Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 171 Raiders
"Brother Hongji, although we are not afraid of the officers and soldiers, I think it's better to keep a hand!" Liu Fangliang, who had never said a word, said.

Except for Li Zicheng's nephew Yihu Li Guo, Liu Fangliang is the youngest among them.

26-year-old Liu Fangliang is Li Zicheng's township party member. Both of them are from Mizhi County. Li Zicheng and Li Zicheng, who is a few years older than him, were childhood playmates. At the age of 14, he joined the army and entered Yanyulinwei, and stayed in the army for five years; until the second year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng followed Gao Yingxiang to rebel, and found Liu Fangliang, who had already been promoted to a small banner, and pulled him into the rebel army.

Liu Fangliang is brave and good at fighting, and quite strategic. He has won the trust and love of Li Zicheng. The most elite [-] old battalion of Li Zicheng's department is trained and controlled by him on a daily basis, and he is one of Li Zicheng's most trusted people.

Li Zicheng has always attached great importance to Liu Fangliang, seeing him suddenly interjected, he hastily asked, "Brother Liangzi, is there something wrong? Tell me, and we will take a closer look!"

Liu Fangliang opened the mouth and said: "Brother Hongji, everyone, these days, more and more volunteers from all walks of life have joined the gang, and they were all defeated by the official army; After being charged by the cavalry of the official army, it was only after being charged by the infantry that it was defeated!"

Li Zicheng and the others nodded and waited quietly for Liu Fangliang to continue talking.

Liu Fangliang continued to speak: "It has now been found out that there are [-] officers and soldiers led by Old Ghost Hong on the west side of us, but the defeated rebels defected from the north and south. That is to say, the formation of the officers and soldiers is like a bat Big bird, old ghost Hong is coming with a head, body, and two wings! Look at this formation, old ghost Hong wants to surround us and eat us in one bite!"

Li Zicheng and the others are all veterans of the war, and they all have rich combat experience. After careful consideration, it turns out that, as Liu Fangliang said, the officers and soldiers wanted to surround them.

Gao Yigong patted his thigh and said: "Brother Liu is very reasonable! Old ghost Hong has a big appetite! This is the same reason as we used to go up the mountain to beat black-faced men!"

Liu Zongmin glared and said angrily: "What are you talking about? We are a rebel army, where is the black-faced man?!"

Gao Yigong was quite afraid of Liu Zongmin, who was usually reticent but brave and tough. When he heard him yelling at him loudly, he shrank his neck and lowered his head, not daring to speak again.

Li Zicheng smoothed things over with a smile and said, "Brother Yigong is just using an analogy, why bother to take Jiexuan seriously! Since brother Liangzi explained the purpose of the officers and soldiers coming, how should we deal with it next? Let's discuss it! Liangzi, tell me first!"

Liu Fangliang pondered for a while, and said: "Brother Hongji, brothers, I think, if it's safe, we'd better take advantage of the fact that the officers and troops have not yet arrived, and the army will follow the big river all the way to the north, find the air and cross the river into Shanxi. , stay away from Old Ghost Hong!"

Yuan Zongdi shook his head and said: "Impossible! I grew up by the big river, and I know that the river is dangerous. It is even more difficult for our tens of thousands of troops to cross the river! We have to find hundreds of sheepskin rafts alone. Right now, there are still many boatmen by the river, even if you make a raft, it will be useless without the boatman!"

Liu Zongmin threw away the cotton cloth that wiped the long knife, stood up and inserted the bright iron double knives into the scabbard at his waist, and said with a stern look: "Hongji, if we avoid the officers and soldiers now, then we will go away later." It is very difficult to have the final say in the rebel army! Who will be convinced? In my opinion, even if we want to leave, we must fight a battle with the official army! Let the rebel army elsewhere take a look, we eight The team is not as cowardly as they are!"

Li Zicheng stood up suddenly, his bright eyes full of pride and ambition: "Zhong! Jiexuan is right! Our eighth team is not weak! Our eighth team is not called for nothing! This battle must be fought! Call Hong Lao Let's go after the ghosts taste our power!"

A few days later, Hong Chengchou led his troops to the west bank of the Sheyan River. During this period, hundreds of thieves who were defeated by the officers and soldiers joined Li Zicheng's eighth team. His men have reached more than [-] people.

Li Zicheng gathered all the bandits who had lost their leaders, and then assigned them to Gao Yigong, Yuan Zongdi and others.And those thieves who numbered in the thousands and whose leaders were still there were sent by Li Zicheng to camp on both sides away from the official army.

It's not that he is kind, it's because he is afraid that if these people are put in the front line, if they are defeated and retreated by the army, it will disrupt his headquarters formation, and these people will have to be trained before they can fight.

Looking at the boundless tens of thousands of horses, Li Zicheng's chest was full of pride: With so many people, where in the world can't go!
The officers and soldiers set up camp on the west bank of the Sheyan River, and after a night's rest, they began to cross the river the next day.

It's more like wading than crossing a river.

Due to the drought and lack of rain this year, the upper reaches cannot provide sufficient water sources, and the deepest part of the Sheyan water only reaches knees.

At around Chenshi, after more than 3000 officers and soldiers had eaten their meals, with the blowing of horns, [-] archers from the officers and soldiers stepped out of the camp and formed two square formations under the command of their respective battalion officers. The [-] members of the He Renlong Division took the lead in wading across the river.

Li Zicheng did not dispatch cavalry to attack halfway, because the widest part of the Sheyan River is only more than ten feet wide, and it is not the kind of big river. It is meaningless to try to prevent the officers and soldiers from crossing the river, not to mention that he is full of ambitions to compete with the officers and soldiers. ,
When he learned that the official army had started to leave the camp, he ordered Gao Yigong and Yuan Zongdi to lead their troops from the official vegetable garden to Sheyanshui, and set up a formation three miles away. Liu Tichun and Li Guo each led their headquarters to form two wings. He, Liu Zongmin and Liu Fangliang personally led [-] old battalion troops as the central army, and the rest of the rebels followed as the rear army. More than [-] rebels marched towards Sheyanshui successively.

Hong Chengchou, who was riding a horse, was watching the formation of the bandits a few miles away, surrounded by He Renlong, Zuo Liangyu and others.

The formation of the bandits on the opposite side is very targeted. There is a large group of infantry in the middle, and there are more than 1000 cavalry on each side. It is obvious that they are guarding against the surprise attack of the officers and soldiers from both sides.

The formation of the bandits is very neat, not the previous messy appearance regardless of the number of people.

The bandits' central army was obscured by the soldiers in front, so they couldn't see clearly, only a small group of cavalry was in front of the central army. Unsurprisingly, there should be Li Zicheng and other bandit leaders.

He Renlong on the side said in a rough voice: "This group of local bandits from Donkey Day have learned the ways of our officers and soldiers! The formation is still a bit decent! This group of local bandits is not easy to fight!"

Zuo Liangyu said angrily: "What's wrong with fighting? No matter how good the formation is, it's just a bandit! Crazy He probably doesn't want to fight with the township party on the opposite side? How about I fight in this first formation?"

He Renlong and Li Zicheng are from Mizhi County, that's why Zuo Liangyu said so.

"Fart your mother! I'm an officer, he's a traitor! What a piece of crap! I'll rush in and chop off his head!" He Renlong said angrily.

Hong Chengchou snorted coldly and reprimanded: "The battle is at hand, don't talk nonsense! Congratulations to Renlong! You lead the headquarters to advance from the front, and I will give you a thousand archers! After breaking through the bandits, drive the bandits back and disrupt the army ! Those who are afraid of the enemy will be cut immediately!"

After He Renlong clasped his fists and made a loud promise, he rode his horse and led his soldiers to the front, followed by Sun Shoufa, a guerrilla from Shaanxi Town, with a thousand archers under his command.

The 3000 men under his command were the spearheads of the official army, and they were deployed at the forefront. Hong Chengchou didn't care what kind of relationship he had with Li Zicheng.

"Zuo Liangyu! The bandits' left wing is weak. When He Renlong's troops break into the enemy's formation, you immediately lead your troops to attack the enemy's left wing. After defeating them, drive the bandits to charge towards their cavalry! Anyone who retreats will be killed immediately!"

Hong Chengchou continued to order.

Liu Tichun's left wing consisted of more than [-] men from Liu Tichun, who shrank behind the front of the bandit. They used a variety of weapons, and they were basically civilians. They were not elite at first glance.

After Zuo Liangyu sang, he rode his horse and headed for the headquarters on the right wing.

"You Jie! You lead your troops to move to the left! Place the repelling horses to prevent the enemy's right-wing cavalry from attacking!"

After taking the order, You Jie, the general of Shaanxi Town, took his soldiers to the left. There were nearly 3000 people in his headquarters, including [-] archers, and the rest were spearmen and sword and shield players.

After the generals left, Hong Chengchou ordered his standard battalion to separate out a thousand cavalry team, led by general Li Shu, to gallop to Zuo Liangyu's right wing as a cover, and the remaining [-] standard battalion cavalry as a reserve team, waiting for his military order .

Gao Yigong and Yuan Zongdi, who were standing in front of the bandits, saw the officers and soldiers approaching in formation, and immediately ordered more than 1000 archers and [-] shieldmen to go forward to meet them.

Because the officer army on the opposite side only had cavalry on one side, and was facing off against their own cavalry several miles away, the two were not worried about the safety of the archers.

As for the ten or so cavalry in the officer army directly opposite, they were obviously guarding the chief general, and this cavalry was selectively ignored by the two of them.

He Renlong immediately ordered Sun Shoufa to lead the archers forward to meet the enemy, and then greeted Zheng He Shisan, the bodyguard team. After dismounting, he took off his armor and said loudly: "Thirteen! Take these sixteen soldiers with you. Take advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness, rush up and kill the archers! As long as you defeat the bandit archers, I will give you a reward!"

He Shisan, who is about 16 years old, is He Renlong's nephew. He has joined the army in Shaanxi Town since he was [-] years old. He has been fighting with He Renlong since the second year of Chongzhen, and rescued He Renlong several times in the battle. The life of the dragon.After He Renlong was promoted to deputy commander, in order to repay his kindness, he wanted to put him down to lead the army. He would be able to use his military exploits in the future, but He Shisan was determined not to leave He Renlong's side, saying that he was leaving, so he decided to leave. No one saved He Renlong's life.

He Renlong was moved and helpless, so he took out money to help He Shisan beg for his mother-in-law, and bought a house in Guyuan to settle down. Afterwards, his mother-in-law gave birth to He Shisan with two sons and a daughter, for which He Shisan was very satisfied , I am even more grateful to He Renlong.

He Renlong saw that there were more bandits and archers than officers and soldiers, so if they shot at each other, they might suffer a lot of casualties.And these archers still have to keep the formation of shooting turbulent bandits, so they can only defeat the bandit archers first.

At present, the only way he can think of is to use his own soldiers to crush the bandit archers. These ten or so cavalry are not eye-catching in such a battle of tens of thousands of people, and they can just play the role of surprise soldiers.

As long as the timing is right for this kind of charge, the casualties will not be too great.

As long as the archers of both sides start to shoot at each other, the shieldmen of the bandit army will gather in front to cover the bows and arrows of the officers and soldiers. Regardless of whether they are archers or shieldmen, they will all focus on their own front and have no defense against the two sides. , the bandit archers will definitely be defeated.

With the help of the soldiers next to him, He Renlong took off the mountain armor and put it on He Shisan who jumped off the horse. The two layers of heavy armor will protect He Shisan's safety to the greatest extent.

Helping He Shisan fasten the straps on the armor, He Renlong stared into He Shisan's eyes and said, "San Shisan, don't blame me, I'm the general, I have to find a way to win! You come back alive and I Here is a reward for you! You are going to die in battle, I will raise my niece and three grandnieces for you, as long as I, He Renlong, can eat in one bite, they will never be short of them!"

He Shisan laughed and said, "Uncle Wu, what a big deal? They're just local thieves! Just wait and buy me a drink! Look at me!"

After the other sixteen soldiers were ready, He Renlong ordered Sun Shoufa to lead the archers forward to meet the enemy, and told him to stop shooting arrows as soon as he saw He Shisan and the others approaching the enemy.

He Shisan got on his horse, picked up his usual flail, and trotted away with Shiliu cavalry to one side. They had to keep a certain distance apart in order to leave enough room for the horses to speed up.

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(End of this chapter)