The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

When Fan Ao saw that the Hui army had launched more than a hundred artillery vehicles in his direction, he remained calm.

Firstly, he was already on guard against the artillery of the Lai army, so he arranged his troops in a rather loose formation. Secondly, he had more than 3,000 elite cavalrymen at his disposal, so how could he be afraid of artillery?
In Fan Ao's view, the cannons were powerful, but it took time to clean the barrels and load the ammunition. With this time, his more than 3,000 elite cavalry could rush over and cut down all the artillery of the Hui army.

Seeing the enemy troops firing their artillery, Fan Ao immediately gave the order, "Pass on a certain military order, have the cavalry split into two columns, left and right, and rush to attack the enemy's artillery positions after the third round of artillery fire. Make sure to kill all the enemy's artillerymen and blow up their cannons!"

"Order!"

As the messenger took the order and left, soon the more than 3,000 cavalrymen of the Chu army were divided into two parts, forming a 90-degree angle with each other, facing the artillery positions of the Hui army from a distance.

The reason for choosing to launch a rapid attack after the third round of shelling was because Fan Ao knew that as the number of firings increased, the barrel would become hotter and the difficulty of cleaning would increase rapidly.

After a certain number of continuous firings, a long period of cooling is required before the gun can continue firing, otherwise there is a risk of the barrel exploding.

But he did not dare to wait until the artillery of the Lai army needed to cool down before sending the cavalry to attack.

He was afraid that his soldiers could not withstand too many artillery attacks - if his soldiers collapsed before the cavalry attack, it would be a big joke.

Three was the maximum number of bombardments he estimated his soldiers could withstand.

Boom boom boom...

The shells dropped by the Lai army were, as Fan Ao knew, not iron shells, but a new type of shells that could explode again, which the army called shrapnel shells.

This is because after the bomb falls, it will explode, and the broken iron pieces and the iron nails inside will splash in all directions like water, and its lethality is much greater than that of an iron bullet.

Although Fan Ao had ordered the Chu army to spread out its formation as loosely as possible in advance, some unlucky Chu soldiers were still hit by the shrapnel shells of the Xia army and were either killed or injured instantly.

Overall, the number of deaths was quite small, and most of them were injured by shrapnel.

The faces, hands, and even the unarmored parts of the bodies of these wounded were pierced by shrapnel. They were bleeding profusely, but they could not die for the time being. They rolled on the ground and howled in pain.

"Ah! My face!"

"It hurts to death!"

"My eyes, I can't see anymore!"

"help me!"

"···"

Although the Chu army only suffered about a hundred casualties from a round of shrapnel, the screams of the wounded caused the morale of the Chu army to plummet like a waterfall.

Fan Ao showed no sign of pity when he saw this, but just had a cold face and slightly frowned.

However, the Chu troops under his command lived up to their reputation as elite border troops. Although their morale had dropped sharply, their formation remained in good order.

And soon auxiliary soldiers came forward to carry the wounded away, so as to prevent them from dying in the subsequent battle and their screams from continuously undermining their own morale.

However, contrary to the expectations of Fan Ao and all the Chu troops, not long after the auxiliary troops went up and were preparing to withdraw with the wounded on their backs, the second round of artillery fire from the Hui army arrived.

"Why are the enemy's artillery so fast?" Fan Ao finally showed a look of surprise.

But no one could answer.

Amid the booming sounds of artillery shells exploding, not only did the Chu army suffer nearly a hundred casualties, but some of the wounded soldiers who had not yet been evacuated also suffered secondary injuries, and even the auxiliary troops were the same.

This made the morale of the Chu army even lower.

At this time, Fan Ao was secretly glad that he was only prepared to let his soldiers bear three rounds of artillery fire.

Considering the power and speed of the artillery fire of the Xi army, if they had to endure a few more rounds, the more than 10,000 border troops under his command would probably collapse.

It should be noted that although the Great Chu had firearms such as Tianwei Cannon, Tiger Dun Cannon, and Fire Gun at the beginning of its founding.

But in previous battles, the Chu border army had always been the side with "many" firearms and artillery assistance. The enemies of the border army either had no artillery or had very few.

Therefore, the border troops are actually not adapted to fighting under artillery fire.

The border troops of the Great Chu are like this, and the local troops are even more so.

This was also one of the reasons why the Chu army was unable to defend the city after the previous artillery attacks by the Hui army.

Soon, the third round of artillery shells from the enemy troops also fell.

The Chu cavalry stationed at the rear of the army formation immediately followed Fan Ao's orders and formed two scattered columns to rush towards the artillery positions in front of the Hui army formation!
The two armies were three or four miles apart, and with the cavalry's charge speed, they could reach each other quickly.

However, almost at the same time as the Chu cavalry moved out, infantrymen rushed out of the Hui army's formation, all holding tiger-crouching cannons, and quickly crossed the Hui army's artillery positions and reached a more forward position.

Fan Ao had good eyesight. Seeing this, his heart sank. He exclaimed, "Oh no! The bandits are probably going to use the Tiger Crouching Cannon to attack the Gongsun Bullet!"

Using tiger squat cannons to fire Gongsun bullets (a type of shotgun) was a conventional tactic used by the Chu army to deal with the Mongol cavalry. Combined with chariots, it was invincible for quite a long time.

Therefore, Fan Ao saw at a glance the plan of the Hui army to deal with the cavalry's attack on its artillery positions.

However, he did not expect that the combat proficiency of the soldiers of the Hui Army was so high - these tiger-crouching gunners were previously hiding in the army formation and difficult to identify, but when their cavalry rushed over, they quickly stepped out of the line and crossed the artillery position.

Such coordination would be difficult even for the elite border troops.

Fan Ao knew that it was too late to order the cavalry to withdraw.

At the moment, he could only hope that his cavalry could survive a round of bombardment from the tiger squat cannons of the bandits. As long as the cavalry rushed into their artillery positions, both the tiger squat gunners and the cannon gunners would become ghosts under the cavalry's swords.

"Speed ​​up the charge!"

"Kill!"

The two cavalry guerrillas leading the troops in the front also knew that they had no choice but to advance, so they sped up their horses and accelerated the cavalry's charge.

However, the speed at which the tiger-crouching gunners of the Wei army fired was faster than they had imagined.

The Hui army's tiger squat cannon can be fired by simply placing it on the ground and lighting the fuse!

At this time, the Chu Army's cavalry vanguard was only a hundred steps away from the artillery position of the Hui Army!
Bang bang bang...

A series of crisp cannon shots rang out as hundreds of tiger-crouching cannons and mortars fired Gongsun shells together, instantly forming a barrage of lead bullets within two hundred steps in front of the Lai army's artillery position.

It is also a restricted area for life!
All the Chu cavalry who rushed in, regardless of whether they were men or horses, were pierced by the shells or even blown to pieces!
The war horses cried out and the cavalry screamed.

For a moment, the area in front of the artillery position of the Lai army seemed to have become a bloody hell!
Although the Chu cavalry was elite, they had never experienced such a brutal bombardment. For a moment, some of the cavalry at the back subconsciously turned their horses' heads and ran to the side!
Of course, there were also many upright and stubborn Chu cavalrymen who continued to charge forward.

A distance of one or two hundred steps does not take much time at all for the charging cavalry. They are confident that they can reach the destination before the Tiger Crouching Cannon of the Lai Army fires the second round!

However, the enemy troops did not reload the Tiger Crouching Cannon, but instead ran forward and threw out hundreds of strange objects at once.

Boom boom boom...

There was another violent explosion, and the Chu cavalry that was about to approach the artillery position of the Hui army was suddenly blown to pieces!

Fan Ao was riding on his horse, his eyes wide open, and he couldn't help but shouting: "Who can tell me what the thief used just now?!"

The servants around him were also shocked by the fact that hundreds of cavalrymen were killed in the explosion and were speechless for a moment.

After several breaths, someone asked uncertainly, "It seems to be a smaller version of Ten Thousand Enemies?"

Chu Taizu Xiong Mingyuan is suspected to have come from the late Ming Dynasty. While bringing the concepts of firearms such as cannons and muskets, he also brought the primitive version of the grenade, Wanren Di. Therefore, the Great Chu now also has Wanren Di.

However, like the Ten Thousand Enemies in the late Ming Dynasty, most of them were crudely made and of mediocre power. Except for defending the city, they were rarely used by border troops and local troops.

They could not have imagined that Ten Thousand Enemies could be so powerful.

"How can Wan Ren Di be so small and yet be so powerful?" Fan Ao asked again.

No one can answer.

On the battlefield, a round of grenades fired by the Xia army completely frightened the remaining cavalry of the Chu army.

The remaining one thousand plus Chu cavalrymen no longer cared about military orders and fled to both sides of the battlefield in panic.

In fact, even if they still had the courage to continue charging, the enemy had more grenades and short guns waiting for them.

Even if they were lucky enough to rush into the artillery position, the imperial army gunners dared to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the cavalry - this was one of the training programs for the imperial army gunners.

When the Chu cavalry was about to flee, a regiment of the Xi army's cavalry guards launched a charge towards the Chu army's formation.

At the same time, the field artillery continued to roar, suppressing the few Tianwei cannons of Fan Ao's troops.

The morale of Fan Ao's Chu army could no longer be described as having hit rock bottom at this point, but had instead become negative.

Seeing the Cavalry Guards charging, even though they were more than three miles away, many infantrymen still turned around and ran towards the camp behind them, or ran in other directions.

Many people shouted as they ran: "We lost! Run!"

Even though Fan Ao could be called the "fierce general" of the Great Chu at that time, he could hardly control his troops at this moment. Seven or eight thousand border infantrymen collapsed completely before they even engaged in battle with the enemy!
Of course, this is also because these seven or eight thousand border army infantrymen are not directly under Fan Ao, but are composed of several large and small border army camps.

Only the cavalry were direct descendants of Fan Ao.

Now that defeat was inevitable, the cavalry of the Hui army attacked again, and their own artillery was also suppressed by the Hui army. These infantrymen saw no hope of victory and naturally collapsed.

Fan Ao had no choice but to flee with hundreds of cavalrymen and servants instead of fighting to the death.
The top of Yangfu city.

Generals such as Feng Yi watched the entire battle between the Hui army and Fan Ao's troops.

Feng Yi and others were still in shock until they saw Fan Ao fleeing in a panic with hundreds of servants and infantrymen.

"Fan Ao and his Kelan Cavalry were defeated just like that?" After a long moment, someone murmured in a tone of disbelief.

"Since General Fan ran away, we must have been defeated," someone answered.

"Then what should we do about Yangfu? How do we defend it?" the man asked again.

No one answered.

Feng Yi was silent, his brows furrowed, and he looked extremely worried.

He was certain that Yangfu could not be defended at all.

Otherwise, surrender the bandits?
Bah, bah, bah, it means abandoning darkness and joining the light, and submitting to the Hui army!

At that moment, Feng Yi was not the only one among the Yangfu defenders who had similar ideas.

So, after the Hui army had spent an hour chasing the enemy to the north and clearing the battlefield, concentrating its forces and preparing to formally attack Yangfu, the city gate facing the Hui army's formation opened.

Wang Kuan was stunned for a moment, and couldn't help asking the military advisers around him, "What does the Yangfu defender mean? Are they going to follow Fan Ao's example and go out of the city to fight our army in the field?"

The staff officer laughed and said, "Commander, the Yangfu garrison commander must have seen the battle between our army and Fan Ao's troops and felt that it was hopeless to defend the city, so he opened the gate and surrendered to our army."

At this time, a group of people had already walked out of the city gate.

They were not soldiers, but generals of the Chu army, both large and small, and a few civil officials. Two or three more riders, carrying the envoys' banners, came running towards us, and they looked like they were surrendering.

However, Wang Kuan was brought up by Liu Sheng and was always cautious in battle, so he warned him, "Don't be careless. Be careful of any conspiracy or trickery that the Chu army might come up with."

The staff officer was speechless and thought: With such a huge gap in strength, what kind of conspiracy or trickery can the Chu army come up with?
However, he did not refute, but followed Wang Kuan's order and ordered the army to be on guard.

Soon, those riders came to the front of the Hui army to explain the situation - they were indeed surrendering the city.

Just like this, in just one battle, during which the actual confrontation between the Hui army and the Chu army lasted less than a quarter of an hour, the Hui army won a great victory, and Yangfu fell into the hands of the Hui army.

In this battle, the Hui army not only captured five to six thousand frontier infantrymen of Fan Ao's army, but also captured three thousand frontier troops from Yangfu and more than ten thousand local soldiers and horses.

In addition, there were many supplies such as food, gunpowder, arrows, etc. piled up in Yangfu. It can be said that the harvest was quite rich!

···
Ruyang.

In the camp outside the city, inside the tent of the Left Commander-in-Chief.

Fan Ao knelt on the ground, his face filled with grief and indignation as he said, "General, it is not that I am incompetent, it is really that Feng Yi is afraid of death and sits back to watch our troops engage in a fierce battle with the bandits, but dares not send troops to support them."

"If he could have sent out his troops to attack the bandits from the side, even if he couldn't win the battle, he could at least have fought them to a draw. Why did he suffer a huge defeat and lose so many soldiers and generals?"

Chen Wan sat behind the desk and felt dizzy.

This state of mind appeared after he received the news that Fan Ao's troops were defeated and Feng Yi surrendered Yangfu to the bandits, which made it almost impossible for him to think.

Before this battle, Chen Wan had considered the possibility of Yangfu falling. But he thought that since he had deployed so many troops in Yangfu, it should be able to hold out for a few days, right?

As long as Yangfu can hold out for a few days, he might be able to see a turning point in this battle.

Who would have thought that Yangfu couldn't even hold on for half a day.

To be precise, I couldn't hold on for half an hour!

Not to mention the great defeat of Fan Ao's troops, the fact that Feng Yi would actually surrender the city was really beyond his expectations - this was the first time that a commander of the Chu army had surrendered the city since the emergence of the bandits.

It can be said that this is a very bad start.

In addition, there are rumors that in this battle, the bandits did not lose a single soldier!
Although he had tried his best to block the news and prohibit the spread of such "rumors" in the army, his own morale still plummeted, and some generals even developed a fear mentality.

After realizing this, Chen Wan felt that this battle could not be fought.

However, as the commander-in-chief of the Chu army, he was entrusted with an important task by the emperor. Even if he was in poor physical condition or had no confidence, he had to shoulder this burden.

After rubbing his temples to ease the dizziness a little and trying to calm himself down, Chen Wan couldn't help but look at Fan Ao.

If in the past, he had encountered a general like Fan Ao who fled in the face of a battle, even if he did not immediately arrest and punish him, he would have enforced military law to serve as a warning to others.

But at the moment, a general like Fan Ao who dares to fight the bandits in the field is already a rare brave general.

Not to mention, Fan Ao's Kelan cavalry was not completely lost - in addition to bringing back four or five hundred cavalry servants, he also brought back more than two thousand cavalry.

Now he lacks capable generals and soldiers, so even if Fan Ao made a mistake, he can only continue to use him.

So he sighed and said, "As you said, the blame for the defeat in this battle really lies with the traitor Feng Yi, not you. You should get up now."

Fan Ao's rough face showed gratitude, and he said "Thank you, Commander" before standing up. (End of this chapter)