"Hold it down! Hold it down! Don't rush too hard! After seeing the cavalry charge, Wu Shigong, who was behind, couldn't help but shout.

The pro-soldiers all looked at Wu Shigong and waited for Wu Shigong to issue an order, but Wu Shigong made a gesture to the pro-soldiers after a long sigh, asking them not to rush to pass this order to Zhou Xun.

In fact, the command of the main force of the Runing Army has been granted to the Zhou Patrol in front today, and Wu Shigong should not intervene more, which will cause multiple commanders and cause command confusion.

But Wu Shigong couldn't help but shout under his nervousness just now, but fortunately he stopped the orders of his soldiers in time. And now Wu Shigong constantly reminds himself in his heart: "Be calm!" Be calm! ”

And Zhou Xun, who commanded at the front, had already understood this, and after the cavalry had covered the road for two or three miles, he promptly called Jin and let the cavalry return to their own position. Today's battle has just begun, and it is not yet the time for the final word, so the physical strength of the war horse should be saved.

In fact, this is the rhythm that generals need to pay attention to on the battlefield. It is necessary to be fast when it should be fast, slow to be slow when it should be slow, and to incorporate the process of war into the routines that one's army is good at.

For amateur military fans, the favorite war scene is: an encirclement to annihilate the enemy; An ambush wiped out the enemy; A charge pushes the enemy flat.

Is there such a war? Of course there is, and this kind of war in which easy victory is also what every general dreams of in his commanding career. However, in reality, wars are often in a state of stalemate between the two sides for a period of time, so for generals, the first thing they need to do is to fight steadily and steadily in the command of the war.

And now there are more than 100,000 peasant rebels who need to cross the river, and they want to defeat all these hundreds of thousands of people by relying on an artillery bombardment, a fire round fire and a cavalry charge from the Runing army? That's certainly unrealistic.

What the Runing Army needed to do was to completely crush the resistance of the peasant rebels first. When the peasant rebels lost their resistance. It was the Runing Army that squeezed the space for the peasant rebels to cross the river.

As long as there were a few pontoon bridges on the Huai River, it gave the peasant rebels a hope of life. There was no need for the Runing army to drive them, they would gather here at the pontoon bridge and rush to cross the river.

Otherwise, if the pontoon bridge is cut off, the peasant rebels who did not cross the river will either be trapped and fighting, or they will scatter and flee, which will bring a lot of unnecessary trouble to the Runing army.

In fact, this is the essence of attacking half-crossing, which is like the siege of three missing one in a siege war, and it is the most effective method of killing and injuring the enemy army summed up in a long-term war.

Seeing that the cavalry of the Runing Army no longer pursued, a part of the peasant rebels fled into the crowd behind. Hide your fears with that false sense of security; The other part is under the leadership of the sweeping king, and wants to resist on the spot.

With the arrival of Zhang Xianzhong, King Taiping and other troops, more than 20,000 people quickly gathered here in the sweeping king. But this time they didn't dare to take the initiative to charge again, they were all crowded together, emboldening each other. Watching the gradual approach of the Runing military formation.

Zhang Xianzhong stood on the roof of the car and looked at the troops of the sweeping king, and shook his head helplessly. Then he commanded: "Hopeful, Wenxiu!" Hurry up and bring people there. Find a way to bring the sweeping kings and them over. ”

"Really! The sweeping king has also fought so many battles, and he can't even see the ferocity of Wu Butcher's artillery, is it because he wants to be hit by iron bullets when he huddles together like this? ”

Then Zhang Xianzhong said to Li Dingguo: "How many people have crossed the river in our old camp?" ”

"A little half. In just one hour, our old camp will be able to cross the river. Li Dingguo replied.

"Let them move faster!" Zhang Xianzhong then ordered, "Dingguo, you personally guard the bridge, and if there is a crowd to cross the river, use military law." Nengqi! You take with you three thousand men from the old battalion. Drive the others to press the sweeping king, and find a way to entangle them with the Wu Butcher's men and horses. Be careful yourself, and after driving those people over, come back and cross the river as soon as possible!" ”

"Yes! Godfather! Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi immediately received the order.

It all was arranged. Zhang Xianzhong jumped off the cart and got on his horse, and took the lead towards the pontoon bridge.

The combat effectiveness of the army is reflected in their discipline. And seeing that the phalanx of the Runing army was unified, and the armor was clearly and gradually approaching, the peasant rebels who were blocking it were even more nervous. It's also more compact.

When the Runing Army came to a place about 300 paces away from the peasant rebels, the whole army stopped at the sound of an order, and the artillery in the rear row was pulled up again. Able to strike at enemy troops at a distance, who would have a hot head and fight with the peasant rebels with bayonets?

The first two dozen or so artillery pieces were not aimed, and they were fired in the direction of the peasant rebels. Those were all shotgun, and if you didn't knock out the shotgun, you couldn't load solid guns, so except for six guns that were also loaded with shotguns to prevent accidents, the rest of the guns were also fired into the air.

Therefore, this shelling did not pose any threat to the peasant rebels, and the peasant rebels, who were already mentally prepared to withstand the shelling, were pleasantly surprised to find that they had no casualties.

Some of the leaders of the peasant rebels smirked: "It's a squib!" The official dog's artillery is nothing remarkable! Let's all rush up and grab the cannon! "At the instigation of the leaders, the soldiers of the peasant rebel army pushed and shoved and rushed towards the Runing army.

But before they could run a few steps, the guns of the Runing Army, which had been loaded with solid bullets, also pulled up. After a roar, the formation of the peasant rebels was beaten by more than 20 "heart-chilling".

The gunners of the Runing Army were all well-trained, especially under the training of Gonzalez, and the actions of boring, loading, aiming and shooting were very standardized and skilled. So the guns that had been emptied of the shotguns were also quickly reloaded with solid shells and fired a second round.

This round of shelling woke up the blinded peasant rebels, and the peasant rebels, who were lucky enough to have no casualties, immediately screamed and fled back, thinking that they could escape from these fire-breathing monsters as soon as possible. This time, the firecracker who was about to shoot was out of play, and Xiong Zhengen also raised his chin defiantly at the firecracker.

Or the cavalry covered the killing, or the thousand-man phalanx followed. After another two miles or so, the cavalry still returned to the formation and lined up the infantry and artillery formations. The entire Runing army still walked unhurriedly towards the mouth of the river.

No peasant rebel army dared to stand in the way of this advance, and they all scrambled towards the pontoon bridge, thinking that they would leave here earlier and run to the other side of the bank, which was safer.

The limited order in the peasant rebel army was completely broken, and cases of pushing, trampling, and even using fists, feet, and weapons to seize the road began to occur.

The sweeping king was lifted to the ground by a frightened horse in the shelling of the Runing army, and now he jumped on a horse again, his face covered in blood, and he brandished his knife and shouted: "Go up and block it!" Stop it! The official dog is here, and we have no way out! ”

But now no one obeys the orders of the sweeping king. Except for a dozen or so personal soldiers who protected him, the rest of the people all bypassed the sweeping king, who was already a little out of order, and fled behind him.

In a hurry, the Sweeper slashed down on one of the fleeing soldiers. However, the soldier's screams caused the other soldiers to resist, and the fleeing soldiers immediately surrounded the sweeping king and his own soldiers who were in the way, and the situation was extremely critical.

At this moment, a group of cavalry rushed in and immediately dispersed the rout around the sweeping king. Sun Kewang, who was the leader of the cavalry, shouted, "Sweeping King! Our godfather wants you to cross the river quickly and sends us to meet you! ”

"I'm not leaving! I'm not going! The sweeping king was still in a state of madness with a knife, "I want to kill a white knife with the official dog, and the red knife will come out!" ”

As soon as he saw that the sweeping king was like this, Sun Kewang knew that it was difficult to reason with him. He shouted at the captain of the sweeping king's own soldiers, "What are you still doing in a daze? Take your master away, he's a little crazy now! ”

The pro-soldiers who reacted immediately took the knife from the sweeper's hand under the leadership of the pro-soldier captain, pulled his horse, and followed Sun Kewang towards the pontoon bridge.

The sweeping king who was tied to the back of the horse gradually came to his senses, and he thought that the displaced people and looted property collected this time were basically impossible to bring to the other side of the Huai River, so he wept bitterly and said: "It's all gone! It's all gone! ”

After one shelling, Zhao Dang was not so shocked by the second shelling of the Runing army. Seeing that the Runing Army had easily defeated the peasant rebels again, Zhao Dang smiled and said to Cheng Niu: "Brother Cheng! It's easy to defeat like this, let's use this firearm to fight, the thief army can't even touch our hair, just turn around like this, and the thief army will be finished by us! ”

"What good things do you think?" Cheng Niu scolded with a smile, "This battle is fought to Zuihou, and we still need to kill the thief army with one knife and one shot." Otherwise, will the thieves stay where they are like fools and be beaten by our artillery and firearms? ”

"But today's thief army is too bad, and it is estimated that there will be no hard battles. Wait a while, a few of you boys will listen to me, and you will follow me smartly, and give us more captures and prisoners, so that my company commander will also be happy, and give me a good score to enter the teaching corps. Hum! When I came out of the teaching corps, I asked to go to the cavalry, and they were so happy to cut and kill in front! This is war! ”

The Runing army gradually advanced to a place more than three miles from the pontoon bridge. Here they stopped, took up a defensive formation, and escorted the artillery regiment to start firing.

The range of the two six-pounder guns was enough to reach the pontoon, and the rest of the guns could also bombard the dense crowd crossing the river. After the preparation was completed, the artillery suddenly let out a thunderous roar! (To be continued......)

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