Section 97 Defeat

Chen Renjie's 2,000 men and horses walked out three or four miles away, suddenly the road shook the mountain, the engineer team of the Fubo Army laid a large number of Claymore mines made of pig iron detonated with a pull letter tube on both sides of the post road in the middle of the night, Chen Renjie's front team entered the minefield, was bombarded by the mines and the queue broke up, Chen Renjie did not wait to collect the team, only to see a team of thieves with a red flag has been pressed from the front like a wall, guns and cannons are fired, most of his men and horses are rabble, If you can calmly set up a formation to attack the village and do something, the sudden encounter will not be able to support it, and you will immediately flee to Chengmai. Chen Renjie took the few men and horses left by Tang Yunwen to intercept desperately, trying to reorganize the team, but after all, he couldn't stop it, and he was surrounded by the defeated soldiers and fled all the way.

The more than 10,000 people who followed were all troops who had suffered defeat in the previous few days, and they had already become frightened birds, and the sound of artillery in front and the rout of the front team immediately caused their confusion. At this time, the 6th Battalion, which had made a detour from the flank, launched an attack on the already wavering main force of officers and men from three directions at once, and immediately routed most of them.

He Ming knew that his forces were limited and it was impossible to form a complete encirclement, so he asked each battalion to quickly defeat the officers and troops with fierce assault battles and powerful firepower, so that they lost their organization and command, and forced the defeated troops to retreat to the sea.

He began with all his troops: all five battalions, and in order to maximize firepower, he added two additional militia companies to each battalion as auxiliaries, who were responsible for pushing and transporting three 12-pounder mountain grenades and three typewriters allocated to each battalion, making for a powerful firepower of unprecedented proportion. As for the large camp by the sea, the navy had sent the sailors and sailors on board to defend it - the night before, the navy had sent a large reinforcement to the seashore, bringing in 1,200 Hale rockets, which was almost all in stock.

In the days after Chengmai and Shishan defeated the Ming army twice, He Ming had been observing the movements of the official army. The officers and troops did not immediately retreat, but reoccupied Xiaoyingchang on the one hand, and repaired the camp on the other. This signal can be assumed that they are preparing for a long-term confrontation with the Fubo army under the city of Chengmai. The occupation of Xiaoying Field indicates that they are most likely playing with the idea of transporting grain by sea.

After a short meeting, He Ming and his staff team decided: Time is running out, and it will be unfavorable for the Fubo army to continue to stalemate with the Ming army, and they should seize the opportunity when the Ming army's grain route was cut off and lost several battles in a row, and their morale was not high, and they defeated it under the city in one fell swoop.

In order to promote the collapse of the Ming army, the Executive Committee mobilized almost all the available troops in Lingao and sent them to Chengmai, and the two naval companies of the navy, the Zuihou Marine Corps, in addition to the garrison battalion, also rushed to Chengmai with the ships at night. In particular, as reported by the Army in several battles, more 12-pounder mountain grenades and typewriters were delivered. Some mountain grenades were dismantled from pillboxes, and typewriters were dismantled from naval warships and hastily mounted on two-wheeled gun mounts.

After the reinforcements arrived, after a short discussion, the army and navy decided that the navy would launch an artillery bombardment to use the range and deterrent effect of rockets to destroy the camp and morale of the officers and soldiers.

Most of the ships sent by the navy are small sailing ships of the traditional Chinese style with shallow draft, which have been modified to a certain extent and are equipped with rocket launchers and mortars to become specialized fireboats. That night, the navy sent 400 Hale rockets to the Ming military camp, and the army sent 300 rockets from the big camp. "Lin Shenhe's fireworks" -- everyone laughed and talked about this when they launched rockets. The first time I spent the Spring Festival in this plane, I let this thing go. It's just that the source of pig iron has not been as tight as it was earlier, and large-scale mass production has only begun when it is facing war. This is the first time that such a rocket has been fully put into real combat.

He Ming was standing on the watchtower of the main battalion at this time, and all five infantry battalions of his entire strength had been put into battle at one time. Judging by the current development of the battle, the development of the battle is ideal. The vanguard of the officers and troops had been broken apart by the explosion of the mine array and a fierce infantry, and not only did they not play any combat role, but also broke the main force of the officers and troops in the center. There is already a noticeable state of confusion in the ranks of officers and soldiers. Basically, they were pressed and beaten by infantry battalions.

He asked, "Did He Rubin's men and horses go out?" ”

"No, his headquarters is still in the camp."

He Ming was very nervous: he didn't have enough reserves, and it was difficult to deal with unexpected situations. The only thing that could be used now were the companies of sailors and sailors who had landed on the ships of the navy, who were guarding the camp for him. Chen Haiyang assured him that he had formed five companies of most of the sailors on board and was ready to go ashore and fight. However, He Ming lacked confidence in the sailors' ability to fight on land. Sailors also trained in foot drills, formation, assassination, and shooting, but the number of hours of training was far less than that of regular infantry.

The staff officers of the field army constantly watched the battlefield with binoculars, marked the latest situation on the map, and used walkie-talkies to contact the battalion commanders of each battalion at any time to adjust the direction of the troops' attack and prevent the officers and soldiers from finding a gap that could be broken through.

The first line of encirclement of five battalions was sparse, so a mobile team of armed agricultural vehicles and a mixed company of five sailors and sailors - armed with typewriters and mountain grenades - were deployed at all times to intercept the officers and men who broke through according to the instructions of the observation posts.

Most of the 10,000 officers and men in this unit were men from all walks of life who had been defeated in the battle a few days ago, and they had long lost their fighting spirit. Soon it collapsed under the onslaught of the army. The roar of the 12-pounder mountain grenade and platoon looted caused the soldiers to lose their ranks, and despite the generals' interception, some of them retreated to the camp and the county town, but most of them fled to the seashore where there were no enemies.

He Rubin ran out of the village, only to see that there was already chaos outside, and the officers and soldiers who had lost their ranks and formations in the thick smoke and flames were fleeing.

He ordered people to beat drums and blow snails, and asked all the troops to retreat to the main camp to assemble, but the battlefield was already in chaos, and there were guns and shouts of killing everywhere, and no one paid attention to his orders.

Is that how it was defeated? He Rubin's hands and feet were cold, and he was stunned on the spot for a while. His generals and soldiers were very anxious and did not dare to remind him.

At this time, Sun Changzuo came running with more than a dozen personal soldiers, he jumped off his horse and said: "My lord, get on the horse quickly, and lead the standard battalion to escort the old camp to break through."

He Rubin suppressed the panic in his heart: "Who else is in the Chinese army, generals?" ”

"There is only one guerrilla Ye." Sun Changzuo said loudly, "Now that the various departments have been dispersed, the generals have led their men and horses to break through. Adults better get on their horses and go."

"Where is Lord Zhao?"

"Lord Zhao and Lord Lu are waiting for adults at the gate of the camp," Sun Changzuo said hurriedly, "If you don't leave, the thieves will be surrounded."

As he spoke, a few generals couldn't help but hug him on horseback and rush out. His 2,000 Chinese troops had already been assembled, and Zhao Ruyi, Lu Yizhong, and his staff were all riding horses mixed with the people and horses, and immediately rushed out of the Chinese army camp and headed for Qiongshan.

The firearms battalion carried by Li Modao was forgotten, and he was still guarding the Chinese army camp with his men and horses, but there was no team of thieves attacking the Chinese army camp, and the dozens of large and small Franco machine guns and tiger squat cannons in his hands were useless, and he only watched the large group of officers and soldiers scattered around him flee to the sea under the chase of the gray queue of thieves. It had nothing to do with him.

"Running to the beach to die?" Li Modao roared, but no one heard his words, and at this time, his men also began to mess up - the boss had already run away, and there were thieves and horses on all sides, and he couldn't see how many people there were, only shouting and gunfire were heard everywhere. One of them came running and asked him if he would leave the camp and run away now.

"I can't run now" Li Modao shook his head, "It's a mess outside, and when you go out, you will be wrapped in the rebels and run to the beach, and when you get to the beach, you have to be cleaned up by the thieves, and we will defend it first, and if the thieves don't attack, we don't want to open fire." Roll up the flag and wait for the brigade to pass, and then we will break through."

He took care of the soldiers of the firearms battalion, leaving only a few observation posts, and the others all came down from the camp wall and opened all the camp gates.

"Coming down from the camp wall and opening the camp gate, how can we defend it?" Someone said in a hurry.

"Still guarding a fart," Li Modao scolded in a low voice, "If you drive like this, you think it's an empty camp, and you won't rush in immediately." We're here for a while. ”

He Rubin's 2,000 men and horses were led by Ye Zhengfang and 200 cavalry to kill out of the Chinese army camp like a tiger out of a cage, and the momentum was very fierce. But their movements were immediately picked up by the observation post. He Ming knew that this was the main force of the Chinese army breaking through. He immediately ordered the entire battalion of Zhu Ming's summer battalion, which was intercepting the fleeing enemy nearby, to rush to intercept it. Four infantry companies from the left flank and four from the right flank immediately flanked the men and horses at the same time. An infantry company with a typewriter quickly occupied a small hill on the side of the post road. Dozens of bullets knocked the striker on his back, and Ye Zhengfang was the first to fall off his horse in the strafing of the machine gun, and the breakthrough immediately lost the sharpness of the impact. Since most of the Chinese army was infantry, it did not move quickly, and was soon bitten by the infantry of the Fubo army. Rifles, typewriters and mountain grenades tilted hundreds or thousands of rounds of projectiles from both flanks towards the breaking Chinese army. Bullets flew from the wings and front, killing and wounding the soldiers in the queue in rows. In less than ten minutes, the entire queue was shaken. Despite this, the Chinese army is the core of He Rubin's headquarters after all, and the will to fight is very tenacious, although people continue to fall under the dense rain of bullets, the soldiers still use their bodies to line up in a tight formation to cover the generals and staff in the middle and rush to the east step by step.

Sun Changzuo hurriedly asked He Rubin and Zhao Ruyi to escape with their staff under the cover of cavalry. He led the infantry to resist on the spot and held off the attack of the thieves.

"When will the adults not leave at this time" Sun Changzuo yelled, more than half of the soldiers around him had died, and he had been hit by a few shrapnel wounds, which was already bleeding, "The humble general is here to resist the enemy" said that he personally led He Rubin's family members to rush towards a company array, although they were immediately contained by the strafing of the typewriter, but they successfully attracted firepower, and more than 100 cavalry and more than 300 foot soldiers immediately took this opportunity under the leadership of Song Ming and He Zhanran to rush over with He Rubin and others. Another company on the flank hurriedly went up in pursuit, and some of the family members immediately turned over to meet the battle, and the arrows rained down, killing and wounding many infantry by surprise, and the company commander had to order the troops to temporarily withdraw and shoot, and destroy them all with rifles, this rearguard battle allowed the cavalry to escape many ways.

"There is a force of cavalry in the direction of Qiongshan, and the speed is very fast. The infantry was afraid that they would not be able to catch up with them. ”

"Probably He Rubin himself." He Ming said lightly, he ordered: "Send a farm vehicle to pursue the special investigation team, pay attention to intercept and tell Zhu Mingxia, hurry up and solve the battle, there are still a large group of prisoners to be captured here"

A farm vehicle equipped with an M240 machine gun may not be as fast as a horse in an instant, but it is absolutely better than all horses in a long-distance pursuit.

Sun Changzuo resisted desperately with the standard battalion, but he still couldn't resist the superior firepower of the Fubo army. He led his troops several times, but they were repulsed by heavy fire, and on several occasions the soldiers rushed into the ranks of the thieves, only to be quickly stabbed by the enemy's bayonets. One of his arms had been pierced by a bullet and he was covered in blood. I was secretly surprised in my heart: it's not that the thief is not good at land warfare with firearms alone, and he is most afraid of intersecting with people and white soldiers. But at this moment, he found that the thief never had the upper hand in white-knuckle combat, not only was he "skillful" but also had a much more tenacious will to fight than the officers and soldiers.

In order to resolve the battle as soon as possible, He Ming transferred a number of typewriters and several 12-pound mountain grenades to support the 4th Infantry Battalion, and finally completely defeated the main force of the official army, the Zhongjun Standard Battalion, and the rout was forced to retreat to the sea under pressure.

In the chaos, many horses retreated to Chengmai County, but Song Zonghui, the deputy head of the Lian Yong Regiment in the county, with the acquiescence of the county order, had already bribed the general manager who entered the city to guard the city, so that he promised not to open the city gate to accept the defeated soldiers. As a result, the gates of Chengmai County were closed and the troops were not allowed to enter. The routs shouted and cursed under the city, and some shot arrows at the city, but the Fubo army behind them immediately killed, and they could only continue to flee to the sea.

More than one of the men and horses saw the sinister intention of the Fubo army to drive them to the sea, so they suddenly turned around under the command of the general, looking for the gap between the battalions to protrude, but except for a few men, most of the breakthrough was intercepted by the mobile force, and was quickly routed and eliminated under the fierce fire of the head.

Li Modao saw that the chaos had ended, and most of the thieves' infantry also rushed over, and immediately ordered the whole battalion to throw away all their baggage, and each person only brought a portable weapon and a small number of firearms to prepare to break through at any time. He had been observing the battlefield just now, and knew that the thieves were mobilizing their men and horses very quickly, and a large group of breakthrough men and horses would definitely be intercepted, so it was better to flee in small groups. He immediately divided his men into seven or eight drums, one or two hundred each. They poured out of the camp together and scattered to break through in the east and south directions.

An earthy yellow farm truck suddenly burst out of the woods with its horn blaring. Li Modao and the others looked at an iron box in panic and gasped, let out a sharp roar and stopped in front of them, and several people on its back quickly twisted an iron pipe like a small cannon towards them.

Li Modao knew that something was wrong, so he immediately rolled on the spot and rolled into the ditch on the side of the road, and then he heard a violent roar like tearing cloth. The scorching light swept through, and his brothers fell backwards as if they had been punched hard. Then, from the woods, many thieves dressed in blue rushed up, and rushed up with their bayonet guns, and killed the rest of the people at once, some surrendered, others tried to escape, and were assassinated by the side of the grove, and the whole team was wiped out in a blink of an eye.

Li Modao hid most of his body in the ditch and hid under a corpse. The sound of the iron horse gradually faded away, but he still lay motionless for a long time, until the sound of guns and people around it gradually subsided, and then quietly got up and fled to Qiongshan.

Despite the constant interceptions, many small groups of men and horses managed to escape the interception and fled towards Qiongshan, most of them were eliminated or captured by the pursuing mobile teams, and only a few troops were able to escape to Qiongshan. Others have escaped for a distance and found fishing boats on the beach, coerced or bribed the fishermen to cross the strait to escape.

By 9 o'clock in the morning, the situation on the entire Chengmai battlefield was completely clear: the entire official army was dispersed. There are no longer formed officers and soldiers on the battlefield. The Fubo Army consciously drove the routs of the officers and soldiers to the seashore, and He Ming took care of the propaganda team with loudspeakers along the road to constantly broadcast the order of "surrender and not kill". Many surrendered, while others lost their ability to run, so they simply threw their weapons and lay on the ground to die.

The troops who fled to the sea were attacked by the Fubo army and retreated to the seashore one after another. Many people rushed to Xiaoyingchang. There were also many people who retreated to the beach in a panic, retreating step by step towards the water. But the deeper they retreated, the softer the sand became, and the more difficult it became. They were killed or captured alive by the pursuing Fubo soldiers.

Thousands of remnants of the defeated army gathered on the camp that had been reduced to ruins in Xiaoyingchang and on the nearby coast, not only discarding all the armor, but also not all the weapons, completely losing their combat effectiveness, and at first there were people who used the burned ruins to shoot arrows to block the advance of the Fubo army, but the Fubo army did not advance, but had to shoot with rifles from a distance. But they didn't care how many enemies they killed, they just shot some of those who were still trying to resist by name, so that they couldn't move. At that time, Wei Aiwen sent many officers and soldiers who had been captured and surrendered in Shishan a few days earlier to shout on the spot, asking them to surrender immediately.

"Brothers, surrender quickly, come over and don't fight or kill, and those who are injured and sick will be treated" There was a voice in the wind to persuade you to surrender.