As the thieves' attention was attracted to Qi County, they sent out more and more sentries. When Qian Er's cavalry troops could not cope with it, he had to start using infantry troops to surround some small groups of thieves who crossed the border and annihilate them.

However, there are a large number of thieves, and there are many small troops entering the territory of Qixian County, so it is inevitable that there will be those who cannot be taken care of. The thieves began to attack the village, but they were all repelled by the people in the village, except for trampling on a lot of wheat seedlings, there was no major loss. However, because of this ever-expanding sentry war, Qian Er got more than 100 war horses, which is not a small gain.

The thieves in Chenliu finally found Sun Shenzu's body, and while reporting to Luo Rucai, they mobilized a large army to take revenge on those villages first. Sun Shenzu's troops had nearly 10,000 troops, but only 3,000 people could fight, and the rest were homeless.

After Qian Er got the report, he went out with 3,000 men. Near the main road on the border, fight this gang of thieves. It's a real battle, not a defensive battle after they've always been surrounded.

Because Luo Rucai's troops are accustomed to fighting against the official army, they have more cavalry, reaching nearly fifty percent, so as long as the official army is defeated, they will be chased and killed. Li Zicheng's troops were weaker in field battles, but on the contrary, they had a lot of experience in siege.

Both sides lined up in a line, first confronting each other, and then the thieves attacked first. They let a thousand foot soldiers, with three thousand homeless people, attack first.

Qian Er, on the other hand, put the thieves within one hundred and twenty steps, first blew up the thieves' team with forty tiger squat cannons, and then greeted them with crossbow arrows. It didn't take half an hour to kill and wound more than half of the thieves' attacking troops. And he hasn't used those ten three-inch cannons yet.

Seeing that this group of officers and soldiers had many artillery pieces and a strict formation, the thieves did not dare to attack again, but they were not willing to retreat like this. After all, they still have a thousand soldiers, a thousand cavalry, and more than 4,000 auxiliaries, while the officers and soldiers on the opposite side are only two or three thousand.

The two sides continued to confront each other, and for nearly half an hour, neither side had any intention of attacking.

In the end, Qian Er saw that there were not many thieves, and wanted to try the ability of the troops to attack, so he took the initiative to attack. However, he did not divide his troops to attack, but advanced with his whole army. More than a dozen drums beat the drum together, and the drums of "dong", "dong", and "dong" resounded throughout the field, and the soldiers stepped on the drums and advanced step by step.

The thieves were stunned, but they had never seen thousands of people march together in such a neat order. The entire array advanced slowly to the beat of the drums, and there was no sign of distraction. And this is not a little distance, the officers and soldiers have already advanced more than 300 steps.

At this time, the two armies were more than two hundred paces apart, and the leaders of those thieves originally wanted to send cavalry to attack the official army, but they didn't see the slightest flaw in the ranks of the official army for a long time, so they never attacked.

Qian Er carefully observed the movements of the thieves, and every dozen steps he would let the troops adjust, and then continue to advance. At the same time, it also allows the artillery with the cannon to keep up with the team and fire at any time. The rogue's cavalry is large enough, so he must be careful or he will be defeated.

The leaders of the bandits finally came up with a solution, and began to let the cavalry detour the two flanks of the official army, so as to disrupt the position of the official army. As long as the officers and troops are in chaos, their opportunity will come.

Qian Er saw the thief's cavalry running far on both sides, and he knew what the thief's idea was. Fortunately, his army was wide enough, and those thieves went around far enough to get behind them smoothly.

Qian Er immediately ordered: "Change the formation!" Hollow phalanx! ”

After receiving the order, the troops in the front and center immediately defended on the spot, while the Tiger Squat artillery units successively withdrew to similar positions and placed their artillery, facing all sides, to provide necessary cover for the troops. The three-inch guns on both sides also retreated first under the order of the gun commander, and then placed the guns in a suitable position after the troops were in formation. As for the baggage and cavalry, their current position does not need to be moved at all.

This kind of formation change is a compulsory course for them, and they will train almost once a day or two. Therefore, although the troops can be said to be passively changing formations, they are busy but not chaotic. Everyone knew where they were, so the change of troops was unusually fast.

By the time the thieves' cavalry began to approach Qian Er, the Tiger Squat Cannon was ready. Although the hollow phalanx has not yet been adjusted at this time, it has passed the most dangerous period.

"Frontal artillery fired, and the other three-sided tiger squat guns fired with all their might to stop the enemy's cavalry from approaching." Qian Er quickly ordered.

At this time, the thief's cavalry was still three hundred paces away, and even with the approach speed of the cavalry, the tiger squat cannon would basically not be able to hit such a long distance. However, this is not the time to kill or injure the enemy, but to use the explosion of cannonballs to scare the enemy's horses, and it is best to let them flee in fright, so that the troops can line up more safely. Once they have adjusted the hollow phalanx and the artillery is in place, they can handle no matter how many thieves there are.

"Boom", "boom", "boom" explosions suddenly began to sound, and in addition to the front, the other three sides were one hundred and thirty paces away, and there were smoke and dust billowed from the explosion. The rogue cavalry who were charging were terrified, they had never seen such a battle before. In the past, even if there was artillery in the officers and soldiers, it was just a little noise and some white smoke. But this time, it was like a thunderous explosion, and the flying sand and rocks, and the smoke and dust were all over the sky, so that they did not dare to rush over, and their war horses were even more afraid.

So the thieves' cavalry finally stopped, either actively or passively, and retreated to the rear. At the same time, the thieves in front of them also began to retreat, because they were attacked by the shotgun of the three-inch gun.

The distance of two hundred steps is exactly within the attack distance of the shotgun, even if it exceeds two hundred steps, it can be hit with the largest projectile pack, but the damage to the artillery is relatively large. However, this method will only be used in special circumstances, after all, the safety of the entire military formation, and the final victory are the most important. If it fails, the artillery will be someone else's, and it will be useless to protect it.

After this round of artillery firing in full force, the thieves finally retreated and the crisis was resolved.

Qian Er finally breathed a sigh of relief, if the troops were defeated because of one of his attempts this time, then he would be the first general to be defeated, and his future in the team would be considered to be over. Fortunately, the usual training did not fall behind, so that the tragedy did not happen. At this time, there was only one word in his mind: caution.

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