Thirty Franc machine guns opened fire in turn, and one shell after another fell into Yuan Chonghuan's camp. The Franc cannons were each equipped with nine guns, and the firing speed was very fast, and under the rotation of fire, the sound of the cannons was continuous, which made the anti-thief soldiers in the camp panic.

It's not an elite army, it's a hasty assembly at night, an army of more than 100,000 people, under normal circumstances, if you want to assemble, it's impossible to do it for half an hour, let alone at night. At night, it was just shelling, and the troops sent out had just fled back, and many soldiers in the camp did not know what was happening, and thought that many officers and soldiers had already entered the camp, and they immediately panicked.

In particular, the shells that flew into the camp from time to time, although they could not cause substantial damage to the camp, but the sound of the cannons was enough to make people frightened, and occasionally the shells fell into the rebels who were assembling, which immediately made these rebels run in panic, and even increased the difficulty of assembling out of thin air.

Li Dingguo is still a little cautious, he overestimates Yuan Chonghuan's ability, if he chooses to chase the rout into the anti-thief camp, maybe he can really defeat the army of more than 100,000 anti-thieves, maybe it will really be a battle.

However, Yuan Chonghuan's experience of commanding the Liaodong Army and Jiannu's bloody battles in the past made Li Dingguo vigilant, especially when he saw the countless torches lit up in the anti-thief camp, he thought that Yuan Chonghuan had already been alert and was afraid of falling into an ambush, so he did not dare to chase into the camp. Unwilling to retreat like this, he chose to attack with artillery in an attempt to create chaos in the rebel camp.

In the big camp, looking at the panicked camp and the situation of not being able to complete the assembly for a long time, Yuan Chonghuan frowned.

"Cabinet Department, the last general will be guilty." Lou Fu came back from defeat, knelt in front of Yuan Chonghuan, and said in shame.

"What the hell is going on? How many people have attacked you? Yuan Chonghuan asked coldly. At this time, he no longer cared about pursuing Lou Fu's defeat crimes.

"Back to the cabinet department, the last general doesn't know ......," Lou Fu said dejectedly. When he was on an urgent march, he was suddenly bombarded with numerous grenades, and his soldiers collapsed on the spot and fled back, who cared to see how many troops attacked him.

"Rubbish!" Yuan Chonghuan was really angry, he didn't know what the other party was like when he was attacked, wasn't it a waste or what?

"It was so dark that they were all hiding in the dark, and they didn't show up at all, but we were all carrying torches, and we couldn't find them at all." "However, the Admiral felt that there would not be too many of them, because we were not pursued by them when we fled. If they were outnumbered, they would surely enter the camp with the rout. ”

Yuan Chonghuan nodded, agreeing with Lou Fu's judgment. After all, the defenders of Wuhu only had 3,000 troops, and they divided their forces to attack Song Jin's camp, and at most there were only one or two thousand soldiers and horses who could attack their own camp.

"Although there are not many of them, if they do attack them, it will be very troublesome, and more troops must be sent to defend the camp wall." At this moment, Huang Li suddenly said.

Yuan Chonghuan nodded, knowing that what Huang Li said made sense. At present, the troops in the large camp are gathering in a hurry, because they have not experienced the night assembly drills, and the various departments are still in a panic.

Of course, trenches were dug outside the camp, and a camp wall was built, and the camp wall was divided into soldiers guarding the wall. But the camp wall is too low, and the trench is not deep, if the Praetorian Guards are bent on attacking, I am afraid that this trench and camp wall alone will not be able to stop it, after all, the other side is equipped with too many firearms. Moreover, the entire camp stretched for several miles, and the Praetorian Guards could choose one direction to attack at will, and just set fire to take the opportunity to attack and kill, and the entire camp would be defeated.

"So we can't passively wait for them to attack, and we can't let them discover the reality in the camp, we must take the initiative to attack!" Yuan Chonghuan said coldly.

"Take the initiative?" Huang Li, Lou Fu and others were stunned. Now that the other party is attacking, there is already panic in the camp, why do you want to take the initiative to attack instead of defending the camp?

"As long as they are shelling, the panic in the battalion will not stop. Therefore, it is necessary to take the initiative to destroy or capture their artillery. Yuan Chonghuan said.

"But we don't know what they're really doing." Huang Li frowned.

"What if you don't know what is true? They are only two or three thousand people at most, and the army we have assembled is almost five thousand, as long as we kill them, even if we can't defeat them all at once, there should be no problem in entangling them. Then you can calmly gather troops and horses and leave them all behind! Yuan Chonghuan said coldly.

"That's what the cabinet said!" Lou Fu hurriedly said.

"That's what the cabinet said!" The other generals also said.

Yuan Chonghuan nodded, didn't say more, but climbed the high platform in the camp, looked outside the camp, and observed the other party's situation.

The artillery was still roaring, pointing out the position of the other party to Yuan Chonghuan, Yuan Chonghuan looked intently, and saw a pile of torches from the enemy dozens of steps outside the camp, roughly estimated, there were thousands of them! It looks like there are thousands of troops.

"This, I'm afraid there are tens of thousands of troops......" Looking at the torch array outside the camp, Huang Li exclaimed.

The corners of Yuan Chonghuan's mouth twitched, and he said contemptuously: "It's just a bluff, most of them are each holding two torches, creating a posture of an incoming army to deter our army." ”

Under normal circumstances, one torch for five or six people is enough to light the road, and an army of two or three thousand marches at night only needs a few hundred torches to illuminate, and there are thousands of torches outside the camp, which looks like thousands of troops, which just proves that the other party is really bluffing.

"Maybe there aren't many of them at all, and the reason why they are here is to deter us and prevent us from sending troops to rescue General Song's camp." Huang Li guessed.

"It's not out of the question." Yuan Chonghuan nodded slightly, agreeing with Huang Li's guess, because this guess just explained why the Praetorian Guards outside were only firing artillery at the camp, but did not actually attack the camp. Under normal circumstances, a night attack must be attacked into the camp in order to achieve results, and how much damage can it cause to the other side by only firing artillery? Maybe there aren't many people on the other side at all, and the purpose of appearing here is to deter and prevent himself from sending troops to rescue Song Jin.

"Cabinet, let's attack!" Lou Fu and the other generals also figured it out and shouted one after another.

"Of course you have to attack!" Yuan Chonghuan said coldly. In any case, you can't watch the other side shelling, the attack must be attacked, and Huang Li's guess is right or wrong, and he has to attack. On the contrary, Huang Li's analysis made the generals feel much more relaxed.

"Lou Fu, I'll give you a chance to make meritorious contributions. Give you 3,000 men and horses, and you will lead them out of the camp gate and take them straight to each other! If you lose again, you will be punished for both crimes, and you will not come back to see me! Yuan Chonghuan ordered.

"The last general commands!" Lou was annoyed and took the order, and left with his fists clenched.

"Wu Kui, I'll give you two thousand soldiers and horses, you take them around two miles to the south, climb over the camp wall from there, attack the back of the Praetorian Guards, and flank them with Lou Fu!"

"The last general commands!"

"The others go back to their own homes, quickly stabilize the camp, reorganize the troops and horses, and gather more troops!"

"Yes, Cabinet!"

The generals left one after another, but Yuan Chonghuan was still standing on the high platform, silently looking at the outside of the camp.

"Cabinet Department, we gathered these five thousand people and sent them out at once......" Huang Li said in a hurry. The camp was still in a state of panic, and if the army sent was defeated, the consequences would be very troublesome.

"What's the panic, as long as they don't shoot artillery, the battalion will soon return to stability, and they will be able to gather more soldiers and horses." Yuan Chonghuan said in a deep voice.

So, Huang Li stopped talking.

......

"General, there is an army in the battalion that is going to be killed."

"It's good to come! Tiger Squat Cannon Ready! Li Dingguo ordered.

The bombardment continued, but only 30 Franc machines were used, and the remaining 20 Tiger Squat Guns were useless. Because the range of the Tiger Squat Cannon is only half a mile, although it can shoot to the camp, the rate of fire is too slow, and it is more troublesome to load the gunpowder projectile, especially in this dark night, the torch lighting is not convenient, so the twenty Tiger Squat Cannons that have been loaded with gunpowder have not been fired, just to deal with the enemy's attack out of the camp.

The position of the two thousand Praetorian Guards at this time was in front of the gate of the anti-thief camp. Twenty tiger squat cannons were aimed at the gate of the anti-thief camp.

The camp of the anti-thieves has a camp wall and a trench, but in order to facilitate access, there is no ditch at the camp gate more than ten zhang wide, which may be the reason why Yuan Chonghuan never thought that the defenders of Wuhu would dare to go out of the city and take the initiative to attack, and the large camp is not very solid.

The bonfire was bright, illuminating the distance of more than ten zhang in front of the camp gate, the camp gate was opened, and the three thousand anti-thief troops quickly rushed through the camp gate and killed the Praetorian Guard artillery position.

"Boom, boom", the tiger squat cannon fired, shooting countless projectiles at the anti-thief queue inside and outside the camp gate.

The Tiger Squat Cannon can be loaded with solid shells or loose shells, and it is itself a curved cannon, which can be fired around the camp wall into the camp. At this time, all the tiger squat cannons were loaded with scattered bullets, more than 100 small lead shots, and a large lead bullet was pressed outside, and a large piece was shot out.

With the launch of the Tiger Squat Cannon, the anti-thief soldiers who were impacting fell down one after another, and at a distance of more than ten zhang, even if they were all wearing heavy armor, they could not stop the shooting of the Tiger Squat Cannon Projectile. And the dense formation of the anti-thief impact makes every time the tiger squat cannon is fired, dozens of lives can be harvested.

Seeing that the companions in front of him and around him fell one after another, hundreds of people fell in a moment, and the anti-thief soldiers who were about to rush out were frightened, and they stopped one after another, not wanting to rush again despite Lou's annoyance and scolding.

However, if they didn't rush, Li Dingguo would not spare them, and the tiger squat cannon continued to fire, shooting a large number of projectiles into the camp and into the anti-thief queue.

"Raise your shield, raise your shield!" Lou Fu shouted loudly, and hundreds of shield soldiers quickly stepped forward to protect the front of the queue. The shield can't block large shells, but it can block small projectiles.

"Lord Commander, their artillery fire is too powerful, we can't rush out!" A subordinate shouted.

"If you can't rush out, you have to rush, and if you fill them with your life, you have to defeat them!" Lou said angrily. Yuan Chonghuan had already warned him, if he lost this battle again, I am afraid that he would really be killed. At this time, Lou Fu had to fight hard, holding a shield to block the front. Seeing that Lou was annoyed, the other officers didn't dare to be verbose. According to military regulations, if Lou Fu died in battle and they fled, all of them would be beheaded.

Just as Lou Fu was about to rush out of the camp gate again with the shield soldiers, the roar of the tiger squat cannon suddenly stopped.

"Their artillery is empty, it takes time to reload, everyone kill me!" Lou was overjoyed and shouted loudly.

"Rush!" The soldiers shouted one after another, followed behind Lou Fu, and rushed towards the camp gate.

"Prepare in line!" Looking at the anti-thieves who rushed to kill, Li Dingguo smiled coldly and ordered in a deep voice.

With Li Dingguo's order, the musketeers raised their muskets loaded with gunpowder in advance and aimed at the rushing thieves. However, it was not launched, but waited for orders.

It was only more than fifty steps away from the camp gate, and a large number of anti-thief soldiers rushed out of the camp gate and rushed straight towards the position of the Praetorian Guards.

Because Li Dingguo knew that even with the lighting of torches, it would be impossible to load the firecrackers at this kind of night, so he had a chance to shoot, and then he had to engage in a white-knuckle battle with the other party.

The other party quickly rushed closer, and was already close to ten paces away.

Li Dingguo did not speak, but threw out a grenade that ignited the fuse, and still entered the anti-thief queue.

The "boom" was accompanied by a loud bang, and more than a dozen rebels were blown away.

"Boom, boom", more grenades were thrown out, and they exploded one after another, blowing up the attacking rebel formation.

"Bang bang bang" Thousands of firebolts fired one after another, shooting the anti-thief soldiers one by one on the spot.

In a short period of time, the Praetorian Guard poured a lot of firepower, and almost half of the more than 1,000 anti-thief soldiers who rushed out of the camp gate were shot, and the rest fled back to the camp in disarray.

It's messed up, it's all messed up. Through the open gate of the camp, you can see that the other anti-thief soldiers in the camp are fleeing in all directions, and the whole army has collapsed.

"General, let's go in!" Seeing this, the other officers said one after another.

The door of the camp was opened, and the anti-thief soldiers in the camp were in chaos, and it was a good time to rush in, and Li Dingguo naturally understood this truth.

"General, there's an army approaching from the south." At this moment, suddenly a soldier came running to report.

According to the marching rules of the Praetorian Guard, sentries must be sent around to prevent sneak attacks. Li Dingguo naturally didn't think that the rebels would sneak attack him, but for the sake of habit, he still sent sentries to the surroundings according to the usual practice, but he didn't expect to find the attacking rebels.

"It's very insidious, send an army out of the camp to attack, and at the same time send an army to quietly climb over the camp wall to attack, if it weren't for Lao Tzu quickly defeated the frontal attack of the thief army, under the attack from both sides, maybe it will really suffer!" Li Dingguo said secretly, and had to sigh that Yuan Chonghuan was sinister enough.

Now the frontal thieves have been routed and are fleeing back to the camp. And the other anti-thief is approaching, is it to meet this attacking anti-thief army, or to lead the troops straight into the anti-thief camp?