At six o'clock the next morning, the troops set off on time.

After resting all night, the team marched a lot faster, and at more than three o'clock in the afternoon, it arrived at Zoumaling, which was only less than ten miles away from the ** city.

When they were about to meet the enemy, Liu Zhaoji and Li Chengdong also strengthened their vigilance, and the scouts in front had already reported that the Qing troops had set up a defensive formation on the other side of the Chuhe River, and they had also dug trenches and built earthen walls.

Before setting off, Luo Jian had already paid attention to the fact that the Chuhe River might pose an obstacle to the troops' march, but Liu Zhaoji and Li Chengdong both said that the Chuhe River was now the dry season, and even if there was water, it would not be very deep. Luo Jian also specifically inquired with some local businessmen, there is a small stone bridge on the river, and it is no problem to cross a large car.

The team stopped three miles from the Chuhe River and beckoned the troops to rest on the spot. Luo Jian got on his horse and walked towards the Chu River with Liu Zhaoji, Li Chengdong and others, and when they walked for about a mile and a half, everyone got off their horses and went up a high slope to watch the enemy situation on the opposite side.

Luo Jian raised the telescope and carefully observed the situation, the earthen wall was very long, and it was much higher than the earthen wall of Xuding National Fortress, but it was not built on the bank of the Chuhe River, but about half a mile away from the river bank, the earthen wall was covered with a lot of branches and straw, and the trench in front of the earthen wall was much wider than that dug outside the Xuding State Camp, and from the height of the earthen wall, it was obviously much deeper.

The stone bridge over the river has been blown up, and it is necessary to build a bridge from the river.

From time to time, the heads of the musketeers and archers of the Qing soldiers appeared on the earthen wall.

Luo Jian handed the telescope to Liu Zhaoji, and Liu Zhaoji also looked at it for a long time.

"Governor, although the walls of the Qing fortifications here are higher and the ditches dug are deeper, I don't think there is any problem, but I don't understand why they built the earthen wall so far?" Liu Zhaoji said while handing the telescope to Li Chengdong.

Luo Jian didn't answer, he was still searching carefully, in this kind of battlefield preset by the enemy, a careless mistake would make a big mistake, he had to be careful.

"After crossing the river, it is uphill, I think the Qing soldiers are waiting for us to pass some people, and their large team of men and horses will press on us and squeeze us into the Chu River, right?" Li Chengdong thought for a while and said.

"We have rifles, we have grenades, and if we cross the river, can we be squeezed back by them? I see that this Qing soldier's brain is flooded. Governor of the Metropolis, I think it's still like fighting Xu Dingguo, and the infantry will go first. Rifle support, grenades followed, and directly blew them up, see what other tricks they have! Liu Zhaoji was full of confidence and disdained the arrangement of the Qing soldiers on the opposite side.

Luo Jian took the telescope and looked at it carefully for a long time, but he didn't feel that there was anything wrong.

"Grand Governor, let's go up first this time, shall we?" Li Chengdong thought about making a big contribution, so that he could open his mouth to find the same rifle as Liu Zhaoji.

"Metropolitan Governor, let's go first with our first division, we have beaten Xu Dingguo and have experience." After Liu Zhaoji finished speaking, he glanced at Li Chengdong with slanted eyes.

Luo Jian thought for a moment and said: "It's still a group that goes up first, we don't know the situation behind the earthen wall, and the experience of a group is very important." ”

Li Chengdong glanced at Liu Zhaoji with some resentment, and stopped talking.

Nine riflemen quickly occupied positions on the banks of the river, ready to shoot.

There is water in the Chu River, but it is really not deep, and you can see the bottom of the river at a glance. The sappers quickly rushed up with sticks, planks and sandbags.

More than 100 Qing soldiers and archers rushed out from behind the earthen wall, and Wang Zecheng aimed at a general and fired first, this shot hit the general's thigh, and two more people ran out from behind and dragged him back.

The continuous fire of the nine riflemen inflicted heavy losses on the group of musketeers and archers, leaving behind more than two dozen corpses and retreating.

Seeing the sappers building a wooden bridge at the bottom of the river, Liu Zhaoji laughed and said: "Governor, you see, the tricks of the Qing soldiers are nothing more than that, and I don't think they are much stronger than Xu Dingguo." ”

Li Chengdong showed an eager expression next to him, but he was glared at by Liu Zhaoji, and he held back what he wanted to say.

"Xiao Liu, can our car cross the bridge built by the sappers?" Luo Jian looked at the wooden bridge being built.

"It's a bit hanging, our warrior car itself weighs more than three tons, and three more people are on it, it's not light, I have to go down and have a look."

Liu Weimin got out of the car as he spoke, ran to the river and commanded the sappers to build a wooden bridge, until he thought he could pass, and then ran back to the car.

The three hundred sappers quickly erected the wooden bridge, and Liu Zhaoji, who was standing on the bank of the river, rushed across the bridge with a wave of his hand, and the shield hand escorted the bombardier, and Wang Zecheng followed behind with nine riflemen.

After a while, more than a thousand people passed by, and Wang Qiang looked a little anxious, "Chief, let's go over and provide them with fire support!" ”

"Xiao Liu, go, cross the river, you must be careful, don't fall into it." Luo Jian was also anxious.

The warrior car carefully descended the riverbank, and as soon as he got on the wooden bridge, he felt that the wooden bridge had obviously sunk, but it quickly stabilized.

The shield bearers and bombardiers were only a little more than a hundred meters away from the earthen wall, and many Qing archers and musketeers were exposed on the earthen wall, ready to shoot.

Carefully crossing the wooden bridge, Liu Weimin hung up the afterburner, and the warrior car rushed up the slope embankment of more than 50 degrees without much effort and went to the river bank.

The riflemen began to shoot at the Qing soldiers on the earthen wall, and at a distance of more than 100 meters, most of the Qing soldiers hid behind branches and straw, and the lack of training made the hit rate not high.

As soon as the warrior car went ashore and walked less than thirty meters, Luo Jian heard Wang Qiang on the roof of the car shouting: "It's not good, the Qing soldiers have cannons!" ”

Before Luo Jian could look up, he heard a loud noise from the opposite side, and then he felt like a cloud driving through a fog, and when he looked up again, the warrior car actually returned to the wooden bridge in the middle of the river.

Liu Zhaoji could see clearly from the shore that a large section of the earthen wall was suddenly pushed open, revealing a long row of cannon muzzles, followed by a loud bang, and fire erupted from the muzzles one after another.

A group of soldiers who were charging forward suddenly fell in pieces, and some bombardiers had already pulled off the pull rings, and after being hit by the bullet and falling to the ground, the grenade exploded and caused no less damage to the group than the artillery.

Liu Zhaoji knew that these guns were loaded with shotguns, which would cause too much damage to the infantry charging from the group. Unable to bear to look at it anymore, Liu Zhaoji closed his eyes in pain.

Suddenly remembering that Luo Jian and they had crossed the river, Liu Zhaoji hurriedly looked up to look for the warrior car, but found that the other side did not see it, and looked for it again, but found that the car had arrived on the wooden bridge in the river, which made Liu Zhaoji feel a little surprised at the same time, obviously saw that the car had crossed the river, why was it at the bottom of the river again? Could it be that I am dazzled?

Just now, more than a dozen solid shells had already flown across the riverbank, wounding several soldiers, apparently headed for the warrior cart.

Liu Zhaoji remembered that Luo Jian told himself that the direct fire of the cannon could not be defended by this warrior car, and once it was hit by a few pounds of solid shells, the people inside might be fine, but the car would definitely be scrapped.

Wang Qiang shook his head in a daze, and shouted at the car: "Chief, are you okay?" ”

"I'm fine!" Luo Jian patted his head in annoyance, he felt that something was wrong yesterday, why didn't he expect that the Qing soldiers would have artillery?

After the cannon sounded, Kong Youde came out from behind a thick iron plate.

In order to devise this trap, he did not know how many words he had with Dodor before he agreed that the general cannon would not be used for siege, but for ambushing the strange car.

The day before yesterday, he carefully inquired about the messenger sent by Geng Jimao to report the news, and asked extremely carefully about the whole process of the Yangzhou army's attack on Geng Jimao's troops, and then brought Lai Fu to carefully inquire about the situation inside the strange car.

Kong Youde felt that although the strange car could not be injured by firearms and bows and arrows, the general's cannon might not be able to.

Although the general cannon is not as powerful as the red-coated cannon, it actually weighs seven or eight pounds and has a range of two miles.

To this end, he specially arranged for twenty guns to be loaded with solid shells, and the rest of the guns were loaded with shotguns to deal with the bursts of fire and bombardiers, and in order to lure the strange car across the river so that it could not retreat, he even set the earthen wall back from the river bank for half a mile.

After searching along the banks of the Chu River for nearly an hour, Kong Youde found the place he thought the Ming army must pass through. More than 2,000 Qing soldiers worked all day to complete all this.

In order to keep it secret, Kong Youde killed all the ordinary people who could be found within a two-mile radius.

Seeing the heavy casualties of the Ming army in front of the earthen wall, Kong Youde was overjoyed, but when he was looking for the destroyed strange car, he did not find it. Kong Youde didn't care so much, and shouted: "Hurry up and kill them all!" ”

A large section of the earthen wall was quickly torn down, and a dozen rows of Qing soldiers carrying long planks quickly put the planks on the trench, and then a large group of Qing soldiers rushed out from behind.

As soon as Wang Zecheng saw the Qing soldiers exposing their cannons, he immediately fell to the ground, and the three riflemen who followed closely followed him also fell to the ground. The five riflemen behind them didn't have time, and two of them were directly hit by the shotgun and fell to the ground, while the remaining three were blown over by the exploding grenade.

Wang Zecheng looked back and saw that the riflemen behind him had been knocked down, his eyes were cracked, and he howled and got up and rushed towards several riflemen who had fallen to the ground.

Flipping over a fallen rifleman, he saw a large hole in his chest, apparently dead. Quickly took the rifle from him and examined it carefully, found that the rifle was not damaged, and ran to the other gunman who fell to the ground.

Four rifles were not damaged, and the people were already dead.

When the fifth rifle was inspected, Wang Zecheng found that the magazine and the body of the gun had deviated significantly, and after a closer look, the magazine had been deflated.

Worried that the Qing soldiers would open fire again, Wang Zecheng carried three rifles on his back, and the other three gunners carried two rifles on his back, and after packing up the magazines, he ran desperately towards the river.

Ma Yingkui's horse was hit by a shotgun during the shelling, and he fell to the ground screaming, throwing Ma Yingkui far away, and when he gritted his teeth and got up from the ground, he saw that a large group of Qing soldiers had already rushed through the trench.

Ma Yingkui moved his whole body and found that he was not injured except for the pain of the fall, but his head was buzzed by the explosion of a grenade at close range.

Shaking his head, Ma Yingkui turned his head and swept over the more than 1,000 soldiers who crossed the river, and saw that only half of them were still standing.

didn't have time to think more, Ma Yingkui took a few steps to pick up the long knife that fell to the ground, and shouted in his mouth, "Rush up with me and stop them!" So he rushed forward.

Liu Zhaoji saw on the bank of the river that there were already thousands of Qing soldiers who rushed through the trench, and Ma Yingkui and the remaining regiment of soldiers had rushed up to fight with them, and hurriedly ordered the troops behind to cross the river to support.

The warrior car was stopped on the wooden bridge, and only one person could pass next to it, and many soldiers waded directly through the river.

Before Luo Jian could react on the wooden bridge, he saw a large number of soldiers on his side rushing towards the other side of the river, and was about to grab a person to ask what the situation was, when he saw Liu Zhaoji running to the car window with a rifle, "The Qing soldiers are rushing over, there are quite a few of them." ”

Hearing that the Qing soldiers were rushing over, Luo Jian suddenly became anxious, and shouted at Liu Weimin: "Hurry up!" ”

"What if the Qing soldiers fire again?" Liu Weimin asked worriedly.

"I can't care so much, hurry up!"

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