Observing the battle situation in front of him, Li Wen had to admit that the Zhennan Army was not only sharp in firearms.

The cold weapons of the Zhennan army are not inferior to their firearms, and their weapons are well-equipped, with large shields and spears, as well as bright machetes, and they can even suppress the border army condescendingly.

The border army rushed to the hill almost at the end of the crossbow, and when the Zhennan army defended, it was to take the lead by waiting for work, not to mention that those bird-swatters could still kill one or two brave border soldiers with a cold gun from time to time, which made the border army quite timid and did not dare to throw off their arms and do a big fight, for fear that they would be killed.

After yesterday's war, the military doctor said that it is very difficult to save a soldier who is hit in the arm and leg by lead bullet, because the lead bullet cannot be taken out, the blood does not stop, and just bleeding can kill people, and lead has lead poison, gunpowder has fire poison, and firearms are poison in the first place, and if they are hit, it is basically difficult to survive.

Therefore, the losses on the battlefield are not the most terrible, the most terrible thing is that after the war, a large number of wounded soldiers died, and they could not be saved at all, which will cause serious problems in the morale of the military.

Some people were worried about this, but Li Wen realized that instead of worrying, it was better to use the victory of the war to cover it up.

So he became more and more insistent and demanded that the army fight bravely, break through the hill defense line, march to Liuba, destroy the rebels, and reach Hanzhong.

At his call, the border troops rushed to the hill in waves, and under the blows of artillery and muskets, under the assassination of big guns and machetes, they fell to the ground in droves and could not stand up again.

The blood stained the bare mountain, and I don't know when and when this blood red will disappear.

Li Wen doesn't care about this, his years of career have made his heart as hard as iron, and he pays more attention to success or failure, the result rather than the process.

The thousand-man team fought out one by one, and the hills were captured one by one, the artillery of the Zhennan Army kept firing until it was overheated, the bird guns kept firing until the enemy was completely close, and the large shield array held out until the enemy in front of them was killed, and the two sides fought fiercely.

Such fierce battles lasted for two days, and on the morning of November 24, the four hills were occupied by Li Wen, and the Zhennan Army withdrew from the hill area and entered the second line of defense, and the battle situation entered the second stage.

Despite such a fierce battle and the result of victory, it was not too happy for Li Wen, because the price paid to him had exceeded his psychological expectations, and he just held his breath and forcibly encouraged himself not to give up or relax, and finally broke through the hilly area.

More than 2,000 people were killed in the battle, and many more were wounded, and under the blow of the superior firearms of the Zhennan army, the disadvantages of the border army were clearly visible.

It is impossible to use cavalry to fight with the Zhennan army, unable to give full play to their strengths, and even the advantage of troops is difficult to play, if it is not for the continuous fighting, I am afraid that those hills will not be able to be captured at all.

Moreover, these hills were all taken by the Zhennan army to retreat and take them, and none of them were taken by the total annihilation of the defenders, which made Li Wen have a bad impression.

I have to say that the high-intensity fighting in the past few days has exhausted the physical strength and energy of the army, looking at the defense line built by the Zhennan army behind the hill, they have a chill in their hearts, and in the cold wind, they only feel that the malice of the whole world is pouring towards them.

Li Wen also saw that the army was tired and helpless, so he could only order the army to be stationed in the hilly area, and the attack team went back to rest, and continued to attack with a part of the previous rest, in turn.

Li Wen couldn't let the offensive stop, and once it stopped, it wouldn't be so easy to start again.

It was colder, but the fighting was more intense.

Deng Zilong and the generals were eating hot pot in Liuba City, and they were not worried about the battle situation at all, they had confidence, because the scouts who were exploring the road had gone a long way and could not see Li Ruzhang's department that should have arrived in Liuba on the slope, and in the short term they only needed to face Li Wen's department.

And the defense line they prepared was enough to leave a deep and indelible impression on Li Wen's subordinates.

On the same day, in Nanzheng, Hanzhong, Ma Wei, who stayed in the town, met with the two commanders of the 3,000 white-pole soldiers who came all the way to help the battle, Ma Qiancheng and her wife Qin Liangyu.

After all, these two people chose to bet on Xiao Ruxun, and after doing a good job in the ideological work of their families, they arrived in Hanzhong with well-trained white-pole elite soldiers to help in the battle, and officially joined Xiao Ruxun's army to bet on their future.

When these two people didn't fight him at the earliest, Ma Wei saw the wait-and-see attitude of these two people, and it was also the type of wait-and-see attitude that was more biased towards Xiao Ruxun's side, they looked at the sharp edge of the Zhennan army, and there was already a benchmark on the psychological side, and now they are just putting it into action.

"General Ma and Mrs. Ma understand the righteousness and contribute to Xiao Dashuai, and when His Majesty reinstates the throne after the Fengtian rebellion is over, Xiao Dashuai will definitely report the military merits for the two, and he will definitely be able to give the two rich rewards!"

Ma Wei smiled and shook Ma Qiancheng's hand to welcome him.

Ma Qiancheng was much more modest, saying that he was afraid of the authority of the governor of Sichuan and had to bring troops to stop it, and hoped that Xiao Dashuai would not care about it, Ma Wei smiled and said that Xiao Dashuai would not care about these at all, as long as he was a partner who rebelled against Fengtian, he would definitely be accepted by Xiao Dashuai, and the two of them did not have to worry at all.

After greeting for a while, Ma Wei expressed his welcome, and after Ma Qiancheng expressed his willingness to take refuge, he entered the formal negotiation link.

That is, what do the white pole soldiers need to do to be officially included in the system of the Zhennan Army, and what kind of vote do the white pole soldiers need to pay in order to be truly recognized, so as to get rid of the dilemma at both ends of the first rat.

Of course, Ma Wei understands the needs of these two people, and at the moment he does not assign them tasks but doubts their performance, and assigning them important people is the beginning of their trust and acceptance, so Ma Wei decided to give them two very important tasks.

"Come, General Ma, Mrs. Ma, please look here."

Ma Wei pointed out to Ma Qiancheng and Qin Liangyu on the map the expected route of Li Wen and Du Tong's march.

"These two lines are the march routes of Li Wen's department and Du Tong's department deduced by our army according to intelligence, and at this moment, our army is also fortifying in Liuba and Luoyang, and the final plan is to gradually retreat, General Liu Wei's troops will withdraw to Yangping Pass for key defense, and General Deng Zilong's troops will retreat to Hutou Pass and Jitou Pass and even Baoxian for key defense.

The purpose of our doing this is to lengthen Li Wen's transportation and supply lines, so that his grain routes are fragile and vulnerable, Li Wen's troops are already short of food because Sichuan was taken by our army, and Shen Cheng naturally has no food to support there, so he hurriedly raised a large army to attack just for food.

And now, we need an elite force that is good at mountain warfare to go deep into the enemy's rear, and carry out key strikes and destruction on its grain routes, so that its front line will be deprived of food and the front will be uneasy, so that our army can break through it and directly rush out of the Qinling Mountains and enter the pass! ”

Ma Wei looked at Ma Qiancheng and Qin Liangyu.