"Break in!"
On the chaotic battlefield of Qinzhou, groups of peasant troops broke up, regrouped, and regained their fighting spirit on the front line. Like a raging torrent, they once again charged at the Ming army outside the encirclement with their swords raised.
The Ming army was like an embankment standing by the river, motionless in the storm... No, this embankment was even approaching the torrent.
Juma Zha expanded the width of the Ming army, and at the same time, it also prevented the Chuangdao soldiers from charging across a large width. They were forced to fight with the officers and soldiers in a small area. However, in this way, Zuo Liangyu's soldiers were not able to disperse, let alone disperse. The formation has lost its organization, and even the organization at the level or even the team level has not been dispersed.
Facing the onslaught of the peasant army, they almost killed one by one. Some brave commanders and supervisors even led their troops into the formation and took the initiative to fight the peasant army.
Amid the slogans of "Breakthrough!" and "Breakthrough!", one by one the peasant soldiers returned and charged into the battle with their swords in hand. Some of them were lucky enough to kill one or two people, but more peasant soldiers were killed at the beginning. He was stopped by the formation of officers and soldiers and died under the thrust of spears.
What's more, they were knocked down by three-eyed guns or bird guns without even touching the shadow of the officers and soldiers.
Finally, at a certain moment, people's courage was eaten away by fear. More and more peasant soldiers no longer dared to rush into the battle alone. They could only hold their knives in front of them and stare at the officers a few feet away. Jun, pulled the injured Paoze who fell to the ground and slowly retreated.
The officers and soldiers did not take this opportunity to shoot with muskets or bows and arrows. They just strictly followed the orders from their superiors and moved forward step by step with the barricades in hand.
However, Zuo Liangyu's ambition to achieve full success also gave Zhang Yichuan's soldiers under siege the opportunity to grow. In the dilemma of no retreat, people gradually found the feeling of fighting against the mighty formation.
The straw sandals and cloth shoes of the child soldiers who shuttled through the fifth battalion military formation flew away, conveying Zhang Yichuan's orders to the ears of Ke Tianhu, Song Jiang and other generals. The generals of the Henan General War Headquarters saw their subordinates fall on the battlefield one by one. At the front, they held on to the most elite horsemen and soldiers, and ordered the soldiers to attack the defense line again and again, trying to find the weak point of the left army's line in the sections of wooden fence.
At the same time, their formation also gradually changed. They no longer used random sword-attacking soldiers to engage in mindless collisions, but began to use rolling swords and spearmen to assassinate, trying to form a formation to confront the official army.
However, this level is undoubtedly too green for the soldiers of the Zuo Army. Even if they collide with each other on the front in the same formation, the experienced Changping soldiers of the Zuo Army can defeat them again and again with skillful cooperation.
But on the chaotic Qinzhou battlefield, no one noticed that several figures wearing felt hats appeared silently on the hillside on the south bank of the Qishui River.
The mountain wind blew across Li Zicheng's weathered face under his hat. He squinted at the distant battlefield and sighed silently.
The situation on the battlefield is extremely clear. Zuo Liangyu's encirclement has been formed. Although it is very thin, the artillery in the east has held back Zhang Yichuan's guns. The remaining elite veterans on the north and south sides are far superior to the peasant army in terms of equipment and training. Relying on Mucha , one team can beat the three or five teams.
Although Zhang Yichuan's troops were trapped in the encirclement, they did not have enough front width to spread out their troops. Most of the soldiers were squeezed into the military formation and were unable to exert their strength advantage at all.
Although the left army's killing efficiency was very low in order to form a huge encirclement, the general trend has been set.
At present, the five hundred cavalry sent by Zuo Liangyu in advance have left an opening in the west. Just wait for Zhang Yichuan's army's morale to collapse and run out from the west opening to kill people. The cavalry can seal the opening and bury the remaining people in it. In the formation of flying geese.
After all, Zuo Liangyu's soldiers were too small in number compared to Zhang Yichuan. It was already very difficult to surround two battalions. What's more, they had to surround five battalions at once, almost overwhelming the entire army, and every soldier had to bear the burden. The pressure has reached extreme levels and may crush the battle formation at any time.
But Zuo Liangyu had no choice.
Faced with the huge enemy force, the vast battlefield terrain, and the strategic situation of being surrounded by the Marshal's Army and the Henan General Military Headquarters on a larger battlefield, he must inflict enough damage on Zhang Yichuan in one battle to force him to withdraw from the battlefield. Only by recovering your vitality can you move calmly after defeating Zhang Yichuan.
Otherwise, this army may not be able to defeat him on the battlefield, but it will be able to hold him back with its superior strength until the stronger main army arrives on the battlefield.
In order to achieve this goal, the only tactic Zuo Liangyu could choose was to take the risk of surrounding an enemy force whose strength was many times greater than his own. After all, it might be safer to surround only two or three battalions, but the remaining two battalions counterattacked. Coming over, Zuo Liangyu was not sure of winning in the pincer attack.
Therefore, on the surface, he surrounded Zhang Yichuan, but in fact, he chose a tactics of drawing the ground as a prison, forcing Zhang Yichuan to fight to the death. The advantage of this is that the soldiers can withstand greater frontal impact in exchange for safety on the side and back.
The intention is clear.
Li Zicheng on the mountain could see that the battle was fought like this only because Zhang Yichuan was a little arrogant, no, not a little, but very arrogant - where could there be such a war, when 10,000 people were surrounded by 3,000 others?
Really, Li Zicheng felt that the blame for this battle lay on the back of the old Liu family's lion.
Whenever Liu Chengzong gave Zhang Yichuan two more battalions, Zhang Yichuan would not dare to fight like this.
To a certain extent, the generals of the peasant army actually have very strong commanding abilities. At least in Li Zicheng's understanding, they, the leaders of the rebel army, have much greater interests than the generals of the official army, regardless of whether they can win the battle.
After all, the difficulty of command is different.
It is much harder to command a hundred untrained hungry people than a thousand well-trained frontier troops.
Just like now, Zuo Liangyu relied on flags, drums and skilled commanding officers on a larger battlefield to command an encirclement of 3,000 people. The movement of the military flag changed, and officers from all directions knew that the Chinese army had passed on to him. What is the command.
On the other hand, the flags and drums of the Henan General Army's 5th Battalion are all ornaments and cannot convey any effective military orders except the direction of facing. Maybe the flag language and drum sounds are wrong to begin with, even if the flag language and drum sounds are correct. , the commanders of each team couldn't understand it, and the orders were relayed by the little dolls running back and forth between the camps.
I don’t know how many times the timeliness difference is. They almost all rely on the commander’s own passwords and battlefield awareness to fight independently.
They had joined forces in the past to fight, and Li Zicheng knew very well how capable the Sweeping King was. He might not be that powerful, but after traveling back and forth in northern Shaanxi and Shanxi, and fighting against the elite soldiers of the Ming Dynasty several times, Li Zicheng was not a soft persimmon who could be manipulated.
The fact that the battle could be fought like this was obviously due to receiving the armor as a gift from the Marshal's Mansion. He felt like he was floating, feeling that he could also compete with the officers and soldiers.
Chuang Jiangxin said: Isn't this a dream?
From the beginning to the end, our fifth battalion of the Breaking Army had no intention of confronting the officers and soldiers head-on. We were ambushing and luring the enemy. If there were many enemy troops, we would send false news and send troops to lure them apart. When the enemy troops formed a formation, we would leave. If you guard Qinzhou, I will fetch clear water. If you guard the road, I will climb over the mountains and ridges to get around it. If you are in the east, I will go to the west. If you think I am going to the west, I will go back to the east.
When the troops are no longer divided and exhausted, and they want to sit down to eat and sleep, we turn around and go back to kill them all at once.
A dignified formation?
We have never practiced this thing. Why do you think that if you get some armor, you can equal the level of the official army?
What's more, even if you want to change to formalization and practice your skills in a grand formation, you can't fight anyone but Zuo Liangyu. Li Zicheng met Zuo Liangyu several times, and this guy always held one or two thousand people to fight with them. Thousands of people were fighting... With equal forces in the world, who could Zuo Liangyu hit without killing anyone?
"A lion has to fight a rabbit with all his strength, but a rabbit doesn't even bother to jump when it wants to fight an eagle."
Li Zicheng shook his head helplessly, turned around and said: "Climb the mountain kite to save people."
Beside him, there was a burly young man wearing cloth-covered armor. He was leaning on a long forged iron stick and holding a phoenix-winged helmet in his hand. He had thick eyebrows and big eyes. Hearing this, he smiled and said: "It's better to wait until later. I voted for the generalissimo." , I have five battalions with 10,000 troops, do you still need us to save them?"
This man's name was Gao Jie, nicknamed "Kite Over the Mountains". He had been friends with Li Zicheng before the rebellion, and he was also the first person to join the rebellion.
Li Zicheng glanced at Gao Jie. Since last year, their relationship has been a bit strange. Gao Jie seemed to have some opinions about himself, but he checked himself three times a day, and felt that there was nothing wrong with his life and work.
Li Zicheng, who was in charge of the army all day long, didn't care about this strange little thing between the brothers. He just frowned and said: "One more will survive today, and one more will fight with the army tomorrow. Go quickly."
"whispering sound!"
Gao Jie sneered, picked up the eighteen-pound forged iron rod and threw it to the ground. The young boy who followed him in the children's camp quickly caught it.
Then he got on his horse and said with a loud laugh: "I know, general, just wait on the mountain. Myrobalan will come with me to play in the formation."
"Eh!"
The young man holding the iron rod was surprised when he heard this. He put the iron rod on his shoulders and trotted down the mountain chasing Gao Jie who was riding. His name was Li Chengdong and his nickname was Li Hezi.
Li Zicheng watched them coming down the mountain and couldn't help but smile lightly: Having such brothers to help him is such a blessing from his previous life!
But only for a moment, General Chuang returned to leading the battle and said to his left and right: "The King of Chaos was blocked in the north. He said that he encountered more than a thousand cavalry from Zuo Liangyu's tribe. The Scorpion Block also ran into the official army in the south. It seems that Zuo Liangyu wants to take advantage of this opportunity to wipe out all the sweeping kings here... The battle is getting a little too hasty, it seems there are changes in the east, what news is there from King Chuang?"
A person beside him shook his head and said: "It's still the same as before. He has many people and horses, and his troops entered Sichuan in separate ways. After passing Wen County and being blocked by the Beixiong and Baishui Passes in Long'an Mansion, there was a small leader named Hao Yaoqi who led the troops. When we entered the mountainous area of Songpanwei, we saw that the wind was falling, and I heard that it was because the flag army was deceived by the general to go to the west of the Changhe River."
This man's nickname was Tian Jianxiu, who was also the first brother to start the uprising with Li Zicheng.
The two ferocious kites are Li Zicheng's right-hand men.
Li Zicheng was still looking at the battlefield in the distance where the shouts of killing were loud and he asked casually: "Liar?"
"If the officer of Songpanwei lied, he was recruited to the west of Changhe River by the Generalissimo." Tian Jianxiu looked much more cheerful than Gao Jie. As he spoke, he suddenly became happy, pointed down the mountain and said: "It's really hard to carry a kite over the mountain." Go hit someone with an iron stick."
Looking along his finger, several horse teams at the foot of the mountain merged into one by the Shandao River. People led the horses and ran quickly towards the Qishui River. The formation spread out during the run. The leader was a man holding a forged iron bar. Mountain kite Gao Jie.
His weapon itself is not strange. The stick is also a standard weapon of the frontier army. Qi Jiguang specially modified an eight-foot-long, two-inch-thick iron-headed stick, but those were all wooden sticks with iron-heads. No one was like Gao Jie. To fight, he carried a solid iron rod weighing nearly twenty pounds.
First, it is too heavy. You don’t need such a heavy iron rod to kill someone. The eyebrow-tip long knife only weighs seven to nine kilograms. In fact, a big stick weighing five or six kilograms can break bones and tendons when swung out.
Secondly, the hybrid iron is not that practical in combat, it shakes the hands.
Therefore, the purpose of Gao Jie's use of such weapons is actually far greater than the actual significance. To a large extent, it is not to deter the enemy, but to deter his own peasant army, which is a mixed bag of good and bad.
The cavalry rushed towards the three-foot-wide river. The riders jumped on their horses on the bank. The river could not stop their advance. The horses crossed their backs, clasped their manes and tails, and crossed the river in a blink of an eye. They divided into several groups and formed the vanguard. Under the leadership of Gao Jie, they rushed towards Zuo Liangyu's pocket formation without stopping.
Zuo Liangyu, who was behind the artillery team in the eastern part of the military formation, only then noticed a group of enemy cavalry coming from the south. He raised his eyebrows suddenly and said to himself: "I didn't see this cavalry. Did Zhang Yichuan leave an ambush?"
However, doubts remain doubts. A thin front with small soldiers surrounding a large enemy will definitely be shattered by a collision when faced with a cavalry rear attack. Zuo Liangyu quickly waved his hand to raise the flag. The resting servants behind him all mounted their horses in response to the sound of drums and carried their cavalry. The spear rushed towards the cavalry rushing across the river.
The cavalry rushed like a torrent on the river bank towards the thin left wing of the pocket formation. The cavalry from the rear of the left army also rushed to intercept from the flank with long arrows and large bows.
The billowing smoke and dust swirling in the southern part of the battlefield made Zhang Yichuan extremely excited. He stood on the mound of the Chinese army and drew his sword, shouting: "Break! Break!"
For a moment, the little boy was ordered to walk as fast as flying. As the news was conveyed to the battalions, the already unbeatable morale was once again boosted. The cheering drums of the peasant army roared. The front, right and rear battalions of the Henan General War Headquarters turned around one after another. Thousands of men and women Under the leadership of officers, young and old charged regardless of the southern military front.
The two plumes of smoke rolling down were getting closer and closer. The horsemen on both sides started shooting at each other with big bows and long arrows. After three arrows, they lowered their lances from their elbows and prepared for the collision with their spears.
Gao Jie took the lead in the cavalry. He stood up slightly with his feet on the stirrups. He ignored the arrows fired on the battlefield as if they were nothing. Seeing the cavalry of the servants running close at hand, he turned to Li Chengdong, who was following behind him, and pointed at the left-wing front of the Ming army. : "Myrobalan, bring someone to hit me!"
After saying that, he raised his hand above his head to make a turning gesture, holding the iron rod diagonally with both hands to pull out flowers at his side. Then, using only his legs, he communicated with the horse under him, and rushed towards the left army's cavalry, rushing into the cavalry behind him. Then it split into two parts like running water.
Li Chengdong, a young and agile young man, leaned on his horse. Hearing Gao Jie's order, he immediately responded loudly and drove his horse to take up the position of his leader. He stood up with his stirrups and turned around, raising his sword and calling on the horsemen to follow him. At this moment, An arrow flew from the side and hit the goggles on his chest diagonally with a clang.
Li Chengdong, however, didn't take it seriously. He just showed a ruthless look on his face. He raised his hand to break the arrow and discarded it. He curled up with one arm around the horse's neck and hid on the left side of the horse. When he was no more than ten steps away from the battle, he suddenly jumped from the horse. He crouched on his back and shouted: "Come on!"
The cavalrymen behind him shouted in response, galloped forward, raised their swords, and fired arrows.
For a moment, the three-eyed blunderbuss loaded at the back of the officer's army was holding an unknown number of arrows, and the rest of the army retreated one after another. The sergeants in front holding eight-foot-long spears could not react. Only the lieutenant behind the formation stood up and stabbed him with a long spear. war horse.
The spear collided with the horse's chest. In an instant, the long pole was broken. The war horse suddenly raised its hind hooves in fright, but was unable to throw Li Chengdong off. It crashed into the military formation under the inertia and knocked the guard over. On the ground, the hooves as big as a bowl immediately crushed the sternum.
Before the horse could stop, Li Chengdong had already jumped down and stabbed an unarmored gunslinger in the abdomen with a knife. Then he rode into the gap from the horse team behind him.
On the front line, a group of people were on their backs. Amidst the loud shouts of killing, Li Chengdong raised his sword to the left and right: "Kill each wooden fence for me!" (End of this chapter)
