Late Ming Dynasty: Special Forces in 1645

General Xu arrived with two thousand Zheng soldiers. He was not surprised to find himself discovered by the Restoration Army's scouts.

In a battle between two armies, not deploying a large number of visible and hidden sentries for vigilance is tantamount to suicide!

If you can get close enough to launch an attack, you will have a significant first-strike advantage.

Seeing that Zheng Jun had been discovered, General Xu decided to stop hiding and charged towards the Xingfu Army camp with his torch.

General Xu was gambling that the Restoration Army wouldn't have enough time to prepare, and that the night raid would catch them off guard.

When Zheng Jun rushed to within a hundred meters of the Xingfu Army, he set up small breech-loading cannons and tiger-squatting cannons.

Just as Zheng Jun was about to adjust the firing angle of the cannons, several flashes of light suddenly appeared in the Xingfu Army camp, followed by three loud explosions.

Three new cannons fired simultaneously, and a large number of Zheng's troops fell, leaving behind more than a dozen corpses and dozens of soldiers lying on the ground groaning in pain.

General Xu's mind suddenly went blank: How could this be? How could the Restoration Army react so quickly!

General Xu had expected the Restoration Army to react quickly, but he did not expect their artillery to fire in such a short time.

In Xu Lieutenant General's view, artillery is a large and difficult machine to handle, especially on a dark and windy night. Adjusting the muzzle angle and loading the shells in advance are not things that can be done in a short time.

The fact that the Restoration Army was able to fire in such a short time puzzled General Xu!

Although he didn't understand, Lieutenant General Xu knew that they couldn't retreat at this time, because if they did, the army would collapse. Fortunately, Zheng's small artillery was ready to be set up.

So Lieutenant General Xu ordered the cannons to fire. Even though the angle hadn't been adjusted properly, and regardless of whether the shells would hit, he just fired them.

Zheng Jun's cannons, large and small, fired simultaneously with great force, but the Xingfu Army's artillerymen had already taken cover and were unharmed under the protection of the earthen walls.

Furthermore, Zheng Jun's artillery was not properly adjusted, so it was inaccurate. Under this round of bombardment, the Xingfu Army was completely unharmed!

When Zheng Jun tried to adjust the angle for a second round of artillery fire, musketeers and archers rushed out from their bunkers, and after running dozens of meters, they took turns firing their guns and arrows.

This round of firing by the Xingfu Army caused another large number of Zheng's troops to fall.

After firing a volley, the muskets did not reload, but instead dispersed to both sides.

After the musketeers and archers dispersed to the sides, making way for the three cannons behind them, which had already been loaded with grapeshot, three more loud explosions followed.

Another group of Zheng Jun's troops fell.

The Restoration Army's muskets and cannons fired alternately, essentially crippling Zheng's firearms units.

The tactics of the Restoration Army seem simple, but this "simpleness" requires countless hours of hard work in daily training. To achieve seamless coordination between artillerymen, musketeers, shield bearers, and spearmen, it is impossible without a great deal of training.

Zheng's army, on the other hand, was unable to coordinate the various branches of the military. Basically, muskets, cannons, bows and arrows, and spears each went their own way, and it was good enough if they didn't accidentally injure each other, let alone coordinate their operations.

After the Xingfu Army had loaded their muskets, cannons, and bows and arrows, seeing signs of retreat in the Zheng army, Li Chengming ordered the other infantry to press forward together.

Faced with a retreating enemy, the Xingfu Army was already experienced. When the infantry pressed forward, Zheng's army could no longer hold on and retreated across the board.

Li Chengming gathered all his troops and began chasing after the defeated Zheng army.

General Xu escaped unscathed from the bombardment by the Restoration Army, but at that moment he had suicidal thoughts: Who was the one who ambushed whom?

Zheng Jun's surprise attack on the Xingfu Army camp resulted in a counterattack and his troops being wiped out—an outcome that General Xu never expected.

In his view, the worst outcome would be that even if the sneak attack failed, he could retreat calmly.

But Li Chengming was different. The moment he discovered that Zheng Jun had sent troops to attack, Li Chengming had the idea of ​​ending the battle quickly.

The thousands of restoration troops he brought with him had been fighting one battle after another, and they were exhausted both physically and mentally. Li Chengming could tell from their expressions that they did not want to fight anymore.

Therefore, Li Chengming wanted to seize any opportunity to defeat Zheng's army in one fell swoop and end the battle.

Tonight's night raid by Zheng Jun is a perfect opportunity. If the enemy can go, so can I. If you can launch a night raid, so can I!

Half an hour later, the Restoration Army followed the fleeing Zheng army to the Zheng army camp and drove the defeated soldiers to break through the camp gate.

Zheng Jun would never have imagined that the entire Xingfu Army would come along with the defeated soldiers who had fled back.

Although Zheng's army had sentries to report the situation, they did not have the same reaction speed as Xingfu's army. When Xingfu's army stormed into Zheng's camp, many of Zheng's soldiers were still asleep.

Without much preamble, the Restoration Army entered the camp and unleashed a barrage of arrows and muskets, followed by swords and spears.

In an instant, the Zheng army camp was thrown into chaos, with thousands of Zheng soldiers running around like headless flies, unable to organize any troops to resist.

Perhaps it was Zheng Jun's night raid on the Xingfu Army that made Zheng Jun lower his guard.

So even Li Chengming didn't expect that Zheng Jun would perform so poorly tonight, unable to mount any effective resistance against the Xingfu Army's surprise attack.

If Li Chengming had known that the night raid on Zheng's army would be so effective, he probably would have launched the raid much earlier.

The thousands of soldiers collapsed like a house of cards. This time, Zheng's army faced not just a defeat, but complete chaos and utter defeat.

Li Chengming ordered his troops to be pursued separately in company-sized units, with the aim of eliminating as many Zheng troops as possible and rendering them completely incapable of fighting.

After all, Zheng Jun still had five or six thousand combat-ready soldiers. Even if five or six thousand pigs were running around everywhere, Li Chengming wouldn't be able to chase them all down in a short time!

The Xingfu Army pursued Zheng Jun until dawn, but did not find any trace of Zheng Jun's commander.

Li Chengming felt a little regretful; it would have been perfect if he could have captured or killed Shi Fu alive.

But then I thought about it again, and realized that achieving such results was already quite an accomplishment, so I stopped asking for more.

As for General Xu, who led the troops to launch a surprise attack on the Xingfu Army, he was shot dead by Li Chengming before he even entered Zheng's camp.

The Xingfu Army pursued the Zheng Army for five kilometers until dawn, when they finally dragged their tired but excited bodies back to the Zheng Army's camp.

What Li Chengming didn't know was that Shi Fu hadn't fallen asleep that night, but was waiting for news from Commander Xu.

Instead of receiving good news from General Xu, they were greeted by a sentry reporting that a large number of defeated soldiers had fled back to their camp.

Enraged, Shi Fu flew into a rage once more, grabbing something and smashing it.

Just as his anger was beginning to flare, his personal guards came in to report that they had discovered a large number of Restoration Army soldiers following behind the defeated troops in a surprise attack.

Upon hearing this news, Shi Fu stood frozen in place, his blood rushing to his head, and he immediately collapsed.

The Xingfu Army attacked the camp, and the commander-in-chief Shi Fu fainted. The camp was thrown into chaos, and for a time no one was able to organize a resistance.

The other two adjutant generals, seeing that the situation was not good, had already led their personal guards and fled.

Helpless, Shi Fu's personal guards helped him mount his horse and escape from the military camp.

Thus, Zheng Jun completely lost the ability to resist.

After escaping the military camp, Shi Fu slowly woke up, his hair disheveled, his eyes lifeless, and his expression blank.

If his personal guards hadn't forcibly pulled him away, Shi Fu would have been captured alive by the pursuing Restoration Army long ago.

Since waking up, Shi Fu had been muttering to himself: "Defeated, completely defeated! The rebel army! The Restoration Army! The rebel leader Li Chengming!"

Shi Fu kept repeating these words over and over, and he looked like he was mentally unstable.

But Shi Fu wasn't mentally unstable; he just didn't want to accept reality.

As dawn broke and the sun rose, Shi Fu looked up at the blue sky and white clouds, and finally his foolish appearance was gone.

Shi Fu calmly said to his personal guards, "After I die, cut off my head and give it to the Duke of Pingguo. Tell him that Shi Fu has betrayed his trust, knows that his crime is unforgivable, and has beheaded himself to plead guilty to the Duke of Pingguo!"

Before the guards could react, Shi Fu snatched their long swords, held them to his neck, and slashed.

Shi Fu's blood gushed out, splashing more than ten feet away.

"General!"

The guards rushed forward to support Shi Fu, but Shi Fu's eyes were already closed, his expression was calm, and he seemed to have been relieved.

This is Shi Fu's choice to protect his family!