After the peasant rebel army on the southern route led by Ge Liyan and the king of Zuojian was routed, they immediately gathered on the spot to defend. Soon, the reinforcements led by the King of Sweeping and the King of Taiping also came, and the total number of peasant rebels on the South Road had exceeded 200,000. But even so, they found that nearly 20,000 Ming troops had approached on the opposite side.

So at this time, the first reaction of the peasant rebel army on the south road was to avoid this Ming army and make a detour. There is no need to think about it, the overall strategy of the Xingyang Conference still has to be implemented.

Otherwise, the peasant rebel army would suddenly be divided into two parts by the Runing army. In particular, the backs of the peasant rebels on the East Road will be completely exposed under the minions of this Ming army.

Therefore, in the implementation of the general strategy, the peasant rebel army in alliance was much more concerted than the Ming army with unified leadership.

Besides, more than 200,000 people will be afraid of less than 20,000 people, which is also a joke, Ge Liyan and Zuo Jian Wang also estimated that this Ming army would not dare to fight hard with their own army that had already formed a group, so it was better to go to the sky and go their own way.

In fact, in the minds of the peasant rebel army, they also divided the Ming army into three, six, nine and so on. Like the inland military households and some soldiers, they think that their combat effectiveness is not as good as their own; Like the soldiers of the Ming army, the peasant rebel army was mainly to avoid concessions, but they still did not hesitate to fight under favorable circumstances; Like the elite Ming army from the nine sides, the peasant rebel army has always fled as far as it can, and has no intention of fighting at all.

This is also the reason why the 60,000 or 70,000 peasant rebels on the North Road fled when they saw the banner of Zhang Yingchang and Cao Wenzhao. To tell the truth, the self-confidence of the current peasant rebel army has not yet risen, don't look at the "bang" of the hardliners like Zhang Xianzhong, but when they meet the elite Ming army, they still don't have the courage to fight.

And how did the leaders of these peasant rebels assess the combat effectiveness of the Runing Army? That is, between the average soldier and the elite Ming army. Moreover, these leaders thought that their assessment was already overestimated, and if it were not for the cavalry of the Runing Army to defeat the vanguard of the peasant rebel army on the southern route, this assessment would not have been so high. Because this Ming army is, after all, a soldier in the mainland.

This means that Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai are not here, otherwise these leaders of the peasant rebel army would never have misassessed the combat effectiveness of the Runing army, so there are information asymmetries on both sides of the battle.

So the peasant rebels didn't care about the Runing Army camp and Ruzhou City, and they made a detour towards Nanyang Mansion.

But just as the peasant rebel army was moving, the Runing army also moved. They did not stop the advance of the peasant rebels at all, but only attacked the peasant rebels repeatedly with small groups on the flanks and tails of the peasant rebels.

With the sharp firearms of the Runing Army and the charge of the cavalry group, each attack was able to take hundreds of lives of the peasant rebels.

No one can stand this loss! With such a blunt knife cutting meat, do these leaders want to single-handedly kill under the city of Nanyang Mansion?

So the peasant rebels reluctantly stationed on the spot again, wanting to wait for a decisive battle when the Runing army attacked again. Completely get rid of these flies around you. Seeing that the peasant rebels were stationed on the spot, the Runing army immediately retreated, and still returned to their own camp to confront the peasant rebels.

It's a bit troublesome now, and it seems that it is not possible to get rid of this Ming army to go south into Nanyang and Huguang. But these leaders are also very decisive, bandits! Where is it not flowing? So they prepared to turn around and go to join up with the other peasant rebels.

But when the peasant rebels pulled out the camp and prepared to retreat. The Runing Army is moving again. It was still the same old routine, with small groups attacking the flanks and tails of the peasant rebels. And the main force of the Runing army also pressed over in formation.

This made it impossible for the peasant rebels to hold their ground. To know. There is a difference between a simple escape and a run with a knife pointed at the back, especially for the soldiers of the peasant rebels who have no military training at all. As a result, the formation of the peasant rebel army on the entire southern road showed signs of collapse.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the leaders again ordered to be stationed on the spot to resist. But by this time it was too late, and the main force of the Runing army had already approached the rear of the peasant rebel army, and broke it up and began to cover up. Then the scattered soldiers of the rear team attacked the Chinese army brigade of the peasant rebel army. The whole formation was suddenly in chaos, and this peasant rebel army was already on the verge of collapse.

But at this time, Zhang Xianzhong's rescue pioneer arrived under the leadership of Li Dingguo. This vanguard force is 3,000 cavalry, and it is also Zhang Xianzhong's most elite troops.

After Li Dingguo arrived. Seeing that the situation was not good, he immediately led the cavalry to feint on the flank of the Runing army, hoping to stop the attack of the Runing army, stabilize the position of the peasant rebel army on the south road, and wait for Zhang Xianzhong's main force to arrive.

In fact, yesterday, the scouts of the Runing Army had already discovered Zhang Xianzhong's main force, and they had already prepared a table of dishes for Zhang Xianzhong.

Li Dingguo's idea was to feint, and he was not willing to lose Zhang Xianzhong's elite strength for the peasant rebels of the other battalions. But his feint attack suddenly fell into the trap of the Runing army, which had already been prepared.

This time to follow the attack, the more than 3,000 cavalry of the Runing Army have not been dispatched. These cavalrymen were all well equipped with horsepower and were in the best state of operation. However, Li Dingguo's cavalry arrived in a hurry, and the horsepower was very bad. Therefore, when the feint attacked, it immediately encountered the counter-charge of the cavalry of the Runing Army.

However, the attitudes of the two sides in the face of war are diametrically opposed. On one side are the outlaws who invented the "red-eye tactic"; One side wanted to preserve its strength, so Li Dingguo's cavalry quickly avoided it.

However, the charging route of the cavalry of the Runing Army was carefully designed, and they formed an arc to force Li Dingguo's cavalry towards the formation of the peasant rebel army on the southern road.

And Li Dingguo didn't have a choice, if he escaped, if the horses without strength were chased by the cavalry with enough strength, he would be lucky to be able to escape half of the cavalry. Besides, there was also the protection of the formation of the peasant rebel army, so Li Dingguo's cavalry fled into the ranks of the peasant rebel army.

But after learning the news, Zhang Xianzhong was anxious. If this most elite cavalry is lost, then Zhang Xianzhong's strength will also be lost. Therefore, he intensified his urging of the main forces to rush to the place of battle.

Seeing Zhang Xianzhong's main force coming, the Runing army immediately divided into two routes to cut off the convergence of the two peasant rebel armies. And the peasant rebels must be desperately trying to converge!

But these two peasant rebel armies did not expect that the Runing Army would just make a false shot, and without any effort, the two peasant rebel armies converged. When the Runing Army saw that the peasant rebels had joined forces and defended on the spot, they also withdrew their troops and camped again about ten miles away from the peasant rebels.

In fact, the whole battle was quite complicated, and the requirements for the various units of the Runing Army with different combat missions were also very high. However, under Wu Shigong's careful arrangement, the Runing Army showed a very high combat quality, and they achieved the most operational results under the situation of poor combat command and communication in the Ming Dynasty and the rapidly changing battlefield situation.

Wu Shigong couldn't help but be a little intoxicated by this result, and boasted that he could be called a military strategist. Because in Wu Shigong's eyes, the 300,000 peasant rebels in front of him are the main force of the rebellion, and as long as they are entangled here, other places in the area controlled by the Runing Army will not be threatened by the peasant rebels.

Although the battle was complicated, the overall casualties on both sides were not large. The casualties of the Runing army were only more than 100 people. The peasant rebels suffered only six or seven thousand casualties and escaped. However, the Runing Army achieved its pre-war goal and firmly targeted the main force of the peasant rebel army, so that the peasant rebel army could not move. Therefore, after these five days of fighting, the first phase of the operational objectives of the Runing Army was successfully completed.

Next, the Runing Army will begin to implement the second phase of the operational objectives. It was to nail the peasant rebels to the same place, so that they could not wander freely. (To be continued......)