At three o'clock in the afternoon, Liu Mang led the Taoyuan Army to arrive as scheduled.
Looking at the imperial army all over the mountains and plains, it was impossible to count them.
If you look down from a high altitude, the Taoyuan Army looks like a lone boat in the river, so small.
"Boss, how do we fight this time?"
Little Bear asked Liu Mang with a little trepidation.
The scouts had already reported the situation here, but the boss insisted on charging in head-on. Now my scalp is tingling just watching it.
"Arrange the artillery in rows of ten, alternating in an arc, and put all the machine guns in the front."
"Yes, sir!"
"No need to fight close this time. Just bombard them with artillery. Just crush them."
On the side of the Dayan Army, General Li and several main generals stood on a hill, looking at Taoyuan's army.
No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't figure out how they defeated Song Shaohong's tens of thousands of troops.
He was in trouble this time. If the imperial court knew that he had not accomplished anything and had lost more than 50,000 soldiers, he would be lucky not to be beheaded.
But the top priority now is to get rid of the Taoyuan rebels.
"Old general, with such a small number of rebels, that idiot Song Shaohong couldn't even defeat them. He's such a waste." A main general cursed angrily.
"That's right. We, the Western Route Army, don't know if we will become the laughing stock of the empire."
....
Several main generals followed suit and came out to denounce.
The old general raised his hand and said, "Aren't you all surprised?"
"Look, the rebels on the other side haven't shown any signs of fear despite being outnumbered. They're still maintaining a defensive formation full of flaws."
“I’ve been wondering why Song Shaohong lost. A while ago, a letter arrived from Kyoto.
It said above that we must be extremely cautious when fighting against the Taoyuan City army, and that we must be especially careful of their firearms, but it didn't explain what firearms were.
Firearms? What are firearms?
All the officers were a little confused.
"Hey! Let's send out a cavalry team to test the waters first! Song Shaohong didn't even send back any intelligence yesterday, what a shame..."
Soon, drums sounded, and several cavalry units were separated from the Dayan army and were slowly forming up and preparing to charge.
But Liu Mang didn't want them to come and die like this, so he had already ordered all the cannons to prepare for rapid fire.
"All guns ready. Bombard enemy positions irregularly."
"fire!"
Boom boom boom boom!
After Liu Mang gave the order, the moment the command flag was thrown down, hundreds of artillery pieces bombarded the Dayan army formation.
When they first heard the noise, the Great Yan Army looked at the rebel formation in confusion, only to see a lot of smoke rising. Then, there was a whistling sound in the sky.
The last shells hit the densely packed army formation, sending out flashes of fire and loud thunder.
The old general saw the constant explosions in his own army and opened his mouth in surprise, "Is this a firearm?"
All the generals saw the flames and the screams of the soldiers, and suddenly understood why Song Shaohong lost.
The loss was not unfair. Didn’t you see that all the soldiers in the mountains were wailing in pain from the explosion and their formation was in disarray?
"Old General, this..."
A commander looked at General Li with horror on his face and could not utter the following words.
"Sound the horn! Retreat!"
General Li came to his senses and roared at the top of his lungs at the generals.
Seeing the army formation being blown to pieces with blood and flesh flying everywhere, the old general felt his body trembling.
Is this the power of firearms? He had been leading troops for decades, but this was the first time he had seen such a scene.
Before the two armies even engaged in battle, their side was being slaughtered unilaterally. They saw countless soldiers sacrificed in vain, while the other side was still a kilometer away without moving an inch.
"Ah! Messenger, sound the horn!"
The generals were in a panic and ran to help sound the retreat.
If they were a step slower, more than 200,000 troops might suffer heavy casualties.
Ding ding!
The sound of a bugle rang out, and the soldiers who were still trying hard to maintain their formation felt relieved, and then, like a flood, they fled backwards.
The old general did not realize for a moment that he had not arranged an orderly retreat, and when he came to his senses it was already too late.
"No! Quickly retreat the army in an orderly manner."
A commander also realized it, but when he saw the soldiers in disarray all over the mountains and plains, he was terrified and muttered in a trembling voice:
"Old, old general, it's over. We are finished."
Yes, more than 200,000 troops fled backwards like headless flies, abandoning their weapons and armor. Some of them were crowded together and pushed each other.
The cavalry ignored the infantry and just rushed back.
The artillery of the Taoyuan Army poured shells towards this side as if they were free, and deliberately only bombed the outer periphery, as if they were herding ducks.
The Taoyuan Army's artillery shells did not kill many people, but the Dayan West Route Army's own formation was disrupted, and many were trampled to death and injured.
When the old general saw this scene, his eyes instantly lost their luster. With the help of the main generals and personal guards, he mounted his horse and fled into Jinzhou City.
To the old general, he was already a dead man. The more than 300,000 Western Route Army that took a month to gather was completely defeated in just two days. There was no way the empress would let him go.
"Haha! The entire army will pursue slowly. Those who surrender will be spared."
"Boss, our Taoyuan Army's artillery is too powerful!"
"Yeah yeah!"
.....
Great Yan Kyoto.
"Get out of the way! The Western Route Army is rushing for 800 miles."
The people of Kyoto all gave way, knowing what the 800-li express meant. If he was trampled to death, he deserved it.
Inside the palace, Qin Youlian was discussing the latest situation of various armies with the officials.
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