In Puzhou, when the war was imminent, Wu Sangui convened the generals in the army and held a small military meeting to discuss the deployment of this campaign.

It is said to be a discussion, in fact, it is also Wu Sangui's personal show, because at this time only Wu Sangui is a real general in the Zhou army in Hedong, he ordered his second son Wu Yingqi to lead 5,000 troops to garrison Daqing Pass, and the eldest son-in-law Hu Guozhu led 10,000 troops to Linjin, improvised, and his nephew Wu Yingzhi also led 10,000 troops to Hejin to deal with the Xia army in the direction of Hancheng.

Wu Sangui himself led 25,000 troops to be stationed in Puzhou, waiting for the Xia army to take the initiative to cross the river, and then fought with it in the east of the river - at this time, the strength of the Xia army in Hexi had surpassed the Zhou army, so he decided to switch from attack to defense and wait for the enemy to take the initiative to attack.

What he didn't know was that the firepower in the Xia army was already more ferocious than before, and along with Su Dingyuan, there were also those terrifying rocket artillery, which were enough to teach Zhou Jun a hard lesson.

On the other hand, Su Dingyuan also held a small meeting in Tongzhou, he has always been an attacker, coupled with the strong firepower in the army, he decided to take the initiative to launch an offensive and firmly grasp the initiative in his hands.

He divided the battle into two main battlefields and a secondary battlefield, he will personally sit in Chaoyi, command part of the first town and part of the third town and part of the original Kuidong thirteen soldiers and horses a total of more than 30,000 people to attack Puzhou, Linguo Gong Li Laiheng sat in Hancheng, and commanded the remaining Kuidong thirteen soldiers and horses to cross the river and capture Hejin with the Pingding Bolin Zhongsuo.

The secondary battlefield was handed over to the Pingyi Hou Zhou Hezhi and the general soldier Ma Tai of Zhongzhen, and the two led the headquarters of 5,000 men and horses to standby, and waited for the Zhou army in Linjin to be mobilized, and then crossed the river to attack after dividing the troops to help the north and south.

After the meeting, the various units began to rearm themselves for war, and three days later they officially launched an attack.

On 19 December, with the rumbling of artillery and the characteristic shrill whistling of rocket launches, the Battle of Hedong officially began.

The Xia army opened the way with many artillery pieces, eight rocket artillery pieces and dozens of artillery pieces launched a fierce artillery bombardment on the forward positions of the Zhou army along the west coast of the river, and the terrible rockets dragged the long tail flame to the other side of the river, and exploded one after another after falling into the camp, igniting a raging fire.

In order to keep warm, the camp was naturally covered with thick cloth, and their armor was also covered with an extra thick robe, and after the flames spread, those soldiers who could not dodge were ignited one after another, and the fire engulfed them in an instant, and one by one the fire people screamed and scurried around in the camp.

The fierce artillery bombardment stunned the Zhou army at the first time, and they were deployed here by Wu Sangui, originally wanting to attack when the Xia army attacked, creating some difficulties for the Xia army, so that they could not pass smoothly.

But who would have thought that the firepower of the Xia army was so fierce, the Zhou army in the camp was suddenly smashed to the point of crying wolf, and the morale plummeted, in order to avoid more casualties, the general of the Zhou army who was in charge of commanding the forward position hurriedly ordered to retreat, give up this place to the Xia army, and withdraw to join Wu Sangui.

A few miles behind the forward position, Wu Sangui had already mobilized his army to begin to line up, and the battlefield he chose was a flat land, which was very suitable for cavalry combat, and the snow on the ground was not thick, which would not affect cavalry operations.

In order to prevent the Xia army from discovering the Guanning Iron Cavalry in advance, he ordered the Guanning Iron Cavalry to put on white robes and set up an ambush in the dense forest.

Seeing that the Zhou army was defeated so quickly, the Xia army quickly crossed the extremely frozen surface of the Yellow River, lined up on the other side of the river, and only after gaining a firm foothold did they load the artillery and transport it to the opposite bank.

In order to prevent the artillery from being too heavy and crushing the ice, each carriage loaded with artillery deliberately kept a long distance from each other, and it was not until all the artillery was transported to the opposite bank that the Xia army finally continued to advance.

It is worth mentioning that when the Xia army rushed into the abandoned position of the Zhou army, it also accepted a number of artillery pieces, which had been loaded, and it can be seen that the Zhou army originally planned to hold for a while and use artillery to bombard the ice to bury the Xia army passing through.

It's a pity that the firepower of the Xia army was too fierce, and they collapsed before they could shoot the shells.

The speed of the loss of the forward positions was faster than Wu Sangui imagined, and he listened to the narration of the generals who had withdrawn from the front line

The gloomy color can almost drip ink.

Things are getting a little bit worse.

It's not that he hasn't heard the rumors of the ferocious artillery fire of the Xia Army, but more from his original suzerain, the Qing Army, he heard that the predecessor of the Xia Army, the Ming Army, was sharp, in his opinion, even my Daqing, who has always attached importance to artillery, can not be regarded as fierce in artillery fire, how fierce can the Xia Army be?

But now, he really realized that the rumors of the ferocity of the Xia army's artillery were not groundless, and judging from the personal experience of the general, he was afraid that the next battle would be very difficult.

Although Napoleon's phrase "artillery is the father of war" has not yet appeared in this era, this understanding has become the consensus of many military experts in the East and the West. It's not that artillery is really easy to use, it can attack the city, and it can also hit the infantry, and when it encounters low morale, it will flee after a few shots.

After realizing that the artillery of the Xia army was indeed terrifying, Wu Sangui looked at his artillery position again, and the Qing court did not guard him too much, so the artillery in his army has been able to maintain more than 100 guns, plus the number of artillery captured from the Ming army over the years, the number of artillery is not too much of a disadvantage compared with the Xia army.

It's just that the artillery in his hand has to be distributed to other generals, so there are no more than 100 artillery pieces of all kinds deployed here, but even so, so many artillery pieces still make him feel somewhat at ease.

Even if the artillery battle is lost, the Guan Ning Iron Cavalry ambushed in the dense forest may still be able to turn the tide.

This is how he comforted himself.

After the Xia army landed, under the leadership of Su Dingyuan, he went straight to Puzhou, in order to avoid the Zhou army of Daqing Pass from copying his own back road, he ordered Liu Shixun, the general of Anyang, to lead the division to defend the direction of Daqing Pass, and he led the main force to fight with Wu Sangui.

Near noon, the Xia army finally arrived at the battlefield, from a distance, the Xia army in red military uniforms hit like a red wave, the military flag hunting, and the general white color of the earth seems extremely incompatible, giving people an aggressive, slightly suffocating sense of psychological oppression.

"It's a strong army."

Wu Sangui muttered to himself, he looked at the neat and uniform soldiers of the Xia Army, and listened to the footsteps like beating a drum in his heart, even if he had been fighting all his life, he unconsciously felt a sense of urgency in his heart.

Wu Sangui is still like this, not to mention an ordinary foot soldier, when the Zhou army saw that the Xia army's sense of oppression was so huge, they all became agitated, and the lieutenant general Zuo hurriedly stood up to maintain stability, barely stabilizing some morale.

And at this moment, the Xia army finally stopped, and a shout that broke through the clouds sounded from the rear of the Xia army and spread throughout the battlefield-

"The whole army is arrayed and ready to fight!"