As soon as Feng Shuangli rushed into the Ming army camp, he encountered hundreds of Ming army infantrymen head-on.
The Ming army infantry were stunned.
Because they found that the cavalry in front of them did not seem to be friendly forces.
Although these cavalrymen wore standard Ming army armor, they had white cloth tied around their right arms.
A typical bandit outfit.
In the firelight, the military flag on the flag-bearing soldier fluttered in the night wind.
There is a big word "Feng" written on the military flag!
Looking at all the senior generals of the Ming army, there was no one with the surname Feng.
A Ming soldier whispered, "Are we lost? How did we end up in the bandit camp?"
Another Ming soldier slapped him on the head and said, "Are you fucking stupid? Bandits have run into our camp!"
"Oh yeah, kill!"
Both sides attacked at the same time.
Infantry without formations were nothing in front of cavalry. A charge from the cavalry and a rain of arrows could scatter hundreds of infantry.
"The bandits are attacking the camp! The bandits are attacking the camp!" the Ming army infantry shouted as they fled.
Feng Shuangli did not pursue them. He captured several Ming army prisoners and asked loudly, "Where is Yuan Jixian's central army tent?"
The Ming army captives did not dare to hide anything and pointed to the tallest and largest tent in the camp.
After killing the prisoners, Feng Shuangli rode his horse wildly towards the central military tent.
He led his troops alone deep into the Ming army camp and launched an unexpected attack upon them.
After all, no one could have imagined that his target was Yuan Jixian.
As long as he could capture Yuan Jixian before the Ming army could react, his tactics would be successful.
So act fast!
Three thousand cavalrymen moved quickly in the camp, and the Ming troops along the way were dispersed by the cavalry before they could organize a decent resistance.
Seeing the central army tent in front of him, Feng Shuangli ordered: "Divide the troops into two groups. One group will guard the periphery and drive away the nearby Ming troops. The other group will follow me to rush in and capture Yuan Jixian alive."
Hundreds of cavalrymen rushed out of the team and surrounded the central army tent.
The military tent was so quiet that it seemed as if no one was there.
"Go and take a look." Feng Shuangli ordered.
A dozen Dashi Army soldiers dismounted and came to the military tent, carefully lifting the tent curtain.
After seeing the situation inside clearly, the leader's face turned pale instantly.
"What's wrong?" Feng Shuangli asked hurriedly.
“No one!”
"What?" Feng Shuangli couldn't believe it and rushed in with his men to search for the person.
The entire military tent was searched, but Yuan Jixian was not found.
Looking at the empty central army tent, Feng Shuangli was anxious and annoyed. He had someone capture a Ming army prisoner nearby and asked loudly, "Where is Yuan Jixian?"
"Let's go...to the central army camp."
"Where is the camp? How many people are there?"
"It's right there." The captured Ming soldier pointed in the direction they came from and said, "The main force of the central army has left by boat, and there are less than 2,000 people left."
Feng Shuangli was overjoyed and rushed back in the direction they came from, taking the prisoners.
"It's here." The captured Ming army pointed forward.
Feng Shuangli pulled the reins and looked carefully.
With the help of the moonlight in the sky and the firelight in the camp, you can see that this camp is not big.
There was a campfire in the camp.
A large number of chariots, chevaux de frise, antlers and other obstacles were arranged outside the camp.
"attack!"
Feng Shuangli launched the attack without any hesitation.
The three thousand cavalrymen were divided into two, two thousand of whom dismounted and fought on foot to attack the Ming army's central camp.
Another thousand men continued to ride on horses, charging around in the Ming army camp, and defeated the Ming army infantry who came to support from nearby!
Unlike the cavalry's successive victories, these elite Dashi Army troops who dismounted and fought on foot failed in their first attack.
The Ming army in the camp were wearing armor and holding muskets, hand guns, bows and crossbows, as well as spears.
Although the Dashi Army wore the same armor, the weapons in their hands were much inferior to those of the Ming Army.
Apart from bows and arrows, they only had swords and rattan shields.
The longer the weapon on the battlefield, the stronger the combat power.
Under the suppression of the Ming army's long weapons, the numerical advantage of the Dashi Army disappeared.
Even if they could rush to the vicinity of the Ming army camp under the attack of long-range weapons, they would be forced back by spears and lances.
Three consecutive attempts ended in failure.
Feng Shuangli's expression began to become serious.
I thought it would be an easy battle, but I didn't expect to encounter a tough opponent.
"Order them to rest for a while and go to the nearby camp to look for shields, spears and arrows. Once they find them, launch another attack!" Feng Shuangli gave the order helplessly.
We can't continue to attack blindly, as that will only increase casualties.
What's more, more than an hour has passed since they left the city. The soldiers have been fighting all night, and their mental and physical strength have declined greatly.
Under the night.
The seemingly indestructible Ming army camp was now riddled with holes.
There was flames and smoke everywhere.
Corpses were everywhere, weapons were scattered, and military supplies were strewn all over the ground.
Except for Yuan Jixian's central army camp which was still resisting, the Ming troops in other places either died or fled and disappeared without a trace.
"Governor, something is wrong." Feng Shuangli had just sat down on the ground when his personal guards came over.
"What's wrong?"
"The Ming army has too few soldiers, even fewer than we imagined. Since we rushed in until now, except for attacking the guards in the central camp, we have not encountered any decent resistance."
Feng Shuangli frowned and thought for a while: "Something is indeed wrong. Let alone a decent resistance, we haven't even seen many Ming cavalry."
He immediately let down his guard again: "Yuan Jixian despised our Dashi Army and thought that our army would not dare to fight him in the field, so he moved the main force and the navy upstream."
"Li Guoying and Xu Yong pretended to attack the camp and lured away some of the pursuers. The Ming army camp was left with little manpower, so we were able to take advantage of the opportunity and sneak in."
"Oh, that's it!" The guards suddenly realized.
After resting for a while, Feng Shuangli could no longer sit still when he saw the sky in the east was getting brighter.
If Yuan Jixian was not captured before daybreak, by the time the Ming army reacted and took in the defeated troops to launch a counter-encirclement, his elite troops who had penetrated deep into the enemy's territory would be completely wiped out.
He stood up and ordered: "Attack! Take down the central camp at all costs!"
"kill!"
The Daxi soldiers launched another charge.
"Governor Yuan, why haven't Jin Shenghuan and the others come to support us? Our brothers outside can't hold on any longer." Yuan Jixian's personal soldiers ran into the Ming army camp in a panic.
"Why are you panicking? The worst outcome is nothing more than dying in the battlefield." Yuan Jixian used the candlelight in the tent to write something on the paper with the brush in his hand.
From time to time, arrows shot into the tent and flew past him.
Yuan Jixian seemed not to see it and continued writing something.
"But Jin Shenghuan and the others..." the personal guards repeated the reminder.
"Jin Shenghuan and his men have their reasons for not coming. I believe in them. If you are tired, take a rest in the tent. If you are not tired, go and kill the enemy."
The bodyguard had no choice but to turn around and rush out with his bow.
Yuan Jixian put down his pen and paper, looked up towards the south of Jingzhou City, and muttered to himself: "The cavalry and navy are almost here, won't Jin Shenghuan and his men retreat?"
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