Zhang Neng was struck by a bolt of lightning, and stood still.

Got cheated!

Got cheated badly.

The prince's migration to the south was a complete cover-up. The real purpose was to lure him into advancing alone and then encircle and annihilate the main force of the Dashun Army.

No, the spies they have in the court are all powerful people, so they can still tell the truth from the falsehood of this kind of news.

The person in front of me is very likely lying!

He ordered his attendants, "Come here, take off the pants of these two men."

The two bodyguards dismounted and skillfully took off the two men's pants.

Zhang Neng looked carefully and realized it was over!

Both of them are eunuchs!

He swung his sword and killed one of them, then pointed at the other and shouted, "Where's the crown prince? Where's Zhu Cilang?"

"I, I, what I said is true! The prince...the prince is really not in the convoy!"

Zhang Neng was furious!

He had been rushing for days and finally caught up with the team migrating south, but he didn't expect this result.

He raised the saber in his hand and chopped it with all his strength, splitting the man pretending to be the prince in half.

Blood splattered, brain matter flowed, and dead bodies fell to the ground.

"General, what should we do?" A personal soldier reminded Zhang Neng when he saw that he was a little dazed.

"Destroy the bandits today!"

"kill!"

Just as Zhang Neng was about to speak, deafening shouts of killing came from behind.

Looking back, under the moonlight, they saw more than a thousand Ming cavalrymen charging in from the direction they came from. Although they were few in number, they were well-equipped, with armor, muskets, bows and arrows, and shields. They were full of vigor, with swords and axes shining brightly, and they looked like a group of hungry beasts under the moonlight.

The Shun army that was robbing money and killing people in the back had no time to escape and were instantly overwhelmed by the Ming army.

In a short moment, Zhang Neng lost more than a hundred cavalrymen.

Zhang Neng immediately made a decision upon seeing this: "Retreat! Join the main force!"

Although his men were all elite, they were exhausted from the days of fighting. Secondly, it was a bad idea to blindly fight without knowing how many people the enemy had.

Zhang Neng led his team and turned around and ran. After making a detour, they ran towards the direction of the main force.

There are also two thousand light cavalry there, which are his main force and confidence.

As long as the two sides meet, the Ming army in front of them will not be their match at all.

As the destination got closer, the shouts and screams became louder and louder.

The main battlefield has fallen into a stalemate.

Although the two thousand cavalrymen Zhang Neng left here were all elite, they were lightly equipped in order to pursue Zhu Cilang.

In order to reduce the weight on their horses, most of them wore cotton armor, carried only three days' worth of food, and robbed as they went.

There were two main types of armor in the army in the late Ming Dynasty. One was cloth armor, also known as dark armor; the other was cotton armor.

The armor is made of cotton cloth inside and outside to withstand the impact of gunfire and the severe cold in northern winter. The inner lining is connected and filled with armored steel sheets, and the defensive performance is very good.

The only drawback is the weight, which is about 50 kilograms in total.

The cotton armor is much lighter and only requires seven pounds of cotton to make.

The advantage is that it is not damaged by rain and will not rot. The disadvantage is that its protection is average and it can only prevent serious damage from bird guns.

In addition, they had been running around for days with little rest, and were now exhausted. Their fighting capacity was no different from that of ordinary soldiers, or even lower.

More importantly, their formation was disrupted by the Ming army.

What are the advantages of cavalry?

flexibility!

The purpose of war is not only to kill the enemy, but also to minimize one's own casualties.

In ancient wars, only heavy cavalry dared to charge the enemy infantry formation, while light cavalry would surround and shoot, killing the enemy layer by layer like peeling an onion.

Although there were archers in the infantry formation, they not only needed to judge the route of the enemy cavalry, but also had to find targets through the crowd.

One up and one down, the superiority and inferiority are immediately apparent.

Zhang Neng quickly scanned the battlefield and found that his two thousand cavalrymen were divided into two parts by the Ming army.

Some of them fought with the Ming cavalry, chasing each other in the wilderness. As the sound of bows and crossbows rang out, soldiers kept falling off their horses, either killed by stray arrows or by the iron hooves of their horses.

The other part was entangled by the Ming army infantry. They rode on horses and held sabers, fighting with the Ming army infantry beside a slope.

Zhang Neng was so angry that he slapped his horse's back and cursed: "What a bunch of rubbish! You are just playing close combat with infantry, use horseback archery! Cao!"

What he didn't know was that these cavalrymen had no choice but to do so.

The all-night raid had already exhausted these war horses, and facing the infantry, their speed advantage, which they were proud of, was greatly reduced.

In addition, they were all wearing cotton armor, so they had no advantage at all when shooting against these infantrymen wearing dark armor and holding shields.

As the speed of the war horses became slower and slower, in order to reduce losses and win a quick victory, they had no choice but to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Ming army.

After all, the elite are elite, and their hand-to-hand combat ability is much stronger than that of ordinary soldiers.

Although the Ming army's individual combat power was low, they had the advantage of thick armor and long spears, and relied on their military formation to withstand wave after wave of attacks.

Zhang Neng slapped his horse's back and rushed towards the Ming army infantry.

Halfway through the charge, he slapped his forehead, turned his horse around and charged towards the Ming cavalry.

The cavalry was fighting with the infantry, and rushing over would not be of much help, and it would be easy to hurt friendly forces by mistake.

It would be better to repel these Ming cavalry. Without the cavalry to restrain them, the group of infantry would be trapped.

Gao Wencai, a captain of the Jinyiwei, turned around and found that only half of his 1,000 cavalrymen were left. All of them were covered in blood, and it was unclear whether it was the enemy's or his own.

Looking in the distance, nearly a thousand cavalrymen with white cloth tied on their right arms were charging towards their position.

"Is Zhang Rong still alive?" Gao Wencai shouted, gasping for breath.

"Cough...cough." A weak cough sounded from Gao Wencai's side. "My family will live longer than you."

Gao Wencai took a look before identifying the bloody man in front of him with the eunuch Zhang Rong.

"Okay," Gao Wencai nodded with satisfaction. He turned around and said to everyone, "Where are the Jinyiwei?"

"exist."

Although the sound was not loud, it was powerful and resounding.

"I will now hand over the command of my Jinyiwei to the inner court eunuch Zhang Rong. He is your superior, and his orders are my orders!"

"Did you hear that?"

"I heard it!" The Jinyiwei had no doubts, and the situation did not allow for any doubts.

"Captain Gao...what's happening?" Zhang Rong rode his horse to Gao Wencai's side and was about to ask the reason, but he found that the color on Gao Wencai's face was fading at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Looking down, I saw blood flowing from under the saddle.

Zhang Rong was about to say something when Gao Wencai stopped him.

"I'm tired. Let Eunuch Zhang lead you in the charge this time."

Seeing the enemy getting closer and closer, Zhang Rong had no time to feel sad and quickly adjusted his formation.

"Gao Wencai, you will be the one shouting the slogan for this charge. Let's eat toasted buns together after this battle." Zhang Rong stretched out his bloody left hand and wiped his eyes.

"Okay, everyone..."

"kill!"