Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 720 Breakthrough Defense
Team E broke through many obstacles and finally arrived at the outer river of Sanliang City at 16:40 that afternoon.The sailors drove away the Xiangyong guarding the last blocking line on the river bank.Along the way, the detachment has eliminated three or forty people one after another, but Shi Zhiqi is still very dissatisfied.

"Three to one! With this casualty rate, you will have to be criticized to death when you go back." Thinking about the big things in the Senate, there will be inquiry meetings and hearings.Shi Zhiqi's brain is getting bigger.Even if Sanliang City was captured immediately, the loss figure of 12 deaths alone would be ugly enough.

The Xiangyong who were defeated along the way fled back to the stockade one after another. Once they returned to the stockade, they would be taken to the office after drinking a few sips of water, and the committee members and Teacher Xiangyong would inquire about the specific fighting situation.

The fighting situation was not ideal. Xiangyong launched an attack according to the plan on every blocking line, but what he didn't expect was that the enemy would send troops to search for the cover fleet on the river bank at the same time.

"The thieves are elusive. The little ones are hiding in the woods. Unexpectedly, the thieves sneaked up from the bank and released a row of bird guns, killing most of the brothers..." A rag was wrapped around one leg. Xiang Yong said with a sad face.

A committee member didn't believe it: "Didn't you see the Kun thief?"

"I don't dare to lie, I really didn't see it." Xiang Yong said differently, "They just came here quietly, and fired a row of guns a mile away..."

"Fart! Cannons can only hit more than a mile!" Some people didn't believe that the guns of the robbers were so powerful.

"I heard that Kun Thief's blunderbuss can hit farther and more accurately than ours." Luo Tianqiu said, "It doesn't matter, just keep talking!"

"They fired a row of blunderbusses, and then they fired another row, and the brothers couldn't resist. Sometimes they just heard the blunderbusses and didn't know where they were firing..."

The prepared small artillery such as earth-made tiger crouching guns did not play a role in the battle. Many of them were lost before they were fired, and at most they fired only one or two shots.As for whether he hit anyone, no Xiangyong could explain clearly.Only one thing is certain, that is, all these guns were lost in the end, which made the committee members very distressed.For such a small cannon, iron materials, charcoal and casters also cost seven or eight taels of silver.

The reports of the village braves were similar, but the common point was that the thieves did not suffer much loss—at most twenty or so people died, because there were guard plates on the sampan, and no one was seen to be hit by an arrow.But the enemy of ten thousand people was indeed blown up firmly on the sampan.

The committee members were dissatisfied with the result of this victory. A lot of manpower and material resources were spent to block the river. Coupled with Xiangyong's interception along the river, the Kun bandits not only suffered minor losses, but also broke through the blockage and came all the way to Sanliang City.The only thing that played a role was the "enemy of ten thousand people".

"Let's talk about it, how to deal with this matter." A local squire named Lu Deyi among the committee members said in a muffled voice, "The firearms of the thieves are invincible, and they can't pull out any strongholds. When they arrive at the stronghold wall in Sanliang City Next, our group of Lian Gong is afraid that we will have to disband immediately!"

"If you break up, wait for the family to hang your neck!" Luo Tianqiu slapped down the table and said with a smirk, "Have you all forgotten? Mr. Liu and his son in Shigang are hanging on the swing right now, you have to follow A swing?"

Everyone was frightened by his aura and dared not speak.

"Every one of you, please understand! The gangster will not let us go, we are in the same boat, and no one can jump off the boat—even if you want to jump, it will be too late, unless the gangster shows kindness! Luo Tianqiu pointed at them one by one with a folding fan, "We can only save our wealth and lives if we all work together and fight off the robbers!"

The atmosphere in the village suddenly became tense.The regiment training office has issued an order to all the young men in the village to gather and prepare for the battle.The card decks beat their gongs in the streets and alleys,

Baskets of gunpowder and iron were carried under the wall of the village.Bricks, logs, torches, and gray bottles piled up at the base of the wall were picked up on the wall of the village, and buckets of fetid feces were picked up and poured into large clay pots, and a fire was set up below to burn.For a moment a stench filled the air.

Qingxia and everyone in her team also went to the wall, even Jiang Suo—as long as anyone can stand up and walk, everyone has to prepare to fight, whether you like it or not.Anyone who is unwilling will be beheaded as a spy first.No matter how much Jiang Suo complained, he didn't dare to disobey, so he had to hold a single knife and dress up, ready to follow the senior sister to the watchtower, so as to protect the senior sister when necessary.

In the ancestral hall, Qingxia and other adults in the team are dressing up and preparing weapons.

Qingxia was wearing a black tight-fitting arrow-sleeve shirt today, with a black handkerchief in her hair.Black is resistant to stains and blood stains, and it is inconspicuous in the crowd, which is different from her past sales that the more conspicuous the better.

She drew the bow and tested the strength of the bow.When she was teaching Xiangyong, she used to use the hard bow issued by the public -- the bow that the team carried was a soft bow. Later Luo Tianqiu saw that she was proficient in archery and her bow strength was also very strong, so he ordered someone to give another bow from the library. She found a good bow.The back of the bow is made of mulberry wood, the bow string is made of dried deer tendon from outside the pass, and a pair of horns are also top grade.I tried a full twenty force.That's three or four strokes less than the strongest bow she can draw.However, in addition to paying attention to precision and distance, there is also a persistent problem in archery. If you can't shoot five or six arrows in front of the battle, you will lose your strength.As far as this point is concerned, Luo Tianqiu spent a lot of thought on choosing this bow for her.

Thinking of this, a slight blush appeared on her face.Subconsciously rubbed the bow in his hand.

Jiang Niang is someone who has been there, and she has seen all the changes in Qingxia's expression recently.Originally, she wanted to find a time when no one was around to persuade her, so she stopped this wishful thinking earlier, lest she would get deeper and deeper.However, seeing the Kun bandits coming to fight, it's hard to say whether everyone will survive after this battle, let alone the matter of men and women.He sighed slightly and remained silent.

Jiang Niang was wearing a newly made green cloth arrow sleeve gown, with four throwing knives on each side of her waist.Her knife throwing kung fu is top-notch, but it's useless in battle.Although her single sword practice is not bad, after all, she is a female, and she lacks a lot of strength, so Jiang Niang's most lethal weapon is a slingshot.Within [-] steps, a hundred shots hit a hundred hits.She has always carried mud pellets for performance and body protection, but this time she replaced them with iron pellets.It can be useful in close combat such as defending the fortress.

As for Uncle Zhou and Jiang Suo, they all used their own weapons.Uncle Zhou is a gun, and Jiang Suo is a single sword.They didn't want to fight with their lives for the Luo family, so they kept dawdling in the ancestral hall, so as not to be called by the first to lead a team out of the village to fight.

On the contrary, the three and a half children were very excited. Each of them took a soft bow of eight or nine strengths, carried a quiver, and clamored to go up to the watchtower to shoot arrows.In their opinion, this is a very good game!Although Qingxia's father has recovered, he is very weak.He very much disapproved of the team going to fight for the Luo family.But at this moment, there is no room for bargaining, and the current situation of the team has a great relationship with his long-term illness.Unknowingly, he has received great favor from the Luo family.There is no reason to stop it.

He had no choice but to warn everyone again and again to play by ear and not to fight hard.

"We're just a few of us, if everyone runs away, you don't have to stand up—run away." He said with a sigh, "I'm the trouble for you all, and when things are critical, you just take care of yourself." Run away by yourself! I am an old man and a busker, and the gangsters will not take my life."

"Team leader, don't say that," Jiang Niang comforted, "It's not likely that the thieves will be able to break in. These three good guards are well guarded, and there are many strong men. At worst, the big families will send them away with some money. "

A few people talked again, and the gong outside urging the wall to go up the village rang again.There were more footsteps outside, and urging voices sounded from time to time.They didn't dare to stay any longer, and went out of the ancestral hall together and climbed up the watchtower.

The watchtower they went up was the one next to the stone bridge, and it was the water gateway of the guardian Liangshi.Many sandbags have been piled up on the stone bridge, and small cannons have been set up. Many of them are temporary large guns made of wood and bamboo. The villagers lie behind the sandbags, holding bamboo guns and big knives .

In addition to the exhibition, four or five boats were locked horizontally under the bridge hole to tightly block the bridge hole, and there were also many sandbags and wooden firecrackers piled on it.

On the watchtowers, cannons and blunderbusses have been set up, and the village braves are nervously peeking out at the river from the crenels.

"I'm coming".A small commotion rippled through the crowd like wind blowing water.In the distant river, the first sampan appeared...

Three blasts of trumpets were fired on the watchtower, announcing that the Kun bandits had approached the city.

Detachment E started to land at a distance of about 500 meters from the stone bridge head. There were dense bamboo fences and bamboo sticks on both sides of the river, and it was almost impossible to go ashore.Removing the obstacles took a lot of work.Fortunately, there are some special tools for engineers on the sampan, especially the special long-handled engineer axes and hand saws with steel mouths, which save their work a lot of effort.When they were tearing down the fence, a gust of courage came quietly through the woods.Seeing that the bandits were busily tearing down the fence on the river bank, and there were only a dozen or so people holding bird guns on guard, the leader of the team, Xiangyong, knew that the opportunity had come.From the woods to the river, there is only a distance of four feet. With a shout, they can rush into the enemy group in a blink of an eye. The gangsters have no time to shoot. As long as they fight hand-to-hand, the gangsters will lose the advantage of firearms.

With a bang, everyone shouted together and rushed out of the woods.The sailors in charge of covering the removal of the fence quickly fired several rows of guns, knocking down most of the Xiangyong who had approached 10 meters away, and the rest who rushed over and swung their knives were quickly stabbed to the ground by the bayonets of the sailors.

After spending half an hour, the fence on the river bank was dismantled a big hole.Soldiers and artillery were finally able to land in large numbers.The artillery was quickly assembled, Shi Zhiqi decided not to delay, and ordered the attack to start immediately.

Two 2-pound mountain grenades fired heavy solid bullets, knocking down the fence gate under the stone bridge with one shot.The shells lifted the sandbags piled up on the boat in the bridge hole, and tore off the arms, heads, and torsos of seven or eight people. After bouncing on the water, it flew straight into the mill, killing the two guards inside. He was beaten to death, and then fell into the mortar, smashing the entire mortar to pieces.

The next few shells broke down the various defensive measures accumulated on the stone bridge deck: sandbags, brick walls and fences. escaped on the bridge.As for the large number of bamboo and wooden cannons that far exceeded the level of one person, they were either detonated by shells, or were discarded without being fired once.

The sailors immediately paddled their sampans and headed for the stone bridge.Defenses without cover are nothing more than a bunch of illegal structures that can be demolished at any time.After the sailors occupied the stone bridge, under the cover of the riflemen, they calmly removed the iron chains across the water, and pulled out the broken ships blocked in the bridge hole one by one to the shore.During the whole process, the more than 200 brave men and young men around the pond did not take any offensive measures to stop the actions of the Australians except for shouting and random lighting of firearms.After seeing how powerful the Australian firearms are, no one wants to try it again.

Luo Tianqiu heard that Shiqiao had fallen, so he personally led some strong men to come to reinforce it.He knew that it was impossible to order the brave men of the village to counterattack, so he ordered to burn all the ships in the pond to form a fire blockade.Then stick to the various places along the pond, and at the same time ordered to block all the roads leading to the town around the pond.

The flames on the water temporarily blocked the detachment's attack. Shi Zhiqi had no choice but to order the troops to camp on the spot and wait for the next day to launch a fierce attack.

Early the next morning, they were attacked by Xiangyong from several nearby villages.Shi Zhiqi was awakened by the sound of killing.When he hung up his pistol in a hurry and stood up, the messenger had already run over and reported nervously that Xiangyong from other villages had appeared in the surrounding rivers.They were shouting and firing cannons all the way.Township braves from all walks of life came from inside the town, from outside the town, and from all directions under banners, shouting and killing for a while.

The foreign braves are the brave men and strong men from the various villages of the United Nations Security Bureau contacted by Luo Tianqiu Xingye.Including the people from the town of Sanliang City, as many as 1000 people participated in the counterattack.

Shi Zhiqi remained calm in the face of danger.He observed through the binoculars and found that most of the reinforcements came were ordinary strong men, who didn't even have suitable weapons, and only used cut bamboo poles.Although there were many people, they were chaotic and disorderly, crowded and shoved each other in a chaotic manner, and instead blocked all the narrow rivers and land roads on all sides.

Shi Zhiqi made a prompt decision and personally led a company of sea soldiers to attack the nearest group of villager soldiers with resolute movements. The sea soldiers didn't care about the noise and beating of the enemy. The already chaotic crowd launched a counterattack, and within 10 minutes, all of this group of people were resolved.Xiangyong and strong men who were stabbed to death and slashed with bayonets were all over the ground, blocking the road.

Then he led the navy company to quickly turn to the side of the river, and condescendingly headed towards the Xiangyong fleet that was slowly heading towards Sanliang Town in the river. It sank immediately.The other sampans panicked and hurriedly dropped the dead men on board and fled.

Shi Zhiqi led this company, with excellent organization and discipline, running maneuvers, and repelled four groups of village braves who tried to encircle from the periphery.More than 100 Xiangyong led by Mr. Xiangyong who rushed out of Sanliang Town were defeated by the shotguns fired head-on by two 2-pound mountain howitzers arranged on the bridge deck, and 12 people fell down immediately.The rest of Xiangyong refused to charge any more, and fled all the way.

The detachment repelled the counterattack of the villagers, and then launched a counterattack to take down the buildings around the pond, especially the mill at the mouth of the river. This mill was built with green bricks and was very strong. There are five or 60 family members in the family. Compared with Xiangyong who has low fighting spirit, their fighting will is very tenacious. They continuously fire bamboo and wood cannons from the window openings and roofs, and shoot dense feather arrows.The sailors pushed the mountain pomegranate over and fired directly at it from 150 meters away.Three rounds of solid bullets made several large gaps in the wall and the gate. The sailors took the opportunity to leap forward and threw grenades into the gap one after another. The mill suddenly filled with smoke, and screams and explosions were intertwined.

A few minutes later, the mill was occupied, and the resistance of other places collapsed one after another. Only the watchtower was still stubbornly resisting. Yong, forcing them not to show their heads again, but they kept throwing bricks, thousands of enemies, and firing firearms and bows from the shooting holes and bomb holes.The sailors suffered more than a dozen casualties before and after, but they couldn't get close to the solid fortress built of stones and blue bricks.

"Comrades, hit me hard on this feudal landlord's fortress!" Seeing that the battle was not going well, Shi Zhiqi was already burning with anger.He climbed to the roof of the second floor of the mill, and personally directed the shooters lying on the roof to concentrate their firepower to suppress the shooting holes of the watchtower.

It is only more than 100 meters away from the watchtower, and it is already within the bow and arrow range of the watchtower. The sailors piled sandbags and wooden boards on the roof and shot from behind.The officer commanding on the roof saw Shi Zhiqi standing by the ridge with no cover and waving his command knife, and quickly pulled him back behind the sandbags.

"Chief, it's too dangerous here. Get down quickly."

"It doesn't matter!" Shi Zhiqi blushed and roared, "Push the cannon and blast it flat!"

"There are not many shells left, and there are still ten rounds of solid ammunition." The officer reported.This is just the beginning, and I don't know how many fortifications and buildings need to be used in the following.

"Let's talk about lighting up!" Shi Zhiqi pushed his helmet back, "Send someone to Shigang later—"

Before he could finish his sentence, a feathered arrow shot out unexpectedly and hit his chest.Shi Zhiqi screamed and rolled down from the roof of the mill.

(End of this chapter)