Yuan Zongdi's liaison with the rear army had been almost carried out, and at this time most of the army had returned to his banner, and the two thousand soldiers of the front army had gathered 1,500 people, and the remaining part had also returned to the front, but had not yet returned to the formation. The soldiers who had returned earlier were basically restored and could attack with the 800 soldiers who had not participated in the battle. Yuan Zongdi planned to attack the rear army as the main attack, and while the main battalion attacked Daniel Zhang, he launched a coordinated operation from the west. As long as Yuan Zongdi launched a general attack, the rear army would begin to attack. He guessed that Daniel Zhang might make a mistake in judgment and use the main force in his own direction, which would give the Ming army a great advantage.

However, Yuan Zongdi has not yet ordered a fire, because he is now a little troubled, and he does not know what the strength of the Qing army that appeared behind him is. Most of Hu Wenke's subordinates did not know the specific deployment of the Qing army, although the information given by the captives was very confusing, but one thing seemed to be true, that is, the scale of the Qing army's attack on Wanxian was much stronger than Yuan Zongdi initially thought, claiming to range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

But only Daniel Zhang knew about Wang Mingde's movements, even the ordinary soldiers under Daniel Zhang did not know that Wang Mingde was hurrying in, and Hu Wenke's subordinates knew nothing about it - even their commanders did not know that Wang Mingde was very close to here. As for the Han Eight Banners of the Ten Niu Lu commanded by Yuan Jiawenbi, those prisoners did not know anything about it, so Yuan Zongdi only knew that the strength of the Qing army was quite strong in the entire strategy, but when it came to this battlefield, he still lacked understanding.

Therefore, when the sentinels sent by Yuan Zongdi to the west came into contact with Wang Mingde's scouts, Yuan Zongdi could not determine whether these Qing troops were a certain unit to which Daniel Zhang belonged or the vanguard of another main force of the Qing army; If it is another new Qing army, it is impossible to know what level of their size and combat effectiveness is. If these enemies were only part of the severed Daniel Zhang army, Yuan Zongdi did not have to worry too much about them being able to launch a powerful attack, as long as a small number of surveillance troops were left.

"But the captives said that tens of thousands of Tartars are coming to Wanxian one after another, maybe this Tartar will also have thousands of armor?" The captive's confession made Yuan Zongdi wary, and he felt that it was better to be cautious and not completely ignore the threat from behind.

If there were no confessions from the captives, Yuan Zongdi would probably have left the most tired and wounded armor soldiers and auxiliaries to deter and monitor the Qing army in the west, and at the same time take over the subordinates who were returning one after another, blocking the small group of enemy soldiers who wanted to find an opportunity to deal with Daniel Zhang. But now Yuan Zongdi decided to leave 300 armor soldiers behind, so as not to be caught off guard by another Qing army that suddenly appeared.

The remaining 1,200 soldiers, Yuan Zongdi would lead them to attack Daniel Zhang, in order to contain Daniel Zhang's main force, prevent him from having the opportunity to discover the mistake, and transfer troops from the western front to resist the main attacking force of the Ming army. Three hundred armor soldiers left in the west was not a lot, but Yuan Zongdi felt that even if the Qing army had hundreds or thousands of armor, they could hold out for a long time, and the more troops invested on the eastern front, the faster they could break Daniel Zhang's resistance.

Yuan Zongdi made the final decision because he never observed any beacon fire rising in the West, which shows that the Qing army behind him did not take the initiative to contact Daniel Zhang to launch a pinching attack. Under what circumstances would the reinforcements of the Qing army have no idea of flanking the Ming army? Yuan Zongdi believed that this could only show that the Qing army was weak and lacked the ability to attack, so he did not contact Daniel Zhang; Perhaps, as Yuan Zongdi initially suspected, the Qing army behind was originally part of Daniel Zhang's command, and they were just looking for an opportunity to rescue the commander. If you continue to wait, maybe you will wait for reinforcements from the Qing army, and the defensive troops left by Yuan Zongdi on the Western Front are also in case the Qing army suddenly arrives on the battlefield.

"Light the beacon." Yuan Zongdi made a plan, deployed the defense behind him, and no longer continued to delay time, and ordered an attack.

After seeing the beacon fire raised by the Yasukuni Gong, the rear army of the Ming army located east of Daniel Zhang no longer hesitated or hid its strength, and the 2,500 Ming troops who rushed to the battlefield and completed the preparation of armor beat the war drums and strode forward. As soon as the last 500 soldiers of the Ming Army arrived, the officers of the rear army would also throw them into battle -- Yasukuni Gong was separated from the main force by the enemy in front of him, and he had to destroy the enemy as quickly as possible and complete the rendezvous with Yasukuni. The commanders of the rear army were all Yuan Zongdi's nephews and confidants, and they all believed that there was no need to keep reserves in this race against time, but that the whole army should be pressed.

"Good time!"

Although Daniel Zhang deployed his forces evenly, he himself sat on the Western Front and personally commanded the battle against Yuan Zongdi. His 800 personal soldiers were close to the Yangtze River, and the remaining 900 armor were located on the deep flank. After seeing the Ming army approaching his own front, he immediately ordered the archers who were waiting for the battle to go forward and go to the front of the army formation to shoot arrows at the enemy.

As the rain of arrows swept past, Daniel Zhang watched the movements of the enemy soldiers with wide eyes, and he saw that the Ming soldiers raised their shields to protect themselves, while trying to hide their bodies behind cover.

"But that's it." Daniel Zhang's first shot was at the extreme distance, and although the bows and arrows flew over with amazing momentum, the lethality was actually very limited, and most of the arrows probably did not pose a threat to the Ming army. The marching speed of the Ming army on the opposite side slowed down significantly, and from the movements of the opposing soldiers, Daniel Zhang saw the nervousness, which made his heart suddenly relax: "The equipment is okay, but the morale is average." They're mostly recruits, right? The guards around Yuan Thief are nothing more than that. ”

If it weren't for the fact that most of the soldiers brought out by Daniel Zhang from Guiyang were annihilated by Deng Ming, then even if Yuan Zongdi's troops had an advantage today, he would be fearless, but unfortunately now Daniel Zhang's personal army camp also has a large number of recruits, although the training of the ten-day exercise has never stopped for a year, but the first time on the battlefield is inevitably nervous, and there is no guarantee of how well the soldiers will play - they may suddenly be brave, or they may be at a loss, Daniel Zhang knows that the performance of the recruits is the most unstable.

In order to be insured, Daniel Zhang also placed his 200 veterans in the front row of the Western Front, leaving only a few dozen in the east, and these veterans will serve as an example for the recruits of the pro-barracks. In this way, the ratio of veterans and recruits among the 400 pro-soldiers on the Western Front reached one to one, which was enough to play the role of a mainstay.

Yuan Zongdi's troops continued to advance, while Daniel Zhang's archers fired several rounds of arrows in succession, and the Ming army was wounded, and they retreated to the rear. Daniel Zhang noticed that Yuan Zongdi's advance speed was never fast, and the formation was maintained somewhat unnaturally in the process of the wounded soldiers retreating. Generally speaking, Daniel Zhang believes that the other party's soldiers are not as good as his own pro-soldier battalion, which has been hit hard.

"It seems that Yuan Thief is really not good, well, when he beat Hu Wenke just now, it is estimated that it was also very hard." Although Yuan Zongdi's troops were not very strong, Daniel Zhang was still very nervous, and until now he had not seen any signs of reinforcements. Before, Daniel Zhang looked at the west with longing eyes, but he never found Wang Mingde's beacon calling him: "Why hasn't General Wang arrived yet?" Isn't he right behind me in the morning? Even the turtle should have climbed there. ”

The Ming army approached the front, and the archers of the Qing army retreated behind the armored soldiers. Just now Daniel Zhang had the unarmored soldiers build simple fortifications in front of his own soldiers, and now they are standing behind these wooden fences, waiting for the upcoming attack of the Ming army.

However, Yuan Zongdi did not stick to his head, but let his archers reflex, trying to disrupt the lineup of the Qing army. Not to be outdone, Daniel Zhang returned the color, and the feathered arrows flew sideways over the heads of the two armies...... At this moment, Daniel Zhang finally saw a black smoke rising a few miles away.

"The eight lambs of the king, it can be regarded as here!" Daniel Zhang laughed happily. Until now, Yuan Zongdi's offensive was still very weak, and his defense line had not been truly tested: "Pass the order and tell the whole army that this is the 10,000 army of General Wang's soldiers!" ”

The heralds shouted hoarsely, Daniel Zhang's personal soldiers and the subordinates of other Qing generals were also demoralized for a while, and the entire front was full of spontaneous cheers from soldiers; On the other line of defense facing the east, many Qing soldiers also looked back, and after seeing the wolf smoke that was obviously the Qing army, these soldiers shouted excitedly because of the arrival of reinforcements.

"Hurry up and light the fireworks and let General Wang come to reinforce us!" Daniel Zhang ordered eagerly.

At about the same time as the black smoke rose, Wang Mingde commanded more than a thousand of his men to attack. After hearing the sound of drums on Yuan Zongdi's side just now, Wang Mingde knew that Yuan Zongdi had launched an attack on Daniel Zhang, and for him this was the clarion call for the attack. Therefore, this wolf smoke is not an attempt to communicate with Daniel Zhang at all, but encourages Daniel Zhang to persist - in Wang Mingde's view, Yuan Zongdi will definitely storm Daniel Zhang's western front with all his might; At the same time, he also urged Yuan Zongdi to continue the onslaught and quickly kill through Daniel Zhang's defense line and escape, so that Wang Mingde could pursue him with victory.

Yuan Jiawenbi didn't let his firecrackers come forward, afraid that they would block Wang Mingde's offensive route, and he was also afraid that they would be counterattacked by bows and arrows and ambush soldiers, but he gave Wang Mingde reinforcements with the tiger squatting and running in his hand.

When the rearguard of the Ming army spread out the battle line and prepared to resist, they saw the Qing troops rushing up suddenly stop outside the range of bows and arrows, and then many small cannons were dragged out of the Qing army's formation.

"What is this?" Most of the Ming soldiers had never seen such a lighter artillery.

……

When he first saw the black smoke, Yuan Zongdi was not abnormal, and it would take a long time from the release of the black smoke to get in touch, which may be the vanguard of the Qing army's reinforcements trying to contact Daniel Zhang, or it may simply be a straggler who is bluffing.

But after hearing the rapid sound of artillery coming from behind, Yuan Zongdi's face suddenly darkened. The well-informed Yasukuni Gong knew what it was as soon as he heard this kind of artillery sound, and the green camp was not allowed to have such equipment as tiger squatting artillery, and since he heard this kind of artillery sound, it meant that the central troops of the Manchu Qing Dynasty appeared on the battlefield: "Han Eight Banners? How could the Eight Banners be here? ”