weaving

Chapter 1170 Sneak Attack

On May 16, the enemy's artillery fired more fiercely than in the previous two days, as if they had an endless supply of gunpowder and stone cannonballs, constantly bombarding the camps of Ding Qirui and Yang Wenyue's armies.

The rebel army seemed to have always shown mercy to Zuoying. Ninety percent of the artillery fire was directed at the positions of Ding and Yang's armies, while the camp of General Zuo Liangyu, who was in charge of suppressing the rebels, was rarely hit by artillery fire.

Among the Ming reinforcements stationed in the Shuipoji area, there were voices of suspicion and all kinds of rumors flying around, which made the soldiers in the Left Camp very angry.

Although the commanders Ding Qirui and Yang Wenyue issued strict orders in their respective camps to prohibit the soldiers from spreading rumors, they themselves became more suspicious of Zuo Liangyu in their hearts.

Zuo Liangyu was very clear about this, but he had no way to deal with it. His only solution was to instruct the generals of each battalion under his command to strictly enforce military discipline, prohibit the spread of rumors, and strengthen precautions in preparation for a large-scale attack launched by Blind Li at any time.

As he expected, although the enemy army's artillery fire on the left camp was very weak, they built more than ten new artillery batteries opposite the left army's position in the past two days, and built three artillery batteries two miles away from his central army camp. One of them was built last night and was the tallest one among them.

Behind these three artillery batteries, there is a wooden watchtower more than two meters high. People who climb up it can clearly observe all the movements in Zuo Liangyu’s central army camp.

At dawn, the soldiers of the Zuo Camp discovered the newly built artillery fort and immediately reported it to General Zuo Liangyu, who was in charge of suppressing bandits. He went to a high ground opposite the artillery fort and observed it carefully...

Although the three newly built artillery batteries were near the enemy's camp, they were not connected to the camp. The trenches in front of the artillery batteries had not been dug, and no obstacles such as deer horns had been set up. Although the artillery batteries had been built, no cannons were mounted on them.

At the same time, he also discovered that those carrying soil and digging trenches beside the artillery position were mostly the elderly, the weak, women and children, and there seemed to be not many bandit soldiers guarding the surrounding area.

Zuo Liangyu thought to himself: The artillery position and watchtower here are not connected to the enemy camp, and the enemy soldiers are not numerous, so it seems we can take them down in a short while.

After observing carefully for a while, he finally made up his mind to send a cavalry troop to rush over and destroy the newly built artillery positions and watchtowers by the rebels.

After all, if cannons were really mounted on these batteries, the threat to Zuoying would be too great, especially the watchtower, which would allow the enemy army to see everything in Zuoying. If it could not be destroyed, not only would Zuo Liangyu's central army camp no longer have any secrets, but the morale of the soldiers in Zuoying would also be seriously affected.

In addition, Zuo Liangyu was thinking in his heart: If he could seize the enemy camp in front of him in one fell swoop, he could not only expand his front, but also break through the enemy's three-sided encirclement, and even open a road to Kaifeng from here...

If that happens, the entire situation in Zhuxian Town will change completely!

Thinking of this, Zuo Liangyu's eyes instantly brightened...

He immediately gave orders, ordering the central army guerrilla Zhang Yingxiang to lead a cavalry to attack the artillery position and the watchtower, and sent the central army lieutenant general Li Guoying to lead 5,000 elite troops to support. If everything went well on Zhang Yingxiang's side, they would take advantage of the situation to capture the enemy camp opposite.

  Zuo Liangyu himself was also fully armed and personally supervised the battle, hoping to capture the bandit camp on the opposite side in one go!

…………

This camp was originally where Yuan Zongde's bandit army was stationed, but now he was sent to the Jialu River embankment to replace Tian Jianxiu, and this side was handed over to another general, Liu Fangliang, who was in charge of the rebel army.

Liu Fangliang, also known by his courtesy name Mingyuan, was one of Li Zicheng's trusted generals and one of the rare warriors in the army. He often rode a white warhorse and held a bright silver spear in his hand. He was invincible with his fast horse and sharp spear, and was known as the "Invincible General with White Horse and Silver Spear" in the army.

Back then, when the Chuang army broke out of Shangluo Mountain, it was he and Liu Zongmin who fought in the vanguard side by side. After not eating or drinking for a whole day and a night, he killed more than a dozen enemy generals and officers with the help of his horse and the spear in his hand. He was praised by the Chuang army generals as "Luo Cheng is alive and Zhao Yun is reborn."

However, he was currently in the Yuewang Temple in Zhuxian Town, attending a military meeting chaired by Li Zicheng, the King of Rebellion.

Liu Fangliang was stationed here to replace Yuan Zongde, so he built three camps in this area. There were originally two thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry in this camp, but in order to continue to put pressure on Ding Qirui and Yang Wenyue's camps, some of them were transferred there, and most of the rest rested in the military tents to conserve their energy and prepare for the upcoming decisive battle.

Currently, there are less than a thousand men guarding the village and participating in the construction of the artillery batteries, but there are several hundred female soldiers from the Healthy Women's Battalion who are also helping to build the artillery batteries.

Li Zicheng, the King of Rebellion, was originally unwilling to draw people from the Healthy Women's Battalion. Firstly, it was because Hong Niangzi was pregnant and had difficulty moving. Secondly, after Huimei married Yuan Shizhong, Hongxia and Huiqiong were not as capable as her, so he rarely called on the female soldiers from the Healthy Women's Battalion.

But later, he could not resist Hongniang's repeated requests, and Hongxia, Huiqiong and others also repeatedly asked for help in front of Mrs. Gao, so he agreed to send some strong women to help repair the artillery and dig trenches.

Although Hongniangzi was in a disadvantageous situation, she insisted on going to the front line in person to command and dispatch things.

At this time, there were also some people on the artillery platform, including Zhang Nai's brothers from the Firearms Battalion, as well as more than 200 child soldiers led by Luo Hu. Zhang Nai was also directing the brothers from the Firearms Battalion to transport three cannons from below to the artillery platform.

These forts were built by putting loess into bales made of wheat straw, and then stacking the bales on top of each other. Because no tamping was required, they were built relatively quickly.

At present, the strong women are carrying the last batch of straw bales up there, and some sisters are working hard to dig trenches around the fort.

"The soldiers are coming!"

A scream suddenly came from the busy group of female soldiers in the Healthy Women Battalion...

Everyone looked up and saw a cavalry unit of the government army galloping towards them with force like a gust of wind, and they were about to reach them.

Meanwhile, the firearms battalion, the strong women battalion, and the child soldiers were all working. Although a few of them carried swords, they were not wearing armor. Moreover, most of their war horses were hanging in the woods dozens of feet away behind them, eating grass.

Fortunately, some small forts had been built in advance under the artillery batteries that had been built, and some smaller firearms were placed inside, mainly to protect the safety of these artillery batteries.

At this critical moment, some brothers from the firearms battalion quickly rushed into these small forts and fired a batch of firearms with a "crackling" sound, injuring many of the government cavalry in the first row.

Zhang Nai's reaction was also very quick. While directing his brothers to use the small fort for defense, he sent people back to the woods to release the horses. He also called on the rest of the people to form a battle formation and prepare to fight the government troops with hoes, pickaxes and rakes.