavalry of both sides charged each other and fought in a group, while the infantry bypassed the cavalry and exchanged hands on the other flank. In addition to Ziyi's side, Lao Hui and Ge Liyan also took over with the official army, and 200,000 people stirred up a piece in a vast field, and the place within a radius of ten miles was full of places of death fighting.

This was also the largest battle since the establishment of the Fifth Battalion of the Revolutionary Left.

Fan Ju and Ziyi stood on a high slope with a hundred personal guards standing around them, shielded from cold arrows.

Ziyi looked at the situation in the battlefield and frowned slightly: "This officer army has good combat effectiveness, it is a long way to go, I thought they must be exhausted, but I didn't expect to be so brave, it seems that the people in the Qi country are really aggressive." ”

Fan Ju nodded and smiled: "This is also the reason why we are going to Qi Country to gain a foothold." ”

Ziyi said: "I see that although there are many people in the fifth battalion of the left of the revolution, it is not easy to quickly solve this army, do you want me to rush the Chinese army and kill or shoot Su Dai away,"

Fan Ju shook his head lightly: "No need at this time, wait a while." I don't think the casualties of the 5th Battalion of the Left Wing are still large, and the officers and soldiers are not tired. ”

Ziyi was stunned: "Sir, what you say ......"

Fan Ju looked left and right, they were all his henchmen, and then he said in a low voice: "The power of the Fifth Battalion of the Revolution is too great, although these leaders are convinced of us, but whether their subordinates will sincerely obey our orders is still uncertain, take this opportunity to let them die more, it will be beneficial to you and me, understand?"

Ziyi suddenly realized, and raised his finger: "I said that Mr. has never advocated hard fighting, how can it be abnormal this time, it turns out to be so, and I have a high opinion." ”

Fan Ju smiled: "Wait for them to fight for a while, as long as the officers and soldiers are tired, you will lead our people to rush forward, as long as you crush the Chinese army of the officers and soldiers, we will win." ”

Ziyi said: "Is Mr. very sure?"

Fan Ju said: "One of the officers and soldiers came from afar, the second was few people, and the third did not know much about the peasant army. With these three mistakes, it is bound to fail. The officers and troops of Shandong had never fought with the peasant army, so they would only think that the peasant army was a rabble and vulnerable to attack, and they knew that I had defeated the fifth battalion of the left with tens of thousands of people, so they would not look at them in their eyes, so Su Dai would definitely underestimate the enemy, judging from the route and momentum of his march, it was exactly the case. ”

Ziyi nodded, thinking that Fan Ju was right.

At this time, the official army and the peasant army were fighting inextricably, and Su Dai was also immediately on a high place, looking at the vast battlefield under his feet, his brows furrowed more and more.

He had discovered that this peasant army was not as fragile as he had imagined. At the beginning, the battle showed a stalemate, although their own men and horses were brave, but against these people, they could not gain the upper hand, and the two sides killed an evenly matched opponent for a while.

But Su Dai understood that there were many more men and horses in the 5th Battalion of the Revolution than him, and once he could not crush them at the beginning, the more he fought to the back, the more his own people would suffer.

So he ordered the drummers to start blowing the trumpets and sent out his main force.

As soon as the trumpet sounded, I saw that the officers and soldiers began to retreat one after another, and the people behind immediately stabilized the line, using iron shields and spears to form a long column of iron walls, and their own people retreated and put them in, and if the peasant army caught up, they would block them to death, and assassinate them in front of the battle with spears.

Ziyi and Fan Ju saw that the official army front was shrinking, and they didn't know what Su Dai was going to do, Ziyi had an ominous feeling, he immediately gave an order, the offensive was slightly reduced, and the whole army did not pounce, but only sent a small group of men and horses to rush forward from time to time.

The trumpets in the official and military formations suddenly stopped, and then I saw that the iron shield in front of the formation suddenly cracked, and a black hole was revealed between every two iron shields.

It turns out that this is the secret weapon of the official army, the sub-mother cannon.

Shandong is a coastal defense area, so there are a lot of warships, each warship naturally has cannons, the artillery of the Ming Dynasty is still relatively powerful, but it is not as good as foreign artillery, and later bought some cannons in the Netherlands, called Hongyi cannons, these cannons have a large caliber, can be used to defend the city, and the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty on the basis of this technology, the muzzle of the cannon was changed to small, and made a small-caliber Hongyi cannon, Shandong people called it a small general cannon.

...