With 100,000 elite soldiers at the start, what should you call me?

……

"Tingxun! Follow your father and we'll fight our way back!"

Kong Youde shouted loudly. At this moment, the nearly fifty-year-old man seemed to have returned to the madness of his youth, like someone who had been licking blood off a knife.

Kong Tingxun was Kong Youde's adopted son. He was always by his adoptive father's side in every battle. The father and son were even closer than biological father and son. Upon hearing the order, Kong Tingxun immediately took the lead and led his personal guards to launch a counterattack.

The vanguard battalion of the Longxiang First Army, which was at the forefront of the pursuit, was immediately cut off by the Qing troops who rushed out from both sides of the woods.

Battalion Commander Jiang Tao was terrified. His pupils shrank instantly, and his soldiers also showed signs of panic.

However, most of the Longxiang Army soldiers were prisoners of war with battlefield experience, so they were not as easily frightened as ordinary people. Everyone was observing their surroundings and paying attention to friendly forces.

If they are defeated, they will simply flee; if they are victorious, they will surely unite together.

This is the experience gained from surviving on the battlefield; running around recklessly will only lead to an even faster death.

Moreover, under the guidance of instructors assigned by the new army, they received tactical emergency response methods for various situations, as well as firm ideological education.

Battalion Commander Jiang Tao immediately ordered: "Cease the pursuit and form defensive positions!"

Upon receiving the order, the soldiers, who had been panicking and unsure of what to do, seemed to find their anchor and formed circular formations, each company as a unit.

The rear guard battalion that was chasing them was caught off guard, and chaos ensued.

Li Benshen, clad in red armor and wielding a long spear, fought his way through the crowd. He spotted a general giving orders and immediately spurred his horse forward.

At this moment, Hu Fangyuan, the battalion commander of the rear guard battalion, sensed something was wrong. He turned his head and saw a group of men charging directly at him.

"Commander, run! We'll hold them off!" Several guards from the rear guard battalion held the front.

"Heh, killing me won't be that easy." Hu Fangyuan sneered, his expression calm, without a trace of panic on his face. He was also wearing armor and holding a knife, no different from a general on the battlefield. But then he suddenly bent down and picked up the Jian'an sword hanging beside his horse.

He raised his gun, cocked it, loaded a bullet, aimed ahead, and bang!

Within a few seconds, he fired several shots, emptied the magazine, and reloaded the gun with practiced ease.

Li Benshen, who wanted to kill Hu Fangyuan and secure victory, fell off his horse and rolled several times on the ground, feeling as if all the bones in his body were about to break and his head was spinning.

He didn't die. The moment Hu Fangyuan drew his gun, he didn't hesitate at all and tried to hide under the horse's belly. But Hu Fangyuan's next few shots were all aimed at the horse. Startled, the horse fell off.

"General!"

Several guards nearby reacted quickly and immediately brought over a horse and helped Li Benshen up.

"Keep charging, don't worry about me."

Li Benshen spat out a mouthful of blood, feeling extremely uncomfortable. The whole world seemed to blur, and the shouts of battle around him seemed to weaken.

At that very moment, Wang Xin, the battalion commander of the Longxiang First Army Cavalry Battalion, who was roaming the edge providing fire support, charged forward.

"Get your shots right, all of you!"

Two thousand cavalrymen, armed with Hanyang rifles, charged into the battlefield, raising their hands to fire a shot at any enemy they saw.

Upon seeing a group, he unleashed a barrage of fire.

In the midst of the chaos, a well-equipped force of firearms stormed into the battlefield, instantly greatly reducing the effectiveness of the ambush by Li Benshen's three thousand Qing troops.

With reinforcements, the morale of the vanguard and rearguard battalions soared, and the panic of being suddenly ambushed dissipated.

At the same time, Kong Tingxun led two thousand elite troops to attack.

The first company of the vanguard battalion was the first to be hit.

Huang Cai led more than two hundred people in a difficult struggle.

"Damn it, hold them off! Reinforcements are just behind us!"

"Swordsmen, raise your shields! Spearmen, thrust them at me!"

Two hundred people formed a circle, resembling a hedgehog with long quills.

The Qing cavalry, charging in, did not directly charge at them. Instead, they bypassed them and fired arrows from their high positions on horseback. A few unlucky soldiers were shot in the face and died instantly.

Most of the vanguard battalion soldiers wore double armor, which provided them with high defense. Those with good stamina even dared to wear three layers of armor.

In the Longxiang Army, you can wear any armor you like, as long as it fits.

Many people had arrows stuck in their bodies.

The Qing infantry arrived from the rear, surrounded Huang Cai's group, fired arrows, and stabbed each other with spears, and the two armies fought each other.

The same applies to all companies except Huang Cai's.

However, this situation did not last long.

When Kong Tingxun led his cavalry in battle, he rushed to the front and suddenly saw a horrifying scene.

In the distance, thousands of enemy cavalrymen, rifles in hand, fired at the surrounding Qing soldiers as if calling roll. After each shot, they immediately reloaded and searched for their next target, like vengeful ghosts seeking to claim lives, knowing that being targeted meant instant death.

Moreover, they were extremely efficient at killing people.

Li Benshen's ambush force suffered heavy casualties, and those who survived surrendered one after another. Moreover, the enemy army continued to advance, and Li Benshen himself had no idea where he had gone.

Suddenly, a cavalryman saw the Qing reinforcements and fired a shot at them with his Hanyang rifle.

At that moment, Kong Tingxun felt as if he had been doused with ice water, his hot blood instantly turned cold, and cold sweat poured down his back.

In melee combat with cold weapons, the population density is too high; a single shot can take down an entire person.

"what!"

Kong Tingxun's personal guard screamed as he was shot and fell off his horse.

"withdraw!"

Without hesitation, Kong Tingxun turned his horse around and fled.

Once the Qing troops lying in ambush on both sides were dealt with, the situation instantly reversed, and the Longxiang Army continued its pursuit of the Qing troops.

Meanwhile, Kong Youde, Chen Tai, and others also rushed up from behind, but they frowned when they saw Kong Tingxun retreating.

"Tingxun, what happened? Why was it withdrawn!"

"Father! Li Benshen is dead! The ambush failed, the rebels' firearms are too powerful, our army is no match for them. The rebels are already on their way, we must retreat!"

Kong Youde was greatly surprised upon hearing this.

Are you kidding me? You can fight back even after being ambushed!

This rebel army is simply incomprehensible.

"Wait, it's come to this point, why don't I take the lead?"

At this moment, Chen Tai suddenly stood up and spoke.

He was unwilling to accept such a humiliating defeat, and he simply couldn't believe that Li Benshen's ambush would end in such a short time.

Moreover, this is the kind of melee combat with cold weapons that the Manchu Eight Banners are best at, so there's no reason for them to let the Han people chase and kill them.

Kong Tingxun wanted to say something, but was stopped by a look from Kong Youde.

Chen Tai glanced at Kong Tingxun with disdain and said with a sneer, "Let me show you the strength of the Manchu Eight Banners."

Kong Tingxun's cowardly behavior filled Chen Tai with contempt.

Behind him were three hundred Bayara soldiers in white armor, Dorgon's trump card for his survival.

Besides the Bayara white-armored soldiers, he also had two thousand Manchu cavalry behind him.

"Prince Gongshun, follow me and we'll march back!"

At Chen Tai's command, three hundred Bayara white-armored soldiers surged out like an iron torrent, followed by two thousand cavalry. Their imposing and majestic momentum shook the earth, as if it were the end of the world.

Kong Tingxun said, "Father, General Jingnan has gone to war."

"I know."