On December 26, the thirteenth year of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming Dynasty, in Taojiadian, twenty miles north of Kaifeng City, there was a dense military formation. The morning sun shone on the soldiers' armor, shining with dazzling silver light.
After Zhang Cheng, Chen Jiugao and other generals beheaded chicken heads and offered sacrifices to battle flags, the army marched out in formation amidst the rumbling of war drums. They divided their troops into three groups and acted according to their previous strategic arrangements.
Lin Fangping led Zhang Cheng's pro-army Bureau B and more than 200 elite Mongolian cavalry to march westward, covering Wei Zhice's car camp on the outside and forming a car formation at the northwest corner of Kaifeng City to cut off the west and north of the bandits. contact.
Wei Zhice's chariots had all the grain and grain baggage unloaded and stayed at the Taojiadian camp. Even the chariots only carried necessary items. They were all light vehicles for battle, so as to ensure speed.
The focus of their chariot camp is to prevent the invading army's brigade in the west of the city from rescuing the rebel army in the north of the city, so all sixty chariots of the chariot department are deployed here.
With the addition of nearly a hundred chariots, even if most of the invading army on the west side of the city launches a strong attack, they will rely on the formation of chariots, the artillery and rockets on them for long-range attacks, and more than 2,000 pieces of official ammunition behind the chariots. Guns are used as a mid-level blockade. Even if the bandits finally rush in front of the chariot formation or attack into the chariot array, there are still two thousand officers and soldiers armed with swords, shields and spears who can fight the thieves in close combat.
The final car formation was more than two miles long, but only less than a hundred paces wide. They lay between the rebel armies on the west and north sides outside Kaifeng City.
Lin Fangping did not dare to delay at all. He led more than 300 cavalry in a circle on the west side of the car formation. After completing the cover task, he passed through the gap of less than a hundred steps between the car formation and the northwest corner of the city wall and returned to the north of Kaifeng City to participate in the confrontation. The strangling battle between the bandits in the north of the city was over.
Wei Zhice had just finished forming the formation when he saw hundreds of bandit troops rushing towards the car formation. He quickly organized his sergeants to form a formation to wait, because he saw that the bandit army was not large in number and there was no large formation later.
Then he decided to attack the thieves only with fire cannons. He repelled two groups of thieves attacks and killed nearly a thousand thieves.
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In this battle, Zhang Cheng devoted almost all the troops he could mobilize. Zhang Guodong was in charge of commanding the central part of the rebel army attacking the north of the city, and a total of more than 3,500 infantry troops were invested.
With the officers and soldiers in the middle of Chen Dakuan's infantry camp on the left, and the officers and soldiers on the right of Jin Yong's infantry camp on the right, each of the left and right groups has a thousand officers and soldiers. According to the plan, the shield soldiers are in front, the musketry soldiers follow closely behind, and then there are A cold-blooded killer armed with a spear and a broadsword.
Zhang Guodong led more than 1,500 people in the center, and in front were more than 500 infantrymen from Zhang Cheng's military headquarters. They were formed from more than 100 veterans and nearly 400 new troops. Even these new sergeants were all More than half a year of rigorous training has passed.
Followed by the thousand infantry commanded by guerrilla general Chen Chongchang in Chen Jiugao's capital camp, they are all cold soldiers who mainly use swords, shields and spears.
When Chen Jiugao's Beijing camp went into battle, there were more than 5,000 people. However, during the march, nearly 1,000 people escaped or left the team for some reason, and there were only 2,000 people in his camp transporting and operating artillery. There are many, and the remaining soldiers are less than 2,000.
Now that the gun soldiers were all taken to Wei Zhice's camp by another guerrilla general, Chen Shihu, leaving Chen Chongchang with more than a thousand cold-blooded killers.
Zhang Cheng also knew that these people could only fight with the wind and could not rely on them to attack head-on, so he placed two officers and soldiers from the infantry battalion under his command on both wings, with his own infantry in the middle in front, so that The officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp were behind to prevent them from retreating in front of the battle and causing trouble to themselves.
The steel torrent of the army in the middle started almost an hour earlier than the car camp, but the infantry march was finally slightly slower than the car camp, just when the car camp had just formed a car formation in the northwest corner of Kaifeng.
The infantry camp army also appeared five miles north of Kaifeng City under the sunlight. They temporarily stopped marching to the north of the bandit camp. The army began to slowly regroup, which was considered a short rest to recover. Physical strength, ready for the upcoming battle.
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Liu Tichun was commanding and supervising the battle to the west of the North Gate of Kaifeng. At the beginning, there were more than 3,000 bandit soldiers and hungry people on his side. Although the battle was not as brutal as the west gate, it was not much different.
Yesterday, hundreds of hungry people were killed and injured in order to fill the trenches. Today, during the entire morning of digging and attacking the city, hundreds more soldiers were killed and injured, and nearly a thousand people were killed or injured by starving people.
Because he was eager to attack the city, he only left more than 300 fire soldiers in the camp to prepare lunch for the siege soldiers and hungry people, while the remaining soldiers and hungry people were pressed up to the base of the city wall to dig the city.
Even around him, there were only more than 200 thieves who had not moved. In addition, there were more than 700 archers. Behind a simple wooden wall outside the trench, they were shooting arrows at the top of the city to suppress the defenders and protect the thieves digging at the root of the city. Soldiers and hungry people.
Seeing the large holes at the base of the city being dug deeper and deeper, Liu Tichun was secretly happy. Just now he had to report that there was a reserve team of nearly a thousand people at the Crock Pot, and the progress of digging the city was very slow.
He was still cursing secretly in his heart: "You bastard donkey ball, you don't have the same heart as me after all, you just know how to hold back, your mother is stupid..."
Just when he was satisfied with the progress of the excavation on his side, he suddenly heard the roar of cannons and artillery behind him from the direction of the camp. Confused, he turned to look north.
However, they saw several bandit soldiers galloping towards them on horseback. They seemed to be very panicked and anxious, while puffs of smoke and dust were rising into the sky from the camp more than a mile away.
He covered his forehead with his hand and shouted: "Oh, it's not good..."
Just when everyone around them was astonished, those cavalry thieves had also rushed forward. They shouted loudly: "General Liu, the officers and soldiers have stolen the camp...the officers and soldiers have stolen the camp..."
Liu Tichun hurriedly ran forward to meet him, grabbed the rebel soldier who had just turned over and dismounted, and asked urgently: "How many troops are there in the army?"
"...About a thousand people...suddenly rushed in..."
He shouted loudly: "Quickly, recall the brothers, stop the siege, take back the camp, let's have dinner!"
Liu Tichun grabbed another bandit who had just dismounted and shouted: "You two go to the crock pot and see if there are any officers and soldiers to fight them. Go back as soon as possible."
The two men got on their horses again, whipped their horses hastily, and ran towards the east of the north gate.
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Lin Fang Pingce, on his horse, led more than 300 fine cavalry back to the north of the city from the northwest corner outside Kaifeng City. He tried his best to suppress the speed of the horse, for fear that he would appear too early and put the thieves on guard, which would not be conducive to Jin Yong. On the other hand, they captured the bandit camp.
The military order assigned to him by Zhang Cheng was to cooperate with Jin Yong's infantry camp on the right to attack the bandits Liu Tichun's troops. At the same time, he also had to coordinate with Wei Zhice's chariot camp to prevent most of the bandits in the west of the city from rescuing the north of the city.
Lin Fangping moved to a slightly higher ground. He took out his telescope and stood on horseback to check the situation of the rebels attacking the city. He was secretly happy when he saw that the rebels on the north side of the city had invested a lot of troops in the siege.
When he turned his observation direction to the north, he saw bright red flags flying faintly in the smoke and dust to the north of the rebel camp, and he knew that it must be Jin Yong's infantry army coming to kill them.
"Brothers, kill the thief!"
He sat down on his horse and loudly shouted to Su Laohu and Mo Rigen who were not far away: "Kill, lead the bandits around outside, and drive the hungry people into the bandits' army formation!"
