A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 391

Among the mighty Chuang soldiers and horses, a large flag with the word "Chuang" flutters in the wind, with snow-white tassels and silver-colored flag guns.

Under the banner, Li Zicheng was riding on his black barge horse, which was a very tall steed. The horse's body was dark gray with white spots, and its hair was curly and curly. The mane and tail were trimmed. Shen Jun is very.

Li Zicheng was still wearing a white felt hat, a blue cloth arrow jacket, a bow and arrow on his back, and a sharp sword hanging from his waist.Whenever the cold wind howls, the flag billows and billows, and the red tassels on his red cloak and felt hat keep flying.

Li Zicheng has a high nose, deep eyes, and a beard. At this time, his eyes are staring at the pass city not far away, showing a resolute, calm, and military wisdom in his eyes.

Behind him, all the generals of the Chuang army gathered, Liu Zongmin, Liu Fangliang, Li Guo, Gao Yigong, Yuan Zongdi and others were all accompanying him.There are a few people dressed like literati beside them, they are Song Xiance, Niu Jinxing, Li Yan and others.

Li Zicheng and the generals of the Chuangjun army had suffered from the bitter cold for a long time. Although the weather was extremely cold at this time, and there were gusts of biting cold wind blowing in front of them, they still looked calm.

Those literati couldn't bear it, Li Yan was alright, but Song Xiance and Niu Jinxing shrank their hands into their sleeves as much as possible, their noses were flushed by the cold wind, and their mouths were full of thick white gas.

Because of Song Xiance's inconvenient legs and feet, Li Zicheng prepared a cart for him for such a long-distance trip, which was pushed by a few pawns, which looked like the one that Kong Ming rode.And Niu Jinxing, Li Yan and others also rode on horses.

After watching for a long time, Li Zicheng thoughtfully said to Liu Fangliang who was behind him: "Ming Yuan, you are right. This Ming general, Wang Dou, is indeed a formidable enemy, and he should not be taken lightly."

Knowing that the artillery of the Shunxiang Army is powerful, it can hit as far as two miles, so when Li Zicheng and others spy on the Beiguan of Luoyang City, they stay far away.However, the prosperity of the army of Shangshun Township in the city can be vaguely seen, and the large banners with the characters of Wang and the banners of Chen on the Guancheng can be clearly seen.

Among the Luoyang army and horses, the Chuang army paid the most attention to Wang Dou's Shunxiang army, and the sentry horses also knew that the Beiguan of Luoyang City was defended by Wang Dou, so after setting up camp, Li Zicheng personally brought all the generals to Beiguan to inspect.

Among the generals of the Chuang army, Yuan Zongdi was in charge of the general manager of the Luoyang city raid. He said: "The king of Chuang, the last general has found out that this Luoyang Beiguan is defended by Wang Dou and Chen Yongfu. On the west and north sides, there is also a wall of sheep and horses, about [-] to [-] paces away from the city wall. The sentry horse found out that Wang and Chen had deployed troops to defend inside the wall of sheep and horses. The sheep and horse wall. Wang Dou has blunderbuss soldiers deployed inside the sheep and horse wall, and there are cannons on the wall. If he wants to attack, he may have to spend some effort."

As soon as he finished speaking, a rough voice sounded like a thunderstorm: "Brother Zongdi, what are you afraid of spending some effort? We are here to attack the city, so how can we not use effort? That Wang Dou was blown to life, and if he didn't fight How do you know if he's a good guy or a coward?"

It was Liu Zongmin who spoke. He was wearing an iron helmet, and his burly body was still covered with thick and heavy armor. The horses under him seemed to be unable to bear it.The cold wind blew up his bloodstained cloak from time to time. Although the weather was extremely cold, Liu Zongmin still had an expression of indifference.

As soon as he made a sound, all the generals around him laughed and said, "Master Liu, the chief sentry, is full of pride."

Seeing that everyone wanted to fight Beiguan, Li Zicheng pondered for a while, and asked the literati and think tanks beside him: "What do you guys think?"

Niu Jinxing held his beard in his hand and said: "King Chuang, there is a saying in the art of war: a good fighter can kill people but not people. General Liu once said that the king is good at fighting and his infantry is fierce. However, he is only defending Beiguan. Not enough."

"According to the students, there is no need to pay attention to this Wang Dou. We just need to surround and not fight, and restrain him with appropriate forces so that he cannot go out to rescue. Then concentrate our forces to attack the east, west, and south of Luoyang City. Wang Shaoyu, Everyone in Liu Jianyi is a scumbag, and attacking his defense is better than attacking Wang Dou's defense of Beiguan."

He shook his head and finally came to a conclusion: "Soldiers, Dao is more important to control people than to be controlled by others. Those who control people hold power, and those who control others obey orders."

He was talking about the principle of using troops in the "Taibai Yin Jing" written by Li Quan in Tang Dynasty, which means to contain the enemy and not be contained by the enemy.If you can restrain the enemy, you have the initiative, and if you are restrained by the enemy, you can only be at the mercy of the enemy.

Niu Jinxing has read the art of war well, so he talks about the art of war in a clear and logical way, but he talks a lot, almost all of Li Zicheng's subordinates are illiterate, how can they understand what he said?All at a loss.

Li Zicheng didn't understand Niu Jinxing's last sentence, but felt that what he said was unpredictable and difficult to understand at his own level.However, Niu Jinxing still understood the meaning of disapproving of Beiguan in the previous few sentences.

Li Yan looked at the city of Beiguan, his eyes flashed with excitement and eagerness, and he said: "King Chuang, General Liu came back from Ruzhou, and once said that Wang Doujun's horses and guns are sharp, and his troops must be our army. They How sharp it is, how its troops fight, now is a good opportunity to test it out, and only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you win a hundred battles."

Li Zicheng nodded. What Li Yan said was very suitable for him. He smiled and said: "As early as in Yongning, the master mentioned the way of the other, and gave it to him. They have sharp blunderbusses, and our rebels use rockets. They The Hongyi blunderbuss are powerful, and our rebel army also uses artillery. This time our army came from Yongning and other places, and brought a total of hundreds of artillery pieces, but there are dozens of cannons for the general who can fight more than one mile, and they are just in handy now. .”

Having said that, he laughed out loud.

Song Xiance, who had been sitting on the cart and looked like Zhuge Kongming, also said: "The student's point is that it is better to try it out. As for the strength of Wang Doujun, you will only know after fighting. If it is really brave and difficult to fight, then follow what Mr. Niu said. That's right."

When Song Xiance said this, everyone thought it was good. This was a way to get the best of both worlds.

Looking at Beiguan City, Li Zicheng was full of pride: "Okay, just today, let's try how powerful Wang Dou is."

……

In the telescope, it seems that the intruders and horses can spread all the way to the end of the world, and people shout and neigh, and I don't know how many soldiers are in it.Looking at the dense spears and turbans, Wang Dou estimated that Li Zicheng dispatched 10 soldiers and horses today.

It was the second time for Wang Dou to be besieged by so many soldiers and horses.However, the soldiers of the Chuang army, who were mostly hungry people, were far less powerful than the Qing soldiers who were besieged during the Battle of Julu.

In the binoculars, Wang Dou could also see the big flag with the word "Chuang" very clearly, as well as Li Zicheng and others in front of the army formation, Wang Dou could also see clearly.His appearance and demeanor are very similar to those recorded in the history books. There are generals behind him and a few literati next to him. Wang Dou also looked at it again and again.

"hateful!"

Chen Yongfu put down his binoculars, usually when two armies are at war, it is difficult to see the faces of each other's generals.But with the binoculars, the appearance and behavior of Li Zicheng and others, and their every move, can be seen clearly from a few miles away.

It's a pity that Li Zicheng and others are nearly three miles away from Beiguan. At this distance, even the Hongyi six-pound guns of the Shunxiang Army may not be able to hit them.

Although Chen Yongfu has great confidence in the artillery of the Shunxiang Army after the battle of Ruzhou, the distance is really far away. If it is placed two miles away, Li Zicheng and others will be wiped out with one shot. Not only will Luoyang City be relieved immediately, Chen Yongfu and the others also made amazing achievements.

Suddenly hearing the sound of horns from the intruders, Chen Yongfu's expression turned serious: "The intruders are attacking, and they are coming towards my North Pass."

Wang Dou raised the binoculars again, and saw a commotion among the Chuangjun army, and then several small army formations came out of the large formation. Wang Dou estimated that there might be tens of thousands of them.

Suddenly Wang Dou snorted, he put down the binoculars, then lifted it up again to watch carefully.He could see very clearly that not only shieldmen and spearmen were in each formation of the invading army, but there were also many people pushing many heavy cannons forward, he was not mistaken.

"General, it's the Buddha Wolf Machine General Cannon..."

Zhao Xuan, who was behind Wang Dou, was also quite surprised. He held up the binoculars to look at it, and counted carefully in his mouth: "One door, two doors, three doors, four doors... There are as many as thirty doors. These great generals The cannons are all three to five catties, and they can hit more than one mile. The Flang machines in our Guancheng can only hit about two hundred paces."

"Then what should we do? Can we just sit back and watch?"

Chen De, the son of Chen Yongfu, was shocked.

He was used to enjoying the pleasure brought by the superior firepower of the Shunxiang Army, and suddenly the opponent had comparable firearms, which made Chen De a little flustered.Thirty general cannons... On Beiguan City, there are only thirty Franco cannons, and most of them are small and medium-sized iron cannons. They only fire one to three catties, and the range is less than one mile.

Zhao Xuan proudly said: "Brother Chen, don't worry, our Shun Township Army still has ten big red barbarian guns, two of which can hit more than two miles, and the rest can reach two miles. The thirty big general guns of the bandits, Not my opponent of the Shunxiang Army Artillery Army!"

Chen De heaved a sigh of relief, smiled happily, and touched his head: "I almost forgot."

Wang Dou looked at Chen Yongfu, and he was also looking at Wang Dou. Both of them nodded, and passed the military order: "Ready to fight!"

The passionate battle drums sounded, and the officers shouted one after another: "Ready to fight!"

Zhao Xuan's face sank, and he shouted: "The Artillery Army is ready!"

The chief observer of the Artillery Army deployed the gun mirror on the top of the city, constantly observing the distance approached by the enemy: "Eight hundred paces."

A mass of intruders came, and many of them were still struggling to push the artillery.

"Six hundred steps..."

Soon the observer reported another distance.

"550 steps."

"Destroy the cannons of the thieves, and aim each cannon independently."

Zhao Xuan gave another order.

Immediately, there was a squeaking metal sound, and the gunners of the ten Hongyi cannons continued to adjust the angle of the muzzles. With a loud noise, a Hongyi six-pound cannon fired first.Then another Hongyi six-pound cannon spewed out thick smoke, and following the cannonball in front, another big iron ball weighing five catties flew viciously towards the Chuangjun formation.

Intense and intense cannon sounds followed one after another, and amidst the large swaths of gunpowder smoke, ten Hongyi cannons fired one after another, each aiming at its own target.

……

Fifteen Buddha Wolf cannons were erected on the north side of Beiguan City. Among those cannons, Huang Yinggui was one of them.There are three gunners for each Franco machine gun, the loader, the aimer, and the gunner. Huang Yinggui is the aimer and is one of the best paid gunners.

Gunners are treated better than ordinary sergeants, and aimers are treated even better. Those who eat "technical rice" have a sense of arrogance.

Huang Yinggui is even more proud, but he often suffers from himself. He thinks that his artillery skills are top-notch in Luoyang City, but he can only shrink back in Beiguan, handling these small Buddha Wolf machine artillery.According to his thinking, with his own ability, he should go to the main city to handle those big general guns, even those big red guns.

After the Shunxiang army took over Beiguan, the original general went to the main city happily, leaving the artillery under the control of Wang Dou and others.On the wall of Beiguan City, next to the original artillery positions, many high platforms were erected for the artillerymen of the Shunxiang Army.

After the gunners of the Shun Township Army arrived, Huang Yinggui was really envious and jealous. Good guys, all of them were red-faced, and the armor on a soldier's body was comparable to the armor of a general in Luoyang City. The treatment was so good, it was really enviable.

Although these gunners all ate with the Shun Township Army after Wang Dou came, the superior environment of the Shun Township Army, in a short period of time, has caused the gunners in Beiguan to have different hearts, and they all want to join after the war. , but Huang Yinggui has been watching coldly from the sidelines.

"Technical people" generally obey people who are better than themselves. The Shunxiang army was so praised by the Luoyang army and civilians, but I didn't see it.Especially their artillery ability, whether he can convince himself, Huang Yinggui depends on their real artillery level, whether they are embroidered pillows with bright appearance.

With this in mind, he secretly paid attention to the movements of the gunners of the Shun Township Army beside him when he broke into the army and attacked the city.Seeing their skillful movements, Huang Yinggui couldn't help being secretly surprised. After the artillery fired, he stared at the direction in which the shells flew.

"Mummy, it's really accurate!"

Huang Yinggui cried out involuntarily.

(End of this chapter)