Shi Le's army consisted of tens of thousands of people.
A horse quickly crossed the military formation and galloped in front of Shi Le. The rider on the horse controlled the reins halfway, and the running horse made a beautiful emergency stop and stopped steadily in front of Shi Le's horse.
"General, the Qingzhou thieves in front are very well organized. Taobao and I led the cavalry and clashed twice, but it was of no use."
This rider is Guo Heilee, one of the "Eighteen Riders" under Shi Le.
When Shi Le arrived with the 8,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry behind him, the Qingzhou Army on the opposite side had already set up an array.
Because the cavalry of the Qingzhou Army had already been forced back behind the infantry array by Shi Le's forward cavalry, at this time the vast space outside the battlefield became completely dominated by Shi Le's army.
Taking advantage of the 30,000 infantry formation, Shi Le ordered Guo Heilue and Taobao to lead some cavalry to harass the Qingzhou Army, intending to destabilize the Qingzhou Army with a feint attack.
This method has almost succeeded many times when facing ordinary Jin troops and refugees. It often only requires thousands of cavalry to form a formation and then approach on horseback. Tens of thousands of infantry can be confused, and then only the cavalry is needed to attack. At the weak point, all that's left is to chase death and chase north.
However, Shi Le, who has fought against the Qingzhou Army twice, knows that although the Qingzhou Army's marching formation is nothing surprising, the soldiers of the Qingzhou Army tend to have high morale, and the proportion of Qingzhou Army's soldiers wearing armor is very high. This kind of cavalry The effect of formation and intimidation is definitely not effective.
"Understood, leave some elites to continue the harassment and demoralize the thieves. The rest will withdraw and rest."
Shi Le didn't say a word of blame to Guo Heilue and Taobao, because all this was within his expectation. If the Qingzhou thieves on the opposite side could be so easy to deal with, they would have been killed by him long ago in Licheng and Juancheng. Clean.
After Guo Heilue took the order and retreated, the deputy next to him, Diao Ying, approached Shi Le and said.
"General, I see that the Qingzhou thieves opposite are only ten thousand in number, but they are well-organized. If we fight head-on with them, we will probably suffer a lot of casualties. Why don't we form a formation to confront them? We have more people and can use up more energy." Consume them to death."
Diao Ying's words immediately made Shi Le feel a little angry.
Shi Le knew that this Diao Ying just had some deep-seated fear of Qingzhou, so he said such nonsense.
"Fart, I led the army to march more than ten miles here, not to confront Qingzhou, but to take advantage of its lonely army to penetrate deep and destroy it in one battle."
Since he had Zhang Bin and other Han advisers, Shi Le felt more and more that Diao Ying, a fellow countryman, was giving him some bad ideas.
"Diao Youshi, what you said is wrong. The Qingzhou thieves can travel hundreds of miles to this point. They must have plenty of baggage in the army. I just looked at it from a distance and expected that the Qingzhou thieves must not be afraid of confrontation. But our army is different. Our baggage is all in Guangping. , and the clothes of our infantry are thin. If there is no camp fire, how can they survive the winter night."
Zhang Bin on the other side immediately rejected Diao Ying's proposal.
Shi Le led the main force to come, and he did not bring any tents or baggage at all. He was obviously looking for a quick fight, and Diao Ying's nonsense was simply asking for embarrassment.
Shi Le was too lazy to pay attention to Diao Ying, who was becoming increasingly unusable.
"General, I see that the Qingzhou thieves on the opposite side are using a four-square formation, uh, a four-square formation. Although this formation is good for defense, it is not convenient for changing formations to attack. The general can mobilize the army to attack one side and force the thieves to change formations. Then, while the formation is not yet stable, send a sudden cavalry charge towards it, and you will definitely be able to defeat the thieves." Zhang Bin's face showed that he had all the enemy's situation under his control.
Zhang Bin's words were in line with Shi Le's wishes.
"Okay, Meng Sun is indeed a great talent, and I think so too."
When Zhang Bin heard this, there was no sign on his face, but he was very proud of himself. This Hu general valued him so much, and he must do his best to help him achieve a great cause in this chaotic world, so that Those powerful and powerful people in the Jin Dynasty who regarded themselves as a child servant from a poor family took a look at who was the top talent.
Subsequently, Shi Le ordered the entire army to form a formation, with 30,000 infantry troops arranged into a thick formation with a width of only two miles, in preparation for a concentrated attack on the front of the Qingzhou Army.
As for the thousands of cavalry, they were deployed on both wings.
Shi Le's order was to let these Hu cavalry wait for a while. After the Han infantry disrupted the Qingzhou bandits' formation with their lives, these Hu cavalry would take advantage of the opportunity and attack the Qingzhou army.
After receiving the order, Shi Le's Tao Bao, Guo Hei Lue, Liu Ying, Wu Yu and other Hu men led their respective cavalry to advance in formation on both wings.
Shi Le himself personally took command of the infantry formation on the middle route, with Zhang Bin, Cheng Xia, Xu Guang and others assisting in commanding the infantry.
Just when Shi Le's army was about to beat the drums and advance, a bald man with a thick beard and a long robe slowly appeared in front of Shi Le.
Under the service of two equally bald Han men, the bald Hu man boarded a high-coupled cart that had been prepared, and then babbled a lot of words like a pig chewing an ox.
None of the Han infantry soldiers under Shi Le understood what the Kuntou Hu man said.
A bald Han man serving under the Kuntou Hu man quickly walked up to Shi Le, then clasped his hands and said proudly.
"Master Zhu Tu said that he has just blessed the general with Buddhist power, which can offset the 3.33 million ghost soldiers and thunder evil spirits of the Heavenly Master. The general can safely slay the demons and eliminate them. Moreover, Master Zhu Tu is compassionate and will do it in a while. Go to the front of the battle in person to resolve the resentment of the rebel army and save the souls of the dead."
When Shi Le heard this, he was determined.
"Da He is really merciful. Thank you Zhu Tu Da He for me first. After I kill these Qingzhou thieves, Master Yuan Zhu Tu will definitely build pagodas and Lanruo in Jizhou as he wishes, and he will also ask the emperor to , open up monks’ membership widely.”
Then, Shi Le waved his hand, the drum order spread, and the army of more than 30,000 cavalry finally started.
. . . . .
At the same time, the Qingzhou Army was two miles away from the Shilehu infantry and cavalry army.
Liu Yu had also seen Shi Le's troops finally starting to move towards him.
"These stupid Hulu finally dared to charge forward. I thought they wanted to fight us until dark." Zhao Kun, who had been following Liu Yu, was already impatient.
"There must be tens of thousands of these infantry troops. Why is the array so narrow?"
Liu Xun looked at the Hulu infantry advancing on the opposite side. Under normal circumstances, ten thousand people spread out in a loose array, which is enough to make people feel like they are all over the mountains. However, the front of these Hulu infantry is quite limited.
"Haha, it's not that the Hulu on the opposite side don't want to open up a larger front, but because most of these infantry troops are forcibly recruited people from Hebei. If the front is too wide, they won't be able to take into account a large area, and those who are afraid of the enemy will also be afraid of the enemy. Hard to find.”
Ran Long's words immediately answered Liu Xun's doubts.
"Moreover, it's already getting late. If we divide our troops and form a siege on all sides, just setting up the formation will take more than half an hour of these infantry troops. The Hulu on the opposite side must be thinking that they might as well attack with all their strength, and then attack with all their strength. If the cavalry attacks the flank, the victory can be won much faster than if the infantry is besieging the enemy on three sides."
Liu Xun soon had new doubts.
"If the Hulu were to besieged on several sides, shouldn't they use their full strength faster? How could it be slower than this?"
Ran Long thought for a while and continued.
"There are many unarmored Hulu infantry troops. I guess that if we really fight against the Qingzhou Army, we may be defeated by our army. By then, the Hulu troops will be unable to pass the news and they will be defeated in one place. It may cause the entire army to collapse."
After hearing this, Liu Xun immediately answered.
"Oh, I understand, because these Hulu infantry are so ineffective that they can only be used in one place. If they are divided, they will be afraid of fighting."
Although Liu Yu heard the conversation between Ran Long and Liu Xun, he did not comment at all because he had been observing the advancing enemy troops.
Although he knew that it was difficult for Shi Le's infantry on the opposite side to change complicated formations during the march, let alone change directions, Liu Yu was still afraid that if these Hulu infantry changed formations when facing the enemy, it would be disrupted. He had been planning the strategy in his mind for a long time.
Fortunately, the Hulu infantry on the opposite side had no intention of changing their formation, and kept maintaining the shape of a heavy infantry formation, slowly pressing towards the Qingzhou Army.
As the stop-and-go Hulu infantry got closer and closer, Liu Yu could finally make up his mind to send in his secret weapon.
At the right time and place, it was time for Liu Yu's secret weapon to show off.
. . . . . . . .
"Come here! Send the order and deploy all the bronze cannons to the north. Go quickly!"
At this time, Liu Yu could deploy all five bronze cannons to the front, because it was impossible for the Hulu infantry to change its main attack direction, because if they changed their direction on the outside, the Qingzhou Army, which had the advantage on the inside, would only need to attack from all sides. With fine-tuning of the array, you can fully cope with it.
If the Hulu generals take the lead, they only need to change a few rounds, and just walking can consume a lot of their energy, while the Qingzhou army only deflected and moved a few steps.
Soon, five heavy bronze cannons were pushed to the front of the enemy by dozens of large and round infantrymen from the central army.
The lack of various supplies caused these five bronze cannons to consume almost all of Liu Yu's savings, as well as the annual salt profits.
Because metallic zinc had not yet been extracted, these five cannons were all cast using bronze casting techniques.
Since the Yin and Shang Dynasties, China's bronze casting technology has been almost at the king's level. Although the control of metal purity and proportion is not as good as modern times, the technology of casting a three-pound cannon is for these craftsmen who can cast a thousand-pound cauldron. It's not difficult at all.
It's just more experiments in smelting and molding.
Compared with standard gun metal, the weight and strength are slightly insufficient, but for Liu Yu, these five bronze cannons are far better than the first bronze cannon initially tested.
Liu Yu was already very satisfied with this.
These five imitation three-pound cannons are four feet in length, and the whole set weighs 800 kilograms. Compared with the standard three-gun bronze cannon of later generations, it can definitely be called a "fat" version.
It fires about three kilograms of solid pig iron ball bullets, using granulated black fire yao. The maximum effective range is about two hundred steps.
Because of the rush of production, most soldiers of the Qingzhou Army had only heard the sound and smoke of the bronze cannon, and had never seen its true power.
For the first impression of these five bronze cannons, most people think of one word - "expensive".
Of course, this includes Ran Long, who has just arrived.
When the big-mouthed Chen Xian told Ran Long that there was a magical weapon in the Qingzhou Army that was so powerful that it could cause lightning to strike the ground, Ran Long was still quite skeptical.
However, when Ran Long returned to Liu Yu's tent to counsel military affairs, and when he saw with his own eyes the magical weapons Chen Xian said at the Chinese Army, he couldn't help but believe it.
Because these five magic weapons are too expensive!
Ran Long got Liu Yu's permission and went forward to touch it. He found that the five large tubes were actually made of copper, and judging from the quality, the proportion of copper in them was much higher than that of the five baht coins.
Especially when Liu Yu told him that this "artillery" cost at least millions of dollars, Ran Long no longer doubted the power of this "artillery".
Because in his opinion, if it didn't have such power, it would be worth a million dollars.
With this one million dollars, you can buy as much iron as you want and make as many weapons as you want. If you spend one million dollars to buy iron guns, it will probably be enough for an army of soldiers.
Moreover, what Liu Yu told Ran Long was far more than that.
Ran Long knew that every time these "cannons" made of copper coins were used, it cost a thousand yuan of "huo yao", plus a three-pound iron ball, which cost another hundred yuan.
"I want to see what kind of power these "gold-eating beasts" called artillery have!"
Ran Long's eyes had been fixed on those artillery pieces and the group of Qingzhou soldiers pushing the artillery pieces since Liu Yu gave the order.
Because according to Ran Long's estimation, if these copper cannons were melted into copper coins, a group of people could be killed with just money. He wanted to see what Chen Xian said about "thunder striking the earth" was like!
After dozens of Qingzhou soldiers worked hard to push the five bronze cannons to the appropriate position.
The Hulu infantry in the distance had advanced to about a hundred steps away from them, and began to stop there to organize their formation.
Liu Yu knew that after sorting out the queue this time, he would be within the range of strong bows and crossbows, and the Hulu infantry on the opposite side could launch a charge.
Fortunately, real infantry charges are usually divided into several formations and take turns to attack, and there is no swarm of swarms. In this way, it is very suitable for Liu Yu to use the deterrent power of the bronze cannon.
"How far is the Hulu infantry?" Liu Yu asked the Qingzhou soldiers observing the distance.
"General, the thief is one hundred and ten steps away." said a soldier who was responsible for observing the distance.
"Okay, for such a dense crowd, let's fire one round first to scare their courage." Liu Yu immediately ordered five artillery pieces to test fire once, just as a calibration.
After receiving the order, the artillerymen of the Qingzhou Army quickly became busy one by one.
Ran Long, who was not far away, heard that Liu Yu ordered the use of these five extremely expensive weapons, and his heart couldn't help but get excited. God, I can finally see what weapons worth millions of dollars are. How powerful.
I saw those Qingzhou soldiers busy surrounding the "artillery" with various bags, sticks, and pounding sticks.
Then, a soldier who looked like a small officer held a torch and lit the twister inserted in the small hole.
Ran Long saw that the fire was emitting green smoke, and the smoke was getting shorter and shorter, just when it was finished burning.
"boom!"
"boom!"
Suddenly there were five thunderous blasts in succession!
Ran Long felt as if he really heard thunder. He saw the Qingzhou soldiers who lit the cannons stretched their necks and looked in the direction of the Hulu ahead.
"Could it be that the thunder just triggered the sky and then hit the ground?" Ran Long also followed their gazes and saw that in front of the Hulu formation opposite, something suddenly seemed to fall from the sky and hit it hard. On the ground, bursts of soil were smashed up.
When Ran Long saw this scene, he was greatly disappointed. How could this be a magic weapon? Is this just a matter of burning money and listening to the thunder?
Suddenly, Ran Long saw something bouncing up from the smashed soil. Like a rabbit, it jumped over the dense heads of the Hulu infantry and hit a high-column carriage behind. On the carriage was a bald man named Huang Luo. The person's head instantly turned into a mass of blood mist and disappeared.
"What the hell, you spend millions to build one and kill a person?!" Ran Long couldn't help but feel regretful in his heart.
"Oh, the hit rate is zero. The only damage is the ricochet?" Liu Yu couldn't figure out whether this was a human problem or a cannon problem.
"General, general! Master Zhu Tu, he was killed by the thieves' magic just now!!" Two bald Central Plains people howled and crawled to the front of Shi Lema.
