Chapter 478: Between Jiaxian and Xiangcheng

The soldiers and horses of the three provinces led by the Governor Hou Sui finally stopped after marching for most of the hour, and the rain that had been embarrassing them finally stopped.

The rain stopped, the land was soaked with water, there was no benefit to the movement of the cart, the soldiers and the people still had to do their best to carry the wheels stuck in the mud, to push with all their might, if it did not rain, the horses under the crotch of the cavalry were not so anxious, relatively easy to control, the cavalry from Shaanxi stared more closely.

He Renlong, Gao Jie, and Bai Guangen are all from Shaanxi, and the soldiers and horses under their command are naturally the border soldiers of Shaanxi.

The cavalry galloped in the rain, often to calm the restless mood of the horses, which divided a lot of thoughts, and relatively speaking, there were a lot fewer whips that fell on the soldiers and people.

Now that the rain had stopped, the movements of the men began to move quickly, and the whip fell mercilessly on the slightly sluggish soldiers and men.

Although the screams and cries were all over the ground, the speed was indeed a lot faster, the five general soldiers except Niu Chenghu were all veteran generals, and they were all not dealing with the homeless army, although this time it was a forced breakthrough, and it was a desperate situation to survive, but they did not dare to have any impulsive behavior, they could only be very cautious.

The front and rear teams, the left and right flanks were all let out of the cavalry sentry sentry, they knew where Li Chuang's army must be waiting for them, but the key to the problem was what time and place were waiting for them, and this battle must be fought steadily and steadily.

After clearing the Ming army and armed militia in the Ruzhou and Yiyang areas, Liu Tichun and Liu Fangliang's troops began to move south along the distance between Ruzhou and Jiaxian.

They walked unhurriedly, and if the Ming army led by Hou Sui wanted to retreat, they could only retreat from this road. That's when they led the local troops and the old battalion led by King Chuang to attack back and forth.

At present, the road on the side of Tongguan is blocked by more than 10,000 soldiers and horses led by Tian Jianxiu, and the entire Henan Mansion has almost become the inner battlefield of the Shun army, so there is no need to worry about any changes, and the five general soldiers led by Hou Sui have proved themselves to be a hard bone in previous battles, Liu Tichun and Liu Fangliang must also attack with all their strength, and they can't keep their hands.

There are not many defenders left in Ruzhou and Yiyang, but some local garrisons, and the soldiers and horses used by the Shun army to garrison the city are even the local township soldiers and militias of the pro-Shun army. Anyway, this Hou Sui is already a turtle in an urn, and the situation is already obvious, what kind of victory is to be pursued at present, not to doubt victory or defeat.

About two hours after leaving Jiaxian, the Ming army brigade led by the superintendent Hou Sui had only walked less than fifteen miles, and the vanguard of the army could still see the city wall of Jiaxian.

Supervisor Hou Sui was not in his camp leaning on the Great Wall this time, but in the personal guards of Xu Dingguo, the chief soldier of Shanxi, and it was cloudy and rainy. The Che Battalion was not moving smoothly, but he knew that there were big enemies in front and behind, and Hou Sui didn't dare to boast of using troops like a god now, so he had to stay honestly in the team of his closest cronies for safety.

The general army of Yansui visited the horses with great honor. Soon brought back the news, and found the front of the camp about forty miles ahead, which was the front camp led by the general Yuan Zongdi.

"Go and ask General He, the thieves are ahead. The momentum is fierce, let's go back to Jiaxian County first to take shelter for the time being. ”

Hou Sui sat in the car, opened the curtain and asked Xu Dingguo, the chief soldier on horseback on the side, the reason why he was closer to Xu Dingguo was nothing more than that when he was ordered to suppress thieves at the beginning, he was in a team with Xu Dingguo, and they got along for a long time and were more familiar with each other.

I heard the Inspector Hou Sui say this. Xu Dingguo, the chief soldier of Shanxi, frowned, hundreds of thousands of troops returned to such a small city in Jiaxian County to retreat, and when the time came, it was crowded, and it was a problem to eat and defend, and it was not a dead end to go back, but Xu Dingguo, the chief soldier of Shanxi, was not a strong person, and he didn't want to harden the Hou Xun over there, and he was considering his rhetoric. However, a messenger from He Renlong, the chief soldier of Shaanxi, arrived.

"Inspector Hou, General Xu. My lord said, since the thieves are in front. There's an open area ahead, so let's line up there to fend off the enemy! ”

He Renlong didn't hesitate so much as Xu Dingguo, he had the highest status and the strongest strength among the general soldiers of the various departments, and now he was fleeing for his life, and the supervisor Hou Sui was a fool, he himself had already taken over the command, although he sent someone over to ask for instructions, but in fact, he had already paid attention to it, and he was ready to do so.

Supervisor Hou Sui and Shanxi General Xu Dingguo also had no other opinions, and the armies of each department began to move, distributing and dispatching each other, and they had to ask the personal guards and cavalry of each department to come forward to urge the whipping, and it was chaotic.

By the time Yuan Zongdi, the former battalion general of the Shun army, led his troops to arrive, the other party had already lined up the formation, and the car battalion was in the lead, but this layer of layers was quite terrifying.

The formation of the carts is almost all blocked by the roads and spaces that can be used for the movement of large troops, and the areas on both sides are defended by brigades, and Bai Guangen, the general soldier of Yulin, who is responsible for the defense of the front formation, is not a barrier for attacking, but fills all the gaps between the carriages and the ground with a pile of soil, and the carts and carts are connected to each other, and they are completely set up as a temporary city.

The soldiers of the Ming army, armed with spears, bows and arrows, firearms, etc., lined up behind the cart and guarded, when they came here, the general Yuan Zongdi had already received an order, not to care about the casualties of the soldiers below, the key is to break through this car formation like a turtle shell.

According to the battle examples obtained in advance, I thought that this time the cart would be pushed forward by the car battalion, but who would have thought that the Ming army would change the method and use such a method.

The cart pads the soil, plus the wooden planks for shelter, is equivalent to building a low wall one and a half or two people high, with this low wall, plus the soldiers behind the wall guards, if you want to attack, it is not a field battle, but a siege, defending the city and attacking the city, often the besieging side has to come up with greater strength to attack, and the defender of the city is the opposite.

In the consistent concept of the Shun army, in addition to the Shandong soldiers and horses who seem to be monsters, the most capable Ming army is the official army from Shaanxi, and Bai Guangen's troops cannot be said to be weak in combat effectiveness. There may be a lot of casualties.

The current Shun army is also different from that back then, when it encountered officers and soldiers, everyone was killed and slammed, but now at the level of generals, and even at the level of General Guoyi, they have their own territory and direct soldiers, which are also the lifeblood of their power and wealth.

General Yuan Zongdi came with his own descendants this time, but he was really reluctant to spend too much damage on his own family's strength to fight, especially in such a difficult situation in front of him.

Yuan Zongdi hesitated here. But the soldiers and horses under his command were in a hurry, the old camp in Tang County was slaughtered, and the supervisor Hou Sui thought that he was damaging the morale of the Shun army, who would have thought that it was to arouse monstrous hatred among the officers and soldiers of the Shun army.

On weekdays, this forward rushes into battle, not to mention the heavy casualties of the officers and soldiers below, and even the generals who are the leaders are prone to accidents. Everyone was reluctant to arrange the forward attack, but today, these generals were there with red eyes to ask for battle, and they did not hide their hatred. Directly speaking, it means to avenge the family.

It was difficult to disobey the will of the people, but Yuan Zongdi, the general of the system, also wanted to take this opportunity to explore the reality on the other side, and after a little silence, he ordered a powerful general. A lieutenant led 4,000 people out of battle, ready to attack the officers and soldiers of the middle army, if it can be broken in one fell swoop, it is naturally the best, if it can't be broken, you can also see the quality of the other party.

The choice of the generals of this expedition is quite particular, and the men and horses of the mighty generals and captains are not the descendants of Yuan Zongdi, but a small group of rebels who defected from other places, and they have not been digested.

Such considerations should be in normal times. I'm afraid it's going to be a little dirty, but today, the two generals solemnly thanked Yuan Zongdi, and then led the crowd out into battle.

Yuan Zongdi had already arranged for a messenger to go to the main formation of the army to tell Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, and on the other hand, he also arranged for a messenger to make a detour to inform Liu Tichun and Liu Fangliang's troops, so that they could prepare for a flanking attack.

After these were done, he also dispatched the soldiers and horses that had just been invited to fight in the front army. If the breakout is successful. That is, the men and horses of the rear team take advantage of the situation to cover and kill, and if it fails, it can also be used to block the formation. Don't be taken advantage of by the officials and the army to counterattack.

More than 4,000 soldiers and horses, that is, more than 1,000 cavalry, these people were placed in front, followed by more than 3,000 foot soldiers, and the drums of war began to move forward.

However, after walking a dozen steps, the mighty general discussed a few words with the accompanying lieutenant, and the cavalry retreated, behind the foot soldiers, giving way to the foot soldiers.

Yuan Zongdi watched the battle in his own military formation, and after seeing this temporary adjustment, he couldn't help frowning, such a scene, but he had to adjust to the enemy, wouldn't it delay things and give the other party more time to prepare. But he also knew that this adjustment was a helpless move, because the cavalry could not control the horse to cross the low wall on the opposite side, if it was so hard as usual, it would definitely knock down the low wall, and the Ming army guarding the land could deal with it with spears.

There was another chaos, the foot soldiers reached the front, and began to march forward, to deal with this kind of well-built fortifications, can only focus on one point, in order to ensure the attack power at a distance, can only be concentrated with enough troops, the distance between the two sides is nearly five hundred steps.

With this 500-step march, the ranks of the soldiers can easily become loose and chaotic, so at the beginning, they must use a dense formation, and these more than 3,000 foot soldiers are lined up in such a formation to march slowly.

Qi Jiguang once said in his military book that when the army marches in formation, it must take small steps, beat the beat, and stop and align the whole team every ten steps.

Whenever the army on this side of Shandong came out of the formation, it was a phalanx to advance, advance and retreat, and the results achieved were also quite brilliant.

Everyone understands the principle that infantry battles should be rigorous, but since the year of the Apocalypse, the military level of the entire East Asia has declined as a whole.

The generals want to win in the battle, they all rely on their own soldiers, the existence of ordinary soldiers is for cannon fodder and deduct military salaries, the battle between officers and soldiers and the army of displaced people, more is a competition for the will to fight, and human life is not valuable, anyway, if you are recruited by Ding, you can find ten times as many people, why bother to train those one or two.

This trend progressed, with group training in fishing and hunting, and more brutal Manchu armies rampaging the world.

The existence of the Jiaozhou battalion and the brilliant victories again and again make people aware of the role of foot soldiers, as well as the role of queues. Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou both wrote about their understanding of Shandong soldiers and horses in their notes, and it was natural for the Shun army to be here, especially Li Guo, Gao Yigong, Hao Shaoqi and other generals who knew how to use their brains.

Whether it was in the Ming army or the Shun army, some people noticed this advantage, and they wanted to promote the training of this queue, but under the condition that military salaries were deducted, firearms were unfavorable, and the generals did not understand deeply. The effect is extremely poor.

At present, these soldiers who are rushing into battle and testing are lined up in a plausible queue, slowly moving forward, gradually marching in formation, but they also look quite neat.

Being able to march in a neat line under the officer's command, and maintaining discipline and restraint when approaching the enemy, is what a strong army can do.

These more than 3,000 foot soldiers were close to the edge of the array close to the camp of the car. Everyone's pace consciously or unconsciously quickened a little, and everyone knew that behind the array of this car battalion, there must be defensive troops, there would be bows and arrows, firearms, and if they approached on their side. It will definitely be killed by these long-range firepower.

In the face-to-face fight, no one is afraid, but the most fearful thing is that if you can't get close to the other party, you will be killed and injured by the other party there. The blow to the human body and psychology is very great, and often if you can't rush forward, the whole team may collapse.

Hurry up and run, and when you get to you, you can rush in and fight, the lieutenant shouted loudly to restrain the team, but it was as if something was attracting it in front of them. The faster and faster the formation, the formation became more and more scattered.

The direction of impact they chose was in the middle of the entire "car wall", which was the place where the defense was strongest, and the Shun army and the Ming army fought together, and they always chose the strongest point of attack, which often had a good effect of being defeated by one blow, and there was hatred supporting them, and hatred was the easiest to make people fearless.

Two hundred paces away. You can already see inside the hole in the van across from you. There were gunshots and white smoke, and the old mistakes of the Ming army were committed again. When the enemy is outside the firing range, firearms begin to be fired meaninglessly, as long as it is the old-fashioned Ming army, then it is confident of victory.

"Brothers, rush in, rush in and ......"

As soon as the lieutenant gave the order to charge, he saw the large cart array in front of him, and someone removed the compartment panel, revealing the large and small artillery pieces mounted on it.

The kind of gun carriages and gun carriages of the Jiaozhou battalion actually had high technical requirements for forging and smelting, that is, large-scale production began after the hydraulic machine came out.

The artillery of the Ming army has to dig pits and pile up soil, and then unload the cannon from the box car, and nail the corners, etc., this place is indeed very troublesome, but no matter how troublesome, after all, the Ming army is here to build a camp in advance, there is quite enough time and arrangement, and the cannon mount is also due to the Chinese army.

There have been countless battles between the Shun army and the Ming army, but there have been too many victories for the Shun army, and this kind of smooth sailing has made many people relax their vigilance.

The artillery of the Ming army had such and such problems, it was easy to explode, the firing range was not long, it was bulky and abnormal, the shells and the breeches did not match, and the shells were always small.

But artillery is artillery after all, and in front of a concentrated charging formation, artillery with a slight angle has an excellent effect of flat fire, especially when the opponent rushes into the range of artillery.

In this direction, the Ming army concentrated thirty artillery pieces brought by Bai Guangen and Xu Dingguo, all of which were red-coated cannons modeled after those cast in the West.

From the moment they saw these dozens of artillery, the thousands of foot soldiers of the Shun army began to collapse, although they were the main force of the Shun army, they were not steel warriors after all, the people who rushed to the front were all turning to both sides, and the speed of the people was easy to control, but there were still people who fell to the ground when they turned.

Crowded and trampled on each other, the chaos was incomparable, and the horse team behind was already gradually accelerating, and the sudden chaos in front and the crowding before and after directly affected the horse team, and the horse team had to be adjusted.

The Ming army will not care about the chaos of the Shun army, in fact, seeing such a large group of people rushing to the front, the soldiers of the Ming army are also a little panicked, the fire guns are cast in advance, the bows and arrows are fired in advance, and the officers with leather whips and scabbards in their hands are desperately whipping can not be stopped.

The artillery was finally controlled, and it didn't go out in advance, and seeing the chaos on the opposite side, the artillerymen of the Ming army had the courage to ignite the fuse with their hands that barely controlled their trembling.

The roar of large and small artillery pieces was one after another, and there was a smoke of gunpowder in front of the formation, and dozens of red-hot metal projectiles flying at high speed smashed into the dense column of Shun troops. Each projectile easily tore through the cloth and flesh of those soldiers, and flew unhindered to the others.

After this round of shooting, the Shun soldiers of this team had already suffered many casualties, and the Shun soldiers from landless peasants did not have any insistence on their beliefs at such a close distance when facing the weapon of artillery, the most powerful weapon of this era.

After the shelling. There was no time to buffer, and the formation immediately collapsed, most of the soldiers turned and ran towards the back, a few to the sides.

The cavalry behind was relatively elite, and they were also desperately trying to restrain their horses so that they would not be disturbed by the sudden loud noise and smoke.

As soon as the cannon sounded, on both sides of the artillery position, someone immediately removed the compartment and shelter. The cavalry of the Ming army rushed out from both sides, and the Shun army that came out to charge had not completely stabilized, but the enemy's cavalry had already rushed out, and they could not deal with it, and the cavalry could only turn their horses and flee backwards.

The cavalry and foot guards collapsed at the same time. Announcing the complete failure of this attack, Yuan Zongdi secretly cursed in his own formation, but at this time, there were still generals who came up to ask for battle. Yuan Zongdi, who was on fire in his heart, picked up the horsewhip and pumped it, and at the same time ordered loudly:

"All battalions are on strict alert, don't be taken advantage of by the Ming army on the opposite side!!"

The position of the Ming army composed of piles of soil around the cart should have a slope on the inside, which can be used by the cavalry to rush out at any time, and it is also a good arrangement for advancing and retreating.

Yuan Zongdi, the former battalion general, thought that King Chuang would lead a large army to arrive soon, and seeing that he was so disgraced, his image in King Chuang's heart might be discounted. Everyone is a veteran, but their side is not as good as Liu Zongmin and Hao Shaoqi, and they are not as good as Li Guo, Gao Yigong, Li Laiheng, and Li Shuangxi, who are related to blood relatives.

He was also annoyed in his heart, but he was also afraid that the other party would take advantage of the situation to cover up, and after seeing those routs leave from the front of the confrontation between the two armies, the cavalry that the Ming army rushed out also returned to the encirclement of the car formation. And there was no pursuit. Then another order was given, and a company of 3,000 men with artillery went to the left of the frontal line to attack. The four thousand cavalry made a detour to attack the right flank, and the army slowly moved forward, waiting for an opportunity to move.

The Shun army also has its own artillery, of course, it is as troublesome to set up as the Ming army, but since there is a concentration of artillery in the middle of this front, there are many points, and just now the Shun army was unlucky enough to be sent up by the artillery at this point. But now when you go to other locations, you don't have to worry about anything.

The 3,000 Shun troops with artillery, all of whom were foot soldiers, gave orders, spread their banners, and the soldiers of the brigade began to slowly march out of their own formation.

I can see that the watchtower made of wooden frames has also been erected in the car camp of the Ming army, and I can also see the movement of this side, and the infantry with artillery on this side is out of the column, and the car camp on that side has been removed, and there are cavalry pouring out, but these cavalry do not rush in, but they are cruising in front of their own formation.

The foot soldier rushed to the front with the artillery, it was easy to be rushed to the front by the light cavalry, hacked the artillery, overturned the artillery, this is the interaction of the two sides, each has its own way to deal with it, seeing the other side's cavalry dispatch, the infantry artillery here should naturally be cautious, not reckless.

But the cavalry that could be sent out to attack the enemy's flank had already set off, and since the Ming army had exposed the concentration of his artillery, it could harass and attack from other directions, and there was no need to worry about any artillery bombardment.

"Marshal, the thieves have sent cavalry to the right flank. ”

The rules of the official army, the general soldier of a town, his subordinates called him the commander, Bai Guangen heard the report of the soldiers, and shouted without any groaning:

"Keep an eye on the thieves on the opposite side, don't let them set up their cannons, go to the right flank and follow them, the crazy man is waiting over there!!"

Between the front line between Yuan Zongdi and Bai Guangen, the corpses of the Shun army were scattered and scattered, and near the official army car camp, the officers and soldiers and cavalry were cruising while showing off their might for their victory.

Looking at all this, the soldiers and horses of the Shun army were about to crush their teeth, and they hated it in their hearts, Yuan Zongdi was even more anxious, and the time when Li Zicheng led the army here was getting closer and closer.

Yuan Zongdi played around for a few circles, and finally made up his mind, turned back to the cronies behind him and said:

"Since the prince asked us to take the lead, we have to bring this head formation, live up to his old man's trust, and let the other battalions see that we are the best in the Shun army. ”

These words were quite encouraging, and after hearing this, the red-eyed generals and captains who were looking at the Ming army in front of them all drew their swords and shouted. When General Yuan Zongdi saw that his goal had been achieved, he immediately ordered in a loud voice:

"All battalions listened to my orders, avoided the front artillery array of the official dog, marched together, assaulted the vehicle formation, and pulled out Hou Sui's killing with a thousand knives!"

After saying that, Yuan Zongdi's hand waved down fiercely, this is the confirmation of his order, dozens of heralds who have been paying attention to his movements, immediately ran around, went to the battalions to give orders, and the flag bearers behind Yuan Zongdi began to wave the banner and ordered the battalions to step forward.

The cavalry of the Ming army in front of the opposite car formation saw the big flag waving here, and they also knew that the general attack had begun, and began to slowly retreat back to the car formation. However, there are still a few places where the vans of the carts have not been erected, obviously leaving a gap for the cavalry to rush out again, after all, it is necessary to beware of the artillery bombardment of the Shun army.

I can see that there are also flags waving behind the carriage, and Bai Guangen's foot soldiers have also begun to move, and they must be ready to go up for defense, except for a few slopes that are set aside for horses to enter and exit, the rest of the carts are filled with soil underneath, and there is no extended slope, whether it is a foot soldier or a cavalry rushing to the front, he must stop his impact momentum and make a climbing action, in the process, he must withstand the attack of the defenders.

But Yuan Zongdi had already made up his mind, ready to invest his strength to attack regardless of damage, all the temptations were not wanted, and the teams that were originally columns began to move forward in turn, with Yuan Zongdi as the middle standard to spread out to both sides, ready to move forward together......

Until now, the Supervisor Hou Sui and the Fifth General Soldier still use the previous strategy, that is, the various forces are completely twisted into one, and they will never be separated and broken by the Shun army.

Such a force stands between Jiaxian and Xiangcheng, if the Shun army wants to defeat and win, it must be hard to fight, there is no place for tricks, hard to hit, then enough consciousness to pay for casualties.

Of course, to put it mildly, the Ming army at this time is a turtle formation, but if you smash this turtle shell, it will take real effort.

Yuan Zongdi's side was ordering, the right wing cavalry that had been sent out to attack the Ming army's large array had been bypassed, and the Ming army's large array was just standing in the middle of the official road, and it was extended to both sides, and then outward were fields and hills and ravines, which was not conducive to the movement of a large number of soldiers and horses.

The camp on the right no longer has so many big cars in front, but the camp fence is set up and the trench is dug in the way of camping and building.

The exit used to enter and exit is a movable wooden fence that rejects horses and inverts the triangle, and the people are laboriously moving it to both sides.

"Come to your grandfather's side to send him to death, grandpa will fulfill you!!"

He Renlong shook the spear in his hand, rode on the horse and said with a cruel smile.