When they saw that the team in front of them did not seem to be the popular rebellion team of the former Pingwenxiang Sect, but was clear and orderly, many officers and soldiers defending the northern mountain passes in the Fuping area felt nervous. Because it means that it is impossible for the great army to win without encountering much risk of casualties.

"Fire! Live ammunition with a seal! Quite a few officers ordered at this moment.

Compared with firing group shotguns, firing with sealed live ammunition is quite risky for the Ming army's firearms, but these Ming border troops who came to more or less have some combat experience certainly have ways to deal with the not very good situation of weapons and ammunition. First, small groups were filled into the barrels of light artillery, then "sealed live ammunition" was used to press the chamber with "sealed live ammunition" that was obviously much smaller than the caliber, and finally some small groups were filled. Of course, most of the gunners of the Ming army in this era do not seem to have the habit of stabbing with some blockades after loading ammunition. There is also no habit of wiping the chamber with a damp cloth to cool down.

But even so, when the cannonballs were fired, the live bullets flew into the distance at the initial velocity of the ballista, and successively landed in the distant shield wall, either in front of or behind, occasionally opening a bloody gap in the fragile shield wall, causing a small commotion.

The peasant army behind the shield wall was very dense, but because many soldiers had prepared simple shields made of door panels and bed boards in advance, only the sealed live ammunition that jumped up after landing could cause some casualties. In the past, in order to maintain their own cohesion and pull people, this kind of supervision method was rarely seen in the ranks of the rebel army.

After the first two rounds of firing did not shake the peasant army in front of the formation, many people felt the lack of seconds. In actual combat, the rain of arrows, which was more sustained than inferior firearms, flew from a distance one after another and fell into the Ming army's formation. These arrows also brought a lot of panic and confusion at the beginning, and the Ming army, which continued to fire one after another, seemed to be suppressed in an instant.

It's just that when the Ming army reacted under the supervision of a few officers, it was discovered that these bows and arrows were indeed improvised inferior single bows. The bow strength is only two or three buckets, and many arrows are still cut from horse bones. Although the weather has not completely cooled down, the very rudimentary rattan can effectively resist the threat of these arrows. A little thicker clothes or horse skins couldn't shoot serious injuries, which made the entire Ming army in front of the formation temporarily settle down.

However, at this time, the shield array in front of the entire formation suddenly began to approach forward, until it approached a distance of about fifty or sixty steps, and those ordinary fire gate guns also had a certain hit rate, and suddenly a burst of accurate and sharp bows and arrows came on the flanks of the entire Ming army line, bringing a scream. At least a few hundred strong bows of the five or six fighting bow level and a certain accuracy of the head killed and injured hundreds of people in a short period of time by shooting over the shield from the side.

The large-scale concentration of elite backbones, as well as this kind of consciousness that seems to be very experienced, does not seem to be something that ordinary peasant armies composed of multiple groups of men and horses can do, but this time it has been done. Under these circumstances, the ranks of the entire peasant army quickly took the opportunity to break the front of the Ming army in a very short time.

Almost at the same time, several other peasant armies as partial divisions also routed the Ming army responsible for intercepting the mountain pass, and rushed to the flat and endless Guanzhong Plain. As soon as they enter the Guanzhong Plain and then cross the southern plains of Tongguan, the peasant army approaching from the northwest to the interior will obviously be like a trapped dragon going to sea, and it will be necessary to use greater investment to restrain it.

The pro-soldiers led by Hong Chengchou, He Renlong and others did not expect that the peasant army would defeat the front army that was originally used to attract the opponent so quickly, and at this time, they had to hastily invest hundreds of elite reinforcements of the main cavalry of the Jiading, and promised a heavy reward for this battle.

Equipped with a three-eyed gun of acceptable quality, and at the same time has some riding and archery skills, many of them are the elite soldiers of the Mongols hired from outside the Guan, although they can effectively shoot a stone bow at a target fifty paces away like the elite of the Manchu army. However, there were still some accurate firearms and even cavalry shooting, which still caused many horses in the front of the peasant army who planned to break through to be wounded by arrows, and they were defeated by the elite cavalry of the Ming army before they had time to form a formation and regroup. Although most of the routs of the entire army were gathered, more and more Ming army reserves also made the peasant army led by Li Zicheng and others break through the plan, and it seems that the entire army was once again in a desperate situation of being besieged after the battle of Mizhi. Of course, if there is a breakthrough, Li Zicheng believes that there is still no big problem, but it is not too sure to let the entire old battalion, including the family, keep up with the team, and not lose too much under the opponent's elite cavalry.

The prestige of Li Ziben's troops in the army, which had been initially established after many battles, also seemed to be shaking, and at the time of the temporary meeting, many people felt that they could not concentrate so much on going south and concentrating their forces to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army.

"What if we can win? Defeat the main force of the 20,000 Ming army, the entire Ming Dynasty does not have a million warlike divisions, and it must be more than this, and it can be re-recruited at any time. Our army can't afford to lose too much! Wang Jiaqian also said worriedly at this time.

Li Zicheng is not sure whether he can defeat the main force of the Ming army of this quality of one or two thousand, but through a certain understanding of leading the troops during this period of time, he also slightly guessed that if he can defeat the one or two thousand Ming troops blocked here at a not too big cost, there are still many local armed forces, then it will inevitably be like a fish in water in the future. Because the Ming army of tens of thousands of troops will definitely not be so easy to ambush or make the team led by them undetectable.

"This time, this king decided to take a risk, concentrate more than sixty percent of the first-class strikers of each team to launch a night attack, if it doesn't work, break through in the division of troops...

"What? More than sixty percent of the first-class strikers are used for night raids? It's too risky ... ”

"If you don't want to, this king won't force you. I just hope that as long as the person sent over, he can be bad at martial arts, but he must not respect military discipline. Even if you don't have any military exploits and martial arts, you must send obedient soldiers over, understand? ”

Hearing Li Zicheng say this, many people's hearts also relaxed. The more obedient and honest soldiers are the only young recruits who have joined the team for a short time. In the eyes of most old masters, these people are not their real core backbone.

In this way, Li Zicheng selected 1,000 young and strong people who did not show cowardice during the march and fought but were more obedient as the vanguard of this night attack. It's just that these people are still so small in number to take on the vanguard of the night attack, and many people are beginning to doubt the possible effect of this operation.

(End of chapter)