The iron hooves rumbled and swept past.
More than 8,000 soldiers of the cavalry battalion galloped on their horses on the chaotic battlefield, rushing through countless rogue soldiers, bumping into and trampling on a large number of rogue soldiers, and the surrounding rogue soldiers screamed and fled.
"General, two miles ahead is the old camp of the bandits!"
Li Zicheng's old camp set up in the west of Kaifeng City had been detected by the New Army at night before this battle. However, there were hundreds of thousands of rogue troops stationed there, so Liu Yan did not expect to raid here.
But things are different now. Li Zicheng's hundreds of thousands of bandits' troops were defeated in one battle. There are hundreds of thousands of bandits' baggage stored in this old camp. Liu Yan must get this gift!
Soon, Xu Ming led thousands of soldiers from the cavalry battalion to the east of the old camp. They saw thousands of bandits arrayed outside the camp. When they saw the battle flag of the cavalry battalion, they began to rush forward to stop them.
The leader of the bandits was He Lan, General You Guoyi of the rear camp, while Li Yan, together with General You Guoyi, Lu Yingbiao, transported the family members and baggage of the old camp. The Red Lady also led five hundred female soldiers to accompany her.
"Charge forward and kill!"
More than 8,000 soldiers of the cavalry battalion were charging at full speed at this time, while Helan's 5,000 knights had just started. The two sides were approaching quickly, and then the soldiers of the cavalry battalion raised their blunderbuss.
After a roar, the soldiers of the cavalry battalion put on their spears one after another, and then galloped towards the rogue knight who was already on his back. Xu Ming took the lead. He spotted the rogue general in front who had been shot and was holding his chest and screaming, and fired. Then he crossed the general's neck.
It was Helan who was killed by Xu Ming. At this time, blood poured out from the neck wound and throat, making a gurgling sound.
Helan felt dizzy for a while, and then fell off the horse.
Xu Ming laughed happily, and behind him was a sentry commander who slashed Helan's battle flag with a knife. The cavalry battalion soldiers cheered and continued to attack. Soon, the five thousand knights of Helan tribe were defeated, and the remaining enemies rushed in all directions. Escape.
"kill!"
Xu Ming looked back and saw that his casualties were not large. He felt relieved, and then led his troops to rush towards the men and horses in front who were retreating eastward.
They were all old, young, women and children, most of them were the family members of the cavalry and armored soldiers of each battalion, and there were more than 300,000 people in total!
The family members of the bandits also discovered the existence of the cavalry camp. Seeing the loss of five thousand knights in an instant, the crowd suddenly burst into exclamations, and then a commotion broke out. They retreated and ran away, and the large group of people suddenly became chaotic.
Li Yan was extremely anxious at this time. Looking at the cavalry camp with thousands of soldiers and horses that were less than a mile away, he immediately said to the road sign beside him: "General, immediately lead all the soldiers and horses to go up. I will lead the old camp to retreat..."
"As much as you can withdraw is as much as you can!"
Although Lu Yingbiao was afraid in his heart, he looked at the family members of Laoying behind him and couldn't see them at all, and his heart was filled with fear. If these more than 300,000 family members were captured by the government troops, even if the battalions of soldiers and horses successfully evacuated, they would eventually fall apart. With all the family members gone, who can still work for King Chuang with peace of mind?
"Okay! Strategist, be careful."
After saying that, Lu Yingbiao gathered the last few thousand knights and armored soldiers from the old camp and formed a formation to meet them.
Li Yan, together with the 500 female soldiers under the Red Lady, fought hard to drive more than 300,000 family members of the bandits to evacuate westward.
But after all, Li Yan and Hong Niangzi have too few people.
Five hundred people were simply unable to maintain order among the more than 300,000 old camp family members. As soon as Lu Yingbiao's troops in the east came into contact with Xu Ming's cavalry battalion, the old camp's large group began to collapse.
Countless women and children were seen running away together, crying and grabbing the ground. The crowd of more than 300,000 people began to disperse in all directions. No matter how Li Yan, Hong Niangzi and others tried to stop them, it was of no avail.
Even among the crowd, many strong women and elderly people began to gather, grabbing money, food and luggage shipped from the old camp. The female soldiers under the Red Lady saw this and went to stop them, but they were attacked by the family members of the thieves who had lost their minds. Dozens or even hundreds of people surrounded several female soldiers, and then they beat them crazily and even bit them. .
In the blink of an eye, dozens of female soldiers died tragically in the crowd. The red lady was furious when she saw this, and she directly drew her sword and stabbed several thieves to death. However, she was targeted by more family members of the thieves. A large number of people rushed over and vowed to kill them. Kill the red lady.
Li Yan was shocked and angry when he saw this. He led a group of female soldiers to protect the red lady. While retreating, he loudly said: "The old camp is over, let's evacuate immediately and look for King Chuang to lead the crime!"
The red lady's eyes were red and swollen. She was obviously deeply shocked by the scene in front of her. She choked and shouted: "If you go back like this, what should you do? King Chuang will kill you and me!"
Li Yan gritted his teeth and said: "The matter has reached this point, and it is beyond human power to save! Finding King Chuang, whether life or death, is my responsibility, Li Yan, retreat!"
Then Li Yan and Lady Hong, protected by the remaining more than 200 female soldiers, fought their way through the already crazy family members of Laoying and fled westward in embarrassment.
At the same time, Xu Ming was holding the person who marked the road in one hand.
With his head raised, a spear held high in one hand, he shouted: "Charge! Take down the bandits' baggage and make those bandits surrender and surrender. Anyone who disobeys the order will be killed!"
boom!
More than 8,000 soldiers of the cavalry battalion rushed forward. The family members of the bandits who had been fighting for supplies aggressively just now dispersed in a rush. Many of them were killed by the cavalry army. The rest were shouted out to "surrender". They all knelt on the ground and asked to surrender.
Not long after, all the more than 3,000 baggage trucks of the old camp of the bandits fell into the hands of the cavalry battalion. Xu Ming grinned and stood on a baggage truck with bags of grain at his feet. Everywhere they looked, there were family members of the bandits kneeling on the ground waiting to be dealt with. It was estimated that there were at least tens of thousands of people.
"Haha, great victory, great victory!"
Like the soldiers of the cavalry battalion, the middle battalion led by Shen Tuo, the left and right battalions led by Zhang Yi and Wang Bo, Miao Shao's personal guard battalion, and thousands of soldiers and horses of Chen Yongfu were all chasing in the wilderness west of Kaifeng City. Go north and die.
Today, the officers and soldiers of the Ming Army finally realized what it means to overwhelm the enemy. Even Chen Yongfu was so excited that he burst into tears while leading his troops in pursuit. The fear, anger, and uneasiness of being besieged by hundreds of thousands of thieves during this period all disappeared. .
"Haha, it's good to follow Mr. Liu!"
Chen Yongfu sighed sincerely. He led his troops to capture prisoners and seize military equipment and supplies. Thousands of Ming troops seemed to come out to "pick up equipment", and there was no appearance of fighting.
Liu Yan commanded the battalions of the New Army and Chen Yongfu's troops to pursue from the west of Kaifeng City all the way to the west. Until the evening of that day, tens of thousands of troops pursued for more than ten miles before stopping and gradually withdrawing their troops back to the city.
when dusk
The afterglow falls on the earth, and Kaifeng City looks like a warrior who has just experienced a disaster, proudly overlooking the earth. The corpses and blood scattered on the battlefield are also telling the tragedy and tragedy.
Liu Yan sat tiredly on a dead horse, surrounded by New Army soldiers cleaning the battlefield. Miao Shao, Xu Ming, Shen Tuo and others were chatting and laughing not far away, and the governor Xun Jingyun led a group of subordinates Wandering around, checking the merits and demerits of each battalion and the number of beheadings.
At this time, Chen Yongfu and Gao Mingheng came together. Chen Yongfu's face was rosy. After this battle, he would not be able to escape by winning the title of Chief Military Officer. Gao Mingheng, on the other hand, walked cautiously on the bloody battlefield, fearing that his official robe would be stained with blood. When he encountered some hideous-looking corpses, Gao Mingheng would frown and avoid them, for fear of touching his brow.
However, Gao Mingheng still had a smile on his face. Li Zicheng was defeated and the siege of Kaifeng City was completely relieved. As the governor of Henan, he must have made meritorious deeds, and his future promotion would be just around the corner.
"Haha, General Liu, what a joy to congratulate, what a joy to congratulate!"
Gao Mingheng clasped his fists and said: "This battle is a great victory. The war in the Central Plains has been completely reversed. We can finally report good news to His Majesty!"
Chen Yongfu smiled excitedly at this time and kept echoing.
Although Liu Yan also had a smile on his face, he was not too happy in his heart.
This battle was indeed won, but Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, Li Guo, Li Laiheng and other major bandit leaders all ran away. Although they killed several bandit generals, the weight of those few was obviously not enough.
Therefore, in Liu Yan's view, the crisis in the Central Plains has only been temporarily alleviated.
Given time, Li Zicheng will definitely make a comeback, sooner or later.
"In this battle, Li Chuang escaped. The war in the Central Plains is just a break. Gao Futai must pacify the people and provide relief to the victims as soon as possible. General Chen must also recruit troops and rebuild the defenses of various places as soon as possible to cope with Li Zicheng's comeback."
Gao Mingheng and Chen Yongfu nodded heavily, and then Chen Yongfu said with a smile: "How many prisoners did General Liu capture in this battle?"
Liu Yan said: "Just now, Deputy Xun, the governor of our army, has sent us data. Our new army in Qinglai Town has captured more than 93,000 prisoners, of which more than 50,000 are women and children from the old camp of thieves. "
Chen Yongfu was excited, clasped his fists and said: "The general has a merciless request. I hope General Liu can give these prisoners to the general, so that young men can be selected from them to form garrison troops all over Henan as soon as possible. Of course, The general will never let General Liu suffer a loss. These prisoners will be exchanged for money and food..."
Liu Yan interrupted Chen Yongfu's words with a wave of his hand, and said: "The captured thieves are hard to change and must not be used to replenish the army. This town has ordered that the thumbs of all young and strong hands of the prisoners be cut off to prevent them from relapse." Become a thief."
"Subsequently, this town will hand over these more than 90,000 prisoners to Gaofutai to arrange for them to farm everywhere. Although they have no thumbs on both hands, their farm work will definitely not be as good as before, but they will not starve to death, so that's it. People's livelihood in various places can be restored as soon as possible."
"As for the soldiers General Chen needs, in this town's opinion, it is better to spend some money and recruit them from various places."
Chen Yongfu and Gao Mingheng were dumbfounded on the spot. One of the soldiers they had been looking forward to was gone, and there were many unwanted burdens.
All of them were pushed over by Liu Yan.
"this……"
Seeing that the two of them were unwilling, Liu Yan said coldly: "It's okay if you disagree, but in the future those prisoners will rebel again and attack Li Zicheng from both inside and outside. Our Qinglai Town New Army will not be able to rush in as quickly as we did this time." When the time comes, the two of you will live, die, be rich, and live in heaven, everything will depend on God’s will!”
Chen Yongfu and Gao Mingheng had no choice but to agree, and then began to bargain with Liu Yan. The three of them divided up the city's treasury. Liu Yan had 50% of the money and food "donated" by King Zhou and others, Chen Yongfu had 30% of the soldiers and horses recruited, and Gao Mingheng had 30%. Accounted for 20%.
Then Chen Yongfu asked: "General Liu, how do you write the victory report?"
In this battle, the new army of Qinglai Town led by Liu Yan beheaded more than 113,600 people and captured more than 90,000 people. Most of them were dead soldiers from the bandit battalions. The armor soldiers and Xiaoqi soldiers were beheaded. With more than 40,000 levels, he returned to the formation and killed Liu Xiyao, deputy general of the bandit Zuoying camp, Bai Minghe, the general of Zuo Guoyi of the right camp, He Lan, and Lu Yingbiao, the general of You Guoyi, and captured Sun Kewang, the general of Zuo Guoyi of the bandit firearms camp. , the results were huge.
Due to the extraordinary performance of the New Army's artillery battalion, and the fact that the bandit battalions had developed a deep fear of the New Army, coupled with Li Zicheng's vacillation, each battalion did its own thing on the battlefield. Various reasons were added up. The casualties of each battalion of the new army were far less than those in the previous battle.
In this battle, the Guards Battalion lost 103 killed and 82 wounded; the Center Battalion lost 135 killed and 19 wounded; the Cavalry Battalion lost 218 killed and 88 wounded. ; Fifty-one people were killed in the artillery battalion and 13 were wounded; the left battalion suffered
One hundred and eleven people were killed and 113 wounded; the right battalion lost 99 people killed and 103 wounded.
In one day's bloody battle, each battalion of the New Army lost 717 soldiers and 418 wounded.
Most of the credit for this battle must be attributed to the New Army soldiers, and the right to speak naturally belongs to him, so Liu Yan said: "My New Army soldiers have two victories in two battles, and more than 5,000 soldiers spilled blood on the battlefield. , this town needs to think about the wording of this good news again, and after thinking about it, we will write it ourselves. Of course, we will also write down the credit of the two adults, so please don’t worry. "
Chen Yongfu and Gao Mingheng were completely dumbfounded when they saw that Liu Yan had no intention of discussing it.
