In mid-March, after waiting for more than half a month in Zhecheng, Li Yan finally got the news that Li Zicheng set out from Chenzhou and went north to attack Taikang.

At this time, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, and Li Zicheng finally went north according to Tian Yong's report. If Li Zicheng stayed in Chenzhou any longer, he would have to consider changing the arrangement and take the initiative to attack Li Zicheng.

After receiving Tian Yong's news, they began to discuss countermeasures. Li Zicheng has a strong army, and they can divide it into several routes, but they can't divide their troops, so they can only concentrate their forces to fight one way first, and the other two roads hold on to wait for reinforcements. Fortunately, Li Zicheng only divided his troops into three routes, and if there were a few more routes, their defensive forces would not be enough.

In the end, they decided to use the main force against the enemy who came out of Taikang. Because as soon as Taikang left the city, it was the vortex river, which was just right to take advantage of the enemy's crossing of the river to block the attack. As for Qixian and Suizhou, they can only adopt the method of forts and mobile defense of the troops first, and resist for a while.

If he can successfully intercept the enemy in Taikang, Li Zicheng will have to divide his troops from other places if he wants to attack Qixian and Suizhou at the same time, which will buy time for Qixian and Suizhou.

For this operation, a large amount of ammunition and arrows were brought from Qixian to ensure that Li Yan's main force of 15,000 could have enough ammunition. After all, Qixian is far away from Taikang, and there are many enemies, so there will be some difficulties in transporting them in wartime.

Li Zicheng's army of 500,000 is not imaginary, although there are only 70,000 or 80,000 experienced subordinates, but those strong men who have undergone some training are much stronger than the homeless. Along the way, more than a dozen county towns were captured, which also trained the team and multiplied the troops that could be called soldiers.

Although Taikang County has been preparing for more than half a month, there are no foreign reinforcements, and the people in the city are also frightened, and all those who can run have run away, leaving only the old and weak women and children in the city. So in just one day, Taikang County was breached.

Li Zicheng rested in Taikang for a day, and immediately ordered to cross the vortex river eastward. The direction of attack of each team has been decided, Li Zicheng personally led the team to attack Qixian, Luo Rucai took his team to attack Suizhou, and Liu Zongmin was responsible for attacking Zhecheng.

There were 500,000 of them, so naturally they could not cross the river together. Of the three troops, only Li Zicheng's troops crossed the river directly from the bridge in the north, while Luo Rucai and Liu Zongmin built their own pontoon bridges to cross the river. Even if they divided their troops this time, they also learned from Luo Rucai's lesson, and they still gathered together to attack, so they didn't send scout detectives. They can't wait to meet Li Yan's main force, as long as half of the troops are divided to besiege, the other troops can attack those villages and county seats.

Li Yan is hidden in the Bali kiln north of Taikang, which is a little more than eight miles away from the county seat. He sent a sentry to reconnoiter early, so as soon as Li Zicheng crossed the river, he received the news. And began to prepare the troops, and then advance towards the vortex.

He led his troops to appear when Li Zicheng was at a sight distance from them, and Li Zicheng had just passed 30,000 horses. Li Yan led his troops to advance quickly, and this time he did not let the troops form a hollow phalanx, but lined up in a line and pressed against Li Zicheng's troops who had just crossed the river in front.

He knew that the other two enemies were still building pontoon bridges, and he still had time to annihilate these thieves who crossed the river and seal the bridge, and then deal with the other two bandits.

It was Li Guo who led the team to cross the river, and as soon as he saw Li Yan's troops coming, he immediately let the chaotic troops start to form a formation. And the only 2,000 cavalry were also quickly concentrated on the side, planning to deter Li Yan first, so that Li Yan would not advance too fast.

But as soon as his cavalry was sent out, the cavalry on Li Yan's side was also sent out-for-tat. At this time, his cavalry did not dare to directly attack Li Yan's infantry, so he could only stop the scattered ranks first, line up the line, and prepare to deal with the cavalry of the official army first.

Li Guo said suspiciously: "Li Yan will also have so many cavalry?" ”

Yuan Zongdi frowned and said, "I don't know." I don't know how powerful his cavalry is, but I look at their armor well. Alas, this Li Yan is really powerful, in order to get those 100 tiger squatting cannons, we have to search the bronzes of several counties before we come together. But his more than 1,000 cavalrymen each have a piece of chain mail. ”

Li Guo said fiercely: "I haven't seen it before, I don't believe it, all his troops are as powerful as his artillery!" Then he commanded his own soldiers: "Inform the cavalry, charge into battle!" ”

Regardless of whether Li Yan's cavalry was powerful enough, he didn't plan to take the risk himself. Moreover, the cavalry hedge itself is very dangerous, and if one is not careful, he will fall off his horse and die, and he is still watching from behind.

Bai Shixiong, who had already lined up the formation, immediately ordered: "Check the bullets." ”

The four platoons of cavalry were all quick to stab their handcuffs twice with the strip again, and then inserted them in the blankets.

"Ready, charge!" After Bai Shixiong checked his handcuffs, he waited for a while and immediately ordered loudly. At the same time, he knocked the horse's belly and rushed forward first.

The rest of the cavalry moved up as well, and then the ranks slowly spread out as they ran, six or seven paces apart, and rushed towards the thieves' cavalry. They all hold a steel whip in their left hand and control their horses with a grip on the reins. The right hand is empty, and wait until the enemy's cavalry is close to fifty or sixty paces before taking out the handcuff, otherwise the firearm will be held in the hand for a long time, and the ammunition inside may loosen.

At this time, the cavalry of the thieves also rushed up, and they raised their weapons in their hands, and rushed out with a howl. They also lined up four lines, but they were wider than Bai Shixiong.

The sound of rumbling horses' hooves resounded through the field, and it seemed that the whole earth trembled. The cavalry of both sides approached quickly.

Bai Shixiong and the others in the first row all looked at the enemy's cavalry, estimated the distance, quickly took the handgun out of the jacket, raised the gun and aimed. At the same time, pull down the striking iron with your thumb and get ready to shoot.

By the time they were ready, the distance between the two sides was less than twenty paces. "Bang", "bang", "bang" suddenly rang out, and the thieves who were about to throw their axes and short guns in their hands did not have time to react, and they all fell off their horses with screams.

There were dumb fires, or there were no hits, and these thieves who escaped the fate of death still threw the weapons in their hands and knocked Li Yan's cavalry off their horses.

Neither side cared about the casualties in the first platoon, and the others grabbed their weapons in their hands and began to hedge with cold weapons. They all slammed their weapons at the enemy rushing at the opposite side, and whether to defend or fight for their lives was a split-second decision, and as long as there was the slightest hesitation, death would follow.

The sound of shouts, the clashing of weapons, and the screams were mixed with the sound of horses' hooves, and they were heard in the distance. It is both exciting and terrifying.

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