Chapter 508: A Deservedly Great Victory

Opposite the four infantry regiments on the outer side of the first line in Shandong were the infantry of the Shun army, although now they were facing only four infantry regiments of the Jiaozhou battalion, less than 8,000 men.

But this time the resistance they encountered was much greater than that of Fang Cai, and anyone with a little brain could see that the retreat just now was just a movement made by the Jiaozhou battalion in order to change the formation, not a retreat beaten by them.

In fact, the fourth and fifth regiments were indeed underprepared for the attack of the Chinese army organized by the infantry of the Shun army, and they were beaten unsteadily, but this small battlefield decline was turned into a change in formation by Li Meng, and it was precisely because the decisive impact of the Shun army occupied the upper hand, so at that time, I did not feel that the retreat of the four regiments in the middle of the other side was a planned act, and thought that it was my own impact that had an effect.

It is equivalent to the actions of the infantry of the Shun army being led by the Jiaozhou battalion step by step, and let veterans such as Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin judge that the opponent's front is about to be opened, and the horse team can be released to charge.

The Jiaozhou battalion, which is similar to the training method of the modern army, has sophisticated and advanced weapons, high morale, and a stable and developed base area, and all kinds of factors have superimposed to determine its absolute superiority over the Shun army.

But except for Li Meng, even the other generals in Shandong were unaware of this absolute advantage, not to mention the generals of the Shun army, who always felt that they had a chance and always felt that they had the possibility of victory.

It is precisely because of this idea that the Jiaozhou battalion opened a big pocket in front of them and got into it by itself, although the number of soldiers concentrated in this battlefield by the Shun army was almost twice that of the Jiaozhou battalion, but the two sides were not the army of the same era, and the gap between the times was too huge.

When the first front of the Jiaozhou battalion, which was divided into two generous teams, was combined, everyone in the Shun army knew that things could not be done, and everything was irreparable.

The horse team charged, and the foot soldiers of the Shun army also flashed to both sides, and the phalanx of the Jiaozhou battalion closed, but they did not all follow together, only the Yuan Zong's first department, which had just decided to attack to the death, gathered into a team, and the rest of the people were trembling and did not dare to move forward.

King Chuang and General Quan did not give an order, why bother to attack and die, Yuan Zongdi's direct troops also had little morale, and launched a tentative attack, and they had already arrived at the most resolute resistance of the foot soldiers of the Jiaozhou battalion, so they had no morale to continue to move forward.

Li Zicheng's retreat was not ignored, he waited until Li Shuangxi and Yuan Zongdi and others below returned to his side with their own soldiers before ordering to leave.

The commander moves, the handsome flag follows, the soldiers of each unit of the Jiaozhou battalion receive the order, is the flag and drums, trumpets and commander's orders of their own troops, the handsome flag itself is a symbol and logo, his actions have no impact on the soldiers, and the army, the handsome flag is the commander, the handsome flag moves, it is the commander moves.

The thousands of remnants of the Shun cavalry left the battlefield with King Chuang, and the handsome banner also left diagonally downward, and the morale of the Shun soldiers who saw all this collapsed.

The foot soldiers who were stopped outside by the first front of the Jiaozhou battalion did not attack again, but kept retreating, and after retreating more than a dozen steps, someone finally began to turn around and run away, and the whole team instantly disintegrated, as long as they did not run to the attack range of the Jiaozhou battalion, they could run there, as long as they ran as far as possible.

The Shunjun horse team that was sandwiched between the two infantry lines had little room to advance and retreat, and if they advanced, there was an open space of nearly 100 steps in front, but the spear phalanx with complete vitality was moving forward step by step, gradually pressing, retreating, there was no distance at all, and the only possible exit was on both sides.

The infantry formation of the Jiaozhou battalion sealed the front and back, but there were openings on the left and right, that is, after a little chaos, the cavalry of the brigade spontaneously divided into two teams and scattered on both sides.

It was not that there were no cavalry of the Shun army charging forward, and when the cavalry of the Shun army began to disperse, the dusty, decaying general Tian Jianxiu trotted over.

Behind him was the noisy and chaotic cavalry of the Shun army, which was rushing to both sides, and Tian Jianxiu was alone facing the infantry phalanx of the second line of the Jiaozhou battalion.

The general Tian Jianxiu also saw the departure of Shuai Qi, and on such a battlefield, when he fled for his life, it was normal to not take care of himself.

He is really disheartened, such an overwhelming advantage of Shandong soldiers and horses, so that all the extravagant hopes of Shunjun and himself are gone, and he feels that his hope is a ridiculous dream on this battlefield, and the Shandong soldiers and horses on the opposite side may have been watching themselves dream, laughing while watching.

"Anyway, I am also a general, and I am also a military general above the general army in the Ming Dynasty, a high-ranking official of the first and second grades, and I can't lose my momentum in front of the thieves."

Tian Jianxiu thought so groggyly, while beating his horse and coming to the front of the spear phalanx, the back was panicked and fled, and the front was a close battle formation, but Tian Jianxiu took out an empty bag for dry food from the blanket, shook it, and brushed it on his body, patting the dust.

The second front of the Shun army did not slow down its pace because there was such a lone general in front, and moved forward quickly under the rhythm of the drums and steps.

Tian Jianxiu finally sorted out his armor, he looked at the spear phalanx that was getting closer and closer, smiled and sorted out the helmet on his head, raised the long knife in his hand, clamped the horse's belly between his legs, and began to rush head-on.

If it weren't for the formation of the charge, the horses would be restrained by crowding each other, and the mounts would probably run away uncontrollably in the charge, and the horses would always want to turn around when they were alone like Tamihide.

But this is only a few dozen steps away, Tian Jianxiu shouted in his mouth, and kicked the horse's belly tightly with the root of his riding boots, the spurs pierced the horse's fur, and the horse's abdomen was dripping with blood, and the mount was in pain, and immediately ran wildly, rushing towards the spear phalanx.

It's a pity that this is just a horse, and when Tian Mixiu rushed to about thirty paces, the officer directly opposite gave the order to reject the horse.

The spears were stacked in this direction, and Tian Jianxiu didn't care about the cold and shining spear tip on the opposite side, just held the knife and rushed forward, as if he could defeat the Jiaozhou battalion's infantry array at this moment.

There was a miserable neighing of the horse, and the power of the five rows of spears could completely block the collision of this horse, and both men and horses were pierced by spears.

The movement of a regiment in the middle was also stopped, and the regimental garrison and several officers came out of the column with axes and guns, and directly removed the human corpse and the horse corpse from the spears, formed the team a little, and accelerated the pace to catch up with the other infantry regiments.

Tian Jianxiu's body was lying on the ground like this, some soldiers avoided it, and some soldiers stepped on it directly, no one noticed that the person under his feet was one of the generals of the Shun army, and no one noticed that Tian Jianxiu still had a frozen smile on his face.

The Shunjun horse team, which fled to the left and right, only found out why the other side did not intercept it after running out of the array, because there were firecrackers and artillery on this side.

Now you don't have to worry about hurting your teammates when you shoot guns and cannons, and there is an open space in front of them except for the enemy.

The first to fire is the firebolt, their target is the enemy cavalry running in front of them horizontally or diagonally, this is the training of moving targets, because the cavalry is continuous, this can even be used as a fixed target shooting link, the enemy cavalry who cares about what enemy is on their side, just want to run fast.

All the firecrackers have to do is to fire the firecrackers in their hands as quickly as possible, this time it is different from just now, it is not a face-to-face charge of the cavalry, there is no need to worry about the enemy rushing to the front, the muzzles of the firecrackers are slightly raised, shooting at the cavalry, not the horses.

Seeing the cavalry on horseback fall off their horses one by one under the rain of bullets, some of the cavalry saw the interception of the firecrackers and wanted to run as diagonally as possible to avoid the firecrackers' shots.

They did this very effectively, avoiding the fire of the guns, but there were also artillery positions, and the range was far away.

After the cannon roared, many horses were frightened and jumped and ran in the process of running, leaving the cavalry on their backs, and this confusion directly led to the slowness of the whole team.

On the left side where Li Meng personally sat down, fifteen artillery pieces equipped with shotguns, and a fire force composed of 1,200 personal soldiers, the front line and the large horizontal formation of the spear phalanx were at an inward angle, which almost sealed all the way out of the Shun army's horse team on the left.

Shotguns are fan shots at close range, and they can be said to be completely blocked at close range, and their range is very close, so you don't have to worry about accidentally hurting your own people.

The firearm on this side is even more effective than on the right, and there are almost no fish that slip through the net......

The left and right sides are blocked, and when they rush out, they are afraid that they will die under the rain of bullets, but what can they do if they stay in it, the spear phalanx on both sides is gradually closing.

Now there is very little room left for the cavalry to maneuver, the cavalry on the front and rear sides have begun to engage with the foot soldiers of the Jiaozhou battalion, and the cavalry that can't run up is not the opponent of the infantry at all, and a cavalry can't resist the stabbing of a few or even a dozen spears.

If the infantry regiments on both sides do not take a single step, many cavalrymen will be stabbed off their horses, and the sides will not dare to run, and the field in the middle will be constantly compressed.

But at this time, the space was much more empty than just now, and there was no other reason, and the number of dead people gradually increased, so it was naturally empty.

Li Meng, who was on the left, was now very relaxed, and he now only had the pro-soldier brigade and a regimental reserve in his hands, as well as those township cavalry belonging to Yuan Shizhong and Jia Dashan.

Because some of the pro-soldiers dismounted and shot, the pro-soldiers on horseback and the brave cavalry of the township were more than 2,000 people, and Li Mengren stood up on the horse and looked at the battlefield in the distance.

At this time, the battlefield surrounded by the Jiaozhou battalion was chaotic and dusty, and it was impossible to see what was on the other side, Li Meng groaned slightly, and opened his mouth to order the commander of the personal soldiers around him and Guide Du Si Jia Dashan and said:

"The two of you lead the cavalry to the infantry position of the Shun army, and whoever gathers into a team and retreats calmly must be defeated!"

Huang Ping and Jia Dashan both shouted loudly in agreement, and Li Meng said again:

"This battle is about to end, and when the army recruits the thieves, you will follow the shouts and surrender together, go quickly, don't waste time!"

The two hurriedly led the cavalry around in a circle, and Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, led the horse team to escape, the dragons were ownerless, and the foot soldiers were panicked.

Those who are not restrained by generals are running all over the mountains, and those who are restrained are gathered and retreated slowly, relying on the four infantry regiments on the outside to only defend tightly, but not pursue, which gives them a chance to escape, but not too long has passed.

Jiaozhou battalion pro-soldier commander Huang Ping and Guide Du Si Jia Dashan led the cavalry to kill, don't look at this only more than 2,000 people, although the infantry of the Shun army is scattered, there are more than 20,000 heads, but among the more than 2,000 cavalry, there are the best soldiers of the Jiaozhou battalion The cavalry of the pro-soldier brigade, these soldiers are capable of horse and step, and they are all proficient.

With these pro-soldiers and cavalry as the core, those township brave cavalry followed the periphery, hugged into a group, and rushed into the Shunjun army formation with no morale in the army.

It didn't take long for the shelling and firing of guns to stop, because the cavalry of the Shun army did not dare to charge in both directions.

Everyone gathered together as much as possible, watching in horror as the spear phalanx on both sides pressed over, and some people charged towards the spear phalanx on the side without caring about anything, but this charge with little acceleration had no effect in the face of the infantry soldiers who received the formation.

The battle has slowed down, Li Meng looked at the situation on the battlefield, what the current Shunjun horse team is doing, that is, waiting for death helplessly there, without any will to resist, and even the idea of escaping has been completely dispelled, Li Meng rubbed his face with his hand, took a long breath and said:

"Pass my order, the infantry regiment stops, summons the enemy army, dismounts, kneels on the ground, and drops their weapons can live, and the rest will be killed!"

After hearing Li Meng's order, the surrounding heralds recorded a little and checked with each other, and rushed out one after another and rushed to the various military formations.

Now on the battlefield, there is no danger to them, the herald cavalry, and with victory imminent, everyone is full of spirit and shouting orders:

"The commander ordered, the infantry regiment stopped, recruited the enemy army, dismounted, knelt on the ground, and threw away the enemy soldiers could live, and the rest would be killed!!"

Such an order to surrender should be conveyed not only to its own army, but also to the enemy, and there is also a clear provision in the drill code, after the herald cavalry passed the order, each infantry regiment shouted in unison.

Preparing to accept the cry of surrender is tantamount to giving the desperate Shun soldiers a way to live, and the cavalry who are willing to fight to the death and flee have already died in battle or have been completely extinguished, and the rest are trying to survive.

Hearing the surrender shouts of the Jiaozhou battalion, the horse team trapped in the formation got off their horses without hesitation, dropped their weapons, and knelt on the ground to beg for mercy. The shouting on the battlefield was also heard by the foot soldiers who fled in all directions, and without hesitation, these people also dropped their weapons and knelt on the ground.

Soon, on the battlefield, except for the soldiers of the Jiaozhou battalion with the joy of victory and shouting, there was no other sound, some of the Shun soldiers threw their knives and knelt on the ground, they were sad and cried loudly, compared with each other, it was even more emotional.

Li Meng under the handsome banner, looking at all this, went to have no joy and excitement, at the beginning of more than 100 poor men with bamboo poles, rushed to the salt with bows and arrows, the victory at that time was ecstatic, and now it is to defeat the world's many heroes, this battle destroyed nearly 50,000 enemies, and more than 30,000 prisoners, but the heart felt very flat, maybe it was taken for granted.

There were several guards on the side who were looking at the battlefield excitedly, and they were all peeking at the actions of coach Li Meng, if there were any timeless or passionate words, they could also go back and spread the word. They were disappointed, and all Li Meng did was clench his fists and wave downward.

Listening to the sound of surrender on the battlefield, Li Meng slowed down a little, and then led his horse towards the right side of the large array, and a cadre of soldiers and guards behind him hurriedly followed.

Every soldier in the Jiaozhou battalion knew that he had won, and when he saw the handsome flag moving from left to right, he thought that the handsome man was reviewing the soldiers and horses after the victory, and the mood was high for a while, and the morale was like a rainbow.

Although Li Meng still calls himself the Duke of Qi on weekdays, now every soldier is shouting "Long live" and "Long live" at the top of his voice, everyone is shouting from the heart, and no one thinks there is anything wrong.

Li Meng's shout for this long live was also very flat, he just smiled and waved his hand, beat his horse and came to the right side of the military formation, that is, where the handsome flag was just now, and as soon as he stopped, he asked a personal soldier and said:

"How long did Yuan Shizhong lead the team?"

The personal soldier was responsible for recording the orders issued in the array, as well as recording the time, and when he heard Li Meng's inquiry, he immediately replied:

"Back to the marshal, Lord Yuan has already set off for a quarter of an hour."

Li Meng clapped his hands and said with some chagrin:

"It's still a little late, and I don't know if I can intercept it!"

Yuan Shizhong, a guerrilla in northern Henan, led three regiments to advance according to Li Meng's orders, and was a little confused at first, and even thought about whether the marshal didn't believe in himself as a general, but after walking for almost half an hour, he immediately understood Li Meng's intentions.

Yuan Shizhong of the small Yuan battalion is also a veteran, and he also understands the situation on the battlefield, although the distance has taken a big circle, and it is more appropriate to start on the left flank of the formation, the place where Li Meng asked him to go should be the west of the confrontation between the two sides, that is, the road from the Shun army to Baofeng.

The movement of the army is not to move from one point to another point on the map, the group's major operation must also take the official road, and the remnants of the Shun army are also a brigade of several thousand people, if they escape, they will definitely walk from the official road.

To return to Huguang from the battlefield in Xiangcheng, you must take Nanyang Mansion, and there are two roads to Nanyang Mansion, one is Yexian and the other is Lushan.

In the battle of Fangcai, the Shun army must have been frightened and did not dare to face the troops in Shandong, while the troops of Chen Liu, the general of Zhengxi, advanced rapidly, and Yexian County had already been broken through, and the Shun army would definitely not take that road for the sake of insurance.

At this time, Nanyang Mansion was still the hinterland of the Shun army, and after thinking about it, the biggest possibility of King Chuang was to take the road to Lushan.

Li Meng is also estimated, but thinking of this possible guerrilla in northern Henan, Yuan Shizhong did not dare to have the slightest delay, today's battle, he will have military merits, but there is no dazzling performance, if he can intercept the remnants of King Li Zicheng, it is really a great achievement.

Thinking of this, Yuan Shizhong immediately urged the army to speed up, but it was indeed not easy for three regiments and thirty artillery pieces to speed up.

After walking for more than an hour, he finally watched the smoke and dust rise on the official road from a distance, seeing the chaos of smoke and dust, and the speed of approaching, Yuan Shizhong immediately judged that this was the defeated soldier of King Chuang.

This moment is really happy and surprised, happy that the seemingly powerful thieves and horses were so easily defeated by the Jiaozhou battalion, this time the horse army of the Jiaozhou battalion is stationed in Jiaxian, there can be such a large force of cavalry and run so scattered, it must be Li Chuang's cavalry. What was frightening was that on the plains of Henan, they saw that they could see dead horses running away from the mountains, and it was a little difficult for their three regiments to stop them.

You can't just watch such a great achievement, run in front of you like this, and bring the three-pounder field guns on the carriage, they are walking on a deserted field, and their speed cannot be increased.

"Discard the fifteen cannons, replace the horses with the remaining cannons, replenish ten spearmen for each cannon, drop the spears, assist in pushing the cannons, the musketeers are now running forward, we must rush to the side of the official road to intercept the remnants of the thieves!!"

Yuan Shizhong ordered hoarsely on his horse, of course, the soldiers at all levels knew what the meaning of the fleeing cavalry running from a distance was.

For a time, the northern Henan guerrilla led by Yuan Shizhong acted frantically, horses were hung in front of the artillery wagon, and the firecrackers did not pay attention to the queue, and rushed towards the official road.

It seemed that this detached division rushed towards that side in a chaotic manner, and the gun carriages with horses were bounced in the uneven field, and three of them were directly overturned, and even the horses fell to the ground. The running firecrackers were not much stronger, and they fell all over the mud.

"My lord, we definitely won't be able to make it, but we can still mount the cannon and hit it!!"

In the process of galloping, a running officer shouted loudly in Yuan Shizhong's ear, and now he vaguely saw the banner of the king's soldiers and horses, Yuan Zongdi was really unwilling in his heart, but it could only be so, and shouted:

"Within range, artillery bombardment, gunners avoid the direction of the shelling, continue to advance, start firing within range!!"

In this situation, it is no longer possible to hope that this deserter can be completely intercepted, and it can be regarded as the best situation that can be achieved by killing and injuring the other party as much as possible.

The main battlefield was defeated, but Hao Shaoqi, who was guarding Ye County, was not in a wartime state at all, unlike what everyone expected, Ye County was still in his hands, King Chuang was fleeing, and Hao Shaoqi was receiving guests......