As Li Yan's order was conveyed, the Tiger Squat Cannon, which had been prepared for a long time, began to fire. The firing speed of the Tiger Squat Cannon is very fast, and it can be fired once in three or four breaths.

"Bang", "bang", "bang", the sound sounded continuously, and the white smoke that erupted during the launch also slowly rose from the rear of the array.

Then the paper-shelled cannonballs burst out of the chambers and flew towards the thieves' archers. And the artillerymen of the Tiger Squat Cannon immediately ignited the fuse of the shell again and put it into the barrel.

At this time, the archers of the thieves continued to advance, and the distance of one hundred and twenty paces was not a suitable distance for the arrows. They were going to go a little further, and they had to go a hundred steps anyway. Although they knew that the officers and soldiers on the opposite side had cannons, but for such a long time, that is, they had damaged the huge shield in front of them, and they thought that the officers and soldiers had very few cannons, so the slightest casualties had not dealt a big blow to their confidence.

But they listened to the sudden sound of artillery in the line of officers and soldiers, and saw the black balls falling from the sky. Some of the balls landed on their team, hitting a few people. The struck archers cried out in terror, clutching their wounds and lying on the ground. Other balls landed in front of them and bounced twice into their queue.

The archers carefully dodged the balls and then continued on their way. But what the archers never expected was that the ball they dodged would actually explode.

"Boom", "boom", "boom" explosions suddenly took place in the array of archers. The paper shell outside was blown to pieces, and the projectiles inside were pushed by ** to fly out in all directions, hitting the nearby archers, making bloody holes one by one.

"Ah, it hurts! Help me! ”

"Oh my God, what's going on?"

"Run! It's going to explode, it's going to explode! ”

……

The archers screamed in panic, the wounded wailed, and they all turned and fled in panic. The smoke of the explosion filled their surroundings, leaving them unrecognizable, some running forward, some running backwards, pushing and bumping into each other.

But they were still in the confusion, and the second row of bombs fell again. The explosions were again intensive, and the smoke and dust enveloped almost the entire line of archers.

At the same time, the Frankie cannon continued to destroy the enemy's shield vehicles. Taking advantage of the confusion caused by the explosion, they adjusted their artillery and began to fire shells at the enemy's giant shield.

"This, this, what's going on?" Zhang Nengqi asked in surprise.

Yuan Laoshan said: "That's it, that's it." Li Yan has a lot of cannons, and if you fight together, it's like this, the sky is falling apart! ”

Zhang Nengqi looked at the archer troops that had been shrouded in smoke and dust, and listened to the screams and exclamations faintly coming from the continuous explosions. He had no choice but to order the archers to retreat. But the archers were surrounded by explosions, and they didn't know if they could hear the sound of the retreating gong. At the same time, he was glad that the follow-up infantry attack force had not yet driven over, otherwise, the losses would have been even greater.

The archers began to flee in confusion, and after withstanding at least four rounds of shelling, they finally ran backwards out of the range of the Tiger Squat Cannon.

The soldier who was watching from a distance from the side immediately sent back a signal to stop the Tiger Squat Cannon firing. The shooters of the Tiger Squat Cannon were in their positions and could not see anything but smoke billowing out.

At this time, Li Yan also got a report and knew that the enemy had retreated and had no intention of continuing the attack. So he also took his own soldiers to the flank, so that he could clearly observe the situation.

After he reached the flank, he saw that all the enemy's troops had retreated to a distance of two miles, and it really didn't seem like he had any intention of continuing the attack. So he ordered: "Let the troops sit down and rest for a while, but be vigilant and listen to orders." ”

The pro-soldier immediately went to give the order.

On the other side of the river, Zhang Nengqi was in a dilemma, Zhang Xianzhong asked him to attack only internally for half an hour, but if he really attacked, the casualties would not be ordinary. Their vanguard army is all real soldiers, not those Chinese troops mixed with the people. Although the casualties have not been counted at this time, the casualties of the archers must have been more than forty percent.

The most embarrassing thing for him was that he had lost so many technical troops, but he had not caused even a single casualty to the officers and soldiers.

"General," Shi Qian suggested, "it's better not to storm it, it can't be attacked." ”

"What then?!" Zhang Nengqi frowned and said, "Father, I want to cross the river within a limited time." ”

Yuan Laoshan persuaded: "The general can report directly to the marshal, let the marshal send someone to take a look, and he will know what the situation is." Li Yan is different from other officers and soldiers, if he attacks by force, he will just fulfill his wish, and we will suffer a big loss. We've attacked it before, and the casualties, alas, the corpses can be built into a wall. ”

At this time, the sentry he sent finally returned, and reported: "General, I have found the embankment, ten miles downstream. However, there are officers and troops in the vicinity to be on guard. ”

"Good!" Zhang Nengqi said happily: "Ten miles away, then let's go around!" After that, he instructed his own soldiers: "Go and report to the commander, just say that the frontal defense of the official army is too strong and it is difficult to break through, so I decided to bypass it from the downstream, and ask the commander to give me some time." ”

"Slow!" Yuan Laoshan shouted, "Wait a minute. How many officers and troops are downstream? "The back is for the sentinel who has returned.

"Two or three thousand." The sentinel gave an approximate figure.

Zhang Nengqi smiled and raised his horsewhip and said, "It's okay, no matter how many people he has, let's just go around." Since the river is blocked by a dam, then the downstream is at most a small stream, where can we not cross it from? He has 20,000 or 30,000 people, and I see how many places he can guard! ”

Yuan Laoshan and Shi Qian both nodded and praised: "The general is really battle-hardened and experienced. ”

As soon as Zhang Nengqi's personal soldiers were sent out, he heard a "bang" in the sky coming from a distance. When they looked up, they saw a green firework exploding in the western sky. Even though it's daytime, you can still see clearly.

"Huh?" Zhang Nengqi said suspiciously: "Fireworks in broad daylight? ”

"Not good!" Shi Qian immediately exclaimed: "It's Li Yan's reinforcements!" They used fireworks as a signal last time, and as soon as the fireworks go off, his reinforcements will not be far away. ”

"That's right, Li Yan must have troops nearby." Yuan Laoshan also said. Although they didn't know what Li Yan's different colors of fireworks meant, they knew that Li Yan must have troops nearby.

In Li Yan on the north bank of the river, they also saw fireworks in the sky.

Li Yan said happily: "Li Zhong is already here, let the troops prepare, let's cross the river!" ”

...