There were not many "surprise soldiers", only more than a hundred, but Luo Mao only had ten large soldiers, and a volley of guns obviously could not withstand the crowd. The shooting speed was not enough to form a fire net, so he could only fight and move.
Fortunately, a few people still had a few grenades on their bodies, and they threw them out to scare the enemy, so they were not overtaken and engulfed by the large group of people.
The second team arrived in time and quickly stabilized the position with head-on volleys and bayonet strikes. However, this "surprise soldier" had a large number of people and a strong will to fight. Although they were stunned by the head-on rows of guns, they still couldn't recover after they recovered.
They rushed to kill without hesitation. Judging from the clothes and weapons of these people, they were neither local Han people nor rioting Yao people. They were probably chieftains from nowhere in the mountains of Guangzhou and Guangxi who were recruited by the government.
Seeing that the second team was unstable, they could only retreat with cover alternately. Li Dong was secretly worried. Suddenly, there was a gunshot behind him, a streak of white smoke passed over his head, and he crashed into the approaching enemy group. There was a thunderbolt.
It exploded, and the enemy troops immediately fell to pieces, and then two more shells flew in, causing the enemy troops to flip over.
At this time, the enemy, no matter how "brave and unafraid of death", could not stand it any longer and retreated. Li Dong did not dare to pursue because he did not have enough troops, so he immediately pulled back his troops.
At this time, the sound of artillery in the direction of Shijian became denser. The artillery shells kept passing over the heads of Li Dong and the others, flying towards the enemy. The enemy army, which originally seemed to have some order, was unsteady under the artillery fire. Suddenly, the enemy seemed to be caught.
Like ants who had been splashed with boiling water, their nest suddenly exploded and they fled in panic. Some people even ran towards Li Dong and the others in a panic.
"Squadron leader! There is a bugle sound from behind the enemy!" Ma Lai suddenly shouted.
Li Dong listened carefully, and sure enough, the sound of a military bugle came faintly from the wind. This was the horn of "charge". He was refreshed: the Fubo Army must have detoured around the enemy's side and launched an attack!
Sure enough, the enemy's position was in chaos. They were driven down from the mountain pass by the Fubo Army, and several hundred people were suppressed in a small area from the mountain pass to Shijian: in front of them there were continuous artillery fire from Shijian and the volleys of the National Army, and behind them
It was a fierce attack by the Fubo Army, with Suijiang on the right and rolling mountains on the left. There was really no way to the sky and no way to the earth. It was locked in a pocket and slowly packed away.
In desperation, many people threw themselves into the Suijiang River and tried to swim across the river. They were shot by artillery and volley guns, and countless people drowned. By the time the sound of gunfire slowly subsided, more than two hundred corpses were left on the battlefield.
Only a few dozen people escaped.
A company of the 8th Battalion pursued the enemy for nearly ten kilometers and stopped at the foot of Baoding Mountain. They took advantage of the situation and set up an advance camp. The road here left Suijiang and turned north to Guangning County, which is an important transportation node.
The Battle of Shijian Beishan Pass was the biggest battle fought by the Suijiang Detachment along the way, and also the one with the largest casualties. The casualties were mainly concentrated in the Wuzhou Squadron, with four people killed, more than a dozen injured, and one person missing.
——Ai Buyi. After he contacted the 1st Squadron of Guangning, he was nowhere to be found. The soldiers of the 1st Squadron of Guangning said they had not seen him. And after cleaning the battlefield, his body was not found.
"Isn't it possible that he was captured by the enemy?" Li Dong secretly wondered. But the enemy army was encircled and then dispersed. It was impossible for him to take prisoners while escaping. Besides, the direction in which he ran and the direction of the enemy's attack
Quite the opposite, how could he be captured?
One person from the Fubo Army was killed and more than ten people were injured. The squadron leader of the 1st Squadron of the Guangning Brigade, who was the first to retreat, was brought to Yang Zeng.
"Are you the squadron leader of the No. 1 Squadron of Guangning Brigade?"
"Yes Yes……"
"Did you order the retreat?"
"Yes, it's me."
"Dead."
After Yang Zeng gave this order, he immediately issued a second order: "Interrogate the prisoners as soon as possible. I want a report on the enemy's situation!"
The detachment quickly cleared the battlefield, treated the wounded, and eliminated the remaining enemies in the surrounding areas. From the corpses abandoned by the enemy on the battlefield, one could clearly distinguish the Ming troops in uniforms, the Yao people in blue and indigo jackets, and the Mao people from Guangxi... By
This confirmed the previous guesses of Xu Xu and others: In order to fight against the outsider, the Senate, Xiong Wencan had mobilized all the resources at hand to "add chaos" to the South China Army.
From the prisoners' mouths, they learned that this enemy force was a chieftain force sent by Xiong Wencan from Guangxi. They merged the Yao people and local bandits into a large force, and were commanded by a "general" under Xiong Wencan. As for this
The prisoners could not tell who the general was. They only said that he was a "Han official".
This "Han official" had just arrived in Guangning with his team half a month ago. Because he had the banner of the government and had a seal, he quickly gathered a large number of demons and monsters, and now he has gathered more than a thousand people.
The "mixed armed forces" had complex composition: there were chieftain armed forces from Guangxi, Ming army defeated troops, bandits from all walks of life, rioting Yao people and local regiments trying to take advantage of the chaos, all gathered into a hodgepodge.
This group of troops occupied Guangning three days ago. Due to the fierce resistance of the local villagers, the county town of Huaiji has not yet fallen, but traffic inside and outside the city has been cut off.
"What? Guangning has fallen?" Yang Zeng and Huang Chao were shocked when they heard the news.
Although some county towns did fall after the bandit chaos spread, the county towns that fell into the hands of the bandits had not yet been formally taken over. They were temporarily "maintained" by local gentry or surrendered Ming Dynasty magistrates. These county towns were either insufficiently armed,
Either the surrendered garrison was half-hearted, and it was easy for external forces to take advantage of it. The fall was not surprising. Guangning County had a naturalized county director sent there, and a squadron of the National Army.
This squadron still has enough energy to send a small team to garrison Shijian, which shows that the situation around them is not critical.
"Where are the Song Dynasty officials in the county?" This is what Huang Chao is most concerned about.
"Some of the officials of the Song Dynasty in the county died in battle, and some were killed. I heard that many people were killed. The county magistrate was caught and had his head chopped off..."
This blow hit the city harder than before, especially Huang Chao. Although he did not know the county director, he knew that those who could be appointed as county directors by the Senate were the top elites among naturalized citizens, many of whom were appointed five or six years ago.
Following the naturalized citizens of the Senate, they gradually started from village cadres or administrative cadres of enterprises and institutions, and were trained for many years.
Most of the more than ten naturalized cadres who joined him to organize the team were elites who had been carefully cultivated for many years and had both grassroots experience and training.
The losses of these cadres were far more serious than the losses of several National Army squadrons.
How the county town fell, none of the prisoners could tell. They only knew that it was a stratagem, which involved a combination of internal and external forces. Some of the Nationalist troops died in battle, while other parts of the city surrendered to the enemy when the city fell. The remnants and a few surviving cadres fled to Huaihe.
Gathered.
Huang Chao felt a little better when he heard that there were still a few people who survived. But when he heard that some people had surrendered, he felt even more uncomfortable. For so many years since the Fubo Army was founded, no troops or soldiers have ever surrendered voluntarily, no matter what storms and waves they encounter.
This actually happened this time!
"It is natural that most of the National Army is poorly trained and does not have a strong will to fight. The leader does not need to mind too much." Yang Zeng said, "They are all old soldiers and civilians who were temporarily conscripted. How much will they have to fight? I think we have Wuzhou now.
A team like the squadron that can fight has exceeded expectations. It is the Guangning 1st Squadron. It is very good that it retreated in front of the enemy and did not collapse on the spot."
"You're right, we were too aggressive - we didn't train them properly, why should we ask them to die?!" Huang Chao said sadly, "We are too self-righteous!" He paused and said, "
How many cadres and soldiers have been sacrificed in vain, this is all the result of our arrogance and reckless advancement!"
Yang Zeng did not dare to answer. He knew that Chief Huang was talking about the Senate - this was not within the scope of his comment. He whispered: "We should regain Guangning as soon as possible..."
"Don't be too quick, be cautious." Huang Chao said, "Don't make the mistake of rushing forward again."
Yang Zeng originally wanted to send a few companies to attack Guangning with light equipment, but since the elders had given such instructions, he could not disobey it. He ordered the Suijiang detachment to abandon the boat and land at the camp near Baoding Mountain to stock up on transshipment supplies and prepare to launch an attack.
The battle of Guangning County.
Guangning originally belonged to Sihui. During the Jiajing period, there were successive turmoils in the northwest of Sihui. In the 38th year of Jiajing's reign, Sihui County was ceded to Guangning County, which meant widespread tranquility. It still belonged to Zhaoqing Prefecture. The city wall was based on a long stone.
Covered with blue bricks, it is about eight meters high. Although it is not as tall as the Guangzhou city wall, it is well fortified and is not a small town that can be easily conquered. Originally, Zhu Mingxia and others thought that if Guangning was in chaos, at least the county seat would not be captured.
According to the prisoners' confessions, there are more than a thousand enemy troops guarding the city. Their strength is close to that of the Suijiang detachment, protected by city walls, and equipped with many firearms. Therefore, whether it is chief officers like Yang Zeng or Huang Chao or ordinary people below
The soldiers all knew that this was probably going to be another hard battle. However, the morale of the soldiers was very high. They also heard that the naturalized democratic leader and the Nationalist Army in the county were killed by bandits, and they all felt the same hatred towards the enemy. They all clamored to be severely punished.
This group of bandits dare to offend the "prestige of the Senate".
Considering the difficulty of the task and the casualties of the National Army, Yang Zeng decided that the 8th Battalion, which had not yet taken action, would take on the main offensive task this time. For the soldiers of Li Dong's squadron, this was undoubtedly a great relief.
The continuous battles along the way had already made them somewhat exhausted.
The combat power of the Fubo Army is "thunder-piercing", and their equipment is not comparable to them. The biggest difference between the Fubo Army and the National Army, at least on the surface, is their firearms, or more directly: they have cannons
.These hollow iron pillars, which are always polished and polished, are always the envy of the National Army soldiers. If the Wuzhou Squadron in the Yamaguchi Battle had also had artillery, the enemy might not have been able to reach the parapet at all.
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Next update: Volume 7 - Guangzhou Governance Chapter 390