In this way, the large contingent of the Ming army was divided into fifteen pieces. The strength of each piece is about 3,000 people. The originally bloated troops were suddenly greatly reduced. The freedom of movement of the various units has also been greatly enhanced. In order to prevent the attack of the cavalry of the Tiger Army, the thirty cannons were also divided into three parts, which were assigned to the three armies, with ten guns for each army.

Of course, the middle route army rushed along the main road to Qingzhou City. The Southern Route Army advanced along the area of Zichuan and Linqu to Laizhou Prefecture, trying to attract Zhang Zhun's troops to the south. The Northern Route Army attacked in the direction of Changyi along the line of Zouping, Changshan, Le'an, and Shouguang, trying to attract Zhang Zhun's forces to the north. In the end, the three-way army still converged under the city of Qingzhou.

Zhu Dadian believes that Zhang Zhun's forces will definitely be dispersed. As long as the cavalry of the Tiger Ben Army is dispersed, their power will not be so powerful. At the same time, after the division of troops, the march of the officers and troops will be greatly accelerated. Even if there are certain casualties, you have to rush to Qingzhou City. As long as he rushed to the city of Qingzhou and the armies from all walks of life converged, Zhang Zhun would have nothing to do.

"If we can't recover Qingzhou City, we will all be beheaded!"

"I hope everyone will work together!"

Zhu Dadian said coldly.

"My lord, we will definitely try to advance!"

"My lord, we will work together!"

Shao Jinguang and Meng Xiangjun hurriedly said.

Soon, the large forces of the Ming army were separated, and each marched to Qingzhou City from a different route. Since the troops were separated, their march was indeed much faster.

The news naturally reached Zhang Zhun for the first time.

Zhang Zhun said briefly: "The enemy has divided the troops, and we will also divide the troops!" They were divided into three routes, and we were divided into three battalions! They have fifteen dollars, and we have exactly fifteen teams! Each battalion bites the enemy all the way, and each team focuses on taking care of a piece of enemy troops! Do whatever it takes to cause them harm! Remember my 16-character policy, only take advantage of it and don't suffer losses! ”

"No matter how fast the enemy runs, it is not as fast as our four legs! While the enemy was marching, we were constantly attacking from the flanks! The focus is on attacking the enemy's baggage team! The enemy has to carry grain and grass to hurry, and the baggage team can't hurry! At night, no matter how tired you are, send someone to attack the enemy's camp so that the enemy can't sleep peacefully! ”

After clarifying the general policy, Zhang Zhun immediately deployed the second battalion to bite the North Route Army, the third battalion to bite the South Route Army, and he himself took the first battalion and stared at Zhu Dadian's middle route army. Soon, the cavalry of the Tiger Ben Army was all mobilized and rushed towards the battlefield in the north and south.

With the confrontation between the two armies, the battlefield expanded rapidly, and the entire eastern part of Jinan Prefecture was shrouded in continuous gunfire. From Zouping in the north to Zichuan in the south, there is an incessant sound of gunfire. The Ming army accelerated its advance towards Qingzhou City, and the cavalry of the Huben army tried every means to obstruct their march.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

The cavalry of the Tiger Ben Army relied on the range advantage of the Tiger Ben Gun and constantly shot at the Ming army on the march. They rushed to a place less than thirty zhang away from the Ming army and fired at the Ming army in front of them. There were also cavalry blocking in front of the Ming army, specializing in sniping the top soldiers of the Ming army.

"Poof!"

"Poof!"

"Poof!"

Under the fire of the tiger and the gun, the Ming army continued to fall. Due to the fact that the distance is too close, the accuracy of the Tiger Army's shooting is still very high. For the soldiers of the Ming army, being shot at close range by the Tiger Ben Army was simply a nightmare. If you are hit, the consequences are unimaginable. Therefore, every time the cavalry of the Tiger Ben Army suddenly appeared, it would cause a riot in the Ming army.

"Bang bang bang!"

"Bang bang bang!"

"Bang bang bang!"

In the face of the attack of the cavalry of the Tiger Army, the Ming army organized a large number of arquebuses to counterattack, but there was no substantial effect, and it could only give itself a little courage. There was no way, so the Ming army had to raise the shield again to block the shooting of Minnie bullets. Some troops simply stopped advancing, set up artillery, and bombarded the surroundings indiscriminately to prevent the cavalry of the Tiger Ben Army from approaching.

"Tom tom!"

"Tom tom!"

"Tom tom!"

The artillery of the Ming army has a relatively large deterrent effect on the cavalry of the Tiger Army. In order to avoid unnecessary casualties, as long as the Ming army set up cannons, the cavalry of the Tiger Army immediately fled away, and waited for the enemy's artillery to be put away before re-approaching. So, when the Ming army set up the artillery, the cavalry of the Tiger Army disappeared, and when they dismantled the cannon and continued to march, the cavalry of the Tiger Army appeared again.

As a result, the commanders of the various units of the Ming army were faced with the same problem as Zhu Dadian: if they wanted to open fire, they had to stop advancing. And when you are advancing, you can't open fire. If you don't want artillery and run forward desperately, they can't outrun the four-legged Tiger Army cavalry!

There was no way, the Ming army had to choose to open artillery for a while, advance for a while, alternately, hoping to use the time difference to offset the threat of the Tiger Ben cavalry. The Ming army often walked for a while, fought for a while, walked for a while, fought for a while, and fought for a while, very slowly. Sometimes you can't go three miles in a morning.

The cavalry of the Tiger Army slowly also touched the law of the Ming army, and when the Ming army set up the artillery, it disappeared immediately, and when the Ming army dismantled the artillery, it suddenly appeared, not giving the Ming army too much time difference at all. In addition, the cavalry of the Tiger Army also focused on attacking the enemy's baggage troops, inflicting heavy casualties on them. Naturally, the battle of the Ming army's baggage troops will not be very strong, and after being attacked, it is easy to fall into a state of panic. Other troops, fearing the loss of their baggage, had to come up for reinforcements.

As a result, the Ming army was completely mobilized by the cavalry of the Tiger Army, and slowly lost the initiative. When the cavalry of the Tiger Army came, the Ming army could only be beaten passively. When I camped at night, I was constantly disturbed and couldn't sleep at all. The next day, they were all in high spirits and languishing. However, the numerical advantage of the Ming army was there, and it was impossible for the cavalry of the Tiger Ben Army to quickly defeat the other party.

The battle between the two sides was carried out in such a continuous state. During the day, the cavalry of the Tiger Ben Army continued to shoot, which made the Ming officers and soldiers overwhelmed, paid a large number of casualties, and advanced less than ten miles every day. , the cavalry of the Tiger Ben Army is also ghostly, constantly shooting nearby, always trying to shoot the sentinels of the Ming army, so that everyone in the Ming army is in danger.

The Ming army wanted to fight back, but it was powerless. Except for the artillery, they can't help the Tiger Army at all. In front of the Tiger Army, weapons such as arquebuses and bows and arrows were all decorations. However, the cannon is not always ready to fire. The only thing they could do was to fight for casualties, grit their teeth and advance towards Qingzhou City.

Similarly, the cavalry of the Tiger Army could only harass the other side by the side, causing casualties to the Ming army as much as possible and delaying their march. Every day, the soldiers of the cavalry of the Tiger Ben Army do not know how to tirelessly attack the enemy, and destroy as many enemies as possible. Under their blows, the casualties of the Ming army continued to soar.

Unfortunately, each team of the Huben cavalry was only about 60 people, and they were facing a Ming army of about 3,000 people, and the difference in strength was as high as 50 to 1. Such a gap in strength is difficult for even the most advanced weapons to make up for it. The Ming army had a large number of casualties, and the casualties it could bear were naturally more.

In addition, the Tiger Army is also human and also needs to rest. War horses also need to rest. In the continuous battles, the cavalry of the Tiger Army was actually very tired. Therefore, at the same moment, only about half of the troops that could attack the Ming army were able to attack. The Ming army had 40,000 people, and there were shields as protection, even if there were some casualties, there was still a chance to reach Qingzhou City.

Of course, this thinks about the situation. In fact, Zhang Zhun deduced that the Ming army could not bear such heavy casualties. If the Ming army was really invincible, they would not have created so many breathtaking defeats in the face of the Tatar cavalry and the Shaanxi rebel army. Zhang Zhun firmly believed that if such a battle continued, as long as the casualties reached a certain level, the Ming army would definitely collapse.

Sure enough, on the fifth day after the division of troops, the Southern Route Army could not support it at first. During the five-day march, the Southern Route Army was attacked by the cavalry of the Tiger Army day and night, and suffered more than 1,500 casualties, an average of more than 300 casualties per day. A large number of casualties caused the morale of the Ming army to continue to fall, and some soldiers began to flee. The flight of the soldiers made the morale of the already bottomed even lower. In the end, the soldiers refused to advance. They were going to return to the city of Jinan.

Subsequently, the Northern Route Army could not bear it. The casualties of the Northern Route Army were similar to those of the Southern Route Army, with more than 1,000 people. In the Northern Route Army, there were also cases of soldiers fleeing, and there were even grassroots officers who fled with the entire unit. This kind of combat mode of only being beaten and not fighting back can not be tolerated by the officers at the lower levels. This is not a battle at all, this is looking for abuse! For the flight of soldiers, the officers could not be suppressed. If it were to be forcibly suppressed, perhaps the whole army would mutiny.

In the end, Zhu Dadian's own middle route army also had problems. The other two armies were merely soldiers fleeing, and had not yet reached the point of mutiny. By and large, the officers were able to barely control the situation. However, the Middle Route Army was not. There was a real mutiny in the middle army. Zhu Dadian couldn't control the situation anymore. The mutiny has to start with the guards.

Because Zhu Dadian consciously arranged the guards on the outermost, whether it was marching or camping, it was always these guards who suffered losses when the Tiger Ben army attacked. When the casualties reached a certain level, the guards finally took action.

After suffering heavy losses, they fled. In one night, hundreds of people ran away, and even some hundreds of households quietly ran away. In the five days of division of troops, the Central Route Army suffered more than 2,000 casualties, and more than 2,000 soldiers fled. According to this, even if Zhu Dadian can go to Qingzhou City, I am afraid that the remaining troops will be less than 10,000.