The defensive position of the Chu army is a circular formation, except for the vicinity of the breakthrough of the Qing army's heavy infantry, there are many musketeers and archers on the entire circular position, except for dealing with the attack of the Qing army on the periphery, everyone else turned around and dealt with the Qing army's heavy infantry that rushed into the circle first. Two or three hundred people shot and fired arrows together at close range, and although the heavy infantry of the Qing army had heavy armor to protect themselves, they were also beaten to a pulp.

Rush forward in a hurry!

At this point, the battle was only a few dozen steps away from the brigade flag of the 182nd Brigade, so how could it fall short? The heavy infantry of the Qing army also killed red eyes at this moment, and rushed forward in the rain of bullets and arrows, the so-called capture of the thief and capture the king first, as long as the Chinese army of the Chu army is defeated, the entire army will lose its command, so as to win in one fell swoop...... The Qing heavy infantry lined up in a cone-shaped shock formation and advanced rapidly, ignoring the surrounding Chu army musketeers and archers, lead bullets and arrows kept shooting, the Qing heavy infantry on the periphery of the cone formation kept shaking as if they had been shocked, the shields with fragments flying with arrows were inserted, there were more and more holes in the armor, and there was a painful roar in the mouth, and from time to time someone was hit by the vital point and suddenly fell to the ground.

At a heavy price, the Qing heavy infantry finally rushed through the open field at a distance of more than thirty paces and collided with the Chu army's pikemen.

On the periphery of the circle formation, the other Eight Banners attacked from two other directions, one was infantry and the other was cavalry, in order to cooperate with the heavy infantry who had rushed into the circle formation, the soldiers of the Chu army fought in two lines, the sword and shield soldiers and pikemen resisted the attack from outside, and the musketeers and archers turned back to support their companions, and the scene was a little chaotic...... When the battle came to this point, both the Ming and Qing armies did their best, and they were also under tremendous pressure. It's like two evenly matched strong men wrestling their wrists, both of them with red faces and thick necks. But it was difficult to tell the winner for a while.

In the rear of the Qing army, Niman was already riding his horse and standing on a small dirt slope. At this moment, he urged the horse to take a few steps upwards so that he could see more clearly.

"This gang of southern thieves is also difficult!" The appearance of the Chu army once again surprised him, the heavy infantry broke through the circle formation with a single charge, and it seemed that the other side was vulnerable, but after breaking through the circle formation, the Chu army did not collapse, the resistance became stronger and stronger, and the casualties of the Qing army rose sharply.

Roughly estimated, the casualties of the Eight Banners should be more than 300. Thirty or forty horses were also injured, even if the 182nd Brigade was wiped out, this battle would be a disastrous victory that outweighed the losses, but now if he withdraws from the battle, he will lose all his achievements, and Niman, who is difficult to ride a tiger, can only fight desperately...... Following his order, the Qing army sounded the horn, waved the order flag, and mobilized the five hundred Eight Banner cavalry in front to rush to the breakthrough. Support the heavy infantry in front.

Cavalry rushing into a cramped circle to fight, although the threat to the enemy is great, and it will also bring huge casualties, you must know that the advantage of cavalry is to attack back and forth. The palm-sized area in the circle couldn't be moved at all, so the five hundred cavalry did not rush in together, except for the one hundred horsemen at the front. The rest of the Eight Banners jumped off their horses and turned into infantry to enter hand-to-hand combat.

A hundred cavalry. Plus a hundred horses, in the circle like an evil dragon composed of iron horses. It looks extraordinarily large and full of deterrence. With the deafening sound of horses' hooves, the Qing heavy infantry along the road avoided one after another, and the Chu spearmen hurriedly formed a gun formation, preparing to resist the onslaught of the Qing cavalry. The cavalry of the Qing army rushed to the front, but suddenly split up on the two wings and attacked the musketeers and archers of the Chu army who were shooting!

It's still a horse walking day!

The target of this cavalry's attack was not the brigade flag of the 182nd Brigade, but the circular formation of the Chu army on both flanks, as long as two more openings were opened in the defensive line of the circular formation, and more Qing soldiers rushed in, the 12nd Brigade would definitely be finished.

The four hundred Qing infantry behind is the new force to support the heavy infantry, except for a few Qing generals, most of them only wear a layer of armor, which is not a heavy infantry with strict armor, but in this way their actions are more convenient, all the way trotting into the formation, some people are running, while opening their bows and arrows to shoot at the Chu soldiers, only twenty steps away from the Chu army's pikemen, only to put the bow and arrow behind their backs, holding a long sword and a big sword to charge.

"Get on the bayonet!"

Since the Qing cavalry rushed into the circle formation, Ding Zongwang and Xiong Yuanzhong have been careful, and at the first time when the Qing cavalry changed direction, the two of them gave a loud order in unison.

In the face of the high-speed charge of the cavalry, the bird gun could not resist head-on with the bayonet, and it was the right choice to temporarily avoid the edge and dodge to the side, but behind the musketeers were their companions from the sword and shield battalion and the spear battalion, they were guarding the direction of the circle formation, fighting against the Qing army attacking from the outside, and Ding Zongwang's company could not dodge.

If you can't hide, then let's fight!

The musketeers raised the bayonet and formed a weakened version of the spear array, Ding Zongwang had less than seventy musketeers left in this company, and towards them were fifty Eight Banner cavalry galloping on fast horses, the huge horse hooves smashed on the ground like a hammer, raising a piece of loess smoke and dust, in Ding Zongwang's eyes, the figure of the Qing army's war horse quickly became larger, and even the cavalry on the horse looked extremely tall, coupled with a vicious and hideous expression, the crack howled wildly, like a group of evil ghosts killed from the Yama Palace.

"Stand firm, just use your bayonet against the tartar, whoever dares to take a step back, Lao Tzu will kill him!" Ding Zongwang shouted loudly, dragging the war knife horizontally behind him, ready to swing it with all his strength at any time, a veteran like him is like an experienced football player, sprinting with all his strength again and again when needed, adjusting his state in the interval between the sprints, although he has fought fiercely for a day, he still maintains enough body and sharp reactions.

The recruits don't have this kind of ability, after a whole day of fighting, after facing the test of life and death many times, most of the recruits are extremely excited at the moment, and they are extremely tired at the moment, looking at the roaring Eight Banners soldiers There is an unreal trance, just like the imminent great danger is an illusion.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! ”

The Eight Banners cavalry rushed to the front, and in the face of the bayonet array of the Chu soldiers, they did not slow down, but kicked the horse's belly hard with their spurs, and accelerated the charge again...... Although the size of the Mongolian horse is not large, it also weighs six or seven hundred pounds, plus the cavalry and armor weapons on the horse. The total weight is close to 1,000 catties, and it is under the high-speed charge. The infantry with bayonets will definitely not be able to stop it, and will fly as soon as it hits.

(The average weight of Mongolian horses is 300 kg.) There are very few more than 400 kilograms, the shoulder height is between 120 cm and 135 cm, and the cavalry carrying more than 100 pounds is at the limit, so it is generally light cavalry, and the most common tactic used is kite flying...... Compared with the Arabian horse, the Mongolian horse is significantly smaller, not to mention the European horse weighing more than 1,000 kilograms. ）

Bang bang bang! The soldiers of the Chu army flew out one after another. The Qing cavalry rushed in the most fierce direction, and even knocked out a string of rolling gourds, and the Qing general who led the team laughed proudly.

"Haha! …… Well? Well! He had just laughed halfway through, and he couldn't laugh anymore, and the Eight Banners cavalry in front of him stumbled one after another and fell to the ground, and the body and legs of the war horses were impressively inserted with bird guns with bayonets, which were still shaking slightly!

The recruits recruited by the Chu army in this expansion are all volunteers who have taken the initiative to join the army. Determined to serve the country, the most courageous, in the face of the oncoming rolling iron cavalry, more than half of the Chu soldiers did not retreat. At the last moment, he still tried his best to maintain the angle of the bayonet, and with the help of the forward impact of the war horse, the bayonet was plunged deep into their bodies...... Hussars are hussars. War horses were not protected by horse armor and used light cavalry to charge into battle. As long as the enemy's infantry dares to adopt the same method of fighting, it will be difficult for the light cavalry to bargain.

A charge down. Nearly half of the soldiers of the Chu army were killed and wounded, and the cavalry of the Eight Banners was also injured more than a dozen, and the battle loss ratio of two to one was slightly more, it seems that the Chu army suffered a loss, but this is infantry against cavalry, recruits who have just enlisted against veterans who have been on the battlefield for a long time, plus the loss of more than a dozen war horses, the Qing army is the real loser!

What's more, after more than a dozen Eight Banner cavalry fell, blocking the charging route behind, the Eight Banner cavalry was forced to go to both sides, but there was not enough space to raise the speed of the horse again, so they had no choice but to fight and retreat, retreat to the back of the Qing infantry, take out bows and arrows and shoot at the Chu army...... In the other direction, the charge of fifty Eight Banner cavalry was also repulsed by the soldiers of the Chu army, and the cavalry rushed into a narrow circle to fight, like a paper tiger with teeth and claws, it looked unstoppable, as long as they were not intimidated by them, the cavalry would definitely suffer in the end.

What was really unstoppable was the infantry of the Qing army.

The heavy infantry of the Qing army was already superior, and the pikemen of the Chu army struggled to support, and with the support of musketeers and archers, they did not collapse for the time being.

Not far ahead, there is the Chinese army of the Chu army, the brigade flag of the 182nd Brigade, except for the brigade commander Zhang Yanshi and a group of officers and staff officers, there are only a small number of guards.

Seeing that the last line of defense was breached, Zhang Yanshi turned around and left, and the other Chu officers and soldiers also hurriedly followed, and the battle flag that had been standing on the position for an afternoon was finally pulled out, and the flag guards carried the thick flagpole diagonally on their shoulders and chased after Zhang Yanshi.

Cooked ducks still want to fly? The Qing infantry chased after them like a swarm.

The leading Qing general was in a hurry, and suddenly heard an ominous sound, he subconsciously looked left and right for the source of the sound, and did not find anything, and suddenly a strong force came under his feet, with a series of thunderbolts, he flew straight out of the sky like a gray wolf.

Explode!

Seeing that the situation was tense, Zhang Yanshi buried the gunpowder and General Lei carried by the army in front of the battle flag, and ignited this "cannon battle" at a critical moment, which made the Qing army cry and howl.

The heavy infantry of the Qing army was huddled together, and the weight of gunpowder was particularly sufficient, and the shrapnel fired in all directions after General Lei exploded was unguardable, and an open space with a radius of more than 30 feet was cleared in an instant, and more than 100 Qing heavy infantry in this open space were either killed or wounded, and the corpses were piled up.

Wei Dingyuan, the deputy brigade commander, had just gathered more than 100 people, shouted and turned around and killed back, these more than 100 people belonged to six or seven companies, waving six or seven battle flags, shouting to kill the Tartars while charging, and the other Chu army routs saw their company flags and battalion flags, and they all chased after them together, and when they rushed to the Qing army's formation, the number increased to 200 people, and the momentum was like a tiger, and the Qing army was beaten back again and again.

The sun had already set behind the trees, and there were a few brilliant roses above, and the sky in other directions was already a little twilight, and it was almost dark. Zhang Yanshi looked left and right at the shape of the battlefield, shook his head helplessly, ordered the trumpet to be blown, and broke through separately...... All the tricks have been exhausted, and it almost didn't drag on until dark, and now it will definitely suffer heavy casualties if it breaks through separately, but the 182nd Brigade is already in a chaotic battle, and if it doesn't break through, it will be wiped out.

As the military horn sounded, the soldiers of the Chu army were suddenly startled, and under the order of the officer, they gathered into a group to kill outward, and each battalion and company insisted on waving their own battle flags, even if they were entangled by the Qing army, they did not scatter and flee for their lives. In this way, the resilience of the Chu army was greatly enhanced, as long as the organized and organized resistance still existed, the Qing army could not let go of the pursuit, and although the Chu army companies that lagged behind sacrificed themselves, they bought precious time for the breakthrough of the large army.

The Qing army just transferred the five hundred cavalry from the east to the circular formation in order to charge the formation, Zhang Yanshi had already seen this direction, and led most of the Chu army to break through to the west, and the deputy brigade commander Wei Dingyuan stayed in the circular formation to organize the blockade and try to drag the main force of the Qing army.

"Stomp, stomp!"

With the sound of horses' hooves, the Qing cavalry in the east pursued to the west, and Niman chased after him with a hundred cavalry in the rear.

"Stomp, stomp!"

The sound of horses' hooves sounded, and the Chu army rangers who had been far away just now suddenly appeared, desperately facing the brigade of the Eight Banners Cavalry.

Compared with horsemanship and hand-to-hand combat ability alone, the Chu army rangers were obviously a grade behind, and their troops were too small, and they only lasted for a stick of incense before they all died. A stick of incense is about five minutes, the Chu army rangers paid for their lives, bought the main force five minutes to retreat, and ran with all his strength, Zhang Yanshi took the main force of the Chu army to run out for two more miles.

Not enough!

This vicinity is a flat field, after the speed of the cavalry rushes up, two miles is just a matter of a few breaths, Zhang Yanshi is still five miles away from the nearest woods, and it will take more than ten minutes of safe time.

Deputy brigade commander Wei Dingyuan was still fighting in the circle formation, the Chu army must leave a blocking force, Zhang Yanshi was just about to give an order, but saw several battalion flags and company flags stopped, spontaneously lined up in a row, and put on a formation to intercept the formation, each battle flag was more or less, and no company had more than half of the soldiers. (To be continued......)