No matter what the battle was like before, He Baodao felt that as long as the reinforcements of the Shun army were not available, the 30,000 people of Xu Ping would only be a trouble rather than a threat, and it would only be a matter of time for the new army to win. But now He Baodao suddenly found that there were still doubts about whether he could win.

"Dashuai, with this cannon, in exchange for thousands of thieves' cavalry, we still earn it." Seeing He Baodao's heavy face, a staff officer comforted him and said that He Baodao's strategy originally had the meaning of sacrificing artillery in exchange for heavy casualties of the opponent's cavalry.

"But you shouldn't lose so much." He Baodao's face could not see joy or anger, and his tone could not tell whether it was anger or excitement.

"Dashuai, we are still several times stronger than the thieves." Another staff officer persuaded that the total strength of the battlefield was still the absolute superiority of the Ming army, and the cavalry of the Shun army was estimated to have suffered heavy losses after this assault, and now although the artillery of the Ming army no longer has an advantage, the cavalry has an absolute advantage, at least in terms of numbers.

"Yes, we are still several times stronger than the thieves." He Baodao nodded lightly in agreement, and his tone recovered a lot, and he looked confident again.

The direct guards were charging at the Shun cavalry, and in the face of the Ming infantry's assisted fire, these Shun cavalry had no chance of resisting, but He Baodao saw that they were still trying to stall for time. It is not clear what the battle situation on the top of the mountain in front of will develop, but He Baodao knows that he has not been able to expel the infantry of the Shun army too far just now, and the other party has been staying within one or two hundred steps of the Ming army's position on the top of the mountain, and he will definitely not sit still for such a long time, and must have launched a counter-charge against the Ming army on the top of the mountain.

……

"When do people get old?"

In the past, when he was in Jingshi, He Baodao often said to Huangshi: Old, old, the children have grown up, and he is nearly half a hundred years old.

And Huang Shi asked He Baodao this question, obviously although the other party also has a group of children who have grown up, they don't think they are old at all.

"If one day, we lose confidence in ourselves, for example, we are afraid to go out and feel that it is unsafe to be too far away from our beds, desks and houses, then we are old." Huang Shi said to He Baodao like this: "We are still young now, as young as we were thirty years ago. ”

"Are you afraid that you won't be able to hold back your urine and make a fool of yourself after leaving home?" He Baodao asked at the time.

"Yes, that's it." He Baodao remembered that Huang Shi replied with a laugh: "One day, we will have no confidence in ourselves, we will worry that we will make a fool of ourselves in front of outsiders, and when we really believe that our worries are not unreasonable but reasonable, when we feel that we have no confidence as a matter of course, we are old." ”

Many, many years ago, it was still in Gaizhou, He Baodao remembered that the 400 infantry led by Huangshi was surrounded by more than 1,000 Houjin cavalry, and He Baodao was not worried at all at that time, he was convinced that Huangshi would be able to hold the position.

Later, there were many similar situations, no matter how dangerous the situation, He Baodao never thought about what to do if he couldn't defeat the enemy soldiers? What to do if you are repelled by the enemy? Because this is impossible, for the Immortals, the enemy will always be a nuisance and not a threat. Maybe there will be worries on weekdays, but once they are on the battlefield, those inexplicable worries will quickly disappear, just like after today's war, He Baodao has always been thinking about: a group of troublesome thieves, not a threatening enemy army.

Because defeating the enemy and holding the position seems to be a natural thing for the Immortal Army, no matter how tortuous and arduous the process is, there will always be nothing wrong with the ending.

But now He Baodao has no confidence in whether the Ming army on the top of the mountain can hold the position without being annihilated, although as the staff officers around him said, even if the artillery is finished, the Ming army is still stronger than the Shun army. Can...... Can you win if you are strong? If it were that simple, this battle would have been won a long time ago.

"How did you get this bad fight?"

He Baodao had such a question, when he used to read the battle report about the battle with Xu Ping, he always felt that his colleagues, including Yang Zhiyuan and Jia Minghe, would make some incredibly stupid mistakes; The second is that Xu Ping's luck is very good, he divided his troops, advanced lightly, and acted in a hurry without careful investigation, and he made all the mistakes made by the new army, but every time the new army made a mistake, he was hit hard, and Xu Ping always escaped without danger.

After seeing his artillery being wiped out inexplicably just now, He Baodao suddenly realized that he had also made a stupid decision that was not much better than Yang Zhiyuan and Jia Minghe.

Thinking a little further, when Huangshi led the Immortal Army to fight, he divided his troops, acted recklessly, and made rash conclusions without doing a good job of reconnaissance, and attacked the enemy who was fighting on his own soil from a location where he knew almost nothing - He Baodao felt that he seemed to have found the root of the problem, and Huangshi fought like this back then, but he never lost. With the same idea and similar decision, Huang Shi was called a model of wisdom and courage because he won, but when his subordinates wanted to replicate such success, they hit their heads one by one.

No, twenty years ago, no one had ever hit their heads and bled over this, and at that time, no matter how to fight and win, the enemy couldn't catch the mistakes of the Immortal Army, and they would be caught as long as they made mistakes.

The same strategy, the same thinking, the same commander, but the army is completely different.

He Baodao looked at the black-clothed cavalry on the opposite side who were still fighting to the death, and whispered in a tone that no one heard: "No wonder the adults called them the Immortal Army......

Now He Baodao can suddenly understand the hardships of Yang Zhiyuan and Jia Minghe, and can understand why they can't catch the fighters, the two sides on the battlefield are always making mistakes, but the side with low morale and worrying initiative is always difficult to seize these opportunities, and the Immortal Army with higher morale and initiative is always the Immortal Army, and the soldiers of the Immortal Army make up for the mistakes of their commander, making them look as if they never existed.

"Looks like I'm really getting old." The belief in victory in He Baodao's chest before was slowly leaving him, and He Baodao originally thought that even if the new army would lose, it would never lose to a Shun army with fewer people than himself; You won't lose in a dignified battle. He Baodao summoned the staff officers around him and asked them to keep sending envoys to Jiang Ping, and to join the army no matter what.

Since this morning, He Baodao has never been so eager to look forward to the support from the Jin army: "As long as 40,000 Jin troops participate in the battle, we will definitely win." ”

……

When the cavalry of the Shun army was repulsed, Li Laiheng took the armored battalion to stand on the original preset position, the armored battalion only retreated a little behind the northern slope, but was never expelled beyond the range of muskets at the top of the hill, just now after Liu Zongmin's cavalry passed through the gap in the infantry position to launch a surprise, Li Laiheng immediately led the armored battalion to follow the footsteps of the cavalry and rushed to the top of the mountain two hundred meters away.

Although they had an absolute superiority in strength, the Ming army did not take the initiative to attack the cavalry that drove out the Shun army, but each held their positions, staying in a foolproof position and safely attacking the cavalry of the Shun army. In the face of the Ming army, which was actually fighting separately, the infantry of the Shun army actually had the advantage of strength in the key area, and could calmly attack the lone Ming infantry one by one.

The Ming troops on the top of the hill were forming a phalanx, squatting on the periphery and pointing their bayonet-mounted muskets diagonally upwards, while the infantry on the inside were pointing in four directions. After being fired at close range by the Shun infantry, these phalanxes protecting the artillery were easily broken, and seeing the Shun cavalry lying across their retreat, most of the Ming army no longer tried to provoke the resistance of the Shun army, but laid down their arms and surrendered.

Even the artillery, which was protected by the infantry in the middle, saw that the Shun infantry had been forced out of the phalanx, and after knowing that the general situation was gone, they no longer fired shotguns to avoid retaliation by the Shun army, but surrendered to the armored battalion and the high-firing battalion with their infantry companions.

After breaking through these artillery positions on the top of the mountain, Li Laiheng led the armored battalion to continue to attack the Ming army formations near the top of the mountain. The phalanx of the Ming army that was cut off by Liu Zongmin's cavalry was annihilated by the Shun army like the Ming army on the top of the mountain, and when the direct guards rushed up, the infantry of the Shun army had already swept away or expelled the Ming army phalanx on the retreat of their cavalry companions, so that more Shun cavalry could return to their positions alive.

"The 1st Cavalry Battalion no longer exists."

After meeting Xu Ping, Liu Zongmin told him that the First Cavalry Battalion, which had less than 2,000 people, had lost thousands of people in this battle, and some people witnessed the death of the battalion officer Chi Shude, and the other two adjutants, one was killed and the other was missing.

"Keep the battalion flag with me," Xu Ping soon became convinced that the formation of the 1st Cavalry Battalion had been damaged to the point where it was impossible to repair the battlefield, and he ordered the standard-bearers and other remnants of the organization to stay near their general flags and withdraw from the battle, while the cavalry who still had the battle *** were incorporated into the other two cavalry battalions to fight.

"The 2nd and 3rd Cavalry Battalions, that is, the 1st Cavalry Battalion, are slightly better." Liu Zongmin told Xu Ping that the two cavalry battalions had also suffered heavy losses, and that they circled around the Ming army near the top of the hill, forcing them to maintain a hollow phalanx formation and preventing them from retreating until the infantry of the Shun army arrived and cracked the tortoise shells one by one. Although they did not bear as much firepower as the 1st Cavalry Battalion, these two battalions also lost nearly 1,000 men, and the officers and non-commissioned officers who performed the most heroically and suffered the greatest losses: "Although many soldiers were lost, but the officers were lost even more, and the soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Battalion were replenished and there was no officer to take them." ”

"But at least there are still some officers," there are not a few officers in the First Cavalry Battalion or who have returned, this is what Liu Zongmin just reported to Xu Ping, even if the officers of the Second and Third Cavalry Battalions have to bear more than fifty percent to double the command pressure, it is better than letting the First Cavalry Battalion, which has only soldiers and no officers, stay on the battlefield: "How long will it take for General Liu to let them go into battle again?" ”

With Liu Zongmin's usual bravery, Xu Ping thought that the other party would pat his chest and say: Be on call at any time, or just say it for a while.

But Liu Zongmin hesitated for a moment after hearing Xu Ping's words, and looked up at the sun heading west: "It's best not to let my sons fight again, unless the general is sure that they won't be needed in the next one or two months." ”

……

The Taishan battalion and the Xiliu battalion were unwilling to come to the center to participate in the war, and He Baodao had nothing to do about it. The two battalions on the other side were reluctantly moved, but it took He Baodao a lot of thought about who to take their place.

Although the staff officers were resolutely opposed to using a crippled battalion with no combat effectiveness to take over the defense of the entire side, He Baodao also knew that the Sanxi Battalion could appear on the battlefield at any time, but he no longer had any combat effectiveness troops in his hands. The fire battalion will not be dispatched until the final word, and letting the direct guards rush the infantry of the 10,000 Chuang Army is no different from sending them to death.

Therefore, He Baodao transferred the 3,000 battalion and the Changqing battalion to the flank, and just now it was the turn of the 3,000 battalion and the Changqing battalion to go to the top of the mountain to shoot at the breaking army, and the covering troops they left on the top of the mountain were completely annihilated by the Shun army, and the troops near the top of the mountain also suffered heavy losses. The two battalions were estimated to have one or two thousand soldiers surrendered, which was about the last bit of strength they had. Combined with the earlier battle losses, the 3,000 battalion lost almost all of its combat units, leaving only cavalry, engineers, baggage troops, and a few hundred infantry, adding up to less than 2,000 men, while the Evergreen battalion was slightly better, with more than 1,000 of the 3,000 infantry remaining, plus more than 2,500 of the other arms. The staff officers were very worried about the combat effectiveness of these two battalions, not to mention their morale, and even if there was only one battalion of the Shun army on the opposite side, it was necessary to consider how to hold the position and not attack.

"Marshal, do you want them to attack immediately?"

The morale of the other five battalions in the center also fell to the lowest level since the beginning of the war, with heavy losses, the hard-won hilltop positions were lost again, and artillery cover was lost...... This frustration was great for the infantry of the Forces nouvelles, and the lack of hope of victory made them reluctant to continue, and the battalion officers all expressed the need for time to recuperate.

"No, no," He Baodao still tried his best to persuade the battalions to continue to do some diversion attacks, at least not to give the Shun army time to rest: "The counterattack of the thieves has also returned to the light, they have been fighting for a day, what can they do?" ”

He Baodao called the commanders of the two battalions and Yang Huaizu over: "Xu Ping's cavalry has collapsed, and now our cavalry and infantry can attack together." "If the Shun army wants to defend against cavalry, destroy them with an infantry attack; If they focus on confronting the Forces nouvelles infantry, the Naokei will be responsible for tearing through their already weakened lines from the flanks.

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