In the dark night, whenever thousands or even tens of thousands of muskets shoot out fire, the scene is very bright and beautiful, but in the eyes of the officials and soldiers, it means that it is more terrifying than a dense rain of arrows, and they cannot avoid it and can only resign themselves to fate.

The officers and soldiers are backed by a large valley with a cliff, and the waterfall and clear spring pouring down from the top of the mountain ensure drinking water.

However, it is precisely because of the long and narrow terrain that there is only one mountain road leading to the outside, and being besieged by heavy troops without sufficient food and grass is undoubtedly a dead place in the art of war.

More than 10,000 musketeers were enough to block the road that could only accommodate 200 people running side by side, Xu Hao chose a triangular formation, Zhang Fu's 4,000 Shenji battalion was at the forefront, and the Liaodong Army with 2,000 people on each flank formed a death channel of crossfire.

The 4,000 Chinese troops are located on both sides of the rear, providing intensive firepower during intervals, and Xu Hao also holds a reserve of 3,000 people in his hands to replenish the firepower losses caused by accidents such as explosions at any time, and also to prepare for a protracted war.

In addition, Xu Hao also has an artillery battalion that can be called the king of land warfare, and the four hundred artillery pieces of various types are definitely the most terrifying god of destruction in the world today.

Even in the dark night, no officers and soldiers were able to escape, pieces of corpses were lying on the mountain road, when the shells covered a sea of fire, Sheng Yong desperately found that relying on flesh and blood, no matter how many the officers and soldiers were, it was useless, and if they continued to fight, they would only end up in the destruction of the whole army.

At this time, Chen Hui led more than 10,000 cavalry from the northwest to the rescue in a desperate manner, most of the cavalry were Mongolian warriors, who had defeated the elite cavalry of the Yan army in the previous battle. Morale is high.

The cavalry moved extremely quickly, using the wolf pack tactics, which the Mongols excelled at, and seemed to appear out of thin air from all sides every time. It can rely on absolute numerical superiority to encircle the enemy in an instant.

This rendered the concept of both forward and rear positions of musketeers null and void, since there were hundreds of cavalry in either direction.

Zhu Gaozhi's face was blank, he had never experienced a field battle, and he had no concept about it. Instead, Xu Hao shouted loudly: "Position defense, order the artillery battalion to turn around and open fire at will." ”

Zhang Fu calmly ordered his 4,000 men to continue to attack the officers and soldiers who came down the mountain, after dropping thousands of corpses. Sheng Yong had already ordered him not to rush again, but in the chaos, there were still countless soldiers who wanted to escape and ran for their lives.

From the Weihai Master School to the Dalian Military Academy and even the continuous teaching on the march. After three years of blood and fire, nearly a thousand young officers who had undergone enlightenment education and military training broke through the cocoon and become butterflies, and had become the backbone of a similar modern army. Dangerous times can play an important role in stabilizing people's hearts.

Everyone knows that if they are rushed by the enemy, they will be rushed to their side. Firearms will be useless, and the number of officers and soldiers in front and behind will far exceed that of the Yan army, and no one will be able to save their lives at that time, so they will grit their teeth and issue continuous orders to their subordinates, and let their subordinates exert their combat effectiveness by any means.

And when the soldiers who have been trained for many years are in danger, although they are afraid, they all become thoughtless weapons, and the robots consciously act according to the orders of their superiors. Soon 3,000 men stood in a semi-circular defensive formation and fired non-stop fire outside.

The artillery battalion located on one side hastened to turn around. Shooting aimlessly and frantically at the surroundings, if it is a cold-weapon army with swords and guns, it is probably already a definite defeat, but the firepower of muskets and artillery is enough to deal with this kind of crisis, and the Yan army, which is familiar with the performance and power of its own weapons, is often very confident.

With the help of the moonlight, Xu Hao could see Chen Hui moving with the battle flag, and in a hurry, he ordered loudly: "Order Mu Yi and the soldiers of the artillery battalion to ride out of the army." ”

At the sound of an order, Mu Yi's 2,000 cavalry and nearly 1,000 horsemen transporting artillery charged forward at full speed with horses pulling cannons or ammunition boxes, just like ancient chariots.

Because the distance was too close and it was night, it was inconvenient for the officers and knights to use bows and arrows, while the Yan cavalry was all armed with short spears and sabers.

The Northwest Knights began to let out a strange roar, accompanied by the thunderous sound of horses' hooves and the deafening explosions, and continued to charge with great deterrence, this is a terrible method of warfare that the Mongolian people have always been proud of, and once terrified the enemy troops everywhere they went, but this time their battle cry was completely suppressed by the spray of muskets, and the Yan soldiers could not hear anything at all, and still arrived at Hangzhou with firm firepower.

The gap in firepower could not be made up by a strong will to fight, and the 4,000 Liaodong troops on both flanks quickly turned around, and under the command of the war drums and captains, the 7,000 men were divided into several teams and fired at the cavalry that had been killed.

Buckshot pierced through horses or humans at high speed, blood mist rose, hundreds of grenades were thrown out, and the exploded fragments killed and injured the enemy in a large area at an unfathomable angle, and pieces of cavalry fell with a bang

Occasionally, sporadic knights rushed out of the barrage, but the next moment they were hindered by a large number of rejecting horses, and the first soldiers standing in the first batch loaded with bayonets rushed forward to attack, and the sharp bayonets stabbed into it effortlessly.

Chen Hui, who was good at fighting, never dreamed that the Yan knights who were counterattacking had no power to fight back, and they didn't wait for close range to cut each other, the Yan army first raised his hand to shoot, and then dismounted and took out a musket to shoot on the spot, and the knight who was dragging heavy things no one dared to stop him, and rushed into the camp behind in one fell swoop, raised his war knife and slashed the remaining foot soldiers.

In just half an hour, more than 10,000 cavalry troops in the northwest were wiped out like mustard, the artillery exerted its unparalleled lethality, nearly half of the knights were killed and wounded by the shells, the mounts were frightened and did not listen to the drive, and more people died under the range of the artillery in the chaos.

In the first battle of Lingbi, the general Sheng Yong ordered the whole army to surrender, and 37 senior generals, including Governor Chen Hui, the right staff general, Governor Ma Pu, Governor Xu Zhen, and Sun Cheng, the commander of the Yan Army, became prisoners of the Yan army, and at the same time there were six eunuchs who were captured, and more than 150 civil and military officials such as Chen Xingshan, the deputy imperial history of the supervising army, Peng Heming of Dali Temple, Liu Bowan, the commander of Qintian, and Wang Gui.

More than 20,000 horses were captured, 100,000 officers and soldiers surrendered, and the Yan army suffered only 300 casualties due to being accidentally wounded by friendly troops, which was an unprecedented victory.

Zhu Gaochi recovered from the horror of the battlefield. Immediately ecstatic, because he was the supreme commander of the Yan army, this battle meant that he had a great record of achievement second only to his father.

Xu Hao allowed Zhu Gaochi to take over a series of aftermath such as prisoners of war. Sit in front of a winding stream and think quietly.

Brother-in-law Zhang Fu came over alone and said worriedly: "You will be famous in this battle, and you will be known as your grandfather alive, this battle is really too great, fortunately you brought the son here." I advise you to either return to Liaodong as soon as possible and take your whole family overseas, or never get involved in military power again. Stay honestly in the capital. ”

"I know." Xu Hao said softly.

Zhang Fu sat beside him with a complicated expression, and sighed: "The firearm you made will no longer be a threat in the north in time." It is not an exaggeration to call you a saint of soldiers. Now the respect for you from top to bottom of the Shenji Battalion is greater than that of Chitose, and they are talking behind your back that you are the reincarnation of Zhuge Wuhou and Wu Muye, complaining that Chitose should not restrict firearms, otherwise how many brothers will die? It's a blessing or a curse for you. Especially when you're so young. Wait for Chitose to ascend the throne as the emperor, do you use it or not? If you don't use it, the army will not be convinced, and if you use it, you will be high. ”

Xu Hao said casually: "What is my own safety compared to the entire nation? It's nothing more than being secretly given death, he Zhu Di will never kill my whole family for the sake of fame, I will be crowned king after my death, and my children and grandchildren will be the Duke of Daming for generations. However, I am afraid that if he decrees the confiscation of firearms and imprisons craftsmen, it will not be more than fifty years. All blueprints, recipes, tactics, and so on will be lost. ”

Zhang Fu frowned and said, "How can you call Chitose by name?" ”

Xu Hao sneered: "Put away your loyal monarch set, the sky is not round." The earth is not a square, there are no ghosts and gods in this world, there has never been a real dragon and a son of heaven, the emperor is no different from the people, he has to eat, drink, sleep, and can't hide from birth, old age, sickness and death, in fact, you know very well in your heart that Zhu Di is a human being and not a god.

It is not so much the destiny of heaven, but the establishment of a head of state for the order of the country, you and I, as high nobles, naturally want to maintain the authority of the monarch and rule the world together, but it does not mean that the emperor can kill and take away all lives, why? I can kneel down and pay allegiance to the first emperor, because he is a great man who led his subjects to drive out the Tartars, he is an elder. ”

Zhang Fu frowned and listened, and said: "Since ancient times, loyalty to the monarch has been patriotic, and the thousand-year-old is majestic and strategic, and it is worth you and me to follow to the death." ”

Xu Hao said: "This is not right! Brother-in-law, I have always wanted to ask you, just like a dead founding hero, you and I have sins that can be decided by the emperor in a word, and the whole family is beheaded by death, and if you say that you have committed a crime, you have nothing to say. So what about the fault of the emperor? Killing innocents indiscriminately, enjoying the wealth of the Son of Heaven for their own selfish desires, and tens of thousands of palace people living in the Forbidden City just to serve the emperor's family, isn't this a crime? Don't tell me it's a matter of course, born with parents, who the fuck is born a slave? You and I do a lot of injustice, it is the victim people and the whole family, and the emperor is stupid, and the whole world will be affected, as a courtier, do you dare to dissuade the emperor from doing evil things? ”

"This!" Zhang Fu didn't know how to justify.

Xu Hao got up and patted his buttocks, and sneered: "You don't dare, you're afraid you haven't even thought about it, because Zhu Di is the supreme monarch in your eyes, even if he orders the slaughter of the city and asks you to destroy the minister's clan, you will not hesitate to carry out the order, you are a qualified soldier, but you are definitely not a qualified minister, because you only care." ”

Zhang Fu wanted to defend but found that he had nothing to say, he was indeed such a person, obeying orders to do things, no matter whether it was good or bad, he was well-behaved, and he didn't dare to make a mistake in his life.

Zhu Yunwen ordered the release of all civil officials, on the riverside, the superintendent Chen Xingshan felt that the army was defeated and humiliated, and he saw the emperor again without shame, and after solemnly putting on his court clothes, he jumped into the river and committed suicide, and his friends Huang Qi and Chen Zifang also committed suicide by throwing themselves into the river with him.

Peng and Ming tore their crowns. changed his name and disappeared with Liu Bowan and others. Commanding Wang Gui was captured as a guardian of the army's salary, and after his release, he returned to Fengyang and followed the prefect Xu An to continue to fight against the Yan army.

Xu Hao, who was watching this scene from afar, did not stop it, it is true that his integrity is commendable, but if this kind of pedantic person dies, he will die.

This battle not only shook the Jingshi and became the fuse for the demise of the imperial court, but also touched Zhu Di a lot.

If Xu Hao rebelled or defected to the imperial court now, then Zhu Di felt that he had no chance of winning, and even if the soldiers under his command were brave and good at fighting, they would not be able to stop the huge power of firearms in the end.

It was Zhu Di who urgently ordered Zhang Yu to take over 100,000 prisoners of war with 20,000 people, and transferred Zhang Fu's Shenji battalion to the front line quickly, urging his eldest son to rush back to Beiping as soon as possible.

From this moment on, Zhu Di will never let the Shenji Battalion out of his control again, and will become a barrier to defend Gyeonggi in the future. And the Gaizhou soldiers who used firearms and the craftsmen who cast muskets and artillery had to move into Beijing sooner or later.

As for Xu Hao, who has repeatedly made great contributions, Zhu Di loves Qicai and has never thought about killing people at the moment, and he will probably be rewarded with the title of reward, and stay in the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies as a dignitary but has no real power, and he will serve as a counselor on the side for military affairs all his life.

Zhu Di secretly decided that he could never send Xu Hao to the border town to be an official, nor could he order him to command the army to fight abroad, and he had to send people to monitor him at all times.

Finally, Xu Hao made King Yan jealous of him. (To be continued......)