In the early morning, the slightly cold autumn wind in the mountainous areas of northern Guangdong quietly blew away the mist, and the sound of the rolling Wujiang River stirred a few traces of the noise of people and horses, and drifted into the camp of the Guangdong New Army, which was preparing to withdraw from the camp.

"Bing...... Lord Binggen...... Oh no! The thieves took advantage of the fog to attack the camp! There are more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, less than ten miles away from the camp! ”

A sentry scout ran into the main general's tent with a rolling belt, and the faces of the people who were eating changed, especially the guerrilla general Zhou Ting, and the porridge bowl in his hand trembled again and again. Shen Tingyang, on the other hand, looked at the sentry blankly and said nothing.

"My lord, quickly order the camp to be withdrawn!"

As soon as he heard that the enemy was less than half an hour away from him, Zhou Ting didn't dare to continue eating, and regardless of Shen Tingyang still sitting on the main seat, he threw away his rice bowl, and then beckoned his own soldiers to give him a batch of armor, and regretted why he didn't get up early today.

"No! Yesterday's investigation, the thief rode more than a thousand, and at this time he left the camp in a hurry, fearing that he would be killed! At that time, the army will be defeated without a fight, and Shaoguan will be difficult to protect! "No matter how people who don't understand military affairs, they also know that Zhou Ting's Jian Yì is simply looking for death, especially Zhang Jianye, who is directly in front of Zhou Ting.

"That'...... Is there a chance of victory? Shen Tingyang pinched his beard, his face was a little pale, and he looked at the officers in the tent, and he didn't have anything to catch.

"The thief doesn't know the details of our army, and from the point of view of the last general, he should be able to fight!" Zhang Jianye was a military attache second only to Zhou Ting in the official position present, and at this time he gritted his teeth and replied loudly with both hands in fists.

Looking at the others, except for some officers of the Guangzhou battalion, whose faces turned pale, most of the officers of the Qiongzhou battalion would rather fight a battle before saying anything, and no one dared to openly choose to abandon the battalion and flee at this time, which was extremely risky.

"Hmph...... It's better to lead the camp out of the camp and break the thieves...... However, in order to prevent the loss of Shaoguan, the last general is willing to escort the Lord Bingxian to retreat to Shaoguan. Zhou Qiao glared at Zhang Jianye fiercely, and hurriedly hugged his fist at Shen Tingyang.

Quietly looking at the faces of Zhang Jianye and the Qiongzhou generals, Shen Tingyang was in a dilemma. However, after a minute, Shen Tingyang's face gradually returned to normal. The order was still given to meet the battle, and he himself accepted Zhou Qiao's advice and retreated to Shaoguan with the baggage team and cavalry.

……

The news brought by the sentinels also caused a commotion in the camp of the new army in Guangdong, where the junior officers were silent, and the ordinary soldiers were looking around and whispering to each other. Zhang Xianzhong's name has made the whole south rumor in the past few months, as if this is a group of demons that cannot be understood and defeated.

The whining trumpets and the strong-paced snare drums sounded, and the nervous and restless officers and men of the new Guangdong soldiers in the camp were shaken, especially the officers and men of the Qiongzhou battalion. As if reflexively, he grabbed the flintlock pistol beside him and began to line up under the organization of junior officers.

"Quick! Fast! The Qiongzhou battalion is in front, the Guangzhou left battalion is in the rear, and the artillery team is lined up! ”

Zhang Jianye, who was covered in armor, had a dull face, and walked quickly in the camp with a few middle-level officers, and with the order being issued, the battalion, which was still a little unstable before, gradually returned to normal. In just ten minutes, the five infantry generals with a total of 2,500 Ming officers and soldiers drove out of the main camp, and then lined up on the gentle slope shrouded in mist. The unstaffed artillery team of the Qiongzhou battalion. The six 8-pounder field guns carried this time were lined up to the west and began to clean the breeches.

Zhou Ting also brought his own soldiers to prepare nervously, but they were not preparing to fight, but hurriedly brought the only cavalry corps of the Guangzhou Left Battalion with them in the large camp. is about to retreat to Shaoguan with Shen Tingyang.

"Hey...... This kind of wine bag and rice bag is 100,000 new troops, and it is also a waste of ......" Zhang Jianye looked back at Zhou Ting and the others who were retreating south, and sighed deeply.

"All of them. Row up to the west and beat the drums! ”

"Knock ~ Knock ~ Knock Knock...... Knock~Knock~Knock......"

The flag was raised, and 2,500 officers and soldiers lined up in five rows on the edge of the gentle slope. Then they marched forward collectively under the urging of the neat drums. Behind the line, several cannons also moved slowly under the impetus of officers and soldiers.

Although the harsh queues and military discipline have been going on for months, the vast majority of the new officers and soldiers in Guangdong were ordinary yeoman farmers or tenants before joining the army, not to mention the few former Qiongzhou military households who were more pure farmers than pure farmers. Now that they are in actual combat, everyone is nervous, and the line is not very neat. But at this time, Zhang Jianye didn't dare to demand too much, and only hoped that the opponent would not launch a full-scale attack at this time. The worst result is to think that he is the last to break for Shen Tingyang.

What made Zhang Jianye breathe a sigh of relief was that the mist also affected Sun Kewang's determination on the other side.

When the peculiar and neat drumbeat of the officers and soldiers sounded in his ears, Sun Kewang gave the order to stop advancing earlier than Zhang Jianye, and chose to line up on the spot to wait and see. Sun Kewang couldn't figure out why his own troops pressed the border, but the officers and soldiers could still maintain their composure.

As soon as the drumbeat of the whole army stopped, the officers and men of the new Guangdong army stood upright, and then quietly looked at the black oppressive crowd nearly a mile away in the distance.

At the junction of the narrow plain and the gentle slope on the riverside, there was a strange state of silent confrontation at this time, and neither side dared to make a light move.

After a stick of incense, the mist gradually cracked open more gaps, and the formation of the two sides that had gathered less than a mile apart really showed its original appearance.

"Haha, young marshal, these officers and soldiers are afraid of being stupid, right? Or is it that the governor of Liangguang has given a heavy reward, and less than 3,000 people dare to fight against us! ”

A rugged peasant army leader burst out laughing in the middle of the battle at this time, and the peasant army soldiers surrounded by turbans and a tattered black cloth sewn on their chests all held swords and guns and followed suit.

Looking at the thin and elongated fiery red official formation of the other party, Sun Kewang also smiled. This time, he went out to attack the officers and soldiers, and brought out 14,000 men and horses, leaving only 2,000 men in the camp to take care of hundreds of baggage carts and thousands of women who plundered along the way.

Sun Kewang's array was still the old routine of the peasant army, with 10,000 newly recruited new annexed troops or newly recruited young cannon fodder, followed by 3,000 elite infantry troops, and he led 1,000 elite cavalry to press the formation.

Use tens of thousands of cannon fodder to charge the battle, even if the combat effectiveness is weak, it can consume the strength of the officers and soldiers, and when it is about the same, you can let the 3,000 infantry troops rush and kill, and finally the cavalry will outflank and break the rear. This tactic has been tried and tested repeatedly, and even if he occasionally encounters a hard one, Sun Kewang can lead the cavalry to escape quickly. But at present, there are less than 3,000 officers and troops in front of them. It is estimated that it can be completely defeated in two or three charges.

"Listen to Ben Shuai's military orders and kill them!" Sun Kewang once again looked at the big banner in the large formation of the officers and soldiers a few hundred meters away, spat contemptuously, and didn't even bother to pull out his waist knife when he gave the order.

"Haha! Kill the officers and soldiers, and then enter Shaoguan to have a big feast! Several leaders of the peasant army scrambled to draw their weapons, and then marched forward with their own teams carrying tens of thousands of cannon fodder.

"Kill!"

With swords, guns, swords, halberds, and all kinds of weapons, tens of thousands of soldiers in front of the peasant army had already enjoyed the pleasure of chasing and killing their opponents in the past month, and the once honest ordinary people had completely turned into demons once they tasted a certain taste.

The thick army of cannon fodder trotted towards the line of the Guangdong New Army. I thought that I would be able to eat to my heart's content in Shaoguan tonight. It is even possible to play with women, at this time everyone has red eyes, hideous faces, vicious smirks at the corners of their mouths, and they are running fast under their feet.

With 300 meters left, the fog could not hide anything, and the wide and thin large array of officers and troops in front of the peasant army was clearly visible, and the sharp-eyed ones could even see the trembling fire guns on the shoulders of the officers and soldiers and the black hole and cannon muzzles sandwiched in the queue. Some of the smart ones began to deliberately slow down and slowly leave themselves behind.

The thick cannon fodder of the peasant army was thus crowded into a group as thick as half a mile. Roll forward.

The six 8-pounder field guns in the officer's array, which had only been reloaded with gunpowder before, were nervously awaiting orders on what kind of shells to load. And in the hillside camp a few hundred meters behind the artillerymen, it was already empty. The cavalry corps of the main general Zhou Ting has long since disappeared.

"Lord Zhang has an order, get on the shotgun! Immediately after the infantry firing a salvo, open fire! ”

A herald carrying a small flag and riding a fast horse ran past the battle, and the high-pitched voice lifted the spirit of the Ming gunners on standby, and six gray-black iron cans were immediately stuffed into the muzzle. Then the cannon pestle is pounded tightly.

"Gun under the shoulder! Aim! ”

The sound of hula raising guns sounded in the first three rows of officers and soldiers, and the forest-like 34A flintlock pistols flinted down one after another, aiming at the dense peasant army that was rushing away with a slight tremor. There is no scarecrow in front of you. It was not a wooden target, but a living grinning enemy, and in the face of the black pressure crowd in the distance, the mouths of many Ming officers and soldiers were trembling.

Equally nervous, there were also those young Qiongzhou team officers or flag commanders who had not faded the tender hairs at the corners of their mouths, they also clenched their sabers tightly, and kept looking sideways at the command flag of the array.

"Kill the officers and soldiers!"

At a distance of more than 100 meters, countless shouts from far and near converged into an invisible tide and rushed towards the large array of the Guangdong New Army.

"Shoot!"

Ninety meters away, the long-trained tumbling sea of fire finally appeared in front of the official army. Torrents of smoke, tongues of fire, and dense buckshot formed a vigorous wave towards the chaotic crowd ahead.

Countless buckshot shot out at supersonic speed, then assembled into a dense rain of bullets and crashed into the surging crowd. The first salvo launched at this distance, the 34A rear-loading flintlock pistol was at its best in terms of lethality and accuracy, and the convulsions shattered the human body like a reef shattered by an oncoming wave.

The front of the cannon fodder brigade of the peasant army was slightly stunned, and then countless splatters of blood arrows and minced flesh exploded, and the brains that were blasted and flowered flew above the heads of the cannon fodder, and the bright red blood stained the weapons held high in their hands. The screams of death almost drowned out the rows of gunfire, and hundreds of peasant army cannon fodder fell to their stomachs, and then slowed down the pace of their comrades behind them.

The first officers and soldiers had already squatted, and then pulled out their ammunition and quickly reloaded. Although the reloading speed of the actual combat tension guide zhì has dropped significantly, it is only half a minute at most compared to the old-fashioned firecracker.

"Ready! Shoot! ”

The second group of officers and men of the two platoons also joined the salvo, and the smoke of gunpowder had already made it difficult for the officers and men of the new Guangdong to see anything clearly, but as the order was issued, the officers and men only maintained the initial aiming line and pulled the trigger.

More smoke and fire erupted, followed by screams and the sound of human bodies tumbling at hand.

At the front of the cannon fodder of the peasant army, more corpses were dumped, and the hideous expressions of the people who had avoided the rain of bullets turned into shock or fear, and then they all stopped, but after a few seconds, they were forced to move forward by the crowd that surged behind.

"Fire!"

Finally, less than 80 meters away, six 8-pounder breech field guns let out a roar, and each loaded shotgun broke down hundreds of bullets, and the mountains roared like a tsunami. Supersonic shotguns unleashed a sea of flesh that was even more spectacular than the previous flintlock salvo.

Shotguns, heavier than flintlock buckshot, are surprisingly penetrating at this distance. It can often break through several human bodies. Broken limbs and chopped heads mixed with a mist of blood rose into the air like broken leaves blown by the wind, and a large layer of heavy charging crowd was removed in an instant.

"Shoot!"

As if that were not enough, the new officers and men of the first firing sequence stood up and raised their guns again, this time the salvo was a little less uniform, and the officers and soldiers could no longer see any enemy in the smoke of gunpowder, but the fire of more than 1,500 34A flintlock guns once again swept the cannon fodder of the peasant army that had been baptized by the 8-pounder field gun shotgun.

"Ahh

The first spear was dropped on the ground, and a peasant army cannon fodder who had survived the hail of bullets finally reacted, and after a scream, he turned and ran, and then an unbearable fear dissipated in a matter of seconds. More and more rebels dropped their weapons and turned and fled. The oncoming friendly forces were also rushed to pieces.

"Don't run away! Rush me! ”

However, in a dozen breaths, at least a thousand people were knocked down by the cannon fodder that rushed into battle, and several peasant army leaders who fell one or two hundred meters behind the cannon fodder were also pale with fright at this time. But instead of fleeing immediately, they ordered their men to swing their swords at the cannon fodder who was in defeat.

Another rumbling cannon sound, and then six bursts of flames exploded between the dense chaos and the overseers, and the leader of a peasant army had just sliced the waist knife in his hand into the shoulder of a rout, and felt his body be slashed by countless scorching sharp daggers.

The explosion tore limbs apart, and flesh mixed with burning mud and sand rose into the air. There was only one head left flying in mid-air, admiring the corpse-strewn battlefield as it fell.

"Get on the bayonet! Drumming! Advance! ”

The sound of bayonets on the flintlock pistols fluffed over the hula, and then 2,500 new officers and soldiers of Guangdong launched a wall advance against the cannon fodder of the defeated peasant army with bayonets and drums.

"Young marshal, pierce your hands! Fucking officers and soldiers are all firecrackers! "The leader of a peasant army ran to Sun Kewang's horse in disgrace. His face twitched with fear.

"Hurry up and hold the battle! Give me arrows! Sun Kewang felt a little bad in his heart, and habitually wanted to turn his horse's head and run away, but when he thought of the hundreds of carts of money and food and thousands of women looted in the camp, he still had a trace of luck in his heart.

The elite infantry of the peasant army of 3,000 began to move forward. They cut down the routs who tried to charge into battle, and then some of the archers also fired arrows at the routs that rushed in. It's a pity that the distance is too close, and Sun Kewang's order is too hasty. Many of the elite infantry troops were still tied up and pulled by the rout.

The officers and men of the new Guangdong army, who stepped through the mountains of corpses and the sea of blood, walked out of the smoke of gunpowder, and finally saw clearly the chaotic peasant army in front of them. At this time, the faces of every officer and soldier were filled with a complex expression of nervousness, surprise, and pride. The only thing that remains constant is the footsteps that cannot be stopped in the beat of the drums.

"All stand upright! Aim! Shoot! ”

At a distance of at least 100 meters or more, seeing the chaotic scene on the opposite side, Zhang Jianye showed a hideous smile and immediately gave the order to fire a salvo with the maximum effective range.

Two consecutive waves of volleys, this time, including Sun Kewang's elite infantry army, hundreds of people let out terrifying screams, and a fleshy body twisted in various postures and fell, most of which were elite infantry soldiers who were trying to suppress the formation.

"Young marshal, quickly withdraw! I can't stand it! ”

Before Sun Kewang could come back to his senses, several leaders who had been triumphant before directly turned their horses' heads and ran.

Sun Kewang's horse corps began to leave the battlefield, and the peasant army, which had lost its command, was completely routed, and Zhang Jianye launched a bayonet charge at the right time. The 2,500 new officers and soldiers of Guangdong who were armed with bayonets let out an earth-shattering roar at this time, and rushed out one by one.

The well-bodied officers and soldiers quickly caught up with the defeated soldiers who were stunned by the guns, stabbed bayonets into the opponent's body, and drew out streams of bloody arrows.

Sun Kewang ran away with the cavalry, ignoring even the 2,000 soldiers and horses he left in the camp and all the baggage, money, food, and property. When the last defeated soldier dropped his weapon and fell to his knees begging for mercy, there was not much left of the 14,000 peasant troops who had gone into battle.

More than 2,000 people were directly killed by the guns of the new officer army in Guangdong, at least 3,000 people died due to trampling or were chased and jumped into the Wujiang River in a panic and drowned, more than 5,000 surrendered on the spot, and the rest all fled. Zhang Xianzhong sent Sun Kewang's troops who tried to enter Guangdong, but they were wiped out.

As for the camp abandoned by Sun Kewang, it was easily breached by Zhang Jianye three hours later, and hundreds of truckloads of money, food and property were seized, as well as thousands of women in distress were rescued.

In the course of the battle, the new officers and men of Guangdong who went north suffered only a few dozen casualties, and they were still killed by a small number of extremely vicious peasant troops during the bayonet charge, and the whole battle was fought as heartily as flowing water.

It wasn't until nightfall that the battlefield was cleaned and the capture was very rich. Zhang Jianye simply put the camp in Sun Kewang's camp. The officers and men of the Qiongzhou battalion who took the lead at the forefront that day, whether they were the team officers, the flag generals, the hundred generals, or the generals, all laughed with the captured wine and meat, and the children of the Qiongzhou squires who won the first battle were even more arrogant. Even some of the officers and men of the Guangzhou Left Battalion, who were a little worse in training, were full of self-confidence and fantasized about the generous rewards after returning to Guangzhou.

The Qiongzhou battalion gave himself a big face, and Shen Tingyang, who received the battle report, was also touching his beard and being happy, as if he had forgotten that he was frightened early in the morning. And the really depressed was the guerrilla general Zhou Ting, who persuaded Shen Tingyang to slip back to Shaoguan before the battle.

Zhou Qiao has just arrived, and his control over his subordinates is still very weak, and the pen for writing war reports is in Shen Tingyang's hands. Although coach Shen Tingyang's weak appearance may not be on the table, a considerable number of middle-level officers in the Qiongzhou battalion are Zhao Youheng and Shen Tingyang's people, so Zhou Qiao's fall into the well is basically a doomed result.

And in fact, it is exactly like this, before Zhou Ting could figure out what to say, Shen Tingyang had already sent a fast horse messenger to Guangzhou to report the victory, among which the Qiongzhou camp and Zhang Jianye's cousin Xiàn is a big book. (To be continued......)