Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 130: A Battle Before Retreat

Although the Buddhist treasures had already begun to evacuate, the ambush on the mountain had not been abandoned. After all, they needed to buy time for the evacuation.

The evacuation of four or five thousand people would not be completed in a short period of time, not to mention that there were so many supplies that needed to be transported, and it would take time to build shelters in the mountains.

However, because the depth was still more than 20 miles, the special forces company did not intend to attack the civilians with such high intensity as they did at the beginning. Even if they opened fire, they would not necessarily kill anyone.

However, the civilians knew what was going on, and every time a gunshot was heard, they would run back in a mess as before, or find a place to hide nearby, and then would run out when driven out by the imperial soldiers to continue building roads and cutting wood.

This did not speed up the progress of road construction much, and it took only one or two days to advance four or five miles.

In order to prevent these laborers from mutiny, Le Bao and Na Yancheng did not push them too hard. It would only take two days and five miles, and the remaining ten to twenty miles would not take a few days. They could afford to wait for these few days.

"Haha, the gentry and wealthy families in Jiangjin County are indeed connected with Chen Gu. Now the losses of the civilians are minimal!" Na Yancheng put down the monocular telescope in his hand and sneered.

"No hurry!" Le Bao said with a sinister look on his face, "After we have dealt with the Buddhist treasures, it will be their turn next. The Han people are not honest after all. We need to use blood to remind them who is in power now."

"The Buddha treasure is easy to get, but it's not easy to catch the bandit leader. There are continuous mountains inside the Buddha treasure. If you only take a small number of people to hide in the mountain village, it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack to find him!"

Na Yancheng frowned and said, "Once we let the tiger go back to the mountains, I'm afraid there will be endless troubles!"

"There's nothing we can do about it. Let's take it down first!" Le Bao thought for a moment and then said, "We can set up more guard posts here to prevent the bandit chieftain from escaping.

It is also possible to drive the people out of the mountains to prevent the bandits from obtaining various supplies.

Finally, when the grass and trees are withered in late autumn, we can find the right weather to set fire to the mountain. As for the result, it all depends on luck. "

"Uncle, you are wise!" Na Yancheng flattered him and agreed with Le Bao's idea. This was the only way to do it at the moment.

The mountain road built by Le Bao was not very wide, only six feet wide, and could only accommodate one carriage. However, it required that the trees on both sides of the road must be cut down to a width of more than ten feet, and the cut trees must be cleared away to leave no place for sneak attackers to hide.

For hot weapons, this effect is actually not that great, especially since the rifle in Chen Gu's hand can reach a distance of several dozen feet, so there are plenty of places to hide.

What really worked, after all, was that the civilians of Jiangjin County protected Le Bao and his men from the disaster, forcing Chen the Executor to withdraw.

Lebao started to send laborers to build the road. In the beginning, they only advanced four or five miles in two days. Later, since Chen Gu no longer killed the laborers on a large scale, the speed of road construction became faster and faster. In the end, it only took seven days for the laborers to build the road to the vicinity of the Buddhist Qingyuan Palace.

There was only a little distance left to completely build the road into the Buddha Treasure Field, but the scouts soon reported back that the people who were harassing the road builders had disappeared. The road construction had been going on for an hour today, but it had been smooth sailing.

"The enemy has run away!" After receiving the information, Le Bao did not show any anger. Instead, he sneered at the map and asked Na Yancheng beside him, "Haha, where do you think the enemy will escape to?"

"There are endless mountains in the direction of Guizhou, and it is impossible to pass through. What's more, there are so many elderly, weak, women and children on the other side. It is unlikely that they can go to the east. After all, the journey is too difficult. Our army is guarding the north. The only way they can go is to the west to Hejiang County!" Na Yancheng analyzed.

"Haha, once the rats run out of their caves, it will be much easier to catch them." Le Bao raised his voice and shouted, "Send an order, send a battalion of troops to Fobao immediately to get details about the bandits. Order the navy to block the Yangtze River to prevent the bandits from going down the river. Order the Yibin navy to be ready to go down the river at any time to cooperate in encircling and suppressing the bandits."

The messengers scattered in all directions, and a battalion of soldiers and horses immediately headed towards the Buddhist treasure.

Soon after, information was passed back that the people of Fobao had indeed evacuated, but there were still bandits left. Moreover, the bandits were powerful and one battalion of soldiers could not withstand them at all. They were soon beaten back and lost more than two hundred people.

"Waste!" Le Bao cursed angrily, and then ordered 3,000 Green Camp soldiers to attack the Buddhist treasure again as the vanguard. This time there was no need to fight the enemy head-on, they only needed to guard the road and search the woods on both sides of the road to prevent the ambush of the enemy army and ensure the safety of the central army.

Le Bao himself led 1,000 Eight Banners soldiers and 3,000 Green Camp soldiers, with the artillery battalion following closely behind, leaving only 1,000 soldiers to guard the house.

Chen Gu personally led two hundred soldiers to guard the hilltop near Qingyuan Palace.

Although everyone had evacuated, Chen Gu still decided to fight with Le Bao before leaving.

It is necessary to suppress Le Bao's arrogance, and at the same time avenge those dead civilians. Although those civilians were shot and killed on the orders of Chen Gu, strictly speaking, they were forced to death by Le Bao.

Sending some imperial soldiers to be buried with them now will also allow those dead civilians to rest in peace.

The hill was not high, only about forty or fifty meters, and the slope was not too steep. However, even such a small hill was enough to give the defending Chen Gu an absolute geographical advantage.

Many chest-deep trenches were dug on the top of the hill, and there was a trench every five meters from top to bottom. A total of ten trenches were dug, allowing Chen Gu to block the enemy layer by layer.

Just after noon, Le Bao arrived with his army.

Seeing Chen Kuijun on the opposite hill, he couldn't help but sneer and said, "Haha, what a bold fellow! Facing my army's pressure, he dares to try to stop a chariot with his arms. Artillery battalion, get ready!"

The two hilltops are about one thousand meters apart, but they are still within the coverage range of artillery. Artillery of this era can fire at a distance of two or three kilometers.

It’s a pity that Chen Gu did not have enough resources, talents and time, otherwise he could even make a cannon that could fire ten or twenty kilometers away.

The manufacturing process of the Krupp cannon is actually very simple, just like Chen Gu's rifle, all it needs is for the barrel to be long enough to increase its power.

If there had been long-barreled cannons for defense, Chen Gu wouldn't have had to evacuate Fobao, and he could have won even if he had let Lebao in.

"Boom boom boom!"

When the sound of cannon fire from the opposite side rang out, Chen Gu immediately shouted, "Hide!"

Although solid artillery shells are powerful, they are not very effective in front of trenches. As long as people are not hit directly by the shells, the ejected soil has basically no lethality to them.

(End of this chapter)