Outside Yuzhou City, no one expected Zuo Liangyu to retreat so simply!
Strictly speaking, the armies of both sides have not yet engaged in hand-to-hand combat with their main infantry. As soon as they set up their front foot, the cavalry of both sides fought a prelude battle, and then the artillery unit of the Baoxiang Army fired more than ten rounds of artillery shells.
Although He Renlong's troops received Zuo Liangyu's order to press forward, they actually could not advance very far. They only walked three to four hundred meters and were at least three hundred meters away from the First Infantry Brigade opposite. It's about a meter away.
However, just like that, Zuo Liangyu simply turned around and ran away with his army.
He just ran away by himself, but before he ran, he asked He Renlong to advance and launch the attack. When He Renlong and his troops were halfway through the charge with the artillery bombardment of the Baoxiang Army, Zuo Liangyu directly led his troops to run away.
Then He Renlong was left alone, cursing in the wind...
Zuo Liangyu's sudden retreat not only made He Renlong curse, but also greatly exceeded the expectations of Luo Zhixue and other generals of the Baoxiang Army.
During this battle, Luo Zhixue and the others had expected that the Ming army might not leave the camp, and they also expected that the Ming army would take the initiative to fight them to the death. They even considered that their own army would be defeated and eventually retreat to Yuzhou City.
They had also anticipated the defeat of the Ming army.
However, Luo Zhixue really did not consider the situation where the Ming army ran away just as a prelude after the two sides set up their positions face to face.
Moreover, it was Zuo Liangyu who tricked He Renlong.
Look at the Ming army's center and right army in front of them, striding back like a tide, and then look at the Ming army's left army in the middle of the battlefield.
Luo Zhixue did not have any extra time to think carefully about why such a sudden change occurred in the Ming army, and directly ordered: "The 1st Infantry Brigade advances rapidly and continues to suppress the enemy's left flank."
"The fourth mixed brigade and the personal battalion pass up from the left and right flanks, attack the enemy's flanks, and at the same time cut off the enemy's left-wing retreat!"
"The artillery brigade continues to carry out suppressive artillery fire on the enemy's left flank!"
"In this battle, we must completely annihilate the enemy's left wing and not allow the enemy to escape!"
"In addition, order the 3rd Infantry Brigade to pursue the retreating enemy troops, but not to advance rashly. Just put continuous pressure on the enemy troops. "
"The first baggage battalion is ready for battle and will reinforce the front line at any time!"
Luo Zhixue quickly made arrangements based on the situation on the battlefield, and it can be seen from his arrangements that Luo Zhixue's primary goal now is to stay on the battlefield and lose He Renlong's troops who are covered by the enemy's center and right armies. More than four thousand people!
He didn't know why the Ming army suddenly retreated quickly from the center and right arm, but he saw that the enemy's left wing was still on the battlefield. As long as he moved fast enough, he had a chance to leave more than 4,000 people on the enemy's left wing. .
As for the enemy's center and right armies, they run too fast, and at the same time, the number of our own troops is relatively small. It is impossible to catch up quickly and complete the outflank.
Therefore, he only asked the 3rd Infantry Brigade to catch up, not to encircle and annihilate the enemy, but to continue to create pressure on the retreating enemy forces, forcing them to be unable to maintain a complete formation and collapse, and to force them to abandon a large number of artillery and other baggage, and even Discard armor weapons etc.
As long as these retreating Ming troops can be forced to abandon their armor and lose a large amount of light artillery, food and baggage and other supplies, even if they are allowed to run away, they will not pose any threat to themselves in a short period of time.
Without guns, swords, spears, and armor, how could they fight the Baoxiang army behind them?
Following Luo Zhixue's order, the various departments of the Baoxiang Army also moved quickly. Even the third cavalry post directly under the staff and the fourth cavalry post under the fourth mixed brigade, two half-hearted cavalry, were instantly transformed. As an elite cavalryman, he charged forward with his horse waving his saber.
These two hundred and a half slut cavalry have limited combat capabilities and are unable to perform difficult tactical maneuvers such as riding and shooting on high-speed horses. Even charging in formation is very difficult.
But simply riding a horse to chase down a group of broken soldiers is not a big problem.
The two hundred and a half sloppy cavalry took the lead and chased after them. Their first target was the chariot soldiers under Zuo Liangyu's command.
There were about 2,500 chariot troops under Zuo Liangyu before the war. They contained more than 200 light artillery pieces ranging from tens to hundreds of kilograms. They were successively lost after being shelled by the artillery brigade. One or two hundred people.
When they retreated, they also wanted to retreat with a large number of vehicle-mounted artillery. After all, they had not deployed it before, and the light artillery was still on the carriage, and had not been removed from the carriage and fixed on the ground. Therefore, when they retreated Just turn around and run.
But even so, their retreat speed was far inferior to that of ordinary infantry in the Ming army.
Therefore, they were quickly overtaken by the two and a half hundred cavalrymen of the Baoxiang Army.
In normal times, as long as they formed a formation to protect themselves, even two thousand such half-assed cavalry, let alone two hundred and a half half-hearted cavalry, could not hope to break through their car formation.
But now, they are busy running for their lives and have not formed a formation to protect themselves.
It's not that they don't want to form formations to protect themselves, but they know very well that once they stop, they may appear to be able to form formations to protect themselves, but when the infantry brigade and heavy artillery troops come up to protect the thieves, they will still be dead. .
Everyone is not stupid. Since staying in place and forming a formation to protect yourself is a dead end, it is natural to run away.
When the thief cavalry behind them caught up and began to use sabers and short spears to chase the defeated troops of the vehicle formation, the rest of the defeated troops of the vehicle formation did not care about bringing vehicle-mounted artillery, and directly brought vehicle-mounted artillery or ammunition trucks and the like. After throwing it away, he ran towards the back with empty hands.
Not to mention, the car formation soldiers who threw away their artillery and ran away, because most of them did not have armor and did not even have many individual weapons, they ran very fast with empty hands.
After a while, these Ming soldiers who had thrown away their artillery quickly caught up with the other groups of Ming infantry in the right army...
Then he passed other ordinary Ming army soldiers.
The overtaken Ming soldiers saw that they had been overtaken, and the rebel cavalry behind them was getting closer and closer.
Many people were upset when they saw this. They took off their armor, threw away spears, swords and other things that could be thrown away, and then ran away lightly.
After all, escaping does not require you to run very fast, as long as you are faster than your comrades.
As a result, those who were too stupid to take off their armor and throw away their weapons were gradually overtaken by the rebels behind them, and were either killed or injured or surrendered. However, the Ming soldiers who had thrown away everything ran very fast...
As a result, more and more people began to abandon their armor.
As for the artillery, it was thrown away early.
Zuo Liangyu, the fastest runner, looked back and his face suddenly turned dark.
These bastards clearly promised to retreat, but in the end, the soldiers under their command threw everything they could and ran away.
It even became more chaotic as it ran, and in the end even the basic organization could no longer be maintained.
The mountains and plains are full of deserters from the Ming army!
Seeing this, it's strange that Zuo Liangyu's face looks good.
Damn, I was so careless!
Originally, he had thought of withdrawing the whole army to the camp, relying on the walls of the camp to stabilize the position, and then gradually retreating from the battlefield.
But now, except for a small number of people who successfully and organizedly retreated to the camp, most people were running around like headless flies. Many people directly crossed the camp and ran all the way to the east.
This was completely different from the retreat he had expected.
When Zuo Liangyu's face turned dark, He Renlong, who was already facing the pressure of the rebel infantry at the front and whose left and right wings were also attacked by the rebels, looked at Zuo Liangyu's thousands of people running around like headless flies behind him. He immediately couldn't help laughing: "I asked you to run, I asked you to abandon me and run away, haha, retribution!"
After He Renlong laughed for a while, a general next to him stepped forward with a worried look on his face: "General, the brothers on the left will not be able to withstand it anymore!"
He Renlong turned his head and glanced to the left. His own army on the far left was being flanked by the rebel army.
In addition to the 2,000-strong band of bandit troops pressing forward, there are also an army of more than 1,000 bandit troops each circling and flanking.
The rebel army on the right, the remnants of the Fourth Mixed Brigade, were better off. Although there were about 1,500 soldiers, He Renlong recognized this rebel army as the rebel army that had previously defended the city.
Although the combat power is not weak, there is no obvious difference from the officers and soldiers. It is just that the equipment is better and the morale is higher.
Therefore, the army on our right can barely cope with it.
But the thousands of thieves coming up from the left were different. Like the two thousand thieves on the front, these thieves had many heavy armored spearmen and hundreds of musketeers.
Now this bandit army was just a few dozen meters away from their left wing, firing continuously with muskets.
He Renlong's left wing continued to be attacked by the bandits' firepower, causing heavy casualties. Although some archers, musketeers and even light artillery were separated to fight back.
But more importantly, this bandit army of more than a thousand people continued to approach, and the sight of the heavily armored spearmen in the front row was frightening.
This bandit army is the personal barracks.
As a personal soldier of Luo Zhixue, although the battalion has the name of a battalion, it is actually a small mixed brigade, and it is also very well-equipped.
As the core of melee combat, the spearmen in the first three rows are all heavily armored. Some heavily armored spearmen with excellent physical fitness will also wear double armor. The spearmen in the last three rows also wear light armor, and the spearmen in the back row also wear light armor. Spearmen also carry walking bows and launch projectile attacks when approaching the enemy.
When these heavily armored spearmen continued to advance in dense formation, they put even greater pressure on the Ming army than the musketeers.
He Renlong couldn't help but sigh when he saw that the soldiers on his left suffered continuous casualties and gradually retreated.
What can he do now? There is nothing he can do!
When that bastard Zuo Liangyu led his troops to retreat privately, he had actually abandoned more than 4,000 people under his command, He Renlong, to the rebels.
Under such a situation, no matter what he did next, He Renlong could not change the outcome of their defeat or even the annihilation of their entire army.
It’s time to find a way to survive!
