At the third watch, the moon was already hidden in the dark clouds, and the earth was shrouded in boundless darkness.

Xiao Laodiao, the Living Yama King and other bandit leaders, each in charge of one side, led thousands of bandits, and quietly approached the Qi family's army's car formation from all sides.

In order not to expose their targets, they left all their horses behind and crept forward. And the Qi family army, who was surrounded in the heart, also seemed to be asleep, and quietly did not react at all.

Xiao Lao Diao was overjoyed in his heart, and watched his subordinates start from a distance of about four or five hundred steps, gradually narrowing the encirclement. Four hundred steps, three hundred and fifty steps, three hundred steps... The bandits are getting closer and closer to the Qi family's army, and the formation is getting denser and denser. And the Qi family army on the opposite side still didn't move.

Xiao Laodiao advanced quickly, and at the same time estimated in his heart: At this speed, with a few more moments, his own people can touch within 100 steps of the car formation. At that time, even if they were discovered by the Qi family's army, they would not have time to react. As long as you rush up, you can crush those hundreds of officers and soldiers into powder!

But at this moment, he only felt the fire in front of him, and secretly said in his heart: "It's not good! Purely subconsciously, he slammed to the ground.

And the other bandits did not react at all, and still maintained a forward attitude.

In an instant, the earth-shattering sound of artillery came from the front, shocking everyone's hearts!

Almost at the same time, seven or eight solid bullets with a piercing whistling sound smashed into the bandits' ranks from mid-air.

This cannonball is actually a hard iron ball. After firing from the breech, it smashed into the enemy with its own weight and inertia, but in fact, the killing range was not very large.

But in this day and age, the lethality of such shells is still very impressive. Because of the flatter muzzles, the shells did not appear in a distinct parabola, but flew almost straight ahead.

The bandits did not expect to be suddenly shelled, and the people standing in the front row did not see anything clearly, they were hit by these speeding iron balls, and without even snorting, they were beaten to the point that their brains burst.

And after the solid bullet hit the first row of bandits, the momentum continued to decrease and continued to fly backwards. The bandits behind were in a very dense formation, and they immediately suffered a big loss. These seven or eight shells were like seven or eight steel dragons, and they walked through the bandit ranks for more than 30 steps, and the place they passed was like a bloody alley, and all the bandits who were touched by the shells broke their bones and fell to the ground.

It wasn't until these shells bounced into the snow that a large number of bandits let out an extremely painful scream!

Almost at the same moment, the bandits who came up on all sides were all subjected to a round of deadly shelling, and hundreds of casualties were instantly! The battlefield, which was about 300 paces away from the car formation, suddenly turned into hell on earth! There were stumps and broken arms everywhere, blood and brains everywhere, and the bandits and ghosts cried wolf, and for a time they were like headless flies scurrying everywhere, and there was a great chaos.

Xiao Laodiao knew at this time that the officers and soldiers had been prepared, and he regretted it. But he had been a frontier soldier for many years and was also familiar with artillery, so he immediately shouted: "Brothers, don't panic, don't run back, you will die faster!" Spread me out a little, and when I hear the cannon, get down at once! After they finish this round of cannons, it will take half a day to fire again, let's take advantage of this kung fu to rush over and kill all these sons of bitch! ”

But as soon as he finished speaking, the earth-shattering cannon sound sounded again, and another round of solid bullets whistled and struck.

This time, the bandits learned a little bit and fell to the ground. But the solid bullet was not like the later artillery shells, which mainly relied on the shrapnel that flew after the explosion of the projectile body to hurt people, but purely relied on its own energy to hit people. Although the bandits lay down, they only dodged in the front row, and the shells fell on the people lying on their stomachs in the back row, which was still infinitely powerful, and they stoned a large number of people backwards.

And in the car formation of the Qi family's army, dozens of Franc machine guns were squatting on the ground, and they had already begun to fire the third wave of shells from the muzzle of the black hole!

Although Zhu Youzhen's ears were buzzing, he still shouted excitedly: "Good fight!" Hurry up and load up, blast all the shells, and blow up these bastards! ”

But he suddenly found that the gunners of the Qi family army had stopped firing. He asked Qi Meifeng in confusion: "Why don't you fire the cannon?" ”

Qi Meifeng explained: "Your Highness, the Franc cannon we use has been modified and divided into sub-mother guns, and each mother gun is equipped with three sub-guns. The gunpowder can be pre-loaded into the sub-gun, and when fired, the sub-gun can be fired directly into the mother gun, which saves a lot of reloading time. However, after all three guns have been fired, it is still necessary to reload the gunpowder. Moreover, the barrel of the mother gun fired three times in a row, and the temperature increased sharply, and there was a danger of explosion if it was fired again, so it had to be cooled down for a period of time. ”

Zhu Youzhen doesn't know the doorway here. He originally thought that these Franc cannons could be the same as the rapid-fire artillery in his previous life, and they could fire a shot in a few seconds, and those thousands of bandits would be blown to ashes in a few moments. Now it seems that in this era, artillery still has great flaws, especially the speed is too slow, no wonder the Ming army with firearms will repeatedly lose to the Houjin army with only cold weapons.

At this moment, the bandits had also recovered their strength. Now that it's been discovered, there's no point in sneaking around. The bandits also knew that their position was within the range of artillery, and only by rushing through this death zone and getting close to the chariots of the officers and soldiers could they have a chance of survival. So they launched a charge with their lives, and the battlefield suddenly burst into murderous sounds, earth-shattering!

Qi Meifeng ordered the gunner to fire another round of Franc cannons, but the damage caused in this round was much smaller than just now. One of the bandits has gained experience, and they no longer gather together in the dark, and the power of the solid bullet is suddenly greatly reduced; Second, most of the enemy had already rushed within 100 paces and entered the dead end of the Franc cannon.

At this time, the bursts of shouts and killings came from far and near, and the bandits were fierce, waving the knives and guns in their hands, like Modo monsters emerging from the ground, heading straight for the car formation!

Zhu Youzhen saw that although several rounds of shelling killed many bandits, there were still three or four thousand bandits who rushed up, and he couldn't help but be terrified, and said to Qi Meifeng in a panic: "They rushed over!" ”

"Shoot the arrows!" Qi Meifeng ordered calmly.

Dozens of soldiers still climbed into the chariot as they did during the day, firing a volley at the bandits in front. But the bandits had been prepared for this, and most of them held shields, and those who did not have shields also found a wooden plank to make up the numbers. Therefore, this round of arrow rain passed, and only a few dozen bandits were shot down, but a large number of bandits rushed closer and closer, and they were already less than fifty steps away from the car formation!

Qi Meifeng's face was like frost at the moment, and she suddenly shouted: "Open the formation gate, and there will be eight teams in each direction, and the mandarin duck formation will be placed!" ”

Zhu Youzhen was shocked, thinking that the enemy had rushed over, why didn't he rely on the tall chariot to resist, but rushed out?

The soldiers of the Qi family army did not hesitate and rushed out of the car formation one after another.

The bandits rushed forward with shouts, but suddenly found that the officers and soldiers on the opposite side were a little different.

The first is their formation. They are in teams of twelve, and the queue is basically an inverted triangle. But if you look closely, it is staggered, and it is not a completely standard triangle.

And their weapons are even more varied. The two people in the front, one holding a large square rattan plaque in both hands, one holding a smaller round rattan plaque in one hand, and a javelin in the other.

In the center behind them was the leader of this small group of soldiers, armed with a broad-backed ghost-headed broadsword. The two people on the left and right of the captain were holding a large bamboo pole more than a zhang long and thick at the mouth of the bowl, the head of the bamboo pole was sharpened, and the body of the bamboo pole was covered with sharp branches.

Behind the captain, four pikemen lined up, majestic. Behind them, on either side, there were two people holding strange weapons that looked like rakes and dung forks, looking nondescript.

And at the rear, a man with a bird gun in his hand, unhurriedly loaded with gunpowder.

The bandits only stood for a moment, and when they saw that the other party was only a few hundred, while there were thousands of people on their own side, they rushed up with a wild shout. And some clever bandits stopped their steps, opened their bows and arrows, and tried to shoot down a few officers and soldiers first.

The squad that formed a strange formation marched forward slowly in a fixed rhythm, completely unmoved by the bandits. The one who walked in the front held the square rattan card high, and the defensive area was huge, and all the bows and arrows that came were blocked by him.

And some of the bandits were fast, and they had already rushed to within ten steps of the Qi family's army. The soldier holding the round rattan plate saw the opportunity and threw the javelin in his hand so hard that he stabbed the bandit who rushed to the front and flew backwards.

The bandits were startled, but the officers and troops were already within reach, and they were willing to retreat, and they were still surging up like a tide.

And the soldier who held the generous rattan card was very annoying, and he stretched his shield horizontally, keeping the bandits out tightly. He was so powerful that several bandits hit the rattan card and bounced back like a ping pong ball.

The rest of the bandits were furious, and several people were just about to pass by the shields, when suddenly the two soldiers with large bamboo poles stabbed forward, and the two bandits were caught off guard and stabbed squarely. The head of the bamboo pole is very sharp, and when you poke it, it is a transparent hole.

The bandits next to him hurriedly dodged farther away. But the bamboo pole is more than a zhang long, and it is a large piece when swept horizontally, and it cannot be bypassed at all. Some legs and feet are a little slower, that is, they are swept by the branches on the bamboo poles, and the legs are immediately cut into bloody flesh and blood.

Seeing this, the bandits behind still wanted to rush from the front and knock the big shield that was in the way away.

But as soon as they rushed to them, the shield was suddenly raised. Behind the shield, the captain and the round rattan player picked up the ghost-headed broadsword and slashed at them. After slashing the two of them, the other bandits were about to rush up, but the shield smashed down again, keeping them out.

They were at a loss, and all they heard was a thud, and the musketeer at the back had already fired a bird's gun, which was so accurate that it had knocked one of the bandits to the point of bursting his brain!