"All the battalions are fighting well," On the side of the Shun army, Xu Ping and his officers and staff officers were full of optimism about the battle situation, and the current progress of the battle situation was even better than they expected: "It seems that even if it is not at noon, even if it is dark, the new army will not want to break through our defensive line." ”

"It's true that these battalions of the New Army are not fighting very well, but there are so many of them that it's hard to say what will happen." Yu Shenhe was more cautious, he pointed out that the Changqing battalion were all recruits, and Taishan and Xiliu and Shun had a tacit understanding: "Although the three thousand launched a charge just now were repulsed, it may not be so lucky every time our army can be so lucky." ”

From the beginning of the war to the present, the Shun army also suffered nearly a thousand casualties, half of which were caused by the artillery of the new army: "There are too many artillery of the new army. "Now Zhou Dongtian is most worried about the enemy's artillery, because it is difficult for the artillery of the Shun army to pose a threat to the artillery of the Ming army, so their shooting is becoming more and more daring, and as time goes by, the artillery of the Ming army is also getting more and more accurate.

"If I were He Shuai," for the sake of safety, the artillery of the Shun army hid behind their own infantry when the enemy's infantry offensive was not too fierce, and because of the inferiority of the troops, Xu Ping could not launch a counterattack at any point, so he did not think that the artillery of the Ming army had the task of assisting in the defense, at least not very heavy: "I will gather all the artillery together, and knock it over one battalion after another." ”

"Fortunately, He Shuai is not an adult," Zhou Dongtian was very worried about the delay in the arrival of the Sanxi Battalion, and the defense that could not fight back was too passive combat mode: "That will cause us a lot of trouble." ”

"Sooner or later," Xu Ping said softly.

……

The Tianyi battalion also began to retreat, and this battalion sent an envoy to He Baodao, asking for another battalion to take his place and continue the attack, and the Tianyi battalion needed some time to recover in order to return to the battle.

"It's not a problem to spend so little," He Baodao had already calmed down again, and he turned around and asked, "Hasn't Jiang Shuai arrived yet?" ”

"Jiang Shuai's forward is still fifteen miles away from us," the staff officer reported: "Jiang Shuai is coming with the main force." ”

"Are their strikers willing to fight?" He Baodao still had a considerable amount of troops at his disposal, but he hoped that the Jin army would be able to take over part of the front, so that he could transfer the two idle battalions on the left flank to a more important area and participate in the wheel battle against the Shun army's defensive line.

The staff officer shook his head: "They said they needed to rest. ”

"That's right." He Baodao knew that most of the Jin army could not be counted on, and he camped on the sidelines without going far, obviously also having the intention of preserving his strength.

"Let the battalions resting in the rear hand over the artillery corps to me." An hour after the start of the war, He Baodao noticed that the Shun army did not attempt to counterattack, and even when the new army was defeated, the Shun army refused to launch a pursuit—this could easily inflict heavy losses on the new army and prevent the new army from regaining its combat strength.

"Xu Ping definitely doesn't have many soldiers in his hands, so he doesn't dare to fight back." He Baodao thought about it and asked the new army on the left and right to leave a battalion of artillery corps, in case the Shun army really dared to counterattack, these artillery could participate in the defense: "I want to concentrate the artillery of the tenth battalion." He Baodao pointed to the position of the Shooting Battalion and the Armored Battalion: "This is where Xu Ping's center of gravity is, if these two battalions are defeated, Xu Ping will be finished." ”

"But the Sanxi Battalion of the Shun Army still doesn't know where to go."

"Just assume they can't make it." He Baodao still didn't say a few words in his heart, if the strength of the Shun army was comparable to that of the new army, then today's battle would not look like it could be won. If you have to consider the opponent's Sanxi Battalion, it is to automatically admit defeat, and the chance to win lies in defeating the main force of the Shun army before the Sancheng Shun army arrives on the battlefield. If it succeeds, the Ming army in the Shanxi battlefield will be six or seven times the size of the Sanxi Battalion, and no matter how brave and good Li Dingguo is, he will not be able to save the defeat.

Under He Baodao's strict orders, the battalions that had been reorganized in the rear handed over their artillery teams one after another, so He Baodao concentrated a hundred cannons on the central front.

After learning that the artillery was ready, He Baodao immediately ordered: "Shoot at close range, the closer the better." ”

He Baodao was not worried about the counterattack of the Shun artillery, and the artillery of the six battalions of the Shun army on the opposite side added up to thirty or forty guns, if they dared to appear in front of the Ming artillery, they would soon be suppressed and destroyed by the Ming army.

The staff officers pointed out that the Shun army still has a counterattack mode to watch out for, that is, the cavalry units of the Shun army, in this battlefield in front of them, the total number of cavalry of the Ming army also has an advantage, each battalion has more than 400 cavalry, and the twelve infantry battalions plus the cavalry battalion of the direct guard have a total of more than 6,000 cavalry, but such a huge cavalry is scattered throughout the battlefield and controlled by each battalion itself. The Shun army had only one or two hundred cavalry per battalion, and their five thousand cavalry were all concentrated together, and if they were thrown into any place, they would form an overwhelming cavalry advantage.

"I have long told Hou Ye that the cavalry should be concentrated together, and I said so twenty years ago, but Hou Ye always said that the concentrated use of cavalry is a fallacy and heresy." He Baodao complained, in fact, he also knew that this was not entirely Huangshi's responsibility, Huangshi did not have a few battalions under him at that time, so each battalion had to have independent combat capability, and after the establishment of the new army, Huangshi also formed a direct guard. And now that all battalions of the New Army regard their cavalry as treasures, commanded by subordinates who are particularly close to them, He Baodao just wants to transfer them to his own direct jurisdiction, and the battalions may not agree to it—nine times out of ten they will not agree.

"Do not let the artillery concentrate in several positions, and the infantry cover them behind them." He Baodao knew that the closer the artillery was to the battlefield, the more likely it was to be counterattacked by the Shun army, but he still insisted on the strategy of shooting at close range: "Let the thieves fight back, when they attack our artillery, our infantry will greatly kill and injure their cavalry." ”

"Marshal, do you want the last general to stand by and be ready to fight back against the thieves' cavalry at any time?" Yang Huaizu asked.

"No, the straight guard can't move." He Baodao did not hesitate to veto Yang Huaizu's proposal, in his opinion, the strong cavalry group of the Shun army was a great threat, if any of the infantry of the new army camp was defeated, the Shun army sent cavalry to pursue, and the cavalry of each battalion alone could not guarantee the safe retreat of the infantry. Even in the face of a full-fledged infantry battalion of the New Army, such a large cavalry force was still a threat. The existence of this threat actually affected He Baodao's determination to attack, so he planned to first consume the cavalry group of the Shun army, reduce their numbers and assault capabilities, and weaken them to the point where they did not pose a serious threat to the new army.

By the time the Chi Burning Battalion launched an attack on the positions of the Hardfire Battalion, fifty guns had already been deployed, and these artillery pieces were tilting their fire on the positions of the Strongfire Battalion, and soon a dozen more artillery pieces joined in. These artillery firepower not only seriously affected the return fire of the high-firing battalion, but also greatly boosted the morale of the Ming army; after seeing the smoke and dust of artillery fire one after another on the enemy's position, even the recruits of the Chizhuo battalion were suddenly full of confidence in victory, and their formation became closer to the front, and they launched fierce fires with the high-firing battalion.

……

"It's raining down." A staff officer ran over to report to Xu Ping that the artillery concentrated by the new army on the central front had caused great casualties, and although the Shun army had dispersed the formation, hundreds of people had been knocked down by the artillery of the Ming army, and the scattered formation also caused the strong shooting battalion to become very disadvantaged in the counter-shooting, and now the battle line of the strong shooting battalion has been pressed and began to retreat: "The 11th infantry wing can no longer withstand it, and the 12th infantry wing will defend on the northern slope to avoid Ming Kou's artillery." ”

"Hmm." Xu Ping had no choice but to agree to abandon the southern slope and retreat. Without the assistance of artillery, the Ming army's attacks on other fronts became more powerless, but the pressure on the Ming army's key attack areas became very great, and it was no longer something that a battalion could bear alone.

"General, I'm going to fight off Mingkou!" Liu Zongmin saw that the situation began to become unfavorable, and he was also a little impatient. The artillery of the Ming army became more and more unscrupulous, pushing all the way to the slope of the hill to shoot wildly at the Shun army, and at such a close distance, their shells became very accurate, and the defense line of the 11th infantry wing was torn to pieces in just one column of incense.

Xu Ping left the general flag and ran to a close place to observe the enemy formation, through the white mist formed by the gunsmoke, he could still faintly see the Ming infantry phalanx deployed in the rear of the artillery.

"To use cavalry to storm infantry positions is to die." Xu Ping shook his head and vetoed.

"The last general will not rush into the enemy's position." Chi Shude reported that the sons of the 1st Cavalry Battalion under his command had checked the corks and hammers to ensure that every cavalry carried them: "The last general rushed over, never fought with the Ming Kou, and immediately plugged the cannon fire door after expelling their artillery." ”

Xu Ping thought about it again, but still shook his head: "There will still be great casualties, and the direct guards will immediately rush out to hunt you down." ”

The cavalry will be beaten into a sieve if they maintain a combat formation in front of the infantry, and if they do not maintain the formation, they will be charged and killed by the direct guards, Xu Ping did not have enough infantry to cover the cavalry assault, and he was very worried that the cavalry who dismounted the horse and the cannon would not have time to escape back.

"We are far from the point where we need to fight hard, and the cavalry must be left for pursuit." Xu Ping looked up at the sky, it was almost noon, the progress of the new army was even slower than Xu Ping expected, once the Sanxi battalion arrived, Xu Ping could launch a counterattack from the weak link of the new army, and then the cavalry group would have more important work to do: "If the cavalry battalion loses too much, we will not be able to pursue it well, and the direct guard will be able to cover the new army's withdrawal from the battlefield." ”

……

"How are the Forces nouvelles fighting?"

Jiang asked asked.

"It's hard to tell apart," the Jin sentinel's sentry reported, "the Shun army is very good at fighting, and it seems that the new army has about twice the strength advantage, but after half a day's fighting, little progress has been made." He Shuai's offensive was round after round, but he could only seize the position of the Shun army inch by inch, and there was nothing worth mentioning so far. ”

"Is Shunjun going to win?" A nervous staff member asked for Jiang Ting.

"It may not be possible to win, at least for now, the new army has an overall advantage, and the Shun army only has the ability to parry, not the power to fight back," the sentry shook his head and said: "There are too many new soldiers, and the Shun army may have to lose in the end." ”

"Maybe?"

"Yes, maybe, it would be hard to say if another group of Shun troops suddenly arrived." The observers of the Jin army all believe that if the current situation continues, the new army will still have a better chance of winning, and it is likely to rely on its superiority in strength and firepower to barely overwhelm its opponent. But the fact that it seemed that the Shun army, which was only 20,000 or 30,000, and the new army that was twice or even three times its own were fighting like this, made the Jin army very surprised.

"General Xu and He Shuai are from the same family, why are their combat effectiveness so different?" Jiang Ping always believed that the new army and the Shun army under the command of Xu Ping should have similar combat effectiveness, so today's battle should be a one-sided and devastating battle.

"It can be seen that Huang Hou is still hiding his secrets." The staff members came to the conclusion one after another: "He Shuai is also an outsider after all, so is that comparable to his own personal disciple?" ”

"Yes," Jiang Ping also nodded, everyone knows that Huangshi has a quirk, he is in a high position but he does not accept any of his soldiers, family members, Yi'er, and disciples, Xu Ping is the only one known at present: "General Xu is really strange, he will actually rebel, and this time in Beijing, he actually wants to deceive the teacher and destroy the ancestors." ”

"When he goes out of the court, he will deceive the teacher and destroy the ancestors, and if he harms Huang Hou, won't he be invincible in the world?" A staff member said: "Even if it doesn't work, if Huang Hou doesn't come, he will have no one to control him." ”

"Who knows what's going on, maybe there is something else hidden in the change of Jingshi, maybe Huang Hou doesn't want to deal with his proud disciple at all." Another staff member pouted.

"The change of the Jingshi is indeed foggy," Jiang Jian coughed: "It's far away, now let's wait and see the change." ”

……

All the staff officers looked south, and from there the rumbling of artillery grew louder and denser.

Finally, a staff officer suggested to Li Dingguo: "My lord, should we immediately move closer to the general?" ”

"No need, the general's 30,000 soldiers and horses can fight habitually, how can those recruits in the new army be the general's opponent?" Li Dingguo felt that Xu Ping would not be able to lose no matter what: "The general is still from the new army after all, and he likes this kind of head-on confrontation too much. ”

The Sanxi Battalion meandered east on the mountain road, and a group of woodcutters who had been searched acted as guides for the Shun army in front, and the sappers of the Sanxi Battalion followed behind them to draw sketches, which were constantly sent to the staff officers in the rear, for them to study how to make full use of the passing ability of each trail, so that the army could not get lost, but also maintain sufficient marching speed.

"We can't let the new army escape from Shanxi, as long as they can escape back to Beijing, they can replenish again and continue to fight with us." Li Dingguo always felt a sense of urgency pressing heavily on his heart, and the Shun army had difficulty in replenishing and limited supplies: "We want to block the retreat of the new army and completely annihilate them here." ”

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