Chapter 1413 Return
It was snowy and windy when we climbed to the ridge last night, and Morgan couldn't fully see the situation below the mountain. The visibility was slightly better this morning. When he saw it again, everyone in the sniper team couldn't help but be slightly surprised. The Houjin camp at the foot of the mountain is not just the few tents we saw last night, but is spread out at the foot of the mountain along the mountain. There are at least seventy or eighty tents. Although the Houjin Army's tent could not accommodate more than ten people like the sniper team's tent, looking at the scale, at least hundreds of people were stationed here. At the foot of the mountain, there are several courtyards that were obviously built by the Han people. Horses can still be seen in the courtyards, which must have been occupied by senior officers in the army.
Although there were no Houjin soldiers patrolling the periphery, Morgan did not dare to be careless. He immediately ordered the formation to spread out and expand the surveillance area, so that if Houjin patrols came up the mountain from other directions, his group would still be trapped. No reaction at all.
The appearance of the Houjin Army's stronghold at this location did not exceed Morgan's expectation. The Houjin patrol encountered on the way yesterday was obviously unlikely to have set out from the Jinzhou Camp thirty miles away. Judging from its direction of travel, it is very likely that the team of people set out from this stronghold to go south.
Under the current climate conditions and geographical environment, both warring parties chose the most practical garrison points and marching routes. However, under Morgan's careful command, the Houjin patrol did not discover the existence of this sniper team on the way, allowing them to sneak around this stronghold quietly.
Morgan's key observation objects were those courtyards. He confirmed the identity of the residents as officers through the telescope, and silently estimated in his mind how confident he was of killing the enemy with one shot at this distance. Of course, he only considered this issue out of habit, rather than actually intending to kill someone. Morgan knew very well that if he fired at this distance, the sniper team would probably not have time to evacuate the hilltop, and the opponent would circle behind them and block the way south. No matter what level of officer the other party is, its strategic value cannot be higher than that of our own team. It is unwise to expose one's whereabouts just to kill a few people.
Although he couldn't deal with the enemies at the foot of the mountain, Morgan didn't plan to leave here immediately. It was a rare opportunity to lurk under the eyes of the enemy. It would be good to take this opportunity to collect more information about the daily defense of the Hou Jin Army. If you just want to bypass this place and continue to the Jinzhou camp in the north, the risk is too great. Once your whereabouts are exposed, you may be intercepted by the Jin army from this stronghold. Morgan had already discovered that there was a horse pen in the courtyard at the foot of the mountain. There were about twenty horses in it. It would not be an easy life to be chased by a team of cavalry on such a plain. Even if the sniper team can kill these cavalry with its firepower advantage, the retreat speed will definitely be greatly slowed down, and it will be troublesome for Hou Jin's large force to catch up by then.
Out of caution, Morgan decided to temporarily modify his original plan. Instead of taking the risk of continuing to go north, he would turn back after completing his reconnaissance here. From the high point of this hill, you can already have a panoramic view of the narrowest few miles of the Jinzhou Isthmus. The terrain here is relatively simple, and only minor corrections are needed to the existing map. On the coast of Dalian Bay on the southeast side of the Jinzhou Isthmus, a map had been drawn when the Marine Corps launched a feint attack last time, so there was no need for a sniper team to risk further exploration.
Morgan was very careful to ask the soldiers to avoid upwind areas as much as possible, because he heard that some Houjin soldiers who were hunters could smell the scent of strangers from a long distance. Although there was no specific scientific basis for this, in In this cold season, the nose may have been numbed by the cold, but Morgan still didn't want to take any risk that might expose his existence.
Fortunately, the Houjin Army stationed here did not seem to expect that the enemy could touch them under their noses. It was not until dawn that they saw a group of soldiers leaving the station and slowly coming up the mountain.
"Be careful!" Morgan noticed this and immediately ordered the formation to retract. The opponent may just set up sentry posts on the mountain as a routine, but Morgan did not want to alert the enemy. When he was scouting the enemy's situation on the mountain ridge last night, he had already discovered the post shack of the Hou Jin Army on the mountain, but it was no longer manned. From the looks of it, Jin Jun was only on duty during the day, and simply let it go at night.
Of course, this is an excusable arrangement. After all, this is already an area controlled by Houjin, and no enemies would appear here. No one is willing to do the drudgery of arranging field sentries at night, and in the end the night simply disappears. Sentries arrangements. But if not, it would be difficult for Morgan's sniper team to find an opportunity here.
Everyone took advantage of the terrain and trees to hide themselves, and saw the team of rear Jin soldiers slowly ascending to the top of the hill. However, they did not break up the formation and search the top of the hill. Instead, they headed straight towards the shack where they were on duty. After thinking about it, they did not want to be there. There's a bit more cold wind blowing outside. And this was what Morgan had expected. After all, the other party had even canceled the sentry at night, so there was no time left to search the mountain every day.
The members of the sniper team held their breath and watched as the Jin soldiers slowly walked through the forest in front of them and headed into the distance. This group of sleepy-eyed Houjin soldiers probably never imagined that the enemy they were guarding against was actually ambushing them less than ten feet away. Of course, if they had really discovered the existence of the Haihan people just now, they would have been shot down by more than a dozen crossbow arrows in an instant. There would not even be a chance for a head-on confrontation. The only thing they could do was send a warning signal.
Although the post of the Hou Jin Army was in the forest not far away, Morgan did not immediately order a retreat, because it was difficult to avoid the surveillance of the post at this time - the retreat route to the south should be convenient. It's under the surveillance of that sentry. Of course, killing the gold soldiers after that team is also a way, but Morgan is not sure how often the opponent changes guard. If he is discovered by the opponent soon after taking action, he may be blocked by pursuing troops on the way back.
And more importantly, if he moves his hands here, Hou Jin will notice that Haihan's tentacles have reached here, and thus become aware of Haihan's reconnaissance intentions. This is not a good thing for the spring offensive. So Morgan planned to come quietly and leave quietly. Even if there was to be a live-fire drill later, he would wait until he left here.
But if you want to leave during the day, it will be difficult to avoid the surveillance of the Houjin sentry, so Morgan plans to put the evacuation time at night, and leave when the Houjin army is sleeping. Naturally, he will be much more confident.
After making the plan, Morgan arranged for his men to take turns monitoring the movements of the Jin army at the foot of the mountain, recording the opponent's troop movements, guard changing times, and the frequency of personnel entering and exiting the stronghold. The remaining people took the time to rest and recuperate for the evening action. The two sides coexisted silently and peacefully on a mountaintop for a day. During this period, the Jin Army changed posts once, but still did not notice the presence of the sniper team. Morgan couldn't help but underestimate the Houjin Army a little bit. He thought, how could an army of this quality compare with his own elite soldiers? When the Haihan army arrives here after spring, even if the Jin army has thousands of cavalry, how can it be the opponent of guns and cannons?
Finally, when night fell and watching the Hou Jin army on duty on the top of the mountain slip down the mountain, Morgan ordered the evacuation of the place. The sniper team embarked on their way back in silence. Although not a single shot was fired along the way, everyone's spirits were always in a state of high tension. Although it was not the first time for these people to set foot on the battlefield, this kind of action of going deep into the hinterland of enemy-occupied areas and lurking close to enemy strongholds for a long time was indeed a rare experience for them.
Morgan was relatively calm. After all, he had made enough preparations in advance and was not at all confused when encountering the situation. It was reasonable for him to successfully complete the reconnaissance mission. However, he still wanted to give his men a chance to practice their guns before returning to the mountains.
What Morgan was planning was the patrol he met on the way here. If Morgan guessed correctly, after they went to the mountain in the south, they would most likely camp there for one night, and then return to the north the next day. If this was the case, the sniper team could intercept and kill the opponent's patrol there, and the opponent would probably never expect that the attack would not come from the mountainous area occupied by Haihan in the south, but from their own territory behind them.
Morgan's idea was conveyed to his subordinates during the day. Another advantage of choosing to retreat south after nightfall was that he could seize the opponent's time difference. It would be much easier to attack when the opponent is camping than during the day. Everyone knew that there might be a battle later, and they were all extremely excited. The fatigue from the two days of toiling in the wild was also eliminated a lot.
After traveling on the snowy field for about three hours, a vague black shadow appeared on the horizon ahead. Morgan knew that was the destination. He immediately ordered the team to stop, then took out his telescope and began to observe the hills. However, he did not see any signals such as fire from the lens, and it was difficult to tell whether anyone was camping there.
There was no other way to think of at the moment. Morgan could only lead the team and continue to move forward, but the speed slowed down a bit, and then the formation spread out to prevent any ambush in the forest. When a group of people filed in, it was easy to get dumped.
However, it soon turned out that Morgan was overthinking, and the Jin army did not deploy any defensive measures. After they entered the forest, Morgan quickly found the Houjin patrol camp with the help of night vision goggles. The fire in the middle had been extinguished, and there were still some unburned fires hidden underneath. It was no wonder that Morgan was watching from a distance. There is no more fire. But Morgan observed for a long time through night vision goggles and determined that this group of nervous Houjin troops did not deploy guard posts outside the camp. Instead, they all shrank into their tents, never thinking that there would be enemies coming at night.
"I'm afraid these are some idiot soldiers!" Morgan could only smile bitterly at the military quality of the Hou Jin Army. This kind of patrol team on the front line could so confidently leave the security of the camp to the air. It was really bold. .
But this situation is actually not difficult to understand. Many of the soldiers of the Later Jin Army were transformed from civilians without professional military training. However, these barbarians were fierce and brave, and many of them were good at riding and killing enemies. Therefore, as long as they simply Organize them and teach them some basic combat regulations, and then they can be dragged out to fight. But in terms of combat skills and basic military qualities that a professional army really needs to master, the Jin army is indeed still in a relatively primitive stage, and is even much inferior to their defeated Ming army.
The sniper team approached the Houjin patrol camp at an extremely slow speed, fearing that the sound of feet in the snow would wake up the people in the tent. Everyone held a pistol in one hand and a dagger in the other, guarding against anyone in the tent suddenly jumping out. As the distance got closer and closer, the snoring one after another in the tent became more and more clear. Only the three war horses tied not far away noticed the malicious approach of these strangers with murderous intent, and began to become restless and make louder and louder noises from their mouths and noses.
There were voices in one of the tents, and Morgan quickly motioned for everyone to stop and wait for what happened. After a while, a man came out of the tent. He rubbed his eyes without looking around, and walked straight to the place where the horses were tied. He probably thought that there were some wild animals cruising nearby, which was why the horses made a noise. .
But before the man's eyes could fully adjust to the visibility outside, a soldier had already touched him from behind. Taking advantage of the moment when the man was about to turn his head, he strangled the man's neck with his arms from behind, and then stabbed him with a dagger. That person's mouth. Then Jin Bing was caught off guard and had no time to make any resistance. He only heard a gurgling sound in his throat, and his body slowly slid to the ground. The smell of blood immediately spread in the air.
It has to be said that although the military quality of the Hou Jin Army is relatively weak, their sense of danger is almost innate. Although the assassinated Hou Jin soldier did not make any shouts or noises, it almost followed the blood. As the smell spread in the air, the people in the tent were already alarmed.
It's just that these Houjin soldiers rushed out of the tent in a hurry. They had no time to distinguish the direction and the enemy, and they were already shot. More than a dozen pistols fired at these Houjin soldiers who had not yet awakened from multiple directions. They rushed out and fell to the ground almost at the same time. The crackling sound of gunfire echoed in the forest, startling the birds in the forest, and the three horses were also frightened and screamed.
The ruthless massacre only lasted for about a minute or two and came to an end. Everyone immediately counted the enemy's corpses and used sabers to hit those who were still alive. For the sniper team, they do not need to capture alive. Only by killing these enemies can they ensure their own safety to the greatest extent.
(End of chapter)