The six-kilometer distance was quickly crossed, and in less than half an hour, the two armies were able to reach a distance where they could visually confirm each other.

At this moment, two consecutive gunshots were suddenly heard. About ten seconds later, a third gunshot rang out.

There is no doubt that this was the reconnaissance cavalry who was wandering outside the army and had to shoot the enemy - nine times out of ten, the scouts of the enemy army.

Although the sound of the pistol was also very loud, it could only be heard from a distance of three or five hundred meters, and Luo Ming was not worried that the sound of this gunfire would be heard by the Belan army more than a kilometer away.

However, the other party found himself, and it was obviously not too long.

Soon, their scouts rushed back and reported the military situation - they encountered a three-person team of Belan reconnaissance cavalry, and they were also three of them, so they had to shoot to seize the opportunity, and finally opened fire to pursue the remnants of the enemy, successfully eliminating the three of them, and only one of them was slightly wounded.

Of course, there may be other Beran scouts nearby who heard the gunshots and hurriedly went back to report, even if they didn't, Belan would be alert when they saw that their scouts had not returned.

But it doesn't matter, Luo Ming didn't expect to be able to hit the effect of surprise attacks every time, he was ready to fight in a dignified formation this time.

To tell the truth, he now had a cavalry in his hand, and it was possible to send his cavalry to cross the last kilometer or so first, and throw the Berans into disarray, and then the infantry would march across this distance and press on it in one fell swoop.

But the cavalry was not large enough, and a large part of it came from nobles who were nominally allies but had in fact become vassals.

Of course, the combat effectiveness of the noble cavalry is not weak, but they still have a great deficiency in the execution of orders and prohibitions, and if they are not careful, it will not only be difficult to achieve the tactical goals assigned to them, but will even cause great damage to this hard-won cavalry team.

Luo Ming pondered for a moment, then decided not to do so. While calming the few noble cavalry who were eager to fight, he gave the order for the whole army to march forward another three hundred meters, occupy a high ground, and then change to a state of readiness for battle, remain vigilant, and take turns to rest on the spot.

Almost twenty minutes later, the vanguard of the Belan Army finally came into view.

Of course, Lomin spotted their approach five minutes in advance with a telescope on a wooden platform — a battlefield where hot air balloons are not needed in such close-quarters.

The Beran army, which had come to the city, numbered about four hundred, divided into three groups, all cavalry, refused to go any further as soon as they saw that Luo Ming's army was in order, but kept a safe distance and peeked at this side.

To be honest, this so-called "safe distance" can be hit with cannons, but Luo Ming still resisted this impulse and continued to wait for the next move of the Beran people.

At first, those cavalry must have come to see if they could take advantage, and since they couldn't take advantage of it and refused to retreat, it proved that the army would arrive later.

Sure enough, Beran's infantry followed, and they kept moving in columns, and when they entered the battlefield, they began to change to horizontal formations or phalanxes.

Although it is a little worse than Luo Ming's army in terms of uniformity, there is basically no chaos, and the whole is orderly, making it difficult for people to seize the flaws in the change of formation and carry out a surprise attack.

Moreover, most of the Belan army had really fought and killed the enemy, especially the 1,200 members of the Jiaertai mercenary group had fought a lot of battles, and they were far stronger than Luo Ming's soldiers in terms of experience.

In that case, it is necessary to drag the enemy out of the area they are good at, and fight again in the field where we are good at!

With a wave of his hand, Luo Ming ordered the artillery to start firing.

The Beran army had to line up about two hundred meters away, which was indeed something that could not be easily reached by strong bows and crossbows, and even if it did, it would be difficult to hurt people, but for artillery, and even heavy arquebuses, this distance could completely cause damage.

Of course, the heavy arquebus was still a secret to the Berans on this side of the mountain, and Lormin was not prepared to reveal all his hole cards in one go, but only let the artillery fire - only with solid round rounds.

But at this moment, solid round bullets were more useful than shotguns—the Beran army was just about to turn from a column into a horizontal column and a phalanx, and one after another solid iron balls filled with lead flew out with a loud sound and smashed into their ranks.

As long as it hits the right position, such a lead-filled iron ball can often penetrate two or three people at once, and then bounce on the ground a few times, and can cause more damage, even if it can't bounce up, once someone gets in the way of its rolling forward, it will also be knocked off half of its calf.

It couldn't have been worse for the Beran army, which had not yet left the column, and the officers shouted loudly to make the soldiers speed up the change of formation, and finally got out of this dilemma after two minutes.

Luo Ming brought a total of three mountain howitzers (although the grenades had not yet been developed) and six light guns, and in more than two hours, the artillery did not make every effort to reload and fire at high speed, so a total of more than twenty shells were fired, and the total number of killed and wounded enemies was less than fifty - after all, Luo Ming had seen with his own eyes at least four shells that did not hit any enemy.

But this is completely different from ordinary bow and arrow kills or shotgun kills, being hit by a large solid cannonball, there will be a huge blood hole on the body and even the whole person will be broken by the waist, and the arm will become a broken arm if you rub it, and the leg will become a broken leg if you rub it, and the blood will surge like a faucet, which really scares many people.

Although he was shocked, the top brass of the Beran army immediately came back to his senses, and the young viscount, who was the commander-in-chief, knew that he was inexperienced, so he immediately asked the old mercenary captain on the side: "What do you think should be done?"

The old man didn't talk nonsense at all, and said bluntly: "Let's see if we can use cavalry to destroy those siege engines, and let the army become a horizontal formation, and advance to the range of bows and arrows as soon as possible." ”

The young viscount did not blush, and directly copied these two orders and conveyed them.

Seeing that the other party quickly made a coping strategy, Luo Ming smiled.

To be sure, this is a good way to deal with artillery for the first time, and the enemy commander is very good at improvising.

But after all, it did not exceed Luo Ming's expectations, whether it was the initiative in the war or the rhythm of the battle, it was still completely in his hands.

"Stop firing, recalibrate, clean and cool, reload and prepare—"

After giving the order to the artillery in a concise manner, Luo Ming turned his attention to the right side of the battlefield.