The three guards and horses of Xuzhou, who guarded the south bank of the Yellow River, joined Song Nan two days ago, and these three guards and horses fought with Liu Liuqiang in Feiyundu for more than ten days, and finally successfully dragged the arrival of the imperial army by virtue of the geographical advantage of the Yellow River.

After Liu Liu retreated, the three guards received Song Nan's military order, crossed the Yellow River to the north, and according to Song Nan's requirements, more than 300 ferries from Feiyundu were carried with the army.

In the six days since the thieves landed on the island, the officers and men never stopped reconnoitring Weishan Island, and more than 10 small boats patrolled around the periphery of Weishan Island, and every qiē on the island naturally fell into the eyes of the officers and men. The thieves were building fortifications along the slopes of the south and west of the island, and it was not a good thing if the thieves really made a city wall over time, so when the three hundred ferries were in place, Song Nan immediately began to arrange for the attack on Weishan Island.

According to the situation learned from reconnaissance, the thieves were very vigilant at night, and there were hundreds of border posts around the island, hundreds of bonfires were lit along the shore of the lake, and rockets were fired from time to time to illuminate the lake, so the surprise attack at night may not play the role of a surprise attack, on the contrary, it will bring a lot of inconvenience to the officers and men landing on the island.

Song Nan vetoed the plan to land on the island at night, but it was inappropriate to attack during the day, the officers and soldiers would be completely exposed to the fire of the thieves when they waded through the shoals, and the officers and soldiers would become live targets when they landed on the shoals several miles away, although they would not necessarily fail, but this was not in line with Song Nan's consistent purpose of paying less soldiers' lives.

After observation, Song Nan chose the early morning period, because he found that the lake surface in the early morning would be filled with water vapor and fog, and the visibility would be extremely low for an hour; This will allow the wading soldiers to get closer to Weishan Island, making it easier to storm the island.

Moreover, attacking early in the morning has the added benefit of staying up late at dawn The thief sentry will be more tired, and it is easy to relax their vigilance because of dawn, and it is easier to sneak attack; To raid the island, you must first occupy the beachhead of the landing, which Song Nan is still very clear, with a foothold, the soldiers and horses behind can land on the island continuously.

At the location of landing on the island, Song Nan had already aimed at the southeast corner. The north side is a mountain wall, which is impossible to land on the island, and the south and west sides are the easiest flat areas to land on the island, but the thieves will also defend it with heavy troops. The southeast corner is where the gentle hills on the east side of the island transition between the gentle slopes, where the terrain is somewhat complicated, and the gentle tidal flats that can be reached on the island are not spacious, and more than 100 archers can defend them. But this is a disadvantage, but it is not necessarily a bad thing.

In order to ensure that he could break through to the island at one time, Song Nan asked to bring a few Zhankou generals with him to deal with those fortifications that had begun to see the scale, and the manpower or inability to shake these bunkers, General Zhankou was present, and only one shot could blast these thin earth and stone fortifications into the gap, so as to facilitate the assault of the soldiers.

The clever gunners of the Shenji Battalion soon found a way to do this, and they made a solid multi-layer buoyancy turret out of dozens of logs, placed General Zhankou on it, and dragged it behind the ship with ropes.

In view of the inconvenience caused by the dense dry lotus stems and reed roots on the tidal flats, the soldiers had to use their ingenuity and tie a large amount of dead grass to their legs and waists in the hope of reducing the damage. But in fact, Song Nan knew that this move would not work, and it was foreseeable that these dead grasses would become heavy and unbearable after they were soaked with water, dragging down the pace of the sprint; But since this move made the soldiers feel at ease, Song Nan would not force them not to do it.

More than 300 ferries and hundreds of small fishing boats arrived at the shallows in the southeast of the island one after another, but under the unexpected blow, hundreds of officers and men had already landed and climbed up to the shattered fortifications of the thieves. The soldiers and horses behind are constantly landing on Weishan Island.

Song Nan ordered all the ships to return to the south coast immediately to send the officers and soldiers to come, and at the same time jumped into the waist-deep lake and rushed to the island.

Song Nan's legs were dripping with blood and pain, these thorny stalks were no joke, they were dense like a steel wire net, all the soldiers who came ashore suffered from them, and some of them were even entangled and couldn't get out.

"Occupy the hillside of the commanding height on the left, hold this place, and do not engage the thieves head-on for the time being." Song Nan couldn't care less about baring his teeth and grinning, and ordered loudly.

The officers and men moved quickly, forming a defensive formation around the slope to defend the tidal flats, while at the same time, a large number of thieves had already rushed in from the south and west; Half an hour later, five thousand thieves from the south of the thief head island came surging under the leadership of Liu Hui.

Liu Hui knew very well in his heart that before the next group of officers and men landed, it was necessary to completely annihilate these officers and men who had successfully landed on the island, otherwise there would be more and more officers and men, and every time they landed on the island, the defeat would be one step closer.

Without any foreplay or hesitation, five thousand thieves frantically rushed towards the formation of officers and soldiers, and outside the mile, the rushing thieves rose into an explosion of air, and the turf and stones on the overturned hillside flew into the air, and fell like scattered flowers, and the stumps of blood plasma, dirt, and gravel fell in the crowd, causing a huge panic.

It was the terrible consequence of General Zhankou, who had been pushed ashore behind the officers and soldiers, and after each round of bombardment, dozens of people were killed in the camp of the thieves who were still outside Lixu, and the pit was as big as a tabletop.

Although the thieves were panicked, there were hoarse shouts from Liu Hui and the Overseers behind them, and if they cowered, they would be stabbed in the back, so their charge did not slow down. Within a hundred paces, the officers and men began to shoot arrows, but with little success, and the overwhelming thieves were fifty paces away in an instant.

Xu Tai stood on the hillside with a big gun, and the thieves were violent, and suddenly aroused the ferocity, he had even seen the dash of the Tartar cavalry, and now he saw that this group of ragged thieves dared to be so arrogant, and his heart was naturally uneven; Turning the gun sideways, he shouted: "Charge Lao Tzu, overturn this gang of anti-thieves, dare to be so arrogant in front of the officers and soldiers." ”

More than 1,000 officers and soldiers roared and drew their swords and rushed forward, and the two sides launched all-round hand-to-hand combat on the slope and in the open space below the slope, in the woods and in the shallows.

Song Nan stood on a high place and frowned at the battle, and the hundreds of guards around him had already taken out Mrs. Song's firearm in their hands, just waiting for Song Nan to say a word. The number of officers and men was very inferior, far from being the opponent of the thieves, and if it were not for the low morale of the thieves and the irregular soldiers, they would not have been able to talk about any hand-to-hand combat skills, and the officers and men would have collapsed long ago.

The officers and men adopted the tactics of joint defense with several people, and more than a dozen people formed a circle to deal with the attack of dozens of thieves on the periphery, so that the numerical advantage of the thieves could be offset by the narrow surface of the enemy, and many of the thieves could not enter the circle at all, so they could only shout at the periphery; If it is a single soldier against the enemy, at least four or five thieves will be surrounded by an officer and soldier, and the great ability will not be tenable.

Song Nan nodded secretly, these officers and soldiers were taken south by Xu Tai from Xuanfu to suppress bandits, the battle formation is so skillful Obviously, after Xu Tai's careful training, Xu Tai has stayed in the border town for more than ten years, and he naturally has a unique way of studying and immersing himself in military affairs, and the battle formation used to deal with the Tartar cavalry is used to deal with the weak thief soldiers, and the effect is naturally doubled.

Look at Xu Tai again, a big gun flew up and down in the thief soldiers, the blocker was invincible, and there were more than a dozen thieves who died under his gun, so that where he rushed to, the thieves avoided and did not dare to confront him, and Xu Tai, who was harmed, had to run with the thieves, and shouted angrily.

The battlefield was stalemate, the officers and soldiers were better than the force, and the thieves were better than the large number of people, but soon after, as more and more thieves came from the rear to reinforce them, this balance was quickly broken, and the officers and soldiers were also forced to retreat to the slope, and the three hundred soldiers who protected the general cannon of Zhankou were exposed in front of the thieves.

"My lord, the thieves are going to snatch the cannon of the general, and let me take someone to save it." Wang Yong said anxiously.

Song Nan nodded and said, "Take fifty guards and don't be stingy with ammunition." ”

Wang Yong got the order, waved his hand and led the people down the hillside, stabbed in the ping-pong and shot hard, and immediately knocked down two or three hundred thieves, these thieves were the first time to see the power of the firearm shotgun, seeing that the fallen people were full of holes in their faces, and the death was very miserable, and they were timid in their hearts, and they shouted to retreat, Wang Yong did not pursue, but only led people to guard the cannons at the mouth of the lamp to prevent the thieves from approaching.

On the frontal battlefield, the officers and soldiers were constantly compressed and retreated up the slope, Song Nan had to lead the remaining fifty firecrackers to shoot, the dense formation of the thieves on the narrow ramp was conducive to the play of the firecrackers, under several rounds of bombardment, hundreds of thieves fell to the ground with casualties, and the rest retreated in surprise.

Song Nan ordered not to pursue, the first task was to hold this slope, keep the beachhead on the back and delay time, nearly an hour had passed, and in another half an hour, the second group of officers and soldiers was about to arrive, and by that time, the battle situation would be much better.