"Fire! Fire!"
Seeing the soldiers being slaughtered crazily, the rebel generals felt cold all over.
The war has reached this point, and they have lost their reason and courage.
They had never encountered such tactics, had never encountered such a terrifying enemy, and had never suffered such a defeat.
Li Jiucheng yelled, hoping to rescue more soldiers through artillery fire.
However, the old and clumsy red cannons could not cause much trouble to the New Army. When the rebels fired, the New Army soldiers only needed to jump into the tunnel to perfectly avoid it.
And taking advantage of the intervals between shelling, you can still shoot at the fleeing rebels.
The barbed wire fence has become a Shura field.
The fleeing rebels completely lost their minds and did not care whether there was any gap. The people behind pushed the people in front crazily, and used the flesh and blood of the people in front to break the barbed wire fence.
As for the people in front, even if they were not stabbed to death by the barbed wire, they were definitely trampled to death by those behind.
There were three barbed wire fences in a row. When the rebels finally rushed through, less than 2,000 people were still alive.
More than eight thousand corpses were dumped in this area.
Those who broke through the barbed wire fence had completely lost their souls and rushed towards their own camp in a daze.
Seeing that these defeated troops were about to scatter their own camp, Kong Youde's soul emerged and shouted: "Set arrows and let them go to both sides."
This is a common practice for military formations to avoid being scattered.
Even the most frightened soldiers will automatically run in both directions when they see the arrows fired from the military formation.
However, these defeated soldiers today have lost their spiritual consciousness. How can the arrows fired from our side be as scary as the muskets behind us?
So they ran straight into a hail of arrows.
After dozens of steps, not a single defeated soldier survived. The corpses strewn all over the ground made the rebels lose their fighting spirit and their will began to collapse.
Kong Youde was frightened and tried hard to see clearly the enemy on the opposite side. However, the smoke-filled battlefield prevented him from seeing anything.
It was as if behind the thick smoke there was a beast that could destroy everything and could engulf him at any time.
Without waiting to discuss with Li Jiucheng, he ordered: "Ming Jin, return to Laizhou."
Tens of thousands of troops moved one after another as if they had been granted amnesty, and retreated to the west bank of the Yellow River. They retreated all the way to the west, but they didn't dare to stay here any longer and went straight to Laizhou.
Obviously, this battle has broken the spirit of the rebels.
The idea of retaking Dengzhou has been forgotten by them. What they want to do most now is to stay as far away from the enemy on the opposite side as possible.
Seeing the results of the battle, Zuo Mengeng let out a sigh of relief and did not order the pursuit.
He had never thought about completely wiping out the rebels here and using the rebels to destroy Shandong's feudal system, so he could not let the rebels suffer too much loss.
The First Division stopped on the east bank of the Yellow River and began to clean the battlefield and make summary, leaving enough time for the rebels to breathe and respond.
"It has been proven that trenches are very effective in dealing with enemy artillery. Through such fortifications, casualties can be effectively reduced."
Bai Xiaoqi praised the trenches very much and had already made up his mind to let the whole brigade study hard and further improve the trench tactics after returning.
Although the army of this era would also conduct tunnel operations, it was obviously that the tactical purpose was completely different from that of the new army.
The army of this era dug trenches more for the purpose of siege or siege, and did not regard trenches as combat areas.
The New Army gave full play to the bunker role of the trenches, although the sturdiness and complexity of the trenches were far from comparable to those of later generations. However, the artillery of this era was too limited, and such fortifications were more conducive to the new army's operations.
On the contrary, the soil work of other armies was like paper and completely ineffective in the face of the New Army's explosive bombs.
Furthermore, other armies do not have weapons like cap guns that load quickly, shoot accurately, and have an extremely long range.
If they were allowed to hide in the trenches and shoot with old matchlock guns like the new army, the enemy would definitely rush to poop and pee on their heads.
This is the difference in weapons and the tactical innovation it brings.
The new army has mastered powerful new weapons, and it also needs to continuously summarize and study them on the battlefield to bring the powerful weapons into play step by step.
Think about Qingshui Pass, the new army could only line up and shoot at the Hou Jin army. As a result, they suffered heavy casualties under Hou Jin's artillery bombardment.
But now the trenches effectively blocked the damage from solid shells.
After a battle involving tens of thousands of people, the casualties of the new army were almost negligible.
In addition to trenches, the Sapper Shovel also received unanimous praise from top to bottom.
"This thing digs soil quickly and effortlessly, and it's more useful than a bayonet in hand-to-hand combat."
Zuo Mengeng was quite surprised when he heard Huang Sanhu's words.
Sure enough, Chinese soldiers of any era have a soft spot for engineer shovels.
This multi-purpose tool can no longer shine in this era.
The New Army had a great victory here and was overjoyed. But on the rebel side, after they fled back to Laizhou in embarrassment, they were filled with sorrow and panic.
"How can Zuo Mengeng have so many soldiers and horses?"
Li Jiucheng walked around anxiously, chattering endlessly, but no one could answer his questions.
And this question is no longer important.
Everyone understood that with the strength of the rebels, it was impossible to recapture Dengzhou.
If we cannot recapture Dengzhou, we will not be able to control the Dengzhou navy, and we will lose our retreat at sea.
Once the imperial court formed new reinforcements to come from the west and attack Zuo Mengeng from the east and west, they would really be completely defeated.
Kong Youde closed his eyes and pondered for a long time before speaking.
"Zuo Mengeng's artillery and fire blunderbuss are very weird. Looking around the world, even the Folangji people don't have such artifacts. Where did he get them?"
Still no one can answer.
Mao Chenglu said dejectedly: "That fire gun is very fast and accurate. It can hurt someone in three or four hundred steps. Our fire gun may not be able to penetrate armor even in twenty steps. How can we fight like this?"
Chen Yongfu also said: "That cannonball can actually explode. It explodes into a large area and leaves no body alive. Didn't Sun Zhongcheng say that the best cannon-making craftsmen in the world are all in Dengzhou? Why haven't we seen such magic weapons?" "
Listening to the crowd's noise, Li Yingyuan was quite depressed and just asked: "What should we do? Should we fight in Dengzhou?"
There was silence in the tent, no one spoke.
Everyone is afraid, and no one wants to appear cowardly.
At first glance, Li Yingyuan realized that he, a junior, could only do this kind of thing.
"Uncles, in my nephew's opinion, Zuo Menggeng is far more ferocious than the Tatars. If he attacks Dengzhou again, I'm afraid we will all suffer losses. We should think of a way to see if there is any other way out."
Everyone nodded in agreement and felt that this was the right thing to do.
Although the new army did not pursue the situation and allowed the rebels to withdraw to Laizhou, the situation of the rebels was already very dangerous.
Especially since Laizhou has been destroyed, the local area cannot provide food and grass supplies at all. The rebels' material consumption is getting smaller and smaller. Over time, they will collapse due to logistics without the need for new troops to fight.
Kong Youde thought about the fear of the new army, his heart was still beating wildly, and he tried to say: "Let's go west. As long as we rush to Liaodong, we will have a way to survive."
When everyone heard this, they all frowned and no one recognized it.
Going to Shandong by land is a long way and there are many passes, especially in Liaodong, where the imperial court is gathering heavy troops. How can they rush through?
Geng Zhongming suddenly asked: "After the Battle of Shahe, we asked people to send a message to negotiate peace with the imperial court. Did the imperial court receive a reply?"
Everyone looked at each other and had forgotten all about it.
After the Battle of Shahe, the world's elite Guan Ning Army was completely wiped out. Li Jiucheng, Kong Youde and others realized that the court was no longer able to conquer, so it was inevitable to separate Shandong.
Negotiating peace with the imperial court is just to buy time to digest the fruits of victory. Whether the court agrees or not does not affect the established facts.
Unexpectedly, Zuo Menggeng's magic soldiers descended from the sky and not only attacked Dengzhou, but also defeated them completely.
Now how to survive the attack of the new army has become a top priority.
How can they care about the court's reply?
Besides, how could the imperial court agree to negotiate peace after learning that Zuo Menggeng had won a great victory?
Li Jiucheng and others did not know that the current court knew nothing about the situation in Shandong.
Zuo Mengeng would not report to the imperial court how the war was going. In addition, the imperial court's rule in various parts of Shandong had been severely damaged, and the smooth flow of information could no longer be achieved.
The imperial court was still immersed in the shadow of the defeat of Shahe.
Chongzhen has not been in court for half a month.
This is the first time since he took the throne.
The excuse was that the dragon was ill and needed to recuperate. Moreover, the outside world has long known that he had fainted before.
As a headstrong and extremely proud person, the defeat of Shahe was a huge blow to Chongzhen.
Although he has encountered various difficulties in the past, as a powerful emperor, he can always find a way to deal with it, no matter whether the response he comes up with is wise or stupid.
However, this time, after the defeat of Shahe, the imperial court had no more troops to send. Seeing that the rebels had become powerful, Chongzhen looked around blankly, helpless, and his self-esteem was completely crushed.
He...shamefully chose to escape.
Everyone in the inner court, the outer court, the harem, civil and military officials, and nobles all stared at the Forbidden City worriedly. For the first time, they discovered that the emperor's situation was so touching.
