Xiao Xuan's reply was also very natural and free: "If we completely annihilate our army, it is natural to coerce the Son of Heaven to order the princes, or to change the dynasty." However, if it is completely defeated under the attack of our army, Baili Hou is also delusional. I had to send you to the capital vegetable market. Because the team that is not outstanding in battle, it is useless to defect... ”

After receiving such a reply, many people ridiculed the young new emperor for being too big. With one enemy and three, their own side is not comparable to the original, and the reinforcements of the relatively close Ming army that may have combat effectiveness have also been defeated, what hole cards are there?

"Strike, King! First of all, give this young new emperor a little bit of power, so that he can understand that our army today is no better than those rogue in the real sense of the word in other provinces. Of course, Li Guo said confidently at this time. He guessed that the combat power of these 10,000 Heavenly Son Forbidden Brigade was likely to be a bit of a doorway, and it might take a little price to defeat it completely, but compared to the huge gains, even if it was a certain price, it was completely worth it. Gao Yingxiang still didn't speak at this time, and Li Zicheng didn't ask much.

"In this case, let's weigh the strength of this Son of Heaven Forbidden Brigade, which has also been in the army for less than a year. Judging from the opponent's equipment, it must be an opponent with strong firearms. Our army's strategy this time was to form a shield wall with dismounted infantry shieldmen to cover the cavalry, and to throw and attack the opponent at a distance of about 100 paces as much as possible. The opponent's firearms and artillery will not fire as violently if they have consumed a lot of ammunition. The opponent does not have decent cavalry, and there is no need to worry too much about the opponent's counterattack. There are not too many vests, officers and soldiers, and you should still know a little bit about the virtues of the general infantry team. Well, let's take a good look at the plan this time! See if there are any doubts ...

In this way, the peasant army launched an attack after noon, when the weather was relatively hot. Because at this time, if the enemy army wears armor, even if it is not the height of summer, it will consume more physical strength. Many encounters with the Ming army also made many peasant armies understand that how to attract the opponent to open fire and waste most of the life and firepower of the body tube is the key to victory.

In this way, even some children and even healthy women who had just learned to shoot bows and arrows were also involved in this round of very critical battles, and the number of troops reached about 40,000, and the team led by Xiao Xuan was surrounded in all directions.

The cavalry was also very clever to mount and shoot a hundred paces away under the cover of the infantry shieldmen in fixed positions, and outside the shield wall, the cavalry was not only loose but also in motion most of the time, and it was very difficult to be hit. Most of the cavalry teams that continued to be projectile were spread their arrows in fixed positions under the cover of the shield wall. Unlike in the past, the archers who fired arrows were all relatively beginners in archery among tens of thousands of people, rather than everyone involved as before. This is also one of Xiao Xuan's thoughts and teachings of "concentrating limited arrows and projectiles into reliable shooters to maximize combat effectiveness".

Therefore, if it is a simple single bow and a simple arrow of two or three buckets, the rate of fire is very fast. The whole horse team followed the rhythm and arrangement that had been established for a long time, and the three thousand horse archers took turns to launch concentrated projectiles on the entire frontal area of about a mile. Often, in a short period of time, two or three thousand arrows were fired into a range of 100 people with a radius of no more than ten feet, bringing great deterrence and pressure to the defenders.

The level of tactics and discipline was obviously fundamentally different from that of the peasant army in general, and it seemed that only the Parthian archers of the Battle of Kalai had the tactical level of those years.

Under normal circumstances, this level of harassment would have forced the Ming troops to return fire with firearms to maintain morale. However, at this moment, except for a few squadrons that encountered hundreds of cavalry archers who were concentrating and rapidly firing, and the vast majority of the Ming army's firearms had no movement at all, even if they suffered at least 10% casualties under the fierce fire.

"It's really a bit of a wicked sect! I really don't know if these days the forbidden brigade is too weak, and I forgot to fire the cannon when I was in battle, or if there is a ghost in it... ”

There weren't many spearmen on the opposite side, and the spears weren't very long. Li Zicheng finally gave the order to launch a large-scale assault after more than 100,000 arrows were consumed, and at least no less than 100 people on the opposite side fell under the rain of arrows.

First of all, after the 3,000 specialized archers recovered their physical strength, they concentrated on using hunting bows to carry out the maximum rotation projectile, and they were flanking and side-firing at a distance of about sixty or seventy paces, suppressing a corner of the entire Ming army's large array. Subsequently, more than 1,000 selected elite cavalry marched in front, and thousands of Kan infantry teams launched a concentrated attack in the rear.

In order to contain the opponent in all other directions, it is not just the elite who are drawn. The main force of the entire peasant army, at least 20,000 men, also launched an offensive on all fronts at the same time.

The performance of the team led by Li Zicheng seemed to exceed Xiao Xuan's expectations, and at the same time, Xiao Xuan made up his mind to hit the opponent hard. Before the decisive offensive of the peasant army was launched, Xiao Xuan made up his mind to launch a defensive counterattack with Plan B No. 2. The so-called Plan B-2 of course refers to a plan that takes a conservative but not too conservative attitude toward the enemy's combat effectiveness, which is second only to the main force of the Manchu Army, and strives to deal the greatest blow to the opponent in the defense, even if there are more sporadic casualties and losses.

Therefore, the squadron that was attacked under the continuous rain of arrows was soon hit by tens of thousands of arrows, and even if the armor was well-armoured, it suffered a casualty loss of 40 people. While the sound of guns continued to sound in many positions on other fronts, no firearms were fired.

When the cavalry of the peasant army approached a distance of about forty or fifty paces, the general's cannon, which had already been loaded, began to fire first. The forty guns of the entire Guards Battalion, four hundred close-quarters guns, which had long been loaded with ammunition, concentrated their fire as much as possible in one place and opened heavy fire at a distance of less than half a mile. Under the blow of more than 8,000 light and heavy shotguns close to one or two, at least hundreds of horses were knocked down on the spot, and two or three hundred elite riders in armor were also seriously killed under this dense fire. Almost one round of firepower brought the opponent's elite cavalry to the brink of collapse in a key surprise attack under the cover of mounted shooting. The elite infantry under the cover of the shield in the key direction that followed behind also seemed to be starting to languish a little at this time.

(End of chapter)