In the autumn and winter of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, the war situation in Sichuan changed so fast that it was faster than the change of face in the Sichuan opera, whether it was the Ming army or the peasant army, they were constantly going back and forth between victory, defeat, victory, and defeat, so that the Titang officials stationed in the capital who were responsible for transmitting various documents and official documents to the six ministries and the cabinet did not know whether they should report victory or failure, whether they should ask for merit or reinforcements, and ask for food and salary.

First of all, Zhang Xianzhong shot Zhang Ling, an old general known as the crossbow general, in Zhuyiping, defeated his subordinates and captured the camp. But without waiting for the robbed Luzhou Laojiao to drink three cups, Qin Liangyu gave the Eight Kings a blow.

Shao Jiechun asked Qin Liangyu for credit, and the inscription manuscript of the report to the imperial court for the defeat of Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai had just been prepared, and Qin Liangyu's white pole soldiers were defeated by Zhang Xianzhong's cannons.

Immediately afterwards, Shao Jiechun, the governor of Shao, in order to block Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai, who rushed to Chongqing Mansion like a torrent, mobilized 20,000 Sichuan troops to Liangshan County to prevent blockage, and by the way to meet Qin Liangyu, who was defeated and retreated, unexpectedly, these 20,000 people were also like sheep entering the tiger's mouth, and were annihilated by Zhang Xianzhong in one fell swoop at the Gaoliang Mountain Pass in Liangshan County (today's Liangping County).

Just when Shao Jiechun ordered his henchmen to prepare a few clippers for himself at Chaotianmen Wharf, and also prepared Confucian clothes, a new news creeped to his governor's yamen.

"What!? Wu Biao's model brigade arrived in Liangshan County? Rendezvous with the remnants of General Qin?! Damn it! This, this ......"

In Jinji Town, which is still dozens of miles away from the county seat of Liangshan, Wu Biao's model brigade received hundreds of remnants of Qin Liangyu's soldiers. These majestic soldiers of the standard battalion in the past have become extremely haggard after days of running and tiring, and in addition to being frightened. These young and strong men are still like this, and Qin Liangyu, an old woman who is over seventy years old, can be imagined.

When she saw the banner of the model brigade erected in the army opposite, and the officers with an accent of eastern Guangdong shouted to this side in a stiff official dialect, she couldn't help but feel relaxed for a while, and then her eyes went dark, and she almost fell off the horse.

"Please ask the governor and your soldiers to come to the camp for a short rest. After our army has broken the thieves, we will salute them. ”

Although Wu Biao was a very important figure in the eyes of Yang Sichang and Chongzhen at this time. Military salaries and weapons are the most priority supplies, but his official position is only a deputy general of the Beijing battalion, and there is still a gap between him and Qin Liangyu's official position, so he can only say a few polite words.

"The thieves are powerful. And our army has been newly defeated. It's the time of arrogance. General Wu might as well avoid the edge for the time being. It's not too late to attack when the thieves are tired! ”

After listening to Qin Liangyu's persuasion, Wu Biao's subordinates pouted, "The governor is also careful!" This is tens of thousands of Shaanxi thieves. It's just a rabble! Among them, there are no more than 10,000 soldiers who can fight in the sky, what about the tens of thousands of Liaodong thieves in Shandong back then? ! ”

Hearing such arrogant and arrogant words from the officers of the Model Brigade, and then looking at the miserable shape of his group of remnants and defeated generals, Qin Liangyu couldn't help but sigh secretly in his heart, he was another arrogant guy who didn't know the height of the sky! If Zhang Ling could not hold out that day, and wait until his soldiers arrived, he was afraid that he might not lose his division and land, not to mention his life in vain, and lose his reputation for a lifetime.

"General Don't worry about it. Most of the officers and soldiers of our department were wounded, and General Lao Wu asked Lang Zhong in the battalion to examine the injuries and bandage some medicines, and the old woman had to rush back to the stone pillar to rectify the people and horses to take revenge. ”

Qin Liangyu has also become a frightened bird, rested hastily for a while in Wu Biao's camp, fed the horses some forage beans, and the people simply ate some food, and then took these hundreds of people across the river to Zhongzhou, from Zhongzhou back to Shizhu.

"Get out of line! Get ready to meet the enemy! ”

If Wu Biao was still in the Southern Guangdong Army, then he would inevitably form three or four columns in a horizontal formation, with artillery between them, to deal with the onrushing peasant army. The artillery fired a fire, and after three rounds of fire the bayonet charged, and then the enemy was disposed of.

But this is not the case. He is already an anti-bone boy in the Nanyue Army.

Not to mention the cannon, it is the flintlock pistol, which is now commonly equipped in the Nanyue army, and among the more than 6,000 people under his command, only more than 1,000 old brothers have it, and there are only a few hundred sleeve bayonets. These people and things are Wu Biao's housekeeping capital, and he specially organized a guard battalion to use these old brothers and flintlock pistols as his biggest bargaining chip.

There is no flintlock pistol, so it can only be replaced by an arquebus, but fortunately, there is the double care of the master of ceremonies and Yang Sichang, and the musket given to him by the Ministry of War is a good thing, and there is no reason to explode the chamber.

Of the 5,000 recruits recruited in Sichuan, 2,000 of them used funeral guns that were loved by the Eight Great Kings, and although Wu Biao was regarded as an anti-water traitor by the Nanyue Army, the Nanzhong merchants who traveled to and from Huguang, Sichuan and other places still had some incense with him. He is also willing to provide some protection and help to these villagers, and the two sides are convenient to maintain contacts in this extremely ** situation, a large number of equipment in Wu Biao's army, such as the armor of pikemen and the spearhead of the mourning gun, are purchased in this way, and now these pikemen will replace the bayonet to play a role.

According to the topography, Wu Biao's headquarters formed a formation, at first glance, it looked like a three-fold formation, and a little musket phalanx.

The musketeers were on the front, in five columns, about 1,500 arquebuses. On the flanks of the musketeers, two thousand pikemen served as guards on the flanks, and hundreds of sword and shield soldiers served as rangers in front of the pikemen's ranks, ready to rush to the front to engage the enemy in hand-to-hand combat and cover the firecracker brothers.

In the rear of the military formation formed by firecrackers and pikemen, there was Wu Biao's central army, with nearly 2,000 cavalry and firecrackers, guarding grain, grass, baggage and other things.

At the sound of the officer's command, the gunpowder was skillfully removed from the gunpowder canister, and after estimating the amount used, the gunpowder was loaded into the gunpowder and stabbed with a stick. Then another piece of lead was taken out, which was still fed in with a throughbar. Then open the fire door behind the gun, pour some gunpowder into it, and finally take out the fire rope and put it into the faucet, and light the fire rope.

Because of the use of arquebuses, the musketeers had to stand sparsely to prevent each other from igniting the arquebus. However, this also has the advantage that the sparse formation reduces the lethality of the shells a lot.

"Brother Biao! Here it comes! ”

A battalion officer pointed to the smoke and dust that appeared from far and near on the mountain road in the distance, and the bursts of fire coming from the direction of Liangshan County. This was the first major battle they had separated from the Nanyue Army, and it was carried out on the premise that all the armies were defeated, so how could it not excite the officers?

But the smoke and dust came from far and near, and everyone looked at the past calmly, and couldn't help but feel a little deflated, but it was the Sichuan army that escaped from Liangshan County.

A row of firearms hit over, and the Sichuan army that fled all the way to the devil and wolf howl was much more sober. They all bypassed the military formation. Under the guidance of the officers and men of the Model Brigade, they surrendered their weapons, honestly went to the rear to eat and drink, and after a short rest, they would be responsible for serving as auxiliaries or coolies of the Model Brigade. Carrying ammunition. Carrying the wounded.

The arquebus is more like a flintlock pistol. Its shooting steps are much more complicated, there are about a few steps such as pouring medicine, charging, pressing fire, loading, and charging the fire rope, and the skilled shooter usually only shoots one shot a minute. Some firecrackers who are not psychologically good can shoot a shot in two minutes when they are in a hurry on the battlefield. The officers of the firecrackers in the front row kicked and beat and ordered the firecrackers to finish filling the medicine, and just after the refilling, the dust rose in the distance, and the smoke and dust were mixed with shouts and cries.

It was the advance of the peasant army of Xiying and Cao Ying that struck.

The fire rope made of hemp rope soaked in yellow wax slowly burned, emitting a slight smell of sulfur, and the fire hammer men nervously looked at the rogues who rode horses in the distance, and sweat beads couldn't help but appear on their foreheads and cheeks. The first row of musketeers raised their firearms and stared at the rogue on the opposite side, while the firecrackers in the back four rows stood behind with firearms in their hands, waiting for the officers to give the order to shoot. They carefully watched the arquebus in their hands to prevent it from burning or extinguishing.

The vanguard of the peasant army who came all the way was quite strange to the team in front of him, and the battle brought down this Cheng dù, and the officers and soldiers of all departments saw their banners of Xiying and Cao Ying, and they all fled and avoided the wind, but now there is such an army that is not afraid of death blocking the intersection, what is this not seeking death?

After a slight pause, a leader in a red robe shouted in an Ansai accent, and more than a thousand cavalry of the peasant army urged the war horses under their crotches together and rushed towards the military formation of the model brigade.

The sound of hooves was like thunder, the shouts of the soldiers of the West Battalion resounded in the sky, seeing that the cavalry rushing in front had rushed into seventy steps, the hands of several firecrackers were actually full of sweat in this early winter weather, and they almost threw away the firearms in their hands and turned around and fled, at this moment, the Chinese army behind them sounded a sharp and piercing brass horn.

"Fire!"

For a moment, the sound of the firearms was like a thousand thunderbolts exploding in people's ears. More than 300 firecrackers standing in the front row pulled the trigger in their hands, the dragon's head fell, the fire rope ignited the primer, and a large amount of fire and smoke erupted from the mouth of the firecracker.

More than a dozen peasant cavalrymen who rushed to the front, ready to teach this group of short-eyed guys a lesson with their long knives and short spears in their hands, were instantly hit by the oncoming projectiles that flew densely and burst out of their bodies with more than a dozen bloody arrows, and they were immediately planted off their horses. Also knocked off the horse, there were dozens of riders who followed them, with slightly better luck, but were hit by the projectile in the body or the war horse under the crotch, unfortunately, after the horse fell to the ground, in the blink of an eye, it was trampled into a bloody mass by the hooves of the swarming horses behind them, and it was impossible to distinguish which one it was.

The body of the man lying on the ground has become an obstacle that hinders the gallop of the war horse, making it impossible for the horse and rider behind to increase the speed. It is necessary to make slight adjustments within the scope of these steps.

Those officers of the Model Brigade must not let go of such an opportunity!

"Fire!"

Immediately, the first layer of musketeers stepped back and quickly reloaded their arquebuses for the next round of fire.

The second platoon of musketeers stepped forward and aimed at the cavalry of the Western Battalion, who was between seventy and sixty paces and was stumped by dead horses and horses.

Another round of salvo fire, in addition to a few firebolts dumb fire, more than 300 firebolts fired projectiles at the Western Camp cavalry that were struggling to rush at once.

There was a terrible scream from behind the white smoke, and the results of this battle were much greater than just now!

After the firing of two rows of muskets, the eyes of the people were now filled with white smoke, and the view was completely blocked by the smoke, and the sword and shield men and pikemen quickly lined up in front of the musketeers to meet the enemy at any time amid the shouts of the officers.

The musketeers of each team stopped one after another at the sound of their respective officers' orders. Put the fire hammer that emptied the medicine on his shoulder, and quietly wait to see the results of the battle.

The choking smell of gunpowder smoke was gradually blown away by the cold wind, wafting everywhere, and there was a bloody sweet smell of blood in the wind, an indescribable strange smell in the rare sunlight in the eastern Sichuan region in winter.

Finally, I saw clearly, the cavalry of the Western Camp who rode their horses and rushed into the distance of fifty paces of the fire, there were two hundred and fifty or sixty cavalry who were knocked to the ground by two rounds of dense bullets, and there were also riders who fell off the back of the war horses that had lost their front hooves, and many of them had blood and flesh on their bodies. Just rolling on the ground and screaming loudly.

"The pikemen cover the sword and shield soldiers! Chop off people's heads! Collect the war horses! ”

Seeing that the men and horses of Xiying have a tendency to flee. Wu Biao put down the telescope in his hand and coldly issued a new military order.

The two sentry pikemen cheered and shouted to cover the sentry sword and shield soldiers slowly pressed towards the battlefield just now, and the seven or eight hundred cavalry of the western camp who were still hesitating on the battlefield whether to advance or retreat saw this group of men and horses killed. He hesitated slightly. Immediately shouted. Turn the horse's head and flee on the way!

"My lord, the results of the battle have been counted."

A battalion officer galloped back on his horse and reported the results of the battle to Wu Biao.

"Beheading one hundred and twenty and four levels. Capture one hundred rogues and two people. Twenty-two horses were captured, and sixty-seven horses were wounded and killed. A batch of swords, guns and armor was seized. ”

"Sue the house, stew the horse meat, and everyone open up for a meal. Put away knives, guns, armor and whatever. Those captives are well supervised, and if there is any abnormality, they will be beheaded immediately! ”

At this time, it was almost noon, and the secretary general of each battalion led a group of Sichuan officers and soldiers who acted as auxiliaries and coolies to carry back the 67 horses that had been killed and wounded.

There were bursts of laughter from time to time throughout the camp, and Cantonese and Sichuan dialects were mixed together. Dozens of Sichuan officers and soldiers served as coolie auxiliaries picked up the hot meals in their hands, looking at the delicious broth in the bowl and the large pieces of horse meat, many people couldn't help but secretly envy, "No wonder people can have such good treatment, people can fight!" ”

In the big tent of the Chinese army at the brigade headquarters, Wu Biao and several regiment commanders and battalion officers sat in the tent, no one spoke, just gobbled up, and a huge sound of chewing came from the tent.

People may grasp the fat and huge pieces of meat in their hands, and just open their mouths and chew violently, hating themselves for eating too slowly.

Just when everyone was eating happily, they suddenly saw a slight splash of soup from the plates and bowls on the table, and everyone thought at first that it was because the soldiers had not placed the tableware well, and they didn't bother to pay attention to it. Unexpectedly, the cups and plates trembled slightly, and the chopsticks fell to the ground with the rhythm. At this time, I suddenly heard the sound of alarms outside the tent, and a personal soldier leader rushed into the big tent, looking a little panicked and reported to Wu Biaoyu: "Brigade commander! A few miles in the direction of Liangshan County in the north, there is a large group of thieves and cavalry, galloping towards our army's camp. ”

Wu Biao didn't say much, and led his men up to the improvised watchtower, with the help of telescopes, people could easily see that there was a large puff of smoke and dust galloping towards this side along the official road leading to the county seat from the north.

"See if the brothers in each battalion have eaten well?"

"Brigade commander, brothers are all ready!"

"Then tell the brothers, when you are full, you will prepare for the event, and someone will bring the dishes for dinner!"

Wu Biao's words made the officers of the Model Brigade feel a lot more relaxed, right! In front of us, no matter how many thieves come there, they are here to deliver food!

In the tremor of the earth, the smoke and dust got closer and closer, and finally everyone saw a large banner flying. Under the flag, there were Xiying knights with bright armor, and the fiery red helmets on the helmets of each person could be faintly seen. In the sea of flags of various colors, there is also a particularly huge handsome flag that is flattened by the strong cold wind, and a large Zhang character in the yellow moonlight stands out like a flock of chickens.

It was Zhang Xianzhong, the eight kings of Xiying, who arrived in person!

Those who came with Zhang Xianzhong were the elite of the old camp in his west camp, and the four adopted sons, Ma Yuanli, Bai Wenxuan and other four generals were halfway there, only Zhang Dingguo, Zhang Wenxiu, Feng Shuangli and others did not see the flag, thinking that they were staying in the old camp.

Wu Biao can clearly see the appearance and dress of the soldiers of the Xiying at a distance of two or three hundred paces, from their arrogant and murderous expressions, to the red tassels on their helmets that are blown away by the wind, and even the scratches and dents caused by the weapons on the Nanzhong armor, and the copper and iron bubble nails on the cotton armor can be clearly seen. In the wet and cold weather, dozens of miles of wild running, they and the horses under their crotches spit out thick white gas from time to time.

Some of the elite soldiers of the old battalion began to haunt the outskirts of the camp of the Model Brigade, all of them stout and skilled in equestrianism, laughing wildly, galloping around the camp dozens of paces, and occasionally shooting arrows into the camp.

"Get our horse team out and drive these thieves away!"

Hundreds of cavalry of the Model Brigade fought out of the camp gate and fought with the group of rangers in the western camp.

Most of the war horses under the crotch of these cavalry are Sichuan horses produced in Sichuan, and their bodies are short, and they are naturally inferior compared with the war horses accumulated by the Xiying cavalry for many years. Moreover, the skills of the horse team are also much worse than those of the elite cavalry of the West Camp. However, it is in the tactics that win. The cavalry tactics of the model brigade were born out of the Nanyue army, and they all used several to deal with one, so that dozens of elite cavalrymen of the old battalion who were still showing off their might outside the model brigade camp just now were cut off from their horses in front of Zhang Xianzhong's eyes. (To be continued......)