Shoot the man first and shoot the horse, and capture the thief first and capture the king.

As early as looking down from the top of the mountain, Cao Wenzhao found that among the 140,000 rogues who arrived from Pingliang Mansion, although there were many horse teams, there were only about 4,000 elite horsemen.

Among the more than a dozen reports that were not collected at night, a total of only four sides were found, namely the one-word Wang Tuo Xianling, Liu Guoneng, the king of the sky, Gao Yingdeng, and Gao Yingen.

Each of the four people led a fine horse, and the number of people was only about 1,000.

The more than 4,000 elite horsemen each had their own fixed position, one of them was pressed back, and was at the rear of the 140,000-strong army to prevent possible threats.

The other three were all in the front, two on the left and right sides, and the last one was in charge of the Chinese army in the front.

On the periphery is the horse army, and then on the periphery is the infantry and hungry soldiers, which unfold in turn.

It is said that there are 140,000 people, but the actual combat power is the more than 4,000 elite horsemen.

The rest of the tens of thousands of horse soldiers cannot be regarded as combat strength at all, and many of them are difficult to even fight with bows and swords on horses.

Not to mention those infantry and hungry soldiers, among them there were fifty or sixty thousand old and weak, and these people not only did not form any combat strength in the event of a great war, but would only be a burden.

The number of people can become an advantage most of the time, and crowd tactics and wheel warfare are all tactics that can be adopted when there are many people.

The side with a small number of people will not be exhausted by the attack of these tactics for a long time, and will only be defeated in the end.

But sometimes numbers can be a disadvantage.

Under the repeated blows of the guns, the entire charging starving army collapsed.

Cao Bianjiao suddenly led the armored cavalry to stand out, facing the charge of the cavalry, and the infantry who had lost their military formation were completely lambs to the slaughter.

Even the elite veterans were helpless in the face of the swarming cavalry after the military formation was shattered, not to mention many hungry soldiers who had just stepped on the battlefield for the first time.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

A huge roar suddenly resounded in the wilderness outside the city of Pizhou, and this roar was even louder than the sound of the Ming army's large array of guns and cannons before.

Eight fires suddenly flashed in the middle of the Ming army.

It was the roar of a cannon!

You don't have to aim at all, because there is a dense crowd of hooligants ahead.

Few of the shells missed, and in an instant they smashed into the formation, bringing up countless stumps and broken arms.

The terrible wails filled the entire battlefield in an instant.

What was even more disastrous was that someone recognized Cao Bianjiao's general flag.

Cao Bianjiao's general flag has not changed, and it is extremely ostentatious, after continuously cutting through the mixed army formation of the first two waves of hungry soldiers and infantry troops.

"Big and small!"

Most of the people in the front battle had already learned that the leader of the Ming cavalry who came to kill the general was actually Cao Bianjiao.

For a while, the front of the entire army fell into a panic, many hungry soldiers and infantry were new Shaanxi people who joined the Liukou, they still did not know the horror of Cao Bianjiao, but most of them were infantry and hungry soldiers where did they dare to stop the cavalry of the Ming army.

"Big and small Cao is here, that's Cao Bianjiao!!"

But among the Ma Army, all those who were a little older had heard of Cao Bianjiao's name, and had even been pursued by his company.

So there was an extremely strange scene on the battlefield.

Cao Bianjiao led the cavalry all the way forward, straight to Gao Yingen's position, and the horse troops along the way avoided one after another, and those who couldn't escape were swallowed up by the cavalry of the Ming army.

Seeing that those old soldiers and horse soldiers were all avoiding the Ming army cavalry, like avoiding the plague, the infantry and hungry soldiers were also frightened in their hearts.

Although they didn't know who those Ma Jun's "big and small Cao", "Cao Bianjiao" and "Cao Wenzhao" were, they were all terrified when they saw everyone fleeing to the rear.

"Defeated, defeated!"

"Run for your life!"

The panic and fear spread rapidly, and Cao Bianjiao led the cavalry to not kill many people, nor did he cause much chaos.

But the horses were the first to flee, and the unrest caused by the rout of the rear infantry and hungry soldiers was terrifying.

The panicked pushed each other, the thin and weak fell to the ground desperately begging for help, and the hopeless escaped cursed frantically, and the cries and cries shook the sky for a while.

The most affected by the panic and fear were not the horses and infantry and hungry soldiers, but the elite horsemen in the army.

There are more than 4,000 elite horsemen, and almost all of them have the experience of being chased and killed by Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao all the way.

The names of Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao are shadows in many hearts.

There was nothing wrong with Gao Yingen's military order, sending the Hungry People's Infantry to test first, and the horse team pressed behind and the two wings as cover to prevent the enemy from pursuing and killing.

The tactics of crowds and wheel warfare constantly consumed the physical strength and ordnance of the Ming army.

In the era of cold weapons, a body of armor weighs more than a dozen catties or even dozens of catties, and the weight of the weapon in the hand is not light.

Melee combat is a severe drain on physical strength, and firearms and crossbows are not without firearms that can be fired all the time.

Carrying gunpowder and arrows will eventually run out, too many firearms will overheat and blow up the chamber, and the strength and endurance of the archers will not be able to fire continuously.

He was wrong because he misjudged the strength of the enemy army, and because he was too confident.

Confident that shortly after the arrival of the leading soldiers, when many troops behind him were still marching, he first sent an attacking force to attack the Ming army outside the city of Pizhou.

Behind it, there was a steady stream of infantry and hungry soldiers, and the noise never stopped, and the smoke and dust slowly rose up, like a haze.

They remain ignorant of the battle ahead.

He was so confident that he did not send a scout horse to investigate whether there were any hidden ambushes in the woods and mountains on both sides.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

There was another loud roar, but it wasn't coming from the front.

Gao Yingen's face changed suddenly, and he suddenly looked back.

The loud roar came from the direction of the mountain behind him to the right.

Even though he had experienced countless vicious battles, Gao Yingen's heart was still beating uncompromisingly.

When Gao Yingen turned his head, the first thing that caught his eye was a burst of rising white gunsmoke.

Immediately afterwards, Gao Yingen saw the crowded horse army column behind him, and several clouds of blood mist exploded in an instant.

On a hill on the right, more than 600 Ming cavalry with bright armor and red tassels on their heads were already lined up in a neat attack formation.

Gao Yingen's face turned pale, and he looked at the top of the mountain in a daze.

He opened his mouth, but he couldn't say anything.

"General! Checkmate! ”

Gao Yingen subconsciously turned his head and followed the direction from which the voice came.

He saw that the herald cavalry, which he had just dispatched, was now hurrying in his direction.

The herald cried out with fear on his face.

"The King of Hit Heaven and the King of One Words, they both ran away!"

History of the Ming Dynasty, Volume 156:

"Change Jiao Yong to crown the three armies, and when the thieves hear the name of General Cao, they are all terrified!"