open sea

Chapter 1187 Ambush
Yuan Zizhang's attack on the French camp on the Kelan River outside Wulong did not go smoothly.

The French outposts outside, no matter in the dense forest or in the villages, were all removed. Only the camps built on the hills were easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it was a situation where the enemy was outnumbered. After discussion, Lin felt that the gains outweighed the losses by storming, so he launched a siege to lure the enemy.

They blocked the dense forest in the north and the villages in the west with a small number of troops, leaving a gap in the south. Most of the main force was stationed in the woodland only two miles away from the enemy camp, and deliberately gave up the bridge and piled up luggage to the enemy to the east.

The commander of the camp, Earl Charles, was nicknamed a warrior, but he did not behave like a reckless man at all in this battle. He was very cautious about the luggage still left on the shore of the bridge, even if the Ming army transported a car today and tomorrow He transported two trucks, and was not in a hurry to act. It was not until Yuan Zizhang slit a hole into the support column under the bridge and stuffed a few explosive tubes that he finally became nervous.

This is already the third day of the siege.

Earl Shire didn't want to run south. After comparing the speed of the Ming army's pursuit after the attack, he believed that the Ming army's marching speed was one-half faster than his troops every day, and leading troops out of the camp would be endlessly harassed. Troops short of supplies will quickly break up.

He also didn't want to go out to fight, because he believed that time was on his side, and as long as the delay continued, friendly troops would come from the east bank to wipe out this unknown Ming army together.

The two sides confronted each other in this situation. During the period, Charles tried to order two 400-man infantry companies of the kingdom under his command to attack the forest. They were repelled before even knowing the number of enemies.

Yuan Zizhang learned a lot in the lecture hall, and seeing this situation, he called Xu Jin who was stationed at the Beishan sentry tower on the evening of the third day, stared at the luggage on the west bank of the Kelan River, and said, "I will send you another A general banner of bird guns, and two tiger squatting cannons in your headquarters, to guard those carts at night."

He knew that the general of the French army would definitely send someone to secretly pull a cart up the mountain and enter the camp at night.

It's funny to say that now on the banks of the Crane River, there are nearly 8000 troops from the Ming and French armies, and they all eat the luggage transported by the Earl of Shire.

During the day, the guerrilla general Wang Youlin led his troops to patrol the riverside generously. On the unfinished bridge, he placed the simple explosives commonly used by the Beiyang Banner Army in logging in Jincheng. The huge log fell in response, and it was easy for this thing to destroy the load-bearing logs in the river.

By the way, Wang Youlin also counted the luggage carried by the French army. This batch of rations was enough for [-] troops to feed for a month and a half... This is good news for Yuan Zizhang and Wang Youlin, because this is already after Li Dai burned some of the food and grass. remaining number of .

Looking at this batch of food and grass alone, the French army trapped on the mountain either did not have many reinforcements or was not prepared to fight a big battle.

Thousands of troops on the mountain, eating horses and chewing will consume two or three carts of food a day. They must find a way to go down the mountain to get food, and going down the mountain to get food is Yuan Zizhang's opportunity.

Xu Jin received the hard work, and the Hundred Households Department left the warm hills with the seconded bird gun general banner, and transferred to the river bank to ambush.

The North-South Martial Arts Hall is used to let the officers focus on the subtleties and use accurate arithmetic to solve tactical problems. This kind of arithmetic thinking is insidious from head to toe in Wu Jinshi Yuan Zizhang. Although the flag army under his command is well-trained, he feels that the enemy is too It is unwise to use 4000 sergeants to storm a cottage guarded by [-] people, so we plan to reduce the number of enemy troops to the same number as them.

The means of reduction is wounded soldiers.

A wounded soldier needs two or three people to take care of him while marching, so Yuan Zizhang decided to create at least [-] wounded soldiers for the enemy, and then send people to take all the luggage away.

He was quite sure that the enemy would not leave until the baggage was destroyed or stolen.

At night, the wind blowing by the river made people panic, and Xu Jin and his subordinates from a hundred families were shivering from the cold on the riverside. The flag soldiers lay in a row on the ground with their arms folded, and some people squatted behind stones or tree trunks on the bank. Do your best to hide your hands, bury your face in your elbows, or tuck your neck between your helmet and your neck.

The humid weather made the cotton jacket have a lingering musty smell. Xu Jin, lying on the dry grass, stared viciously at the piled-up trucks and the mountain path, with one belief in his heart—— —I am cold, and you are even colder.

The colder you are, the more impatient you are, and the more impatient you are, the more you have to go down the mountain to fetch food.

With this in mind, Xu Jin fell asleep with his eyes open, until he was woken up by the scout on duty at night, and whispered in his ear: "Lieutenant, someone has gone down the mountain."

This battle that took place on the banks of the Crane River was hellish difficulty for the two armies of Ming and France, especially this battle.

No one wants a winter war, no one wants a night fight, they take it all.

But fighting is a trade-off. Winter and night will greatly reduce the combat ability of soldiers, but the Ming army believes that in comparison, this disadvantage is an advantage for them. Compared with the French army, cold and night have a greater impact on them. Small.

"See clearly?"

"I see clearly, the bonfire went out for a while, and was lit again."

In the dark night, the responsibility of commanding the soldiers fell to the officer of Xiaoqi. Even Xu Jin from a hundred households could not command other soldiers without using the drums and military music. Everything was arranged before the station, and by this time there was no need No more orders.

According to the order of Baihu, the messenger walked through the ambush sites of the small flags for the last time, reminding everyone that the enemy army has moved and be careful not to accidentally injure the friendly army. The bonfire was extinguished.

Without the bonfire lighting in the distance, the moonlight could only illuminate a few steps. The flag army aimed their guns at the pitch blackness. Hundreds of households still did not issue an attack order. The small flags were extremely nervous in the darkness, and their hearts were in their throats.

Xu Jin was also anxious. He couldn't see the enemy's movement, and he wanted to prick up his ears. With two small flags, he moved forward step by step, until he heard the sound of the carts piled up with luggage crashing down—he clenched his fists tightly. : It's done!
The axles of most vehicles were unloaded by him.

With an order, the passionate military music suddenly sounded, and the flag army marched quickly with the bird guns in their hands. Someone lit the torch prepared in advance and threw it as far as possible into the distance. The first time the fire illuminated the surroundings, the bird guns burst out Dark red flames.

The four small flags following Xu Jin acted as the main attackers, and rushed forward with the bird guns with good thorns. The remaining small flags on the two wings moved towards the bonfire at the mountain pass in the dark. enemy.

The battlefield was divided into two worlds in an instant. It belonged to the world where the hunter moved forward silently and the prey fled in a hurry. The wailing that the Ming army could not understand resounded through the night sky. The riverside of fire.

After an unknown amount of time, the gunfire at the foot of the mountain ceased, leaving only countless howls and howls.

On the watchtower of the French camp, the Earl of Charles, who was sitting on pins and needles, had a livid face.

Behind him, all the soldiers stared at his back without saying a word, making the most correct order difficult to say.

He said, "Tomorrow, at dawn, I will rescue them back."

(End of this chapter)