Chen Wang turned around and looked behind him. The cavalry soldiers who had been defeated by them had more or less helped them block the pursuit of the rogue knights behind them.
Most of the bandit troops and cavalry were defeated, and their successors were weak. It was no longer possible to prevent the Ming army troops above the official road from retreating and forming formations.
Chen Wang also breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. This battle was basically over. As long as he could escape the siege of the bandits, he could retreat to an open area and form a military formation.
By then, even if tens of thousands of thieves come, they will not be able to lose this battle.
They are now only more than 40 miles away from Sanshui County in the south. Sanshui County has more than 2,500 soldiers, led by deputy general Zhang Waijia.
Zhang Waijia has more than 2,500 men under his command, all of whom are skilled riders.
A distance of fifty miles is nothing to the cavalry. They only need to hold on for a moment and a half, and Zhang Waijia can turn defeat into victory after receiving the news and leading troops to come to support.
When Chen Wang looked away, he happened to pass by the dark black flag on the top of the slope, and he saw the black gun barrels one after another.
The chill shot from his tailbone to the sky, and several balls of fire and gunpowder smoke suddenly rose.
"boom!"
Then a huge noise rolled in in an instant, and in just a moment it overwhelmed the originally chaotic human voices from all directions.
A huge feeling of fear suddenly surged into Chen Wang's heart, and he could clearly hear the crazy beating of his heart.
Wearing strong armor and holding a shield, he can withstand most weapons and arrows, and even fire blunderbuss cannot penetrate them.
But that's not the case with artillery. No matter how thick your armor is and how heavy your shield is, you will never be spared if you are hit by a cannonball.
It can range from a severed limb to disability, to death on the spot, a scratch will cause injury, and a touch will cause disability.
In the low sky, the trajectory of the shells could not be seen at all. No one knew where the shells were sent, but they all felt that they were hitting their location.
Although the hit rate of artillery in this era is already impressive, and coupled with the fact that it was released by a group of bandits who may not even be very skilled in operating artillery, the probability of it falling on top of my head while riding a horse is almost negligible. , but fear still lingers in Chen Wang's heart.
Chen Wang looked around and saw panic on everyone's face, not just him.
No one is afraid of artillery...
Even Cao Wenzhao could no longer remain as calm as before.
Chen Wang's face froze, he thought of a very serious problem, and at this moment a huge noise suddenly sounded from the direction of the official road.
Since the target of this artillery bombardment is not them, then the target will naturally be the troops above the official level.
Chen Wang turned his head to look at the official road, and his heart suddenly felt cold.
The official road was now in a mess. The Ming army's originally relatively tight military formation was now showing signs of collapse, and panicked shouts could not be heard.
Only two of the five shells hit, but the two hit shells dealt a huge blow to the morale of the Ming army, causing the entire front and middle of the Ming army to fall into panic.
Cao Dingjiao was trembling all over, the back of his head was numb, all the hair on his body stood up, and even his legs were trembling.
Although Cao Dingjiao has been on the battlefield for a long time, he has fought against the Tatars in Liaodong, and he has not been afraid of thousands of bandits in the southern border, but this time he walked in front of the gate of hell.
He had just led the troops back into battle and was directing the troops to retreat when he saw the sudden rise of gunpowder smoke.
Of the two artillery shells that landed in the military formation, one of them landed two meters in front of him to his right.
Several kilograms of shells passed by, and blood mist sprayed out.
The pungent fishy smell instantly poured into his nasal cavity, and blood and flesh flew everywhere. It seemed that something was stuck on Cao Dingjiao's face.
Right under his feet, a soldier was struggling and turning on the ground, hissing and screaming. The shell hit his thigh, directly breaking it completely.
The soldier's entire right leg was broken by the shell, and the pale bones were exposed from it, and a large amount of blood spurted out.
Cao Dingjiao clenched the Yan Ling Dao in his hand, trembling uncontrollably.
A man joins the army and fights. As a general, dying in battle is just an ordinary thing and his fate. He is really not afraid of death.
Those who die in battle, die by swords and crossbows, can know how they died and how they were defeated.
But when the shells hit, there was no way to avoid it, no way to escape, and nothing to do...
No one knew whether the shells would fall on top of their heads after the next bombardment, and no one wanted to take a gamble.
Cao Dingjiao opened his mouth, but he couldn't say anything, and his mind went blank.
The places in the military formation that had been plowed by cannonballs were in a mess, with stumps, severed arms, and broken armor scattered all over the place.
The injured soldier fell to the ground and howled in pain, with dripping blood flowing out from his broken wound.
The survivors all around were terrified and trembling. After all, they were afraid of the weapons and harsh military laws behind them, and no one dared to escape.
Cao Dingjiao raised his head and looked at the dark black flag on the slope in the distance, his heart filled with fear.
It was estimated to be about three to four hundred meters away from the military formation. The artillery shells shot rapidly from top to bottom and directly hit the military formation.
"Don't mess up!"
Cao Dingjiao knew in his heart that panic would only make people die faster on the battlefield.
"The thieves don't have many cannons, and their people don't know how to use them!"
"The artillery they made is just some old cannon from the warehouse. It can't hit three or four hundred steps. Don't be afraid!"
"Anyone who dares to leave the military formation without permission does not need artillery fire. I will send him to hell first!"
Although Cao Dingjiao's hand holding the sword was still trembling and the fear in his heart was still there, he still stood up. As a general, he knew that he must not mess up.
Cao Dingjiao's words had an effect. Although the faces of the surrounding soldiers were still frightened, they did not dare to leave their established positions.
They may not necessarily die when the shells hit them, but if anyone runs away first, their throats will be cut immediately by the sharp blade behind them.
However, when the military formation had just regained stability, the rogue infantry had already launched an offensive.
The collapsed hungry people had been driven to the two wings by the horse teams among the wandering thieves.
Ahead, the bandit's infantry was slowly approaching.
Different from the chaos of the hungry people before, this bandit infantry that was slowly pressing in clearly had a lot of organization.
In the front row are old bandits holding swords, shields and wearing armor. Behind them are long spears standing up one after another, like hedgehogs. Further behind are the bandits holding bows, arrows and firearms.
Densely packed like a colony of ants, layer upon layer like a wave!
