On the sixth day of the second month of the fifth year of Chongzhen, the officials and soldiers who entered Tiejiao City and the thieves who came from other places fought again in the valley of Dongchuan.

Although the official army was only 3,500 people, they were not afraid of the thieves who came to the decisive battle, but divided their troops into two places to fight separately. Yang Jiamo, the commander-in-chief of Gansu Town, led more than 1,000 officers and troops under his command to launch an active attack, and the fierce battle was still not decided until noon.

"Pass the order down, let Pan Weizhong take the foot soldiers to resist. After holding out for a while, the thieves in front of me will have no strength, and when the time comes, I will personally lead the cavalry to defeat the thieves. After the deed was completed, the first merit of this battle was Pan Weizhong's loyalty. Yang Jiamo sent a herald to cheer up the Gansu town infantry soldiers lined up in front. Although there are many thieves, Yang Jiamo, who knows the characteristics of thieves' operations, knows very well that the thieves will not last long.

Just as Yang Jiamo finished passing the order, the Gansu town sentry sent out before came back to report: "My lord, although there are thieves waving flags and shouting in all mountains, there has been no movement down the mountain. Sure enough, as the adults expected, the people on the mountain were all bluffing old and weak, and there was nothing to be afraid of. ”

After his speculation was confirmed, Yang Jiamo's mind was settled. He turned his head and asked an officer from Gansu Town beside him, and asked about the combat situation of the officers and soldiers in another place: "How is the fighting in Ningxia Town and Yansui Town, and are they rushing here?" ”

The Gansu town officer said with a teasing smile: "They are still fighting there, and it depends on the situation that the thieves have the advantage at this time." Most of them still hope that the people and horses of our Gansu town can rush over to save them as soon as possible. ”

After listening to the report of his subordinates, Yang Jiamo also laughed disdainfully. The people of Ningxia Town and Yansui Town did not react as quickly as Gansu Town. The thieves on their side had already occupied a favorable position, and after repelling several attacks by the officers and soldiers, they began to suppress the nearly 2,000 officers and soldiers on that side.

As long as he defeats the thieves in front of him, whether it is Zhou Zhouqiang or He Huchen, or even the garrison of the small Yansui West Road, they will all ask themselves to go to the rescue.

Yang Jiamo thought about what he wanted to do in the future in order to maximize the benefits of Gansu Town. As a veteran of the battlefield, he has a lot of experience, so some of these things are quickly considered by him. At this time, the thieves who attacked the Gansu Town Infantry Formation in front of him were also tired, and Yang Jiamo knew that the time had come.

Then the chief officer of Gansu Town drew his waist knife, he pointed at the thieves in front of him, and shouted to his subordinates who were in high morale: "The enemy is in decline, and the sons of Gansu Town will follow me to kill and let the blood of the traitors stain that mountain." ”

"Kill."

There were no extra words, and the cavalry of Gansu Town, who had long been patient, drank together, followed their own commander, and killed the thieves in front of them.

The thieves, who were still entangled with the Gansu Zhenbu team, immediately became chaotic when they saw the officers and cavalry rushing diagonally. The infantry team of Gansu Town also took advantage of this opportunity to constantly push the battle line forward, and finally defeated the enemy army in front of them with their own reinforcements.

Pan Weizhong, the general of Gansu Town, who had been fighting hard, saw that a group of armored thieves were still resisting stubbornly on the slope in the distance, and immediately beckoned his subordinates around him to rush over and kill him.

Although many thieves turned around and fled backwards, the elite thieves who pressed the formation behind them slashed and killed several deserters one after another, temporarily restoring some order.

The leader of the thieves standing at the back looked at the subordinates in front of him who were about to fail, and did not show any panic, but showed a sneer. After saying a few words to the subordinates around him, he led his men and horses to launch a counterattack again.

Yang Jiamo saw that the leader of the thieves did not escape, and launched a counterattack rather unscrupulously. Immediately thinking that he was about to reap great achievements, he hurriedly ordered his subordinates to launch an attack with all their might. And just as the troops of Gansu Town were about to win the final victory, a shout sounded from the ravine almost simultaneously on both sides of the battlefield that was still fighting.

……

Climb over the hill and shift your vision to the other side of the battlefield. The soldiers of Ningxia Town and Yansui Town are dealing with the thieves who are attacking in front of them. At this time, the thieves were full of morale, and they were suppressing the officers and troops in front of them, and launched an assault again.

Although the troops of Ningxia Town stabilized their position. However, the previous rout still caused a lot of chaos, and now He Huchen is still trying to rectify the order of his troops.

And the formation of Yansui Town has also received the impact of the collapse of Ningxia Town, and Guan Zhiqing and other leaders of Jinding Mountain are desperately reorganizing the formation. Li Yang and He Zongwei each held the head of a Ningxia Town fugitive in their hands, holding a bloody waist knife, and kept walking around the team.

Zhang Mengjin, the big boss, saw the thief in front of him and was about to attack at this moment, so he hurriedly asked Zhao Wankui beside him to take the bird gun to the front line.

Before, when the leaders of Jinding Mountain finally decided to fight. Zhang Mengjin and his gang, who were a little hesitant, found that the road in front of them had been occupied by the men and horses of Ningxia Town led by He Huchen.

After the war with the thieves began, the people of Ningxia Town have been standing in front of Yansui Town. The narrow battlefield could not be rolled out, and Zhang Mengjin and the others could only look at the people of Ningxia Town with anger and hatred, and constantly launched an offensive against the thieves in front of their eyes.

In the initial period, the officers and troops of Ningxia Town also achieved some advantages. However, the officials and soldiers of Ningxia Town, who got a little sweetness, simply thought that they had won the battle, and directly started a large-scale pursuit. After that, the thieves in front of him regrouped and used the terrain to continuously consume the sharpness of the officers and soldiers.

Just now, the thieves directly launched a counterattack and directly defeated the forward troops of Ningxia Town who were standing at the forefront. The fleeing soldiers not only disrupted the Ningxia Zhenzhong army that followed closely, but also disrupted the formation of Yansui Town. Fortunately, Fan Shunjiang gave full play to his outstanding skills in time, and the thieves who came after him were shot through the throat with an arrow.

The thieves who lost their command failed to further directly defeat the officers and troops, giving them a moment of respite. He Huchen led his men and horses to reorganize the army in the rear of Ningxia Town, and gradually restored order.

The team of Yansui Town also gradually got rid of the chaos and began to line up again. It's just that the thieves didn't give up the fighters, and the chaos of the officers and soldiers was not completely over. The thieves pressed on and launched a swift onslaught again.

Zhao Wankui saw the thieves swarming in front of him, he was a little nervous to hold the bird gun in his hand, and at the same time let the more than fifty bird guns under his command continue to maintain the formation. At this time, his subordinates stood in two rows with arquebuses produced in Jindingshan. The soldiers were about three feet apart from the left and right, and the distance between the front and back was only one step away.

Looking at the thieves in front of them with high morale and approaching, many of the bird guns secretly swallowed their saliva, and some of them were still trembling slightly with their hands. However, considering the several big swordsmen that Wei Heyong was carrying behind him, no one dared to leave his position without permission. They all strive to show off the results of their usual training, hoping that their hard-working skills will defeat the thieves in front of them.

Zhao Wankui saw the men and horses of Yansui Town behind him, although order had not yet been fully restored, but some cavalry led by Zhang Mengguang and other leaders had already lined up in battle formation on the flanks and rear of the Bird Gun team. After Zhao Wankui had support, he stabilized his mind and shouted: "Prepare for battle." ”

Hearing the command of the management team, all the bird guns in the first row raised the bird guns in their hands. The soldiers in the second row, standing behind the gap between the soldiers in the front row, also raised their guns to aim. The two rows of bird-stalkers formed an almost one-row formation, and the density of their firepower increased significantly, and everyone was waiting for the order that the big boss behind them was about to give.

"Steady, steady, steady." Zhao Wankui calmed his subordinates while estimating the distance between the thieves and his own troops. Zhang Mengjin, the big boss this time, only asked him to take the team for a salvo. But the distance with the thieves will be very close, and Zhao Wankui must lead the team to stay calm at all times, waiting for the orders from the Chinese army.

The thieves who shouted loudly had already reached sixty paces away, and the great boss still did not give an order. Zhao Wankui felt that his heart was beating faster and faster, and when the thieves and horses rushed up to fifty steps, Zhao Wankui could already hear the heavy breathing of some of his subordinates.

When the thief approached forty steps, Zhao Wankui resisted the idea of looking back. When the thieves came thirty paces away, Zhao Wankui, who almost couldn't help it, finally heard the Chinese army's cannon.

Zhao Wankui and his team chose to open fire almost at the same time. The thieves, who were huddled together thirty paces away, suddenly fell after a burst of smoke and fire.

Not long after the volley of more than fifty Ningsai bird gunners, Zhang Mengguang and Zhang Zhaoen, who had already been prepared, led the cavalry team to quickly pass through the smoke produced by the muskets and rush towards the thieves who had fallen into chaos.

"Kill."

"Wow."

"I—I'm willing to surrender, uh."

Mixed with the earth-shattering shouts of slaughter were the screams and begs for mercy of the thieves. The thieves who were already blinded by the salvo of birds from Jinding Mountain had no time to deal with the impact of Zhang Mengguang and others. The cavalry of Jinding Mountain used the weapons in their hands to constantly stir up blood among the thieves.

And the bird-stalkers behind them also picked up the waist knives and sticks at their feet, and rushed over with a loud shout. The other soldiers in Yansui Town who were further behind also simply gave up regrouping. Under the leadership of Zhang Mengjin, everyone rushed to the thieves together.

The thieves who had reached the front of the battle were crushed by the onslaught that came one after another, and they all turned around and fled regardless of the situation. After seeing that the enemy army was defeated, Zhang Mengguang asked Zhang Zhaoen to continue to chase and kill with cavalry. And he led his subordinates to drive some defeated thieves to the area where Ningxia Town was still fighting.

With the same idea as him, there were more than 20 cavalry led by Fan Shunjiang. Two cavalry units drove the rout of the enemy and disrupted the formation of thieves who were pressing on Ningxia Town. The leader of the thieves who was about to defeat the official army of Ningxia Town was about to defeat the Ningxia Town Army, after seeing the appearance of his companions who had fled. also knew that the situation next to him had changed, and hurriedly beckoned his subordinates around him to prepare to regroup.

But at the same time, he also found that the situation on the battlefield was reversed, and he showed his sophisticated military qualities. Holding a large banner in his hand, he rushed to the forefront of the melee under the protection of the surrounding families.

Under the personal encouragement of the commander-in-chief, the soldiers of Ningxia Town regained their fighting spirit, raised their swords, guns and sticks one after another, and pushed the battle line back together. After a round of fierce mutual slashing, with the cooperation of Zhang Mengguang and Fan Shunjiang, the officers and soldiers of Ningxia Town finally defeated the thieves in front of them.

After that, the officers and soldiers of Yansui Town and Ningxia Town prepared to work together to continue to clear out the remaining thieves. However, due to the limitations of the terrain, the chaos of its own formation was not completely as expected. The thieves who pressed the formation continued to fire arrows and fired indiscriminately on the high ground, and finally temporarily forced back the aggressive officers and soldiers.

Zhang Mengjin and He Huchen hurriedly reorganized their formation, intending to completely defeat the thieves in front of them in one go. But at this time, some of the defeated soldiers in Gansu Town, through the passage that had been opened, appeared on the battlefield here in embarrassment.

In order to prevent their team from being disrupted by the rout again, Zhang Mengjin and He Huchen hurriedly sent some of their men to intercept the rout. At the same time, the plan to continue the pursuit of the thieves was cancelled, and he returned to the rear again and restarted the arming. They moved quickly, so the other thieves who chased and killed the soldiers of Gansu Town failed to take the opportunity to unite with friendly forces to defeat the officers and troops of the two towns.

After a round of cautious confrontation between both sides, the thieves who arrived saw that the officers and soldiers were heavily guarded and their companions were unable to fight any longer, and finally chose to retreat back to the camp. And seeing that the officers and soldiers who couldn't bargain, they also returned to the camp with the team.

Afterwards, Qiang re-established contact with Yang Jiamo in Gansu Town, and combined with the report of the defeated soldiers in Gansu Town, who had fled to Yan and Ning Towns, he learned the details of the battle on the sixth day of the second lunar month.

It turned out that the officers and soldiers of Gansu Town led by Yang Jiamo were attacked by thieves who were lurking in two ditches on the left and right flanks, and the cavalry team of Gansu Town was the first to flee, and the infantry team was also defeated later. Many of the officers in Gansu Town, including General Pan Weizhong, were killed, and the casualties among the soldiers were also very heavy.

Although the officers and soldiers of Yan and Ning towns finally suppressed the thieves in front of them, because of the previous defeat of Ningxia Town, the actual results were roughly the same as the thieves' killings. So the current situation is that even if the remnants of Yang Jiamo's troops are collected on Sunday, the defeated officers and troops will not be able to capture the supported Iron Horn City now.

What Sunday Qiang now has to think about is how to safely withdraw the remnants of the officers and troops to Quziyi. At the same time, how should he polish his own Tang newspaper, and describe this failed attack is not so ugly.