The main force of the infantry of the officers marched for half an hour and walked eight or nine miles. By the time they caught up with the main force of the Han army, and could see each other's men and horses with the naked eye, the sun was already in the position of three poles.

The uniform and rhythmic leather drum has been ringing, and the horizontal military music is mixed in, which faintly gives people a cheerful atmosphere. Probably because the battlefield is often full of blood and blood, and the music in the Ming Dynasty army has rarely used heavy and magnificent tunes.

Wu Gao, who had gray sideburns, had a lot of wrinkles on his face, but the fine flesh exposed from the wrist armor on his arms was strands. He climbed a hilly hillside and watched the enemy deployment in the distance.

Wu Gao had received a report before and learned about the general situation. He saw it with his own eyes and saw the situation very quickly.

When Wu Gao usually fights big battles, he likes to use defense instead of offensive strategy, because the defense is more stable and it is not easy to suddenly collapse. But right now, Zhu Gaoxu obviously took the lead in using Wu Gao's method!

The officers and troops marched from west to east, and at this time, the mountain shape on the front was like a "concave" character that leaned to the left, and the place where the concave entered was facing Wu Gaojun.

Almost all of the rebels were on the hills over there, and if Wu Gao wanted to attack, he could only attack the slopes of the mountains. With such a steep terrain, the physical consumption of the soldiers attacking from the back will be several times that of the enemy, and they will suffer quite a loss; Firearms bows and crossbows also have an advantage in shooting at enemy troops in the mountains.

Only by attacking westward from the undulating mountains in the south will the adversity not be so great. But attacking only from one part of the ridge, the attrition of the forces of both sides was too slow; If it was just such an attack and hard work, when the rebels' southern road arrived at Pingle Mansion, Wu Gao might not be able to take down the Han rebels.

Wu Gao temporarily began to think about withdrawing his troops!

Originally, Wu Gao's idea was to get rid of the Han Wangjun as much as possible and take the lead in going to Hexian; Until yesterday evening, his plan was to go to Hexian, preparing to defeat the Han Wangjun first, and then go to Hexian.

But now he suddenly changed his thoughts: Now that the Han Wangjun has arrived in Pingle Mansion, why don't I follow the route of the Han Wangjun and turn around and go to Guilin Mansion?

If the marching route is changed to the north, the Shengyong Department of the rebel army on the southern road will catch up with Wu Gao and the distance will be farther; Second, once successful, Wu Gao can still complete the general strategy of Zhang Fu, the commander of the Pinghan army, to "try his best to get closer to the main force of the Huguang official army" under the unfavorable situation.

At this moment, a thunderous cannon shot came from the south. Wu Gao looked at the ridge to the south, where the advance of the two armies had watched last night, and white gunpowder smoke could be faintly seen rising from the high ground.

"Who ordered the war?" Wu Gao immediately asked loudly.

As soon as the words fell, there was a burst of passionate shouts from the nearby camp. The officers and soldiers of the various units stopped one after another, and the sound of artillery from the south encouraged their courage.

Seeing this, Wu Gao inevitably hesitated in his heart, and did not immediately order to prepare for the withdrawal of the army. The army had been on the road for so many days, and now that the two armies were facing each other, it would obviously be demoralizing if the troops were to retreat and tell the soldiers that they would have to travel a long way again.

None of the surrounding generals recognized or gave the order to go to war in the avant-garde. At this time, a military general hugged his fists and said: "The last general will immediately send someone over to see it, and come back to report to the Hou Ye." ”

"Go!" Wu Gaodao.

…… On the ridge to the south, the cannon roared and the shouts shook the sky. Reinforcements from the Han army's army had previously arrived near the avant-garde camp and soon took the initiative to attack the advance of Wu Gao's army in the west.

However, after a large phalanx of 500 men of the Han army was repulsed, chaos broke out on the uneven ridge of the high ground and fled to the east. So thousands of officers and soldiers took advantage of the situation to pursue the advance guard camp of the Han army.

Heavy fighting broke out again between the two armies.

The avant-garde battalion of the Han rebels built rudimentary fortifications, building a waist-high earthen wall and a trench of different depths along the ridge in the middle and low on both sides. The fortifications were apparently hasty, and the earthen walls were low. In most places, officers and soldiers jumped into ditches and climbed trenches and waist walls with their bare hands.

So the nearly ten hundred-household teams in front of the official army had already pursued and approached the fortifications about ten paces, and they besieged the trench and earthen wall along the earthen wall, from the front, from the north and the south. Firearms rang out on both sides, and arrows flew in the air.

The officers and soldiers held the sharpshooter made by the Annamite people, which was also a kind of copper firearm, and fired two rows of sharpshooters in unison. The front row squatted on the ground, the back row stood, the soldiers held the sharpshooter under the armpit with one hand, and blew the fire fold with the other to ignite the fuse.

"Bang bang bang ......" There was a loud explosion, and the arrows rained down on the earthen wall ten paces away. A close salvo didn't have much effect, because the rebel soldiers were all crouching behind the earthen wall, with only one head at most, and it was difficult for the sharpshooter's arrows to hit.

The rebels then began to fire back with their guns, their bronze guns were a bit peculiar, with their tails facing the soldiers' front doors, and the people all held guns in both hands, and they fired firearms with only their heads out. The sound of guns rang out along the earthen walls, and rows of gunpowder smoke flew up.

There was a scream from the crowd of firecrackers lined up by the officers and soldiers, and from time to time someone in the row of infantry fell to the ground screaming in pain.

At this time, the officers and soldiers began to change their guns, handed over the loaded sharpshooters in the back row, and passed back the firearms that had been put away. Some of the soldiers in the back row stepped forward a few steps to fill in the casualties of the hit.

The second salvo, the rebels preceded the officer army. Their rotation is not a change of weapons, but a direct substitution. The man who had finished setting off the firearm stood up and walked to the back, and the man behind him then stepped forward and crouched behind the waist wall.

The two sides used firearms to shoot at each other twice in a row, but because the rebels were blocked by earthen walls, the method of firing firearms was also very strange, which made the officers and soldiers suffer a big loss! At this time, the officers and soldiers directly transferred their marksmen to shoot at the rebel soldiers who showed their heads within ten paces with bows and crossbows.

After receiving a burst of fire from the bow and crossbow, the spear and shield soldiers of the official army rushed forward with shouts. Some of the officers and soldiers climbed on the shoulders of their comrades and climbed against the earthen walls, while the rebels stabbed them with rows of spears, and everywhere along the ditch and earthen walls were screaming and deafening.

From time to time, there was a "boom" in the trench, and the rebels threw the ignited pig iron mines into the trench below, and the iron pieces splashed in the explosion of gunpowder, and the screams of the officers and soldiers in the ditch cracked their lungs.

The artillery carts, which were being brought in from the west, turned around and retreated to the rear. Reinforcements from the rebels were advancing from the north and south sides of the fortifications, and the officers and troops attacking the fortifications in front were retreating; If the artillery is transported, it will soon be captured by the rebels.

Hundreds of rebels pursued on the uneven ridge of the high ground, and only after less than 200 paces of pursuit, reinforcements from the official army also came. The two armies approached, and the officers and soldiers bombarded with artillery, bows and crossbows

Shoot a salvo of spears, then charge with spears and shields. The rebels were repulsed again, and many of them retreated eastward in formation, while others broke up and ran all over the hill.

At this time, the two sides only fought fiercely along the ridge and high ground, the contact area was very narrow, and each had tens of thousands of strong troops. Such a fight cannot make much difference.

In the field, killing and wounding the enemy army often depends on pursuit, but the enemy army has a large number of reinforcements, and the localities cannot be used, and the pursuit cannot be sustained, and it is extremely difficult to achieve great results. Fighting back and forth is nothing more than wasting time and slowly draining troops.

At this moment, a military general came to the avant-garde barracks of the official army with the order flag, and shouted: "Stop the pursuit!" Who made you go to war? ”

The commander of the official army's avant-garde quickly came over and replied: "The rebels will attack our army first, and after our division has won, they will pursue it to the rebel camp. ”

The military general holding the order flag handed over the military order, "The commander has an order, avoid fighting with the rebels, and wait for a new deployment!" He looked back on all sides, pointed to a high ground behind him, and said: "The whole army retreats to the top, and the artillery is raised on the high ground to resist the attack of the rebels." ”

"Order!"

The commander then left the battlefield and descended from the north side of the mountain......

At this time, the main positions of the two armies still did not conflict. The various units of Wu Gao's army were at least more than a mile away from the enemy, and unless they were heavy artillery in the Hongwu cannon, they could not even bombard the artillery. Although the rebels were on high ground, they apparently did not carry heavy artillery.

An adjutant general beside Wu Gao said: "Our officers and soldiers have a large number of generals, and after trying to occupy a few high grounds, we can attack from several sides, and we also have a chance to win this battle." ”

Wu Gao was noncommittal, his mount was a little restless and kept kicking the horse's hooves, and he dangled from the horse's back, his eyes kept observing the scene in the distance.

"The rebels' pontoon bridge on the Lechuan water has been demolished?" Wu Gao suddenly asked an irrelevant question.

The general replied: "Half an hour ago, the last general received a report that the rebels had dismantled the pontoon bridge overnight last night, and the boats were all transferred to the upper reaches of the Lechuan River. ”

Wu Gao was silent for a while, the expression on his face was uncertain, as if he was thinking about something repeatedly. After a long time, he finally spoke: "Send someone to Pingle Mansion City and order the prefect to transfer boats and boats on the Li River." The rearguard was ordered to erect a pontoon bridge at the rebels' ferry yesterday. ”

"Master Hou is ready to retire?" A subordinate general beside him asked.

Wu Gao said in an unquestionable tone: "The rebels of the Han King occupy a high place to defend, and with a little waste, they can still build some fortifications; It is difficult to win this big battle quickly, and instead of delaying time and waiting for the outcome of the victory, it is better to withdraw the troops as soon as possible.

The deployment of our department is to move closer to the main force of the Huguang official army, and the rebels of the Han King have arrived in Pingle Mansion, and our army can take the opportunity to turn around and divert in the direction of Guilin Mansion, and gradually move away from the Shengyong reinforcements on the rebel south road. ”

The generals were a little silent for a while, obviously not very reluctant. Wu Gao also understood what they meant, ordinary generals only want to easily obtain military merits, and often do not have a long-term view of the whole situation...... Maybe Sheng Yongjun is approaching every day, and everyone doesn't have to worry about it at all.

Prior to this, the army set out from Nanning Mansion and walked to the Luoqing River north of Liuzhou Prefecture; Then return to the northeast of Liuzhou Mansion and take a detour to Pingle Mansion. In the past few days, the army has traveled nearly thousands of miles, and it is obvious that they do not want to continue their trek.

This is also the reason why Wu Gao did not order the withdrawal of troops for a long time! However, after weighing it repeatedly, he still believed that it would be difficult for the official army to win the Battle of Pingle Mansion in a short period of time.

……

……

(I had a high fever with a bad cold, and my brain was confused, so I finally wrote a chapter, and I forgive me for being late in the update.) ）