There is an iron factory in Zunhua. Once it is captured by the Jiannu, it can be replenished with armor and weapons. In this way, the already fierce fighting power of the Jiannu will definitely increase.

Zhao Lijiao was anxious and led his army to march for three days and nights and arrived at the Santun Camp in Jizhou Town.

Zhao Shujiao is already sixty years old this year. He marched for three consecutive days and nights, but his body couldn't bear it. He could only endure the pain in his body, rolled up his cloak and urged the army to speed up.

At this time, the bodyguards came flying over with a cavalry group. When they saw Zhao Zhijiao, they immediately said: "Commander, Wang Guoyan refuses to let us out of the barracks and let us move in."

The person stationed at the Santun camp was the commander-in-chief Wang Guoyan. At this time, the court was in chaos and no one was in charge of the overall situation. Therefore, Wang Guoyan, who was closer to Zunhua, naturally did what he wanted and deliberately made things difficult for Zhao Shujiao, Yuan Chonghuan's favorite general.

Zhao Lijiao was General Pingliao and had a high prestige in the army. When he heard that Wang Guoyan would not let his tired troops enter the camp to rest, he became furious and said: "What does Wang Guoyan want to do? Don't you know what the situation is like?"

I'm so nervous, how dare you act like this."

When the guard saw Zhao Shujiao getting angry, he said: "Wang Guoyan said that our Guan Ning army is extremely rich. If we want to have a good rest, we should stay in an inn."

Hearing this, Zhao Shujiao became even more angry.

Because Yuan Chonghuan is with them, the Guan Ning Army is naturally much richer than other soldiers. Normally they would be envious and jealous, but what time is it now? It is a time of national crisis, and they are still so jealous.

Zhao Lijiao looked at the tired advancing army behind him and felt a little unbearable, but now he had to rush to rescue the siege of Zunhua and had no time to fight with Wang Guoyan, so he could only turn the army to the west.

The army thought they would be able to rest when they arrived at Santun Camp, but they did not expect to continue marching, and they couldn't help but complain.

Fortunately, Zhao Lijiao was a veteran general with high prestige, and these Guan Ning soldiers were just complaining.

After traveling all the way west, Zhao led the army and ordered the army to camp to replenish their physical strength.

The army set up camp to rest in the cold winter. Due to exhaustion, they fell asleep after setting up the barracks. By the next morning, many people were infected with the cold and could only cook some rice porridge to drink, and then continued to brave the cold.

The wind drives the road.

Finally, the army slowly approached Zunhua City. At this time, Wang Guoyan's army was three miles away from Zhao. The two armies combined totaled 7,000 men. They faced the 5,000 men led by Azige and Yue Tuo.

It also has an advantage in terms of quantity.

The war was about to begin, and Zhao Shujiao was afraid that Wang Guoyan would be uneasy and afraid to fight with him because of the incident in the barracks. So he took his soldiers to Wang Guoyan's military camp, trying to excuse the misunderstanding and discuss how to deal with it next.

Build slaves.

A group of cavalry galloped quickly to the front of Wang Guoyan's military camp. Although there was a flag, Wang Guoyan's camp did not let them go and asked them to wait at the door.

Zhao Lejiao was a general in the army, but now he was treated with such contempt by Wang Guoyan. The accompanying guards were all furious.

Zhao Shujiao was naturally angry, but for the sake of the overall situation, he endured it and told his guards not to complain and to wait patiently.

After a while, Wang Guoyan came out and saw Zhao Lijiao casually cupping his hands and saying, "General Zhao, why are you here?"

Seeing Wang Guoyan's cold expression, Zhao Shujiao also gave up and said directly: "Our two armies naturally have to discuss carefully to resolve the siege of Zunhua. We need to have a charter."

Hearing this, Wang Guoyan sneered and said: "General Zhao, you are joking. You are the one who was ordered to relieve the siege of Zunhua. The military order I received was only to help defend the city and keep Zunhua intact. Why did you put the matter on me?"

"

Hearing this, Zhao Lejiao said: "General Wang, even if you want to defend Zunhua City, you still need to repel the Jiannu who are blocking you. In this case, if the two of us join forces, we can have some chance of winning and achieve military exploits."

Even Wang Guoyan's heart was slightly moved when he heard the word "war merit".

But he knew that Jiannu was not easy to deal with, so he immediately said: "General Zhao is confident?"

Zhao Shujiao knew that in order to break the siege of Zunhua, he had to defeat the Jian Nu. He wanted Wang Guoyan's help, saying: "I am 50% sure. If General Wang is willing to help, I can be 70% sure to repel the Jian Nu."

.”

Hearing Zhao Shujiao's determination, Wang Guoyan was also moved in his heart.

After thinking about it, he said: "In that case, I will trust you once. In the battle tomorrow, our army will protect your left wing. As long as the battle situation is favorable, I will naturally send troops to assist."

Zhao Lijiao was not at ease and stared at Wang Guoyan and said: "Tomorrow's battle will definitely be fierce. Then it will be a matter of willpower from both sides. I hope General Wang will grit his teeth and persist and not retreat."

Wang Guoyan didn't care and said, "Of course I understand."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Zhijiao could only lead his guards to leave.

Zhao led the army to send troops to survey the terrain at night, and after learning that the Li River east of Zunhua was suitable for building a camp, he ordered the officers and soldiers in the camp to step up the construction of camp defenses.

After Zhao led the army to pass down the order, all the troops started digging trenches and building walls on the spot.

First of all, a trench was dug around the perimeter of the camp for a hundred or so steps. The soil dug out from the trench was built into an earth wall on the spot. The main wall was more than half a person's height, which could cover the musketeers and allow the archers to shoot. It was densely packed.

The soldiers also went to the river to fetch water and pour earth on the wall to make it an extremely hard ice wall.

The cold wind was biting, and many soldiers' hands were bruised and swollen from the cold, and their lips and faces were also swollen. When the pickax was swung hard, it could only make a shallow hole in the frozen hard ground. Fortunately, the camp site was

Close to the river, there is still less hard ground like this, so digging trenches and building walls is easier.

Although the weather was bad, because the enemy was about to come, and Zhao Shujiao and other generals personally encouraged the soldiers, the soldiers worked very quickly. Although Zhao Shujiao did not dig the soil with his pickaxe, he kept braving the cold wind.

Patrolling nearby made the soldiers dare not relax.

Between the earth walls, there were many spaces left, either for placing artillery or for the soldiers in the camp to attack. In front of the earth walls, many disconnected trenches were also dug, and the excavated earth was also built into a shape of half a person's height or half a person's height.

A small high wall is poured with water to make it extremely strong.

Zhao Lijiao deployed five Folan machine artillery and ten tiger squatting cannons on the front, with powerful firepower. These artillery can move quickly. Whichever side needs firepower support, it can be quickly pushed to that side.

In addition to building fortifications with wooden shields and earthen walls around the perimeter of the position, Zhao led the army to dig trenches to resist the slave cavalry.

After working hard for a day and a half, a simple and crude fortification was finally built. The soldiers were also tired. Zhao led the army and ordered the whole army to light fires and cook. Soon, smoke was curling up from all over the defense line and the camps, but they had been on the road for five or six days in a row.

, there was going to be a battle against Jiannu soon, and the morale of the soldiers was not high. They were all silent, drinking porridge and chewing bread.

It was a very cold weather, and after hard work, the food could only trick the stomach. The soldiers complained a little, but Zhao Shujiao could only prepare the generals to appease him, and there was not enough broth to boost morale.

There was no money to reward these tired soldiers.

While eating, the Ming army rushed back without stopping, and then the flag bearer also sent the flag. On the opposite side of the position, a large group of Jiannu cavalry was found.

Then the earth trembled faintly, then violently, and a black line emerged from the distance. Countless Jiannu cavalry rushed over, the blackness was boundless. They let their horses run wildly, and the sound of iron hoofs shook everyone's hearts.

.

Looking at the sea of ​​fluttering flags and the boundless war horses, the leader Zhao took a breath. Looking at this stance, the opponents were all fully armed armored soldiers. This battle seemed to be extremely dangerous.

Zhao Shujiao looked in the direction of the left wing, and his heart sank slightly.

The ground seemed to be shaking all the time. Looking at the Jiannu army surrounding them like a sea, the soldiers all had shocked faces.

Zhao Shujiao also looked solemn.

The large plumes of smoke dispersed, revealing the waving flags, and the Jiannu cavalry wearing various armors slowly formed a formation. They gathered three miles away and looked like a dense mass, but in fact there were only about 5,000 people.

Later, the horn of the Jin army sounded, and densely packed troops from each battalion were seen coming out, pouring darkly towards the camp led by Zhao.

Jiannu is finally going to war.

Everyone looked at the army in front of them very nervously. Zhao led his teacher to the middle of the defense line and loudly encouraged the Ming army around the position: "Wealth and honor are found in danger. If we can defeat Jiannu today, I will naturally

Ask the governor for a silver official position and generous rewards for you and others. Anyone who dares to fight without strength will be killed without mercy."

Houjin Buqi moved forward slowly, gradually approaching the Ming army's position. The black flags were billowing in the wind as they got closer and closer.

When the two sides were two miles apart, the tide of the Jiannu camp stopped. The horn sounded, and their formations separated. Countless densely packed shield carts were pushed out. Among those shield carts, the rows in front were of the sophisticated type.

The shield cart has wheels and baffles, is wrapped in thick cowhide, and is splashed with water. The shield cart behind is tied together with rough wood to form a rough wooden shield.

Densely packed Jiannu auxiliary soldiers pushed layers of shield carts and wooden shields up. Behind them, followed by dark archers. Then followed dense layers of heavy armor of various flags, holding large shields, and holding thick short short swords in their right hands.

Weapons, followed by countless Jiannu horse infantry and Baya soldiers riding on horses.

The soldiers of the Ming army were waiting in full formation. Looking at the densely packed rear golden shield chariots, one could imagine that there was going to be a fierce battle, and everyone tightened their grip on the weapons in their hands.

After Hou Jin had marched another mile, the Ming army's central army roared like a huge thunder, and bursts of artillery shells whizzed towards Hou Jin's camp. At this distance, the Fo Lang machine gun in Zhao's teaching army could already hit it.

, just raise the muzzle high.

Amidst the roaring sound, hot iron balls weighing several kilograms were smashed down one by one. The shells either smashed into the Houjin shield car or into the Houjin crowd. The hard ground jumped and rolled, directly leading to a path of blood.

Jin Bing screamed and rolled to the ground.

Houjin's array of shield vehicles and soldiers was so dense that it was difficult to miss.

The gunners in the personal barracks, under the command of their own artillery team officers, calmly fired and loaded ammunition. These gunners were carefully supported by the supervisor Zhao Lijiao on weekdays, and their daily training was also carried out regularly. Although their firing results were not as good as those by Zhao Lijiao.

Not satisfied, but it has been able to put a lot of pressure on Jiannu.

The gunners next to each cannon fired continuously, and the rear golden shield vehicles were smashed one after another, and the Eight Banners soldiers in the array were scattered with flesh and blood.

The fierce artillery fire of the Ming army caused a commotion in the Houjin camp, which was approaching step by step. It seemed that the shield car beside them could not bring them safety at all. However, under the pressure of the Qing army generals, they kept coming,

Soon we were 400 meters away from the Ming army camp.

Looking at the rear golden shield vehicles that were still coming up one after another, the Tiger Crouching Cannon was brought up, and the black muzzle was aimed at an angle.

"put!"

Like loud thunders exploding, thick plumes of smoke rose up from the Ming army camp, and the overwhelming rockets roared, carrying fireworks with them, and rushed towards the entire Houjin position like a sudden rain and wind.

Houjin's casualties were increasing, and their formation began to scatter. But they were all brave men, and even so, they kept moving forward, wanting to rush in and fight the Ming army.

Before the slave thieves could reach the front of the formation, they were beaten into a loose formation. Zhao Shujiao had a smile on his face. This wave of blows could severely dampen the spirit of the slave slaves.

"It can't be that the Guan Ning soldiers trained by Yuan Chonghuan are indeed stronger than the average Ming army!" Azige sighed.

Yue Tuo also nodded and said: "Although there were a large number of tanks blocking the way, the warriors still suffered a lot of casualties. The Ming Army's artillery was too fierce. Fortunately, we also captured a large number of Ming Army artillery and captured many Ming Army gunners.
To be continued...