At the same time, Cao Bianjiao was still thinking, I don't know what happened to Wang Tingchen, he should go to Xiayi. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The infantry generally walks 30 to 50 miles a day, of course, this is a regular march, if you rush to march and force the army, you can also be above a hundred miles a day, depending on what army, the battle of the Gaoliang River, the Song army marched 100 miles a day, for ten consecutive days, and after reaching the target, it also attacked the city for 13 consecutive days.

The army at the end of the Ming Dynasty, of course, cannot be compared with the army at the beginning of the Song Dynasty, Cao Bianjiao's situation, marching in the group of enemies to attack and march, it is normal to walk five or ten miles a day, with this speed, it is already an extraordinary performance, because it is because of the new army.

But the cavalry is different, it is normal for ordinary marching 100 miles, the speed of rapid marching can reach 200 miles, and the cavalry of the Liao army is 200 miles a day, running for six days in a row, marching 1,200 miles, and rushing to Youzhou to fight with the Song army.

Of course, Wang Tingchen was in a hurry to march and should arrive at Xiayi quickly, but to fortify Xiayi, rest the fortifications, and get in touch with Guide and other places, and ask for help from Kaifeng and other places, there should be a slight delay.

I wondered, will there be other reinforcements coming?

……

On the second day, August 18, the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, this is the fasting day in many places, Cao Bianjiao went to bed early, broke into the camp last night and made trouble all night, it seems that there are constantly soldiers and horses coming, but Cao Bianjiao has long put life and death out of the way, even if he lies down with clothes, he still sleeps sweetly.

His camp was also brightly lit, and the soldiers took turns to guard the camp to prevent thieves from attacking the camp, but it was fine.

It can be seen that after last night's rest, there are still large pieces of horse meat to eat. The soldiers' spirits are much better, and it is really important to recuperate.

At breakfast, there were still large pieces of horse meat, and the smell was spreading, and the soldiers ate happily while the camp was angry, and it was their horses that were eaten.

The firefighters were still busy, cutting pieces of cooked horse meat into small pieces for each soldier to carry, so that they were hungry. You can take a bite. Replenish your physical strength at any time, even if you die, you can also be a full ghost.

In the middle of the hour, the two sides of Xiangshui suddenly fell silent. The disturbing sides of the two sides are no longer entangled with each other. But before the war, there was tension. But it makes people feel that the air weather is about to solidify, and both sides have already left the camp and made their own arrangements.

At the end of the day. Cao Bianjiao's military formation marched, walking along the edge of the Xiangshui, he had turned back into a large phalanx, and the concave and convex formation was effective in dealing with the cavalry, but against the infantry, it was obviously congenitally insufficient.

The place from Yongcheng to Xiayi is too flat, it is a wheat field, and it is also an endless kind, there is no cover and protection in front and back, left and right, which is very conducive to cavalry attacks, and the wilderness is against the horse, and the camp is set up on all sides, and it is inevitable to march slowly in a large phalanx, and the thieves have also arrived at a large force of infantry.

However, Cao Bianjiao still walked along the edge of the river, although the river is low and shallow, but some riverbank sections are still not conducive to trekking ashore, marching on the bank, and can also cover the left flank a little.

The thieves did not make any big moves at first, only when the Ming army was marching, there were large groups of horsemen advancing along the left bank to monitor, and a few of them were big flags, and there seemed to be some thief generals below, silently observing the characteristics of their own military formation.

But at the beginning of the hour, they also began to move, wading through the water one by one, and coming ashore from the upper and lower reaches of the Xiangshui respectively, especially downstream, and the black pressure was pressed one after another, and the layers were like locusts.

Cao Bianjiao saw that the sound water became extremely turbid, and it continued to break off for a while, which shows that although the people and horses passing upstream are not as good as the downstream, they are also very numerous, and the footsteps they make when they march, even if they are heard from a distance, seem to be roaring non-stop.

He raised his clairvoyant mirror to look out, it seemed that the thief's plan was to attack his own rear flank, drag himself to death, and at the same time the front and right flank would also attack, only the left flank by the river, the opposite bank was full of thieves and horses, it seemed to be watching, but if there was a advantage to take, they would also launch a thunderous attack.

At the same time, more and more of them crossed the river, and spied on the three sides of the army formation from a distance, in order to prevent the flow of cavalry from approaching the rear flank, Cao Bianjiao's cavalry in the barracks divided nearly 1,000 people, and the rest lived in the center, supporting all sides at any time.

However, he knew that this calm would not last long, and the outbreak of battle was just around the corner.

"Cao Bianjiao is indeed a famous general!"

On the left bank of Xiangshui, Li Zicheng stared intently at his army, he watched countless steps across the river, slowly, but obviously, gradually encompassing the Ming army's military formation, heavy footsteps, drumbeats, converged into a suffocating and boiling feeling.

And the Ming army military formation he paid attention to did not appear as Liu Zongmin and others said that the sparse formation, but the traditional square camp in front of him, obviously Cao Bianjiao took a contingency, and the military formation was strict, and it was obviously not easy to break the formation.

He silently calculated, to break through this military formation, how many people will die, and then look back, everyone around him is also distracted, hearing Li Zicheng's words, Li Guo seems to be thoughtful, Li Zicheng asked: "Jin'er, what are you thinking?" ”

Li said: "King Chuang, I was thinking, although attacking with an infantry battalion can consume Xiao Cao's troops, but purely intercepting with an infantry battalion, I am afraid that I will not be able to stop them." ”

At this time, there were about 50,000 infantry soldiers in the flow camp, but more than 20,000 were under the command of the fifth battalion of the revolution and the left.

Although there were about 30,000 hungry people last night, it was obviously not enough, and if all the remaining foot soldiers and hungry soldiers gathered, I am afraid it would take two or three days, especially those hungry people, a large part of them were escorted by the Ge and Zuobu battalions from the direction of Yongcheng, as well as Luo Rucai.

They walked very slowly, because they had to escort a large number of people, and they had to dig trenches along the border from Yongcheng to Haozhou, so although the army stopped all the way, they chased after the buttocks, but they could not keep up quickly.

The artillery that broke into the camp and was arranged in the direction of Haozhou did not know when it would arrive, so it was constantly adding fuel, even if the infantry and hungry soldiers from all over the place continued to arrive, it was really difficult to say whether they could stop Cao Bianjiao.

In fact, he didn't say some words in his heart, but Li Zicheng knew that although the three families of Chuangying, Gezuo, and Caoying were united, they were always fighting hard battles and vicious battles. The rest of the two families are always suspected of picking up cheap.

Let's just say that in this battle, before all the hungry people gathered, the foot soldiers of the main attack must have broken into the camp, which made many of the generals indignant.

Li Zicheng's inner desire to command unification was even stronger, but he smiled on his face: "It's okay, in this battle, our 20,000 horse army is arranged above Xiangshui to prevent the Ming army from advancing forward, as well as the royal courtiers." The remaining nearly 40,000 cavalry were combined, and each time the infantry was defeated, the horsemen could come forward and drag them. Then the foot soldiers gather again. Attacking again, Cao Bianjiao was reluctant to throw down 5,000 new troops, and he was destined to destroy the riverside. ”

Liu Zongmin and the others all laughed, and to be honest, they didn't understand Cao Bianjiao's approach. Replace them with them. I have long left the infantry and ran. As long as the horsemen are there, there will be as many foot soldiers, not to mention the hungry people. Just one coercion is millions.

Niu Jinxing looked at the Ming army formation that was moving forward, with a relieved and complicated expression on his face, and finally said: "This is the fate of the unrighteous army." ”

……

In the middle of the morning, the Ming army marched to a place called Ding Louzhuang, at this time the thieves were closer, except for many horse thieves on the left bank to monitor, the rest of the three sides, all of them were less than two miles, especially in the rear wing of the military formation, a large number of thieves rode to come, making a posture of attacking.

The Ming army had to stop and prepare for battle.

At this time, the battlefield situation, in front of the front, is the infantry battalion of Gezuo, about 20,000 foot soldiers, and at the same time 10,000 hungry people, and the rear of the army formation, there are about 30,000 foot soldiers who break into the camp, 20,000 hungry people.

In addition, about 30,000 horsemen of various horsemen also gathered in the front, right and rear three sides, gathered in the rear of the foot soldiers to supervise the battle, and at the same time when the foot soldiers were defeated, they stepped forward to entangle the Ming army, and the remaining about 10,000 horsemen and horses gathered on the left bank of Xiangshui to spy closely.

The vast sea of people seems to be about to submerge this area, and the military array in the crowd will be swallowed by the tide at any time like a reef in the waves.

It seems that he wants to show himself in front of the camp, and the men and horses of the left will attack first.

The first thing they drove was the 10,000 hungry people.

These hungry people, all in rags, with yellow faces and thin muscles, but for the sake of a mouthful of food, voluntarily or involuntarily, served as cannon fodder in battle.

They were divided into three waves, each wave attacking three or four thousand people, after a war drum, immediately shouted frantically, and rushed towards the Ming army's military formation.

Many people took off their shirts even more frantically, holding weapons in each hand, or kitchen knives or axes, and roared desperately, hoping to arouse their little physical strength and give themselves courage.

They swarmed within a hundred paces of the army, but their madness was shattered after a fierce volley.

Although it was a phalanx, Cao Bianjiao drew or reduced from all sides, flexibly arranged the firepower of his troops according to the battle situation, and faced the left side of the revolution, there were nearly 800 guns, divided into three layers, each layer of more than 250, these firearms volleys, hit more than 200 hungry people rolling to the ground, and then howled in pain.

In the blink of an eye, the courage of the first wave of more than 3,000 hungry people was gone, and they fled back crying and screaming, and hundreds of horsemen were immediately chased out of the army formation, which intensified their panic.

The Ming army did not move, after the front layer shot, quickly handed the empty gun back, and then took over the gunpowder inside, so that it was passed until the end, and the last row of gunpowder soldiers was quickly and quickly loaded, and there was a sound of clearing the chamber and loading the subdrug......

The deafening sound of the discharging gun was that Li Zicheng and the others on the other side of the Xiangshui were shocked when they heard it, and the firearms of the Ming army were so fierce that they could only feel it when they were there.

They were on their horses, looking at the hungry people on the left side of the revolution, the first wave collapsed after only one volley, the second and third waves were not much better, and the bravest was the third wave, which could withstand two platoons before escaping.

Looking at the roar of that side like thunder, the dazzling and fierce flames shot out by the row of guns are seen from a distance, and it also makes people feel frightened.

Li Zicheng sighed: "This is the East Road firearm." ”

Although he also captured a lot of firearms from the Ming army, most of them were three-eyed guns, that is, there were bird guns inside, and many of them were unusable.

After fighting with Wang Dou, although he also had the idea of forming a firearms battalion, the technical strength was always insufficient. (To be continued.) )