Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 349 My life is like walking on thin ice

The wooden planks of the side carriage are enough to withstand arrows and bullets. Aren’t the enemy soldiers wasting ammunition by doing this?

As soon as this thought came to his mind, Liu Qin saw a shocking scene—

The officers and soldiers hiding behind the wooden boards all screamed in pain as they were injured.

The wounded soldiers turned around one by one, their faces and chests almost covered with flying wood splinters. Some of them rolled off the cart and fell to the ground, struggling for a few times before dying.

The enemy's bullets even penetrated the wooden planks of the sidecar?!
Liu Qin thought this was bad.

If the chariots on all sides cannot withstand the bullets, then the thousands of infantrymen will become cattle and sheep to be slaughtered by the enemy!

Perhaps because they felt that they had not achieved the expected effect, the enemy infantry and cavalry actually advanced dozens of steps.

The musketeers did not forget to take away the sharp stakes as they advanced, and the riders in the back row helped to lead the war horses so that the musketeers could return to their horses and move at any time.

There were also some enemy soldiers in strange costumes who dismounted from their horses, holding large folding fans, laughing and shouting, and happily fanning away the smoke in the air, as if they were playing some kind of competition game.

Such a friendly scene of unity, mutual assistance and tacit understanding made Liu Qinton envious.

If Wen Tong had no grudge against him, why would he ignore his advice and rashly send hundreds of elite cavalrymen to die?

Now that we have lost hundreds of mobile troops, how can we suppress the enemy troops who can come and go freely?

The enemy was united, while our army was restraining each other. Liu Qin couldn't help but recall the joy of fighting side by side with the Black Flag Battalion and the Beiwei Army in the past...

Previous combat experience immediately dispelled his confusion, and Liu Qin immediately thought that he had not lost and could still make up for it.

But just as he was about to give orders, he remembered that he was only a deputy general and the real commander was still by his side.

He turned his head to look at Wen Tong, who could no longer maintain a normal expression. His eyes were wide open and almost bulged out of their sockets. The astonishment in his expression froze for a moment, his teeth were chattering, and the regret that overflowed from the corners of his eyes seemed to be bloodshot.

Liu Qin couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.

The cavalry just sent out were all Wen Tong's personal soldiers. Most of them were killed or wounded in an instant. It was like cutting flesh from the heart. No wonder the other party looked so heartbroken and miserable.

However, Liu Qin could not wait for Wen Tong to make the same mistake again.

He glanced at the food, fodder and ammunition on the baggage train and made a decision in his mind.

He immediately ordered his men to move twenty steps away from the side carriage and pile shields and food bags behind the carriage to form a new cover.

Even such a simple military order was full of obstacles. The barrage of bullets from three directions was still crackling, and the exploding wood chips were flying everywhere like hail. From time to time, unlucky people who were moving were hit by bullets that pierced their shields and fell to the ground.

Fortunately, at the cost of nearly a hundred wounded soldiers, the officers and soldiers finally established a second temporary "line of defense."

When the new position was established, the enemy soldiers' gunfire stopped abruptly, and they immediately retreated hundreds of steps with their sharp stakes and muskets.

The enemy soldiers are retreating?
As if sensing Liu Qin's inner doubts, the enemy cavalry on three sides reined in their horses and adjusted their formations, just like loose building blocks stacked into two rows of leaning towers.

The enemy cavalry, divided into two rows, took out strange props from their cloth bags. Liu Qin felt that they looked familiar yet unfamiliar, either a black ball or a crystal "glass bottle".

By the time he remembered what it was, it was too late.

The enemy cavalry came galloping towards them from three sides at a moderate speed, and then passed lightly in front of the side carriage, leaving behind only dozens of long bottles with burning sparks.

The moment the long bottle shattered, a blazing fire erupted, engulfing the sidecar it hit. The flames burning one car would quickly spread to both sides, eventually igniting all the sidecars in the row.

The riders in the back row shouted and followed, throwing out black balls one after another.

The moment the ball fell into the sea of ​​fire, the high temperature detonated the gunpowder inside the ball. The strong impact swept the iron pieces and fire waves to the surroundings, causing a series of screams.

Although the enemy's skillful combo didn't kill or injure many officers and soldiers, the burning wagons on three sides blocked most of the view. Even worse, some of the grain bags were ignited by sparks, and the flames spread from bag to bag...

Even though the officers and soldiers beat the grain bags in the scorching heat, it was of no avail. Most of the grain bags were engulfed in flames, and even the soldiers had to retreat dozens of steps.

Forced into the current miserable state by a mere few hundred bandit cavalry, most of the infantry were anxious, angry, and somewhat helpless.

At this time, Wen Tong, who had been stunned for a while, finally regained his senses. He saw three walls of fire burning, and heard that most of the food was burned. He felt his anger ignited again.

Without food, the thousands of soldiers lost the confidence to hold their ground and wait for help, and hundreds of war horses and mules were not enough to feed them.

Unfortunately, the personal soldiers he had trained with great effort suffered heavy losses, leaving only a few thousand infantrymen crowded together.

Even if he could escape from this battle unscathed, General Wen's influence would be greatly reduced.

The bigger the mistake, the less likely they are to reflect and blame themselves. Instead, they try to shift the blame to others to make themselves feel better.

Wen Tong subconsciously looked at Liu Qin, thinking that this man had fought with the Beiwei Army in Liaodong in the past. Could it be that he was colluding with the rebel army to kill him?

Otherwise, how could thousands of vanguard infantry and cavalry be toyed with by a mere 700 enemy cavalry?

Liu Qin didn't notice Wen Tong's angry glare, he only knew that he was stepping into the enemy's trap step by step -

The rebel army first attacked and killed Tang Ma, blocked intelligence, and forced the government army to fight hastily. They also deliberately divided their troops on the battlefield to test the government army's firepower coverage, and then revealed their flaws to lure General Wen to concentrate his cavalry to launch a decisive battle.

After all, infantry cannot catch up with cavalry, so they can only send cavalry to pursue them.

When the government cavalry suffered heavy losses and had no fighting power left, the rebels used sharp bird guns to close in and shoot, forcing all the soldiers to retreat. They then used "Thunderbolt" and "Samadhi True Fire" to burn all the side carriages, and even burned the shields and grain bags that served as the second line of defense, stripping the government army of its shell.

The enemy army advanced cautiously, like a group of tiny ants devouring a flying insect, sometimes cutting off its wings, sometimes biting off its limbs...

Once the government troops have lost all their means of defense, they can only fight to the death with the enemy cavalry!
Liu Qin also felt quite regretful. Would it have been better if he hadn't used the grain bags as cover?

He seemed to be having a conversation with himself, and immediately raised a rebuttal in his mind. If they didn't use food bags, would they use ammunition boxes? The power of the gunpowder explosion was enough to overturn half of the position.

Even if they used sand, it would take time to dig, and the enemy's barrage of bullets did not give them time at all, and only resulted in more casualties.

With so many soldiers killed in battle, no soldier would dare to take the risk of digging the ground, and no one even dared to approach the perimeter of the army.

And if no one is watching from the outside, the enemy army will throw more props...

Such an interconnected battle method really makes people scratch their heads and feel helpless.

Listening to the incessant howling, Liu Qin took a deep breath. The government troops were already mired in the enemy's trap. Even in the scorching summer heat, he felt as if he were treading on thin ice. However, the enemy soldiers did not launch any new attacks until nightfall, simply standing behind several rows of warhorses, as if carrying out some sort of operation.

They may have run out of ammunition and props, or both the men and horses needed a rest, or they planned to trap the government troops and wait for reinforcements from the enemy and us, expanding an encounter into a major battle of "siege and attack".

When night fell, it was a good time for the government troops to save themselves. Liu Qin and Wen Tong did not think of breaking out under the cover of darkness.

Thousands of soldiers barely maintained discipline with the help of military orders. Once they dispersed at night, the generals could only control less than 20 soldiers. How could they control these thousands of soldiers? The soldiers had to rush to escape, and the army ended up collapsing. They were defeated even if they didn't win.

At that time, the enemy army only needed to follow and pursue to achieve the feat of "defeating the enemy with fewer troops".

Moreover, the two main and deputy generals can nominally control thousands of soldiers and horses. If their direct troops are dispersed and they suffer another defeat, they will definitely be punished and demoted in the future.

Of course, Liu Qin was unwilling to sit and wait for death. With most of the food and grass destroyed, the government army could not hold out for a few days.

On the one hand, he organized dozens of skilled riders to break out to the west, and on the other hand, he arranged for the garrison troops to dig trenches and pile up earth near the side carriage to strengthen the government army's defense line.

But at this moment, a burst of rapid gunfire suddenly came from outside the formation, and the neighing of people and horses rose one after another.

The next moment, beautiful musical instruments cut through the night, and then someone sang with a loud voice.

The bonfire in the enemy's position was constantly burning, and it seemed as if dozens of people were dancing in the light of the bonfire. From time to time, a uniform chorus of shouts could be heard. "He didn't even dare to look at it for a second, because if he looked any longer, he would explode!"

Hearing this familiar song, Liu Qin couldn't help but laugh.

He remembered this song, which was a celebratory song performed by the Beiwei Army after a battle to recapture southern Liaoning.

That night was starry, with the flickering bonfire reflecting on faces. The soldiers danced freely on the stage, sometimes retreating in unison, sometimes jumping up in unison, as if they wanted to show the true meaning of this "war song" without reservation.

When the battle song "Gini is so beautiful" ended, the enemy soldiers seemed to have opened the shackles that sealed themselves, and various styles of dance and music were performed one after another.

Some are elegant, some are popular, some are passionate and exciting, and some are just weird screams of "Huh, Huh, Huh" the whole time.

There was even a host-like figure who would occasionally shout, "Please rate the performers," "Congratulations to the White Hair Army Guild for winning nine points," "This round's champion is the veteran player guild 'Nanyang United Goods'..."

They seemed tireless, perhaps hoping that their enemies would appreciate their talents, and they continued to make noise all night long.

Although they listened to dozens of songs of different styles and did not have to pay for tips, which was considered a big profit, most of the officers and soldiers did not sleep well the whole night and had to greet the new day in a tired state.

In contrast, the enemy soldiers, who had been making a fuss all night, were all full of energy.

Liu Qin made a rough count and found that after yesterday's initial battle, no more than twenty bandit soldiers were killed, while more than four hundred government soldiers died of their wounds or sudden deaths.

The bandit generals shouted, "The second set of XXX radio gymnastics, the young eagles take flight," while other generals shouted, "The times are calling," "Dancing Youth," and then led the soldiers behind them in military formations...

The neat and uniform movements and formations, as if they were cast from the same mold, make people sigh that the Red Turban Army is indeed an elite force. With such discipline and obedience, ordinary government troops cannot catch up even if they try their best.

What surprised Liu Qin even more was that the bandits had been singing and dancing all night long, yet they still had the energy to gather for martial arts practice in the early morning, as if the ones who had been singing and dancing all night long were demons and monsters.

When a new day arrived, the reinforcements from both sides naturally could not arrive. However, there were more than ten dead war horses on the land in the west. Several horses seemed to be stuck in the trip pits dug and were killed in a twisted state. The riders on their backs also disappeared.

However, Liu Qin soon got the answer. Dozens of bandits came over with cloth bags in their hands, without even riding horses, and they were strolling in the garden, shortening the distance between the enemy and us.

They walked to the front of the government troops, threw the cloth bags in their hands forward with force, then turned around, took off their pants, farted and hit the buttocks of the government troops.

The government troops carefully reached out to retrieve the cloth bag, brought it to General Wen and opened it, only to find that it was filled with heads!

Not only were there Tangma on guard all around, there were also riders who were sent out last night to break out and report the news, and there were also some personal soldiers under Governor Yang.

Almost everyone who knew the leader was aware of one problem—

The government troops were completely cut off from communication.

Governor Yang didn't receive any military reports, so he hesitated to advance boldly. Even when he finally realized that something was wrong, he only sent more than 10,000 soldiers to investigate, and three to five days passed.

The rebel army's communications are unimpeded. They will definitely call for reinforcements within three to five days and work together to annihilate the vanguard of the government army. By then, they will have enough time to fight against the reinforcements of the government army.

If two disastrous defeats really happened, the morale of the government army would plummet to the bottom. They would no longer have the courage to engage in a head-on battle with the main force of the bandit army. The situation of suppressing the bandits would collapse, and the overall situation in Shandong would be affected.

No! We must not let the bandits succeed!
Wen Tong and Liu Qin came to the same conclusion, but their ideas on how to reverse the defeat were completely different.

Wen Tong planned to gamble everything and fight the enemy army. He and Liu Qin still had some cavalry left, enough to hold off a group of enemy cavalry, and then use infantry to surround and kill them.

As long as we can inflict some damage on the enemy and force them to give up the idea of ​​"defeating the enemy with fewer troops", it will be fine.

However, Liu Qin wanted to continue deepening the defense, using trenches and earth walls to form a new defense system, and to gather all the cavalry and disperse them to report the news. As long as Governor Yang's main force arrived earlier, everything would be better.

Dozens of bandits are showing off their power on foot in front of the battle line. How can we tolerate this?

A surge of pent-up anger that had been surging for a day and a half surged from beneath his body to the top of his head. He channeled all his strength into drawing his sword, pressing it against Liu Qin's throat. "Tie him up for me!"

Seeing Wen Tong's personal guards surrounding him and trying to pull him away, and his own personal guards trying to resist, Liu Qin angrily cursed, "Wen Tong, are you crazy? What are you going to do with such a powerful enemy in front of you?"

Wen Tong looked at his colleague who was twisting and turning like a pretzel and said viciously, "What are you doing? I want to clean up the spies in the army!"

After all, Liu Qin's personal soldiers were not as numerous as Wen Tong's, and the soldiers' views on Liu Qin were similar to Wen Tong's. After several attempts, they easily confiscated the swords of Liu Qin and his personal soldiers.

Wen Tong said firmly, "Since yesterday, you have been obstructing me in every possible way, causing me confusion. I was still wondering why my 6,000-man army was repeatedly defeated. Today, seeing the 32 heads, I understand that it was you who was colluding with the enemy to harm me!
The pond soldiers were killed, the food was burned, and we sent people to break out in the middle of the night, but they were all killed. And you still dare to say that you are not colluding with the enemy!
We must continue to hold our ground today and wait for reinforcements, leaving all these remaining thousands of infantrymen to the enemy army! You truly have a vicious heart!
When I defeat the enemy, I will definitely report you to Governor Yang!"

Looking at Liu Qin's endless insistence on admonishing him, Wen Tong waved his hand impatiently, "Shut him up!"

Seeing that the spy's mouth had been blocked, Wen Tong suddenly felt that the dawn of victory was just around the corner.

He immediately announced that he would push aside the ruins of the side carriages and kick open all the temporary shelters built last night. He wanted to mobilize the remaining 5,000 infantry and cavalry to fight a decisive battle with the enemy army.

He pointed his sword westward, "All cavalry, position them on the left and right. The infantry, form a battle formation, charge!"

As Wen Tonggang rushed out of the battlefield with thousands of infantry and cavalry, the enemy infantry who had been showing off their might in front of the formation had already fled back to their horses.

In just a short moment, the enemy troops on all sides moved, changing their formations like a strange maze, and formed two cavalry teams that surrounded them from the front and back.

(End of this chapter)