Time passed quickly, and there was nothing in return. "Cripple Zhang" couldn't wait any longer, he ordered: "Go, let's go over, let the officers and soldiers see us." Again, don't rush too fast, and don't run too fast. Let the officers and soldiers chase after us, do you understand? ”

"Got it."

"Rest assured, leader."

……

His subordinates responded with fists clenched.

Everyone went to greet their men, and the old ones basically had horses and mules to travel, and the new ones followed on foot with knives and guns. After a long period of commotion, the team began to move in the direction of the officers and soldiers.

When he could see the officials and soldiers, "Zhang Cripple" was worried. Li Yan had already set up his military formation, and if he rushed over to fight, he would inevitably suffer heavy casualties. But if he didn't go over to fight, Li Yan wouldn't chase him, and he wouldn't be able to explain to Yuan Laoshan.

He commanded: "Let the foot soldiers take the lead, and the cavalry sweep behind." ”

"Chief." One of his subordinates said, "There are not many of them, there is a hole in the back, let's go around and rush around." If the official army is defeated, we will just chase and kill. ”

"Zhang Cripple" looked at Li Yan's military formation, which was indeed a little strange. The front is narrow, the wings are wide, and it is placed in a continuous wasteland, and it is a little strange to not lean around.

He finally shook his head and said, "Forget it, if Li Yan's troops were defeated so easily, he wouldn't have been promoted all the time." Back then, it was difficult for him to deal with when he only had a hundred and ten people, not to mention that there were more than a thousand people here. Let's just lead them over, and don't worry about the rest. ”

His men had no choice but to obey. Begin to prepare the troops. They don't have many people, so they can only attack head-on.

After a quarter of an hour, the thieves' infantry began to run with shouts, while the cavalry remained motionless.

There were more than 300 cavalry of the thieves, and with the threat of these cavalry, Li Yan did not dare to flatten the two wings, and still kept the original military formation unchanged to prevent the cavalry of the thieves from turning to the flank. Although the width of the front is small, only forty steps. But there are also two guns to help in the battle, and the firepower is not weak at all.

"Solid bullets!" The cannon commander commanded loudly. There are more enemies, and it is an infantry shock, and they have time to fire a solid bullet from a distance first, in order to demoralize the enemy.

Their Frankie cannon has been improved by no longer having wooden blocks in the tail gaps of the sub and mother guns, but two square holes in the tail of the mother cannon, and a square iron rod instead of a wooden block. The iron rod is inserted @ from the square hole, and the role of the fixed sub-cannon can be achieved.

"Put!" The cannon commander commanded loudly, and at the same time waved the small red flag in his hand downward.

The igniter lit the fuse with a long pole holding the fire rope, and soon the cannon was fired with a "boom".

The projectile quickly flew a distance of nearly two hundred paces and hit the head of a rogue, who disappeared directly. After that, it smashed on the body of a rogue, pierced directly, and splattered flesh and blood. Then he continued to fly, breaking one of the legs of the Rogue, two paces behind, and changing direction slightly, breaking the calf of the other Rogue. After jumping on the ground a few times, he killed and injured seven or eight thieves before finally losing his kinetic energy.

Although the two solid bullets caused nearly twenty casualties to the thieves, they were nothing to the more than a thousand thieves.

"Grape bombs!" The gunner commanded loudly again.

The loader immediately loaded the sub-cannon with the grapeshot, pierced the iron through the square hole hard, and after fixing it, shouted: "Load! ”

"Aim!" The cannon commander commanded loudly.

The aimer quickly adjusted the bolt connecting the tail of the cannon to the gun carriage, and then shouted, "Aim! ”

"Put!" The gunner commanded, and at the same time waved the small red flag raised above his head quickly.

After the igniter ignited for a while, there was a "boom", and the grape shell flew out of the muzzle. After flying out more than twenty paces, the linen cloth wrapped in the projectile was boiled, and the projectile broke free from its restraints and spread out in all directions. By the time they reached the thieves, the projectile had spread to a radius of five feet. More than 20 thieves within the strike range were instantly knocked down, and the other projectiles fell to the ground early, losing their lethality.

The two cannons fired alternately, and the sound of the cannons seemed to be without pause, and there would be a "boom" and "boom" in a few breaths. In a few moments, Li Yan's military formation was shrouded in white smoke. Fortunately, there is a small red flag of the gun commander, so that the ignition man knows when it is time to ignite and fire.

The rush of the thieves slowed down immediately, and they all began to shout in panic and dodge elsewhere, not daring to rush forward any longer. The artillery of the officers and soldiers was so powerful that with a single sound, they would be knocked down fifty or sixty people. Moreover, there seemed to be a lot of artillery in the official army, and they were always sounding one by one, which made them see no hope of rushing over.

"See?" "Cripple Zhang" pointed to the already chaotic foot soldiers and said, "If our cavalry rushes, will there be good fruits?" ”

His men were surprised and asked, "How many cannons do they have?" How does it sound like there are a lot of them? ”

"Don't you see that there are only two places where smoke comes from?" "Zhang Cripple" said: "There are two doors on the front, and there should be no less on the side." Blow the horn, let's withdraw. ”

The subordinates agreed, and after a while, the horn of "Woo~Woo~Woo~" and "Woo~Woo~~" sounded. The thieves, who had been in a panic, heard the horn of retreat and immediately turned and ran.

"Boom", "boom" After the last round of artillery, the cannon consciously stopped. They are all veteran artillery crews, and they already have the range of the artillery in mind, and their estimation of the distance is accurate, so they don't waste ammunition.

Li Mu put down the binoculars and said with a smile: "Next time, should we wait for the thieves to get closer before firing the cannon?" They ran early, and it was hard to chase them with cavalry. ”

Li Yan also smiled, shook his head and said, "It's okay if we have a lot of people, but not now." If you get closer, you can't stop it, and you will collapse. ”

Li Mu asked, "Do you want to send cavalry to pursue?" ”

"No need, send someone to follow and see where their brigade is." Li Yan thought for a moment and ordered: "Let people take a look, see if there are any alive, and bring them over and ask." ”

"Okay." Li Mu agreed, and then went to arrange.

After a while, Li Mu led people to escort a few thieves over. Although there were blood stains on the bodies of these thieves, it was the blood of others, and there were no injuries on them. They were all frightened, lying on the ground and not daring to move, and not daring to get up when they retreated, so they were captured.

"Their brigade is in the forest to the south, there are more than 20,000 people, and they want to ambush us." Li Mu reported. After that, he suggested: "Let's not go, right?" There are more than 20,000 of them. ”

Li Yan also hesitated, but after weighing it, he still ordered: "Let the troops rest for a while, and then let's go over and have a look." Send more people out to check the terrain. ”

...