Officers and men organized several attacks in succession, but all of them collapsed at the touch of a button.

Half a month ago, they also attacked the mountain, at least they were able to hold out for a few minutes.

Zhao Shu was silent, of course he knew what was wrong.

Mandarin duck formation or something, that's just a tactical level. The defeat of the officers and troops so quickly is purely because the morale is too low, and a few dead and wounded can collapse a large area.

In particular, the soldiers of the Chengdu Plain had strong morale at the beginning of their joining the army, and many even left home with the idea of killing thieves and making meritorious contributions.

But he was trapped in Zitong for too long, and he didn't win a battle, but lost two cottages.

Those township soldiers who were frozen in winter also had an impact on the soldiers, and they always felt that the government had gone too far.

There is also Zhu Ming's inscription, many of the soldiers know its content, so there is a complex psychology: on the one hand, they complain about Zhu Ming's rebellion, causing them to leave their hometowns, and their families also pay more taxes because of the war; On the one hand, he sympathized with Zhu Ming, thinking that Zhu Ming was speaking up for them.

In a word, I don't want to fight, and I don't dare to fight.

Zhao Shu put out the most commonly used "big array" in the Song Dynasty, also called the "Zhongjun Array".

This formation has a basic routine, and it can also be adjusted according to the terrain, and what is conjured up at this moment is the "Four Doors Doudi Formation".

Without him, this formation is the most secure, and the change of formation is simple and suitable for recruits.

The commander sits in the center, and the swordsmen and gunners line up all around, and the shields and javelinmen are mixed in between, and then the soldiers who reject the horses are the feet. The crossbowmen followed, and a small number of cavalry also took refuge in the formation.

More than 30,000 officers and soldiers were arranged in a large array, stretching for several miles.

Zhu Ming personally led the main force to come slowly, climbed high and looked far into the distance, and saw that the officers and soldiers put on such a cautious formation, and began to arrange the formation calmly.

The horses were placed at the front, followed by four battalions of infantry, the leveling cannons were pulled to the front and assembled, and the tiger squat artillery and musket teams also stepped forward. There were two more rows of more than 10,000 infantry, which were slightly in a "V" shape.

"Array?"

Zhao Yu's Chinese army was on a small hill, carefully observing Zhu Ming's formation, he really didn't understand it.

In fact, it is not a single array, it is a strange combination of Qi Jiguang's three-fold array and the traditional array. Zhu Ming not only had scarce firearms, but even bows and crossbows were very few, so he could not exert the power of the three-fold array, and could only use melee soldiers to make up for the lack of firepower.

On Zhu Ming's side, it took dozens of minutes to line up.

The officers and soldiers did not move, nor did they bother to divide their troops to attack the mountain, and let Deng Chun take the elite on the mountain and come down to join Zhu Ming's main force.

It's not that Zhao Shu doesn't want to move, but he can't move, he is afraid of taking the initiative to attack and scattering his big array!

The army that stretches for several miles, once it becomes chaotic, it is estimated that Han Xin will be able to stop it in his lifetime.

Zhao Wei set up a formation like that, braking quietly, and waited for Zhu Ming to fight. Moreover, he occupied all the relatively flat terrain, leaving the place where Zhu Ming was arrayed was rugged, and there were even several large ponds sandwiched in between.

After the formation was completed, Zhu Ming observed for a long time, and did not order the whole army to step forward, but pushed out the large and small leveling cannons.

Zhao Shu was too "calm", and several horses were arranged in front of the formation, although the distance was too far to see clearly, but it was estimated that ironthistle terrestris was sprinkled in some areas.

This guy fights the bottom of the four-door battle as a turtle formation. Don't seek merit, just seek no fault.

Hundreds of leveling cannons were pulled out, intending to smash the officers and soldiers in front of the formation to reject the horses, and it was naturally best to kill a few people by the way.

And Zhao Shu's side actually launched the leveling cannon.

Before he left Beijing, he specialized in studying the drawings of leveling artillery, and when he arrived in Zitong, he immediately asked craftsmen to build them.

Zhu Ming didn't care about this, and he didn't regret leaking the technology.

At that time, it was necessary to conquer the barbarians, and the flattening artillery was pulled out to fight, and Yuwen Chang was definitely interested. Even if Zhu Ming is not dedicated to the imperial court, Yuwen Chang will definitely have to contribute drawings.

It's not the weapons that are really powerful, it's the people who use them!

The number of catapults on both sides was about the same, and there were slightly more than a dozen on the side of the officers and men, which directly turned into a battle in which catapults fired at each other.

Big and small stones, flying around.

After a round of test firing, each adjusts its distance. The rebels still fired stone bullets, but the officers and soldiers mixed them with fire shells.

Poison smoke bombs, to be exact!

This thing has gunpowder added to it, and its ratio cannot explode, but it can burn violently. It is also doped with various irritating substances, and once projected out, billowing pungent smoke will come out.

Deng Xia, as the commander of the artillery, saw that the situation was not good, and immediately sent an order to the people, strip and tear the cloth wet and bring it back.

Fortunately, there was a large pond in the rebel formation, and after the gunners coughed and threw in the second round of stone shells, they began to cover their mouths and noses with wet cloths one by one.

His eyes were still exposed, red, and bloodshot, but he still held on.

The accuracy of the leveling artillery was extremely poor, and the two sides exchanged bombardments for more than 20 minutes, and also smashed a few planes. is that after occasionally hitting the gunner, the scene is bloody and blurry, which makes people feel extremely uncomfortable.

The artillery battle gradually divided the winners and losers, and the rebels, who were still plagued by the smoke and had fewer artillery pieces, won.

And the officers and soldiers and gunners were defeated one after another!

The overseer team slashed and slashed with knives, and at the same time announced a generous reward, even if they died in battle, they would also pay heavy attention to their families. However, the morale of the officers and soldiers and gunners was still not high, and after being forced back to the artillery position by the supervising team, they continued to fight with stones in despair.

They have a very low status in the army, and they are treated the same as miscellaneous servants, and they have never eaten enough in normal times, and now they are still wearing autumn clothes.

When they were alive, they didn't have enough food and clothing, and you made them believe that there was a pension after death?

After another round of shelling, only two people were stoned to death, and the rest of the gunners collapsed. And it wasn't a rout, this time it was changed to "rout", they were afraid of being cut down by the overseers, so they cried and ran towards the rebels.

Zhu Ming saw it with a telescope, and said with great joy: "Good students treat the enemy's rout, carry a few cauldrons, and get some meat to wash the dust for them!" ”

Bullying Zhao Shu did not dare to move the army formation, Zhu Ming no longer attacked, and even the shelling stopped, so he set up a pot to cook rice and meat between the two armies.

Zhao Shu didn't understand at first, but quickly guessed what Zhu Ming wanted to do, and shouted: "Send gunners again to smash those rice pots!" ”

The so-called gunners are all people.

The operation of the leveling cannon is too simple, so the officers and men do not pay attention to the gunners, treat them harshly in peacetime, and casually pull some up and fire the artillery in wartime.

The meal could not be cooked, and the shelling resumed.

The rebels had already filled the stone shells, and before the officers and soldiers and gunners were in position, they fired a salvo.

With the previous successful case, this group of officers and soldiers and gunners did not bother to touch their catapults and ran directly to the position of the rebels.

Zhao Shu was dumbfounded, and he was speechless for a long time.

The morale of the officers and soldiers close to the artillery positions was all plummeting. Although they did not suffer from shelling, the friendly forces ran right under their noses, and those who were not stupid knew that they were going to be defeated today.

"The general system, you can't stick to it, you have to change the formation to attack," Huang Yi reminded, "Otherwise, if the Zhu thief pushes up the leveling cannon, it is time to throw stones into the military formation, and the stones can crush the front team of the official army." ”

Of course, Zhao Shu knew this, and said helplessly: "Order, the front army is on standby, the left and right armies are in a horizontal formation, the rear army moves forward to defend the middle army, and the whole army is ready to advance." ”

As soon as the formation of the officers and men moved, local confusion immediately appeared.

Zhu Ming seized the opportunity: "Drumming, except for the Chinese army, the whole army will attack!" ”

The drums beat loudly and the flag waved.

More than 10,000 elite rebels marched on rugged terrain.

Zhu Ming ordered again: "The auxiliaries are young and strong, go around the left flank of the enemy!" ”

In the process of advancing, the elite of the rebel army also became chaotic. But it's just the whole thing that's messy, and each mandarin duck squad still maintains organization.

They are closer than brothers, eating and sleeping together.

If it is necessary to requisition a private house for lodging, it is also a team of twelve people, living in the same room.

The head-cutting reward has been abolished, and now only the overall performance and whether the combat objectives are accomplished. When rewarding meritorious deeds, most of them are recorded as a unit, and only those who are particularly prominent are recorded as individual merits.

All kinds of systems allow each mandarin duck team to integrate with each other, and there are even many who worship as brothers in private.

When they got married, they also agreed that if someone died in battle, the surviving brother would have to help take care of the family.

The drums beat rapidly, and the soldiers changed from sprinting to trotting. Looking down from the sky, the front of the rebel army was uneven, but there was no major chaos. Because the grassroots organization of the squad is still there, and each squad leader looks at the banner of a higher level.

Layer by layer, the flag is moving forward, always chaotic and orderly.

The auxiliary soldiers in charge of the flank are obviously much worse, and they have already rushed into a swarm, and they are purely trying to scare the officers and soldiers. To put it mildly, it doesn't matter if it's all defeated, anyway, if you go around to the side, the rout won't impact the soldiers.

The left and right armies of the officers and men were still adjusting their formations and moving forward, and some of the rebels had already rushed in front of them.

A few of the rebels screamed, but they were pierced through the footboards by thistles.

More rebels overturned their horses and crashed into the enemy line.

"The cavalry will rush with me!"

Zhu Ming stepped onto the cornucopia, threw the Chinese army to Bai Sheng, Gu San, and Hua Rong, and personally led the cavalry around the right flank of the officers and soldiers.

Originally, there were only more than 20 horses in Daming Village, and he captured and recruited horses all the way, as long as he could ride and run, he wanted no matter how garbage the horses were. Especially after occupying Wenzhou, more than 100 Sichuan dwarf horses were bought from the Qiang people there.

Today, Zhu Ming has more than 400 miscellaneous cavalry.

The two sides combined with fifty or sixty thousand people, and at this moment they have begun to fight.

The troops that enter the battle all depend on how the commanders and generals play, and the battlefield is too wide for the commanders to effectively command. What the manager can do is to keep putting in the reserves according to the changes in the battle situation. Or where to achieve major results, and use this as a breakthrough to mobilize relevant troops.

The officers and soldiers who have been holding on to the front army can still stabilize the formation at this time.

The left and right armies that moved forward in the formation were killed by the rebels before they could be lined up. They did not retreat immediately, and relied on their fellow villagers to support each other.

Seeing that there were righteous troops on the left and right flanks, Zhao Shu mobilized the rear army and the middle army to fight against the auxiliary Qingzhuang and the righteous cavalry respectively.

It is interesting that there were also cavalry units of 600 officers and soldiers.

Sichuan buys horses in the market every year, but the Sichuan official army is in short supply. was able to organize 600 cavalry, thanks to Yuwen Chang's management of the Tea and Horse Division.

It's a pity that in the second year of Yuwenchang's rectification of the Sichuan Tea and Horse Division, he was quickly transferred out of Chengdu, because he blocked too many people's financial routes!

Zhu Ming deliberately slowed down the speed of his horse and tried to maintain the cavalry formation.

More than 600 cavalry of the official army came, and Zhu Ming immediately accelerated, charging head-on with more than 400 miscellaneous cavalry.

When the distance between the two sides was twenty or thirty paces, the cavalry of the righteous army was still accelerating, and the cavalry of the official army was so frightened that they hurriedly avoided their edge.

The cornucopia ran at full speed, and Zhu Ming brandished an iron shovel and smashed an enemy horse to death in front of him, and his chest was visibly dented.

smashed several people to death in a row, and the officers and soldiers and cavalry in the rear had already avoided it, and Zhu Ming directly led four hundred cavalry to kill it. Then he rushed towards the enemy's right flank infantry non-stop, and those infantry who met head-on instantly collapsed, exposing Zhao Yu's Chinese army.

The Chinese army was on a mound, and Zhu Ming jumped on the hill and smashed it left and right with an iron shovel.

Zhao Yu's Chinese soldiers, looking at Zhu Ming, who was dressed in the armor of the Heavenly King and descended like a god, threw away their weapons and fled. Their cavalry was killed through, and the right flank infantry was also killed, where would they dare to stay and fight to the death?

Huang Ji left a horse for himself, and immediately fled when he saw that the situation was not good.

Zhao Shu was still drawing his sword and shouting: "Don't panic, you can block it by raising your gun in a formation!" ”

No one listened to him, and each ran faster than the other.

Zhu Ming rode his horse and rushed to Zhao Shu, smashed the banner of the Chinese army, and then smashed the sword in Zhao Shu's hand, and stretched out his hand to catch the clan commander.

"The enemy commander has been captured by me!"

"The enemy commander has been captured by me!"

In fact, after the collapse of the banner of the Chinese army, the left and right armies of the officers and soldiers began to collapse, and then the front army was also led to flee.

More than 30,000 officers and soldiers subconsciously fled back to Zitong City.

The defenders who remained in Zitong City opened the west gate and rushed to cross the river one after another.

Even, because of the robbery of the ship and cannibalism!

(End of chapter)