Amidst the rhythmic sound of war drums, the soldiers of Tianwei Battalion held sharp blades and wore silver-white chainmails, and pressed directly towards the rebels. Their speed was very fast, and their footsteps changed with the drums.

, not long after stepping out of the front line, he accelerated and rushed forward.

Zhou Shixian watched the battle between the two armies on the hillside less than two miles away, and his belief became more firm - these insects could not save the Ming Dynasty.

Under the attack of muskets, these Ming army rebels killed and wounded nearly thirty people, and more than a dozen people were killed by arrows before. The casualty ratio was close to 20%. The so-called formation and morale had collapsed. Faced with the full force of the Tianwei Battalion,

The armed soldiers attacked and had no power to fight back.

They never thought that Liu Zeqing's soldiers and horses on the opposite side would be so strong. The belief and contempt in their hearts at the beginning had been replaced by the smoke and fire of the muskets, the falling companions, and the drums coming from the opposite side.

The sound of bugles and shouts of killing disappeared.

The soldiers and cavalry of Tianwei Battalion launched an attack at the same time. These rebel soldiers had nowhere to escape and they crowded together. Some people fell to the ground and were trampled to death. A dozen of them rushed to escape first.

Almost all the rebel soldiers were killed by the cavalry on the surrounding plains, and no one was spared.

Among the officers on horseback, only one of them was able to escape because he was blocked by his soldiers. However, before he had time to rejoice, he was shot with arrows by two sentries from the Tianwei Battalion.

killed.

Zheng Chenggong did not join the battlefield. He watched the battle process from the original position of Tianwei Camp, from the confrontation between the two armies to the harassment of Tianwei Camp's cavalry from both sides, musket shooting, and the attack of soldiers, to the current encirclement and pursuit, completely

It was all a one-sided massacre.

"They are all soldiers of the Ming Dynasty. How could it be like this...how could there be such a huge difference?"

Listening to the howls from the battlefield, Zheng Chenggong murmured: "If my Zheng family's soldiers and horses come, I'm afraid it won't be much better than this!"

The battle ended quickly. Under Zhou Shixian's instruction, the eight sentries deliberately opened a hole, allowing five or six rebels to escape.

After all, the quickest and best way to let Gao Jie know about this matter is this. If you send people to investigate the crime, it will not be easy to catch the other party's pigtails.

Nearly half of the other two hundred rebels were killed on the battlefield by the Tianwei Battalion, and the other half who knew the current affairs and responded quickly chose to put down their weapons and surrender. But Zhou Shixian did not plan to let them go.

According to military law, they were all killed.

He needed to use the heads of these people to tell his army that the consequences of violating military laws and robbing the people were this.

After Zhou Shixian confirmed that his soldiers and horses could indeed fight, and that their combat power far exceeded those of the Ming army, his troops hidden behind the hillside immediately appeared around the messy military camp.

In the evening of that day, Zhou Shixian led his troops into Tianshui County and was warmly welcomed by the gentry in the county. However, he did not show off, but ordered the surrounding main roads to be blocked to prevent the news of his appearance in Fengyang from spreading prematurely.

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After dealing with the squire, Zhou Shixian and the generals began to calculate the captures on the battlefield, and asked Xue Laoer to make a brief report on the battle situation.

Although it was a small battle, these rebels had the opportunity to premeditate and plunder, and the Tianwei camp gained a lot. Just silver, more than 40,000 taels were seized, jewelry worth 4,000 to 5,000 taels, and many more

Food. This money is enough to train two Qianzong from scratch.

In addition to gold, silver and food, there were more than 70 abducted women and more than 50 young men in the rebel camp. Zhou Shixian had no intention of letting them go. In such troubled times, it would almost be equivalent to letting them die.

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These people were naturally sent back to the military camp and sent to workshops. It happened that Zhou Shixian also lacked cheap labor.

After calculating the seizures on the battlefield and reporting that three soldiers had embezzled dirty money and were executed on the spot, Xue Laoer also began to report on the battle:

"Prince-in-law, in this battle, the 100th General of the 1st Bureau of the 1000th Headquarters was dispatched, and eight more sentries were sent to strengthen it. In this battle, a total of 125 enemies were wiped out and 136 enemies were captured.

Four of our troops were killed and 12 wounded, three of whom were seriously injured. They all injured their close friends and might not be able to survive tomorrow night. The other nine were not fatally injured, but one of them had injured his muscles and bones and might become disabled.

The rest of the problems are not serious and will be cured after a period of rest."

After hearing this, Zhou Shixian nodded, and then looked around at the people in the room. Except for Zheng Chenggong, whose face was still a little horrified, the other generals had calm expressions. Most of them had participated in the "Battle of Qinghe" before, and they were not familiar with these.

The combat effectiveness of friendly forces is still somewhat understood.

After a while, after listening to Xue Laoer's subsequent report on the damage to his weapons and the problems exposed on the battlefield, Zhou Shixiancai said in a deep voice:

"The performance of the Tianwei Middle Army Camp in this battle is good. After returning, I will definitely reward you based on your merits. In addition to the rewards from the court, there will also be other commendations. However... I also hope that you will

Remember, the Tianwei Battalion is the most elite entity in our army. Even if we defeat a ragtag group, there is nothing to be happy about.

At the same time, you must also think carefully about the virtues of these friendly forces, the so-called four towns in Jiangbei. It is absolutely impossible to rely on them to stop the Qing army that is about to move south. In the future, the only people we can rely on in the war against the Tatars are

On our own.

Therefore, the issues just mentioned by General Officer Xue should be paid attention to and we should think carefully about improvement strategies. There are also provisions in military regulations. Those who can discover problems in military training and combat and propose improvements will be given credit accordingly.

I hope you can all get the rewards of twenty-five taels, fifty taels, and one hundred taels of silver."

After hearing this, all the generals nodded in unison: The combat effectiveness of this rebel army was indeed too poor. If Gao Jie's elite servants came, they might still be able to fight. So they did not dare to ask for any rewards. Zhou Shixian's

This unexpected reward is actually a small favor that continues to win over people's hearts.

The problems exposed by the army on the battlefield made them feel guilty, and they were even more worried that the prince-in-law in front of them would punish them with thunderous means.

"Husband-in-law, what will the army do next? Will it continue to move north or not?" Xue Laoer asked again.

"We're going to Sizhou, but there's no rush. We'll send sentries to explore the road first. After Gao Jie starts taking action, we'll move on. We'll keep the army on standby in the city for the next few days."

Zhou Shixian paused, and then continued to order: "Send some sentries into the Huai'an area to see how Liu Zeqing acts."

Zheng Chenggong listened calmly. He knew that Zhou Shixian was waiting for the situation to become more chaotic. After all, he was using the name of Liu Zeqing. Gao Jie would definitely not let it go. When the two sides started to quarrel, it would be more justified to intervene after the dog bites the dog.

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Chapter completed!