The Li Pudun family was very tired. I heard that the Australian army had excellent firearms and very few casualties in battles. The pay was generous, so I came up with the idea of joining the army. Originally, it was just a bowl of food. I didn't expect to join the army.
After that, the training was very arduous, and he was often "infused with the martial spirit of the squad leader." Although he was not afraid of being beaten when he was a soldier, the pace of training every day and having to study at night was really too much.
After all, the officials were pretty good people. They rarely tortured people intentionally and never withheld food, otherwise Li Pudun would have really wanted to run away.
"Who is willing to come out to fight?" The sergeant next to him, Luo Mao, was biting a young willow branch. He had a cold, so the health soldier gave him a pack of cut and opened young willow branches and asked him to chew them.
It's because of your bad luck that you come out to do this job of licking blood with the blade of a knife - but you're lucky to be a soldier for the Senate."
Luo Mao is exactly the opposite of Li Pudun: he originally worked as a porter at the dock of Haikou Port. He felt that being a porter was too tiring and unproductive, so he took the initiative to join the army. Because he was older, he could only serve in the National Army.
In less than three months, he was promoted through rocket promotion. First he became a corporal, and then he became a squad leader commanding a squad. Normally, he, a corporal, could only be a squad leader, but now he has thirty people under his command.
"...The Senate came out to fight, and every time it counted, it never lost: pirates, bandits, officers and soldiers, all of them were not to mention - they also fought red-haired people and Koreans... It is not uncommon to win a battle, and you will never die if you win a battle.
Talents are called powerful - let's put it this way, during the Chengmai War, tens of thousands of officers and soldiers rushed towards the perimeter with a roar. My legs and legs were shaking, but in the end, a row of guns and several loud cannons dispersed the officers and soldiers.
The corpses all over the ground..."
Luo Mao's blowing was vivid. In fact, during the battle of Chengmai, he was still serving as a soldier in Beizhili, wearing a uniform and dawdling around. Let alone the Fubo Army, he had never even heard of the word "Australian".
Seeing Li Pudun being frightened, Luo Mao became more confident: "In the end, all the officers and soldiers were wiped out, tens of thousands died, and the blood dyed the sea water red-"
This not only whetted Li Pudun's appetite, but also attracted the surrounding soldiers.
Now Luo Mao was even more excited: "How many people do you think Fubo Jun has died..." he asked pretending to be mysterious.
"How many?"
"Less than ten!" Luo Mao said loudly, "As the old saying goes, killing an enemy of three thousand will result in eight hundred losses. In that battle, tens of thousands of people were killed, but less than ten people were killed. What are you worried about...
"
These words were quite reassuring, and the recruits who were a little worried at first seemed to be relieved. Yes, the Australians have strong ships and powerful guns, and they are overwhelming in every battle - this is what they have heard a long time ago.
.
At this time, the originally dull and tense atmosphere suddenly became lively. Li Dong laughed secretly after seeing it - not to mention Luo Mao, not even Zhu Si, the captain of the National Army, had participated in the Chengmai Battle. Luo Mao came to Lingao
At that time, even Operation Engine ended almost half a year ago...
At this moment, some ignorant people came out to stir up trouble.
"But Fubo's army uses muskets, but we use spears..."
It was like pouring cold water on him. The originally warm atmosphere suddenly cooled down. Li Dong couldn't help but greet the eighteenth generation of the recruit's ancestors. He decided to go back and call the squad leader. He cried for father and mother. He heard Fu Bo in his life.
The word "jun" will make you cry...
Luo Mao glared at the ignorant recruit and was about to retort when suddenly the lookout shouted: "The channel has become narrower!"
Li Dong quickly boarded the bridge on the bow of the ship. The originally wide river gradually narrowed, and the two banks in front turned into mountains. Reefs and yellow beaches began to appear in the river. This is Jieshou Beach. After passing Jieshou Beach,
Today's journey is less than half of the way. It's really fast! With the ship, the journey that used to take several days can now be completed in half a day. If nothing happens, we should be able to reach Xintan before sunset as planned.
As if to break Li Dong's fantasy, a sharp whistling sound suddenly came from far away. Li Dong suddenly shuddered: This is Ming Dy!
Mingdi is a sounding arrow, which is used by the army to mark the direction. The Fubo army has a signal gun and does not use this thing. The only ones who fire kongdi are the enemies!
"Attention! Enemy attack!"
Before Li Dong finished speaking, three feather arrows shot out from the reeds on the shore.
"It's a red arrow!" shouted a veteran of the army!
It seems that because the shooter was too far away, the arrows fell into the water one after another.
Li Dong quickly raised his telescope and looked towards the mountains on the bank. In spring, the vegetation was lush, and he could not see anything from the observation deck. Just when he was wondering, the beeping sound suddenly sounded again. This time, the direction was coming from the other side of the Xijiang River.
Come.
"Signal to the left detachment! There is an enemy!"
After he finished speaking, another red arrow was fired from the shore on this side. Although the arrow also fell into the water this time, it was obviously much closer than before.
Li Dong suddenly understood: This is measuring distance!
As if to confirm his idea, a loud sound of cannon fire was heard from the shore. He immediately turned his telescope and searched for the direction - and sure enough he saw a wisp of white smoke coming out of the sky above a forest.
Judging from the swaying of the vegetation, it seemed like there were people running along the shore following the boat, but I couldn't tell how many there were.
This may be a routine harassment - according to the report, such harassment has occurred recently, and the scale is generally small. As long as the fleet is well protected, there will be basically no losses.
But the sound of the ring and the red range-finding arrow just now gave him a different feeling.
"Send a battle alert! Send a signal to the left detachment, there is an ambush ahead!" He said, got down from the observation deck, and asked the two Nanyang rifle shooters on the boat to climb up.
As three rapid whistles sounded, the No. 1 boat of the left detachment also responded with three whistles - there was also a situation on Zhu Si's side.
"Tell everyone to stay calm," Li Dong said loudly, "and be ready to fight at any time!"
Luo Mao came over: "Squadron Captain! Do you want to fire..."
"Don't worry, firing now is a waste of ammunition," Li Dong said, "With such a big movement from the fire wheel, they must have known that we were coming and ambush us here!"
The 12-pound mountain grenade ammunition on the ship itself is not much. If it is consumed now, it will not be enough in an emergency later.
"Captain Zhu has an order!" the signal soldier on the slipway said loudly, "Single column becomes double column, maintain speed and continue to move forward."
The change from a single column to a double column is from a marching formation to a combat formation. According to the prior plan, the energy of the left and right detachments is each responsible for one direction. This ensures that the firepower can be used simultaneously, and the marching formation is shortened.
The fleet continued to move forward, and the channel became narrower and narrower. The sporadic arrows fired from the shore landed closer and closer to the ship. Needless to say, once it entered the effective shooting range, there would probably be a violent rain of arrows thrown down.
Although iron plates and bamboo shields were temporarily installed on both sides of the ship as protection, these defensive measures could not 100% prevent the arrows falling from the sky. Although everyone was too frightened by the discipline and dared not speak on the surface, they still kept praying in their hearts.
God told them to cross the shoal quickly. But it backfired. Just when they were about to sail out of the shoal, Boat No. 1 seemed to have hit something. The hull made a creepy "creak" sound, and a smoke emitted from the chimney.
A puff of black smoke just stopped in the middle of the channel, and then Boat No. 2 shook violently and stopped.
Li Dong's heart skipped a beat and he quickly squeezed in beside the captain at the helm.
"Why aren't you moving?"
"Maybe the debris from the upper reaches was washed here and piled up, blocking the river. It was not like this when we came back."
Li Dong had heard that when the South China Army attacked Zhaoqing, they fought a battle with the Ming Navy at Antelope Gorge and sank many ships. The wreckage was probably left at that time. But it is not far from Antelope Gorge.
It’s such a long journey, and the channel is blocked because of the obstruction! What a coincidence? Just when I was wondering, the sailor had climbed up from the bottom and reported that there was no damage to the bottom of the ship.
"I'm going to reverse the car now and move farther away first, otherwise I'll run aground." The captain said, "I'll see if I can pass through other channels. If it doesn't work, I'll have to organize people to land and clear the obstacles."
"Squadron Captain! News came from boat No. 1: I want you to go over immediately to discuss it."
Li Dong quickly boarded the No. 1 boat. Zhu Si squatted behind the armored barrier behind the bridge.
"The captain told me just now that there is no way to cross here - either send people off the ship on the spot to clear the obstacles, or turn around and take another channel." Zhu Si's face was a little nervous, "What do you think?"
"The captain of the boat also said so. My opinion is to let the soldiers disembark and clear the obstacles on the spot..."
Zhu Si shook his head: "There must be an enemy ambush on both sides of the river now. When we get off the boat, we will lose the barrier. Once attacked by the enemy, the casualties will be huge..."
This was also what Li Dong was worried about. Since Zhu Si didn't agree with it, he proposed another plan: take the channel north of the sandbank.
"The helmsman said that this channel can be passed, but it is much narrower."
Once attacked, the danger there is much greater than eliminating it here, because the channel is almost right on the shore.
Zhu Si looked at the map for a while, then picked up the telescope and looked at the shore. His face was very hesitant. The steam engine made a rhythmic roar, and this vibration made Li Dong secretly anxious: In his opinion, no matter which plan he adopts,
, all have risks. But no matter which one you choose, it is better than staying here in a daze.
"Squadron leader..." After watching Zhu Si hesitate for almost five minutes, Li Dong finally couldn't help but urge: "We can't stay here for long, so we should act quickly."
"Li Dong, which plan do you think is better?" Zhu Si picked up the ball again.
Li Dong was stunned and said: "My opinion is to take the northern channel - the channel here must be artificially blocked. We don't know what the blockage looks like or what is used to block it. We don't have the right tools and tools at hand now."
Equipment, I’m afraid it’s not that easy to clear the obstacles...”
Next update: Volume 7 - Guangzhou Governance Chapter 356