In the early morning of the next day, when the first rays of sunlight shone on the Huaining city wall, the dust rolled in the distance north of the city, and the dull sound of horses' hooves shook the faces of the people on the city wall with a layer of fear when death came.

In the past, the bustling and lively street was empty at this time, the doors of the shops along the street were closed, and several fast horses rushed out of the county office and galloped towards the city tower of the north city.

Wang Lanping was covered in armor, there was no expression on his face, it was impossible to tell whether he was worried or too calm, and the five hundred soldiers of the Fengzi Battalion stood in a queue in front of the city gate, and most of them had the fear of death on their faces.

Last night, the 200 deserters who were in a hurry stood on the other side under the leadership of Kong Zhi County, these people came from different military camps, but they had the same name, deserters, Wang Lanping rode on a horse and walked through this group of deserters like Huazi, if these soldiers were not really hungry and couldn't run, they would not stay in this Huaining City, their clothes were difficult to cover, most of them didn't even have weapons in their hands, saying that they could go to the battlefield, even Wang Lanping didn't believe it, at least now it was impossible.

Wang Lanping urged the horse, his eyes came back to scan the two teams of people, he wanted everyone to remember his appearance, this is Wu Zhuangyuan, this person will stand with you in this battle, advance and retreat together.

Outside the city, the rumbling drums stopped, and Wang Lanping knew that this was the Dashun army that had lined up in formation.

The cold light flashed, Wang Lanping drew out the long sword, lifted the reins, the mount under the crotch hissed, the front hooves rose up, he pointed the long sword at the seven hundred soldiers in front of him, and shouted, "There are six thousand iron horsemen outside the city, and there are only seven hundred of you who are frightened in the city, some of you have fled for thousands of miles, and some of you want to flee before you see the enemy, now you are standing here, tell me, are you afraid of death?" ”

The whole army was silent, and the expression of fear of death had been deeply engraved on everyone's faces.

"Are you afraid of death?" Wang Lanping repeated, but everyone still didn't speak.

Wang Lanping clamped his legs, and Jianma slowly came back in front of the whole army, "Very good, being afraid of death means that you still want to live, why do you want to live?" Because you have your wife and children at home, and your father and mother are waiting for you to reunite, you can go back and hide in the arms of the woman and tremble, and then pretend that nothing has happened to you to live the rest of your life peacefully, when others ask you what you have done in Huaining City, you can also tell him confidently that you are a deserter, you have left your brothers around you, and 50,000 Huaining people, just because you want to live, and you can also tell your son in the future that his father is a coward who only wants to escape."

Words of humiliation and mockery echoed through the crowd, and the whole army was silent, and some of them had silently bowed their heads.

Wang Lanping put away his sword and returned to his waist, and continued to shout, these people are deeply afraid of war, he doesn't expect that just one word can make these people block ten on the battlefield, as long as you dare to face the enemy, it's enough, do your best.

"I, the champion of the Ming Dynasty, stand with you here today, I feel ashamed, because I don't want to tell my future son that his father used to be a coward, and if I die, my family will generously engrave a line on my tombstone: Chongzhen died in the seventeenth year of the battle under the city of Huaining. In a few years, the people of Huaining City will engrave my name on the city wall, but your name will always be spurned by future generations, are you willing to be pointed at the back and scolded as a deserter? Would you like to? ”

Maybe everyone is afraid of death, but as a man, a man who is still a soldier of the Ming Dynasty, he must have dreamed of making meritorious contributions, and he must not want people to scold him for being a deserter and a coward, seven hundred people are boiling, "I don't want to!" ”

Wang Lanping laughed, took a spear from the guard's hand, and shouted, "Today, I don't want to die here, and I don't want to see you die here, but today I can't give you hope for life, I can only give you a glory of death, the glory of a soldier dying on the battlefield, I want future generations to give a thumbs up as long as your name is mentioned and say: This is a hero." If she can't make a contribution today, she will bury her bones in a foreign country, and the six thousand iron horsemen outside have walked on both sides of the Yellow River, but she can't step on the wall of Huaining, kill, kill, kill! ”

Wang Lanping's words were impassioned and majestic, and the seven hundred pairs of eyes that had just been shrouded by death had been aroused with a heroic murderous aura at this time, and seven hundred weapons that were not very good were churning up and down in the air, and everyone shouted, "Kill!" Kill! Kill! The sound of heart-wrenching shouts echoed in the sky above the North City.

At this moment, a man peeked out from the tower, and he shouted, "General, there is a horse coming towards the city gate."

Wang Lanping waved his spear, "Kong Zhi County, the city tower will be handed over to you"

Kong Rusong sorted out his official uniform, arched his hands, and bent down deeply towards Wang Lanping, "There are soldiers who dare to die, and there are also magistrates who dare to die, all strong men, follow me to the city wall" Two hundred and eighteen people followed Kong Rusong and surged up.

"Open the gates!" Wang Lanping shouted.

'Squeak, squeak' The city gate slowly opened, and Wang Lanping rushed out alone.

Under the sun outside the city, the 6,000 cavalry of the Dashun army, which is 400 steps away from the city, is divided into the left, center, and right front four armies, the left and right armies are about 1,000 cavalry, the middle army is about 3,000 cavalry, and the front army is divided into two teams, each team is about 500 cavalry, and the battle array is magnificent, majestic, like a mountain peak standing in front of Wang Lanping's eyes.

A hundred steps away from the city gate, Wang Lanping stopped, the flat end of the spear clamped under his armpit, and looked at the comer.

The man stopped more than ten steps away from Wang Lanping, looked at the city tower, and shouted, "By the order of the Emperor Dashun, the number of the former Ming Qi has been exhausted, the Dashun Dynasty should respond to the people, establish a country, and now there is General Yuan Da commanding 100,000 troops, surveying the south of the Yangtze River, passing through the prefectures and counties, looking forward to the world's living beings as the mind, turning against the people, not losing the position, daring to resist the heavenly soldiers, the day the city is broken, the former Ming officials will not be left."

Wang Lanping laughed after listening to his endorsement-like surrender letter, because these Dashun soldiers may not know that their emperor Li Zicheng has been defeated by Wu Sangui and the Manchu Qing coalition army in a stone, and he can't stay in the capital anymore, he has set fire to the Forbidden City, led a group of remnants of the defeated generals, and is fleeing to Xi'an in embarrassment, and these 100,000 soldiers of the southern expedition still don't know anything, but think that it won't be long before the report of the defeat in the north will reach their ears.

At that time, the Qing army went south, and the Qing soldiers were their real rivals, and if they wanted to compete with the Qing army in the future, today's battle will be vigorous, so that the heroes of the world are willing to follow themselves to fight the world.

Wang Lanping didn't speak, his gloomy face was full of teeth, suddenly, the spear in his hand flew out of his hand violently, 'poof', under the sun, the blood mist flew, the messenger's chest was pierced by the spear, the tip of the spear was inserted into the soil behind the person, the messenger's mount was frightened, carrying a straight corpse and running back to the Dashun army.

This is Wang Lanping's answer.

There was a burst of cheers on the city tower, Wang Lanping stepped forward, drew his spear from the ground, and threw it into the air, shouting, "Go out of the city to meet the enemy!" ”

Four hundred soldiers of the Fengzi battalion rushed out, along the city wall, lined up, the shield soldiers in front, in turn, pikemen, archers, and broadsword soldiers, and the musketeers due to the general soldier Liu Zeqing's greed for military salaries, the gunpowder has not been replaced for a long time, most of them have failed, and even these knives, guns and arrows were sharpened in the battle last night, so the musketeers did not go out of the city to line up.

The city gate closed again, and Wang Lanping immediately stood behind the array, watching, waiting for the other party's every move, four hundred and one people against six thousand iron horsemen, this is a kind of courage.

Looking at the moment when the envoy was killed, Li Laixiang, the vanguard officer of the Southern Expeditionary Army, couldn't help but shout a good word in his heart, Wu Zhuangyuan was really extraordinary, but his face was full of arrogance and resoluteness that he was determined to win.

"Don't measure yourself, attack!" Li Laixiang gave the battle order, he didn't take these hundreds of Ming troops in his eyes at all, even if such an attack was very unfavorable to him, any civilian official who had read some military books knew that using cavalry to attack the defensive phalanx of the infantry arms was undoubtedly a suicide act, but Li Laixiang did it, and with a wave of the flag, the five hundred cavalry of the front army shouted and rushed to Wang Lanping and his four hundred people.

The horses' hooves are flying, the dust is everywhere, the people are near, the horses are near, and death is near.

The cavalry was about to enter the range of the Ming army's bows and arrows, "Array!" Wang Lanping waved his spear.

The shield soldiers standing in the front row quickly divided the shield into two layers, the lower soldiers half squatted, with their shoulders against the long shield, the upper soldiers stood, in order to resist the huge impact of the cavalry, the pikemen behind the body tightly attached to the shield soldiers in front of them, more than a hundred spears of one zhang long stretched out from the gap of the shield, and the tip of the spear was cold and bright.

Sharp arrows with parabolas shot out densely from behind the pikemen, roaring down from the sky, and immediately, more than a dozen Dashun cavalry fell from their horses with arrows, and screams came and went.

Eighty steps, fifty steps, thirty steps, after paying the price of thirty or forty people falling from their horses, the Dashun cavalry hit the tip of the spear of the shield wall, and the people turned on their backs, and blood splashed everywhere.

This is simply a suicidal attack, before the infantry army array was not dispersed by long-range weapons, the cavalry could not rush through this shield wall with long thorns, the Dashun cavalry crowded on the tip of the spear, and people kept being shot and fell off their horses, and the horses neighed and shouted, and the scene was unbearable.

The pikemen drew their spears back and forth again and again, each thrust spurting blood out, and as long as the cavalry's impact slowed down, all that awaited them was a massacre.

Wang Lanping saw that the other party was crowded in front of the shield, and smiled coldly, "Attack!" ”

The shield soldier pushed the shield forward with his shoulder, stepping on the corpses of people and horses under his feet step by step, the spear was still stabbing back and forth between the shields, and the Dashun soldiers who were rolling on the ground did not have time to get up, they were slashed and killed by the big sword soldiers who stepped on them, and the blood on the ground flowed into patches, thick and bloody.

Some Dashun cavalry saw that the situation was unfavorable, so they went around to the back of the shield wall from both sides, but the cavalry of the brigade was being squeezed by the shield of the Ming army, and the tighter and tighter it became, and the men and horses were unable to move.

Seeing that the number of Dashun cavalry was getting smaller and smaller, Wang Lanping shouted, "Collect!" ”

At the sound of an order, the double-layer shield wall became a layer, and quickly surrounded along the Dashun cavalry, and the arrows also showed their might at this time, and the cavalry who sat on the high horse but couldn't move became a target, and the people fell.

As the encirclement gets smaller and smaller, there are not many five hundred cavalry left, and this is just the work of half a pillar of incense, this scene not only stunned the people on the city tower, but also greatly shocked Li Laixiang under the banner of the Dashun Army, he followed Li Zicheng to fight no less than 100 battles, never as bloody as today, the group of people in front of him are crazy, he suddenly realized that he was too light on the enemy, but it was too late, there were not many living people in the five hundred cavalry, and the other party's formation did not see any gaps.

In order not to fall into the melee, Wang Lanping did not wait to kill all the Shun troops in the encirclement, so he ordered the whole army to retreat to the original place and reorganize the team in order to meet the second wave of attacks.

Li Laixiang is also a battle-hardened general, no matter how stupid he is, he will not use the same tactics to kill the soldiers in vain, after a slight adjustment, the command flag of the Dashun army flew again, the remaining five hundred sword cavalry of the front army quickly rushed out, and a few roads flashed out in the left army, and hundreds of archers followed closely, not first using bows and arrows to disrupt the phalanx of the Ming army, and the sword cavalry went to the heavy battle.

Wang Lanping looked at this Dashun offensive, snorted lightly, waved his hand, the city gate opened, and the hundred musketeers who had been waiting behind the city gate quickly ran behind the shield wall, each carrying a ** bag on their backs.