The greatest advantage of the peasant rebel army was that it was numerous, and its greatest disadvantage was also the large number of people. Because there was no base area and no output, the peasant rebels could only continue to flow and loot grain.

Of course, some necessary cover-up work still needs to be done. After the grain grabbing, the peasant rebels would still take out a small part of the grain and distribute it to the local displaced people, attracting those displaced people to take refuge in themselves.

Of course, there are also some people who have been robbed of their surplus grain, and they are coerced into the peasant rebel army for their own survival. Therefore, the peasant rebels were not at all some kind of thieves they claimed to be, and they wanted to rob the money and food of the government gentry, and they also wanted to rob the money and food of the common people. This is why the Weishenme peasant rebels recovered so quickly.

The second phase of the Runing Army's operational goal was to deprive the peasant rebels of their food. As long as these peasant rebels are entangled here for about a month, and then the cavalry is sent to cut off the way for the peasant rebels to grab grain nearby, and there is no need for the Runing army to do anything, the murderer of grain can completely defeat the behemoth peasant rebel army.

Since the peasant rebels numbered more than 300,000, there was no way to conceal their movements. Moreover, now in the middle of the Great Plains, even if the peasant rebels unexpectedly fled a distance, they would not be able to walk fast with pots and pots, and the Runing army could quickly catch up with them. So now the peasant rebels have only three choices:

The first choice is to point out the whole army to attack and completely repel the Runing army. But in this way, the offense and defense are reversed. With its fortifications and strong firepower, the Runing Army could kill and injure the attacking peasant rebels in large numbers, while it could hide behind the fortifications and be difficult to be harmed. In this way, the numerical superiority of the peasant rebels was completely neutralized;

The second option is: regardless of the large number of people, those leaders will quickly flee with their own 30,000 or 40,000 elites. The rest of the peasant rebels were used as cannon fodder to obstruct the pursuit of the Runing army.

But unless they were forced to do so, the leaders of the peasant rebels would never have taken this choice. Half a year ago, these leaders were surrounded and suppressed by Chen Qiyu. At that time, they had at most 10,000 people in their hands, but now they have suddenly become rich, and they have tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people, so they resolutely give up their current income and go back to the past? Then they will certainly not be willing;

The third option was to send an army to break the rear, and the rest of the peasant rebels to retreat. This should be the most reasonable choice, but it is also the least likely choice for the peasant rebels.

Who of those leaders will put themselves in the most dangerous places? It's all old rivers and lakes, it's okay for others to stick a knife in their own ribs, but it's okay to stick a knife in their own ribs for others? Forget it.

So on the evening of the meeting, the leaders of the peasant rebels also celebrated. But the next day, after pondering, they all understood the intention of the Runing Army. Nothing has to be said. Let's find a way to repel the Ming army in front of you first.

Because of Zhang Xianzhong's arrival, those leaders also had some understanding of the Runing Army. Therefore, it was immediately decided that each battalion would draw out a total of more than 20,000 people to serve as cannon fodder in the front, and then arrange 10,000 elites in the back, preparing to break the defense line of the Runing Army as last time.

But the offensive was over before it had even begun. The Runing Army on this expedition had more than 150 large and small artillery pieces, of which more than 60 were more than three pounds. Plus firecrackers and rockets. After the first stormy blow, the charging cannon fodder fled in disarray. Even the overseers of the peasant rebels could not stop this decline.

In the age of cold weapons. People who have not been baptized by fire. Suddenly encountering such a fierce artillery fire, it was absolutely unbearable mentally. It is also true that some of the peasant rebels who fled back were indeed mentally abnormal, and the pro-soldiers who supervised the war cut down several times in a row to stop the chaos. But in this way, Jihua, who repelled the Runing army, also went bankrupt.

Then it was time for the Runing Army to take action against the peasant rebels. Nor did they approach the camp of the peasant rebels, but divided the cavalry into detachments of two hundred to five hundred. Divide and attack the peasant rebels' troops who went out to collect food and even water, and later defeated the cavalry of the peasant rebels' counterattacks several times in succession, so that the peasant rebels were completely confined to their own camps.

In cavalry combat, the quality of the war horse can be said to play a decisive role. Not to mention the vast difference in equipment, training and tactical use between the cavalry of the Runing Army and the peasant rebel army. Just look at the war horses!

The Runing army was all purchased and carefully selected war horses, while the peasant rebel army was basically a pack horse stolen from the people, which was very different from the war horses of the Runing army in terms of size, liliang, and speed. Therefore, with the same number of cavalry, the peasant rebels could not have the upper hand in any way.

Besides, in addition to the war horses of the cavalry, the Runing army was also equipped with a considerable number of mules and horses, of which the number of pack horses was more than 2,000. Those pack horses also have horse harnesses, as long as they are equipped with some Runing soldiers who can ride horses, it is also a great supplement to the cavalry of the Runing Army.

Therefore, it can be seen from here that although this peasant rebel army of more than 300,000 people is already the largest number of peasant rebel armies from all walks of life, among their leaders is also the world-famous Eight Kings Zhang Xianzhong. But their strength is not the strongest.

The peasant rebel army with the strongest combat effectiveness was the three battalions of soldiers and horses of Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang, Li Zicheng in Shaanxi, and Cao Cao and Luo Rucai, because the number of veterans from the three sides of the three battalions was the largest, and the number of cavalry was also the largest. If the Runing Army had encountered these three battalions of soldiers and horses this time, then their battle would definitely not have been so easy.

In this era, the only thing that can be done is cavalry!

In addition, on the evening of the second day, taking advantage of the unpreparedness of the peasant rebels, the artillery team of the Runing Army dragged ten three-pounder guns to a place about one and a half miles away from the camp of the peasant rebels and shelled the camp, causing a great chaos among the peasant rebels.

Fortunately, the Runing army did not take advantage of the chaos to attack the camp, so under the strong pressure of the leaders, the peasant rebel army finally regained its calm. But in this way, the 300,000 peasant rebels were completely trapped in this place and could not move.

Now the whole situation is completely like the vicious wolves of the Runing Army guarding the fat sheep of the peasant rebel army. It was only when the fat sheep were so hungry that they couldn't walk the road that the wolves stepped forward to bite off the fat sheep that had completely lost their resistance.

And what Wu Shigong and Zhou Xun saw now was a team of Runing Army cavalry returning from slashing. At this time, the morale of the Runing army was also fully up. From top to bottom, no one will doubt that this battle will be won. What made those Runing soldiers even more excited was that the price of winning this big victory was also very small, and the casualties of the Runing army would be minimal.

Wu Shigong himself is also complacent. He did not know the leaders of the entangled peasant rebels. But now Wu Shigong doesn't care about this anymore. In his thoughts: as long as the main force of the peasant rebel army in front of him is completely eliminated, even if Li Zicheng and the others escape with the elite, they will not make a comeback in a short time, let alone threaten the control area of the Runing army.

The Runing Army could take advantage of this opportunity to eliminate Li Zicheng's great enemy, and gain plenty of time to develop and strengthen itself, preparing to meet the challenge of another great enemy, the Houjin Army.

Zhou Xun beside him yawned and said, "Old commander! It's a really boring battle! Three times five divided by two, and the fight is over. It's also a shame that our sons and daughters of the Runing Army have practiced so hard, but now they haven't worked hard. ”

Wu Shigong laughed all of a sudden, Zhou Xun looked really a belligerent this time. He smiled and said, "Don't be careless! I have to surround the Shaanxi bandits for a while. They are not fat sheep after all, and the dog will always jump off the wall a few times when the time comes. ”

"It's not possible!" Zhou Xun categorically denied it, "Don't say that our sons and daughters are wide-eyed." Just look at yesterday, two teams of more than a dozen Shaanxi bandit cavalry have come to surrender to us. I don't think in a month, the Shaanxi bandits on the other side will surrender to us. Magnifying their guts, it is impossible to fight with us again. ”

"To tell you to pay more attention is to pay attention! Where did all this nonsense come from? Wu Shigong immediately reprimanded with a straight face, at this time, he was afraid that this paralyzing and careless mood would spread among the Runing army, "The closer you are to victory, the more vigilant you must be." As the deputy commander of the Runing Army, you have to beat these boys under your command these days. Got it? ”

"No!" Zhou Xun immediately stood up in a standard military posture. But then he said to Wu Shigong with a hippie smile, "Old commander, then Yan Tongzhi of Ruzhou has been throwing it like this?" ”

"What are you doing?" Wu Shigong was not angry when he mentioned the officials in Ruzhou. At that time, those officials were the main accomplices of Li Bingbeidao's impeachment of the Runing Army.

This time, the peasant rebels arrived in Ruzhou, and the officials in Ruzhou were frightened. As soon as they saw the arrival of the Runing army, they immediately sent this Yan Tongzhi to the Runing army, hoping that the Runing army would enter Ruzhou City to help defend the city.

But the Runing Army has its own battle jihua. Besides, now that the peasant rebels have been suppressed, it is impossible for them to attack Ruzhou City again, in fact, the danger of Ruzhou City has been solved in disguise.

But this Yan Tongzhi doesn't understand military affairs, and his family is in Ruzhou City, so after being sent by Ruzhou Zhizhou, he is circling around Wu Shigong like a fly every day, and he hopes that Wu Shigong will send some troops into Ruzhou City.

And at this time, the flies in the Runing army were not only this one. After Senator Zhou Junwu Zhou saw the battle of the Runing Army with ease, he was surprised and also proposed to Wu Shigong: We should fight a decisive battle with the peasant rebel army in front of us as soon as possible, and immediately go north after defeating the peasant rebel army in front of us, and help Henan Governor Xuan Mo stabilize the situation in Henan.

Wu Shigong was so annoyed that he simply put the two flies under house arrest, and avoided their requests to see them. That Yan Tongzhi and Senator Zhou probably had broken brains, did they really think that they could govern the military with literature in the army? To know! In the Runing Army, the official positions of the Ming Dynasty do not count, and the biggest one is Wu Shigong, a white ding. (To be continued......)