They had to fight even if they couldn't. Li Rubai was also forced into a desperate situation.
They reorganized on the battlefield for another night. The Revolutionary Army held their ground and didn't come out. They made up their mind to defend and counterattack conservatively. The Ming Army lit the cannons early the next morning. All the soldiers ate to their heart's content. Li Rubai shouted loudly in the military tent, "Wu Gongqing."
A general stood out and cupped his hands. "Sir Biao is here."
"You lead 500 people to attack the eastern mountain of the wooden station. You must wipe out the rebels."
"Yes, sir."
"Yu Shouzhi."
Another general stood out and answered loudly, "Sir Biao is here."
"You lead 500 people to attack the western mountain of the wooden station. Don't let a single one escape."
"Yes, sir."
"Zheng Zhifan."
"Yes, sir."
"You guard the main camp. Don't make any mistakes."
"I won't let you down."
"The rest of you, follow me out of the camp to find the Zhou rebels and fight to the death."
Li Rubai looked around the military tent. Everyone in the tent was solemn and full of fighting spirit. With his position as the Liaodong Army Commander, none of the generals present dared to disobey him. Even Luo Lie and Ouyang Jun, who came with him, answered loudly. They always fought to be the first to show their face and didn't want to fall behind.
The bugle was blown out of the camp. Amidst the sound of the bugle, groups of soldiers lined up from the camp. During the past few days of marching, the Revolutionary Army's scouts had been harassing them at night. If it wasn't burning the barracks with fire arrows, it was beating drums and gongs to make a ruckus. The Ming Army who rushed to the wooden station were all haggard. They were tormented to the point where their spirits were low.
Li Rubai's 300 or so servants were the first to leave the camp. There were 100 or so cavalry and 200 or so infantry. They were the only elites in the entire Ming Army. The other miscellaneous soldiers all looked sickly. Most of them wore ragged clothes. As they walked, they lowered their heads and drooped their heads, looking listless.
However, the Ming Army wasn't without advantages. The generals, including Li Rubai, all had good cultivation. They had the advantage of numbers and cultivation. This was especially true for Li Rubai himself. Besides his muscles and blood vitality, with his fourth level Divine Soul cultivation, he could completely command a massive number of soldiers into battle formations. Although the beggar-like soldiers completely ignored him, the three hundred or so servants under his command seemed overbearing.
The ravines in front of the wooden post station were used to prevent the cavalry from charging quickly. Zhou Qingfeng stood on a watchtower behind the ravine and raised his binoculars. The first thing he paid attention to was Li Rubai, who was surrounded by his generals. The latter would never have imagined that Zhou Qingfeng could see him leave the camp from five miles away.
"The enemy is coming. Have the combat engineers bury the mines and install detonators."
"Inform Gao Daniu and Li Yanxi that the enemy has sent two troops towards them. Although they look like small fries, don't let your guard down. "
"Let Han Shi be on standby and build up his strength."
Zhou Qingfeng gave the order from the watchtower. Qiao Xuenan, who was by his side, was a signaller. He waved two flags in his hands and sent the order from afar. Flag signals in the day and signal lights at night. Although it was complicated, as long as one mastered it, it was more efficient and useful than a signaller.
After the flag signals were passed, Sang Wenlai, who was at the front, ordered his men to lay down detonators in front of the wooden post station. In fact, it was just five kilograms of explosives with detonators. They were placed thirty meters away from the position before the battle.
The combat engineers jumped out of the trench and jogged to the pre-dug pit with the explosives on their backs. They threw the explosives into the pit, gently hooked the detonator, turned around, and ran. The explosives were purchased from the Ming Army of Haigai and Gai Prefectures. They were specially granulated using the wet method. The craftsmen of the Revolutionary Army also made a breakthrough in the technology of the copper wire fuse.
The ground outside the wooden post station was wide. But Li Rubai's men walked for an hour to cover the five-mile distance. When they arrived five hundred meters away from the wooden post station, a hundred of the cavalry servants began to show off their strength and speed up. They purposely ran back and forth outside the hundred-meter range of the arrows, shouting and yelling to boost their own prestige and suppress the enemy's morale.
"Unfortunately, I don't have a cannon." Zhou Qingfeng was also very helpless. "Otherwise, a shrapnel shell would be great."
Qiao Xuenan stood behind Zhou Qingfeng and was also observing the battlefield. He shouted, "Young Marshal, our East and West Mountains are surrounded by the enemy."
The East and West Mountains were only small hillsides dozens of meters above the ground. A group of beggar-like Ming Army soldiers were shouting and surrounding the hilltop. The leading general's cultivation wasn't low. He was at least a guerrilla. In front of the encirclement work at the hilltop, he loudly cursed and shouted for battle. But they only cursed and didn't attack. They surrounded but didn't attack.
Li Rubai, who was at the front, brought more than two hundred servants and one thousand soldiers to hold the line. They advanced about two hundred meters and stopped to line up again. His cavalry servants immediately charged forward and attacked the back of Zhou Qingfeng's position from the left. They began to accelerate when they were fifty meters away from the trench on the ground, attempting to leap over it.
Zhou Qingfeng only glanced. Sang Wenlai, who was responsible for the front defense, also looked in the direction of the enemy cavalry. At the enemy's chosen breakthrough point, an engineer platoon leader shouted from his command point, "Sound eighteen and nineteen."
The engineer squad leader immediately repeated the platoon leader's order and shouted angrily, "Sound eighteen and nineteen."
In the trench, two engineers holding ropes hurriedly raised their heads. Seeing the enemy coming towards them, they hurriedly pulled the hemp rope in their hands. The already taut rope was violently pulled. The copper wire in the fuse quickly rubbed against the gunpowder and heated up, instantly igniting the gunpowder.
More than a hundred Ming Army cavalry galloped over the explosives. The five kilograms of explosives under the hooves of the horses exploded with a bang. Waves of air rolled out within ten meters of the explosion point. The powerful high-temperature air flow was like a continuously expanding wall, smashing fiercely into the galloping enemies.
The horses flew and the riders fell.
At the moment of the explosion, Zhou Qingfeng's heart returned to his chest. In the training of the martial arts chessboard, the infantrymen who faced the charge of the enemy cavalry often had great psychological fear. Many people didn't dare show their heads when they heard the rumbling of horse hooves. Some even jumped out of the trench and turned to run. Some pulled the fuse ahead of time. All kinds of terrible situations occurred in repeated training.
After hundreds of times of training, today's engineers performed well. Two explosive bags that were twenty meters apart blew up the middle of the enemy's cavalry formation. More than a dozen people were killed or injured on the spot. The enemy cavalry was intercepted into two and fell into great psychological fear.
Horses were very timid animals. The explosion made them extremely panicked. Most of the cavalry that survived near the explosion point were flipped over by the violent horses. Even the cavalry that was further away had no choice but to stop their horses and flee in terror.
Sang Wenlai jumped out from under Zhou Qingfeng's watchtower. He beat his chest and shouted excitedly at the smoke and dust of the explosion, "My combat engineers, mighty!"
All the combat engineers were incomparably excited at the achievement in actual combat. The two engineers who had personally pulled the fuse were even more roaring like tigers. Hearing Sang Wenlai's shout, there was immediately a wave of response from the position. My combat engineers, mighty!
Being able to easily blow people up into the sky, wasn't that mighty!
The morale of the engineering soldiers was high. Many people grabbed the small axes they were given and jumped out, cheering loudly.
Zhou Qingfeng stood on the watchtower and ordered, "Cavalry company, attack! Flatten the Ming Army cavalry. "
Qiao Xuenan continuously waved the signal flag in his hand. The combat engineers on the ground hurriedly laid a batch of thick wooden planks on the trench. Meanwhile, Han Shi, who was waiting in the wooden relay station, immediately jumped off the wall and mounted his demon pig. He raised his arms and shouted, "Brothers, those excavators have done a great job! The enemy's cavalry has been blown to smithereens! Take advantage of his weakness and kill him. Follow me! "
The cavalry company had one hundred and twenty people. Excluding the service soldiers, there were only ninety cavalry. Han Shi, the company commander, led the attack. He led his men out from the east gate of the station, turned around, and crossed the trench through the wooden planks laid by the engineers. They sped up and pounced on the Ming Army cavalry.
Li Rubai was holding the line among the infantry troops. He commanded his men to fight through the horn. He ordered his cavalry to attack from the left flank. His goal was to enter the enemy's flank and disrupt the formation of the Revolutionary Army and their morale. Who knew that the two violent explosions from the opposite side would destroy his plan. When he heard the rumbling sound, he stood up from his mount. "Does this group of rebels have cannons?"
Looking closely, it was worse than having cannons.
More than a hundred cavalrymen attacked. In the end, it was as if they had charged into a strange cloud of smoke. At first, a large number of broken limbs flew out. Then, it was the panicked horses running around in the fog. The cavalrymen on the horses were often nowhere to be seen, or they were hanging on the stirrups and dragging the ground. The money to support one cavalry was enough to support ten infantrymen. How much money was wasted?
Li Rubai had been unemployed at home for twenty years. Maintaining this group of servants took a lot of effort. Seeing this precious treasure enter the gates of hell set up by the enemy, Li Rubai suddenly felt a pain in his heart. He almost cried blood.
The generals of the Gold Province next to Li Rubai were even more shocked. No one would have thought that a group of rebels would make such a scene. Ouyang Jun, who was among the generals, immediately felt a threat to his life. He quietly pulled Luo Lie's sleeve and whispered, "Brother Luo, leave quickly. Safety first. "
"Leave?" Luo Lie was also stunned by the explosion. He looked back and saw that Ouyang Jun was not joking. He really wanted to leave. He also lowered his voice and shouted, "You dare to leave? If the army retreats, aren't you afraid that Lord Li will take you down on the spot and execute you on the spot? "
Ouyang Jun shook his head. "My father had foresight and let me practice the peerless Qinggong. If I advance, I can pick flowers and jade. If I retreat, I can protect my life. My father is so good to me. Goodbye! "
Finishing, Ouyang Jun really ran away like a wisp of smoke.
A group of generals were trembling with fear when they saw the gate of the wooden post station open. A group of swift and fierce cavalry quickly charged out. The general leading the group was riding a fat and strong wild boar.
The wild boar grunted all the way and charged into the smoke of the explosion outside the camp without a care. Han Shi, who was riding the boar, raised a curved knife and charged at the front. He chopped the Ming Army cavalry that were running around like headless flies off their horses one by one.
The ninety cavalrymen of the cavalry company followed closely. They were like a gust of wild wind, sweeping through at a distance of about five meters. They were like a large broom that cleared the remaining enemies on the battlefield in one breath.
Li Rubai was so angry he cried out. He felt bitter and hard to describe. He shouted loudly, "Who can kill this general for me? I will reward you heavily. "
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