Chapter 259: Little Showing Straight (2)

The water flow of the Yangtze River flows like a black velvet belt under the night sky, echoing the Milky Way belt in the sky. Several big stars emit bright light. In this mysterious and distant night, a huge fleet of ships was striking waves on the vast river surface. The east wind blew strongly and the sails were rising. This fleet stretched for fifty miles, with a total of thousands of ships, loading 100,000 Liaodong troops heading towards the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty.

Li Wei was standing on the bow of the treasure ship, looking at the stars in the night sky and falling into infinite reverie. He did not imagine the fantasy fairy monsters among the stars, but imagined the Ming Dynasty under the stars. Twenty days ago, he finally received a formal edict from Zhu Yunwen to appoint him as the commander-in-chief of the Five Armies, blocking the Yan army from going south and doing everything cheaply.

What he has been waiting for in the past two years is this edict, which means that all his future actions will be carried out under the cloak of law, which means that he has obtained a political entry ticket for the Ming Dynasty, which is what the King of Yan cannot give him, and this is also the fundamental reason why he finally chose Zhu Yunwen instead of the King of Yan. If he cannot obtain political initiative, then what is the difference between him and Lan Yu?

It can be said that this edict is his wings, which took him to travel around the nine heavens. Li Wei was looking at the boundless night sky, and his heart turned into a star shining in the Milky Way.

At dawn, Li Weizheng led 30,000 troops to Hezhou. The remaining 70,000 troops were heading towards Wuchang under the leadership of General Chen Hui. The first thing Li Weizheng had to deal with was the 30,000 vanguards led by Yan general Zhang Yu. After Zhang Yu's vanguard army arrived in Chuzhou, he was stubbornly resisted by the imperial army led by Xu Huizu and retreated back to Fengyang. At this time, the 100,000 troops urgently transferred back from Huguang were divided into two groups, one by one, cut off Zhang Yu's army's retreat, and the other arrived in Yingshang County. Luo Guangcai, the general of the Liaodong Army, led 50,000 troops to Xuzhou. In addition, Li Weizheng's army came ashore from Hezhou in the southwest, and in fact, he surrounded Zhang Yu's army.

Li Weizheng's army was a veteran who followed him to expedition to Japan, including 10,000 musketeers and 6,000 elite cavalry. It was also equipped with 500 light breech guns. It was his elite force. The vanguard general was Ping'an, the powerful general who had just been conquered by Li Weizheng.

After getting ashore from Hezhou, they headed north, crossed Sanggen Mountain, Huangfu Mountain, and crossed Daqinling. On that day, the army arrived in Dingyuan County, Fengyang Prefecture, which was about a hundred miles away from Fengyang Prefecture, so the army stopped moving forward and stationed in Dingyuan County.

On the city wall, Li Wei was silently staring at the north, considering the next move. At this time, General Ping'an slowly walked behind him and said in a deep voice: "Sir, I think it's a bit strange. Our army has arrived in Dingyuan County, less than a hundred miles from Fengyang, but there is no trace of the Yan army. This is not in line with Zhang Yu's combat style."

Ping'an served as the commander of Miyun and also followed the King of Yan to attack Mongolia in the north, and was very familiar with Zhang Yu.

Li Weizheng turned around and smiled, "Tell me, what kind of actions do you think Zhang Yu should take to fit his style?"

Ping An pondered for a moment and said, "I originally thought I would encounter his ambush when I crossed the Big Gun Ridge. He was good at using surprise troops, but this time, I don't know why he was so tolerant."

"Maybe I know something." Li Weizheng smiled and said, "If the imperial army arrived, he would definitely set up an ambush, but this time it was the Liaodong army, so he was extra cautious."

"Why?" Ping'an asked in confusion.

Li Wei was pulling out a small flintlock rifle with exquisite workmanship from the horse bag. It was about two feet long. The gun handle, trigger and long gun barrel were almost the same as those of later generations. He handed it to Ping An and said, "Can you use this thing?"

Ping An first came into contact with flintlock rifles on the ship. He was extremely interested in this new type of musket. He tried the guns almost every day at the bow of the ship, and even equipped one himself. However, he only saw the small flintlock rifle that Li Wei was showing him today.

He took it in surprise and looked carefully, and couldn't help but smile: "This is actually a new musket."

He immediately looked up at Li Weizheng expectantly and said, "Sir, can you give me a shot?"

Li Wei was smiling and nodding, handing him the ammunition bag. Ping An was already very skilled in his movements. He first put a custom gunpowder bag, then stuffed the lead ammunition into the barrel with hemp paper, stabbed the lead ammunition with iron bars, and finally poured a bottle of gunpowder into the gunpowder pool. However, although he was skillful in his movements, he was still much slower than the long-term training musketeers.

"One-arm shooting!" Li Wei reminded on the side.

Ping'an raised the gun with his right arm, aimed it at a row of wooden stakes with a hundred steps away, and pulled off the trigger. With a loud "boom!", a squirt of smoke from the barrel. He immediately ran forward, and the bullet hit one of them, embedded in the wooden stake.

He ran back and praised, "I didn't expect that such a short gun would have such great power."

He looked at the gun again and asked curiously: "Sir, why did this gun be so short?"

Li Weizheng smiled and said, "This kind of gun is called a carriage. It is a special gun for cavalry, and its effective range of killing can reach a hundred steps."

"So it was used by cavalry!" Ping An suddenly realized, and he was even more shocked. If the cavalry were also equipped with this kind of cavalry, wouldn't the archer who poses the greatest threat to the cavalry meet the nemesis?

"This is why Zhang Yu dealt with us carefully. It is because we have new weapons. He never dared to attack us rashly without knowing the details."

Ping'an nodded and said, "Sir, I've heard that the King of Yan was seriously injured when he attacked Shanhaiguan. I guess they were afraid of the new weapons of our Liaodong Army, but I really want to fight a fierce battle with them."

Li Weizheng smiled slightly and said, "Don't worry! If you have this opportunity, if I guess correctly, Zhang Yu will soon lead the army to fight a tough battle with us. If he doesn't find out our background, he will never leave Fengyang."

As soon as he finished speaking, a few fast horses came from afar. The horses rushed to the city gate and stopped. The scout immediately raised his head and shouted, "Sir, the Yan army has been dispatched. Thirty thousand cavalry are coming quickly towards us, and there are still fifty miles away from us."

"Good come!"

Ping An roared, a trace of anger burst out from his eyes, his blood boiled. He must double the shame in Hebei today.

Li Weizheng immediately ordered: "Tell the army, the whole team is ready to go!"

30,000 Liaodong elites vs. 30,000 Yanshan Iron Cavalry. Today is the time to test his true strength.

The Liaodong Army bypassed Haotang Mountain and set up camps on a large field west of Donghao River. Five hundred improved multi-barrel breech guns were neatly arranged, with iron wheels installed on the guns, which can retreat. This multi-barrel breech gun can fire five shells at the same time, with a range of about 500 steps, and see the power of dense explosions...

In addition, two hundred cannons were laid on a small hill behind. At this time, the farthest cannon in the Ming army can have a range of up to a thousand steps and use flowering bullets. In the middle of the cannon, there are 10,000 musketeers. They will be the most sharp army to deal with the Yanshan Iron Cavalry. Then, the cavalry guards were formed by three thousand Liaodong cavalry and three thousand Yan cavalry, led by Ping'an, followed by nine thousand spearmen, arranged in a square formation, and finally Li Weizheng's personal guards, composed of four thousand people, and were selected from hundreds of thousands of troops, which can be called the elite among the elite.

This battle was something Li Weizheng had been looking forward to for a long time. He wanted to use this battle to show Zhu Yunwen his strength and gain more political capital.

At noon, the earth began to shake slightly, and a black line appeared in the distance. The 30,000 Yanshan cavalry led by Zhang Yu arrived. On the war horse, Zhang Yu held a big gun and stared at the Liaodong army in the distance with a serious look. His mood was also extremely complicated. The scout came to investigate the information and this army was actually led by Li Weizheng himself. He immediately realized that he would encounter the most elite troops of the Liaodong army.

As early as when Li Weizheng first came ashore from Hezhou, the situation was already clear, but he still had a chance. His army was highly mobile cavalry and could pass through the gaps of the Ming army. Many of his subordinates advised him to leave Fengyang and retreat north, but Zhang Yu refused. He knew that this was an opportunity to find out the background of the Liaodong army through this battle. This was something that the King of Yan had always been worried about. They knew that the Liaodong army had new weapons, but no one knew what kind of weapons it was. The final assembly and soldier training of Li Weizheng's new weapons were carried out on Danluo Island, and they could not find out the information.

And today the opportunity came. He would rather be defeated by the Liaodong Army today than to find out their details. This is related to the safety of the hundreds of thousands of troops of King Yan.

The Yan cavalry is getting closer and closer to the Liaodong army, only five miles away. At this time, Zhang Yu and Zhang Yu suddenly pulled out the battle sword and shouted: "My sons, let the Liaodong army taste the taste of our Yanshan Iron Cavalry! Rush up and kill!"

"kill!"

The 30,000 cavalry burst out with murderous aura and suddenly accelerated. It was this army that defeated Wu Gao's 70,000 army at the cost of injuring thousands of people and killing less than a hundred people in battle. At this moment, the wildness in their bones was aroused. He wanted to tear the enemy apart. They waved their wolf teeth and sticks, sweeping towards the Liaodong army several miles away like surging winds and waves.

Eight hundred steps, the cannons on the hills were the first to show their might. The loud noise was earth-shaking. Two hundred heavy artillery shot shells into the enemy's formation in three rounds. The shells exploded in the huge cavalry like a black curtain. The hot red light rose up, like blooming bright flame flowers. Around the flame flowers, the cavalry were blown up, the war horses screamed, and the flesh and blood flew everywhere, but the explosion of the heavy artillery did not affect the fighting spirit of the Yan army. They stepped on their companions' bodies and continued to gallop forward.

The cuckoo cannons took time to cool down. After the three cannons exploded, they were silent. At this time, the Yan army had rushed to five hundred steps away. The red flag was waving on the central command tower. This was an order to order the breech gun to fire. A thousand households roared: "Fire!"

The breech guns of more than 500 barrels were immediately sprayed with thick smoke, and thousands of black shells roared towards the cavalry. The nightmare of the Yanshan Iron Cavalry came. Although they turned into columns to attack, the Liaodong Army's breech guns were known for their number and density, and the explosions were connected. In the thick smoke and red flames, the Yanshan Iron Cavalry suffered an extremely heavy blow. After a overwhelming explosion, only more than a thousand people were left. They began to turn around and retreat to both sides.

Zhang Yu's face behind him turned pale. Of course he knew the power of this kind of artillery. When he was in Shanhaiguan, tens of thousands of Yan soldiers died in such artillery that could be fired continuously. And now their power seemed to be even greater. He suddenly gritted his teeth and ordered: "Scatter to both sides and continue to attack."

The Yan army immediately dispersed like a wave, vacancies of land in the middle, but the Liaodong army's breeze was turned with wheels, making it more convenient to turn around. Five hundred cannons turned to both sides, and the breeze was immediately replaced without waiting for cooling. The second round of launch began, and the cannons were thick smoke rolled and gradually dispersed, forming a whole. Under the heavy blow of the cannons, the Yan army suffered heavy casualties, and had already lost 40%, and their positions were in chaos and murderous aura faded. The cavalry that survived the explosion began to turn around and flee, and their morale was hit hard.

In the Liaodong Army camp, ten thousand musketeers were preparing to depart from behind the cannons. They were in a row of three thousand people, and they were arranged into three rows. The bullets were all loaded, and they just waited for an order and raised their guns to fire.

Just then, Li Wei suddenly changed his mind, and he ordered in a deep voice: "The cannons and muskets retreat, and the cavalry and infantry go to fight!"

Ping An, who had already been holding back his strength, roared and waved his large iron spear to kill the Yan army. The six thousand cavalry were divided into left and right wings, like two of the sharpest daggers, penetrated into the Yan army's camp.

"Ping Baoer is here!"

A terrifying shout broke out from the Yan army. In the first bloody battle of the rear, Ping An led 8,000 cavalry to block the attack of 100,000 Yanshan iron cavalry. In the later two battles in Bazhou, Ping An was extremely brave and invincible. Even the King of Yan almost died under his iron spear. The Yan army had a special fear of him. Now he actually appeared again, and it was even more ferocious than before. He killed in the Yan army like a mad tiger, and under his large iron spear, he was full of corpses and blood flowed into a river.

The six thousand Liaodong cavalry were also very motivated and extremely sharp. At this time, Zhang Yu's eyes showed a painful expression. He knew that his strategy had been seen through by Li Weizheng. He clearly saw that the Liaodong Army had a spear-like musket, but in the end he suddenly removed it and did not show it to him at all. What he saw was the extremely powerful gun of the past.

In fact, Zhang Yu didn't know that Li Weizheng didn't want to hide it, but he was preparing to use a flintlock rifle, but he found that it was no longer necessary. Under the bombardment of artillery fire, the Yan army was already in chaos and had no fighting spirit, and began to show signs of collapse, so he directly threw himself into the cavalry to carry out the final blow.

He believed that Ping An would not disappoint himself. In fact, Ping An was really the nemesis of the Yan army. Under the impact of his cavalry, the defeat of the Yan army had already appeared. Seeing that something was wrong, Zhang Yu shouted: "Retreat!"

As soon as he finished shouting, he suddenly found that Ping An was just a hundred steps away, aiming a two-foot-long iron pipe at him. Before he could react, Ping An grinned. The iron pipe in his hand spewed out a dazzling flame, and Zhang Yu's forehead hurt a sharp pain. Suddenly, his eyes turned black and he fell down.
Chapter completed!