After two rounds of shelling by heavy artillery ships of the naval brigade, the city of Meizhou opened its gates and surrendered. It's not that the defenders left behind by Liu Da'er are too cowardly, but the difference in military strength between the two sides is too great, not to mention that the power of the heavy artillery is too terrifying. Due to the continuous improvement of the quality of steelmaking, although the caliber of the Thunderbolt army's heavy artillery has not changed, it is much lighter in weight but much more powerful, not only with a longer range, but also more terrifying. The scorching solid iron bullets weighing several catties roared, the blue brick city walls turned into powder, the siege equipment and artillery on the city walls also turned into parts, and the mud and wood houses in the city were like paper paste. In the face of this kind of firepower, not to mention that the old and weak soldiers left by Liu Daer couldn't resist, even his most elite personal soldiers would be terrified.

Just when Le Quanan gave the order to open fire, the 1,000 Mongolian cavalry led by Kudu was less than ten miles away from Meizhou. Hearing the rumbling of artillery ahead, he hurriedly ordered the whole army to rush towards Meizhou. Two thousand horses galloped, the momentum was very amazing, and without waiting for the reconnaissance report, Cao Ergou learned of the arrival of the Mongolian cavalry from the sound of hooves like hidden thunder and the trembling ground. On the one hand, he sent people to report the situation to Le Quanan, and on the other hand, he ordered the field division to face the Mongolian army and set up a formation. At the front of the array was a shallow moat, and the earth from the trench was filled with sacks, and a breastwork was erected behind the shallow moat.

Meizhou City is located in a small plain on the bank of the Minjiang River, surrounded by many low mountains and hills, such a terrain is not only conducive to naval forces, but also suitable for cavalry combat. It was really a fair battlefield for the Thunderbolt Army and the Mongolian Army, which were good at naval and cavalry respectively. It's just that as soon as he arrived in Meizhou City, suddenly he had the intention of retreating. He was taken aback by the number of Thunderbolts. Not to mention the number of defenders of Meizhou City with the banner of the Thunderbolt Army, there are tens of thousands of people on the small plain outside the city alone, where is the Thunderbolt Army's thin strength that Liu Daer said? Out of arrogance, Liu Daer has always attached no importance to the intelligence reconnaissance of the Perak Army, and the Perak Army has countered the spies sent by him and deliberately transmitted false information. Therefore, he did not know about the expansion of the army a few months ago, and thought that the Perak army was only four or five thousand people, and it had to deploy heavy troops in the direction of Baizhang City and Guan Kou Village, so he could not draw many people to attack Meizhou City. Liu Daer even thought that even if the Perak army took Meizhou, he would be able to recapture it with the cooperation of the Mongol cavalry.

Kudu was not a timid general, in the past battles he repeatedly outnumbered the Song army, which was several times the number of people, and was also quite brave among the Mongolian generals. But today's situation made him retreat. He knew that the shallow moats and breastworks that his horses had crossed were not obstacles, and that the real danger came from out of sight. On the way to come, his scouts had been killed and wounded more than a dozen people by a mine. Moreover, the opponent behind the breastwork wall was not the Song army that was encountered ordinarily, they were in a strict formation, advancing and retreating in an orderly manner, as if they were a strong army with strict discipline, which could endure heavy casualties and fight to the death. What made him even more frightened was that the scout cavalry had already discovered that there was a cavalry hidden behind Meizhou City, and judging from the number of horses, the number of cavalry of the Thunderbolt army in ambush was more than the number of the already side.

It's just that he was unwilling to retreat without a fight, which would also be attacked by Liu Da'er and ridiculed by other Mongolian generals, so he decided to launch a tentative attack to find out the truth. When he returned from Jiading to aid Meizhou, Liu Daer handed over his 200 cavalry to the command of Kudu because he went north by boat, so as to show that he had no other intention to join the Mongolian army. As soon as the order came out, the cavalry commander under Liu Da'er looked embarrassed, you must know that there are thousands of people in front, and the two hundred horsemen are not clearly sent to death? Kudu didn't talk nonsense about this, and directly ordered the cavalry commander to be cut down, and ordered the deputy commander to lead the charge. The cavalry under Liu Da'er had already been frightened by the cruelty of the Mongolian army, where did they dare to disobey the order?

The deputy commander had no choice but to turn his heart and lead his men to the Thunderbolt position. These horsemen hunched on their horses with shields in one hand and spears in hand, hiding most of their bodies behind shields and horses' heads and necks. This is a standard cavalry assault formation, designed to break down the opposing infantry formation. After speeding out a distance, the speed of the cavalry became faster and faster, and in a short time they rushed half a mile in front of the Thunderbolt formation. This distance is only a blink of an eye for the infantry, and once it is rushed, it can be mercilessly slaughtered by the infantry. In the face of this good situation, the original dead heart of the commander was alive again, and the mood of the impending disaster also turned into joy, and even began to think about how to ask for credit in front of Liu Da'er and how to impress the Mongolian cavalry after the victory.

But his joy came to an abrupt end in an instant. The sudden flickering fire behind the breastwork, accompanied by a dense explosion, rose with white smoke, and the high-speed charging horses neighed and fell to the ground, and rolled forward with no loss. Immediately after that, another round of dense explosions began to sound again, and the horses coming at high speed behind also fell to the ground one after another, only the more than ten horsemen who rushed to the back saw that the situation was not good, and turned around stiffly, drew a large arc, and fled to the rear. After the smoke of gunfire, the Thunderbolt array was still silent, and the soldiers all looked at the front of the formation with cold faces, which was full of bloody corpses of men and horses, filled with the wails and screams of wounded soldiers and horses.

Of course, Kudu knew that the cavalry sent to test the attack was more auspicious than lucky, but "the cub selling Yetian was not distressed", and it was not his own men who died, but Liu Da'er's cavalry. Just in an instant, these two hundred cavalry were harvested, which really made him chill. This is a battle, and they are going to die. With such a density of firepower, the elite iron cavalry charge under his command is the same result. Just now he could see clearly that only a quarter of the artillery in the array was firing, and the Thunderbolts were still hiding their strength. At this time, the scout cavalry came again to report that the cavalry of the Perak Army hidden behind Meizhou City had moved and was ready to ride their horses. Suddenly, he heard the news, and when he turned his horse's head, another whistle led his men to retreat to Jiading in a hurry.

In fact, Kudu's retreat was the right choice. Even if the Mongol cavalry was lucky enough to break through the blockade line formed by the artillery of the Thunderbolt army, they would still face a mine array in front of the formation, and even if they had to pass through with human lives, they would be subjected to intensive musket fire, and then they would have to face grenades and spears. It is no exaggeration to say that as long as the infantry of the Perak Army is well positioned, even the Mongol cavalry, which is known for its fierceness, has only one way to retreat when there is not much difference in strength. What's more, outside Meizhou today, the number of soldiers in the field division alone is more than four times that of Kudu, and if the number of basic militias is added, it has reached an overwhelming ten times.

If you don't retreat, you will inevitably suffer a crushing defeat or even annihilation under the city of Meizhou. In fact, Cao Ergou had ordered the cavalry brigade to prepare for a surprise attack. Realistically speaking, although the cavalry brigade had 1,500 men, it was difficult to defeat the 1,000 cavalry led by Kudu in a war of movement. However, Cao Ergou obviously would not choose to be tough on the front, he planned to use artillery to disrupt the enemy's formation first, and then take the opportunity to launch a surprise attack. In fact, the location where Kudu and his cavalry gathered was only three miles away from the artillery position of the Perak army, which happened to be within the range of heavy artillery bombardment. Although the accuracy of the shells must be solid to reach this distance, the accuracy is really worrying, but it is more than enough to destroy the formation of the Mongolian army. As long as the enemy formation is disorganized, the cavalry brigade may win.