"Damn" Tian Yong saw that a trebuchet had been broken, and that the momentum of the defenders at the head of the city was obviously high, so he cursed loudly: "Let the troops withdraw." ”

"General," one of his men galloped over on horseback, and after stopping, he reported, "the official army found five miles to the south, it should be Li Yan's troops." ”

"Li Yan?" Tian Yong frowned and asked, "Are you mistaken?" How could their troops come over so quickly? ”

The subordinate confirmed: "That's right, it's Li Yan's troops." I saw their outfits, and only they had military uniforms like that. ”

Tian Yong immediately ordered: "Give orders to the other troops as well, and let them retreat quickly." ”

"General," added the cavalry men, "there are not many of them, only seven or eight hundred." ”

Tian Yong waved his hand and roared: "Go and pass the order last time Yuan Laoshan, didn't they also have tens of thousands of people surrounding Li Yan's seven or eight hundred people?" Isn't it a spanked fart and flow? ”

The subordinates stopped being wordy and immediately ran out of the herald.

Tian Yong instructed again: "Let's go first, don't wait for them." ”

"Our trebuchets are still ahead." The subordinate reminded loudly. It was their treasure, and without these trebuchets, half of the rest of the team would have to disperse.

"Don't do it later, let the troops retreat quickly," Tian Yong roared angrily, eager to go and strike the gong himself.

The gong of "bang" and "bang" finally struck. The backbone of the team immediately beckoned their subordinates to start retreating, but this retreat soon turned into a rout, and the minions swarmed and ran back, and there was no establishment at all.

Tian Yong had expected that after he sounded the gong for retreat, he would retreat to the east with his pro-army.

The subordinates who came back saw that the boss was gone, so they quickly turned around and chased after him. However, this added to the confusion of their ranks, some of them were still moving closer to the Chinese army, but some of them were running to the east.

Li Yan looked at the panicked thief with a telescope from a distance, and said with some regret: "This Tian Yong is still running really fast." ”

Later, he observed the situation in the west and found that the thieves in the west seemed to have discovered Li Mou's troops. However, they did not retreat, but tried to join forces with the thieves from the north to encircle Li Mou's troops.

He smiled and said, "Let's go, let's go to the west, first defeat the thieves there, and then we can pursue them with confidence." ”

The soldiers immediately went to give the order, and the troops soon continued to advance, advancing to the west. The slow escapers in the south were taken care of by Li Yan's troops after two rounds of arrow rain, and the team did not stop at all, and continued to the west of Fucheng.

Li Mu saw the thieves surrounding him, and excitedly ordered: "Come, set up the formation, and let these guys who have never seen the world open their eyes." ”

Under his command, the team quickly spread out the queue, forming a square hollow phalanx.

He saw that most of the thieves who rushed over were foot soldiers, and there were not many horses, so he ordered: "The troops from the west and the north should first spread out to the south and east to expand the area of attack." After the thieves have the intention of encircling us, they will resume the phalanx form. ”

The herald quickly went to give the order, and the troops began to adjust accordingly. Fortunately, the thieves are far away, and it will take a while to get closer.

However, Li Mu did not faint, and ordered: "Tiger squatting artillery, guard the west and north, and fire a salvo when necessary, and cover the infantry formation."

The captain of the artillery team agreed, and also led his subordinates to start busy in the northwest of the middle of the phalanx. They held shovels with short handles, half-knelt on the ground, and smoothed out the position, so that the tiger squat cannon could play normally.

The thieves continued to approach Li Mou's team, as if they wanted to crush this group of officers and soldiers, but did not adopt the tactics of encirclement, perhaps because the team was too mixed and did not have a unified command. In short, they just rushed straight from the east and south.

Li Mu saw that there were too many thieves rushing over, and there was no cannon on his side, so he didn't dare to hold it up. When the thief was sixty paces away, he decisively ordered to start shooting.

The crossbow arrows flew towards the thieves like locusts, and these thieves were all small groups, and there was no place to get too much armor, so at this distance, the power of the crossbow arrows was still very strong.

The thieves screamed and fell, and were trampled by their companions behind them, and even if they were injured, they would be trampled to death.

But after all, these were small bands of thieves, who had not experienced a major battle, and after twenty paces in the rain of arrows, no one was willing to rush forward anymore, and they began to turn and flee.

"I can't rush up when I run"

"They have an endless stream of arrows."

……

The thief who rushed in front shouted before he was shot, and at the same time turned and ran backwards. The thieves behind were also clever, and when they heard the shouts from the front, they slowed down and prepared to flee backwards.

Their leader also chose to retreat, and the strength of seven or eight hundred people under his command was so good, if they were all exhausted, they would have no status.

Therefore, the retreat of the thieves did not form a big chaos, and those in front turned and fled, and those behind also reflexively retreated.

At this time, Li Yan's troops also came from the south. Seeing that the thieves were beginning to retreat to his side, he immediately ordered: "Spread out your troops, form a formation, and drive them under the city walls"

His team was already in battle formation, so that it could form a phalanx at any time and deal with the siege of superior enemies. Now all you need to do is level the wings of the team to form a line.

The team spread diagonally and began firing crossbow bolts at the thieves, with artillery fire still behind. Fighting on the move, they're not up to the task.

Li Mu in the north also turned the team into a first-line formation, pressed from north to south, and ignored the thieves who began to retreat in the north. After the crossbowmen have released their arrows in the front row, they give the missing crossbow to their companions in the back, and at the same time take the well-wounded crossbow and fire it again. The crossbowman in the back did the same, handing the empty crossbow to the last row, and he himself took the well-wounded crossbow, ready to hand it to his comrades in front at any time.

As they were attacked from both north and south, and the faster they advanced closer to the outside of the city, a semicircular encirclement gradually formed, forcing the thieves in the direction of the city walls.

The thieves basically had no ability to fight back, there were not many archers in their ranks, and they were at least forty paces away from Li Yan's troops, even if they had weapons in their hands, they couldn't throw them over.

The thieves were forced to retreat again and again, and those behind had already begun to fall into the moats.

Li Yan ordered: "Stop shooting and make them surrender"

The herald rode quickly to give the order, and the team slowly stopped firing crossbow arrows.

The thieves were armed with knives and guns, and looked in horror at the officers and soldiers who had stopped forty paces away. They saw two cannons slowly being pushed out, the muzzles facing them. What they didn't see was that the Tiger Squat Cannon behind them was also being nervously placed.

"Surrender immediately, or you will be killed," Li Yan's soldiers shouted in unison.

...