Night fell on both sides of the Yangtze River.

The boundless darkness, like the huge black cloak of the Grim Reaper, shrouded Jiujiang, shrouded in the sky above Zuo Liangyu's Shuai Mansion outside Jiujiang City.

In the past, the Shuai Mansion, which was noisy and noisy, suddenly became as silent as an ancient tomb in the mountains, as silent as death. In large and small houses, the lights that usually shine like daytime have become as rare and strange as the ghost fires in the cemetery.

The defeat during the day made all the people in the Shuai Mansion feel uneasy.

Zuo Mengeng stared at a pair of murderous eyes, his pupils were full of bloodshots, and he glared viciously at the leader of the pro-soldiers sent to arrest people in front of him.

"Liu Mazi just ran away? You didn't catch him? ”

"The eldest young marshal, we went to his residence to check, and a few women there and the old mother and servant said that after he came back, he hastily collected his things, saying that he was going to play cards and gamble with several generals at night, and swept away all the valuable gold and silver. Then he disappeared. We also sent people to check on the camps of the generals he mentioned, and as soon as there was news, they were immediately arrested. ”

"If you live to see people, die, Lao Tzu will also cut three knives on his corpse! If it weren't for his mouth full of nonsense, Dashuai would be fine! Zuo Mengeng pulled out the sword at his waist and slashed hard at the maple tree in the yard, the trunk was cut into a third by the sword, and the huge impact made the leafy canopy shake a few times.

The purpose of his eagerness to catch Liu Jingting was to find a scapegoat for the day's defeat and Zuo Liangyu's current state.

He stared at a pair of eyes and looked out, the lights of the camp that used to stretch for dozens of miles like a galaxy are now like morning stars. In the darkness of the field, from time to time from a corner will burst out of a fierce and short cannon sound and shouting of killing, that is the Nanyue army of the group of barbarians who do not know fatigue and do not know how to rest, taking advantage of the night to take advantage of the fire to rob, clean up the scattered camps everywhere, exterminate the stragglers.

At sunset, he Zuo Mengeng saw that the prisoners of the left army of the brigade and the soldiers of the outer battalion who surrendered were imprisoned to the shore in groups, except for a suit of clothes on their bodies, they had nothing to grow, and they were escorted to the riverside dock with punches and kicks, and stuffed into the cabin like stuffed chickens.

If it were to be replaced by another army, these captured officers and soldiers of the Left Army would have to change their banners and continue to engage in a career of begging for a living on the battlefield, regardless of whether the banner was written as Li Zicheng's Dashun, Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi, or Liu Liangzuo, Huang Degong's and others' Daming. However, what they encountered was the Nanyue Army, so they had only one fate.

Zuo Mengeng, who has also handled human trade, knows that these people will be escorted to Shanghai and other places, and after a short stay, they will be transported to Nanzhong by sea to engage in mining, smelting, logging and other industries that require huge labor consumption. After a few years, a strong man is often exhausted to death.

Next to the captive marching procession, there were also a few who tried to resist or tried to escape and were captured. Most of them were veterans of the Sailor Army Battalion who followed Shi Lang through the Liaodong Peninsula. I have a good experience in dealing with these things for these people. But they cut off their hands and feet, and threw them into the open space next to the marching procession, where they rolled and wailed, and died when their blood was drained.

The power of example is infinite, and the officers and men of the left, who have never taken other people's lives seriously, saw that the other party was more fierce than themselves, and they were much more honest. Only then did they remember that these people in front of them swept through Liaodong with thousands of people, killed almost multiple the heads of Liao thieves than their own troops, and even captured tens of thousands of Liaodong rebels and escorted them back to Liaoxi. Along the way, use the body of the Liao thief who tries to resist the escape, pave the way, and pad the pit to let the baggage vehicle pass! As a result, not a single officer or soldier of the tens of thousands of officers and men who were captured or surrendered dared to say a word, but obediently squirmed forward under the custody of hundreds of officers and soldiers of southern Guangdong, was driven to the riverside, stuffed into the cabin, and gambled his fate on the unknown future.

All of this comes from a big defeat during the day.

In Zuo Liangyu's eyes, the attack of the Nanyue Army did not seem to have any particularly novel tricks, on the contrary, it was a little clumsy. After landing on the shore, each part sent a group of soldiers and horses, led the people, and laid straw on the wet and muddy riverside, and put wooden planks collected from all over the straw so that the cannons could pass smoothly.

After that, under the cover of artillery fire, the various divisions took turns to attack the left army. It's just that this kind of attack is like a person with an excellent appetite, after serving the dinner table, facing an elbow that is roasted with fat dripping, he does not come up and gnaw it all the time, but holds a sharp knife in his hand, looks at the position from time to time, and cuts a piece of fat meat from above to put it in his mouth to chew.

Under the cover of artillery fire, groups of Nanyue troops lined up in a neat line, carrying firearms on their shoulders, and marched in front of the formation of the left army. Based on Zuo Liangyu's understanding of his own army, there are many brave warriors in the army who are skilled in personal skills, and there are no lack of demons who take pleasure in killing people and setting fires, but it is easy for them to turn a densely populated prosperous and rich land into a blank field, and it is even more difficult for them to form such a line to attack than to kill them.

He couldn't help but think of the Zhejiang soldiers he saw in Liaodong when he was young, the elite soldiers created by Grandpa Qi, and the last bit of blood disappeared in Liaodong.

The officers of the left army in front of the formation were roaring loudly, ready to urge their archers and firecrackers to cast again on the Nanyue army, which was slowly pressing up like a mountain and a forest. However, I heard a melodious brass horn sounding in the ranks of the Nanyue Army, followed by several short whistles in various places of the team.

As soon as the whistle stopped, the soldiers of the Nanyue Army over there took off the firearms on their shoulders one after another, and with the sound of firearms, a wave of fleeing left officers and soldiers were beaten and rolled to the ground.

"Grenades, go up! Bombing! ”

After the first round of shooting, the front-line musketeers stopped on the spot to reload ammunition, and from the gap between their ranks, dozens of tall and arm-length men jumped out, stepped forward quickly, took the horsetail grenade in the bamboo basket on his chest in his hand, took out the horsetail behind him, and carried it in his hand as if throwing bones, drew a semicircle on the top of his head, and dozens of black horsetail grenades crossed the empty space between the two armies at dozens of paces.

"Run! The earth-shattering thunder of the Southern Barbarians! Not again! ”

The left army did not know the official name of the horsetail grenade, but felt that this thing was similar to the thunder of the sky, the sound was huge, and the power was amazing, a grenade exploded around it, and a few left officers and soldiers were killed and wounded.

"Boom! Boom! ”

A loud bang sounded in the ranks of the left army, and the huge sound shook people's ears so much that they could not hear anything in an instant, and people had only one thought, backwards, run! However, when he turned to flee, his feet slipped, and he almost fell. But it was the guerrilla master in the battalion, whose helmet was blown away by the fragments of the exploded bullet casing, and half of the heavenly spirit cover was shaved off with it, and blood and brains were sprinkled all over the ground, red and white, and there was steaming hot. Several of the family soldiers around him were dressed in fine leather armor and iron armor inlaid with copper nails in vain, and they were beaten by the fragments of grenades, and they were all covered with large and small blood holes on their heads and faces, rolling and howling on the ground, and the terrible screams made all the officers and soldiers of the left who were accustomed to hearing the screams and moans of others shudder.

Immediately afterwards, another wave of black grenades was thrown, and this time, before they hit the ground and exploded, people swarmed and pushed, shouting and scolding, and ran towards Zuo Mengeng's Chinese army formation not far away. Shuai Qi is their goal, in their consciousness, Shuai Qi is surrounded by strong generals and elites, and they can naturally beat the Nanyue army that rushed up.

As a result, thousands of officers and soldiers of the battalion of the Left Army were rushed to Zuo Menggeng's large formation by more than 1,000 officers and men of the 12th Garrison Brigade with spurs and grenades like driving a flock of ducks.

On the high slope in the distance, Zuo Liangyu held a telescope and clearly recorded this scene in his eyes. "Mr. Liu, you have been in Nanjing for so long, and you are naturally familiar with the situation of the various units of the Southern Army. Take a look, the current group of fierce and tenacious people who drove our soldiers like wolves to attack the Menggeng Great Array are the elite of Li Shouhan's men, isn't it? ”

Liu Jingting heard Zuo Liangyu's question before he could catch his breath, but he didn't dare to make a mistake. I had to look at the battlefield from afar. Pity him for a storyteller who eats open food, when he talks about the battlefield on weekdays, it is wonderful, his mouth is like a lotus, and he talks endlessly, but when he really lets him go to the battlefield to see the scene of flesh and blood flying and human life like grass mustard, he has long been scared of his hands and feet.

"The soldiers and horses who are chasing and killing our army's inner camp from afar, but the elite of Li Shouhan's headquarters?" Zuo Liangyu was a little angry, and Liu Jingting didn't answer his question for a while.

"Handsome! But do you want to listen to your subordinates tell the truth? Liu Jingting pondered for a moment, and asked Zuo Liangyu first.

"On the battlefield, life and death are in an instant, who has the time to listen to you lie to coax Lao Tzu?!"

"Handsome! Judging from the banner, their formation, and the speed of their attack, the subordinates judged that they should not be the most elite troops under Li Shouhan, and they were not even elite. It is just one of the garrison brigades formed by Li Shouhan to expand his army in various places in Nanzhong after the Beijing division was stolen by Li Chuang. These units are formed with the standing troops of various prefectures and counties and the officers of various towns as the backbone, and are composed of a large number of sons and daughters of good families who have received military training for at least three years and more than one month every year. Among the Southern Army, it is regarded as the largest part of the population. It is reported that Liang Guogong, oh, Li Shouhan has something to say in the army, which unit fought well, so it was upgraded from a garrison brigade to a town and became a standing soldier. On the contrary, a unit that does not fight well, even if it is the Frontguard Brigade around him, will also be demoted to a mobilized soldier! Even go down to Tuntian! ”

"Humph! Pretend! Saying this, Zuo Liangyu's expression on his face was not so relaxed, he felt that the temples on both sides of him seemed to be constantly beating with a sledgehammer, which gave him a headache.

"Let's go back a little bit, so as to make room for Meng Geng to fight, so as not to hinder his hands and feet, so that he can't perform!"

However, Zuo Liangyu retreated two miles back slightly, just set up the handsome flag, and had not yet straightened out the queue, and the battle in front of him had changed again.

On the left flank of the battlefield, Wang Yuncheng, the fierce general of the left army, was attacked by more than 2,000 people with white cloth wrapped around their heads, but they couldn't resist and gradually lost the battle.

"That group of people with white cloth wrapped around their heads, running like flying, and embroidered with Xuanwu patterns on their flags, but Li Shouhan's elite?" Zuo Liangyu felt a little dry mouth, there seemed to be some unclear scenes in front of him, the silhouettes of people and horses had illusory edges of light, he closed his eyes hard, trying to drive out those illusory edges of light, so that his vision became clear again.

"Wang Yuncheng, you brag about yourself on weekdays, saying that you are Xu Chu, Li Kui-like bravery, why are tens of thousands of horses driven down by thousands of people?!"

When he opened his eyes, he hadn't seen the scene in front of him clearly, but he heard the angry scolding of the army in the Shuaifu. Sure enough, on the left flank of the inner camp of the left army, Wang Yuncheng's handsome banner began to move, and it moved very fast. Around the handsome flag, it was noisy and noisy, and at first glance, it looked like a defeated army. It's just that Wang Yun grew a heart, and he never moved closer to Zuo Liangyu's direction, but rushed towards Jiujiang City. He had already seen clearly the deployment of troops on the entire battlefield, and if he escaped along the river, he would send his head and soldiers and horses to the muzzle of the Nanyue army. Rather than that, it is better to turn around and flee south, to the hinterland of northern Jiangxi. In the past few years, northern Jiangxi has also been relatively smooth, and there is no worry that grain and grass cannot be raised.

Shi Lang is also a guy who is unforgiving, taking advantage of your illness to kill you, and when he saw Wang Yuncheng turn around and flee south, he immediately waved his army to cover up and kill. With the strength of the two naval divisions and the land battalion, they took turns to tail attack and flank behind Wang Yuncheng's defeated army, surpassing the pursuit. kept cutting lumps of fat on the defeated army, and at the same time, driving Wang Yuncheng's troops, so that they didn't even dare to enter their own camps, so they rushed south. The soldiers and horses of the other two naval battalions led by Shi Lang himself quickly entered the attack on Zuo Liangyu's army from the left flank. At this moment, the situation on the battlefield became more and more unfavorable to Zuo Liangyu.

"Handsome! Rushing from our left flank was the sailor army battalion and horses commanded by Shi Lang, the son-in-law of Liang Guogong! Our soldiers hated Shi Lang so much when they mentioned him, but they swore by him with a curse! The reason, the handsome man sees everything! ”

"Why do they wear white cloth on their heads instead of helmets?"

"Marshal, when my subordinates were in Nanjing, I heard that there was such a rule in the Southern Army, and all the teams that could fight on the battlefield had a mark, that is, whether they were officers or soldiers, they were all monks. Moreover, Shi Lang is a person who uses soldiers to steal fast and narrow. The soldiers and horses of the naval division and land battalion had to jump on the water to compete with the opposing naval division for ships, and they also had to capture the enemy's artillery forts and barracks on land, so the slogan in their battalion was 'advance without retreat'. Therefore, once they are on the battlefield, they wrap their heads in white cloth to show that they have considered themselves dead in this battle. When he died, he wrapped the body in a white cloth on his head. At the same time, this white cloth is also an important symbol for them to contact and identify friend and foe in the chaos. ”

"Crazy! A bunch of maniacs! As a county horse, it's still so crazy! Someone found Shi Lang's recognition flag in the telescope and immediately pointed it out to Zuo Liangyu. In the camera, Shi Lang was shirtless, holding a saber in one hand and a short firearm in the other, under the escort of dozens of pro-soldiers around him, fighting back and forth, all of whom were invincible.

"The soldiers of the naval division and land battalion are either fishermen and boat owners along the coast of Guangdong and Fujian, born among Zheng Zhilong's pirates, or Yi people in various coastal areas in southern and central China. Since the formation of the army, it has not lost a single battle under the situation of the Liaodong Peninsula. Liu Jingting is probably a storyteller's occupational disease, looking at the spectacular scene on the battlefield, hundreds of thousands of people are fighting in one place, and the river is just as recorded in the history books, and the blood makes the river "red." The dead bodies blocked the river and prevented the river from flowing. ”

Liu Jingting only frothed at the mouth of his mouth, but he didn't notice at all that the pro-soldiers around Zuo Liangyu could tear him to pieces almost immediately and throw him into the river to feed the fish. If it weren't for Zuo Liangyu's concern about the battle situation and his words now, I was afraid that Liu Jingting's body would have been the same as his face, full of holes.

Suddenly, in front of the left army, the mountain collapsed and the ground cracked, and the array of the Nanyue army shouted in unison, as if the river burst the embankment, and suddenly, millions of people rushed towards the front of Zuo Liangyu's army and Zuo Menggeng's main formation.

"Mako! Check it out! What's going on?! In a hurry, Zuo Liangyu couldn't care about making the appearance of a corporal who was a virtuous corporal on weekdays. He eagerly called Liu Jingting's nickname "Liu Mazi" in the army.

"Handsome! Oh no! That was Liang Guogong who used his most elite guard brigade to attack the main formation of the big young marshal! "Just now I saw the military flags fluttering in front of the battalion phalanx from the telescope, Liu Jingting's hands seemed to be burned by flames, and he almost dropped the telescope to the ground.

"Handsome! This is a team that can fight more than the garrison brigade and the naval division and land battalion, and it is several times more difficult! "The people around Zuo Liangyu are also knowledgeable, and they also know that since it is called the Guards Brigade, it is roughly equivalent to Liang Guogong's family and personal soldiers. In terms of the overall combat effectiveness of the Nanyue Army, the garrison brigade, which forms the basis of the army's combat effectiveness, can fight Zuo Menggeng step by step, not to mention the core of the combat effectiveness of the whole army!

"Handsome! You see! That's the banner of the eldest lady of the Li family! No wonder these Southern troops are charging like crazy! Liu Jingting saw Li Huamei's wind, snow and cold plum flag from the flags in the distance! This flag once appeared in Tashan, so that at this time, Dolgon in Beijing dreamed back every midnight, and he couldn't help but cry out in the middle of the night, and the nightmares continued.