"The officers and soldiers can't fight at all!"

This was Zhang Xianzhong's final thought after carefully observing the enemy's formation. This army of about 5,000 soldiers chose to intercept them halfway and gave up the city's benefits, which was stupid. Moreover, they also chose such a wide and flat place, with no danger to defend or ambushing them, so they would rely on these 5,000 people to fight against his 50,000 people?

It seems that the official army is very brave, but Zhang Xianzhong will only think that they are stupid. Maybe the official army will have advantages such as firearms, but now it is raining heavily, and firearms are useless.

The government army set up formations like this, and there was no camp in place. What did they use to fight? Zhang Xianzhong couldn't help but wonder, why could the sweeping officers and soldiers be defeated by such stupid officers and soldiers, the Ten Anti-Kings, the Shuntian King, and the Mianshi King.

In short, the formations set up by the official army are all here to die no matter what.

Zhang Xianzhong sneered when he saw it.

"Maybe this is just the bait of the official army!"

Zhang Xianzhong's military advisor Pan Duao stood aside and looked at the formation opposite for a long time. He also felt that the government army was here to die. But Pan Duao has always been cautious. He was originally from Yingcheng, Huguang, with a scholarly reputation and a wealthy family. Later, bandits spread everywhere.

Like many local gentry at that time, Pan Duao recruited servants and trained village warriors. He built a water village near the county town and trained a thirteen-man servant team to protect himself from the thief. In the ninth year of Chongzhen, it was said that Zhang Xianzhong wanted to attack Yingcheng, and the officials, gentry and wealthy families in the city fled into his water village to avoid chaos.

Pan Duao first politely refused, and then offered conditions: Anyone who came to the water village to avoid chaos, the strong men entered the queue to wait for dispatch and prepared to defend the enemy with weapons. The elderly and weak paid two taels of silver every day as living expenses, while women needed to pay four taels of silver to enter the village; all gold, silver and fines brought by the visitors were handed over to the water village for safekeeping and were not allowed to be kept privately.

Pan's approach offended many people. Later, the county raised 10,000 taels from Pan and gave him a title of instructor. As a result, Pan refused to give it at first, but later agreed to donate 5,000 taels. Both sides bargained. In the end, many gentry in the county sued Yuan forcibly occupying other people's property. The magistrate was furious and put Pan in prison. In the end, the Pan family sold half of the property, and the top and the other were responsible for redeeming him.

Pan held a grudge for this and waited for the opportunity after returning home. Later, Zhang Xianzhong finally came to the vicinity. Pan Duao took the initiative to go to see Zhang Xianzhong. He expressed his willingness to surrender and told Zhang Xianzhong that Yingcheng was rich and wealthy and could provide military pay, which led Zhang Xianzhong's army to capture Yingcheng. After the city was broken, Pan Duao killed all the officials and gentry who had sued him.

Pan Duao led Zhang Xianzhong's army into Yingcheng. On eight days of massacre, he killed more than 37,000 people. Yingcheng County Fu Yijin was burned to pieces.

After Pan entered Zhang Xianzhong's tent, he advised Zhang Xianzhong to take Bashu as the best strategy, and based on Jiangnan as the central strategy, it was the worst strategy to continue to roam and disrupt the Central Plains. He proposed to Zhang Xianzhong to invade the Sichuan separatist area and establish a regime.

Later, Zhang Xianzhong decided to take Jiangnan first. He told Pan Zeng that it was a gift to help me. From then on, Pan Duao was appointed as his military advisor. He also gave Pan Kewang, four adopted sons who were most favoured by his adopted sons, and handed them into a battalion and the four others, including Zhang Kewang, to Pan Duao for training.

Pan Duao was very important in Zhang Xianzhong's camp. He also studied three-eyed guns, crossbow arrows, and square formation tactics for Zhang Xianzhong. He personally taught them to the children of the generals in Zhang Xianzhong's army.

Zhang Xianzhong was still very obedient to Pan Duao's words. When Gucheng surrendered to the official army, Gucheng later rebelled again, and Fang County ambushed Zuo Liangyu and others were all from Pan Duao's strategy.

"What the military advisor said is very much, but the dog soldiers thought I was so easy to trick me? Since he put the bait, we will eat his bait first."

"Come here, pass my orders, one dragon in the left camp, two tigers in the front camp, each leading the headquarters to defeat the roadblocking official army. After breaking the enemy, you must not chase the enemy!"

After giving the order, Zhang Xianzhong called Zhang Kewang, Zhang Dingguo, Zhang Wenxiu, and Zhang Nengqi's adopted sons, "You will follow the military advisor to lead the headquarters to guard the old camp in the back."

Because of the unfounded land, Zhang Xianzhong, like many other bandit troops, brought his family and his family wherever he went. They formed a battalion into an old camp and followed the battle camps, but they were strictly separated. During the marching and fighting, even if the old camp was around, the soldiers of the battle camp were not allowed to go to the old camp to see their families, and those who violated the battle camp were killed.

In front of the Ming army not far apart, Lu Yuansun and Lu Yuan asked the two brothers to set up troops to wait for the enemy.

"The thief has been dispatched."

Lu Yuansun rode on the horse and shouted to his brother, feeling nervous. Double 6,000 to 50,000, which is indeed a lot of pressure.

The wind blows raindrops and hits the body, and the rain is getting heavier again.

At this time, in the bandit army, Yilong and Two Tigers led the base camp to leave the brigade and launched an attack.

"Prepare to face the enemy!"

"Rise the gun!"

Lu Yuansun and Lu Yuan asked the brothers to issue orders almost at the same time, with the horns ringing together, and thousands of Huguang soldiers shouting at the same time. The commanders rode their horses in front of the formation and shouted loudly. As his orders passed, they lined up in front of the formation, and long shields smashed into the mud, splashing a lot of mud. More soldiers in the front row lowered the spears and pointed them at the thieves.

Thousands of Hubei soldiers immediately built a copper wall and a forest of steel guns.

The two battalions of Xianjun launched a charge, divided into left and right sides to attack at the same time, just like two iron fists attacking at the same time. They did not directly attack the middle formation, but chose to attack the left and right sides.

The ones rushing in front were the Tangma cavalry in the second battalion, which were the most elite combat soldiers among the bandits. They used them to break through the outer shell of the officers and soldiers' military formations, followed by armored infantry, which was also the backbone of the bandit army. They would break into the officers and soldiers' formations, and followed by a large number of light infantry. These people can help expand the results of the battle, and can also help tie prisoners, search for defeated soldiers, monitor surrendered soldiers, clean up the battlefield, etc.

One dragon, He Yilong and one horse took the lead, with five hundred pond horses in the headquarters. These pond horses were the elite of his battalion. In fact, they were like servants of the generals in the official army. Most of them were wearing armor and iron helmets. When they approached the official army formation, they began to raise the round shield with great experience.

The countless battle experiences with the government army made them very fierce. Although they rode horses to fight, they did not rely on riding and shooting. They liked a more direct way, riding horses directly hitting the government army formation, and then throwing a javelin and a short spear, which was more lethal than a bow and arrow.

"Shoot the arrow!" Lu Yuansun looked at the thief cavalry that was rushing closer and closer, and quickly ordered. He hated this rainy day. If it didn't rain, there would be a lot of artillery and muskets in his camp, which was the most effective against these cavalry, but now he could only rely on the spear card and the bow and arrow with great lethality.

A feathered arrow shot at the thief army, but the effect was not great. Most of the thief cavalry wore armor and helmets, and even had silk cloaks on their bodies. The arrows were greatly affected in the rain. This round of arrows passed, but dozens of people were caught, and only a few people fell off the horse.

The cavalry quickly approached, and the bandits all raised a short spear high, and then threw it into the formation.

The thief cavalry almost threw short spears against the front of the formation. Although the officers and soldiers hurriedly raised their shields, they still couldn't stop them. The soldiers holding guns behind screamed, and dozens of spearmen were penetrated by the short spears and fell to the ground.

He rode one after another, threw out his spear, and then quickly bypassed the formation.

The officers and soldiers even used bows and arrows, but they seemed so pale and powerless.

Thousands of thieves repeatedly attacked both ends of the officers and soldiers' military formations. Under the continuous impact of the iron cavalry and the short spear, the military formations on both sides gradually loosened and unstable.

At this time, the armored infantry of the bandit army finally seized the opportunity and rushed up.

The two soldiers collided with each other, guns against spears, swords against shields, blood splattered, and a close handover was handed over.

In a blink of an eye, the sides of the official army became more and more loose and unstable. At this time, the two thief cavalry circled back and began to roam around on both sides, using arrows and knives to cut off the divided officers and soldiers.

The officers and soldiers began to retreat, retreat, and then could no longer maintain the formation, and turned into a retreat and fled.

"Hahaha, it's true that the dog officer and soldier came up and died, and he couldn't hold on for a moment."

"Eight Kings, why did you stop?"

Cao Cao Luo Rucai rode his horse to Zhang Xianzhong, "The official army was defeated and it happened to continue chasing, why did you stop?"

"Be careful that the officers and soldiers deliberately defrauded the defeat and lure the enemy!" Zhang Xianzhong remembered Pan Duao's reminder.

"Oh, there are no ambushes here. You're thinking too much. Just be careful in front of you. You can't just let the officers and soldiers escape like this. Once they retreat to the city, it will be difficult to fight."

Zhang Xianzhong thought about it and felt it was right. He wanted to pretend to be defeated and lure the enemy, but there was no place in front of him where he could hide his troops.

"Well, send the order, continue to pursue, but let One Dragon and Two Tigers be careful and don't be ambushed by the thief."

After ordering, the thief army immediately continued to pursue.

The officers and soldiers were even more defeated and fled completely in desperate vain.

Lu Yuansun rode his horse and was in a very embarrassing state. He had received the order to pretend to be defeated and lured the enemy, but now he is defeated and cannot be defeated any more.

Wherever reinforcements are, we will be swallowed if we don’t appear.

"Bang!"

Several cannons woke up the happy thief army. Before they knew it, they had chased for more than ten miles. One dragon He Yilong quickly stopped the horse and was startled. At this time, the shouts of killing sounded from all sides, but an official cavalry rushed out.

He Yilong, who was about to withdraw his troops and retreat, suddenly discovered that there seemed to be very few official cavalry, only about a thousand cavalry.

Seeing this cavalry, He Yilong changed his mind again.

"Maybe these cavalry are servants of the official army. It seems that the military advisors have indeed expected that the official army had indeed defrauded the enemy before, but just these more than a thousand servants could stop us?"

"Kill them all!"

He Yilong waved his sword and ordered, leading his cavalry to rush forward first.

The two cavalry fought in the mud in the rain. At this time, the previously defeated official infantry began to gather their troops and fight back. The two sides fought together. When Zhang Xianzhong heard the news, he hurriedly led his troops to arrive.

"kill!"

The large group of bandits rushed into the battlefield. The officers and soldiers who were fighting with the bandit army were unable to stand up immediately and began to retreat.

"I still want to run away, chase me!"

This time, without Luo Rucai's suggestion, Zhang Xianzhong had directly issued an order to pursue the entire army! (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!