At this moment, Zhang Pu felt a burst of ecstasy in his heart.

If Chen Zilong had been guarding the city, with the tall city, the courage of the ten thousand villages, and the sufficient money and food, if there was no internal response, it would be difficult for those thousands of White Lotus Sect bandits to conquer Suzhou.

However, now, Chen Zilong actually put aside the advantages of the city wall and took the initiative to attack to meet the battle, which is really out of his mind!

Although there are 15,000 Xiangyong recruited by Chen Zilong, they have only been recruited for two or three days, and they can barely be used to defend the city on the city wall.

And the White Lotus bandit in the hands of Zhuge Sanhe, but the fierce lake bandits, is the existence of defeating the eight thousand official army, how can those villagers be brave and invincible?

"Hahaha......" Zhang Pu couldn't help laughing.

Chen Zilong, Chen Zilong, I didn't expect you to make such a stupid move.

......

The west gate of Suzhou was opened, and Chen Zilong led the army out of Suzhou City, along the street to the west to the canal, and then along the road on the left side of the canal to the south, to Wujiang County, to meet the White Lotus Sect bandits.

The reason why he personally led the troops was not because he was not at ease with One-way Xiangming, but because of One-way Xiangming's request. Shan Xiangming himself is only responsible for commanding the 100 Praetorian Guard veterans, and the remaining 5,000 Xiangyong must be in charge of the command. And those who are qualified to have prestige and command the army are only Chen Zilong and Huang Zongxi. Chen Zilong was the prime minister of urban defense, and he repeatedly wrote articles in newspapers to promote the idea of equality, and his prestige among the villagers was extremely high. Huang Zongxi participated in the recruitment of Xiang Yong, but in terms of prestige, he was still a big step behind Chen Zilong.

The stakes are very high, if the battle is lost, Suzhou City is likely to be unable to hold, so Chen Zilong rejected Huang Zongxi's initiative to ask for help, and decided to personally lead the troops to the battle.

Only when you really set off with the troops did you know that it was not an easy task to lead the troops to fight. Fortunately in the city, the villagers still look presentable, especially when they all change into newly sewn military uniforms, they look no different from the original army in Suzhou, and their mental outlook is even better than Mei Baohua's patrol standard battalion.

However, after pulling outside to march, everything changed. After walking less than five miles out of the city, and just leaving the houses and buildings outside the city to reach the field, the five thousand Xiangyong had already walked in a queue, looking like herding sheep, talking and crying bitterly, all kinds of noise filled Chen Zilong's ears, and the noise was almost like rushing to a market.

Looking at the performance of the villagers, Chen Zilong had a headache, but for a few miles, he had repeatedly scolded and tried to sort out the queue, but it didn't have any effect, and he couldn't help but worry about the upcoming war, how could such a township warrior army fight with the fierce White Lotus Sect lake bandits, and why could they beat the lake bandits?

However, the 100 veterans of the Praetorian Guard who walked in front lined up in a uniform line, silent as a mountain, which made Chen Zilong barely have a little confidence, but it was only reluctantly. After all, there were only 100 people, and it was reported that there were as many as seven or eight thousand lake bandits killed.

Shan Xiangming had a lot of combat experience, and although he only had a hundred soldiers in his hands, he still assigned ten of them as sentinels, riding horses borrowed from the post station, to investigate the movements of the White Lotus Sect bandits.

The news soon came, the White Lotus Sect bandits were still more than twenty miles away from the army, and they were currently looting in Pingwang Town, twenty miles away.

From Wujiang County to Suzhou City, it was only more than 50 miles, and the White Lotus Sect bandits walked for a whole day, only walking more than 20 miles, and most of the time was spent on robbery. Hearing this news, Chen Zilong barely gained some confidence, because the White Lotus Sect bandits on the opposite side didn't seem to be very disciplined.

may have also detected the attack of the Xiangyong army, the White Lotus Sect bandits on the opposite side stopped looting, and killed towards Suzhou, and walked for two hours, at noon, the two armies finally met, and stopped at a distance of two miles, each of them sorted out their queues, and prepared to fight.

"The officers and soldiers are all just recruited villagers, and it has only been two days since they became an army, and they dare to come out to fight, and their courage is really fat!" Zhuge Sanhe pointed to the opposite direction of Xiang Yong, and said to his opponent with a smile.

With the gentry as the internal response, the people of the White Lotus Sect knew the situation of Xiang Yong very clearly.

"Eight thousand officers and soldiers have been wiped out by us, even the governor has been cooked and fed to the lake fish, some villagers dare to take the initiative to fight, it's really too bold, sect leader, I am willing to be the vanguard and break the official army for you!" The winged tiger shouted.

"I am also willing to be a pioneer and charge forward for the sect leader!" Turning Jianglong is not to be outdone.

"Haha, there are two brothers here, and the officers and soldiers on the opposite side are not to be afraid! But don't worry, take a rest first, eat your stomach, and then give the officers and soldiers a little color. Zhuge Sanhe said with a smile.

So the bandits began to cook and rest, completely ignoring the Xiangyong on the other side.

"These White Lotus bandits are still very experienced, most of them are resting in place, they can get up and line up at any time, and only a small part is responsible for cooking." One Xiangming held a clairvoyant mirror to observe the enemy's situation, and said to Chen Zilong while observing.

"They're waiting for us to attack!" Chen Zilong also understood.

"Yes, exactly." Shan Xiangming nodded, "The White Lotus Sect bandits know that our township has only been in the army for a short time, and they don't know how to fight at all. If we walk two miles in formation, the queue will inevitably be scattered, and the physical exertion will be very large, so the White Lotus Sect bandits can easily defeat us. ”

"What then?" Chen Zilong asked.

"They cook, let's cook, see who can't hold their breath!" One Xiangming said with a smile.

Chen Zilong then ordered to start making rice, and like the Bailian bandits, except for the township Yong who was in charge of making rice, the other villagers were resting in place and were not allowed to move. Perhaps it is the reason for the current enemy, but this time the villagers are honest and obedient, and no one moves around, and no one dares to talk nonsense. But looking at their trembling bodies and pale faces, we know that many people are actually very afraid.

So the two armies held each other strangely two miles away, each cooking, eating, and resting, and had no intention of taking the initiative to attack.

Time passed little by little, and an hour passed in a blink of an eye, and the sun was already slanting to the west, and Zhuge Sanhe couldn't bear it anymore.

"What the hell, what the hell are the officers and soldiers doing?" Turning Jianglong scolded and scolded.

"Sect Master, let's fight, it's going to be dark if you wait any longer!" The winged tiger also shouted.

If you wait until it gets dark, it will be very troublesome. First, it was winter, and the nights were very cold, and the White Lotus Sect bandits marched and robbed all the way, all grabbing where to live and where they lived, and they did not carry anything to camp. Because the land south of the Yangtze River is densely populated, there will be villages and towns every few miles, and there is no need to worry about where to live. But now it's a wilderness, and you can't camp at night without tents and other equipment.

As for fighting at night, whether it is Xiang Yong or the White Lotus bandits, they do not have the ability to fight in the field, if they fight, it can only be a chaotic battle, and no one can control it, I am afraid that after dawn, the two armies will cease to exist, and the bandit Xiang Yong will run away at night.

"Give the order to go down, line up, and start fighting!" Zhuge Sanhe really couldn't bear it anymore and ordered in a deep voice.

So seven or eight thousand bandits began to stand up and line up, lined up in a barely neat line, and slowly pressed towards the opposite Xiangyong.

Seeing that the bandits were coming, and there was no need for Chen Zilong's order, the villagers stood up one after another and held the spears in their hands tightly. Five thousand Xiangyong, the weapons configured are very simple, all of them are spears, not even a shield, although they are wearing a freshly sewn military uniform, cloth armor style, but there is no inlaid iron plate, because time is too late.

On the contrary, the Praetorian Guard soldiers led by Yi Xiangming were brightly armored and had a complete range of troops. The officer wore chain mail and a round iron helmet with red cherry blossoms on the top. The soldiers wore cloth armor and inlaid with a lot of iron plates, although they could not resist the fire and spear stabbing at close range, but they still had no problem resisting feather arrows and swords.

One hundred Praetorian Guardsmen, in addition to ten sentinels, sixty musketeers, thirty swordmen and shieldmen, and no pikemen, for each musketeer was equipped with a spear, and to the musket was a spear, and each of them was a grenadier, for they had four grenades around their waists. Compared with the simple equipment of the Xiang Yong, he is simply armed to the teeth. And this is also where the confidence of Yi Xiangming to dare to fight against thousands of White Lotus Sect bandits.

At the front were thirty sword and shield soldiers, followed by two rows of firecrackers, ten cavalry columns in the back, and one hundred Praetorian Guard soldiers lined up in a very thin array ten zhang in front of the Xiangyong Formation, quietly waiting for the arrival of the White Lotus bandit army.

One mile, half a mile, two hundred steps, one hundred and fifty steps, the distance between the two sides is slowly approaching. Finally, the distance came within 100 paces, and a part of the White Lotus bandit army stopped and began to shoot arrows. Hundreds of arrows flew over one after another, most of them landed in front of the formation, and a few fell in the Praetorian Guard array, but they were blocked by the shields raised by the soldiers in the first row, and occasionally the feathered arrows penetrated into the formation, but they could not penetrate the armor on the soldiers. One hundred Praetorian Guards officers and men remained motionless, allowing each other to diffuse.

When they annihilated Mei Baohua's 8,000 troops, the lake bandits captured a batch of weapons, including bows and arrows and firearms, and even fished out several artillery pieces from the lake, and then obtained a batch of weapons after capturing Wujiang County. However, the bandits did not use many firearms, and the quality of the captured firecrackers was poor, so after a bombing occurred and the bandits who used the firearms were blown up with blood on their faces, the bandits took the initiative to abandon the captured firearms and chose to use bows and arrows as long-range weapons. There are seven or eight thousand lake bandits, and there are more than 500 archers, even the archery skills are not very good, and they can only rely on the density of feather arrows to make up for the lack of archery. As for the several pieces of artillery that were captured, first, the bandits did not use it much, and secondly, they did not bring it at all, because they were afraid that it was troublesome for the marching army.

The White Lotus bandit archers fired several rounds of feather arrows in succession, except for one Praetorian Guard soldier who was unlucky and was injured in the gap between the iron pieces of the cloth armor, there were no other casualties, and the bandit archers were tired and their arms weakened.

"Sect Master, the armor worn by the small group of officers and soldiers in front of you is very powerful, and the feather arrows can't penetrate it at all." The river dragon exclaimed.

"No matter how powerful it is, there will be only one hundred and ten people, and if we rush up, we can defeat them at once, and then the armor will be ours." The winged tiger said disapprerovingly.

"The winged tiger is right, give the order, the whole army will attack!" Zhuge Sanhe said sharply.

There was no reserve left, and there was no division of troops to attack, with Zhuge Sanhe's order, seven or eight thousand White Lotus bandit troops rushed up like this, rushing towards the opposite officer and army, it looked terrifying, and many villagers behind were so frightened that their legs trembled.

"Prepare for the firecracker!" Under the order of One Xiangming, the firecrackers clamped the lit firerope to the arquebus, picked up the muskets, and aimed at the bandits rushing from the opposite side. The shieldmen crouched down, locking themselves behind their shields while making room for the musketeers to shoot.

Fifty steps, forty steps, the distance is getting closer and closer, one-way Ming pursed his lips, and never gave the order to shoot, and watching the White Lotus bandit army approaching quickly, many villagers behind him trembled.

"All spears up, spears up!" Chen Zilong shouted hoarsely.

"Don't think about it, everyone will wait for the bandits to kill in a while, you just need to stab the spear in your hand." The supervisors of the Xiangyong Middle School worked hard to provide guidance.

Thirty steps, he could already see the face of the bandit on the opposite side, and before he gave the order to shoot, Chen Zilong behind him turned pale, and he couldn't understand what he was doing, so he forcibly endured the idea of replacing the command.

Twenty steps, able to see the hideous faces of the bandits, One Xiangming finally picked up the firearm in his hand, pulled the trigger at the same time, and shouted: "Shoot!" ”

"Bang ......"

The first row of thirty musketeers fired in unison, firing the projectiles forward, and then quickly retreated.

With the sound of shooting, the rushing White Lotus Sect bandit army brushed down a row of corpses. The distance of twenty paces, and the formation of dense impact, are almost inconclusive.

Seeing the bandits in front of him fall down, the bandits behind and on both sides who were not shot hesitated and stopped one after another, but the bandits in the back were still moving forward, pushing the bandits in front to continue to move forward, and the queue of the bandits suddenly became crowded.

"Bang ......"

A moment later, another round of firearms fired, and nearly thirty corpses fell in unison, including the winged tiger who took the initiative to act as a striker.

"Mom!" Seeing that the winged tiger was shot to death, the dragon screamed, turned around and ran, and the other bandits also fled.

Before he got close, he was shot and killed so many people at once, it was so terrifying that no one wanted to move forward, and they were afraid that they would die next. In the final analysis, no matter how fierce these are, they are just some bandits, not an army at all, and they do not have the courage to fight a decisive battle.

"There are only dozens of firecrackers in them, and if they shoot out, it's useless, let's kill them!" Zhuge Sanhe saw it clearly and shouted loudly, trying to boost morale.

In the end, it was the sect leader, his words still worked, and some bandits hesitated to stop.

However, at this moment, "boom, boom", several loud noises sounded among the bandits, but it was the sword and shield soldiers who swarmed forward and threw grenades into the bandits.

The explosion of each grenade took several lives, and the huge sound, flying shrapnel, and smoke and dust in the sky suddenly crushed the last courage of the bandits, and countless bandits cried wolf howls and turned around and ran.

Zhuge Sanhe was also frightened, and ran away without saying a word. The army of seven or eight thousand bandits collapsed in an instant.

In the rear, Chen Zilong was shocked, and the five thousand Xiangyong were also shocked. No one expected that victory would come so quickly!