The other generals secretly breathed a sigh of relief when they heard Yang Guozhu's name, thankful to have escaped disaster.
General Zhang's face suddenly darkened when his name was called, and he said bitterly: "General Qi, the general's abilities are limited, and I'm afraid he won't be able to defeat the bandit in front of him."
"What? Do you want to disobey military orders?" Yang Guozhu looked at the other party coldly.
General Zhang shrank his neck and said hurriedly: "I don't dare, I just hope that the general can send more troops and horses to the general. In this way, the general will have some confidence."
Seeing that he could not escape, he wanted to get more soldiers and horses.
"General Zhang, the general only asked you to hold back the bandits. He did not ask you to defeat the bandits immediately. How many troops and horses can be used?" said the general on the side.
Although the remaining generals did not speak, the attitudes on their faces were clear. They were unwilling for General Zhang to take away too many soldiers and horses.
The reason why they don't want to give General Zhang too many soldiers and horses is not that these people have any personal grudges against him, but that once he takes away too many soldiers and horses, he will naturally need another general to follow him into battle.
The soldiers and horses of the three large battalions of the official army were no match for the rebels. It would be useless to add one or two more battalions to him. It would only make other generals lose their troops in vain, and they would also be involved. .
"Since General Wu thinks that one battalion of soldiers and horses is enough, why don't you go." General Zhang said to the other general who had spoken before.
The general Wu who was mentioned choked up.
"Okay, stop arguing." Yang Guozhu scolded, stopped the quarrel between several generals, and immediately said, "I allow you to bring a thousand broken troops to fight together. I have only one request for you, you must hold back the bandits. , until the Xuanfu troops arrive."
General Zhang looked bitter.
Knowing that he couldn't escape, he had no choice but to respond: "I will obey my orders."
The defeated troops gathered in the camp at the rear had already been brought to the battlefield. General Zhang led his soldiers and his camp to approach the bandits in front.
"General, what if General Zhang can't stop him?" Xue Mu asked in a low voice.
Yang Guozhu said coldly: "Then send another battalion of soldiers and horses. I don't believe that tens of thousands of soldiers and horses can't stop the thousands of soldiers and horses of the rebels."
When several generals on the side heard this, they knew that Yang Guozhu had made up his mind. At this moment, they only hoped that the leaving General Zhang could stop the rebels, and at the same time, they looked forward to the early arrival of Wang Bao's reinforcements.
Yang Guozhu did not look at the generals around him, but picked up the single-channel telescope and looked at the battlefield.
The elite of the official army are the personal soldiers of each family. A general like him has seven to eight hundred personal soldiers around him. Even if other generals do not have so many, they should always have two to three hundred personal soldiers.
All the soldiers and servants add up to two to three thousand people, and this is the backbone of the army.
As for the ordinary camp soldiers, the soldiers and horses belonging to the imperial court would not feel bad if they died in large numbers. If all of them died, they could still ask the imperial court for money and food to recruit soldiers and horses.
After a round of shelling, almost a quarter of the army's archers were lost.
The number of hundreds of archers suddenly decreased a lot. More importantly, many archers saw the tragic scene of their companions being killed by cannons, and the little courage in their hearts was scared away.
"Don't run, don't run. All archers move forward and attack the bandits in front." General Zhang, who rushed over, loudly ordered the already panicked archers to take the initiative to attack.
But these archers had long been frightened out of their courage. Even if they were not willing to listen to him, many archers fled back without looking back.
"Kill those archers who escaped for me." When General Zhang saw the archers fleeing back, he pointed angrily at the archers who were fleeing at the front.
Several soldiers and servants rushed over on horseback.
When they came closer, each of them slashed at the archers who were fleeing for their lives.
Several archers who were running for their lives were killed on the spot.
When the remaining archers saw this, they were frightened and stopped running for their lives, looking nervously at General Zhang not far away.
The servants who killed several archers did not return immediately. Instead, they blocked the way for these archers to escape to the camp, and pointed at the archers in front with the tips of their bloody knives.
General Zhang said: "I will go with you to face the bandits in front. Now I am ordering you to return immediately and use the bows and arrows in your hands to shoot at the bandits in front."
A group of soldiers and servants pushed forward, forcing the archers who wanted to escape to change direction and face the bandits in front again.
boom! boom! boom!
The sound of artillery sounded again, and the target of the bombardment was still the archers.
After a round of shelling, at least dozens of archers died under the shelling.
General Zhang, who was following behind with his troops and horses, shrank his neck and was thankful that he was not too close to the archers, otherwise he would also become a target of artillery fire.
Many of the soldiers and servants can ride and shoot.
They followed the archers. Once they found an archer trying to escape, they didn't need to catch up. They just shot an arrow at the fleeing archer on horseback.
After shooting several archers, the archer team was suppressed again.
Some of the archers gave up and could only continue to be bombarded if they stayed, so they began to rush towards the tiger-shaped flag military formation in front, hoping to run faster and avoid being targeted by the cannons of the bandits.
One archer ran forward, taking the other archers around him with him, and finally all the archers started running.
General Zhang, who was following behind, hesitated for a moment.
In the end, he still didn't have the guts to follow, so he sent his battalion soldiers to follow the archers, while he and his retainers stayed at the back to hold down the formation.
The sound of artillery continued.
Because the archers started running, they were much closer to the Tiger Flag military formation in front, and the target of the bombardment was changed to the battalion soldiers following the archers.
Thousands of battalions suffered heavy casualties under the shelling.
Compared with the huge number of soldiers in the camp, such a small number of casualties can be tolerated for the time being. Especially the soldiers in the camp that are far away from the impact point of the bombardment do not feel much about the bombardment.
Only those battalion soldiers whose companions died under shelling would be severely impacted.
The archers were killed and wounded under the shelling, which made the archers even more convinced that they were right to run. However, right in front of them was the formation of the bandits.
Therefore, about a hundred steps away from the Tiger Flag military formation, the official archers stopped.
The generals on the side all lowered their heads.
Most of these people were the commanders of a certain battalion. At this time, sending a battalion of soldiers and horses to confront the bandits head-on would obviously not allow them to gain any advantage.
After all, a battalion of border troops was not as large as the number of bandits in front of them.
Yang Guozhu's face sank when he saw that no one took the initiative to stand up and ask for a fight.
He looked around at the generals around him.
Finally, I just heard him say: "General Zhang, the opportunity to make meritorious deeds is given to you. You must hold back the bandits."
At this time, he himself did not expect a battalion of soldiers and horses to be able to defeat the invading Tiger Banner army, he only wanted to delay time.
