Wang Chong was not very lucky, but he didn't run as fast as the cavalry, so he was caught up by Pei Le and Su Jianian.

In the attitude of not letting go of the situation when they come, the Ming army cavalry surrounded the Song army.

The Song army had a total of 10,000 people, but before they could form a formation, the Ming army broke through the formation. They were then divided and surrounded by the Ming cavalry, killing more than 3,000 people. All the remaining surrendered were finally not killed.

Wang Chong also surrendered, but did not fight to the death. After surrendering in a depressed and desperate manner, he reported his identity and position. Pei Le and Su Jianian found out that they had captured a general of the Southern Song imperial guards. They were very happy and quickly sent someone to take Wang Chong and other officers to Zhang Yuejing.

Wang Chong didn't escape.

On the other side, Li Xianzhong was also determined to kill the thief but was unable to turn the world back.

He was first misled by Wang Chong's fake news and was cheated by his own people. Then when he learned through his spies that the Ming army had begun to move north, he was very happy and immediately led the main army to move towards Zaoyang...

He was basically sure that Wang Chong's operation was successful and had mobilized large Ming army troops to return to the aid.

He knew that the Ming army was good at fighting, and he also knew that the Ming army had a large number of soldiers. If he led troops directly to the country, he might not have a good effect. Therefore, after transferring some of the main forces of the Ming army and then working with the Xiangfan Song army, the combat effect might be better.

With such an idea, Li Xianzhong wanted to say sorry to Wang Chong.

Because he really didn't consider whether Wang Chong could go back after entering Henan.

This 10,000 people, including Wang Chong, the commander of the guards and the senior general of the imperial guards, were all cannon fodder in Li Xianzhong's eyes, the kind of cannon fodder that had to sacrifice for victory.

As long as they can mobilize enough Ming soldiers to return to the rescue, it is enough.

Of course, he knew that the Ming army's cavalry was strong and Wang Chong had no cavalry. He was basically dead in Henan and could not escape at all.

But, then what?

unimportant.

As long as you can win, it's OK.

Paying the price of 10,000 people for victory is simply too profitable, okay?

After years of war, Li Xianzhong has long been cold and doesn't care about human life at all, but in the face of the bloody reality, he has to admit that he seems to have made a big mistake.

When he led his army to Zaoyang, everything was normal. The Ming army of Zaoyang was closed to the city and defended the dead. Li Xianzhong commanded the army to surround Zaoyang while launching a fierce attack, trying to take down Zaoyang in a short time and smooth out the obstacles to Xiangyang.

However, when he further besieged Zaoyang, he unexpectedly learned that the Gu Ming army was approaching in the north and had arrived in the Tongbai Mountain area, blocking their way back north.

At the same time, there was also a Ming army galloping towards Zaoyang from the direction of the counter door, which was very close to them and could reach them in half a day.

At the same time, Suizhou on the south side was not under his control.

Li Xianzhong looked at the map, frowned, his face full of disbelief.

"It's normal to the south and west. Where did the Ming army come from in the north? The Ming army has increased its troops to Henan again? But I just arrived in Zaoyang! Why did they come?"

Li Xianzhong did not understand what was going on in the north of the Ming army, but he vaguely felt that his action plan seemed to have been known by the Ming army and everything was leaked. If he did not lead the army to leave, it would be in danger.

In addition to glory and scars, the decades of fighting on the battlefield brought him a strong sixth sense.

Li Xianzhong immediately made a decision and personally led the army to attack north, and then continued the task of attacking Zaoyang.

He handed over the remaining 20,000 imperial troops to his generals, asked him to continue attacking Zaoyang and deal with the Ming army from the counter gate. He led the main force of 50,000 people to advance north, trying to fight a bloody road back to Xinyang.

I have to say that the decision made by Li Xianzhong was quite meaningful, because even Ma Hongxing, who led his army to block his retreat, did not expect that Li Xianzhong would lead his troops to attack so quickly. He had just set up a camp and Li Xianzhong's forward arrived.

But this time, Ma Hongxing will not let Li Xianzhong go.

He arranged troops and sent 10,000 troops to fight against Li Xianzhong's 10,000 vanguards on the vast battlefield.

The forces of both sides are equal, but the problem is that there are two thousand firearm troops in the army led by Ma Hongxing.

They did not carry the generals to run, but only brought chariots, cavalry, generals, guns and musketeers. When they were in the battle, they started shooting at the Song army formation at a closer position.

The thunder-like roar and the terrifying penetration of the shells caused great panic to the already tight Song army formation.

When they found that they could not withstand a burning iron bullet, the Song army's military formation began to collapse.

Dozens of chariots and cavalry generals roared continuously, and the Song army's dense formation was severely hit by artillery shells. The shells raged in the army, killing and injuring many Song soldiers.

But to be fair, the number of Song troops who died directly under the shells was really not large.

An iron bomb will not explode, and there are indeed not many people who will directly kill or shake it. The lethality cannot increase explosively, and it cannot have the lethality of modern artillery.

But the problem is that the vibration brought by a complete and dense military formation after being hit by an iron bullet and the fear of unknown weapons will directly destroy the fighting will of the Song army.

They were not powerful elites, nor were they iron troops who did not retreat until the last battle. They basically lost ten to fifteen percent and should collapse.

The even stronger feudal iron army is estimated to be able to withstand a casualty rate of 20 to 30%, and then it will collapse.

It is not that simple to fight to the end of the battle. Just watching comrades die one by one, that huge sense of fear can completely swallow people, and not scare them to death on the spot can be considered strong.

It is impossible to fight to the last battle, just for money and promotion, without the blessing of faith.

Gu Liao/span>This Song army obviously has no strong beliefs. The battle is for money, for a better life, and for itself, so that's it.

After several volleys of chariots and cavalry generals fired their cannons, the fighting will of the Song army was destroyed, the army formation was dispersed, and the soldiers fled one after another, but the officers could not stop it.

Some officers simply ran with them, faster than soldiers.

The Ming army's infantry and cavalry took advantage of the situation to cover the killing, so that the musketeers in the army were useless. Ten thousand Song troops collapsed and suffered heavy losses due to the cover of the Ming army.

"Good, this firearm is amazing. With this, I can take them to Lin'an directly."

Ma Hongxing was majestic and immediately led the Ming army to pursue the defeated Song army to the south, without intending to give the Song army a chance to breathe.

So much so that the main force led by Li Xianzhong was not ready for combat, and the Ming army had arrived and pushed the cannon cart and fired it.

The artillery shells smashed one pit after another in the Song army's dense formation, exploded balls of blood, and knocked the Song army into pieces, splattering blood, and the broken limbs and arms flew around.

The terrifying scene of hell destroyed the fighting will of many Song soldiers on the spot. They were soon scared and tried to escape regardless of their own efforts.

Among the troops led by Li Xianzhong, 30,000 were elite troops in the headquarters, well-trained and had better food and clothing than ordinary Song army. Under the fierce bombardment of the Ming army, some parallel-cargo troops collapsed directly, while Li Xianzhong's elite troops persisted for a while.

Of course, Li Xianzhong promptly pulled out his personal guards as the supervisor team, and made a lot of effort to slash and slash the escaped soldiers.

At least he successfully stabilized the main force of the Song army, which was about to collapse under the artillery.

Then he quickly passed the military order, divided the elite 10,000 main force into four military formations, and arranged neatly to advance to the front, as the vanguard of the entire army.

Then let the deputy general rectify the defeated soldiers who had lost order in the rear and reorganize them.

The deafening sound of the explosion of gunpowder was a firearm, which Li Xianzhong could confirm.

But he didn't know what improvements the Ming army's firearms had made. They could fire such a terrifying iron bomb, which could directly penetrate the front line of a military formation. If he had the luck, he would crush it directly from the middle of the military formation. No one on a straight line could survive.

The power of this kind of firearm is far greater than that of a bed crossbow, and at the same time it is not like a firearm like a fireball that is shot out. What exactly is this?

Li Xianzhong was not sure about his ideas for a while, so he could only send elite troops forward, resist the Ming army's offensive, and buy time for the rear to reorganize.

He trained the four formations of the front army. He used crossbows to shoot at the Ming army in the distance, but because of the distance, the Ming army's fire was not threatened.

However, the cannon cannot be continuously fired for a long time. After one round of shooting, all four sub-guns must be used to water them with warm water and clean the inner chamber. Therefore, after four rounds of shooting, the Song army will have the opportunity.

Ma Hongxing did not order the firearm array to move forward, but planned to continue to use the advantages of artillery and give the Song army a few more strokes.

Although the Song army on the front line did not know why the Ming army stopped artillery bombardment, the Ming army stopped artillery at this moment of fear, which was tantamount to saving their lives for the Song army.

Li Xianzhong discovered this gap. Although he didn't know what was going on, he felt that it was meaningful for the opportunity of the car to narrow the distance with the Ming army and enter hand-to-hand combat.

So he issued orders to the front-line command officers to advance and shoot, ordering the crossbowmen to fire arrows, and the army formation continued to move forward, narrowing the distance with the Ming army, and starting a hand-to-hand combat.

The Song army formation continued to move forward and the arrow shooting did not stop. Ma Hongxing realized that the Song army was not weak, but was more elite, and the idea of ​​competing well in his mind.

However, the Ming army gunners are still quite powerful.

Before the Song army's formation reached the appropriate position, the Ming army gunners were ready for the second round of shooting. With the transmission of the launch order, the second round of launch began.

The amazingly fast artillery shells were wrapped in scorching and strong airflow and hit the Song army formation.

Anyone who hits this dense military formation can make the blood splashed in the military formation splashed all over the broken limbs and his arms flew around. Those who were hit were basically not full of corpses, and those who were lucky enough to die were still half dead.

The people around were either shocked or covered in blood. They didn't know whether they were their own or their comrades. They were so scared that they were gone. Nothing was left except for fear and confusion.

The artillery attacked the Song army formation very hugely.

When Li Xianzhong finally realized that his military formation was likely to be completely destroyed by the Ming army artillery before hand-to-hand combat, he couldn't help it and immediately ordered the only two thousand horses to attack the Ming army artillery left and right, and use his speed advantage to avoid the bombardment of the artillery.

Although he didn't know what the cannon was, it was not difficult to analyze that this kind of cannon was of little significance to high-speed moving war horses.

Obviously, this is the correct answer.

The Song army's cavalry divided into two groups and detoured from left to right to the Ming army's position, trying to destroy the Ming army's strange firearms.

But the problem is that the Ming army's cavalry will only have more and stronger cavalry than the Song army.

Zhang Yuejing allocated 5,000 cavalry to Ma Hongxing. After seeing the Song cavalry dispatched, Ma Hongxing immediately ordered the Ming cavalry to come forward and launch a counter-charge. The goal was to defeat the Song cavalry head-on and then deviate to the rear of the Song army, and cut off the Song army's retreat.

By then, the Song army could only go to collapse.

The five thousand Ming cavalry against two thousand Song cavalry, who wins and loses, does not seem to be an unsolvable problem.

PS: The new crown has been confirmed in my hometown, and the whole city is getting nervous. I also need to prepare for nucleic acid testing. I also need to prepare for the closure of the community at any time and cry.

PPS: I, a small third-tier place, have been hit. It seems that this wave of epidemic is coming in full force...

PPPS: The new crown that is so great!

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Chapter completed!