There were not many "surprise soldiers" coming, only more than a hundred, but Luo Mao only had ten large soldiers, and a volley of guns obviously couldn't withstand the crowd. The shooting speed was not enough to form a fire net, so they had to fight and run away. Fortunately, a few people still had a few grenades on them, and they threw them out to scare the enemy, so they were not overtaken and engulfed by the large group of people.
The second team arrived in time and quickly stabilized the position with head-on volleys and bayonet strikes. However, this "surprise soldier" had a large number of people and a strong will to fight. Although they were stunned by the head-on rows of guns, they still couldn't recover after they recovered. Wenwenwen fought desperately. Judging from the clothing and weapons of these people, it seems that they are neither local Han people nor rioting Yao people. They are probably chieftains from somewhere in the mountains of Guangzhou and Guangxi who were recruited by the government.
Seeing that the second team's footing was unstable, they could only retreat with cover alternately. Li Dong was secretly worried. Suddenly there was a sound of artillery behind them, and a streak of white smoke passed overhead, hitting the approaching enemy group. There was a thunderbolt explosion, and the enemy troops fell to the ground immediately. Then two more artillery shells flew in, causing the enemy to flip over.
At this time, the enemy, no matter how "fearless" he was, couldn't stand it any longer and retreated. Li Dong didn't dare to pursue because he didn't have enough troops, so he immediately pulled back his troops.
At this time, the sound of artillery in the direction of Shijian became denser and louder, and the shells kept passing over Li Dong's heads and flying towards the enemy. The enemy army, which originally seemed to be organized, was unstable under the fire. Suddenly, like ants who had been splashed with boiling water, the enemy exploded their nest and fled in panic. Some people even ran towards Li Dong and the others in a panic.
"Squadron leader! There is a bugle sound from behind the enemy!" Ma Lai suddenly shouted.
Li Dong listened carefully, and sure enough, the sound of bugles was faintly heard from the wind. This is the clarion call to "charge." He cheered up: The Fubo Army must have detoured around the enemy's side and launched an attack!
Sure enough, the enemy's position was in chaos. The Fubo Army was driven down from the mountain pass, and hundreds of people were suppressed in a small area from the mountain pass to Shijian: in front of them were the continuous artillery fire and the National Army's volleys from Shijian, and behind was the fierce attack of the Fubo Army. On the right is Suijiang and on the left are rolling mountains. There is really no way to go to heaven and no way to enter the earth. It is locked in a pocket and slowly packed away.
In desperation, many people threw themselves into the Sui River and tried to swim across the river. They were shot by artillery and volley guns, and countless people drowned. When the sound of gunfire slowly subsided, more than two hundred corpses were left on the battlefield, and only a few dozen people escaped.
A company of the 8th Battalion pursued the enemy for nearly ten kilometers and did not stop until they reached the foot of Baoding Mountain. They took advantage of the situation to set up an advance camp. The road leaves Suijiang here and turns north to Guangning County, which is an important transportation node.
The battle at Shijian Beishan Pass was the biggest battle fought by the Suijiang detachment along the way, and it was also the one with the largest casualties. The casualties were mainly concentrated in the Wuzhou Squadron, with four people killed, more than a dozen injured, and one person missing - Ai Buyi. After he contacted the 1st Squadron of Quang Ninh, he was nowhere to be found. The soldiers of the 1st Squadron of Quang Ninh said they had not seen him. When the battlefield was cleaned afterwards, his body was not found.
"Could it be that he was captured by the enemy?" Li Dong secretly wondered. But the enemy army was encircled and then dispersed. It was impossible for them to think about taking prisoners while fleeing for their lives. Besides, the direction he ran in was completely opposite to the direction of the enemy's attack. How could he be captured?
One person from the Fubo Army was also killed and more than ten people were injured. The squadron leader of the 1st Squadron of Guangning Brigade, who was the first to retreat, was brought to Yang Zeng.
"Are you the squadron leader of the first squadron of Guangning Brigade?"
"Yes Yes……"
"Did you order the retreat?"
"Yes, it's me."
"Dead."
After Yang Zeng gave 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 in the surrounding areas. From the corpses abandoned by the enemy on the battlefield, one can clearly distinguish the Ming soldiers in uniforms, the Yao people in blue and indigo jackets, and the Li people from Guangxi... This confirms the previous guesses of Xu Xu and others: for the sake of confrontation Xiong Wencan, an outsider in the Senate, has mobilized all the resources at hand to "add chaos" to the South China Army.
From the prisoners' mouths, they learned that this enemy force was a chieftain force sent by Xiong Wencan from Guangxi, and merged with Yao people and local bandits to form a large force, commanded by a "general" under Xiong Wencan. As for who this general was, the prisoners could not tell. He just said he was a "Han official".
This "Han official" had just arrived in Guangning with his team half a month ago. Because he had the banner of the government and had a seal, he quickly gathered a large number of demons and monsters, and now he has gathered more than a thousand people. "Mixed Arms". The ingredients are complex: there are chieftains from Guangxi, Ming troops defeated, bandits from all walks of life, rioting Yao people, and local regiments trying to take advantage of the chaos to make a fortune. Come together into a hodgepodge.
This force captured Quang Ninh three days ago. Due to the fierce resistance of the local villagers, the county town of Huaiji has not yet fallen, but 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 chaos spread, the county towns that fell into the hands of the bandits had not yet been formally taken over. They were temporarily "maintained" by local Jin gentry or surrendered Ming Dynasty magistrates. These counties are either insufficiently armed or have surrendered garrisons half-heartedly, making it easy for external forces to take advantage of them. The loss is not surprising. Guangning County has a naturalized county director and 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 Song Dynasty officials in the county?" This is what Huang Chao is most concerned about.
"Some of the officials of the Song Dynasty in the county died in battle, and some were killed. I heard that many people were killed. The county magistrate was caught and had his head chopped off..."
This blow was more urban 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 top elites among the naturalized citizens. Many of them were naturalized citizens who had followed the Senate five or six years ago and had risen from the village step by step. They start as cadres or administrative cadres of enterprises and institutions and have been trained for many years.
Most of the more than ten naturalized cadres who joined him to organize the team were elites who had been carefully cultivated for many years and had grassroots experience and training.
The losses of these cadres were far more serious than the losses of several National Army squadrons.
How the county town was lost, none of the prisoners could explain. They only knew that they had used a stratagem to capture the county, working together inside and outside. Part of the National Army died in the battle, and another part surrendered to the enemy when the city fell. The remnants and the few surviving cadres fled to Huaiji.
Huang Chao felt better after hearing that there were still a few people who survived. But when he heard that someone had surrendered, he felt increasingly uncomfortable. Fubo Army has been established for so many years, no matter what storms and waves they encounter, no troops or soldiers have ever surrendered voluntarily. This actually happened this time!
"Most of the National Army is poorly trained and it is natural that they do not have a strong will to fight. The leader does not need to mind too much." Yang Zeng said, "They are all old soldiers and ordinary people who were temporarily conscripted. How much will they have to fight? I think we have Wuzhou now. A team like the squadron that can fight has exceeded expectations. It is the Guangning 1st Squadron. It is very good that it retreated in front of the enemy without collapsing on the spot."
"You're right, we were too aggressive - we didn't train them properly, why should we ask them to die?!" Huang Chao said sadly, "We are too self-righteous!" He paused and said, " How many cadres and soldiers have been sacrificed in vain, this is all the result of our arrogance and reckless advancement!"
Yang Zeng didn't dare to answer. He knew that Chief Huang was talking about the Senate - this was not within the scope of his comment. He whispered: "We should regain Guangning as soon as possible..."
"Don't be too quick, be cautious." Huang Chao said, "Don't make the mistake of being aggressive again."
Yang Zeng originally wanted to send a few companies to attack Guangning with light equipment, but since the elders gave such instructions, he could not disobey them. He ordered the Suijiang detachment to abandon the boat and go ashore at the camp near Baoding Mountain, stock up on transshipment supplies, and prepare to launch a critical battle against Guangning County.
Guangning originally belonged to Sihui. During the Jiajing period, there were successive turmoils in the northwest of Sihui. In the 38th year of Jiajing, Sihui County was ceded to Guangning County, which meant widespread tranquility, and it still belonged to Zhaoqing Prefecture. The city wall is based on a long stone and covered with blue bricks. It is about eight meters high. Although it is not as tall as the Guangzhou City Wall, it is well fortified and is not a small city that can be easily conquered. Originally, Zhu Mingxia and others thought that if Guangning was in chaos, they would at least be able to protect the county from falling.
According to the prisoners' confessions, there were more than a thousand enemy troops guarding the city. Their strength was close to that of the Suijiang detachment, protected by city walls, and equipped with many firearms. Therefore, both the chief officers like Yang Zeng and Huang Chao and the ordinary soldiers below knew that this was probably another hard battle. However, the morale of the soldiers was very high. They also heard that the naturalized democratic leader and the Nationalist Army in the county were killed by bandits, and they all felt the same hatred towards the enemy. They all clamored to give a severe lesson to this group of bandits who dared to offend the "prestige of the Senate".
Considering the difficulty of the task and the casualties of the National Army, Yang Zeng decided that the 8th Battalion, which had not yet taken action, would take on the main offensive task this time. For the soldiers of Li Dong's squadron, this was undoubtedly a great relief. The continuous battles along the way had made them somewhat exhausted.
The combat power of the Fubo Army is "thunder-piercing", 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 the envy of the National Army soldiers. If the Wuzhou Squadron also had cannons in the Yamaguchi Battle, the enemy might not be allowed to reach the breastworks at all.
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Next update: Volume 7 - Guangzhou Governance Chapter 390
