Fight if you can beat them, and run if you can't beat them. This has always been the fighting principle of the rebel army. As long as they can still run, they will not sit back and wait for death.
Even though the Sun Gou thieves had powerful infantry and sharp firearms, they could not annihilate all the rebels here, let alone prevent them from dividing their troops and moving to other places.
Privately, many leaders have also made preparations. If they cannot defeat the Sun Dog Thief, they will have no choice but to run away. Their family members and treasures have already been packed up. If the situation goes wrong, they can immediately drive away.
Since it is very difficult for everyone to cross the river, and there is that bastard Long Zaitian on the other side, they can only part ways here, try to get rid of the pursuit of the Gou Guan army, and then meet up again to make a new world.
Luo Rucai took his three little brothers to march north, while the three leaders of the "Little Fifth Battalion" had to go south, involving tens of thousands of soldiers and family members.
In order to escape before the officers and soldiers pounced on them, the rebels moved extremely quickly. For a while, the area near the riverside was filled with flags, teams, and people shouting and neighing.
"Order Zu Dabi and the four general soldiers including Li Shourong, Sun Xianzu, and Xue Minzhong to pursue the bandits fleeing eastward, and the rest of the troops will follow my commander to attack the bandits fleeing west!"
Sun Chuanting originally thought that the rebel army was going to fight to the death, but he didn't expect that smoke and dust were billowing on the opposite side. After struggling for a long time, even the carriage transporting the baggage was pulled out.
If they were not to use vehicles to form a formation to fight the officers and soldiers, then this move was obviously to flee, and the officers and soldiers could not continue to implement the steady advance tactics. If they delayed for a while, the rebel army would have fled.
If the opponent is divided into two, the officers and soldiers will naturally do the same thing, but chasing one band of bandits will inevitably take the pressure off the other band of bandits and allow them to wreak havoc elsewhere.
The troops of the Fourth General Army responsible for advancing eastward were not strong and could not severely damage them. As long as they could bite the bandit army firmly, the key point was whether the officers and soldiers advancing westward could win first.
This revolt was led by Luo Rucai and Zhang Xianzhong. Zhang Xianzhong returned to Hong Chengchou to suppress it. Luo Rucai was Sun Chuanting's number one enemy. Wherever Luo Zi led his flag, he would lead his army to pursue it.
Luo Rucai's status in the bandit army is equivalent to that of Gao Yingxiang, the former number one rebel bandit. If he can kill this bandit in one fell swoop, he can give the bandit army a heavy blow in terms of momentum.
When Sun Chuanting saw Luo Rucai's flag, he decided to personally lead his army to pursue him and kill him no matter what, otherwise he would be a serious problem for the court in the future.
This group of thieves insists on escaping, and the official army cannot stop them for the time being. However, they must pay a due price for this, that is, they must leave behind all the unhorsed infantry.
Sun Chuanting's current goal is to annihilate all the infantry of the rebel army who fled westward, so that they will no longer be able to engage in battles with the official army. From now on, they can only rely on horse soldiers to carry out harassment.
After Sun Shaobao gave the order, the 7,000 horsemen assembled by the six general officers, He Renlong, Li Guoqi, Zuo Guangxian, Zheng Jiadong, Niu Chenghu and Bai Guangen, rushed towards the prey like wind and lingering clouds.
"No! The dog officers and soldiers are here!"
"Hurry up and fight!"
"Formation!"
Luo Rucai and the other four people did not want to give up these more than 10,000 infantrymen easily. These people were die-hard loyalists who had fought with them for many years and were quite powerful. It was really inappropriate to be abandoned like this.
As long as there is still a glimmer of hope of successfully escaping, the leaders are willing to lead all their soldiers to repel the pursuit of the officers and soldiers, and everyone will advance and retreat together.
After running only two or three miles, the rebel army was blocked by the army's horsemen. In order to prevent the infantry from being trampled by the enemy's cavalry, they had to form a formation to meet the enemy.
Luo Rucai hoped that the army and cavalry would charge into the formation as soon as possible, so that they could be defeated in a short time, especially before the army's infantry, especially the firearms units, arrived.
Unlike the rebel cavalry, the official cavalry army did not forcefully charge into the formation. Although they were about to swallow the "fat meat" in one gulp, they failed to do so. The generals who led the team were also very angry, but they did not act recklessly. Act recklessly.
The official army is also similar to the enemy army in some aspects, that is, the elite troops cannot be replenished in time. The general officers can recruit more troops, but the loss of elite troops cannot be replaced.
The generals were determined not to use their cavalry to attack the infantry formation until a critical moment, and they were unwilling to make such a loss-making transaction.
At present, the court is short of horses, and they cannot recruit a sufficient number of experienced riders, so the losses of the horsemen can only be borne by themselves.
The enemy's army was more than twice as many as the official army's horsemen and infantry, as well as many artillerymen. A forceful charge would only hurt both sides. The only solution for now was to hold back the prey and wait for Sun Shaobao's army to arrive.
Sun Chuanting was not idle after sending out his cavalry, and led the main force of infantry to advance at full speed in the direction of the rebel army's westward escape. He also knew that it was difficult to stop the enemy with his own cavalry alone, or even to annihilate the stubborn enemy.
The difference between the two sides is that the rebel infantry is lightly armed and has low defense, but moves very fast. The characteristics of the official infantry are exactly the opposite.
If there were not 7,000 horsemen holding back the rebel army, so that they did not dare to act rashly, the enemy would have been able to run away with both men and horses.
The army's cavalry only covered and killed hundreds of rebel infantry before being repelled by a large group of rebels. They were worried that their own casualties would be too high, so they did not forcefully charge into the formation.
"hurry up!"
Meng He was willing to lead his troops to attack the city with mortars. Unexpectedly, the rebel army on the opposite side gave in at the critical moment and ran away, so they had no choice but to start chasing.
Using horsemen to attack the enemy was not worth the loss, and infantry was no better than a hard attack. Sun Shaobao could only use the old method he had just learned, which was to send the mortar regiment into battle first and then blast them to pieces.
The operational requirements given by His Royal Highness the Prince to the two newly trained mortar regiments are - "quick transfer and accurate shooting"!
The former means that whether you are attacking or defending, you must act quickly and not be sloppy. Life or death can be determined in a split second on the battlefield.
The latter is whether the enemy targets are in areas where they can see directly or where they can only shoot in a deflected direction. As long as they are within the range of the mortar, the artillery will hit their heads with the shells.
For ordinary soldiers, there are also clear requirements during combat. What they pay attention to are "quick feet, steady hands, accurate eyes, and calm mind." These eight words are detailed in the training manual.
During the training in the capital, Chitose explained all the important points. Because the amount of information was so large, even literate officers could not digest the entire content, so they could only slowly explore and master it through actual combat.
As a technical combat unit, the mortar regiment has relatively higher quality individual soldiers than ordinary infantry. However, most of them are also illiterate and can only follow orders and fight based on experience.
The subordinates will do whatever their superiors ask them to do. As long as their salary and salary are paid in full and on time, they can't control other things and don't bother to ask.
"Ranging!"
"Three hundred and fifty steps!"
"Four hundred steps!"
"Four hundred steps!"
"Go to the mound ahead and test again!"
Meng He was not satisfied with the ranging results. When he saw a small mound in front of him, he asked the ranging hand to go over. The mortar firing position must be as close as possible to the rebels, but the relative distance between the artillery positions must also be ensured. Safety.
"Captain!"
"What's wrong???"
"There are less than three hundred steps here!"
"Quickly set up the cannon!"
In order to deceive others, the mortar regiment did not dare to display its own flag at all, for fear that the other party would learn a lesson and find the words on the flag and start to run away instinctively.
Sun Chuanting also specially mobilized two thousand horsemen to provide cover for the artillery regiment and prevent the rebels from seeing the officers and soldiers moving new firearms to the front line.
The main battle weapons of the entire artillery regiment are all reduced to parts, which can be hung on both sides of the packhorse, covered with rainproof cloth, and then quickly moved to the forward position.
Being able to move quickly is the biggest advantage of the mortar. Because it is not too large, and there are feints of horsemen in front of it, it is not easily detected by the enemy.
After receiving the order, the gunners used the necessary tools they carried - shovels, to start digging holes on a large scale.
Generally speaking, from digging the hole to firing, it takes about five minutes for the entire regiment to enter salvo mode.
Explosive packages and propellants come in fixed doses, fireproof baffles are prepared in advance, and nails come in packages. They just need to be bundled with the explosive package.
Everyone did their jobs very quickly. Apart from measuring targets, surveying terrain, and writing battle reports, all other things were done with ease by even the most experienced people.
"Shaobao, our regiment is in position and ready to fire at any time!"
After a while, when the mortar regiment was almost ready, Sun Chuanting led Niu Chenghu and Bai Guangen's approximately 3,000 troops to the front line. He did not deliberately find a safe position and chose to join the mortar regiment. protect them.
"...Well, fire!"
Sun Chuanting first used a telescope to take a look at the movements of the rebel army, and found that although the enemy was forming a formation to fight, they did not stop and were slowly moving north. It was clear that they planned to fight and retreat, and they must immediately launch an attack on them. Just attack.
"Boom, boom, boom..."
As the holes were fired one after another, more than a hundred explosive packets suddenly rose into the air, suddenly appeared in mid-air, and flew rapidly towards the thief's infantry formation in the distance.
"That is……"
The rebel soldiers suddenly saw a very familiar scene, as if they had seen it before, and they couldn't help but recall it in their minds. However, they soon realized that apart from lightning and broken limbs, there was no good scene at all.
From the generals to the soldiers, their eyes widened and they were a little panicked and anxious, but they were still at a loss. If they wanted to run away, they couldn't form a formation. If they couldn't form a formation, they couldn't resist the charge of the officers and soldiers. If they stayed in place to form a formation...
"Boom boom boom!"
They were going to be blown up beyond recognition by explosive muskets, and life would be worse than death. In order to run faster, many soldiers just threw away their prepared wooden armor and bamboo armor.
Now they were only wearing cloth clothes, and many of them were so hot that they went into battle shirtless. Since the officers, soldiers, and horsemen did not dare to approach, and the companions at the front had shields, they had nothing to worry about.
In the face of bullets falling from the sky, this idea is absolutely wrong. The less protective gear you carry, the more fragile and vulnerable your flesh and blood body will be when faced with flying nails.
Even if a nail less than two joints long were shot into the internal organs, the person would be basically disabled and would die from internal bleeding within a day, without any chance of survival.
The rebels didn't expect to be hit by the dog officer's gunfire here. They originally thought they were running fast enough, but in the end they were tricked by the sun dog thief.
In the first salvo, the impact point of the artillery shells was a bit off. Only about 70% of the artillery shells hit the rebel army's infantry formation, but it also made the enemy unable to parry and screamed again and again.
About seventy explosive packets and tens of thousands of tiny nails almost knocked down no less than 800 people. If any bird looked down from a high altitude, they would find that the dense crowd below suddenly collapsed after hundreds of loud noises. Lots of blocks.
"Brother, how should we behave?"
"Little Qin King" Bai Gui saw the miserable situation of the tribe and knew that he could not stay here for long. If he persisted, he would be beaten by the Sun Gou thieves with such sharp firearms.
"here we go again!"
Xue Chengcai, the "one-stop leader" who agreed to run away, was also waiting for Luo Rucai's decision. Among them, "Cao Cao" was a smart man and a righteous man, while the other leaders could not achieve much at all.
But when he heard a second similar sound of gunfire coming from the distance, he secretly screamed something bad, and then he saw countless black spots appearing in the sky in the distance, heading towards the rebels at high speed.
The infantry formation was still full of messes, and the wounded soldiers had no time to receive treatment. There were not that many doctors in the rebel army. Dingtian could treat the generals' injuries. Once the ordinary soldiers were injured, they would have to fend for themselves.
"No chaos allowed..."
The big and small leaders are still working hard to suppress, hoping to restore the original formation as soon as possible, so that the soldiers behind can be supplemented to the front, so as to prevent the formation from being rushed away by the officers and soldiers.
However, I heard many people talking about "here we go again". People who didn't see this scene couldn't help but look up at the sky. All their eyes could collect were the flying bullets.
However, they were dumbfounded, and their hearts were filled with anxiety and despair. Even their legs and feet were no longer in control. There was not enough time to run away. All they could do was to stop and watch, and then silently pray that it would not happen to them. here.
However, this kind of unilateral psychological appeal could not play its due role on the battlefield. Instead, after adjustments, the impact points of the incoming bullets were more precise than before, and almost all of them hit the infantry formation.
"Run!"
At this time, everyone no longer cares about forming a formation. Life is important. If they don't run away, they will be beaten into a hornet's nest by the bullets. This thing is really terrible, more terrifying than ordinary bullets.
"Thahoo!"
I didn't know the power of the government's firearms before and suffered four blows in vain. Now that I understand, the rebels are even less interested in fighting.
As long as their legs and feet can still move, they will react instinctively. No matter what the orders are from above, they only have the word "escape" in their minds.
It's all nonsense to say anything else. Even if each person is given one hundred taels of cash and wants to stay and form an array, everyone will not agree. Their lives are gone, so what's the use of asking for money?
"Boom boom boom boom..."
However, hundreds of bullets were still shot directly into their faces inhumanely, blowing up multiple infantry formations of the rebels in an instant. After the fireballs disappeared, the infantry formations were reduced to pieces in the blink of an eye, and the soldiers were even more numerous. The birds and beasts were scattered.
"Thahoo!"
Since there is no way to defeat him, then the thirty-six tactics are the best.
Luo Rucai no longer expected to protect the infantry, and hurriedly told everyone to run away.
If he stayed a little longer, the bullet might hit his head.
You must first run out of the range of the fire cannon and save your life and property. Then you can gather as many men and horses as you can.
This time, they admitted their defeat. The Sun Dog thief was indeed powerful, but it did not mean that the rebel army would be completely defeated. When they got to other places, they could take back their capital with profits.
"Cao Cao" has decided to run away, and the other three leaders will naturally not be stupid enough to insist on forming an formation. There is no way to form an formation in this situation.
After only being shelled twice, the morale of the rebels had already hit rock bottom. If they were hit a few more times, they might even be tempted to kneel down and beg the officers and soldiers for mercy.
There is no way to keep these tens of thousands of infantry, and it would be considered lucky to be able to escape from the clutches of the Sun Gou thieves with the horse soldiers.
If it rains, the firearm will malfunction, but God won't help me...
