No one despises the so-called artillery more than the generals of the Zheng Army. According to legend, the artillery of the Sui Army that once caused the Taiyuan Army and the Western Qin Army to suffer enough, is purely tasteless in front of the Zheng Army soldiers who have seen it before. The strong bow and crossbow are much farther away, and the pebbles they shoot can directly penetrate into the human body within sixty or seventy steps, injuring and killing the enemy, but the power will decrease rapidly even if they hit the enemy. effect. The loading is slow and the firing is slow, and the chamber will explode after being fired three or four times. The gun body must be re-wrapped with iron bars before it can be reused.
Such a thing, of course, can have the effect of intimidating the enemy when it is used suddenly, and it is barely effective when used to attack densely packed enemies in close range, but the effective killing distance is not much stronger than the crossbow. The speed and cost are far inferior to the bow and crossbow. As long as the enemy is familiar with this weapon, the effect of intimidation and fright will plummet. Such a weapon is really tasteless to eat, and it is a pity to discard it.
Therefore, after gradually getting used to the terrifying loud noise made by the pine tree cannon when it was fired, and gradually figured out the basic performance of the pine tree cannon in actual combat, Wang Shichong and Zheng Jun also gradually believed in their hearts that the power of the legendary cannon was nothing more than that, and it was not at all. There is nothing to be afraid of, the reason why Chen Sangliang used this weapon to defeat Li Yuan and Xue Ju was all because the unlucky bastards under Li Yuan and Xue Ju had never seen such a terrible thing with a good scaring effect, and were frightened and defeated. Not defeated.
Because of this, Wang Shichong was not scared out of his wits like the Li family brothers and Xue Ju father and son who had suffered a lot when he saw his unfilial son-in-law suddenly showing a full fifty cannons. More pine tree cannons, and uttered wild words, to fight Chen Sangliang with artillery to the end! After Chen Sangliang laughed ironically, he took a closer look at Wang Shichong's tortoise formation, and said with a sneer: "Old man, it really hasn't changed at all, and you are not tired of making tortoise formations every now and then? Why don't you dare to be real?" The last time the gunman fought this king?"
"Little thief, you are not tired of not getting tired of stealing chickens and dogs before a battle?" Wang Shichong confronted each other, and said with a sneer: "Since you look down on my army so much, then come and attack, and I will accompany you to the end! "
"You said this, don't regret it!" Chen Sangliang laughed and turned his horse's head, shouting: "The Artillery Team is ready! Let the pseudo Zheng bandits see how powerful you are!"
The artillery team of the Sui army led by Yuan Tiangang sang promises in unison, immediately removed the straw wrapping the gun body and the silk cloth covering the muzzle, filled the ammunition skillfully and quickly, and installed the fuze. Over there, Wang Shichong also immediately turned around and returned to the main formation, shouting orders to the artillery team of the own army, "Get ready! Pay attention to the flag, see the flag waving, and fire immediately! Mrs. Wang, you have given me a good look, and you must wait for the artillery of the bandit army to enter. Fire within eighty paces, be sure to kill the enemy with the first shot!"
The artillery team of the Zheng army also sang promises in unison. Wang Tai, the nephew of Wang Shichong who was in charge of commanding the artillery team, also quickly estimated the distance of 80 steps to find the effective killing range—why did he do this? Because Zheng Jun's pine cannon has an effective killing distance of only 80 steps and more than 100 meters.
But soon, Mrs. Wang, who had thoroughly understood the performance of the pine tree cannons, immediately realized that something was wrong. After the fifty cannons of the Sui Army were loaded with ammunition, they ignited the fuzes directly at a distance of about one mile! Mrs. Wang was shocked when she saw it, and couldn't help but blurted out: "It's so far away? How is it possible?!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Amidst the sound of explosions one after another, far better than the explosions fired by pine cannons, the artillery team of the Sui army finally fired the first salvo. Fifty solid iron bullets weighing eight catties came out one after another, roaring and flying. To Zheng Jun's tortoise formation, many long-shield players at the forefront of Zheng Jun's tortoise formation more than a mile away didn't even see what was going on, and suddenly found that there was an overwhelming force hitting the long shield, wrapping The solid long iron shield was instantly shattered, and the soldiers of the Zheng Army behind the shield also vomited blood and fell back, but the black shells did not disappear, and continued to move forward, hitting the soldiers of the Zheng Army one after another. Visceral shattering means broken tendons and fractures, death or injury, and after those black shells landed with a howl, they were able to jump up and do Brownian motion, continuing to kill and injure Zheng Jun soldiers until their inertia was exhausted.
The dense square array is Wang Shichong's magic weapon for powerful enemies from all directions. If he uses cold weapons to attack head-on, even the strongest elite under Chen Sangliang may not be sure that he can break through such a tortoise array. When bombarded by modern artillery, such a dense formation actually made Zheng Jun's soldiers completely miserable. Where the Sui Army shells passed, the soldiers of the Zheng Army, which were too densely formed, fell in a row like cutting wheat. They were either directly smashed to death or injured by smashing. Kill the enemy. In the first round of salvo, not only did the fifty Sui army artillery fire none of them, but basically every shell killed and wounded a dozen or twenty soldiers of the Zheng army.
Huge noises rang out inside Zheng Jun's tortoise array. Seeing his comrades near him spitting blood and even spitting out pieces of internal organs, they kept lying down, fell to the ground, rolled and screamed for no reason. The soldiers of Zheng Jun were shocked, Naturally, they also screamed out in surprise, asking what happened? Wang Shichong, who had already withdrawn from the flag formation and sat down to command, also jumped up in shock, and screamed palely: "What's going on? What happened? What did Xiao thief Chen do? Why did we suddenly kill and wound so many soldiers? "
Mrs. Wang, who was at the forefront and faced the artillery of the Sui army, saw the situation most clearly, her face was paler than anyone else, and she kept muttering to herself, "How is it possible? How is it possible to shoot so far? How can it be so powerful? No! Maybe?!"
What surprised Mrs. Wang was still behind. After a salvo, the soldiers of the Sui army quickly dipped the gun barrel wrapped in cloth into water to extinguish the residual sparks in the barrel, and then loaded the fixed amount of gunpowder wrapped in silk. It took less than two minutes to re-ignite and fire the cannon. The fifty cannons roared in unison again, and once again bombarded the front of Zheng Jun's tortoise array. Zheng Jun's soldiers also screamed again and fell to the ground one after another Falling to the ground, the wounded soldiers rolled and howled, and the frightened soldiers ran to avoid bombs. For the first time, the solid battle formation that Wang Shichong was proud of was in chaos without being attacked by the enemy.
The so-called artillery battle was completely a one-sided massacre. When the distance from the enemy was only about one mile, the Sui army's artillery with a maximum range of two miles was rampant, roaring and firing heavy shells one after another. Blast into the dense formation of Zheng Jun's soldiers, and sweep away the enemies in front with a destructive force. Each shot blasted a dozen or so enemies to pieces, and each shot split a line on Zheng Jun's tortoise formation. The thick and deep bloodstains reaching the heart of the Sui army only fired four shots on average, which already killed more than a thousand soldiers of the Zheng army and injured countless people. It also completely smashed the front tortoise of the Zheng army's big turtle formation. shell.
Seeing this scene, Wang Shichong's face turned pale, but he finally confirmed one thing that had been confirmed for a long time - his son-in-law is really not a good bird, not only has he wronged him countless times, but even the artillery that filial piety gave him is fake and shoddy ! While furious in his heart, Wang Shichong still refused to give up, and roared: "Let our artillery go forward and fire, and beat down the momentum of the bandit army first!"
The order was conveyed, and four soldiers formed a group. The gunners of the Zheng army began to rush forward carrying the pine cannons. However, the Sui army was already prepared. As a result, the soldiers of the Zheng Army had not waited for the effective shooting range of the pine cannons within 80 steps, but they were shot by the bows and crossbows of the Sui Army, causing many deaths and injuries. Throwing down the heavy pine tree cannon and running away, it completely collapsed before firing a cannon.
This move by Wang Shichong also angered Chen Sangliang. Originally out of the psychological consideration of attacking the enemy soldiers, Chen Sangliang only asked Yuan Tiangang to bombard the most densely populated places of enemy soldiers with artillery as much as possible, causing death, injury and chaos to the enemy. Using beheading tactics, directly bombarded Wang Shichong's flag array. However, seeing that the father-in-law dared to charge back, Chen Sangliang also became completely angry, and immediately ordered Yuan Tiangang to command the artillery team to concentrate on bombarding Wang Shichong's flag formation.
Unfortunately, Wang Shichong's flag array, more than two miles away, happened to be within the range of the Sui army's artillery. Although the Sui army's artillery could not be aimed accurately at this distance, the concentrated firepower of the fifty artillery covered it, even if it was a blind cat. Dead rats can also be encountered, another round of volley bombardment, at least ten shells fell on the head of Wang Shichong's flag formation, and during the bounce of the shells, the soldiers of the false Zheng Yulin army with bright flag armor were stumbling around, with heavy casualties. The shell fell less than ten steps in front of Wang Shichong, bounced up and blasted a guard two steps away from Wang Shichong to death. Wang Shichong, who was as greedy as a bad son-in-law, also peed on the crotch on the spot. Subconsciously pulled his horse back and left.
Seeing Wang Shichong's commander-in-chief move backwards, the soldiers of the Zheng army, who had already been terrified, could no longer hold on. The first time they collapsed and ran for their lives while fighting in formation was when the soldiers of the Sui army simply The situation that did not launch a charge and assault collapsed on its own, and even the small tortoise formation of the Zheng army with its two wings was also affected. It collapsed without being bombarded by the artillery of the Sui army, and scrambled to escape to the east.
Chen Sangliang was waiting for this moment. With a wave of his dirty claws in the flag formation, Cheng Yaojin and Xue Renguo, two cavalrymen on the left and right sides of the phalanx, flew together on both wings. The slogans came and went, earth-shattering, and after the cavalry of the Sui army took the lead among the defeated troops of the Zheng army, another brutal massacre began.
If it is to fight in formation, the generals of the Zheng Army who are good at battles will never have to be afraid of the four thousand cavalry of the Sui Army led by Cheng Yaojin and Xue Renguo. However, it is completely different now. Losing their command, they no longer had any power to fight back in front of the Sui army cavalry charging in groups. The wolf-like Sui army cavalry stabbed with knives and guns, massacred wantonly, and grabbed Zheng Jun who was fleeing for his life from behind and from the side. The soldiers kept chopping down and stabbing, the soldiers of the Zheng army turned on their backs and wailed endlessly, but the cavalry of the Sui army showed no mercy. where the flag is located.
The infantry of the Sui army led by Luo Shixin also chased up from behind, hacking and killing the defeated soldiers of the Zheng army even more fiercely and swiftly. Regardless of the reason, he commanded the soldiers under his command to kill even the soldiers who surrendered. They just chased and killed them without stopping, and refused to waste any time for taking the prisoners. It was Wang Fubao, who had a milder personality, and led his troops up. Those soldiers of the Zheng army who were lucky enough not to be hacked to death by Luo Shixin's army or lay on the ground and pretended to be dead were lucky enough to have the chance to surrender.
The battlefield of the battle was very close to the small town of Xin'an, but at this point, Wang Shichong, who was afraid that his unfilial son-in-law would take the opportunity to make dumplings after entering the city, dared not even enter the city. The cavalry of the Sui Army continued to give hot pursuit. Luo Shixin led the infantry of the Sui Army and kicked Zheng Jun's camp outside the city, and drove Zheng Jun's defeated soldiers into the camp as vanguards. They killed anyone they saw and burned them. Luo Shixin continued to pursue Zheng Jun's defeated brigade reluctantly, and made up his mind that even if he had no chance to win Wang Shichong's head, he should try his best to gain military exploits from the enemy soldiers.
Gao Pi, the general of the Zheng Army guarding Xin'an, dared not go out of the city at all. He sat and watched Wang Fubao leading three thousand Sui army infantry to show off his power under the city, and took in and arrested more remnants of the Zheng army who were defeated. He shot at the top of the city and asked Gaobi to open the city and surrender. Although Gaobi did not accept it, he couldn't help but looked at the soldiers fleeing under the city and lamented, "The first battle was defeated like this, how can we fight this battle? "
In this battle, the cavalry of the Sui army chased all the way to Cijian before they retreated. Although they failed to kill Wang Shichong, who escaped faster than a rabbit, they also achieved an impressive record of beheading more than 9,000 people and taking more than 6,000 prisoners. Not only severely damaged the overall strength of the Zheng army and captured countless military supplies, but also completely shattered Wang Shichong's attempt to block the main force of the Sui army in Weihan Road, and completely destroyed the confidence and morale of Wang Shichong and the Zheng army officers and men. Even Cijian, whose tactical position is also very important, did not dare to garrison, and led the defeated army back to Luoyang to defend itself.
Immediately afterwards, the main force of the Sui Army who had opened the advance channel also took the opportunity to walk out of Xiaohan Road and set up camp in the south of Xin'an. Chen Sangliang sent people to the city to surrender again, and the barely loyal General Gao Bi of the Zheng Army continued to grit his teeth Rejected, Chen Sangliang was furious when he heard the report, and immediately ordered the army to prepare siege equipment immediately, and launched an attack on Xin'an two days later.
Gao Pi, who led the army to resist tenaciously, persisted for only one day, before Chen Sangliang used his expert gunpowder blasting tactics to blow up the city wall. He was attacked and assassinated by his deputy Tian Zan, and Tian Zan sent his head to Chen Sangliang to ask for credit. Chen Sangliang was overjoyed, and immediately made Tian Zan the earl and the prefect of Xiangcheng County, and ordered him to lead the surrendered troops south to attack Xiangcheng County, and also set up a model model that if you surrender, you can eat meat and enjoy the blessings.
The small city of Xin'an was dilapidated, the morale of the defenders was low, and the old rammed-earth fortifications were restrained by the Sui Army's gunpowder blasting tactics. Of course it was easy to win the First World War, but the real test for Chen Sangliang and the Sui Army soldiers was yet to come. As Chen Sangliang guessed, after Wang Shichong fled back to Luoyang City, he not only immediately prepared for the defense of the city with all his strength, but also immediately set about the defense of Luokou Cang and Hulao Pass. Dou Jiande, who was incompatible with Chen Sangliang, asked for alliance and help.
Originally, Wang Shichong was very worried that Li Mi, his arch-rival who first joined Dou Jiande, would take the opportunity to make trouble, and urged Dou Jiande to refuse to form an alliance to take revenge on himself. Who would have thought that on the second day after receiving the news of the fall of Xin'an, he was ordered to go north to Linming to meet Dou Jiande's nephew Wang Wan. People sent good news, saying that Dou Jiande had agreed to form an alliance with Wang Shichong to fight against Chen, and decided to send troops to help Wang Shichong at an appropriate time. They also reported that Li Mi also agreed with the Xia-Zheng alliance, and urged Dou Jiande to extend a helping hand to Wang Shichong, so as not to die.
When Wang Wan thanked Li Mi in private, Li Mi also introduced the reason why he did so, "How deep is the hatred between me and Emperor Zheng, can it be as deep as the hatred between me and the traitor Chen Yingliang? Emperor Zheng just swore to me Li, I and Chen thief are at odds with each other, why should I not be hostile to Chen thief?"
He praised Li Mi viciously for his clear grievances and ignorance of past suspicions. Wang Shichong, who was determined, asked Wang Wan to ask Dou Jiande to send troops as soon as possible, and at the same time guessed that Chen Sangliang would definitely attack Luokoucang first To reduce the expenditure on food and grass, also completely cut off the supply of food and grass. Therefore, in addition to ordering Wang Xuanying and Yang Gongqing to give up attacking Yanshi and defend Luokou Cang and Hulao Pass with all their strength, Wang Shichong also adopted Duan Da and Li Shiying's suggestion and decided to send people to Chen Sangliang's camp to contact him, pretending to offer him back to Chen Sang The good mistress Pei Cuiyun and the tribute of a large amount of jewels as a condition, asked for a negotiation, took the opportunity to gain time to delay the attack, and waited for Dou Jiande to send troops to rescue.
Dare to use tricks against Chen Sangliang, of course, there will be no good end. Chen Sangliang first arranged for Fang Xuanling to come forward to obtain Luoyang military information from Zheng Jun's envoy. However, he also found that Wang Shichong did not attach great importance to this summation, at least he did not allow the envoy to participate in the meeting to decide the summation, and the envoy was appointed after the decision on the summation was made first—this is a bit unreasonable, because Wang Shichong If it is really sincere to seek peace, at least the envoy can know the bottom line of his negotiation before he can have the confidence to negotiate.
In view of this situation, Fang Xuanling and Chen Sangliang both suspected that Wang Shichong's summation had ulterior motives, and it was very likely that it was just a tactic to delay the attack. Therefore, after discussion, Chen Sangliang and Fang Xuanling decided to refuse to summon Zheng Jun's envoy, and asked Zheng Jun's envoy to send his mistress Pei Cuiyun first, before they could consider starting peace talks with Zheng Jun, and in turn tested Wang Shichong's reasons for seeking peace.
Sure enough, Wang Shichong was tried. Considering that Pei Cuiyun, an important hostage, was still useful at the critical moment, Wang Shichong categorically rejected Li Shiying's proposal to immediately hand over Pei Cuiyun in exchange for Chen Sangliang's trust, and only sent someone to deliver Pei Renji's head to Chen Sangliang promised to hand over Pei Cuiyun after the negotiation. As a result, Chen Sangliang and Fang Xuanling also immediately concluded that Wang Shichong was just delaying time, continued to refuse to receive the envoy, and did not accept Pei Renji's leader. Acropolis Qianjinbao, Wang Shichong backfired, too late to regret.
There is no impenetrable wall in the world. After Wang Fubao, the forward of the Sui Army, took down the Qianjin Fort with his adept surprise attack tactics at night, the Qin Qiong Division of the Sui Army, which is currently fighting with the Zheng Army in Heyang, also sent a fast horse to send a spy. The news that Dou Jiande has formed an alliance with Wang Shichong arrived. The civil and military news reports of the Sui army were a little surprised, but Chen Sangliang was both surprised and happy. Of course, Dou Jiande came to make trouble for him again, but he was happy because he was like Li Er in history. I ran into a great opportunity to beat the rabbits and kill Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong.
Immediately afterwards, a new question was put in front of Chen Sangliang, whether he could do what Li Er did, or if he was as lucky as Li Er, he could kill Dou Jiande while killing Wang Shichong
The tentative idea of killing Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong at the same time was told to the accomplices and lackeys. The gang of accomplices and lackeys under Chen Sangliang's command who used to be extremely arrogant in the past were rarely taken aback. Two powerful enemies? How is it possible? Our strength is more than enough to deal with one of these thieves, but when these two thieves join forces, their overall strength has already surpassed ours. It is not easy to defeat them. How is it possible to eradicate them at the same time?"
It is rare for the arrogant and arrogant accomplice and running dog to be frightened once, and it is also rare for Chen Sangliang, who is usually admonishing, to refuse a piece of advice. After careful consideration for a long time, Chen Sangliang said slowly: "Our current situation , can’t we eradicate Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande at the same time? In my opinion, not necessarily!”