At the same time that the bandit's front camp Xiaoqi retreated, many heavy troops rushed over from various places on the low wall in front of the new army's formation, and quickly moved away the sandbags and bamboo baskets on the low wall, forming many three or four people wide walls. aisle.
Then the cavalry battalion soldiers of the brigade rode through and then regrouped in the open space in front of the center camp.
At this time, the open space in front of the formation was filled with blood. Broken limbs and blood were mixed with the soil, as if a heavy rain of blood had just fallen, making the ground very muddy.
Fortunately, the ground in the wilderness outside Kaifeng City was relatively hard. Although the ground was already so rough, it did not hinder the cavalry army from galloping.
Xu Ming wore heavy armor and rode his horse to the front of the army. Looking back, he saw that the three commanders Dong Yun, Du Zhongming, and Lu Yuan were already in their positions. The cavalry battalion of more than 12,000 soldiers was divided into three cavalry formations, and they were ready for the attack. adjustment.
Ahead, more than 10,000 knights from the Liuthief's front camp had withdrawn and regrouped around the large banner in the Liuthief's front yard. At the same time, Li Laiheng mobilized 50,000 armored soldiers to press forward. Those armored soldiers were equipped with a large number of spears. Euphorbias, as well as many large shields, formed a relatively neat square formation, and were steadily pressing towards this side.
Xu Ming raised his telescope and looked at it, and saw that not all of the so-called armored soldiers wore armor. Only the 10,000 to 20,000 people at the front had armor. There was very little iron armor, most of them were leather armor, and some cotton armor.
"It seems that when Li Zicheng rectified the bandit army, he only promoted some veterans. Armored soldiers are just a title, and they do not necessarily wear armor."
Xu Ming said in his heart, and then he raised the spear in his hand high. The cavalry army behind him raised their weapons one after another. The soldiers in the front were holding blunderbuss, and the soldiers behind raised their spears. Countless weapons were like a wave. Generally speaking, from front to back, it is like a wave of people watching a sports game in later generations, it is spectacular!
"Soldiers! Follow me to defeat the bandits and kill them!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
"Woo!"
Amidst the roars of the soldiers, the low horn sounded, and more than 12,000 soldiers began to charge. The horses first trotted all the way, then cantered. Finally, more than 10,000 horses began to charge at full speed, and the cavalry rolled forward. , the three cavalry formations moved forward in a Z-shaped formation, covering up the dead thieves and infantry along the way.
The bandit soldiers were in such a miserable state that they had no power to fight back against the roaring cavalry army. They were either knocked away by the war horses and died miserably, or they were directly trampled to death by the war horses. There were many more mutilated corpses on the battlefield.
Xu Ming rode his horse and rushed to the front. He saw a fleeing bandit soldier facing him. The soldier was wearing a black and shabby military uniform. He was obviously an infantryman of a bandit, but his gray hair bun showed his age.
Seeing this, Xu Ming couldn't help but feel a pain in his heart. An old man of this age should be holding his grandson at home and enjoying family happiness, but now he is running for his life on a bloody battlefield. The reality is so cruel, even Xu Ming, who is cold-hearted, At this moment, he couldn't help but feel moved. He put his feet on the horse's belly and jumped forward, bypassing the grey-haired rogue infantryman.
But then, Xu Ming looked back, and saw that the rogue infantryman was knocked down by the horse that rushed after him. A desperate cry was heard, and he disappeared. Only a trace of blood red could be seen in the soil.
"kill!"
Xu Ming was furious in his heart. He stabbed forward with the spear in his hand and roared angrily. The speed of the whole army went even further. The formation of armored soldiers from the front camp of the bandits was not far away in front. The distance between the two sides was only more than a hundred steps at most.
"put!"
The cavalry charge was very fast. At this time, Xu Ming gave an order, and the soldiers in the front rows of cavalry battalions raised their muskets to shoot. In a series of actions, the horses rushed over dozens of steps. Almost all the musketeers in the cavalry battalion fired. He rushed within a hundred steps.
A burst of gunpowder smoke filled the air along with a loud noise, and at least three thousand cannons opened fire at the same time. The shields raised by the rogue soldiers did not have much effect, and most of them were shot through by the sophisticated bird cannons of the new army. The armored soldiers at the front of the formation felt like they were hit hard, like weeds in the autumn wind, being blown down one after another by the strong wind.
Li Laiheng saw this scene from behind, and immediately gritted his steel teeth, pulled out the sword from his waist and roared, urging the more than 10,000 knights to speed up their reorganization and lead his troops to charge forward personally.
At this time, the phalanx of armored soldiers in front had begun to turmoil. As the shield-bearing soldiers in front were shot and killed by cannons, the soldiers of the Xinjia Cavalry Battalion rushed into the phalanx on horseback. Under the violent impact, countless rogue armored soldiers died tragically. In the hands of the cavalry battalion soldiers.
Xu Ming and many soldiers galloped on horseback. The spear in his hand hardly required any movement. He only had to raise it straight forward. With the impact speed and impact force of the war horse, he could effortlessly slice through the enemy's bodies along the way.
The armors worn by the bandit soldiers were all captured. The quality was very poor and uneven. They did not provide much defense against the impact of the cavalry army.
The three cavalry formations of the New Army's cavalry battalion were advancing together at this time, and they all rushed into the formation of the thieves and armored soldiers. Several square formations in the front had completely collapsed, and several square formations in the back also began to turmoil. Li Laiheng worked hard to form These 50,000 armored soldiers could not stop the impact of more than 12,000 New Army cavalry battalions!
At this time, the New Army cavalry battalion was finally dispatched, and it immediately became the focus of the entire battlefield. Whether it was Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, Li Yan and others, Li Dingguo, Sun Kewang, Ai Nengqi, or Chen Yongfu on the top of Kaifeng City, They are always paying attention to the battle situation here.
Even Li Guo and Liu Fangliang, who were on both sides of the battlefield, looked at the battle flags of various ministries that were constantly moving on the front battlefield, and saw the battle flags of Li Laiheng's troops retreating. They were extremely anxious in their hearts.
Liu Yan held up his telescope to observe for a while, then smiled and said to Miao Shao: "Xu Ming is on fire this time. He is killing everyone. I don't know if he can rush to the Chinese army in the front camp of the bandits."
Miao Shao said: "Although the bandit army has a large number of people, each battalion can easily have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people, but most of them are dead soldiers and infantry. Even the armored soldiers have different combat strengths. Tens of thousands of armored soldiers can't withstand the impact of more than 10,000 armored cavalry. So I think the cavalry battalion soldiers can definitely rush to the central army of the bandits' front camp despite their casualties!"
Liu Yan nodded, then held up his telescope and looked at the camp formation of the bandits, and said in a deep voice: "Now it depends on what decision Li Zicheng will make. Should he send troops to support the front, or withdraw his troops?"
The words were divided into two parts. At this time, Li Dingguo, Sun Kewang, and Ai Nengqi had already reorganized the defeated troops of the Firearms Battalion. However, there were still many defeated troops left on the battlefield. On the chaotic battlefield, they could not be gathered back in a short time, so at this time the three There are only more than 10,000 people around me.
The organization of these more than 10,000 people has been completely disrupted. It can be said that the firearms battalion at this time has lost the ability to fight again.
Li Dingguo also looked in the direction of the central camp and saw Li Zicheng's King Chuang flag fluttering in the wind in the military formation, with no sign of moving.
"What is King Chuang doing?"
Li Dingguo said anxiously: "The war has reached a stalemate at this time. Each battalion has suffered huge casualties and dragged tens of thousands of Liu Yan's main forces here. All Liu Yan's troops have been sent out. As long as King Chuang leads more than 20 people from the middle camp, If thousands of elite troops enter the battlefield, they will definitely defeat Liu Yan's troops, but why are they still standing still!"
Ai Nengqi was also extremely anxious and asked, "How about we send someone to the central camp?"
"No!"
Sun Kewang stopped Ai Nengqi, who was eager to try, and Li Dingguo, who was hesitant, and said: "The three of us are already feared by King Chuang. This is a critical moment in the battle. King Chuang is weighing the pros and cons again. At this time, we get together to point fingers. , we will definitely become the target of public criticism, even King Chuang will target us..."
Sun Kewang didn't finish what he said, but both Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi understood the meaning. The three of them sighed deeply. They could only wait and could do nothing at this moment.
"Is it the front or the two wings?"
In the military formation of the middle camp of the bandits, Li Zicheng asked impatiently. At this time, Li Yan and Tian Jianxiu advocated dispatching the middle camp and entering the frontal battlefield. Together with the soldiers and horses of the front camp, they surrounded and annihilated Liu Yan's cavalry.
However, Liu Zongmin, General He Jin, Song Xiance, and Gu Junen believed that the Central Battalion should be deployed on the left-wing battlefield, first defeating Liu Yan's first unit, and then directly inserting Liu Yan's middle army.
The two sides are in a stalemate, each with their own reasons.
According to the battle reports successively reported by each battalion, the casualties of each battalion are now very large. Although most of them are dead soldiers and infantry, the huge number of casualties is enough to make Li Zicheng begin to waver.
While everyone was arguing, Niu Jinxing, who had been silent, spoke up: "King Chuang, our army suffered huge casualties in this battle. Even if Liu Yan's main force was severely damaged, our army's casualties will also be very huge. This will affect our army's rampage in the future." The impact on the world will be very great, should we withdraw our troops temporarily and find another way to defeat Liu Yan's troops?"
Li Zicheng didn't say anything after hearing this. Li Yan immediately said: "King Chuang, the fierce battle has come to this point. Our army must not withdraw, otherwise all our previous efforts will be wasted!"
Song Xiance had always looked down upon Niu Jinxing, so he stood with Li Yan at this time and said loudly: "If we retreat at this time, Liu Yan's command will be more famous: he can defeat millions of rebels with tens of thousands! Let me ask you. , in the future our rebel army will be able to muster up the courage to fight against Liu Yan's troops? Could it be that Commander Niu wants our rebel soldiers to flee!"
Seeing that the three of them were about to quarrel, Li Zicheng immediately shouted: "Okay!"
Everyone suddenly became quiet and looked at Li Zicheng.
I saw Li Zicheng striding towards his yellow gelding under the gaze of everyone. After getting on the horse, he said loudly: "Our rebel army is doing justice for heaven. We are here today to fight the imperial eagles and dogs in a bloody battle. There is no reason to withdraw our troops!"
"The order goes down: Two hundred thousand infantry troops from the middle camp are divided into two groups to reinforce the two flanks of the battlefield. Forty thousand knights will accompany King Chuang to the front battlefield to support the soldiers of the front camp."
Liu Zongmin, the general of the Zhongying system, also got on his horse at this moment, laughed and shouted: "Okay! It is heroic to conquer the king. With all our soldiers from the Zhongying participating in the battle, Liu Yan's troops will be doomed!"
The rest of the generals, such as Quan General Tian Jianxiu, Zhi General He Jin, former Guoyi General Ren Jirong, Houyi General Wu Ruyi, Zhengwei General Zhang Nai, deputy mighty General Dang Shouxu, left mighty General Xin Sizhong, right mighty General Li Friends are also gearing up one after another, each mounting his horse and armour, preparing to lead his troops to attack.
Liu Zongmin then led his troops, including former Guoyi General Ren Jirong, Guoyi General Wu Ruyi, and Zhengweiwu General Zhang Nai, to accompany Li Zicheng to reinforce the frontal battlefield.
The system general He Jin led the deputy mighty general Dang Shousu and the left mighty general Xin Sizhong to reinforce the right-wing battlefield. General Tian Jianxiu, a powerful general on the right, and Li You, a mighty general on the right, led their troops to reinforce the left-wing battlefield.
Li Yan, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, and Gu Junen stayed with the Chinese army and had their own soldiers and horses to protect them.
A moment later, more than a dozen large cowhide drums of the bandit army were beaten. The sound of the huge war drums immediately overwhelmed the din on the battlefield and attracted the attention of almost everyone.
Liu Yan, Chen Yongfu, as well as Xu Ming, Shen Tuo, Miao Shao and others, as well as Li Dingguo, Li Guo, Li Laiheng, Liu Fangliang and others, all watched Li Zicheng's Chuangwang Dagu begin to move, guarded by 40,000 elite knights. , moving towards the front of Li Laiheng.
At the same time, the 200,000 infantrymen of the middle battalion also divided into two groups and moved toward the battlefield on both wings in a mighty manner.
Liu Yan watched in the telescope as the bandit camp began to divide its troops. He did not look nervous. Instead, he breathed a sigh of relief and said to Miao Shao: "Li Zicheng's last trump card has been revealed, and we have to defend this battle."
Miao Shao frowned and said: "Li Zicheng's middle camp is strong. Now on the three battlefields, although our army has the advantage, our army's shortcoming is its small number of troops. With the reinforcements of the rogue troops and the middle camp, we have the initiative in the battle." It will change hands again.”
Liu Yan nodded and said: "That is natural, but what our army has to do is to defend on both wings and attack from the front. As long as Li Zicheng's troops are defeated, this battle will be over!"
"The bandits in the front are the strongest. The soldiers in the middle camp and the cavalry camp have been fighting hard for a long time. How can we quickly defeat the enemy?"
Liu Yan sneered and said: "Call Chen Yongfu: The seven Hongyi cannons on the top of the city are ready to bombard. At the same time, all the artillery on the top of the city are concentrated. Following the orders of this town, they will fire at the army of thieves."
"Tell Chen Yongfu that all the artillery is aimed at Li Zicheng's banner. No matter whether it can hit or not, it must give momentum to this town!"
Some people died, but not completely...
