Two hours later, at about 11 o'clock in the afternoon, the Fourth Army, which had been running wildly, finally picked up the defenders of Jingzhou, who had already moved west and were preparing to join up with the reinforcements of Xingquan Province, from the southwest.

This means that a large-scale encounter is about to begin!

The Ming army was obviously a little surprised by the arrival of the puppet Tang thief army, because most of the reconnaissance cavalry they sent before were facing the south and due west, and they never thought that the puppet Tang thief army would go around behind their ass and kill from the southeast, so that the reconnaissance cavalry on the periphery could not detect it in time, although the alert troops in the inner perimeter provided a certain amount of early warning time, but this was already too late.

Chen Keqiao rode on his horse, watching the Ming army in front of him hurriedly transform from a marching army column to a combat queue, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and then he ordered: "Order, take the Fifth Infantry Regiment as the lead, and the whole army will attack!" ”

Although this battle was not a sudden encounter, on the contrary, the Ming army was already prepared for it, which can be seen from the fact that they also began to march west early in the morning.

Since the detailed movements of the Fourth Army were not known to the Ming army, many senior generals of the Ming army had already guessed that the puppet Tang thief army was definitely going to attack one of the two Ming armies, and there was a great possibility that it would attack the defenders of Jingzhou.

This is also the reason why these Ming troops got up so early and hurried, because they wanted to join forces with the reinforcements of Xingquan Mansion as soon as possible, so that they would not have to be afraid of these pseudo-Tang thief armies with a greater advantage in strength.

It's a pity that even though they ran all the way, they still couldn't meet the Yuan army of Xingquan Mansion in advance, and they were still caught by the Fourth Army.

When the peripheral scouts found that the puppet Tang thief army was galloping towards their southeast, these Jingzhou defenders hurriedly changed from a marching state to a combat state, and began to form a formation to meet the enemy, otherwise, they would definitely be slaughtered by the puppet Tang thief army, and they still had no ability to resist at all.

This battle, when Chen Keqiao led his troops to catch up with them, was already doomed, the Ming army on the opposite side was no more than 10,000 people, while the Fourth Army was more than 7,000, of which more than 5,000 were still the main force of the Third Infantry Brigade, in this kind of field combat, the Ming Army basically could not be the opponent of the Tang Army.

Although there have been many examples of miracles in human history, it is clear that miracles are called miracles because they are rare.

This Jingzhou garrison obviously does not have this kind of good luck, so this battle is a battle with no mission accidents!

At about 11 o'clock in the morning, the Ming army began to line up to meet the battle, and the main force of the Fourth Army also began to attack directly.

The Fifth Infantry Regiment of the main force directly entered the battlefield in a column, and then changed from a column to a horizontal formation only a few hundred meters away from the Ming army, and listed the most classic line formation of the Tang Dynasty's division.

When the Fifth Infantry Regiment launched a large-scale full-front attack at about 11:30, the heavy artillery units of the Fourth Army were still in the rear and could not keep up, and the only artillery units participating in the battle were shotgun units.

From this point of view, in this battle, the attack of the Tang Dynasty Division's division was obviously very hurried, and even the conventional heavy artillery preparation was not carried out.

But from another point of view, this is reasonable, because if you don't hurry up and launch a strong attack, the Ming army on the opposite side will retreat, and when will the artillery come up.

In addition, the array of the Ming army is also incomplete, many of their troops are still in a state of chaos, and an army of tens of thousands of people wants to change from a state of march to a state of array, which is not small, and the time required is also not short.

While part of the Ming army had already formed a formation and was ready to face the battle, some of the Ming army had just begun to form a formation, and at the same time wanted to maneuver to the front line.

But how can it be so easy for tens of thousands of people to prepare for war, so from Chen Keqiao's point of view, these Ming troops in front of them are in chaos.

This kind of opportunity is very rare, and Chen Keqiao will not let it go easily, so even if his troops can't all reach the battlefield, he can't wait to let the vanguard of the Fifth Infantry Regiment attack first.

With the sound of gunshots and shouts, the first batch of troops participating in the battle on both sides have already handed over, and at the same time, whether it is the Ming army or the Tang army, the follow-up troops are in a hurry to enter the battlefield as soon as possible.

But how can the movement on the battlefield be so simple, especially on the side of the Ming army, when their infantry was arraying and maneuvering, it was already found that a pseudo-Tang cavalry had appeared on the flank of the battlefield.

This cavalry force of more than 200 people is the second cavalry battalion led by Lu Yuzhi, and it is also the cavalry battalion with relatively strong combat effectiveness in the current Tang Dynasty Division, and its combat effectiveness is second only to the first cavalry battalion.

Although Datang has currently trained five cavalry battalions, namely the first to fourth cavalry battalions and the guards cavalry battalion, the third cavalry battalion and the fourth cavalry battalion are completely empty.

The number of the Guards cavalry battalion was smaller, less than two hundred horsemen.

The strength of the 1st Cavalry Battalion is the strongest, and it already has a strength of more than 300 cavalry, and then the 2nd Cavalry Battalion.

This cavalry battalion has worked hard in the past few days, on the one hand for reconnaissance missions, and on the other hand for the mobile force of the whole army.

On such an occasion today, the 2nd Cavalry Battalion has already gathered the cavalry under its command and no longer performs reconnaissance tasks, but devotes all of them to the decisive battle on the battlefield, while the peripheral reconnaissance tasks are handed over to the two reconnaissance cavalry teams under the 3rd Infantry Brigade.

Lu Yuzhi led the cavalry troops to slowly walk on the west flank, it seems that although there are not many cavalry, only two hundred horsemen, and everyone is still leading the horse and walking slowly, but it is worth noting that they are only three or four hundred meters away from the flank of the Ming army, and this distance is the best charging distance for the formal cavalry.

As long as there is a loophole in the Ming army on the opposite side, then Lu Yuzhi will be able to lead the cavalry troops to kill it in an instant, and it is guaranteed that the whole process will not take more than a minute!

The cavalry on the flank of the battlefield is a big knife hanging above the head of the Ming army, and no one knows when this big sword will fall, so these Ming troops are forced not to act rashly.

They didn't even dare to turn around and run away!

The cavalry of the puppet Tang thief army is staring at the side, you run and see!

Once the cover of the tight infantry formation is lost, the scattered fleeing infantry is all a battle feat in the eyes of the cavalry, they only need to catch up lightly in the back, not too fast, the horses trot at a brisk pace, and then these cavalrymen can use their sabers to cut at the backs of these deserters.

They were even able to chase from the last of the rout to the front!

This is also the reason why the Ming army did not easily turn around and run away, the puppet Tang thief army has cavalry, and it will die very miserably if it turns around and runs.

Of course, there is no way to avoid the pursuit of cavalry, such as scattering and breaking through!

Tens of thousands of people fled in all directions, not to mention two hundred cavalry, even two thousand cavalry may not be able to catch up with all of them.

But this will bring an equally serious problem, which is that the army will completely collapse.

For the Ming army in this year, there is no essential difference between a scattered breakout and the collapse of the whole army.

Now the hope of these Ming troops is to hold on, and then wait for the arrival of the reinforcements from Xingquanfu, they know that the reinforcements from Xingquanfu are twenty miles away, and if they speed up the march, they will be able to arrive in a few hours.

As long as it can survive the current few hours, then not only can the army be saved, and his life is worry-free, but he may also be able to leave the pseudo-Tang thief army in front of him.

Hong Linquan, who had high hopes, after receiving an urgent report from the fast horse ahead, knew that the situation was urgent, and he couldn't care about anything else, so he immediately asked the troops to start speeding up the march, trying to go to rescue the defenders of Jingzhou as soon as possible.

Reinforcements from Xingquan Mansion began to come at an accelerated pace, but could they save the defenders of Jingzhou?

Chen Keqiao doesn't think so!

Today's battle was not an encounter, but an interception battle that he had carefully planned, and he had already guessed that another Ming army was more than twenty miles to the west, and he also knew that they would be able to arrive in a few hours.

But he thinks that these hours are enough!

The main forces under his command have been put into the battlefield one after another, the Fifth Infantry Regiment, which took the lead in the attack, has opened the first gap and is continuing to advance towards the main force of the Ming army, while the Sixth Infantry Regiment has also launched a fierce attack on the left flank, and the first battalion of the Liuzhou Independent Regiment and a garrison regiment have also launched a fierce attack on the right flank of the Ming army.

In fact, this kind of offensive operation on all fronts will not last long, and whether it is lost or won, a quarter of an hour at least or an hour at most is enough to end the battle.

This is a field battle, and it is not a battle to defend the city, except for the battlefield maneuver time of the two sides, the real battle time is just a little bit, and it is impossible for everyone to pick up their swords and fight for hours.

At 11:30, the Fifth Infantry Regiment continuously defeated the resistance of more than 1,000 Ming troops, and had already entered the hinterland of the Ming army's front, that is, the position of the Chinese army, and was in the process of continuous mass killing.

The left and right wings are also steadily advancing!

And only ten minutes later, the Ming army's front collapsed, and interestingly, it was not the position of the Chinese army that had deteriorated the situation the most, nor the left flank that was under relatively high pressure, but the right flank that was under the least pressure, which even Chen Keqiao himself did not expect.