Qiu Yizhi guarded against the opponent's move early, and immediately sent his relatives' elite soldiers to fight with Zhao Chengxiao, and repelled the attacking enemy army at the slightest contact.

Sun Hao saw that the surprise attack was not successful, and knew that the opponent was not completely defenseless, so he also died down, and ordered his soldiers to be careful and not to move lightly, and he camped in the middle of the battle, which was also regarded as guarding against the enemy's sneak attack.

And so it was a sleepless night.

Although the soldiers of the two armies took turns to rest and recuperate, they were still exhausted by the toss, and were driven to the battlefield early in the morning.

The Lingnan Army and the Imperial Court officers and troops are still attacking and defending back and forth - after all, the officers and troops are few and lonely, after yesterday's battle, the combat effectiveness has dropped very significantly, and the defense is obviously not as tenacious and strong as yesterday; However, the Lingnan Army's several offensives yesterday tried their best to encounter setbacks, their morale was greatly frustrated, and their attacks were not as sharp as before.

In this way, they lost and fought for a whole day, but it was still a tie.

On the third day, Qiu Yizhi suddenly went against the norm, and as soon as the two armies finished arranging, a sentry army with less than 100 soldiers burst out of the formation.

I saw that they were all dressed in gold armor and brocade clothes, and they did not wear swords in their hands, but they carried a huge iron shield more than one person high, and advanced in front of the Lingnan army formation step by step.

Sun Hao has seen the world, and when he saw such a scene, he couldn't help but exclaim: "Be a camp!" He said to Zheng Yu beside him, "This is the 'Dangya Battalion' in the old Youyan army, and they are the fundamental backbone of the emperor's great cause, which should not be underestimated!" ”

Zheng Yu has been extremely depressed in the past few days of fighting, and suddenly heard that the enemy's elite main force has appeared, and a "spirit" in his mind, he quickly stood on tiptoe, and sure enough, he saw that the soldiers on the opposite side were all hiding behind the huge, red steel shields, and they couldn't see their faces clearly, but it was like moving a small city to the battlefield, and it seemed indestructible.

Zheng Yu was a little dazed, and hurriedly asked Sun Hao: "Old general, how should these enemy troops be dealt with?" Why don't you order 3,000 soldiers and horses, advance and retreat quickly, and quickly surround and annihilate them, so as not to get in the way of them in front of you? ”

Sun Hao frowned and said, "No!" The enemy's use of these core elites seems to be determined and prepared. Our army should not be moved lightly, it is better to gather the crossbowmen first and shoot them in a position. I don't know what the second prince thinks? ”

Zheng Yu only felt that such a strategy was a little conservative, but it was worthy of a very safe countermeasure, so he had to agree, and ordered his subordinates to gather five or six hundred archers and fire a volley at the "Dangya Battalion" on the opposite side.

Unfortunately, most of the wood produced in Lingnan is hard and lacks toughness, and it is best to make arrows, gun shafts, crowbars, etc., but it is impossible to make the best bows and crossbows, so although the rain of arrows shot is dense, it is close and soft.

The arrows of the Lingnan Army were completely unable to pose a substantial threat to them, and instead of being intercepted, they continued to advance for a distance of about ten paces before stopping.

But I saw that seventy or eighty soldiers rushed out of the official army, wearing only light armor, but everyone was carrying this giant crossbow and a few pots of crossbow arrows. They ran to a place two or three steps away from the "Dangya Battalion," but instead of hiding behind them, they spread out their two flanks, calmly kicked off the crossbow strings with their feet, mounted the crossbow arrows, and fired a volley at the enemy without aiming, causing immediate casualties among forty or fifty Lingnan officers and men.

After the crossbowmen succeeded, they did not relax or retreat at all, but re-wounded the arrows, and with great speed and frequency, they fired another barrage of crossbow bolts at the enemy, killing and wounding forty or fifty enemy soldiers again.

For the Lingnan Army, which has an army of 70,000 or 80,000 people, this casualty of less than 100 people is completely acceptable, and it is natural to deal with it calmly and then slowly study countermeasures. But in the past few days, Zheng Yu has dispatched the whole army to fight the decisive battle with Qiuyi, but he has not taken any advantage, he only feels that his prestige as the second prince of the Lingnan palace is becoming more and more disgraced, and now he is at a loss in the face of this small group of soldiers, doesn't he seem even more incompetent?

So he waved his flag, led the leading archers, stepped forward, and also fired bows and arrows at the crossbowmen.

But the range of these bows and arrows is much closer than that of the crossbow, and when they hit the "Dangya Battalion" troops, they have almost reached the limit of their range, and the power of the bow and arrow has been very weak.

The crossbow, which stood more than ten steps away from the defense line of the "Dangya Battalion", was completely in the advantageous position of "I can shoot you, but you can't shoot me", and fired the crossbow arrows that seemed to be inexhaustible.

After the battle, Zheng Yu saw such a scene, and became more and more angry, and issued two orders in succession, asking the archers to take twenty steps forward and shoot at the crossbow arrows of the officers and soldiers.

These archers of the Lingnan Army are actually not dull, but because the equipment in their hands is indeed not as good as the crossbows in the hands of these village warriors of Qiu Yizhi, they do not pose a threat to the opponent. Of course, they also knew in their hearts that they were already within the enemy's range now, and if they dared to move forward again, they would inevitably become a live target for the opponent's crossbowmen.

However, the military order is like a mountain, and it is better to die under the opponent's arrows than to be killed by his own comrades for disobedience, or to be wounded and not dead, so that he can leave the battle and return to the camp to recuperate.

So they stiffened, grasped their bows and arrows, and took a few steps forward.

Sure enough, the Li family, the crossbowman of the official army, noticed the changes in the opposite formation, and immediately unceremoniously fired a wave of arrows at the slightly convex archers, immediately killing and wounding more than forty of them.

By the time the archers of the Lingnan Army moved forward to the range of their bows and arrows to cover the crossbowmen on the opposite side, there were less than 200 of the 500 archers left. Before they could draw their bows and arrows, another barrage of crossbows came and killed half of the archers.

When the casualties reached such a level, no matter how high the morale, skillful training, and strict discipline of the Lingnan soldiers were, they could no longer support it. The surviving archers, seeing that the crossbowmen of the officers and soldiers on the opposite side were still pulling the strings and shooting, and no matter what military orders were not ordered, they threw down their bows and arrows, turned around and fled towards their own phalanx.

Zheng Yu saw them fleeing from afar, and his heart was even more angry, and he immediately ordered the guards around him to arrest all these people and kill them in battle to set an example.

The veteran Sun Hao hurriedly explained: "No, second prince." These people have done their best, and if they do not retreat, they will only be wiped out. If this punishment is added, I am afraid that it will chill the hearts of the soldiers! ”

"No, no! You'll just say the word 'no'! When Zheng Yu heard this, he immediately said angrily, "In the past three days, I have listened to your words, and how much food and military strength have been wasted, but I can't even win against 40,000 horses. If I listen to you again, will not my army of 80,000 men starve to death and die of old age here? ”

Sun Hao's heart was cold when he heard this, and he hurriedly said: "Second prince, the last general is also on the safe side, and he doesn't want our army to take risks. I remember that the last general was with the old prince, and there was a ......"

When Zheng Yu heard that he was going to speak at length again, he immediately interrupted him impatiently: "I know that you are going to carry your father out again. I think if my father was here, I am afraid that Qiu Yizhi, this little thief, would have been killed a long time ago, so why should you rely on the old and sell the old here? ”

When Sun Hao heard this, tears almost burst out of his eyes, and he hurriedly said, "Where did the second prince start?" Where does this start? ”

"Alright." Zheng Yu interrupted Sun Hao's words again, "Pass my order!" Those archers just now, except for those who were really injured and could not fight again, the rest of those who fled back without permission were punished for disobeying military orders and escaping from the battle, and beheaded me before the battle! If the order goes on, there will be people who are greedy for life and afraid of death, and they will be dealt with like them! ”

When the herald heard this murderous order, he froze in place, forgetting even to say yes.

Zheng Yu had no patience at all, and immediately scolded: "What? Do you dare to disobey military orders? Do you also want to go to the front of the battle to sacrifice the flag? ”

This ruthless and resolute remark immediately sobered up the herald, and he hurriedly replied, "Yes...... Follow...... Obey! ”

Not long after, twenty-seven archers who had fled back to the formation had been escorted to the front of the battle, and with the sound of a cannon, twenty-seven cold lights flashed, and twenty-seven blood-drenched human heads broke away from their bodies and rolled on the dry and hard ground in the winter south of the Yangtze River.

The executioner cleaned up the heads and displayed them one by one, Zheng Yu was a little disgusted when he saw it, and then suppressed his ups and downs, and said: "Pass my general, the Chinese army will order 3,000 soldiers and horses, march forward, and immediately meet the group of court minions on the opposite side, and after annihilating them, they will immediately retreat and not pursue." ”

Sun Hao was disheartened by Zheng Yu's actions, and it was not too radical to listen to his order, so he didn't speak.

The Lingnan army, from soldiers to generals, were frightened by Zheng Yu's Shura method just now, and when they heard his order, a Zhonglang general named Tang Xi of the Chinese army hurriedly ordered 3,000 men and horses, and there was no need to mobilize instructions, so he immediately carried his sword and rushed to the opposite "Dangya battalion" and crossbowmen.

On the opposite side, Qiu Yi's "Dangya Battalion" troops saw it, and they also fought hard against the opponent, and the "Dangya Battalion", which had been holding on to the spot for a long time, actually raised their shields and slowly retreated. The crossbowmen behind them, taking advantage of the opportunity, shot two rounds of crossbows at their opponents, and then immediately retreated.

According to the generals before Zheng Yu, they wanted to surround and kill these soldiers and horses on the opposite side, but now they are retreating to their own phalanx, and if they still want to surround them, it will be too deep, and they will violate the order of "no pursuit".

Originally, under the rule of Zheng Gui, the king of Lingnan, the Lingnan Army paid attention to the flexibility and changeability of operations, and in such a situation, the former enemy commander could act cheaply. But Zhonglang saw Tang Xi's retreating archers being killed in front of him, and he was afraid of following in their footsteps, so he simply put down his heart and raised his sword to urge the army to continue to attack the enemy.

At this moment, a group of foot soldiers in the Qiuyi formation—more than six hundred in total—galloped out of the ranks, and did not engage the Lingnan army head-on, but made a small bend, swept past its left flank, and struck its back.