The Zhu army approached the city of Runing Mansion, and the scouts returned, and two lines of officers and soldiers appeared in front of them, waiting outside the city of Runing. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the scouts to come carefully, and after a while, there was detailed information sent back, it turned out that the two officers and soldiers under Runing City were Liu Chenggong and Wang Xi, the deputy commander-in-chief, who each led 3,000 elite soldiers from Fengyang from east to west.

Hearing the arrival of the thief army, the two were slightly taken aback, but they were not very panicked, because although the thief army was numerous, they could not fight, and they relied on the fortified city of Runing Mansion behind them.

Besides, it was only Zhu Ba's vanguard that came, with only more than 10,000 people, and they had 6,000 officers and soldiers under their command, but they were not afraid of this thief army.

The two lined up to finish, Zhu Jun also leaned over, lined up in front of them, the two armies looked at each other, only to see Liu Chenggong and Wang Xi's army seemed a little fanatical, all of them stared at the thief army with red eyes, as if looking at the silver, it turned out that this time Fengyang was burned, Emperor Chongzhen was angry, transferred a million taels of silver to make a military salary, swore to pacify the thief, avenge his ancestral grave, the officers and soldiers have sufficient salaries, if they kill the enemy, the reward will not be able to be paid, so now is a good time to make meritorious contributions and earn silver, and it is a good time to earn silver, and the morale is high.

Zhu Yuanzhang's army looked a little sluggish, it turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang did not put the elite soldiers in the front, but put the eggs of the recruits in the front, and Xue Hongqi's cavalry team was also deliberately left behind, so that the officers and soldiers could not see it from a distance. In addition, the people of Runing, whom he had newly received, were still scattered on both sides of the military formation, and it seemed that they were really unorthodox, no different from other thief armies.

Liu Chenggong smiled secretly in his heart, and said to Wang Xi beside him: "General Wang, what do you think of this gang of thieves?" ”

Wang Xi also smiled: "I think they are here to send their war exploits." ”

Liu Chenggong nodded: "There is only a little evil sect, a few days ago I heard that these guys were attacking Luoyang, I don't know how to come back, they actually arrived in our city, and the thief army dragged their children and daughters." Helping the old and the young. The march shouldn't be that fast, right? ”

Wang Xi frowned and thought for a while: "Maybe they are the elite soldiers in front, and the old and weak in the back......

Liu Chenggong said with a smile: "In this case, how can General He Renlong, who is stationed in Luoyang, not pursue with his tail?" General Zu Kuan of Bilan and General Zuo Liangyu of Xuchang also chased after them, and they hurried behind them. ”

Wang Xi nodded: "It must be so." We sent someone to inform General Ai Wannian and General Liu Guozhen in Xinyang. Ask them to come from the south to help as well. As long as the thief army is held back here for a few days, the north, south and east roads will be surrounded, and this group of thieves will definitely die without a place to be buried. ”

The two sent messengers to Xinyang in the south to ask for reinforcements.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang had already walked out of the formation. The two armies are separated by a stone's throw away, and they can be heard on the other side of the loud voice, Zhu Yuanzhang deliberately said nonsense: "The 100,000 people of my righteous army are coming soon, why don't you open the city and surrender early?" "This kind of nonsense is impossible to say to bring down the enemy, at best it will only make the enemy feel funny, as well as provoke the enemy's anger.

Sure enough, Liu Chenggong and Wang Xi laughed together: "One hundred thousand? I don't want to take a breath of bragging, I'm going to see how powerful you are with 100,000 people. The two waved their hands and gave the order, and the war drums in the army were roaring, and they were ready to go to war.

Together, the thieves were scared into a mess, and the recruits at the front showed a look of nervousness on their faces, they were the two thousand new men that Zhu Yuanzhang received after occupying southern Shaanxi, and they had never been on the battlefield, and the weapons rationed were not good, this time Zhu Yuanzhang put them in the front to top the enemy, it was really scary enough, although the officers and soldiers were still far away, and they didn't have to worry about being shot by arrows, but these people didn't know how to judge the distance, as soon as they heard the drumming of the officers and soldiers, the sword and shield soldiers in the front row were so frightened that they raised their shields one by one, The lankers and archers without shields shrank their necks in fright.

As for the people of Runing, who had just joined the gang, they were even more frightened and ran around with rats, they were originally watching the excitement on both sides of the military formation, but now when they saw that there was going to be a war, they ran far away to both sides, and it was very appropriate to use the word "birds and beasts scattered" to describe it.

When Liu Chenggong and Wang Xi saw the appearance of the thief army, they immediately laughed, the drums became more vigorous, and the officers and soldiers began to move forward slowly.

"Hold the ...... on both wings"

"The archers show me the distance......"

"Hold the spear steady...... Don't flash your legs......"

The small flags in the army began to shout again, and the unique smell of the battlefield stretched out all at once.

Six thousand officers and soldiers with red eyes, pressed towards the Zhu army, looking at the heads of the Zhu soldiers, they were all calculating in their hearts, the governor ordered that a thief would be rewarded with five taels of silver for the first rank, and a reward of one hundred taels for capturing the leader alive, and a few more could be killed in a while......

The recruits at the forefront of the Zhu army had never seen such bloodthirsty eyes, and they only felt that the 6,000 officers and soldiers on the opposite side were like 6,000 lions, tigers and beasts, as if they were about to jump up and bite people, and their legs and feet involuntarily flashed. Under their fright, they all turned their heads to look at Zhu Yuanzhang's orders, but saw that Zhu Yuanzhang didn't move, didn't give any orders, just rode on horseback and watched them for a long time.

Only then did these recruits remember that Zhu Bugle had already given them instructions in advance, and when the officers and soldiers began to charge, they would divide into two teams of 1,000 men and run away to the left and right. My heart was a little fixed, but my legs and feet still couldn't help but flash.

After a while, the two armies entered the land of one arrow, the officers and soldiers took the lead in starting to release arrows, and the recruits in the front row held up their shields to defend, they were inexperienced, and their momentum was suppressed by the officers and soldiers, and there were many gaps between the shields, and the defense was not tight enough, and after a while, many people were injured by arrows. There was a slight fluctuation and disarray in the forward formation, and the morale of the army was greatly reduced. Fortunately, the bow and arrow are not very powerful, and although they are not wounded, the recruits are not scared by a burst of bows and arrows.

Some of the thieves responded with bows and bows to the officers and soldiers with a rain of arrows, but with little effect, and hardly caused much trouble to the officers and soldiers.

In a short time, the two armies were close to fifty paces.

At this time, Liu Chenggong and Wang Xi waved the command flag at the same time, and the war drums in the army slammed violently, roaring like thunder, and the six thousand officers and soldiers roared wildly, spread out their strides, and rushed up.

The 2,000 recruits at the forefront of Zhu's army saw that the officers and soldiers began to charge, and remembered the order given by Zhu Bugle in advance, so they knew that they could escape now, so they let out a strange scream, turned around and ran.

The two thousand people were divided into two thousand teams, according to the prior orders, they should have run to both sides, but in the hurry, someone ran in the wrong direction and wanted to run to the back, but saw a thousand heavy infantry of the Zhu army wearing heavy armor behind them, and the steel-like array did not move, erected shields, and resisted them, so that they could not disrupt the lineup of their own army. Only then did these people who turned around and ran backwards realize why Zhu Bugling told them to run in both directions, what they were afraid of was that they would disrupt the formation of their own people, and they couldn't help shouting to the heavy infantrymen: "Brothers, forgive me, brothers are eager to run wrong." As he spoke, he regained his direction and ran away.

The 2,000 men retreated to both sides in two groups, as if a door had been opened in front of Zhu's army.

At first, Liu Chenggong and Wang Xi thought that the thief army was too ineffective and was about to collapse before the battle, but suddenly their field of vision widened, and they saw that the opponent's army formation had changed from a sloppy weak brigade to a strong army.

After the two thousand new soldiers separated, the thieves behind the exposed were all battle-hardened warriors, and they were wearing heavy armor, looking invulnerable, and then looking at the eyes in the helmets of these armor soldiers, they were actually blood-red, like bloodthirsty monsters.

"Oops?" Liu Chenggong was taken aback, and then he understood that the thief army had weak soldiers in the front line, but the strong soldiers were placed behind, this kind of military technique was simply inexplicable, what did it mean?

Wang Xi reacted faster than him, and said in a low voice: "The thief army is unwilling to show his true face at the beginning, afraid that we will refuse to defend the city and not come out, and deliberately use weak soldiers to lure us to attack, when the official team begins to charge, even if we want to stop, it will be too late, at this time to order the retreat, it will only make the army chaotic, I have to fight and try." ”

Although the officers and soldiers are like tigers, although they know that the iron bumps in front of them are difficult to gnaw, but the military formation began to rush into battle, but they can't collect it, and they only think in their hearts: These thieves don't know where to get the iron armor, but you are thieves after all, and you can't afford to be hit by the heavenly soldiers, what are you afraid of doing?

The people were of the same mind, and they were eager to fight, so they held their spears and shields and rushed towards the heavy infantry.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang was still sitting on horseback and did not move, this kind of small battle, he no longer needed to personally command, it was more important to train his generals, he said to Xu Renjie next to him: "I'll leave it to you." ”

Xu Renjie was overjoyed, unfurled the order flag, the military band beat the war drums, the 1,000 ironclad soldiers of the Chinese army stood still, but the two wings protruded two firecracker troops, each with 200 people, a total of 400 commanders, the firerope of these gunners had already been lit, and they came out of the line to put the handle of the gun on the shoulder socket, straightened their hands, aimed at the officers and soldiers, and waited for the firerope to be burned out.

Liu Chenggong and Wang Xi were shocked: "The thieves have guns? ”

In fact, Cao and Hong Chengchou were all beaten by Zhu's army's gunners, but the officers and soldiers system was chaotic, their subordinates were unknown, and intelligence sharing was not timely.

Only the sound of crackling like fried beans was heard, and nearly 100 officers and soldiers rushed to the front. Whether it is a spear or a shield, the middle gun stands up, without exception. The officers and men were frightened and jumped, but the rear army was rolling in, and the front army was afraid that they would have to do it, so they continued to rush forward.

At this time, the 1,000 heavy infantry in the middle of the Zhu army had already begun to press forward with overwhelming momentum, and with a roar of "heha", the walls made of steel pressed towards the officers and soldiers, and the spears of the two armies stabbed each other, and the soldiers who walked in the front immediately fought fiercely. (To be continued.) )