The seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the first year of Yongchang in Dashun, the first year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, March 16, Chenshi. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Wu Sangui led more than 20,000 soldiers of the Guanning Army under his command, sacrificed the banner, fired cannons out of Xiluo City, and drove out of the West Gate in the direction of Shihe.

The battle is about to break out, and the nearby villagers have fled their homes, and the scattered houses along the way have been reduced to ruins in the continuous encounters between small groups of sentinels on both sides. The suburbs of the fields and ditches, after a few miles, the army has arrived at the bank of the Shihe River, and the 20,000 troops who originally marched into the separate roads have been put together, lined up along the bank of the Shihe River, and the banners of the soldiers are like forests, and the weather is strict.

Through a few points of fog that had not completely receded in the early spring morning, Wu Sangui looked out with his eyes, along the west bank of the Shihe River, up and down for dozens of miles, covered with dense Shunjun camps. However, compared with the day before yesterday, the Shun army camp on the west bank of the Shihe River has decreased significantly. Among the banners of the army, there is also a lack of the handsome banner of the general Li Guo. Exploring the horses and making a detailed report, Li Guo led the men and horses of his headquarters to the west, the number of men and horses was about 20,000 or more, and the destination was unknown. At present, the leaders of the thieves here in Shanhaiguan are Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, Li Yan and others, but the main force of the thieves and the former officers and soldiers who surrendered to Shun are still camped here.

In the sky above the camp, the banners of the imperial camp and the pro-army, the banners of the left battalion, the front battalion, the rear battalion, and the middle battalion were densely packed like a forest, silently announcing the soldiers and horses of the Shun army to the soldiers of the Guanning army.

On the other side of the Stone River in front of them, the Shun army also lined up a large array along the river, countless banners of various colors, boundless, I don't know how many people and horses.

Also along the banks of the Shihe River, the Shun army lined up a phalanx, stretching for several miles, and the banners of men and horses seemed to be out of sight. Looking at the momentum of the soldiers and horses of the Shun army, the generals beside Wu Sangui all let out a heavy wheezing sound.

Soon after the formation of the Dashun army on the other side of the river opened, a huge whistling sound suddenly erupted in their formation, like a typhoon suddenly blowing on the sea.

"Long live my emperor!"

In the cheers of tens of thousands of people shouting and tsunami, a large yellow dragon umbrella was raised high and slowly came out. Under the guidance and protection of hundreds of imperial soldiers, Li Zicheng still rode a black barge horse, wearing a green cloth arrow suit, covered with a dragon leather armor, covered with copper nails, wearing a white felt hat on his head, and a sword he was used to using on the saddle. In the midst of many civil and military officials and more loyal guards, the stars came to the front of the military formation.

The sea breeze made Li Zicheng's Huanglong umbrella hunting sound, and he waved his hand, surrounded by soldiers and subjects cheering for him.

"Hooray! Banzai! Banzai! ”

All the officers and men of the Shun army waved their weapons, and their overwhelming "long live" sound was higher and higher, and this kind of military spirit and majesty made the Guanning army on the other side of the river tremble unconsciously.

Li Zicheng waved his right hand in the air, and the entire Dashun army formation immediately became quiet. Tens of thousands of horses bowed their heads together to listen to orders. Under the umbrella, Li Zicheng whispered a few words to Song Xiance beside him, and Song Xiance nodded.

In a few moments, more than 100 elite horsemen rode out slowly, led by a young man on the back of the flag horse.

"Please come out and speak! The existing crown prince of Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty is here! Please General Wu Sangui come out and speak! ”

More than 100 elite riders opened their voices together, and the slogans with a thick Shaanxi accent were uniformly sent across the riverbed by the wind.

Someone jumped off the horse, found a wide and flat place on the shore, laid out a felt mat, put a fox skin on it, put the cushion, and asked the flag to put down the Zhu Cijiong who was holding him and sit on the ground.

"Damn scoundrels!" Wu Sangui scolded in his heart. Regardless of whether this prince is true or not, Li Zicheng's hand has dealt a great blow to the morale of the Guan Ning army. In people's field of vision, the crown prince Zhu Cihong and the more than 100 cavalrymen who guarded him were all dressed in white and plain clothes, and it was obvious that they were wearing filial piety to the deceased Chongzhen.

More than a dozen generals around Wu Sangui set their eyes on Wu Sangui together, and it was obvious that Zhu Cihuan's appearance also made their psychological defense line chaotic, and they were all looking forward to the marshal coming out with a charter.

Zhu Cihong's appearance was undoubtedly a move by Li Zicheng, who used the identity of the prince of the East Palace to recruit Wu Sangui. However, if Wu Sangui does not go to see him, it will inevitably shake his identity and legal status, and then shake his morale even more.

"Dashuai, it's better to do this, we will go out with hundreds of elite horsemen and Dashuai's handsome banner, and rush to the west bank to recapture the East Palace. Our army sent these hundreds of cavalry, only claiming to be escorting Ping Xibo to the East Palace. When he got closer, he suddenly ran in two ways, like lightning, and recaptured the prince, don't fall in love, and return immediately. In addition, hundreds of firearms were arranged to ambush the middle of the river beach. If the enemy soldiers pursued, they jumped up and fired a volley, and in a matter of moments the prince was in the city of Silo. In this way, not only can we welcome back the prince, but also kill the prestige of the thieves and boost the morale of our army! ”

"Xianting, what do you think?" Although Wu Sangui was quite excited about this method in his heart, he was a little hesitant, and he turned his eyes to look at Fang Guangchen, the thinker beside him.

"Dashuai, the distance is too far, I can't tell if it's His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the East Palace. Moreover, the student's fate is shallow and blessed, and he has never met the prince. ”

This sentence really woke up Wu Sangui and others. That's right! At this distance, whether it is the crown prince or not, we can't see clearly, even if we can see clearly, who has seen His Royal Highness the prince himself?

"Wu Qinsi!"

"The subordinates are here!"

"Pass on the order of General Benbo, order the artillery at the head of Xiluo City to fire at Li Chuang's pseudo-dragon umbrella!"

"Dashuai, our Hongyi cannon, I'm afraid the distance can't be under Li Chuang's pseudo-dragon umbrella." Wu Qinsi observed the distance slightly, and was quite embarrassed.

"Marshal, it's better to open artillery at the head of the city to intimidate, and the brigade of soldiers and horses will rush over with the call to recapture the prince!" Fang Guangchen thought for a moment, and then had a new idea.

Three cannons rang out in succession from the city of Ciro, and the sound shook the earth.

On the west bank of the Shihe River, there were also Dashun troops who fired a few cannons at Xiluo City. Several war horses on the positions of the two armies thought that the big battle had begun, and they became excited, and responded to each other and Xiao Xiao Changming.

The Dashun army and the Guanning soldiers bombarded each other with artillery fire across the Shihe beach. With experience, Luo Hu carefully distinguished the types and quantities of artillery of the Guanning Army. Hearing it, the cannon sound from the city of Shanhaiwei Xiluo was very powerful, stronger than the cannon in the Dashun army. Each cannon shot can make the earth shake, like thunder rolling to the sky, and echo on the Yan Mountain in the north, making it more powerful.

He had heard beforehand that Wu Sangui had transported almost all the cannons in Ningyuan City to Shanhaiguan for guarding the customs. He thought that today Wu Sangui would definitely place these cannons in Shanhaiwei West City, aim at the wide and unsheltered Shihe Beach, and suppress them with artillery fire, so that the Dashun army could not cross the Shihe Beach to attack Xiluo City.

"Probably Wu Sangui thought that Shanhaiwei was a place, as long as there were firearms and enough soldiers to defend Xiluo City, it would not be easy to break through from the west!"

Zhang Nai sneered, waved the horsewhip in his hand, and hit a beautiful whip in mid-air.

He was equally confident in his artillery battalion. Speaking of artillery, in order to ensure the mobility of mobile warfare, the Dashun Army did not have many heavy guns of more than 12 pounds, but there were many 10-pounder guns, 8-pounder guns, big Buddha Lang machines, 6-pounder guns, and even 3-pounder guns. It is completely possible to offset the heavy artillery superiority of the Wu army with the numerical superiority.

After a warm exchange of cannonballs between the two sides, the cannonballs flying from Ciro City gradually thinned out. The west city of Shanhaiwei is different from the east city, it belongs to the later construction, the city wall is thinner, the foundation is not very strong, can not withstand the frequent fire and vibration of heavy artillery. So, after a while, the city's artillery stopped.

Suddenly, on the west bank of the Shihe River, in several places, at the same time, the war drums were like thunder, and the infantry cavalry of the Dashun army was neatly organized, divided into several places, and rushed out of the sparse forest with a shout, went down the river bank, and killed to the east. When the war drums of the Dashun army sounded, the elite soldiers of Guan Ning, who were standing in the trees outside Xiluo City, also suddenly shook the sky, and they were dispatched from several places, with a neat lineup, shouting "Kill!" Kill! "Rush to the Shihe Beach to meet the Dashun army.

Liu Zongmin was immediately on the west bank of the Shihe River in Hongwadian, his eyes wide open and motionless. Liu Xiyao led several thousand men and horses to the north of the red tile shop, less than two miles away from the red tile shop. There was also a troop of men and horses on the south side of the red tile shop, beating drums and shouting, and the number was less than 5,000. Although some of the men and horses of the Dashun army entered the Shihe beach amid the sound of war drums and shouts, they stopped advancing before they reached the middle of the river beach and waited for a decisive battle with the Guanning soldiers in the wide Shihe beach. On the gang, Li Zicheng rode an oolong horse, holding a bridle in his left hand, raising his right arm, and putting his hand on a pergola, looking at the Guan Ning soldiers who were fighting in the sun, and he was not frightened. He has fought with the officials and troops of the Ming Dynasty for many years, especially in recent years, and has fought several major battles, and he has never seen such a strict lineup of the Ming Dynasty's officials and troops. Zuo Liangyu is a famous general of the Ming Dynasty, but there are many people, but there is no such lineup in front of the battle. Sun Chuanting's soldiers and horses of the Shaanxi New Army can be called elite, but they are only reflected in their combat effectiveness, and they are not particularly proficient in traditional formations.

"The border soldiers do have a set!" Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin were sincerely admired.

The Guan Ning soldiers gradually approached in the sound of drums, and the Dashun army only slightly moved forward to meet them, adopting a waiting posture. The Dashun army was not cowardly to the enemy, but because Li Zicheng, his military adviser Song Xiance, and several major generals had already inspected the terrain before dusk yesterday, and knew that although the wide stone river beach was now only a trickle, the ground was full of large and small rocks, which was not suitable for men and horses to run, and there was neither a single tree nor a mound on the river beach, and it was extremely vulnerable to artillery fire in Xiluo City.

After inspecting the terrain, they decided to lure the Guanning soldiers to the west bank of the Shihe River during the battle, divide and surround them, and then attack with the elite of the Zhenshan battalion to eliminate Wu Sangui's forces, rather than fighting to the death with the Guanning soldiers. Therefore, although the Dashun army was also preparing for a big battle on the west bank of the Shihe River, it was not in a hurry to attack the Guanning army. Instead, they slowly formed a formation above the riverbed on the west bank, ready to meet the battle.

The Guanning army was densely formed, and at the forefront of the team were about 2,000 firecrackers, a high-grade Nanzhong firecracker with a color on his shoulder, an ochre-red cowhide medicine box, and a dividing line was drawn obliquely from the left shoulder to the right rib of the cotton armor on the upper body. Nearly thirty percent of the people in these firecrackers are elites who have participated in the Battle of Tashan, and the rest are selected and trained by Wu Sangui in the past few years, and the treatment is the same as that of his family.

Two thousand musketeers marched slowly down the riverbed in two columns. Behind them were pikemen and shield men, close to six thousand. After the firecrackers killed and injured a large number of Shun soldiers with projectiles, they were prepared to engage in hand-to-hand combat with spears and broadswords, so as not to allow the firecrackers to participate in hand-to-hand combat with guns.

On both flanks of the attacking infantry, there were more than 1,000 cavalry swimming in escort, ready to meet the attacks and harassment of the Shun cavalry at any time. At the same time, he was also preparing to attack and tear a hole in the front of the Shun army.

In the sound of war drums, the Guan Ning soldiers came in formation like a wall, like the banner of the forest, the dense thorns shone with cold light, and the spears that were twice as many as the spurs were layered on top of each other, making people almost breathless to watch.

"Drums! Catch up! Liu Zongmin glanced at the Huangluo umbrella cover in the distance, and he knew that after the battle started, Li Zicheng would quietly move back, and then return to the camp, leading Li Yan, Song Xiance and the imperial camp to quietly retreat in the direction of Yongning. After he had commanded the battle, he would also retreat westward.

Niu Chenghu's soldiers and horses followed the sound of drums, and also met them in a three-fold formation.

In the passionate sound of war drums, the men and horses on both sides are getting closer and closer, and in the heavy footsteps, the armor and weapons of the other side, the patterns and handwriting on the banners, and even the twisted and hideous facial expressions on the faces of the soldiers of all sides can be seen clearly.

The musketeers in the front row of the Guanning Army observed the platoon with the corner of their eyes, trying to maintain the platoon formation, while looking at the opposite side of the slowly approaching troops, and from time to time they had to stop and reorganize the formation. Several veterans who had participated in the Battle of Tower Hill had already appeared at the corners of their mouths.

Gradually, the distance between the two armies became closer and closer, two hundred paces, one hundred and fifty paces, and the heavy gasps between each other were clearly audible.

"Check the flint!"

The officers of the Wu army began to whisper in the queue to remind the musketeers. According to the morality of the inland officers and soldiers, it is about this distance to fire the arrows, as long as they fire first, then the next thing is a massacre.

"Stop!"

The two thousand firecrackers stopped at a distance of 100 paces, and at this time, the Wu army and the Shun army were already facing each other on the beach of the Shihe River.

"Gun down!" There was a loud bang, and the firecrackers took the firecrackers off their shoulders, and the edge of the entire formation suddenly became much shorter.

"Check the firecracker! Pull out the hat! The officers' commands echoed through the queue, reminding the musketeers to make final preparations before launching.

The Shun army, Niu Chenghu, was still driven by inertia and continued to rush towards the formation of the Wu army.

In the eyes of Wu Junhuo's hand, these soldiers on the opposite side wearing iron armor, inlaid iron cotton armor, dragon leather armor, and even coconut shell armor and cotton armor that looked a little strange were already a group of dead people.

"Fire!"

The officers at all levels of the Wu army arms soldiers waved the command flag in their hands and pointed the flag to the Shun army formation not far away.

"Fire!"

On the west bank of the Shihe River, Zhang Nai pulled out his sword, and the tip of the sword pointed in the direction of the Wu army's military formation in the middle of the riverbank.

The deafening sound of firecrackers sounded, and the front row of the Wu army raised their guns and fired a volley, and a dense gray-white gunpowder smoke instantly rose up on the battle line of the long mile.

The infantry of the Shun army, who rushed to the front, spewed out a blood mist from the cotton armor on their bodies, and a large piece fell in this instant. After being shot, many people's expressions froze, and they didn't seem to be able to accept the fact that they had been hit by the firecracker, and then the pain made them wake up, and they immediately rolled to the ground and screamed.

This platoon fired a volley like a gust of wind swept across the wheat field, causing a commotion among Niu Chenghu's subordinates, and some of the soldiers in the front row were stunned, and some turned around and ran. The soldiers behind them began to desperately fire firearms, shooting sharp arrows, and dozens of firearms soldiers were shot in the arms and fell to the ground with a muffled grunt.

The projectile has an excellent killing effect on cotton armor and iron-inlaid cotton armor, but for those soldiers wearing coconut shell armor and dragon skin armor, it is a happy thing to wear such armor at this time. Projectiles are bounced off by armor made of coconut shells, or are designed to fail to penetrate thick crocodile skin and copper nails.

After the gunners in the front row of the Wu army finished shooting, they immediately stood still, took out ****** and lead bullets from the sub-medicine box, and prepared to reload and shoot again. The musketeers behind them crossed their ranks and took a few steps forward. They raised their firearms, and the mouth of the black hole was aimed at the Shun army, who was already a little flustered on the opposite side.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

On the river beach, Zhang Nai's 20 8-pounder guns, 30 6-pounder guns, and 25 large Buddha Lang machines began to concentrate fire on the Wu army's arms and gunners.

A fully loaded gun does not require accurate fire, it only needs to be in the correct general direction and distance.

Almost at the same time when the Wu army exchanged firing positions, there was a deafening cannon sound, a large cloud of smoke rose up, and groups of roaring cannons intertwined into a dense barrage in mid-air, becoming the corner of the scythe of the Grim Reaper to harvest life, and kept letting out a low cry formed when tearing the air, flying towards the front line of the Wu army in the middle of the riverbed.

The dense formation of Wu's firearms was immediately enveloped by the dense projectiles, and the fire net was full of splatters of flesh and stumps. Even in the Shun army array, which was still dozens of steps away from the Wu army, more than 100 people were also affected by the pond fish.

The voices of the people were boiling, the ghosts were crying and the wolves were howling, and the Wu army and soldiers danced in the dense rain of bullets, which became the delicacy in the mouth of the god of death.

Nearly 100 guns fired a dense network of fire, in which few lives survived. The gunners who were still struggling to harvest their lives with the firearms in their hands just now were turned into sacrifices by the gunners in the blink of an eye.

The smoke and screams gradually disappeared, and what appeared in front of Niu Chenghu's soldiers and horses was simply a Shura field. Broken hands and feet, corpses beaten into honeycombs were scattered all over the place, shattering flesh and bones, turning the battlefield into mud.

"Look what! You're not old ladies who eat fasting and chant Buddha, rush forward! Kill! ”

With the main general's shouting and scolding, Niu Chenghu's soldiers and horses continued to bow their heads and rush forward. (To be continued.) )