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"Listen!" Lu Xiangsheng suddenly stopped and tilted his ears in the direction of the enemy camp: "There seems to be movement over there in the Liu thief's camp!" ”

"Really? Isn't it the sound of cannons? The staff on the side responded.

"No, it's not the sound of cannons!" Lu Xiangsheng listened for a moment and replied in a very affirmative tone: "It should be a shout!" ”

At this moment, a gust of night wind blew from the side of the enemy's camp, and the shouts suddenly became clear, and everyone present clearly heard the sound of "Long live". Lu Xiangsheng's face suddenly became ugly, the people present looked at the enemy camp, all of them looked solemn, the night wind mixed with bursts of cheers, from a distance, the enemy's camp was on fire, and the Ming army's dead silence formed a sharp contrast, everyone's heart seemed to be immersed in ice water, cold and biting.

"Extreme rebellion!"

An angry shout broke the death-like silence, everyone turned around, but it was Lu Xiangsheng who slashed at the flagpole next to him, but the flagpole was made of old jujube wood, and the surface was soaked in tung oil, hard and slippery, although the steel knife was sharp, it cut the flagpole, and the blade was embedded in the flagpole and could not be pulled out for a while, it was very ugly, he twisted hard, but he didn't want to use the force, only heard a sound, and the steel knife had been broken into two.

"Let's all rest in peace!" Lu Xiangsheng's face was as pale as iron, and he whispered after half a sound: "I guess tomorrow will be very difficult!" ”

Before the sky was completely dawn, Liu Chengcheng finished breakfast, put on his armor with the help of the guards, jumped on his war horse and came to the front of the battle. I saw that the four fields were dark and vast, ascending to the heights and looking out, the infantry had finished the formation at this time, and the cavalry poured out of the camp, facing the west to line up, only to see the spears and banners of their own army like a forest, coming from the hills in the south, until a dense forest in the north. Since the total number of Liu Cheng's army exceeded 100,000 and the length of the front exceeded ten li, it had to be divided into three parts: left, center, and right. More than half of the 100,000 troops are cavalry, so Liu Chengjun's formation looks even larger, the left and right flanks are lined up in five columns, posing in a posture of charging one by one, the main force of the infantry team is concentrated in the center, the formation is much denser, the cavalry is only lined up in three columns, the artillery team is also concentrated in the middle army, and the wooden leg Thomas is commanding the eighteen-pounder gun into the preset artillery position.

On the terrace, Lu Xiangsheng stayed awake all night, looking at the magnificent military appearance of the enemy army not far away, his face couldn't help but change slightly. He turned to Cao Wenzhao on the side and said, "General Cao, you have also worked under the command of thieves, you must know a lot about the thief army, please dissect the strength of the thief for us!" ”

"Master Overseer!" Cao Wenzhao had a wry smile on his face: "At this time and that time, at the beginning, he was just the general soldier of a town, and the elite soldiers under his command were only thirty or forty thousand, and now the elite soldiers of Southern Mongolia and Dongyu are all under his command, and there are no less than 100,000 elite soldiers here, where can it be compared?" ”

As he spoke, it was already drizzling in the sky, and Lu Xiangsheng looked at the sky, only to see that the sky was covered with clouds, and he couldn't see the morning sun at all, and the air was solemn. He sighed and said, "Well, each of them will go back to his camp, and today there will be only one battle with the thief!" ”

"It's raining!" Liu Cheng raised his head and looked at the sky, this weather can be said to be mixed, the wet bowstring affects the power of the bow and arrow, which is undoubtedly unfavorable to the own side that is good at riding and shooting, but the main attack of his own side, the enemy's main defense, the decline in the power of bows and crossbows is beneficial to his side, as for firearms, this level of rain after gunpowder granulation does not have a big impact. He looked at his position again, and made sure that his army had all entered it, and that the soldiers were silent, in the silence that had preceded the fierce battle. The six-pounder and twelve-pounder guns under the jurisdiction of the four infantry battalions were advancing in formation, and their task was to attack the lower ground camps on the left and right flanks of the Ming army; The eighteen-pounder guns, which were used to bombard the middle barracks on the enemy terraces, had entered the higher batteries; The spear tip, the flag, and the helmet converged into an ocean, mighty and mighty, reaching the sky, and he subconsciously said: "Magnificent, magnificent!" ”

"Let Thomas begin!" When Liu Cheng had given this order, he kicked his mount lightly, and the tame gray steed ran down the mound with his master, so that he could walk through the formation, and Liu Cheng smiled at the first line of soldiers who were about to enter the battle, encouraging them. There was a cannon sound from the fort not far away, and the gunners on it were sweating like rain, firing solid iron balls weighing about nine kilograms into the Ming army's position more than three miles away, tearing everything they encountered to pieces.

Liu Cheng ran for more than a mile and chose a grassy ridge next to the official road as his place to watch the battle, which was very close to the center of the battlefield, and the view was very good, enough to overlook the entire battlefield. Liu Cheng saw the marching army moving forward here, walking past him, the soldiers cheered to their commander, and Liu Cheng also pulled out his waist knife and raised it above his head in response.

The central position of the Ming army was already a mess, in front of the solid bullets fired by the eighteen-pounder cannon, the fence and the cart full of dirt were as fragile as the human body, and the carefully constructed field fortifications were quickly torn apart a lot, but the casualties of the Ming army were not large, thanks to the drizzle that had fallen for an hour, the rain made the originally hard mud become soft, and the solid bullets that fell fell into the mud, which could only splash the surrounding people with a mud, but could not form a fatal ricochet. Compared with Liu Chengjun's artillery corps, Xuanda's firepower was much weaker, and the heaviest firearms were only Frankie and three-pounder guns—the Ming army was backward in terms of gun carriages and pack animals, so the mobility of the slightly heavier guns was poor, which undoubtedly undermined the power of their artillery.

The horn sounded, and the infantry began to speed up their pace, they were less than three hundred meters away from the cliffs of the platform, this distance was already within the range of the light artillery of the Ming army, some of the Ming soldiers even began to shoot with arquebuses, lead and shells swept over the heads of the soldiers, from time to time someone fell, but the rest of the people still moved forward steadfastly. Seeing the white smoke ejected from the burning gunpowder rising over the terrace, obscuring the defenders' own view, the veterans smiled with disdain and shouted to the gunners behind them: "Hold on, hold their heads, and then fire!" ”

When the smoke was blown away by the wind again, the defenders on the terrace were horrified to find that the enemy in the front row was only less than a hundred paces away from them, accompanied by the rhythmic classical sound, the enemy was in a tight formation, the spears were tilted forward at forty-five degrees, and the eyes under the iron helmet were cold and hot, like a vicious wolf that chose to devour people. In the panic, many people hurriedly shot arrows and released their guns, but whenever the ranks of the enemy fell, they were immediately filled by those behind them, like a monster with infinite life.

The drumming suddenly stopped, and with it the ranks of the enemy, and just as the defenders were confused, six three-pounder guns were pushed out of the gaps in the infantry, and the artillerymen shook the elevation angle to the highest, and the muzzles of the black holes were filled with double shotguns, and with the flash of fire, the guards on the edge of the platform suddenly fell to pieces, and within fifty paces the shotguns were far more terrible than solid bullets. As soon as the cannon fire fell, the arquebusiers released another line of guns, sweeping away the remnants of the enemy on the ramparts. At this time, the drums sounded again, and the soldiers swarmed forward with their spears.

"Bastard, go up on top, the thieves are about to be killed!"

Behind the ramparts, the officers of the Ming army drove the soldiers forward with the backs of their swords and fists, but the survivors fled backwards screaming in terror, and the tragic situation had already broken them. By the time the officers drove the reserves up the rampart, the enemy had already rushed to the bottom of the platform, hundreds of long ladders had been erected, the soldiers were swarming up, and the brutal hand-to-hand combat began immediately.

The first few rows of Liu Chengjun are Baturu's pro-army, almost all of them were originally the Eight Banners White Armor Xuanfeng, all wearing heavy armor and iron helmets, holding spears and knives, rushing into the crowd on the platform, spears stabbing from afar, slashing with knives near those who are near, all of them are invincible, and after a while, it is clear that a vacant land is coming, taking advantage of this gap, the infantry team behind also rushed up, raised their spears and lined up in a horizontal column and pressed over, the spears were like a forest, and the shooters behind also released rockets one after another, and the camp was suddenly on fire on all sides.

"Quick, go to General Cao's place, and order him to lead the left flank army to attack and cut off the back road of Liu Thief's army!" Lu Xiangsheng's face was already like earth at this time, he didn't expect that the barrier he had spent a lot of effort to build would be broken into by the enemy so easily, he knew in his heart that although the army under his command had also fought thieves, it still could not be compared with the elite soldiers under Liu Cheng's command.

"Overseer, Inspector! It's the pigtail soldiers, the pigtail soldiers of the Eastern Captives! A general with a bloody face ran over, knelt down and shouted: "Liu thief drove Dongyu Baijia as the vanguard, wearing heavy armor, arrows can't penetrate, we really can't resist!" ”

"Tiger Dawei!" Lu Xiangsheng was angry and shouted: "Liu Cheng is a human being, and you are also a human being, why can Liu Cheng drive the eastern captives like an eagle dog, but you flee from the wind?" ”

Hu Dawei was stammered by Lu Xiangsheng's question, and then sighed: "That's it, as soon as I Hu Dawei was born, an official to the chief soldier, and I was deeply favored, I will return this head to the Son of Heaven today!" With that, he turned around and knelt down in the direction of the capital, kowtowed three times, and then got up and walked away. After a while, there was a burst of cheers from the battlefield not far away, listening to the sound vaguely Jurchen, Lu Xiangsheng secretly said that it was not good, and was about to send someone to find out, a captain ran over, it was Fang who came with Hu Dawei, his face was full of tears: "Master Inspector, my general has just fallen into the enemy formation, and he has died of exhaustion!" ”

Lu Xiangsheng sighed, and couldn't help but feel a sense of remorse in his heart, he knew that although the troops under the command of Hu Dawei were only two or three thousand people, most of them were surrendered thieves and veterans of the Mongols. And because this person was born outside the Guan, the only backer is himself, and he is much more obedient than Cao Wenzhao and Zuo Liangyu. After folding this basic plate, it will be even more difficult to get the remaining armies to work hard.

"Is there any movement on General Cao's side?" Lu Xiangsheng forcibly suppressed the remorse in his chest and asked the soldiers in the car.

"Tell the Inspector, there is no movement on the left side of the camp yet!"

"What?" Lu Xiangsheng was taken aback, he hurriedly climbed into the lookout car, looked to the left, and saw that the left flank where Cao Wenzhao's uncle and nephew were located was almost calm, and the right flank of Liu Chengjun opposite him did not move, which was in sharp contrast to the fierce battle between the Chinese army and the right flank. Lu Xiangsheng paused and scolded: "Is this guy colluding with Liu Thief?" ”

The left wing of the Ming army battalion.

"Go back and tell the Overseer!" Cao Wenzhao's voice was not loud, but it was very firm: "It's not that I don't respect the military order, it's just that if I send troops to attack the Chinese army, then the iron cavalry in front of me will rush over, and I can barely support it by defending the camp, if I go out of the camp to fight, I will only seek my own death!" ”

"This is the military order of the Overseer!" When the envoy saw Cao Wenzhao saying this, he immediately became anxious: "General Cao, disobeying military orders is a capital crime!" ”

"Bold!" Cao Bianjiao stood up from the side: "What are you, you dare to talk to my uncle like this, take it down quickly!" ”

"Wait!" Cao Wenzhao drank Cao Bianjiao: "You go back and tell the Inspector, he is condescending and can't resist Liu Cheng's onslaught, I am a flat place here, if you go out to fight, wouldn't it be a sheep into the mouth of a tiger?" Such a chaotic life, forgive your fate! Someone, send off! ”

When the stunned messenger was pushed out of the tent, Cao Bianjiao walked to Cao Wenzhao's side and said in a low voice: "Uncle, since you have decided to follow King Liu, why do you just hold on?" In the current situation, give me 2,000 men and horses, and I can take Lu Xiangsheng's head! ”

"No need!" Cao Wenzhao returned to his seat and said in a low voice: "Have you read all those letters from King Liu?" ”

"I've read it, read what it says on the letter, King Liu attaches great importance to his uncle!"

"Really?" Cao Wenzhao smiled: "Then let me ask you, even if we don't do it today, can King Liu win?" ”

"Absolutely!"

"If we can do without us, then why should we be this wicked person?" Cao Wenzhao sighed and said, "Haven't you seen it yet? These Mongols and Jurchens under King Liu are all holding back their strength, and they are looking forward to receiving rewards for their achievements! If we fight back, in their eyes, we are the wicked people who rob the merit, think about it, if we offend so many people at once, will we still have a mix under King Liu in the future? ”

"This-" Cao Bianjiao was stunned: "But uncle, our uncle and nephew are latecomers, so we have to make a contribution to the rank of advancement, right?" ”

"You don't have to worry about it!" Cao Wenzhao said with a smile: "Change Jiao, there is still a battle to be fought in the world!" Since King Liu has repeatedly surrendered us, there must be a place for us, so why should he bear the notoriety of a traitor at this time? ”