"Li Zicheng was shot?"
Shen Tuo looked at the place where Chuang Wang Dazhu fell, his eyes widened in disbelief, and then the soldiers in the middle camp burst into loud cheers.
At the same time, Liu Yan also ordered the Chinese army to blow the war drums for counterattack. More than a dozen cowhide war drums brought from Kaifeng City were beaten. After hearing the news, Shen Tuo immediately shouted loudly: "Every unit moves forward! Kill the thieves!"
"Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!"
Under the leadership of three commanders, Guo Rong, Teng Jianghe, and Yu Qian, more than 10,000 soldiers in the middle camp formed an formation and advanced.
"If ten thousand people unite with one heart, mountains can be shaken, but with loyalty and righteousness, a bullfight will happen. The Lord will kiss me better than his parents. If he violates the military law, he will not be free."
"The orders are clear and there are letters of rewards and punishments. How dare you stay late when facing fire and water? Report it to the emperor and come down to rescue the head of Guizhou. Kill all the Japanese slaves and find a marquis."
The soldiers of the middle camp strode forward, and the majestic military songs also sounded. All the soldiers had forgotten their fatigue at this moment, and they all fought towards the enemy with firm eyes. The rogue knights who were completely panicked in front were constantly being forced to retreat. The battlefield situation Instant reversal.
"Woo~"
A horn sounded, which was Shen Tuo's signal to stop advancing. The soldiers of the middle camp stopped in unison. At this time, the military formation was only seventy or eighty steps away from the chaotic army of bandits and knights in front, and there were even several steps. The young cavalrymen, who thought they were brave, kept riding towards the central camp square, and were then stabbed to death by the new army's spearmen or forced back.
"The musketeer is ready!"
"put!"
Thousands of muskets were fired instantly, and the knights within a hundred steps were hit hard and fell off their horses.
The rogue knights further away were immediately blinded. The large banner that Chuang Wang had used just now disappeared. Now the army's infantry formation came forward and opened fire again. When did the situation become like this? Wasn't it a powerful attack just now? Officers and soldiers?
The gunners in the middle camp began to fire continuously. At this time, the leading bandit capital of the Liuge Xiaoqi had retreated and rushed to Li Zicheng's rescue. The troops in the front were almost unmanned. The gunners in the middle camp Under the heavy shooting, they collapsed directly, and countless knights fled in all directions. Most of them rushed towards the rear and began to attack their own relatively neat array.
"put!"
"Next row, let go!"
Thousands of mid-camp bird gunners fired continuously, and the seven Hongyi cannons on the west wall of Kaifeng City also continued to bombard. Dozens of Dafo Lang machine guns on the top of the city did not stop either, constantly firing cannonballs at the middle of the bandit army. , accelerating the rout of the hundreds of thousands of thieves on the frontal battlefield.
Liu Yan saw in the telescope the chaos of the bandit army on the front battlefield. The front army had been defeated, and the main army behind had almost stopped charging and began to fall into chaos.
So Liu Yan loudly said to the ordering soldiers around him: "Call the troops: The whole army shouts that Li Zicheng is dead!"
More than a dozen messengers around him dispersed on horseback and rushed everywhere. As they galloped, they shouted loudly: Li Zicheng is dead.
Not long after, the soldiers of the middle camp, the guard camp, and the cavalry battalion who were reorganizing in front of the low wall shouted with all their strength, and the shouts of "Li Zicheng is dead" resounded throughout the battlefield.
On the west wall of Kaifeng City, even though Chen Yongfu was standing next to the roaring artillery, he vaguely heard the shouts outside the city. He was immediately ecstatic, and he pulled over one of his subordinates like crazy and asked loudly: "Did you hear that? Outside the city. Are you calling Li Zicheng dead?"
The subordinate grinned and nodded and said, "My subordinates also heard it and said that Li Zicheng is dead!"
“Send someone to General Liu’s office to verify, quickly!”
Seeing his subordinates rushing down the horse track almost on hands and feet, Chen Yongfu laughed and looked at the gunners on the top of the city, secretly saying: "The New Army is really strong. Those New Army gunners deliberately left a lot of muskets and gauges for aiming. We even taught the gunners how to use rulers and other equipment before the battle, so that they could more accurately bombard Li Zicheng’s banner. Perhaps Li Zicheng was shot dead by the artillery on the top of the city!”
Thinking of this, Chen Yongfu couldn't help but feel ecstatic. When Yuan Chonghuan wounded the wild boar Pinurhaci with artillery in Ningyuan City, Yuan Chonghuan benefited a lot from this great achievement. Could it be that he had also committed such an unparalleled feat?
Thinking of this, Chen Yongfu's fighting spirit was high. He stood on the top of the city and looked at the battlefield outside the city. He involuntarily stood up straight and suppressed the excitement in his heart, waiting for the specific news to come.
At the same time, the army of hundreds of thousands of bandits on the frontal battlefield had been completely routed, and the bandit knights of the front army were even more powerful. The army of soldiers completely lost the chance to stabilize their position, and almost all the bandit soldiers fled backwards in fear.
The battlefield was full of shouts that Li Zicheng was dead. The bandit soldiers could not tell the truth from the false in the chaotic battlefield. In addition, the leading generals were also missing. Many bandit soldiers speculated that King Chuang might be real. He died, and all the generals fled with their soldiers.
Humans are very strange animals. When they are in a group, they gain a strong sense of security. They can move forward indomitably and fight to the death. But once uncertain factors appear in the group, fear will sprout among the crowd, and then spread quickly like a plague, instantly disintegrating the originally rock-solid will to fight!
This is what happened to the bandit army at this time. The army of hundreds of thousands collapsed in a short period of time and fled towards the Chinese army behind. Li Dingguo's firearms battalion following the army was also hit. The newly reorganized firearms battalion was directly scattered by the defeated troops, and then joined the ranks of the defeated troops.
Li Dingguo's face turned pale at this time. Together with Sun Kewang and Ai Nengqi, under the protection of more than a hundred personal guards, he fled for his life and rushed towards the Chinese army.
Former Guoyi General Ren Jirong and Guoyi General Wu Ruyi also found Li Zicheng at this time. Hundreds of heavily armored personal guards protected Li Zicheng in the middle of the battlefield, blocking the surrounding soldiers and horses that fled like a tide.
The two saw a wooden thorn sticking out of Li Zicheng's left eye. The blood had completely stained half of his face and the entire armor on his chest. Li Laiheng helped Li Zicheng sit on the ground, his face covered with tears.
The two of them looked at it stupidly, their minds went blank for a moment and they didn't know what to do.
"I ordered the whole army to retreat immediately and return to the central army to defend. I ordered Liu Fangliang and Li Guo's troops to retreat slowly to prevent Liu Yan's troops from pursuing and killing them."
"Immediately send someone to contact General Liu Zongmin of Zhongying Quan and let him temporarily command the entire army..."
Before he finished speaking, Li Zicheng gritted his teeth and trembled. The severe pain made Li Zicheng speechless. Li Laiheng glared at the two of them and shouted loudly: "What are you doing in the cold! Keep all the personal guards you brought." Come down and escort King Chuang back to the central army."
"Yes Yes!"
After being yelled by Li Laiheng, the former Guoyi general Ren Jirong and the aftermath general Wu Ruyi came to their senses. Then they left the hundreds of personal guards they brought with them, and then sent people to pass the order.
"General Li will protect King Chuang and retreat first. The two of us will lead our troops to gather troops and horses to stop the official army!"
Then everyone split up and acted. Li Laiheng tied Li Zicheng to his horse with a rope, and then led hundreds of elite knights to protect him. They fled in the direction of the Chinese army. All the broken troops blocking the road along the way, whether they were knights or infantry, were all killed. Being chopped down by hundreds of elite warriors, there was no trace of mercy.
Former Guoyi General Ren Jirong and Houyi General Wu Ruyi rode their horses to the east, collecting the defeated troops along the way. When they rode to the easternmost part of the defeated troops, the New Army's middle camp in the distance had stopped firing. The two of them breathed a sigh of relief, but then they saw the New Army cavalry battalion attack again. Thousands of elite cavalry roared in. The two of them were frightened to death. They led the more than two thousand cavalry who had just gathered up and ran away. There was no hesitation.
"Kill! Kill me!"
After a short rest, the soldiers of the cavalry battalion regained their physical strength. After Xu Ming received the order for the entire army to counterattack, he couldn't wait to lead his troops and rushed out. More than 8,000 soldiers of the cavalry battalion were like tigers descending from the mountain, chasing away the thieves from the front camp. Hundreds of thousands of broken troops from the , Zhongying and Firearms Battalions ran all the way.
The soldiers of the cavalry battalion rode their horses to charge into the dense crowd. They didn't even need to wave their spears or fire blunderbuss. They only needed to gallop their horses to knock down and trample to death countless rogue soldiers!
"Ha ha!"
Xu Ming rode his horse and galloped to kill the enemy, while laughing wildly and shouting: "Kill the thieves! Thieves and bandits have their day, kill them!"
Soon the soldiers of the cavalry battalion rushed out several miles away. Behind them, Shen Tuo also led the soldiers of the middle camp to follow. More than 10,000 soldiers of the middle camp formed a formation and moved forward. They passed the location where the bandit army was just now and saw only the ground. There are corpses everywhere, including those of thieves, war horses, and a few New Army soldiers. These corpses are stacked on top of each other. Many of them are beyond recognition. The minced meat and blood are fused together. Plus, the sun shines all day long. , giving off a nauseating smell of blood.
Shen Tuo also looked a little unhappy, and ordered all the heavy troops in the camp to gather behind them, follow the phalanx all the way forward, and collect the bodies of the New Army soldiers found along the way.
As the soldiers of the cavalry battalion and the middle camp began to cover up the defeated bandits, Qian Qian also led more than 2,000 people from the artillery battalion back to the artillery formation. He saw that many artillery pieces had been damaged on the position, all caused by the charge of the bandit army just now. When passing the artillery formation, he was hit and trampled by countless war horses.
Especially those rocket launcher vehicles, which are basically wooden structures. At this time, most of them have been crashed by the war horses of the bandit army, and many tiger cannons have also been damaged.
Qian Qian was heartbroken when he saw this, and kept yelling at the traitors for being inhumane. Then he called on the artillery battalion soldiers to come forward, pull all the artillery that could still be used back to the Chinese army, and count the battle damage of the artillery battalion as soon as possible.
Just like the situation on the frontal battlefield, at this time, as Zhang Yi led the soldiers of the left camp out of the city to join the battle, all the soldiers of the Guards Battalion had gathered on the right wing of the new army. Under the leadership of Miao Shao, they began to form a formation and launch a counterattack. Zhang Yi also led his troops to start a counterattack on the left wing of the New Army.
On the right-wing battlefield, Liu Fangliang received the order from Li Zicheng. Although he knew that Li Zicheng did not die in the battle, hundreds of thousands of soldiers did not know that the right-wing bandit Zuoying, hundreds of thousands of troops, and General Quan Tian who came from the middle camp to support Jianxiu and the powerful general Li You on the right didn't know that Li Zicheng was dead. Almost all the bandit soldiers were horrified and thought that Li Zicheng was dead.
Liu Fangliang briefly discussed with Tian Jianxiu, and then asked Tian Jianxiu to lead the infantry of the middle camp to withdraw first, while he led the troops of the left camp to cut off the rear.
However, as Miao Shao led the soldiers of the Guards Battalion to take the initiative to attack, the two men's plan also went bankrupt. The hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the Zuoying of the Rogue Bandits collapsed on the spot. The pawns were also thrown into confusion, and soon joined the rout.
Liu Fangliang and Tian Jianxiu saw that they could not stop them, so they simply led thousands of knights to gallop forward. They first returned to the central army to stabilize their position, and then gathered the defeated troops.
The mighty general Li You on the right led the 20,000 infantry of the middle camp and fell behind. Soon the 20,000 infantry were defeated and only more than 3,000 people were left. Then these 3,000 people were overtaken by the Miao Shao tribe. .
"Bird gunner, let go!"
Thousands of gunmen stopped advancing. Thousands of cannons were divided into three rows and raised horizontally. Then there was a volley. The fierce firepower immediately knocked down half of Li You's soldiers, and the remaining half of the men and horses immediately rushed away. scattered.
When Miao Shao saw Li You's battle flag, he grinned from the corner of his mouth to his ears, and shouted loudly: "Anyone who stays at night and guards attacks, chop the thieves to death!"
Ye Busuo and the guards from the personal guard camp all gathered together, and there were thousands of men and horses. Soon, Ye Buzuo and the guards from the personal guard camp rushed out of the battle formation and went straight to where Li You was to kill.
Those Ye Bushou and the guards were all equipped with flint-haired bird muskets. When they rushed through the large group of defeated troops, they all raised their muskets and fired, regardless of whether they were aiming or not. Anyway, if thousands of people were shooting at one place, someone would always be able to hit it. .
After a roar, Li You was beaten into a sieve, his battle flag was chopped down by a night guard commander, and his head was chopped off by a guard soldier.
With the death of the mighty general Li You on the right side of the bandit camp, the bandit soldiers and horses on the right wing of the New Army could no longer organize a counterattack, and everyone was fleeing for their lives. Looking from a distance, like countless black ants hiding from natural enemies, the wilderness is full of rogue soldiers, as far as the eye can see.
Some people died, but not completely...
