Lu Xiangsheng was watching the bandits' formation on his horse. The terrain of Sanliqiao was flat and wide, which was very suitable for large-scale cavalry assaults. Unfortunately, Zukuan took away most of the cavalry, and he only had more than 1,500 cavalry under his command. Although Lu Xiangtong's more than 200 cavalry were very elite, he still mainly used sentry probes and lacked the experience of large-scale cavalry combat.

Cavalry charges are a lot of attention. The distance between each cavalry, the distribution of weapons used by the vanguard and the rear row, and the instant judgment of the strength of the battlefield after the rushing will directly affect the outcome of the entire battle situation. No matter how high the personal martial arts skills are, rushing into the crowd alone will also lead to death. There must be tacit protection and cooperation between comrades. Those brave generals with tens of thousands of enemies must have someone around him to block the attacks of various weapons for him. They only need to fight against the enemy in front of them with all their strength. Otherwise, even invincible people will not be able to stop the various weapons attacking him from the front, back, left and right.

The bandits on the opposite side were divided into three armies in front, middle and back, with about 500 horses on both sides guarding the flanks; the bandits in the front were nearly 10,000, mainly young and strong, with about 2,000 bandits in the front row, holding shields in one hand and holding swords, guns, axes and forks in the other. There were a variety of shields in their hands, leather, wooden, and iron shields, and even thick door panels used as shields.

Behind are the largest bandits, holding various weapons. Once the front row breaks through the official army formation, they will rush forward to fight.

Lu Xiangsheng led his troops to fight with the thieves for many years and was naturally experienced. At first, the thieves did not dare to line up with the official army to fight the enemy head-on. They often ran away when they saw the official army's flag from afar. Whoever escaped from the pursuit of the official army was considered a great fate. After getting rid of the pursuit of the official army, they gathered themselves on their own. The current thieves are very different from before. After years of fighting, the surviving old thieves have dared to fight head-on with the official army; and they have learned to deceive defeat and lure the enemy. If a small group of official army pursues the ambush circle, the thieves will surround them from all sides to attack and kill them. The combat effectiveness of the thieves has been greatly improved. The only thing that suffers is that the weapons and armor are not as good as the official army.

The Tianxiong Army was established when Lu Xiang was promoted to Daming Prefecture. Although the court also issued weapons and armor from the military weapon surveillance, most of them were old and broken and unbearable. With his huge personal charm, Lu Xiangsheng raised a large number of silver from local gentry families, and then equipped most of the soldiers with complete equipment. After years of war, most of the weapons and armor were also damaged. They could only repair it by soldiers with blacksmith skills in the team when camping after the war.

Since the second half of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Zhu Zhenqing, who had traveled through time, attached great importance to the logistics support of the official army. Bi Maokang and others in charge of military weapon supervision were also diligent. In addition, the work enthusiasm that burst out after the treatment of craftsmen changed drastically, the quality of various weapons and armor produced by military weapon supervision was greatly improved. According to Chongzhen's instructions, various military supplies were given priority to Lu Xiangsheng and Hong Chengchou, because these two were fighting on the front line of suppressing thieves. Secondly, the excess was to transport some to Liaodong and Xuanda. Because according to the historical trajectory, Chongzhen knew that at least in recent years, there would not be large-scale wars in these two places, and it would be a waste to them. Good steel was used on the blade. This sentence is the best explanation.

During the renovation of Ruzhou, the Tianxiong Army was sent from the capital, with a long sword that cuts off gold, a long spear that penetrates the armor, a triangular arrow that can break iron armor for fifty steps, hundreds of new muskets and dàn    yào, and even a mature thunder with a weight of about two kilograms. The soldiers with strong strength can throw more than 40 steps after training, and the killing range is about ten to twenty steps. Lu Xiangsheng was very happy when he saw the power of the flying thunder. For this purpose, he specially selected a hundred bold, careful and strong soldiers to act as grenades. Lu Xiangsheng believed that the thieves who had never seen the flying thunder would have defeated in the face of the huge sound and lethality of the huge sound and lethality.

The Sichuan Army, who accompanied the team, also benefited from it. Not only did it pay for half a year of food and salary, but many elite soldiers also replaced them with sharper weapons and stronger defense cotton armor, which made senior generals such as Qin Yiming and Gao Qixun happy. All generals above the Thousand Generals were equipped with excellent mail, and their ability to defend against bows, arrows, and swords and guns was greatly improved. Although they were less defensive to blunt weapons such as maces and hammers, they were no longer better than before.

After observing the bandit formation, Lu Xiangsheng ordered calmly: "Enter!"

As Yang Maogong waved the flag in his hand, more than 5,000 Tianxiong Army and six thousand Sichuan Army shouted in unison: "Protection!" The official army formation began to move slowly. Walking in the front were two hundred heavy infantry wearing two layers of armor, which was also a sharp weapon to break the formation carefully created by Lu Xiangsheng. He picked out two hundred outstanding physiques and extremely powerful men from the Tianxiong Army, equipped with blunt weapons such as page hammers, maces, flails, etc., wearing more than 20 kilograms of mail, a layer of cotton armor, eight-flavored iron helmets, and iron mesh boots. Although the movement speed was slower, the protection was unparalleled. This was also done at Chongzhen's suggestion. For this reason, the workshop for the military equipment supervision and manufacturing uniforms started day and night, and more than 200 sets of mail were produced for use in half a year.

The bandits on the opposite side have also begun to welcome the official army. Compared with the neat array of the official army, the bandits' formation is still as chaotic as ever. Although the bandits in the front row are also elite, they have not been performing on weekdays. They always have their usual style of rushing forward. At the beginning, they were relatively neat. After dozens of steps, the thieves who were taking quick steps have begun to leave the brigade and rushed to the front of the entire array.

The official army was still marching in an orderly manner. Every time they walked dozens of steps, the generals and officials at all levels in the team shouted loudly. There were some soldiers with slightly scattered steps in the back row, and they followed the entire team with the command. These were the newly recruited soldiers in Ruzhou's army during the reorganization of the army. Although they were decent during daily training, they had never been on the real battlefield. The first time they faced such a large scene, they were inevitably very nervous. Many people just followed the brigade mechanically, and their minds were indeed blank. These recruits were arranged behind to avoid unexpected situations when they started fighting. These people would only grow up after seeing blood.

When the two sides were about one mile away, the thieves in the front row had already started shouting and rushing. With a horn, the official army brigade stopped moving forward. More than a thousand archers left the line and divided into two rows, each taking out three long arrows from the arrow bag and inserted them on the ground in front of him. A archer bent his bow and shot the arrow diagonally forward. The long arrow flew out more than fifty steps and turned and pierced down on the ground. This is a range-finding arrow. As long as the thieves reach this area, they will be the effective range of the bow and arrow.

The 200 heavy infantry soldiers of the Tianxiong Army were lined up. These were old soldiers who had fought for many years and had rich combat experience. They looked at the rushing bandits with contempt, just like watching dead people. They fought with thieves for many years. These thieves still did not change their inherent bad habits and started charging hundreds of steps away. When they rushed to the front of the formation, their physical strength was consumed. Within a quarter of an hour, they would be exhausted. They shouted for charge desperately, but in fact they were just timid in their hearts to give themselves courage.

After dozens of breaths, a bandit had already passed the position of the range-finding arrow. A slightly longer horn sounded, and the archers pointed the bow diagonally towards the sky. The gangs of bandits were already shouting to reach the attack range. A short horn sounded, and more than a thousand long arrows flew into the sky almost at the same time. In the blink of an eye, they reached the sky above the bandits, and then turned down and pierced fiercely towards the crowd.

"Risk a shield! Raise a shield!"

The leader of the thief shouted at the top of his lungs, but the bows and arrows had fallen down. The bandits who raised the shields were caught in the arrows one after another. The three-edged long arrows easily broke through the leather armor on the thieves. The cotton armor pierced into their bodies. A scream sounded, and hundreds of armored thieves were either dead or injured. The bandits hurriedly raised their shields to cover them. The archers of the official army shot four rounds in a row and then turned around and returned to the back row from the gap between the team. Because the thieves had shield protection, the killing of the bows and arrows in the back few rounds was much smaller, but more than a hundred bandits lost their combat effectiveness.

When the bandits saw the archer retreating, their morale that had fallen was suddenly greatly boosted, and they rushed over again. As for the fallen bandits, no one cared about them at all. The dead were fine. The less injured ran backwards. The seriously injured fell from screaming loudly to the screams gradually fading, until they died of blood.

Amid the general call from the team, two hundred heavy armored infantry raised their steps towards the thief dozens of steps away. The spearman and the sword and shield hands followed closely, protecting the sides of the heavy armored infantry. In the blink of an eye, the official army and the bandits collided with each other.

The general who led this team of heavily armored infantry was named Zhou Xiong, who was over 30 years old. Six years ago, he followed Lu Xiangsheng from Daming Mansion to suppress the thieves. He was born as a blacksmith, strong and extremely strong. He held a long-handled iron hammer with a hammer body of one meter five. The hammer head cast by fine iron was as big as a baby's head, weighing more than twenty pounds.

He used force on his waist and swung the hammer to hit a thief. When the thief saw the hammer hit, he quickly raised the iron shield with one hand to block it. He heard a loud "duang" sound. The thief's iron shield was sunk by the huge force, and his arms holding the shield were smashed and his internal organs were shattered. Blood mixed with flesh was sprayed out of his mouth. He fell to the ground and died without even making a scream.
Chapter completed!