Chapter 120, Yuhang Town Mopping Up Battle (Part 2)
Time passed little by little as the Shen family and the Chen family made intense preparations for the war. The legendary Kun thief with green face and fangs finally approached Yuhang Town.
——On the early morning of the third day after the Yuhang Town League Training was established, a hawker who was sweating from running brought the bad news that the bandits were coming.
On the eve of the war, there was silence in Yuhang Town. Chen Jinnan, a fifteen-year-old boy who had only been selected as a brave man for a day, was wearing an old uniform that did not fit well, holding the gun tightly, and tried hard to hide himself in the small window of the watchtower at the entrance of the town. Behind him, the fingertips were slightly white due to excessive exertion... He raised his head and glanced at his uncle Chen Jialuo, who was smoking a pipe with a calm face. He couldn't help feeling ashamed, feeling that he seemed a little less like a man.
As of now, no one in Yuhang town has seen the appearance of the Kun thief with their own eyes, and they don’t know how many soldiers the Kun thief has. Due to the lack of military experience, no one in the town thought of sending a spy. Go take a look at the Qiantang River; I just heard the vendor who came from Xianlin Town next door said that there were not many bandits who broke into their town yesterday, only about fifty people. But all of them have bronze heads and iron arms, and are invulnerable. Among them were short Japanese bandits with bandy legs, Western ghosts with red hair and green eyes, and bald Yakshas who were all in black.
At the beginning, when Xiangyong from Xianlin Town saw that there were few Kun thieves, the leading martial arts master wanted to take advantage, so he took four to five hundred strong men and used bamboo spears to hoe fish just like in the past. Fork or something, he screamed and rushed out. Unexpectedly, as soon as this group of people rushed out of the town, the thief's blunderbuss rang out, and it rang out for seven or eight rounds. After these seven or eight rounds of cannons were fired, more than half of the team members in Xianlin Town were missing. Thirty percent of them were knocked over by the cannons, and 70% of the people saw that something was wrong and simply acted. Ran away. The one hundred and eighty person who didn't run away was the one who finally rushed to Kun Thief by luck. He thought he should win now. Who would have expected that Kun Thief's bird can be equipped with a blunderbuss sword? After several rounds of fighting, After stabbing them down, the brave warriors were beaten to a pulp, and the thieves chased their butts all the way into the town...
Right now, the gentlemen of Xianlin Town have either left their wives and concubines and run away, or they are being hung on the rafters by thieves! The most unlucky big families even had their ancestral graves dug up. Several old people in Yuhang Town shook their heads when they heard this, saying that the Japanese pirates were not so crazy back then!
"... It seems that these thieves who have killed thousands of swords are really fierce, but our Yuhang Town is not Xianlin Town without firearms! As long as the Kun thieves dare to come, let them have a taste of our Chen family's fire guns! Yes! Definitely! Beat them until they tremble when they hear the name of Yuhang Town!”
The young man Chen Jinnan held tightly the gun made by his uncle Chen Jialuo, a "famous firearms master", with both hands. He murmured to himself to encourage himself, but he had no idea about the "Kun" that had just wandered around Yuhang Town not far away. "Thief", I haven't even figured out where this place is yet...
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"...General Manager Hall? Cangqian Town? Yuhang Town? Where are those bunch of houses in front of you?"
In the cold and desolate winter fields, former Jiaozhou salt lord Li Meng looked left and right at the map in his hand, but he still felt deeply confused.
——With the launch of the mainland strategy, each of the union republics has begun large-scale military expansion. Li Meng, a time traveler who once organized an armed rebellion in Shandong and had extensive experience in guerrilla warfare against the Ming Dynasty official army and landlord regiments, was naturally caught by the military and had to end his short career as a train salesman and take him with him. Several Shandong brothers and a group of miscellaneous troops, holding the rank of captain, once again embarked on a journey to sweep the south of the Yangtze River.
As a special treatment for travelers, more than half of the 50-member team that Li Meng is leading this time are Han Chinese from Hainan Island, and the remaining half are also Japanese security forces who have served in Hainan Island for a long time. I speak some Chinese, so at least there isn’t much of a barrier to language communication… …And those naturalized civilian officers were more unlucky. Some of them even had black Africans who spoke Swahili, white Europeans who spoke Spanish, French and English, Russian-speaking Cossacks and Russians at the same time. Indian warriors who knew what language...
But even so, it still can't change the fact that Captain Li Meng got completely lost in the strange Jiangnan water town not far from Phoenix Villa.
Facing the lack of heat in the winter sunshine, Li Meng stared at the map in his hand with an embarrassed look on his face, as if he could see some treasure from it. There is no doubt that this map based on satellite mapping is absolutely accurate, but it is also vague - the map can mark the location of a slightly larger pond, but it cannot tell him where he has arrived. , can only provide a frustrating coordinate number - XXX east longitude, XXX north latitude. This is certainly scientific, but what Comrade Li Meng wants to know more is which township or village he is in...
This was so sad that Li Meng couldn't help but feel a faint sadness in his chest.
But there is nothing that can be done. After all, no matter how clear the satellite reconnaissance pictures are, they cannot keep up with on-site surveys... And there is no way to directly copy the modern Hangzhou map, because although Hangzhou is still the same Hangzhou, the subtle place names at the next level, The difference between ancient times and modern times is astonishing , the locations of many villages and rivers have also been significantly changed - so in the end I could only send out an incomplete map. Except for "large places" such as Fucheng and County, the names of the other villages and towns were all It's blank, users need to find out by themselves...
Obviously, this kind of unreliable map, which looked like a guessing game, made Li Meng, who didn't have a very good sense of direction, become confused while walking.
What's worse is that the guide assigned to him is also unreliable. He can still recognize the road near Phoenix Mountain, but becomes blind when it is further away.
At this moment, he was standing in a bare winter field, puzzled by the unfamiliar town at the end of the horizon... So Li Meng picked three soldiers who claimed to have riding experience, plus the help provided by Phoenix Villa We formed a small reconnaissance team with unreliable guides to find out where this place is, and also to see how the defense of the town ahead is and whether it is easy to capture...
Since it was difficult to get horses in the Jiangnan water town, the four scouts could only set off slowly on small donkeys.
On the other side, as the four "donkey riders" gradually approached, a small commotion suddenly broke out among the village warriors guarding the watchtower at the entrance of Yuhang Town - Kun thief! The real thief is here! Although there are only four of them, they are not as green-faced and fanged as in the legend, but they do have the same short hair as the monks who returned to secular life, and the one-and-a-half-foot-long gun sword is also just like the legend, glowing coldly in the sun!
As soon as he saw the thief appear, the young and energetic Chen Jinnan hurriedly raised his firearm and was about to start fighting. As a "firearm expert", his uncle Chen Jialuo quickly slapped his hand to stop him: "...it's too far. Can't fight Please be patient and keep them close, then follow my orders and let’s all fight together! This is the thief’s reconnaissance cavalry. In order to scare the monkeys, we can’t let anyone go.”
The Yuhang town warriors on the watchtower were all convinced, so they all held their breaths and kept silent... Sure enough, these four thieves riding donkeys first wandered around in the distance for a few times, and then looked at them carefully. When I saw the boundary marker erected on the roadside, I found that there was no response from the watchtower, so I boldly walked over gradually, and walked faster and faster until I reached the foot of the watchtower. One of the leading bandits jumped off his donkey next to the watchtower, took out a piece of paper from his arms, and recited something loudly to the people inside. Unfortunately, the village warriors in Yuhang Town hardly understood it - In the era before Mandarin was popularized, if Cantonese people communicated with Hangzhou people in dialect, they would basically be talking like chickens and ducks.
Especially the young man Chen Jinnan, who was going into battle for the first time, didn't even listen to a single word. He was so nervous that his blunderbuss was almost soaked with sweat.
At this time, Chen Jialuo, the "firearm expert" of Yuhang Town, suddenly reached out and slapped the wall hard, shouting: "Hit!"
After hearing the order from his family uncle, Chen Jinnan immediately leaned half out of the window subconsciously, aimed at the leading thief and opened fire. At the moment of firing, Chen Jinnan felt his body shake, and the gun followed by a burst of white spray. The smoke made his eyes sore and numb... Dimly, he seemed to see the thief holding the paper shake for a moment, showing an expression of disbelief, and then fell down without even making a sound. ,
Hit! Chen Jinnan, who was shooting someone with a fire blunderbuss for the first time in his life, before he could even let out a cheer of joy, he heard a series of crackling sounds around him - his uncle Chen Jialuo and a dozen other Chen family members also fired the blunderbuss. Under such close range shooting, three of the four defenseless thieves were knocked over. Only the thief who was farthest away hid behind the donkey and escaped temporarily.
Next, the four tiger squatting cannons that had been carefully collected for nearly a century in the Chen Family Ancestral Hall were set on fire one after another. The sound of the cannons was like thunder, and the broken stones, broken tiles, and scrapped lead of substandard calibers were thrown away. The bullets blasted out like a violent storm... But even such a magical weapon could not keep the last thief behind. After the smoke and dust dispersed, the guy was still safe and sound. He just saw that the situation was not good and threw him down. The companion turned around and ran away.
——Even in Qi Jiguang's era, the Crouching Tiger Cannon was only an auxiliary weapon mainly used to fire shotguns. The advantage was that it could stuff any broken stones or broken porcelain pieces into it, and it could smear the enemy's face at close range. The disadvantage is: the range of this thing is very short, and it is not powerful enough when attacking a city. In field battles, the gun position is fixed, making it inconvenient to move and even more difficult to aim. By the Qing Dynasty, it was replaced by the carrying gun, which was similar in power but lighter.
(At least three lifting guns can weigh as much as a squatting tiger cannon. This shows that ancient Chinese firearms are still improving.)
But no matter what, the village warriors of Yuhang Town were victorious and successfully defeated the Kun thieves. The people on the watchtower cheered for a while, and some people quickly reported the news to the squires in the town. Then piles of "victory cakes" and large pots of white rice were brought up. The man who brought the cake also said that a pig was being killed in the town and he would treat everyone to a feast in the evening!
Hearing the news that there was a banquet to be eaten in the evening, there was an even louder cheer in the watchtower... In this joyful and triumphant atmosphere, everyone was trying their best to show off their bravery, as if they had just been It was not just a few enemy reconnaissance cavalry that had been repulsed, but the enemy's army was defeated, and it was as if they had won a great victory:
"...You saw it! I killed the thief who was leading just now!"
"...Shit, I was obviously the one who beat him to death! If you don't believe it, look at the piece of paper in his hand. It's full of holes made by me!"
"...You're such a bear, how can you still make holes? I think you're using a blunderbuss to hit the ground to make holes!"
……
"...Stop the quarrel, hurry up and find two people to pick up the Japanese pirate's foreign guns! There are still guns! Look at you! Is it time to drink a celebratory drink now? There are only four thieves here. One of them ran away, and the bandits of Kun will be here soon! This battle still needs to be fought!”
Chen Jialuo stopped the juniors from making noise with a sullen face, "...The heads were chopped off and hung at the door! Bring the donkeys back too! Hurry up!"
Following Uncle Chen Jialuo's roar, the juniors in the town hurriedly moved into action, and the first musket delivered naturally reached Chen Jialuo's hands. The local heroes gathered around him curiously, wanting to see how the "number one firearms man in Yuhang" would play with this strange foreign gun.
Picking up a blunderbuss with the leading head open, Chen Jialuo frowned and weighed it in his hand. He was surprised to find that this thing actually felt better than his most precious blunderbuss... Next, he roughly figured it out. Got this to play After realizing the principle of Yi'er, with the attitude of trying it out, Chen Jialuo raised the gun and pointed the rear sight at the body of the Kun thief thirty steps away. After pulling the trigger hard, he was surprised to find that the dragon's head at every turn.
He muttered in confusion, "Did it get broken just now?" He also took the other two captured guns and used the same method. The two guns were fired smoothly - the first gun stably hit the body, killing the body that had just died less than an hour ago. A burst of blood mist instantly appeared from the headless corpse. After the second shot of the gun was fired, a wooden board standing a hundred steps away was broken into two halves
"...This gun is so powerful!" The onlookers were all stunned, and even more admired Chen Jialuo for being able to play the gun so smoothly.
Facing the compliments and praises from everyone, Chen Jialuo just waved his hands indifferently, then put up the gun, took out a gun from a captured cowhide box and stuffed it into the barrel, as well as the conspicuous little copper cap. Following the same pattern, when he next pulled the trigger, Chen Jialuo suddenly knew why the first foreign gun just failed to fire: the mechanism of this gun is so exquisite that it can prevent it from misfiring!
However... even though he was holding such a powerful military weapon, he still lost his life so easily. It seems that this thief was no good!
Stroking the captured gun, Chen Jialuo grinned with a disdainful smile, becoming more confident in winning this battle...
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"...What? You're the only one out of four? What do you do for a living, you bastard?"
Seeing the unreliable guide who had escaped with his life kneeling in front of him fearfully, Li Meng suddenly became furious.
The unreliable guide who was so disgraced that he lost his shoes was immediately frightened and wanted to lie down on the ground: "...Master, no, chief, you really don't blame me, those uncles ran away when they saw the town. Hurry, I can't keep up. By the time I rush over, it's already too late..."
So, with a sad face, he stammered to Li Meng how he described the experience just now - how the leading non-commissioned officer took the initiative to show goodwill and recited the Allied Forces' proclamation to the townspeople in a gentle voice, while the people in the town How despicable and shameless he is, attacking without warning... Waiting for this... After the reliable guide finished speaking, Li Meng had generally calmed down: He actually knew that the people under his command were either motley crews or new recruits. Although they looked relatively strong in training, their actual combat experience was It's quite scarce, and it's normal for someone to accidentally get into trouble.
In short, according to this guy's description, the Yuhang town in front had strong watchtowers built, as well as "elite" rural warriors equipped with muskets and artillery. Although I don’t know how many enemies there are in total, looking at the size of the town, there should be six to seven thousand people in the town. If the gentry in the town can recruit all the strong men, at least a few hundred people will be considered brave. Can be pulled up.
Although I was not afraid of fighting in the wild with such a ragtag group of people who were about to collapse, the other party was obviously quite smart. They did not take the initiative to rush out to die like the group trainers in other towns, but huddled in the town with complex terrain to fight defensive battles. This was I'm a little scratching my head... Li Meng After some calculations, he found that there were only fifty-three people in his group. Two people were left behind on the road, and three more were killed just now. Now there are only forty-eight people left, all of whom are light infantry. In addition to rifles with bayonets and rifles, Except for a small number of old-fashioned grenades, there is no heavy equipment.
With such a force, it is really difficult to attack a bunker equipped with firearms and suppress a town with a large number of people.
"...Send a signal flare and ask for help from the surrounding teams. At the same time, contact the headquarters of Phoenix Villa and request heavy fire support for the critical battle!"
Li Menglue made the above decision after thinking about it. So, under the leaden winter sky, a red flare swayed into the sky with a piercing scream, and soon three green flares rose from all around - which meant that there were three The small team is about to arrive, and Li Meng's men will be able to gather 200 people by then... Although it feels like the total number of people is still a little small, they can still fight a battle.
After contacting the Phoenix Mountain Headquarters using a wireless walkie-talkie, Li Meng also received a reply that surprised him - the owner of the village, Zhao Yingong, attached great importance to the fiercely resisting "stubborn enemy" in Yuhang Town, so he personally escorted them. A batch of heavy equipment came to Yuhang Town to assist in the battle.
However, when this batch of "heavy equipment" was escorted over by Zhao Yingong and his team, Li Meng was dumbfounded for a moment:
"... Gatling convertible guns? Heartless cannons? Hale rockets? Are these all outdated pieces of junk? Since getting in touch with the central government, haven't the troops already begun to change their equipment? Just make them A few mortars or grenade launchers are stronger than these things?”
"...It is precisely because the troops are changing their equipment that these backward ordnance products we used to produce ourselves are piled in the warehouse to eat dust." Zhao Yingong explained with a wry smile, "...I want to sell it, for a while. I couldn't find a suitable market... so Lingao allocated them all and used them as waste. In a low-intensity public security war like this, just using these gadgets should be enough..."