The decisive battle is close at hand.

On 2 July, a troop of gaucho cavalry appeared in several abandoned production team villages on the south bank of the Dayu River, and was ambushed by two platoons of the 3rd Cavalry Post, where they were resting, leaving behind five corpses and retreating in a hurry.

On July 3, the gaucho cavalry appeared for the first time on the bank of the Dayu River and began to peek into the reality of Dingyuan Fort on the north bank of the river.

On July 4, a large-scale scout battle broke out again on the south bank of the Dayu River, and the cavalry passing through the two outposts encountered dozens of gaucho cavalry, and the two sides engaged in a fierce battle. In this battle, the pistol whirling cavalry that crossed the crowd shined, killing more than 30 gaucho cavalry, and only 7 casualties on their side, but Xu Yu, the new acting commander of the cavalry battalion, was injured in the melee. In the afternoon, the main Spanish cavalry arrived, and the cavalry battalion that crossed the crowd was unable to support it, and completely retreated to the north bank of the Dayu River.

Major Antonio Carlos rode his war horse and silently observed the Dingyuan Fort on the north bank of the Dayu River surrounded by a large number of cavalry. With a circumference of more than 1,600 meters, the castle is an extremely strong masonry mixed fortress. The city wall is about 5 meters high, and several towers were built on it, and some cannons seem to have been erected on the towers; A moat about 3 meters wide was dug outside the city wall, and the moat led directly to the Great Fish Lake, which was extremely abundant in water.

"It looks like it's hard to overcome. Captain Torres, what do you think? Major Carlos suddenly turned to Captain Torres, who was behind him.

"As you can see, sir. As long as this fortress has 200 elite musketeers, supplemented by a certain number of cannons, it is indeed a difficult bone to gnaw on for us who lack siege artillery. If you insist on a forcible attack, you may pay a lot of money. Captain Torres replied truthfully.

"I heard that the walls of Harbor Tartan are even more majestic......" At this point, Major Antonio Carlos was a little unable to continue. Yes, for the kingdom's army, which lacks heavy weapons, what if the Tatars make up their minds and can't retreat? A long siege like on the battlefields of Europe? Major Carlos shook his head, this was completely impossible for this Spanish army. The La Plata region did not have the material basis to support the kingdom's army for a long time, and the only feasible strategy for the kingdom's army, which lacked supplies and had low morale, was a quick victory.

"Captain Torres, tomorrow you lead your troops to start building a bridge across the river. After the bridge is built, I will lead the main force to quickly cross the river and launch a tentative attack on this Tatartan citadel, and we will never be able to lay siege to the port of Tatartan with all our strength without pulling out this nail. Major Carlos sighed and said, "God will bless us!" ”

……

Dingyuan Fort. At this time, a military conference was being held, and there were five or six officers and a dozen heads of various factories and production teams sitting in the small hall.

"To take the initiative is to find death!" Chang Kaisheng spat Xingzi and said, "Our strategy is to respond to all changes with the same, stick to the end, and see who consumes more energy than whom!" The Spaniards traveled by sea to bring all kinds of supplies, and the losses on the way were much higher than ours. There is enough food in the fort for us to eat for more than a year, and there is no shortage of drinking water, and the Spaniards don't seem to have those 32-pound and 36-pound siege guns. ”

"That's right!" Lin Youde echoed and said that he and Chang Kaisheng are currently the top leaders in charge of the military and political affairs of Dingyuan Fort, and this military meeting was held to unify thinking, and also to appease the hearts of the people in the fort. So everyone relaxed, and after going back, they also explained clearly to the employees and villagers of their own department that Dingyuan Fort was impregnable, and the Spaniards could not attack it. At the same time, it is impossible for them to besiege us for a long time, and the winner of this war must belong to the Executive Committee and to everyone! ”

"The training of the reserve militia in the fort cannot be pulled down either. I don't have high requirements for them, just go up to the city wall and shoot guns. Chang Kaisheng said, "At present, our regular army only has 164 infantry and 45 artillery posts, and the number is still small. Well, extraordinary times, I won't say much about it. Let's all get busy, everything is planned according to the plan, confidence is the most important! ”

On July 5, Leonid rode a war horse and inspected a village of the former Pioneer Brigade east of Dingyuan Fort. The inhabitants of this village have now all moved into Dingyuan Fort, leaving only an empty village. Leonid, now promoted to second lieutenant platoon commander, pushed open a courtyard with a half-closed door, and he and his cavalry had been on patrol all morning and now needed to rest.

The courtyard is not large, and the courtyard wall is obviously an earthen wall that was later pasted with mud by the owner of the house. In the corner of the earthen wall was a chicken coop, empty of which was crawling with a few dry vines on the shelves. Eleven cavalrymen poured into the courtyard, and these Cossacks from Zaporozhye took out military kettles and bags of dry food from their waists, and talked in whispers while eating and drinking. After eating and drinking, they took out some containers of water from the saddle bag and gave them to the horses, because the only few wells in the village had been blocked, and the rainwater collection pond and filter pond had also been filled, so they could only pour water from the cowhide kettle they carried to feed the horses, and at the same time take out some horse feed made of soybean meal to feed. These horses were all Andalusian and Lusitano horses, which were hard to obtain, and there were only about one hundred and thirty of them, and these Cossack cavalrymen served them with great dedication.

After resting, Leonid and the other eleven horsemen began to move slowly eastward. There is a narrow river bay to the southeast, which is a good wading point. In the morning, several Spaniards quietly crossed the Dayu River from here, wandering up and down the bend, not knowing what they were going to do. Leonid was chasing several gaucho scout cavalry and spared them for the time being. Now that the weapons, leather armor and other trophies of the gaucho cavalry were quietly placed in the saddlebags of his men, Leonid decided to come and see what the Spaniards were doing.

About a mile from the bend of the river, the men dismounted, and Leonid climbed up a small dirt slope, brushed aside the dense grass on the dirt slope, and took out his monoculars and looked ahead. Leonid gasped at this sight, only to see many thick trees tied in a row and floating on the surface of the river, and several wooden stakes were nailed to the river around these rafts, and many Spaniards were busy making new rafts on both sides of the river.

This is to build a pontoon bridge, Leonid was shocked. After sending two of his men back to report the news, Leonid continued to observe that the Spaniards had a whole defense force on the north bank, in addition to a large number of men who were making wooden platoons. Sixty cuirassier spearmen were sitting neatly on the ground, while some infantrymen armed with arquebuses patrolled the area. Leonid had no doubt that as soon as he and his men were there, the Spaniards would immediately form a hedgehog-like spear formation to cover the friendly forces that were building the bridge.

But it can't make them too comfortable, Leonid thought, and he has to put some pressure on them, and by the way, slow down the progress of their bridge. Thinking of this, Leonid turned on his horse, beckoned the remaining eight men, and galloped towards the bend. The distance of more than 500 meters passed in an instant, and soon, the rhythmic sound of horses' hooves sounded in the river bend. The Spaniards soon spotted the arrival of these uninvited guests, and their infantry, under the command of the officer, formed a tight formation of three rows as fast as possible, with the tail end of the spear nearly 3 meters long inserted into the ground, the tip of the spear pointed diagonally forward. There were also a dozen or so arquebusiers on either side of the spear array, these men were loaded with ammunition and their backs to the spear array, their muzzles pointed in the direction where the enemy might appear.

It's like a hedgehog and can't put his mouth down! Leonid spat secretly, and turned around in an arc outside the range of the Spanish arquebus, heading east. His cavalry also turned eastward with great horsemanship, and the last nine cavalrymen stopped about two hundred meters to the east, staring at the Spaniards.

The Spanish officer saw Leonid and the others watching like flies and refused to leave, and there was nothing they could do, after all, two legs could not outrun four legs. The soldiers had to be on higher alert, and at the same time ordered those who built the bridge to speed up.

Half an hour later, the sound of horses' hooves sounded again. Leonid gave them a strange look, these were not from the cavalry battalion, but the soldiers of the first outpost of the infantry stationed at Dingyuan Fort, and the horses they rode were also some Finnish horses. Among them, Leonid saw Jiang Zhiqing, the deputy outpost of the first infantry outpost, Jiang Zhiqing led the group to dismount more than 20 meters in front of Leonid and the others, and then took out a 32-B flintlock rifle from the horse's saddle bag, and then began to load ammunition.

More than 20 people lined up in a loose formation, raised their guns collectively after loading ammunition, and then fired a volley under Jiang Zhiqing's muffled command. Most of the more than twenty rifles were successfully fired, and the Spaniards' spear formation was suddenly punched a gap. When they had finished fighting, they saw that the Spanish arquebusiers were rushing in this direction under the orders of the officers, and they did not like to fight, but simply turned on their horses and went to the other side.

Leonid grinned, bullying the Spaniards' spears and old arquebuses with their long-range 32-B flintlock rifles, which would definitely make the Spaniards vomit blood and break down. A volley of gunfire rang out again on the west side, this time Jiang Zhiqing and the others were shooting on a stationary horse, and their accuracy was slightly lacking, but a few people fell again in the Spaniards' spear formation.

The commander of the Spaniards was shouting something, and his voice seemed rather hurried and anxious. The Spaniards on the other side of the river also responded loudly, and soon a number of Spanish soldiers who appeared to be armed with flintlock pistols rowed in small boats towards the north bank under the command of an officer. Jiang Zhiqing and the others fired two more volleys, knocking down more than a dozen Spanish spearmen, and then reluctantly galloped westward, and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

The show is finally over. Leonid smiled, turned his horse's head and rode eastward, and after a while, disappeared into the autumn steppe.

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