Guo Chonglie was about to lead his troops to charge Li Dingguo's troops who were retreating to the distant heights, when Lei Kaiden grabbed his war horse and said: "General, today's battle is quite strange, so it's better to be careful." ”

Guo Chonglie looked disapproving, shook his head and said: "Old Lei, what's the matter, Li Dingguo just wants to take advantage of our army's lone army to kill me by surprise?"

But I have 6,000 elites in the 3rd town, and the soldiers are wide, didn't I defeat the other party just now?

If you want to encircle and annihilate me, Li Dingguo doesn't want to think about it, Hou Ye has already taken precautions, when I led my troops across the river, Yang Bingyi's 5th town has also rushed to the other side, and if you want to encircle and annihilate our army, you are dreaming. ”

Lei Kaideng thought about it and it made sense, the two sides were planning to break down the rogue position in front, and suddenly the war horses in the rear neighed, everyone turned their heads to look, and saw a group of men and horses from the east and west sides from a distance?

Guo Chonglie was shocked, grabbed Lei Kaideng's big hand and said, "Is it a rogue cavalry?" Fighting just now, there is no trace of the rogue spirit rider? ”

In a panic, the various departments of the Volunteer Army returned to defend and prepared to hold the ferry, but it was too late now, while the cavalry appeared, the Liukou troops also launched a counterattack, Wang Shangli led the troops to kill from the east, Bai Wenxuan led the troops to kill from the west, and cooperated with Li Dingguo's department.

Suddenly there was such a crowd that some of the timid panicked, and some of them were even more timid and ready to flee backwards.

After several years of military career, especially half a year of study and life in the Armed Forces Academy, everyone understands that the current situation can only be stubbornly waiting for help, if you let your soldiers flee in all directions, the soldiers who cross the river will die and have no place to be buried.

These middle and lower-ranking officers, who were the captains of the brigades, drew their swords one after another, slashed the soldiers who were fleeing backwards with timid faces, and some even led their troops to launch a counterattack, thus stabilizing the situation a little.

Even so, the enemy is strong and I am weak, and the opponent is too strong, especially at the ferry, Guo Ning, the general of the 3rd standard travelogues, led a battalion of soldiers and horses and the heavy soldiers and horses that could be concentrated to resist, but the soldiers around him were few and outnumbered, and they were suddenly besieged by two iron cavalry, everyone was scattered by the opponent's iron cavalry first, and was preparing to gather again to fight to the death, Bai Wenxuan and Wang Shangli led their troops to kill from the east and west.

But now that the team has been dispersed, it can't be stopped at all, Guo Ning is also surrounded by rogues, and finally he and more than ten brothers are killed.

Seeing that the guerrilla general Guo Ning of the third standard was killed, the volunteers and soldiers on the side of the ferry retreated one after another, and some people fled in an attempt to seize the pontoon bridge, but the pontoon bridge was too narrow and there was only a limit to escape.

Most of them jumped into the Baishi River, desperately fleeing despite the biting water, but the movement of people in the water was quite slow, and after the Liukou occupied the ferry, they fired arrows and guns on the river, and a large number of corpses appeared on the surface of the river for a while.

Relatively speaking, the best situation was the soldiers and horses that rushed towards Guo Chonglie, Lei Kaideng and others, although there were only two or three hundred people, but everyone quickly joined the main force and avoided being surrounded and annihilated at the moment.

After occupying the ferry, the Liukou began to pour tung oil on the pontoon bridge, and then set it on fire in a vain attempt to block the volunteer reinforcements.

Now the main force of the Third Town led by Guo Chonglie, Lei Kaideng and others is compressed on more than ten hillsides far away from the ferry.

On the other hand, Yang Bingyi, the deputy general of the fifth town, who had just arrived on the other side, faced such a dangerous situation, and had no other way but to send men and horses to stop the liukou from setting fire to the pontoon bridge, and trying to establish contact with the third town.

Guo Chonglie recovered from the initial panic, looked at the swarming rogues and shouted: "Brothers, the brave wins when we meet on the narrow road, as long as we hold on, the 5th town of Yang Bingyi on the other side will cross the river sooner or later to meet our army."

Brothers, in addition to the brothers in the 5th town on the other side, there is also Hou Ye, who is resourceful, and has repeatedly warned us in the past not to go deep alone, and to be careful of rogue ambushes.

Hou Ye turned out to be only fifty miles away from us, and yesterday he should have known the news of our army's crossing the river to fight, and it was expected that Hou Ye might have calculated the conspiracy of the Liukou to set up an ambush, and it was expected that Hou Ye had already sent reinforcements to reinforce him. ”

Everyone will be skeptical, but when they see that the 5th town of the Volunteer Army on the other side is crossing the river to fight, everyone jumps into the chest-deep river, or rows a bamboo raft to kill, so they feel a little at ease.

There are still many difficulties in front of them, not only are there many people, but they are rushing like a tide of outlaws, and the flintlock pistols and bird guns cannot be stopped at all, and everyone fights together.

On the distant hillside, Li Dingguo was extremely annoyed, in the past half a month, in order to lure the third town to take the bait, Li Dingguo was like a seasoned hunter, using Wu Dading Yuan Tao's local tyrants, Wu Ying Battalion, and Wu An Battalion as bait to lure the volunteers to go deep alone.

However, the third town was cautious, and sent many scouts to inquire about the news, so it fell short several times.

In the past half a month, the various units of the rogue who used as bait have suffered heavy casualties, and the losses of Wu Dading, Yuan Tao's and villains' troops are not a pity, and the Wuying Battalion and the Wu'an Battalion alone have lost hundreds of people, which is really heart-wrenching.

Now the 3rd town has finally fallen into the hub, and in order to completely annihilate the 3rd town, except for Liu Wenxiu's troops who blocked the west road in the south, all the Liukou tribes have gathered in the hills within a radius of ten miles.

Feng Shuangli's troops were deployed along the ferry, as a bait, to lure the 3rd town ashore.

After landing in the third town, Li Dingguo's troops joined Feng Shuangli's troops to launch a counterattack, in a vain attempt to defeat the enemy of Bandu.

After the attack was blocked, the Pingdong general Sun Kewang led Bai Wenxuan, Wang Shangli and their main forces to attack from the east and west, intending to capture the ferry in one fell swoop and cut off the north and south of the river-crossing volunteers.

However, the 5th town rushed to the rescue, and the two divisions joined forces to hold on and wait for help.

What's even more melancholy is the main force of the volunteers, Tan Malay reported, the main force of the volunteers was only 50 miles away from here last night, and now they will definitely get the news of the ambush, and sooner or later they will inevitably lead their troops to come to the rescue.

Thinking of this, Li Dingguo ignored the obstruction of the generals on the left and right, beat his horse and came to the front of the battle, preparing to lead the pro-army to assault.

The various departments reunited, and the crowd that had been fighting desperately in a corner of the battlefield was temporarily separated, Li Dingguo stood in front of the formation, and all the soldiers stared at the main general's every move with wide eyes.

Since the young man led the troops, Li Dingguo has created too many miracles, from shooting the divine crossbow Zhang Ling, to the 27th cavalry breaking through Xiangyang City, every critical moment will create unexpected miracles for everyone.

Now Li Dingguo is standing in front of the battle on a tall horse, and his 2,000 personal soldiers are waiting to go, and they have a posture of rushing up to solve the battle.

Guo Chonglie's face was gloomy, and he shouted loudly, gathering all the people and horses that might be assembled, hoping that God would favor him and be able to protect his position.

At this moment, there was a shout from the back, and Guo Chonglie didn't pay attention to it at all because of his preoccupation, until the staff officer grabbed his shirt and shouted excitedly: "General, general, reinforcements, our reinforcements are coming." ”

Turning around and looking, there was a black oppressive piece on the river ten miles upstream, picking up the monocular and looking at it, Guo Chonglie said confidently to the left and right: "Brothers, our reinforcements are coming, Hou Ye knows that my old Guo was ambushed, and now he is leading the army to help."

Brothers, look at it, this is the second standard of our cavalry, and now we are crossing the river and rushing to kill. ”

The crowd was in high spirits, and everyone raised their spears one after another, shouting one by one.

Li Dingguo, who was on the other side, was unwilling to fall short, although he sent an envoy hoping that the Pingdong general Sun Kewang could lead his troops to block the reinforcements of the volunteers.

Sun Kewang was full of confidence and sent a messenger to reply, and he had sent his son Zhang Sheng to lead his troops to meet the attack, even if he tried his best to block the volunteers north of the Baishi River.

Zhang Shengnian is about twenty years old, although he is not much younger than Sun Kewang, but for the sake of power, he became Sun Kewang's righteous son and mastered his pro-army.

When Zhang Sheng gathered his troops and horses to rush upstream, Du Jigui had already led the 2nd cavalry to rush to the shore, and in the face of the volunteer cavalry that had just come ashore and had not yet repaired, Zhang Sheng disagreed, and led the elite cavalry to rush over.

The two sides are getting closer and closer, and when the two armies are 50 meters apart, the rogue riders who rushed in front have slowed down their horses, and everyone shoots arrows with bows, hoping to block each other by continuously shooting arrows, and then only wait for the opponent's horses to stagnate, and the department is in chaos, and the heavy cavalry behind them is full of huddles, scattering each other, and winning the battlefield.

In ancient times, the most important indicator to evaluate the level of military generals is whether they can ride and shoot, unlike the Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banners, although there are many people, there are not many people who can really ride horses and shoot arrows, let alone ride and shoot on galloping horses.

Zhang Sheng is the son of Sun Kewang, the department was originally Zhang Xianzhong's account under the fine cavalry, its combat power is far above the general cavalry, after several years of accumulation, there are many good at riding and archery in the army can be good at fighting, now the two sides are getting closer and closer, Zhang Sheng is ready to give the other party a dismount.

The rogue riders shot arrows one after another, and although they were far away from each other and did not shoot with much accuracy, they could disrupt each other's positions by firing continuously, and then win the upper hand for the follow-up cavalry.

The astonishing volunteer riders had no intention of stopping, and one by one they lay down on their horses and rushed over.

This is unexpected, after several years of accumulation, there are only 3,000 elite cavalry, and the number of people who can really ride and shoot is less than 1,000.

Just when everyone was puzzled, they saw fire and smoke rising from the opponent's formation from a distance, and some soldiers were lying on their horses and firing their guns.

Different from the ordinary bird guns, and also different from the three-eyed guns used by the Guanning iron cavalry, the volunteer cavalry used a short-barreled flintlock pistol, the barrel of which is about 45cm long, plus the length of the gun, the length of the whole bird gun is less than 80 cm, which is a typical riding spear.

Due to the short barrel and incomplete combustion of the gunpowder, the cavalry firing distance was only 20 meters, but it clearly exceeded the effective firing distance of the archers on horseback.

Although the rider was able to shoot a bow and arrow from a distance of 100 paces on horseback, the bumpy ride of the horse did not have any accuracy on a fixed target, let alone a target on a galloping horse.

In ancient times, two cavalry armies fought, and both sides often fired at close range from a distance of ten meters, and even then, less than 12 out of 10 could be shot on the battlefield.

But this cavalry gun is different, because of the use of flintlock ignition, it can be said that it is 9 out of 10 stable against fixed targets at a distance of 20 meters, and the shooting accuracy of galloping horses is also very high.

When the two sides were close at hand, the volunteer riders suddenly set fires, and the rogue riders fell down one piece, and the riders behind were shocked to see the flickering fire in front of them and the smoke rising, and they tightened their horses and were at a loss.

The rogues were in a mess, Zhang Sheng disagreed, raised the saber in his hand, and while charging forward, he loudly encouraged the people around him: "Brothers, the Ming army uses the three-eyed gun, everyone must not panic, deal with it carefully." ”

The accuracy and lethality of the cavalry gun are far above the three-eyed gun, but there is an Achilles' heel, that is, it cannot shoot continuously, and after a round of shooting, the riders have taken off their sabers from their crotches and fought with the rogue cavalry.

Although the rogue riders were taken by surprise, everyone passed through the battle formation, and faced the rushing volunteer cavalry, everyone either took a bow and shot arrows, or raised their sabers to fight back.

But because everyone was apprehensive about the previous round of shooting, many people did not dare to get too close.

This undoubtedly gave Du Jigui and the others an opportunity, and everyone took advantage of the characteristics of the rogue who did not dare to persecute even and the fact that the rogue archers were few, covered each other, quickly loaded the cavalry on horseback, and then suddenly slapped the horse and re-entered, aiming at the target at close range.

Although there are more Liukou cavalry than the volunteer cavalry, everyone is very unsuitable for this tactic, seeing the sharp increase in casualties among the soldiers and horses in the headquarters, the soldiers around them are afraid, sitting on horseback, Zhang Sheng does not know how to deal with it for a while.