"Officers and soldiers don't know how to fight at all!"

This was Zhang Xianzhong's final thought after carefully observing the enemy's formation. This army of about five or six thousand officers and soldiers chose to intercept them halfway, giving up the advantage of the city, which was foolish in itself. And they also chose such a wide and flat place, where there was no danger to defend and no ambush to bury, so they would have to rely on these five or six thousand men to meet his 50,000 people?

It seems that the officers and soldiers seem to be very brave, but Zhang Xianzhong will only think that they are stupid. Maybe the officers and troops will have advantages such as firearms, but now that it is raining heavily, firearms are useless at all.

The officers and soldiers were so flat that they didn't even set up a camp, what did they use to fight? Zhang Xianzhong couldn't help but wonder, why such stupid officers and soldiers, why the King of Sweeping, the King of Ten Antis, the King of Shuntian, and the King of the Mixed World could not be defeated.

In short, the posture of the officers and soldiers is here to die no matter what.

Zhang Xianzhong looked at it with a sneer.

"Maybe it's just a decoy for the officers and soldiers!"

Zhang Xianzhong's military advisor Pan Duao stood aside, and also looked at the opposite formation for a long time, and also felt that the official army was here to send him to death. But Pan Duao has always been cautious, he was originally a native of Yingcheng, Huguang, with a reputation for talent and a solid family, and later bandits rose everywhere.

Pan Duao, like many local squires at that time, recruited family members and trained village warriors, he built a water village near the county seat, and trained a team of thirteen family members to prepare for self-protection against thieves. In the ninth year of Chongzhen, it was rumored that Zhang Xianzhong was going to attack Yingcheng, and the officials and gentry in the city fled to his water village to avoid chaos.

Pan Duao first politely refused, and then issued conditions: those who come to the water village to avoid chaos, the strong men will be in the queue to be dispatched, ready to defend themselves against the enemy, the old and weak will pay two taels of silver per day as living expenses, and women will need to pay four taels of silver to enter the village; The gold and silver carried by the people are all handed over to the water village for safekeeping. Do not possess privately.

Pan's practice offended many people, and later the county raised 10,000 taels from Pan and then gave him the title of instructor. As a result, Pan refused to give it at first, but later agreed to donate 5,000 taels, and the two sides bargained, and finally many squires in the county accused Yuan of forcibly seizing other people's property. The magistrate was angry and put Pan in prison, and finally the Pan family sold half of the land and ransomed him.

Pan therefore held a grudge, went home and waited for the opportunity, after Zhang Xianzhong finally killed nearby, Pan Duao took the initiative to go to see Zhang Xianzhong, expressed his willingness to submit, and said to Zhang Xianzhong that the city officials should have a lot of wealth. It can be used for military salaries, leading Zhang Xianzhong's army to break through Yingcheng. After the city was broken, Pan Duao killed all the officials and squires who sued him at the beginning.

Pan Duao led Zhang Xianzhong's army into Yingcheng, slaughtered the city for eight days, killed more than 37,000 people, and Yingcheng County was burned to ashes. Burned to the ground.

After Pan entered Zhang Xianzhong's account, he advised Zhang Xianzhong to take Bashu as the best policy. According to the Jiangnan as the central policy, continue to wander and disturb the Central Plains as the next policy, and proposed to Zhang Xianzhong to enter Sichuan and establish political power.

Later, Zhang Xianzhong decided to take Jiangnan first, and he said to Pan Zeng, I have you to help me. This is a godsend, and from then on, he took Pan Duao as his military advisor, and handed over the four of his favorite sons, Zhang Kewang, to form a battalion and hand them over to Pan Duao for training.

Pan Duao was very important in Zhang Xianzhong's camp, and he also studied the three-eyed gun for Zhang Xianzhong. Crossbow arrows and phalanx tactics were personally taught to the children of those generals in Zhang Xianzhong's army.

Pan Duao's words Zhang Xianzhong is still very obedient, when Gucheng surrendered to the official army, and later Gucheng rebelled, and Fangxian ambushed Zuo Liangyu, etc., all from Pan Duao's strategy.

"What the military advisor said is very true, but the dog officers and soldiers think that we are so easy to deceive? Since he has released the bait, then we will eat his bait first. ”

"Someone, pass on my order, one dragon in the left battalion and two tigers in the front battalion, each leading the headquarters to defeat the officers and soldiers blocking the road. After defeating the enemy, you must not chase the enemy! ”

After the order was issued, Zhang Xianzhong called Zhang Kewang, Zhang Dingguo, Zhang Wenxiu, and Zhang Nengqi, "You will lead the headquarters with the army division to guard the old camp in the rear." ”

Because of the wandering battles and groundless places, Zhang Xianzhong, like many other bandit troops, took his family and children wherever he went. When marching and fighting, even if the old battalion is close by, the soldiers of the war camp are not allowed to go to the old camp to see their families, and those who violate it will be beheaded.

In front of the Ming army, which was not far away, Lu Yuansun and Lu Yuan asked the brothers to set up their own camps to wait for the enemy.

"The thieves are out."

Lu Yuansun rode on his horse and shouted to his brother, his heart full of nervousness. Double six thousand against fifty thousand, which is really stressful.

The wind swept the raindrops on the body, and the rain was heavy again.

At this time, in the formation of the thief army, a dragon and two tigers each led their camps to break away from the brigade and launched an attack.

"Prepare to meet the enemy!"

"Raise your gun!"

Lu Yuansun and Lu Yuanrang gave orders almost at the same time, the horns sounded in unison, and thousands of Huguang soldiers shouted at the same time. The herald galloped in front of the battle, shouting orders, and as his order passed, they lined up in a row, and the long shields smashed into the mud, splashing a lot of mud, while more of the soldiers in the front row lowered their spears and aimed them at the thieves.

Thousands of Hubei soldiers immediately built a copper wall and an iron wall and a forest of steel guns.

The two battalions of the Xianjun army launched a charge, divided into the left and right sides to attack at the same time, like two iron fists attacking at the same time, they did not directly attack the middle battle, but chose to attack the left and right sides.

Rushing to the front is the second battalion of the Tangma cavalry, these are the most elite soldiers of the thieves, they use to break through the shell of the military formation of the officers and soldiers, followed by the armored infantry, which is also the backbone of the thief army, they will break into the formation of officers and soldiers, followed by a large number of light infantry, these people can help expand the results of the battle, but also help to tie up prisoners, search for routs, monitor the surrender of troops, clean up the battlefield, etc.

A dragon and a dragon and a horse took the lead, with the headquarters of 500 pond horses, these pond horses are the elite and foundation of his battalion, just like the generals in the official army, most of these people are wearing armor and iron helmets. As they approached the front of the official formation, they began to raise their shields with great experience.

The experience of countless battles with the officers and soldiers made them very fierce, although they fought on horseback, they did not rely on horse archery. They preferred a more direct approach, riding their horses directly in front of the officers and soldiers, and then throwing javelin spears, which were more lethal than bows and arrows.

"Shoot the arrows!" Lu Yuansun looked at the thief rider who was getting closer and closer, and hurriedly ordered. He hated this rainy day, if it didn't rain, his battalion also had a lot of artillery and guns, and it was the most effective against these cavalry, but now, he could only rely on the long contradictional cards and the bow and arrows that greatly affected the lethality.

A burst of feathered arrows shot at the thief army, but the effect was not great, most of the thief riders wore armor and helmets, and even had silk cloaks on their bodies, and the arrows were greatly affected in the rain, this round of arrows passed, but dozens of people were hit by arrows, and there were only a few people who fell off the horse.

The cavalry approached quickly, and the bandits, each with a short spear in his hand, was raised high, and then hurled it into the middle of the formation.

The thieves almost threw short spears in front of the formation, although the officers and soldiers hurriedly raised their shields, but they still couldn't stop it, and the soldiers with guns behind screamed, and dozens of spearmen were pierced by the short spears and fell to the ground screaming.

Horse after horse rushed, threw spears, and quickly bypassed the front of the formation.

The officers and soldiers still used bows and arrows, but they looked so pale and weak.

Thousands of thieves repeatedly attacked the two ends of the army formation, and under the continuous impact of the iron cavalry and the short pair of spears, the army formation on both sides gradually loosened and became unstable.

And at this time, the armored infantry of the thief army finally seized the opportunity to rush forward.

The two soldiers and horses collided, spear to spear, knife to shield, blood splattered, and hand-to-hand combat.

In the blink of an eye, the two sides of the officers and soldiers became more and more loose and unstable, and then the two thieves rode back and began to gallop on both sides, using arrows and knives to cut down the officers and soldiers who had been divided one by one.

The officers and men began to retreat, retreat, and then they could not maintain the formation, and turned into a rout, defeated and fled.

"Hahaha, as I expected, the dog officers and soldiers came up to die, and they couldn't hold out for a moment."

"Eight kings, why did you stop?"

Cao Cao and Luo Rucai rode their horses in front of Zhang Xianzhong, "The official army is in a big rout, just continue the pursuit, why did you stop." ”

"Beware of the officers and soldiers deliberately deceiving and luring the enemy!" Zhang Xianzhong remembered Pan Duao's reminder.

"Ouch, there's an ambush here, you're thinking too much. Just let the front be careful, you can't just let the officers and soldiers escape. When they retreat to the city, it will not be easy to fight. ”

Zhang Xianzhong thought about it and felt that it was right, if he wanted to say that he was defeated and lured to the enemy, there was no place to hide troops in front of him.

"Well, give the order, continue the pursuit, but let a dragon and two tigers be careful, don't be ambushed by thieves."

With an order, the thieves immediately continued the pursuit.

The officers and men were even more directly defeated, and they fled for their lives.

Lu Yuansun rode his horse and galloped, very embarrassed, he originally received an order to deceive the enemy, but now he is defeated and cannot be defeated again.

Where are the reinforcements, if they don't show up, we will be swallowed.

"Bang!"

Several cannon shots woke up the happy thief army, and before they knew it, they had chased more than ten miles. A dragon He Yilong hurriedly reined in his horse and was startled, when the shouts of killing sounded from all sides, but it was an officer cavalry who came out.

He Yilong, who was about to withdraw his troops, suddenly found that there seemed to be very few cavalry in the official army, and there were only about 1,000 horsemen.

Seeing this bit of cavalry, He Yilong changed his mind again.

"Maybe these cavalry are the family members of the official army, it seems that the military division really expected it, the official army was indeed deceived and lured the enemy before, but with these more than a thousand family members, they can stop us?"

"Kill, kill them all!"

He Yilong waved his sword and ordered, leading his cavalry to rush forward first.

The two cavalry engaged in the mud in the rain, and the previously defeated infantry began to gather their men and horses and turn back to fight again. The two sides fought together, and Zhang Xianzhong heard the news and hurriedly led his troops to arrive.

"Kill!"

A large group of bandits rushed into the battlefield, and the officers and soldiers who were already fighting with the thieves could not support it and began to retreat.

"If you still want to run, chase me!"

This time, without Luo Rucai's proposal, Zhang Xianzhong had already directly issued an order for the whole army to pursue! (To be continued......)