Wang Zengbin raised his telescope and carefully observed the crowd of refugees squirming like ants on the valley post road, with uncontrollable excitement on his face.
The cavalry commander gently patted the rock beside him and murmured: "Damn it, I'm afraid there are tens of thousands of troops. It's not going to be a good fight today."
The team entering the valley could not be seen to the end. The cavalry from the old battalion in front had already run out for three or four miles, while the refugees behind them with their families were still blocked at the mountain pass.
The sentinels who had just been sent out at noon came back and reported that the group of bandits in front of them was not the main force of Li Xianzhong. They were only the vanguard at best. They were followed by more than 40,000 refugees. The line stretched for dozens of miles, like locusts crossing the border. It is the main force of Chuangwang.
Wang Zengbin was amazed. He had not seen such a big scene for many years. It was only when he and Liu Zongbing (Liu Wei) went to conquer Saarhu that he could compare it with now.
At that time, Yang Jinglue had "470,000 troops" under his command. He mentioned this number in the hope of frightening Nurhachi.
Liu Zhaosun: "Is he (Nurhaci) scared?"
Yang Hao: "No. He also said that he would avenge the "seven great hatreds" and kill people to punish him."
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Compared with the mighty army of thieves that covered the sky and covered the sun, the few people Wang Zengbin brought seemed too insignificant. There are 600 horsemen, only 1,500 infantry, and the artillery does not close at night. The total force is only a little over 2,000. This is also the maximum force Deng Changxiong can give to the front line. I hope these few people can resist. Fifty-sixty thousand troops entering the army is too much nonsense.
Moreover, there is Zhang Zicheng behind the intruder. I heard that this person is more difficult to deal with than Li Xianzhong...
Of course, having a small force is not without its advantages. At least they hid in the mountains and were not discovered by the two shrewd old camp sentry horses.
"It's going to rain. Mom is going to get married. Life and death are determined by fate. Grandma's legs, at worst, she will die here today!"
Wang Zengbin gritted his teeth, dropped the telescope, and looked up at the sky. The blood-red sun had begun to set in the west.
The time was just right - he planned to launch a surprise attack around sunset - the Kaiyuan Army was good at night fighting. The mission of this battle was to kill the enemy as much as possible, so it was best to ambush the enemy at sunset. He took down the red flag and pointed towards the dense forest behind him. After waving twice, a harsh bamboo whistle soon sounded behind him. After a while, the resting horsemen mounted their horses one after another, and the war horses neighed and leaned out of the woods. Many war horses had already felt the atmosphere of the battlefield and began to fight at the edge of the woods. Walking back and forth snoring.
Wang Zengbin looked at the little wealth he had brought, and suddenly had an inexplicable feeling. More than 2,000 cavalrymen under his command were divided into three parts. One part went to Henan to intercept the refugees, and the other part stayed in Hequ County as a defensive force. Those who actually participated in this raid There are only five or six hundred horses in front of me.
"The bastard Man Gui wants to kill me!"
These days, the Western Expeditionary Army has scolded the general officer of Jizhen hundreds of times. Mangui has not come to reinforce, and their more than 9,000 people (Deng Changxiong temporarily recruited a thousand auxiliary troops in Shaanxi) will soon He will die without a burial place.
"Aren't the artillery ready? It will be difficult to fight the bandits when they leave the valley."
An orderly soldier nearby quickly ran to the cliff in front to urge him. There was a temporary artillery position. Han Zhenyi and Wang Congzhi, brothers and sisters, had been working there with the Western Artillery Corps for two days.
Two days ago, two artillery chiefs rushed to Shijiashan from Hequ County with the cavalry regiment. Three hundred artillerymen and auxiliary soldiers hid themselves and went out at night to lay mine cannons at standard shelling points and fix the artillery. In addition, a With more than a thousand divine fire flying crows, the two chief officers did not sleep a wink for two days and two nights.
The messenger quickly ran back and said to Wang Zengbin: "President Wang, Chief Han said that they have been ready for a long time and are waiting for your order to attack!"
Wang Zengbin slapped his thigh and cursed: "Damn it, why didn't you tell me earlier? I've been waiting for so long in vain. Go over and tell him to fire as you said before. When I give the order, the artillery will fire immediately. "
"yes!"
The messenger was still panting, but he hurried over again.
The cavalry and artillery were all ready, and the soldiers brought by Cheng Liang had already sharpened their knives. Under the urging of the generals of each battalion, the firecrackers repeatedly checked the flintlocks and whether the gunpowder was installed intact. Some firecrackers were not Don't worry, he took out the silk cloth from his pocket and wiped the gun tube repeatedly.
Wang Zengbin caught a glimpse of Cheng Liang's worried look, so he went up to him and asked:
"What's wrong? Are you scared? Don't worry, today is different from the past. The cavalry takes the lead. You soldiers are just auxiliary. We go first."
Cheng Liang's expression was solemn and he didn't even listen to what Wang Zengbin was saying. Shenzhou pointed at the densely packed squirming ants on the post road and said thoughtfully:
"God damn these bandits, holding so many people hostage? I don't know how many people have been harmed by them in Shanxi."
Wang Zengbin took the coconut scoop handed by the guard and took a sip, showing a rare expression of compassion:
"No matter whether they are coerced or not, they all join the gang on their own."
Cheng Liang opened his eyes wide with a look of surprise on his face.
"If you don't rob others, they will starve to death. But Mr. Liu once said that if you take a penny from someone, you are a thief. We are soldiers and they are thieves. If you are a soldier, you must kill thieves. There is no other reason to say this! The thieves are all full of evil, including murder, arson, rape, robbery, and cannibalism..."
Wang Zengbin traveled back and forth from Mongolia to the capital in the past two years and saw a lot of the world. Last year, there was a drought in Beizhili and the grain harvest was cut off. He walked around the Mongolian border in Shanxi. At first, when he saw these refugees, he felt sympathy and pity in his heart. Later, he saw more and more. Just numb.
"Life or death depends on fate. We are here to kill people. If you don't kill him, he will turn around and harm others. The harmed people will become thieves again, just like the plague. Chief Cheng, are your soldiers ready? ?”
Cheng Liang sighed silently, made the sign of the cross on his chest, and murmured:
"Thanks to the Lord Protector, otherwise there would be so many more refugees in the world."
(Liu Zhaosun: Because of my time travel, there are countless more refugees in the world.)
The commander of the cavalry regiment was quite disdainful of the baptized officer and said impatiently:
"Okay, okay, it's time for us to go out and pray to the archbishop when we come back after winning the battle."
Liu Zhaosun did not prohibit the spread of Protestantism in the military, because all doctrines and canons were formulated by him and Francisco. According to the doctrine, the archbishop, Liu Zhaosun, has indisputable power to rule the world, and those who oppose this People of truth are the heathen who need to be defeated.
"Chief Wang, how are you going to fight?"
Cheng Liang turned his gaze back from the refugees in the valley and stared at Wang Zengbin and asked.
The cavalry commander immediately changed his expression to a serious expression and said to Cheng Liang:
"To capture the thieves, capture the king first. It is better to cut off one of his ten fingers. Hit the leader first to attract the thieves and horsemen to follow. I will take care of them myself. When the cavalry begins to charge, the artillery will bombard the thieves. At the end, the infantry is responsible for cutting off the retreat route of the bandits, blocking the mountain pass, and preventing the bandits behind from entering the valley to assist. They cannot let in one soldier at a time, and do not allow any of the people inside to escape."
Cheng Liang nodded after listening. This time he brought 300 soldiers from the Second Guards Army from Hequ County, together with 600 soldiers from his 12th Army, and 900 soldiers to guard the narrow mountain pass. They should enough. It's just that both sides are enemies, and I don't know how long I can hold on.
After Wang Zengbin finished speaking, he gave Cheng Liang a military salute. Although the two of them were both veterans of Wanli forty-seven years, they had never had any contact with each other before. One was the commander-in-chief of the cavalry battalion, and the other was the commander-in-chief of the war barracks. Later, they both got special privileges. promoted. This is the first time the two have collaborated.
After Wang Zengbin performed the military salute, he turned around and ran back to the cavalry formation, and began to tell his generals what they should pay attention to when charging.
"The two columns of horses in front and behind should pay attention to the distance between them. The distance between them should be half smaller than during normal training, just three steps."
"The sentry horse has discovered that this group of rogue horse soldiers is very powerful. Many of them are Ye Bushou from Yansui Town. They have three horses per person. They are very good at riding and have better horsepower than us."
"We can't afford this group of bandits. There are still tens of thousands of bandits waiting to besiege Hequ County, so we must defeat them at once and not let a single horse go, otherwise the bandits will bite the soldiers' brothers in the butt."
There was laughter below, Wang Zengbin raised his riding whip, pointed at the yellow flag running on the post road, and continued:
"Under the banner is their leader, Xiong Li Lai. This man is Li Xianzhong's nephew. He encountered us today. It is unlucky for him. Let's take his head first to pay homage to the people who died and the Ming army!"
After Wang Zengbin completed the arrangements, he ordered the messengers to wave the attack flag, and the sound of cavalry charging drums sounded from the center position.
Wang Zengbin pointed his lance forward slightly, and the six rows of cavalry behind him also made the same movement.
"rush!"
As the black flying eagle flag moved forward quickly, six hundred cavalry followed closely behind, and the Kaiyuan cavalry rushed towards the foot of the mountain like a wave along the undulating mountains.
At the same time, a continuous explosion suddenly sounded in the middle of the post road. The explosion was like rolling spring thunder. The whole valley was shaking slightly. Mines and cannons were fired. The road was covered with smoke and dust. Countless black spots were scurrying around on the post road. , you can still vaguely hear the screams and neighing of people and horses. Immediately afterwards, countless fireballs rose from the dense forests on both sides of the valley, hundreds of rockets let out shrill howls, and the flying crows of divine fire dragged their long tail flames, like clusters of meteors, falling from the sky and hitting both ends of the long dragon dragon. , destruction comes like the end of the world, judging those beasts that have lost their humanity.
On both sides of the post road
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