After Hu Dawei asked Hu Zichen to ask for help, he couldn't help himself. He came down from the wall of the village and shouted loudly: "Open the door and order all the soldiers outside the camp to come in and defend."
"Boom..."
The turret at the gate of the village where he was just now was hit by a cannon shot from a Qing army's Hongyi cannon, and collapsed immediately.
At this time, a fast horse came and shouted from a distance: "Junmen, to the west, there are Tatar cavalry rushing in from the west..."
Hu Dawei heard the sound and looked around. It turned out that Chen Zhengkuan, the sentry commander under his command, was urging his horse to come. He asked in a deep voice: "How many Tatars are coming from the west?"
Chen Zhengkuan was ordered to lead a sentry cavalry to monitor the west of Hu Dawei's camp. Less than two miles to the west is the Haoshui River, and more than two miles to the south is Yang Guozhu's camp.
It can be said that to the west of Jiazhuang Camp, there is a quite broad space that is more than two miles wide and more than four miles long. There is a chest-high earth wall from the west wall of Hudawei Camp to the south, which is built all the way to Yang Guozhu Camp. A passage about several feet wide was left in the middle.
This afternoon, the Qing army broke in through this passage. Chen Zhengkuan hurriedly reported: "At the military gate, there are over a thousand Tatars, divided into about four teams, and they have broken in through the breach in the parapet."
Hu Dawei shouted sternly: "The cavalry line up, go out to fight, and kill the Tatars!"
…………
Zhang Cheng's knights have been waiting in the square inside the west gate of Jiazhuang. Except for the left sentry who was sent by him to garrison inside the south gate of Jiazhuang to obey Zhang Yan's orders, the remaining nearly 600 knights gathered here.
He hurried back and shouted: "Line up the sentries, the Tatars are rushing in from the west, open the village gate, sons and daughters, follow me to fight!"
Yang Guozhu and Hu Zichen were beside Zhang Cheng. They left the camp. Each of them only brought a few personal soldiers with him, so they did not dare to rush out rashly.
Seeing that all the sentries had been lined up, Zhang Cheng turned to Yang Guozhu and said: "Military Gate..."
Yang Guozhu also raised his arms and shouted: "Kill the Tatars!"
As the village gate slowly opened, Zhang Cheng took the lead in galloping out of the village. Yang Guozhu, Zhang Guodong and nearly a thousand elite cavalry followed closely behind him. The knights immediately formed their formations as soon as they left the village gate.
They formed three teams, with more than 300 knights in each team. Zhang Cheng led the front and rear sentries in the middle, Yang Guozhu led more than 300 knights under Zhang Guodong on the left, and Hu Zichen and Zhang Cheng's Wu Zhizhong's right sentries were on the right. .
Looking from a distance, less than 300 steps away, a group of Ming army knights were already fighting. Zhang Cheng saw at a glance that the flag was from the main barracks of Xuanzang. He saw Zhang Guodong shouted: "Mr. Zhang Qian, protect the military gate and rush there!"
Upon hearing this, Yang Guozhu took off his tiger spear from the victory hook beside the saddle and said loudly: "I'm not old enough to ask for protection, kill..."
Zhang Cheng hurriedly rode after Yang Guozhu and rushed towards the Qing cavalry group three hundred paces away. Behind him, the knights followed him in a fan shape.
At a distance of three hundred steps, the cavalry arrived in a flash. The Qing cavalry also noticed Zhang Cheng and others running from this side. They retreated slightly, but their formation was not disordered.
As the Qing army retreated, Zhang Chengce could see clearly from his horse that a Ming general, covered in blood and holding a tiger spear, was chasing the retreating Qing cavalry on foot. It was Yang Guozhu's general Guo Yingxian.
It turned out that not long after Yang Guozhu left, Guo Yingxian received a report that traces of Qing troops were found in the west. The number was uncertain, and he felt something bad at that time.
Because he could hear the continuous rumbling of artillery in the north, but although the Qing army's offensive in the north was very urgent, it always felt that it was not as brutal as that in the north. He was also a veteran of the army, and from the sound of artillery, he could naturally tell the general situation. The battle is coming.
At this time, when he heard that traces of captive cavalry had been found in the west, he knew clearly that the Tatars must want to launch a surprise attack from the banks of the Haoshui River.
Now most of his troops are restrained on the frontal defense line, including Hu Dawei in the north. At this time, the Qing army will never send dozens or hundreds of cavalry to harass the west.
Whenever they attack, they will never give up easily. Guo Yingxian couldn't wait for Yang Guozhu to come back, so he ordered five hundred fine cavalry to rush out from the north gate of the camp, just in time to catch up with the captive cavalry who had just rushed in through the gap in the earth wall.
The Qing cavalry that broke in were in teams of 300, with three rows in each team and 100 people in each row. They did not rush towards Guo Yingxian and others, but slowly formed the team after breaking in.
However, Guo Yingxian did not allow them to form the team calmly. He hurriedly urged his horse to lead the troops and killed them. He stabbed several Qing cavalrymen one after another and directly penetrated the first queue of the Qing army. However, he was ultimately outnumbered and was forced to retreat by thousands of Qing cavalrymen. .
Fortunately, at this time, Hu Dawei led more than 600 knights to rush out from the south gate of his camp. Immediately, nearly a thousand knights turned around and surrounded Hu Dawei's troops, which relieved the pressure on Guo Yingxian's side.
However, there are still nearly 800 Qing cavalry left, which is still more than twice the number of Guo Yingxian's troops. The two sides have been fighting for a long time and each has suffered losses, but the advantage in military strength cannot be changed by Guo Yingxian.
What's more, the soldiers sent by the Qing army to sneak attack were all selected warriors from each banner, and there were many Baya soldiers among them. They either rode, shot, or hacked, and they always succeeded.
During the fierce battle, Guo Yingxian's horse was shot in the crotch by a Qing soldier's bow and arrow. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and was not suppressed by the horse. He was on foot brandishing a tiger spear to resist the enemy. He saw that he could not hold on for long.
Qing Qi retreated on his own, and he didn't have time to think about it. With his bravery, he still pursued on foot. Fortunately, several subordinates stepped forward to grab him and stopped.
…………
Zhang Cheng looked at Guo Yingxian's tragic situation, but did not have time to stop and ask about his injuries. He directly rode his horse and rushed towards the Qing army. Chen Zhong, who was leading the knights on the side, had already chased Zhang Cheng's horse and rushed in front of him. .
In fact, Zhang Cheng deliberately controlled the horse's speed this time. Although he was also racing ahead, he secretly controlled the horse's speed. When others were rushing, they could not detect these subtle changes.
Looking at Chen Zhong, who was a horse head taller than himself, and more than a dozen bodyguards, Zhang Cheng was very satisfied. At least these people were absolutely loyal to him.
After only entering a distance of forty steps, spears and flying axes were thrown from the Qing cavalry array. Although the soldiers tried their best to dodge, many were stabbed and slashed.
"Bang...bang..."
Smoke rose and muskets flew randomly. At a distance of thirty steps, each knight of Xuan's army fired three eyed muskets. Knights from both sides fell off their horses, and then they fought together.
The situation on the battlefield was immediately reversed. After Zhang Cheng, Zhang Guodong and nearly a thousand knights joined in, the Ming army reversed its disadvantage and became the dominant side, and the entire battlefield situation was immediately reversed.
Zhang Cheng urged his horse to rush into the battlefield, holding a knife and a big stick in his hand, swinging it up and down, hitting or stabbing, knocking down several Qing soldiers one after another.
Suddenly, a big ax came. Zhang Cheng saw it, but he could no longer block it. At this time, the long knife beside him was raised diagonally and the ax was swung open. Zhang Cheng saw that it was Zhang Guodong, the general manager of the Biao Battalion under the supervision of Lu Xiangsheng, who had rescued him. own.
As soon as Zhang Guodong helped Zhang Cheng swing away the ax that was attacking him, he saw Han Xing flash past and a spear flying towards him.