The thieves' offensive in the morning was weak, and they rushed as far as the edge of the trench, and scattered in a hurry after a few rows of guns, and the opponent was so columbic that even the Datong army felt bored and dealt with the situation listlessly. After noon, the situation changed abruptly, and the thieves pushed out countless small carts, which were piled with loess on the wooden carts that were common in peasant households, and the common people hid behind the carts with knives, spears, and sticks, and pushed the carts forward slowly. The camp artillery of the Datong army fired continuously, beating the earth-wheeled cart to the ground, but the thieves didn't care, this kind of broken car with a few planks and two wheels was sturdy, and they helped it up and drummed it a few times and continued to push forward, and when they arrived at the trench, they pushed the cart full of soil downward, and the trench that was more than seven or eight feet wide and seven or eight feet deep was gradually filled, and they also built out several large mounds of earth, shouting trumpets to drag the artillery up, and some bandits stood on it regardless of life or death to shoot arrows and hit guns.

The thieves really can't be underestimated, this kind of local method can also be thought of, and it works - Zhou Zhuzi is a little discouraged, this section he guards is exactly the focus of the thief's attack, at least a thousand broken cars pressed over, the camp cannon in Xieli, the mortar cannon in the battalion, and the five tiger squat cannons in his hand all opened fire to block the attack, and even used expensive flowering shells, but to no avail, the other party fell down to make up for a group, the cart did not fall apart and just pushed forward, he was very suspicious that the cost of each shot was worth more than that kind of broken car, this kind of battle is a fucking loss of money, it's better to fight hand-to-hand.

The thieves stepped through the filled trench and continued to push the dirt cart forward, the horse rejection pile wrapped in barbed wire was afraid that it would not be able to stop them, Zhou Zhuzi raised his step and ordered loudly: "The thieves are coming, each of them will fire a volley on their own, and the artillery team will aim at the thieves on the mound and beat them hard!" ”

The thieves had earthen carts as cover, and the volley of the sentinel team was meaningless, so the commanders each selected their own targets, commanded their subordinates to fire volleys in turn, and the Fengzhou auxiliaries also stepped forward to support and suppress the opponent with a dense rain of arrows. The thieves were constantly knocked to the ground, especially before the rejection of the stakes, they did not understand what this wire-wound stake was, and after a little delay, they threw thunderbolts down in pieces, and most of the thieves had no armor and were blown to a blur of flesh and blood. The thieves were red-eyed, and desperately slashed with their knives and axes, and rushed through the obstacles, and the stakes were littered with the corpses of their companions.

Zhou Zhuzi was still shooting, Chen Ershui was squatting under the wall to load him with guns, this guy was quick with his hands and feet, and one person could do it faster than two people. Today's luck is too bad, it seems that only two of them have been killed until now, Zhou Zhuzi shook his head, and dragged Chen Ershui up: "Ershui, do you want to have fun, play a few times." ”

"I use my gun." Chen Ershui nodded, took off a black and shiny old-fashioned walking gun from his back, lit the fire rope and pressed it on the dragon's head, and after holding it steady, he looked forward for a while, and with a bang, a newly emerging thief on the opposite side fell on his back.

"Okay, Ershui, your luck is good, keep fighting." Zhou Zhuzi patted Ershui on the shoulder and handed over the filled flint gun.

"I use my gun." Chen Ershui squatted down again to reload his arquebus.

"I'll load, you fight." Zhou Zhuzi snatched the gun and skillfully loaded it.

Chen Ershui was divine, and he hit three times in five shots, and Zhou Zhuzi couldn't help but say that Ershui was born to be a good gunner. Not long after the game was played, there was a hurried whistle on the left side - Unn was ready for hand-to-hand combat, and Zhou Zhuzi ordered loudly: "Whistle, load the sword, and prepare for an assault!" ”

On the embankment of the Yellow River, Li Yu was holding a clairvoyant eye to observe the battle situation, the situation ahead was not good, Wu Laoba commanded the heavy artillery of the artillery battalion to bombard several rounds in a row, but the effect was not great, the thieves did not care about the dead at all, the offensive became more and more fierce, and the most sudden Liu Shuangxi troops were afraid that they would not be able to withstand it.

"Uncle, let me take the Flying Tiger Camp up, and Zhun Bao will drive the thieves back." Hadari came over to ask for battle, Li Yu was so frightened that he quickly dodged, he was in the limelight in the morning, and when he came back, he was taught a few whips by Li Yu, and he was forced to stay by his side and not run around.

"If you can't stand it, you will withdraw, and let the thieves in to fight." Du Wenhuan said.

Li Yu thought for a while with his hands behind his back, and ordered Mao Yuanyi: "Pass on my military order, the artillery right association will immediately retreat, and join the auxiliary troops of Zhang Mengcun and Huideng Xiang, and the Shanxi Left Association and the Great Synchronization Association will shrink the defense to the north and south sides, and let the thieves enter the main formation, and Zhou Yuji's infantry will cut off their retreat, and all departments must coordinate to wipe out the thieves in their pockets in one fell swoop." ”

When the military order arrived at the front line, Zhou Zhuzi and Wuen had already rushed out of the low wall and fought with the thieves - in order to improve the hand-to-hand combat ability of the infantry soldiers, the Ordnance Department issued each person with helmets and cotton armor, the cotton armor was knee-length, and the vital parts were inlaid with iron sheets, this line was much stronger than the thieves, and as soon as the two sides fought, the Datong army stabbed over hundreds of thieves, chased each other through the trenches, captured several mounds in a row, and blew up the thieves' artillery. However, there were too many thieves, and after reacting, they immediately rushed over, beating them with knives, spears, and sticks, and Zhou Zhuzi and Wun were outnumbered, and they were forced to retreat step by step, almost a little overwhelmed.

Zhou Zhuzi stabbed the two thieves, and when he raised his eyes, he found that Chen Ershui was still standing stupidly, and shouted loudly, "What are you doing stupidly, run", Chen Ershui was very obedient, turned his head and ran backwards. There was still a fierce fight behind him, he suddenly heard Zhou Zhuzi's scream, stopped and looked back, the pillar was tripped by the corpse on the ground, and he was picking up a knife and desperately parrying the big knife and stick that fell down. That's the brother who went up the tree to steal dates and went down to the river to fish with him, Ershui rushed over with fire in his eyes, and a thief raised his big knife and roared at him, but he didn't care about stabbing the sword into the opponent's abdomen - the key to direct stabbing lies in being fast, accurate, and ruthless, he practiced this every year in the Baihu Institute, and the strong man's knife had not yet fallen, and the sword had pierced into the stomach. Zhou Zhuzi took advantage of the stunned moments of several thieves and jumped up to cut down one of them, and the others were so frightened that they turned their heads and ran.

"Run." Zhou Zhuzi picked up the starting gun, pulled up Chen Ershui, who was still in a daze, and ran.

Co-commander Jin Guoding and battalion officer Liu Shuangxi led hundreds of armored hand-to-hand soldiers to support, Zhang Mengcun also commanded the auxiliary troops to press close and cover with a rain of arrows, and the two sentinels of Zhou Zhuzi and Wuen finally fled back in embarrassment. Jin Guoding ordered the troops to retreat quickly, but he was angry in his heart - this time it was these two little guys who attacked without authorization, and they couldn't spare them, so they and Liu Shuangxi escorted Zhou Zhuzi and Wu En to beat and scold and go back.

The infantry rear association was rushing forward, and Zhou Yuji saw this group of guys pulling and pulling, a little nosy: "Lao Jin, which one are you playing, isn't that Zhou Zhuzi and Wuen, I have taught them a lesson, and if you don't grow, forget it for me." ”

"Think beautifully, don't give it!" Jin Guoding replied angrily, pushing Zhou Zhuzi and Wu En away.

Zhou Yuji laughed for a while, turned his face and ordered his subordinates: "This association is divided into three routes, Ren Shouzhong, you take the left battalion to attack from the south, Ye Dewei, you lead the right battalion to attack from the north, and the north and south must cut off the thief's retreat, Haishan, you take Taqib's middle battalion to block the enemy's reinforcements, and all units will immediately rush to the attack position." ”

Deputy Co-Commander Haishan and the generals shouted to obey the order, and each scattered and rushed back to the headquarters.

Repelled the Datong army in front of the rush, the thieves thought that the attack was successful, shouted and launched a more fierce offensive, but the Shanxi Left Association and the Great Synchronization Association on the north and south sides contracted the defense line, and the density of troops increased suddenly, relying on the trenches and horse rejection piles as barriers to firmly block the impact of the sea of people - more than half of the people in these two associations were originally the officials and soldiers of Shanxi and Datong towns, and their combat effectiveness was not bad. The attacks on the north and south sides were blocked, and the thieves found that the middle of the Datong army was empty, and they involuntarily rushed over, and the pocket array of the Datong army was loaded with thousands of people at once.

Li Zicheng has experienced a hundred battles, and he can see through the tricks of the Datong army at a glance, but the righteous army has people, and he can also support the opponent to death, but this hand gave him an opportunity to take advantage of it, and immediately ordered Liu Zongmin and Li Guo to lead three thousand bandits to drive away the thieves with weapons and follow behind the people - this is their consistent way of playing, the old foundation of the thieves is a bandit with horses and mules, and the best weapon is the strongest. The combat power is also strong, but the two ends of the first rat, seeing the wind and making the rudder, need the bandits to escort them into battle to fight, ordinary people have to solve their own weapons, almost not to talk about combat power, but it is best to fool, whoever appreciates the food will go with whom, this kind of people are everywhere, how many people want, and it is most appropriate to drive them to the front to consume the opponent.

The thief's hand really worked, the black pressure of the flow of people continued to pour into the gap, like a huge wave to shoot, the frontal blocking of the Fengzhou auxiliaries and infantry with bows and arrows, guns alternately fired, the artillery deployed on the embankment also continued to fire chain bullets, flowering bullets, the other party was beaten to the flesh and blood, fragmented, piece by piece fell to the ground, after a while the vast land was covered with corpses, blood flowed like a river, but the other party like crazy, fell a piece and immediately rushed up a group, stepping on the body of the companion one after another to pounce forward, The Datong army not only did not stop the other party, but was forced to retreat half a mile - in fact, the common people who rushed in front had no way to retreat, behind them were bandits and ruffians with knives and guns, and then there were murderous bandits, a dead end in retreat, and there may be a way to survive in the forward, so they could only grit their teeth and fight to the end.

Li is blind enough to not take human life seriously, no wonder he can get to the point where he is today - Yang Tinglin and Liu Wenzhong were frightened, and anxiously suggested that Sun Shoufa and Hou Shijie should be coordinated. Li Yu was also secretly surprised, although the opponent's combat strength was inferior, but the fighting spirit was amazingly crazy, the defeat of the official army in the hands of this group of madmen was really not wronged, and he couldn't wait any longer, otherwise he might kill himself, he quickly ordered to cast an arrow to collect the net and kill the thief, and at the same time move Sun Shou's law department forward.

The three trumpet arrows dragged the red smoke and exploded in the air, and the various departments of the Datong Army sounded the rapid attack horn, Jin Guoding ordered Wang Zongjie, Liu Shuangxi, and Zhou Wang's three infantry battalions to be equipped with swords and launch a white-edged attack on the thieves, Zhang Mengcun and Hui Dengxiang's auxiliary troops quickly pressed forward and covered the infantry attack with a dense rain of arrows. The vast majority of them are ordinary people, lack of weapons, no training, relying on a crazy force to fight with guns and arrows, fighting until now exhausted, suddenly helpless when encountering a sudden change in the battle situation, barely struggling for a while and unable to fight again, and was gradually squeezed into a ball by the opponent.

Ren Shouzhong and Ye Dewei of the infantry rear association attacked at the same time to cut off the enemy's retreat, and the two battalions advanced as a whole with guns and arrows as a cover and heavily armored spearmen as the forerunner, pinching the gap from the north and south. Seeing that the retreat route might be cut off, the thieves panicked, and the bandits, the soldiers and the common people fled back in a swarm, just colliding with Liu Zongmin and Li Guo's reinforcements, and the thieves were suddenly in chaos, and the bandits were mixed in the crowd and could not move an inch.

After the association of the battalion took the opportunity to kill, this battalion is full of people, the old man is the Yehe people recruited by Mandahai, Hada people, known for their ferocity and good shooting, these guys have big blades in their mouths, and they shoot hard with bows while running fast, the chaos of the thieves is not over, and the bandits on the horses have become targets in a daze, and one after another they are hit by arrows and fall off their horses. The thief was in sight, and Haishan let out a strange scream, and rushed into the crowd with a knife in one hand and an axe in the other, and then Tazib and his brothers also screamed and pounced on them—this was the cry of the Yeh people when they hunted the beasts, sharp and terrifying, and the thieves were terrified to hear.

"Braided soldiers, there are braided soldiers in the Datong Army, run for your life!" The soldiers were the first to react, shouting wildly and hugging their heads - the pigtailed soldiers were man-eating beasts, and they must not be provoked, and the thieves were terrified and involuntarily fled with them.

Liu Zongmin and Li Guo were not afraid of the pigtailed soldiers, and shouted loudly to the bandits around them to rush up and fight hard, at this time, the Hongyi cannon on the Yellow River embankment suddenly opened fire, and ten cannons weighing more than ten pounds flew towards Daxu - the cannon missed, and it did not hit Daxu, but it got into the crowd, and smashed ten bloody alleys in a wolf howl. The bandits couldn't hold it anymore, they turned their horses and ran, the thieves completely collapsed, and the brigade of people and horses surrounded Liu Zongmin and Li Guo and fled in embarrassment.

Li Zicheng in the distance was pale, raised his right hand high, and the generals of the righteous army immediately clenched the reins of the horse, the sword was unsheathed, and waited with bated breath, but this hand was never waved, and after a while, Li Zicheng slowly lowered his hand, looked at the sky, and ordered the withdrawal of troops back to the camp in a low voice.

The infantry association completely cut off the retreat of the thieves, and the more than 20,000 people in the encirclement had no way to escape, relying on each other and hugging into a ball, waiting in horror for doom to come. The Datong army failed to persuade them to surrender, and they did not hesitate to kill the killers, surround the opponent and shoot them repeatedly with arrows and guns - this method probably originated from the Zhushen siege hunt, and the Fengzhou soldiers were used to playing for a long time, and the Shanxi soldiers and Datong soldiers were transferred in turn to practice.

The encirclement was densely packed with people, and every round of arrow rain and artillery would take away a piece of life, and the Shanxi soldiers and Datong soldiers were so weak that they were killed, some people secretly shot into the sky, and some people sat on the ground and cried, and the scene was chaotic.

"Henan has been in turmoil for a long time, killing people is a last resort, don't kill a few more mobs, how to appease the good people, don't you two understand this truth?" Du Wenhuan was very dissatisfied and walked to the front, taught the two co-commanders Xu Sheng and Sun Siwang a lesson, waved his hand and shouted angrily, "You must not be soft on the thieves, kill me, and kill them until they kneel on the ground and beg for mercy." ”

Xu Sheng and Sun Siwang turned their heads with sticks and left, and after a wolf howl, the Datong soldiers and Shanxi soldiers regained their spirits, crying "Those who descend will not be killed" and continued to shoot arrows at the pile. At last some of the thieves knelt down, and then more knelt, and at last they all fell to their knees and begged for mercy. The Datong army ordered the captives to hand over their weapons, and lined up to kneel on the ground to be interrogated one by one - Yang Tinglin, who was in charge of military law, shouted loudly, "Catch not a single thief among the thieves, and kill those who dare to act recklessly."

After dark, 3,000 people were taken out of the crowd one after another - Yang Tinglin, a scholar, also had black hands, and arrested people with foreign accents, calluses on his fingers, injuries on his body, and even a little looped legs as bandits. Du Wenhuan immediately ordered, choose one of the three to be beheaded for public display, and the others were given two pieces of sorghum cake and a bowl of corn and potato porridge, and they would get out of the box immediately when they were full.

At night, the captives were driven out by the Datong army, and by the way, they also brought back more than a thousand bloody heads, the righteous army in the camp was frightened, and all the people who came back were Henan locals, pulling their fellow villagers to tears and talking non-stop - scared to death, the Datong army was really ruthless, it was a murder without blinking, but people were also really benevolent, and they were given a full meal when they were prisoners, and they were much more generous than the two meals of clear soup porridge a day for King Chuang, and they would never dare to fight with others in the future.

"King Chuang, these northern captives are too rampant, the old brothers have asked for battle, they must be destroyed!"

"King Chuang, I'll take the lead tomorrow, and we'll fight with Beiyu."

……

The king's tent was in an uproar, and after a day's battle, nearly 30,000 people were lost, of course, 20,000 captured people came back, but it was also an insult to the righteous army, and the soldiers who broke into the camp were angry and angry, and they wanted to fight hard.

Li Zicheng is very embarrassed now, to be honest, the old foundation of the righteous army has almost no losses, and there is indeed the strength of a battle, but the opponent is too strong, and it is more auspicious to fight, and it is the best policy to slip away as soon as possible, which is the basic common sense of being a thief. The headache is that he is not the little thief he used to be, but the king who released his words to fight for the world, and all kinds of Henan poles, including Niu Jinxing, came to take refuge, just to make a future, if he showed his cowardice, his prestige might plummet, and it would be difficult to reunite his popularity.

"Success is not in the sky, all those who have become great since ancient times are determined by heaven, so they can be what others can't do, and winning in danger is just an ordinary thing, and the king is ordered by the sky, so why worry!" Niu Jinxing said.

Li Zicheng's brows stretched, Mr. Niu is right, if you want to win the world, you have to dare to gamble, less than 1,000 people broke into the camp to enter Henan, from the capture of Luoyang to the victory of Zhuxian Town, which battle is not a dangerous victory? But they all won the bet, this is the destiny of heaven, so what's the point of betting again!

"Okay, brothers, go together, Lao Liu, Li Guo, tomorrow you two will take the lead." Li Zicheng finally made up his mind.

"Tell the brothers to sleep well tonight, and send troops at dawn tomorrow." Bull Venus screamed again.