Thousands of Wu and Zhou cavalry bypassed their large array, and the earth's earth-shattering hooves resounded across the battlefield.

Commanding this cavalry to launch the attack was Ma Bao, the most capable cavalry general under Wu Sangui. Because he was born in the camp, Li Zicheng is his old man, so in the past few years, he has been sent by Wu Sangui to Wu Yingqi, and became the latter's deputy, and has been following Wu Yingqi and Wu Shicong father and son through the northwest. Before this Wu Zhou War against the Ming Dynasty, he was fighting against the Heshute Khanate in Qinghai, and the official worshiped the governor of the Qing and Tang Dynasty of the Great Zhou. On the Qingtang Plateau, he can be regarded as an invincible existence.

However, the invincible plateau god of war has never encountered a rushing formation facing the thousands of Ganshan iron horsemen he led in the past, and he can still unhurriedly unfold a thousand-person hollow phalanx, and he knows a very calm opponent at a glance.

Ma Bao, who had a lot of experience on the battlefield, knew that he couldn't rush hard, so he led the cavalry under his command to run around these dozen battalion-level hollow phalanxes from afar, putting himself in a state where he could attack at any time.

Because the number of cavalry in Li Zhongzheng's hands was too small, less than eight hundred, there was no way to expel Ma Bao's thousands of northwest iron cavalry, so he had to maintain the hollow phalanx first, and then find a way to advance when the other party was tired of running.

Under the banner of the Ming general of Caijiapo, Li Zhongshan was observing the battle situation on his right flank and the left flank of Wu Zhou's army.

Luo Dawei, who had been beaten by Wu Zhoujun's cavalry assault and almost collapsed, also completed the reorganization at this time, forming five battalion-level columns, and was advancing to support the operation of the twelfth town.

The round of assault launched by the cavalry of Wu Zhou's army on the twelfth town has been repelled by the Ming army that opened a hollow phalanx, and now it has been replaced by seven or eight thousand Wu Zhou's infantry troops to shoot at each other, and more than a dozen artillery pieces have been dragged to help.

However, the Ming army had a huge advantage in flintlock guns, rifled guns, and mini bullets, even if the infantry of the 12th town suddenly attacked the Wu Zhou cavalry, which had retreated a little, and did not dare to turn the hollow phalanx back into a horizontal formation, they could still use their firepower to overwhelm the Wu Zhou infantry army with a similar number of them.

At this time, the sound of guns and shouts of killing came from far away from his left front, and the left wing of the Ming army and the right wing of Wu Zhou's army also became a ball. Because Wu Yingqi drew half of the troops of the second and third lines of his right flank to form a defensive line on the flank of the right flank, the front of the right flank became very thin. So Li Zhongshan seized the opportunity and immediately threw himself into one of the two towns on the second line of his left flank, smashed a total of sixteen battalion-level columns, and launched a fierce attack on Wu Zhou's right flank.

However, Wu Zhou's side fought extremely tenaciously, although the casualties were not small, but they could still barely withstand the battle with the support of the cavalry on their right flank, and the battle was a little stalemate!

If Li Zhongzheng can return to his position in time, this battle will probably be won today!

Thinking of this, Li Zhongshan turned his binoculars again and looked at Li Zhongzheng's headquarters that had already appeared on the battlefield, and found that a large number of Wu Zhou cavalry were surrounding a bunch of hollow phalanxes formed by the infantry troops of the two towns under Li Zhongzheng. For a while, it seemed that no one could help anyone.

"General, there is still a standard of cavalry on the left flank of our army that has not been invested!"

Yao Qisheng's reminder came, and Li Zhongshan looked over his left flank with a telescope and found that a temporary cavalry mark, which was pieced together from three cavalry battalions belonging to the town, was nervously waiting there.

"General, Model First Town is also on standby, can you let the left flank cavalry mark to support the third master's roundabout troops, and at the same time throw Model First Town into attack the enemy's right flank?"

Li Yat-sen observed for a moment and said: "Let the cavalry on the left flank mark up to attack and support Zhongzheng, but the model first town. Motionless! I have already committed sixteen battalions in two towns on the left flank, and one town is ready to be put in, and there is no need to invest in the model first town. The Model First Town is the general reserve, which must be left until after the arrival of King Li Zhong. ”

Yao Qisheng received Li Zhongshan's order, and immediately handwritten the military order issued to the cavalry on the left flank, and immediately sent the cavalry out after stamping the seal, and then asked Li Zhongshan: "General, are you worried that Wu Guogui (Yao Qisheng didn't know that the commander of Wu Zhoujun at this time was Wu Yingqi) would also make a detour to our side?" ”

Li Zhongshan pondered for a moment and nodded: "The number of the Wu army on the opposite side seems to be slightly smaller than our army, if their total strength is really only these, then I only need to wait until Zhongzheng succeeds in a roundabout and then put into the fifteenth town on the second line of the left flank, then the enemy's right flank will definitely be crushed. The Model 1st Town and the 16th Town on the right flank could be saved to the last to pursue and oppress the enemy. If possible, I would trap them between the Laodao River, the Liuyang River, and the Xiangjiang River. ”

Yao Qisheng took a map, followed Li Zhongshan's train of thought, and quickly sketched it on it. The Laodao River and the Liuyang River eventually flow into the Xiangjiang River, and these two rivers and one river form a flare mouth terrain that is wide in the east and narrow in the west. In the westernmost part of this horn, that is, the section where the Laodao River and the Liuyang River flow into the Xiangjiang River, it is really quite narrow, almost a long and narrow peninsula. Although most of the Laodao River and Liuyang River in this area are passable. But it is not easy for a 100,000 defeated army to cross the river by a few wooden bridges!

Therefore, once the Wu army is forced into this peninsula, and at the same time cannot calmly cross the river into Changsha, then the Wu Zhou Dynasty will suffer a devastating blow!

This abacus is very good, and whether it can be realized depends on whether Li Zhongzheng can break the right wing of the Wu army and when Li Laishun can arrive!

Under the fluttering Wu Zishuai, Wu Yingqi stared intently at the front of his right flank. Although Ma Bao's cavalry entangled the Ming army brigade that came in a roundabout way, Ma Bao only had a few thousand cavalry, and it was impossible to repel the enemy's brigade of at least 20,000 people. And Wu Yingqi has no reserves in his hands, so it is difficult to give Ma Bao more support. If only Wu Guogui's 50,000 people were still there!

This detour doesn't seem to be cost-effective!

"Cavalry! The cavalry of the Ming army came up! ”

Liu Xuanchu, who served as a military advisor by Wu Yingqi's side, suddenly shouted: "Right wing, our right wing front."

Wu Yingqi hurriedly raised his binoculars to look, and through the faint smoke that filled the battlefield, he saw more than a thousand lancers in red robes and red scarves driving from the left flank of the Ming army to the vicinity of Mabao, which surrounded the roundabout troops of the Ming army.

Wu Yingqi muttered: "Oops. Ma Bao's troops are too small to stop them! ”

Although Ma Bao had more than 6,000 cavalry in his hands, the Ming army had 20,000 infantry troops, including a large number of pure flintlock pistols and artillery, as well as more than 2,000 cavalry. Ma Bao can't beat it at all!

And as soon as Ma Bao retreated, Wu Zhoujun's right flank was about to fall into a bitter battle!

And in Wu Yingqi's hands, there is no reserve anymore!

Thinking of this, he could only look up at the east, as if he wanted to find the trace of Wu Guogui's department from the eastern sky. Under this look, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the air in the distance seemed to be filled with smoke and dust!

This must be the smoke and dust stirred up by the rapid march of the army, and Wu Guogui has arrived!

"Knock Knock"

Before Wu Yingqi had time to be happy, the Ming army on the opposite side remembered the sound of drums urging the attack! He hurriedly turned his head to look, and saw one after another Ming military battalion-level columns, swooping towards his right flank!

The fierce battle also unfolded between the cavalry of Ma Bao's department and the lancers of the Ming army, as well as the skirmishers who used rifled guns to snipe!

Although Ma Bao had twice as many cavalry as his opponent, he had to delay the Ming army's infantry and resist the Ming army's cavalry at the same time, and his strength was quite tight. And what made him feel even more devastated was that there were a large number of rifled spearmen in the infantry of the Ming army, and their cork bullets hit far and accurately! Shooting in the hollow phalanx just now had already caused a lot of losses to Ma Bao's subordinates. Now he is even more emboldened, rushing out in groups, and cooperating with his own lancers to attack the cavalry group of Wu Zhou's army running around on the battlefield.

Ma Bao's cavalry was very unaccustomed to this insidious style of play, and some cavalry even gave up chasing the Ming cavalry and instead attacked the straggler line formed by the Ming rifled spearmen. But these Ming stragglers fought very calmly, and did not panic because the cavalry rushed towards them, but were still able to shoot accurately.

At the same time, the hollow phalanx behind the stragglers of the Ming army boldly turned into columns, advancing towards these Wu cavalry, watching the spears and rifles with bayonets pressed towards them, and most of the Wu and Zhou cavalry could only choose to retreat. There were several groups of cavalry that were really hot-headed, although they scattered the scattered Ming stragglers, but they were soon shot at by the Ming columns that arrived later. Because the smoothbore guns of the Ming army were also filled with corks, which were very airtight, their effective range was much longer than that of Wu Zhoujun's smoothbore guns. This made the Wuzhou, Shaanxi, and Gansu cavalry, who were accustomed to bullying the Heshuotes, Dzungars, and Yeerqiang people in the northwest, who did not have many muskets, very uncomfortable, and soon could not bear the losses and withdrew from the battle.

With the defeat of Ma Bao's cavalry, Wu Yingqi's right flank ushered in a major crisis, and Li Zhongshan threw twenty-four battalions of three towns in one go in front of Wu Yingqi's right flank, launching a round of fierce attacks! After Li Zhongzheng's roundabout troops arrived at the attack position, they launched an attack on the flank of Wu Yingqi's right flank with the strength of sixteen battalions.

This is a full forty battalions of infantry, and eight of them are the pure flintlock pistols of the Model Second Town, and the firepower is extremely terrifying! Under their oppression, Wu Yingqi's right flank could only fight and retreat, and by the afternoon of September 22, the originally straight front of Wu Zhou's army had been squeezed into a C-shape by the Ming army. The Wu army was almost in a state of semi-surroundment.

Even Wu Yingqi's Chinese army had to be transferred because of the onslaught of the Ming army's roundabout troops!

In addition, the line of communication between Wu Zhou's army and their camp in Langli City should also be cut off by the outflanking and oppression of Li Zhongzheng's troops, and now they were left with the precarious retreat of retreating westward along the Laodao River.

In the face of such an unfavorable situation, Rao is Wu Zhou's soldiers, who are "shareholdings", also began to be unable to bear it. The battlefield was full of Wu Zhou's soldiers who fled westward, and Wu Yingqi had no choice but to send his own soldiers to block them everywhere, but they could only barely maintain it.

Looking at the attacking Ming army, Wu Yingqi seemed to have seen the tragic end of his defeat and death, and Wu Zhouguo's annihilation.

This emperor deserves to lose!

However, Wu Yingqi, who was on the verge of collapse, didn't know at the moment that his opponent Li Zhongshan was about to collapse at this time!

Because Li Zhongshan had already discovered that it was not Li Laishun who drove from behind him, but a Wu Zhou army with as many as forty or fifty thousand people!

This situation. No matter how you look at it, it looks like Waterloo's Na Taizu!

Cold sweat broke out on Li Zhongshan's forehead!

He thought he was winning just now, but he didn't expect that when he turned around, there was a "Blucher" behind him! And Li Laishun, the Ming "Grushi", doesn't know where he is?

"General, please immediately lead the Model First Town and the Sixteenth Town to the vicinity of Yongxing City to block the enemy!" Yao Qisheng made a loud suggestion at this time, interrupting Li Zhongshan's thoughts.

Li Yat-sen just woke up from a dream, his situation was still a little better than Napoleon at Waterloo, and his "Old Guard" and "Young Guard" had not moved! It can be used to block "Wu Lucher", so that the 30,000 troops of "Li Luxi" will probably hold out until the "Li Luxi" arrives. As long as "Li Luxi" arrives, everything will be fine.

Thinking of this, Li Zhongshan immediately turned his head to Yao Qisheng and said, "Military advisor, call my father back immediately. Let him command the whole situation! ”

After giving the order, Li Zhongshan immediately rode his horse down Caijiapo, and ran to the first and sixteenth towns of the model town that were waiting for the order next to Caijiapo. Now follow the general Ben to attack! ”

At the same time, Wu Yingqi, the "Wu Lington" on the opposite side, also found that he seemed to be saved, and also flew to his son Wu Shicong's side, and asked him loudly: "Shicong, can your cavalry still fight?" ”

"Can fight!" Wu Shicong replied without hesitation.

His cavalry has been accumulating horsepower for a while, although they haven't rested enough, but now the situation is critical, and they can only let these horses work a little overtime and use the horses as people, right?

"Great!" Wu Yingqi said, "You immediately take them and Ma Bao together to launch a counterattack against the Ming army behind the right flank, and push them south as much as possible to ensure that the rear road is unblocked!" ”

Wu Shicong was stunned for a moment, "Father, shouldn't we launch an attack on the front of the Ming army now?" The third uncle has arrived. Let's just give Li Zhongshan a front and back attack! ”

Wu Yingqi's words are certainly reasonable!

However, it is also a little afraid of being beaten by the Ming army, for fear that his frontal attack will not be able to take Li Zhongshan, and the flank will be completely surrounded by the Ming army.

"Do as I say!" Wu Yingqi didn't explain much, but just asked his son to carry it out.

"Yes, Father!" Wu Shicong didn't insist on his opinion anymore, and he didn't dare to gamble with Li Yat-sen! Last time, Wu Shijue and Li Zhongshan gambled and lost their sisters?

Be careful!

So Wu Shicong turned on his horse and beckoned his cavalry to turn around and support the battle behind his right flank.

As soon as Wu Shicong's half-life force moved, Wu Yingqi, the "Wu Lington", had no tricks, so he could only quietly wait for the performances of "Wu Lucher", "Li Polun" and "Li Luxi".

In fact, the 30,000-strong army of "Li Luxi" was not very far from the front line of the Laodao River-Liuyang River. He almost collided with the army of "Wu Lucher" before! It's just that he saw that there were more people in "Wu Lucher" than himself, so he didn't dare to fight hard, so he let "Wu Lucher" go first.

However, he didn't mean to run away first, but bit tightly behind Wu Guogui - he didn't dare to run! His "imperial grandfather" Li Zicheng is storming Jiujiang City like crazy, and according to the latest information, there is a Wu Yingxiong in Jiujiang City!

If Wu Yingxiong is beaten to death by Li Zicheng, can Li Laishun and Wu Sangui reconcile with their family? It's simply impossible, so he can't let the Wu family win!

Just when he bit Wu Guogui's palace troops and rushed to the battlefield on the bank of the Laodao River, the fierce battle between "Li Polun" and "Wu Lucher" had already begun. This time, "Li Polun" also fought hard, and as soon as he struck, he was a battalion of eight model towns, and he threw himself into battle while marching in a field column, and did not give "Wu Lucher" a chance to form a formation at all.

And "Wu Lucher" was not ambiguous, and directly invested in his own lancers to take the lead, and also invested in several of the most elite infantry battalions! Try to push your opponent back and buy yourself time to set up. As a result, the fiercest and bloodiest battle began at the beginning of the infantry of both sides!

(End of chapter)