Chapter 350: The Eve of the Decisive Battle

In Chuzhou, Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, Liu Guoneng, and the four giants of Shaking the Sky surrounded the city. In the military department, Chang Ziyu said in the recital of inviting Lu and Hong to suppress the king: "There are hundreds of thousands of rogues, and the strongest is no more than the king." He has many Han descended to Ding, and he ...... with strong armor and iron horses. ”

This recital is suspected of being a scholar's imagination, but it is not nonsense. Gao Yingxiang does have tens of thousands of old battalions under his command, and they all have mounts.

"All around Chuchu are mountains! In this kind of terrain, it is difficult to exert the power of cavalry. General Zu, I will fight this first battle, and you and He Xian are responsible for chasing and killing. After two days of rapid marching, Chen Xie led his troops to the outskirts of Chuzhou. Before dusk, I climbed the mountain and looked, and saw that the thief camp was endless, and looked at Zu Kuan, who was quite respectful beside him, and tried to say a word.

"No problem, I listened to Mr. Chen's greeting." Zu Kuan seems to be honest, but in fact, the discipline of the Guan Ning Army is corrupt, and he has done a lot of things such as rape and plunder, and he is under the command of Lu Xiangsheng, and he is still obedient. If it was an ordinary Ming army, Zu Kuan would definitely not be a bird. But Chen Xie is too awesome, he seriously injured Jiannu alive, such a fierce person, Zu Kuan really has no temper.

The Dengzhou battalion was already encamped, and scouts from all walks of life kept bringing back news, and Chen Xie and Zu Kuan, who had returned to the camp, entered the Chinese military tent. Zu Kuan was a little curious, how did the Dengzhou battalion fight. In the middle of the huge military tent, a huge map was placed, and a group of staff officers gathered around the map point, constantly marking the route.

Chen Xie and Zu Kuan came in, the staff officers stood up and saluted neatly, Chen Xie waved his hand and said, "You go on, you must make the situation clear." Let the night not be collected, find more local villagers, where there is a road. Where there is a ditch, it must be figured out. ”

Zu Kuan looked at these busy staff officers and said in surprise: "General Chen, what do you say?" ”

Chen Xie said with a smile: "The staff officers of the General Staff, before every battle, their characters are the heaviest. Understanding and analyzing the enemy's situation, formulating the course of action of our army, choosing the battlefield, and so on, are all operated by them. My Dengzhou battalion never fights unprepared. Zu Kuan was amazed in his heart, how could Daming have such a fighting army? But he stared at the map for a moment. This doubt was dispelled.

This map is marked in great detail. Where there are paths, where there are villages, where there are ravines, there are many markings. If it is the official map of the Ming Dynasty. Not so carefully at all.

Chuzhou. The peasant army was besieged on all sides. The cloud ladder and acupuncture points were raised at the same time, and they attacked fiercely for two consecutive days. Li Juesi, the secretary of the Taifu Temple, and Liu Dagong, the governor of the state, led the people to defend it. Two days of fierce fighting. The thieves and ants attacked the fortification, and thousands of dead and wounded under the city failed to succeed. The casualties of the people in the city were huge, and Chuzhou was crumbling.

That night, Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, Liu Guoneng, Shao Tiandong and others discussed in the tent, and Tan Ma urgently reported: "Thirty miles away, a Ming army is flying a red flag. ”

Hearing the word red flag, Zhang Xianzhong stood up in surprise and said, "What clothes are you wearing?" What is written on the flag? ”

Tanma said: "It's too far away, I can't see it clearly." The head leader asked me to come back and report, and he took someone to touch it and take a look. ”

Gao Yingxiang looked at Zhang Xianzhong in surprise, if you want to say that he is fat, Zhang Xianzhong is not under him. How did you hear the word "red flag" and lose your temper so much? The general Li Zicheng couldn't help but sarcastically say: "Eight kings, who was scared like this?" I heard that the Dengzhou battalion fought the red flag, and I haven't fought with them, so I don't know how deep it is? Since the eight kings have fought the Dengzhou camp, let's talk about it, so as not to make the brothers suffer losses. ”

Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng are not in harmony, but they really haven't cheated Li Zicheng much, at most they broke up unhappily. They all ate the bowl of rice of rebellion, Zhang Xianzhong smiled bitterly and said to Li Zicheng: "General, you don't know how powerful the Dengzhou camp is." They all wore different clothes and strange colors. Hiding in the woods and grass, they are not visible at all. Among the officers and soldiers, the Guanning Army, known as the first, is not comparable to Chen Xie, this dog thief is extremely treacherous in his use of soldiers, and he is good at night attacks and uses fire to attack. Tonight, all the departments must beware of the night attack of this thief. Otherwise, their kind of rockets will shoot and directly light the mountain. ”

Gao Yingxiang's heart tightened, the army that can fight better than the Guan Ning army, is it true or fake? Liu Guoneng on the side said: "I heard that the Dengzhou battalion even defeated Jiannu, but I don't know if it's true or not." This group of officers and soldiers is from Dengzhou, and they must have fought with Jiannu a lot, and they are hard to think of as a hard guy. Since the Eight Kings have said it, everyone should be careful. Shaking the sky and echoing on the side, Gao Yingxiang urgently ordered to visit the horse, and he must find out the situation of the reinforcements.

After dark, the mountains around Chuzhou, dotted with stars, are the camps of the people's army. At this time, looking at the mountains from afar, it is really a bit of a starry mountain. Zu Kuan, who was standing next to Chen Xie, was not too afraid, he had fought more with the thieves, and he was very confident. The only minor setback, when he voluntarily retreated from the battle, suffered very few casualties.

"Mr. Chen, there are 20,000 cavalry from the old battalion under the command of the thief, and tomorrow there will be a battle, so you must guard against it." Zu Kuan is kind, but now everyone is on the same boat, and everyone is sad when the boat sinks. Chen Xie smiled when he heard this: "When the battlefield is chosen, tomorrow you and He Xian will each guard one side to prevent the rogue cavalry from flanking." ”

This task is relatively easy, the simple cavalry team is shaking, and the Guanning army has even done Jiannu, and it is not too much of a loss. Zu Kuan's 3,000 cavalry were equipped with chain mail provided by Chen Xie, which had strong defensive performance and improved comfort compared to the previous scale armor. Not to mention the power of the three-eyed gun, the steel knife produced in Dengzhou is definitely a killing weapon. As far as those Da Ming guys in the hands of Liukou are definitely not opponents of Shangguan Ningjun.

In contrast, Dengzhou's cavalry equipment is a bit strange, the chain mail is actually white, worn inside, a dark green coat is worn outside, there is a scarf around the neck, and the helmet is also strangely tight. There is no long guy in the hand, and the saber is sharp and sharpens the iron like mud, but it is short. The back crossbow on the body is powerful, it can be fired in a hundred steps, and the short gun is even sharper. Zu Kuan also understood in his heart that the cavalry of the others did not intend to use it to charge the battle.

Gao Yingxiang finally waited for the Tanma to come back, and he came back with injuries. No less than 300 horses were released, and less than half returned. Zhang Xianzhong had expected this, and he just sat on the side and watched without speaking. A leader, with a crossbow bolt stuck in his back, was helped in by two men. Lying down in the place, panting for breath, Gao Yingxiang hurriedly called the doctor, but the leader raised his hand and interrupted: "King Chuang, don't be in a hurry to ask for a doctor." This crossbow arrow is very strange, let's talk about the situation first, otherwise it will be difficult to say whether it can save your life if you pull it out. ”

The leaders looked solemn and nervously listened to his news. The leader of the probe horse took a sip of water, struggled to sit up, and said, "After fighting for so many years, I have never seen such a brave night. I took more than 100 brothers with me, and I didn't take the big road, but the mountain road. On a mountainside, there were quite a few people in the camp of the officers and soldiers, more than 20,000, and there were also quite a few cavalrymen, five or six thousand. The flag was not clear, so I saw the red flag, and when I was about to look closer, I didn't pay attention, and in an open place, I was attacked by crossbow arrows. More than a dozen brothers fell in an instant. The horses of the officers and soldiers came out of the woods, each armed with a shield, a short sword, and a steel knife on his waist. The brothers, seeing the large number of people, immediately greeted them, and they were less than thirty people, and they rushed forward thirty paces with our bows and arrows, and they were all right. The brothers had to the guys, and they were knocked over dozens of them by a short shot. When you get close, the strength is almost there. The officers and soldiers of the dog day, the knife was too fast, and many brothers were cut off against the knife, and even their heads were split. It was so miserable that I took a dozen brothers to quickly drill into the forest, and if I hadn't met my own people halfway, I almost didn't come back. ”

"That's right, it's the Dengzhou camp." Zhang Xianzhong sighed, his tone was heavy and a little difficult, and he continued: "The situation I encountered at the beginning was the same, the Tanma of the Dengzhou battalion was the most elite, and the brothers who were twice or even three times as strong could not get the slightest benefit. This group of officers and soldiers did not want to die in battle, and when they were fighting against each other, they were all in groups of three, echoing each other. There were those in front who were on top, and those in the back who were loaded with birds and crossbows, and who were relying on shields and strong armor, and it was difficult to hurt them. The equipment of the Dengzhou cavalry is also similar, and they are elusive in fighting, coming and going like the wind, and they are good at night battles. ”

Guo Tianxing said leisurely at this time: "That's right, I'm also good at fire prevention." The last time I was under the city of Luzhou, it was a fire that was lit for me. ”

Gao Yingxiangteng stood up and said: "Pass the order, strengthen vigilance at night, and be careful of fire prevention." Don't be afraid of hard work for the team on duty at night, go farther. The horses were scattered to beware of night attacks. The camp is equipped with more water to fight fires, and more trenches are dug for fire prevention. ”

Watching the torches and processions in the mountains in the distance swim back and forth, the officers beside Chen Xie let out a heartfelt laugh. Chen Xie turned his head to look at the crowd: "What is coke?" Chang Shiren, the chief of staff of the army, stepped forward and said: "Master, everyone is laughing at those rogues who don't know the power of rockets, and they think that this will prevent us from preventing fire." ”

Chen Xie's face sank when he heard this, and he said sternly: "Any underestimation of the enemy's feelings may lead to our defeat on the battlefield. Have you all forgotten jì? Everyone immediately stood up and said in unison: "Don't dare to forget your humble duties!" Only then did Chen Xie put away his gloomy color and said lightly: "Since the rogues are prepared, the plan of arson and night attack must be canceled, and the second set of plans will be adopted, and Bai Tiantian will push it over in a dignified manner." Hit the day first, and then set the fire tomorrow night. This is called the false and the real, which makes the rogue confused. ”

Chang Shiren stepped forward and said: "You can also send out one in the east, one in the west, and throw some rockets casually, so that the enemy thinks that we don't have many rockets tonight, and tomorrow night will naturally relax." This time, Chen Xie nodded approvingly: "Copy!" ”

Zu Kuan, who had been watching the excitement on the side, really couldn't understand in his heart, how did these people under Chen Xie develop self-confidence? This kind of self-confidence is not that kind of arrogance, but the self-confidence that is calm and meticulous at all times. No wonder you can defeat Jiannu! (To be continued......)