"Sweeping King" Zhang Yichuan agreed with "one hundred thousand" Hei Yunxiang's suggestion. The rebels had to lose thousands of people to break the city. How could they abandon Fang County just because of the 1,800 officers and soldiers who didn't even see their shadows? Isn’t that a waste of all your efforts?
They set up defenses on the south bank of the river. The officers and soldiers who were at a disadvantage in terms of military strength had to think twice before crossing the river. If they came over hastily, they would not be able to protect themselves and would be annihilated by the rebels on the bank.
The rebels had a full complement of horses and infantry, as well as some musketeers. They relied on each other and were not afraid of the horsemen of the Dog Officer Army who came alone. If the two sides fought, the rebel side would definitely have a greater chance of winning.
"Little King of Qin" Bai Gui and "One Dragon" Xue Chengcai had no objection. As long as Luo Rucai agreed to fight the official army, the two of them would stay to help in the battle. Otherwise, it would be better to run away as soon as possible.
Before the war, Hei Yunxiang had 3,400 to 500 troops. Zhang Yichuan and Luo Rucai's troops were not much different from him. Bai Gui had about 1,500 troops. Xue Chengcai had the least, less than 500.
The total strength of the rebel army is no less than 12,000. Even if they lose a small amount during the siege, they still have about 10,000 troops to fight, far exceeding the strength of the official army's forward troops. Moreover, this time they are fortified in front of the water. They have to fight a last-ditch battle, and their chances of winning are even better. The county was bigger that time.
"I've said it before. We only attack the vanguard of the Gou Guan army, not the main force of the Sun Gou thieves."
Luo Rucai had already thought out the way forward and retreat. The forwards of the army were mostly horse pawns and did not have the kind of sharp firearms that would make it impossible for them to survive. Therefore, if the rebels faced off, they should be relatively sure of victory.
If Sun Gou Thief led a large group of troops to arrive here, once the rebel army was bombarded with thunderous bombardment, the infantry would definitely be bombarded to collapse.
If this happens, the cavalry will have no choice but to abandon them and run away, leaving thousands of infantry waiting to be killed by the army's cavalry, just like the battle of Yun County.
When withdrawing his troops from Yun County, Luo Rucai did not expect that the gunfire of the government army would come so quickly, so he followed the horse soldiers. He still has not been able to understand the reason.
It stands to reason that a fire gun with such a range would be huge in size, not smaller than a Folang machine, and weigh hundreds of kilograms. It must be transported by horse-drawn carriage to achieve rapid maneuverability.
But at that time, he did not see a large number of carriages from the official army approaching the rebel army's infantry formation, so he was puzzled and could not figure out the mystery.
For example, firecrackers such as the Tiger Crouching Cannon, Wankou Gun, and Xiaofo Langji weigh less, only about a hundred kilograms, and can be transported by packhorses, but large Folangji or Great God Guns cannot.
Luo Rucai really hopes to see the true appearance of this fire gun in Lushan. If it is used to attack the front line of the official army and the rebels are still bombarded by sharp firearms from the opposite side, then he thinks that the weight of this fire gun will be very light and can be followed. Horse soldiers fight.
If you have the chance, it would be best to capture a few firecrackers so that you can study them. These light-weight and powerful firecrackers are exactly the weapons that the rebels, who are good at mobile warfare, urgently need.
"Evacuate the city"
"What"
"I didn't hear what I said."
"These brothers have just started to make money."
"There is an order from the top, evacuate the city immediately. The thief is coming. Do you want money or your life? Do you want to stay in the city and wait for the thief to blow you all to pieces?"
“Don’t want to don’t want to”
After Luo Rucai gave the order, "Cao Jun" spit out all the meat he had swallowed in his mouth. Thinking of the "refreshing" feeling of five thunders, Cao soldiers all shuddered and reluctantly followed the little boss out of the room. County seat.
Although this place is good, the Sun Gou thief will not let himself have a good life. If he is surrounded by the army, especially when he is bombarded by the previous fire blunderbuss, it will be impossible to break out of the encirclement.
Is money more important or life more important?
It’s unclear how to choose for other parts. Anyway, the soldiers of “Cao Ying” would instinctively choose the latter. They were frightened by the firearms of the army. It was really terrible to have nails driven into their bodies, especially into their bones. The feeling of life being worse than death.
In view of the fact that the three families joined forces to attack the city, and "Cao's army" broke the city first, all the money and food were divided into ten parts. Luo Rucai, Hei Yunxiang, and Sao Diwang each took three parts, and the remaining part was left to Bai Gui and Xue Chengcai to avoid injury. Peaceful.
With such a division, everyone has a share, and those who are able get more, so no one can gossip. Since it would take a while for the army to arrive, the five leaders discussed it and decided to make rice immediately so that their soldiers could eat enough before fighting.
If there were no pursuing troops behind them, the rebel army would not be able to capture Fangxian County so quickly. It would take at least two or three days to do so. However, Luo Rucai was very anxious and asked the "Cao Army" soldiers to show their talents. Only then could they defeat Fangxian County in a short time. Succeed within.
Due to the influence of the previous gold juice, the rebel soldiers, who were physically and mentally battered after breaking the city, rushed into the city and massacred officers, soldiers and civilians. They "cleaned up" from house to house, robbed money and food, and took the young women away. The remaining people All wiped.
Then he set the house on fire and laughed loudly in the yard under the light of the fire. Only in this way can he be considered avenged. Listening to the sobs and prayers of the female relatives, I feel even more proud, and I will have to work hard for a while.
"Hao Ming Mansion, I have come all the way from afar. As a Ming man, you know etiquette and refused to open the city to welcome me. Instead, you greeted me with gold juice, which in turn affected the people in the city."
Hei Yunxiang regards his own side as a subordinate to do justice for heaven. The people in Fang County do not know their own capabilities and actually try to fight against the rebels. They are really impatient.
"Hey, you accepted the offer but did not repent. It is an unkind and unjust act for you to rebel against the imperial court now."
After Hao Jingchun failed to commit suicide, he was caught, tied into a rice dumpling, and taken in front of many leaders. However, he was upright and fearless, and had already prepared for the worst.
"The imperial court hums. This imperial court has been levying excessive taxes and squeezing out minzhimin cream for many years. If this were not the case, how could they have mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops after the uprising?"
There are many people who participate in the rebellion, but there are two major categories of people who account for the vast majority. One category is the frontier soldiers and post soldiers who have no money to receive, and the other category is those who have no harvest and cannot pay taxes. Farmers, so what Hei Yunxiang said is not false.
"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince still offers amnesty to the whole world, exempting all taxes and salary collection in the north in order to restore the various places and recuperate, but you are still stubborn and stubborn. It is really an unforgivable sin."
The first issue of the Capital Daily was also sent to Fangxian County. After reading the content published in it, Hao Jingchun was very happy. Unlike the Long Live Lord, the prince was very considerate of Min Sheng. At a young age, he had the image of a wise king.
Hei Yunxiang laughed loudly when he heard this, and then responded calmly, "Didn't I take my brothers to the land of Hao Ming Mansion to recuperate? The Ming Mansion doesn't welcome us, so we have to do it ourselves."
He even captured Zhushan, but still has one Fangxian left to go.
Although this is the territory of the "Sweeper King", this local snake can't even take over the city on his territory, so Hei Yunxiang has no choice but to lend a helping hand.
Zhang Yichuan didn't capture Fang County, so he yelled at Hao Jingchun, "The person who is unforgivably guilty is you, a bitch official with a low rank, but a lot of courage. You actually dared to gather Diao Min to fight against the rebels. Fortunately, God has eyes, so let Now that we have caught you, this dog official, now let you see what happens to Diao Min in the city."
The rebel soldiers each grabbed a civilian and dragged him to the designated position by his collar. When the man below his knees was still crying and begging for mercy, he slashed his head with a knife, and a whole row of civilians were beheaded.
Since these Diao Min colluded with the government to resist the rebel attack, resulting in the loss of thousands of troops, the other side must suffer the fate they deserve.
Furthermore, the food in the city will be taken away by the rebels, and they will starve to death if they are left behind. It is better to chop them down with a knife. This is great, but for your sake.
Those who were beheaded were officers and soldiers, men and young and old. The young and beautiful female relatives had to serve the rebel soldiers and let the elders enjoy happiness before being beheaded.
"One Dragon" Xue Chengcai looked at this strange scene expressionlessly. Since he secretly defected to the army, he had different thoughts and ideas from other leaders.
He had already sent people to tell the officers and soldiers about Luo Rucai's plan to invade the army. He didn't know whether he would be able to come after hearing the news. But at the moment, the actions of the two leaders in front of him really made him despise him.
Everyone knew that Sun Chuanting's vanguard troops were about to arrive here. "The Whole Hundred Thousand" and "Sweeping King" kept saying that they would fight the army here, and even planned to repel them, but in fact they were here to kill people for fun.
Regardless of priorities, and not knowing the strength of the enemy or our own, relying solely on the bravery of ordinary men, showing off their strong will to win, and still not wanting to make progress as before. With such a companion, what future can I say about the future?
Xue Chengcai was forced to surrender to Sun Chuanting before, just to save his family. Now that he saw the behavior of these two people, he speculated that he would be defeated by Sun Chuanting in nine out of ten, and he also thought about quitting the rebel army and serving the army. Got an idea.
Moreover, Xue Chengcai already knew that there were Sun Chuanting's 50,000 troops to the west and Hong Chengchou's 100,000 troops to the east. They were both equipped with a large number of fairy fire cannons, which had high firing rates and great power. It was no longer possible for the rebels to confront the official army head-on.
No matter whether it was a last-ditch battle or a fortification, they could not stop the impact of the officers and soldiers supported by firecrackers. They would either keep running south or die on their own initiative.
Xue Chengcai would not tell others his thoughts and information. Not only would he not be recognized and approved by other leaders, he would also be lit up in the sky. He knew the virtues of this group of people very well.
"Zheng Shiwan" and "Sweeping King" wanted to hold off the enemy by the river. It was the best thing for them. They happened to treat these two reckless guys as a meeting gift to Sun Shaobao. If the officers and soldiers killed them both, they would His family members were saved.
As for Luo Rucai and Bai Gui, they can only take one step at a time. Once the rebel army's defense line is broken through by the official army, they may run faster than themselves.
Further east, there are two troops of "King of Hunshi" and "Fat Zhang". They can be sold again. In this way, not only as a general soldier, but also as a deputy general.
Since there is no future in the rebel army, let’s go to the official army. This is the advantage of having two boats.
The whole rebel army, especially the "Whole Hundred Thousand" and "Sweeping King" troops, struggled in the city for more than half an hour. After killing all the officers, soldiers and young men, they finally stopped under Luo Rucai's persuasion.
Otherwise, if they were allowed to retaliate wildly, they wouldn't be able to finish it within an hour. Not to mention fending off the enemy by the river, even the time for eating would be wasted.
When the rebels finally made repairs on the edge of the water, smoke and dust were already billowing in the distance on the north bank, indicating that the forward troops of the government army were very close to this place.
"I'm less than ten miles away. Come and build water. It will be the city of Fangxian County."
Ya Jiang roughly estimated the distance and reported the situation to He Renlong while galloping.
"When the distance is five miles, rein in your horse and rest, check the movement on the other side, and then march forward."
This time He Renlong took the initiative to volunteer as the vanguard of the entire army. This was also stimulated by Bai Liangbi's forced landing of "One Dragon". If he captured and killed Luo Rucai, he could keep the 50,000 taels of silver reward for himself.
According to the news sent by "Yilong", the rebel army should be attacking Fangxian County on a large scale at this time. He Renlong planned to take the opportunity to launch a surprise attack behind the rebel army.
However, He Renlong is still not sure whether the actual situation is as "Yi Long" said. If this guy is pretending to surrender, deliberately deceiving himself, or if Fang County has already fallen, this trick will not work.
The more than a thousand cavalry led by him were unable to kill the main force of the bandit army, so they could only resort to harassment tactics, otherwise they would have to wait for the large group of people thirty miles behind them to arrive to help in the battle.
Chasing from Yun County to Zhushan, and then from Zhushan to Fang County, He Renlong was tired of chasing him. It was like a dog chasing a rabbit, and he urgently needed to fight with the bandit army.
But when he reached the area near the shore, He Renlong found that the bandits were already arrayed in front of the water. They seemed to be prepared, and he couldn't get the advantage.
Zhushui is not a big river. It is easy to find a shoal to cross. What is difficult is to rush into the formation, especially when there is no cover of firecrackers and a thief infantry formation equipped with a large number of horsemen.
Considering that the strength of the rebel army was several times that of his own, He Renlong did not intend to go deep alone, otherwise he would be killed and the whole army was annihilated, so he still waited patiently for the follow-up people to arrive immediately before defeating the enemy.
The forward of the official army was only two hours away from the rear of the bandit army, and the main force was at most three hours away from the rear of the rebel army. This was due to Sun Chuanting's strategy of advancing troops by day and night.
The official army marched farther than the rebel army every day, and the speed per unit time was naturally faster than that of the rebel army, so it regained a lot of the half-day spent in Yunxian for repairs.
This was after Sun Chuanting ordered the forwards to keep a certain distance from the rebel army, otherwise the rebel army's tail would have been bitten by He Renlong.
By the time Sun Shaobao led a large number of cavalry to capture this place, it was already approaching evening. Fortunately, in summer, the sunset was relatively late, otherwise he would not be able to see clearly the situation on the other side.
"Human Dragon, do you estimate how long it will take our soldiers to cross the river?"
After seeing the fortification situation of the rebels on the other side, Sun Chuanting put down his telescope and turned to ask questions.
"Reporting to Shaobao, according to the general's opinion, at most half a stick of incense and thousands of horsemen can complete the crossing of the river and launch an attack on the bandits on the south bank."
He Renlong understood that a fight was about to begin, and Sun Shaobao couldn't wait until dawn tomorrow morning, but it was good this way, lest the rebel army on the opposite side take the opportunity to escape.
"Meng He, how did you feel after measuring the distance?"
Sun Chuanting also had to ask about the situation of the mortar regiment that came with the army. Only within the range of the fire cannons could we have a chance of winning. Otherwise, it would be unwise to fight with a small number and the enemy is large.
"Reporting to Shaobao, the nearest group of rebel infantry is about 300 steps away from our troops. If artillery is deployed on the shore, it will be about 200 steps away from the enemy."
It is very dangerous to cross the river to meet the enemy, but if you want to attack the enemy in front of you, the officers and soldiers must cross the river. Meng He's artillery regiment is Sun Chuanting's biggest reliance.
