As the breeze blew on the battlefield, the smoke was blown away, leaving a mess on the battlefield!

On the side of the Jianghuai New Army, the original dense infantry phalanxes no longer existed, and many infantry phalanxes had been reduced by 20 or even 30 percent, and many three-row horizontal formations no longer had three rows, because after the soldiers in the front row fell one after another, the soldiers in the back row replenished, so that the three-row horizontal formation became two rows, and even only a lonely row remained.

At the feet of these surviving soldiers were many fallen corpses, and there were many more behind them, and the corpses were mixed with the wounded who were exalting pain.

At this moment, the entire phalanx of the Jianghuai New Army is like hell on earth!

Although the situation of the Chinese army on the opposite side was better, it also suffered heavy casualties, most of the infantry phalanx had a lot of casualties, and the few phalanxes that were set on fire were even more deadly and wounded, among which the second infantry regiment of the first infantry division suffered the most casualties, the third infantry battalion of the three infantry battalions suffered more than half of the casualties, and the other two infantry battalions also suffered a lot of casualties!

Such a tragic casualty figure was not expected by Li Hongzhang or Shi Qingxuan!

Because judging by previous battles, such a fierce line battle could not last long at all, and after three or four rounds of volleys at most, the weaker side was often completely collapsed, and then the victorious side began to charge with bayonets.

However, the lack of wind on the battlefield just now made it difficult for the soldiers to perceive the actual situation on the other side, and at the same time, in the tense battle, these well-trained soldiers actually rarely cared about whether their comrades around them had fallen or not in a few minutes.

They just mechanically repeat the action of reloading and firing, not looking to see if the enemy has fallen. I don't care if my comrades-in-arms around me have fallen!

However, once the smoke on the battlefield was blown away, the soldiers in the new army of Jianghuai who were immersed in the battle returned to normal. You will find that most of the comrades in front of you and behind you have fallen, and only you are left standing alone!

More critical after the majority of their own side fell. Although the Chinese army on the opposite side also suffered many casualties, their phalanx was still close.

And at this time, even a strictly trained soldier could not withstand such a blow!

Then the collapse became inevitable!

Although it is said that the soldiers should be trained as robots in the modern army, there will always be a limit, people are people after all, no matter how much they are trained, they cannot become machines, and the gap between elite soldiers and ordinary soldiers is that elite soldiers can still attack when the casualty rate is 50%, while ordinary soldiers have collapsed at about 10% casualty rate.

It's only been a short time in the battle. In addition to enduring continuous artillery bombardment, the soldiers of the Jianghuai New Army resisted the seven rounds of salvo fire from the Chinese Army, although the first three rounds of salvo fire were average because of the distance, but the next four rounds of salvo fire brought extremely heavy casualties to these Jianghuai New Army soldiers.

The salvo of tens of thousands of muskets, the first few rounds of salvo fire caused at most two or three hundred casualties per round, but the further back the day, the more the distance approached, the casualties caused were also larger.

When the two sides gathered fifty meters together, the seventh volley of the Chinese army brought nearly 1,000 casualties to the Jianghuai New Army!

And this is the time when the wind rises and the smoke clears!

When the Chinese soldiers on the opposite side finished the last salvo. Then, when the officers rushed up with rifles and bayonets under the command of the officers, the performance of these soldiers of the Jianghuai New Army was not much better than that of the Taiping Army or the Qing Army or the old army.

Because they, like everyone else, completely collapsed in the face of the bayonet charge of the Chinese army!

If it is said that Fang Cai's line line shooting greatly killed and injured the Jianghuai New Army. Then the next bayonet charge is the backbone that really crushes the new army of Jianghuai!

They could carry more than 30 percent of the casualties and the Chinese army to shoot in a line of rows, but they did not have the courage to engage in bayonet hand-to-hand combat with the Chinese army, which had the advantage of troops!

Shi Qingxuan, who was in the rear, saw that his infantry had launched a bayonet charge one after another, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth!

Although the losses in this battle were not small for his First Army. Although the statistics have not yet been counted, look at the more than ten minutes of engagement just now. The number of casualties on their own side is at least more than 1,000, and may even reach 2,000. There is no doubt that this level of casualties is the largest casualty of the Chinese army since the time of Yu Shengjun.

However, after paying these costs, what was returned was the complete defeat of the Jianghuai New Army, which brought the strategic advantage of establishing the entire northern Jiangsu and even Shandong and Henan.

More than 1,000 people have been exchanged for this kind of strategic advantage, which is completely acceptable to a senior general like Shi Qingxuan!

"Send a message to Director Wang, just say how long the chasing rout soldiers behind me will ask him, I look forward to him bringing Li Hongzhang back, whether it is a living person or a corpse!" Shi Qingxuan put down the monocular in his hand, did not pay attention to the follow-up battle on the battlefield, but walked down the hill.

The victory or defeat of today's battle was completely divided from the moment the Chinese army launched a bayonet charge and the whole Jianghuai New Army collapsed.

And the herald who got Shi Qingxuan's order immediately rode on a fast horse, only to see him bypass from the other side of the battlefield, and then arrived in front of Wang Luyun, and then approached to pass Shi Qingxuan's words.

Wang Luyun smiled loudly when he heard this: "Go back and tell the commander, just say that I, Wang Luyun, will definitely bring Li Hongzhang here!" ”

As he spoke, he rode back to his cavalry phalanx, and then raised the cavalry knife in his hand again, and he didn't see him shouting loudly to boost morale, he just raised the cavalry in his hand, and then the horse in his hand slowly fell and pointed forward, and his legs clamped the horse's belly, and immediately the horse rushed out first, and the cavalry behind only followed.

From a distance, you can see that this group of about 500 cavalry left is inserted diagonally into the battlefield from the northeast direction of the battlefield, aiming at the rear of the official Jianghuai New Army, that is, the artillery position and the area around the camp of the Chinese army where Li Hongzhang is located.

Li Hongzhang looked at the rout army that was almost all over the mountains, he didn't show any obvious despair, his expression was still calm, he just sighed softly: "It's worse after all!" ”

"My lord, let's go, if you don't leave, it's too late!" Several officers and officials behind Li Hongzhang all looked nervous.

Li Hongzhang didn't play any kind of drama like the defeated monk Lingqin in Suqian, he just sighed deeply, turned the horse's head, and then galloped away in the northwest direction under the escort of a group of horses and henchmen.

But the departure of these people is not small, after all, these people are also on horseback, and the accompanying officers, staff and guards add up, there are more than 100 people, plus although the current battlefield is chaotic, but the infantry on both sides are already entangled together with a rout and a pursuit, in fact, when Wang Luyun's cavalry attacked, there was no one from the Jianghuai New Army to stop them.

Even when the artillerymen of the Jianghuai New Army, who had been behind, saw that the infantry in front had been defeated, they themselves had already thrown down their artillery and ran away directly while the Chinese army had not yet killed.

Now in the rear of the Jianghuai New Army, except for a few routs, there is no organized force that can intercept Wang Luyun's surprise attack! (To be continued......)