Yanghuaizhuang, it seems that there is a bit of an eccentricity.

The cavalry commander of the officer army couldn't speak, but from the moment he approached the village, a little alarm instinctively rose in his heart. But for a moment, he couldn't think of anything that could go wrong. With just a few hundred Red Eyebrow troops, how could they pose a threat to almost the same number of officers and cavalry?

It must have been a continuous dispatch in the last few days, and I was too tired to have a delusion.

With this in mind, he rode his horse and led the group to continue to the village. The cavalry that opened the road at the front had already bypassed more than a dozen houses that had been set on fire at the entrance of the village at this time and rushed to the center of Yanghuai Village. On the ground along the way, a few corpses of villagers can be vaguely seen. Through the choking smoke, the thieves' panicked cries became clearer.

"The official cavalry is here, everyone run!"

"Hurry, hurry! Bring the food you have looted, and leave the rest behind. ”

Just by listening to the sound from a distance, the officers and cavalry could imagine the panic of this group of thieves, and they all let out a smug laugh. Seeing that it was another victory, but for some reason, the cavalry commander of the official army felt more and more uneasy.

There seems to be someone who is staring at him with cold eyes in the dark.

The chill from behind made the cavalry commander subconsciously slow down his horse. It was also at this time that he had a flash of inspiration and figured out where the uneasiness just now came from. The Red Eyebrow Army is obviously a rebel force that only appeared on the side of Dongguan Mansion, but these shouting thieves in front of them are all accents from Longshan without exception!

Listen carefully to the accent that is not difficult to distinguish, coupled with the seemingly random but "coincidental" debris and large cars in front of you that block half of the road. The cavalry commander suddenly had a terrifying thought in his heart.

"Not good!"

The Taiping Thieves have always been good at using stratagems, and this time it is also ......

The cavalry commander was about to speak, but found that the cavalry that had rushed to the front had stopped. A commotion ensued. Feeling more and more ominous, he immediately rode over.

Through the burning houses and smoke in front of him, he saw the open space in the center of Yanghuai Village for drying grain. In that clearing, 400 Taiping soldiers dressed in uniform leather armor lined up quietly in front of them. The first few rows of queues were prepared for the officer cavalry, spears like a forest, one end on the ground. One head pointed diagonally at them. The sharp spear array, reflecting a palpitating cold light in the sunlight.

"This is not the Red Eyebrow Army!"

After a brief silence, a cavalryman cried out in panic.

Just rely on those mud legs that have only been pulled up for a few days. It would never have been possible to form such a neat and strict queue, let alone a full four hundred sets of standard leather armor. If it weren't for the fact that the other party was clearly an enemy, they would almost think that they had seen their comrades in the garrison brigade of Wu'an!

"Hit the mark!"

The situation is obvious, and the thieves are clearly prepared. The array was lined up and waiting for them. Those panicked cries from before. It's just to trick them into falling for it.

In the hearts of many cavalrymen, they immediately had the idea of retreating.

However, the fate of this cavalry of the official army was already determined the moment they entered Yanghuai Village. As the drums of war sounded, a large number of archers emerged from the roofs of the houses on either side and began to fire a volley.

For a time, arrows rained down.

More than a hundred foot archers took a round of surprise and immediately shot more than a dozen riders. More than twice as many were wounded as there were dead!

At such a close distance, leather armor was no longer enough to block the damage of the bow and arrow.

Take advantage of the chaos of the officers and soldiers turning over on their backs. The Taiping Camp rebels in front of them parted to the sides, revealing the six bed crossbows that were hidden by them.

"It's a bed crossbow!"

Some officers and soldiers had sharp eyes, and when they saw that the thief actually brought this thing, they couldn't help but shout heartbreakingly.

This warning caused chaos among the officers and cavalry.

If the thieves only had infantry archers and an infantry array in front of them, the more than 300 officers and cavalry might not have the power to fight back. But the appearance of these six bed crossbows completely broke their psychological defense.

"Whoosh!"

The sound of sharp weapons breaking through the air was heard.

After adjustment, all six bed crossbows fired eighteen javelin-worthy arrows at near-flat angles.

This weapon for defending the city has a range greater than that of a trebuchet, and at the distance below, the lethality of a flat shot is just as impressive. Accompanied by the incessant screams and the muffled sound of ** being penetrated, the riders in the first few rows of the official army were hit by a devastating blow, and there was even a situation where an arrow shot several people, like meat skewers skewered together!

If it is an open field, although the bed crossbow is powerful, it will definitely not achieve such an amazing killing effect. It is only in a village like Yanghuaizhuang that the cavalry can only go straight along the streets and alleys, and the power of the bed crossbow will be maximized.

"Withdraw! Get out! ”

Seeing the second round of arrows of the infantry archers falling, one after another of their comrades fell from their horses, the cavalry commander of the official army could not sit still, and urged his men loudly.

If they move more slowly, and wait for the second round of the thief's bed crossbow to be reloaded, then their losses will be too great to bear.

Following his order, the remaining cavalry scrambled to turn their horses around and flee faster than they had come. However, with so much preparation, how could the rebels let this prey that had fallen into the pit crawl out?

The ground shook slightly.

This kind of movement of a large group of war horses running is very familiar to the officers and cavalry of Wu'an. Someone immediately rolled over from his horse, listened to the ground for a while, and accurately judged the number of the horse team: "At least six or seven hundred!" ”

The panic spread quickly, and despair even appeared on the faces of many officers and cavalry.

The entire Wu'an, counting the private soldiers of those aristocratic families, is only 600 cavalry in total. In other words, the six or seven hundred cavalry that suddenly arrived could not be their reinforcements, but only the horse team of the thief army!

There are wolves in front and tigers in the back, and they are blocked in the village!

When a cavalry does not have enough strategic space, or even is compressed into a village, what the result will be, you can figure it out with your knees. Soon, a large number of horse teams of the coalition army appeared at the entrance of the village: the banner of the Taiping Righteous Army, the banner of the Good Friends Association, and horse bandits from all walks of life......

Although compared to the officers and soldiers, they were too loose to even call cavalry at all. But that's more than twice as many as them, but it's enough to make up for the lack of combat power.

"Fight with them!"

Seeing this scene, the commander of the official cavalry, who knew that he had no way out, gave the order to desperately break through.

The only way to survive in front of them was to break through the seven hundred horses in front of them and flee back to Wu'an City, and the speed must be fast. Otherwise, when the thieves and infantry archers behind catch up and completely complete the encirclement, then this last ray of life will only have to leave them.

"Kill the thief!"

With the acceleration distance of less than 100 paces between the two, the official cavalry reluctantly adjusted their formation, and their morale was strong and they rushed together with the oncoming horse team.

"Kill!"

Not to be outdone, the horse team on the coalition side shouted out.

Chen Wu's horse team was Ning An and the newly joined Yan Xing's thirteen cavalry as arrows, starting the first large-scale cavalry duel since the establishment of the Taiping Army.

The sound of fighting, the neighing of war horses, the clashing of gold and iron, and the painful groans of the wounded quickly echoed in Yanghuai Village.

Lives fade away quickly, but more people fill them up immediately.

Until years of war was pacified, the surviving people of Yanghuaizhuang passed by here, and they could still see the faint red blood stains on the ground.

………

In the battle of Yanghuaizhuang, the battle was far more tragic than expected!

These officers and cavalry are worthy of their elite name. Even in the face of enemies far outnumbered by himself, he still fought to the end. Under the command of the cavalry commander, they were very cunning and entangled with the coalition horse team, making it difficult for the infantry archers and bed crossbows on this side to exert their power in the melee.

Occupying such an advantage, and relying on the infantry archers and bed crossbows to kill and wound a round first, the official cavalry still has such a strong combat power, so that the leaders of the rebel forces such as the Little Knife Society and the ** Gate have a clear understanding of the real combat power of the official army.

However, the coalition forces won after all!

The melee did abolish the bed crossbows of the rebels, and it also limited the killing of the infantry battalion, but after all, it was impossible to completely limit the strength of the archers. Especially those shooters with superb marksmanship, such as Nanbao, the commander of the infantry bow battalion, and Gaochang archers, even in the melee, they can still lock on to the target and shoot the officers and soldiers more accurately.

Under the protection of the infantry army, the cavalry of the official army had nothing to do with these elite marksmen. I could only watch my comrades being shot down one by one.

Although it was not without accidental injuries, the few people were completely disproportionate to the officers and cavalry they shot.

When the battle completely subsided, less than half of the more than 300 officers and cavalry were still standing!

The more than 100 surviving officers and soldiers, almost all of them wounded, were compressed into a small circle by the coalition horse team. Exhausted, even if they were reluctant, they could only surrender in this desperate situation.

On the side of the coalition forces, almost the same number of dead and wounded were paid for this!

The original number of horses was close to 700, but after this battle, there were only more than 500 left.

In terms of battle damage, the coalition should have won a crushing victory, but it successfully achieved its objectives. The more than 300 cavalry of the official army were wiped out in the First World War, and a large number of war horses and armor were also captured. With the remaining mobile forces at hand, Qian Boming can no longer pose a decent threat to the coalition forces.

The initiative outside the city fell back to the side of the coalition forces.

After this short but fierce battle, there was nothing left to stop the coalition forces from storming the city. However, at present, the coalition forces still did not dare to stay in Yanghuai Village for a long time. After all, this is not far from Wu'an, and it is better to stay less before the army of 200,000 displaced people arrives. As for the people of Yanghuai Village, who were already useless, they were also tied back to the camp and left for the siege of the city in the future.

When the officers and soldiers of Wu'an noticed the abnormality and cautiously sent scouts to rush over, what they saw was a village that was already empty...... As well as shocking traces of fighting and corpses everywhere! (To be continued......)