Chapter 1136 Nowhere to Escape
However, in a village with thirty or forty households, even a house-to-house search would not take too long. This is actually a desperate situation for the fugitives. If Gan Qiang and his gang had not been exhausted, they would never have chosen to stop and hide in the village during their escape. Now they can only hope that all the Haihan people will become blind at some point and cannot see their existence. However, this delusion failed to be realized. Just a moment after they entered the village, the Haihan Army arrived and blocked several major intersections in the village, basically cutting off the possibility of the bandits continuing to escape.
Gao Qiaonan has already interrogated the bandit prisoners captured on the way and confirmed that the bandit leader Gan Qiang was among the fleeing team in front. Naturally, he was going to be blocked in the village. Unless he could go to heaven and earth, otherwise Don't even think about having another chance to escape.
What happened next was relatively simple for Takahashi Minami's soldiers. The soldiers shouted the slogan "surrender without death, disarm without killing", opened the way with rattan shields covered with cowhide, kicked in the door, and encountered The recalcitrant ones were shot directly at the corner. Some people tried to resist at first, but after the Haihan Army shot and killed several people, more and more bandits chose to surrender. After all, running away was to save their lives. Since at the moment There is no way to escape, so naturally you can only choose the second-rate means of saving your life.
There were also some bandits who were unwilling to surrender and chose to try to break out of the village. However, the blow caused by such an action was very fatal. The Haihan soldiers guarding the entrance of the village were instructed to kill any escapees without mercy, so they would naturally not show mercy. Of course, some panicked villagers also tried to escape the war in this way, but when these people saw the hordes of Haihan soldiers outside the village, most of them shrank back and did not dare to rush out with their heads raised. . Especially after a group of bandits rushing in front were shot down by random gunshots, a group of people who wanted to flee from the village were frightened and began to run back in chaos.
Gan Qiang was also in a dilemma at the entrance of the village in the south. He specially asked a few of his men to rush out first among the people to see how the Haihan Army would react. Unexpectedly, the Haihan Army blocking the road just fired two missiles into the air. He fired his gun as a warning, and these unseen people ran back in fright, leaving a few of his men in the open space at the entrance of the village not knowing whether to advance or retreat.
"These people are still carrying guys in their hands. They are definitely not good people. Open fire!" The officer commanding here was also very decisive and did not give these bandits a chance to escape back to the village again. Of course, even if there is a misjudgment and manslaughter at this time, Takahashi Minami will definitely not blame his subordinates. After all, capturing Gan Qiang is the first priority. After finally blocking him here, he would rather kill him by mistake than let him escape. .
After a round of gunfire, only one of the bandits was left standing. Seeing that his companions had fallen into a pool of blood and groaned in pain, he screamed in fright, dropped the knife in his hand, and stumbled away. Return to the village.
When Gan Qiang saw this situation, he knew that if he delayed any longer, this small village would soon be cleared out by the Haihan Army, and he would have nowhere to hide, so he immediately attacked the more than 20 people who were still following him. The best friends encouraged: "If we don't escape at this time, the Haihan people will definitely torture us until we die! They only have about ten or twenty people deployed outside the village entrance. If we try our best, we may not be able to escape." There is no chance of escape, just rush out with me and return to the mountain village in the south, and each person will be rewarded with twenty taels of silver!”
Gan Qiang's encouragement had some effect. His men were all desperadoes, and they didn't take any chances. When they heard that there would be a reward after breaking through, they all decided to take the risk. . It's a pity that they don't know the amount of reward Gan Qiang is currently offered by Haihan. Otherwise, some of them may try to capture Gan Qiang to collect the reward before the Haihan people take action.
After a simple preparation, a group of people rushed out of the village together, trying to attack the Haihan Army's defense line at the entrance of the village as quickly as possible, but unfortunately, no matter how fast they ran, they could not outrun the bullets, and they were eaten twice in a row. After the shooting, only half of the more than 20 people who rushed out of the village remained. But the good news is that the Haihan soldiers on the opposite side obviously have no time to reload their ammunition, which greatly increases Gan Qiang's confidence. He believes that the opponent's past achievements are just based on their powerful weapons, but they may not be able to beat his own group in close combat. The musket in the opponent's hand turned into a fire stick after firing the bullets. Logically speaking, it should not be able to withstand the sword and gun attacks from his side. As long as he could quickly knock down the black and thin Haihan soldiers in front of him, it would be impossible to escape. Impossible things.
But this time Gan Qiang made a serious mistake in his judgment. He saw the soldier on the opposite side calmly take out a one-and-a-half-foot-long sharp-edged dagger from his waist, put it on the head of his musket, and put the dagger in his hand. The fire stick instantly turned into a seven-foot-long dual-wielding weapon, capable of stabbing and slashing, and it looked as if it was well prepared. But at this time, there was no regret medicine for Gan Qiang and his men. Even if they found that the other party was prepared, they could only bite the bullet and charge forward.
The bayonet has been one of the standard weapons for soldiers since the Haihan Army was officially established. One subject that every soldier who joins the Haihan Army, regardless of the army or navy, must practice bayonet skills. The Haihan Army's stabbing technique is derived from the army's standard stabbing technique of three defenses and one stab brought by veterans from another era. It is a practical fighting skill honed through countless actual combats. Technique, recruits must pass the assessment of this subject before they can truly obtain the status of Haihan soldiers. The special operations battalion that focuses on actual combat has always regarded this as a key training content. Every soldier has considerable experience in stabbing combat, and the ability to work as a team is far beyond that of the ragtag group opposite.
As soon as the two sides engaged in battle, two bandits were knocked to the ground and screamed loudly. Gan Qiang's sidearm had long been thrown away in order to carry it on his shoulders during the escape. He was using the waist knife he had just taken from his subordinates. Knowing that he would never get lucky, he tried his best to slash at his opponent, hoping to cut down one and save his life. , if you cut two, you will earn one.
But his opponent obviously knew the distance of the fight very accurately, and ignored his movements at all. He stabbed Gan Qiang's chest with a spear, trying to take advantage of the length of the weapon to take the hit. Gan Qiang's knife could at most cut off his arm, but this straight thrust would definitely penetrate Gan Qiang's heart.
Gan Qiang was also experienced in fighting. He found that the momentum was not right and quickly changed his moves, using his knife to deflect the opponent's straight thrust. But before he could calmly launch a counterattack, his opponent's second and third stabs came at him one after another, leaving him tired of parrying. He had to step back and distance himself to block the opponent's continuous attacks.
In fact, Gan Qiang soon discovered that his opponent's offensive moves were extremely simple. They basically consisted of stabbing left, stabbing right, and stabbing down. However, his movements were very fast and steady. Even if there was a possibility of losing both sides, he would not flinch. It can be seen that It is only after a long period of dedicated practice that such results can be achieved. Even if Gan Qiang could judge the next attack target through his opponent's eyes, he could still only defend passively, and would be unable to use the fleeting gaps in his opponent's movements to launch a counterattack. Gan Qiang only regretted that he didn't have a spear in hand at the moment, otherwise he would have been able to subdue his opponent in two or three rounds at most.
Gan Qiang was still thinking about how to defeat this difficult opponent, but his men could no longer withstand the spear attack of Haihan soldiers. They were already at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, and they were extremely unsuited to the opponent's fighting skills. As soon as they came up, they would often reveal their openings and be shot down by their opponents. After the gap in numbers widened, two or three Haihan soldiers were able to deal with one person, and the solution would be faster. In just a moment, the group of people who followed Gan Qiang and rushed out from Gujiacun were all knocked down. Only two people on Haihan's side were injured, and the battle damage ratio was also astonishingly high. The gunfire and fighting here quickly attracted more Haihan soldiers. Even if Gan Qiang defeated his opponent, he was determined not to escape from the encirclement. The opponent he was fighting with took the initiative to retreat and left the battlefield. Gan Qiang did not dare to pursue him because there were seven or eight other bayonets waiting for him on the opposite side. He breathed heavily and looked around. Thirty or forty Haihan soldiers were slowly surrounding them, and they were still shouting unwillingly: "Who is leading the troops? Do you dare to fight against Gan?"
Gao Qiaonan slowly walked out, looked at the hysterical Gan Qiang with a mocking look on his face and said: "Are you stupid? What qualifications do you have to challenge me? Hurry up and surrender, I can leave you a way to survive for the time being! If you continue to resist , then I can only order you to be executed on the spot!”
Gan Qiang escaped all the way from Cishan here and refused to be captured. Gao Qiaonan knew that this man still had a strong desire to survive, so he had to try to persuade him to surrender first. Of course, if Gan Qiang wants to fight to the end, Gao Qiao Nan won't mind killing the bandit leader. After all, Gao Qiao Nan's main purpose in wanting to capture him alive is to capture Pu Xueguang, another big leader of the Wanjia Army, but this time A lot of people were captured alive, and it was not difficult to find Pu Xueguang's whereabouts from the confessions of these prisoners.
Gan Qiang didn't expect that his opponent would mock him so harshly, and he was shaking with anger, but he really didn't have the courage to fight to the death with the Haihan people, and there was no chance of winning at the moment. If he wanted to survive, he could only choose to surrender. road. After Gan Qiang hesitated for a moment, he finally threw the sword in his hand to the ground angrily.
After a while, the Haihan Army temporarily requisitioned a private house in the village as the place for Gao Qiaonan to interrogate Gan Qiang. Each company seizes the time to rest and recuperate. This battle is not intense, but the physical exertion is really high. From the time the soldiers entered the mountains early in the morning until they chased them all the way to Gujia Village, most of them did not have any time to rest. , I didn’t even have time to eat lunch, and it was only then that I was finally able to replenish my energy.
"I need to know three things now. First, the whereabouts of Pu Xueguang. Second, all the strongholds that the Wanjia Army still controls. Third, how many soldiers the Wanjia Army still has to fight." Takahashi Nan stared. He looked at Gan Qiang's eyes and said word by word: "You don't want to play any tricks. As long as we discover anything that is not true, you will still be executed."
Gao Qiaonan knew that although he won this battle, the bandits may not have successfully escaped from the battlefield. Maybe Pu Xueguang would soon get the news of Gan Qiang's defeat. If he fled deep into the mountains and hid, , it would be difficult for the Haihan Army to find him out. Takahashi Minami hoped to lead his troops to knock on the door before the news spread, so as not to leave him a chance to escape.
Gan Qiang felt relieved after admitting his defeat. He did not need to go south to Gaoqiao to torture him to extract a confession, but he did it one by one. After speaking in one breath, he asked for food from Takahashi Nan. Seeing that he was willing to cooperate, Takahashi Nan didn't embarrass him more and ordered his men to bring him a bowl of rice.
News quickly obtained from other prisoners also confirmed that what Gan Qiang said was basically true. Gao Qiaonan immediately ordered the troops to be assembled and prepared to capture Pu Xueguang in a mountain stronghold in the south. However, because a large number of bandits were captured in previous battles, Gao Qiaonan had to leave a platoon of troops to escort the bandits to the seaside more than 20 miles away, and then transport them back to Zhifu Island by sea ship.
According to the information confessed by Gan Qiang, the Qizhai and Twelve Forts originally controlled by the Wanjia Army had been severely reduced after the defeat in Fushan County. Due to lack of manpower and the fact that several strongholds were too close to Fushan County where the Haihan Army was stationed, So they have chosen to give up voluntarily and shrink their territory. Currently, only three forts and four villages are left with armed personnel garrisoned. For this operation in Cishan, manpower from three nearby strongholds were mobilized to participate. Gan Qiang himself also joined in. According to Gan Qiang's estimation, the stronghold where Pu Xueguang is currently cannot even muster a hundred armed men, nor can it be said to have strong defensive capabilities.
Gao Qiaonan selected two other prisoners who were willing to cooperate, plus Gan Qiang, and asked them to lead the way to Pu Xueguang's hiding place. On the evening of the 25th, the southern part of Gaoqiao arrived at Dongshan Village, twenty miles south of Cishan.
This village is not located on the mountain, but at the foot of the mountain. In the past, this place was called Dongshan Village. After the Wanjia Army took control of this place, it was slowly converted into a military stronghold and renamed Dongshan Village. However, the so-called defenses here are just wooden walls and trenches. There were originally two native cannons, but when the Wanjia Army fought in Fushan County last time, Wanmeng ordered the cannons to be transferred to join the battle. Now the two cannons The cast iron cannons have probably been remelted on Zhifu Island and turned into agricultural tools such as rakes, hoes, and sickles.
Except for the dozens of men stationed in Dongshan Village who were loyal to Pu Xueguang, the rest were basically old, weak, sick and disabled. All the young and capable ones were lost in the battle of Fushan County.
It is a pity that the special operations battalion did not carry heavy weapons such as field artillery in order to ensure mobility this time. Otherwise, it would only need to fire a few shots at the gate of Dongshan Village to break through. This would not count. A solid line of defense.
(End of chapter)