On the fifth day of the fifth month of May, the Western Route Army of the Huben Army invaded Ningling County, Henan. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Ningling County is a county in eastern Henan, adjacent to Shandong Province. The Western Route Army sent by Li Zhi would inevitably pass through this place if they wanted to attack Li Zicheng's hinterland of Henan.

The eastern border of Henan is the flat North China Plain, with thousands of miles of fertile fields. At this time, the winter wheat has been harvested, and only the harvested wheat stubble can be seen in the fields on both sides of the official road, and the four fields are bare. However, after all, it was a harvest of grain, and although the villages on both sides of the official road were not full of people, you could see the smoke of cooking rice from time to time, and it did not look as desolate as in the past.

After Li Zicheng was exempted from taxation in Henan, Henan's production gradually recovered. Those who survived the years of famine began to live a normal life.

Han Jinxin's informant reported that Li Ziwei was still in Shaanxi at this time, and was commanding an army of 100,000 to besiege Xi'an City. The city of Xi'an has high walls and thick walls, and there are many palaces in the city, which is a fortified city that does not fall. But unfortunately, the 60,000 Shaanxi army has all been defeated in Henan, and there are only a few thousand garrison soldiers and horses and a few thousand township soldiers left in Xi'an City, and the morale is low, and it is only a matter of time before it falls.

Li Zicheng apparently learned that Li Zhi was going to attack him, and deployed heavy troops in eastern Henan. As soon as Li Xing and Li Laosi led 30,000 people into the territory of Ningling County, they were immediately surrounded by the intruding army.

At this time, smoke and dust were billowing from the periphery of the Western Route Army. The war horses of the invading army galloped back and forth around the 30,000 tiger army, raising a dust mist like a sandstorm in the continuous wheat fields.

The Chuang army had a large number of cavalry.

The Ming Dynasty implemented the horse policy of private horse breeding, Hongwu six years customized, every 11 households in the south of the Yangtze River raised 1 horse, and each household in the north of the Yangtze River raised a horse, and the government provided good horses, and the horse households were exempted from their servitude. Later, the horse policy changed, changed to raise horses according to Ding, Yongle 12 years from the north Zhili to the north and south of the Yangtze River, first every 15 Ding to raise 1 horse, 16 Ding or more to raise 2 horses, after the number of Ding has changed repeatedly, where the horse dies and breeds not enough, must be compensated. Later, the policy changed again, and in the second year of Hongzhi, Beizhili began to promote free grain horse breeding, adopting 1 stallion per 50 acres of land and 1 mare for 100 acres.

But no matter which way of horse administration, it can be seen that the number of horses raised in the Ming Dynasty was huge. During the Hongzhi period, Yang Yiqing, a famous minister, supervised the Shaanxi horse administration for four years, and Yi Ma reached 19,070 horses. Shaanxi Province alone has sold nearly 20,000 military horses in four years, and the stock of private horses is obviously more than ten times the volume of this transaction, which shows that the stock of private horses in Shaanxi Province is huge.

The Ming court requisitioned civilian horses, and also paid attention to what they could, and only required the people to hand over a certain number of military horses in proportion. But the thieves didn't care so much, and when the intruders arrived, they immediately robbed the local horses.

The thieves have robbed countless military horses in Henan over the years. Now that the whole territory of Shaanxi is occupied, I don't know how much I have robbed. As a result, the older foot soldiers in the army can get horses to become horse soldiers, and even become horsemen with two horses.

These cavalrymen may not be professional cavalrymen, they may just be foot soldiers who have been riding for a few months, but they still have considerable impact power. Because only a small part of the impact of the cavalry comes from the knight's martial arts, and most of it comes from the momentum of the horse itself. A military horse weighing several hundred pounds ran at high speed, like a tank in this era.

For the riflemen of the Tiger Army, the cavalry charging at high speed was the most difficult to deal with. When the cavalry rushed in from a few hundred meters away, the riflemen had only a limited chance to shoot. Once those few limited shots could not crush the cavalry, it would enter brutal hand-to-hand combat.

At this time, on the land of Ningling County, the cavalry army of the invading army seemed to be showing off their might around the Tiger Ben Army, circling around the Tiger Ben Army, but they did not come up to fight.

The soldiers of the Tiger Army, surrounded by these cavalry, were a little nervous, and formed a retrospective formation, loading bullets and gunpowder in the chambers of their guns. The gun carriages of several hundred heavy guns were also unloaded, and the muzzles of the guns were placed in the formation of the formation, and they began to shoot sporadically at the cavalry in the distance.

However, the invading army was too far away, and the artillery could not hit any target even if it fired solid bullets, so it could only be regarded as a strong momentum.

The cavalry of the invading army was always surrounded by the perimeter. Sometimes when they were tired of running, these thieves would gather together to rest, and always keep four or five miles away from the tiger army, eyeing the tiger.

Li Xing used a telescope to observe the cavalry that broke into the army, and snorted coldly and said, "The thieves are poorly equipped and vulnerable. ”

The Chuang army is not comparable to the Qing army, and there are not a large number of blacksmiths to make armor for them. Even the non-commissioned officers who defected from the official army had at most a set of cotton armor. Compared with the Qing army and the Jiangbei army, the armament of the intrusive army is very cold. The cavalry of the invading army had nothing but a horse and a sabre.

Li Laosi groaned and said: "However, there are too many horse troops in the army, I think this kind of momentum is at least tens of thousands of horse troops, and we can't ignore it." ”

Li Laosi remembered the cavalry charge that faced Huang Taiji in Jinzhou. More than 10,000 soldiers of the Tiger Army fought hard, and finally were rushed into the battle by the 50,000 cavalry of the Tartars, suffering heavy casualties. Now the soldiers of the Western Route Army are twice as many as they were at the beginning, but the number of cavalry of the invading army is probably three times that of the original Tartar cavalry.

Of course, today's Western Route Army is more sophisticated, with sixty percent of riflemen equipped with scopes that can shoot the enemy at a distance of 400 meters. But in any case, Li Laosi felt that 30,000 people against 100,000 cavalry had no certainty of victory.

What's more, there are still hundreds of thousands of foot soldiers available in the intruding army.

"Look at the banner of the intruding army, it is the general Liu Zongmin and Hao Shaoqi who are in command." Li Laosi thought for a while and said: "Zheng Kaicheng is right, without 40,000 infantry, we may not have an advantage over the Shangchuang army." Our 30,000 men have invaded Henan, and this battle is expected to be very hard. ”

Li Xing looked at Li Laosi, snorted out of his nostrils, and said, "Li Laosi, I don't seem to have the intention of fighting to the death with us. ”

Li Laosi looked up at the intruding cavalry on the periphery and nodded. Obviously, the intruding army was using the mobility of the cavalry to harass the Tiger Army, so that the Tiger Ben Division could not advance.

Li Laosi thought for a while and said, "The thieves don't seek a decisive battle, they seem to be waiting for something." ”

Li Xing asked: "Li Laosi, what are you waiting for?" ”

Li Laosi said: "The thieves are cunning, I'm afraid the thieves also know that we and the Jiangbei Army are mortal enemies, and they are waiting for the Jiangbei Army to attack our southern route." When our southern road is tight, and even when we have to deploy troops and horses to help defend the southern road, the intrusive army will really come up and fight a decisive battle with us. ”

Hearing Li Laosi's analysis, Li Xing looked at Liu Zongmin's banner in the distance and snorted coldly.

Li Laosi looked at the baggage team in the Huiyan formation and said, "Brother clan, the army is harassing us so much, we can't move forward anymore." If you move forward, you will not be able to hold the grain road. ”

Li Xing pondered for a while and sighed.

"Let's set up a village, send a messenger to the eldest brother, tell the eldest brother about the situation here, and see what countermeasures the eldest brother has."