War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 222 Too Simple Battle
In the channel wrapped in reeds, under the command of Captain Zheng, more than a dozen boats were hidden in the dense reeds on both sides of the channel.The big lifting poles on each boat are also aligned at the center of the channel at an oblique angle of 45 degrees.

This is not over yet, the men on the two row boats without the big lifting poles picked up the sickles, drilled into the depths of the reeds, cut some green reeds, and scattered them on the calm channel. The two men smashed the two wooden stakes they brought into the bottom of the water on both sides of the channel, and pulled two thick iron wires between the two wooden stakes.

It was also through everyone's efforts to set up traps that Wei Ran finally knew why Zhou Houpu disliked the pair of big lifters on their boat before they set off. Well, the inner diameter of the "gun muzzle" is the largest, probably no less than five centimeters in diameter, even if it is smaller, it is generally more than three centimeters, which is more than half thicker than the ones on their ship.

Apart from these earthen guns of different calibers and the earthen muskets carried by Uncle Hammer, the only weapons they have that can be regarded as normal are all kinds of grenades, which are almost one in each hand, and a few box cannons. , a few guns that were obviously sent back by Wei Ran yesterday, and a few old sleeves, made in Jizhong, or the same old devil's golden hook rifle, and even a Mosin Nagant that I don't know where it came from.

Seeing that he didn't seem to be able to help, Wei Ran simply raised the camera that had been hanging around his neck and pointed it at Old Hammer and Zhou Houpu who had started loading ammunition.

The two of them were not stage-frightened, they cooperated skillfully with Wei Ran pressing the shutter from time to time, one was in charge of slightly raising the muzzle of the gun, while the other poured a bucket full of black powder into the barrel of the gun with a horn funnel.

When the nearly three-meter-long lifting pole was erected straight up and down, Uncle Hammer picked up a piece of broken wood and knocked on the barrel, then put it down again, and asked Zhou Houpu to fill it with more than half a bucket of iron sand.

Stand up again as before to spread the iron sand evenly on the bottom of the big lifting pole. After putting it down again, Zhou Houpu at the bow immediately used a thin bamboo pole to push the rolled up rags all the way from the muzzle to the bottom and stuffed it tightly. Reality.

He swiftly loaded enough gunpowder and iron sand into the two large lifting rods, Zhou Houpu untied the bamboo tube fixed on the horn funnel, filled it with gunpowder and put it in his pocket, and then operated Backed up with the row of boats, and quietly hid in the dense reeds.

Under the signal of Uncle Hammer, Zhou Houpu dipped a thick stick of incense stick in the black gunpowder, and waited for Wei Ran to hang the lunch box filled with gunpowder on the bamboo pole that was poked into the bottom of the water, then he took out a match and lit it to get the string On Xiang's head.

With the help of a little gunpowder that had just been contaminated, the incense stick, which was as thick as a finger, was easily ignited, and the lingering smoke drove away the raging mosquitoes in an instant.

As everyone completed the arrangement, the waterway that must pass along the way from Zhao Beikou to the county town also fell into silence.In the dense reeds, everyone waited with bated breath for the appearance of the prey.

Soon, the scorching sun began to slant westward, and from the direction of the open water connected by the channel, the sound of the engine was faintly heard.

Almost at the same time when everyone heard the sound, a vivid cormorant call came into everyone's ears from the direction where Captain Zheng was hiding.

"disembarked"

Zhou Houpu, who had been waiting for a long time, quickly took out the small bamboo tubes he had prepared in advance, and poured the gunpowder inside around the fire eyes with the wild goose feathers inserted at the tails of the two big lifting poles.Then he slid silently from the boat into the water, only showing his shoulders and the hand holding the incense stick on the side of the boat.

However, the old Uncle Hammer at the stern did not get off the boat, but squatted halfway at the stern, and raised his clay shotgun.

Seeing this, Wei Ran, who was originally sitting on a big lifting pole, quickly took off the camera, and then nimbly jumped into the water, holding the side of the boat with one hand, and waiting quietly with the grenade in the other.

Soon, the sound of the engine turned from far to near, and the distance between the two steamboats was about [-] meters, and they entered the channel just enough to accommodate their hulls.

These two steamboats are not too big, and their speed is pitifully slow. What's even more funny is that each of the two boats erected a wooden pole several meters high, and a basket was tied to the top of the wooden pole. In the baskets, there was also a person dressed as a puppet soldier sitting on each side, observing the surrounding situation vigilantly.

Just looking at the terrified expressions on the faces of the two puppet soldiers, you can tell that this is definitely not a flattering job.

Especially when they saw the reeds floating on the waterway, they stood up nervously holding onto the wooden poles.And the person in charge of sailing had to reduce the speed of the boat after seeing those floating reeds as well.

The devil's steamboat is propelled by propellers. Although these scattered and floating reeds cannot stop their boat, they can easily entangle the propellers. The principle is not much different from the kelp entanglement of submarines in later generations.

When the boat in front stops, the boat behind will naturally follow suit.In this way, the distance between the two ships was getting closer and closer under the inertia of the steamer.

Seeing that the first boat was about to be blocked by the thick wire between the two wooden stakes underwater, the "Monkey Watching the Sky" on the wooden pole noticed something strange!
However, just as he was about to raise his arm to point to the river opposite Wei Ran and the others, on a wooden boat that was specially responsible for setting traps, a Yanling team member with a golden hook rifle immediately pulled the trigger!Accompanied by this crisp gunshot, the puppet army standing in the basket on the top of the pole also fell headlong!
Before the puppet army fell into the water, the second shot followed and knocked down the lookout post on the other ship.Almost at the same time, Wei Ran also ignited the pinch of gunpowder at the door of the two large lever fires with incense sticks, and at the same time that Uncle Hammer pulled the trigger of the earth-made shotgun, he held the camera with one hand and pressed the shutter!
The original crisp shutter sound was completely covered by a series of deafening rumbles, and a large amount of gunpowder smoke evaporated in the reeds on both sides of the channel, covering the sight of both the enemy and us.
Pushed by the huge recoil force, the row boat with the big lifting pole was pushed back violently, and then blocked by the bamboo pole inserted in the stern in advance and the dense reeds.

Before the gunpowder smoke cleared, the surviving devils and puppet soldiers on the two steamboats also started to fight back indiscriminately!

"Grenade!" Captain Zheng yelled, and immediately, a dozen grenades smoked and flew towards the two steamboats that stopped completely in a parabola!

When the devils and puppet soldiers who were fighting back saw the spinning grenades, they immediately lost their souls and no longer cared about shooting, and rushed to jump from the boat into the water.

"Boom!"

After a series of dull explosions, the machine guns on the two boats that had just fired a few shots went dumb, and the devils and puppet soldiers who survived the previous blows also went dumb, and even the engines of the two steamboats went dumb. Turn off the fire completely.

At this moment, Wei Ran had already drawn out his pistol, and together with the rest of the team members, they aimed at the devils and puppet soldiers who fell into the water and repeatedly clicked the trigger.

"Quick! Get on board!"

Zhou Hopu had already climbed onto the rowboat at some point, and anxiously yelled at Wei Ran who was still holding on to the side of the boat and kept shooting.

When he flipped into the cabin neatly, Uncle Hammer used his bamboo pole to push hard at the stern of the boat, while Zhou Houpu frantically shook the oars.And Wei Ran had already wiped off the water stains on his hands, picked up the camera again, and shot the shutter repeatedly at the two steamboats and the dozen or so boats swarming up around them.

Seeing that the wooden boat under his feet was leaning against the side, Wei Ran grasped the edge of the steamboat with both hands, and jumped onto it along with Zhou Houpu, Captain Zheng and others.

"Captain, I found a living one with a command knife!" A rather solid Chinese character shouted in surprise as he opened a sack in the cabin.

Everyone hurried over after hearing the words, and then saw a little devil crouching in a corner in the dark cabin, yelling something, and his crotch was already wet with incontinent urine.

"Take off his knife first, and then tie him up firmly!" Captain Zheng commanded with the box cannon in one hand and his other hand on his hip.

Hearing this, the stocky man snatched the command knife held in his arms by the other party, then took off the weapon on his body, roughly pinched the other party's chin, and turned the pie face with a beard like nose hair The bright light at the entrance of the quasi-cabin looked at it, "It's this beast! It was the little devil who burned our Weizi land last year!"

"Uncle He, I tied him up for you!"

Before Zhou Hopu could finish his sentence, he got into the cabin, raised his hand and rubbed and pushed the devil's shoulder, and then everyone inside and outside the cabin heard a series of crisp clicking sounds that made people's teeth sore.And the devil, who was originally terrified, also let out a wail.

"Almost forgot that Magnolia also followed."

The stocky man shook the little devil's dislocated hands, "It's really inseparable, it's easy to tie up, Magnolia, you have to teach me how to do it later."

"Is this still worth teaching?"

Amid the screams of the little devil, Zhou Houpu deliberately and slowly restored the dislocated joint of one of his arms, and also slowly demonstrated his actions just now.

Waiting until the scared devil rolled his eyes and passed out with pain, Captain Zheng standing at the door of the cabin said, "Okay, take this little devil back. The rest of them quickly pick out useful things and take them away. Then chisel the boat!"

Everyone responded loudly, chatting and laughing and began to clean the battlefield.

Soon, rifles, magazines, and even anything that seemed useful in the cabin were carried by everyone to the platoon boat and covered with mats.Even the weapons on the corpses that sank into the bottom of the water were all picked up one by one by the Yanling team members who dived into the bottom of the water.

(End of this chapter)