As the sound of artillery fire in Bangshan became more and more intensive, dusk began to fall, and he could hardly see anything clearly. Few of the pond horses sent out returned, and those who were lucky enough to swim back from the river only
Can report some vague words such as "a fierce battle is going on", "the thieves are flying with cannons and can't get through"... and the like.
On the hillside in the distance, under the twilight, he began to clearly see the firelight of the artillery fire. From time to time, the rocket dragged its red tail across the sky, hit the ground, and splashed sparks.
Although Yi Haoran could not get the news, it could be seen from the intensity of the artillery fire and the light from the cannons gradually moving up the mountain that the officers and soldiers were retreating step by step, and the thieves were attacking step by step.
In a few hours, Bangshan will fall completely! Yi Haoran's heart sank. Jiang Suo and the new army are his biggest assets to settle down in Xiong Wencan's shogunate. Of course it would be a waste of all this capital for Governor Xiong
It’s nothing, but it’s so important to him!
Jiang Suo must be notified immediately to withdraw his troops!
Yi Haoran knew that Jiang Suo had a knot in his heart and wanted to die when he went to the battlefield. He would probably lead his servants to fight to the death on the mountain.
It doesn't matter whether the three hundred servants live or die, and it doesn't matter if all the Nanyang rifles are lost. As long as Governor Xiong can be in office, he can continue to train the new army and buy weapons. But this Jiang Suo, although he is just a small school of thieves, indeed he has the
If the person who knows the most about "benevolent love" dies, there will be no second person to replace him. What's even more rare is that although Jiang Suo was born as an entertainer, he is not greedy for money and sex, is extremely strict with himself, and speaks well.
He is also methodical in doing things and is not just a "foolish villager". He can also be regarded as half of his "confidant".
Fortunately, Xiong Wencan allowed him to make his own decision on the battle at Bangshan, which he quite disapproved of at the time. Now it seems that Governor Xiong's knowledge and mind are indeed far superior to his own.
Seeing the sound of artillery fire on the mountain changing from dense to sparse, he knew that the defenders on the mountain were exhausted and could not hold on for much longer. He immediately called two of his close servants and whispered to them to cross the river immediately and go to Bangshan Mountain to convey the order to Jiang Suo and others.
The people immediately withdrew their troops.
These two servants had been following him since Liaodong, and had been with him through life and death for many years. He gave the order, and the two servants went down from the tower to Bangshan Mountain.
He called another servant and ordered him to take people to the pontoon bridge immediately: in order to meet the defenders of Bangshan, a pontoon bridge had been built on the river under his auspices. Hundreds of soldiers were sent to guard the bridge because the water here was shallow.
, and blocked the waterway in advance, the Kun Thieves' navy was not only afraid of being stranded but also worried about the Hongyi cannons on the city wall, so he was not too worried about the safety of the pontoon bridge on the river - instead, he was afraid that the Kun Thieves would cut off the pontoon bridge from the land route.
Several slaves brought out two boxes.
"There are one thousand taels of silver in the box. When you get there, distribute it to the sergeants guarding the bridge immediately. You must stabilize their hearts and minds!"
"Yes, sir!"
"go quickly!"
Several slaves took the order. Yi Haoran looked at Bangshan Mountain again, worried: "Jiang Suo, you can't die!"
Jiang Suo and Song Ming had already regrouped the troops who had retreated to the second trench. After a chaotic battle, there were not many troops left. In addition to the 300 new troops, there were only more than 200 soldiers left.
The others were either dead or wounded or had escaped. The firearms were almost used up.
At this moment, both Jiang Suo and Song Ming knew that Bangshan was in danger. The Kun thieves had temporarily ceased fire and must be mobilizing artillery and troops to prepare for the final general attack and capture Bangshan in one fell swoop.
"Bangshan can't be defended any longer. While the pontoon bridge is still intact, you can take your troops and leave quickly." Jiang Suo had already decided to stay behind.
"If you want to run away, you should run together." Song Ming said, "How can I go first alone? Besides, we can have another fight!" This is not because he is pretending. In the Ming Dynasty, middle and lower-level officers often chose to die in battle when the war was unfavorable.
to protect their hereditary fame and land,
Although he can save his life by running away now, Jiang Suo is the "red man" around Yi Haoran, and Yi Haoran is the "red man" of Governor Xiong. Once Jiang Suo is killed and the entire New Army is annihilated, he will not be alive.
There will be good things to eat. Even if Governor Xiong doesn't pursue the case, he will become a "wasted general". This is nothing less than a disaster for the family of military generals.
However, the Fubo Army did not give them much time to communicate. They were preceded by dozens of rockets fired from the nearby hills, followed by intensive shooting from the mountains. In an instant, the defenders who had finally been reorganized were thrown into chaos.
.
As the bugle sounded, symbolizing the start of the Fubo Army's attack, a company of infantrymen began a hand-to-hand assault. When they responded to the attacks of the two companies, their flanks suffered a heavy blow from another company.
At this moment, Song Ming no longer argued with Jiang Suo about who should leave first and who should leave last. He ordered without hesitation: "The whole army comes down the mountain, crosses the bridge and enters the city!"
At this order, like a landslide in a snow-capped mountain, the surrounding officers and soldiers dispersed, with only the remaining New Army still gathered around them.
Relatively speaking, the training level of the new army is quite high. Under the command of Song Ming, they fought and retreated in an orderly manner, unlike other troops that immediately became defeated. Seeing that Jiang Suo had no intention of retreating, he led
As a few soldiers continued to load and aim and shoot indifferently, he thought to himself: "Does this guy want to die here?"
For his own sake, Jiang Suo is determined not to die.
So Song Ming retreated all the way to Jiang Suo and shouted: "You don't want your life, you can't win this battle, retreat quickly!"
"Mr. Song Qian, you retreat first, I will stay behind."
"The queen is a dead man. I don't know why you want to die, but it would be a pity for these servants to die here with you! If you keep the green hills, you won't be afraid of running out of firewood. As long as you live, are you afraid that you won't have a chance to fight against the bandits?
!”
Jiang Suo shook his head and said: "I have decided to end things with the thief Kun here."
Song Mingzheng was helpless when someone suddenly came to report: Master Yi in the city has sent someone!
The soldiers brought the servant they had sent. He was dripping with water and had flowers on his body. He was panting like an ox. Seeing Jiang Suo, he couldn't take a breath and said in a hoarse voice: "Master... call... you... hurry up."
……Walk……"
Just as Jiang Suo was about to speak, the servant said again: "Master...said,...it doesn't matter if you die alone, there are also these brothers in the New Army..."
Hearing this, Jiang Suo looked around, thinking that he had spent two years living with these new soldiers day and night, and had developed a love for them. Jiang Suo could not be cruel enough to let them die for him for his own personal vendetta.
"Withdraw!" Jiang Suo ordered.
A group of people retreated along the hillside, but their retreat was surrounded by the light infantry of the Kun thieves. Guns were fired at random, and people kept falling in the queue. Seeing that the retreat was about to be cut off, Song Ming got wise and led a few people from the dead.
A loaded Fran machine gun was pushed into the pile, lit the match, and with one shot tore a hole in the sparse skirmish line of light infantry, and then rushed out.
The light infantry continued to pursue, but were met with desperate resistance by the retainers at the rear. Although the light infantry had superior firepower, there were few people and it was difficult to divide the troops and pursue them. They watched helplessly as Song Ming and others retreated to the foot of the mountain.
"Report to the battalion commander that the enemy has broken through the encirclement of the light infantry and fled northeast to the pontoon at the foot of the mountain! We are short of troops and request support!" The messenger sent by the commander of the light infantry company reported to Yang Zeng.
"Don't chase the poor bandits, just let them live a little longer." Yang Zeng said.
However, Yang Zeng had no intention of letting go of the Ming army. He called the messenger and asked: "Has the artillery team arranged the artillery well?"
"Report to the battalion commander that the Shandilu has been arranged and the rockets are being transported up there. Just waiting for your order."
"Fire at the pontoon!"
For a while, he was unable to send troops to cut off the pontoon bridge, but it would be no problem to use artillery fire to block it.
The messengers ran like flying to give orders. Now that the task of occupying Bangshan was completed, it didn't matter if some Ming troops escaped. When the battle came to an end, Yang Zeng ordered the reinforced artillery to stop firing.
Firstly, to save ammunition and secondly, to cool down the barrel. As soon as the battle on the top of the mountain was over, the artillerymen and civilians began to move the artillery and rockets to the top of the mountain. Now the Ming army was preparing to cross the river through the pontoon bridge, which happened to be a ready-made target.
The Ming army, which was running towards the pontoon, abandoning its armor and armor, would not know this. Those who were fleeing had no intention of paying attention to this - Song Ming and Jiang Suo were no exception. At this time, they had already successfully rushed onto the pontoon.
, ran to the center of the river in one breath. Both of them were out of breath and exhausted, but they did not dare to stop and rest for fear that the Australians would pursue them.
Seeing that they would reach the other side after running for a while, and just burn the pontoon after arriving, the two of them breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but slow down. Song Ming sighed: "Another narrow escape!" Jiang Suo
I felt a little dazed. Originally, I wanted to die on Bangshan Mountain and be done with it, but now I was struggling to survive once again.
Jiang Suo didn't know what to say, so he could only nod Nuonuo.
Song Ming thought he was still upset about the failure and comforted him:
"It doesn't matter if you lose the battle, as long as you still have your life! The so-called green hills remain..." As soon as Song Ming finished speaking, a cannonball roared through the air and landed on the river less than two or three feet away from them.
, the splashing water splashed all over them. Song Ming was startled, then started running wildly, and before leaving, he uttered two words: "Run!"
With this sound of artillery, more artillery shells flew from Bangshan, followed by rockets. Groups of more than a dozen fell towards the river. Although the accuracy was not good, most of them fell into the river, but this
The terrifying feeling of rockets falling on their heads one after another caused chaos among the soldiers who were crossing the bridge. The crowd pushed forward desperately, and more than a dozen people on the bridge were caught off guard and suddenly fell into the water, struggling in the water with howls like ghosts and wolves.
Those who knew how to swim swam with all their might, while those who didn't struggled a few times before making no sound and slowly sank.
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Next update: Volume 7 - Guangzhou Governance Chapter 315
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