The 32nd Division is a recruit division, its combat effectiveness is relatively poor, and its participation in the Northern Expedition this time is mainly to train the team, Wang Kefan did not expect them to win the battle, and can even accept their defeat, but as a participating unit in the First Northern Expedition, the 32nd Division must not be defeated too badly, and the whole army cannot be annihilated, otherwise the impact on all aspects will be too great, and it will be a heavy blow to the morale of the whole army.

The train ran fast, all by the headband, and the soldiers of the 32nd Division were poor, so Wang Kefan sent them the best division commander, Du Gao, the battalion officer of the former Gongyi Battalion. Du Gao was born in the Gongyi Battalion, the number one main force of the Chu Army, and Shi Wushu has always been the relationship between the two generals, the battle density of the Gongyi Battalion is far stronger than other armies in this era, although Du Gao has only been in the army for five years, he has fought countless vicious battles and tough battles, and compared with those veterans who have been fighting horses for half his life, he is an experienced and excellent general.

This time, the Chu army was reorganized, and the Gongyi battalion was changed into two divisions, Shi Wuxian became a division commander, Wang Kebin became another division commander, and other officers at the same level were sent to other units. In terms of Du Gao's qualifications, it seems that he is a little aggrieved when he is the commander of a recruit division, and some people in private talk that this is to make way for Wang Kebin, and Du Gao was so angry that he slapped the table at the conference after hearing this kind of rumors.

"I thought you were all good men, all iron-clad gentlemen, but I didn't expect there to be a few long-tongued women mixed in it, what a fucking loss of the thirty-second division! Those who spread these strange words, you all patted your conscience and said, where did our Chu army come from? Who single-handedly brought it out? Wang Junmen asked General Wang Liu to be the division commander, and I, Du Gao, were convinced, if General Wang Liu's subordinates were short of people, I would be willing to be a company commander and battalion commander under him......"

There are strange rumors in the army, which is a kind of loose expression, and the Gongyi battalion was taken into a monolith by Wang Kefan. All officers and soldiers, from top to bottom, were trained to be a knife, a gun, no matter what orders were placed above. No one will say a word, and some people in the 32nd Division have commented on their division commanders. Talking nonsense shows that they have indispensable problems, and various problems will arise at any time on the battlefield.

Leading soldiers to fight is the same as driving, if the requirements are not high, it is also a skilled worker, Du Gao is an experienced old driver, but he used to drive a luxury car like Gongyi Battalion, and gave him a splicing modified car made by "China Sanqi", and he always felt very awkward to drive. The run-in between the people and vehicles has not been completed, no matter how good his tactical command is, the execution of the troops is always out of shape, and in the battle of Shucheng, he just came into contact with the Qing army, and lost the cold water pass and fell into passivity.

The Gongyi battalion used to often fight with a weak enemy and a strong headwind, although Du Ping's defense line was broken through by the Qing army, he did not panic, he immediately gathered all his troops and moved closer to Shucheng County. According to the city's insistence, as long as the nail of Shucheng was stuck in the Qing army's marching route, Tun Buer would not dare to drive straight into Hefei for a long time...... The combat mission of the thirty-two was to block the reinforcements of Tumbour. Since the plan to block the Qing army south of Shucheng has failed, then retreat to the next best thing, drag the main force of Tunbur, and also buy time for Tian Jianxiu to attack Hefei, as for the casualties of the troops and how to break through in the future, etc., are all trivial issues that do not need to be considered for the time being, I heard that the rear guard of a brigade was chased and entangled by the Eight Banners cavalry, and Du Gao did not send reinforcements to respond......

The 182nd Brigade is the brigade that was entangled by the Qing army. Ding Zongwang and Xiong Yuanzhong are among them.

Several battalions alternately covered the retreat, and had just walked out less than two miles. The Eight Banners cavalry attacked again. Hundreds of iron horsemen were like a torrent, and the whole earth trembled as they charged forward at high speed. A small number of Chu army rangers did not dare to sweep its front, avoided dozens of steps on both sides and then turned their horses' heads, and rushed up from the flanks to harass, and the Eight Banners divided into two squads to meet the battle, and the hundreds of cavalry in the middle instead accelerated their horse speed, rushed faster and faster, and rushed straight towards the infantry formation of the Chu army.

As soon as the Eight Banners cavalry launched a charge, the infantry of the Chu army immediately stopped, lined up to meet the battle, the sword and shield battalions on both sides were tied to the position with horse rejection guns, and the middle was lined up by the spear battalion as a defensive line, and the musket battalion and the bow battalion were interspersed with them to be responsible for fire cover, and the baggage troops were tightly protected in the middle, seeing that the Eight Banners on the opposite side were rapidly approaching, the faces of the soldiers showed nervous looks, Xiong Yuanzhong walked quickly from the head of the team to the team, and kept correcting their various mistakes, Ding Zongwang stared at the top of the Qing army in front with an expressionless face, Silently estimating the distance in his heart, he suddenly raised the war knife in his hand and ordered loudly.

"Ready!"

The ghost-like conch rolled across the earth, and the charging team of the Qing cavalry had reached a hundred steps away in a blink of an eye, and the eight banner soldiers were all standing on the stirrups one by one, their bodies rising and falling lightly with the rhythm of the war horses, and their mouths kept whistling, babbling and screaming, and the tiger tooth knife in their hands shook non-stop, flashing pieces of shining solitary knife light, showing off their riding skills and killing intent, and intimidating the Chu soldiers opposite.

"Aim!"

Ding Zongwang ordered loudly that his company had one hundred and eight birds, and in order to strengthen the density of firepower, he deliberately stood in a linear front and rear line, with the front row shooting in a kneeling position and the rear row shooting in a standing position, and at the same time the salvo could cover a width of 30 paces in the front, and the lethality was still considerable...... But after several battles today, the recruits always make such and such mistakes, and they never completed a standardized salvo, which made Ding Zongwang a little weak-hearted.

As soon as the musketeers raised their birds, they saw that the Qing cavalry pressed over like a wall, and all the surrounding scenery was blocked by their own arms and birds, and they could not see the shape of the entire battlefield, and they could not see the figure of their companions, only the hideous faces of the Qing cavalry were getting closer and closer.

Sixty steps.

Fifty steps.

Ding Zongwang was ready to put the Qing cavalry at a distance of forty paces to fight again, which would greatly improve the hit rate and lethality, and the Chu soldiers retreated immediately after firing, blocked by a thorn antler in front of the formation, plus the cover of their comrades in the spear battalion, they could safely withdraw to the second line...... But at this time, a familiar gunshot suddenly sounded in his ears, Ding Zongwang scolded viciously in his heart, and the old lady of this soldier who shot in advance, but the war knife in her hand was forced to swing, and at the same time blew the whistle in her mouth.

"Fire!"

If you don't give an order, Ding Zongwang was kidnapped by the soldiers who shot in advance.

After the first soldier fired, the shots rang out one after another. Most of the Chu soldiers looked hesitant, and their companions fired one after another to make them panic, but the commander had not yet given the order to shoot. Now give the order to fire, barely enough to complete a salvo. Although the power of the mess is greatly reduced, and although the hit rate is low at too long distance, it is better than a complete free fire.

"Withdraw! Remove! Retreat! Ding Zongwang and Xiong Yuan shouted, raising the war knife in their hands, if anyone dared to run around, they would not hesitate to cut him over, if these musketeers messed up the formation of the spear battalion and the sword and shield battalion, and were taken advantage of the opportunity by the Eight Banners to rush up, it would be over.

Fortunately, this tactical move of retreat has been trained many times. It has become an instinct of the soldiers, they ran like a swarm from the passage left for them by the spear battalion under the cover of Ding Zongwang and Xiong Yuanzhong, although they were only a few dozen steps away, because they were too nervous and excited, many recruits were so tired that they couldn't breathe, and after stopping, they held their knees with both hands and opened their mouths to breathe, panting unevenly for a long time.

"It's a feint again, why don't the Tartar soldiers dare to rush up!" A recruit squad leader named Ma Yulong is relatively calm. There was still time to turn around and check the battle situation, and the Eight Banners soldiers, like the previous times, looked brave when they charged. Unstoppable, at the last moment, it suddenly separated to the two wings, brushed the two sides of the Ming army's spear array, and shot a piece of light arrows with a cavalry bow while running, arrow after arrow, in just a few breaths, each Eight Banners soldier shot three or four arrows, although the soldiers of the Chu army were protected by armor, there were also thirty or forty people who were injured by arrows. The casualty figure was much higher than that of the Eight Banners cavalry, who were shot by birds.

"You know a fart, you cannonball the horses across the mountain and go for a day. How can the cavalry go on a rampage! Ding Zongwang walked over and scolded, and handed Ma Yulong a slip with a blushing face. Only then did Ma Yulong realize that he had thrown the whole strip halfway in a daze.

At this time, the Eight Banners cavalry had swept to both sides of the Chu army's formation, turned the horse's head and charged again, Ding Zongwang did not fight in this direction for the time being, he ordered the soldiers to reload, and whispered to Xiong Yuanzhong: "It's not a way to go on like this, the Tartars have feinted seventeen times today, three of which have become real attacks, our casualties are getting bigger and bigger, I don't know if we can last until dark." ”

The setting of the "horse" in Chinese chess fully reflects the characteristics of cavalry combat, when the cavalry meets the infantry formation, it generally does not come up directly to hit the hard battle, but from the flank of the constant harassment, when the opponent's reaction speed and resistance decrease, this feint attack can become a real attack at any time, just like the "horse" in chess stepped on the right step, stepped over from the oblique thorn and ate the opponent...... From this morning to the afternoon, the Qing army has had three real attacks, true and false, and has always maintained huge pressure on the Chu army, and every time it needs to deal with it with all its might, even if it shows a little flaw, the Eight Banners will not hesitate to rush up and start a fierce battle, if it were not for the desperate resistance of the Chu army, the formation would have been broken through.

There are more than 2,000 Eight Banners soldiers who have caught up, and only one-fifth of each feint attack is dispatched, and the other Eight Banners soldiers stay in the rear to monitor from a distance to save horsepower and soldiers' bodies, so from early in the morning to now, the Eight Banners have always maintained a high-intensity attack frequency, and the Chu army has no time to rest, too late to get rid of the enemy, and too late to change tactics...... According to the various signs that came out of the Qing army's table, even a low-level officer like Ding Zongwang could see that the Eight Banners had not done their best, and now there was still an hour and a half before dark, and the Qing army had to launch at least a real onslaught.

"I estimate that the Tartars will definitely attack before dark, otherwise in the second half of the night, we will break through separately, and this level will not be easy." Xiong Yuanzhong turned his head and instructed Ma Yulong: "If it is disrupted later, you take a few people to follow me, and you must protect our company flag, the flag is in the people, and the flag is dead, understand?!" ”

Speaking of the last sentence, Xiong Yuanzhong abruptly increased his tone, if the Chu army's military formation was broken through, it would be safest to flee separately, but Xiong Yuanzhong didn't want to run away like this.

"Old Xiong, are you still competing with me? I'm the company commander, and the company must follow me, do you hear me? Ding Zongwang turned his head and asked Ma Yulong sharply.

"That's not to argue, let's stay together." Xiong Yuanzhong saw Ma Yulong's inexplicable appearance, patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "If our flag does not fall, we will attract all the Tartars, and when the time comes, be smart, we must follow the company commander and me." Don't be afraid, things on the battlefield are very evil, the more you are afraid of death, the faster you die, and the more you rush forward, the more you will not die, our Chu army can defeat the Tartar again and again, just because everyone is not afraid of death, even if the Tartar chokes the neck, you have to bite him hard. ”

"I'm not afraid!" Ma Yulong patted the bird gun in his hand and said: "It's enough to kill one, kill two to earn one, since I signed up for the army, I'm not afraid to fight with the Tartars!" ”

The recruits recruited by the Chu army are all volunteers, and they have a strong belief in killing the enemy and serving the country...... They are still sixty miles away from Shucheng, and if they can hold out safely until dark, and the troops break through at night, most of them should be able to escape, but before that, there is still a most severe test waiting for them.

Different from the first dozen or so feints, these hundreds of Eight Banners soldiers rushed back and forth a few times, and did not turn around and retreat, but repeatedly continued to harass, charging at high speed again and again, as if they didn't care about horsepower at all, the two thousand Qing troops behind always watched the battle from afar, and the Eight Banners jumped off their horses, eating dry food, and took out soybean essence from their pockets and fed it to the horse's mouth.

"It's almost ......" Zhang Yanshi took a deep breath, and his whole body was full of excitement about the coming of the big war.

Zhang Yanshi is the brigade commander of the 182nd Brigade of the Chu Army, born in a family of military generals, the Ningzhou volunteers defected to Xiong Lichun during the Shogunate Mountain Uprising, Xiong Lichun later surrendered to the Manchu Dynasty, he and Bian Xiang pulled the team out of Ningzhou, defected to the Chu Army, and was organized into a new Ningzhou battalion, because the table Xiàn was constantly promoted, and was one of the representatives of the generals of the Chu Army's Shaozhuang faction, this time he was entrusted with a heavy responsibility, serving as the brigade commander of the 182nd Brigade, but he encountered the biggest crisis in the career of Rong Ma.

Soon, the Qing army continued to harass the 182nd Brigade with a unit, but the main force was obviously making the final accumulation, and when these hundreds of Qing troops retreated, the main force of the Qing army would launch a general attack. (To be continued)