In fact, because the Qing army cut off the road of communication, they don't know where Hu Kui has been surrounded now, Hu Kui sent cavalry to contact them yesterday, but the cavalry was forced to disperse by the Qing cavalry on the way, and now they are still running around, avoiding the pursuit of the Qing cavalry.

"We have to organize troops to break through the enemy's encirclement, send people to contact the Merlin Fish Corps again, and we have to go to find the corps headquarters, I heard that the corps headquarters is a hundred miles behind us, and now it may have been surrounded by the enemy." Dongfeng Po knocked on the table.

"But we don't have many cavalry left, and in the past few days of fighting, the cavalry regiments have been gone, and there are not many cavalry in each regiment now, and the concentration is only the strength of a battalion." The commander of the cavalry regiment said.

Dongfeng Po thought for a moment, "Didn't we capture a lot of the enemy's war horses?" Select some of our soldiers and horses who have ridden war horses, or who were originally cavalry, as long as they have ridden horses, they can also be found from the servant army and prisoners, as long as they can serve us, we will give them the status of the people, and after the end of the war, they will not be investigated for the status of the Great Qing State. ”

The cavalry commander had no choice, "That's all there is to it." ”

When the two of them were talking, the battle had entered the stage of sweeping the end, and the Qing army was defeated and retreated to the first line of defense of the outer defense line, occupying the surrounding commanding heights, intersections, and passes, while the Huaxia army occupied various villages, rivers, and towns on the outer defense line, and expanded the defense line to the periphery for five or six miles.

At the beginning of the lanterns, the selected people and horses came back, there were more than 3,000 soldiers and servant soldiers who could ride horses, and even people among the common people were selected, Zhangjiakou was originally a place of trade, mostly with the grassland trade, most of the people and the prime of life have grown up on horses or ridden horses, so more than 2,000 people out of 3,000 people are people, only more than 600 people are selected from various units with cavalry experience or have ridden soldiers, there are not many people in the servant army, Japan and Korea have not many people have ridden horses, Indigenous Southeast Asians also rarely rode horses, with fewer than 300 people.

It was incorporated into two cavalry companies, plus an artillery company with baggage troops, who also rode horses often in peacetime, and were therefore also incorporated into some, so that there were 1,200 to 1,500 troops to control the servant army and the people, and the total strength reached 4,000 men.

The cavalry commander personally led these people.

In the middle of the night, the Huaxia army launched a feint attack on the outer defensive line occupied by the enemy in the north and south, dispatching 10,000 civilians and 10,000 servants, as well as two regiments of troops, to charge the enemy's position with artillery support.

The commander of the cavalry led the whole regiment on the horse, slowly followed the charging team forward, and after the charging team flooded the enemy's stronghold, he brandished his saber and shouted, and the whole cavalry team swept through the enemy's position like a tide, and then went away, during which he broke through several enemy camps, burned many enemy camps, and routed the cavalry team blocked by the enemy.

In the dark night, he fled westward, and then escaped for a hundred miles, and then scattered more than 1,000 soldiers and horses, leaving less than 3,000 troops, and then turned to the south, and when it was almost dawn, he ran to a valley only fifty miles away from Huailai County to rest, and this time he lost 300 people, dozens of servants, and 200 people, and the people were still unreliable.

The cavalry commander divided half a company and asked them to take half of the people and a few servant soldiers to advance in the direction of Shanxi Prefecture to find the Eighth Field Division, and then he sent half a company to the First Field Division Zhao Hu plus the civilian cavalry, these people are locals who are familiar with the surrounding roads.

The 16th Field Division, led by Dongfeng Po, which had little ammunition, began another day's operation.

Last night's charge was not only to cover the cavalry regiment to break out of the encirclement to find the corps headquarters, but also to break the enemy's siege posture and open a gap in the enemy's defensive line.

Because there was a surprise attack by the cavalry regiment, he chose the important breakthrough site in the south, and the north was only a feint, and after the cavalry regiment broke through, he immediately sent his servant army to continue the attack, capturing several villages and high ground in one fell swoop, occupying a mountain forest, and successfully driving a nail in the enemy's defensive line.

Now Duolong is mobilizing troops to frantically encircle this gap, the Han army flag is marked up, attacking the forest, just after fighting for a while, seeing that the forest has been penetrated, the enemy from the villa and the village A large group of people emerged, holding big swords, spears, and captured Qing army muskets to kill back.

One of the target troops frantically withdrew, and became the strength of a sentry, almost the strength of a platoon, and everyone else was lying in the woods or captured.

The enemy immediately changed a group of men to guard the forest, and both the prisoners and the enemy who had just attacked withdrew to the village, and the prisoners were escorted to the rear.

Duolong hated these people to death, the Qing army's artillery bombarded the forest violently, isn't it cannon fodder, I also have it, and immediately sent nearly 5,000 cannon fodder into it for the second time, the two sides fought in the forest for half a morning, it was difficult to distinguish the winner from the loser, how many times the forest was taken back by the Qing army, and it was immediately counterattacked back, this forest can no longer be called a forest at noon, but a bare mountain.

Because the artillery fire of both sides blew the forest into a hillside without any shelter.

At this time, no one sent troops anywhere, there was no effect, and then the two sides looked for other places to compete, the Qing army besieged the mountain village, the Huaxia army besieged the top of the mountain, the two sides came and went, and fought for another day, the Qing army was killed and wounded by the Han army flag and the green battalion soldiers, and the Chinese army here was killed and wounded by the people and prisoner soldiers, servant soldiers, and of course some soldiers and horses of the punishment brigade.

However, Dongfeng Po knew that this was not a way, the Qing army could go farther away to catch cannon fodder at any time outside, those were all Qing people of Han blood, they would not care about the life or death of those people, and even if there was cannon fodder here, it was limited, at the beginning, he brought tens of thousands of servant troops, 100,000 cannon fodder, plus the Qing army prisoners caught behind, these days are almost dead, the people died fifty or sixty thousand, the cannon fodder died fifty or sixty thousand, and the servant army died twenty or thirty thousand troops.

Even the cavalry regiments of his 16th Field Division have been exhausted, the cavalry directly under the brigades and division headquarters have been exhausted, the artillery ammunition is running out, many artillery have become infantry, and each brigade has fought an average of five or six times, and it has also suffered heavy casualties, almost killing all the men and horses of a brigade, that is to say, there are about 10,000 soldiers and horses here for him.

On the Qing army's side, the people's cannon fodder died almost 70,000 or 80,000 people, 20,000 or 30,000 people were captured by their side, the green battalion soldiers died almost 20,000, the Han army flag was almost 120,000 people, and the Manchu soldiers died almost 3,000 or 4,000 people, throwing away the enemy's troops yesterday, the enemy still has more than 200,000 soldiers and horses, plus the cannon fodder that keeps coming, there will be more than 300,000 soldiers and horses, the key is that the enemy can get reinforcements, and their reinforcements have not yet arrived.

"Break through, General," said a brigade commander.

As a lieutenant general and division commander, Dongfeng Po is very embarrassed.

(End of chapter)