Behind the slowly advancing infantry, the Mongolian rider and company commander Gangba looked relaxed.

He didn't feel anything wrong at all about outmaneuvering a large number of people.

The battle was not about numbers but numbers. He felt that the peasant army on the opposite side was also a former friendly army. If he was smart, he should run away immediately.

No matter how large the number of people is, it is impossible for a ragtag group to compete with a well-equipped and well-trained army, especially if this army is extremely well-trained and can be seen by a fool.

But what surprised Gamba was that the peasant army on the opposite side actually launched an attack hastily instead of running away after a brief panic.

They just rushed up in groups here and there without any order.

Soon, Gamba, who was riding on his horse, could clearly see the musketry soldiers at the front who had stopped. Under the command of the whistle, they flexibly started to fire in company units according to the different distances of the enemy groups approaching.

Despite some training, Gamba's horse was still not used to the close-range roars of firearms, especially the continuous roars, and it was a little restless.

Gamba had no choice but to lean down and comfort his partner first.

After all, he is also a veteran of the battlefield. After a few strokes, Gamba's partner stabilized.

But just for a moment, when Gamba raised his head, he found that the cannon soldiers were stopping shooting.

Through the thin smoke of gunpowder, what is visible is that the peasant army, which is basically unarmored and shouting a moment ago, is crying and retreating one after another. Because the retreat is too hasty, it is unknown to the companions who are still moving forward.

They were violently crowded and trampled.

Gamba and the many cavalrymen who had just gone to calm the horses with him were all confused.

Stretching his neck and taking a closer look with wide eyes, Gamba quickly discovered that the company that fired the most guns seemed to have only fired two to three rows of guns, and even two companies seemed to have not fired yet, and

There were only about twenty or thirty peasant soldiers lying on the ground in the distance.

Then, when the peasant army retreated completely, at least a hundred unlucky creatures who were trampled to death were left behind in the distance.

What else is there to fight?

Gamba doesn’t even know what to say!

But as a former subordinate of Luo Rucai, Gamba also knew that Li Zicheng's troops could not give up so easily, even though they were probably the inferior troops among Li Zicheng's troops.

Li Zicheng's military law is still there and is very strict.

As expected, the peasant army that retreated immediately captured some people and massacred them in front of the army. Then some people, probably leaders, began to walk back and forth in front of the army, shouting something at their own people.

Gamba guessed that it should be some threats, encouragement and promises.

He was very familiar with this.

Sure enough, soon, the peasant soldiers began to shout and became excited again.

The attack was then relaunched.

This time, they did not rush blindly like a swarm, but followed the dozens of people at the front of the entire attacking team who were lined up in simple armor and moved forward.

Most of these people wearing simple armor came from the only queue in the center of the peasant army. They were at the front trying to control the speed of the entire attacking team by stopping and shouting while walking, keeping the attacking crowd dense.

Keep the entire front line roughly straight.

At the same time, there were also a few archers mixed in with the swarming crowd.

This kind of offensive method made Gamba realize that the peasant army general on the opposite side was not an incompetent person.

And this time, the peasant army's offensive force stopped at an absolutely safe distance of about 200 meters away from the gun soldiers, and then began to shout violently, led by the men in simple armor.

Immediately afterwards, as the men in simple armor raised their arms and waved forward, the peasant army howled and began to run forward in unison.

The bugle order to open fire soon sounded, followed by the sound of cannons.

This time, the bugle assumed the unified command of the cannon unit.

Thick smoke began to rise rapidly and enveloped the ground.

Although the 5-row structure of the musketry can generally guarantee that the musketry can fire five rows continuously without interruption, considering the enemy's attack method, Gamba still felt that he would soon witness a hand-to-hand fight.

But just when he was still thinking, the constant sound of whistles stopped the shooting again.

Gamba couldn't remember whether the cannon soldiers fired eight or nine rows or more than ten rows of cannons at this time. Anyway, it was not much different.

Surprised, he leaned forward and blinked repeatedly to try to figure out the situation.

As the smoke drifted away and faded, all that could be seen were corpses on the ground, the howling and rolling wounded, and the backs of the peasant army receding like the tide.

The collapse should have already occurred.

The last few rows of cannon soldiers may have fired at the enemy's back.

Gamba, who was a little dazed, tried hard to identify the corpses on the ground. There were still not many corpses, and the nearest corpse from the gun soldiers was still fifty or sixty meters away.

But further away, there were more corpses beyond the range of the bird cannons. It is estimated that some of them were the results of the peasant military supervisory team. However, the killings by the peasant military supervisory team obviously failed to prevent the mass retreat.

Gamba shook his head mockingly.

He still valued these former allies and their courage even more.

Think about it, the peasant army, with the largest number of people who could not even stand in a company, were still civilians a few days ago or more than ten days ago. How could they have the courage and ability to charge into battle without fear of casualties?

And this cannot be solved simply by supervising the team to kill and intimidate.

Taking a closer look at the cannon soldiers who were still silent, Gamba found that the cannon soldiers seemed to have suffered no casualties, and the enemy's archers had not been able to play their role.

It is estimated that the enemy's archers are also very poor, and the bows they use are also very bad, and their range may not be as good as that of blunderbuss.

Gamba silently shook his head again.

Although the casualties were still not large, the peasant army was probably greatly shocked. The defeated peasant army caused serious chaos in its military formation, and even retreated in some places.

"Inform the cavalry to prepare to attack. The battle is about to end." Li Ping gave the order calmly.

At present, it seems that the peasant army has no cavalry except for a few officers who have horses, and even if there is cavalry, it is too late to hide in some unknown place.

"The battle is over!"

Han Jiu muttered melancholy, this field battle was really meaningless.

Zhang Kuang, on the other hand, looked dumbfounded and murmured, "Is this going to be the end?"

"There will be no suspense." Li Ping replied firmly.

But at this moment, the peasant army carried out a larger-scale public killing of their own people than before.

They didn't seem to be planning to retreat, but were planning to attack again.

Li Ping was stunned, Gamba was stunned, and everyone was stunned.

No one thought about rushing up to defeat the enemy while they were in confusion, but they were all curious about whether the enemy could really organize an attack.

But soon, the peasant army's attack really started again.

The speed at which they stabilized and reorganized far exceeded anyone's expectations.

The mentality of the peasant army has not collapsed, and their will has not collapsed. They still maintain their confidence and belief.

The continuous brilliant victories and the lack of major losses suffered by Li Zicheng's army in the past two years have obviously given them strong pride and self-confidence that will not be easily destroyed.

The fact that they have not suffered major losses in the past two years allows the army to retain a large number of combat backbones who have been baptized by war, which also gives them a battle damage tolerance and combat resilience that far exceeds that of ordinary peasant armies, especially Zhang Xianzhong's troops.

This time, they changed their tactics again.

The largest number of loosely recruited peasant armies on the two wings were guided and driven directly to both sides and ran in a chaotic circle, as if they planned to bypass the cannon troops in front of Li Ping's army and launch an attack from the flanks.

The peasant soldiers in the middle, many of whom were able to stand in line and had armor, slowly began to advance in full formation. It seemed that they planned to leave the field personally and take on the important task of launching an attack from the center.

The peasant army was fully prepared to make a desperate move.

Although this was a foolish move, Li Ping simply organized the change of formation accordingly.

The cannon soldiers and spearmen quickly extended to the two wings and established defensive lines on the sides. The five rows of cannon soldiers facing the enemy also became two rows during the stretching and expansion, forming a hollow three-way defensive array.

Set up quickly.

The battle soon started again.

The enemy who was just outside the range of the cannon and attacked from the direction of the sparse woods on the right was the first to approach and launch an attack because there were no obstacles from the river branches, ditches and pools.

Immediately afterwards, the regular troops of the peasant army on the front also began to charge.

This time, they withstood only three rows of musket blows fired intermittently by the musketry soldiers, and then started a close encounter with the spearmen who came out in front of the musketry soldiers.

The whole battlefield was soon filled with people screaming.

Gamba, who was in the hollow formation, calmly followed orders and fired bows and arrows to greet the enemies in the outer circle, while constantly looking around to see where support was needed.

He has not yet received the order to attack.

But soon, he found that the caution of himself and his superiors was completely unnecessary. The result of the close combat was that they were still killing one-sidedly.

Unlike the musketeers, who are completely unarmored and light, the spearmen not only have spears with excellent spearheads, but they also all wear helmets and at least short armor.

Although there are various styles of helmets from Ming iron helmets to bowl helmets to iron pointed helmets, at least they are all iron helmets.

Although short-coat armor is mostly made of various styles of cloth armor and cotton armor, and only a small part is iron armor, no matter what style of cloth armor or cotton armor, the quality is basically guaranteed, and it is always the best.

have.

These protective equipment, unified by company or platoon and available to everyone, ultimately ensure that each spearman has a protective capability far superior to that of his opponent.
To be continued...