Li Yan rode a horse behind the team and slowly advanced. They were now five hundred paces away from the thieves' infantry, and the thieves' cavalry was concentrated on the flanks of the troops, and did not dare to come out again to stop their advance.

Shi Jincai was very reluctant to cross the river with his troops. He now has 5,000 subordinates, but in addition to the 500 people under his command who are well trained, there are still 500 people who are half trained, and the remaining 4,000 people were allocated to him after being defeated by Li Yan.

He slowly crossed the bridge with his troops, but there were people on both sides of Li Zicheng and Li Guo who kept urging him to speed up. He was unwilling to confront Li Yan head-on, his troops could still have some advantages against other officers and soldiers, but when they met Li Yan's troops, they would be children meeting adults.

Although his troops are also the same as Li Yan's, and their training is similar, his equipment is not as neat as Li Yan's. There were only thirty percent of the crossbow arrows, and the insufficient part was replaced by bows and arrows, which was still the equipment he had when he was originally a thousand-man man. Now there are only more than one percent of crossbow arrows, and other troops are now rushing to equip crossbow arrows, and even fewer are in his hands.

As for artillery, he didn't have any of them, so he could only use artillery to support them. Moreover, these artillery, the best of which is a general cannon of more than three inches, is not as far as Li Yan's Franc machine gun. Although he had been with Li Yan for more than a year, he had never come into contact with artillery, but he only knew that the solid shell of the Franc machine gun could hit 400 steps, and the grape shell could hit 150 steps.

He didn't have contact with Li Yan's troops outside Kaifeng City last time, but he also knew that Li Yan could now shoot more than 200 steps with grapeshit. As for solid bullets, he didn't know how far he could hit.

Shi Jincai glanced forward on his horse, most of his troops had already crossed the bridge, and Li Yan's troops were only four or five hundred steps away from their line.

He immediately rode to the front, and after finding Li Guo and Yuan Zongdi, he immediately suggested: "Two generals, you must open artillery now, and you can't let Li Yan's troops advance anymore." ”

"It's still 400 steps away, and I can't beat it." Li Guo frowned and glanced at Shi Jincai, feeling that Shi Jincai was not as calm as usual at this time.

Shi Jincai immediately explained: "Li Yan's artillery will definitely be able to hit four hundred paces away, and the closer it gets, the more accurate it will be." If he had taken three hundred steps, all of our cannons would have been destroyed in a quarter of an hour. ”

Yuan Zongdi opened his mouth and said: "What's the use of not being able to hit?" ”

"Raise the muzzle of the cannon, add a little more gunpowder, and add the bounce of the projectile, which should be able to cause a little damage to Li Yan." Shi Jincai said quickly: "Li Yan cares about the lives of his subordinates, as long as we can hit even one shell, they will stop, and even retreat." ”

Li Guo thought for a moment, nodded and said, "Okay, you go and command." ”

"General Xie." Shi Jincai hugged his fists and thanked him, and then immediately went to find the commander of the artillery with Li Guo's personal soldiers.

After Shi Jincai told the artillery commander his request, the artillery commander waved his hand impatiently and said, "You don't understand artillery, don't make up your mind." The dosage will blow up! Raising the cannon will make the cannon turn over! ”

"I know better than you!" Shi Jincai pointed at Li Yan's troops who had already entered three hundred and fifty steps and roared, "You can always hit it now, right?" Hurry up and fire! ”

The artillery commander said coldly: "No! You have to wait until you get three hundred steps. ”

"Fire now! This is General Lee's order! Shi Jincai pulled out his knife and shouted: "If you dare to delay any longer, Lao Tzu will kill you!" ”

The artillery commander stiffened his neck and said, "Without me, which of you can command my brother?!" ”

This guy is an officer who surrendered, and the gunners are basically surrendered or captured by the artillery of the official army, so this guy still has some capital in his hands.

At this time, Li Guo and Yuan Zongdi also came over. Li Guo said condescendingly: "He Mengyang! Fire now! Our rebels don't lack you as a general! ”

As soon as He Mengyang saw that it was Li Guo, he immediately wilted. Li Guo is not Shi Jincai, just a middle-level officer. That is Li Zicheng's nephew, the veteran of the rebel army. Li Guo said that killing him was a matter of one sentence, so he immediately hugged his fists and said: "Humble obedience!" That's the shot! ”

Immediately after saying that, he gave orders to his own soldiers and asked them to give orders to the various gun emplacements. According to Shi Jincai's suggestion, the dosage was added, the muzzle of the gun was raised, and the odd and even numbers were fired in turn. At this time, Li Yan's troops had already advanced to a distance of three hundred paces.

"Boom", "boom" artillery fire began to fire, whether it was three inches, two inches, or smaller. The artillerymen, on the other hand, ran far away, fearing that the bore would explode or the artillery would turn over due to recoil. They ran quite in time, and one of the guns did flip off the gun carriage with its head turned over, and the jingle bell bounced twice on the ground before it stopped.

A small-caliber projectile, even with gunpowder, will not be fired far. The projectiles fired by the three-inch general cannon and the Furlong cannon successfully flew into Li Yan's military formation.

"Ahh Several soldiers screamed and fell in pools of blood.

Li Yan looked at the artillery fired by the thieves and found that some of the artillery was fired, while some were not fired. And those artillery that did not fire, also began to fire very quickly.

"Ahh Two more shells entered his ranks, and six or seven soldiers were killed and wounded by the projectiles.

Li Yan frowned and said, "Order the troops to stop advancing and retreat seventy steps!" ”

He had to defeat the rogue's artillery from a relatively safe distance before he could destroy the rogue's infantry. His soldiers are already few, and they must be cherished extraordinarily, and the soldiers cannot be sacrificed in vain. He felt that it should be safer to retreat to a distance of about four hundred paces.

"Good!" Li Guo said happily: "Li Yan began to retreat, hahaha, he is really afraid!" Shi Jincai, you are good. ”

Shi Jincai clenched his fists and said, "General Xie." But now it is necessary to continue firing the artillery, while Li Yan's artillery is moving, there is no way to fight back, give him more damage. Once his formation stops, our artillery must retreat, and he must not destroy our cannon. When he moves forward again, we can continue firing. In this way, our army will be able to come back a little more. ”

At this time, He Mengyang hugged his fists and persuaded: "General Li, there is already a general cannon that has exploded, and a general cannon and a Franc machine gun have been turned over from the gun truck, and they can't be fired anymore." ”

"Keep fighting!" Li Guo ordered. Now he has a lot of trust in Shi Jincai, after all, this is the first time they have contained Li Yan's troops.

And Li Yan, who was retreating, realized that there might be Shi Jincai opposite him, a traitor who left his team.

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