"Retreat, there are too many enemies." The squadron leader of the reconnaissance squadron picked up a wounded man who was hit by the enemy and quickly helped him onto his horse. Then he called on the team members to get on their horses and evacuate.
What they faced was definitely not a small reconnaissance force, but the vanguard of a huge army.
Those northerners sneaked up under the cover of night. They killed the outposts quietly, and then tried to surround and suppress this group of scouts.
But they didn't expect that these Chinese scouts actually had secret sentries. The reporting method of the secret sentries was so direct.
The secret sentry who was watching the clear sentry not far away shot down a northern soldier who was sneaking up on him. Then he ran towards the darkness behind.
The entire squadron immediately started moving. The team members entered combat status as quickly as possible.
When they were resting just now, they kept their guns close to their bodies, and now they were able to directly enter combat mode.
They evacuated the position of the fire. If they continued to surround the fire at this time, they would undoubtedly put themselves in the open and become a living target for the enemy.
Rather than doing this, it is better to retreat to a dark place and leave the fire to the enemy.
In order to expand the lighting range, the captain specially ordered people to separate the fires and light several surrounding cabins.
These wooden houses were originally livestock sheds on the farm, with some hay piled inside. When they were lit, they were like several huge torches, dispersing the surrounding darkness and illuminating the large open space of the pasture.
The entire squadron retreated to the west to hide in the darkness, waiting for the enemy to approach.
Finally, northern soldiers wearing variegated clothing and carrying calfskin ammunition pouches appeared in the team's sight.
The members of the reconnaissance squadron were either kneeling on one knee behind the obstacle, lying in the grass, or hiding in the surrounding houses.
The battle began when the Northern Army appeared in everyone's sight. The Northern Army soldier walking in front was shot and fell to the ground amidst screams.
Some of them followed the light spots in the dark to find the enemy's shooting point. Some of them raised their guns and fired blindly into the darkness in front of them.
The members of the reconnaissance squadron were like ghosts, constantly sending bullets into the enemy's body from the dark.
"Captain, the number of enemies is much greater than we imagined. They have begun to outflank the farm from both wings."
The squadron leader did not block the enemy from a distance like Leng Touqing. Their main task was reconnaissance rather than combat.
The purpose of staying behind to block the attack now is to better detect the enemy's situation.
The reports from the scouts who dispersed on both wings convinced the squadron leader that this was not an attack by a small enemy force but a large enemy force. This was enough.
With this information, it is enough to put the city of Wichita into a state of war readiness.
So there was the first scene, where the squadron leader directed the soldiers to retreat.
On the Northern Army's side, Thomas was due to his outstanding performance in the last sneak attack on the Texas mercenary regiment.
His replenished Kansas Pistol Regiment became the vanguard of the attack.
Most of the members of the Kansas Pistol Regiment are freedmen from northern Kansas. The strength of this regiment is one thousand, but in fact their number is still increasing. Every day, freedmen bring their own weapons and come to the Kansas Pistol Regiment to apply.
join in.
Their mission is to eliminate all enemies on the way forward and clear the way for the army.
It would be best to eliminate all the enemy's scouts so that the main force can silently attack Wichita.
Of course, Thomas knew that it was impossible to completely eliminate the enemy's scouts.
There are countless reconnaissance teams scattered at the border between the two armies.
The tactics adopted by Thomas were to use the cover of darkness to eliminate the sentries of the reconnaissance teams at close range, and then let his men armed with revolvers quietly surround the reconnaissance teams and then annihilate them all.
This tactic proved to be effective. At the beginning, they encountered a wave of reconnaissance teams from the Confederate Army, which were considered regular troops in the Confederate Army.
Although some of his men were lost while surrounding and killing this group of people, they still successfully eliminated this group of people.
A group of Texan scouts encountered in the second wave.
It took more effort, and something went wrong when subduing the sentry.
These Texans may have suffered a big loss last time, and they increased their numbers when posting night sentries.
So when these sentries were subdued, someone sent a signal.
Fortunately, these Texans thought that Thomas' side was also a small reconnaissance force and did not retreat decisively, so they were made dumplings by Thomas's people.
But the last wave of encounters was that group of Chinese soldiers. When their sentry was killed, for some reason a sentry suddenly appeared from the darkness.
It turned out that these people set up light and dark sentries. The war in the Kansas area could only be regarded as a war between militiamen.
Neither side is very particular about tactics. Only the regular army knows about the tactical arrangement of light and dark sentries.
Although Yangtze Security is a mercenary force, their training is completely in accordance with the training codes of the Renaissance Army.
This is why they can get started immediately after getting the breech-loading gun and know how to use it.
They had trained on breech-loading tactics before, so they were so comfortable using it now.
They were not able to annihilate this group of scouts, but they seized several strange breech-loading rifles. It can be seen that these breech-loading rifles are obviously different from the familiar Dreiser.
This gun uses metal brass fixed-loading bullets. Their stability is better.
Thomas picked up a Type 53 rifle and played with it in his hands. It was undoubtedly a good gun.
Although hundreds of people were lost, this wave of Chinese scouts was not left behind. Only a few sentries and a few Chinese soldiers hiding in houses and shooting were surrounded and annihilated.
The fighting will of these Chinese soldiers is very determined.
All of them persisted in resisting until the last moment.
Thomas still remembered that he suffered a big loss at the hands of these Chinese soldiers last time.
Keep the gun carefully, it is an important trophy.
Immediately afterwards, Thomas ordered the army to continue advancing.
They don't need to completely wait for a sneak attack this time, they just need to minimize the enemy's preparation time.
This time, the Northern Liberal Alliance prepared 20,000 soldiers, a professional artillery force composed of volunteers, and even five modified steam gunboats.
Be prepared to drive these southerners away in one fell swoop.
The Kansas Civil War, which was originally unknown in history, is no longer the kind of petty fuss.
Perhaps because of the influence of the little butterfly Dong Shuheng, this small civil war is turning into a full-scale civil war between the north and the south.
Now because of the expansion of the scale of the war, all the eyes of the United States have been cast here.
On the northern liberal side, four states have sent troops to participate in the war, namely Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. There are also many volunteers from other northern states.
There were also three southern states participating in the war, namely Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana.
These were the militiamen of their own states who were officially sent to participate in the war. Just like the North, more slave owners distributed in various states voluntarily led their own people to participate in the war.
This war is similar to the Eighteen Route Princes during the Three Kingdoms period. The entire army is composed of separate small teams.
The team leader is the recruiter of the team and the commander at the grassroots level.
Such a pieced-together army will cause big problems when fighting.
The biggest problem is that it will easily collapse when the war goes unfavorably.
Because the entire army does not have a unified soul.
Everyone knows that if an army is in disarray, it will be unable to muster a high fighting spirit.
After the reconnaissance squadron returned to Wichita City, they immediately spread the news of the Northern Army's massive attack.
But there was not much time left for the Southern Allied Forces at this time.
Fortunately, Wichita City already had some built fortifications.
The Confederate soldiers were quickly sent out by General Drayton.
The left-wing front near the river seems to be difficult to be outflanked by the enemy. In fact, there are certain hidden dangers.
What if the Northern Army attacks from the river?
This time the Northern Army attacked Wichita City with such great power. God knows what kind of feast they prepared for the Southern Army.
Both sides have been secretly preparing for a long time. No one knows what kind of backhand the other side has prepared.
"Commander, if the enemy suddenly sends out gunboats to flank our infantry positions from the river, it will definitely cause huge damage to us. Because our positions are all running north-south, the protective effect of the trenches will be greatly reduced if we flank them.
." A combat meeting was being held in a semi-underground bunker behind the left wing.
Time was urgent and there was no time to discuss slowly. Everyone expressed their thoughts directly.
"This possibility does exist. This time the Northern Army launches a full-scale attack, they are likely to modify several gunboats to sail upstream from the river."
"Then let the soldiers build the trenches into a Z-shape and build a defensive wall on the side." Wall said.
He immediately ordered people to pass on this order because the soldiers had already begun to build trenches.
"Commander, in this case, our artillery position should be moved further north, closer to the river, so that it can be used to suppress the enemy's gunboats. I think even if the enemy prepares gunboats, they will not be in large numbers, otherwise they would have been discovered long ago.
Already."
The Northern Army was very fast. Before dawn, the Northern Army had reached the opposite side of the defense line set up by the Southern Army.
Thomas's Pistol Regiment was the first to arrive. They rode horses and ran a circle in front of the Confederate line to test the Confederate numbers and firepower.
The news is very bad. The Southern Army has obviously increased its troop strength recently. This can be seen from their long front line.
In addition, artillery was also deployed in the rear of the Confederate army, but it did not seem to be deployed in a centralized manner.
Thomas tested several places, but scattered artillery fired at them.
After summarizing the situation, Thomas immediately passed it on to the Northern Army Headquarters.
Due to the enemy's preparedness, the Northern Army did not attack at night.
They just set up their attack formation and waited for the dawn to come.
Although he did not graduate from a regular military academy, Thomas could feel from the current atmosphere that the coming battle would be a tragic one.
There are also heated discussions in the headquarters of the Northern Army.
General Mueller was the commander of the Northern Army. He was not only a top student at West Point Military Academy, he also served as an instructor at West Point Military Academy for a long time. He participated in the Anglo-American War when he was young.
Later, he commanded the army and participated in the encirclement and suppression of Indians. He was considered an experienced general.
"General Muller, I think we should launch an attack from the right. We have five steam gunboats working together this time. The enemy must not be prepared for the river, because both sides have never dispatched gunboats on the river. This is a surprise
A good opportunity." said an officer.
"No, the location by the river is too small, which is not conducive to the army's detour. The gunboats may not be able to tear apart the enemy's defense line. Moreover, the enemy can also mobilize artillery to deal with the gunboats."
"I think we should attack from the left. The reconnaissance force reported that it was defended by Texas mercenaries. They had just suffered a heavy defeat and their morale was low. And on the left, we can send cavalry to detour from the south.
As long as we encircle and destroy the enemy on the left, we can then encircle the main enemy force in the center." Another officer put forward a different opinion.
"Mr. Thomas, how do you think the attack should be carried out?" General Mueller asked Thomas.
This general who was temporarily promoted from civilians has been very outstanding in recent times.
Moreover, this person was the head of the pistol regiment in charge of investigation work and had the best understanding of the situation on the front line. Therefore, Mueller was prepared to ask his opinion.
"Your Majesty General, our strength is probably equal to that of the other side. Why don't we attack from both wings? We have already discovered that the cooperation between the southern militia and the mercenaries is not very good. So I think we can defend from both wings.
The mercenaries started to attack." Thomas proposed a compromise plan.
It seems to be a bit muddled, but in fact it fully considers the enemy's hot spots.
After some discussion, everyone agreed that Thomas's attention was feasible, and that both the left and right wing attack plans could be considered.
ps: It’s the end of the month, please vote, please vote! This will be my source of motivation to continue writing next month. Readers, please show no mercy!