"Every ship slows down! Prepare to land!" Mi Longtao ordered loudly and drew out his command knife.
"Fix bayonets! One by one!" The sergeants on each ship shouted loudly, and the gunners installed the draw tubes and were ready to fire.
The boat skirted a shoal and headed towards the river, with the lush hills on both sides getting closer and closer.
Lieutenant Mi suddenly realized something. Just as he was about to say something, he heard a sudden cannon shot from the hills on the shore, followed by a burst of arrows piercing the air and the sound of gunfire.
Li Dong could see clearly from the rear boat that a plume of thick smoke suddenly shot out from the hillside on the right. The iron guard plate on the side of a command boat in the front team was instantly shattered. The shell penetrated the hull and destroyed the boat. The guard panel on the other side also collapsed. Even from a few hundred meters away, he could see the flesh and blood of the soldiers who were torn apart when the shells swept across the deck.
"There is an ambush!" Li Dong gasped. He had carried out many search and suppression missions when he was in the Fubo Army. Since all kinds of enemies could not compete with the Fubo Army in terms of firepower and organization, the most commonly used combat was The method is to use the familiarity of the terrain to ambush.
Even if top soldiers are dispatched every time they are dispatched, enemy ambush still has a chance to cause casualties to the troops. Therefore, this type of search and suppression operations emphasize "rapid advancement" and "covert engagement with the enemy", without giving the enemy an opportunity to prepare for an ambush.
They used steamships on the Xijiang River, so "moving forward quickly" was no problem, but "concealedly engaging the enemy" was completely out of the question.
Almost at the same time, the Minnie rifles on the ships in the front team opened fire, crackling and crackling, and then thick smoke and fire spewed out from the ships, and the rumble of cannons was heard. Thick smoke soon covered the river surface.
Li Dong couldn't see the specific battle situation for a while, so he urged the helmsman: "Quick, speed up!"
"There are shoals and reefs along the coast here, so you can't speed up..."
Before the helmsman finished speaking, there was another loud explosion in the thick smoke, and a stream of white water vapor mixed with black smoke shot straight into the sky.
"The boiler exploded!" the helmsman said in a low voice, his face turning pale.
Li Dong was very anxious because the continuous artillery fire from the ships in the front team made him completely unable to see the battle ahead. From the continuous sound of gunfire, he could hear that the front team was involved in a fierce battle.
"What did Captain Zhu say?" Li Dong asked the correspondent while observing the battle ahead.
"No orders."
Li Dong turned to look at the command boat No. 1. Sure enough, no signal came from the No. 1 boat. He didn't know what Zhu Si was thinking, but he already had a plan in mind. He immediately informed the signal soldier:
"Send a signal to the command boat. I am going to direct the right detachment to land on the enemy's flank and move around to cooperate with Lieutenant Mi."
The signal soldier sent out a signal using semaphores, but Boat No. 1 did not respond. Li Dong felt anxious and asked the signal soldier to call again, but there was still no response.
"Forget it," Li Dong immediately ordered, not knowing what was happening on the No. 1 boat, "Send the order to the right team and get ready for battle!"
Boat No. 2 raised the signal flag to prepare for battle, and then Boat No. 2 left the waterway and headed towards the shallows on the shore.
Li Dong's battle plan was very simple: land on the spot, then advance along the coast and attack the ambush on the shore from the flank. Although the combat effectiveness of his troops is not very good, Mi Longtao's troops are very powerful. Now they were just stunned by the blow from Duotou. As long as his troops responded slightly from the flanks to distract the ambush, Mi Longtao The troops can immediately counterattack.
For his team, which was entering the battlefield for the first time, there was danger, but he assessed that it was not great.
"Everyone, get ready for battle! Get ready to land!" Following Luo Mao's command, the thirty or so people on boat No. 2 started to commotion. This is the first time for most people to go to the battlefield. When they hear the sound of gunfire in front of them, their calves will already tremble.
"Don't be afraid, those are our cannons!" Luo Mao held a rifle in one hand and pulled up the trembling soldiers one by one with the other hand. "Follow me after you get off the boat, don't run around!"
Yang Erdong had been on the battlefield before, so he was not panicking now. He held the standard spear and touched the saber at his waist. He thought with regret that it would be great if he had a suit of armor to wear. When he was a servant, he always had an armor when he went into battle. Now wearing this single military uniform, he always It felt like I was wearing no clothes. Finally, the Australians gave me an iron helmet. This helmet was also rare. It was in the shape of a urinal, with a wide brim and a shallow hat. It could only be considered as a top on the head, if not for the belt buckle on the chin. , you have to drop it as soon as you start running. Looking back, Li Pudun's face turned pale and he was barely standing, leaning on his standard spear. Just as he was about to say a few words to comfort him, the boat suddenly shook violently, causing him to stumble and almost fall. There was a sudden sway on the deck.
"Aground!" shouted the helmsman.
Li Dong rushed to the bow of the ship, grabbed the sailor's penny, and measured the depth of the water - it was about half a meter. This depth did not affect landing. At that moment, he raised his sword and said, "Follow me!" The first one jumped out of the boat.
The commander was the first to get off the boat, and the soldiers became more courageous. Under the urging of the non-commissioned officers, they jumped off the boat one after another. Water splashed everywhere. Some people jumped and lost their footing and fell into the water. He screamed for help and was pulled up by the soldiers next to him.
The chaos did not last long. Five minutes later, more than 90 people from the right detachment had landed and assembled.
"The rifleman serves as the vanguard, and the others follow up, advancing in a double column!"
The terrain on the shore is hilly, and the troops are marching on the hillside. Although it is not too steep, the vegetation is dense and it is impossible to form a horizontal formation. Moreover, in terms of the quality of the soldiers, the courage and discipline of the soldiers are very high. He now only Columns can be used, with veterans with rich combat experience leading the troops.
"Luomao, you are at the back of the line!"
"Yes! Lieutenant!"
"Each team pays attention to the enemy situation on the flanks." Li Dong looked at the soldiers who had finished lining up, picked up the whistle on his chest and blew it suddenly, "All forward!" He said, leading the messenger and flag bearer in front.
The hillside on the shore here is quite steep. He does not have enough troops to launch a team to search up the mountain. He can only advance quickly while paying attention to the movement on the top of the mountain. Try to get a quick resolution.
There was a pause in the artillery fire ahead, but the gunfire intensified again, and there were also shouts of killing. Li Dong estimated that Mi Longtao's troops had landed and were advancing. He immediately urged the soldiers to speed up and asked the flag bearer to open the flag to avoid accidental shooting.
Now, the hillside became slightly gentler. The grass and trees on the hillside turned into patches of fruit trees. There is also a small thatched shed among the trees. The vanguard at the front noticed a figure moving among the trees.
"Attention!" he shouted, "There is a situation in the woods in front of the left side of the hay shed."
"Shoot!" Li Dong shouted, and a dozen Nanyang rifle shooters immediately fired a volley into the woods. The forest was suddenly filled with smoke and screams were heard. However, at this time, the sound of arrows piercing the air was also heard, and two national soldiers were hit by arrows and fell to the ground in an instant.
With his sharp eyes, Yang Erdong saw the dark shadow in the forest and shouted: "There's one on the right too!" He secretly hated that he didn't have a rifle, otherwise he would definitely knock down one of them with one shot. Now with this spear, he could only worry.
"The spearman is ready!" Li Dong pulled out his revolver and fired in the direction of the arrow. The rifleman immediately reloaded and fired another round.
Along with the screams and groans of the shot, there were chaotic footsteps in the forest. The originally gathered figures turned and fled towards the mountain. Li Dong immediately ordered a pursuit, and the riflemen immediately fired another volley. Cover the spearmen to pursue upwards. Yang Erdong straightened up his spear and pursued upwards. Unfortunately, the terrain on the mountain was not suitable for using a spear. The spear was always blocked by branches. Yang Erdong had to work hard to push aside the branches many times, and sometimes it got caught by the branches. Get rid of the burden of climbing mountains. It was difficult for the soldiers to keep up with the response among the trees. The spread out queue was quickly disrupted by the woods. The enemy kept turning around and firing arrows. Within a few minutes, two more people were hit by arrows, and some timid ones were already hiding behind the trees. Don't dare to move. It was difficult for Li Dong to control the overall situation from behind. He was afraid of an ambush in front, so he had to order the pursuit to stop and everyone to retreat and reorganize their formation.
After all this tossing, the entire right-wing team was in disarray. They finally gathered it together and counted the number of people. In addition to the four casualties, ten people were missing. They were probably separated in the woods during the pursuit.
"Blow the rally call!"
Only a few minutes after the assembly signal sounded, several National Army soldiers emerged from the woods, but they were unfamiliar faces. The weapons they carried were double-barreled shotguns.
"Password!"
"Assault!" the leading National Army officer responded loudly, "Which part are you?"
"We are the Wuzhou National Army..."
"We understand. Don't move!" the leading officer shouted loudly and walked over, "Where is your commander?"
"That's me!" Li Dong walked over, "I am Li Dong, the captain of the integrated squadron of the Wuzhou Brigade of the National Army..."
"You guys came very quickly!" The other party accidentally listened to his self-introduction, "It's a pity that I didn't stop them!" As he said this, he seemed to remember to introduce himself: "I am Zhen Huan, the captain of the 4th Mountain Squadron of the National Army. "
Li Dong had heard someone say that most of the mountain squadrons were recruited from the villages of the Li and Miao ethnic groups in Hainan Island, but he originally disagreed. He had participated in several "security crackdowns" on Hainan Island and was not impressed by the combat effectiveness of the local Li and Miao ethnic groups. He didn't take it too seriously. After all, a group of guards officers and soldiers on Hainan Island who looked like beggars could rely on the simple fortress of the camp to suppress them from causing rebellion for a long time. The recruiter has many abilities besides being able to climb mountains.
Unexpectedly, although most of the people in front of me were short in stature, they were all strong and strong. They were obviously good at fighting, and they were countless times stronger than the new recruits under him.
Next update: Volume 7 - Guangzhou Governance Chapter 361
