weaving

Chapter 1190 General, fire the cannon!

Yang Wenyue's side was the same as Hu Dawei's, with three camps set up in the shape of a Chinese character "品". One was the front camp to defend against the enemy, and there were two rear camps on the left and right sides behind it, which could attack at any time to support the defense of the front camp.

At the same time, in order to make himself safer, Yang Wenyue deliberately set up his central army in the right camp, so that it would be adjacent to the left camp where Hu Dawei's central army was located, so that he could get rescue quickly when necessary.

  He even thought in his heart that if necessary, he could escape to Hu Dawei’s camp to seek refuge!

In recent days, the rebel army had been bombarding him and Ding Qirui continuously, but only firing sporadically at the camps of Zuo Liangyu's army. Coupled with the impact of the incident involving Liu Zhongwu, the captain of the Zuo camp, Yang Wenyue was always worried about Zuo Liangyu. He was always worried that he would collude with the rebels and sell him and Ding Qirui to the bandits so that his Zuo camp could escape on its own.

  At this moment, he saw that the bandits' artillery fire was several times stronger than before, and he became even more panicked, and sensed a sense of crisis. However, at this critical moment, Yang Wenyue's first thought was not to strengthen the defense, but to summon his personal soldiers to feed the horses and prepare saddles to prevent any accidents!

…………

The one stationed at the front camp was Feng Dadong, the loyal and brave deputy general of the left camp under the command of former Baoding Governor Yang Wenyue. He was ordered to lead 3,000 soldiers and horses to garrison here. Since he was responsible for the front, his camp was naturally equipped with firearms, swords, shields, bows and crossbows.

Zhang Pengyi was the deputy general of the Loyal and Brave Right Camp under the command of Yang Wenyue, the former governor of Baoding. He led 4,000 troops to garrison the Left Camp of the Baoding Army. He had 1,000 cavalrymen and the rest were infantry. He was responsible for guarding the front camp and his own flank, and also for supporting the defense of the front camp when appropriate.

The deputy general of the Loyal and Brave Central Camp under the command of former Baoding Governor Yang Wenyue is Zhang Dechang. He leads the soldiers of the Loyal and Brave Central Camp and has always been with Yang Wenyue. He is now stationed in Yang Wenyue's central military camp, which is the right camp.

Zhang Dechang inherited his father's influence and served as the garrison commander of Qingshuiying in the early years of Chongzhen. Later, he was promoted to deputy general of Baoding due to his merits. He was quite brave and had defeated several camps of bandits in succession, so Yang Wenyue kept him by his side as a guard.

There were more than 6,000 soldiers in the right camp, of which less than 2,000 were cavalry, led by Zhang Dechang, the loyal and brave deputy general of the central camp; there were just over 2,000 infantry, led by Zhang Guozhen, another deputy general of the central army; the rest were all miscellaneous servants and auxiliary soldiers, and had no combat effectiveness at all.

Yang Wenyue and his men have been fighting the rebel army in various places in Henan since the first siege of Kaifeng by the rebels. They were dismissed from their posts and punished by Emperor Chongzhen for failing to prevent the fall of Luoyang. They were allowed to redeem themselves with the punishment. Although they have not won any major victories, they have indeed not had any effective rest. It is not easy for them to retain their current military strength.

General Zhenbao's Hu Dawei is not as good as Yang Wenyue's. He now has only more than 5,000 soldiers under his command, including about 2,000 cavalry and more than 3,000 infantry, while there are only a few servants and auxiliary soldiers left.

Even their firearms, which they had always been proud of, were damaged in many cases, and the consumption of gunpowder and shells was too great, with no way to replenish them. Now most of them have become decorations, not even as good as a fire stick!

At present, almost all the firearms, gunpowder and artillery shells that the entire army can use have been distributed to Feng Dadong's troops in the front camp. However, even so, they are still unable to fight back under the continuous bombardment of the enemy army.

…………

At the hour of Chen, the bandit army launched three consecutive charges. They used shields to provide protection in front and archers to shoot arrows from behind, and they had almost reached the camp gate.

  Although Feng Dadong is also a brave old soldier, a good cook cannot cook without rice. Now there is insufficient money and food, and the morale cannot be raised. Now there is no water or food. The soldiers don’t even have the strength to lift their guns or draw their bows. How can they resist the charge of the bandits?

However, after the bandits' three unsuccessful charges, for some reason, there was no movement. What made him even more surprised was that before noon, the bandits' artillery suddenly went silent at the same time.

At four o'clock in the morning, the deafening "boom" of the cannon suddenly disappeared...

The officers and soldiers in the front camp were stunned for a moment, and then suddenly burst into cheers. They thought that the bandits must have run out of gunpowder and artillery shells.

After all, according to their long-standing understanding, who would be stupid enough to carry so much heavy and inedible gunpowder and shells with the army?

Many people even shouted: "The bandits have run out of gunpowder."

"Great, it's finally our turn to blast him!"

"Yes, we should let the bandits have a taste of our power."

Feng Dadong was confused. When the gunners first stopped firing, he came to the high platform in front of the camp and looked towards the enemy camp for a long time. But after nearly half an hour, he still had no reaction. "Damn it, I've been firing for so long, and I'm finally tired!"

After he finished cursing, he couldn't help but wonder in his heart: "It's really strange, why is the cannon fired today so strangely?"

Yes.

The cannon, which was more than twice as powerful as usual, had been fired for nearly four hours in a row. Why did it stop so suddenly? And there was no individual reaction after the cannon was finished.

Just when Feng Dadong was hesitant, a loud shout came from the side: "General, fire the cannon!"

"what?"

Feng Dadong looked in the direction of the sound and saw a cloud of white smoke rising from the opposite side. He shouted loudly: "Avoid the artillery... Be careful to avoid the artillery!"

No one knew his subordinates better than he did. At this moment, they were all on the verge of collapse. If the shouts and screams of the enemy army's charge were a little louder, they might be frightened to the point of becoming paralyzed.

At this moment, a soldier from the Central Army Camp came riding over on horseback, shouting, "General Feng, the Governor has ordered us to light a fire and cook a meal immediately so that the soldiers of the three armies can have a good meal."

"What?"

Feng Dadong repeated with a skeptical look on his face: "Light a fire and cook food immediately so that the soldiers can have enough food?"

The personal soldier who came to deliver the order was still on his horse, and replied to him with a little arrogance: "This is what the Governor said, General Feng, please obey it immediately."

After he finished speaking, he whipped his horse and galloped towards the small gate of the rear camp, leaving the deputy general Feng Dadong standing there in a daze.

"Come here, tell the cook to light a fire and cook immediately."

As soon as Feng Dadong finished shouting, his personal soldiers immediately responded with a loud order and ran quickly towards the back of the barracks.

At this moment, a personal soldier stared at the white mist rising in front of him, muttering in amazement: "Thieves...thieves...the bandits are charging...charging the camp...charging the camp!"

Although his voice was not very loud, it sounded like thunder to Feng Dadong. He turned around abruptly and took a closer look. He saw that there were indeed rows of black shadows moving forward under the rising white mist.

Although it was not very clear, based on their appearance, it could be determined that they were definitely bandits, and there were a lot of them, more than twice as many as the previous three times.

"The whole army is ready for war."

"Prepare for war... prepare for war..."

"The enemy troops are attacking... prepare for battle..."