Both sides are sending scouts to each other. There is no room for two tigers in one mountain, and a contest between the scouts begins.
Although the strategy of shrinking defenses was planned in the direction of Yangzhou City, Zeng Lichang still sent scouts to find out the specific situation on Dong Shuheng's side. The number of people on his side who left the city was about fifty, led by a brigade commander.
The scouts of the Taiping Army were selected from the elite. The Taiping Army came all the way from Guangxi and most liked to recruit soldiers in the mountainous areas, especially the hunters in the mountains. These people had a strong sense of fighting, lived in poverty, and suffered from oppression. They promoted the Taiping Army.
The teachings are easy to accept.
Most of the Taiping Army's scouts were elites selected from these hunters. The Taiping Army's ability to move from Guangxi to Jiangning within two or three years was closely related to the Taiping Army's powerful scout team.
Often before the Taiping army arrived, the scouts had already captured some weakly defended county towns.
These scouts who were born as hunters in the mountains are good at sneaking and tracking. They will be equipped with bows, arrows and muskets according to their own preferences. Most of them are very accurate in marksmanship and archery, and some are even equipped with rifles that are rare in the country. Year-round
Fighting against wild beasts and the harsh natural environment has developed their iron will and fierce fighting skills.
Let's take a look at the scouts of the Huai Navy. These soldiers are the best in combat skills in the army. They can carry as little as 30 kilograms of equipment to complete a fifty-kilometer cross-country. Everyone has excellent marksmanship, quick reactions, and has been subjected to
Professional investigation skills guidance.
The two snipers in each squad are equipped with special rifles. For this rifle, Dong Shuheng asked the arsenal to make a lengthened barrel, and the bullet charge was also greatly increased. After rigorous training, the soldiers can shoot at 500 meters.
Snipe the opponent left and right.
This distance is probably the limit of current black powder. If you want the gun to shoot farther, you have to wait for picric acid explosives to appear.
In addition, each scout also carries ten grenades. The entire class is also equipped with ten mines.
As for the Huai Navy, a total of three reconnaissance squads were dispatched to search westward in a fan shape. The distance between two adjacent squads was about two kilometers, which facilitated timely support.
In this way, the Taiping Army's scouts and the Huai Navy's scouts met unexpectedly in the open space between the east of Yangzhou City and the canal dock.
In the bushes on a gentle slope, Liu Wu was lying on the ground, his head and back covered with camouflage made of branches and grass. He was the squad leader and observer of this squad of scouts.
"Records show that there are 40 iron cannons in the East City, with a caliber of about 100 mm. They are old-fashioned artillery in the front hall. There is an archer stationed every five meters on the city wall. The trench is 300 meters away from the city wall, with a width of about 1.5 meters and an unknown depth..."
"Wait... someone fell from the wall with a rope. About 50 people, judged to be enemy scouts. The correspondent called the other two squads to gather one thousand meters behind. Hurry!"
The two correspondents immediately ran to the left and right wings after hearing the order.
"Attention, everyone in the class, retreat one kilometer to find a bunker and establish an ambush position."
At this time, the Huaihai Navy's scouts were about 2 kilometers away from the city wall. At this distance, the human eye could not see each other. Therefore, the Huaihai Navy's retreat did not attract the attention of the Taiping Army scouts on one side of the city wall.
Liu Wu could see clearly that the Taiping Army scouts were heading in his direction. He commanded his men to retreat while placing mines on the paths they must pass through. The recorders would look for reference objects to record the location of the mines.
.
The Huaihai navy was retreating, but the Taiping army was advancing. After a while, the Huaihai navy pushed behind a gentle slope and lurked. Liu Wu set up his telescope, but could not find the target for a while. It turned out that Taiping had descended the city wall.
After that, they got into the trenches. They carried out simple camouflage in the trenches. Then they quietly emerged from a gap in the trenches. The brigade commander of this scout team did not expect that someone more than 2,000 meters away was secretly using binoculars.
Stare at them.
After a while, they came out of the trench and came into Liu Wu's sight again.
The brigade commander of this Taiping Army was named Chen Changsheng. Zeng Lichang gave him his name when he joined the Taiping Army in Yong'an. There are many mountains and forests around Yong'an, and Chang Sheng is the most powerful hunter in the whole village. But one time he came back from the mountains.
Later, the village disappeared, and all the original villagers and neighbors had their heads cut off.
It turned out that the Qing army who surrendered the bandits massacred his village, killing good people and taking credit. From then on, Chen Changsheng followed the Taiping army to kill Qing demons, all the way to Yangzhou. He has also robbed a lot of money now, and maybe he will wait until he returns to Tianjing.
You can go to the women's pavilion to choose a wife.
"Commander of the Brigade, do you think we will encounter the colorful army when we go out today? Some people say that the colorful clothes of the colorful soldiers are possessed by evil spirits." A two-man commander came over and asked.
"Haha, we are all heavenly soldiers and generals under the King of Heaven. Aren't we the ones who specialize in dealing with these evil ghosts?"
"Cheer up, I will take you to catch ghosts today."
After a while, Chen Changsheng led his men to the location where Liu Wu and the others were lurking just now. When they arrived, Chen Changsheng suddenly felt a strange feeling. He lay on the ground and observed carefully, and then walked around.
.
He frowned and said to the Taiping Army scouts beside him: "Everyone, please pay attention. There are about ten people. They may be the scouts of the Colored Army. Be careful to hide when you advance."
Liu Wu in the distance saw all this. He also admired the enemy's scout commander in his heart. The place where they lurked just now deliberately eliminated traces when they left. Unexpectedly, the opponent could still learn from a little bit of clues.
Clues were discovered. Suddenly, Liu Wu saw the Taiping Army scout commander opposite and glanced in his direction. The look on his face was as if the other party had really seen him. Liu Wu knew that this was impossible.
I am now more than a kilometer away from the opponent, behind a gentle slope, and I am wearing a disguise.
Chen Changsheng raised his head and looked east, and suddenly felt a flash of white light. What was reflecting the white light on the ground? Could it be a small pond, but it hadn't rained in the past few days.
Chen Changsheng looked towards the location where the white light came from just now, with a solemn expression.
"Search over there, spread out your formation, and pay attention to safety!" Chen Changsheng ordered his subordinates.
More than fifty people, like hounds, walked slowly towards the east.
"Bang!"
Suddenly there was an explosion. A scout accidentally stepped on a mine that Liu Wu and the others had planted. The air wave immediately threw the scout and the two people around him into the air.
Chang Sheng rushed over quickly, and all three of them were seriously injured. The scout who stepped on a mine had his calf below the knee blown off.
They lay on the ground wailing in pain. Chen Changsheng ordered other scouts to put these three people aside. If they are still alive when they come back, he will take them into the city. If they die, Heavenly Father will take away their souls.
go to heaven.
Chen Changsheng's expression was solemn and a little more excited. This time he finally met his opponent, and his eyes showed a ferocious light like a wild wolf.
"Everyone spread out and move forward, away from the road. From now on, keep bows and arrows in hand, guns loaded, and be ready to fight at any time!" Chen Changsheng ordered the people around him, and the entire team continued to move forward.
"Wu Gang, you two aim together at the sixth man on the left, the man with the long bow on his back. This man should be the leader of this scout. We will try to defeat them and capture a few tongues."
The Taiping Army's scouts advanced to a distance of 500 meters in a few minutes.
"Squad leader, do you want to fight?" Wu Gang said softly.
"Wait a little longer and hit again after 300 meters."
Chen Changsheng suddenly felt a palpitation in his heart, as if he was being targeted by a poisonous snake while hunting in the mountains.
Suddenly he saw two fires on the gentle slope three hundred meters ahead, and he instinctively threw himself to one side.
He felt a numbness in his thigh, and then heard two gunshots.
"Lie down!" Chen Changsheng shouted loudly.
All the scouts fell down in response, crawling on the ground to find cover. However, the gunfire stopped suddenly and did not sound one after another.
Chen Changsheng was shocked and frightened. This was a distance of 300 meters. The Taiping Army also used muskets, but most of them were shotguns captured by the Qing Army. The effective range was only 50 meters. There were also a small number of captured rifles that could shoot up to two meters.
A distance of one hundred meters.
He is now shot in the thigh and can no longer move on his own. As a general, he knows what this means. If he retreats at this time, he will become a burden. Moreover, there is a sharpshooter on the opposite side, and he will definitely not let him go. The only one
The way is to defeat them.
"They don't have many people. Everyone, press on and destroy them. Long live our Heavenly Father!"
“Long live our Heavenly Father!”
A group of Taiping Army scouts shouted slogans, jumped up from behind the bunker on the ground, and rushed quickly towards the gentle slope.
"Fire, shoot freely." Liu Wu also shouted loudly to the soldiers around him.
"Bang bang bang..." The gunshots rang intermittently. After all, they only had less than 10 people, but the marksmanship of the soldiers in the reconnaissance squad was amazing. When the Taiping Army entered the 200-meter shooting distance, the soldiers in the reconnaissance squad were almost able to do it.
The bullets are flawless.
More than a dozen people on the Taiping Army side had already fallen, which made Chen Changsheng feel heartache. At this time, the Taiping Army had advanced within a hundred meters. The archers threw out the bows and arrows in their hands. The only two riflemen also knelt down.
Kneel down and shoot out the bullets from your gun.
Two muffled groans came from the reconnaissance squad's position. Two riflemen were hit. One was hit in the thigh by a thrown bow and arrow, and the other's shoulder blade was shattered by a musket.
"Damn the bandits, brothers, reinforcements will be here soon. Everyone, hold on, don't embarrass our group."
"Bang bang bang..." Several violent explosions sounded. It turned out that several landmines buried in front of the position exploded. The violent explosions caused the attacking Taiping Army to delay for a moment.
"Brothers, grenades!"
As if the explosion of the landmine was a signal, the soldiers of the reconnaissance squad quickly threw the grenade in their hands. The explosion of the grenade created an isolation zone in front of the position, killing the Taiping Army's active forces on the largest scale.
At this critical moment, the two reconnaissance squads on both sides agreed and came over at the same time to provide support. They fired bullets from the side at the Taiping troops who were still charging, catching the Taiping troops off guard.
When bullets are fired from the side, the killing effect is much higher. The principle is very simple. The charging soldiers are on a horizontal plane. The distance is very large when viewed from the front, but much denser when viewed from the side.
In the end, except for a dozen Taiping soldiers who were injured and lost their combat effectiveness, all the Taiping soldiers died on the way forward. Chen Changsheng wanted to end his life, but he was on the verge of shock due to excessive blood loss.
The others were brought back to the camp by Huai Haijun.
The battle lasted only ten minutes, and only a few dozen people were involved in the battle.
However, both the Taiping Army and the Huai Navy got to know each other again. The Taiping Army soldiers had excellent military skills and a firm will to fight. The Huai Navy's advantages lay in strict discipline, advanced weapons and systematic training.