It turned out that when Jin Shenghuan, Sun Fugui, and Daniel Zhang launched counterattacks one after another just now, more than 30 cannons and thousands of poles of the Dashun army continued to fire, and hundreds of stone bullets and thousands of lead bullets were fired at the Ming army's position.

And the infantry of Jin Shenghuan's army, who was beaten there, happened to get the order to retreat a hundred steps. These infantrymen were already "badly" killed and wounded by the opponent's shells (in fact, they were not so bad, hundreds of casualties were killed and wounded before and after), and the people were panicked and uneasy, so they could not retreat in an orderly manner.

Li Zicheng, who had already descended the Golden Hair Mountain and moved to the main position of the Dashun army in the right rear of Guangdeguan, had been waiting for this opportunity, so he immediately launched more than 10,000 Dashun's infantry and launched an attack. Or the infantry in front, the cavalry in the back!

Half of the infantry in front of them held spears and half of them held swords and shields, forming a dense formation. From a distance, I saw infantry in blue arrow suits and white hats surging like a torrent. Their formation was not neat, nor did they form any phalanx, but they were lined up side by side in dense lines, not straight, but crooked.

Although the queue is not neat, the morale of the generals is extremely high - now the emperor is supervising the battle! Moreover, the old cavalry behind the infantry army are all ruthless masters, as long as Li Zicheng gives an order, he will not be merciless in killing deserters. Therefore, the officers of each ministry and each outpost (the bottom of the Dashun army) stood at the head of the line, holding swords and spears to lead the soldiers forward. However, the reason why they are so energetic now is not that the king's team is cruel, but that they feel that they still have a head start after Li Zicheng.

The current Dashun Dynasty does not have the class of gentry and landlords, and there are no big profiteers (small traders have a little, big businessmen no longer exist), the social hierarchy is particularly simple, the highest level is Li Zicheng, the emperor, below is Xungui, below Xungui is the old camp old soldiers, and then below is them such a new attachment, the bottom is the farmer and a small number of craftsmen in the government-run handicraft workshop.

If you want to become an official and get a bigger grange, there is only one way, that is, to kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions!

If you have enough credit, you can be promoted to the old camp, that is, there are Zhuangzi and Niangzi. Moreover, the identities of the old battalion soldiers and honorables can be hereditary.

As long as the Dashun Dynasty is in one day, these two groups of them will be human beings!

It is no exaggeration to say that they are now fighting for themselves and their descendants, how can they lack momentum?

Rows of spears rose and fell, and there were five or six thousand infantry troops, and they came with a shout. Behind them, there were more than 4,000 cavalrymen, surrounded by the big banner with the word "Chuang"!

Seeing the momentum of the Dashun army, the Ming army on the opposite side was already timid before the battle, and they all left the order to retreat a hundred steps behind, and they couldn't stop it as soon as they retreated.

Jin Shenghuan, who had already retreated from the front line, had no choice but to draw fresh troops from the west side of the Ming army's battle formation (also leaning on the Hudu River), plus hundreds of his own families, to form a new defensive line west of Tangjia Mountain, trying to prevent Li Zicheng's breakthrough.

And this wave of retreat on the southern front of the Ming army immediately wiped out the results of Daniel Zhang and Sun Fugui's counterattack.

Daniel Zhang, who had just occupied the artillery position of the Dashun army, had to hastily set a few fires, and then hurriedly retreated and rushed towards Tangjiashan. The artillery of the Dashun Army, which had run away before, then returned to the battlefield, extinguished the fire set by the Ming army, and lifted the cannon that was pushed down by the Ming army.

After the loss of the Hudu River, Tangjiashan was the most important stronghold of the Ming army on the battlefield.

Once missed, the tens of thousands of troops on the battlefield will lose their support, and I am afraid that they will become the prey pursued by the Dashun army!

After Li Zicheng commanded the army to break through the Hudu River, he did not immediately attack Tangjiashan, but turned to besiege the Lotus Temple.

The temple was the junction of Daniel Zhang's and Jin Shenghuan's defensive lines, and about 1,500 people from the Zhang and Jin families guarded there. Most of them were archers and firecrackers (bird-fired or three-eyed) soldiers, desperately shooting arrows against the temple's sturdy outer walls.

actually repelled several rounds of attacks by the Dashun army!

And their resistance also gave Jin Shenghuan and Daniel Zhang a chance to pack up their team and fight again.

Li Zicheng saw that his troops were repulsed several times in a row, and he still left a corpse in front of the Lotus Temple, so he knew that he could not attack strongly, so he had to patiently readjust the deployment.

He first rebuilt a front against the Ming army—between the west side of the Lotus Temple and the east bank of the Hudu River (north of the corner of the Hudu River), with his back to the east-flowing Hudu River.

At the same time, Li Zicheng ordered his artillery to cross the river, move to the southwest of the Lotus Temple, and redeploy it, preparing to use them to destroy the outer walls of the Lotus Temple.

It was a time-consuming and laborious task, not only moving the cannons, but also piling up the earth, which could not be done in two or three hours.

Li Zicheng also knew that these cannons were inconvenient to use, so he had to wait patiently while adjusting the big guns to shoot at the newly formed battle formation of the Ming army.

This kind of lifting gun, which can only be used by two people, is simply a weapon tailored for an army with cavalry superiority.

The big lift gun hits farther, and the effective range is not below the turtledove's foot gun, which exceeds the bow and arrow. But the rate of fire was too slow, and the reload was too cumbersome. It is difficult for the side that does not have the advantage of cavalry to make good use of them, and if you are not careful, you will be caught off by the opponent's cavalry. If they must be used, they must be protected by enough pikemen and archers (archers against cavalry), and the number of personnel is too large - two thousand men for a thousand guns, and at least four or five thousand men with pikemen and archers......

However, the cavalry in Li Zicheng's hands was powerful, so he sent a thousand cavalry to cover them.

Although the firepower of a thousand big guns is not fierce, it is endlessly "shot", and the Ming infantry on the opposite side can't stand it!

As a last resort, Daniel Zhang and Jin Shenghuan had to organize a counterattack again. This time, however, they were unable to attack from the flanks (the flanks were the course of the Hudu River), so they had to charge head-on with the firepower of the big guns.

As a result, before he could rush far, he was counterattacked by the cavalry sent by Li Zicheng to cover the gun! Because they did not maintain a good formation during the charge (it is difficult to maintain the formation under the impact of the enemy's firepower), they were collapsed by Li Zicheng's old cavalry, and they retreated one after another, and also disrupted the formation of the Ming army in the rear.

Li Zicheng seized the opportunity, immediately urged the troops, and pressed up again. Jin Shenghuan had no way to retreat, and commanded the troops to resist desperately.

But where is he Li Zicheng's opponent? I can't resist even if I fight hard!

But fortunately, the Ming army set up a square formation at the beginning, so it also had a greater depth. When Jin Shenghuan's troops were killed and retreated to the front line north of the quadrangle, they barely stabilized with the support of Qiu Lei.

Li Zicheng mobilized tens of thousands of cavalry from the rear, all of which were fresh troops, and handed them over to the general Liu Zongmin, asking him to command them to continue the attack.

As a result, the two sides fought for another time, and the Ming army, which was forced to retreat, finally retreated to the east bank of the Hudu River (north of the bend to the east), and only then did it hold its ground with its back to the river.

It was stable, but Qiu Lei and Jin Shenghuan still retreated two or three miles to the northwest. Their contact with Tangjiashan was also cut off.

The Ming army on the battlefield of Tangjiashan was also divided into three major parts.

Qiu Lei and Jin Shenghuan's two divisions of less than 30,000 people crowded on the east bank of the Hudu River, and they were faced with more than 10,000 people commanded by Liu Zongmin.

Daniel Zhang protected Zhu Cizhao, the king of Chu, and led more than 10,000 people (including some of the royal palace guards guarding Zhu Cizhao) to guard Tangjiashan. Tian Jianxiu supervised 20,000 troops and surrounded Tangjiashan.

Li Zicheng personally supervised more than 10,000 foot cavalry, plus 2,000 soldiers and artillery, to besiege the Lotus Temple.

On the edge of the Tangjiashan battlefield, Sun Fugui led 1,500 or 600 cavalry, and two or three thousand light cavalry of the Dashun army to fight.

The situation on the battlefield seems to be quite favorable to Li Zicheng, the son of Dashun Yongchang!