The Qing army standing in the front row on the city wall saw that the Ming army officer on the opposite side suddenly pulled out a bright knife, and invariably took half a step back, and hurriedly shouted loudly with even more ferocity, which was not only a threat jǐng accusation, reminding the other party that he was not easy to provoke, but also emboldening himself.

This officer of the Ming army surrendered to Liu Tichun in Yunyang not long ago, and when he saw that the Ming army near the gap occupied a favorable terrain and had driven the Wuchang soldiers out of the road under the city, he felt that the shape was beneficial to his side, and he also wanted to make some military achievements. The officer danced the steel knife in his hand into a ball of knife flowers, and slowly moved forward while dancing the knife.

Several soldiers behind the officer have been his subordinates since Yunyang, and when they saw the commander's majesty, they were also bold, and they shook the barrel of their guns vigorously behind the commander's back, making threatening sounds of "hey" and "hey".

The sword light was rolling in front of him, and several spears were flashing and approaching like the letter of a poisonous snake, and the Qing soldiers were timid in their hearts, and their voices suddenly lowered an octave, and they involuntarily retreated one after another.

"Don't retreat!" Seeing this, an officer of the Qing army who pressed the formation behind him was immediately anxious, once the momentum was pressed by the Ming army, it would be easy to retreat. Although this Qing army officer and his subordinates were all transferred from other counties, Zhong Xiangcheng was neither their hometown nor had anything to defend, but if they were defeated back to the city tower like this, they might be killed by the Hanyang general army.

The Qing officer waved the sword in his hand and strode forward.

Seeing that the leader was so brave, the morale of the Qing soldiers was greatly boosted, and their voices suddenly became high-pitched again, and they no longer continued to retreat but gestured their spears to the opposite side. Every time they shot into the air, they let out a loud "ha" roar.

In this way, the two armies kept a distance of about five meters and stabbed each other, and the two officers fought alone between the military formations, just like the scholars of the pre-Qin era.

The two officers raised their eyebrows, gritted their teeth, and slashed their swords in the air with all their might. The two fought for a long time without winning or losing, but the shouts and cheers behind each other were higher and higher. Both of them are becoming more and more courageous, although they are both a little tired, they both know very well that they must not take a step back at this time, otherwise they will be overwhelmed by the other party's momentum at once.

……

The general army of Hanyang had already seen that the attack on the gap was not going well, and after learning that the other side had jīng sharp archers pressing the formation, the general army did not continue to hesitate and ordered: "The pro-army camp advances." ”

The envoys sent to the prefect and the prefectural order have been gone for a while. The general army estimated that when the Qing army began to shrink to the south of the city, it would not be long before the Ming army in the whole city would surround it, and there would be no way out of the city until the gap was captured. At present, there are not many Ming troops outside the city, but once they understand the intention of the Qing army to break through the gap, they will definitely quickly surround it. Now there seems to be hundreds of soldiers there, if they can't take it now, how can they fight when the reinforcements of the Ming army arrive?

Although the Wuchang soldiers were not as sharp as the armies of Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong, they were also provincial-level troops, but they were not able to instantly rush down the gap in the defense of the Ming army, and the general soldiers were very dissatisfied with this. Especially during this time, Zhou Peigong was still chattering beside him.

"Dashuai, is Master Wang going to give up Zhong Xiang? It's not right! ”

"Dashuai, why is this gap so difficult to beat? Did the thieves deploy the jīng soldiers? ”

"If it weren't for the Governor asking me to take care of you, I would have thrown you in the yamen and held it with the county order!" The general soldier was originally anxious because everything was not going well, but on the surface, he would not be rude to a young man, especially this scholar surnamed Zhou was a talent in the Qing Dynasty's imperial examination, a person in the Qing Dynasty, and he may be a Jinshi in the Qing Dynasty in the future, not to mention Hu Quancai's attention.

"There are no strong generals, just some rabble." The battle in the gap in the distance was not very clear, but the battle commander on the wall still saw it. The armored soldiers transferred from other counties fought against the former green battalion soldiers who had just surrendered to the Ming army, and this kind of battle between third-rate armies could not be won or lost for a day. Although it is not clear why the commander of the Ming army allowed such a third-rate army to defend an important gap, the commander-in-chief knew very well that this was a chance to give him an escape, and he had already ordered to recall the Qing soldiers on the city wall and make room for the attack to his own barracks.

The general army planned to attack both at the same time, with the pro-battalion attacking from both the city wall and the city wall, and the road on the city wall was launched first. Because the courage of the soldiers can be greatly increased on the city walls, even third-rate troops can sometimes fight on the city walls and deal a heavy blow to the enemies of Jīng Rui. The enemy troops guarding the city wall near the gap had a psychological advantage, and the general soldiers suspected that it was this situation that brought the Ming army at the gap the extra combat strength, allowing them to temporarily block the attack of the Wuchang soldiers. But once the Qing army attacked from the city wall, it was different, although the city wall was very narrow and could not spread its forces, but the other side did not have a geographical advantage to use to strengthen their courage, and the Jīng Rui and Yu belly troops would be superior to each other.

The city tower began to sound gold, watching the Qing army on the city wall quickly retreat, the general soldier could not wait to order a team of 100 sword and shield soldiers to enter the city and prepare to attack. The 100 soldiers of the pro-barracks were led by one thousand generals and two generals, and three officers came to the city tower to receive orders from the commanders.

"Give you a pillar of incense time, defeat the thieves, and take the gap." In front of everyone around him, the chief soldier shouted orders to these three subordinates. After hearing the order of the general soldier, the three of them slapped their chests together with a loud sound, and then led the troops forward with great courage and high spirits.

The reason why so many sword and shield soldiers were sent forward was to deploy the city walls on both sides after taking the gap, so as to ensure that the Ming army could not recapture this passage. Otherwise, with the appearance of the Ming army on the opposite side, the general soldiers felt that the sword and shield soldiers of the thirty or fifty pro-soldier battalions would be able to kill them. When the city wall is taken, there is no need to storm the gap from the front, and the Ming army will not be given the opportunity to kill and injure the soldiers of the pro-barracks according to the danger.

When all the Qing soldiers on the city wall withdrew, Mr. Qian immediately waved his long knife and took the lead in rushing into the passage between the two wall battlements. Many of the sword and shield soldiers of the pro-soldier battalion had already taken off the shields on their backs at this time, divided into two teams, and trotted behind Qian Zong to step on the city wall. All the Qing soldiers did not say a word, holding a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, and ran forward in a similar position.

On the right side of these Qing soldiers, there was a third team of Qing soldiers, this team of sword and shield soldiers did not squeeze into the passage on the city wall together, the leader jumped lightly at the connection between the city tower and the city wall, jumped on the wall battlements on the inner side of the city wall, and then jumped forward on the wall battlements, and soon caught up with the thousand generals in front, and the commander went hand in hand. The Qing soldiers behind him also followed his example one by one, jumped onto the battlements, and followed closely behind the commander.

After seeing the confrontation of the Qing army retreating just now, the Ming army immediately let out a cheer of victory. But it didn't take long for him to be happy, and he saw the sword and shield soldiers attacking from the passage and the wall battlements, and quickly approached the Ming army. These Qing soldiers did not shout threateningly from a distance, and the roars of the Ming army did not slow down their approaching pace, and in the blink of an eye, the Qing soldiers came to a stalemate between the two sides.

"Kill!"

As Mr. Qian pressed the long knife raised above his head down, the many soldiers of the pro-military battalion behind him shouted in unison, like a thunderous sound.

The Qing soldiers in the front row used their shields to block the spears that stabbed them, and slashed at the Ming troops in front of them with a wave of their knives; The companions behind them did not wait, and when the Qing soldiers in the first row slowed down and began to fight, the Qing soldiers in the second row took advantage of the gap in the front row to dodge to the front, and slashed at the Ming troops behind. When these Qing soldiers waved their knives, the Qing soldiers who followed from further behind squatted down as soon as they came up and slashed at the calves of the Ming army.

On the side of the passage, the leader saw a gap in the general, and with a loud shout, he rose into the air, drew a sword light in the air, and jumped into the back row of the Ming army. The Qing soldiers behind him continued to run forward, and also jumped into the gap on the opposite side, and suddenly the Ming army on the city wall was in chaos.

The Ming soldiers were constantly being cut down and overturned, but it was almost impossible to stop the Qing army from continuing to advance. Some Ming troops were cornered by the sword light surging from all sides, so they had to jump on the battlements to avoid danger, and then the sword light tail chased after them, forcing several Ming troops to jump off the city wall.

The formation behind the Ming army was relatively loose, and when they saw the Qing soldiers menacing, the Ming soldiers in the distance suddenly moved. Some of the auxiliaries were carrying stones from under the city walls, and with a look of trepidation, they stopped what they were doing and began to look around.

"The commander's personal soldiers are really brave and invincible." Seeing the smooth progress of the Qing soldiers, Zhou Peigong was surprised and delighted. Since the start of the war today, it seems that the shape has been deteriorating sharply, and the general army of Hanyang has always ignored his problems, which makes Zhou Peigong even more worried. But now that we finally saw a clear good sign, at this rate of attack, it would not take a pillar of incense to recapture the gap in the wall.

"Hehe, Mr. Zhou praised it falsely." Although it was expected, seeing that the progress of his subordinates was very smooth, the general soldiers of Hanyang were also happy.

He didn't have a chance to see King Pingxi's personal guards, but when the famous general Zhao Liangdong came to serve under Hong Chengchou, the general soldiers of Hanyang had the honor to see the other party's personal barracks, and that momentum and military appearance really made him envious. For this reason, the Hanyang General Soldier once asked Zhao Liangdong very modestly and respectfully about the way of military training.

Probably because he saw that the general soldier of Hanyang had a very good attitude and the gifts were not light, Zhao Liangdong shared a lot of training experience with him. However, the chief soldier knew that although his pro-military battalion had adopted some of Zhao Liangdong's secret methods for training soldiers, it was definitely far from being comparable to the other party. The soldiers in Zhao Liangdong's personal barracks were all killed all the way from Shaanxi, and all the officers had experienced a hundred battles, and those who had been on the battlefield three times among the soldiers could not be regarded as veterans.

As for the battalion of the Hanyang General Army, only a dozen officers have been on the battlefield two or three times, and the soldiers can be called veterans once they go into battle, and the rest are at most the people who have suppressed tax resistance, or killed people during the slaughter of the city. The chief soldier privately speculated that if he met the personal guard of General Kui Dongming, his own pro-army camp might be far away, but it was more than enough to clean up these third-rate Ming troops.

"The enemy is a rabble." Today, the general army has made repeated mistakes, and there have been a lot of ugliness in front of this person who does not understand military affairs, and now he has finally shown his hand, he is eager to save face, and he also wants to cheer up the friendly troops on the city tower, he pointed to the direction of the gap and said unashamedly: "If you meet Li Dingguo, the general will have to take it seriously." But to deal with Liu Tichun, Hao Shaoqi and the like, it is not a problem for the general's sons to be one enemy and ten enemies. ”

Seeing some of the Qing troops jumping on the battlements and running forward from a distance, Zhao Tianba felt that most of the Ming troops over there could not resist, so he leaned his iron bow against the wall and took two steps towards a spear not far away. But looking at the two wall stacks, he felt that the passage was too narrow, Zhao Tianba stopped and touched the hilt of the sword on his waist again.

"Okay, okay, do you want to take any credit?" A hand reached out from behind and pressed Zhao Tianba's shoulder, and at the same time, Zhou Kaihuang's voice of complaining came.

After grabbing Zhao Tianba, Zhou Kaihuang did not move forward but ran towards the gap, and after getting off the city wall, he went to lead the mount he tied below, and at the same time called out to Wu Baoping not far away: "Wu San, come and help!" ”

Zhou Kaihuang pulled hard in front, and Wu Baoping pushed hard in the back, and finally led Zhou Kaihuang's mount to the city wall. The auxiliaries hurriedly gave way to the road, and then saw Wu Baoping throw a big flag from under the city wall, and Zhou Kaihuang took it in his hand steadily.

As soon as he tore off the flag on the pole, Zhou Kaihuang flew on the horse with the long and thick flagpole.

"Get out of the way!" Zhou Kaihuang roared.

Zhou Kaihuang urged his mount and kept accelerating on the narrow city wall. The Ming army, who was turning around and fleeing, saw a knight coming towards them, and they all got out of the way to both sides, some climbed the wall battlements around them, and some people pressed their backs tightly against the wall, feeling the sound of the war horse rushing past the tip of their noses with the sound of the wind.

After running from the side of dozens of Ming soldiers, Zhou Kaihuang kicked the horse's belly again, galloped on the city wall as if on flat ground, and rushed towards the Qing army. At the same time, Zhou Kaihuang slammed the flagpole into a big circle and smashed the Qing troops on the battlements out of the wall.

The Qing troops on the passage instinctively dodged the tall horses that collided with them, and Zhou Kaihuang xìng strangled the war horse, cāo circled it in place, trampling and trampling in the hands of the Qing army sword and shield, and in the blink of an eye, several people were trampled by the horses, and suddenly screamed loudly.

Zhou Kaihuang danced the flagpole while riding a horse back and forth, and the surrounding Qing soldiers were either killed or injured, and none of them were spared.

The leading Qing soldier Qianzong dodged the horse's legs between his beards, and he was already shocked into a cold sweat. He moved and flickered, looking for an opportunity to attack the horse's legs and belly, but Zhou Kaihuang's weapons were so strong that he couldn't find a single flaw. Leaning over, after avoiding the danger of broken tendons, Qing Bing Qianzong jumped on the safe high wall, ready to attack again. But he was about to go up, and just wanted to turn around to check the movements of the Ming army knight, Zhou Kaihuang's flagpole suddenly came over, and it hit the waist and eye of the Qing army Qianzong, he screamed, and his body flew out of the city wall uncontrollably and fell to the ground outside the wall.

At this time, the two Qing armies forced the general one left and one right to open the wilderness to Zhou. One of them lowered his head when Zhou Kaihuang was picking up the flagpole, and when he heard that Qian Zong behind him was beaten and flew out, he took the opportunity to rush to Zhou Kaihuang's horse and slashed it with a knife. At this time, the flagpole had been stretched out, and it was too late to take it back, Zhou Kaihuang lowered his head and spewed out a loud roar in the face of the enemy who was close at hand, which shocked the Qing army general for a moment, Zhou Kaihuang instantly flew out of a kick, kicked the Qing army officer in the chest, kicked him backwards into the air, hit the wall battlement behind, turned over, and fell out of the city wall after his commander.

The Qing army general who came up from the right had already seen the courage of Zhou Kaihuang, although there were many Qing soldiers but no one could step forward, so he jumped on the outside wall battlement, relying on the improvement of the terrain, and raised his knife to cut. Zhou Kaihuang shouted again, kicked the war horse with his right leg, and at the same time pulled the horse's head to the right, and the war horse stood up, a pair of front legs poked out, and kicked the Qing army commander out of the wall.

When the mount was erected, Zhou Kaihuang's left leg used to kick people had not yet been withdrawn into the stirrup, and he used the flagpole to sit firmly on the horse's back without slipping.

Zhou Kaihuang turned his horse's head and ran back towards the way he came.

Just now, I saw Zhou Kaihuang show his might, and after trampling over more than a dozen Qing soldiers or knocking down the city wall, the retreating Ming soldiers on the city wall also stopped their steps, and shouted and cheered while watching the battle. Suddenly, seeing Zhou Kaihuang running back, the Ming soldiers were stunned, and the ensuing cheers were interrupted.

"Will such a god of war also run away?"

Just when the Ming army was in doubt, Zhou Kaihuang turned his horse's head and rushed forward at a rapid speed, trampling four or five enemy soldiers to the ground, and at the same time, three enemy soldiers were pulled off the city wall.

Zhou Kaihuang did not stay in the enemy formation for a long time like the first time for the second time, but did not hesitate to turn around and leave after the momentum was exhausted. The Ming army watching the battle on the battlements already knew that the military god was by no means running away.

Sure enough, Zhou Kaihuang faced the Qing army for the third time, speeding up and charging...... Seven in and seven out.

The 100 sword and shield soldiers who climbed the city wall were killed and wounded by a knight of the Ming army, and the rest fled back to the city tower from the city wall.

The Qing soldiers around the city tower were like facing a great enemy, and the sword was unsheathed against the passage of the city wall, where there was only one Ming cavalry, and the flagpole in his hand was unmoving, and the mountain stood still, making the city wall look like an insurmountable moat. The Qing soldiers of the entire city tower lost the courage to attack, but were preoccupied with guarding against him and taking the city tower.

Just when he heard the general soldier boast that his pro-army battalion was one against ten, Zhou Peigong was still full of joy, thinking that he could take the gap in the city wall in a blink of an eye, but he didn't expect to be blocked by such a Ming army. Zhou Peigong's mind couldn't help but pop up with a word - one against a hundred.

"Alas, alas, it's not just one enemy hundred," Zhou Peigong lamented: "The hundred sword and shield soldiers sent out have been killed, and it seems that the other party still has the strength to spare!" ”

"One ride is a thousand!" Although Zhou Peigong was reluctant, he had to admit that only this word could describe the majestic enemy horse in front of him.