The rumbling sound of artillery rang out from time to time, and the shouts of killing from far and near were endless, and people kept entering and leaving Yuan Chonghuan's Chinese army tent, many of them had blood on their faces, and their eyes were filled with panic and a look of frustration or despair.

Some people walked out from here and never came back, and one by one bad news was constantly brought to Yuan Chonghuan, all of them were broken through by the thief army in a certain direction, how many people were killed again, so-and-so garrison, so-and-so guerrilla beheading and so on.

It's all bad news, not a single piece of good news!

Yuan Chonghuan's black face became darker, and the despair in his heart became more and more intense.

He still didn't understand how this battle came to be like this.

He set out with an army of 50,000, but in less than two days, 10,000 people each of the two armies were wiped out, and his two favorite generals became prisoners of the thief army that he felt vulnerable.

If it weren't for Hong Chengchou's personal soldiers who broke out of the siege to report the news, he made a timely decision to go up a hill on higher ground before the enemy surrounded him, and the camp would have been broken by the enemy long ago.

He couldn't understand why a thief army that started as a horse thief could be so strong! Powerful enough to make his 50,000-strong army defenseless, and now in danger of total annihilation.

If he still felt a little unimpressed with this army known as the Jiang Family's army before, and still had doubts about their repeated defeats against the Tartars, then now he has completely believed it.

Only such an army can fight the 50,000 Ming border army so embarrassed.

And what made him even more desperate was that the enemy not only had sharp knives and guns, strong cavalry, but also powerful artillery fire. The power and range of these cannons are among the top and most powerful in the artillery sequence of the Ming army.

This further confirms the news that the enemy has completely annihilated the Tartar artillery team.

If the army still had a slight advantage in the face of the Jiang army before, it was because they were equipped with a considerable proportion of artillery.

But this advantage quickly collapsed after the Jiang Jiajun transferred the red-coated cannon.

Although this kind of three-ton, three-meter-long cannon is said to be more suitable for siege and shooting at fixed targets, it is precisely at this time that the stubborn Ming army meets this condition.

When more than a dozen red-coated cannons rumbled one after another, the last bit of hope of the Ming army was dashed.

Who the fuck said this was a horse thief? Your horse thief still has a cannon? And still so many cannons? This cannonball flew farther than the largest cannon of the Ming army, and it was even more powerful after the explosion.

The Ming army's contempt for the Jiang family army and the crudeness of intelligence caused their morale to collapse quickly after suffering a heavy and violent blow. Many soldiers began to think that Yuan Chonghuan deliberately deceived them and did not tell them the truth, which led to the current predicament.

This kind of thinking is spread among the soldiers, although it will not mutiny, but it obviously affects the combat effectiveness of the soldiers, many people are simply perfunctory, when the Jiang family army attacked, they simply threw away their weapons, raised their hands and fell on the ground and surrendered.

And the Jiang family army did not kill these surrendered soldiers, which made more Ming soldiers see the hope of life, and more and more people simply surrendered.

Later, some generals took the initiative to surrender to the Jiang army with soldiers who threw away their weapons in the formation.

The growing tide of surrender was barely stopped after Yuan Chonghuan's descendants killed a group of people who showed signs of surrender.

The night gradually became stronger, and the sound of Jiang Jiajun's artillery was much quieter, and the shouting of killing gradually fell silent.

This made the Ming soldiers who were still breathing relax a little, lying on the cold ground one by one, holding the weapons in their hands, and staring at the dark night sky with godless eyes desperately and numbly.

Some people lie down and never wake up, and the wounded who are cold, hungry and cannot be treated in time have only a way to die.

Many of the generals also squatted on the ground or leaned against the trees, thinking about their fate.

Compared with the attack of the Jiang army, another thing that made the Ming army even more desperate was the food problem.

In order to make the march faster, the soldiers who went out this time carried only two days' rations. All the rest of the grain was in Hong Chengchou's rear army.

Such an arrangement would have been understandable for exterminating a horse thief. Not to mention that there are still 10,000 troops in the rear army escorting the baggage.

But no one could have imagined that on the first day of the war, their heavy grain and grass would follow the 10,000 rear army and become the result of the horse thieves they wanted to exterminate.

Today, the rations carried by the Ming army have been exhausted, and many soldiers have no place for dinner. The continuous fighting and fighting in the winter, which requires more calories, greatly accelerated the consumption of energy in the soldiers' bodies.

There are many ways to die, and probably the last way people want to die is to starve.

Now the morale of the Ming army has almost fallen to the bottom, coupled with the lack of food, a desperate mood mixed with resentment began to spread in the entire battalion, and many people looked at Yuan Chonghuan's Chinese army tent with a little unkindness.

If it weren't for the deterrence of Yuan Chonghuan's descendants brought from the Central Plains, these desperate and hungry soldiers don't know what they would do.

In the big tent of the Chinese army, several generals surrounded Yuan Chonghuan silently, and the expressions on their faces were anxious and uneasy.

Yuan Chonghuan just turned to look at the Liaodong map in front of him, without saying a word, not knowing what he was thinking.

"Inspector, if there is no more to eat, I am afraid that my brothers will ......," one of the generals said with difficulty.

He didn't finish speaking, but everyone present understood what he meant. That's what they think too.

They looked at Yuan Conghuan's not too tall back, and they all began to think about their own way out in their hearts.

After a while, Yuan Chonghuan spoke, his voice obviously tired and helpless.

"Kill the horses, kill the mounts of the governor first, and kill the horses of the generals below the governor first, so that the soldiers can have a full meal. The Governor has already sent someone to ask for help from Li Yongnian, the general army of Datong, and we will definitely wait for reinforcements until tomorrow. ”

Killing horses? Although many generals knew that this was the only choice, they were still shocked when they said this answer from Yuan Chonghuan's mouth.

War horses were the most scarce strategic resource for the Ming army. There were few war horses in the Ming army, and every war horse was very precious. Now it's to the point of killing horses?

"Overseer, kill the last general's horse first! That yellow horse of yours followed you in the Central Plains to fight in the north and south, but it saved your life, so I can't kill it! ”

Yuan Chonghuan's pro-soldier commander shouted urgently, his expression twitched, and his eyes turned red.