Liu Chengzong was not here to fight.
The hunters who entered the camp last night brought him the despair of Linka Daiben.
He believed that the time had come. The Lingkadai army trapped in the ruins was alone and at a disadvantage in terms of strength. As long as he sent people to persuade them to surrender, he should be able to surrender this enemy army.
Therefore, the whole army prepared meals at the third watch and set off before dawn at the fourth watch. Monk Wang was sent to convey the news that he was willing to surrender in front of the formation.
It's a pity that Linka didn't have this tacit understanding.
Not only did Linka Daiben refuse to surrender, he also scolded Monk Wang bloody for trying to persuade him to surrender.
Liu Chengzong was furious and ordered the artillerymen to fill the Lion Cannon with powder, lift the guns and large blunderbuss to charge the powder, and discharge a large horizontal formation layer upon layer, pressing straight up from the northeast of the valley.
Strong charges are used to penetrate the simple wooden fortresses built overnight by the enemy and also to break armor.
Through the telescope, he saw the enemy's refusal to surrender, a heavy infantry force flanked by cavalry.
The heavy infantry numbered between seven and eight hundred men, with more than four hundred sleeveless iron armor, equipped with eight-foot-long spears and large shields, as well as large multi-braced crossbows held by two or three people.
Liu Chengzong called this kind of armor ring armor, which was like an iron sack that was narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. When not wearing it, you could lift it up and put it down to form a circle of iron pieces.
On the one hand, the equipment of this group of people is very good, but on the other hand, the equipment style does not belong to the Western Fan, but more like the Southwestern Yi.
If fighting in the mountains, these heavy infantry will cause him a lot of trouble, but in this river valley, it is meaningless.
Liu Chengzong could foresee that there would be a battle here that would make him unmotivated.
Every inch that is long and every inch that is strong is used in the military. It means that any shortcoming is very fatal.
The large multi-braced crossbow they used looked very powerful, but its range was not too far. Liu Chengzong estimated that it was only a hundred steps, and his artillery and rifles were enough to launch an attack from 200 steps away.
Just a hundred steps away is enough to put these enemies into an isolated and helpless situation.
After all, judging from their deployment, they planned to resist based on the proposed fortifications. The fortifications were dead. They could either stand there and be shot at, or jump out of the fortifications and charge. No matter which one, they would die.
The enemy obviously had this situation in mind.
So when Liu Chengzong used his binoculars to explore the enemy's situation, he found that the heavy infantry in front of the enemy's formation were commotion, and the enemy generals seemed to be arguing fiercely.
Then they started fighting among themselves.
The cause of the internal strife was that a Yi soldier ran out of the defense line and seemed to want to explore with Liu Chengzong's people again. However, before he could reach the middle of the battlefield, he was slashed in the neck by the Baili nobleman who was riding behind him. superior.
Then the enemy formation was in chaos, and some of the heavy infantry turned around and attacked Baili's army. Some of Baili's troops who were suddenly attacked by friendly forces joined in the counterattack, and more people fled to the mountains on both sides.
Liu Chengzong did not let them fight among themselves and ordered the army to continue advancing. The artillery fired at the fleeing enemy troops on both sides. The infantry attacked the enemy troops who had lost their formation in small groups. Wherever they went, the heavy infantry were very obedient and put down their weapons one after another, shouting "Han" Then surrender to the 'official army'.
The head-on battle lasted only a moment. When Xie Erhu on the other side led the Mongolian cavalry to gallop across the river valley, the battle had come to an end.
The recruitment and surrender process made Liu Chengzong full of emotion. Any biased policy would affect the war.
Even now, everyone in Kang District knows that these Han soldiers who were summoned by Nangqian Gama will take over the land of nobles when they see them, and even let a slave boy become the master.
The consequence of this policy is that even if they are at a disadvantage, the nobles are unwilling to surrender to him, so the battle must be fought.
Because the low-status slaves have no right to decide whether to fight or not, but the advantage is that when fighting with real swords and guns, most enemies have very weak will to resist.
After all, the people who really fight in array with weapons are not the high-ranking gentlemen, but the slaves who are low in the dust. If there is no other way, they will be happy to surrender.
The heavy infantry consisting of more than 700 people also surrendered to him, and their leader was quickly brought before Liu Chengzong.
The leader was an old man over forty years old. He was brought over with Linka Daiben's head in his hands and he kowtowed in a straight and correct manner. He spoke Chinese fluently and his title confused Liu Chengzong: "Daliang Guoshen General Ah Liu" , kowtow to the Generalissimo.”
Daliang Kingdom? He is also a military officer of Daliang State, with an official title.
Liu Chengzong felt strange. He looked at the gray-haired veteran in front of him.
He is a bit older, but he doesn't look like he has lived for more than 700 years. Zhu Wen has been dead for so many years, and there are still survivors alive?
After Ah Liu's respectful explanation, Liu Chengzong understood that this Daliang country was the Daliang country that She Chongming, the chieftain of Yongning, Sichuan.
Ah Liu's life experience is almost a microcosm of the turbulent times in Sichuan since Wanli.
He was born in Yongning. At the age of fifteen in the twenty-eighth year of Wanli, he joined the battlefield at the call of the Ming Emperor.
It was a fine day on the sixth day of June that year. He carried a large crossbow and captured Yang Yinglong's Hailongtun in the midst of a huge crowd.
For many years afterwards, Ah Liu served as a junior officer in She Chongming's army. By the first year of Tianqi, he was already the local chief of Xuanfu Division in Yongning. If there were no accidents, that would probably be the end of his career.
But that year, the imperial court ordered the Yongning Xuanfu Division to send troops to aid the Liao Dynasty. In a very short period of time, the Yongnian Xuanfu Division frantically expanded its armaments and recruited local soldiers. He caught up with Dongfeng and was promoted to the position of Chief Tuqian.
In September of that year, the Yongning Xuanfu Division sent 20,000 troops to Chongqing. Ah Liu thought they would go to unimaginable distances and fight the Jianzhou chieftain on the battlefield.
It wasn't until the evening of September 16th that officers at his level knew about She Chongming's plan. The next day, taking advantage of the opportunity for the Liao Army to perform martial arts at the school grounds, She Chongming's son-in-law Fan Long ordered to kill the governor Xu Keqiu and other military and political officials. More than twenty people formally declared rebellion.
On October 18th of that year, Ah Liu was already standing under the Chengdu city as a general of the Daliang Kingdom. There were only two thousand defenders on the city, and it would only take a few days to break through the city.
But they ran out of time.
Qin Minping, younger brother of Shizhu chieftain Qin Liangyu, and nephew Qin Yiming stationed at Nanpingguan, cutting off their return to Chongqing. Qin Liangyu led 6,000 troops along Jiangxi.
The imperial court's officers and soldiers also gathered everywhere. From October to December, they had to fight every day. No matter where they went, there were officers and soldiers. In the chaos, Ah Liu's army was separated from the main force and retreated from Jinchuan to the Western Sichuan Plateau. .
At that time, his army had sufficient combat effectiveness. They could form a formation of spears and shields to confront the Ming army, and they could also use matchlocks to shoot at the Ming army, and even often did not fall behind.
But the local tribes didn't have a good look on them, and it was much easier to deal with these enemies than the Ming army, so they were still alive, but suffered heavy losses.
Finally he found someone who was willing to take him in, Linka, the leader of the horse bandits in Kham.
Even though the two sides couldn't understand each other, Linka treated the barbarian soldiers very well. Not only did he provide the best wine and meat to Ah Liu, but he also set aside a forest from his territory for Ah Liu's tribe to live in.
Ah Liu also lived up to Linka's kindness. Although the displacement caused the loss of more than half of his men, he still had a complete military system and weapons and equipment. In battle, he could often fight one against ten, and Linka relied heavily on him.
However, on the western Sichuan Plateau, the change in oxygen brought about by altitude caused a sharp decline in the power of gunpowder. The wandering soldiers composed of defeated soldiers did not have professional gunpowder craftsmen and could not figure out what the problem was.
Later, all the muskets were sold for food, and the soldiers had no choice but to pick up the old craft of making large crossbows... Compared with gunpowder, medicine crossbows were more reliable and more suitable for the exile economy.
And even if a large crossbow is used, compared to the Kham army, the excellent weapons and equipment and good organizational structure can still make Ah Liu invincible when facing the same number of enemy troops.
Before today, Ah Liu never thought that he would kill Linka.
When he saw Liu Chengzong's army, he wanted to persuade Linka to surrender.
They were not ignorant country bumpkins. They were very familiar with the Ming army's tactics and superior firepower. In the first year of the Apocalypse, two thousand defenders were able to bring out 400 small cannons and shoot at his matchlock guns under the city of Chengdu.
Now he didn't even have a matchlock gun, and the soldiers only had large crossbows with a maximum range of a hundred paces. He didn't want to fight Liu Chengzong, especially when he saw those big pipes in the Lion Army.
With this kind of terrain and this kind of firepower gap, fighting has nothing to do with the courage of the soldiers.
They couldn't reach their opponents at all, so they were bombarded to death.
Ah Liu discussed with his officers and found Linka Daiben again, who was in front of the battle to encourage noble Baili's morale: "It's not too late to surrender now."
Linka was so angry. I have supported you with so much wine and meat, and you still can’t speak a few Spanish words. How could you finally say a coherent sentence? Is that why you persuaded me to surrender?
Linka cares about territory, and Ah Liu cares about life.
They died so many people and suffered so much hardship, not just to eat cannons in this place.
But neither he nor Linka thought about what happened next.
While the two were still arguing, one of his officers had already crossed the low wall privately and tried to surrender to Liu Chengzong's army.
Then one of Linka's nobles, Chima, killed the officer. For a moment, his army was in chaos, and the people were furious. He and Linka stared at each other, and in the flash of lightning, countless thoughts came to their hearts.
Ah Liu drew his sword and killed Linka.
"smart people."
Liu Chengzong had been listening to Ah Liu's story quietly. When Ah Liu finished speaking, he looked at the bleeding head, waved his hand and said: "Lin Ka has treated you well. You were forced to kill him because of the current situation. I allow you to gather his body and find a place to bury it."
After that, he said: "Your people surrendered to me. You should know what to do next."
Ah Liu still maintained his bowing posture and responded: "I know that after defeating the other two Daiben troops of King Baili, I am willing to lead them to charge for the generalissimo."
"good!"
Liu Chengzong applauded and said: "She Chongming is dead, and the Liang Kingdom no longer exists. Since you claim to be a general, I will make you the general of the Yongning camp. When the war is over, you will be rewarded separately. Go tell your soldiers to follow me well." , I won’t treat you badly.”
Ah Liu stepped back more than ten steps with great gratitude. Then he breathed a long sigh of relief and turned to restrain the soldiers who had put down their weapons.
Monk Wang looked at his figure and said with a bit of sourness in his words: "Generalissimo, with just these few soldiers, can they become generals?"
Monk Wang was very confused. His boss, Crooked Liangzi, was so powerful on the battlefield that he was only given the title of General Manager after the war.
This soldier who surrendered before the battle and killed his old master could become a general just because of this thing?
Liu Shishi laughed, shook his head and said, "You don't understand, what is the role of a general?"
He had tried his best to suppress his inner excitement, but it was really difficult for him to act very calm. He was ten times happier than this.
Ah Liu's soldiers are very good and their equipment is good, but these are not what Liu Chengzong values. These troops are not worth the establishment of a battalion, and a general is enough.
After all, the Lion Army now only has four generals, including his brother's Xining camp. No matter which general is more powerful than Ah Liu.
Liu Chengzong attaches great importance to Ah Liu. This person is not as meaningful as three hundred heavy armored infantry in front of any leader in Qinghai.
But to him, this man was the key to opening the door to Sichuan, better than three thousand heavy armored infantry.
In this place, it would be easy for him to find a key to enter the snow area, but it would be too difficult to find a key to enter Sichuan.
What's more, for some people, being a boss is just the beginning, and they will not only have a few generals forever; but for some people, being a general is likely to be the pinnacle of their lives.
He couldn't explain these things to Monk Wang, nor did he want to explain them. He just smiled and said: "I told you, people who understand Chinese will be treated well no matter what they do."
This was not a good thing for Monk Wang. After hearing this, he always felt that there was still a vacancy for the position of quarry supervisor in Hainan.
Monk Wang shrank his neck: "The generalissimo is right."
Xie Erhu's Mongolian soldiers pursued the escaping nobles, and everyone loved the opportunity to beat up a drowned dog. At this moment, Tang Qi brought another good news to Liu Chengzong. Zhang Tianlin's troops were defeated this morning with 1,200 troops. The enemy's Chinese army substitute.
This news made Liu Chengzong overjoyed: "How did you win?"
Tangqi reported the truth: "Last night, a hunter from the left wing broke into General Zhang Qian's camp. After questioning him, he wanted to pass on the news that the left wing was surrounded by the Chinese army. General Zhang Qian put the hunter into the Chinese army's camp. "
"Wait a minute, did a hunter break into Mr. Zhang Qian's camp last night?"
Liu Chengzong looked at each other and his generals looked funny.
Not only were hunters running into his camp last night... these hunters were also extremely talented. Liu Chengzong couldn't find Zhang Tianlin when he tried to find her yesterday, but these hunters found him as soon as he looked for her.
Except for the person Linka Daiben asked them to look for, they didn't find them. Others who shouldn't have been found were found. Liu Chengzong smiled and said: "Linka Daiben's hunters are as good at searching for enemies as they are with knives!"
After he stopped laughing, Tang Qi continued: "Knowing that the friendly forces were besieged, the Chinese general wanted to lead his troops to escape this morning. Zhang Qianzong guessed it. Taking advantage of their unstable marching formation, he drove away and broke the formation, killing Daiben. There are twelve officers below and more than seven hundred soldiers captured."
Liu Chengzong and the generals looked at each other and clapped their hands excitedly: "Okay, only the right wing is left. Encircle and eat them. The whole Baili will no longer be able to fight, and the surrounding small and large kingdoms will also be defeated. From Qinghai How much land we can control from Lake to Qamdo depends on our ability!"
