Chapter 26: The Symphony

The enemy's attack was frustrated, and the crowd in front of him retreated, and suddenly the already loose queue was scrambled, and soon they were in a mess. A large number of weapons and wooden shields were lost on the ground, and the flags were also collapsed.

The sound of several rounds of the Shence Army's muskets was deafening and powerful. In fact, hundreds of people were killed at most. Compared with the number of people in the rebel army, they only caused a small proportion of casualties. However, they lacked experience and could not withstand such high-intensity conflicts. Once they were frightened, they would scatter.

They also have no awareness of the battlefield: such a retreat will die even worse.

Chasing and killing is the big part of the results.

As expected, as soon as the opponent retreated, the cavalry of the rear army of the Shence Army was ordered to chase after him. The cavalry, armed so much that the teeth were covered with iron, rushed up impatiently.

The knight riding on the tall horse quickly caught up with the rebels' backs, slashed and killed condescendingly, and killed calmly from behind. This was not a battle at all, but it completely turned into a massacre.

The smell of gunpowder and the smell of blood are disgusting, and the chaos on the battlefield is also obvious.

The escaped people threw away their weapons and ran around in vain.

Victory and defeat are doomed. A large group of people who are timid in losing their military discipline will be difficult to save the defeat no matter how many people are.

Xue Chongxun kicked the horse and rushed down from the hillside with the guards. Yin Ci clasped his fists excitedly and said: The thief cannot withstand Your Majesty's troops, the battle situation is settled!

The horse team gave up the defeated army and quickly moved eastward, crossed Huazhou City to the south bank of the Yellow River, destroying all ferries and ships.

Xue Chongxun said calmly.

His cavalry had only a few thousand, but the rebel army had tens of thousands of chaotic troops inside and outside Huazhou. It is obviously risky to drive straight in now. The biggest danger is to be surrounded by superior forces.

However, when Xue Chongxun saw the situation on the battlefield, he believed that the enemy soldiers were already scared, and it should not be difficult to break through directly to their retreat when a quick attack was launched.

Yin Ci immediately agreed with his decision and asked the commander to send the commander to pass the commander. He also asked the infantry to drop the artillery formation and occupy the original rebel high ground. The rear army escorted the cannons and moved eastward.

The situation at this time has become a full-scale offensive.

Cui Qigao saw the range and power of the Dragon and Tiger Cannon, and it was easy to judge that the fortifications of Huazhou City could not be resisted. His central military personnel would not stay in the city to defend the enemy. He would definitely find a way to cross the river and escape to Hebei.Now, dispatching cavalry to control the south bank of the Yellow River can cut off their retreat.

At this time, the cavalry and horses who received the military order had already left the central army and soon ran away. The combat force of attacking east was only seven or eight thousand left. Therefore, Xue Chongxun and others did not rush to chase the fleeing soldiers, but maintained their formation and advanced eastward calmly, and did not encounter any resistance along the way.

The uprisings in this era are essentially different from the uprisings in the 20th century. They cannot confront the elite army at all, and they are simply about to collapse.

The scout reported the information from the front and went east until no organized armed forces were found under the city of Huazhou.So the Shen Ce Army slowly approached Huazhou City with its cannons.

The decisive battle in the morning was not a long time, and it took less than half an hour from the start of the battle to the conclusion of the victory or defeat. The next time was to escape while chasing.

The Shence Army spent almost all day on combat and was marching.

At night, the cavalry sent a commander to report that a pontoon bridge, dozens of ferries and a rebels were found in the northeast of Huazhou City. After a charge, the rebels defeated the rebels, and then destroyed the pontoon bridge and burned all the ferries.

At this time, Xue Chongxun's central army was about ten miles away from Huazhou City. They did not intend to attack the city overnight. There was no need to choose night battles with the advantage of long-range weapons.

So the troops selected places to cut wood and set up camp.

Yin Ci believed that the rebels in Huazhou City might make their last struggle to raid the barracks tonight, so they must be prepared.

He ordered the soldiers to take turns to rest at night and maintain a large number of prepared people at any time; he also sent soldiers to cut down a large number of trees nearby and lit piles of bonfires on the crop fields outside the camp, which were illuminated by the fire within a radius of hundreds of steps.

Deep trenches were dug around and a large number of open and hidden whistles were set up to ensure that everything was foolproof.

If the enemy attacked the camp tonight, they would face a fence-blocking musket queue, and it would be much more difficult to attack in than a daytime battle. During the day, the rebels had a high terrain and took advantage of the terrain, and the Shence Army's musket team did not have time to dig trenches and set up obstacles to block it. In such a situation, it seemed unlikely that they would become brave and fearless of death at night.

But it was a very quiet night, and there was no movement all night, so quiet that even the noise of summer insects was annoying.

The next morning, the Shence Army led the camp to reorganize the army, and Huazhou City was only ten miles away.

Xue Chongxun could imagine the destruction scene of cannons roaring at the city after an hour.

Just as they were about to set off, they suddenly reported that an envoy came from Huazhou City, saying that he was here to negotiate peace...

I'm afraid I'm here to surrender.

After waiting for a while, the two envoys came to the army.

They walked over carefully one after another, and the man in front was holding a volume of documents in both hands.

About a hundred steps away from Xue Chongxun and his generals, a military general envoy overturned to the ground and shouted that he would kneel here and present a surrender.

The general rudely snatched the document from the messenger and took it up for him.

Yin Ci took the document first, unfolded it and handed it over to Xue Chongxun.Xue Chongxun didn't look at it, and said: Ask him, where is Cui Qigao?

A general repeated it loudly, and the envoy could only answer loudly: Go back to Your Majesty, the rebel Cui Qigao is missing, and he did not enter the city after the war yesterday.The criminals and others have never had to disobey Your Majesty because of their threats. Now they can only beg for crimes and dare not to bring the soldiers of Huazhou to the enemy.

Xue Chongxun handed the document in his hand to the person next to him. The envoy called Cui Qigao a traitor. He knew that he was surrendering without looking at it. He said: Let him go back to pass the message. Since it is a beggar for crimes, the rebels in both places inside and outside Huazhou City should leave the city and put down their weapons and surrender, and hand over the defense of the four gates to the Shence Army.I went to the city of Huazhou in an hour. If they had not disarmed at that time, I would immediately attack the city.

There was no room for negotiation, Xue Chongxun made his statement and immediately ordered the army to set off.The two messengers were also released.

An hour later, the Shence Army advanced to the city of Huazhou, and saw four gates wide open, and many people were rushing out from inside, throwing weapons and headscarves on piles of things on the ground.

The soldiers of the Shence Army lined up and waited for the gunpowder and lead bullets to be loaded, but did not go to drive them away, quietly waiting for the enemy soldiers to disarm.

After a long time, a group of people came from the north, unarmed, probably the surrendered soldiers from the barracks outside the city.

The number of people outside the city is several times higher than that of the Shence Army. Cui Qigao actually carried so many people from Huazhou, Hebei and other places. In just a few months, the scene was indeed quite terrifying.

After the surrendered troops were almost out, Yin Ci ordered the fully armed army to surround the crowd and ignite the piles of various rough weapons.

At the beginning, the soldiers were still cautious when they saw so many people, but gradually they were less polite. They whipped and insulted the crowd when they drove away.

Then the Shence Army infantry rode into the city and quickly controlled the city defense areas such as the city gate, city tower, and urncheng gate. The flag with the word Tang on the city tower was thrown down, fell on the suspension bridge and was repeatedly trampled by horse hooves.

A new flag quickly rose from the flagpole, with the big character on it being Jin.

Then Xue Chongxun and a group of military generals walked towards the city gate together. At the gate were kneeling, a group of uncapped officials and generals, and many others were wearing the official uniforms of local officials of the Jin Dynasty. It was estimated that some of them surrendered to Cui Qigao. The official uniforms of the Jin Dynasty were originally the same as those of the Tang Dynasty. These people even moved their butts and didn't even change their official uniforms.

In fact, it is not only clothing, but also those who are officials. Many of them used to be officials in the Tang Dynasty and now they are officials in the Jin Dynasty.

Xue Chongxun remembered that he came alone, and he held the horses next to a group of civil and military officials in Huazhou who had kneeled down and asked: Zhou Jike?

An official in the middle with gray hair but good skin care was kowtowed and said: The guilty minister is here.

Xue Chongxun pointed at him with a horse whip and asked: I treat you well and entrusted him with the commander of the prefecture. It would be fine if you failed to do your duty. Why should you surrender to the traitor and betray the monarch and harm your colleagues?

Zhou Ji leaned down, looking helpless: The thief used the crime of the crime and the whole family to threaten him, but the minister was really helpless.This thief occupied my daughter and used the wife and children in the family as a charity. I wish I could eat her flesh alive, and I had no desire to defect to her...

Xue Chongxun interrupted him coldly: Does Li Yi's family have no old wife and children?

Zhou Ji was distracted with words, and his forehead was covered with cold sweat and covered with yellow earth on his face.

When the troops entered the city and came to the front of the prefecture yamen, Xue Chongxun turned around and said to Yuwen Xiao: Find out all the people from Zhou Ji's family and don't let anyone hide.