The advantage of the Shun army lies in the flexible and mobile horse army, and the horse and foot are separated, in order to amplify their own advantages; The advantage of the Zhao battalion is that it is a stable infantry army, and it collects its horses into the battle, in order not to let its own shortcomings be taken advantage of by the enemy. The core of the two sides' troop use is to focus on the four words of "exploiting their strengths and avoiding their weaknesses"; if the war situation continues to develop according to this situation, the number of victories and defeats is still unpredictable.

However, the battlefield is like a chess game, and there is no regret. The commander can have a flash of inspiration in the complicated situation, and he will inevitably be blinded by the situation and make wrong decisions because of a mistake.

Gao Yigong decisively withdrew from the Ma army and boldly outflanked the shrinking Zhao Ying array, which can be described as a model of courage and carefulness. Guo Ruke urgently dispatched the Jima army into the battle to dodge and used the reserves on both flanks to consolidate the flank, which was a calm response. Originally, according to expectations, the turning point of victory and defeat would depend on the effectiveness of the Shun Army's horse army's backattack on the Zhao Ying array, but after all, Guo Ruke had experienced a hundred battles, and while urgently arranging troops, he still did not forget to observe the overall situation, so as to find an opportunity to turn defeat into victory.

This opportunity can also be said to have been created by Guo Ruke.

Although the soldiers and horses of the Zhao battalion were able to rely on their well-trained training and strong will to deploy and defend the four sides and corners of the large array in a short period of time, the enemy attacking on the opposite side was at least twice as large as their own, and even if they could hold it for a while, they still could not win the initiative. The Shun army can attack and retreat and defend, and it can cut off the back road of the Zhao battalion's soldiers and horses and slowly wear it out. After a long time, it is really unknown whether your own soldiers and horses can hold on.

Guo Ruke is a seasoned commander who will not tolerate giving up the initiative on the battlefield. In his opinion, once Zhao Ying falls into a completely passive situation, failure is only a matter of time. He must use strategy to regain his own dominance.

At the end of the day, the strategy that can be thought of in a split second is simple. Guo Ruke's order to stop the offensive at the four outposts of the Qihun Battalion in front of the formation was a crucial step. Because he keenly found that the separated Shun army and horse soldiers were divided into two roads, and both roads were fought under the banner of high merit. It can be seen that almost all of the Shun army and the horse army obeyed Gao Yigong's command. This is something that the officers of the Zhao battalion know well, but at the moment when the momentum of the Shun army and horse army is overwhelming, their attention is focused on how to resist the Shun army and horse army, but few people can think of who is the commander of the thousands of Shun army infantry left in the front.

There is no doubt that there is only Yang Yanchang, the general of Dashun Guoyi. He is the supreme commander of Dashun in this battle, before Gao Yigong left with the horse army, Gao Yigong saw clearly the Chinese army behind the infantry formation of Gao Shun's army, even if Daxu is put away now, Guo Ruke can also judge that this is just Yang Yanchang's intention to hide people's eyes and ears, and his people must and can only stay in the infantry army formation - Gao Yigong can whip the horse, Yang Yanchang as the commander is uncertain, not to mention the horse army, the morale and will to fight of the infantry army will inevitably plummet, although the Shun army is confident that the horse is strong and the horse is fast, But he was not so arrogant as to abandon thousands of armored veterans without blinking an eye.

Guo Ruke never dragged his feet in doing things, passed down a few orders, and waited for the situation to change. As it turns out, a simple strategy doesn't mean it's ineffective. The battlefield is changing, opportunities are fleeting, and the time left for commanders to judge and make decisions is often only in an instant, and good commanders can use their accumulated experience and insight to choose the best with a high probability, but commanders who are still lacking in heat will inevitably make stupid moves because of panic.

It is true that Yang Yanchang is a long-established veteran, but at least at this moment, he was successfully introduced by Guo Ruke. Maybe it feels that the overall situation has been decided, and wants to cooperate with the Ma army to lay the victory; Perhaps they underestimated the combat effectiveness of the infantry of the Zhao battalion, believing that the ceasefire of the Zhao battalion was a manifestation of the lack of succession. In short, he seized the opportunity of the deliberate ceasefire of the four outposts of the Hun camp in front of the Zhao camp, and issued a military order to advance rapidly.

If he could be more calm, wait for his own horse army to attack the Zhao camp and loosen, and then wave his army to cover the front, maybe the result in exchange will achieve his reputation. It's a pity that there is no if on the battlefield, and Yang Yanchang, who pressed the infantry onto the Zhao Ying front in advance, quickly felt the strong hand-to-hand combat intensity of the Zhao Ying infantry. He listened to the Tang soldiers who reported that the pikemen of the Zhao battalion were not only amazingly powerful and well-armoured, but also shouted long and short sentences that they couldn't understand for a while when they were fighting. The infantry of the Shun army, who had expected to tear apart the front of the Zhao camp in one fell swoop, were defeated and retreated one after another, and blood flowed into a canal. What's even more deadly is that out of nowhere, countless Zhao Ying's horse army suddenly rushed out, all of them were loaded like iron cans, and they sacrificed themselves from the side to attack the Shun army infantry that had long been left and right, and fought together with Zhao Ying's infantry army.

The spears on the front pierced like electricity, and the sabers on the sides clashed like thunder. The sky suddenly converged like thunder and lightning, and before a single drop of rain fell, on the dreary and suffocating field, the Shunjun infantry array finally couldn't bear the huge pressure after the fierce battle, and suddenly exploded. The collapsing Shunjun infantry surged to one side like a wave. The Zhao Ying horse army, interspersed through the formation, was invincible like a tiger driving sheep.

"Don't let Yang Yanchang run away!" He Renji took the lead in shouting, and countless Zhao Ying's horse troops stepped on the smoke everywhere, echoing loudly.

The scattered and irrepressible Shun army infantry formation quickly collapsed, and He Renji led hundreds of horsemen to the Chinese army, only to see the Shun army Daxu who had fallen to the ground and had already been trampled into the dust, and Yang Yanchang was nowhere to be seen.

The sky was rumbling with thunder, and at the same time, the golden drums in the Zhao Ying Great Array were ringing in unison, and the Shun army and horse army were attacking from all directions.

"Hold on!"

Zhou Jin, the commander of the left-wing town camp, shouted hoarsely. The spear pierced into a forest, poking out from the gaps in the fence to resist the horse, the iron hooves of the Shun army's war horses, which had long been blindfolded, did not stop, and the knight saw the obstacles and defenses in front of him, and still did not hesitate to charge with a flat spear. For a time, sawdust splattered, flesh and blood flew together, scattered all over the grass, and most of the horses in the first row of Shunjun were pierced by sharp stakes or spear heads, and the horses let out a terrible roar, turning the knights upside down. But in an instant, the follow-up robes came one after another, rushing away their still warm corpses with a thudding sound, and rushing into the Zhao battalion spear formation.

"Hold on!"

Zhou Jin's eyes were bloodshot, his muscles were bursting up, and the clusters of Zhao Battalion spearmen in front of him had no time to pull back the spears that had been stabbed, and they were knocked away by the war horse and fell around. Listening to the deafening war drums, the spearmen in the back row, chanting slogans in their mouths, formed a denser formation and quickly filled the void.

The Shun army and the horse army came forward one after another like waves, clapping in bursts, intending to shake the Zhao Ying front. The guns were solid, and Zhao Ying's front was like a sandbag hit by a fist, even though it was a little inward, but as the depression deepened, the depression became more and more unbreakable.

"For Zhao Ying, for the lord!"

"For Zhao Ying, for the lord!"

The three rows of horses and horses of the army were attacked, and the follow-up was weak, leaving only the pile of corpses of men and horses on the edge of the battle array. Even though many robes were killed on the battlefield, the spearmen of the Zhao battalion who still insisted on it all looked resolute, shouted and rushed with guns under the command of the officers, and launched a counterattack against the Shun army and horse army who were hesitating in place.

At this moment, both sides of the Shun army's horse army, which had advanced too deeply, were all exposed to the fire of the scattered Zhao Ying's guns, and the Zhao Ying's bird guns had been gathering momentum for a long time, and hundreds of guns burst out of bullets mercilessly. It was only for a short while, but I saw stumps and broken arms flying all over the sky. The Shun army, which was in a dilemma, had no choice but to suffer casualties, and the price paid far exceeded the harvest obtained by the right person to rush and kill.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the follow-up army of the Shun army, which was not close to the future, whistled to close the queue and retreat to the periphery to regroup. Zhao Ying's artillery guns did not relent, and they fired wildly at their retreat, and the strength was even better than before, until the grass and trees within one or two hundred steps were blown away, leaving only a mess of scorched earth.

The situation in the front of the left flank can be regarded as a microcosm of the overall charge of the Shun army, and the huge Zhao battalion array cannot be exhaustive after all, but even if there are a few places where the Shun army and horse army gain momentum, they are quickly repelled by the Zhao battalion soldiers who rushed to reinforcements from other parts. This was a normal situation, conceited as a shun army, and there was no expectation that the Zhao camp of thousands of people would be scattered with just one charge. However, at this moment, the Shun army, which had only gathered on the periphery one after another, did not have time to organize the charge again, and learned the bad news that the infantry had been defeated and Yang Yanchang's whereabouts were unknown.

The lover died, and through a full charge, Gao Yigong already felt that the fighting will and skills and tactics of the soldiers of the Zhao Battalion were far from being comparable to the opponents of the past, and he was secretly surprised. Now that Yang Yanchang's own formation has fallen, the morale of the Zhao Ying horse army who has reappeared outside the battle is like a rainbow, and the next step will definitely start to entangle and contain the Shun army and the horse army, and cooperate with the infantry army to fight.

Having lost the cover of the frontal infantry and the inevitability of a complete victory, Gao Yigong understood that he was powerless in today's battle. So not long after, the banner of Gao Yigong, which had been tightly enclosed, was erected and unfurled again, away from the battlefield. Seeing the movement of this flag, the nearby Ma army squad also erected the trumpet flag one after another to convey the news of the withdrawal to each other.

The Zhao camp was as motionless as a mountain, and the guns continued to pursue, only allowing He Renji's horse army to pursue slightly. Slowly, the field became quiet, the surroundings blurred, and the light between heaven and earth was gradually receding.

"It's over." On the small mound where the formation was located, Guo Ruke, who had been standing and watching, raised his stiff legs, breathed a long sigh of relief, and threw the token in his hand to the side of the chair as he walked.

In the darkness, Gu Junming was stunned and said, "Break in, break thief retreat, retreat?" ”

"Retreated." Kong Quanbin, who was sitting opposite him, nodded along the spittle, and when he saw Guo Ruke turn around and walk towards him, he couldn't help but praise him, "The general manager is like a god with soldiers, and he is a thief with inferior forces, which is really a great victory that I have not won in the Ming Dynasty for several years!" ”

With only 7,000 infantry, the Shun army with nearly 20,000 and more than 10,000 horse troops was repelled in battle, Guo Ruke's record is not to mention in the Zhao camp, but also second to none in the Ming army in the entire Central Plains in recent years. Kong Quanbin knew very well that the victory in this battle would greatly boost the confidence and morale of Zhao Ying and even other Ming troops. Thinking of this, I can't help but admire Guo Ruke's psychological quality and ability to adapt to changes even more.

Guo Ruke smiled, did not respond, but looked up at the sky and said: "Twilight is coming, the thieves are defeated, and they flee to the northwest, and Yexian is empty and can be flicked at your fingertips." The order goes down, everyone will work harder, and strive to go north to take the county seat of Yexian County before nightfall, live in a tile house tonight, and eat a big pot of steamed rice! ”

Kong Quanbin did not hesitate any longer, and said solemnly: "Yes!" ”

As Guo Ruke expected, the defeated Shun army abandoned Yexian because of Gao Yigong's control, and directly retreated to the territory of Ruzhou, which was guarded by Gao Yigong. The night was dark, and there was a light rain, which was originally not conducive to Zhao Ying's siege. However, Guo Ruke made a fool of himself and dispatched several No. 2 Hongyi cannons to be set up every fifty paces, and fired them one after another. Although the target was not calibrated, it was just a random shot in the black light, but the sparse defenders in the city thought that the Zhao camp had launched an offensive in multiple directions.

If the soldiers and horses of the Zhao battalion only storm one or two places, and the defenders gather to defend in a targeted manner, it will rain in the dark night, and the soldiers and horses of the Zhao battalion may not be able to enter the city as they wish tonight. Guo Ruke bluffed and pretended to launch a large-scale siege, and the defenders thought that it was difficult to take care of all of their own troops, and their morale plummeted and left without a fight. Therefore, the soldiers and horses of the Zhao battalion were able to successfully seize the county seat without spending a single soldier under the unfavorable weather and location.

There was a torrential rain that night, and it was hard to imagine that if they could not enter the city in time, the Zhao Ying army, which was still marching in the field, would definitely be severely damaged. Gu Junming was also greatly convinced of Guo Ruke's wisdom, as the counselor and supervisor of the Qihun camp, he played his own duty, and took advantage of Guo Ruke's original title of "Guo Hutou" as the head, and took advantage of the Xingxing to compile "There is a tiger in northern Chu, breaking the enemy and pulling out the city and pulling out the drum three drums", in order to establish Guo Ruke's brave image of continuously attacking the city and winning the field battle within one day. Spread the encouragement of soldiers in the army, and spread the shock and deterrence of the enemy outside the army.

Guo Ruke laughed at this, and the next day when the rain stopped, he sent people to gallop to the south and asked Hou Dagui to bring his troops to meet quickly. At the same time, sentinels were dispatched from afar to reconnoiter the situation in Ruzhou.

The army was rectified in the county seat for two days, and Hou Dagui in the south had already marched to Nanyang Fucheng, and learned that Ruzhou Gao Yigong had returned to Ruzhou, and Yang Yanchang, who was also defeated here, divided troops to garrison Jiaxian and Baofeng County. Guo Ruke was waiting for Hou Daguijun to arrive and plot against Ruzhou again, who wanted a secret letter from the north, which couldn't help but make his mind come alive.