On December 13, Zhang Xianzhong sent out all his troops to attack Li Zhi.
Li Zhi was a little surprised when he heard the scout's report. He did not expect that Zhang Xianzhong would take the initiative to attack him. He immediately led Cao Bianjiao and Long Wenguang to line up their troops and fight outside the camp.
Li Zhi's soldiers and horses were lined up behind a small river. As soon as they arranged the iron caltrops on the river bank, they saw a mighty army of men and horses appearing on the horizon. The men and horses offering the thieves seemed to occupy the entire world, spreading for dozens of miles, filled with
Covering the entire field of vision, it kept pressing in this direction.
Li Zhi looked carefully with a telescope and found that there were not only Zhang Xianzhong's more than 50,000 soldiers in the bandit formation, but also tens of thousands of hungry soldiers at the front. Those hungry people had been deprived of their only food by Zhang Xianzhong, so they could only rely on Zhang Xianzhong to hold hands.
Fight with sticks and sickles.
Some hungry soldiers were attached to the bandits in the autumn. At that time, they only wore a single suit and became bandits. It was already very cold at this time, and they still had no cotton-padded clothes to distribute, and they were shivering in the cold wind.
For these starving soldiers, if they continue like this they will die of cold and illness, and if they leave Zhang Xianzhong, they will starve to death immediately. The only way to survive is to kill an officer's head and be promoted to an infantry through military merit.
Once you become a foot soldier, you have to wear winter clothes.
Zhang Xianzhong's army, which covered the entire field of vision, marched two miles away from Li Zhi's army and stopped.
Li Zhi's army and horse arrangement was to have Cao Bianjiao's 4,000 cavalry protect the left wing, Long Wenguang's 8,000 Sichuan soldiers to protect the right wing, and the Huben Division's 16,000 soldiers to form a formation in the middle. The soldiers of the Huben Division formed three rows of firing formations, extending in a straight line.
, each soldier occupies a width of one meter, and the entire battlefield is more than 5,000 meters wide.
When the battle was about to begin, Li Zhi called on Zheng Kaicheng and Xue Sanku, who were on the left and right flanks of the formation, and said: "When shooting with the soldiers at the border with friendly forces, let the enemy go seventy steps before shooting. Don't let the friendly forces discover the range of our rifles."
After a pause, Li Zhi added: "The lack of firepower caused by such shooting can be made up for by using more cannons."
Zheng Kaicheng and Xue Sanku agreed and went to deliver the order.
After observing Li Zhi's army for a while two miles away, Zhang Xianzhong's army sounded the horn of attack. More than 30,000 hungry people armed with wooden sticks, sickles, or spears rushed towards Li Zhi.
Although the 30,000 men were extremely poorly equipped and unable to fight, they rushed towards them at the sound of the trumpet, and they were quite impressive.
Li Zhi observed in the telescope for a while and was stunned when he saw that Zhang Xianzhong's more than 50,000 soldiers were motionless, and only more than 30,000 hungry soldiers were charging this way.
Li Laosi also looked with the telescope for a while and said: "My boss, Zhang Xianzhong's soldiers didn't move at all after the hungry soldiers rushed up. This is using the hungry soldiers to test our firepower!"
Li Zhi nodded and said: "There is no other way, open fire and disperse these hungry soldiers!"
The Chinese military command flag was waved, and two hundred field guns began to load ammunition, aiming their shotgun shells at these hungry soldiers.
When Zhang Xianzhong's hungry soldiers rushed within 300 meters, they opened fire one after another. Twenty thousand shotgun pellets were fired at the hungry soldiers who were used as cannon fodder. The projectiles hit the bodies of the hungry soldiers and penetrated them.
There are two holes in the front and back. Blood flowers are like wintersweet in the cold winter, blooming one after another on the bodies of the hungry soldiers.
The hungry soldiers in the front row were like straw that had been cut with a sickle, and a large piece fell down in one fell swoop.
The hungry soldiers were in confusion.
These hungry soldiers had long sensed that there was something different about the officers and soldiers in front of them. The neat rows of officers and soldiers made people feel murderous. The sophisticated armors on these officers and soldiers were also different from other officers and soldiers. Obviously this
It was a strong army. Sure enough, as soon as they approached this official army, the hungry soldiers were bombarded by shotguns.
In the blink of an eye, more than a thousand hungry soldiers died in front of the battle.
But the hungry soldiers had to rush forward. As soon as they were bombarded by shotguns, five thousand old thieves from the Xianjun army rushed out. All the old thieves from the Xianjun army had horses, either pack horses or war horses. They were on horseback.
They waved their swords to drive the chaotic hungry soldiers forward. The old thieves were very ruthless. When they saw the hungry soldiers turning around and running away, they attacked their vital points without mercy.
The hungry soldiers had no way to retreat. In this bloody world, there was no way to survive. Finally, the old thieves and horsemen behind them kept slashing and slashing, making the hungry soldiers realize that the rear was more dangerous than the front. The hungry soldiers did not dare to retreat.
With red eyes and weapons raised, they rushed towards the Tiger Division in front with a roar. They only hoped that the cannons of the army in front could only fire once. They hoped that the army was not as powerful as it looked and that they could rush into the formation and kill a few people.
Each officer and army will win some military exploits.
These hungry soldiers were greeted by rifle volleys from platoon after platoon.
Pieces of smoke emerged from the Huben Division's positions. The soldiers in the front row retreated from the right after shooting. The soldiers in the back continued to shoot, pouring bullets towards the hungry soldiers who were rushing into the formation. The bullets flew over the battlefield without any movement.
He shot the hungry soldiers mercilessly into their bodies, killing these hungry soldiers like shooting prisoners.
Starved soldiers fell down one by one, like weeds swept by a lawnmower, defenseless. Blood flew across the five-kilometer battlefield, and there were one or two dead hungry soldiers on almost every meter.
soldiers.
The hungry soldiers were completely defeated.
No matter how fierce the bandits and horsemen behind were, they were not as scary as the rifle volleys in front. Those behind were chasing and slashing, while those in front were mass shootings. The hungry soldiers turned their heads and fled to the back regardless, even preparing to pick up weapons to deal with them.
The old thieves Ma Jun chased them.
But what they didn't expect was that as soon as those old thieves and cavalry soldiers saw the volley of firecrackers fired by the government troops, they all fled to the rear, running faster than the severely wounded hungry soldiers. No one pursued or killed the hungry soldiers.
There was no one to supervise the hungry soldiers as they rushed forward. The bandit army two miles away ordered their troops to retreat, and the 50,000 soldiers rubbed oil on their soles and fled to the north as fast as possible.
The hungry soldiers were confused and didn't understand what was happening. They chased Zhang Xianzhong's army, and only there did they have a bite to eat.
Among Li Zhi's troops, Zhong Feng took a breath and said sarcastically: "Sir, we scared the bandits, and they ran away! We didn't gain any military merit at this time."
Li Zhi nodded, shook his head, and said, "Zhang Xianzhong came to detect our firepower. Now that he knows he can't defeat us, he ran away."
Xue Sanku asked: "Sir, will our cavalry give chase?"
Li Zhi shook his head and said: "We cannot let thousands of cavalry pursue them alone. If the thieves are organized and retreat, they must send fine cavalry to the rear. The cavalry alone will pursue the army of rogue thieves in depth, and they will be ambushed in the meeting."
After looking at the camp behind him, Li Zhi added: "The whole army will return to the camp, load up the baggage, and then the whole army will chase him together. Let's see who is faster between us and Zhang Xianzhong!"
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At Zhang Xianzhong's center, Zhang Xianzhong rode at the front of the team. From time to time he looked at the path in panic to see if Master Huben was catching up.
From time to time, he rode his horse forward for a while, and then stopped anxiously, waiting for the army of infantry to catch up.
Zhang Dingguo looked at his horrified adoptive father and said, "Commander, this Li Shashen's soldiers and horses are too powerful, we can't defeat them!"
Zhang Xianzhong gritted his teeth, shook his head and said: "My son, this Li Zhi is stronger than three years ago. This is the first time I have seen such a terrifying army."
