When the eighteen artillery pieces of the artillery brigade came forward one after another, Zuo Liangyu on the opposite side also felt the threat. Although so far, Zuo Liangyu still couldn't figure out why the Baoxiang Army was able to pull something that was supposed to be extremely heavy and difficult to maneuver. long-barreled artillery on the battlefield.
But that didn't stop him from knowing the threat of these artillery pieces.
So he sent his cavalry into battle.
As soon as the Ming army cavalry was dispatched, Luo Zhixue gave an order, and Wang Xiazi's cavalry brigade also attacked.
Wang Xiazi led a cavalry brigade of three hundred elite riders forward, followed by a hundred mounted infantry, ready to intercept the Ming cavalry rushing over at any time.
But before the Ming cavalry could rush over, Zhang Malin's artillery brigade had already fired.
Facing the threat of cavalry, Zhang Malin's artillery did not continue to advance to the predetermined location, but chose to deploy on the spot, and then opened fire at the Ming cavalry five or six hundred meters away.
After the rumbling sound of cannons, more than two kilograms of solid artillery shells fell into the Ming cavalry array one after another. For a moment, the Ming cavalry who had not had time to launch a charge suddenly fell on their backs and suffered heavy casualties.
When the Ming cavalry general on the opposite side saw the artillery fire on the other side, he knew that he would continue to wait. His cavalry was probably going to collapse before he could charge, so he immediately gritted his teeth and charged forward with his own cavalry.
Target, protect the thieves artillery position!
However, even after they started to advance on horseback, they continued to be bombarded, and the casualties were extremely heavy.
At the same time, blind man Wang saw that the cavalry on the opposite side dared to charge forward with the artillery fire. He no longer hesitated, raised his saber high and led his three hundred elite cavalry to charge out.
In this battle between the two sides outside Yuzhou City, the infantry of both sides were still hundreds of meters apart before they entered the battle state, but the cavalry and artillery of both sides started fighting first.
In the distance, Gao Zheng also heard the rumble of cannons coming from the left, and the rumble of galloping horses.
Although he could not see the battlefield on the left edge, he knew that his cavalry and artillery were already fighting the enemy.
Gao Zheng couldn't see the battlefield on the left wing, but Luo Zhixue, who was commanding and observing the battle from behind, could see it clearly.
In his sight, the Ming cavalry first carried their own fierce artillery attack and rushed several hundred meters. During this process, the artillery brigade gunners did not estimate the life of the gun barrel at all, and directly used rapid fire to fire violently.
One solid cannonball after another fell into the Ming cavalry array. Whenever a cannonball fell into it, it would cause more or less casualties to the Ming cavalry.
Whether it hits the rider directly or the horse, it can easily kill or maim a cavalryman.
After these Ming army cavalry rushed through a few hundred meters, at least a hundred cavalry were already lying behind them.
At this time, Wang Xiazi's cavalry also rushed over from the side at high speed. Dozens of fast-running cavalrymen had already begun to bend their bows and nock arrows.
When the Ming army charged, they were severely bombarded. They suffered heavy casualties in a short period of time, which directly caused the cavalry to panic. The more they charged, the slower they went...
When Wang Xiazi's troops from the side came to kill them, many Ming army cavalry finally couldn't withstand the pressure and directly turned around and fled to the side.
At this time, these Ming army cavalry had already thrown the order to attack the rebel artillery positions behind their heads, turned their horses and fled to the side.
Wang Xiazi's men did not give up and pursued him directly.
Soon, the two cavalrymen chased each other and quickly disappeared from everyone's sight.
Luo Zhixue saw the enemy and our cavalry leaving the battlefield one after another, and immediately said: "Let the fourth cavalry sentry guard the left wing, and the artillery brigade immediately launched a suppressive artillery bombardment on the enemy's right wing vehicle array."
Without the interference of the enemy's elite cavalry, Zhang Malin's artillery brigade was able to free up its hands to bombard the enemy.
There is no need to consider the priority target of the artillery attack at all. It must be the three large vehicle formations on the right wing of the Ming army.
There are hundreds of artillery pieces in these three vehicle formations. Even ultra-light short-barreled artillery pieces such as assault cannons and tiger squatting cannons weighing several dozen kilograms pose a great threat to the infantry.
The artillery unit of the Baoxiang Army must kill them first, so that they can better cover the infantry operations.
As Zhang Malin's artillery unit moved its muzzle and started bombarding the Ming army's vehicle formation hundreds of meters away, Zuo Liangyu was stunned.
Where did these damn security forces get so many red barbarian cannons, and how did they bring down so many red barbarian cannons on the battlefield?
He was very sure that there was no such red cannon in Yuzhou City, otherwise the rebels in Yuzhou City would have pulled the red cannon up the city wall for defensive operations.
In other words, the rebels brought the artillery all the way from Nanyang or even Xiangyang.
Damn, this is hundreds of miles away. How did the security forces pull these extremely heavy Hongyi cannons over?
Even though the Hongyi cannon in the bandit army looks quite small, it is still a Hongyi cannon. It must be several hundred kilograms heavier at least.
Also, how come these thieves protection troops have so many elite cavalry!
Just by looking at them from a distance, he could tell that these thief cavalry were all fine cavalry.
The two pairs of bows and arrows they carry are the most obvious feature. Unless they are elite cavalry who mainly engage in mounted shooting, it is impossible to carry two pairs of bows and arrows at the same time, and one of them is a smaller riding bow.
Half-baked cavalry such as the Third Cavalry Post of the Baoxiang Army never carry cavalry bows, but only infantry bows.
Zuo Liangyu couldn't understand where the thief-protecting army got hundreds of fine cavalry.
He knew very well that this kind of elite cavalry was very difficult to train and could not be compared with half-hearted mounted infantry.
For a half-hearted horse infantry, as long as they can ride a horse and shoot an arrow, they can do just fine. Anyway, they just ride over, then dismount, and shoot arrows directly with a walking bow.
But riding and shooting is different. This kind of elite riding shoots arrows directly on the bumpy horseback at high speed. If your riding skills are just a little bit worse, you can fall to death on the spot...
If your archery skills are slightly worse, the arrows you shoot will basically not be accurate at all.
Ordinary thief armies, even Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other thief armies cannot have so many elite cavalry.
A few hundred or so would be enough. No matter how many more, if Gao Yingxiang had hundreds of elite cavalry, coupled with thousands of horse-mounted infantry that Gao Yingxiang and the others have been playing well, they could kill the capital in minutes...
But the reality was right in front of him. These thieves protection troops actually pulled out hundreds of fine cavalry.
As a result, our own cavalry was stunned by the artillery fire, and then was driven away by the elite cavalry of the rebel army on the opposite side...
It's hard to say whether they will be annihilated, but they will definitely not be able to return to the battlefield in a short time and contain the main force of the bandit army.
Now, the thief's heavy artillery has changed its direction and is directly aimed at its own car formation. When watching its own car formation being bombarded by the thief's artillery two hundred feet away, causing heavy casualties, but without the slightest strength to fight back, Zuo Liangyu knew that today's battle was not only difficult to fight, but that if he failed, the entire army would be annihilated.
what to do?
Zuo Liangyu looked at the direction in which the enemy's and our cavalry were moving away, and then at the artillery unit opposite where the rebels were continuously bombarding, as well as the neat infantry formations among the rebels.
Finally, he turned his attention to his own left wing: that was He Renlong's command.
Immediately afterwards, he whispered a few words to the confidant generals around him.
After a while, in Zuo Liangyu's command camp, several flags erected high up to signal orders began to wave, thereby conveying orders to various Ming troops on the battlefield.
On the other side of the battlefield, He Renlong was unhappy when he saw the flags Zuo Liangyu played, because these flags were Zuo Liangyu ordering him to immediately lead his troops to attack.
In this battle, He Renlong and Zuo Liangyu fought together. He Renlong led nearly 5,000 troops in charge of the left wing, while Zuo Liangyu was in charge of the center army and the right wing.
Now He Renlong saw Zuo Liangyu's letter saying that he wanted his left wing to launch an attack, and he hesitated for a while.
On the right-wing battlefield, Zuo Liangyu's cavalry escaped before the battle. He saw the car formation continued to be bombarded by the rebels and suffered heavy losses.
Under this situation, Zuo Liangyu asked him to launch an attack. To be honest, he was a little dissatisfied.
This made it clear that the right wing could no longer fight, and the left wing, which wanted to put He Renlong in charge, launched an attack in order to relieve the pressure on the right wing.
However, although he guessed that this was Zuo Liangyu's intention to encircle Wei and rescue Zhao, and asked him to work hard to save the right wing, but now that the enemy was facing him, and he didn't have the heavy artillery of the rebels in front, he could still fight.
Finally, with dissatisfaction, He Renlong ordered his troops to start attacking and put pressure on the rebel army on the opposite side to relieve the pressure on Zuo Liangyu's right wing.
He Renlong gradually pressed forward with more than 4,000 troops under his command, while the First Infantry Brigade in front of them remained motionless.
Since the enemy has taken the initiative to cross hundreds of meters to kill them, let them come...
On such a hot day, it is very tiring to maneuver hundreds of meters while wearing dozens of kilograms of armor.
Their First Infantry Brigade can just sit back and wait for work.
At the same time, you can also wait for the artillery brigade to attack a wave of enemy infantry as they advance.
Sure enough, it didn't take long for Zhang Malin's artillery brigade to stop shelling the Ming army's right-wing vehicle formation, and instead shifted its target to the Ming army's left wing, where He Renlong was commanding.
After all, we couldn't just watch He Renlong's troops cross five or six hundred meters without any loss and fight their way to the front of the 1st Infantry Brigade.
As He Renlong's troops were also bombarded, although the distance was relatively far, the rebel artillery seemed not very accurate and its lethality was relatively limited. However, the losses caused by the continuous bombardment still made He Renlong quite heartbroken. .
There was nothing he could do about his heartache. Now he could only hope that after Zuo Liangyu's car array was not bombarded, he could quickly rush into the bombardment distance, and then bombard the enemy troops.
After all, the three car formations under Zuo Liangyu's hand combined, at any rate, there are two to three hundred small cannons, which is enough to protect the bandit army.
But, He Renlong waited, his soldiers had suffered hundreds of casualties due to the continuous shelling, and he did not wait for Zuo Liangyu's car formation to attack.
Look again, good guys, the central army and the right army, that is, Zuo Liangyu's men have begun to retreat...
Seeing this scene, He Renlong almost spit out a mouthful of old blood: "Zuo Liangyu, I'm going to fuck your grandma!"
