Two six-pound shells did not cause much damage to the peasant rebels. A cannonball hit the water, stirring up a wave that rushed to the sky; Another shell hit the shore and carried only a few peasant rebels into the water.

However, under the threat of artillery shells, the peasant rebels who crossed the river were suddenly in chaos, and the four pontoon bridges under the management of Li Dingguo were better, and as long as anyone was disobedient, they would be immediately pulled out and beheaded. The other seven pontoons are a mess! People scrambled to get on the bridge, and the speed of the pushing, pulling and crowding became slower, and many people were even squeezed into the river.

Fortunately, the long-range artillery of this era had no artillery calibration at all, and the artillerymen did not have any telescopes to observe the shelling, so the two six-pounder guns could only estimate the firing. As for whether it will hit the pontoon? Then it will depend on the luck of the peasant rebels.

Compared to the threat of the six-pounder gun, the rest of the guns showed their lethality. Nearly 100,000 peasant rebels were crowded into a river beach about three miles long and about two miles wide, and there were no obstacles to hide them, so they could only escape to the pontoon bridge under artillery fire.

The artillery of the Runing Army was concentrated firing, and wherever the peasant rebels gathered, they would shoot wherever they were. In addition to killing and injuring the peasant rebels to the maximum, it was necessary to disperse all the people who had gathered.

However, the quality of artillery manufacturing at this time determined that the number of artillery shots could not be too much. In order to prevent spontaneous combustion of gunpowder caused by high temperatures, the Runing Army could only increase the interval between the firing time of the artillery, so that the artillery had more time to cool.

But in this way, after more than 20 rounds of artillery bombardment, the Runing Army still had to stop the firing of artillery, and by this time, the artillery had been firing for more than an hour.

It was not without peasant rebels who wanted to pull out the artillery position of the Runing Army. But that kind of unorganized attack, when it met the tight defense of the Runing army on the periphery, was just a moth to the fire, highlighting the stupid martial courage of those peasant rebels.

By this time, more than 40,000 peasant rebels had already crossed the river. Zhang Xianzhong gathered the leaders such as the King of Sweeping and the King of Taiping together and asked, "Have your old battalion men and horses crossed the river?" ”

The King of Sweeping Floors still hung his head and remained silent, and the King of Taiping replied, "Basically, they have all come." It's just that everything was lost on the other side of the river, and now he's busy getting the other soldiers to cross the river! ”

Zhang Xianzhong suddenly became a little anxious, and he shouted: "What do those useless people care about him? Drag things over first. At this time, you still don't understand, stay in the green mountains. Don't be afraid of running out of firewood! More than 40,000 people in our old camp are enough. As long as there is money and food, where can't you pull a group of people? ”

Then Zhang Xianzhong patted the shoulder of the sweeping king again, and said: "Brother, don't be discouraged, we have come over with many winds and waves, and it is not for nothing that there are only a few dozen people left around us." There are fewer people, but we are much more flexible! ”

……

The prolonged shelling was to crush the peasant rebels. Then it's time for the cavalry to play.

This time, the Runing army will send all the cavalry. In addition to the two cavalry regiments of the cavalry regiment as the main force of the charge. The more than 600 cavalry who had just surrendered, most of the personal soldiers and cavalry guarding Wu Shigong totaled more than 700 cavalry, and more than 1,100 cameo cavalry of the artillery regiment and the engineer regiment that were temporarily mounted on horse harness will all become follow-up troops into battle.

And by this time, all the cavalry had already prepared their horses.

Wu Shigong saw that Tao Xin was also eager to try when he saw Tao Xin riding a horse, and immediately frowned and asked, "Xiao Xinzi!" Where do you want to go? You're in a position to protect me! ”

Of course, Wu Shigong has selfish intentions. There is always danger in fighting, in case Tao Xin has a good one, then Xiaojie must not die of sadness? It's better to arrange this stinky boy by your side.

Unexpectedly, Tao Xin replied: "Master! It's okay! I've grown up. It's time to fight. When I go back this time, I will ask my mother to find you to propose marriage. ”

Wu Shigong almost spurted out a mouthful of bad blood. Looking at Tao Xin's hairless appearance, Wu Shigong was so angry that he couldn't even speak. The standard kindness is regarded as a donkey's liver and lungs.

And now that the soldiers are still around, Wu Shigong's partiality can't be too obvious. So after thinking about it for a while, Wu Shigong waved his hand and said, "Go!" Then he said, "Be careful!" ”

The cavalry divided into two groups, the left and right, and waited for the end of a round of shelling at Zuihou. God also seemed to want to give the Runing army a starter, and a six-pound shell happened to hit a pontoon bridge, smashing the entire bridge in two.

The people and horses on the pontoon bridge fell into the water one after another, screaming and calling for help. The peasant rebels crossed the river in even more confusion, and the crowd behind them swarmed up, pushing away the carts that were crossing the river and squeezing themselves onto the bridge.

The peasant rebels who maintained order hurriedly stopped them, but the red-eyed crowd did not give an inch, and when a soldier raised a knife and tried to intimidate these people, those who wanted to cross the bridge did not hesitate to cut it with the knife in their hand, and the scene suddenly got out of control.

"Leave it alone! We'll cross the river ourselves! One of the leaders of the maintenance of order shouted.

The other soldiers who maintained order also reacted. It is no longer a question of whether the carts carrying their belongings can cross the river, but whether they themselves can escape the river in time. The world is big, and his life is the biggest. So don't say anything, let's fight your way out first. Battles broke out at once at the bridgeheads of the various pontoon bridges.

The two cavalry groups of the Runing Army pulled out horizontally towards the two flanks, and then lined up in rows, and everyone clearly saw that the Runing Army was about to launch a general attack.

It is not surprising that the 70,000 or 80,000 peasant rebels who remained here and had not yet crossed the river began to flock to the pontoon bridge.

This is also the result of herd mentality, the herd effect. Only a very small part of the peasant rebels, who saw that they could not get to the bridge, fled up and down the river. On the contrary, these people are safe for the time being.

The cavalry on both flanks of the Runing Army began to drive their horses briskly. The two thousand-strong phalanx in the middle also began to press forward, followed by the Chinese army of more than 1,000 people led by Wu Shigong himself. And the engineer regiment remained in place to guard the artillery regiment.

At the sound of the whistle, the cavalry began to charge, and they smashed like two sledgehammers into the crowd of peasant rebels.

After the cavalry of the first row was smashed, they immediately avoided the sides, followed by the second and third rows. The continuous collision even squeezed some peasant rebels in the direction of the thousand-man phalanx of the Runing Army.

The phalanx of 1,000 people who arrived just in time was immediately fired in turns, and the dense bullets pressed back the peasant rebels who had been squeezed out.

The whole peasant rebel army was peeled off layer by layer like an onion. After more than a dozen rounds of slashing and slashing, the peasant rebels had been squeezed to the point of being crowded.

When more than a dozen rows of cavalry had collided, under the command of the cavalry commanders on both flanks, the cavalry formed again in formation, and the entire battlefield suddenly came to a halt. But the peasant rebels looked in horror at the approaching Runing army on three sides, waiting for their next round of slaughter. Many people couldn't help but cry bitterly.

You must know that most of these peasant rebels who have not crossed the river are old and weak, women and children. Those young men had either crossed the river as the men and horses of the old battalion, or they had already died in the battle with the Runing army just now.

But Ru Ningjun will definitely not be merciful. The second round of collision began again. But this time it only collided seven or eight rounds, and the cavalry of the Runing Army shouted excitedly: "Get through!" Get through! ”

The cavalry of the Runing Army had already rushed to the Huai River, and the two pontoon bridges on the edge of the peasant rebel army had been controlled by the Runing Army.

Except for some peasant rebels who desperately crossed the river during this time and scattered from the cracks in the formation of the Runing Army, the remaining 40,000 people were completely surrounded by the Runing Army.

Seeing that his main force was completely in control of the situation, Xiong Zhengen also led twenty artillery pieces to support. This time the distance was close enough to be visually detected, and the first target of those artillery shots was the pontoon bridge on the Huai River.

After the cavalry of the Runing Army took control of the two pontoon bridges on the most two sides, they immediately poured haode tung oil on the bridges, ignited and cut the pontoon bridges. Seeing that their own livelihood routes were cut off one by one, the remaining peasant rebels became even more panicked.

Some of the peasant rebels began to jump into the river in a panic and fled. But on such a cold day, people who jumped into the river were cramped and frozen after swimming a few steps, after all, not everyone has the physique of winter swimming.

Today's battle went quite smoothly, and almost every step was carried out in accordance with the pre-war jihua of the Runing army. So now, it can be said that the morale of the Runing army has completely risen.

This Runing army has been fighting since November last year, and has gained the upper hand in battles against the peasant rebels on several occasions, but when it comes to Zuihou, it has always fallen short for various reasons.

On the contrary, the Runing Army was mobilized by the peasant rebels to put out fires everywhere, and even the Runing Mansion and Guide Mansion suffered great losses, which made the Runing Army hold back the fire in their stomachs?

But now, having finally surrounded these tens of thousands of peasant rebels, the Runing army is ready to vent its anger on the enemy army in front of them. So now the soldiers of the Runing Army are like tigers, hovering around this group of prey, ready to pounce on them at any time to enjoy this delicious meal.

And Wu Shigong, of course, will also satisfy the eagerness of the group of fierce beasts under his command, he ordered: "Attack!" So the command flag of the Chinese army was immediately waved. (To be continued......)