On May 13 of the 16th year of Yongli, there was no cloud, and the sky was as transparent and blue as washing. And under this firmament, the fields are all green, and the sorghum planted in March will have grown nearly two feet high. And the Laili River, which flows down from 800 miles of Taihang, flows down rapidly, passes through the Taihang Mountains, flows into the land of Zhili, and flows quietly between the rivers.

At this time, beside this quiet riverbank, in the wilderness around the Dragon King Temple of the Daimyo Mansion, thousands of Qing troops were waiting in a strict formation, and on the opposite side of them were more than 10,000 Ming troops in a neat camp, two battalions of Ming troops lined up in two phalanxes, cavalry covered on the flanks, artillery and the middle of the phalanx and the rear. In the fluttering of the flag, the cavalry of the herald wore it back and forth.

This is a battle without any suspense.

Facing the enemy Tu Hai, who was several times his size, did not show any expression of fear, he was dressed in yellow cotton armor, his eyes occasionally looked south, and now the third elder brother and they are leading the army to Henan, as long as they cross the Yellow River, they will be safe.

In front of Tuhai, thousands of cavalry sat upright on their horses, glaring at the enemy on the opposite side. Beside them were a dozen or so light guns. More than 2,000 infantry lined up after the cavalry. The battlefield at this time is a silent battlefield. And Tu Hai was surrounded by several dragon flags and bills facing the wind.

"Stand up straight, don't let the Han people underestimate us!"

Among the soldiers in cotton armor, there would occasionally be reprimands from others, they held weapons in their hands, their eyes stared straight ahead, everyone knew that whether it was for their own lives, or for hundreds of thousands of people to leave the Han people alive, they had to fight.

The cruel reality does not allow them to retreat at all - as soon as they retreat, these Han troops who were "attracted" by them will immediately go north, and when the time comes, their wives and children will be killed by the Ming army in front of the battle.

Even now, for these Qing troops, they still believe that the reason why they went south was to lure the Ming army south, so that their families could withdraw from the pass safely. Now they are no longer fighting for the emperor, but for themselves and their families.

It's just that at this time, what was in front of them was not the Chu army, but the Left Route Army of the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Loyal and Righteous Army out of the West Canal, although it was the Left Route Army, but in fact there were only two battalions of infantry, artillery, and one battalion of cavalry, with a strength of more than 13,000 troops, but even so, it was enough to deal with this Qing army of only five or six thousand people.

Everyone was eager for the battle to come. After all, this is exactly the battle they crave - since the Northern Expedition, they have met almost no resistance, and the Qing troops defending the city have all surrendered when they hear the wind, in fact, there is no Qing army in Shandong at all - the main force of the Qing army has long been withdrawn to the capital, and only more than 10,000 green battalions are scattered throughout Shandong.

In this way, the battle basically becomes a march, and for the soldiers who have long been holding back a fire, they naturally yearn for battle, for honor, but in addition to the desire for honor and victory. What really put them in this kind of combat frenzy is that the soldiers of the 20th and 26th battalions have a common background, although most of the officers of the loyal and righteous army are from the martial arts hall, but the soldiers are all requisitioned from all over the country, and according to the principle of the loyal and righteous army, the soldiers of one place are often supplemented into a battalion, so that because of the similar accents, it is also extremely convenient to command, and most of the officers and soldiers of the 20th and 26th battalions come to Pizhou by themselves!

Pizhou!

When Dasu went south, the first city of Tu was Pizhou, and tens of thousands of people died tragically under the butcher's knife of the Qing army! Most of the officers and soldiers of the two battalions had their relatives slaughtered by the Qing army, and this massacre was not more than ten years ago, but only a few years ago, and they have been eager to avenge the death of their relatives and friends with their own hands.

Now that the enemy is standing in front of them, how can they not be thrilled by the thought that they can avenge their relatives and friends today. Although they were excited, they only glared at the Qing army, and the long-term training made them very clear that in battle, it was even more necessary to maintain formation.

"Two thousand cavalry, two thousand infantry, ......"

Observing the queue of the Qing army from the telescope, Xu Dayong's dare to lock his head tightly, this is the first time, and he feels a little tricky.

"Command, the enemy's infantry and cavalry are half, if our army takes the initiative to go out, then the enemy army may use cavalry to attack our army from the flank, and when the time comes, it is very likely that our army will not have time to form a phalanx to block the enemy's cavalry ......"

When Lin Yunping pointed out the predicament that the offensive might fall into, Xu Dayong only responded in a dull voice. How could he not know the plans of the Qing army, otherwise, if he had learned martial arts for half a year, then the annual spring and autumn exercises would be in vain.

"Tuhai...... Well, this guy, kind of interesting! ”

With the help of binoculars, you can vaguely see a group of people and horses between the cavalry and infantry of the Qing army, and Tuhai must be among them!

Although he has never fought with Tuhai, Xu Dayong has a certain understanding of Tuhai from the intelligence of the military department, after the Chu army left Taihang, several remarkable victories of the Qing army were fought by Tuhai, even if they use firearms, they may not be able to take advantage, just like now.

It's a pity that it's too far away, if it could be closer...... If a few shells pass, maybe there will be a hidden danger.

There are two thousand horses each, which is not much, but now these thousands of people and horses are in the hands of Tuhai, but it seems a little tricky. Let's use artillery bombardment, the distance is too far, the infantry is approaching, and you have to take care of the cavalry of the Qing army.

You can't just just do it!

"Pass my orders!"

After hesitating for a moment, Xu Dayong gave the order.

"Twenty battalions are one mile ahead."

As soon as the order was given here, the officers and men of the 20th Battalion immediately moved forward to the beat of the drum. The red front is very eye-catching among the green sorghum fields, like a red line, slowly advancing.

"Lord Dutong, Ming Dog has moved!"

Looking at the red line that had already moved, Tu Hai didn't say anything, just nodded silently. He's not in a hurry, he's waiting for an opportunity.

From the first time he fought with the Ming army, he has been thinking about how to crack the opponent's firearms, and in the battle with the Chu army, he has made many attempts, and the harvest can be described as quite rich - defeating several Chu troops before and after, killing more than 10,000 enemies before and after, of course, this is not the most important, the important thing is that he captured a large number of firearms. Just like the two thousand infantry under his command, they all used the stone hair guns (flintlock guns) of the Ming army, and these stone hair guns were captured by the Chu army.

"My lord, shall we move now?"

"Wait!"

Ten minutes later, the red line six miles away stopped at a distance of five miles from the Qing army, followed by the artillery team, which moved one mile before the artillery team under the cover of the cavalry. Almost at the same time as the other infantry of the Ming army moved, Tu Hai sneered.

"The Ming army wants to advance and retreat 100 zhang!"

Really!

The retreat of the Qing army made the corners of Xu Dayong's lips twitch, and a sneer appeared on his face. Everything was expected by him, and the Qing army wanted to distance himself from him.

"Twenty-sixth battalion...... Go two miles! ”

After the 26th Battalion exceeded the 20th Battalion and 50 Zhang, Xu Dayong once again issued an order, and the artillery was in front, and after 100 zhang, the 20th Battalion was in the front again. And when the Ming army alternately covered the advance, Tuhai only ordered the troops to retreat from time to time, and did not give him a chance to accept it at all. But after repeating this several times, the distance between the two sides was still shortened, because for the first time, the distance of the Qing army's retreat was only 100 zhang, or even dozens of zhang.

Of course, the actions of the Qing army are naturally also in Xu Dayong's eyes,

"Tuhai wants to open the distance, but he doesn't want to open too much, he wants to show a flaw to me, and then induce me to take the initiative to attack, as soon as I give the order to attack, he will use cavalry to attack my flank, we are more infantry, less cavalry, he is half of the cavalry, if it is too late to change formation, when the time comes, it will be his turn to play prestige...... Now that I am comparing patience with him, I still don't believe that he can still withdraw hundreds of miles like this! ”

Xu Dayong is not in a hurry, the most taboo thing in the war is to be anxious, when the pace of the soldiers moves with the sound of drums, he will occasionally look at the Qing army in the distance, where he calculates the distance of the Qing army, calculating whether he can use artillery to attack the Qing army.

"The firing range of the nine-pound cannon is four miles ......"

The nine-pound cannon is the most important artillery of the infantry unit of the Loyal Army, and each battalion is equipped with a field artillery brigade, although each infantry brigade of the Loyal Army is equipped with a squad of mortars, but the field artillery is the most widely used field artillery, after all, the range of mortars is too close. Compared with the mortar guns with a firing range of only 200 zhang, the nine-jin shells fired by the nine-jin guns are driven by the two-kilogram standard firing charge, and the shells are accurately projected to a distance of three miles at an angle of 5 degrees, and when the firing angle is 10 degrees, they can reach an astonishing four miles, although there is a slight difference of several tens of zhang from the distance of four miles.

"The distance is ...... now"

Again, Xu Dayong gave a thumbs up and roughly estimated the distance.

"Sir, it's about 4 miles and a hundred zhang."

However, Xu Dayong didn't pay attention to the distance given by Lin Yunping, he was still thinking there, calculating the possibility of doing so.

"Staff Officer Wang, if we concentrate all 48 nine-pound guns, how many shells can they fire in one minute?"

Does the command want to shell...... Lin Yunping looked at the commander in surprise, and then looked at the Qing army four miles away, and the cannonballs at this distance couldn't hit it at all. Moreover...... Even if you hit it, it's useless!

Xu Dayong stared at Wang Liangping, the rank on his collar was different from the crossed bamboo knots that ordinary staff officers symbolized "strategizing", with bamboo knots on one side and two crossed barrels on the other, he was an artillery staff officer. In the temporary command headquarters, the duty of the artillery staff officer is to provide the chief officer with advice on artillery operations, and they know more about artillery than ordinary staff officers. This is also the reason why Xu Dayong asked him.

"How many shots can be made!"