weaving

"If we can capture the front camp of the Baoding Army today, it is all thanks to the help of Captain Liu and Captain Hong. I have already asked Yin Wutang to prepare food. Brothers, have a good meal first, and then go to attack the front camp of the government army!"

Liu Wenzhan and Tong Shoushan were both generals under Liu Tichun. In terms of rank, he was two levels lower than Tong Shoushan, so he smiled and took the lead in answering, "Oh. Master Shan, you are so polite."

Hong Taibiao, the little leader of the Firearm Battalion, also said, "Master Shan, you are being too polite. We are all fighting for the great commander, so why should we argue with each other?"

"Hey. You can't be polite to me, Old Tong."

Tong Shoushan smiled and said, "I have asked General Liu for an order. At 4:00 pm, General Zhang Nai will stop firing cannons to confuse the government troops. At 7:00 pm, he will start firing cannons again. A quarter of an hour later... at the beginning of noon, we will attack with all our forces and destroy the front camp of the Baoding army in one fell swoop, thus opening the first gap for the army."

After he finished speaking, he stared at the generals in front of him, and shouted in a serious voice: "I will say this first. Everything is ready today. When it is the first quarter of noon, if any soldier is unwilling to fight, the armor leader will kill him; if all the armored soldiers are not brave, the armor leader will be killed, and so on.

Anyone who is not brave and unwilling to fight in front of the battlefield, I don't care whether he is from the Firearms Battalion or General Liu's Archery Battalion, will be killed without mercy.

Everyone, do you understand?"

"Yes."

"I understand."

"understand!"

Liu Wenzhan and Hong Taibiao looked at each other and understood that Tong Shoushan's words were meant for them. They clasped their fists and shouted, "I understand!"

Tong Shoushan nodded with satisfaction, and restored his original smile, saying: "Brother Liu, Brother Hong, don't worry, I just said it casually, and we have to save face. Besides, this time, I really tied this big head on my neck to my belt, and whether I can keep it depends on you two brothers."

As he spoke, he pointed at Qi Dakan, Yan Mingda and other deputy commanders and said, "If they don't fight bravely, I will really chop off their heads. However, I won't go too far with my two brothers. I believe they don't want their big head to move."

Liu Wenzhan was the first to clasp his fists and said, "Please rest assured, Commander Tong, I, Liu Wenzhan, will not fail in my mission. If there is any archer or shield soldier who is unwilling to fight bravely, I will kill him first and will never dare to trouble Commander Tong!"

Seeing this, Hong Taibiao also clasped his fists and said, "Commander Tong, when Taibiao came here, Master Zhang had instructed us to obey your orders, shoot well, and help you break through the enemy camp. If there is any boy who is unwilling to risk his life, we will punish him on the battlefield. Please rest assured, Commander Tong!"

What Tong Shoushan wanted was the attitudes of these two people. Although they were all part of the Chuang army, there were many people and horses, and there was more or less competition between them. Although it was much worse than the situation in which the official army maintained its strength, it was not really a monolithic group.

Therefore, Tong Shoushan took the opportunity to warn them just now in order to prevent them from having any other thoughts. Now that the goal has been achieved, there is naturally no need to say more.

"That's right. If we can defeat the enemy camp in one fell swoop this time, the Archer Battalion and the Firearms Battalion will naturally receive a large share of the credit. The Mountain Battalion will definitely not take all the credit!"

As he spoke, he took Liu Wenzhan and Hong Taibiao's arm and said, "Let's go eat first. Only after we have a full meal can we have the strength to kill the soldiers."

………… At four quarters past the hour of the si-ni, the artillery pieces of the rebel army all fell silent, and the entire battlefield of Zhuxian Town fell silent.

The government troops were puzzled by this. They guessed that the Chuang army might be preparing to launch a full-scale attack and stopped firing for fear that the shells would injure their own people, so they all became fully alert.

At seven quarters past the hour of Si, the rumbling sound was heard again, and clouds of white smoke rose in front of the rebel army's formation and gathered into a sheet in an instant. At the same time, cannonballs cut through the sky in a very graceful arc and fell inside and outside the front camp of Yang Wenyue's Baoding army. The ricocheting of the cannonballs stirred up clouds of dust, covering the sky and the sun.

However, there was one thing that was quite strange. On the entire Zhuxian Town battlefield, only Yang Wenyue's Baoding Army's front camp was subjected to fierce artillery bombardment by the Chuang Army, while other places were still silent, as if they were in two different worlds.

At the beginning of noon, the fierce artillery fire from the front camp of the Baoding Army lasted only about a quarter of an hour before it came to an abrupt end. The battlefield fell silent again, even to the point of being eerily quiet.

As the white smoke in front of the army gradually dissipated, rows of neatly-mannered soldiers suddenly appeared in people's sight...

In the front row were rows of musketeers, fifty men in each row, a total of four rows of two hundred men, all holding their guns and marching quickly towards the front camp of the Baoding army.

Behind the musketeers were more than a thousand infantry bandits. Their formation was not very strict, with some groups of ten or more than twenty people in a team, but they all followed closely behind the musketeers and moved forward step by step.

"Everyone is ready."

Liu Wenzhan shouted softly: "General Tong has already eaten our meal, so we have to work harder and don't lose face here!"

He led one hundred shield soldiers and two hundred archers, walking on the right side of the musketeers, with the shield soldiers in front and the archers in the back, and they moved forward at the same speed as Hong Taibiao's musketeers.

Behind Liu Wenzhan were hundreds of bandits, pulling and pushing four medium-sized cannons. These were the weapons that Tong Shoushan was going to use to bombard the gates and walls of the government army camp.

Behind these artillery pieces were more than a thousand bandit soldiers. Their formation was very strict and their marching pace was very orderly. They looked well-trained and had some resemblance to the Yongyi Army.

In addition, there were about two thousand infantry thieves behind the entire attack formation, slowly following...

Judging from the scale, it can be seen that the bandit army was serious this time. They dispatched nearly 5,000 soldiers at once, including many types of troops such as muskets, cannons, bows and crossbows, infantry and cavalry.

More than 800 elite cavalrymen led by Bao Jiqiang were on the right side of Liu Wenzhan's archer team. The cavalrymen did not march in a line, but instead spread out their troops, advancing slowly in groups of three or five.

There was no other sound in the bandit army except for the leaders' whispers to encourage morale. Just this kind of military rules and discipline was incomparable to any other bandit group, big or small.

As the dust in front of the government army camp gradually dissipated, the camp gate and the wall less than 200 steps away became vaguely visible, and the array of bandits was also discovered by the officers and soldiers on the wall.

The noisy shouts in the government army camp could be heard faintly, but the bandit army still maintained its original speed and continued to move forward. As they got closer and closer, a strong sense of oppression instantly came to the government army in the camp! (End of this chapter)