On the first day of the first lunar month, Zhang Xianzhong crossed the Laodao River with his guards, preparing to personally supervise the battle and eat Li Yan's army.

Although he had already known two days earlier that Li Yan's troops had not made any moves when he had transferred men and horses across the river, they were completely waiting to be surrounded, and everyone knew that there was a problem. But he had already been enraged, even if he knew that Li Yan's troops were powerful, especially when defending, it was even more difficult to fight, but he really couldn't stand such a behavior that defied him for the Daxi Dynasty and the Daxi Emperor.

And he thought he was ready. Although there is no news from Li Zicheng's side, he has an army of 100,000 and nearly 1,000 artillery pieces of all kinds, even if his artillery is not as long as Li Yan's, he has also learned the method of pushing sandbags forward with a cart. He believed that as long as he advanced to two hundred paces, with the numerical superiority of artillery, he could completely defeat Li Yan's decoy force.

Of course, he did not lose his cool, and it was still his established strategy to withdraw from Huguang and pass through Sichuan. He has now decided to fight this battle, more to gamble and earn a reputation. Because he knew that without this courage and fearlessness, even if they succeeded in occupying Sichuan, they would not be able to achieve much in the future. For him, who was already sitting on the throne of Emperor Onishi, this was completely unacceptable.

"Greetings to Your Majesty." Zhang Kewang and others saluted Zhang Xianzhong.

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong was dressed as an ordinary general, what golden armor, the war horse of the divine horse, and the huge guards, none of which appeared. He was accompanied by only a dozen or so guards, and he rode nothing more than a variegated war horse, nothing special. Because he had fought with Li Yan and knew the power of Li Yan's artillery, he naturally wouldn't let Li Yan's artillery notice him.

Zhang Xianzhong dismounted, waved his horsewhip casually, and asked, "How is the situation?" Are you all ready? ”

Zhang Kewang sighed first: "Li Yan's cannon is really powerful. In the past two days, there has not been much fire, but it has knocked down five watchtowers within 600 paces. also fired a few shots at Shuai Qi, but fortunately, the children listened to your advice and did not let Shuai Qi follow him, otherwise I am afraid it will be really unlucky. ”

"Everything is ready, just wait for His Majesty's order to start attacking." Zhang Wenxiu then reported: "However, the walled city under Li Yan's department is strong and there are a lot of artillery, so I'm afraid we will have a lot of damage." ”

Zhang Xianzhong said coldly: "Whoever rushes in first, the official will be added to the third level, the reward will be 1,000 silver, and there will be two palace maids." All those who were killed and wounded in battle will be given double their pensions and their relatives will be given preferential treatment. Li Yan's army must be wiped out for me! ”

The reason why Zhang Xianzhong was in such a hurry was because he had already received news from Zhang Nengqi in the north and knew that Li Yan's follow-up troops had gone south. There were tens of thousands of cavalry in the vanguard alone, and the scale of the southward movement can be imagined. Therefore, he must solve it quickly here, otherwise once he is caught up by Li Yan's cavalry, it is difficult to say whether he can safely retreat to Sichuan.

"Under the heavy reward, the soldiers will be brave and invincible. Your Majesty is wise! Zhang Kewang and Zhang Wenxiu hugged their fists and agreed.

Zhang Xianzhong ordered: "Go and prepare, attack in half an hour." When he had finished speaking, he took his own soldiers to the front to take a look.

He walked around the front line to see if the soldiers everywhere were ready. When he met a general who recognized him, he also signaled it early and didn't let them salute.

"Look, how is the preparation on the other side?" Zhang Xianzhong stopped and commanded his guards. Although he seized two telescopes from the palace, he couldn't stand the dizziness of the telescopes, so he always let his soldiers observe and then report to him.

The commander of the personal soldiers observed for a while and reported: "They also have a lot of gun emplacements, there are about ten on this side, and there are many musketeers between the gun emplacements. There is also a stone thrower in the back, and there seems to be some other things, only a little bit exposed, and you can only see it from the watchtower. ”

At this time, Zhou He was also observing with a telescope on the watchtower in the middle of the walled city, of course, he did not find Zhang Xianzhong's arrival. However, he saw that the enemy's infantry had begun to assemble behind the earthen carts, and the soldiers were excitedly raising their weapons and shouting a few times from time to time, and it was obvious that they were about to launch a strong attack.

He immediately ordered: "Order the rocket troops, immediately fire a salvo to disrupt the enemy's build-up." ”

It's only been two days, and you can't let the decisive battle come so quickly. Even if they have superior firepower, he knows that as long as the enemy rushes up at the cost of his life, he will eventually be able to rush up to melee combat. In close combat, chaotic combat, they don't have much advantage. Therefore, it is necessary to disrupt the enemy's deployment in advance, push back the timing of the decisive battle, and wait for the arrival of the main force to defeat and annihilate Zhang Xianzhong's main force in one fell swoop.

Fortunately, they brought a thousand rockets this time, and they were the latest extended-range type, which could fly 700 to 800 paces away, just enough to hit the enemy's assembly area. After a while, I saw the rockets behind the infantry line emitting red light and dragging white smoke, rising into the air and flying towards Zhang Xianzhong's assembly area.

And the Onishi soldiers who were assembling didn't know what it was. Although they also know that what flies out of the enemy is certainly not a good thing. But they have no idea what it is, and they don't know how to avoid it. And they didn't have much time, the rockets flew faster and faster, and two breaths rushed straight down from the air and crashed into them.

"Hurry up!"

"Ah, help!"

"Scald me!"

The soldiers were shouting loudly, and they were all in a panic, whether they were hurt or not.

"Don't move! Stand up! ”

"Rioter, kill your head on the spot!"

The officers worked hard to keep the team from being affected. But they couldn't control the team at all, and the rockets fell in the same area one after another, and some officers were also burned by the tail flames of the rockets, and the troops in this area immediately became chaotic. The soldiers scattered and ran away, but the rockets scurried through the crowd, making them panic even more.

The "boom" explosion sounded one after another, and the flowering shells of the rockets finally exploded, knocking down the surrounding soldiers. The horses of the nearby officers had already jumped and jumped in fright, threw off the officers above, and then ran away on their own.

After Zhang Xianzhong saw the rockets coming, he immediately ran backwards with his own soldiers. However, the speed of their escape was not as fast as the flight speed of the rocket, and just one of the rockets fell, continued to fly on the ground, and chased in front of Zhang Xianzhong.

After the "boom" explosion, Zhang Xianzhong and his personal soldiers fell to the ground. But after a while, more than a dozen of Zhang Xianzhong's personal soldiers stood up. Some were unscathed, some were hit by fragments, but they did not penetrate their armor, and some were only scratched a little skin, only Zhang Xianzhong still fell to the ground motionless.

The soldiers immediately surrounded them, but one by one they fell to the ground in shock. They saw that Zhang Xianzhong had a bloody hole on his forehead, and a cut in his neck, and the blood had soaked the cloak on his shoulders.