On the Tangjiashan battlefield, the sound of cannons rumbled and the sound of killing shook the sky!
A night of fierce fighting had passed, and now it was getting brighter, but the fighting showed no signs of stopping. Instead, it became more and more intense.
Outside the Lotus Temple, under the banner with the character "Chuang", Li Zicheng was observing the battle situation in the direction of Tangjiashan. The sound of a pound of artillery bombardment came from far away, and a large number of Dashun Army infantry took turns raising their heads from the east, south and west directions. Attack, but the battle situation is still a stalemate.
Dashun's army was very capable in field battles, but their skills in attacking fortresses were not very good. Once the Ming army is in danger and can be defended, it is very difficult to eliminate it.
Tian Jianxiu commanded more than 20,000 people. They started attacking Tangjiashan yesterday evening. They have been fighting until now, almost eight hours ago. After ten rounds of attacks, they still failed.
"Your Majesty...it's almost time, it's getting late!"
Gu Junen's warning voice came. Li Zicheng put down his telescope and looked back at his Second Military Advisor. He was a little impatient: "Second Military Advisor, what are you afraid of? We have cavalry at our hands. Even if the Zhu Thief has soldiers to help, eh They mounted their horses and started walking. Can they run better on two legs than on four?
The defenders on Tangjia Mountain look quite durable and are probably elite. We should kill them now to prevent them from chasing us into Sichuan. "
Li Zicheng was right. The soldiers on Tangjia Mountain were surprisingly tenacious. Fortunately, their equipment was poor and they did not have turtle-dove muskets and artillery. Otherwise, the more than 20,000 loyal troops who besieged them would have retreated because they could not bear the casualties.
Zhu Cixiang had guns and cannons on hand. Seeing that this soldier was capable of fighting, he would definitely give them good equipment and let them chase them into Sichuan.
Li Zicheng added: "What's the use of killing him with thirty to fifty thousand people? Now there are many poor people in the southeast who don't have enough to eat. As long as the prince of the Zhu family can afford the money, how many people can't? But this elite servant is very precious!" "
While he was talking, cheers from the officers and soldiers of the Dashun Army came from the front!
Li Zicheng quickly raised his telescope to take a look and found that soldiers from the Dashun Army had already attacked halfway up Tangjiashan and were fighting with the Ming Army. This was not the first time a similar situation had occurred, but this time the Dashun Army rushed closer to the top of the mountain than ever before, and the resistance of the Ming Army also weakened significantly.
Maybe you can reach the top in one fell swoop!
Just when Li Zicheng held his breath and concentrated on watching the fighting on the hillside ahead. Suddenly, he saw a hundred strong men in armor emerging from a forest on the top of the mountain, all waving heavy-looking iron rods. They rushed into the crowd of Dashun Army like the God of Death descending from the sky. Their appearance seemed to be beyond the expectations of the Dashun Army soldiers. The Dashun Army soldiers who were rising to fight suddenly withered and fell down the hillside in confusion.
Li Zicheng put down the telescope and sighed, "Oh, why did we lose for a while..."
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard the rapid sound of horse hooves. He turned around and saw a few cavalrymen, who must be scouts, running wildly as if they were desperate, as if they had some serious military situation!
Li Zicheng's heart skipped a beat, but he remained calm on the outside - what's the big deal? At most, reinforcements from the Ming Army have arrived!
One of the scouts at the front gasped and reported: "Your Majesty, from the northeast, along the north bank of the Hudu River, a large number of red thieves infantry are coming! There are tens of thousands of them..."
"Have you ever gotten close to investigate?" Li Zicheng asked.
"We didn't get close," the scout said. "The young ones were blocked by the Red Thief's armored cavalry and couldn't get too close."
Gu Junen immediately said: "Your Majesty, withdraw!"
Li Zicheng was unwilling to give up, but he still took a sharp breath and said, "Retract the troops, organize the team, and let the red thieves go for the time being."
Gu Junen breathed a sigh of relief: "Your Majesty, Shengming, Zhu Thief has also lost his vitality this time, and he won't be in trouble with us for the time being!"
His judgment was soon proven wrong.
Because coming along the Hudu River were the four infantry regiments of the New Army's Right Division led by Wu Guoyong. They originally came from the vicinity of Huya Mountain to Gong'an County by boat. When the fleet approached Jiangling, they suddenly got Zhu Cixiang. He ordered all the infantry to disembark immediately, and then marched to the police in a hurry.
Wu Guoyong did not dare to neglect, and immediately found a pier to let the four infantry regiments ashore, and then rushed all the way. After running for almost two and a half days, he finally arrived at the battlefield.
While marching along the Hudu River, Wu Guoyong met Sun Fugui, who was leading the cavalry to control the west bank of the lower reaches of the Hudu River (this was Zhu Cixi's order, on the one hand to meet Wu Guoyong, and on the other hand to leave a way out for himself). The latter gave him a move to block the west bank of the Hudu River and block Li Zicheng's retreat.
Wu Guoyong was also eager to make a lasting contribution, so he ordered his exhausted infantry to deploy a blockade along the Hudu River in battalion units without thinking about how powerful Li Zicheng's cavalry was.
This is a bit too much!
...
Under the fluttering red banner with the word "Chuang", Li Zicheng stared intently ahead. It was almost noon, the hottest time of the day.
Under the scorching sun, sixteen New Army infantry battalions had already deployed the Morris Square, one camp at a time along the Hudu River. The spears are like a forest and the warriors are like a wall, which just blocks Li Zicheng's westward transfer channel.
Behind these infantry phalanxes, there were also armored cavalry in company units, which also formed a group and rushed into the phalanx.
Li Zicheng watched for a while and asked Tian Jianxiu next to him: "Yufeng, what do you think? Can you rush over?"
If you can't get through...you have to take a detour! It's not impossible. Li Zicheng and the veteran soldiers marching on horseback will have no problem.
They have four legs, while Wu Guoyong's infantry only has two legs, and they are still exhausted.
However, Li Zicheng only had ten thousand cavalry on hand. Liu Zongmin took away a few thousand, leaving about ten thousand, and less than fifteen thousand horses. In other words, he could take away at most 15,000 people, and had to abandon the remaining 20,000 people!
That's more than 20,000 people, and they are all veterans...Zhu Cixiang will not kill them all, but will recruit them!
"Yes!" Tian Jianxiu smiled, "Isn't it just some spear formations? There is also a long snake formation, how can it block the impact of tens of thousands of iron cavalry?"
"That's right!" Li Zicheng waved his hand, "Yufeng, go quickly, it depends on your ability!"
Li Zicheng's army relied on the "three walls" in fighting, that is, dividing the troops into three parts: front, middle and rear, and pressing against the enemy like a wall. One is holding up the other, and at the same time, it is holding the other.
However, the situation today was special. The last of the three walls was composed of more than 20,000 infantrymen advancing on foot. The middle block is composed of Li Zicheng's imperial camp. The ones charging in front were the 6,000 old battalion cavalry led by Tian Jianxiu!
So three walls are actually two walls - can the final Dashun Army infantry supervise Li Zicheng's battle? And they can’t keep up!
Li Zicheng was galloping on horseback at this time, surrounded by warriors from the imperial camp who had followed him in battles for many years, guarding him. The red banner with the word "Chuang" was flying behind him, and the wind blew past his ears.
It feels quite good to lead the cavalry to break through the enemy formation!
In a daze, he felt that he was rushing towards victory! As long as he breaks through the front line, he can successfully enter Sichuan and open up a three-point world... Three points is just the beginning, and unification of Dashun will be the ultimate goal.
Because his three points are with the Imperial House of Guanzhong...
Suddenly there was a thunderous sound of gunfire in front, and Li Zicheng knew that it was the front line led by Tian Jianxiu that had hit the Ming army's infantry formation. Tian Jianxiu had 6,000 cavalry under his command, but the targets he attacked were only three Ming army infantry phalanxes, and only 1,500 people were killed.
Suddenly there was another earth-shattering sound of gunfire, and Li Zicheng vaguely saw chaos in the cavalry formation ahead. The horses jumped in panic, and many cavalry were spinning in place, but most of the cavalry were still moving forward.
The cry of killing rang out, and at the same time, there was a loud noise of unknown objects colliding together, and the sound kept coming.
Li Zicheng knew that the cavalry had hit someone's gun formation!
Breakthrough?
No breakthrough?
Li Zicheng stretched his neck to get a closer look, but the sentry commander in his ear was shouting wildly: "Your Majesty, rush over, rush over... You guys should hurry up!"
It seems that they rushed over...not broke through, but made the three square formations "smaller" - in fact, the fire gun soldiers retracted into the spear formation.
Although most of the fire riflemen of the new army have bayonets, there are too many Dashun cavalry in the attack today. The fire gun soldiers under Wu Guoyong did not dare to carry it hard, so they retreated into the gun formation and at the same time made way for several passages.
Li Zicheng was a little disappointed when he saw that the three phalanxes that were attacked in front did not completely collapse. However, he did not dare to fight. Instead, under the escort of his own soldiers, he ran towards a passage in the middle that could allow more than ten riders to pass side by side. But what he didn't expect was that there were still many musketeers hidden in the three "shrunk" gun formations. They had used up all their ammunition before, and then reloaded after retracting into the gun formations.
When Li Zicheng and others passed by on horseback, there happened to be thirty or forty fire rifle soldiers that had been loaded up. Under the command of a platoon leader, they fired a round of mounted fire at the cavalry passing in front.
The soldiers surrounding Li Zicheng suddenly fell down. The sentry commander who was protecting Li Zicheng was unharmed. He noticed that Li Zicheng's horse suddenly slowed down, and he quickly pulled the reins of Li Zicheng's horse and continued to escape.
But they didn't realize that Emperor Dashun Yongchang had fallen limply on his horse...
