Luo Rucai saw that the horses did not rush into Li Yan's military formation, and he could only scold the beast who had no long eyes. After that, it is necessary to put out the fire quickly, so as not to burn all his little baggage. Moreover, he had to gather soldiers to guard against Li Yan from taking advantage of the chaos to attack him.

After a while, sporadic soldiers ran back. After a while, the black bull also rushed over with seven or eight hundred people.

Luo Rucai stepped forward and kicked down the black bull who had not yet breathed. He roared, "What did you do with it? That's how you warned me? ”

The black bull said aggrievedly: "I don't know what's going on." Suddenly the camp exploded, and the horses were startled, and the brothers were all panicked. If I hadn't packed up in time, I wouldn't have been able to bring these hundreds of brothers with me. By the way, the officers and troops are behind, so the big boss should hurry up and defend. ”

Before Luo Rucai could speak, a cavalryman ran over and reported loudly on his horse: "General, there are officers and soldiers coming from the south, about two thousand." ”

"General," another cavalryman came running over, "and there are officers and troops coming from the west, following our rout, and coming soon." ”

Luo Rucai hurriedly ordered: "If you enter three hundred steps, you will open fire, and if you enter a hundred steps, you will release arrows."

"The big boss is all his own people, let them come." The black bull immediately interceded. Those were all his subordinates, and he took out two thousand people, and here there are at most a thousand people. And there was a part of the cavalry that came back, not counting his men, if he really carried out Luo Rucai's order, then he would really suffer heavy losses.

Luo Rucai waved his hand and asked the herald to give the order. After that, he promised the black bull: "When you go back, the strong man will pick you first"

Black Bull could only agree at this time. Let him replenish the strong man first, which is already the greatest compensation for him. If he didn't know each other again, in the face of the danger that the entire army might be wiped out, his more than 1,000 people would be nothing.

With Luo Rucai's order, his men placed a few cannons and two hundred archers on the west side to prevent the rout from storming the camp.

The thieves who had fled back did not dare to run any further when they saw the battalion firing at them. There was also the pursuit of the officers and soldiers, and those officers and soldiers were lined up with crossbow arrows, and the damage to them was not small. They were attacked and killed on both sides, and they all knelt helplessly, crying and wailing.

Li Zhong stopped four hundred paces away and asked the thieves to surrender, while the three-inch cannon began to suppress the thieves' cannons. Fortunately, yesterday Li Yan had already damaged several cannons that could fight 400 paces among the thieves, and now they were all placed on the east border to guard against Li Yan, so Li Zhong and they fought very easily.

The thieves in the middle wanted to take advantage of the official army to stop and run towards their camp, but a feathered arrow was shot in the camp, and the red feathers on the yellow earth were particularly conspicuous. The thieves knew that as soon as they came within reach of the red feathered arrows, they would fire the arrows from the opposite side.

These six or seven hundred thieves who fled, in addition to those who rushed over and were shot by their own people, there were also four or five hundred people lying in the open space between the two armies, waiting for their fate.

Soon, Li Zhong's artillery hit one of the thieves' cannons, which frightened the thieves, so they had to retreat. Those thieves also became Li Zhong's captives.

Li Zhong asked these people to be tied up and handed over to the baggage soldiers behind him to guard, and then continued to advance, so as to catch up with the pace of the other troops and form an encirclement of Luo Rucai's troops.

Li Yan only remembered at this time, he drove the horses to the north, where there was still his encirclement force. At this time, the troops from the south had already sent people to make contact, but the troops from the north did not move. Therefore, Li Yan did not dare to launch an attack at this time, and he had to wait for news from the north.

Luo Rucai also seemed to have discovered the loophole in the north, so he sent someone to investigate first. If there really were no officers and troops in the north, he would retreat from the north first, and then come back to the field after gathering his men.

However, the result was to disappoint him, and his scouts had only been out for a while, and then they came back to report that there were also officers and troops in the north, and they were also approaching here in formation.

At this time, Li Yan also received a message from Qian Er, it turned out that when they saw the horses coming, they had no time to prepare, so they had to let the road open. However, the herd of horses was too large, and after all, more than 60 people were trampled to death and injured. They waited for the horses to pass before they regrouped, so they came a little late. But fortunately, they did not delay Li Yan's plan to encircle.

Li Yan finally ordered: "Send a signal to attack"

His men immediately launched two fireworks into the sky, two green fireworks, which were the signal of their agreed attack.

The drums of "dong" and "dong" were first beaten by Li Yan, and then the south, west, and north were all beaten one after another. The monotonous beat of drums echoed through the wilderness, getting louder and louder.

Li Yan's troops from all walks of life were all stepping on the drum and slowly approached Luo Rucai's camp.

Luo Rucai instructed: "I also want to see if the artillery is arranged around the camp and the crossbowmen, can he Li Yan break his military formation, and let the cavalry take care of the war horses for me, if I let the war horses run away, I will wipe my neck."

As soon as the soldiers left, someone under his command reminded: "General, our artillery is not as far as Li Yan's." ”

Luo Rucai roared angrily: "They are all dead people? Don't know how to build a high platform? ”

"It's too late." The subordinate said helplessly.

Luo Rucai ordered: "Divide a thousand people, dig and build a platform with all your might, start now"

The subordinates of "Obey" did not dare to delay any longer, and immediately ran out to let the soldiers build an earthen platform. In fact, their current idea is to break through immediately and stop entangled with Li Yan. They only have 10,000 horses here, and Li Yan who attacked is about the same number, and there are many more powerful artillery pieces than them, so they don't have the confidence to win at all.

But their big boss had to fight, and they had to accompany him. Fortunately, they also had a simple camp, which could be beneficial to their defense, and it could be regarded as giving them a little hope of holding on.

Li Yan's troops still slowly advanced forward, eight hundred steps, six hundred steps, five hundred steps. They finally stopped, knowing that the thieves' artillery could not reach this distance. And their artillery, on the other hand, could hit the enemy's camp.

"Boom", "boom" artillery fire began to fire, and the projectiles were mainly used to hit the artillery in the bandit camp first, so as to clear the way for the troops to advance closer in a moment.

However, Li Yan's side did not let all the artillery fire, but transferred four artillery pieces from his own artillery and sent them to various units. There are only three or four artillery pieces they carry, and the deterrent effect against the thieves is still relatively weak, especially to the west of Li Zhong, which is the first place for the thieves to escape, and they need the help of artillery. Fortunately, his gun carriage and ammunition truck were dragged by mules and horses, and the speed of movement was very fast, so it would not have any impact on the battle.

...