In the early morning, outside Laofeng Town, there was smoke from the Yangzhou army's cooking, and there was already a rumbling cannon sound on the river, and everyone knew that this was the Yangzhou Naval Division and the Zuo Army's Naval Division had begun to engage in battle.

The soldiers of the Yangzhou Army were very consciously half-full, and the big war was imminent, and eating too much would directly affect combat operations, and this point had been repeatedly emphasized during training.

Luo Jian stood on a high slope, holding the telescope in his hand and looking at the direction of Anqing, the excellent visibility in the early morning made Anqing City more than ten miles away clearly visible, and the people and horses who came out of Anqing City were still walking outside the city, looking at the countless fluttering flags, Luo Jian was suddenly a little nervous in his heart.

This kind of large-scale direct battle between the two armies with cold weapons, Luo Jian really hasn't seen it before, the first few battles have relied on advanced equipment to defeat the opponent with a devastating momentum, this time these equipment are not used at all, what will the battle look like, Luo Jian has no bottom in his heart.

Huang Degong on the side didn't care, but was very excited, and said to Luo Jian: "Zuo Mengeng, this kid must have been blinded by lard, I don't know how powerful my Yangzhou army is, and he dares to go out of the city to fight with us, this time this kid must not be allowed to escape!" ”

"Lao Huang, you are responsible for commanding this battle, I am a layman in this kind of fighting, you can just treat me and my guards as reserves, if there is really a danger, we will go!"

Luo Jian's words are not bragging, the 200 people of the Metropolitan Guards are all cavalry, all of whom were selected by several division commanders, each carrying three grenades in their pockets.

Huang Degong did not shirk, took over the command of the battlefield, and quickly began to arrange troops.

Weng Zhiqi resolutely asked to occupy the position of the Chinese army, saying that the Fifth Division of the Battle of Tongling did not get oil and water yesterday, and the good thing could not be occupied by Li Chengdong alone, Huang Degong saw that his brother-in-law was high-spirited and agreed to his request.

This made Li Chengdong extremely dissatisfied, thinking that Huang Degong was abusing power for personal gain, saying that if the Metropolitan Governor personally commanded, he would definitely let his Second Division fight the main force, Huang Degong was unmoved, and was so angry that Li Chengdong said that even if the Second Division was on the flank, it would not lose to the Fifth Division.

Huang Degong commanded three divisions to advance slowly in a zigzag pattern, with more than 1,000 cavalry leading horses on both sides and following behind.

Luo Jian saw Zuo Mengeng's troops coming from the opposite side on the high slope, and it was only more than two miles away from the Yangzhou army.

Huang Degong also saw it clearly, and ordered the troops to stop, and the three divisions all set up battle formations.

Luo Jian couldn't understand the formation set by Huang Degong at all, and the guards next to him told him that this formation was handed down by Qi Dashuai back then, and it relied on giving play to the role of each small collective, and the combined force formed by each small collective would continue to eat away at the opponent's army.

This made Luo Jian feel that the reform of the military system would have a negative impact on combat effectiveness, but no one among the generals had reported such problems to him, and it was estimated that the impact would not be great.

As the two armies approached, no single general came out into battle, and the first fiery bolt covered the battlefield with a thick layer of smoke, and the arrows that flew out of the smoke caused soldiers on both sides to fall.

The long-range attack did not last long, and the two armies soon fought together, and Luo Jian's heart suddenly pinched.

The first to engage the enemy was the Fifth Division, the initial chaotic battle did not last long, and soon the soldiers of the Fifth Division gradually formed a sharp knife like the Second Division attacking the left army in Tongling in the shouts of officers at all levels, and with the formation of sharp knives, the left army began to be divided into pieces, with thousands of people in the majority and only a few dozen people in the small ones.

Luo Jian was surprised to see that two regiments of the Second Division were slowly leaving the battlefield, and was about to ask what was going on, when the guard next to him told him that this was to copy the rear road of the left army.

Luo Jian saw that there was a fierce battle on the battlefield, and when he saw that more than 4,000 people had withdrawn, he was quite worried.

The cavalry had already mounted their horses, and more than a thousand cavalrymen divided into two teams also outflanked from the left and right flanks.

After a while, Luo Jian also understood that although the left army had a large number, it had already messed up the formation and was gradually cut into several large pieces by the Yangzhou army, and Huang Degong was organizing men and horses to annihilate them one by one.

There is no prisoner, on the battlefield of this kind of cold weapon, putting down the weapon can only be death, looking at the soldiers who fell to the ground all over the mountains, Luo Jian only felt that the war of this cold weapon was really cruel.

In the chaos, there was a group of about 1,000 soldiers of the left army rushing towards the high ground where Luo Jian was, and Huang Degong, who was directing the battle, saw it and didn't care, the 200 guards of the Metropolitan Governor were not vegetarians.

When there were still more than 500 meters away, the cavalry general of the guard raised the saber in his hand to Luo Jianzai on his horse and said, "Governor, let's go and destroy them." ”

Leaving more than a dozen people to guard Luo Jian's side, the cavalry general rushed down the slope with more than a hundred cavalry.

The more than 1,000 soldiers of the left army may just be in a panic, not coming at Luo Jian, as soon as they saw the cavalry rushing down, they immediately scattered and fled, the cavalry held their sabers, as if chopping melons and vegetables, but in a few minutes, only two or three hundred people left in the more than 1,000 left army scattered and fled.

The cavalry generals did not chase very far, their main duty was to protect the governor, not to kill the enemy on the battlefield, and soon the cavalry returned to the slope, Luo Jian asked, but not a single horse was damaged.

Zuo Mengeng, who was surrounded by more than 2,000 Ding regiments, now has a green intestine, he didn't expect that the combat effectiveness of the Yangzhou Army would be so strong, this knife-like fighting collective, the left army was directly impacted to pieces, and it was impossible to organize a decent battle.

He asked people to hurry to find Gao Jinku and Hao Xiaozhong, the two general soldiers, where could they be found on the battlefield in the extreme chaos, Zuo Mengeng decided to withdraw the troops as soon as possible.

Li Chengdong sent two regiments to copy the rear road of the left army, and he led dozens of personal soldiers into a no-man's land, carrying a big knife to slash left and right, and it was really a joyful kill.

Seeing that there was a general of the Left Army riding on a horse in front of him and leading people to run outside the battlefield, Li Chengdong pulled out his horse and chased after him, and saw that it was his acquaintance Hao Xiaozhong.

"Hao Xiaozhong, you bastard! If you don't do it, you have to be a dog for the Tartars, and today Lao Tzu has to hack you alive! ”

Li Chengdong said and pounced on the horse with the long knife in his hand.

Hao Xiaozhong didn't care about answering in a hurry, he pulled out his horse and ran, but was stopped by Li Chengdong's own soldiers, Li Chengdong rushed forward and slashed over.

Hao Xiaozhong raised the long knife in his hand to block it, but Li Chengdong changed to a sweep halfway, and a knife slapped Hao Xiaozhong's upper body, and immediately slapped him off the horse.

"Tie him up!" Li Chengdong shouted.

The two pro-soldiers dismounted and kicked away the long knife in Hao Xiaozhong's hand, trying to find a rope to tie it, where could they find it on this battlefield.

When Li Chengdong saw it, he slashed down with a single sword, and a bloody sword flew out of Hao Xiaozhong's neck, and he immediately settled the account.

Li Chengdong, who had already killed with blood-red eyes, glanced at the battlefield, and saw a large group of Zuo soldiers escorting a general who was about to flee the battlefield, and shouted with a pat of his horse: "Brothers, follow me to kill Zuo Mengeng, this bastard!" "Rushed directly at Zuo Menggeng's personal guards.

Zuo Mengeng's Jiading Guards are far from being comparable to the ordinary Left Army, including three or four hundred cavalry, seeing that the Yangzhou army is surrounded, they are all fighting to the death and not retreating, and their individual combat effectiveness is not slightly worse than that of the Yangzhou army.

Seeing that more than 2,000 men and horses were about to flee the battlefield, the two regiments in front of the bread had already caught up.

Seeing that the retreat had been blocked, Zuo Mengeng also fought desperately, leading the family team to rush left and right, and the casualties of the Yangzhou army began to increase sharply.

Luo Jian, who was standing on the high slope, saw it clearly, and when he saw the soldiers of the Yangzhou Army falling one by one, he suddenly felt anxious, and shouted to the cavalry generals around him: "You guys go to reinforcements, don't feel sorry for the grenades, blow them up for me!" ”

Huang Degong, who had already started the fight in person, saw the guards of the Grand Governor rushing down the hillside, and understood Luo Jian's intentions in his heart, and when the cavalry of the guards rushed to a distance of about two or three hundred meters, he shouted loudly: "The Yangzhou army retreats quickly!" ”

The military order soon spread out, and there were shouts of rapid retreat on the battlefield, and the Yangzhou army that was fighting retreated like a tide.

In the blink of an eye, more than a hundred grenades flew towards the left army, which was gathered in a group, and the cavalrymen threw the grenades and pulled the reins, and the horses ran in a big arc and galloped away from the left army.

A moment later, a fierce explosion rang out, and the people in the left army were suddenly turned on their backs.

Zuo Mengeng, who was shrinking behind the formation, heard the explosion, and was so frightened that he jumped off the horse and lay on the ground.

Huang Degong grasped the fighter plane with great precision, and as soon as the grenade was thrown out, he heard him shout: "Rush!" He patted his horse and took the lead and rushed forward.

The Zuo Army, who had been dizzy by the explosion, no longer had the fighting spirit, they knelt on the ground and raised their hands, Huang Degong slapped his horse and shouted loudly: "Where is Zuo Mengeng?" ”

The soldiers of the left army kneeling on the ground pointed to their flanks and rear, Huang Degong led more than a dozen cavalry to take a look, twenty or thirty pro-soldiers were surrounding Zuo Mengeng, holding up the knife in his hand and looking at the Yangzhou army that surrounded him.

Huang Degong beckoned, and a cavalryman from behind raised the grenade in his hand and was about to throw it at them, Zuo Mengeng saw it clearly, and shouted in fright: "Don't throw the earth-shattering thunder, we surrender!" ”

Hearing his shout, the soldiers threw away their weapons and knelt on the ground.

Huang Degong slapped his horse on a high ground, scanned the entire battlefield, and saw that there were still three or four thousand people in the left army who had fled the battlefield and ran in the direction of Anqing City.

Huang Degong slapped the horse and shouted, "Follow me!" ”

These three or four thousand people did not escape, and more than a thousand cavalry of the Yangzhou army had already circled in front of them, blocking their way back to the city.

The general soldier Gao Jinku was in the three or four thousand left army, this guy saw on the horse, there was a blocker in front of the enemy, and there were pursuers in the rear, knowing that there was no way to escape, he simply dismounted and let the soldiers lay down their weapons and surrender.

Luo Jian saw it with a telescope, put down the telescope and looked at his watch, the whole battle lasted for nearly three hours, and it was already more than ten o'clock in the morning.

Pulling out the horse and going down the high slope, Luo Jian walked into the battlefield with the guards, carefully walking around the corpses all over the ground along the way, some of the left soldiers who fell to the ground did not die, many people were still lying on the ground wailing, Luo Jian knew that in this era of lack of medical treatment, only death awaited them.

Huang Degong and several division commanders had already greeted him, and Li Chengdong was still shouting while patting him, "Happy!" It's a pleasure! ”

"Don't howl there! Hurry up and organize troops to clean up the battlefield, this corpse all over the ground must be dug up and buried as soon as possible! The wounded soldiers of our army must be treated with all their might! ”

Hearing Luo Jian's scolding, Li Chengdong quickly reined in and turned around to organize the troops.

Luo Jian and Huang Degong led the cavalry and two regiments through the entire battlefield and went directly to Anqing City, looking at Huang Degong's bloodstains, Luo Jian knew that this battle was not easy.

The city gate of Anqing was wide open, and the small number of left troops in the city had already fled to the point of nowhere to go, and when Luo Jian, Huang Degong and others arrived at the riverside, Huang Fei had already led the sailor to wait for a long time.

It really didn't take much effort for Huang Fei to deal with the thousands of sailors of the Left Army, and some of the ships of these sailors of the Left Army were not even warships at all, and most of them were merchant ships that were robbed, and their combat effectiveness can be imagined.

Huang Fei surrounded the naval division of the Left Army in less than half an hour, and the Left Army quickly surrendered, and the battleships did not capture a few, but the large and small ships captured more than 2,000.

Huang Fei, who took the left army's water division, listened to Zheng Chenggong's suggestion and sent 2,000 men to go ashore to block the road for the left army to flee west, but they finally stopped hundreds of left soldiers and horses who fled from the city, and they surrendered directly without a fight, and Huang Shu was among them.

Luo Jian was happy that a large amount of grain and grass from the Zuo army was hoarded in this Anqing City, and most of the gold and silver treasures looted by Zuo Liangyu and Zuo Mengeng's father and son were also kept.

When the other troops finished cleaning up the battlefield and arrived outside Anqing City, Luo Jian summoned officers at all levels to count the results.

More than 45,000 left troops were basically annihilated, and Huang Degong estimated that fewer than 2,000 people had escaped, and more than 5,000 people were captured.

Luo Jian felt very happy about the annihilation of the left army, the difference in military discipline of the left army was the most in the entire Ming army, and the left army was sometimes better than the Qing soldiers wherever they went before.

When the casualties of the various departments were reported, Luo Jian suddenly fell silent.