After completing this shot, Gu Mengliu immediately turned the cannon to the second firing point on the right, where the intrusive army had already begun to shoot at the Ming army in front of him, and the commander of the Ming army seemed a little hesitant after seeing the battle situation in front of him. When Gu Mengliu turned the cannon and pointed it at them, the Ming army of more than 200 people seemed to be about to divide into two groups, half of them went south to expel the fifty intruders in front of them, and the other half were about to turn to attack the flank of the intruding army in the middle lane.

At this time, more than half of the Ming soldiers in the middle of the road had lost their combat effectiveness, and less than a hundred new army soldiers began to lose their fighting spirit, and began to retreat in an orderly manner, and the soldiers who retreated slowly had to face the rows of spears and bayonets of the invading army alone, and their weak resistance was quickly crushed, as these soldiers fell to the ground, the invading army rushed up the ridge with momentum, and the Ming army, which was rushed back more than a dozen paces away in a row, began to turn back in a row and a whole platoon, shouting and running down the southern slope.

At this time, Li Laiheng's right flank had already erupted into fierce gunfire, and his left flank Ming army had already rushed up the mountain.

Li Laiheng shouted loudly, ordering the whole army to stop the pursuit and immediately turn to the right, more than 100 people of the Ming army on the right flank had already turned to face the center, and they quickly formed a horizontal formation to form a straight battle line. The Ming officer standing on the side of the team raised his saber, and the mountain wind sent his order into Li Laiheng's ears:

"Ready—"

At this time, on the other side of the center, the defeated Ming army had retreated down the mountainside, and was about to distance itself from Li Laiheng's breaking army, Li Laiheng knew that once he broke away from the Ming army, countless shells would fly on the opposite side, and he pointed to the Ming army on the right flank: "Rush up and fight close with the officers and soldiers!" ”

After seeing the infantry of the invading army turning, Gu Mengliu, who had been waiting impatiently, immediately ordered to prepare, and when he saw that the invading army began to charge towards the Ming army, the shells of the invading army rushed out of the barrel and shot towards the Ming army on the right. This shot formed a vertical fire against the Ming army that rushed in the direction of the center. The shells jumped and rolled in the Ming army's horizontal line, knocking over dozens of Ming soldiers.

Looking at the invading army that rushed up, the Ming army officer gave an order, and the Ming army fired a row of bullets at them, and the dozen or so invading soldiers who rushed to the front were hit by oncoming bullets, and they dropped their muskets and covered their chests and cheeks that were hit and fell to the ground. Behind them, the intruders, armed with spears or muskets with bayonets, roared and continued to rush forward.

The Ming artillery on the northern slope had already begun to fire, but most of their shells fell behind Li Laiheng and them, and the Ming officers saw that it was too late to reload again, so they ordered the soldiers to raise their guns to meet them. The soldiers of the Ming army held their guns in both hands, turned sideways and raised the muskets above their heads, their left hands slightly bent in front and their right hands stretched out in the back, so that the butt of the guns was higher than the blades of the guns, and they lined up to face the invading army.

The Chuang army turned a blind eye to the Ming army, and their officers still urged their subordinates to rush forward to avoid the approaching Ming artillery fire, and they slammed into the Ming army at the speed of a 100-meter sprint.

"Kill!"

The officers of the Ming army shouted, and the rows of Ming troops stabbed the bayonets down at the same time, and the intruders who could not stand the footsteps had no time to dodge, nor could they parry the bayonets stabbed from the top of their heads, and countless people were stabbed in the head and neck by the Ming army in an instant. Before the bayonet could be stabbed, the master's arm had already lost its strength and fell to the feet of the Ming army. Only a handful of trespassers were able to reach out their weapons while being stabbed, allowing their blades to plunge into the chest and abdomen of their enemies.

But before the Ming army had time to pull out or withdraw the bayonets that hit the air, more invading troops rushed forward, and there were sharp spears several meters long, mixed with the bayonet forest that rushed in the face, and countless Ming troops were hit by the weapons of the invading army at the moment of looting. In the face of the layers of white blades that were stabbed indiscriminately, the Ming soldiers could no longer maintain a unified formation, and could only parry with muskets and fight for their own survival. The Ming soldiers in the front row and the Chuang soldiers fought with rifle butts and bayonets, and the Chuang soldiers in the back row poured up from behind these fighters, some stopped to assist their comrades in flanking the resisting Ming soldiers, and more rushed past them and killed the back of another group of Ming soldiers.

The Ming troops who were separated and facing the north were originally exerting pressure on the invading army on the northern slope, and when the invading army rushed from behind, they had to turn around to meet the battle, and after seeing these Ming troops turn around to resist the pressure from the flank, the invading army on the right flank, which was slowly retreating downhill while firing at each other, also stopped.

"Get on the bayonet!"

The intruder officer on the right flank shouted, and his subordinates responded to him with a chorus of shouts.

"Kill!"

The intruding troops on the southern slope rushed uphill with bayonets, and on the top of the hill and the northern slope on the right flank were scattered hundreds of soldiers of the intruding army and the Ming army, and the officers and soldiers fought separately.

At this time, Gu Mengliu was shelling the Ming army on the left flank, and he saw that Li Laiheng was entangled in the right flank and could not be separated for a while, so he ordered all artillery groups to fire freely at the Ming army on the left flank. Ten guns continuously bombarded the Ming army, and the fifty soldiers covering the left flank were able to fight and retreat.

The Ming army on the left flank was obviously also in a contradiction, they did not know whether to reinforce their comrades on the right flank who were in a bitter battle first, or whether they should rush down the hill to attack the artillery position of the invading army first, and the hundred cavalry of the invading army who remained on the edge of the artillery position of the invading army closely watched their movements.

It was probably these 100 cavalry that made the Ming army on the left flank make up their minds, and they began to turn to the center, preparing only to leave a small number of troops to defend against the small number of invading troops on this side. After seeing this move of the Ming army, Gu Mengliu immediately ordered the artillery crew: "Intercept and shoot." ”

By the time the Ming army on the left flank turned, the right flank had already begun to divide the victory and defeat, and the breaking army, which was several times more than the Ming army, overwhelmed their enemy, and as the battle progressed, more Ming troops fell in the flanking attack, and soon every Ming army had to face the siege of two or three invading soldiers. By the time Gu Mengliu began to intercept and shoot, the Ming army on the right flank had already lost all their officers.

Dozens of Ming soldiers close to the southern slope began to flee, Li Laiheng strictly forbade his subordinates to pursue the front line, he ordered 200 intruders to assemble around him, and the rest continued to besiege the remnants of the Ming army on the northern slope. The Ming army marching towards the center was subjected to continuous artillery bombardment by Gu Mengliu, and in front of them, the intruding army was gathering in front of their military flags, slowly forming a horizontal formation.

Li Laiheng gasped for breath, and more and more intruders gathered around him, the two wings of the horizontal team continued to lengthen, and the formation became thicker and thicker. The Ming army in the center walked slowly under the artillery fire from the flank, and Li Laiheng commanded the troops to face the west and stand firmly, he hoped that the Ming army would come over further and shoot at him, so that the Ming army's horizontal team would be exposed to the vertical fire of the invading army, not to mention that the invading army still had an advantage in strength.

However, the Ming army on the opposite side was not yet confident, or arrogant to such an extent, seeing that the battle on the northern slope had ended, and there were still 400 people in the face of the breaking army, the last group of Ming army officers decided to give up their efforts. The Ming army stopped advancing and began to retreat slowly, and when Li Laiheng saw this, he ordered the breaking army to move forward slightly, keeping a certain distance from the retreating Ming army.

"Won't you pursue, my lord?"

"No pursuit." Li Laiheng deliberately kept his distance, so that his artillery could continue to shoot without any scruples, and when he heard the instructions of the officer beside him, he immediately replied: "Now the pursuit will cost the officers and men dozens more people at most, and when we force up, we will also be knocked down by their platoon guns, there is no need." ”

Li Laiheng looked back at his own path, a team of intruders appeared in his field of vision, looking at this team of reinforcements winding in, Li Laiheng whispered to the officers around him: "Now that the enemy is outnumbered, the most important thing is to avoid losses." ”

……

On the southern slope of Pheasant Gang, the staff officers of the Changqing Battalion were busy collecting the stragglers who had retreated, Wu Zhong looked at the top of the mountain in amazement, and although the last group of officers and soldiers of the Changqing Battalion maintained order, they were also unable to hold their positions and had to retreat down the mountain.

"How many thieves on the other side of the mountain have crushed our two infantry so easily?"

At this time, Wu Zhong had already inquired in detail about several defeated soldiers who had retreated from the Changqing battalion, and learned that there were only a few hundred troops on the opposite side of the hill, Wu Zhong was even more surprised: "This is not Yu Shenhe's guard battalion, it actually has such combat power. ”

One thousand generals were killed, four generals were killed or missing, and nearly 300 soldiers were lost, Wu Zhong was surprised to find that he had lost one infantry team, and the other two infantry teams were ordered to assemble behind Wu Zhong's general banner. Wu Zhong carefully inquired about the leader of the Ming army who finally retreated, and learned that the intruding army on the opposite side did only have about 500 infantry and 100 cavalry. What was more unexpected than Wu Zhong was that General Qian reported that the artillery of the intruding army participated in the battle, and when he heard that ten guns had arrived on the battlefield so quickly, Wu Zhong became a little worried, and the intruding army hiding on the northern slope did not have to worry about the firepower of the new army.

According to this general report, the artillery of the intruding army was highly skilled, accurate in shooting, and quick in loading.

"My lord, we should attack immediately!" Fu Tianjun said loudly behind Wu Zhong: "Let the three infantry teams attack together and expel the artillery of the thieves from the battlefield." ”

The three infantry teams are all the forces that Wu Zhong has assembled in his hands, he looks up at the top of the mountain of Pheasant Gang, if the army deploys artillery on the top of the mountain, then it can attack the pipeline around the Pheasant Gang, and the actions of tens of thousands of troops in the seven battalions will be threatened by artillery, no matter whether the artillery of the army is really as strong as the Qian Zong said, Wu Zhong can't allow this kind of thing to happen: "Tell the commander, the artillery of the thieves has appeared, but the infantry believes that there are less than 1,000 people, and the headquarters will attack again." ”

The herald was about to leave, when Wu Zhong shouted again: "Wait." ”

As long as the invading army had the intention of pulling the artillery up the mountain, Wu Zhong would use all the strength at hand to drive them down the mountain without further orders from Yang Zhiyuan. But now Wu Zhong did not see the artillery of the invading army going up the mountain, and the invading army had hundreds of infantry hiding on the northern slope, preparing to attack the Ming army attacking the mountain with their artillery, the Ming army did not know the deployment of the invading army, but the other party could see the Ming army's route up the mountain clearly and prepare in advance. Although the three infantry teams had a two-to-one advantage over the invading army, the artillery and defensive superiority of the invading army were enough to make the Ming army pay a heavy price, which made Wu Zhong feel very hesitant.

"Your Excellency!" Fu Tianjun urged again: "We have to attack immediately!" ”

"Wait a minute," Wu Zhong shook his head, looked back and said to the herald, "Report the situation here to the commander, and tell the commander that the Changqing battalion will mobilize the whole battalion to attack Pheasant Gang." ”

After the herald left, Wu Zhong made the final decision, this time we must concentrate greater superior forces and defeat the opponent in one fell swoop, he ordered the staff officers and heralds around him: "Let all the infantry teams be ready for battle, leave the A team and B as the reserve, and the other five teams will carry out tactics, and we will not only destroy the thieves in this attack, but also capture their artillery." ”

After Wu Zhong informed Wei Wu that there were only five hundred people on the other side, Wei Wu was a little dissatisfied: "Does General Wu mean that my three hundred people were defeated by five hundred thieves?" ”

Of course, this complaint is not good to say in front of the heralds of the Evergreen Battalion, but Wei Wu is inevitably unhappy in his heart: "Since there are only five hundred people, the attack of the entire battalion of the Evergreen Battalion will be easily taken, so my battalion should continue to remain vigilant." ”

After the heralds of the long-term battalion left, Wei Wu's unhappiness still did not disappear: "There must be more than a thousand people, and I can't help it if General Wu has to attack, but let's not follow the nonsense, we are careful and vigilant, in case the thieves counterattack, we can also relieve the siege of the Changqing battalion." ”

"Don't you persuade General Wu?" A staff officer asked.

"The commander didn't order the attack at all, and the Evergreen Battalion crashed into it itself," Wei Wu snorted: "The people of the Evergreen Battalion have always been like this, they are so happy and want to die to save face, no matter who is the commander." ”

Wu Zhong, the battle-damaged infantry team, also ordered to regroup and participate in the attack together if possible. Although Wei Wu was unhappy and did not send infantry to assist, he gave his cannon to Wu Zhong. Wu Zhong looked at the hill and felt that there was no time to drag the cannon up, and dragging the cannon up the mountain would have to wait for the expulsion of the invading army, since this was the case, Wu Zhong did not plan to bring the artillery up, so as not to drag himself down and not be able to pursue the artillery that broke into the camp.

……

"The officers and soldiers suspended the attack!"

After hearing the sentry's report, Li Laiheng hurriedly climbed the peak line to the south to observe, and the cannons on the opposite side kept spraying tongues of fire and repeatedly bombarding the ridgeline, although Li Laiheng ignored the threat, but the dust stirred up still posed some obstacles to his observation.

"It seems that the officers and soldiers want to go together," Li Laiheng estimated that there was about a battalion of troops on the opposite side, and the new army was nervously arranging the formation, Li Laiheng looked at the dense infantry formation, and felt sorry for his limited strength and did not dare to pull the artillery up, otherwise letting the artillery bombard the opponent's offensive formation at such a close range would definitely have a good effect.

"We are hard, and so are the officers and soldiers; They wanted to wait until they were better prepared, but this also made us wait for reinforcements. Behind Li Laiheng, thousands of soldiers belonging to the Fifth Infantry Wing had already marched to Gu Mengliu's side, and the smoke and dust stirred up by the battle just now also hindered the observation of the new army, and they did not notice the intruding army of this group.

The only problem was that the wing officer of the 5th Infantry Wing arrived with the team, and after a little inquiry about the situation of the battle, he planned to cover the rapid retreat of the artillery.

"Major Li," because of Li Laiheng's identity, the Fifth Infantry Wing has always been very polite to him, and if the protagonist were someone else, he would have been scolded as a madman: "Use 500 people to resist 30,000 new troops? Even if you add a thousand people, it is not enough, even if the whole wing is there, even if the whole battalion is there, it is not enough. When Li Laiheng ran down to report the situation, the wing officer was already ready to order a retreat, and he was instructing Gu Mengliu: "Hurry up and put away the cannons, your artillery will go first." ”

"We can't go, my lord." Li Laiheng hurriedly dissuaded the wing officer: "There will probably be a battalion of officers and soldiers who will attack us, and we can use the terrain to resist it." ”

"A battalion of the New Army?" The wing officer shook his head quickly and said, "I can't stop it." ”

"We've already been beaten back once," Li Laiheng hurriedly explained, "at most there is only half a battalion of infantry, and their artillery can't threaten us." ”

"What if the new army detours from both flanks?" The wing officer pointed to the two sides of the pheasant hill, where Li Laiheng did not deploy any troops, and he did not have such troops: "We will destroy the whole army, and the artillery will be lost." ”

"If the new army sends cavalry to pursue us, our artillery will not be able to escape, so we can only hope that they will not send cavalry." Li Laiheng knew that time was pressing, and shouted regardless of military etiquette: "We will defend the pheasant hill to the death, so that the officers and soldiers cannot figure out our reality and do not know how many of us there are, only in this way can they not dare to immediately dispatch cavalry, not only artillery, this is the only chance for our wing to live, if the officers and soldiers see the truth clearly, we will not be able to run away on this great plain at all." ”

The wing officer did not answer immediately, but thought for a while, and after thinking about it, he did not ask to continue to carry out the order, but ran up the mountain, and Li Laiheng, who had just climbed the mountain several times, did not care about breathing, as long as he ran up behind the commander again.

The main force of Li Laiheng's army, 300 intruding soldiers, was deployed on the ridgeline, and the remaining remnants stayed on the northern slope to act as liaison troops. The wing officer glanced at it and knew that even with the thousand reinforcements he had just brought, the Chuang army was still at a disadvantage in terms of strength compared to the Changqing battalion assembled on the southern slope.

"The officers and men are trying to drive us off the Pheasant Hill, and they will not be able to march in peace without seizing it, and they will fear that we will drag our artillery up the hill and bombard their columns." Li Laiheng stuck to the side of the wing officer and continued to suggest: "We must buy time, only when the other battalions of the general can cover us in front of us, and then we can retreat to have a way out." My lord, we are already riding a tiger. ”

"The general is also difficult to ride a tiger," the wing officer thought of the same as Li Laiheng just thought: "If we are pursued and defeated, the new army will reel in the infantry behind us layer by layer, and no one will want to live at that time." ”

"Your Excellency is wise." Li Laiheng shouted happily.

The Fifth Infantry Wing Officer, who had taken over the command of the battlefield, agreed with Li Laiheng's decision to deploy artillery under the hillside, and seeing that the situation was more severe than he had imagined, he sent someone to Xu Ping again: "If the Fifth Infantry Wing is quickly defeated, then there will be no living people in our army before dark." ”

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