It was already an hour after Ding Guofeng and the others evacuated when Fukangan received the report from his scouts.
After personally listening to detailed reports from several forward teams, he decided to continue sending scouts to the front line of Sikhet Mountain tomorrow morning to investigate the situation at the mouth of the Sila River.
"We need to find out the true identity of the bandits!" Fukangan pointed to the map and said. "What we want is to wipe them all out in one battle. Once the enemy is alerted, the Hubei people will have endless troubles whether they retreat to the sea or escape into the mountains and forests!"
Then he said to Liu Linhan and the two envoys who were on the side: "You will stay in the army and wait for the news for the time being, and we will make a decision tomorrow!"
It was already late at night when Ding Guofeng and the four of them carefully retreated all the way to Beihai Town.
After returning to the camp, Ding Guofeng quickly informed Liu Sheng and Wang Yuanfang of the Qing army's movements. Soon, Zhao Xin, Wu Siyu, Deng Fei and Zhao Liang on the Thor also knew about it.
More than half an hour later, Zhao Xin and Wu Siyu arrived at the preset position using flashlights.
"Stop! Password!"
After some password questions and answers, Zhao Xin met Liu Sheng and others.
This is located on the west side of the camp, outside the entrance of a valley at the southeastern foothills of Sihet Mountain, with a wide view. A month ago, the logging team led by Chen Qingsong had cut down all the large trees here; it was originally planned to reclaim farmland.
However, after Wang Yuanfang looked at the terrain here, he asked Chen Qingsong not to cultivate this place for the time being. Because whether it is a beast or a local native, it is possible to come down from here and attack the camp. So Chen Qingsong took Wan Zao, Mosuke and others
, a ditch three meters deep, two meters wide, and hundreds of meters long was dug here. First, it was temporarily used to protect against wild beasts; second, it could be used as a canal for irrigation in the future. As a result, it was used today!
Five hundred soldiers holding SKS were standing behind the mound on the southeast side of the ditch. A sudden light rain fell in the afternoon and lasted until late at night, freezing these soldiers to death. Liu Sheng urgently arranged for people to come from the warehouse
He took cotton coats and put them on the soldiers.
As for the remaining 1,500 recruits, since they had not yet started shooting training, Zhao Xin and others discussed and asked these people to go to the east bank of the Xila River and temporarily put them under the command of Chen Qingsong and Katayama Kanbei to avoid causing chaos.
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The five people found a quiet place and held an emergency meeting to discuss the next step.
"I don't think this works. It makes us too passive!" Wang Yuanfang said first.
"Yes, I was careless! I forgot about the scouts! I almost took action." Ding Guofeng said with lingering fear.
Liu Sheng sighed and said: "It seems that the Qing soldiers outside the pass are not stupid. Let's just wait like this. What will we do tomorrow?"
Zhao Xin didn't speak for a long time. He looked up at the dark mountains and said slowly: "I panicked before and thought about it. We can't wait for the Qing troops to come, otherwise our true and false will be exposed. If the mountains don't come, it's me.
, I’ll just go for it! The old way, just kick in the door!”
Ding Guofeng said hesitantly: "The mountain road is really difficult to walk at night. Hundreds of us will definitely be exposed if we act together. If there are casualties..."
Liu Sheng interrupted: "What you said, how can we fight without casualties?"
Wu Siyu asked: "Mr. Zhao, tell me what you think?"
Zhao Xin thought for a while and then said slowly: "We have all evacuated to the other side, and this night will definitely be uncomfortable. So what if the Qing soldiers don't come tomorrow? Stay there for another day?"
It's so dark and it's still raining lightly. I think that even if the Qing soldiers' scouts come at night, they will wait until dawn in the morning before they can start their investigation. At this stage, it's pointless for us to do all these things.
Ding Guofeng, you and Serdan continue to play forward. It is now 11:30 at night. You will set off at 1 in the morning without taking a detour and go straight to the Qing army's camp. It is better to go slowly than to go too fast along the way. If you encounter
The Qing army scouts were killed directly.
Brother Wang, you and Wu Siyu lead the team and follow Ding Guofeng and the others. Once you get there, you don't need to attack the Qing army camp immediately, but just ambush in the surrounding mountains. You are the commander, and you will make arrangements for what to do.
Old Liu, you come back to the ship with me. We still have to attack from the sea! Now the Leishen is our biggest support. It’s not far from our place to the bay where the Qing army landed. It can be reached in two hours.”
Wang Yuanfang said excitedly at this time: "When you launch an attack, I will initiate cooperation."
Zhao Xin nodded and said, "That's what it means. We have too many things to do now, and we don't have time to spend time with Manqing. After this fight, I think I can be clean for a while. Our area is all virgin forest, and there are no roads at all.
If the Qing Dynasty wants to send troops over again, the long logistics supply line will kill them."
Wu Siyu said: "How do you say this?"
In the dark night, Zhao Xin grinned and explained: "This is outside the customs. The Manchu and Qing Dynasties do not allow Han people to leave the customs. When the time comes for a large number of logistics and transportation teams, do you think they will use Han people as civilian workers? These will be enough for the Manchu and Qing Dynasties.
The court had a headache.
It is already the beginning of the sixth lunar month. It will start to snow here in September. If we want to attack us, we will have to wait until the spring of next year. Moreover, according to historical records, Qianlong is currently deploying troops in the northwest. It is impossible for him to launch two wars at the same time.
.”
Liu Sheng and the other four thought for a moment and agreed with Zhao Xin's point of view. However, considering that there were only thirty sailors on board the Thor, Wang Yuan conveniently decided to dispatch a company to accompany the ship.
In summer in the outer Northeast, the sky will be dark at 6 a.m., and the sun will rise at 7 a.m. So several people set the time for the Thor's attack to be 6 a.m.
At twelve o'clock at night, the five hundred soldiers began to have extra meals in batches.
Yaichiro has been waiting since dinner until now, and his stomach is already growling with hunger. After he led others to get the supper and distributed it to the soldiers in the platoon, he was just about to sit down and eat when Lian Jiuzang came to look for him.
"Mr. Yaichi, have the entire platoon assemble!"
"Company commander, what happened?"
"Let's get on board!"
Getting on the boat? Yaichiro was stunned for a moment, and then he felt happy. It's good to get on the boat! He no longer has to lie here and freeze. He didn't even bother to eat the midnight snack, and immediately called his men to gather.
The 110 people gathered quickly. Before Zhao Xin took the people away, he started checking watches with others.
"It's now twelve thirty-one, and the action will begin in twenty-nine minutes!"
At one o'clock in the night, Ding Guofeng, Serdan and his son, and Hengji set off on time. This time, in addition to bows and arrows, each of the three Serdans received a pistol equipped with a silencer. Their route this time was to go west to Xi
At the western foot of Hutt Mountain, there is no need to go around the mountain road from the north, so a new road needs to be found.
The four of them had to stop for a while every 20 minutes and listen carefully to the surrounding environment. Sometimes they stayed for 10 minutes, and sometimes they left after 7 or 8 minutes. Among the four, Hengji's archery level was average, and Ding Guofeng asked him to play in the two teams.
Travel back and forth to prevent Wang Yuanfang and the others from getting lost.
Half an hour later, the rain had stopped, and the moonlight shone through the clouds in the mountains and forests, appearing and disappearing.
Wang Yuanfang and Wu Siyu immediately led four companies of soldiers to set off, following the traces left by Ding Guofeng and others into the mountains and forests.
The main problem of marching at night is poor visibility. Although it is beneficial to the concealment of the army and the achievement of sudden tactical goals, it also brings a lot of inconvenience to observation, command, and communication. It is difficult to organize, coordinate and combat support the troops, and it is difficult to fully realize the tactical performance.
It has a certain impact on the psychological state of personnel.
In order to avoid making noise, everyone was holding a makeshift "title" in their mouths. The leader of the team was Hu Ji, who grew up in the mountains of the island country. Wang Yuanfang and Wu Siyu walked in the team, one at the end, and the other at the end.
, to prevent soldiers from falling behind.
After Hu Ji led the team into the forest, he could hardly see his hand. Soon, Wang Yuanfang, who received the report, had to ask every ten people in the team to turn on their flashlights to illuminate the road.
The soldiers formed a long column in company units. All everyone had to do was to follow the person in front closely and stare at the bright light of the flashlight. In daily training, Wang Yuanfang and the others, in order to prevent the occurrence of night blindness, the soldiers
There are eggs, carrots and animal livers in the meals every day. But even so, because the road in the mountains is rugged and difficult, with one foot deeper and one foot shallower, the team moves forward very slowly. After walking for more than an hour, they can only move forward.
Five miles.
Fortunately, the journey was only over twenty miles away. If this was a long-distance march, it would be a disaster!
Wang Yuanfang secretly decided that after this battle, night training must be popularized throughout the army, and night training time must account for more than one-third of the total training time. As a veteran, tradition cannot be lost!
At 3:30, the Thor slowly left the dock under the control of Deng Fei. Because he was already very familiar with the nearby sea conditions, there was no need to worry even if it was dark. An hour later, the Thor had already bypassed the southwest side of the bay.
peninsula.
This place is more than 35 kilometers away from the bay where the North Korean Navy is anchored in search of Lenji Island, and the navigation radar on the ship cannot detect it at all. Therefore, Zhao Xin and others do not know that there is a fleet of 2,000 people behind them.
At five o'clock, the Thor, which was sailing slowly north, finally stopped on the ocean three kilometers away from the Qing fleet. The drone with a thermal imaging gimbal rose from the compass deck, and waited until it reached a height of 500 meters.
After reaching the altitude, it flew over the Qing fleet at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour.
Two minutes later, Zhao Xin and others in the cockpit saw the scene in the bay. Dozens of Qing army sloops were parked quietly in the bay.
The Manchu and Qing warships outside the customs were all inland river ships, built by the shipyard in Wula, Jilin. Because of the conquest of Yaksa during the Kangxi period, these ships were also called "Yaksa warships."
The Yaksa warship is 20 meters long, has a deck width of four meters, a depth of two meters, a draft of 1.2 meters, and a displacement of 52.8 tons. The warship has a flat bottom, square bow and square stern, and both bow and stern are raised to adapt to wind and waves. The masts
It is 15 meters high and has a sail area of 65 square meters. The stern is equipped with two sterns and is more than six meters long.
There are a total of sixteen oars on both sides of the ship. The oars are four and a half meters long. When sailing, sailors row in a standing position; this is also a traditional habit in the Northeast. This design allows the warship to have good maneuverability under windless conditions.
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Judging from the images transmitted back by the drone, each warship has one or two cannons at the bow. Because it was dark, the specific shape of the cannons could not be clearly seen.
Around these Yaksa warships, there were also many small wooden boats moored, which looked like fishing boats.
The drone flew further north, and there was the Qing army's camp two miles away.
At this time, people had begun to move around in the camp. The soldiers and civilians preparing breakfast were all busy. The bonfire and smoke from the stove were very obvious in the black and white thermal imaging field of view.
The soldiers of the Qing army all lived in ordinary rectangular and low tents. In the center of the camp, two tents that were obviously different from the others caught the attention of Zhao Xin and others.
"This should be where the general lives. Can it be hit with cannon?"
"It's embarrassing. We are not familiar with the terrain here. It's hard to calculate just from the drone. Moreover, Wang Yuanfang and the others are ambushing around. Let's not cause accidental damage!"