Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2186 Unexpected News

There were not many "surprise soldiers" who came, only more than 100 people, but Luo Mao only had ten big soldiers, and a round of guns obviously couldn't withstand the crowd.The shooting speed was not enough to form a fire net, so they could only fight and walk. Fortunately, a few people still had a few grenades on their bodies, and they threw them out to frighten the enemy, so they were not caught up and swallowed by the large group of people.

Team No. 2 arrived in time and quickly stabilized their position with head-on volleys and bayonet attacks. However, this group of "surprise soldiers" had a large number of people and a strong will to fight. Don't even ask, desperately rush to kill.Looking at the costumes and weapons of these people, they are not local Han people, nor are they rioting Yao people. They are probably chieftains and horses from an unknown route in these two Guangxi and deep mountains, who were confiscated by the government.

Seeing that the 2nd team's foothold was unstable, they could only alternately cover and retreat.Li Dong was secretly worried.Suddenly there was a cannon sound behind him, and a white smoke flew over his head, hitting the approaching enemy group. With a thunderbolt, the enemy army fell down immediately, and then two more shells flew in, blowing up the enemy.

This time, no matter how "tough and fearless" the enemy couldn't stand it anymore, they retreated.Li Dong was short of troops and did not dare to pursue, so he immediately withdrew his troops back.

At this time, the sound of artillery shells from the direction of Shijian became denser and denser, and the artillery shells continued to pass over Li Dong and the others' heads, flying towards the enemy.The enemy army, which seemed to have some rules at first, was unstable under the artillery fire.Suddenly, the enemy exploded their nest like ants being splashed with boiling water, and fled in panic.Some people even ran towards Li Dong and the others in a panic.

"Squadron leader! There is the sound of bugles behind the enemy!" Ma Lai suddenly shouted.

Li Dong listened attentively, and sure enough, the sound of bugles came faintly from the wind.This is the horn of "charge".He was refreshed: it must be that the Fubo army made a detour to the enemy's side and launched an attack!
Sure enough, the enemy army was in chaos.Driven down by the Fubo army from the mountain pass, hundreds of people were oppressed in a small area between the mountain pass and Shijian: in front of them were continuous artillery fire from Shijian and volleys of guns from the National Army, and behind them was the onslaught of the Fubo army. On the right is Suijiang, and on the left are continuous mountains.There is really no way to go to heaven, no way to go to earth, locked in the pocket and slowly cleaned up.

In desperation, many people threw themselves into Suijiang, tried to swim across the river, but were shot by artillery and platoon guns, and countless people drowned.By the time the sound of gunfire slowly subsided, more than 200 corpses had been left on the battlefield, and only a few dozen escaped.

A company of the 8th Battalion chased the enemy for nearly ten kilometers, and stopped at the foot of Baoding Mountain, and took advantage of the situation to set up an advanced camp.The road here leaves Suijiang and turns north to Guangning County, which is an important traffic node.

The Battle of Shijian North Mountain Pass was the biggest battle fought by the Suijiang Detachment along the way, and it was also the one with the most casualties.The casualties were mainly concentrated in the Wuzhou Squadron. Four people were killed, a dozen were injured, and the whereabouts of one person was unknown—Ai Buyi.After he contacted Quang Ninh No. 1 Squadron, there was no whereabouts. The soldiers of Quang Ninh No. 1 Squadron said they did not see him.And after cleaning the battlefield, his body was not found.

"Could it be that he was captured by the enemy?" Li Dong secretly wondered.However, the enemy army broke up after being surrounded, and it was impossible to think about taking prisoners while fleeing for their lives.Besides, the direction he ran was completely opposite to the direction the enemy was attacking, so how could he be captured?
One person in the Fubo army was killed and more than ten people were injured.The squadron leader of the 1st Squadron of the Guangning Brigade who retreated first was brought before Yang Zeng.

"Are you the squadron leader of the No. [-] Squadron of the Guangning Brigade?"

"Yes Yes……"

"You ordered the retreat?"

"Yes, it's me."

"Dead."

After Yang Zeng issued this order, he immediately issued a second order: "Interrogate the prisoners as soon as possible, I want a report on the enemy's situation!"

The detachment quickly cleared the battlefield, treated the wounded, and eliminated the remaining enemies around.From the corpses abandoned by the enemy on the battlefield, it is possible to clearly distinguish the Ming army in livery, the Yao people in indigo gowns, and the Cu people from Guangxi... This confirms Xu Xu and others' previous speculation: to fight against Xiong Wencan, an outsider in the Senate, has mobilized all the resources at hand to "add chaos" to the South China Army.

From the mouth of the captives, they learned that the enemy army was a group of chieftains sent by Xiong Wencan from Guangxi. They also merged the Yao people and local bandits to form a large group, which was commanded by a "general" under Xiong Wencan.As for who the general was, the captives couldn't tell.He only said he was a "Han official".

This "Han official" came to Guangning just half a month ago with his team, because he was under the banner of the government and had a seal, and soon gathered a large number of ghosts and ghosts, and now more than 1000 people have gathered "Mixed Arms".The composition is complex: there are chieftains from Guangxi, as well as the rout of the Ming army, various bandits, rioting Yao people, and local regiments trying to take advantage of the chaos to make a fortune.Come together into a hodgepodge.

This team occupied Quang Ninh three days ago.Due to the fierce resistance of the local villagers, Huaiji County has not yet fallen, but the traffic inside and outside the city has been cut off.

"What? Guangning has fallen?" Yang Zeng and Huang Chao were shocked when they heard the news.

Although some county towns did fall after the bandit rebellion spread, the county towns that fell into the hands of the bandits have not yet been formally dispatched to take over, and the local gentry or surrendered Ming officials temporarily "maintain the place."These counties are either insufficiently armed, or the half-hearted garrisons who surrendered can easily be taken advantage of by external forces.Falling is not surprising.In Guangning County, the director of Guihuamin County was dispatched, and there was also a squadron of the National Army.

This squadron still has enough energy to send a small team to garrison Shijian, which shows that the situation around them is not critical.

"Where are the officials of Song Dynasty in the county?" This is what Huang Chao is most concerned about.

"Some of the Song Dynasty officials in the county died in battle, and some were killed. It is said that many people were killed. The county magistrate was caught and had his head chopped off..."

This blow is more serious than before.Especially Huang Chao.Although he didn't know the county director, he knew that those who could be appointed as county directors by the Senate were the first-class elites among the naturalized people. Many of them were naturalized people who followed the Senate five or six years ago. Cadres or administrative cadres of enterprises and institutions start out and have been trained for many years.

And most of the more than a dozen naturalized civilian cadres around him who went to organize the team are elites who have been carefully trained for many years, have grassroots experience and have been trained.

The loss of these cadres is far more serious than the loss of several national army squadrons.

How the county fell, the captives couldn't tell the reason, they only knew that it was a strategy used, and the inside and outside cooperated to win it.Part of the national army died in battle, and the other part surrendered to the enemy when the city fell, and the remnants and a few surviving cadres fled to Huaiji.

Hearing that a few people survived, Huang Chao felt better.But when he heard someone surrendering, he felt even more uncomfortable.The Fubo Army has been established for so many years, no matter what kind of storms and waves it encounters, no troops or soldiers have ever surrendered voluntarily.This time it actually happened!

"Most of the national army is not well-trained, and it is natural that the will to fight is not strong. The chief does not need to mind too much." Yang Zeng said, "They are all old soldiers and ordinary people who have been recruited temporarily. How much will they have to fight? I think we have Wuzhou now. The team that can fight like the squadron has already exceeded expectations. It is the Quang Ninh 1 Squadron. It is very good to retreat in front of the enemy without collapsing on the spot.”

"You're right, we were too aggressive—we didn't train them well, so why should we send them to death?!" Huang Chao said with some grief, "Too self-righteous!" He paused and said, " How many cadres and soldiers have been sacrificed in vain is the result of our arrogance and arrogance!"

Yang Zeng didn't dare to answer. He knew that Chief Huang was talking about the Senate—this was beyond his scope of comment.He whispered: "We should recover Guangning as soon as possible..."

"Don't hurry up, but be cautious." Huang Chao said, "Don't make rash mistakes again."

Yang Zeng originally wanted to send a few companies to go straight to Guangning with light clothes, but since the elders ordered him to do so, it was inconvenient for him to disobey.So he ordered the Suijiang detachment to abandon the boat and land at the camp near Baoding Mountain, hoard transshipment materials, and prepare to launch a fortified battle against Guangning County.

Guangning originally belonged to Sihui. During the Jiajing period, there were successive years of turmoil in the northwest of Sihui. In the 38th year of Jiajing, Sihui County was cut off and placed in Guangning County, which still belonged to Zhaoqing Prefecture in the name of widespread tranquility.The city wall is based on long stones and covered with blue bricks. It is about eight meters high. Although it is not as tall as the city wall of Guangzhou, it is well fortified and is not a small city that can be easily entered.Originally, Zhu Mingxia and others thought that if Guangning was in chaos, at least the county would not fall.

According to the captives' confession, there are more than 1000 enemy troops guarding the city, the strength of which is close to that of the Suijiang detachment, protected by city walls, and equipped with many firearms.Therefore, whether it is chief officials like Yang Zeng and Huang Chao or the ordinary soldiers below, they all know that this is probably another hard battle.However, the morale of the soldiers was very high, and when they heard that the director of Guihuamin and the national army in the county were killed by bandits, they all felt the same hatred.They all clamored to severely teach this group of bandits who dared to offend the "prestige of the Senate".

Considering the arduousness of the task and the casualties of the National Army, Yang Zeng decided that the 8th Battalion, which had not yet made a move, would undertake the main attack task this time.For the soldiers of Li Dong Squadron, this is undoubtedly a great relief.The continuous fighting along the way has made them a little exhausted.

The combat power of the Fubo Army is like thunder, and their equipment is not comparable to them. The biggest difference between the Fubo Army and the National Army, at least on the surface, is their firearms, or more directly: they have cannons .These hollow iron pillars, which are always polished and polished, are always envied by the soldiers of the National Army. If the Wuzhou Squadron also had cannons in the Battle of Yamaguchi, they might not let the enemy go to the parapet at all.

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Next update: Volume 390 - Guangzhou Governance Chapter [-]

(End of this chapter)