Fei Bingqing had already preliminarily figured out through the testing of dozens of county brave cannon fodders that the bandit on the opposite side was number 56.
Although our county brave cannon fodder was repelled by the enemy's arrows, it didn't matter.
The key thing is that Fei Bingqing saw that the other party was also panicked. This showed that these bandits were just like the many bandits he had seen before. They were just a mob, that is, they had dangerous places to rely on. Otherwise, they would have run away early. .
At the same time, Fei Bingqing also used cannon fodder to find out that the opponent had archers, but there were not many archers, only seven or eight people.
Through the exploratory attack of cannon fodder, Fei Bingqing felt that he had figured out that the thieves on the other side were just ordinary thieves, and he could basically take them down with just one wave.
Luo Zhixue on the other side also saw the officers and soldiers sending out cannon fodder for testing.
After all, the county warriors were stretched out in formation, and their equipment was not very good. They all carried spears and sabers, and they didn't even have armor. Moreover, they retreated because of their own arrows before they even got close.
The other party sent these weak chickens to test, but our true strength was not revealed at all.
In other words, the officers and soldiers still didn't know that they still had two artillery pieces and dozens of archers hidden in their side.
After a trial battle, both parties felt satisfied, but then one of them might be disappointed or even desperate.
After about a moment, the officers and soldiers outside the valley gathered again, and this time Fei Bingqing directly dispatched his elite soldiers.
About thirty soldiers were sent forward, and in front of these soldiers were hundreds of county warriors.
Fei Bingqing planned to attack directly, but he did not say that he would directly let his elite soldiers take the lead.
These more than thirty soldiers were actually used to supervise the battle team.
He was reluctant to let his elite soldiers take the lead.
He only has more than fifty soldiers in total, which are his biggest trump cards for killing thieves and meritorious deeds on the battlefield and even saving his life.
How could he just let them charge forward? If a few of them were killed by the stray thief's arrows, he would be heartbroken for a long time.
Therefore, taking the lead can only be done by those county warriors.
Anyway, these county warriors are under the command of Wang Jida, the magistrate of Lushan County. Fei Bingqing will not be heartbroken no matter how many casualties there are.
Well, let alone Fei Bingqing, in fact, even Wang Jida himself would not be heartbroken, otherwise he would not have sent more than a hundred county warriors to command under Fei Bingqing.
Wang Jida also knew that after Fei Bingqing encountered the bandits, he would definitely use these county warriors as cannon fodder.
But it doesn’t matter!
Some of these county warriors were recruited from the local guards, while more were directly recruited young men who had been trained for a while. Wang Jida would not be heartbroken if all of them died. At worst, he could just go back and recruit a few hundred more young men.
As long as they can kill thieves and perform meritorious service, as long as they can get enough food and property, these people will die. Wang Jida will not even blink an eyebrow.
Since Fei Bingqing had cannon fodder available, he would not foolishly let his elite soldiers take the lead in taking the arrows.
After Fei Bingqing's order was issued, a group of elite soldiers rushed up in a chaotic manner, expelling about a hundred county warriors.
The soldiers at the back were okay and maintained their basic formation, and some of them were wearing armor, and some were holding bows, arrows, and firecrackers.
However, the county warriors at the front were not in any formation. There were hundreds of people in a chaotic manner, and they were reluctantly moving forward under the driving of the soldiers at the rear. Moreover, most of these county warriors only had tattered waist knives and spears, and there were hundreds of them. There was no one wearing armor, and there were probably only about a dozen people holding bows and arrows.
Anyone who is not blind will know at a glance that this is a rabble and cannon fodder.
Luo Zhixue also saw it.
So he ordered: "Fight slowly, try not to let them get closer, and make sure the enemy soldiers are within the range of the artillery."
The more than a hundred county brave cannon fodder was not a concern, but the thirty or so Ming army soldiers made Luo Zhixue attach great importance to them.
He wanted to find an opportunity to inflict heavy damage on these soldiers as much as possible.
Only by defeating these soldiers can the Ming army be truly severely damaged. Otherwise, just killing these county warriors will not cause any great losses to the Ming army on the opposite side.
After receiving Luo Zhixue's order, An Yongduo, Zhang Malin and others naturally needed to continue hiding. After the cannon fodder of the brigade officers and soldiers had entered a distance of 100 meters, the two artillery still did not fire.
Because the soldiers are still behind and haven't come up yet.
Luo Zhixue looked at the Ming Army County Yong opposite and the soldiers behind him, and went to the hidden artillery position in person with some uneasiness.
After checking it in detail, I felt relieved.
Their two artillery pieces were actually not deployed directly in the middle of the valley, but halfway up the mountain on the left.
This is to raise the height of the artillery and thereby expand the shooting angle. It also makes it more difficult for the enemy to directly attack the artillery position.
Because the artillery is located relatively high, as long as the angle is correct when firing later, the shot shells can pass over the hundreds of cannon fodder at the front of the Ming army and directly attack the soldiers in the rear of the Ming army.
As for the archers, I'm afraid it won't work. After all, the range of bows and arrows is limited, and these Ming army soldiers are not following hundreds of cannon fodder, but are still dozens of meters away. After increasing the distance in this way, even if our own archers It is not easy to throw bows and arrows at enemy soldiers.
As time continued to pass, the cannon fodder of the Ming army continued to move forward, and the soldiers from the rear also slowly moved forward.
After these cannon fodders approached a distance of about 70 or 80 meters, some of these county warrior cannon fodders began to bend their bows and shoot arrows. However, there were only a dozen or so archers in the county warriors, and they were not elite archers, nor did they use strong bows. , the arrows shot out are all light and have no accuracy.
At the same time, Li Duo, the captain of the third team of the Baoxiang camp who was the first line of defense, also asked his archers to bend their bows and shoot arrows.
The Baoxiang camp also had few archers deployed on the front line to directly face the enemy, only seven or eight people.
As a result, there were scattered shots from archers on both sides on the battlefield, and from time to time, an unlucky guy would be hit or injured by an arrow.
After several casualties appeared on the side of the county brave, many county braves walking in front began to look frightened. They couldn't help but stop and look around. Some even wanted to turn around and run away, so that the entire attack momentum slowed down.
However, more than 30 Ming soldiers at the rear were in formation at this time. Many of them took out their bows and arrows and made moves to shoot arrows at any time. With the distance they were at, if they bent their bows and shot arrows, the target would definitely not reach the target. It will be the rebel army protecting the countryside, but the county warriors at the front.
The leading Ming army captain shouted: "Those who retreat without orders will be killed immediately."
"Quick, rush forward!"
"Don't stop!"
Driven by the thirty soldiers of the Ming army who supervised the battle, these county warriors had slowed down for a time and started to advance again.
Seeing the Ming army charging forward again, Luo Zhixue waved his hand and made more than 30 thieves led by Huang Chengyong who had more training time and more than 30 old prisoners of war leave the hiding place.
Reinforcements were immediately sent to the front line, ready to deal with the enemy's frontal impact.
Not long after, after seeing that the Ming soldiers following Xian Yong's rear also entered a distance of 120 to 30 meters, Luo Zhixue did not hesitate and directly ordered: "Aim at the soldiers behind the enemy's rear and fire!"
After Luo Zhixue gave the order, Zhang Malin personally lit the fuse of one of the two-hundred-pound light cannons. A few seconds later, the artillery made a loud noise.
A few seconds later, another two-hundred-pound light cannon also opened fire.
The rumble of artillery echoed in the valley, and white smoke rose from the artillery positions.
After firing the cannon himself, Zhang Malin shouted: "Quick, reload!"
Luo Zhixue, however, ignored the artillerymen's reloading and squinted at the Ming army ahead.
In sight, there was nothing wrong with those Mingjun county warriors. Except for a few unlucky ones at the back who were hit by shrapnel from shotguns, most of them were actually fine.
But those soldiers were different. These people were directly hit by two shotguns. Large iron beads and iron fragments hit them, and more than ten of them fell in an instant.
And they only had about thirty soldiers in total, and a dozen of them fell at once, almost half of them.
This immediately stunned them.
Fei Bingqing, who was in the rear, was stunned for several seconds with his mouth half open. A soldier next to him said in a panic: "No, there is an ambush, there is an ambush with artillery from the traitors!"
Immediately afterwards, another soldier became frightened and said: "There are so many arrows, they also have archers, so many archers..."
In the sight of these people, after two shells were fired from the front, dozens of arrows flew up, and then fell directly into the formation of more than a hundred county warriors. In an instant, those more than a hundred county warriors lay down. There were so many people, and the screams spread throughout the valley.
After several seconds, Fei Bingqing finally reacted and heard him shout: "Quick, exit, exit immediately."
There was an ambush. The bandits in front were not just a few dozen gangsters!
The bandits in front had at least two cannons and dozens of archers. How could such bandits be a mob? They were definitely large-scale bandits.
The dozens of thieves before were just to show weakness to the enemy, in order to attract their own troops to rush forward and then carry out intensive killings.
You bastards, these thieves don't have martial ethics. They just play ambushes and hide sharp weapons like artillery. However, instead of attacking the county warriors in front, they actually attack their own soldiers.
This wave of shelling killed at least half of the soldiers. Fei Bingqing was bleeding from heartache at this time.
As for the deaths and injuries of those county heroes, he didn't even notice them or take them to heart.
Fei Bingqing ordered a retreat.
But Fei Bingqing's retreat order was actually given too late.
Because before he gave the order to retreat, the Ming army in front had completely collapsed, and the remaining Ming troops ran out crying one by one.
Not only the county warriors turned around and ran away, but also the remaining soldiers supervising the battle ran away.
In fact, they ran earlier than Xian Yong.
Because they were all veterans, as soon as they heard the sound of the cannon and saw the rain of arrows, they immediately knew that there must be a large number of main bandits ahead, and it was simply not something that their little arms and legs could resist.
If you continue to stay where you are, you will definitely be doomed!
So - if you don’t run now, wait until later!
