Midnight!

The thieves once again organized their forces and charged towards the second mountain.

Because of the fire signal of the Tancai below, Zhou Tong and Cao Tai got the news as soon as possible, and commanded the artillery to bombard wildly, and the arrows were fired intensively down the mountain, blocking the path of the thief army to the third mountain, and once again causing the thief army to throw down a corpse and retreat to the back.

In one night, the thief army organized a vanguard of 4,000 people, and without exception, they were all bombarded back by the artillery fire of the official army.

On the second day, the sky was bright and the sun was rising.

The official army and the thief army had a tacit understanding of burying the pot and cooking, and after the meal, they rested for half an hour, and the two armies broke out again.

The thief army had to take a shortcut to Yuncheng through Sandao Mountain to support, but the official army wanted to stop the thief army and buy enough siege time for the official army besieging Yuncheng.

The two armies refused to give in to each other, and neither of them would take a step back.

The narrow path was littered with dead bodies.

The thieves rushed like madness at the place where the artillery of the officers and soldiers attacked.

The loess was bombarded by artillery fire, and immediately turned into scorched earth, and the trees and flowers on the side of the mountains on both sides were covered by artillery fire.

The thieves whined in pain and left a large number of corpses to retreat, and in less than half an hour, they organized their troops to charge again, and the cycle continued, the sound of artillery rolled like thunder, and the screams under the mountain resounded through the sunny sky, which made people shudder.

In the afternoon, the thief army withdrew from the charge of the Thousand Households and buried the pot again to make food.

Yang Xiaoyu was silent and thought for a long time, and finally sent someone to pick up Cao Tai and Zhou Tong's soldiers and horses down the mountain, and ordered him to lead the army to Yangshugou to ambush in advance.

After having lunch, the thieves got sulfuric acid and other incendiary materials out of nowhere and set fire to the mountain.

The fire ignited from the first mountain and spread instantly, and within a few moments, the mountain was full of fire. The flames soared into the sky, and the smoke was endless.

Yang Xiaoyu secretly rejoiced, and hurriedly ordered Zhou Heguang's troops to carry food and ordnance to prepare to withdraw the army.

Of course, on the way to withdraw the army, he found two hills and ambushed six tiger squat cannons. Let them hold back the thieves first, and then catch up after the army has withdrawn.

Sandao Mountain is less than thirty miles away from Yangshugou.

Yang Xiaoyu rushed to Yangshugou with more than 1,000 soldiers and horses at the beginning of the night.

Sun Chuanting, who rushed here in advance to build fortifications, had already set up the fort, and Cao Tai led the soldiers and horses to set up the Franco machine artillery.

The mountains on both sides of Yangshugou are densely wooded, and judging from the situation of the thieves' ignition in Sandao Mountain, they must have obtained sulfuric acid and other incendiary materials in a small town near Yanzhou.

If you continue to ambush in the mountains and forests, it is easy to be burned by the thieves.

Yang Xiaoyu inspected the terrain and ordered Zhou Heguang to guard the ravine on the left and Cao Tai to guard the ravine on the right. Zhou Tong led his army to meet the enemy with tiger squat cannons and bows and arrows on narrow mountain roads.

He also ordered that Cao Tai and Zhou Heguang should not use artillery to meet the enemy unless they had to do so, and if the enemy set fire to it, they would immediately retreat.

Yang Xiaoyu ordered Sun Chuanting to lead his cavalry to be placed behind Zhou Tong, and once the thief army was invincible, he asked Zhou Tong to withdraw, and Sun Chuanting's cavalry stepped forward to meet the enemy.

Two days against the enemy. There were no casualties among the officers and soldiers, and it was only with artillery and sharp arrows and boulders that they were able to block the way of the thieves.

Right now. In the competition between the two armies, Yang Xiaoyu did not have the slightest certainty in his heart.

Judging from the number of enemy troops, its troops should be more than 20,000 soldiers and horses, and the loss of three or four thousand soldiers and horses in the past two days is still several times that of the official army.

However, the officers and troops had the advantage of terrain and weapons. On the narrow paths, the officers and soldiers could cover the thieves with artillery, making it difficult for the thieves to pounce on them.

The moon rises and the earth falls silent.

Thieves swarmed with torches, and two dragons lined up under the night sky.

Zhou Tong led his cavalry to swing artillery, bows and arrows, and wooden shields. Stuck in the path at night.

The vanguard of the thieves marched within a hundred paces.

"Shoot!"

Ten rounds of Franco-machine cannons roared, the cannonballs were loaded into the barrels, the ropes were pulled, and the roaring cannons rang out, and in an instant, the cannonballs fell on the soldiers in front of the thief army, and the empty night sky suddenly sounded screams of exclamation.

In a few moments, the second round of artillery was loaded, and there was another boom in front of it.

The cannonballs fell to the ground, only to see the fire rising sharply, the green smoke billowing in the air, and the surrounding thieves were all crying wolves.

Yang Xiaoyu stood on the hillside not far away, watching the continuous artillery covering the ground in Yangshugou, the rocks were blown into powder, and a living thief lost his life in the artillery.

Half an hour or so.

When he couldn't hear a sound anymore, Yang Xiaoyu thought for a moment, and immediately sent someone to send an order to Cao Tai and Zhou Heguang, ordering them to bombard the thief army with cannonballs, shoot five shells each, and immediately withdraw the army.

The order was issued.

Zhou Heguang and Cao Tai respectively ordered to cover the road in front of Yangshugou with artillery, and immediately led their soldiers and horses down the mountain.

Perhaps it was the fierce artillery fire of the officers and soldiers, and the frightened thief army did not dare to come forward to seek death.

Yangshugou was quiet for a while.

Before waiting for the next hour, a fire suddenly broke out in the surrounding mountains and forests, and the fire was under the darkness of the night, reflecting the earth as if it were day.

Yang Xiaoyu looked at the burning mountain forest and sneered, the thief army had nothing to do, otherwise, they would not have set fire to the mountain.

Drive!

Sun Chuanting rode his horse over, turned over and dismounted, and said, "My lord, if our army gives up Yangshugou, there will be no such good terrain going forward?" ”

"The officer's 3,000 soldiers and horses have been blocking the enemy for two days and nights, and they are exhausted, besides, our army is short of artillery, and if we continue to fight, it is inevitable that we will have a bloody battle with the thief army, on this narrow path, although our army can block the pace of the thief army, it is difficult to defeat the thief army!" Yang Xiaoyu frowned and said in a deep voice.

"My lord, in that case, why not take advantage of the dark night to fight, first, you can block the enemy's way, and second, you can also take this opportunity to weaken the enemy's strength!" Sun Chuanting arched his hand.

Yang Xiaoyu is a little annoyed with this historical celebrity, the soldiers and horses that block the enemy here are all the soldiers and horses of the Beizhen Fusi, and not the soldiers and horses of his Sun Chuanting, he wants to fight to gain fame, but he wants his subordinates to pay the price of their lives, this kind of thing only a fool can do.

"Passing on the official military order, Zhou Heguang and Cao Tai led their troops to retreat, and Zhou Tong used artillery to level the mountain road ahead and block the way of the thief army!" Yang Xiaoyu lazily ignored Sun Chuanting, and ordered to the rider beside him.

Ti Cai led the order to gallop away, Sun Chuanting was a little angry, and said: "My lord has delayed the fighter plane so much, when will the Shandong bandits be pacified?" ”

"General Sun, you still claim to be familiar with the art of war, and you only know how to fight on the battlefield, and you have the courage to fight against the thief army with 3,000 soldiers and horses, without losing a horseman, and killing three or four thousand enemies, this may be called a big victory?" Yang Xiaoyu's face changed, and he shouted coldly.

"The adults used hundreds of shells to kill three or four thousand enemies, this is still taking advantage of the terrain, if there is no terrain and shells, the adults are afraid that they would have been defeated and fled!" Sun Chuanting said angrily.

Yang Xiaoyu suddenly became angry and shouted: "If you dare to disrespect the official, this official will engage you in military law!" ”

"Humph!"

Sun Chuanting angrily turned over and galloped away.

Yang Xiaoyu was lazy to deal with this kind of person, and ordered to go down, and all the Ti rode back to Qinghe Town.

Qinghe Town is the only way for the thief army to rush to Yuncheng, less than 100 miles away from Yangshugou, fast horse march, can be arrived in one night's effort.

Because there were grain, grass, baggage, and Francophone cannons in the army, Yang Xiaoyu had to send Zhou Tongjie to block the enemy army, making it difficult for the enemy army to catch up.

The army took advantage of the darkness to go out of the vicinity of Yangshugou, diverted the direction of Yuncheng, and marched rapidly towards Qinghe Town.

Although there were some stumbles along the way, the road was quite smooth, and there were no rugged mountain roads, which also made the march speed of the officers and soldiers faster.

Zhou Tong led his soldiers and horses to stop the enemy, once the thieves caught up, he ordered his cavalry to shoot two tiger squat shells, and then waited for a while, if the thieves dared to continue to move forward, then fired two more shells, if the thieves were afraid, he let his men shoot a wave of arrows, and then quietly left.

After a night of marching, Yang Xiaoyu came to the Qinghe territory with nearly 3,000 soldiers and horses!

At this time, the sky was slightly bright, and the riders were exhausted from the night's journey.

Yang Xiaoyu looked at the surrounding terrain and saw that there was open land all around, and it was difficult to hide his figure, and the thief army was less than ten miles away from him, and it would take an hour to arrive.

"Tell me to go down and bury the pot and cook immediately!" Yang Xiaoyu pondered for a long time and ordered.

The logistician unloaded the food from the car, fetched firewood and water, and lit a fire on the spot to make food.

The riders nibbled on some dry food, sat on the ground and rested for a while, and then drank some hot soup to replenish their strength.

Yang Xiaoyu nibbled on beef jerky, drank a little wine, sent someone to Sun Chuanting, and ordered with a cold face: "This place is open, it is the battlefield where the cavalry gallops, this official orders you to gather five hundred cavalry under your command, line up to meet the enemy, remember, do not entangle with the thief army, and come to catch up with this official immediately after a small victory!" ”

"The subordinate obeys!"

Sun Chuanting finally waited for the opportunity to kill the thief army with his own hands, and immediately bowed to Yang Xiaoyu and strode away.

On the plain, 500 cavalry, properly used, can break 100,000 infantry troops.

At the time of the Three Kingdoms, Zhang Liao, the general of the Wei State, defeated the 100,000 soldiers and horses of Sun Quan, the lord of Wu, with 800 iron horses, and built great military exploits, and his fame was passed down from generation to generation.

Today is not the past, although his 500 cavalry are all elite soldiers, it is extremely unsmooth to break the 20,000 soldiers and horses of the thief army.

If Sun Chuanting knew how to command the cavalry to fight, there might still be a chance.

Yang Xiaoyu was too lazy to think about the war again, so he ordered a group of well-drunk cavalry to continue to hurry, leaving Sun Chuanting's 500 cavalry to line up here to meet the enemy.

Less than ten miles ahead is the small town of Qinghe.

There are nearly 1,000 households in this town, and there are post stations set up by the imperial court and Baozheng, Lizheng, and the stewards of various families in the town.

Yang Xiaoyu sent someone to inform the steward of Qinghe Town, and asked him to quickly organize the young people in the town, pick up swords and guns and prepare to fight the upcoming thief army.

And he himself led more than 2,000 iron cavalry to line up three miles outside the town, and lined up dozens of artillery pieces in front, followed by shield soldiers, archers, and pikemen. (To be continued......)