Although Li Zicheng had been watching the battle on a distant hill, due to the distance and the large amount of smoke produced after the artillery fire, he could only see vaguely and saw his firearms troops slowly moving towards the merchants. The army's position advanced, and then divided into two parts, one stopped, and the other continued to advance. Li Zicheng was able to distinguish clearly: the artillery stopped, and the artillery team continued to advance, and at one point he was even forced to It's very close to the Merchant Army's position.
However, these were the only scenes that could be seen clearly, and other details could not be seen clearly. Li Zicheng could only think that the firearms force had successfully competed with the merchant army, so he was very satisfied with their performance, although he could not see There were many casualties, but Li Zicheng believed that these losses were worth it.
Li Zicheng didn't even think twice, and sent more troops to help the firearms troops, and broke through the Merchant Army's position in one fell swoop. But suddenly, the situation reversed, and the soldiers who were about to attack the Merchant Army's position were suddenly defeated. When they came down, even the artillerymen gave up their positions and retreated in defeat, and even started fighting with the supervising team that blocked them.
Li Zicheng couldn't help but became furious. Rebellion on the battlefield had never happened before in his army. This was nothing short of a rebellion. If he was not severely punished, wouldn't the army be in chaos? How would he fight for the world in the future? .So Li Zicheng said sharply: "Hao Yaoqi?"
Chi Waoqi came out in response and said: "King Chuang, the final general will be here."
Li Zicheng pointed his whip at the battlefield where the fighting was taking place and said: "Our general has ordered that those who escape from the battle without an order will be killed without mercy. Now these soldiers can't help but retreat without orders, and they dare to rebel. I order you to lead them immediately." Three thousand personal guards went into battle to help supervise the battle team and execute all the soldiers who rebelled against the battle. No one was spared. For the sake of police efficiency."
Hao Yaoqi hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, General." After saying that, he turned around and ordered his troops, and then set off to the battlefield.
At this time, the war team and the rebels gradually decided the winner. After all, the war team only had 500 people, but the defeated army had nearly a thousand people, and most of them had fire cannons in their hands. Although they were all within the range of three-eyed cannons, It was very close, but because it was so close, the hit rate was very high, and after the three-eyed gun was fired, it could also be used as a stick. In addition, the defeated army was also driven into panic at this time, and everyone They all tried their best, and gradually gained the upper hand, only to kill Dedu's team and retreat continuously, suffering heavy casualties.
But at this moment, Hao Yaoqi led his men and horses to fight up. The number of the intruders suddenly exceeded the defeated army several times, and the breath that the defeated army had saved was almost exhausted, and all the fire cannons were fired. , it was too late to continue reloading, so the intruders immediately reversed the situation, surrounded the defeated troops, and killed them until they fell to the ground one after another.
At this time, the defeated army's ruffian nature of bullying and fearing the strong was revealed again. When they saw that they were defeated by the Chuang army, they immediately surrendered to save their lives. Unfortunately, this time the Chuang army would not let them go, and did not pay any attention to the defeated army's request. Lucky, still killing the defeated soldiers mercilessly, many defeated soldiers who threw away their weapons, knelt on the ground, raised their hands, were killed without any resistance. This time they were killed again. A lot.
However, while the intruders were killing each other, the merchant army had already cleared the battlefield and moved the artillery and muskets back to their positions. Of course, there were still many people stretching their necks and looking far away. Watching this wonderful show, Zhou Shaohuan, Tong Dayong, Huang Zhen and other generals even took out their telescopes to see more clearly. Tong Dayong looked at it, stuck out his tongue, and said: "Good guys, you and your own people." It’s really hard to kill!”
Huang Zhen said without hesitation: "I always thought that the strength of the thieves was nothing more than this. Now it seems that after they broke out, their fighting power was actually not that bad. Look at their ruthlessness, compared with the Tatars They're not much inferior, but when they attacked us just now, why didn't we see them being so desperate? But they used all their ferocity on our own people."
At this time, Duan Peng, the commander of the reconnaissance company, also came over and said: "I think at this distance, the No. 2 Folan cannon can hit them. How about we also give them a few shots to join in the fun."
Zhou Shaohuan glared at him and said: "What's the point of this kind of excitement? Isn't it better to just let the thieves and bandits kill each other? Once we start firing, maybe they will stop fighting. It's great like this, let's do the same No need to exert any effort, just sit back and watch the fun, it would be best if they all fight by themselves, that way we can save time."
After speaking, Zhou Shaohuan ordered the soldiers to rest on the battlefield, eat some dry food, and drink water. At the same time, they also covered the gun barrel with wet cloth to help the gun barrel dissipate heat as quickly as possible, so that the soldiers could better participate in the subsequent battles. .
But at this time, on the battlefield inside the Chuang Army, seeing that there was no hope of begging for mercy, the remaining defeated army could only rise up to resist again in despair. But at this time, the defeated army was still more energetic and the number of people had been reduced by most. Even if He intended to fight to the death, but his heart failed him and he was no match at all. Therefore, under the encirclement and slaughter of the intruders, the number of the defeated army became smaller and smaller, and finally they were all killed and all of them died. Bodies were scattered all over the floor, bleeding profusely.
Seeing that all the defeated troops were killed, Hao Yaoqi led his troops back to their own formation and made a deal with Li Zi.
Although he killed all the defeated troops, Li Zicheng also understood at this time that the attack of the firearms troops had completely failed. Although it is not clear how much damage was caused to the merchant army, it was certainly not a lot. This also shows that the use of firearms It is also a technical job, not everyone can master it, and the purpose of using firearms to make firearms has completely failed.
But at this point in the war, it was impossible for Li Zicheng to stop. Fortunately, he did not place all his hopes on the firearms troops and had second-hand preparations. At the same time, Li Zicheng was basically certain that the merchant army would , there are no firearms with a long range, which is good news for the Chuang army. At least they can move the main formation forward, closer to the battlefield, and they can see more clearly. This is probably the biggest problem of this battle. Harvest.
So Li Zicheng gathered the whole army, pointed to the place where the defeated troops died tragically in front, and said sternly: "You have all seen that those who disrespect the general's orders, fight ineffectively, and retreat without authorization will suffer."
Among the more than 50,000 intruders who came to attack the Merchant Army, 30,000 were handymen. Li Zicheng's second move was to use these handymen to attack, use human lives as a cushion, consume the Merchant Army's ammunition and physical strength, and then attack again. Use elite men and horses to attack and break through the merchant army's defense line in one fell swoop. Anyway, these handymen are just for killing people. It doesn't matter if they are all killed. As long as you give an order, you can recruit as many as you want. But the biggest number of the handymen is The weakness is that the will to fight is not strong, and it can only fight with the wind, not against the wind. Once it encounters a tough opponent, it will be easily defeated.
Therefore, Li Zicheng ordered to kill all the defeated troops in order to warn other soldiers in the formation of the consequences of fleeing without permission. However, this action was quite effective, and many soldiers had a look of fear on their faces. , obviously he was greatly shocked. This is probably another gain from this battle.
Naturally, these changes were noticed by Li Zicheng, so he was very satisfied, so he immediately ordered Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, and Li Guo to each take 10,000 troops, including 3,000 elites and 7,000 handymen. , launched simultaneous attacks on the Merchant Army's positions from three directions: east, west, and north, making it difficult for the Merchant Army to be attacked from all sides.
After the three generals received their orders, they each led their troops away. Then Li Zicheng gave the order for the troops to move forward, pushing the main formation to a distance of about 600 steps from the Merchant Army's position, so that they could command the battle at close range.
Because of the telescopes, the mobilization of troops and horses by the Chuang army did not escape the attention of the merchant army. Zhou Shaohuan also understood that the rebel army was going to launch an attack from all sides. Therefore, he immediately ordered that all the artillery on all lines be returned to their positions. At the same time, Two more squatting tiger cannons were added to each line. In addition, three companies, four squatting tiger cannons, and a reserve of thirty guns and thunder guns were retained.
It is precisely because the Merchant Army was able to discover the movements of the Chuang Army first, so it had enough time to adjust its defense layout. When the other three lines of the Chuang Army entered their positions, the Merchant Army took the lead and made a move. After all the preparations were done, we were just waiting for the invasion force to launch an attack.
After Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, and Li Guo led their troops into their respective positions, they all ordered the soldiers to attack first and consume the ammunition of the merchant army first.
As the Chuang army's attack unfolded, the Chuang army launched a tidal wave of attacks on the Merchant Army's positions from all directions at the same time. The Merchant Army faced the Chuang army that was more than ten times more than itself, without fear, and fired all kinds of artillery and muskets at once. , spitting tongues of fire, spraying all kinds of artillery shells and bullets at the heads of the intruders. For a while, people were noisy, artillery roared, gunshots were loud, and the momentum was earth-shattering. It was far from what the battle just now could compare with.
However, although the number of the invading army was large, because the Merchant Army's defense line had shrunk greatly, there was not much scope for attack, so it could only invest two to three thousand troops at a time. Of course, this was also a position deliberately arranged by the Merchant Army. However, the merchant army was able to defend its position firmly with a small number of soldiers from all four directions. The intruder army used solid bullets to attack in the distance, and switched to shotguns and muskets in the near area.
Because the attacking formation of the invading army was very dense, the hit rate of artillery and artillery was extremely high. It only caused the invading army to fall to the ground in rows. However, the invading army had a large number of people, and the number of people present in the previous firearms unit was very high. Everyone saw it and did not dare to retreat. They had no choice but to rush upwards with all their strength. As a result, after a while, the battlefield on all sides was littered with corpses and blood flowed into channels.