Chapter 196: Lost

When the gunshot suddenly rang out, Li Yan's first reaction was to ambush!

Although Li Yan was not sure why Wang Pu knew the direction of the rebel army in advance and set up an ambush halfway, he still responded quickly with his instinct.

With Li Yan's order, the three thousand rebels quickly began to act.

Hundreds of torches were lit first. With the light of the fire, the soldiers of the rebels quickly set up six shooting formations. This was impossible. Although the fire of the torches would make the rebels the target of attack for the official army, if the rebels were not fired, the soldiers of the rebels would not see anything and could do nothing.

In the absence of light lighting, the Musketeers are completely decorations.

Because it is impossible for the musket team to line up neat shooting queues without lighting, if they shoot randomly without shooting queues, they may accidentally hurt their own people. It is even more impossible to reload ammunition when there is no lighting. No matter how experienced veterans are, it is difficult for them to fill ammunition in the dark.

When Li Yan's three thousand rebels quickly set off the shooting queue, the official army a hundred steps away was silent.

Is Wang Pu's reaction not as good as Li Yan, and is the training of the official army not as good as the rebel army?

Of course not!

In fact, as soon as he saw the sparkling lights, Wang Pu knew that he had met Li Yan's musket team.

However, Wang Pu did not order a marching like Li Yan, because if you want to complete the marching, you must set up a torch. Once the marching is fired, it means that your whereabouts are completely exposed. In this way, it will be a fierce battle between the two armies. Although Wang Pu's official army is equipped with relatively advanced flintlock rifles, there are only 700 people after all, and Li Yan's musket team has 3,000 people. Wang Pu will not be stupid enough to fight Li Yan.

"Let's go down!"

"Let's go down!"

"Let's go down!"

Wang Pu quietly issued a military order to the officers and soldiers in front of him and behind him.

The military order was quickly passed down one after another. In less than a moment, all seven hundred veterans had already lie on the ground, and the White Lotus Cultists were forcibly pressed to the ground by the veterans. These veterans were all iron-blooded veterans who had been through many battles. Before receiving the new military order, even if the thieves on the opposite side were killed in front of them, they would not stand up again!

However, the thief on the opposite side did not cover up and kill. Because these three thousand thiefs are musket teams, the advantage of muskets lies in long-distance shooting, rather than close-fitting flesh!

Li Yan also did not order fire rashly because he was not sure of the specific location of the ambush of the official army. The gunshot just now came very suddenly, and Li Yan could only vaguely infer the approximate direction and distance, but could not make an accurate judgment. Therefore, although the rebels arranged the shooting queue, they could only use static control.

The surrounding wilderness fell into a dead silence, and even the air was about to solidify.

However, this silence did not last long. Suddenly, a row of red flames rose under the night sky ahead, and violent gunfire sounded throughout the night sky. More than a dozen soldiers in the front row fell down, and several of them died directly. Most of them were injured and fell in a pool of blood and started to wail.

However, the shooting of the government and local governments also exposed their position. The rebel soldiers who were waiting for the battle quickly turned their guns and aimed at the direction where the official army had just opened fire. At the command of the leading generals, the rebel soldiers who had finished lined up came forward in groups and opened fire in turn in the dark night sky ahead.

"Boom boom boom..."

The violent gunshots rolled and stirred in the night sky. After a full six rounds of volleys, Li Yan ordered the stop to shoot, and the battlefield fell silent again. What's strange is that the night sky ahead was silent. Li Yan did not hear even a scream. Could it be that such a dense shooting did not cause any damage to the official army?

Just when Li Yan was puzzled, a row of red fire suddenly rose under the night sky ahead. Accompanied by fierce gunfire, dozens of rebel soldiers in the front row fell down again, and Li Yan was shocked. He ordered the fire again, and the three thousand musketeers stepped forward one after another, and then shot six consecutive rounds of volleys.

Under the night sky ahead.

Wang Pu was lying in the dirt ditch and was secretly having fun. When talking about playing with guns, Li Yan was still too tender!

No matter how smart Li Yan is, he cannot break out of his limitations of thinking. After all, he is a person of this era. Gunfighting is still a new thing that he has never heard of and seen. He cannot come up with any advanced gunfighting tactics without a teacher. In fact, many seemingly simple tactics in later generations were exchanged for countless lives and blood!

Li Yan is not a genius, so he cannot suddenly understand the tactics of muskets against muskets. He can only rigidly use the tactics Wang Pu used in Datong to deal with Jiannu, which is to let the musketeers line up and then take rows of shots. In Li Yan's opinion, the tactics of the musket team should be like this, and it can only be like this.

But Wang Pu is not a person from this era. He knows too much firearms against field tactics. Even if this knowledge is a place of amateur, it is already a huge advantage for Li Yan.

In order not to expose your physical target, Wang Pu did not let the official army ignite the torch!

Of course, there was no way to line up and fire a volley without torches, but it was no problem to ask Lu Liu to summon dozens of guards to fire a volley. At Lu Liu's order, fifty guards stood up and stood in a row under the cover of night. The thieves on the opposite side could not see the movement here and did not respond.

With a command, fifty guards opened fire at the same time, and dozens of thieves who were waiting for the enemy fell down on the opposite side. The thieves with torches were the best target for shooting! After the fire was opened, Lu Liu and fifty guards quickly fell back to the ground. At this time, the guns of the thieves on the opposite side also fired.

Rows of lead bullets flew past the head of the official army, but they could not hurt the official army's fur.

After more than a dozen rounds, Li Yan's musket team's ammunition began to get in a hurry, and the barrel of the musket gun also began to get hot. Several musket guns had already exploded during the fire. Li Yan finally came to his senses and hurriedly ordered the musket team to re-arrange, but it was too late.

“Everything is... lined up!”

A thunderous roar rang out into the sky.

With the faint light of torches, Li Yan found that nearly a thousand officials were coming out of ghostly from the ground a hundred steps away, and then quickly set up a shooting queue. Unlike the rebels, the shooting queue of the official army was only three rows in front and back, and the first row of the official army had raised the muskets. The black muzzle had pointed at the rebels.

It's so deadly. The rebels are re-arraying at this time!

In front of the official army, Tang Sheng raised his waist and then slashed hard, yelling loudly: "The first row... open fire!"

"Boom boom boom..."

The muzzles of two hundred muskets were shining bright red at the same time, and the fierce gunshots suddenly rang out throughout the night sky. The rebel soldiers who were walking in the queue were like weeds that had been cut down, and a large area fell down. Before the rebel soldiers could stand in a row, the second row of the rebel soldiers also shot over, and more rebel soldiers fell in pools of blood.

Li Yan's eyes were angrily broken. When he saw the carefully trained musketeers falling down one after another, fire was almost bursting into his eyes!

What made Li Yan even more desperate was that although the official army had only three rows in front and back, their shooting frequency was round after round, and there was no moment of pause in the middle! Li Yan's musket team is worthy of being well-trained elite soldiers, and did not collapse even when they could only be beaten but could not fight back. However, their team was still seriously affected.

"Boom boom boom..."

The volleys of the government army continued. After six rounds of volleys, more than five hundred thieves fell into a pool of blood!

"Retreat! Extinguish the torches and retreat the entire army!"

Li Yan closed his eyes in pain and gave the order to withdraw his troops in dismay.

The official army is in full swing. The confidence of the rebel army is frustrated, and there is not much ammunition left in the rebel army. If they fight hard with the official army, they will have no chance of retreating now.

Li Yan gave the order. The soldiers of the rebel army abandoned the torches one after another, turned around and fled in panic.

The official army did not take advantage of the victory to pursue it. In fact, Wang Pu did not dare to pursue it rashly. Although Li Yan's musket team was defeated, Li Qingshan and Yuan Shizhong's tens of thousands of white lotus soldiers were nearby. Although these were just mobs, there were tens of thousands of people at least! In this wilderness and wilderness, there were no fortifications, only the hundreds of official troops under Wang Pu were trampled to death.

Li Qingshan fled to Wuliqiao with thousands of defeated generals in a panic and finally joined Yuan Shizhong and Song Xiance's army. Li Qingshan originally wanted to counterattack Chuzhou with tens of thousands of troops under Yuan Shizhong, but what he never expected was that Yuan Shizhong had already secretly surrendered to Song Xiance.

Li Qingshan brought a few followers to Yuan Shizhong's central army, who was originally preparing to take over the command of the army. Who would have thought that with Yuan Shizhong's orders, hundreds of confidants rushed forward. Without saying a word, Li Qingshan and more than a dozen followers were killed. Then he also incorporated thousands of defeated soldiers from Li Qingshan and rushed to Chuzhou.

It took only more than ten miles from Wuli Bridge to Chuzhou. It arrived in less than half an hour after a marching.

However, when Yuan Shizhong and Song Xiance led the army to come, as Li Yan expected, Chuzhou had indeed become an empty city! Song Xiance made a quick decision to leave some troops to defend the city, and then led the army out of the north gate to chase and kill the official army. As soon as the army left the north gate, it met Li Yan's defeated soldiers.

"General Li Yan?" Seeing Li Yan in a dilapidated manner, Song Xiance couldn't believe his eyes and said in a lost voice, "Didn't you lead your troops to seize the camp in the north of the city? What's going on?"

"Oh." Li Yan sighed and said in a somewhat frustrated manner, "Don't mention it, I encountered Wang Pu's official army halfway, and our army was defeated and defeated."

"What, you lost!?" Song Xiance said in a low voice, "General Li Yan, are you saying that your 3,000 musket team was defeated by Wang Pu's 500 musket team?"

"Wang Pu's musket team should have more than 500 people." Li Yan shook his head and said, "But at most it will not exceed a thousand people."

Song Xiance disbelief: "The three thousand well-trained elite soldiers were defeated by less than one thousand official troops?"

"It's true." Li Yan sighed, "Although our army is well-trained, we never thought we would fight fire with the official army at night. We caught us off guard and then fell into Wang Pu's plan. Our army was defeated in this battle, but if we meet again next time, Wang Pu would not have such good luck."

Song Xian thought about it and said to Li Yan: "General Li Yan, take a step to speak."

After saying that, the two entered the inner gate of the city gate. Li Yan's accompanying soldiers quickly dispersed and surrounded the gate. No one was allowed to get closer to within ten steps.

In the concierge.

Song Xiance's face had already sunk and said in a narrow voice: "General Li Yan, if our army wants to successfully capture Jiangnan, the biggest obstacle is undoubtedly Wang Pu! We had already planned everything, but unfortunately we accidentally leaked the news, which made us lose in Wuli Bridge and failed to catch Wang Pu!"

"Originally, as long as you can seize the camp in front of Wang Pu, Wang Pu still can't escape from our palms. Unfortunately, General Li Yan, your 3,000 musket team was defeated, and Wang Pu slipped away from our palms again! Wang Pu is not dead, and tens of thousands of official troops who have crossed the Yangtze River from Puzikou will not be in chaos. This battle in Chuzhou will be in danger!"

Li Yan apologized: "It's all because of the incompetence of the general."

"Oh." Song Xiance sighed and said, "Wang Pu has now escaped back to the camp in the north of the city. It has both the benefits of muskets and the strong camp as a support. It is not easy to defeat it in one day? But now we have no other way, we can only launch a strong attack at all costs. General Li Yan, what do you think?"
Chapter completed!