The prison army Kong Deyao has already seen the blood boiling, this year he has been in Beijing, and all he has heard is that the official army is defeated today and defeated tomorrow, how could he have thought that not long after he followed Liu Xi's life out of Beijing, he would be able to suppress the thieves on the frontal battlefield.

Therefore, when he heard Liu Ximing's order, Kong Deyao suddenly jumped a little anxiously.

"Elder Ge, you can't retreat, you can't retreat, the thieves are already weak, this is a great opportunity for our army to be annihilated in one fell swoop, how can we withdraw our troops?"

Liu Ximing frowned and glanced at Kong Deyao, and directly reprimanded loudly:

"I am the commander, before the battle, my military order shall prevail, there are more than 100,000 Liukou, even if it is more than 100,000 pigs, it will take a long time to kill, where is it so easy to annihilate, it is really a scholar's opinion."

Kong Deyao's face was red when he was immediately reprimanded, and he had to resign himself to reply: "What the elder reprimanded is that his subordinates are rude. ”

"Woo~~Woo"

In Liu Xi's military camp, the guards immediately blew the horn, and the offensive momentum of the official army also slowed down.

Luo Rucai wanted to retreat, and Liu Ximing didn't want to be entangled, but the two armies were so easily separated after a big battle, and the two sides were entangled for more than half an hour before they were truly separated.

At this time, it is almost unitary time.

Fortunately, the officers and soldiers had the upper hand at this time because of cavalry and firearms, so when the two armies really separated, the rogues suffered another big loss.

The musketeers who rotated up from the rear caught the panicked Liukou Chinese army and fired another blast, directly reimbursing thousands of people.

It wasn't until Luo Rucai led the whole army to retreat and camp for self-defense, and after a careful count, he found that the original army of 150,000 rogues had only more than 120,000 people left at this time, and Luo Rucai, who was angry, was furious.

On this battlefield in the southwest of Ningling County, calm gradually returned to the two armies after a day of fighting.

The officers and soldiers and the rogues tacitly retreated two miles back and set up camp respectively, and at the same time arranged for manpower to clean up the wounded and corpses on the battlefield.

A bright moon gradually rose into the sky, and the bright moonlight sprinkled on the battlefield, bringing a glimmer of hope to those who were still struggling to survive in the pile of the dead.

Liu Ximing did not stay in the big tent at this time, but came to a hillside outside the camp to look down on the entire battlefield, and Li Biao and other personal guards accompanied him.

"Second brother, the battlefield is counted."

Zheng Jingcai and Zhou Yuji were the last to enter the battle, and of course they were to complete the work of cleaning up the battlefield, and as soon as the cleanup was completed, he immediately rushed to report it.

"What are the casualties of our army? What about the rogues? ”

Liu Ximing put down the telescope in his hand, and his cold face showed a trace of regret.

Zheng Jingcai sighed and replied: "Our army has suffered more than 7,000 casualties, and the rogue has suffered at least 20,000 casualties. ”

"Liukou is really different from before", Liu Ximing said slowly.

He still remembered that when he fought against Zhang Xianzhong and others, even if Liu Jiajun's weapons were not as advanced as they are now, the battle damage ratio was much better than now.

Zheng Jingcai was also a little depressed and said: "Liukou has now recruited a large number of officers and soldiers mixed in, both the will to fight and the ability to fight are much stronger than before, we are not bad, when Ding Qirui was there before, the officials and soldiers could only have a draw with Liukou." ”

There were many officers in the guard battalion who were proficient in the art of war, and they all had some worries on their faces when they heard Zheng Jingcai's words.

Because it was a night observation, Liu Ximing and his entourage did not light torches, but in the clear moonlight, Liu Ximing still saw everyone's expressions clearly.

He laughed and said, "What, are you afraid?" The more the rogues fight, the stronger they get, and the more they outnumber, it's time for us to worry. ”

"I'm afraid of him with a hammer", Li Biao still answered with a big grin, "Today we mainly rely on cavalry to fight, although Cao Dudu and Lao Shao are brave, but compared with our family's firepower advantage after all, it is still a little worse, really a string of artillery, muskets are swinging, and none of these thieves can escape." ”

"Hahaha"

Li Biaogeng's straightforward words made everyone in the Liu family on the hillside laugh, but after everyone laughed, they thought about it, it was really like this.

Liu Ximing also looked at Li Biao with appreciation, "Li Biao is right, just right, since there is such an opportunity, then let's give Luo Rucai another big gift." ”

"Second brother, are you planning a night attack?" , Zheng Jingcai asked in surprise, and then clapped his hands with joy and smiled: "Good idea, Liukou is panicking right now, just to break it in one fell swoop, second brother, this time I applied to be a pioneer." ”

"That's what you said."

Liu Ximing immediately smiled and nodded in agreement, "But the protagonist of tonight is not you, Li Biao just said, if the artillery and muskets are lined up, and the custody is called a rogue and no one is left, then let's try it." ”

Only then did Li Biao, Zheng Jingcai and others realize that Liu Ximing's intention to come out at night to observe the terrain was originally to find a suitable position for their own artillery positions.

At this moment, the interest of a group of people was all raised.

As the night gradually became darker, the official army camp was the first to fall silent, and Luo Rucai, who had been sending people to keep an eye on the movements of the official army, gradually put his heart back in his stomach, and after arranging enough troops to defend, he returned to the camp and hugged his little ladies and slept with their clothes.

However, what the rogues failed to notice was that after the ugly hour in the second half of the night, the official camp quietly began to get busy again.

Under the cover of darkness, a group of sergeants quietly moved to the hillside on the left side of the camp with nearly two hundred artillery pieces in tow.

The officers and troops under the command of Shao Derong and Zheng Jingcai were actually the divisions of the Liu family, and according to the standard configuration of the Liu family, each division should be composed of two infantry brigades and one artillery brigade.

6,000 men per brigade, plus other units directly under the division, a total of about 20,000 people.

Among them, the artillery brigade is equipped with 100 2-inch guns, 48 3-inch guns, and 32 4-inch guns.

It's just that because most of Shao Derong's troops are cavalry, the 102nd Division carries less artillery, only half of the 104th Division.

In today's daytime battle, because of the haste to face the enemy, in order to cover his own cavalry, Liu Ximing did not have time to use artillery, but now it is different.

Unable to use torches for lighting, a contingent of several thousand men spent an hour or so on the hillside to the left of the camp before all the artillery was properly arranged.

Just after 3 o'clock in the morning, Li Biao, who was in charge of night duty, looked at the pocket watch in his hand and called Liu Ximing on time.

When Chongzhen was seven years old, Liu Ximing asked for a table clock from the Italian missionary Richard, and after so many years, under the guidance of Liu Ximing, Liu's workshop had already made pocket watches.

However, the pocket watch at this time cannot be compared with later generations in terms of exquisiteness, but it is enough for the current Liu family.

In order to facilitate calculation, and in order to adapt to the requirements of the industrial society for the refinement of time in the future, Liu Ximing has ordered that the twelve hours be divided into twenty-four hours.

By the time Liu Ximing walked out of the big tent, Cao Bianjiao, Shao Derong and others were already eager to try.

Cao Bianjiao and the others began to rest as soon as the battle ended, and this was the time when they were full of energy.

Liu Ximing smiled at everyone silently, turned over and rode on his horse to look at the Liukou camp in the distance.

At 3:15, Huang Deyi, the commander of the 104th Division, who was in charge of commanding the artillery, honed the short gun in his hand on time.

"Boom", "Boom", "Boom"

Huang Deyi's gunshot sounded like a talisman, which directly opened the prelude to the artillery bombardment of the official army.

Two hundred and seventy guns of all kinds roared one after another, and one after another pointed or flowering shells erupted from the fiery muzzles, flying towards the firing range that had been demarcated by the artillery position.

"Boom", "Boom", the roaring shells exploded directly over the camp of the Liukou, and the screams, explosions, and cries instantly woke up the entire camp of the Liukou.

There are more than 100,000 people in Luo Rucai's department, and they have gathered together for several miles.

The artillery of the officers and soldiers did not have to worry about missing at all, as long as the direction and angle of fire were correct, they would definitely hit a certain position in the camp of the rogues.

After three rounds of shelling, the entire camp was already full of flames and people.

Luo Rucai was awakened from a sweet dream, and his hands reluctantly pinched the beauty beside him, and he suddenly woke up.

At this time, a flowering bullet exploded in the open space near his big tent, and the screaming fragments tore the upper part of the big tent in half with a loud bang, and the entire big tent collapsed in all directions, startling all the women in Luo Rucai's tent to scream again and again.