"Your Majesty, Duke An Guo and the others can no longer support us. Should we open the city gate now and let Ping Xihou lead his troops to rush out?"
At Chaoyang Gate, Shen Zhanran looked at Liu Wenbing who was fighting hard and said to Zhu Yuanzhang with some worry.
Zhu Yuanzhang saw that although Liu Zongmin's cavalry offensive was fierce, it did not break through Liu Wenbing's cavalry formation.
Wu Xiang on the side used the shield soldiers and crossbowmen among his slaves to set up a turtle formation with strong defense. There would be no danger in a short time.
So he took another look with his telescope, and then said in a deep voice: "Dong An Guo will not be in danger for the time being, but Zhang Tianlin's flags in the camp are a bit confusing. It seems that Liu Zongmin didn't know about him before he came."
"He is hastily sending out troops at this moment, and there must be some omissions in the formation. This is an opportunity for us. After he leads his troops to press forward, we can send out troops again, so as not to let him find something strange and retreat."
After hearing this, Shen Zhanran also picked up the telescope and looked at it, saying: "This Tianlin is also cunning. He only sent light cavalry and chariots."
"The shield soldiers and pikemen protected Fo Lang Ji and set up a formation outside the range of our artillery. The Fo Lang Ji was guarded by bows and arrows and musketeers behind it. There are artillery guards in the camp. It may not be easy for us to capture him."
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "No, there is a problem with his formation. You see, in order to protect Fo Langji, he arranged the shield soldiers and spearmen in front, but he was worried that the infantry would be too close to affect Fo Langji's attack, resulting in The distance between the two is too great.”
"Moreover, the infantry was too far away laterally to avoid blocking the view of Fo Lang's pilot. In addition, in order to assist Liu Zongmin, he did not send cavalry to protect him, so his mobility was too poor."
"The Folang machine and the musketeers seemed to be attacking from a distance, but the distance was too close, and in order to avoid the Folan machine man, they made the same mistake as the infantry."
"The position of the artillery is even more unreasonable. Although the range of the artillery is ahead of the infantry, the distance is too close. Once the two armies are in a melee, his artillery will not be effective at all."
"To deal with such a formation, we only need to use heavy cavalry to attack from the front, or use light cavalry to attack from both wings to destroy his Folangji position, and his formation will be messed up."
"It's a pity that we have too few cavalry. It is very easy to get entangled by the cavalry below the city when we leave the city. If we attack with infantry, the losses will be too great."
After saying that, he sighed with some regret.
Shen Zhanran has always been quite conceited about his military ability. Now after listening to Zhu Yuanzhang's words, he observed carefully with a telescope for a while and found that it was just as Zhu Yuanzhang said, and he couldn't help but feel like a mountain is standing tall in his heart.
At this time, he suddenly heard a sound of surprise, and then heard Zhu Yuanzhang's voice: "Huang Qing, do you have a way to make the artillery fire farther?"
It turned out that after Zhu Yuanzhang carefully observed the attack range of the artillery on the city, he found that the landing point of the artillery shells was only about one mile away from Zhang Tianlin's infantry. If he could move further forward, he would directly destroy Zhang Tianlin's Folang machine.
Seeing that Huang Nilu had been adjusting the artillery, he asked.
Huang Nilu, who was directing the artillery attack, heard this and said with some embarrassment: "Your Majesty, I have just tested that with the firepower of Chaoyang Gate, it is impossible to attack the rebel's Folangji position."
"But I see that the rebels are deploying medium-sized Folang aircraft. The range should be about two miles. If your Majesty is just worried that our army will be injured by the Folan aircraft, I have brought some improved medium-sized Folang aircraft and artillery shells. The range is about two miles." It should be about three miles.”
"As long as we attack three miles away, not only will we not be injured, but we can defeat the rebels in one fell swoop."
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he shook his head and said: "No, the road under the city is not wide, and the medium-sized Folan machine is too heavy and heavy. It will easily block the road when transported out, affecting the speed of dispatching troops."
He pondered for a while and said to Huang Nilu: "We remember that there are some inferior artillery shells on Chaoyang Gate. You replace them with these shells and slow down the frequency of artillery firing to create the illusion that there are insufficient shells."
After saying that, he looked at Shen Zhanran and said: "Shen Qing, let Pingxihou send a thousand elites to pretend to be panicked and open the city gate, rush out and pretend to escort Wu Xiang into the city, but don't go too fast. See if Liu Zongmin will let the infantry come forward. Siege the city!”
Shen Zhanran said hesitantly: "Your Majesty, Liu Zongmin just suffered a loss at Zhangyimen, I'm afraid he won't be fooled again!"
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "It is precisely because he has suffered losses and is eager to save face that he is easily fooled."
"If he is really not fooled, then let Ping Xihou lead his troops to force the cavalry under the city to both sides, and then let Li Ruolian lead two thousand light cavalry to charge forward."
"Even if we lose these two thousand cavalry today, we still have to kill more than ten thousand people like Thief Li to show off our momentum!"
Shen Zhanran nodded and was about to instruct the flag bearer to play the flag when he saw Wang Shoulin running up in a hurry.
After a hurried salute, he reported: "Your Majesty, the general has just received news that Gao Jie has arrived with 20,000 elite troops and said that he will attack Li Thief's camp at noon today. Please send troops to cooperate with him!"
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent when he heard this.
Shen Zhanran on the side saw this and whispered: "Your Majesty, this matter is quite strange. You should know that Wu Tongzhi was away for several days and could only find out the general location of Li Thief's camp."
"Gao Jie has just arrived, so how would he know where the Li bandit camp is? Moreover, if Liu Fangliang from Baoding travels lightly, he should be able to feel the capital today..."
Zhu Yuanzhang waited for him to finish speaking, then looked at Liu Wenbing and others who were fighting fiercely below the city, and said in a deep voice: "Gao Jie once served as an official under Li Thief, and he is very familiar with Li Thief's marching and formation habits. It is not enough to find Li Thief's camp. strange."
"Furthermore, Gao Jie secretly married Mr. Li's wife Xing. Judging from Mr. Li's attitude towards Li Yan, we should know that Mr. Li is narrow-minded and there is no possibility of cooperation between the two."
After that, he pondered for a while and said to Wang Shoulin: "Go and contact Gao Jie quickly and tell him that we are already encircling and suppressing the rebels and let him wait for an opportunity to act. If we can capture Thief Li alive, we will grant him the title of Duke of Zhenxi. "
Wang Shoulin was stunned for a moment. After bowing and saluting, he hurried down again.
"Shen Qing, tell Li Ruolian that after Ping Xihou surrounded the rebels, he immediately led 5,000 cavalry to attack Zhang Tianlin's camp. Among them, 3,000 heavy cavalry charged frontally, and 2,000 light cavalry detoured back to the flanks of Fo Langji's position to attack. "
"At the same time, let him bring out a hundred dead soldiers, mix them in while the rebels are retreating, and wait for the opportunity to carry out beheading operations."
Shen Zhanran had some hesitation in his heart, but seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang had made up his mind, he said no more and immediately ordered the flag bearer to pass the message.
"哐——哐——"
As the Chaoyang Gate opened, a thousand elites rushed out of the city gate and approached Wu Xiang.
Liu Zongmin, who was in the distance, saw that another hole had been torn out in the gradually closing encirclement, and he immediately sent forward the five hundred mysterious armored cavalry who were guarding him.
"Captain Zuo, something seems to be wrong. Should we withdraw first?"
Zhang Tianlin on the side saw that Liu Zongmin was a little impatient and suggested in a low voice.
"It's okay. Chongzhen's heavy troops are gathered at Zhangyi Gate and Desheng Gate. There are not many guards here. Otherwise, they would not be able to open the city gate and only send more than a thousand people to rescue."
"Brother Tianlin, I see there is not enough artillery fire in the city. Can you send some infantry to rush up and assist the cavalry in capturing Wu Xiang?"
"Secondly, if Chaoyang Gate is really empty, we might be able to attack the city in one go!"
Zhang Tianlin said hesitantly: "I see there are a lot more artillery at Chaoyang Gate today than in the past few days. I'm afraid Chongzhen set up an ambush deliberately. We'd better be careful."
When Liu Zongmin heard this, he thought Zhang Tianlin was ridiculing him for the failure of the Changyi Sect, so he glared at him dissatisfied and said, "Okay, just wait here and see how I can make a difference!"
After that, he rushed forward with the remaining dozens of riders.
Zhang Tianlin was worried that Liu Zongmin would be punished if he made a mistake, so after letting out a long sigh, he dispatched some infantrymen to chase him.
Unexpectedly, they had only advanced for more than a mile when they saw thousands of infantry rushing out of the city and forcing the cavalry below the city to both sides.
Immediately afterwards, thousands more cavalry rushed out of the city and came straight towards them.
Seeing this, Zhang Tianlin hurriedly set up a formation.
But the distance between the two sides was too close, and the cavalry broke up his formation in an instant and rushed towards Fo Langji's position.
At the same time, thousands of cavalry emerged from the northeast of Chaoyang Gate and rushed towards them.
