Marin led the soldiers who were ambushing at the foot of the mountain and rushed to the stronghold along the path in the forest.
Although they were further away from the village than the army led by Wu Huai, they returned to the village before Wu Huai.
Arriving outside the gate of the village, Cao Guang and his men were already waiting there.
"Captain, we are back." Ma Lin smiled and greeted Cao Guang.
Cao Guang asked: "How is it? Nothing unexpected happened!"
"Captain, don't worry." Marin said with a smile, "Everything went well. As soon as the fight was over, I took the people back. Unfortunately, there were too few gunmen with me. Otherwise, I would have been able to severely injure the officers who went up the mountain. military."
This time he went to set up an ambush and only brought two squadrons of gunmen with him.
However, these two squadrons are not all fire gunmen, but also have some spearmen. The number of fire gunmen he brought to ambush in the woods is even smaller, and the spearmen of the two squadrons have stayed here in the village. .
"It's good that the people in our cottage haven't been damaged." Zhang Hongtu continued, "We have few people and can't afford to compete with the army. It's right to take advantage and withdraw."
Marin smiled and said: "When I led the people to retreat, I took a look at the officers and soldiers on the mountain road. After our men fired their fire cannons, the officers and soldiers themselves were in disarray. The people who were trampled to death and injured were more vulnerable than those who were injured by us." Even more people will be killed by gunfire."
"Fubiao Camp is known as the governor's personal army, but it seems that it is not even as good as the border troops." Cao Guang sighed with emotion.
Marin said: "If you give me more people to ambush the officers in the woods, I might be able to defeat them and escape."
"Nearly a hundred officers and soldiers have already approached the stronghold. If they all leave you, the stronghold will be empty." Zhang Hongtu reminded.
Cao Guang said at this time: "The sneak attack is only to weaken the effective strength of the officers and soldiers. It is best if the officers and soldiers can retreat on their own initiative. If they do not retreat, we will fight them openly in front of the mountain stronghold."
As he spoke, he shook his fist vigorously.
Even though there were only about 400 people in the village, there were more than 700 officers and soldiers, but he was not worried and did not think that his brigade would be defeated by the officers and soldiers.
At this time, a secret sentry ran up from the mountain, came to Cao Guang, and said: "Captain, a team of more than a hundred officers and soldiers is approaching our mountain stronghold."
Cao Guang nodded slightly and said, "I understand."
"It must be the official army I let go before." Marin said, "When I led the people to ambush in the woods, the official army sent a team of about a hundred people as the front army. The people I led to fight were The large group of people in the official army and the front army of the official army were let go."
"It seems that the commander-in-chief of this army is very cautious and knows to send a team of troops ahead to explore the road." Zhang Hongtu said.
"No matter what, since they are here, we will fight." Cao Guang said, "Give the order, go down, form a formation, and meet the enemy."
"Yes." Marin agreed.
Three squadrons began to form.
The gunman is in front, the spearman is in the back, and there are two squatting tiger cannons on each side.
Another secret sentry from the Shanzhai came up from the mountain. He came to Cao Guang and said, "Captain, the main force of the army will be able to reach our Shanzhai in half an hour at most."
"Explore again." Cao Guang ordered the secret sentry.
Anshao agreed, turned around and ran down the mountain.
However, he did not go down the mountain road. Knowing that there were officers and soldiers on the mountain road going up the mountain, he went down the mountain from another hidden path and went directly to the forest he needed to pass to go up the mountain.
Not long after, a team of more than a hundred officers and soldiers appeared on the mountain road directly opposite the mountain village.
At the same time, both sides can see each other.
A soldier next to Wu Huai said: "Sir, it seems that the bandits on the mountain not only did not escape, but also stayed on the mountain. They want to fight with us."
"Hmph." Wu Huai snorted coldly and said, "They are just a group of grass bandits. In a moment, you will lead the general's personal troops to cover them up and defeat these bandits."
"Don't worry, my lord, my subordinates will be the first to rush into the stronghold, capture the leader of this group of bandits, and leave it to your disposal, lord." The soldier promised.
"Yeah." Wu Huai nodded.
Although the area where the mountain road connects to the stronghold is flat, the distance is too close and the war horses cannot run at all. The threat of cavalry that cannot charge is greatly reduced, so these soldiers simply stopped riding and dismounted to fight on foot.
Except for a dozen soldiers who stayed with Wu Huai as guards, the rest of the soldiers led the infantry of the two general banners and rushed towards the bandits in front of the stronghold.
"kill!"
Someone in the ranks of the officers and soldiers shouted loudly.
The ones rushing in the front row were Wu Huai's soldiers, waving straight knives with cold light in their hands, and the armor leaves on their bodies made knocking sounds as their bodies moved.
"The gunmen are ready." The squadron leader of the first squadron raised the command flag in his hand.
Standing in the same row as him were the gunmen of his squadron. They all raised the fireguns in their hands. The match ropes had already been lit, and they were just waiting for an order to be fired.
Chen Miao, captain of the First Squadron, stared at the officers and soldiers, silently calculating the distance between the two sides.
The best range of the fire cannons they used is sixty steps, but the enemy can shoot when they enter seventy steps. Because there are two squadrons of fire cannons behind him who are ready, so he decided that the army should enter within seventy steps. , so he ordered the gunmen of his squadron to shoot, so as to have a chance to fight one more round.
"Sir, these bandits have a lot of guns." A soldier next to Wu Huai suddenly said.
Although he did not rush to the front with the others because he was protecting his master, he followed the team and slowly approached the stronghold. He saw rows of blunderbuss in the hands of the bandits.
Wu Huai narrowed his eyes.
At this time, he also noticed that the weapons used by the bandits in front of the village were mostly bird cannons. What surprised him was that all of these bandits were wearing cotton armor, and the weapons in their hands were also very uniform, either spears or birds. Guns, and four tiger squatting cannons.
This gave him the illusion that he was facing a group of elite officers and soldiers. If the place was not wrong, he would even think that these people in front of him were not bandits at all, but soldiers and horses from the Beijing camp guarding the capital.
"What kind of bandits are these? They are simply better than the soldiers, horses and armor of our Fubiao camp." A soldier on the side couldn't help but muttered.
This sentence also expresses Wu Huai's inner feelings.
The group of Daliangshan bandits in front of them are indeed not like bandits. Not only are they well-armed, but they can also assemble fighting formations. Unlike ordinary bandits, when faced with an encirclement and suppression by the army, they will either rush to fight or turn around and run for their lives. They will never show up to confront the army. Case.
At this time, a haze arose in his heart, and he felt that his suppression of the bandits might not go smoothly this time.
He was somewhat fortunate that most of these bandits used bird guns. Based on his understanding of bird guns, he had always killed more enemies than injured themselves. As long as the enemy rushed close to these bird gunmen, the bird guns would be worse than burning fire sticks. Easy to use.
"Sir, these bandits holding blunderbuss are really calm. Our people have already rushed within a hundred steps, and they haven't fired the blunderbuss yet." A soldier said, looking at the bandits in front of him.
Wu Huai also stared at the bandit's side, wondering why the other party's cannon player didn't fire the cannon when a hundred steps could already hurt someone.
