weaving

Liuzhuang on the east bank of the Jialu River is the garrison of the Qinglong Camp of the Yongyi Army. It also has a thick camp wall surrounded by three trench defense lines.

The Qinglong Camp was equipped with five infantry thousand headquarters, among which Han Rongqiu's front was stationed in the west, Qian Mushi's rear was stationed in the south, Chen Shi's left was stationed in the north, and Kong Shouchang's right was stationed in the east.

The 1,000 infantrymen in Huang Daguang's central unit, which had the strongest combat power, were kept in the central army as a reserve and did not go into battle.

At the same time, the central officer Liu Changliang commanded the 150 elite cavalry of the Cavalry Division, as the only mobile force of the entire army, ready to attack at any time.

Zhang Guodong's arrangement to deal with the rebel army was to hold back first and gradually abandon the outer defense line so as to shrink the troops and at the same time show weakness to the enemy. Sure enough, Tian Jianxiu fell into the trap.

At that moment, Zhang Guodong ordered his deputy general Du Chungang to command all the artillery of the camp to concentrate fire only on the rebel army on the eastern front of the camp. If it were up to Du Chungang's personality, he would have fired ten rounds of concentrated fire until the gun barrel reached its tolerance limit, and would not stop until it became hot and red!

But Zhang Guodong did not think like him. As the commander, he knew very well that the gap in military strength could not be made up by this victory, so he did not dare to consume too much force, lest he could not sustain the subsequent battles.

That's why he told Du Chun to stop at the right time. Five rounds of concentrated fire would be enough to break the psychological defenses of the rebel soldiers. Then the infantry could go up and hunt down the remaining rebels.

Kuang Yongzhong, another deputy general of the Qinglong Battalion, led Liu Changliang's central cavalry and Chen Shi's left 1,000 infantrymen to break out from the north gate when the first round of artillery fire began...

However, Kuang Yongzhong and his men did not flee all the way to the north, but immediately turned to the battlefield in the east. With cavalry in front and infantry behind, they rushed straight eastward along the northern road, fearing that they would miss the opportunity to eat the meat.

…………

At the Yongyi Army position, more than 2,000 soldiers from the center and right wings of the Qinglong Camp roared and rushed out from behind the low wall of the last line of defense.

They pounced on the soldiers of the Chuang army like tigers, and began their inhumane and bloody harvest...

The two thousand soldiers of the Qinglong Camp, like two thousand tigers, chased the frightened soldiers of the Chuang Army on the battlefield, firing their guns and shooting arrows continuously, and even directly harvesting lives with their swords and guns.

But the rebels were numerous and powerful. They had more than 23,000 combat soldiers, and more than 30,000 slaves and famine victims...

There were only 2,500 bandits and 3,000 servants on the west and south sides respectively, and there were even fewer on the north side, with 500 bandits and 2,000 servants just for show. Only on the east side were there 4,000 bandits and 5,000 hungry people as the main attack force. In addition, there were 7,000 cavalrymen ambushed in three places to the north of Liuzhuang, intending to intercept the fleeing Yongyi Army.

There are still 6,500 bandits in the central army camp, plus more than 17,000 starving civilians, serving as the bandits' general reserve. Once the front really breaks through the Liuzhuang defense line, Tian Jianxiu doesn't mind putting all his forces into it.

  As an outstanding general in King Chuang's army, he would naturally not be so reckless as to leave no backup plan. What's more, Tian Jianxiu is famous for his stability and prudence!

Perhaps everything was predestined. Zhang Guodong was also a steady and prudent general in the Yongyi Army, but he acted so risky today. No wonder Tian Jianxiu was deceived.

………… When Tian Jianxiu heard the loud rumbling sounds of the artillery fire, he was terrified. He ordered the front troops to withdraw quickly, and at the same time urgently organized 5,000 soldiers to set up a line of defense behind the Liuzhuang Yongyi Army's defense line to prevent the Yongyi Army from breaking through their own camp.

At the same time, he did not forget to assign 1,500 soldiers to guard the nearly 20,000 starving people to prevent them from causing chaos out of fright and disrupting their own camp defenses.

  It can be said that Tian Jianxiu's handling of the situation was very appropriate, and he is worthy of being a great general!

Under such circumstances, the morale of the troops on the front line has completely collapsed. If they continue to send reinforcements forward, they will first face their own people who have fled back. The two sides will be in chaos after being heavily equipped, so how can they fight the enemy?

Therefore, a new line of defense was established outside one's own camp, leaving the open space in the middle as a buffer zone, and then the fleeing soldiers were guided to escape from the two wings of the defense line, leaving the enemy outside the camp.

As for the wounded soldiers on the front line, Tian Jianxiu could only abandon them with great pain. After all, under such fierce artillery bombardment, once they were injured, they would not be able to be saved.

Although there is a miracle doctor like "Old Immortal Shang Jiong" in Chuang's army, there is only one of him after all. Even if Shang Jiong has many disciples, how many of them are there under the command of the generals? How can they treat so many wounded soldiers?

But there was one thing that Tian Jianxiu overlooked, and that was the government troops that broke out of the north gate of the Liuzhuang government army camp. When Tian Jianxiu realized that he had fallen into a trap, he had already sent his personal soldiers on horseback to call back the ambush cavalry.

But he did not expect that the government troops rushing out of the north gate would actually make a circle and come to intercept the soldiers of the rebel army in the east.

The first thing that caught Tian Jianxiu's eyes was a hundred or so cavalrymen, who were galloping from north to south, raising dust all the way, and cutting straight through the fleeing soldiers of the Chuang army, splitting them in two.

Following closely behind the row of cavalry was a long line of red government infantry. They were three people in a row, with soldiers holding short weapons on both sides and officers and soldiers holding muskets in the middle. They would shoot at the enemy at a distance and chop with knives and stab with guns at close range.

Under their interception, only about a thousand soldiers of the Chuang army escaped, and the remaining nearly two thousand soldiers of the Chuang army were forced to continue fleeing to the south.

  In this way, Tian Jianxiu's reception plan lost its due value!

Tian Jianxiu could only counter the enemy's moves. He immediately ordered two leaders to lead a thousand soldiers each to attack from the left and right wings. Even if they could not rescue the more than 2,000 rebel troops, they had to eliminate the more than 1,000 government infantry and cavalry in front of them to relieve their hatred.

At this moment, a blood-stained strong man came riding a horse and reported a good news to him: the camp defense west of Liuzhuang had been breached by the rebel army...

Tian Jianxiu, who had been somewhat depressed, immediately perked up. He loudly issued an order, ordering one thousand troops to remain here to organize a counterattack, and to transfer two thousand troops to the south to take over the defense.

  At the same time, he also ordered the soldiers of the Chuang Army on the southern front to immediately support the war on the western front and try to capture the Liuzhuang camp of the government army in one fell swoop!

In addition, Tian Jianxiu sent his personal soldiers to ride north to find his own cavalry, and asked them to divide into three groups, with one group of 2,000 cavalrymen heading straight to the west of Liuzhuang to support and expand the breakthrough.

Another thousand cavalrymen will head straight to the north gate of Liuzhuang to see if they can break through. Even if they cannot break into the government army camp, they must guard the north gate and not let anyone escape.

The last two thousand cavalrymen immediately rushed back to the central army to wait for orders and provide support to all places! (End of this chapter)